Rise Above! When Tempted (Chantilly)

1 Corinthians 10:13 CSB – No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity.

1 Corinthians 10:12 CSB – So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.

Galatians 6:7-8 CSB – Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, ⁸ because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 CSB – Flee sexual immorality! Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the person who is sexually immoral sins against his own body. ¹⁹ Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, ²⁰ for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body

Joseph’s Severe Temptation

Proverbs 6:27-29 CSB – 

Can a man embrace fire
and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Can a man walk on burning coals
without scorching his feet?
²⁹ So it is with the one who sleeps with
another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.

Genesis 39:2 CSB – The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

Genesis 39:3-4 CSB – When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful,⁴ Joseph found favor with his master and became his personal attendant. Potiphar also put him in charge of his household and placed all that he owned under his authority.

Genesis 39:6b-7 CSB – Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. ⁷ After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph

Genesis 39:7 CSB – After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

Genesis 39:8 CSB – But he refused.

Genesis 39:8-9 CSB – “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has put all that he owns under my authority. ⁹ No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife.

Genesis 39:9 CSB – …how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?”

Genesis 39:10 CSB – Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her

Genesis 39:11 CSB – Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. ¹² She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!”

Job 31:1 NLT – “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust at a young woman.

Matthew 5:11 CSB – “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.

Genesis 39:13-15 CSB – When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, ¹⁴ she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “my husband brought a Hebrew man to make fools of us. He came to me so he could sleep with me, and I screamed as loud as I could.

¹⁵ When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”

Genesis 39:16-18 CSB – She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home.¹⁷ Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, ¹⁸ but when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.”

Genesis 39:19-20 CSB – When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious ²⁰ and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

Genesis 39:21-23 CSB – But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. ²² The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there. ²³ The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.

Joseph’s Example for Overcoming Temptation

• Temptation Clouds the Mind. Refocus

Genesis 39:8,9 CSB – …with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge…

There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?”

Hebrews 3:13 CSB – “the deceitfulness of sin.”

Genesis 3:1 CSB – “Did God really say, ‘You can’t eat from any tree in the garden’?”

v.4, “No! You will certainly not die,” ….⁵ “In fact, God knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Psalm 92:1-2 CSB – 

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
² to declare your faithful love in the morning
and your faithfulness at night,

Temptations Attacks Everyone—Anticipate It!

1 Corinthians 10:13 CSB – No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity.

• You Can Overcome Temptation– If You Don’t Toy

1 Corinthians 6:18 CSB – Flee sexual immorality

2 Timothy 2:22 CSB – Flee from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Proverbs 6:27 CSB – Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

• Focus on Eternal Rewards, Not Immediate Results