Monte Johnston
Clayton Presbyterian Church
September 17, 2006
After I graduated from seminary, I was interviewing with churches and trying to discern where God was calling us to be. We had interviewed a couple of different places before being invited down to the First Presbyterian Church in Washington, NC. Once there, it just felt right and we were confident that this was where God wanted us to be. While we were there, Kari asked the question, “Do you ever get hurricanes here?” since Washington is on the Pamlico Sound. “No,” they answered, “we haven’t had a hurricane in about 40 years.”
It was a couple of weeks later and we were in Colorado visiting my family before we made the move down and we were watching the Weather Channel and there was downtown Washington with water in the streets, as Hurricane Bertha drove water up to the foundations of the buildings. And we thought, “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
Well, it turned out that Bertha really didn’t do much damage. We moved there and I started at the church on September 1 and five days later on September 6, Hurricane Fran came ashore and did a lot more damage. And you know the rest of the story, it has been hurricanes ever since.
The lack of hurricanes in their recent past made the residents of Washington become a bit complacent, thinking that they didn’t need to worry about the storms. We learned that storms might always be on the horizon.
As we are in the heart of hurricane season in North Carolina, so we want to think about the storms that come into our lives. As we talked about last week, the storms will come. There is no way that we can avoid them, but they don’t have to wreak havoc on our lives. We want to be vigilant and watch for signs of trouble.
There are some storms that we cannot control, like illness, corporate downsizing and the like, and there are others that we can. We will talk about former in a future sermon. Today I want to talk about the latter, especially temptation in our lives. We are tempted to make choices which will actually lead us into storms, even if they are alluring in the short run. Have you faced temptation lately? Who won? Temptation can feel like an overwhelming flood that is impossible to resist.
I want to share with you a story from the Bible about a man named Joseph who faced temptation and how he dealt with it.
1 Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge; and, with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome and good-looking.
7 And after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, "Lie with me." 8 But he refused and said to his master's wife, "Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" 10 And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 One day, however, when he went into the house to do his work, and while no one else was in the house, 12 she caught hold of his garment, saying, "Lie with me!" But he left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside. (NRSV)
This is the Joseph of the techni-colored coat fame. He had been sold by his brothers into slavery as they were jealous of their father’s affection. This was quite a storm. Once in Egypt he was brought into the house of a prominent Egyptian who came to realize that Joseph was a man of considerable talents. He therefore made Joseph the manager of his entire household, including all of his possessions. And God blessed Joseph’s hand and so all that he managed prospered. Even his fields produced abundant crops. Things were going so well that Potiphar didn’t worry about anything, because Joseph was doing such a good job with all that was entrusted to him.
And then the text gives us an unusual detail: Joseph was handsome and good-looking. The fact that this detail seems irrelevant signals that storms clouds are gathering and a new storm is threatening. The next thing that it says, in a wonderful turn of phrase, is that after a while Potiphar’s wife “cast her eyes on Joseph.” She pleaded with him to sleep with her.
Now, he was surely tempted. And he may have asked himself, “Who would know? Who would find out? What would be the harm in saying “yes,” after all, wouldn’t it be a private matter between himself and this woman?”
But, he didn’t. This is what he said:
"Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
He recites to her the responsibility and the trust that he has from his master. There is nothing that the master has held back from him except his wife. This act would mean the worst betrayal of trust. How could he do that and commit such a great wickedness and sin against God? He couldn’t.
Potiphar’s wife took no for an answer that day, but she kept after him day after day. Until one day, when there was no one else around, she forced herself on him, as she had probably been fanaticizing about him all the time. She grabs his shirt and will not let him go. What did he do? He left his shirt right there and ran—and ran and ran.
This is a snapshot of a reality that we all face—temptation. Temptation is when we want to meet legitimate needs with illegitimate ends. We need money to buy things, but gambling is all illegitimate way to meet those needs. We have sexual needs but pornography or sex outside of marriage is not a legitimate way to meet those needs.
Now, often you hear people say about these things, “Come on, it’s not that big of a deal! Everybody does it.” In fact, if you watch TV these days you would get the impression that you’re a bit odd if you’re not doing it. These things have been recast as the new normal.
Is this right? Are these things no big deal, especially if no one even knows?
These kind of things are on my mind because I have recently been involved with a church where the pastor admitted to having an affair for three years. It is a heart-breaking situation. There is anger, hurt, and even some denial because the betrayal is so great. This pastor betrayed to vows that he made to his wife, he betrayed his kids, he broke the promises that he made to the church. He was living a lie. Some people want to just cover it all up. They wish that it had never come out into the public eye, and that the family had just been able to deal with it quietly. But that wouldn’t be right. Sin, to be dealt with, has to be exposed. As a pastor, I wouldn’t want to be allowed to hide my sin, because then it just festers. It is the light of God’s grace that cleanses sin.
And this pastor’s actions should be a warning to all of us. If it can happen to a pastor, it can happen to any of us. And the most dangerous thing about temptation is that you don’t have to say yes all at once, you just need to say yes to a little bit at a time. Because sin is powerful. Once you give into it a little, it becomes harder to say no the next time. You can’t just stop with just one bite, to paraphrase a commercial.
In 1999, for the first time in 47 years, local fishermen discovered that tuna were running only thirty miles off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. And they were biting! You didn't have to be a professional to catch them; all you needed was a sharp hook and some bait. And the rewards for doing so were substantial. Rumor had it that Japanese buyers were willing to pay $50,000 for a large blue-fin. As a result, many ignored Coast Guard warnings and headed out to sea in small, unequipped boats. What these new fishermen didn't realize was that the problem is not catching a tuna—it's getting them into the boat.
On September 23, the Christi Anne, a 19-foot boat, capsized while doing battle with a tuna. That same day, the 27-foot boat Basic Instinct suffered the same fate, while Official Business, a 28-footer, was swamped after it hooked onto a 600-pound tuna. The tuna simply pulled it underwater.
These fishermen underestimated the power of the fish they were trying to catch. Temptation, likewise, can blindside you. A small indiscretion appears to be worth the risk. But, as with a hooked tuna, only after we hook into temptation do we discover its true strength.
So, you might be in a swapped boat right now. You might feel like your boat is out of control, but it is not because you are in a hurricane, it might be because you thought you could catch a fish that was too big for you. For, there are storms of our own making.
Your life might be swamped by gambling, or pornography, or shopping, or alcohol. You thought that you could handle it and now your boat is flooded and you feel like your sinking. Sin is a slippery slope. It can lead us to places of danger, places we would never set out to reach.
You need to know that Christ is Lord of all the powers. The Bible says, “Greater is He that is in you [that is, Jesus], than he that is in the world.” If your life is out of control and you need help, turn to Jesus. Turn to him in your helplessness. Call on him and he will help you. He is more powerful than any other power in your life. And then, admit your situation to others. Confessing your sin is the fastest way to break its power on your life.
If your boat is not swamped, but you are facing temptation; you are facing a storm, how should you respond? Look again to Joseph. What did he do? He ran. He knew that if he was going to stay clear of the storm he had to get out of its path. In both 1 Corinthians and 2 Timothy, the Bible says that we should “flee temptation.” We don’t see how much we can handle. We don’t flirt with it. We run away. The greatest danger is being too confident that we can handle it. If you have trouble remembering this, just think of the Forrest Gump principle of dealing with temptation. “Run, Forrest, run!” This is what Joseph did. He ran. But it is also helpful to consider what Joseph was thinking about.
Joseph weighed in his mind what was at stake. He had the complete trust of his master, who had given him everything. He had total authority over the household, as well as his master’s trust. He couldn’t break that trust. He couldn’t do it and so he ran.
We too have our Master’s trust. God has given us everything. Will we risk it by being too confident? We have greater dangers. The internet has made it easier and more private to gamble, to shop, to view pornography. It’s all just a click away, which makes it even more important that we don’t go there in the first place.
In a poem entitled, "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters," Portia Nelson writes these words:
Chapter I:
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost … I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter II:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in the same place,
but it isn't my fault.
Chapter III:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in … it's a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter IV:
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
Chapter V:
I walk down another street.
This poem describes our experience so often. We walk down a road in life and run right into sin. It is so often not until we get burned that we take another road. God gives us his Word so that we don’t have to learn the hard way. We don’t have to hurt everyone around us before we acknowledge that we can handle the power of sin in our lives. God does give us legitimate means for meeting our legitimate needs.
Are you facing temptation right now? Run from what temps you and turn to Jesus.