Survival as a Person of Integrity
Tom Shrader examines Joseph's experience in Genesis 39, demonstrating how believers can thrive rather than merely survive during life's inevitable cycles of difficulty. Through Joseph's enslavement to Potiphar and imprisonment on false charges, Shrader shows that God's presence enables faithfulness and excellence regardless of circumstances. He emphasizes that the same Lord who was with Joseph is with believers today, empowering them to be visibly different and serve others even in challenging seasons.
“The Lord is with you if you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Christ, and it may be as you look at your circumstances that you're tempted to say he's abandoned you, but no, he's with you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Survival Through the Cycles of Life
Recorded: 2013
Duration: 38 min
Themes: faithfulness, perseverance, adversity, suffering, excellence, character, identity, service, facing false accusations, enduring workplace challenges, struggling with injustice, young adult, feeling forgotten, experiencing setbacks, navigating difficult seasons, seeking purpose in trials
Scripture: Genesis 37, Genesis 39, John 14:16, Hebrews 13:5, Matthew 5:13-16
Theological Themes: providence, gods sovereignty, imago dei, sanctification, becoming holy, biblical narrative, covenant faithfulness, divine presence
Full Transcript
If you have Bibles, why don't you open them to Genesis chapter 37. The title of the series is Survival Through the Cycles of Life. I look around the room and it doesn't seem to me that I should have to say this, but by this point in your life you've realized that life has a cycle to it, that there's a rhythm, really, a season to all of life. Business has cycles to it. All of life has cycles. You can't eliminate them.
Your relationships have cycles. Those of you that are married, there's times in your marriage where it's just electric and it's on fire and it's—yeah, most of you look like you're trying to remember—but it just is. I mean, there's just a connection. There's this, all this, and then there's times that don't seem as passionate. And so that's life.
Here's what we cannot do. We cannot take those cycles out of your life. What we can do is talk about how do I survive in the midst of them?
Meeting Joseph and His Problem
We've come across a character study, a guy by the name of Joseph. We met him last week, remember in chapter 37 we met Joseph and also were introduced to the problem that's going to play itself out in Joseph's life. Verse 3, now Jacob or Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was the son of his old age and he made him a multicolored or very colored tunic, a coat of many colors. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than the brothers so that they hated him. And that became the basis then for this troubled relationship.
When you get down to verse 13, there's an assignment. Jacob says to Joseph, why don't you go and check up on the boys? And they're in Shechem. And we said this is a distance of about 30 miles. And Joseph goes to Shechem and he meets a man and he says, have you seen the guys? And he said, yes, they've gone to Dothan. That's another 20 miles. So the scene is this, Joseph is now with his brothers 50 miles away from his father. So there's two points that we made. He at this point is extraordinarily vulnerable and there's no restraint on these boys.
What Do People Say When They See You Coming?
Now verse 19, look at it, that's one of our big application points. My Bible, I've got a little arrow by verse 19 and you should have some marking there that takes your eye to it. The boys see Joseph coming and they say in verse 19, here comes the dreamer. And we asked the question, what do people say when they see you coming?
You know, if we're at a restaurant today and there's four of your friends, you walk in and you wave at them and you're in line ordering. You're trying to figure out what you want to have and their four friends are over there and they're talking about you. How are they describing you? What do you want them to say?
I just revisited my memorial service instructions. So I've written them all out, who I want to speak, the songs I want played. I just cut, it got pretty long and so I just cut some music, got rid of a guy that was speaking, wasn't sure about it. Tried to figure out an order or rhythm, you know, how do I want this to go? And I was working on the structure and it occurred to me, I wonder what these guys, because I had four guys basically speaking. And I found myself wondering, I wonder what these guys would say? I wonder what order they ought to be in? What would be the best flow? As a dead guy, what would make me look the best? I guess that's a sad thought, but it's that very thing.
What do you want them to say about you without having to lie? What do they say about you now?
Joseph Sold Into Slavery
And so Joseph comes, they take him in verse 27 and they sell him to the Ishmaelites and when we left Joseph in verse 36, the Midianites had sold Joseph into Egypt to Potiphar, that's Pharaoh's officer, the captain of the bodyguard. So you got the scene, right? Joseph is in Egypt, he's not there as a tourist or as an honored guest of the state, he's there as a slave to a guy who—cut me a little slack on the term—but the guy that's the head of Pharaoh's secret service. Presumably sold to the highest bidder.
So look at chapter 39 and we'll spend our time today on chapter 39. Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites and he was taken down there. So this guy's in slavery. We assume, and most scholars I think agree, that there's a 13-year gap between verse 1 and verse 2.
The Lord Was With Joseph
Verse 2, and again circled in my Bible, should be in yours, the Lord was with Joseph. There's a warning there. The warning there is to be very careful and not to assume that because you're in difficult circumstances that somehow God's abandoned you. Throughout the scripture we'll see the phrase over and over again, I'll never leave you or forsake you. In Hebrews, I think it's Hebrews 13:5, the author of Hebrews says, be content for the Lord declares I'll never leave you or forsake you. You don't have to worry. In fact, Paul tells us to worry is a sin.
That I may not always be in the circumstance that I would personally choose, but God is—and this is important—the Lord is with him. It doesn't mean that when you pray God says, oh wow, I agree, let's get rid of these circumstances. What He does is join you in the midst of them. Not at all necessarily get rid of the circumstances. The Lord is with him.
Now the important thing to see is that that same Lord, that same Spirit is with you. John chapter 14 verse 16, Jesus said, I will ask the Father and He'll give you another helper and I will not leave you as an orphan. That the greatest asset, the most powerful asset you have is the Spirit of God working in your life. The most powerful force on earth is the Spirit of God in the heart, the mind, the person who's the child of God. And just as the Lord was with Joseph, this is so important, the Lord is with you if you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Christ. And it may be as you look at your circumstances that you're tempted to say, oh wow, He's abandoned me or He missed me or He got really busy with—
This thing with ISIS and volcanoes and earthquakes and he was overwhelmed and little old me, he didn't have time for me. No, he's with you. Here's the thinking and it's contrary to what a lot of high-profile Christian kind of health and wealth guys teach: the fact that God's with you doesn't mean there's the absence of these ups and downs and circumstances in your life. I know there are guys who teach the exact opposite of this, but God may want you sick, God may want you hurting for your own good, for the good of the people around you, how they begin to see how you handle the difficult things in your life. God will not necessarily change the circumstances, He might, but what He will change is your heart.
So the Lord is with Joseph in Genesis 39 too, and as a result of this, he became a successful man. He was in the house of the master, the Egyptian, and verse 3, here's another application point, the master saw that the Lord was with Joseph. So we ask this question: do the people around you see that the Lord is with you?
Being Visibly Different
Do the people around you see that the Lord is with you? Do the people around you say and see and it's something where you instinctively know there's something different about you? There's five of you standing in line at the slowest Starbucks in the world, 16th and Bethany. As you're standing in there, they've remodeled it, but they haven't restaffed it. But as you're there, they look across this five-person line and they see something different about you. Everybody else is fidgeting, they're angry, and you're going, this is just the price you pay if you come here. What's the big deal? You're just going to go over there and get on your Wi-Fi and check your email and look at Drudge and what difference does five minutes make? It takes a certain level of maturity to think that way, and that's my aspiration more than my reality.
Years ago, and I'd been a believer for three or four years, I was working with a guy who was a client. We'd done a few things together, and so we knew each other pretty well. He called and he said, listen, this deal, we're at a critical point. Those of you that do deals, you know, there's always a critical point. There's usually more than one, but we're at one of the critical points. He said, we need to meet Thursday. I said, that's great. He said, Thursday morning at seven. I said, well, I can't make that.
He said, well, what are you going to do? I said, well, I just can't do it. He said, why can't you do it? I said, well, I go to a Bible study Thursday morning at seven. There was this long pause, and he said, I would have never guessed you were one of them.
Now, there's two possibilities here. One, I was acting in such a way that it was contrary to how a Christian business real estate guy would act. Or two, and this is what I found frequently, he had no clue what a real Christian was like, a real Bible study Christian. He assumed it was a sour, sad, mopey person.
Here's the point. Like Joseph, as people dealt with Joseph, they could see that God was with him. Do they see that with you? When you walk away, maybe they can't go, oh, he's a Christian. But they walk away and they go, there's something different about him. There's something different about her. There's something about the way she carries herself, or just stands there.
The Way We Carry Ourselves
I remember the last time I taught a women's Bible study at church, and I go in. It's the only time I go in, and I'm looking around the room, and I'm trying to figure out what's the appropriate kind of joke, and where's the line, and where's the connect, and there's a gal standing sort of by herself. I'm with the lady. I said, what's with that woman? She said, what do you mean? I said, well, she's screaming. She's going to be the classic gal in a Bible study. Nobody talks to me, but she's screaming, stay away from me. You know the look. You're looking at her. She's got the glare.
I'm sure if you debriefed her, she's lonely, no one reaches out to her, and my guess is they have, and she's whacked them away, not physically, but emotionally. The lady said, well, she's had a really tough life, and she starts, well, you could see it, and my heart aches for her. I'm not making fun of her. My heart aches for her. My point is, you could see. I didn't have to talk to her to see this was a troubled lady.
Did you watch Tim Tebow yesterday? Hit the shot, the little par three shot. They did a really cool thing at the Phoenix Open. They went back out after the pro-am. They went out to 16, and they had the amateurs closest to the pin. If you make a hole in one, half a million dollars to your charity, half a million to you personally, and then, obviously, nobody's going to make a hole in one, but the closest one gets a hundred grand to the charity or whatever, and Tebow wins it.
Tebow just steps up, and this guy, there is just something when you, whether you hate this guy or don't like him or you don't like the Gators or whatever it is, there is just something so sweet about this guy. His smile, there's a little kid there from the first tee, and all the other guys are whacking him and knocking him out of the way, and Tebow's getting a picture with him and signing a golf ball. There's just something different about him. Now, when you unpack it, you see it's Christ in him.
Letting Your Light Shine
So this is Matthew 5:13-16. Let your light shine in such a way that people see your good works. That says we are to be visibly different, and then glorify your fathers in heaven. Well, they won't glorify your fathers in heaven unless you tell them about it. So I have a session I do called Making the Invisible God Visible and Speaking the Truth Boldly. You ought to be that salt creating thirst in the people around you, but they're not going to know it's Jesus until you tell them.
takes a break and you're out there and they go, "Well, man, there's something different about you. You don't smoke near as much weed as the rest of us," or I don't know what they're going to say. "There's something different about you." And that's where you have your moment to say, "It's not me, it's Jesus." There are a lot of different ways to say it. You don't need to be obnoxious about it, but they want to see it.
There ought to be—and in my life, the last year it hasn't been like this, which tells me I haven't been out enough, I'm not connected enough with unbelievers. I was having coffee with a guy the other day and he said, "I've known you for three years and we've met and stuff. I've never asked you a Bible question, let me ask you a Bible question." And that was so refreshing. "Can you help me think this thing through?" Do you get the connection there? That's a big application point. That's bigger than the storyline. There ought to be a steady flow of people in your life who are acknowledging something different about you.
Joseph's Promotion and Success
Here's Joseph. Joseph found favor, verse four, in Potiphar's sight and became his personal servant, and he made him overseer of his house. So now Joseph is made CEO, COO, president of Potiphar Enterprises. All that Potiphar has is placed under Joseph's authority.
It came about that from the time he made him the overseer in the house and over all he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house. So Potiphar's enterprise is expanding; God's blessing it. Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned and in his field, so he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge. And with him there, he didn't concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.
He said, "I got Joseph, I don't need it. I don't need to get online to check my accounts. Joseph's handling it. Do I worry about what we're planting and what we're harvesting and what our financial strategy is? I don't need to worry about that. Joseph's handling it."
The Temptation
It came about after these events that Potiphar's wife looked with desire on Joseph. I skipped the last part of verse six. It said, "Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance." So I want to give enough to tease you for you to use your imagination here and understand the human side of this. Joseph now is handsome in form, virile. So think of this kind of early thirties, studly looking guy who's been in prison and hasn't been around a lady for a long time. You can take it in a healthy way from there. And now Potiphar's wife is there.
Now it doesn't say this, but I'm assuming Potiphar in the position he's in is not married to some dog. I don't know how to say that politely, but he's got like a trophy wife. She might be runner up, but he's got a good looking wife. That's my—that at least makes the story better. And we hope it's true.
And so in verse seven, she looked at Joseph and here's what she said in her own kind of shy way. She said, "Lie with me."
Joseph's Refusal and Reasoning
But he refused and he said, "Here's why. Behold, with me here the master doesn't concern himself with anything in the house and he has put all he owns in my charge." He said, "I couldn't do this. I couldn't do this because he trusts me. I couldn't betray a friend."
I'm always struck by those—and it happens all the time. I'm always struck by the guy that runs off with his best friend's wife or the wife who runs off with a husband's best friend. I'm always struck by that because there's more than just a betrayal. There's the betrayal of a friendship. You're violating not only the marriage vow, but you're violating like my buddy. You know the discussion, right? You can hear him in the parking lot going, "Hey man, my best friend. We go to the mountains, we've shared everything. We're sharing more than everything." And he said, "I couldn't do that."
In verse 9, he said, "There's no one greater and he's withheld nothing from me except you because you're his wife."
Marriage as a Forever Declaration
I got a call the other day to ask if I'd do a wedding. I haven't done a wedding in a long time. I'm not the best wedding guy, but it's in October. So I figured that gives me nine months to lose weight to get in my suit. So I figured that gives me until September to either lose weight or buy a new suit. And I said, "Yes."
And I started thinking about the wedding. This nugget right here, this is really good. When we're standing in there and there's always this moment and you got the bride and she looks beautiful and it's her special day. And there's the groom and he looks good and he's kind of there and a little nervous and they're not getting it. But the proclamation—get this, this is good—the proclamation of love there is not proclaiming our love at this moment, but our love forever. You get what I mean? It's always like we think, "Oh, they're standing there declaring their love for one another." Yes, but not for now, but forever.
When Vows Are Tested
Sandy and I did that. We got married May 25th. I was very small. By design, we went to the Valley Ho, one of my favorite spots. We had breakfast and then we went up on the roof and Haley was there with Tyler. Sarah was there with Timmy. Braden and Yale were there because they had to catch a plane to go to Denver. When we were all done, Yale said, "Thanks for making that short, Papa, we got to go to Denver."
We declared our love and two weeks later, I'm out of gas. I'm in bed 20 hours a day. My hands aren't working, my feet aren't working. And people started talking about—and everybody's, and I totally get it because it's mine too—how's Sandy handling this? She's handling pretty well. I don't know. If I was her, I'd go, "There's got to be a—two weeks, the warranty's got to be more than two weeks. I should be able to get a redo on that." I mean, I think I would have called—
That's not what she signed up for. And I would go, you know what, stop. That's exactly what she signed up for. I was there. I heard her say it. For better, worse, richer, poor, sickness, health. She didn't think it was going to come in two weeks. I mean, I'm 15 years older than she is. Her resting heart rate is 12. Mine's 112. She's going to live. She's 50. She's going to live another 40 years and I'm going to live another 40 months, weeks, days. I don't know. But that's the deal.
And Joseph got it. Even in the world we're in, it feels like the gay community values marriage more than the heterosexual community. We're willing to throw 50% of them away and they're willing to go down and put it on the line because they understand there's something here. It's more than just a piece of paper. That's kind of preachy. I'm sorry.
But then He said this, here's the big thing, verse 9, the end of it, "How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" That's the ultimate thing. When I sin, I'm sinning against God.
The Ultimate Accountability
There's a guy by the name of Rick Holland who used to be on staff with John MacArthur at Grace Community Church. He tells this great story. He was in charge of college. And he had a couple that were pretty high profile in His ministry and they came in to see Him. They said, "We've really screwed up." He said, "What did you do?" And they said, "Well, we've been sleeping together." He said, "That's all right, I knew somebody saw you." And He said, "Not John." He said, "No, not John. You? No. This leader, that leader, these friends? No." He said, "Who was it?" And He said, "What did He say?" "God." And they went, "Oh, wow."
But that's kind of how we think, isn't it? Boy, if my friends saw me, that'd be a killer, but God - God, He knows anyway, He's forgiven me. One of the things that I pray, but I don't even know if I'm earnest when I pray it, is "God, let me see my sin as you see it." But I'm not sure that wouldn't be crippling. Let me understand that when I sin, my sin isn't just against a person. I don't have to forgive myself. I need forgiveness from you.
The Relentless Temptation
So many of you know the rest of the story. He says He can't do it. Verse 10: "She spoke to Joseph day after day" - there's a relentlessness to it. He didn't listen to her. And then there's just the right time. There's a day when there's no one there. And she caught Him by the garment, verse 12, and said, "Lie with me."
And He did what Paul suggested Timothy - He fled. And she grabbed His garment, and she's standing there with His garment, and He's running away. And now she calls the men that might be around and says, "Here's what's happening. The Hebrew, the Hebrew that Potiphar brought in here, He makes sport of me, and He came in to lie with me" - false accusations, completely wrong. "And when He heard that I'd raised my voice, He ran and left His garment."
The False Accusation
So she left His garment beside her until Potiphar comes home. Verse 17: "And she spoke with Him," that's Potiphar. "The Hebrew slave whom you brought" - you see that "Hebrew" over and over again, there's some prejudice that she's playing on here. "That Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in to me to make sport of me, and I raised my voice and screamed. He left His garment beside me and fled outside." So now she's made the false accusations to Potiphar himself.
Now's the moment of action. Now the whole focus moves to Potiphar, and what is He going to do? And when the master, when Potiphar heard the words of His wife, which she spoke to Him, "This is what your slave did to me," His anger burned. You can see it now. You can imagine in your head as you're writing this, you can imagine at the moment that Potiphar's told about this, that He's going to be really mad.
What's interesting to me is I think His anger is more directed at Mrs. Potiphar than it is at Joseph. What He does in verse 20: "Joseph's master took Him where the king's prisoners were confined, and there He put Him in jail." I don't think that Potiphar bought Mrs. Potiphar's story, but I'm positive He didn't believe her and you are too, because you're going to answer the question: if He thought Joseph really did this, what would He do? He'd kill Him. He wouldn't mess around with this. But He knows - He knows, yeah, I know what she's like. Joseph, I got to do something. So He, in terms that we would use today, kicks the can down the road. He puts Him in prison.
God's Presence in the Prison
Now the scripture adds verse 21: "The Lord is with Joseph and extended kindness to Him and gave Him favor inside of the prison." Chief jailer. Joseph on His org chart now has a new boss, the chief jailer. And as Joseph goes further, just physically, further into the prison, if you will, further into the dungeon, as He moves further into there, the scripture reminds us the Lord is with Him.
Draw it back to where you are right now. You might be in the middle of one of these cycles where it's just down cycling and down cycling, and you're saying, "What's going on here?" And you just - listen, God's with you. All those things we talked about, didn't this feel like a rehash of stuff we talk about all the time? He's not going to leave you or forsake you. No matter how bad it gets, it can only last a lifetime. What I know trumps what I feel.
I could see Joseph, man, because I have the capacity to do that, I could see Joseph going, "You know, God, I'm not sure about this deal. I got that you sold me into slavery, but I was a cocky, arrogant guy, and I misspoke with the brothers and my mom and dad. I screwed up. So I get that whole Ishmaelite, Midianite, I get all that, but I didn't do anything here." If you got a little of that in you, where you go, "God, I get 20 years ago, if you'd have zapped me 20 years ago, I get it. I'm out messing around, I don't care about you, and I'm living for me. But God, I'm not perfect, but I'm doing so much stuff, and..."
The thanks I get is this. What I get for this is this jerk that I'm married to. What I get for that is the hands that don't work, the cancer that's there, the deals. God, what are you doing? Where are you?
And He said, relax, I'm right here. Buddy, you're in a good place. What doesn't feel like it? Well, you're in the best place you could be in, because you're right where I want you.
That's Joseph. Look what happens in verses 22-23. You've seen this movie. The chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners, just like Potiphar. Here's everything I got. Whatever was done, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer didn't supervise anything under Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.
It's the same scenario. This guy is as predictable as that sun coming up. The chief jailer said, and he's in a tough spot, we're gonna see that the political hot potatoes land on his plate. This guy's got a lot of stuff going on, and going, I don't have to worry about it.
Practical Application for Dead-End Situations
Let me give you a couple of practical things as you sort this out. In your life, you may be in what feels like a dead-end spot. There's nothing you could be in more dead-end than slave to Potiphar.
If you're in that spot, and it's not going where you want, you're in that job, it's not what it's supposed to be, what you dreamed it to be, what they promised it would be, here's what you do. You just be creative there and diligent there.
I made this point yesterday, and we've made it throughout 25 years of Priority Living. Your greatest asset in the marketplace is your faith in Christ. It's your greatest asset.
If you're a manager or a boss, a business owner, and you're hiring somebody, aside from expertise in your field, what are you looking for in a person? I heard integrity, honesty, competence, trustworthiness. All those things. I made this point yesterday: that's what a Christian brings to the marketplace.
Faith as Your Marketplace Asset
I have all these guys that go, I'd never hire a Christian. I don't want to... Wait a minute, you just laid out. Look at your core values. You got them on your wall. I know nobody's ever read them, but you got them on your wall, and they're all the same. Everywhere I go, they're the same. Commitment, responsibility, accountability, integrity. That's a believer.
I taught this yesterday morning. Mid-morning, I got this text. Now this guy, this is a friend of mine, who's doing his graduate work at Harvard. So I guess if you got to go to school on the East Coast, that's probably a good place to go. So he's at Harvard graduate. Here's what he texts me. He's got no idea what I'm teaching.
My professor is using the terms servant leadership and the leadership secrets of Jesus Christ in my experiencing leadership across cultural, international perspective. We've got the answer.
This Christian faith stuff is not just something that's relegated to Sunday, or to some kind of passive doctrinal. I wrote the term, I wrote it on here, I don't know what I was thinking, but I wrote the term doctrinal addiction. That I become so addicted to the study of the word, that I never put it to work in my life.
Servant Leadership in Action
Again, there's nobody trying to make a point here. It wasn't a conscious thing. It's a professor teaching, exercising leadership across cultural, international perspective. When he's talking about this, he goes, you know what we're gonna talk about? Servant leadership. And nobody modeled it better than Jesus.
Let me finish that sentence now. No one should be modeling it today better than Jesus' followers. We're here not to be served, but to serve. You bring that mentality to the marketplace.
The reason I wore a short-sleeved shirt today, I have, I go in the hospital for an outpatient infusion today, so it takes an hour, an hour and a half. I know what it's like. It's sitting there, and it kind of hurts, and I'm not a big needles guy.
The worst part of this whole thing is checking in. It isn't even close. They could stick that needle in my eye, and jackhammer it, and it would be more pleasant than checking in. But that's the front door.
The Power of Service
What do they want? They had to have a guy, and they'd go, Mr. Schrader, we're glad you're here. You're gonna write us a check for $2,500. We're so glad you're here, and this shows you're gonna come back in two weeks and do it again. Thank you so much.
I get to have this job. I get this job because of you. What can I do? What can I do to help you? Sit down. Can I get you an orange juice? You're gonna be here a while. Want a headset?
It's not, don't give me another clipboard and tell me to fill this stuff out. It's gotta be on file at this point, right? You know my PSA, but you don't know my address? That doesn't seem right. How can that be? I don't understand it. I don't understand that. How can this possibly be?
But look at that. Look at that streamline. Think about that. Think about all the opportunities in the day that you have in your job, or at the gym, or in your neighborhood, or at the golf tournament. You're going to the golf tournament today? To serve, rather than be served.
Thriving Through Life's Cycles
Here's our buddy Joseph, and he's become, to me, iconic for somebody who understands the cycles of life. Though we titled this series, Survival Through the Cycles of Life, I'd love to just change that title a little bit and make sure we get: it's Thriving Through the Cycles of Life, all the way to the end.