The God Who is With You

Back to Joseph in Egypt

Turn to the book of Genesis. To the book of Genesis. We're continuing our series through the first book of the Bible. If you don't have a Bible, you could use the pew Bible that's in front of you. Genesis is the first book of the Bible, so it's in the very beginning. Big numbers are chapter numbers, and little numbers are the verse numbers.

If you don't own a Bible and you're here, we're so glad that you're here with us this morning. You can feel free to take that Bible that you just grabbed from the pew and just keep it; consider that a gift from us to you. We would love for you to have a copy of God's word that you can keep and read for yourself.

Again, we'll be looking at Genesis chapter 39. Two weeks ago, we saw Joseph get sold into slavery. Last week, the camera kind of cut to his brother Judah encountering some really morbid sin and being convicted of it. And now in chapter 39, we pick up where we left off in chapter 37, back to Joseph as a slave in Egypt. I'll read the whole chapter for us now. Genesis 39.

Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, 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. From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house because of Joseph. The Lord’s blessing was on all that he owned, in his house and in his fields. He left all that he owned under Joseph’s authority; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. After some time his master’s wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.” But he refused. “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. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?” Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. Now one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, “Sleep with me!” But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside. When she saw that he had left his garment with her and had run outside, 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. When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.” She put Joseph’s garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story: “The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me, but when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside.” When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. 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. 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.

— Genesis 39:1-23 (CSB)

Let's pray. Lord, we pray, even as we think about this story in light of Joseph seeking to be faithful, that you would help us to be able to trust in you and your present help in every season of life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

The God Who Is with You in Every Season

How do you feel like your life is going? Life comes with highs and lows. I wonder, depending on what your week looked like, how you think God is like. Sometimes when it seems like things are going well, it can seem like God is a really blessed, kind, loving Father. He will bless us and care for us in every season of life. And other times it can feel like God is completely absent, that life is falling apart. It seems like everything on the news is barreling towards apocalypse. Where is the Lord? When it feels like family life is falling apart, or work is not turning out the way that you hoped, where is God in the midst of suffering?

Last week, we got to see the destructive nature of sin in the life of Judah—evils perpetrated and questions that were unanswered. This week, when we cut back to Joseph, things don't look that much better. Judah may have been a mess, but Joseph is still in a mess. He's enslaved in Egypt.

And yet, Joseph is able to demonstrate great faith. Not just great faith, but great holiness in the face of great sin. In contrast to Judah and all of his failures, Joseph is able to resist sin and pursue holiness. And not because of his own strength, but because of God's presence, we see Joseph able to walk forward in faithfulness to the God that he claims to serve.

This is the main idea for us this morning: to follow the God who is with you. To follow the God who is with you. And you are to follow God, first, through blessing; number two, through temptation; and number three, through suffering. Through blessing, through temptation, through suffering. In all three circumstances in Joseph's life, you see him demonstrate faithfulness. And in all three seasons of Joseph's life, you also see a God who is able to sustain and care for him.

Faithfulness in Times of Blessing

Let's start with point number one: the God who is with you through blessing. Look at verse one again. Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt. An Egyptian named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guards, bought him from the Ishmaelites who brought him there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he did successful, 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. From the time that he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. The Lord's blessing was on all that he owned in his house and in his fields. He left all that he owned under Joseph's authority. He did not concern himself with anything except the food that he ate.

See that Joseph had been sold into slavery and now he's a servant of a man named Potiphar. But while he's enslaved, Joseph is still a very successful man. He's able to care for the property, and everything that he does appears to flourish. Potiphar, seeing that Joseph is a capable man where everything he does seems to be successful, puts two and two together and puts Joseph in charge of everything. In exchange, everything seems to grow. It seems to do well.

And it sounds like a super admirable story—a classic tale of going from the bottom to the top. He's pulling himself up by his bootstraps. He's working hard. He's making a name for himself. But the reason why Joseph's work flourished isn't primarily because of his work ethic. This isn't a story about personal discipline, resolve, or productivity. Potiphar puts Joseph in charge, and in turn, it's not that Joseph accomplishes much for Potiphar; it's that the Lord blesses Potiphar's house.

In fact, do you see in this passage that God is the primary actor? It says that the Lord blesses. The Lord makes everything he did successful because the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord is the one who is blessing this house. Does that sound familiar? Does that remind you of anything else in the book of Genesis? It should remind you of Genesis 12 when the Lord tells Abram:

I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

— Genesis 12:2-3 (CSB)

And now Joseph, in another nation's house, is ushering in the Abrahamic blessing in Potiphar's home.

Now, on one level, it's generally true that if you exemplify faithfulness to God, you will see his blessings pour out in your life, whether it's in your work or in your family. Proverbs 10:6 tells us that blessings are on the head of the righteous. That is a generally true statement that we can say exists. But as we'll see later in the same story, these blessings are not guaranteed. Joseph is faithful in every season of his life, and he begins the story second-in-command and ends the story in chains.

Because Joseph's success in the beginning of this chapter isn't so much about what you get to have if you choose to follow God, but to paint a picture of what it's like to live under God's rule. In fact, the primary cause of all Joseph's success isn't Joseph at all. It's because God is with him. The Lord was with him, and he became a successful man. Potiphar is able to see that the Lord is with him and thus puts him in charge of different work. Even with Joseph's work, the reason why he receives these blessings is because God is the primary actor.

And the result of living under God's rule, living in this realm where God is able to enact his will according to his order, is that Potiphar didn't concern himself with anything. He is a man without concerns. Imagine that—a life without worry. You remember when you were like five, you had nothing that you had to worry about? Just eat your food, go about your day, go climbing through the sewers—maybe I was the only one that did that. I'm sure there's a lot of us that wish we could go back to a world exactly like that.

I think Joseph and many others, maybe yourself now, wish that we could go even further back to the way that it used to be. You want to think about life without worry or care where God is able to enact his perfect will, you go all the way back to the garden. The garden of Eden—Adam and Eve, able to enjoy all of God's creation, a life without worry. The only concern that they had was the food that they ate: to abstain from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But instead of being able to live in that blessed creation, in Genesis 3, they give into sin and plunge the world into corruption.

And Joseph starts the story in this Edenic life. Except in Genesis 39, the fruit of sin doesn't come in the form of an apple or a pear, or whatever you think the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil was, but in the form of Potiphar's wife.

Resisting Temptation and Fleeing Sin

This brings us to point two: the God who is with you through temptation. God's with you through temptation. Look again at the end of verse six. There it says: "Now Joseph was well-built and handsome. And after some time, his master's wife looked longingly at Joseph and said, 'Sleep with me.'"

Joseph is a good-looking dude. In fact, it is objectively true; it is biblical. He is well-constructed. He is chiseled from stone, beautiful to look at. In fact, this is the same description that's given to describe his mother Rachel in Genesis 29. And if Jacob was willing to work fourteen years to marry Rachel, Joseph demonstrated that kind of beauty. Not to mention, he's surrounded by flourishing and favor.

This is a competent, good-looking guy, and he's so successful that he draws the eye of Potiphar's wife. She looks at Joseph the way that a predator looks at prey. She comes to Joseph with a bold proposal: "Sleep with me."

What would you say if you were propositioned like that? Maybe you say, "I don't know if you've seen me, John, but that doesn't happen." But seriously, this happens all the time. God warns Cain in Genesis 4 that sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Sin crouches. It prowls, and then it pounces. It doesn't matter if it's Potiphar's wife or a pop-up advertisement. Sin will invite you in, and then it will devour you.

Would you say no? Joseph does. Verse eight:

But he refused. “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. No one in this house is greater than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. So how could I do this immense evil, and how could I sin against God?”

Joseph says no. And he refuses by telling her to look—not look at him, but to look around, to look at all of the blessings that Joseph has received. His master doesn't worry, but trusts him. Everything is under his authority. His master hasn't withheld anything from him except his wife.

Do you notice the way that this woman is identified in the story? We never learn her name. She's just described as "his master's wife." "His master's wife" shows up three times, and then Joseph in his rebuttal says, "You are his wife." Now, she's identified like this, not because she's his property—that's not the primary thing that's going on here. Joseph's point is that all of the blessings that he's accumulated in his life are because of what his master has provided for him. And precisely because his master has provided so richly for him, he's not going to take from him what isn't his. He's saying, "You belong to this guy, and this guy has been nothing but good to me."

Can you see how pointed, how specific Joseph's response is? Can you imagine how different Joseph's response would have been if his perspective was just a little different? If he was fixated on all of his hardship, all of his trials and tribulations, the nightmare of slavery compared to the dreams of his youth, Joseph could have absolutely threaded together a tale of bitterness to try to justify his sin.

If you want a telltale sign of a hardened heart, listen to the way they talk about the past. They will always justify the evils that they did based on what others did to them or the experiences of their life. They will throw themselves a pity party. And you know what? Most of those details will be true. I don't deny the difficulties of life. I don't deny the trials that will come. The Lord, in his providence in all of our lives living in this sinful, broken world, will give you enough raw material for you to thread a tale of sadness and pity, or a tale of gratitude and recognizing the giver of good gifts.

Joseph doesn't thread together a tale of bitterness. Joseph resists violating his master's trust because he's able to connect the gifts that come from his master with his master. He's able to make the connection between his master and his master's gifts—that taking his master's wife is more than just seizing momentary pleasure. It's not something that he can justify based on how hard his life has been. This isn't something that he can even just say okay to because it's a moment between two consenting adults. It's him going against all of the goodness that he's received.

That's why he's able to say that it's an immense evil. Not just because adultery is bad, but because he's also turning his back on every single thing that he's received up until that point in his life. Not only that, it's a sin against God. It's a sin against God. It's not just that he would be going against his master who's provided for him a comfortable life, but that he would be going against the very God who gave him that life.

See, this is the error that Eve made in the garden of Eden when the serpent prowled in Genesis 3 and tempted her to sin. He asks her, "Did God really say that you mustn't eat from any tree in the garden?" And she responds, "No, he said that you can't eat the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can't even touch it." And in the serpent's question and Eve's response, the serpent is able to take all of the abundant blessings of the garden and reduce it down to one single rule, one restriction: "You can't eat the fruit." As Eve fixated, as she developed tunnel vision on what she couldn't have, she got tempted by what it promised, and she fell into sin.

What Eve should have said is exactly what Joseph said, what Joseph did: expand her gaze to point out all of the abundant blessings of God. "Look at what God has provided me. Look at what the Lord has given. Look at all of these fruits. Look at this life without worry. Everything has been placed under my husband's and my care. How could I go against my master and sin against him in this way?"

And the same is true for you and me. The way that you are going to be able to resist sin isn't just by saying no to what's bad, but by remembering what is good, by remembering all of the blessings that the Lord has provided for you, by remembering all the ways that God has demonstrated his abundant grace. I mean, if you really meditate on the terrors of hell and the grace that you receive in Christ, how can anyone possibly be drawn towards sin? Both God's blessings and God's laws are good because they come from the same giver.

What do you fixate on? When you're tempted, what do you think about? Do you spend all your time meditating on the stuff that you can't have? Because the only way that you can expel sin's power is if you fill your heart with something that you love more. Thomas Chalmers calls it "the expulsive power of a new affection"—that the love that you have in Jesus is so great that it expels any possibility of sin entering into your life.

And that's the good news of the gospel, isn't it? That Jesus dies for sinners like you and me. That he redeems us from the kingdom of darkness into everlasting life. That news is so good that if you meditate on it, sin begins to lose its power. Jesus says in John 10 that "a thief comes only to steal and to kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance."

If you're not a Christian, I wonder what kind of hope you have this morning. Is there something that you are able to place your hope in even when you feel like all is lost? Is there a greater good in your life that's able to make sense of the mess of this world? For Christians, we fix our eyes on the cross and what Jesus has done for us, the hope that's beyond this life, in such a way that sin begins to lose its grip. Because Christianity is not defined by what it's against. The primary word in Christianity is not "do not." It's based on what Christ has already done—what Jesus provides. It's because what he provides is so precious that to defile it is heinous.

Joseph says no to sin, and then he says no again and again and again. You see that in verse 10. Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her. Potiphar's wife doesn't let up. She keeps begging Joseph, trying to erode his will. Proverbs 7 paints a picture of an adulterous woman seeking to devour a young man, and it describes her that way. It says:

She seduces him with her persistent pleading; she lures with her flattering talk. He follows her impulsively like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding toward a trap until an arrow pierces its liver, like a bird darting into a snare— he doesn’t know it will cost him his life.

— Proverbs 7:21-23 (CSB)

You can say no to sin. It will keep coming at you, and all you have to do is say yes once before it snaps your neck.

Holiness requires more than just a resisting of sin; it requires a continual refusal. It is being able to look at sin in its face day after day and choosing to proactively say no. It is no wonder that 1 Timothy 6 tells us to fight the good fight of faith, because it is a daily battle for you to say no to sin.

And when you begin to fight back against sin, it's no surprise that sin would retaliate. That's exactly what Potiphar's wife does in verse 11. Now, one day he went into the house to do his work, and none of the household servants were there. She grabbed him by his garment and said, "Sleep with me." But leaving his garment in her hand, he escaped and ran outside.

Potiphar's wife waits until they're all alone, and she grabs him, insists on sleeping with Joseph, and Joseph books it. He just runs. He flees. I just want you to think about that kind of decision that Joseph made.

Joseph's decision is immediate. There is no delay. He doesn't wait to consider his options. He understands the danger of the moment, and he takes immediate action. He flees.

Joseph's decision is also absolute. He's not playing around with the thought of compromise. He's not trying to reason with her. He doesn't deem proximity to sin as though that's a mark of his maturity. He doesn't try to justify it. He just runs. He flees.

And Joseph's decision is also embarrassing. He doesn't try to save face. He is content with running from sin, even if it means that he is utterly exposed, because it is better for you to lose your dignity than it is for you to lose your holiness. He flees.

Friends, are you fleeing from sin? When it crouches, when it prowls, when it grabs you by your garment, what do you do? Is your rejection of sin immediate, or do you delay? Do you allow sinful desires to creep into your heart? Is your rejection of sin absolute, or are you mushy, willing to bend the truth of your heart if it allows a sliver of pleasure? Is your rejection of sin embarrassing, or are you more concerned when you talk with people about saving face than pursuing holiness? Because if you are fixated on your reputation, or how long you can hover, or how close you can get without fleeing, sin will absolutely devour you. As John Owen said, "Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you."

Joseph exhibits both a heart for the Lord and a hatred of sin. If you want to be able to fight against sin in your life, you need both. You need both a delight in your heart and a resolve with your feet. You need to be able to book it.

See, Satan will want you to try to focus on one of those things instead of the other. He'll try to get you to focus on your delight in God rather than focus on actually changing your behavior. Or he'll try to get you to focus so much on your behavior that you never pay attention to your heart. And notice here that Joseph, in fleeing from sin, has both, because the gospel necessitates both: both a true understanding and true view of what sin is in light of the goodness that we've received, and a practical resolve to completely cut off sin in your life. You both flee from sin and you run towards God, and that is the same movement in the Christian life. Turning away from sin—what we would call repentance—and turning towards God in faith is the same motion. It is the same thing, and you cannot have one without the other.

I guarantee you some of us this morning need to run. And if you do, I just want you to know you have two options. You could either run away from God. You could run away from his people. You could choose to live a life of hypocrisy where you bear the burden of your sin for the rest of your life until you inevitably stand before your Maker who says, "I never knew you." Or you could run to him. You can cast your burdens on him. You could bring your sin to the God who already knows everything you ever did, and you could ask him for forgiveness and receive his everlasting grace.

That's you. If you're here this morning, you can go to him right now. You can go to him while you're listening to this sermon. You can ask him for forgiveness. You can resolve right now in the pew to flee from sin immediately, absolutely, even embarrassingly, for the sake of having Jesus.

And the most tangible expression of that is going to be the way that you then respond in faith as you flee from sin. I would say even primarily in the life of the church. Hebrews 3:12-13 says:

Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception.

— Hebrews 3:12-13 (CSB)

You and I have a responsibility to watch out for one another and to encourage one another. Which means if you need to run from sin today, the most practical expression of that in your life—if you are really saying, "I hate my sin. I want to follow Christ in my life"—what it's going to look like is you talking to another church member. It's going to look like you initiating that conversation, because all of us have a responsibility to watch out for one another and to encourage one another. And the church becomes the most tangible example of both of the things that we just talked about.

Do you want a tangible example of Christ's love for you? When you struggle with sin, it's easy to feel like God abandoned you, or that you're so guilty or so far gone that you can never receive forgiveness. You know what will dispel that lie from the devil? Being able to talk to another brother or sister in Christ, and them demonstrating a love towards you that Jesus himself already has—where we can remind each other of God's goodness and show Christ's love in the way that we care for each other. And having brothers and sisters in Christ who aren't you, so that you don't get to move the goalposts whenever it's most convenient for you in your walk with Jesus, where they know you enough to love you and not let you off the hook, where they can challenge you, where they can spur you on towards love and good works to be able to kill sin and pursue holiness.

And guys, if you do that, it will be embarrassing. I texted guys this week asking for prayer as I pursue holiness in my own life. And let me tell you, it is embarrassing to hit send. It's embarrassing to have to look at people in the face and let them know about temptations, or sins, or struggles in my life. My pride withers every time I do it. But I have to, because I didn't get more holy when people laid hands on me to be your pastor. I'm still a sinner.

You have two options in this life. You can either be a confessing Christian, or you can be a compromising one. There is no middle ground. And if you've never talked to someone about your sin before, I want you right now to just think of someone in the church that you trust. Think of someone in your church right now that you trust. Have an honest conversation with them. Ask them to walk with you as you pursue holiness. There is no reputation in this world that is worth your righteousness. We need to flee from sin.

And if you receive that kind of message, you have a very rare opportunity. I think one of the greatest privileges of being a church member and walking with other sinners in this life is being able to be a tangible example of Christ's grace to them. You want to make the gospel real? Have someone come to you with their sins and temptations and love them. Show them Christ's grace. Be able to have that tough conversation. Be able to show that you're willing to walk with them even when things get tough.

Joseph fled from sin, and yet his actions don't result in immediate blessing, but they result in persecution.

Faithfulness and Favor in Prison

Point three: the God who is with you through trials. Look at verse 13. When she saw that he had run outside, 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. When he heard me screaming for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside."

She put Joseph's garment beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the same story. "The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me. But when I screamed for help, he left his garment beside me and ran outside."

When his master heard the story his wife told him, "These are the things your slave did to me," he was furious and had him thrown into prison where the king's prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

Potiphar's wife goes from lust to rage. She uses Joseph's garments to convince the servants and her husband that Joseph had tried to abuse her. And notice what Potiphar's wife says twice. She says, "The Hebrew slave you brought to us came to make a fool of me. Get this Hebrew out of here," is what she's saying. She goes from seduction to racism. Because whether it's objectifying or degrading Joseph, it comes from the same place. She's using Joseph for her own gratification, for her own sinful desires.

This is the second time that someone has lied about Joseph using his robe—first to deceive Joseph's dad that he's dead, and now to Joseph's master that he's an abuser. And Joseph is left completely exposed, hated, imprisoned. And this isn't the exception; this is the expectation. If you want to follow Jesus, Paul says, "All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." Jesus himself says in John 15:

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.

— John 15:18-19 (CSB)

If the world loves you, don't be surprised if it turns on you when you pledge allegiance to God. Joseph is seized and thrown into prison. And you may ask, whether in your own life or reading a story like this: Why did it turn out this way? Why did this happen? I mean, didn't Joseph do everything right? Didn't he obey God's commands? Didn't he faithfully serve his Egyptian master? Didn't he rightly respect his master enough to say no to his master's wife? So why does he end up in another pit?

You ever wonder that? Like, "God, I'm doing exactly what you asked me. I'm doing everything you said. Why am I still suffering? What kind of hope do you have?"

Joseph's story reminds us that true hope isn't found in where we are, but in who is with us where we are. Look at verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden. 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. The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph's authority because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything he did successful.

"But the Lord was with him." I love that phrase. I love what a startling, blessed contrast it is—that whether he was in the security of the household of the elite or in chains in prison, God is still with him. Not just with him, but extending kindness to him. You notice the word that's there: faithful love, this kindness, this abounding love. The Hebrew word for that is covenant love—that the same covenant love that God showed Abraham is with Joseph even when he's in prison.

I mean, do you notice where Joseph is in the story? Yes, he's in prison, but you notice the way that he's described in verse 20: he's thrown into prison where the king's prisoners are. Even through the mess, even through this descent into darkness, Joseph is still in God's plan, inching closer to the king and ultimately to the fulfillment of God's plan. And in the meantime, while he's in this pit, God is still with him.

In fact, the phrases at the beginning and the end of the chapter mirror each other. The blessing of God continues even in prison. Joseph is put in charge. The warden doesn't worry about anything because God is with Joseph. Because whether it's in blessing, or in temptation, or in suffering, God is always there.

And a similar pattern exists for us today. You may be in any or all of those circumstances. You may not even know how your story will end. I mean, Joseph didn't have the book of Genesis where he could open it and see how the story would end. And yet, Joseph is granted favor because the Lord is with him.

Blessing, temptation, and suffering. I wonder if that pattern sounds familiar to you, 39 chapters into the book of Genesis. Blessing, sin, death. This is the example that we see in Joseph. That's the example we see in almost every character in the book that we've followed so far. You're given life, you experience sin, and you're plunged into death.

And more importantly, that's exactly the pattern that you see in the life of our Lord: Jesus living the faithful life that we never could. All throughout his life, you see flourishing all around him. You see the sick healed. You see the poor cared for. You see thousands fed. He enters into the wilderness and resists temptation from the devil himself. And Jesus also suffers by submerging himself into the pit of death.

Except with Jesus, unlike Joseph or any of the other stories that you see in the book of Genesis, he subverts this pattern by going past death and emerging victorious over the grave, rising in resurrection life.

You see, I can't promise you that your life is going to be perfect or that your dreams are going to be fulfilled. I can almost guarantee that you will suffer, you will be tempted, and you will die. And yet, every step of the way, you will be following in the footsteps of your Savior, Jesus Christ. Every step that you take is not a step that's unfamiliar to your God. And more importantly, if you're in Christ and you're following after him through these patterns of blessing and temptation and suffering, God will be with you. He's not going anywhere. He will walk with you through every phase of your life.

And if God is with you in every step of your life, then you have everything that you will ever need. This is exactly why Paul in Philippians 4 is able to say:

I know how to make do with little, and I know how to make do with a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content—whether well fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through him who strengthens me.

— Philippians 4:12-13 (CSB)

What's consistent in the Christian life is not your circumstances. What's consistent in the Christian life is having a reason to be content, a reason to hope, a reason to trust, a reason to be able to look out even at the messiest circumstances of life and to be able to see God's fingerprints there, trusting that God is with you. Even when you don't see God's hand, you can trust in God's heart, knowing that even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is with you and he'll be able to bring you safely home. That's the hope that we're able to have.

Let's pray. Lord, we do pray this morning. We pray, in particular, for anyone here who is suffering, that you would help them to be able to trust in you—the God who is able to pull them out from the raging sea, the God who is able to see our plight, knows it, and is able to use it for your glory. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to keep that truth in our hearts that would sustain us, that would empower us to fight sin and to rejoice in your blessings. We pray, Lord, that you would be able to sustain us until you bring us safely home. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.