As a Person of Integrity
Tom Shrader examines Joseph's life in Egypt from Genesis 39, focusing on how Joseph maintained integrity despite being sold into slavery and facing sexual temptation from Potiphar's wife. He emphasizes that true integrity means doing the right thing for the right reasons - out of gratitude, respect for marriage, and reverence for God - regardless of whether anyone will know or what the consequences might be. The teaching shows how God blesses faithfulness even when circumstances seem unfair or difficult.
“If this Christian faith of yours isn't working 24-7, then it's not worth much.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Survival Through the Cycles of Life (2005)
Recorded: 2005
Duration: 43 min
Themes: integrity, faithfulness, temptation, character, adversity, righteousness, perseverance, godliness, facing workplace temptation, dealing with unfair treatment, maintaining integrity under pressure, young professional, experiencing betrayal, standing alone for truth, navigating moral compromise, enduring difficult circumstances
Scripture: Genesis 37, Genesis 39, Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians
Theological Themes: sanctification, divine providence, moral purity, biblical ethics, character formation, spiritual maturity, covenant faithfulness, providential sovereignty
Full Transcript
This morning, we continue our study titled "Survival Through the Cycles" - the cycles of life, the ups and downs of life. Open your Bibles, if you have them with you, to Genesis chapter 37. We're studying the life of Joseph.
Joseph is a real character. I say that because every once in a while, I think it's helpful for us to be reminded that we consider the Bible to be the infallible word of God. We study it. We know that God has spoken. Somebody said, "Well, does God speak?" Sure. He spoke eloquently. And you have a copy of it right here. So if you're wondering what God thinks about whatever it is, God has spoken, and either directly deals with it, or He's given us principles from which we can pull some sort of plan - a wisdom plan - on how we deal with specific issues.
The Challenge of Peak and Valley Seasons
So survival through the cycles. I'll probably give you just a little heads up. I think it's a little easier sometimes to be focused on the right things in the midst of the valley rather than the peak. I have a tendency - so I assume because I do, you do - when I'm in a valley, I find myself pretty coachable. I find myself pretty easy to deal with. I will listen, all those things. When I'm at a peak, I find myself feeling a lot more self-sufficient, a lot more invincible, if you will.
Well, Joseph provides us this great illustration of a life that has its ups and downs and ups and downs. He comes from a magnificent pedigree. If we were to call up to Provo and say, "Pull his file," we would see something that went like this. It would say: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Jacob has 12 children - 12 boys by four different ladies.
The Root of Family Conflict
We saw the problem last week. Let me just remind you of it. There it is in verse 3 of chapter 37: "Now, Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons." Verse 4, and here's the problem: "And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers, so they hated him."
We're four verses into our introduction to this man called Joseph. It's an introduction into a huge segment of Scripture - chapters 37 through 50 of the book of Genesis are about Joseph. Joseph and Moses bookend Israel's time in Egypt. Joseph introduces them to Egypt. He is the youngest of the 12 boys, and his brothers hate him. They despise him.
There's a point where the brothers go out, the 11 of them, to take their sheep and to take them in flocks and take them out to graze. Their father wants a report, so he sends Joseph on a reconnaissance mission. Joseph tries to track them down. They aren't where they said they were going to be, and my assumption is not in anything sinister. It's just that perhaps the pasture wouldn't support the flock, so they go another 20 miles. So Joseph is now 50 miles away from home.
The Plot Against Joseph
Verse 18 says, "When they saw him" - and he's speaking of Joseph - "when they saw him from a distance, before he came close, they plotted against him to put him to death." They see him, they hate him, they plot to kill him. Here's what they say in verse 19, when they see him coming: "Here comes the dreamer."
Remember, we stopped last week there, and we said, what do people say when they see you coming? What's the handle that they've attached to you? How do they describe you in the midst of this process? And what is it you'd like them to say? And if what you'd like them to say they aren't saying, then what steps are you taking to change your life so that when people see you, their response will be the response that you would want them to have?
So that's the background. All of a sudden they say, "You know, let's deal with Joseph." Their initial plan is to kill him. Verse 27, they say, "Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites." Remember what we said there: if you said to any Jew, "We'll give you two choices - we'll either kill you or sell you to the Ishmaelites," every Jew would say, "Just kill me. We don't want to fall into the hands of the Ishmaelites."
So they say, "Let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, because he's our brother, our own flesh and blood." There's a little bit of humor there. "Let's not kill him. He's our brother. Let's sell him into slavery." It's an interesting approach to this whole situation.
Joseph in Egypt
So we pick up today in chapter 39 and verse 1, and we see Joseph's unique situation. "Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, the Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there."
Here's what's happening. Potiphar is the head of the Egyptian secret service, and like any good deal, when they sold him to the Ishmaelites, there was still one spin left in him. They sell him in turn to Potiphar, and that brings Joseph into Egypt. That's the background. That's the setting. Joseph's been sold, in this case likely, to the highest bidder.
I'd love to say we don't do that anymore, but I chuckle because we do. Every May, if you get out on the ASU campus, you get to watch the graduating class being sold to the highest bidder. It always makes me laugh. Don't care about much, but what's the vacation and the benefits?
Joseph's Unusual Success
Now Joseph's in this unique situation, and now he has this unusual success. Look at verse 2 of Genesis 39: "And the Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. He was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant, and he made" - he, Potiphar - "and he made Joseph his overseer of his household, and all that he owned he put in his charge."
I want to hang here for a second. There's something I need to point out to you. There's a reason that I get paid all the big bucks, and I'm about to show you why. If you read verse 1, Joseph's taken to Egypt, sold to Potiphar, taken him down there.
The Time Factor in Joseph's Story
Verse 2 says, "the Lord was with Joseph." If you just read that, you'd think it was a bang-bang play. Bam, he comes to Egypt. Bam, all of a sudden, the Lord's with Joseph. There's a time span between verse 1 and verse 2 of 13 years. That's really significant—13 years. Joseph's there for 13 years. So when we say the Lord was with Joseph and that Potiphar saw this, it's not that he walked in the door and went, "Oh, there he is. Look at the way he glows." No, he watched him for 13 years.
God Indwells You Too
A couple of things that are really important. Number one, the Lord was with Joseph, but God indwells you. Every once in a while, I think we make the mistake of falling prey to thinking that these guys we read about are extraordinary in and of themselves. They are, for us, role models and all that goes with it. But I want you to understand something. Those of you who know Christ as your Lord and Savior, we probably need to define exactly what that means.
What does it mean to be a Christian? It means not a behavior, not an ethic, but a doctrinal truth. A doctrinal truth that then transforms the way we behave. Get that? So when somebody says—I just was reading some Barnes statistics the other day—he says there's 77 million born-again Christians in America. But when you begin to ask them some questions that have some teeth in it, like, do you believe in the virgin birth? Do you believe in the infallibility of Scripture? Do you believe that Christ died for His people? When you ask questions that have some teeth in it, the total number of those who say they're Christian falls from somewhere around 40, 50 percent to 9 percent. So now we're getting probably closer to the number.
What Being a Christian Really Means
What does it mean to be a Christian? Well, it doesn't mean go to church. Do you go to church? Yeah, probably should. It doesn't mean give. It doesn't mean buy. It doesn't mean any of that. It means I understand that I'm a sinner, separated from God by my sin, and Jesus Christ came and died so that people like me, you, might have eternal life.
That was a whole new concept for me. I was raised in an environment, in a denominational environment, that basically said do this, do this, do this. Jesus died for sure. He did His part. Now you do your part. If everything works out at the end, you'll be in heaven. Now the only problem with that is that isn't what the Scripture teaches. The Bible teaches that I'm saved by grace, through faith. It's not of myself. It's not a work. It's entirely of God. That's what the Bible teaches. That's what a Christian is.
I've heard them all. Many people think they're Christians simply because they're born and raised here. I have a friend whose mother was dying, and she wasn't a believer, and he did everything he could to try to share the gospel with her. In that process, she said, "I am a Christian," and he said, "Really, what do you base that on?" And she said, "I pay my taxes." That's not the answer we're looking for.
The Power of the Indwelling Spirit
When I move from this designation of sinner to saint, and all of a sudden God has opened my eyes, and I now have heaven in my future, and I can know it today, I have God living in me. If you talk to a group of Christians, you say, "What would be the best? What would be the best possible?" Well, it would be to have Jesus here. Well, if Jesus was teaching, that would be cool. If we could walk with Jesus, if we could listen to Jesus.
At the end of His life, Jesus was sitting around with the disciples. He said, "All right, here's the deal. I'm leaving, and you're better off without me, because I'm going to send you the helper. I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit." So you and I are indwelled by this Holy Spirit. We have extraordinary power. You don't have to sin anymore.
We talked about this Sunday, and I don't want to get too far off our intended path here, but when Paul looks at the church at Corinth, he says, "I hope you understand that there's a whole group"—and then he identifies some specific sins—but he says there's a whole group of people, people who live like this, they won't inherit the kingdom of God. And then he says this: "such were"—past tense—"such were some of you. You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified."
You Don't Have to Be What You Were
That's what we were. Don't bring it in here and say, "That's what I am." No, that's what you were. You maybe used to be a drunk, but you don't have to be a drunk anymore. That might have been what you were, but you weren't that anymore. You may have been a factious gossip who couldn't shut up, and you were ripping relationships apart, and you serpent authority all around you. That's what you were, but you don't have to be that anymore.
That's really important truth. And the reason is not because all of a sudden you got a dose of self-discipline, but you have a Holy Spirit living in you that enables you and strengthens you to live this way. Joseph had the Lord with him, therefore he was successful.
Success in God's Economy
I'll guarantee you this. If you have the Lord with you, you will be successful. Now, lest you run out and think that means a G4, and that all of a sudden you'll have money pouring out of every pocket, no. You'll be successful in God's economy, maybe not in man's economy. God's got a different scale of how He develops net worth. Be rich, not in the things of the world, but in the things of God. You'll be successful in His economy.
Do People See the Lord in You?
Here's what I want to camp on, and that's verse 3. His master, that's Potiphar, saw that the Lord was with him, Joseph. Here's my question to you. Those of you who say you're Christians, do the Potiphars in your life see the Lord in you? That's a huge issue. Not are you just talking a good game. I mean, do they see something different in you? See something different about you? When you walk into the office today, or you walk into the homeowner's association meeting, or you walk onto the golf course, do
They see something different about you? There's a behavioral issue, to be sure. But I think there's just a whole demeanor. I think all of a sudden you begin to have a whole different confidence about you.
I was in a deal where I was speaking, and it was an all-women's thing. I always said, if I was in an all-women's thing and I really wanted to have a speaker, I'd bring a guy in to tell them how guys think, because they haven't got a clue. Men don't understand women. Women don't understand men at all. We understand women better than they understand us, and that's because they spent 50 years telling us how they feel.
So I'm there to set the record straight, and I'm there to fix this. The gal that's hosting me is somebody I know, so as the people are coming in, you just kind of look around and you watch. So I said to her, "What's with the woman over there in the red dress? Look at her. How angry and bitter. What's her problem?" I'd never had any kind of interaction with her, but she said, "Why do you say that?" I said, "Look at her face. Look at her. She screams 'stay away from me.'"
She said, "Well, you know, she's been through this, and she's a single gal." I said, "Really? That's a shock. Who would want to... I wouldn't want to buy her dinner or spend a night going to a movie with her, let alone the rest of my life." She had a hard life, all that goes with it. Whatever. Unpack it. Get rid of it. You don't have to live that way. You don't have to live that way the rest of your life.
My point is, you should be able to almost see there's something different. So do the people see that? Or are you just a hypocrite? Are you somebody else's excuse to say, "I don't need a Bible study. I don't need church. I don't need God. I don't need anything. That guy goes, and look how screwed up he is. That guy goes, and nobody's ever screwed me in business more often and with more vigor than this guy."
Potiphar's Response to Joseph's Integrity
That's a huge point. He saw that. It was visible. So what did he do? Well, he responded accordingly. He made him—he, Potiphar, made Joseph—literally, he made him COO, CFO of Potiphar Enterprises. "You're running my whole house, the whole household, all my kingdom, all my real estate holdings. Everything in here, you run it. I don't even have to think about it, because once I give it to you, I know it's taken care of."
That's an extraordinary success. People should, again, see that uniqueness in you. This is not a call to be odd, but it is a call to be unique in the way you live. It's not a call to be arrogant, but to be humble. It's not a call to be offensive. You should live in a unique, humble, loving way that stands out.
All I hear from my Christian friends is how messed up the world is. If the world is that messed up and getting darker every day, then it takes less and less light to have an impact of distinct living in the midst of that dark world.
The Unexpected Solicitation
So that's all that background. Now comes this story. There's an unexpected solicitation here. "Joseph was handsome in form and appearance." He looked like this, I guess. I don't know. He's a stud. He's a stud muffin.
"And it came about after these events that his master's wife"—Potiphar's wife, we never get her name—"looked with desire at Joseph and said, 'Lie with me.'" Now don't sterilize this. Here's Joseph. He's this young guy. I imagine the slave work is pretty demanding, so he's living in this very demanding way. He's fit. He's handsome in form and appearance. He's been a slave for 13 long years.
Here's Potiphar. Potiphar, one of the major players in Egypt—my suspicion, doesn't say it—but a guy of that magnitude is not going to marry a dog. She's an attractive gal. Here she is. She comes in a provocative way. She comes in this way and says, "Listen, sleep with me. Do me, baby. Whatever you need, I'm yours."
Don't sterilize that and say, "Oh, well, you know, he's that man of God, so there wasn't any..." No. How do you respond in the midst of that?
Joseph's Three Reasons for Refusing
Well, here's what he does. Verse 8, he refuses. He says no. He says no for three reasons. Here they are.
Number one: "Behold with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he puts me in charge of all that he owns. There's no one greater in the house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me." He said, "Number one, I couldn't do this out of gratitude. Look at what Potiphar has done for me. Just out of friendship, just out of decency, I couldn't do this. This guy has all kinds of authority over me. He can do anything he wants with me, and what he's done is elevate me to this position, and he has placed extraordinary trust in me, and there's no way that I could violate that trust." That's one.
Second, he said, "He's withheld nothing from me except you, and the reason he's withheld you, obviously, is you're his wife." Joseph says, "I've got a more sacred view of your marriage than you do."
When I was in college, it was kind of at the peak of the sexual revolution and freedom and debacle that was unfolding in Vietnam and just all sorts of things. When it came to the sexual aspect, when it came to institutions like marriage, we said, "We don't need a marriage certificate. It's just what? It's just a piece of paper, just a piece of paper."
Interesting. The gay and lesbian community today doesn't see it that way. They see it as much more. They understand it's something much more than just a piece of paper. "Just a piece of paper" doesn't mean anything. Well, it means an awful lot.
There's that point in time where virtually everyone who's married, unless you're married out in a hot air balloon somewhere with somebody chanting something, but when you're married, you say, "For better, worse, richer, poorer, sickness, health, till death do us part." That's what you said. It's way more than a piece of paper.
I don't need just a piece of paper. I don't need a certificate. This is an oath. Larry used to do marriage retreats with Sue, and I believe those were the best marriage retreats ever. Larry used to do this thing where he said, "Sue and I will never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never get divorced." There was always a break right after that session, and I'd be out getting a cup of coffee when people would approach me.
They'd say, "You know Larry Wright a little bit?" I'd say, "Yeah, I do." They'd continue, "You need to give him some tips. You need to tell him not to say that, because he's raising himself to a level where he'll be vulnerable, and Satan will be attacking him. He shouldn't make that claim."
I said, "Wait a minute. That's the same claim you made when you said 'for better, worse, richer, poorer, sickness.' Everybody said that when they got married. That's what you said when you got married. I'll never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never get divorced. That's what the vows were."
The Reality of Marriage Vows
Better or worse—that's part of the ceremony at every wedding I do. When we say "better or worse," that tells me there's some worse coming. That's what that says. I've never had anybody leave for richer, but they do leave for poorer. I've never understood that one exactly. But we have these vows. This is what you said you were going to do.
"Well it changed," people say. I get that. But you knew it was going to change. I saw a movie—and I'm really careful about movies and don't go to many. One of my girls gave me The Notebook. I had not seen that movie before, and I watched it. I'm sure there's something in there that's objectionable, and if you see it, you'll want to email me and tell me what it is. But I thought it was one of the greatest love stories I've ever seen in my life.
That movie did two things to me. First, when you see old people—like some of you are really old—you never understand that they were once young. You never understand that they were the ones saying to some guy, "Hey, here's two dollars, go buy me some beer." You never see them. You see them in this state where it's really just at the end of life, and you fail to realize all this vibrancy. What I loved about that movie is it had a lot of vibrancy in it.
But it also demonstrated in a remarkable way "for better or worse." There's a moment at the end of that movie—those who've seen it know exactly what it is—and I just sat there and cried like a baby. I may be a little sensitive in that it made me think a little bit of my relationship with Susan. But this is what we signed up for. We signed up for better or worse.
I said I'll never marry a couple who does not see that movie and then talk to me about it, because they better understand that every couple I've ever married says in their minds, "We're the exception." You're not the exception. If I ever write a book, there's my title: "You Aren't the Exception." Because everybody thinks they're the exception to everything. You aren't.
Joseph's Third Reason: Sin Against God
As compelling as those two reasons that Potiphar mentions—common gratitude and the institution of marriage—Joseph gives a third reason. He said, "How could I do this evil and sin against God?" Beyond all the other reasons, beyond common gratitude, beyond even the institution of marriage, this is wrong in God's sight.
Joseph—and those of you who have been around know we're going to have a great year because we're bookending it with Daniel and Joseph in our studies this year—those are two of my favorite studies. You see a lot of Joseph and Daniel together. That was Daniel's thing. They said, "We've got to trap Daniel, and the only way we're going to trap him is this: we know he'll always do the right thing." That's not a bad thing to have said about you.
Here's Joseph saying, "I couldn't do this. This is sin." Sound like you?
The Persistence of Temptation
Verse 10: "And it came about as she spoke to Joseph"—here's a key phrase—"day after day, that he did not listen to her, to lay beside her or to be with her." She's there, and she's persistent. It's continual. It's day after day after day after day after day: resist, resist, resist.
Some of us are pretty strong with that first wave of temptation. But then comes the next day, and then the next day, and pretty soon there's that moment when we're a little vulnerable, we're a little tired, we've had a bad day. We say, "Doggone it, we deserve a little sin today." And so we say yes—that's the way we think.
The Moment of Greatest Vulnerability
Joseph at this point is now sabotaged. Verse 11: "It came about one day that when he went into the house to do his work, none of the men of the household were there. And she caught him by his garment and said, 'Lie with me,' and he left his garment in her hand and he fled."
One day he's coming to work, minding his own business, and it's a very different day. There's no one around. Think again humanly of all our explanations for why we wouldn't sin: "Well, I might get caught." Here's what the Scripture's telling us—there was nobody there to catch you. "What if the other guys walk in?" There's no one home. "I'll put on the alarm." There's no one around. You don't need to worry.
I think I was pretty much in the groove with what was going on in high school. I certainly knew the guys and pretty much everybody in our senior class. In my senior class that I know of, there was only one guy that was having sex that I know of. Only one guy. And there were a bunch of reasons we didn't.
Number one, there was a stigma. If a guy, if a bunch of guys can get a gal and they can have sex with her, they're studs, but she's a slut. So there's a stigma that was attached to it. It says, "She's one of those gals, she's loose." Now, if you're around the kids, the stigma's not the gals that do, but the gals that don't. So society's taken that away.
Well, she might get pregnant. No problem. Medicine's handled that. Take this pill. If somehow you slip up, that doesn't happen. Take this one a couple days later, and if all else fails, we'll take you down to Planned Parenthood and we'll kill 1.5 million babies a year. Just add you to the list.
I might get caught. You see that? Every argument, those are all arguments—society, medicine, solitary confinement with a person in a room with nobody else around. All those human excuses are gone. If it's not because of God and sinning against Him, I'm going to be without excuses pretty quick.
Joseph Faces Temptation
There's nobody there. He isn't going to get caught. Potiphar's gone on assignment. The guards are gone. Everybody's gone. And she says, "Come here, buddy. This is the day. Lie with me." And he takes off running. And she grabs his garment, and out the door he goes.
Verse 16, she left the garment by her side until Potiphar came home, and then she spoke to him with these words. "The Hebrew slave"—you sense a little prejudice there, right? The Hebrew, the little Jewish kid you brought in here. "Hebrew slave that you brought to us came into me to make sport of me, and it happened as I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside." He was in here trying to take advantage of me. See this obviously blatant lie that's going on here.
But by the way, I have friends who would say, "What a wimp Joseph is. Why would he run? Why wouldn't he reach into his tunic and pull out the four spiritual laws and share Jesus with her? Why didn't he get a Bible verse?" Paul gives some advice to Timothy, and here's the phrase he uses: "Flee youthful lusts." There is nothing wrong with running. He takes off running.
Potiphar's Anger and Joseph's Imprisonment
Verse 19, it came about that when Potiphar heard these words from his wife, when she spoke to him, "This is what your slave did to me," that he burned with anger. He's really, really, really mad. So Joseph's master took him and put him in jail, a place where the king's prisoners are confined in the first part of verse 20, and there he was in jail.
I'm going to move outside of text again, so at least I'm warning you there. He's really, really, really mad, but here's my suspicion. He's really, really, really mad, but not that mad at Joseph. If Potiphar really thought that Joseph was trying to take advantage of his wife, what would he in all likelihood have done? He'd have killed him. Now this is an option. He'd have killed him. My sense is he's kind of going, "Oh man, I'm sorry Joseph, I know what she's like, I have to do something." Now I don't know that that's true. I don't know that that's true. He's mad, I know that.
Here's the key. He puts him in jail. Now it's important to understand this isn't one of the new, really nice jails. This isn't even tent city. This is the dungeon. See it? They put him in a place where the king's prisoners are confined. This is the dungeon. There's no due process here, Amnesty International's not monitoring the treatment of these prisoners that are in here every day. There's human rights violations everywhere, and that's where Joseph is.
Joseph's Potential for Bitterness
I want to stop for a second and ask you to do something that hopefully you can do. Imagine if you were Joseph in that circumstance, what would you be thinking? And I guess the reason I ask you to do that, and maybe I'm the only guy that would think this way, but my mind would go something like this:
"This is an interesting thing, God, because here's what I did. I did what my dad told me to do, to go out and check on the brothers, and they stick me in a pot and sell me in slavery. And then this guy buys me and brings me into his household, and for thirteen years I've been faithful to him. For thirteen years I've done everything I'm supposed to do. And God, here's the last thing I want to do. I don't want to do anything that's sinful. I don't want anything to do that will discredit You or embarrass You. So I did absolutely what I'm supposed to do, and look around and see where I am. Look here You go, God. Here's where following You gets you—the dungeon."
There's a term that we find in Ephesians 4, the idea of a root of bitterness. For me, Tom, I could see where all of a sudden I get a little root of bitterness going here. This is what—you get that, don't you? Sure you do. Here I am, God, and I'm doing these things, and I've been good and good and good and good and good, and nothing's going the way I suspect it should be going, and so I'll do whatever I want to do.
The Pattern of Moral Failure
And here's what—I have ongoing problems with eating and what I eat and how much I eat, and I'm up and down like a yo-yo. If I was a stock, you should be buying me right now, because I'm on my way back up. I'm going up fast. Watch, Neil Cabuto, he's going to be touting me as a stock by the end of the week. But here's what happens to me when I eat—I'll be really, really, really, really good about stuff, and then I'll blow it.
If you were really smart at that point in time, you'd go, "Okay, that happens. It's not the end of the world. You blew it. Get back on it, you'll be fine." But you know what my mind does? If I've blown it, then why don't we really blow it? Why don't we really go for it?
I had a bad day of eating, and then pretty soon a bad week of eating, and then pretty soon a bad month of eating, and then I'm a whale. It's just the way that it goes. It's the way it goes in all these areas.
Here's Joseph at this point in time. I could see him down-cycling pretty fast, couldn't you? Sure you could. That's not what happens.
God's Favor Continues in Prison
Here you go, same story, verse 21: "The Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer." This is now, remember, Joseph was working for Potiphar. Now he's in the king's prison, so there's a jailer. He finds favor in the jailer's sight. "The chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in the jail, so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer paid no attention to anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper."
It's the same thing again. If there was any bitterness, if there was any anger, then there's no way that the chief jailer would be attracted to that. The chief jailer saw in Joseph what Potiphar saw before him being sentenced to the dungeon. He's back again, and again, and again, and again. Here's why: because he understands doing the right thing for the right reason is what's important, and the results and the outcome are God's business, not Joseph's.
Don't Judge Your Spiritual Condition by Your Circumstances
You make a huge mistake if you start to try to judge your spiritual condition by your circumstances. If you've got every deal closing, and everything's happening, and the patent closes, and somebody buys it, and everything's swell, and there's no problem in your life, you make a mistake if you think that necessarily means you're spiritually okay. The flip side is, if everything's going south, and you're sucking gas, and nothing's working at all, you make a similar mistake if you think that means there's necessarily a spiritual problem.
Joseph's in the dungeon, and he did the right thing. Here's the deal: God's got Joseph right where He wants him. It may not be on the surface where Joseph would want to go, but God's got Joseph right where He wants him. It's the same thing that happens in your life and mine. God may allow us, or cause us, to encounter all sorts of things that we would have never, ever, ever selected, but He's got us right where He wants us.
In the midst of, remember, survival through the cycles, whether I'm at a peak or I'm at a valley, it doesn't matter the circumstance. The issue is, I need to be the man, you need to be the woman that God wants you to be in the midst of that. Your physical condition is not a referendum on God's sovereignty. That's a huge point.
Five Survival Tips
Five minutes and five survival tips. Number one: be creative in using the position you're in. I'll hear this from guys: "I'm in a dead-end job." Let me help you out here. There's nothing more dead-end than being in a dungeon. I don't know if you're in a dead-end job or not. If you are, then maybe God will bring you out of it, but for now, He's got you where He wants you.
I'm talking to a guy, he says, "I got this lousy job, nothing works, I can't have any ministry." I said, "What do you do?" He said, "I'm an attorney." I said, "Tell me about your last case." He said, "It was a bitter divorce." I said, "You're telling me you don't have ministry in the midst of a bitter divorce that you can do?"
We talked about this last week. We can have these huge dreams, and I'm a huge dreamer—dream, dream, dream, dream, dream—but don't lose today in the process of that dream.
Your Faith as an Advantage
Here's the second thing: use your faith as an advantage. I'll talk to guys and I'll say, "How's business?" "Not good." "Well, what's wrong?" "Well, I'm a Christian." What they're saying is this: if I could lie and cheat and steal and screw people like everybody else, then I'd be okay, but I'm a Christian. You know, we do. We have this huge thing that we are restricted to, this big black book that keeps getting in the way sometimes of how we'd like to do things in our own mind.
Let me tell you. Let me flip it around. The greatest advantage you have in business or life or relationships or anything else—but let's stay on business for a minute—the greatest advantage you have in business is your Christian faith. If you read all the gurus, Tom Peters, all these guys, and they'll say, "What is it? What is it that business is looking for today?" Here's what they'll say: employees who are trustworthy, honest, loyal, committed to customer service. That ought to be an extension of your Christian faith, right?
A Customer Service Example
I signed up at the beginning of the year for Iowa football, for all the Iowa football, all the video, all the games, all the post games, all the coaches' interviews. I get everything. I sign up in August. We are now at the end of October. I have not yet had this work. It's outsourced. The University of Iowa doesn't own this. It's outsourced by another company.
So I wrote them, and I said I'm not getting anywhere, and I kind of lost track, and whatever, I'm not getting back. Finally, I'm saying, you know what, they haven't even responded to my email to customer service, and they haven't even responded. They have not even responded. This hacks me off.
So now I email them again. After the third one, each email, in bold, all caps, is "IS THIS AN ENTIRE WASTE OF TIME OR IS ANYONE READING THIS?" And I said, "This is my fourth email. This is my fifth email. This is my sixth email." I've got nine of these. I don't even get a response. So I'm fried now at this point.
I thought, you know, let me find something else. So then I see, well, if this doesn't work, email them. So I email this person—"Sorry, I'm out of the office." Frustrated. Then I see on the website that there's kind of a link here. None of this has to do with the University of Iowa. This is all this other thing. So now I see this link that says "Any questions," and that goes to the University of Iowa. I sent an email to the University
of Iowa. I sent a copy of this. I said, FYI. I just sent them a copy of my 12th email or whatever it is. Fifteen minutes later, I get a phone call from an associate athletic director that said, this is it. And here's what he said. This is absolutely wrong. This is wrong on our part. We've screwed this up. We don't handle this, but we're responsible for it. You're connecting this with the University of Iowa.
And this guy was unbelievable. He said, I'm going to get on this. Five minutes later, I got a copy of an email that he sent to this other company. And then he called me. He said, here's my cell phone. If you don't handle this by game time on Saturday, you call me. I'll get somebody on this. That's two weeks ago. It's still not working. But, well, again, it isn't this guy's fault.
I called customer service. Here's what their customer service said. Listen closely and push the appropriate number. So I have one. That's not me. Two, that's not me. I don't want to buy any more. I got enough. Three, is it not working? Well, I pushed three. Phone rang. It said, this call may be monitored for quality control. I'm fine with that. I'm looking for a little quality control here. And I then wait for 30 seconds and the line goes dead.
The Power of One Person's Integrity
I'm very frustrated. My point is, that guy in the middle, that guy in the middle, his name is Rick Klatt at the University of Iowa, Associate Athletic Director. That guy in the middle, I'm going to write his boss a note and say, this guy's incredible. And that's how they ought to be saying about you.
Final Principles for Living with Integrity
Three more things real quickly. Be concerned about maximizing your profit. And I don't just mean cash. I mean your time, your energy, all that you have in the position you're in. Watch out.
Here's the fourth thing. And I know these are quick. Watch out when you're vulnerable. And that may not be in a valley, that may be at a peak. As I said earlier, sometimes I'm most vulnerable when things are going well rather than things aren't going so well.
And then lastly, be consistent, regardless of where the career path is taking you.
Faith That Works 24-7
Here's my point, and then out the door you go. If this Christian faith of yours isn't working 24-7, then it's not worth much. I'm a big doctrine guy, got to get doctrine right. I'm all down. Put me down yes for doctrine, especially as it relates to salvation and doctrines of grace and all that stuff. Put me down for yes.
But if that faith doesn't transcend the rest of your life and into the marketplace, then it isn't real. If you're just a doctrine addict, and boy, you can't wait for going, Alex, I'll have Bible for $2,000, please. If that's your whole aspiration, to be able to run a category on Jeopardy, then you've got problems.
It's to live life to the max. And as things are coming, peaks and valleys, there should be a stability in you. See that? And your life is driven not by what other people think, not by whether you're going to get caught, not by whether society says it's OK, not by whether medicine can develop something that will allow you to alleviate the sin. It's driven by what does God think. Can you do evil in God's eyes?
Great study, huh? Love Joseph. Let's pray. Father, thank You for Joseph. Thank You for this real-life flesh-and-blood guy who provides us just an extraordinary illustration of how we are supposed to live our lives.