DAY 42: CAN I STILL REMAIN FAITHFUL ALONE?

Good morning. Good morning, good morning. Or good evening, good afternoon. Whenever it is you're watching us. If you're watching live, thank you for waking up or staying up. Oh, this is a tough one. Day 42. Can you stay faithful alone? Genesis 39. So who are you when when nobody's watching? Not not what you fashioned as the church version of you. Not the version you put on when all the church folk you suddenly are around. Not the public version. Not the public version. You know what I'm talking about. You definitely know what I'm talking about. Not the polished version. The real you. Who are you when nobody from home is watching? Who are you when the people who knew your story, they're gone? They're not around. Your support system is gone. Your familiar rhythms are gone. And the only thing standing between you and compromise is covenant reverence for God in your own heart. Fear of God. That's where faith gets tested. Not when everybody is clapping. Not when the room is full of adoring fans. Not when your reputation is protected. Faith gets tested when obedience costs you severely. And nobody seems to notice. Genesis 39. It isn't mainly a story about career success. It isn't mainly a story about Joseph being talented, he was, or handsome. It isn't a motivational speech about rising above hard circumstances. It's a story about a young man in exile who is tempted, he's pressured, he's lied about, and he's punished for doing the right thing. And the hard question is this. Can you stay faithful when faithfulness doesn't protect you from pain? Man, think on that. Can you stay faithful when faithfulness doesn't protect you from pain? Joseph has been He's been betrayed by his brothers. Betrayed by his brothers. He's been sold. He's been taken down into Egypt. He's lost his robe. He's lost his home, his father's protection, and everything familiar. But he hasn't lost God. It'd be easy for him to. But he hasn't lost God. And that matters. Because sometimes the most important thing left in your life is the one you cannot see. Tricky one. This one's a tricky one. Be so easy to gloss over this part of scripture and reduce it to the childhood story. Skip over all the tricky parts. There's a lot of tricky parts. Oh, don't get a twist, dude. There are a lot of tricky parts in this one. Be easy to miss the meaning. If we just buzz all through and we don't understand the ancient Near Eastern culture, language, and context. We skip right over it. Oh sure, it'd be easy. So welcome to everyone listening live on all of our different platforms. And for those listening on Playback on all our podcast platforms, we're on all of them. We thank you. We appreciate it. Miss Tammy, I got your your beautiful letter from you in Cash and your generous gift. I I can't thank you enough, and you have no idea exactly how perfect your timing was. Perfect timing. And I can't thank you enough. I'm humbled by it. We're not a 501c3. We we you know we're not tax deductible, none of those things. And so I just cannot thank you in cash enough. So welcome in chat. Our big rule is you gotta be kind to one another. Don't hijack the chat or you go. Even if it's for good, even if you're saying good things, true things, if you're trying to hijack it, uh defeats the purpose here. That's just as destructive as things that aren't good. So we generally are pretty good about that. Supersedes the old testament. No, that's not what it means. But that's okay. Take your time. Give a good listen. And welcome. There's a nice bunch of people. Oh, I should probably say who I am. I'm Dr. Sean. This is True Word Faith for Life. Uh we're doing a series through the Bible in a year, walking the story of God, not running, not jumping, not skipping over, walking the story of God. It's a complex story. How's my sound, by the way? I did it, forgot to ask. I did some new settings yesterday. And so I am no tech. So, true word faith for life. And if this teaching helps you, uh, I think my book would be very helpful to you. It's my second book, uh, True Word Faith for Life, ironically named the same thing, easy to remember. It's available at the store. I don't know if you're gonna be able to remember this one, True Word FaithforLife.com. Up at the store. It was written to help you stop living on scattered Bible fragments and start walking in God's word with clarity, courage, and faith for real life. And I will tell you this: it is it is built like a truck, the book. It's built to be easy to read. Um, it is, it will make you laugh. Don't be drinking coffee or anything like that. Um, I mean, drink your coffee. I'm all for that. You know, whatever, whatever you're drinking. But drink, swallow, then read. Because there's gonna be points that are gonna make you, if you were drinking coffee or milk or something that's gonna come out of your nose, it is gonna make you laugh. It is funny. Parts of it are funny. Um, parts of it are gonna make you cry. So box of tissues wouldn't be a bad thing to have nearby. Anyway, and if you buy it from the website instead of the millions of other places, you can buy it. It's available everywhere, but if you buy it from the website, uh a little bit more money comes to the ministry. Uh, and the mission that we're going for here helps to pay for things. We're not profitable yet, so on the book, so here's a question for your heart today. Where are you being tempted to trade faithfulness for a moment of relief? Now, while you're thinking about that, I want you to think about something else. I'd I'd love to know. I I know we have a bazillion platforms, but I'd love to know how you learned about this show and and this podcast, True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean, S H A W N. Uh I'd love to know that if you wouldn't mind putting that in the in the comments. So this is this is, you know, normally you have a million questions. I have more questions for you later, but this one is the pivotal one. Where are you being tempted to trade faithfulness for a moment of relief or pleasure or peace? Sit with that. Because Genesis 39 speaks directly into the the hidden rooms of our lives, the rooms where desire, loneliness, power, pressure, and fear all start talking at once. It's just a every part of it, it's barking at you. Loneliness, power, pressure, and fear, all talking. Desire. It's like over top of them. Seems to be the the one you hear, you know, if that's your trigger, if that's your weakness, loneliness, if that's your weakness, power, if that's your weakness, pressure, if that's your weakness, and fear, all of those things. They're barking at you at once. Have you ever been in that situation? I have. Brought down to Egypt. Think about the geography here. But it's also, it's also uh very important to remember. Brought down. Egypt isn't where you're supposed to be. Not if you're Joseph, that's not where you belong. And yet, God used it. That word down, brought down to Egypt. That matters. Joseph's life has been moving on a a severe downward trajectory. Have you ever been there? Oh, I've been there. Your your your life is, you know, like a if you're on the audio audio only, you know, I'm pointing down like a massive slope down. It's not even like skiing down a black diamond, double black diamond. It's it's it's crazy. Down into Egypt, down into slavery, down into the pit. By the end of this, by the end of this chapter, down into prison. This is this is a story of inconceivable descent. But the text keeps repeating something that changes everything. Are you ready for this? Come on, don't miss this. Come on, hear this. Adonai was with Joseph. This isn't one of Adonai was with Joseph. This is one of the most important lines in the chapter. Adonai was with Joseph. Not Joseph was comfortable, not Joseph understood, not Joseph was immediately vindicated. Not even Joseph's pain stopped quickly. No, the text just says Adonai was with Joseph. Biblical blessing doesn't always look like ease. Sometimes blessing looks like God looks like God's presence sustaining you in a place you would have never chosen for yourself. Anybody? Anyone out there? Joseph is purchased. I mean that just by itself. Joseph is purchased by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, now inside the Egyptian power structure, and it was powerful. Super pagan, but very powerful. So he's inside this Egyptian power structure, and he is by no means free. He isn't home, he isn't in the land of promise, he's a Hebrew servant in a foreign house. In the ancient world, a household wasn't just a private residence. It was an ordered world of authority, loyalty, reputation, labor, vulnerability, and power. Potiphar's house, it isn't a neutral space. Joseph is living inside another man's authority structure, in another nation's culture, under another empire's god. Yet the text keeps insisting on the same reality that is mind-boggling. Adonai is there. Oof. Don't miss that. How's this sound? I I know I asked that already, but I don't the text, the chat scrolls, and I don't see it. So the text says Adil Nai was with Joseph and he became successful. Potiphar sees that Adel Nai is with him and that Adonai caused all that he does to succeed in his hands. That's important. Joseph's faithfulness becomes visible even in a pagan household. You say my witness won't mean anything with these crazy people. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You know there's some folks that listen to this that wake up at four in the morning, wake up earlier than four in the morning so that they can listen live. They live on the West Coast or in a part of America or a part of the world. I'm amazed and awed by that. Thank you. And those of you who are listening while trying to get ready for work and you're hustling, you got kids, you got to get ready for this and that. And you know, you're you're hustling and yet you're listening. It means so much to me. Maybe you have it playing in the background on your television or on your on your little Amazon device or or whatever, whatever you're listening, however you're listening on your iPhone. Says 86% listen on iPhones. That's um wild. So you say, look, uh living where I'm living, I I can't I can't be a witness. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Slow down, slam dancer. It's exactly the opposite. The thing is, we generally don't have the nerve. We don't have the nerve. Hey, Pedro, how you doing, man? Good to see you. God bless you. So even in a pagan household, he gets noticed for his faithfulness. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's making his presence known in Egypt. Down in Egypt. Through the conduct of a servant. You say, I don't hold some big office, I'm not a bigwig. Okay. Jacob's a servant. And yet he's making God's presence known in Egypt. So it's not through a sermon, right? You say, Well, I'm not a preacher, I'm not a speaker, I'm not a fancy talker, smooth talker, whatever, whatever you want to call it. Not through a sermon first, through integrity, through excellence, through trustworthiness. What I say all the time. You go to work at a job. If you're a professing believer, if you're a follower of the way, if you call yourself a Christian, you better be the best employee there. Maybe you're not the top employee, but but you go to work every day, you're on time, maybe a little early. You know your job, you learn your job, you're focused on it, you do great work, and you have integrity. That's what they see. Excellence, trustworthiness. It's in short supply in this world today. Through a young man, he's young, he's young, barely like a teenager. Through a young man who has every human reason to become bitter. I mean, let's look back on what happened to him, what was done to him by his brothers, family. How many of you have ever been there? Your family, your biggest hurt came through your family. We've talked about that in just recent episodes. True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. It's it's uh it there everything's free there, the YouTube channel. Just click on subscribe and click on the little bell. Maybe click on like wouldn't kill you. Yeah, free of charge, no cost or obligation to you. By the way, we have a website and everything there is free, except for the book. Um, it's trueordfaithforlife.com. There's a blog section, there's all these things. I work tirelessly, if I may say, on that. And um I I think it's a great resource. I really do. Only thing I ask, everything there is free. Like, for instance, the blogs and study guides, you're welcome to copy them and and all, and like the study guides, I've written them so that you can use them as a resource. Only thing I ask is when you copy it, go all the way down to the copyright at the bottom. And the reason I ask that is because, like when I was in photography, people would steal my work. Um, everything I write, everything I say is copyrighted. So all these shows are copyrighted. So I just ask that you include that, the attribution there. Not so I can get, oh, he's so great, but it goes with it. Anyway, everything's free there. It's worth it. I even include uh, and I don't think anybody does this, footnotes, detailed footnotes, and um and I also do uh the the um Torabian bibliography. So I I use the Torabian style. That's what I that's what I use, it's what I used all through school. And anyway, so you have all the resources, every resource to use, every resource I use for these messages, they're all there, and it's a lot of them. So look, this this kid Joseph, he's got every reason to be mad, every reason to be bitter. But he keeps walking faithfully. It'd be very difficult for him to see hope in anything. So Potiphar puts Joseph over his house and all that he has. The text says Adonai blesses the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. Do you hear that covenant echo? Echo. God told Abraham, I will bless you, and you will be a blessing. Now, Joseph, even in exile, becomes a channel of blessing to a Gentile household. The covenant story hasn't stopped because Joseph is in Egypt. God's purpose is still moving. Listen, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to just say about bitterness. You know, it's very easy to become or remain bitter. Very easy. Oh, certainly we could. I've been guilty of that when I was younger. I became bitter about some things. And they cost me dearly. That cost me dearly. Allowing myself to become bitter about things. You know, maybe it's work things. Welcome, welcome to India. Listening from India. Wild, isn't it? Internet. So, so let me say this. I I'm just being real with you. I mean, I have been in a place in my life before, you know, I get my mind together. I had a lot of talent. I had, you know, was a little bit of a stud. I could do a lot of amazing things. Born that way. I I can't say that, you know, I was some big thing. I was born that way. But I didn't appreciate the gifts God gave me. God whispers to you in your pleasure. And he shouts to you in your pain. I heard the whispers and I heard, and I didn't pay any attention. And then I heard the shouts. But it is easy when you're in you're in difficult situations to be to become bitter. To become bitter. Look, I'm Dr. Sean here. I'm just Sean. And I'm going to just tell you something. You experience real life. You're living real life here. So is Joseph. What you do with your circumstances, that's a decision you make. Sometimes you make the right ones, sometimes you make the wrong ones. And it is costly. But then the test comes. Says Joseph is handsome in form and appearance. Oh man. Oh man. People say all the good looking ones have it easy. The pretty women have it easy. The pretty girls have it easier than the ones that aren't so pretty. That is untrue. Before my face got all messed up.

Temptation. Let me tell you, it's everywhere.

Joseph is handsome in form and appearance. And Potiphar's wife cats her eyes on Joseph and says, Lie with me. The language is direct. There's no romance here at all. She's just saying, you servant over there. Good looking fella. You come on over here. It's not some harmless thing either. There's no romance. No covenant, no love, no holy desire. This is appetite. I'm doing the air quotes. Appetite. For audio only, air quotes. Flying. She's the wife of Joseph's master. She has position over him. She has power. Joseph is vulnerable. He's a slave in the house. This is not an equal situation. This isn't some harmless private moment. Hey, you're good looking. I'm good looking. Come on with me. You smell good. I smell good. Let's um go over there. No. This is temptation wrapped in power. She has status. Joseph has nothing. He has vulnerability. She has access. Joseph has accountability. This is what he has. It's accountability before God. Come on, somebody breathe that in. Joseph refuses. Hard pass. Joseph says, Hard pass. With all due respect, hard pass. And listen to his reasoning. I love this. He says his master has entrusted everything to him. He says there's no one greater in the house than he is. He says Potiphar has kept back nothing except his wife. Then Joseph says, How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? That sentence is the center of his integrity. Joseph doesn't first say, What if I get caught? He doesn't say, What will people think? What will people think? He doesn't say, Well, this could hurt my future, you know. He says instead, How can I sin against God? That's holiness. Holiness isn't merely fear of consequences, by the way. Holiness is living before the face of God. And I'm telling you, temptation is everywhere. Look, the fear of God isn't panic, by the way. People get tripped on that. They they trip all over it. And sometimes atheists and pagans and people who just don't have any opinion of God or scripture, they they they have an opinion, they don't even know that they don't understand it. And sometimes people that are Christians and people, church going folk, and they they they don't understand scripture. They don't understand it in its original ancient Near Eastern context, language, and culture. They don't. And so they just, you know, they say a word, they repeat a word, and to them it means what? Well, fear means fear. I'm afraid. Afraid of what it's going to do to me. I thought I would explain it here. The fear of God isn't panic, it isn't religious terror. It's settled awareness. It's that settled awareness. Man, let that sit with you a little bit. Settled awareness that Adonai is present, that God is present, holy, good, and worthy of obedience, even when Egypt says nobody will know. Man. Ho ho ho ho. Joseph knows that even in Egypt, down in Egypt, even as a slave, even far from his father's house, God is still God. He knows that temptation is never private when God is present. The room may be empty of witnesses, but it is not empty of God. So this is where Genesis 39 becomes crushingly modern. Because we live in a world that teaches people to ask the wrong questions. Can I get away with it? Will anyone know? Can I delete this? Can I hide it? Can I explain it later? Can I keep this compartment separate from the rest of my life? That's a challenge many go through every day. But Joseph asked the right question. How can I sin against God? That question will save you if you let it. It'll save your life, it'll save your career, it'll save your reputation, it'll save your marriage. It'll save your soul if you let it. How can I sin against God? Not just will this hurt my marriage, oh, it will. Not just will this damage my witness? Oh, it will. Not just, will this create consequences for me? Well, it will. Perhaps not immediately, but it will, trust me. Trust me on this. Ask me how I know. But deeper than all of that is this. Will this grieve the God who is with me? Will this violate the trust he's given me? Will this deform my soul? Will this pull me away from Shalom? Will it pull me from peace? And then notice Joseph's refusal isn't, it's not some one-time moment. The text says she spoke to Joseph day after day. She stayed on him. Hey, good looking fella. Smells good, looks good, talks good. And she's fine. We know that she's fine. Back in my day, that's what we said. Fine. Oh, girl was good looking. She was fine. Then she was really good looking. We said, Fine. She's fine. You know what I mean? I don't know what they say now, but I can't keep up with any of the stuff that the kids say now. I don't know. I have no idea. They say stuff, and I'm like, I don't have any idea what you're saying. But the text tells us that she spoke to Joseph day after day, not just saw him, not just happened to bump into him, spoke to him, engaged him. And that matters. Some temptation doesn't disappear because you said no once. Any any of us living through that? Temptation doesn't disappear. You say no one time. Oh well, that's gone. That was good. See? No, no, no. Talk to him day by day. Some temptation waits for fatigue. Some temptation studies your loneliness. Some temptation comes back when you are tired. Maybe when you're angry, bitter, discouraged, a little bit lonely, underappreciated. Or emotionally hungry. Joseph refuses not only to lie with her, but to even be around her. And that's wisdom. He doesn't overestimate himself, by the way. He doesn't flirt with the edge and call it strength. He doesn't kind of go, well, hey girl, hey, yeah. I like that you're looking at me, but um, look, you know, I got this God thing. You know, I can't, you know. I mean, your husband is the boss, you know, I got to be, you know, I got to keep my job trying to stay alive up in here. It's hard on these streets. Nope. Doesn't flirt with the edge and call it strength. He creates distance. Some of us don't need some deeper theological lecture first. We need distance. We don't need some big somebody throwing scriptures at us. No, no, no. Put it in drive. Get away. Flee. Distance. Stop, you know, end the thread. Move the device. End the thread. Move the device. End the thread. Move the device. Stop the private meeting. Change the route. Or route, whichever you say. Delete the app. Oh, come on. Someone, somebody, somebody. Oh, it's so easy nowadays. To create that potential destruction. So easy. Change the private meeting. Change the route. Delete the app. Delete it. Block the number. Block the number. For real, for real. Block the number. Don't walk into the room where you keep falling down, where you keep failing. You know you're weak. You don't think this kid was lonely looking at this hot woman with all this power? Might have said, well, you know, I've had a pretty rough way. You know, this might help me. I might be able to turn this to my favor. Or maybe he was just lonely, or maybe it was just, you know, like I said, he was in his late teens. He needed a win. Maybe he, maybe he could have looked at her and gone, huh? Hey, this might work out. Don't walk into a room where you keep falling and failing, and then ask God, why did I fall again? Because you kept going into that room. You kept going into that space, that place where things are jacked up. Temptation lives there. Total destruction, dressed pretty and smelling nice, lives in that room. Well, that would solve all my problems. No, I deserve to feel better for a minute. No. Then one day, Joseph goes into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house are there. Potiphar's wife catches him by his garment and says, Again, lie with me. She catches him by his garment and says, Lie with me. Joseph leaves his garment in her hand and flees. Look, that detail is powerful. In Genesis 37, Joseph's brothers stripped him. Remember? They stripped him of his robe, that thing they hated him for. The robe, the robe, the the uh, you know, it's colloquially called the coat of many colors, but it was so much more than that. Joseph's brothers stripped him of a robe. Genesis 37, just a little bit ago, but in Genesis 39, Joseph leaves his garment behind in order to keep his integrity. The first garment is stolen from him by betrayal, by jealousy, by envy. The second garment is surrendered by obedience. Oh man, come on, somebody. Come on, somebody. Breathe that in now. Come on, breathe that in. Sometimes obedience means you walk away without explaining everything. You don't leave some big explanation email. You don't leave the big explanation text. You don't leave the big explanation voicemail. You just leave and you explain nothing. You just get out. Sometimes obedience means you you need to leave the room with people holding something that they will use against you. Oh, come on, somebody's been in that, somebody's been in that place. I know that you have. Sometimes obedience means you'd rather lose the garment than lose your soul. Joseph flees. Not because he's weak, but because he's wise. Oh, listen, come on, running from sin isn't cowardice. It may feel like that in the modern world, the postmodern Western evangelical world, even. Running from sin isn't cowardice. Sometimes it's the most courageous thing you can do. But then the story turns hard. Potiford's wife uses the garment as evidence against Joseph. She flat out lies. Have you ever been lied on? Somebody lied on you. She lies. She accuses him. She twists the story. She weaponizes his obedience against him. And Joseph is thrown in prison. Come on, let that land on your brain. He does the right thing, and his situation gets worse. He refuses sin and he is punished. He honors God and he's falsely accused. He protects another man's house, not for nothing, also his wife. She's a little and he protects her. He says, Hey, I'm not doing that. And then the house turns against him. He thrown in prison. Are you kidding me? This is why Genesis 39 isn't some shallow passage. The Bible doesn't promise that integrity will always bring immediate vindication. Oh, come on. That is so the mistake. It is so the mistake of people who hate scripture and hate God. They will always paint that picture. They'll always go, yeah, but uh see, you you did the right thing, and look, your life is terrible. Your life is a mess, your life is hard. Things aren't easy for you. Nope. Nope. The Bible doesn't promise that integrity will always bring immediate vindication. It doesn't. It doesn't say, I say this all the time, prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, prayer is asking for a strong back. It doesn't say that if you do the right thing, the right thing, everyone will believe you. Doesn't say that righteousness will keep you from being lied about. Sometimes faithfulness costs you dearly before anyone sees the truth. Come on, somebody. Somebody's there right now. So here's the concrete obedience. Do the right thing anyway. Do the right thing anyway. Tell the truth anyway. Flee anyway. Stay clean anyway. Honor God anyway. Refuse the secret anyway, because your integrity isn't for sale. Your soul isn't merch. The presence of God is worth more than the approval of people who want you compromised. And again, we have to see the pattern without flattening the story into just words on a page. Joseph is faithful and falsely accused. He suffers because of righteousness. He's brought low, though he's done nothing wrong in this matter. The Bible's moving toward the greater righteous sufferer, Yeshua, Jesus. He committed no sin, no deceit was found in his mouth. He was falsely accused. He was handed over, he was condemned by corrupt power, and yet he entrusted himself to the one who only judges justly. Listen, if you don't think that there was that there are wrongly condemned people, they exist. Yeshua's story shows us that God can bring redemption through suffering that no one else understands. Let me address this really quick. Whatever, uh S N B R Love. Have you opened your third eye? You said you Christian. First of all, just listen. Just listen. Oh, just listen. Learn something. And if you don't, you're not here to learn. Just go away. It's that simple. If you're here to disrupt, stop being a child. The Bible says you have to abandon being a child. There's time to be grown. Be mature. Childish things. Look, we we shouldn't rush past that pain. Genesis 39 ends with Joseph in prison, not on a throne, not vindicated, not publicly cleared, in prison. But even there the text says Adonai was with Joseph. That's the hope of this chapter. Not that everything immediately gets easier. Not that everything immediately sees the truth. Not that everyone immediately sees the truth. Not that obedience guarantees applause. Oh, come on. The hope is this. God is with his faithful servant in the house. God is with his faithful servant in temptation. God is with his faithful servant under accusation. God is with his faithful servant in prison. There is no room low enough that God cannot be there. Oh, I have for you today a challenge and a choice, and it is not easy. Stop negotiating with what God told you to flee. Stop negotiating with that thing. Don't ask God to rescue you from a fire you keep walking back into and put more wood on. Don't call it wisdom when you stay close enough to fall again. Come on, get away from that temptation. Temptation. Don't wait until desire becomes louder. Don't wait until loneliness becomes louder. Don't wait until low self-esteem becomes louder than obedience. Create distance now. So here are your choices. Will you obey God only when obedience benefits you quickly? Or will you obey him because he is worthy? Will you stay faithful when no one sees? Will you stay faithful when someone lies about you? Will you stay faithful when you're doing the right thing? When doing the right thing costs you the thing you hoped would finally get better? How many are living there right now? How many are living right now? In that space? Temptation is all around you. It's all around you. And you've turned away from it once or twice. And it's there again, stronger. Maybe your weakness is loneliness. Maybe your weakness is poor self-esteem. Maybe your weakness is. You say, look, the one thing I have is my looks or my, you know, my poor charisma. I deserve this, you know.

I get it.

Look your next at me. This may be very incredibly. I don't know. Pedro, just keep listening, brother. Just keep listening. Don't worry about all that mess. Just keep listening and learning. Let it come in. Look your next step it's today, right now, maybe just practical. Don't be vague with temptation. Name it. Name the room, name the person, name the app, name the habit, name the excuse, name the emotional hunger that makes compromise attractive. Then put distance between you and that thing that keeps pulling you away from God. Don't negotiate with what God told you to flee. Don't call it strength when you keep standing near the flame. Don't wait until your desire is louder than your wisdom. Flee. Tell someone trustworthy what you're dealing with. Trustworthy. Move the device out of the room. Cancel the meeting and the private conversation. Stop feeding the fantasy. Choose holiness before the moment of temptation becomes a crisis. And if you've been falsely accused, hear this carefully. God sees. God saw it when it happened and he sees it right now. That doesn't erase the pain. It doesn't. I'm not going to make that some pedantic thing. That doesn't erase the pain. That doesn't make betrayal easy. That doesn't mean you stay silent when truth must be spoken. That doesn't mean you avoid wise counsel, proper authority, documentation, accountability, or help. It means the lie is not Lord of your life. The accusation isn't sovereign over you. The prison isn't sovereign. Adonai is still with Joseph. And Adonai is still with you if you are his people. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back, Heavenly Father. Teach us to be faithful when no one else is watching. Teach us to fear you with holy reverence, not panic, not shame, but covenant love and obedient trust. Teach us to love holiness more than secret compromise. Give us courage to flee what is destroying us. Give us wisdom to create distance from temptation. Give us clean hands and a steadfast heart. And for those who have been lied about, have been accused or punished for doing right, be near to them. We ask that you be near to them, strengthen them in that prison place. Give them wise counsel, truthful witnesses, righteous protection, and the courage to keep walking in the light. And remind them that your presence isn't limited by their circumstances. Bring our lives into Shalom through truth, holiness, courage, and obedience. In Yeshua's blessed and holy name. Amen. And look, maybe today, maybe today you realize you haven't just made mistakes, but you've sinned against God. This is where mercy meets you. Joseph said, How can I sin against God? That question may be pressing on your heart right now. You know there are places in your life and people in your life that aren't surrendered. You know you need forgiveness. You know you can't make yourself new. Joseph, look, tough circumstances, no doubt about it, no doubt about it. Just one after the other after the other. And Adonai was with Joseph. Look, Yeshua came for sinners. He came for you, came for me. He died, was buried, and rose again so you could be forgiven, cleansed, and brought home to God. And if you're ready, oh, I pray that you're ready to turn from sin and trust him. Pray this from your heart. Pray this from your heart. Are you ready? Father, I know I've sinned and I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again. Today I turn from my sin and I place my trust in Him as my Lord and my King. Forgive me, make me new, and fill me with your Spirit. From this day forward, I want to follow you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, if you prayed this prayer today, right now, whatever it is, listening live or on playback, welcome to the family of God. You do not have to figure this thing out alone. If you gave your life to Yeshua, if you gave your life to Jesus, if you placed your faith in Christ, or if you still have honest questions, reach out to me at true wordfaithforlife.com slash contact. It's the little button up at the top right. I will personally connect with you. I'll help you take your next step. That's what I do. That's what I live to do. You aren't alone. You are not alone. Just reach out. Look, a garment was left behind. A lie was told, a faithful man was sent lower, but God was still there in the house, in the temptation, in the accusation, in the prison. And if God is with you, the lowest place isn't a godless place. It may be painful, it may be unjust, and it may be dark, but it is not empty. Remember that. And look, if this helped you, send it to one person. One person who needs hope today. The right word at the right time can help someone keep walking when they're about to fall on their face. Until tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. May Adonai bless you and keep you. May Adonai make his face to shine upon you and show you his grace. May Adonai lift up his face toward you and give you shalom. Shalom Bishem Yeshua.