Recipe for Success
Genesis 39:7-10
Last week I started a two part sermon series called Recipes from The Book… the Bible
The Bible is truly God’s recipe book for happiness, success, joy, purity, eternal life, etc
Last week we looked at the Recipe for Disaster, and our example was King David
This week we will look at the Recipe for Success
Who is the example? Let’s look at The Book
Our example is Joseph. You remember Joseph don’t you? Next to the youngest son of Jacob... the one with the big dreams, the pretty coat and the special place in his father’s heart?
Remember he was hated by his brothers him and schemed to kill him but instead they sold him, as a slave, to some traveling salesmen.
Joseph was taken to Egypt and sold to a man named Potiphar.
It did not take long before Potiphar realized that Joseph was special. Whatever Joseph touched turned to gold… or at least turned a tremendous profit. So Potiphar placed this young man in charge of EVERYTHING… every nuance of his business and house… all except his wife, she was off limits.
But the scripture tells us that Potiphar’s wife did not see Joseph as off limits… in fact she wanted him… a lot!!!
Now I want to paint this picture as clearly as I can for you.
In those days, marriages were most often arranged, the girl having no choice. These marriages were usually arranged for fiscal or business reasons. Usually, the husband would be 10 or 20 years older than the girl, already successful and would arrange with the father of the girl to marry her in exchange for money, position or power. It is at least possible and very probable that Potiphar was such a man. Perhaps he had married a much younger girl, for her beauty or for sex. In such a case, this girl may be closer to Joseph’s age and resentful of her older husband. She may have cared nothing for him. He was old, she was young, and she was tempted by this younger, virile young man. Joseph was most likely a virgin. Here was a young, sexually experienced, sexually starved, young beauty with the hots for him.
She would maybe be like one of those young teachers who have sex with their students.
The students, and Joseph would be young and have raging hormones and … well, you know where this is going!!
Or perhaps Potiphar’s wife was not younger than Potiphar and was what we today call a “cougar”… an older woman on the prowl for younger men.
Either way, it would have been hard for this young man filled with raging hormones and pursued by a sexually mature woman to say, “NO.”
You know where it would go… naturally… normally.
But that is not how the story goes, Joseph does say, “NO.”
Before you ask… NO Joseph was not Gay. He later married and had two sons.
Then why did it not go the way we would expect?
That is what the Recipe for Success will teach us.
Do you remember last week’s Recipe for Disaster… I won’t ask you to tell me the points because I don’t want to be embarrassed when you can’t
The first two ingredients to the fall were …
BEING WHERE YOU DON’T BELONG
and ALONE
Joseph REFUSED TO BE WHERE HE DID NOT BELONG
Only one place he did not belong… with HER
10 She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible.
He would not be alone with her
What is the first ingredient to Success?
1. A CLEAR, NON-NEGOTIABLE DECISION
Joseph, somehow had a strong sense of what was right and what was wrong, he had given it much thought and he had decided where the line was drawn… what he would do and what he would not.
I don’t think you can credit his father… his other ten brothers certainly had not learned such things
I believe it was Joseph’s character and a sum of many decisions he had made before this time
He had planned and practiced… the line was plainly discernible and, therefore, not easily crossed.
Let me make a statement that you can take to the bank…
If you don’t know where the line is, in the light, you’ll never find it in the darkness
Here is an analogy… Imagine a blind man walking around in his house. He can negotiate the furniture and the doorways just as though he could see them.
And if you turn off the light… he still knows where they are.
But a sighted person, even though they know the house well, and can generally find their way around in the darkness, they will walk like this… hunting for the furniture, bumping into things
We need to be like the blind man… knowing exactly where the lines are and able to navigate them easily and safely.
But we are usually like the sighted person, groping along, trying to find the way
In the back seat of a car, when the heat is on… is no place to be deciding where the lines are.
Alone in an apartment or dorm room, is not the place
At a party when the drugs are being offered is not the place to grope for the lines
It is true in every area of our life
We must clearly draw the lines, practice them, reinforce them, IN THE LIGHT
Because in the dark is too late
So… the first ingredient in the Recipe for Success is…
A clear, non-negotiable decision… about where the lines are
And the second is…
2. A determination to be faithful
Joseph’s faithfulness to his own principles and to his commitments was evident at every point in his life… to his parents, to his brothers, to his friends and to his employers
David got in trouble because in temptation, he had his eyes on HIMSELF… what HE wanted, HIS pleasure
Joseph kept his eyes on other… on those to whom he was accountable… his boss, and his God
When Satan tempted Jesus he kept trying to divert Jesus’ attention, his focus, off of eternal things and onto the thing to be had
If you will worship me, I will give you the world and he took him to a high place where he could see the whole city
But Jesus, like Joseph, refused to take his focus off of his responsibility …………….us, the cross, God
“Thou shalt worship no other Gods”
Mrs. Potiphar tried to divert Joseph’s focus… and you know she knew how to divert a man’s attention
But Joseph REFUSED to be diverted… He reminded himself and her of what his responsibilities were
8 But Joseph refused. “Look,” he told her, “my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. 9 No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God.”
So, the first two ingredients in the Recipe for Success are…
1. A clear, non-negotiable decision (knowing where the line is)
2. A determination to be faithful (focus on your commitments)
And the third is…
3. Acting on Integrity
Last week we saw that King David’s third ingredient in the Recipe for Disaster was Pursuit of the Passion… going for the thing he wanted… giving in to temptation, giving up the fight.
But Joseph Acted on INTEGRITY…
The scripture tells us that, despite Joseph’s best efforts to avoid any situation where he could compromise his best intentions… one day, Mrs. Potiphar cornered him. She had him trapped, and she was determined to have her way with him.
Had he been like King David, and pursued his passion… She would have been happy.
Remember me saying that David could have turned to his wife, or to prayer or to run?
Well, Joseph did turn to run away… but she was blocking the way, and in his attempt to get away, she pulled his shirt off…and used it as evidence that he attacked her.
How did he do what was right when David did what was wrong?
Just like “being where you don’t belong” and “being alone” will naturally lead to pursuing passion…
Making clear, non-negotiable decisions about right and wrong
Clearly drawing the lines BEFOREHAND
And
A Determination to be faithful to God
Naturally lead to Acting on Integrity
Time to wrap this sermon up…
HOW? Application
How does this message apply to YOU
Maybe today you help to DRAW THE LINE
KEEP FROM CROSSING THE LINE
OR you have crossed and FORGIVENESS AND REDRAW
Maybe you need help to
BECOME FAITHFUL TO COMMITMENTS
MAINTAIN FAITHFULNESS
Or failed and FORGIVENESS AND RE-ESTABLISH
FAITHFULNESS
Whatever you need… come to the source
