Resisting Temptation Genesis 39

Sermon Nuggets Mon Nov 19 

Genesis 39

   When You're Tempted, Think of Joseph                  

This morning in the news it is reported Paula Broadwell, whose extramarital affair with CIA chief David Petraeus led to his resignation, is telling friends she is devastated by the fallout.

She warned socialite Jill Kelley to stay away from Petraeus and Afghanistan war commander Gen. John Allen, with whom she was having some romantic involvement.

Allen's nomination to lead the U.S. European Command has been put on hold, pending results of the investigation, though officials now concede only a handful of the emails between Kelley and Allen are of flirtatious or questionable nature.

Contrast that story with Cleveland Stroud who had coached the Blue Collar Bulldogs for 18 years before his basketball team made it to the championship. Stroud recalls that it was a perfect night when they won. “A night you dream of.” He was carried around the gym on the shoulders of his triumphant players and their proud parents.

  But two months after the championship, during a routine grade check, Stroud discovered one player was academically ineligible. He only played 45 seconds in the regional qualifying tournament. He struggled with what to do next. Yet, his commitment to integrity led him to the right decision. “Winning is the most important thing for any coach but your principles have to be higher than your goals.” He reported the error to the league and the Bulldogs forfeited their trophy. Then the team took their loss hard, but he told them “You’ve go tot do what is honest, what is right, and what the rules say. People forget the scores of basketball games, but they don’t ever forget what you’re made of.”

How do you handle temptations? We all have them. It is not a sin to be tempted.

Then again, do we really want to stay away from certain temptations? They are appealing. One man trying to stop drinking said, "As I passed the tavern I will not stop in unless there is a parking spot in front of the tavern; that will be the only condition.”  Soon he is walking in the tavern door. He told his friend" I had to drive around the block 7 times before the spot finally opened up." The problem with resisting temptation is that we really want to do what we have decided or told we shouldn’t do. We all are tempted.

Last week we looked at how Judah lived his life and the consequences. This week we will look at how Joseph lived his life and it’s consequences. One lived according to the flesh the other with the spirit. Judah left for a foreign land and lived like his neighbors. Joseph went to a foreign land against his will but lived for the Lord. Perhaps the most well known part of Joseph’s story is recorded for us in the temptation of having a sexual affair with his boss’s wife.

After his brothers sold him into slavery the travelers brought him to Egypt and made a profit when Potipher, Pharoahs general, buys him to work in his house. The Bible says that God was with Joseph in a special way so everything he did prospered. So much so that even Potifer’s household under his care prospered. He was given such leadership abilities by the Lord that everyone noticed not only him, but his God.

I want to review ways to handle temptations as presented in this chapter.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nugget Tues Nov 20 

Gen 39: Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

2 The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

8 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. 9 No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

Fearing Temptation

Many people who fall into sexual temptations are often very successful pastors. They experience the hand of God upon their work. They are praised for their abilities and admired for their leadership and sought after for advice. Although it may be hard to understand many will compartmentalize their lives as work, home, church, and pleasure. And live as if these different compartments are inter-related. They can preach very inspiring sermons while at the same time in their private and personal lives be living a lie. Many will think they are above the laws and rules that other people are under because their abilities or position gives them special privileges.

Some who find success in their pursuits quickly forget that it is because the Lord allowed for those successes. Pretty soon, they falsely think it is their doing, through education, capabilities, hard work and influence that allows them to achieve. I am all for learning techniques and gaining ideas, but don't forget all the blessing we receive are from above.

When Joseph is confronted by Potipher’s wife he is lusting after his handsome body and is blunt to say, “Come to bed with me”. I want you.  What a way to show that you are the head of all the household when even the most powerful person next to Potifer can be your lover. That would be a great ego boast to a young slave, maybe even a sense of revenge for being a slave.

But Joseph immediately feared the situation. Having sex with his boss’s wife could mean death if not beatings and imprisonment.

We have heard in the news of some women teachers, as well as men who are infatuated by some of their high school students and are involved in love affairs with them. When they get caught they are not only ridiculed, lose their jobs, but also their freedoms. But for Joseph it was more than fear against his master it was a sin against God. That is what he feared the most. It would be against God.

Joseph saw such sexual relationships for what it was- wickedness, even though he was not responsible. I think we don't begin to have a grip on resisting temptation unless we can fear the temptation and realize instead of rationalize that we are being faced with sin and its consequences. We disobey God who is holy and righteous. There are things I wouldn't do not because I was more honorable, I afraid of God. There are many temptations that seem harmless enough and others are doing it, but I fear God; I fear the consequences knowing one is going against His will. Because I feel miserable until confession and forgiveness is faced. 

When David's was confronted with his adultery with Bathsheba he said "I have sinned against thee oh Lord and Ps. 51 we read, "For I know my transgression, and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Sin has consequence.

When someone isn't having the right relationship with God and something is blocking it, we need to pray as David did "Search me o God and see if there be any wicked way against thee.”

  It is also hurtful to others. Joseph knew that his master would be would be hurt by Joseph yielding to Potiphers wife's sexual advances. Since he had been so kind to Joseph, He didn't want to hurt his master with evil.  Although sin is primarily against God it is affects other people and often people we love. Certainly this is obvious with adultery.  It is a sin not only against God but against the married partner, youngsters and the other person and other families.  Sins of lying are hurtful to the one lied to, sin of stealing and cheating and gossip and anger, and hatred, and prejudice unfair treatment, poor wages, abuse.  It is not true that people have their own lives to lead and can do anything they want.  By their actions they sin against others.  Friends even in making business deals you must be honest and not yield to dishonest temptation for financial profit. I have gotten to know unchurched people who have been ripped off by members of our church and believe me it hurts the testimony of Jesus Christ. Don't be fooled by it.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Weds Nov 21 

Gen 39: ¹⁰ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

¹¹ One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. ¹² She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

Facing Temptation

I am not sure that Joseph is the best example of facing what to do when there is the potential of being trapped. Perhaps we can learn the lesson that Joseph tried to ignore and hoped the problem would go away by saying no the first couple of times. The problem did not go away. It got worse.  The problem was with the person who was trying to seduce him. I do not want to preach an argument out of silence. There may be things Joseph tried to do to stop the advances, the story does not tell us he did. But once you are alerted to a problem it needs to be faced quickly for the likelihood of it getting worse usually does.  Perhaps Joseph couldn't do anything as a slave.

 There was a secret going on and Joseph needed advise, help, or confrontation with Mrs. Potipher. Perhaps a witness or trusted associate of his master since accusations by a slave to his master concerning his wife may have been cause for punishment since she would have clearly denied it.

When I was in Russia our translator received a love letter from one of the Deacons in the church. Although she was a new Christian she told him he was married and it wasn’t right. He wanted it to be a secret and be allowed to continue to write her. She asked me what she should do since it was flattering getting these notes. I told her as long as it is a secret it will grow. As soon as you share it with someone who can talk to the man, the secret it out.

There is something almost erotic about having secrets with the opposite sex that is not your spouse. You share something in common with no one else and there is a bond. The guise of confidentiality is sometimes a means of manipulation used to bring about worse results. I told her that she should share the concern with a mature sister or pastor and the two of them confront the man that if there are any more letters they will bring them to him with his wife present. It was a means of facing squarely the situation before it got out of hand and further sin involved.

We need to realize we are automatically drawn into temptation to sin by our inward desires. Facing it recognizes that there is potential problem. Admit it ourselves that something needs to be done.

The Christian that concerns me is the one that thinks it cannot happen to me. “Pride cometh before a fall.” I was surprised when an 80 year old explained he was still being tempted to commit mental adultery with women. Temptation is lifelong. When I hear of  a treasurer taking church money by embezzlement, it can happen to me. When I hear of someone who commits adultery I know it can happen to me. When I see pride destroy a ministry. I know it can happen to me. When I see jealousy wreak the ministry of other churches and pastors I know it can happen to me.  There is nothing that I also not capable of doing if giving the right circumstances, so facing it early can prevent what we don’t want to happen.

Now Joseph could have made up all kinds of excuses. ‘We’re alone and no one will know.’ That is true; ‘She made me do it.’ Right again. ‘Everyone else is fooling around, God will understand and forgive me, after all I am a slave and must be obedient to my master.’ Excuses, rationalization, and compromising your commitments are ways to further the problem. One man said it right “Tell the people they need to make up their mind before hand how they will handle temptations. If they wait until they are tempted it will be too late.”

Kids need to plan ahead what they will say when friends offer them smokes, or drugs, or alcohol, for it will happen. Plan on it. Plan how you will handle it when you’re on a date and the date wants to go further in sexual play than you should. Don’t come up with a plan when it happens for you won’t be thinking clearly. Plan on what you will do now when money is at your disposal.

Do you think we are put to tests by the Lord?  How is your IQ, your Integrity Quotient? What tempts you? Money that isn’t ours, pleasures that are wrong, cheating on taxes, or stealing a piece of equipment or materials at work, or school or in a store? Cheating on tests at school, plagiarism, lying? If there is something that you are being tempted with there is no sin in the temptation but in the yielding of it. Temptation must be the red flag that alerts our senses that something is wrong no matter how enticing it is. You need spiritual support from God and others.

Do you have people of the same sex who you pray for and can pray for you, and can be honest with and support and encourage for things of the Lord? We need small groups and godly friends to help us in the Lord.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Fri Nov 23 

Gen 39: 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

Fleeing Temptation

Now facing it and fleeing it sound like opposite instructions doesn't it? Joseph did right. There will be times when all we can do in a giving situation is to get out of that situation. Joseph literally ran rather than be seduced by the wife of Potipher.  That is not easy for young sexually interested and healthy 17-18 years old young man, when he had every opportunity available to him.  Joseph did right thing before God in fleeing the temptation even to the point of leaving his coat and being lied against.

I have a book by a former teaching in my office.  I studied with him in an independent study course in marriage counseling. I appreciated his insights and abilities. He wrote a book on protecting your marriage. Yet within just a few years after he published this book he was being sued by a client for sexual involvement. He knew what to do, aware of the problem, wrote about the problem but at the wrong time was unable to do what he needed to do which was to flee.

Satan is so shrewd, each exposure increased the chance that we will sin and each time Mrs. Potipher saw Joseph the desire increased.

In Joseph's case even in fleeing he was in trouble. Potipher's wife took his cloak and screamed accusing Joseph of trying to rape her.  There is nothing Joseph can do at this point as a slave, but be true to himself knowing where the truth lies, and trusting Christ

Did you ever wonder what went through the mind of Mrs. Potipher those years Joseph was in prison? Did you ever wonder what happened to Mrs. Potipher when Joseph later held a position of authority over even Potipher himself? But even if Joseph never rose to such place or power still she would have to face God as do we all. Vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay.

Crystal Michelle as high schooler understood that being in love wasn’t reason enough to become sexually active. One of her favorite quotes to spread her message of abstinence comes from Ann Landers, it goes¨”I met him; I liked him. I liked him I loved him. I loved him, I let him. I let him; I lost him.”

She has some answers for boys who pressure her if a boy says to her “Real men are sexually active. She will say “So is my REAL dog.” If he says, “If you loved me, You’d let me” She’ll say “If you loved me, you wouldn’t ask.” He says , “Everyone is doing it.” Not true I’m someone and I’m not doing it.” IF he says, “If you won’t let me I’ll find someone who will. “It was nice knowing you.”

  Here is her best quote “When we date, we start giving gifts, like flowers or candy. When a couple becomes engaged, they give special things- a diamond and very personal things. The most personal gift that I can ever give is myself. I have nothing more precious to give. When I marry, I want to give my husband the best that I have- my whole self as complete as I can. “ That is a gift best for your husband and wife for you wedding.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Sat Nov 24 

Gen 39: 19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.

But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

Fighting Temptation

Temptation for Joseph I am sure did not end once Joseph was sent to prison. He had a different type of temptation. It was to be bitter, despondent, and depressed. Joseph could have become bitter and angry at God for yielded to temptation but then another sin would have occurred.

Fighting temptation includes the armor of God. I wish I could tell you that went well, but look at what happened to righteousness and integrity of Joseph. First he was falsely accused, and secondly he was falsely put in prison. He could have falsely been killed also. Other have. Jesus was. Jesus said if we are going to be like him, things like that may happen to us as well. It happened to most of the disciples. They were in Gods’ will doing what was right when persecution and suffering came to them.

How do we fight temptation? Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.” He knew that in this world there would be a constant battle that needed to be fought with prayer, and with alertness to the spiritual dangers around us.

In the Lord’s prayer we are taught, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” I think the reason prayer is proposed to be a perpetual part of the solution is that it allows us to have the attitude of humility. It is the realization that we need to be in the protection of God and it allows our thoughts to be upward.

Most sexual sins are yielded first with our minds. If Joseph’s thought were on this woman he would have failed. If they were on himself he wouldn’t have stood much of a chance, but his thoughts were on God. 

Another excellent strategy is to work on your own home situation. Keep a good communication with your wife and with your husband. Allow the love to grow and be satisfied in your union sexually as well. Don’t use it as a threat or means of manipulation.

What was it that Satan could not stand against when he was tempting Jesus in the wilderness? It was quote from the word of truth. Even when Satan tried to quote Scripture to Jesus out of context and to accomplish sinful ends, Jesus could throw it back at him.

Psalm 119:15 "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee." Fighting sin and Satan with the truth against his lies keeps us from hurt and pain.

I John 4:4 further reminds us "Greater is He that is in you that He that is in the world." We need to be on guard. We need to be alert for Satan sneaks around seeking whom he can devour.

There is story of wild ducks in S. Africa were boys put pumpkins in the river and allowed the current to carry them down to where the ducks were swimming. They were nervous about it and flew away, but watched from a distance these pumpkins were harmless. When they saw there was no danger, they flew back into the river as more pumpkins floated by. Then the boys had large pumpkins hallowed out that they put over their heads and they moved slowly and quietly into the water until their bodies were in the water and their heads were out inside the pumpkin. As they walked toward ducks they were able to catch them by the leg under the water and kill them.  How many are led into sin by saying, there is no harm in it? The devil likes to deceive us just as the ducks were.

I Cor 10:13 There is no temptation that is taken you that is not common to man but God is faithful with every temptation there is a way of escape that we may be able to endure it"

While the manager of a large estate was a young man was conducting his daily business, a wicked woman enter the room. But this young man wasn't surprised; she came to see him every day. He knew what she wanted-what she always wanted. She would attempt to lure him with her eyes, her words and her smile to entice him into an affair.

Assuming he could never fall into that sin, this man remained indifferent to her presence. He apparently thought this latest incident would end like all the rest; He would reject her advance and she would leave. So he went on about his business, a decision that produced severe consequences. Later he was charge with attempted rape and sent to prison for more than two years. This man did nothing wrong, but no one would believe his story. It didn't matter. His testimony was marred by not avoiding this woman. There are some lessons we can learn form this man. His name was Joseph.

There three important words to use in all similar situations; Just say No. Fear it, Face it, Flee it and Fight it.  The consequences are too severe to do otherwise. But given the choices I'd rather be a Joseph and sense the presence of God in prison, than a David and to have lost it with Bathsheba and he paid with great sorrow.

But even with a David who loved God but failed, there was the way back to God and that way for us is also through confession, repentance, and reliance on God our Savior and our Lord.  For the best is use his power to resist the second best is use his power to forgive and walk in the ways he prepares for us.

Pastor Dale

Matters of Lust and Love Genesis 38

Sermon Nuggets Mon Nov 12

Gen 38

Matters of Lust and Love                                          

            Every Valentine’s Day there  is be a big push to buy things for the love of your life: cards, candy, flowers, dinner or more intimate appeal. There are many that get the message confused over love or sex.

The message our society gives is loud and clear. If you love someone of the opposite sex you express that sexually.  It doesn’t make any difference if you are married or not.  The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation monitors social mores, said sexual content featured in two-thirds of all television shows increases dramatically every year.  A U of California professor did the study but even this is 10 years ago.

``Every time there is sex on TV, there is an opportunity to deliver useful information to young people,'' said Kaiser Family Foundation Vice president Victoria Rideout. ``While some shows are taking advantage of that opportunity, 9 out of 10 do not.”       Clearly, 80% of the TV couples engaging in sexual intercourse are unmarried.

           

I am not sure we need an official study to tell us that Television programming makes us believe that various sexual exploits are normal and common and acceptable. It is not even a matter of just turning off the television set if you want to guard yourself or your families from material.

As a pastor I am not ashamed to say I have a pretty tame life. As I hope you would expect I find it wise to minimize temptation rather than feed it. I don’t subscribe to things that are questionable, I seek to visit websites that would be family approved, so imagine my surprise to discover how easily pornographic material is advertised on my bulk email. I could easily and innocently click in the privacy of my room that which would lead me to adult material plenty of it for free. Even the installation of Netnanny and other internet controlled browsers which I strongly recommend for Christian families can’t keep up with the fasted growing business of the year- internet pornography. All the free stuff entices men to visit pornographic pay sites, or phone calls and so forth. I am discouraged.

            I am discouraged when unsolicited and not once ordering any material of sexual content to find in my regular mail box advertisement for some of the raunchiest material. How does a young man keep his life pure? The Bible says Ps 119 by living according to the Word of God.

           

I hope you don’t misunderstand what I am saying. By God’s grace, not by my own flesh, God has allowed me to hit the delete button without opening up the letters. After first discovering what one of those blank envelopes has in them, I can throw them away without opening them up. I did return one asking to be removed from the list. We’ll see if that happens. There are many brothers in the ministry that by such temptations have become addicted to pornographic material. Industry knows it has most men hooked by such solicitations. People know lots and lots of money is made off this sin. 

I want to take these next two weeks talking about the subject of sexuality and temptations as we continue in our series on Genesis. The story today is of Judah whose compromises destroy his whole family and own life. Chapter 39 as we will see next week is contrasted with Joseph who seeks to keep his life pure.

God is trying to show us the difference between needs and misdirected desires, the difference between lust sex and love.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Tues Nov 13 Sexual Attraction

Gen 38:1-5 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. ² There Judah met the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua. He married her and lay with her; ³ she became pregnant and gave birth to a son, who was named Er. ⁴ She conceived again and gave birth to a son and named him Onan. ⁵ She gave birth to still another son and named him Shelah. It was at Kezib that she gave birth to him.

Sexual Attraction

 Isaac learned about God from Abraham, Jacob learned from Isaac, Judah learned from Jacob, but there is no mention of God or divine influence in the marriage or raising of Judah’s sons who were so wicked God took their lives.

Judah’s troubles began when he left his home and Godly influences to go to a foreign country. He stayed with his friend Hirah, an Adullamite. While with Hirah, Judah saw a certain Canaanite woman whose name is never given. I take it from the fact that stress is laid on Judah’s seeing this woman that her outward appearance is what attracted him, not her faith or character, as a wife. Since this seems to have been influential in Jacob’s selection of a wife, we need not be surprised at this. It was a purely physical choice. Certainly no spiritual considerations were taken into account.

He lay with her as his wife and eventually they have three sons. While in Canaan the same words used for the rape of his sister Dinah are used for the way Judah finds a wife. Nothing is mentioned about anything of their relationships except sexual one.

As we have mentioned before the concern over marrying someone from a foreign nation wasn’t a matter of race, but of religion. Ruth was a Moabite, who converted and with the blessing of God married Boaz. It is a great love story. Moses married a foreign woman, Zipporah,  but both followed God. There are examples in the Bible of Gentiles and Jews who are Christians marrying, but where you have trouble is when a Christian and a non Christian marry each other. You have a mixed marriage. You have a divided household.

            Judah let other attractions lead his life, not Gods will. That, unfortunately, is not unusual among many Christians today. Some who call themselves Christians (they have a Christian background and Christian perspectives on many issues), act in the same way Judah acted here. They go about their daily affairs, relying on their own insight and intuition and ignoring what part God would want to play in their lives.

2 Cor. 6:14-16 Do not be yoked together with unbelievers”

The Bible speaks plainly about the dangers of close relationships with those who do not share our faith. There is very good reason for this. When we are involved in a "mixed marriage" or partnership of any kind, an erosion of our own faith is inevitable. In a desire to "get along" with the non-believer we inevitably soften our own commitment.

There is no better illustration of this than with Solomon. Solomon was the wisest man in the Bible (outside of Jesus) but he still drifted away from God. Why? It was because of his marriages to foreign women. Each foreign woman he married had religious beliefs that were different from him. So, to appease and show respect for his wife, he built a place of worship for her.

           

Most relationships begin with physical attraction. From about Junior High age on one gender becomes aware of the other gender and it is very good. God made it that way. But to build any relationship based on physical attraction is dangerous to your future. Commit your life to God and ask him to lead you to the right person and in his will he will lead. Look at the beauty God gave to Abraham and to Isaac, and even to Jacob, it is worth it.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Weds Nov 14 Sexual Abuse

Genesis 38: : ⁶ Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷ But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death.

⁸ Then Judah said to Onan, “Lie with your brother’s wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother.” ⁹ But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. ¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so he put him to death also.

Sexual Abuse

            Unfortunately, when Jacob found a wife, Tamar, for his eldest son, his wickedness was so offensive to God he died. Now we get into a complicated part of the story. I am glad this rule is seen today as inferior to Gods’ greater plan in marriage and that we have a means of taking care of families of the deceased with rights, insurance, and provision. That was not the case for widows and orphans back then.

The rule in the Old Testament culture was if the eldest brother died without having offspring the next oldest was to marry the widow and raise up the children in the name and inheritance of the eldest. Onan was next in line and Tamar was given to him to be his wife, only he resented the fact that legally the heirs would carry on the brother’s name.

            The Bible reads this way, “so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother.” Kind of blunt isn’t it? This was a means of birth control I suppose. Through the years many girls found themselves pregnant when boyfriends practiced this method of birth control. I call it abuse. He uses the girl for sexual reasons not for love. The intent of Onan to use her but not for love but for sex, not for her benefit, but his. He fulfills his sexual duty for the family but abuses that relationship toward Tamar so she will not have a child. He uses her body but refuses her “honor” as presented in that culture.

What he did was wicked in the Lord's sight; so he put him to death also. What was wicked? Some have tried to make this passage the proof text for banning any method of birth control. I don’t agree with that interpretation. Onan didn’t do what was honorable, but what was selfish. Not only did Onan sin against his father and Tamar, but he sinned primarily against his dead brother. Onan put his own personal interests above his brother’s inability to continue the family line. Birth control (or any act, for that matter) is evil if it is motivated by self-seeking and if it is clearly an act of disobedience. “Whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23) must be one standard by which we measure our every action.

            There is appropriate use of sex and abuse of sex. The very act of sex is instituted and planned of God. Some people think that there is not connection between God and the bedroom except the “Thou Shalt nots”. Our sexuality and desires were planned by God. Sexuality reflects the image of God. It has to do with permanent and holy relationships blessed by the Lord. We, unlike an animal act, can think, imagine, responds and interact. We can communicate with God and with each other. For sex to be the use of a body only is nothing short of abuse of God’s plan. What Onan did was not sexuality according to Gods’ plan.

Our bodies are to be shared openly with our spouses in marriage. God’s plan of becoming one with each other is not for recreation, but for endearing relationships. Sex works best when a husband’s focus is on adoring and affirm his wife and connecting with her emotionally as well as physically. That was not the way Onan treated Tamar. The New Testament tells us that our bodies also belong to our spouses and that marriage is to be held in honor among all and the marriage bed to be undefiled.”

 There are many restrictions in the Bible regarding extramarital sexual involvement, but there are no “do’s and don’ts” for sexual activity within marriage except to love and to honor one another. This is important to distinguish between lust driven sexuality that is based on mankind’s sinful, self seeking nature and healthy, enthusiastic sharing of such desires in marriage. As we share the way God designed marriage to be we become vulnerable with each other and experience a deep sense of warmth and closeness with our spouses.

Now we in our society have taken what God has said which is good and abused that in so many ways by selfishness. We treat women as play things, and men as toys. We have seen the abuses of children through incest and molestations. We have seen degrading of dating to rape and gang rape, and homosexual activities have in the name of the law. We  have unrestricted sex resulting in killing of unwanted babies through abortions and emotional neglect of women. So many girls are used by men having their sexual lusts met they discard them as used paper. The self-esteem of the woman is devastated.

            My wife is a school nurse. She has told me some stories that girls are telling her in private that would make your blood boil. The abuses of sex today have a profound effect for years and years to come on families yet to be. All of this could be prevented if people would seek God and follow his word in obedience and love. 

            God saw that Onan was using her physically, but not in love or honor, but as a body. How else she may have been abused we do not know, but why would God take Onan’s life while so many who do sexual violent acts still live? The only answer I have is this serves as a warning that God delights in holiness and judges wickedness, in His time.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Thurs Nov 15 Manipulation

Gen 38: ¹¹ Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, just like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

¹² After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had recovered from his grief, he went up to Timnah, to the men who were shearing his sheep, and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.

¹³ When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah to shear his sheep,” ¹⁴ she took off her widow’s clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. For she saw that, though Shelah had now grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.

¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. ¹⁶ Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.

¹⁷ “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.

“Will you give me something as a pledge until you send it?” she asked.

¹⁸ He said, “What pledge should I give you?”

“Your seal and its cord, and the staff in your hand,” she answered. So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ After she left, she took off her veil and put on her widow’s clothes again.

Sexual Manipulation

Judah had two sons who were now dead. He was thinking maybe Tamar is the reason the Lord is taking their lives. Does he want to risk another son if he were to marry her? It never seemed to occur to him that it was his sons who were the problem, not Tamar. So he will care for her, but told her to live as a widow and wait for son number 3 to be of age.  

In the course of time Judah's wife died. He was grief stricken. As a single man again he went about his work. He went to another city to shear sheep. Someone told Tamar her father-in-law was there. She had a plan. She took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself, and then sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the road to Timnah. The third son by now had grown up and yet Judah never gave him to her to wed. This part of the bargain was not kept.

            In her society not only were the younger brothers able to marry their brothers widow without children, but since Judah was now single he could do the same thing.  Tamar determined to force the matter by becoming pregnant by her father in law.  Judah was wrong in withholding Shelah, but so was Tamar by taking these matters into her own hands.

She didn’t just dress up to disguise herself she painted her self up and wore the clothes of a prostitute. When Judah came by she used her womanly charms to have him pay for her sexual favors.He went over to her by the roadside and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." He propositioned her. Her plan was working. They agreed upon the price. But she wanted something she could prove it was Judah who came on to her.

The seal, cord, and staff each had distinctive characteristics, which were peculiar to the owner. The seal was the ancient cylinder seal used in the making of contracts. It was the counterpart of our charge cards today. Each cylinder had a unique design of its owner carved in it. When a contract was made, hot wax was put on the document and the seal was rolled over it, leaving the impression of the owner of the seal.

She was veiled and then in a dark area so Judah did not see her face and he was not interested in who she was or what she looked like, she was just the body to sleep with. In that one night experience she became pregnant by him.

Sex is a power thing. It is used to sell, to capture the attention of men. Beautiful and scantly clothed woman will pose in variety of ways to captures men’s interests to manipulate attention sometimes it is to buy all kinds of items, magazines, cars, watch XFL football shows, sell perfumes, and houses and you name it women have been used to manipulate buyers. Wives have also used sex and not love to get their husbands to do what they want, or get them what they want.  A common means of manipulation over men is withholding sexual involvement until they get their way. That is also abuse of the relationship for selfish purposes. Many women use sex as a tool of manipulation and not love which, like before, cheapens the expression of love and tenderness, of appreciation and procreation which God had intended.

Tamar got what she wanted and used clothes, perfumes, and sex to get it.

Our news stories are filled on TV internet and paper with the sexual scandals affecting the highest of ranking in the military. They men admit foolish decisions that jeopardize their marriages, reputation and career. We do not know who pursued whom. But appropriate concerns are raised to see if encounters were used to get and sell information of national security. Sexual manipulation has been to get what others want. It was not the way God intended it to be.

There is a difference between lust and love and we confuse the two and trade what is wonderful for married couple for immediate pleasures and cheap thrills and unwanted consequences.

Pastor Dale

 Sermon Nuggets Fri Nov 16 Lusts

Gen 38: ¹⁵ When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face. ¹⁶ Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her by the roadside and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.”

“And what will you give me to sleep with you?” she asked.

¹⁷ “I’ll send you a young goat from my flock,” he said.

^…..20 Meanwhile Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite in order to get his pledge back from the woman, but he did not find her. ²¹ He asked the men who lived there, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?”

“There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here,” they said.

²² So he went back to Judah and said, “I didn’t find her. Besides, the men who lived there said, ‘There hasn’t been any shrine prostitute here.’”

²³ Then Judah said, “Let her keep what she has, or we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you didn’t find her.”

Sexual Lusts

When this encounter ended, Judah and Tamar went their separate ways. Later hi friend was sent to pay the prostitute and retrieve the items which Judah had given her. He asked for the whereabouts of the “temple prostitute”. Prostitution was a part of the Canaanite worship of the god of fertility. Judah was having more than an affair that fulfilled his physical lusts, but as far as the culture was concerned was participating in a ritual of worship to fertility god of the temple prostitute with whom men would have sex to somehow bless their own sheep so many ewes were have many lambs. Not finding the “temple prostitute” and, worse yet, being told that there was no such person to be found, placed Judah in a very awkward and potentially embarrassing position.

She wasn’t motivated by lust, but wanting a child. Judah was motivated by lust and greed. Seemly superstitious he was also protecting his younger son from marrying Tamar since two sons died. Lust is getting what we want. It is seeking to have our desires met. Apparently Judah was feeling guilty and wanting to cover up his sin. Here's a principle for you: If you feel you need to hide what you are doing . . . what you are doing is probably wrong! And the longer you hide the further you drift.

A young man (or woman) watches suggestive shows on prime time television. Before long it doesn't "bother him." In other words it no longer seems dangerous or inappropriate. So he pushes a little further. He starts watching movies that don't just suggest immoral behavior, they show it. It easily grows from there to more and more involved sexual interests. Most immoral behavior begins in what people think are innocent and commonly accepted entertainment. The world will always toy with as much sin as they can "get away with". We should expect that, but guard against it.

Frank was a young man with a lovely wife of five years. They had a child. He came to his pastor and confessed, “I didn’t intend for it to happen. There was this one night stand affair with a young woman at work. Recently, there hasn’t been anything at home. His wife had been so preoccupied with kids she just doesn’t have time for romance anymore. She’s been too tired and to be interested since the baby came. But I didn’t mean for this to happen. I’ve really messed up, I don’t know what to do. This will kill her. I couldn’t bear to lose her and the kids I can’t believe what I’ve done.” A moment of weakness is all it takes when lust gives full birth to sin and another family is destroyed.

Unfortunately one of the leading articles in the local paper this week was of a nice young man from a nice Christian home hired on at a school to be a teacher and coach. He was married and had a promising future until lust too over. His contact with one of his students has ruined his dreams and reputation. It takes so little to be led down a path that destroys.

Also in the news is of one of my pastoral friends who coming out of homosexual tendencies was put in tempting situations and his position as a counselor cause him to compromise his witness, testimony, position, and reputation. Lust kills.

TV and movies makes it look so much fun. We are bombarded with entertainment that appeals to our lusts and mocks Biblical values.

Satan has taken the lie of lust and the looseness of the morals of our society and produced at great expense divorce, AIDS abortions, unwanted pregnancies, and adultery. God warned often in the Bible when you live like the world and are a child of God you will suffer. All of these sexual sins were common in the surrounding culture of his day but God’s people were to live distinguished lives not giving in to lusts of flesh but to the desire of pure relationships which meet our longing according to God’s blessings. Lust occurs when we become more focused on temporary physical pleasure than finding our satisfactions in the design and desires of God.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Sat Nov 17 Discrimination

Gen 38: ²⁴ About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar is guilty of prostitution, and as a result she is now pregnant.”

Judah said, “Bring her out and have her burned to death!”

²⁵ As she was being brought out, she sent a message to her father-in-law. “I am pregnant by the man who owns these,” she said. And she added, “See if you recognize whose seal and cord and staff these are.”

²⁶ Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.

Sexual Discrimination

Now the story comes out that Tamar is pregnant and Judah, the father in law is so angry that he is ready to have her put to death. As she was brought up for judgment, she sent Judah a message. “Here are the items of the one who impregnated me.” There were the things that he left and now realized what had happened. He was the one who was caught in the act. She had a right to marry him and he didn’t fulfill his vows. 

What is upsetting is the hypocrisy of the double standard. This happens a lot in sexual discrimination you know. It was wrong for her to have illicit sex, but not wrong for me. It is okay to have her put to death, but as long as I don’t get caught I’m innocent.

It may have even been possible that Judah saw this as the solution to a problem of not having to give her to his youngest son.

What a shock this must have been to Judah to be faced with his own guilt and sin. He had to say of this woman, “She is more righteous than I” (26). She didn’t treat him the way he treated her. He does not say she is more righteous than he in the matter of the immorality committed, but in that she acted so as to procure a son that was rightfully hers, while Judah refused to give her Shelah as he had promised.

When President Clinton was caught in the acts of inappropriateness sexually with Monica Lewinski there were all types of denials until the evidence was produced and he was forced to admit his sin and his lying. At first there was outrage made by some of the senators and congressmen talked about his affair. It was only later that some of these men were guilty of similar actions. It was okay to judge the president as long as no one knew their secret.

It seems ironic of the popular outcry of two Generals who were prominent and now the director of the CIA lost his job over inappropriate sexual affairs, but what do we feed our nation on each and every night. Women are exploited as sexual toys. You will see that more even on ads coming into the Christmas season. I have boycotted Hardees for the way they directly target young teens with sensual portrayals to get people to buy hamburgers.

Why is it the girl is punished, but boys will be boys? That is hypocritical. Why is the girl responsible for how far a couple goes on a date? It is just as much the boy’s responsibility if not more so.

Sometimes discrimination at the work place against women especially have caused all kinds of laws suits. Equal work with equal pay is just as it should be. Women and men should expect work without harassment because a person’s gender. Each gender should be respected and honored, and treated as a brother and a sister, and not objects of sexual innuendos and language that causes embarrassment.

If Christ were in the work place where you worked, or neighborhood or school, how do you think he would treat females? If Jesus were in your conversations with the boys what types of jokes would he made or laugh at. Is it sex or love is an alternative that is far reaching not just with our spouses, but with the way our society calls us to live and the way Jesus calls us to live.

We are not our own we have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in our bodies I Cor 6

Tama gave birth to twin boys. Perez and Zerah. Since the twin that was first to emerge from the womb traditionally possessed the rights of the firstborn, some kind of identifying mark was placed on the first to issue from the womb. When one of the boys thrust out a hand, a scarlet thread was tied about it, assuming that he would shortly come forth. The hand was withdrawn, however, and the firstborn was the other boy As later genealogies will prove, this firstborn son, Perez, was to be the son of Judah who would carry on the messianic line until the time of David, and ultimately, of Jesus (cf. Ruth 4:12; Matthew 1:3).

God in his glory shows his grace and choose Judah to be the line of the Messiah and the line of Tamar to be the offspring and ancestry of Jesus Christ. This is Christ’s family. Sexual sin, it should be pointed out here, and as is obvious by how this tale ends, is not the unforgivable sin. Failure in this area can always be forgiven. The Lord can even redeem our bad choices if we are like Judah, if we honestly admit to our wrongdoing, allow ourselves to be ministered to, and if we thereafter purpose to seek to live righteously

In Jacob’s day, as in our own, the same basic issues are at stake. The family was under attack, as the church is today, on two major fronts. The first is in the area of purity and separation. Judah eagerly committed the sin for which he (or at least his brothers) put an entire city to the sword. He married a Canaanite and would have had sexual relations with a cult prostitute. Today our children are facing incredible pressure to conform to the world around them, to date and marry unbelievers, and to forsake the faith they have learned from their family. Separation from the world is especially important in the matter of the friends that we choose.

The second front in Satan’s attack on the family and the church is the matter of unity and brotherly love. Joseph’s brothers had no brotherly love and no essential unity. Judah’s son Onan had no sense of obligation to his deceased brother and was motivated only by self-interest and selfish ambition. So far as he was concerned, it did not matter if Tamar ever had a child, but God had determined that she would be the one through whom the Messiah would come.

Perhaps some of you identify with Judah and Tamar because you feel you have made a mess of your life. You made bad decisions. You knowingly went down a wrong path. You sinned in horrible ways and have concluded that God could never love you or do anything through you. I hope you will be encouraged. The God who forgave them will forgive you. The God who transformed them will transform you. The God who used them can use you. It doesn't matter where you have been. It doesn't matter what you have done. What matters is where you turn now.

             Another son of Jacob handles a second incident involving sexual temptation very differently. That is our topic for next week.

Pastor Dale

Handling Envy - Genesis 37

Sermon Nuggets Mon Nov 5                                                               

Gen 37

Handling Envy

Is there a difference between wishing you could be like someone else and the sin of envy? I admire someone who can sing well and often wish I could. Am I being envious? Or if someone was on “Do you want to be a millionaire?” Sometimes I wonder what it would be like. Or when I’ve had lots of car trouble, I wish I could have a car like some in my church that runs well.

I have been thinking about retirement a great deal and what I should and should not be doing for the future for the health of SBC. While at study break a few years ago I was talking with a pastor who was telling of a problem he had in his former church where the pastor had been there for almost 30 years and retired in the church. He kept running the church informally even when he wasn’t the pastor any longer. He remained in the church and this provided for conflict. One person asked the new pastor to come and pray for her husband who was quite ill and in the process led him to accept the Lord. When the older pastor heard about the good news he drove over to the house and confronted the new convert and asked him why he didn’t accept the Lord when he was pastor. He talked enough about it to him. It wasn’t fair.  That’s envy.

The Lord has rebuked me in looking at my envy when I see some of my friends have growing churches and I don’t. That feeling isn’t just admiration; it is envy. Have you ever heard the sounds of envy? They sound like this:

"It’s not fair, Tommy gets to stay up till 8 o’clock and I have to go to bed at 7:30, and he’s younger than me. I wish I had his parents."

 "I hate her. Her hair always is perfect and teeth shiny and white.”

“How did Bob get a car like that? His parents must have bought it for him.”

"Why can’t you be more like Rita’s husband, he’s so good at woodworking and making things. Why can’t you make things like he does?"

 "Everything seems to be so easy for them. God seems to bless them so much. It doesn’t seem fair"

            These are the kind of thoughts that go through the minds of all people, even Christians. They seem harmless. They may even motivate us to try harder to achieve or be better people. It’s natural to compare ourselves to others and then, of course, we want to have some of their good traits or abilities. The problem is that when we continue to feel this way, or start resenting others, we are being envious.

As we begin the stories about Joseph, God has many lessons for us in various areas of our lives. This week we will look at handling envy.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Tues Nov 6 

Gen 37:1-9 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

² This is the account of Jacob.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹ Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

The Causes for Envy

           

Step families- There is a problem that is very common among blended families. Increasingly in our society where divorce, death, remarriage and couples living together there are increased number of step families.

When I heard Jim Faye speaking in Cambridge on parenting a number of years ago he made a good point. It went something like this. “Judi, I love you with all my heart. I’ve found such joy in our love. You are very special to me. In fact I have so much love around that I want to bring another woman into the home also, we can all enjoy each other so much.”

Now had to that their children and as far as the mothers are concerned they are half brothers and sisters. Birth order can cause rivalries between siblings. Where does that leave oldest child when another one is brought into the home to love just as much. (jealousy). But when one has a different parent that can only add to their feelings of insecurity and competition.  Now if you bring in other children by step children or half siblings there is a bond between some and not others and now you can have team rivalries going on. They compete for attention of mom and dad. They are very aware of who is getting most attention and when. Parents soon learn that it’s impossible to be fair because kids are constantly comparing by their definition of what fair is. It is hard enough for blood brothers and sisters to get along, but there is a natural tendency to have a closer attachment to your own full siblings, than half brothers and sisters and step siblings.

We have talked before about the inappropriateness of polygamy, and with progressive revelation how it was condemned in the Bible later when the law was established with Moses. There was problems with envy with Cain and Able and certainly with Sara and Hagar and their children Ishmael and Isaac. We see envy lift its green head when Joseph and Benjamin were sons from favorite wife, Rachael and others resented her family. Now Benjamin was just born and too young to be part of the internal dynamics of the family. But Joseph was the youngest of the brothers as a teen and was resented. Just because you were born to whom you were born to can automatically cause envy and you have nothing to do with it.

       

Parental Favoritism Dad didn’t help the matter any by playing favorites It is not easy being a parent. I talked with a couple of parents that had three children. They discussed the problems with having a middle child and how that child often felt left out and struggled for attention. The oldest seemed to have privileges the others don’t at the time because of his or her age, and the youngest is pampered and looked upon as spoiled and protected, but the middle kids feels left out and after that others get favoritism. Unless there is a large age difference it is common that brothers and sisters will compare themselves with each other.  It is impossible to treat each child alike because each child is different. What impresses or bothers one children doesn’t the other.

           

It is unfortunate but true that all the patriarchs had favorite kids they treated differently. Abraham favored Isaac and there was envy. Isaac favored Esau and there was envy. Rabekah favored Jacob and there was envy. Jacob favored Joseph and there is envy. It wasn’t imagined it was real. He made it plain this son was special and different and liked and loved more.

            Playing favorites among children causes serious problems. Playing favorites among people is wrong. It boils down to showing partiality and prejudice. It is hard for all the love kids need to feel they aren’t getting enough love and support. Joseph isn’t the one at fault in this area, but Jacob is.

            I don’t know how one lady was able to do it, but after her funeral the adults children were talking and one finally confessed that she was sorry and felt badly because she knew she was Mom’s favorite. The great thing was each of the children felt they were the favorite children because of the unique and special relationship she had with them.

How do you evaluate the relationships you have in your family? What about has a parent? Do you see how your children cooperate or hold resentments? What might be some cause for that and how can you encourage growing respect, closeness and love?

What about has a sibling? How is the relationship you have with other brothers and sisters? Do you see yourself comparing or contrasting yourself with them? In what ways? Where might envy and jealousy creep in? What might be causes that result by no fault of the children?

Make your relationships a matter of prayer and celebrate the uniqueness God has given to and your siblings. Seek cooperation and reconciliation whenever possible. As much as it depends on you, live in peace.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Weds Nov 7 

Gen 37: ⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹ Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Adding to Envy

Addressing yesterday some causes of envy it resulted over things Joseph had no control. His parents favored him over the others. He was the youngest in birth order. A lot of envy and jealousy existed even before Joseph was born and he added to their problems.

But now we see some things that Joseph did which added to the resentment his brothers held. He flaunted his gifts and differences. Perhaps it wasn’t intentional but it seems highlighting his prophetic dreams added fuel to their hostility. I know when I was angry at my older brother and wanted to get back at him I would flaunt a gift I got over his. I would brag about a party I went to and he didn’t have that privilege. I would make fun of his clothes. Why? My heart was not wise or right.

Let’s look at other things that add to the envy department and the way some people might show it off.

Possessions Another cause of envy is possessions. People who have things are envied by many who do not. One of the 10 commandments says Thou shalt not covet another’s possessions. Covetousness is the desire to have what someone else has. It is not that it would be nice, but hard feelings occur and negative feelings are built up against the other because they have something and you don’t.

I am told you don’t have to worry about crabs getting out of  pail because as soon as one gets close to getting out the others drag him back in. If they can’t get free, no one can get free.

            Joseph had a coat of many colors. It was beautiful. It was something everyone wanted, but only Joseph got. It was a gift by his father and every time the brothers saw it they were filled with envy. He wore it often. I highlighted what the brothers did not have. What is it others have that made you feel envious and bring up hurt feelings?

Giftedness is another cause of envy. When someone has a gift or an ability that is popular others can be resentful of them. If someone sings well, or has athletic prowess, or someone has intellectual ability, or dramatic gifts or artist talents others can be envious of him or her. If someone gets promoted because of sales ability it can be hard on the emotions when everything goes easy for some and so hard for others. It doesn’t seem fair.

We see criminal results of envy when in cheerleading competition in Texas one’s mother saw to it another girl killed so her daughter would win. Remember also when Tanya Harding was in figure skating competition in the Olympics she hired a person to break the knee of the competition. You can see how envy turns murderous.

            God gave to Joseph an ability that was special in every way. He was given the gift of dreams and the interpretation of dreams that had prophetic implications. He saw things others didn’t and it had meaning. These sheaves are prophetic of the time to come when there is family in the land and the brothers had to go down to Egypt to Joseph and bow and beg for grain in order to eat. This came about just as God revealed to Joseph. Also his whole family was under his rule when he was second only to Pharoah.

            Leadership is a talent and gift as well as anything else and the brothers envied Joe because of it.

Bragging is a cause of envy. It isn’t so bad that someone has looks over which they have no control over some God given ability. It makes is horrible however if they start bragging about what they can do, or gloating over others who don’t match up. Conceit is a problem that breaks relationships and hurts feelings. It is pride that builds in the feelings of envy. I don’ think young Joseph was helping the matters of good relationship when he flaunted the facts of his being better than his brothers and some day they would all fall down and pay him honor.

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Thurs Nov 8 

Gen 37: ¹² Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, ¹³ and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.”

“Very well,” he replied.

¹⁴ So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron.

When Joseph arrived at Shechem, ¹⁵ a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶ He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?”

¹⁷ “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’”

So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. ¹⁸ But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

¹⁹ “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. ²⁰ “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”

²¹ When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. ²² “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing— ²⁴ and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵ As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

²⁶ Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷ Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed.

²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

The Consequences of Envy

            When the brothers of Joseph had enough of feeling inferior they responded as Cain, who killed his brother. Fortunately, by God’s grace a caravan of merchants came upon them and instead of killing Joseph they sold him into slavery.

Resentment is probably what happens first. The more you are confronted with the issue and the more you have to live with it the more resentment builds into hatred. But left to fester resentment can turn to bitterness and bitterness to hatred. That is how it is described of Joseph’s brothers with him. They learned to hate him because of envy. Hatred is an evil thing. It can bring up emotions that can preoccupy us. It can cause us to focus on little else than the party that we resent.

Envy can be the controlling force in our lives. It so easily leads us to sin.. It led David to steal Uriah’s wife. It led the Pharisees to reject Jesus, the Son of God.

Is there someone you hate today? Someone that hurt you, said something about you? Hatred is real between children and a husband and wife. It needs to stop today before it leads to the next steps.

They couldn’t think of a kind word to say. When we put others down and speak ill against them I wonder how often the root and source is envy.  We feel we can build ourselves up when we take another down so we don’t feel so badly about ourselves. And we might even do things to take away their reputation. So easy to say something negative about someone we envy. "Maybe he’s a good preacher but he sure does not know how to be a pastor or a shepherd."

Gossip is part of the unkindness that is done toward people we envy. We think of things that will hurt the others reputation or consider ways to talk about the other person so people we will with will agree with us or not befriend them. Isn’t it interesting there was nothing they said about him that was kind.

            Gary Collins my former psychology professor at Bethel gave a distinction between jealousy and envy. To envy is to want something, which belongs to another person. In contrast, jealousy is the fear that something that we possess will be taken away by another person. Jealousy can apply to our jobs, our possession or our reputations. We might be afraid if the affections of a loved one might be lost to a rival. We fear that our mates, or perhaps our children will be lured away by some other person who when compared to us, seems to be more attractive, capable and successful.

The brothers felt they were losing the love and respect of dad. They wanted what Joseph had and if they didn’t get it, then he wasn’t going to keep it either. We cannot bear them having something we don’t have ourselves. We want them to lose what they have. We may even wish them illness. We’re so envious or jealous that we wish they would loose their looks, health, good voice or integrity. Maybe we’re tired of hearing about how good someone is or, say, a church is. "They’ve got it all together - great music, great pastor, great facilities - everyone wants to be part of the church." And then we hear that they are having some problems. Inside of us, we may smile. We kind of feel good. Because we did not have what they did, we like to see them tarnished or to loose it.

            The brothers plotted to take him and put him into a dry cistern where water is kept. It is in the dessert. They were convinced by brother Reuben not to kill him but leave him there for now. He had intended to take him out later, but hatred and crowd and peer appeal grows.

            Then it will lead to actually wishing harm on others. You begin to hope for bad things to happen. Don’t even be surprised at this. How many times have you thought, I hope they break a leg, I hope their business fails. I know marriages where they each begin to hate each other and hope something bad happens to the other person, even that they would die in an accident.

            Dwight L Moody once told the fable of an eagle who was envious of another that could fly better than he could. One day the bird saw a sportsman with a bow and arrow and said to him. “I wish you would bring down that eagle up there.” The man said he would if he had some feathers for his arrow. So the jealous eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was short, but it didn’t quite reach the rival bird because hew as flying too high. The first eagle pulled out another feather, then another- until he had lost so many he himself couldn’t fly. The archer took advantage of the situation and turned around and killed the helpless bird.

Sooner or later when we continue is destructive behavior we are the ones affected by it and things go from bad to worse. Form envy, jealousy, hatred,  harm, murder, selling their brother into slavery, deceiving their father, facing the consequences of instead of him lavishing his love on them and attention on them he goes into deep grief and neither get what they want. The have to cover up their sin by lying and as you know the story eventually the have to face the consequence of their sin in Egypt and fall before the feet of Joseph in sorrow and repentance.

Self destruction is the consequence of envy. We are the ones who hurt ourselves the one we hate and others we love in the process. When we harbor things like that in our hearts it grows and grows until resentment turns to hatred to harm and revenge and then spills over to hurting others we love unintentionally because of our own uncontrolled emotions. They did not intend to hurt Dad except to the point that he favored Joseph.

James 3:16.” For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” Wow. I read that and realized that at the core of most of sin according to the Bible are two things: Selfish ambition, and envy-focusing on what I want and focusing on the resentments toward others. And we bear the miserable consequences.            

Pastor Dale

Sermon Nuggets Fri Nov 9 

Gen 37: ²⁹ When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. ³⁰ He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?”

³¹ Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. ³² They took the ornamented robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.”

³³ He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.”

³⁴ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵ All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “in mourning will I go down to the grave to my son.” So his father wept for him.

 The Cure for Envy

            This passage is sad in that it doesn’t illustrate all that could have been done to find peace after there was sin. Reuben know it was wrong. Went along with his brothers for a time, but his love for dad and desire to release Joseph wasn’t enough. He didn’t act fast enough. His feeling of remorse, unfortunately as still covered up by a lie that Joseph was killed by an ferocious animal.

How do we face envy and get the cure for that sin? The only result is confessing it for what it is. Call it what it is. It is sin and an offense that needs to be faced. Admit that it is wrong.

I am so grateful for 1 John 1:9 I think the Lord put that verse in the Bible just for me. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgives us of our sins and cleanses us of all unrighteousness.  Do you know that is how all of us must first come to God to begin with? That is how we even become children of God by confessing our sins and trusting in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross to save us and believe in him and accept Him as our savior and Lord. Maybe some today need to come to that place in their live and get right with God by trusting in Christ. Maybe you are a Christian and need to come to ask God’s forgiveness.

Contentment is realizing there is something else that has the focus of my attention. It isn’t whether someone is a better singer, or as more money, or has more privileges or less problems in their lives. Contentment is something within that is a gift form God when our focus is on things above and not on things below. Some of the most contented people are people who have very little, but are satisfied. The richest of men who is not satisfied with what they have are not contented.

            We become content when we stop comparing and contrasting yourselves with others and are grateful to God for what he has done and is doing in your life.  Contentment is being thankful for who we are and what we have. We should strive for holiness and to develop and use gifts and talents God has given us, but if we are content we do not envy  1 Tim 6:6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

            Heb 13:5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

            Phil 4:11-12 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

             Pray for those whom you envy. Pray that God will use them for His glory. We are told to pray for those who persecute us. That includes those who bother us (make us feel persecuted). As we pray for them, our envy will disappear and we will rejoice in their strengths and gifts rather than resent them.

           

Some of you know of the great preachers of London, F.B. Meyer, Haddon Spurgeon, G. Campbell Morgan. Spurgeon and Morgan’s churches were flourishing and growing by the 1,000s Meyers was not. He was filled with envy. Then he decided to pray for his brothers in the Lord. “The only way I can conquer my feelings was to pray for them” he writes. “as I pray for Mr. Spurgeon on the right hand side of my church God bless him or for my other brother, Campbell Morgan the other side of my church God bless him: I am sure to get the blessing from the overflow of their cups fills my little bucket.”

            If you want to win over envy, pray for that person. If they are a braggart you can probably be right to assume there is something lacking in their own soul that only God can fill and they are happy they way they are.

             Phil 2 reminds us to have this same mind which is in Jesus Christ. Be like him in every way. Now he did not get his reputation by what he owned on earth even though he owned it all. It didn’t make difference what people thought of him only his father who was in heaven. He realized death was only something passing he would get up again and tells us for all who believed in him and received him as their savior and Lord they will get up again also. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives we are changed people and God is good in relating to others regardless of their status or abilities or acquisitions. Don’t let others be your model, but Jesus. The humble person is not an envious person. A loving person is not a spiteful person. A servant isn’t one who is downgrading of another.

           

There is only one way to allow the Christ likeness to be more evident and that is in being filled with the Spirit, in our growing relationship with God by prayer and reading of the word. We do acts of good service toward others and let God be the focus of our praise. For if you come right down to it. Envy only happens when others get in the way of our focus from Jesus. When we are filled with Him we forget about the others and become a blessing to ourselves and others. That is a cure for envy.

Pastor Dale