Open your Bibles this evening to Genesis 39. As you turn there, I know in the outline that was given out for this conference or retreat, it said that this was preaching tonight. So that means I was not assigned a topic. I also found out that I was the second rate choice after Jamie Tucker because he couldn't be here. And after hearing all the reports of the meeting, I understand why I'm second rate, but Saying all that to say, I'm going to look at notes and do what may be considered more of a presentation and preaching. So if I have to look over at notes and fumble around, we're going to just take our time and look at scripture on the subject tonight, which I'm going to cover strategies for fighting temptation. Strategies for fighting temptation. And I'll begin in verse seven of Genesis 39. And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and she said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, my master wanted not what is with me in the house, and he had committed all that he had to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither has he kept back anything from me, but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. Strategies for fighting temptation. I'm sure you know the story of Joseph, how at 17 years of age he was sold into slavery by the brothers who hated him. They envied him. And he ended up in Potiphar's house by Providence. And as he worked there and as Potiphar promoted him because God was with him and all that he did prospered because God was with him. Then Potiphar began, Potiphar's wife began to entice Joseph as we see There are some strategies in these verses to help us today in fighting some of the things we've heard about today, strategies for fighting temptation. Now, the first thing about Joseph is that he was prepared for the battle before it ever took place. You can see this in Genesis 37. His preparation was that Joseph was obedient prior to the time of ever being sold into slavery. It wasn't that he just came into the temptation and he was ready to battle it at that time. He had a disposition, a willingness of obedience that prepared him for the bigger task, the bigger challenges that he would be confronted with while he was in slavery and then while in prison. You see this in verse 12 of 37, when his father sent him to go check on his brethren who were feeding the flock in Shechem. Verse 13, Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come and I will send me unto them. And he said unto him, Here am I. His willingness to do such a simple task and to go such a great distance because the valley of Hebron was some 60 miles approximately from Shechem, traveling north three days journey. But he's willing to do what his father says. And then furthermore, it's a very simple task. There was no complexity to what he was going to do. His father didn't say, get a group of 30 men and I want you to be the leader and I want you to carry swords and I want you to come with a strategy of doing something great. He simply said, go to Shechem, see how they're doing, come back and tell me. Now, how many of you young people might have said, well, can you get Junior to do that or little brother to do that? I mean, that's such a waste of time to travel all the way north 60 miles just to see how they're doing and come back and tell you, Dad, I've got bigger things to do. But you see, he that is faithful in that which is little will be faithful in that which is much. Simplistic acts of obedience, just simply doing what his dad said, stuff like taking out the garbage, Cutting along, making your bed. Doing simple tasks around the house will prepare you for maybe some of the greater challenges God has in store for you, because when you have a disposition to obey God, which is ultimately who Joseph is looking to, then you'll have a disposition to stick with the task. and honor God when it gets really, really difficult. But even notice in chapter 37, the endurance of his obedience. Because when he got to Shechem, he was wandering around in the field, and there was a certain man there that saw him wandering, a man that's never mentioned in the Bible by name, a man that will never be brought up again in the history of the Bible, but a man that was there providentially to tell Joseph that your brothers aren't here. Perhaps he overheard them talking. I heard them say they're going to Dothan to feed the flock, which is another 15 miles north of Shechem. Now, what was the instruction of his father? He didn't say go to Shechem. He said, go see how your brothers are doing. They're in Shechem. Had Joseph turned around and gone back, he would have been disobedient to his father's command because he didn't say go to Shechem. He said, go see how they're doing. That requires Joseph to travel 50 more miles to Dothan. And what proves to be a defining moment in his life, had he not gone, Had he not met that man, had this apparent happenstance from the human standpoint not occurred, he would have never been where he is in Chapter 39, a slave and ultimately a prisoner. But he carried out obedience and he endured in the task and did exactly what his father told him. Now he's ready to endure. The struggles of intimidation. He's prepared for the battle because he's lived a life, not a sinless life, because Joseph is a human being, although he's often presented, as we see, as a type of Christ throughout the story of Joseph. Yet he's prepared to take the task of obedience to its fullest, even when it means prison, even when it means slavery, even when it means you're misunderstood, you're hated and people are envious of you. Even when it means he is in his circumstances because he obeyed. Now, that's a myth we need to explode, isn't it? Sometimes we get this idea that the blessing of obedience means I do what God says and somehow he gives me more of what this earth has for us. Some of the good things that even God provides. But Joseph does exactly what his father says as a young man. And the blessing of obedience is slavery in prison. Is that a blessing? No, the blessing is the fellowship with God, the father, that was the very power and the motive for being obedient to his earthly father. So he's prepared for the test. Are you preparing yourself? For some of the challenges that God's providence may present to you, challenges you don't even know about yet, challenges that you could not foretell or. See ahead of time, but yet challenges that when you are faithful, just in the little tasks of the churches that you go to. And the homes that you live in. And the families that you're part of, God may be preparing you for something more challenging. where you can give him honor and glory by fighting against the worldly mindset and some of the temptations that surely the Bible says we are confronted with daily. And then secondly, in our text, a strategy is just simply recognizing you're at war. That's part of the battle, isn't it? You can tell what Joseph is saying here. He's prepared. He's ready. And he's not scratching his head as to what he's supposed to do, even what he's saying. You can tell he's had prior reflection of what comes out of his mouth in his meditation and his fellowship with God, the father, even how he's interpreting the events of his life. He's not coming out with resentment, bitterness and saying, well, I may just live life to the fullest. And get what I can out of it, because here I am in this predicament. No, he is recognizing that he is in a battle. He's at war. I mean, if you recognize that you're at war, what you need to understand is the warfare is at the level of the soul. Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 12. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war in your soul." The battle is a battle and a warfare against the soul. And to understand that is to understand we're fighting against something at the level of our own desires. When the Bible says lust, It can mean desires that are unlawful or even desires that are OK when those desires are placed above the supremacy of God in Christ. Even a good desire, the Bible will call sin when it is something that is an idol that we must have even above God. So, young people, the war that you're fighting is not against flesh and blood, Paul says. You're not fighting against terrorists. Although there is a fight like that, you're not even fighting against the president, even though there are a lot of people engaged in that fight. You're fighting against the desires that are at war against you, competing desires that are taking place in your soul. Now, to understand this is to be prepared for the battle. Even Paul would say, When he tells us to put on the whole armor of God, Ephesians six, where he talks about the arm and Romans 13 or first Thessalonians, chapter five, he will say, put on the breastplate of faith and hope and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. Now, the breastplate is covering what the heart and the helmet is covering what? The mind. But it's amazing sometimes how we can be more concerned about weapons may be aimed at people. Rather than spiritual weapons aimed at the soul, for example, if I had a gun here tonight. This is my gun and I came over here. If I put my gun on his head, I said freeze. Your first thought would be, if there's anything I can do to apprehend this person and keep him from taking this man's life, you would do it. But let me ask you something. Do you know that the devil has his weapons aimed at your mind and your heart? And you look down his double-barreled shotgun and every day you're taking things on television and through media It's ironic, isn't it, that the tragedy we just heard about in Colorado, in a theater, where a man came in with weapons and he destroyed young people's lives. And we should be indignant in a way that honors God. And we should preserve life because it's created in the image of God. And we should do all that we can to preserve life in a way that honors God. But isn't it ironic that in that theater where the weapons were fired, literally that there was a weapon on the screen that the people were willingly taking into their souls, where the devil is destroying the souls of men through media. Now, I'm not trying to take away your liberty. I don't even know what the movie Batman is about, except, well, I do know what it's about, but I don't know the content is to say bad, good or indifferent. But I'm saying Hollywood is Satan's weapon. to destroy your soul. So we should be concerned about what we're seeing, what we're hearing, what we're watching and how that affects the warfare at the level of what we like, what we love, what we enjoy. And Joseph was ready for such a war. We can tell by the things that he said. Now, the first simplistic thing Or the third, rather, strategy is very simplistic that we see Joseph doing is first he refused. He simply refused it, and that's the first thing he says in verse eight, but he refused and said he refused the offer. Now, if you can't think of anything else, if you can't even come up with a Bible verse to combat temptation, the first thing simply to do is to refuse it and to say no to it. At one time, I used to think that that whole campaign just say no is a little bit trifling. But then I started to think about it. So if that's all we can do, that's the first thing to do. If you have to say it audibly, say no to the devil. If you have to say it aloud, if you have to say it to your friends or whoever it may be, refuse the evil and don't give it a second thought. We see Moses did this in Hebrews chapter 11. When Moses came to years, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Now, that's a that's a major thing. It's like saying I refuse to be the son of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. You know those names, right? I'm just I'm kind of old and I may get illustrations that don't hit, but those are rich people, wealthy people, you know, Apple computers and Microsoft. I refuse to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. I refuse to keep my wealth. I refuse the riches of Egypt. He was choosing rather, I get this, to suffer the affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for just a season. Did you know that the world is enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season? About a season of what, 75, 80 years? And that vapor is over forever. Don't allow the devil to deceive you with the pleasures of sin for a season, and don't be mistaken. God says there are pleasures in sin, but they're short compared to eternity. And so refusing short term pitiful pleasures compared to what Moses chose. And it wasn't just the people of God. I mean, I know you think, what a transaction. He leaves Egypt to go be with Israelites, slaves, you know, not a very skilled people. No, he was esteeming the reproach of Christ, greater riches than all the treasures and wealth. of Egypt. So there is a basis and a foundation for refusing, but the first thing to do is just refuse. Often we can break the pattern of sin in our life, even if sometimes faults start to enter into our minds. We need to break that pattern and refuse sin. Now, listen to James 1, 12 and 13 or 13 and 14. about the pattern of sin, how it works. James says, Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempted any man with evil. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts. How does temptation work? There's something in you that is enticed and it's called desire. Again, it may be desire for something good that the devil could use to make an idol. You, some of you young people getting close to married age, you could be wanting to marry someone so badly that that person becomes an idol. The devil could use a person to entice you to do all kinds of crazy things that would dishonor God because of a desire that God says is good, a desire to be married. But that can become an idol. So the way temptation works is you're drawn away of something inside you, a desire. Now, the reason that God cannot be tempted with evil is the same reason that you can be. God cannot be tempted with evil because there's nothing in God that can be allured with a desire outside of God that would please God. Now, that may not have made much sense, but let me try it again. We are tempted because something is offered to us that is pleasing to us. God can't be tempted because you can't offer anything that God created. That would please God more than what he already has, which is an infinitely. Happy relationship with three persons in Trinity, you simply can't tempt God with evil. Because there's nothing else God needs, desires or is pleased with outside of his own son, Jesus Christ. But we, on the other hand, can be tempted. And so to break the pattern of sin, we have to battle it to the point where we don't let sin entice us. Then leads to conception Then ultimately it leads to sin and then death. You see the pattern there. Sometimes we need to battle sin at the point and level of thoughts and break that pattern before the thoughts ever work themselves out in conception and deed. And Joseph is battling it just at that level. He is refusing something before the thoughts, before anything could arise up in his soul. That would lure him away from his God. He is ready to fight the battle by refusing. Something that was offered to him turned a second Samuel Chapter 12. I want to show you this mistake in David and show you the root of David's sin as it relates to James 1 13. And I hope you see a thread running through at least two or three of these, and I want you to try to identify yourself. I want you to see a thread in a few of these strategies, I don't think it'll be in all of them, but I'm purposely trying to run the thread through two or three of these so you can see the root of sin and how we need to refuse it at that level. So when Nathan confronts David with the parable, He speaks these words in 2 Samuel 12, verse nine. Wherefore, hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now, therefore, the sword shall not depart from thine house because thou hast despised me. Now, first, Nathan says you despise the commandment. And now God says you despised him because really these are one in the same. But how? How is that we know the story of David, he should have been fighting as a king when the battle should be a king, but he's idle and he sees a person, a woman, and he decides, I'm going to make her my wife. The problem is she already has a husband. So he takes her to wife. He has her husband killed very deceptively. And now Nathan, after some period of time, confronts David and said, you despise the commandment of the Lord. You despise God himself. Now, let me ask you, what was the commandment of the 10 he despised? Thou shalt not commit adultery and murder. Thank you. Two of them. Nathan said, you've taken his wife to be your wife and you killed two commands. But the command to commit adultery is what I want to focus on. If a man takes another man's wife to be his wife and kills Uriah like David did, what he's saying is, I'm dissatisfied with God's arrangement. I am dissatisfied with my spouse. I'm in need of something else. So when you think about it that way, how is it that David is despising God? He's dissatisfied with God. So what does God say to him? In verse seven, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed the king over Israel, I delivered the out of the hand of Saul, I gave thee thy master's house, thy master's wives and thy bosom, I gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have moreover given unto thee such and such things. David is dissatisfied with God himself, and the expression of that is he takes another man's wife. He didn't refuse. The sin, when it started with his eyes and his heart. And God interprets sin at its very root level is a discontentment with God himself, a discontentment with fellowship with God, Joseph, on the other hand, By his words and by the fact that God was with him, as it says in this chapter, tells us that Joseph has fellowship with God. He's ready to battle sin. And so the first thing he does is refuses. Refuses the offer, but then notice in our text. He turns his mind to God. Verse eight, he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, thy master wanteth not. He doesn't know what is with me in the house. And he had committed all that he had to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither have he kept back anything from me, but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He turns his mind toward God, so it's not enough just to refuse. The next strategy is we've got to think in terms of God. I think as Brother Isaac said, his dad illustrated, one man looked left, he looked right. Then he needed to look up toward God. We need to turn our mind, our thoughts toward God and his word. What's interesting to me is that Potiphar turned her mind toward Joseph. Joseph turned her mind toward God. What does Potiphar's wife, rather, I think I said Potiphar, what does Potiphar's wife and Joseph really have in common? They both find themselves in need of something. Potiphar's wife is in need of companionship. Well, how do you know that? Isn't she married? Yes, she is, but she doesn't have a very good relationship with her husband. You can see it in her words of accusation. Whenever Potiphar comes home in verse 17, she spake unto him, according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant which you brought into this house. Listen to the accusation. Now, Potiphar in his position, he's a traveling man. He apparently was gone for some period of time. Potiphar's wife accuses her husband. She's probably accustomed to doing that. Whatever the problem is in their marriage, Potiphar's wife sees Joseph, a goodly young man, a handsome man, a man that's industrious, a man that's around, a man that's here as a man that can fulfill her needs. Joseph is a man that has needs, too. He needs a family. He needs a wife. As a Hebrew, it would be right to get married. He needs companionship. He needs friendship. He has needs. And Potiphar's wife also has needs. They both need someone to care for them. But the difference is, Joseph is turning his mind toward the God that's always cared for him. The power of Joseph in this strategy to turn his mind toward God so that he can fight resentment and bitterness You know, sometimes young people, when things aren't going well in their life, they can get resentful. They can blame God. They don't recognize God's providence in their life. They're not turning their attention mentally and spiritually to God. And so when they see things going on in their life, perhaps they're like Joseph. They tried to be obedient. They tried to confess sin. They've been broken over sin, but it seems that nothing really ever works out in terms of what we may perceive as a good life or a life of comfort, a life we're accustomed to in our culture. Perhaps this was the mentality behind the young man who did what he did in Colorado, a medical student. Port was things weren't going well. Perhaps he was blaming God. Perhaps he was blaming society. Perhaps he became so bitter and so resentful that his thoughts drove him to the place that maybe he was acting very normally as a sinner. And he did what he did. We don't know yet, but we do know that Joseph was casting his mind toward God while Potiphar's wife was casting her eyes toward him. The Bible has a lot to say about what we do with our minds with regard to a strategy for fighting sin. Turn to 1 Thessalonians Chapter four, and I want you to see how Paul is going to connect the mind and what it means to know God. With holiness as it relates to fighting temptation. Chapter four, verse three. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. Now, there's that big word that Brother Isaac talked about this morning, sanctification, the pursuit of purity, the pursuit of God, the pursuit of holy living. This is the will of God, your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication. Now, that's what Joseph does in our text. He adheres to the will of God, verse four, that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the lust of concupiscence. Now, there are a couple of different ways of interpreting verse four. Some say the vessel there is one's own body. You know how to control your own body and sanctification and honor toward God. Others say, as Peter used the word vessel as a wife. You should know how to obtain possess means obtain a wife and sanctification and honor. I'm not saying both are right, but I'm saying whichever one it is, this still fits. So let's say it's about the wife. About obtaining a spouse. God's will that you abstain from certain activities prior to marriage. that you would know how to control your body and pursue a spouse in a way that honors God, not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles, which know not God. What that means is Gentiles here just means unsaved people. Unsafe people, first of all, can't do the will of God. They're not in pursuit of sanctification and they cannot abstain from the right for the right reason. Why can't they? They don't have a mind and a heart that knows God. Now, you could know something in a couple of different ways, right? I'm pretty impressed with Jets, Army jets, F-14s, F-16s, Hornets and jets that I can't even name. There's a brother in our church who's a test pilot for the Army and he flies helicopters and planes and all kinds of things. Fascinated to talk to him. Now, you could know. About a jet in one of two ways, you could study a jet, you could study an aircraft and study it and study it, and you could take a test and make 100. On a jet, just say one of those F-14s. Hope I got the right letters and numbers here. You can make a hundred or you could take a ride in a jet. Now, if you made a hundred on being tested about a jet, you could say, brother, Mike, I know jets. I can tell you anything you want to know. But if you've never flown in one and I have, I could say, brother, you don't know jets like I do. You can know God. And you can know God. Now, the devil knows God, but the devil doesn't know God, the Gentiles know God, but the Gentiles don't know God, the power of the strategy. Of turning the mind toward God is the power of knowing God so supremely. That the way we fight the pleasures of sin for a season is something that's far better than just a short lived pleasure. It's something that Jesus came to die to give you, which Psalm 16 says, joy at the right hand of God and pleasures at his right hand forever. God is infinitely greater than anything he's created. Now, as Brother Lewis pointed out, the Holy Spirit is necessary, but as you go to God's word, it's the word the Holy Spirit has given you to fight in this strategy of sin by turning your mind to God. Now, if this is the pursuit of holiness, we should see the word, and certainly we do in verse seven, for God had not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. Holiness is not how you dress. It is, but it's not. It's not just what you do with your hands. It is. But it's not. Holiness. Comes from the inside out by knowing God, turning your mind to God, turning your heart to God, knowing God from scripture, taking in the word of God so that by that knowledge. And that fellowship in the mind, a sanctified mind, a mind that is being sanctified, a mind, as Isaac said, that's being renewed or renovated, then the power of holiness is the power of knowing God. Now, I just want to give you one more to to show it even more emphatically. First, Peter one. First, 14. Peter says, as obedient children. I'm talking some children like. Peter's talking about a spiritually obedient child. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in your ignorance. But. As he which is called you as holy, be holy, what is holding us now? Well, in your former ignorance, when you didn't know God, what shaped you, what formed you, if you're a believer, is lust, passion, like the Gentiles. Whatever you desired, that's what you went after. Whatever you thought on, that's what you loved. Whatever arises in your soul, that's what you wanted. And it wasn't God. Now, if that's your former way of being shaped and molded like a piece of clay, Peter says holiness now is to be shaped by the opposite. You're no longer ignorant of something. If you know Christ Jesus, the Lord, so now be shaped by new delight and desire with a mind that knows and loves God, that is holiness. Then how it works itself out on the outside, the clothes start to get right. The hands start to get right. The body starts to do the right thing because the inside is knowing God with the mind. And that honors God, doesn't it? Joseph is going to now use his mind, a mind that's in love with God, a mind that's not bitter at God, a mind that's not shaking his fist at God. Why have you let this happen to me? A mind that is in love with God, even when God in his providence has brought about circumstances that are painful and difficult, yet he continues to obey and he fights against temptation. The next thing I want you to see is his humility. Of course, these are overlapping. You must have humility to fight against temptation. And it's humility is seen in the fact that he just calls it sin. He says it is wickedness and it is sin. Now, a lot of people would say, It's just not appropriate. I've heard people say that. I know it wasn't appropriate. I said, wait a minute. You're going to circumvent the whole repentance process. I know it's not proper. I said, whoa, hold on. If you don't call it what God calls it, you're going to rationalize sin. Now, if Joseph starts saying, well, it's just not appropriate, it's just not a good thing, he's going to start losing the battle. Beloved, there are people in our society, the devil in it, wants you to call it anything but sin. And if you don't call it sin, you don't have a remedy for sin, which is the savior of sinners. If it's not sin, if it's a disorder, if it's a disease, then you either live with it or you go to some doctor somewhere, some psychologist or some thinker of the world and you get counseling that is not God centered. But if you call it sin, even if you have sinned, The remedy is repentance and turning to God in Christ. And the solution is restored fellowship in Jesus Christ. And so we must humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and call sin, sin. I appreciate what Brother Lewis was saying about accountability and being open and saying things that may shock your wife. Now, Brother Lewis, I haven't gotten there yet with my wife. I just, you know. But I appreciate your candidness and your boldness. And I think he's right. We have to be able to say this is sin. I need help with this, because we don't, the devil will eventually cause us to rationalize sin, you see. And if we don't call it sin, all that will happen is it will shift our wrong desires from one thing to another. For example, there was a well-known athlete some time ago. that was discovered having a deep addiction. He was enslaved to it. A wealthy athlete, very well known athlete. I like to get people to try to figure out who it is. I'm sure you will. His picture was everywhere. He's on Weed-Easy, Nike and all the great companies that sell equipment, sporting equipment, his sport. And so After destroyed his marriage, he checked himself into a clinic in Mississippi in this state down around Hattiesburg. And this clinic was going to give him counseling to help him with his addiction. Right now, let me ask you, if they're not going to call his addiction sin. How are they going to help him? Let me tell you how they're going to say, Mr. Blank. You're better than this. You've destroyed your family. True. You've hurt companies. True. You've hurt your children. Right. What are they using him? What are they using to get him to change? They're shifting his pleasure from one addiction to a pleasure towards something else. And it's not God. He's moving from one sin to another sin, and it's no good to God. Why? Because they just won't say, Mr. Blank, you have committed wickedness and sin in the sight of God. Now, he may have scoffed at it, but that's still the thing to tell. And that's the most loving thing you could ever tell that man. You you sinned against heaven and against God and his sight. Now, a lot of people don't like to hear that word. But that's the way we approach human medical doctors, isn't it? Now, you children may have not been in this case before, but I know some of us adults Sometimes we like a second and a third opinion. Now, sometimes that's good, but sometimes what we're doing is we've got our prescription made out and we're just trying to find the doctor that will rubber stamp what I think the problem is. Give me the medicine. Here's my problem. If you don't tell me what my problem is, like I think it is, I'll go to somebody else. You see, if Joseph had not said what it was, he would have lost his defenses because anybody can rationalize what is not appropriate. or what is not proper, but when it comes to sin against God and you love God, that breaks the heart. When we see Christ and what he purchased, we see him hanging on the cross again and again. We see that by calling it what it is, then we're humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, because humility happens when? In the sight of God, James 4. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. That was always odd to me. He said, Paul says rejoice. And now James says, no, don't rejoice. Let your laughter be turned to sorrow and your joy to heaviness. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, ye double minded. Humble yourself where? In the sight of the Lord and he'll lift you up. What do they need to stop laughing about? What do they need to start having joy in? James 4 context, the friendship of the world is enmity against God. You're in love with the world and you need to be sorrowful about it. How is that humility going to take place? Only in the sight of God, and when you see God. Isn't that what a pure heart does? Purify your hearts. The pure in heart shall see God. And we talked about the Grand Canyon today, and I appreciate the one brother's candidness when he said it was nice. That's OK about the Grand Canyon, but it's not OK about God. You see, that's our problem. We sin against God. We basically say nice. We don't say, wow, the Grand Canyon. But you see, if you've If you defamed God, if you've belittled his name and his glory to see him again on the cross is to be broken over what you've loved. Not just what your hands have done, I have loved the world over Christ and I'm sick about it. So when we humble ourselves, we've got to humble ourselves in the sight of God and Joseph's humility that helps him fight against sin is that he's in the sight of God. It is sin. Well, how do you know? God said it is. And so he's humble. Young man and young lady, you're humble when you call sin exactly what it is. So you need this strategy in fighting against sin. And the next and I'll run through these briefly, he avoided. The temptation, it came to pass in verse 10. She spake to Joseph day by day. Now, this is not a case where Joseph would say, look, I'm just running away from the slavery stuff. This woman won't leave me alone. I mean, he really can't go anywhere. But look what he does. He hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. He would not be with her. I take that to mean whenever he could, he would escape out of her presence. He wouldn't be with her. He knows in this strategy, if he listens to it and he stays there, that the devil can start planting seeds in his mind and weaken his defenses. But rather, he avoids in every way he can that which he knows he might be vulnerable to. Do you avoid things that you know could be a temptation? Now, again, somebody this afternoon was very candid about the Internet. Something that can be very useful, something to be very helpful. But if you're ever on the Internet and you know, at certain times, a pop up screen may come up and maybe there's nothing really there, but you know it could take you somewhere. It's not so good. Some of you maybe have gone there, maybe you've been tempted and you've clicked on a certain area on the Internet. You see, if you know you're vulnerable, you've got to avoid it altogether. Avoid it. I've had to tell somebody sometime, look, I want the I want the cord to your computer. I'm going to take it so that you can't get on. We want to take drastic measures to avoid. So wait a minute. I need a computer. Oh, really? What? You need a computer. Do you really? But if you work and they require you to have a computer, then the message was accountability. This is what accountability is for. There are certain things in our lives that could be good, but could turn to evil if we don't avoid it, if we don't know there's a temptation here, there's a risk. Maybe I'll say, look, I've been having to struggle. I'm going to get on the Internet. Would you just kind of be with me and help me through this? I just want to be accountable. That's the kind of accountability that we heard about this afternoon. Sin is just that serious. And Satan desires to have you that he may sift you like wheat. He really wants to take you down and he's playing for keeps. Now, I'm thankful Christ prays for us, but the means of Christ's effectiveness in prayer, meaning the accomplishment of it, is our conversion and our repentance and our diligence. They just go together. So we must avoid. Temptation, put you on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Provision means foresight, pro vision. Don't make provision, give it thought. And I says, well, every time I I. Go into the mall and pass by this store. I just find myself wandering in there. I know I shouldn't. Don't go to the mall. Don't go to the mall. Right. If your eye offends you, pluck it out and cast it far from you. We should be that serious about sin. We live in a culture that does not help us in the fight against sin. In fact, they try to weaken our defenses every day. Young people, prepare yourself now. You will look strange if you say, listen, I know we're going to rent a video tonight, but I can't go in there. The images on the video. It does something to me every time I just go in there and get the video. If that person's having problems, we don't do a video. Now, there's a store that we go into a case that I like because all the videos are stacked this way and just the edge is showing and you can't see any of the images. Now you say, Brother Stewart, you know, you're getting kind of radical here and we're talking about sin against Jesus Christ, right? Talking about God. So he avoids he doesn't make provident care or supply for something that Joseph knows is a potential. And that's what the word provision means in Romans 13. And then notice he flees when he has to. Verse 12, she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out, got him out. He fled. Paul says to Timothy, flee youthful lusts, flee them. The word is refugee. A refugee is running for his life, he's trying to seek safety, sanctuary, flee youthful lusts by fleeing to Calvary, fleeing to Christ. where you find sanctuary and help in your battle against temptation. Sometimes young men and women, it appears, don't see the potential of temptation. They put themselves in situations. They almost make it impossible to flee. It's as if they're walking like the Proverbs 7 young man who's being allured by the flattery of a young lady's eyes. And Solomon says he's like a dumb ox. Beast there, that's translated dumb ox. Like a dumb ox, it's like you're saying, whoa, don't go there, slit the neck. But he just walks on like he doesn't know because he's being compelled by emotion rather than his mind. He not using the strategies the Bible give us, gives us so that we can flee youthful lust. What if you can't flee like? Joseph at times, then reprove the unfruitful works of darkness, but have no fellowship with them, Paul says, you don't like reprove things. Now, how can you reprove darkness when all that you do is watch darkness at the theater all the time? How can you as light reprove darkness if you take in darkness on the Internet? It's kind of hypocritical, isn't it? So light reproves darkness. So if you're in a situation, you get older and it's impossible to flee, then reprove it, expose it, and they'll flee from you. As the Bible says, the devil shall flee from you. And then lastly, the last strategy. Is he takes action now all throughout Joseph's life that we see in his obedience before prison or slavery, in his slavery, in his imprisonment, he is active, he's not idle. In slavery, rather than getting all self-pity, he works and he's promoted to the place of leadership. In prison, rather than getting down and in the dumps, he is promoted. He's given charge over all the prison. And of course, when he becomes governor over the land of Egypt, he is working, he is active. And the seven years of famine and the seven years of plenty, he's active, he's working. He's a man that's not idle. Now, you've heard the cliche. An idle heart is the devil's playground or something similar to that. Idleness. Is. The place. Where thoughts can start to control us, emotions start to control us, you know, the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah or Sodom, rather, Ezekiel 16. Didn't start with the sin you may be thinking about. What was the sin of Sodom, my sister?" Ezekiel poses. Pride, fullness of bread, idleness that led to other things. What is our culture like? Proud and full of bread. That's a statement of prosperity. Sodom was full of bread and they turned their attention from hardworking young people, industrious, to an entitlementality that led to a fullness of bread that led them to coming out of the closet in all kinds of perverted sins. Idleness. If you want to shine as a light in this culture, be industrious as a young person, work hard, whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, Solomon in Ecclesiastes says. And don't be idle like David, because idleness was the first problem David encountered with the sin of Bathsheba. So let's review. Number one, he was prepared for the battle. He was obedient long before he was challenged with temptation. Second, he refused, as Moses did. Faith refuses the offer. Third, he turned his mind Godward to know God, to know his will, to study God. is to help you in your fellowship with God in fighting against sin and pursuing holiness. He humbled himself by calling sin, sin. He didn't use a fancy name, didn't use a disorder. He didn't blame it on his parents who were dysfunctional. He said, it's sin. I refuse to do it. Then he avoided sin. He avoided the temptation. He would not be with her when he could avoid her. And then he fled from the temptation. She grabs his jacket. He left it and fled from a presence. And then finally, we see Joseph taking action throughout his experience in God's providence.