Welcome to Rock Harbor Church's channel on Sermon Audio. We hope this message is a blessing to you and helps you in your daily walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So please, settle in and grab your Bibles. Here's Pastor Brandon with this message. This is the second part of dealing with Joseph. And Joseph, as you know, is a model figure. He's a typology from the Messiah. And Joseph really is gonna show us how to put boundaries down because where we left off before I went to Turkey, where we left off was Joseph is being hammered by this woman that wants to have sex with him. and she's Potiphar's wife, and she's unrelenting. And so we watch the first stage of this, and then now what I wanna do is I wanna go into how Joseph is putting boundaries down to protect himself, to protect everyone around him, and even to protect Israel. Boundaries are a big thing. And let me explain that for a second. All of us have to be very good at putting boundaries and limitations around us. It protects us, it protects our children, it protects others. I'll give you an example, like in our community. We have made a decision to live within a community, okay? We're in Bakersfield. Living in this community, we make a decision that, hey, man, this is the way we're going to function. These are our laws. These are our rules. And the rules are there to provide a safe environment for all of us living here, okay? Because that's what we want. We want to live in safety and not be bothered by criminal activity or whatnot. But then you have a problem with people who decide, well, I'm not going to play by the rules of society. I'm going to check myself out and do my own thing because I'm totally autonomous and I have the freedom to do anything I want to do. Yeah, that's right, you can, but then we put you in jail because of that. But what happens when a society stops putting people in jail for misbehavior, right? What happens when you have a law that comes out of California that says you can steal up to $950 in a store and we won't prosecute you? What happens when you have homeless people roaming all over your neighborhoods and causing all kinds of problems, leaving the needles all over the ground? I went and ate last night at Rice Bowl, and I went and parked on the east side, you know the eastern entrance of Rice Bowl, not the one in the front. I went on the east side, and I come up to the very door, and there's a homeless guy panhandling right there in the front. And his spares changed, and I said, let me ask you something. You know you're on private property? Well, no. And I said, you're not supposed to be on private property. And I said, it's the manager's fault for not telling you to get out of here, because the last 20 people that has went through this door, you have harassed asking for money. you're on private property. So I said, I'm gonna go in there and tell the manager about you. So I went inside, told the manager, I said, hey man, you got a guy out there, every one of your patrons are coming into this restaurant, he's panhandling on private property. So they went and took care of it. But here's my point. Why did it take me to do that and not the 20 people before me and the manager of Rice Bowl to say, we can't have a homeless guy at the front door asking for money? Why does it take us to do that? Because here's what's happening in our culture. No one will put boundaries down on bad behavior. That's the problem. They think being nice and cordial and they think being compassionate is to let anyone do anything they want to do. That's not freedom. And here's the problem. The reason people don't understand that is because they don't understand boundaries. When God created society and he created this whole world, he gave us rules. And he says this is the way to run things. This is the way you function. And the rules are there to protect you. It's not the hymn you win. True freedom is I'm responsible to the people around me. I'm responsible to myself and my community. But now people are saying, it's like this, you know, true freedom is do anything you want. Check out of a society, be anything you want, decide what gender you want to be, decide what sexuality you want to be, and you can just do anything you want to do. You want to groom kids? Go ahead and groom our kids in public schools. Go ahead. That's not freedom. It's not freedom, and that's the mistake a lot of people are making. Freedom means I'm responsible to do that which is good that God has ordained. That's what freedom means. Our founders didn't think freedom was to do anything you wanna do, but now a new mentality has come in, and it's boundaryless. And when you live in a boundaryless society, you get lawlessness. So boundaries are a big deal. Now I bring it to a personal level. If you don't have boundaries in your marriage, if you don't have boundaries in your family, you're gonna wreak havoc in your personal life. Think about this if you're married and you had no boundaries. Well, you know what? I'm married, but I can sleep with whoever I wanna sleep with, because I don't have any rules. I can do anything I wanna do. How would that function in your marriage, right? It wouldn't, it just wouldn't work. And you know that, that's common sense. But why do we think it can happen in society? Why do we think that we can allow people not to play by the rules, defecate on our streets in San Francisco, destroy the whole city? Why do we think that's okay? Why do we think that's compassionate? It's not boundaries, it's not true freedom. So what we're gonna look at with this, and I wanna go through it, is the multiple stages of how he puts boundaries down. The temptation, obviously, is to have sex with her, but it's more broader than that. All of us deal with certain temptations, okay? And he's gonna show you how to handle it, because Joseph is the ideal, he's a picture of Christ, okay? So we already know this, this is kind of a refresher here, verse seven, and it came to pass after these things, that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said to him, lie with me. So we already looked at this, and what's happened is Joseph had been sold into slavery by his brothers. He's been taken into Egypt, and he's been now a member of Potiphar's house. He's been a servant. He's been working his way up, and he's a really good man. He's an honest man. He has integrity, and he's worked himself up to be like the highest in Potiphar's house. Now all of a sudden, this wife of Potiphar wants to have sex with him. And we talked about all that last time. Okay, and of course, we looked at this and he refused. Okay, so he refuses. But that's not the end of the story. There's a whole backstory that keeps happening to him. It's not just a one-time thing that he has to resist. It's over and over and over and over again. And the only way he survives is by putting boundaries and limitations around him. And that's what I wanna show you. So he refused and God bless him, there's a lot behind that. But one of the things you see initially here, when he says that he refused is a verbal boundary, okay? It's a verbal boundary. A verbal boundary starts, you don't go from DEF CON, you know, with a boundary, you don't go to DEF CON 6, when you're putting a boundary on somebody, you start gradually giving a boundary and work your way to the boundary gives enough pain to the individual for them to stop. For some individuals, it's a verbal, you start with a verbal, and it's no. No, that's the first thing you say, no, okay? So you communicate that boundary, and then if they're an adult, you give them the reasons why. Okay, I can't give you any money now that you're my adult child because you won't stop doing drugs, no, right? I won't fund your habit because you're getting drunk every night and partying and you're asking for more money again and you haven't have a job and I have to keep supporting you, no. You put the verbal down and you give the reasons. Now if you're dealing with a five-year-old or even a teenager, you don't need to explain anything. If you're the parent, you have the power and authority, no, we're not doing that and I don't need to give a PhD dissertation to you why I'm saying no. I'm the boss and you're not, applesauce. So that's the way you do it. But let's just go to the society, for example. So here's verbal boundaries being put out by society. And of course the politicians don't listen. 67% of voters support deportations. That's right. So it's an overwhelming majority of Americans say, I'm tired of this. I'm tired of illegal people coming in here, breaking our laws, and criminals coming through. We got 400 terrorists that came through, and we don't know where they're at. And we've got Trinidad taking over apartment buildings. We got Venezuela allowing criminals out of their prisons and being told to go into the United States. Hey. We're done. America is saying we're done, okay? And then we're giving them money. Then, did you know where we can get, if an illegal that's in our prison system requests a sex change, you and I have to pay for that. Okay, that's crazy. I don't care what planet you're from, that's crazy. If you're on Mars or Venus and you think that's normal, you need to go back to Mars and Venus because that doesn't exist on planet Earth. We don't give illegals transitioning surgeries. That's crazy. Liberal actor Michael Rappaport slams the media and dims over Trump-Nazi comparisons. No wonder the guy's been shot at twice, or at least attempted assassination. You keep calling people Nazis. You keep saying that, then there's psychopaths out there that will say, yeah, I must stop Hitler at all costs, right? That's the mentality. So even this liberal actor saying, enough, he's putting a verbal boundary, you guys need to stop that. Stop the rhetoric, right? Now, I'm not agreeing with his Catholicism, but this guy, Archbishop Vigano, he got kicked out by the Pope, and the Pope, as you know, is a globalist Marxist. But Vigano, he got kicked out by the Pope, by the way, but he writes an open letter to American Catholics. Kamala Harris is an infernal monster who obeys Satan. Now, I agree, I agree, I hate to tell you that, but I agree. I mean, you're talking about a very dark woman. You're talking about a very dark regime. And you're like, well, you're getting political. No, I'm getting moral. Anyone that wants to kill babies, okay? Anyone that's willing to give transition surgeries to children, I'm sorry, I know where you're coming from. I don't need any more information about that. I get it. I get where you're coming from. And this is what we call a verbal boundary, putting it out there. Now, none of the candidates are perfect, and no one's asking anyone to be a perfect. We're not voting for a pastor. We're voting for someone that's gonna give the church enough time and Israel enough time to do what they need to do. That's all we're asking. We're not asking for perfection. But I don't want a death cult in the United States. I don't want people that want to depopulate the planet in a civilized way. I don't know what that means. You wanna kill us? I don't want that. I don't want a digital currency. I don't want our economy to collapse. I don't want that. I don't want China taking over America. I don't want threats from Iran coming over here. I don't want that. So the issue is a boundary. You have a right to exercise your boundary, and the boundary is your vote. That's what it is. It's a preservative. Now, does your vote matter? Of course it matters. Of course it matters. In swing states, some of the decisions are based on almost about 12,000 votes. That's not a lot. And the thing is, you say, well, I live in California, what does my vote matter? Because it does matter to God. You have to be able to tell God, I did everything I could to preserve this society. I did everything I could to be salt and light. And you sitting this one out because you don't want to get your hands dirty is a false piety, okay? So watch what happens, verse eight. And he said to his master's wife, so he's given the explanation why he doesn't want to have sex with her. Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this wickedness and sin against God? So what you have in there is two aspects that he mentions. The first aspect is the love of others. How could I do this to Potiphar? He has given me so much. He trusts me so much, he didn't even know what's going on in the house, because he trusts me so much. And I'm gonna go sin against this other individual that loves me so much, Potiphar? That's the love of others. And then he says, how could I do this wickedness to God? That's love of God. So it's simple. One of the things that protects you and I, protects our society, protects your family, is theological boundaries, okay? Boundaries, commands. Most people, unfortunately, in Christianity think there's only two commands now. Love God and love others. That's a summation of the Law of the Messiah, and the Law of the Messiah contains 1,050 commands. It's almost double that of the Mosaic Law. which was 613. So when you look at this, the love of God and love of others, they flush out in 1,050 commands. Now what you have to understand about the commands is the commands is not God being a killjoy to us. It is God saying, this is the way reality is created. This is the way I designed you. And for you to flourish and function correctly in this reality that created, I have given you the list of rules that make the best possibility for you to do the ultimate good, not destroy yourself, but to have life and to have true freedom. That's what the commands are for. But unfortunately, the people think of the commands, well, you're hindering my freedom. No, no, God has given you freedom because of the commands. If you think that freedom is absolute isolationism, that I'm on a deserted island and I can do anything I wanna do, I can be anything I wanna be, then that's not biblical freedom. That's just not. But unfortunately, that's what people think. Well, I don't wanna be, don't tell me if I'm a boy or a girl, I'll make that decision. Don't tell me who I can have sex with, I'll make that decision. You're gonna go against the design. And when you go against the design, it's going to hurt you. Let's just use an analogy. Everybody knows if you play sports, basketball, soccer, baseball, football, there are rules to the game that you have to play. Everybody knows that. And if you don't learn the rules, you can't play the game. So it's not like, you know, if you're on a basketball court and the gym coach just throws a basketball out there and says, all right, you guys play basketball. And no one knows how to play basketball. No one knows how the rules are. What will it turn into? Chaos. But you have to have somebody come in and say, well guys, this is the rules, this is how you play, this is a foul, this is traveling, whatever the issue is, right? There's rules, and the rules help you play the game. And then, once you learn the rules well enough, You can play the game easier. It actually becomes easier to play the game. That's how life is. That's what the 1,050 rules are for, is that you learn how to play the game. And the game then becomes easier the more you follow the rules. They become easy. You can do a layup. You can shoot a three-pointer. It becomes easier for you. That's how to look at the law of the Messiah. Not as a restrictor, but a opportunity for freedom for you to accomplish the most good in your life. Who is sitting here, says, I don't want to accomplish the most good in my life. I want to destroy my life. I want to be an addict. I want to be ashamed to look myself in the mirror. Who says that? But yet people live that way. Because, well, I don't want to be restricted. I don't want to be told what I can do. Well, I'm sorry. This is what the instruction manuals say, and this is how the machine operates. So what you have to understand about true freedom and boundaries, that's what we're talking about, they are coming from God's values. They're coming from His nature and design, right? You're not an isolated individualist. Think about this. When people say, I have the right to do whatever I want, so I'm gonna go and check out of society, I'm gonna go live on the streets, and I'm gonna shoot up with heroin, because that's what I wanna do, okay? Whatever. They are choosing, at that point in time, to check out of the design, okay? And that's called isolated individualism. They don't care that their behavior impacts all of us. And we're in a social contract with all of us in this room that live in Bakersfield or in the United States. We have all decided, hey, I'm going to play by the rules. I'm going to pay my taxes. I'm going to do what I'm supposed to do. And I'm doing it not just for myself, but for the others that live in this community. Because I don't want my junk to come on them. So when someone decides, I'm not going to play by the rules, they infringe on everyone's rights. That's just like an illegal person coming to the border saying, I want a better life. Yeah, okay, but do it right. Because when you come over illegally, I have to pay for you. And I don't think that's fair to those who already live here because we can't afford you already. That's not true freedom that anyone's an American. That's, what are you talking, someone living in South America is an American? That's what they said. Everyone's an American. The whole world's an American? I'm sorry, we can't pay for that. That will hurt the other people. Now here's the nature of boundaries before I move any further. You understand the nature of boundaries is to protect those who need protection. That's why you put boundaries on crazy uncles that come to your Thanksgiving. You put boundaries on him because why? He can hurt other people in your family. So we say, you know, crazy uncle, you stay away today. You're crazy, you're drunk, you need to sober up and then you can come over or something like that, right? So boundaries are put there not just to protect you but to protect the ones you love. So when we have people and we say, oh, everyone's welcome, come on in, that's crazy because now you're not protecting those that you're supposed to protect. So look at this. Is this biblical freedom or isolated individualism? That's isolated individualism, and by the way, that's a counselor that Andy Stanley's church sends people to to affirm them in their gayness, okay? That's Andy Stanley's, one of their counselors they send people to. Now obviously he went to a drag show. That image right there is not freedom. That's bondage, okay? That's isolated individualism. They say, well, Brandon, that person's not hurting you. Really, they're not hurting me. They're hurting all of our kids. They're hurting our whole society because if you think that a guy dressed up like that is normal, you are now celebrating the circus. Okay, you have brought the circus, the margin, into the center of your society, and that doesn't work well. Look at this, this is crazy. As an example, pro-choice Catholic, that's like an oxymoron. That's like saying flaming snowballs. Pro-life Catholic, you're supposed to be against killing babies, but they make a big quilt or pro-abortion quilt at Vatican Square. Now, that's not freedom. That's radical individualism. And think about, does that hurt anybody? Yes, because it allows people to kill babies. That's how it hurts people. Tim Walz's wife. reading queer propaganda to little children in public schools. Does that freedom to read queer propaganda to children, is that true freedom or not? That's not, that's demonic. That puts the children in bondage. I'm having some problem with my mic, I don't know what's going on. Anyway, look at this one. So she's preaching at a North Carolina pulpit, which I can't believe that would even happen. But she says, I'm doing justice for the vulnerable. What? What vulnerable? Trans? Is that who you're talking? Because you're not, the most vulnerable in our society are babies. That's who the most vulnerable are. But you are championing, sacrificing them to Moloch, if I understand you correctly. Then she goes to North Carolina and they're calling her Esther. Yeah, the church is calling her, she's an Esther, she's a hero. And the article goes on and says she's a Jezebel. If you, right now, can't discern good and evil, you got a problem, okay? You're calling someone an Esther when they're as demonic as you can possibly imagine. Your value system has been untethered. 5,700 American children had trans surgeries between 2019, yeah, it's a lot, and 2023, they're treated like guinea pigs. Let me ask you this, is this freedom? No, these are parents not putting boundaries on children and letting their children be indoctrinated by the public schools to think they're something else and the parents allowing them to chop body parts off, okay? That's demonic. Let me ask you this, do you want more of that? No, okay, thank you. Rainbow Priest says this, we are gay by God. For Christ's sake, it's all God's fault. God started this rainbow parade. God is leading it. God will bring it all to completion. I'm sorry, that's a demon. That's a demon speaking. That ain't freedom. The freedom to be a human, okay? God created humans, okay? And he made them male and female, okay? And he designed their sexuality. You go against that. You're going to destroy yourself. Look, the most compassionate thing to say to someone trapped in that lifestyle is you will destroy yourself. You will die an early death. Statistics prove that. I don't want you to die an early death. I don't want you to commit suicide. But it already shows that the more you're in that lifestyle, the more suicidal you become. And the way you live your life is become suicidal. You just live in ways that destroy you. Then you have this, woke church celebrates Planned Parenthood. I mean, what? What? United Church of Christ and pastors holding blessing ceremony for Planned Parenthood. I'm not understanding this. I don't know what kind of Christian does things like this. Partners with the demonic. What is this? And here's the other thing, the kicker, like I told you. 32 million self-identified Christians who regularly attend church are unlikely to vote in the upcoming 2024 election. And why? Why don't they want to vote? Due to a lack of interest. A lack of interest. What planet are these Christians on? A lack of interest? Look, I don't have to go outside here and know all my prices are skyrocketing when I go to Walmart. All my food prices are skyrocketing. All my insurance has skyrocketed. All the property tax, everything has went up. You want that? That hasn't woke you up? What are you, crazy? What are you so checked out? What are you, smoking pot? What are you, playing video games? What's wrong with you? I wanna know. or you've just decided to willfully ignore reality. Because if you willfully ignore reality, then you're gonna go crazy. You're gonna think that which is abnormal is now normal. It is normal now to watch men in dresses with beards and lipstick prance around at the schools and do a drag queen show. That's normal to you. I'm sorry, you're losing your mind. And when 35 million, already say, I'm not gonna vote, because I'm just not interested. I don't know what to think about this, guys. I don't know what to think. But let's go back to the boundaries thing, and we'll get to Joseph. What you're seeing is that the path away from God is boundaryless. Okay, that's how it starts. It starts with the internal sin nature saying, I don't want to do this. I want to do my own thing. And what ends up happening when you do your own thing, you enslave yourself and you have more suffering. That's how the devil tricks you, is you get into more bondage and you suffer more. So choosing God's way, obeying the rules, going how the design is, actually frees me and gives me life. And it frees me to do the highest good I could possibly do in this life. Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't want to look at the end of their life saying, hey man, I gave it all I had. I gave it everything between the lines, man. I sold out for God. I did exactly what I was supposed to do, and I lived a good life. Who wouldn't want that? So what it comes down to is this. It's not about rules, even though there's 1,050 of them for boundaries, okay, of how to live life. It's about the integrity you have with God. And that integrity is like what you see with Joseph. Oh, how would I sin against God? Even if Potiphar never knew, and I could have sex with this woman, and no one would ever know, God would know. That's integrity, right? That's where your integrity and my integrity has to come from, is that, hey, I don't care if no human sees it, God sees it. And so, you know, integrity says, I'm gonna keep this boundary because of God. That's really where the heart of it, it's a relationship with God. and look like Cain. Cain tried to think he could fool God and give him proper sacrifices, right? You're not gonna fool God. This is the problem with boundaries, with people that struggle with boundaries. They think they can lie to God and they think they can lie to themselves. And therefore, while they actually fool themselves, that I can live the way I want and have no repercussions. And what does God say to Cain? You know what to do is right. And the reason your life is going bad is because you won't do what's right. And you know what's right. That's the issue. So let's look at more of this boundary thing. So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her. Well, there you go. So it wasn't just one time. Hey, let's go have sex. It's every day. She's coming and offering sex to Him every day. Okay? So that brings a whole new perspective on things. I don't care what you're tempted by, whether it's an ice cream sundae or a banana split or a chocolate cake at midnight. That temptation will come to you every day of your life until you can figure this out and resist enough. So it comes day by day. So what is going on here? You need to prepare yourself that people will not accept the boundaries you put on them. She was already told no, but what does she keep doing? She keeps coming, day by day. The boundary resistors, you got a new one for me? On now? One, two, three, one, two, three, on now? Yeah, okay, there we go. Thanks, Alfonso. Okay, so whatever we're dealing with, it's just gonna keep coming up. She won't go away. Have you noticed your crazy uncle that you keep putting boundaries on just keeps coming and wanting to go to Thanksgiving every time? He just keeps calling you, can I come now, can I come now? No, are you sober? No, okay. But he keeps coming and he wants it. He won't stop, right? These are boundary resistors. This is the thing that people don't understand. They say, well, Brandon, I'm gonna put boundaries down on my family, I'm gonna put boundaries down on my adult children or whatever, and then I did that and they didn't like me. Yeah, I know. They're not gonna like you. No one likes being told no further. No one likes that. You will have boundary resistance. It's very rare that someone will respect your no. Have you noticed that? When you say, no, it's all right. Oh, come on. You know all I've done for you. I'm your mother. I birthed you. And you owe me your life. Mom, you're a codependent. I don't want you in my life. You're crazy. Whatever the issue might be, right? But what they do is they resist your boundaries. They don't say, okay, they don't do that. They just keep coming back. And it's like this, what I saw with this rally, this pro-abortion rally that Kamala was at, someone threw out a boundary. A big one. And the boundary was, Jesus is Lord. In the midst of all this offering children sacrifice to Malik, and Kamala responds like this when someone shouts, Jesus is Lord. Again, we're not going to be gaslighted on this. We remember Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court. with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended. Oh, you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street. I think it's pretty clear when someone says Jesus is Lord and they mock that statement and the crowd mocks that statement, I have a pretty good hunch what side they're on. I don't need any more, okay? That's demonic, okay? She didn't handle it correctly. It doesn't matter because that's already in the mindset. But here's the thing, boundaries. United States has been putting boundaries on these rogue nations, okay? And if we don't continue to put boundaries on rogue nations, they will take advantage of no boundaries. Like China, like Russia, like North Korea, like Iran, and so on, okay? Isn't it funny, all these rogue nations, get together and form bricks, and they form it. It's like that monster movie, the claymation thing, when everybody got invited to the castle, and you had the werewolf, and you had the mummy, and you had Frankenstein, and you had Dracula, and they all got together, and I can't remember the name of that claymation thing in the 60s, but it was all the monsters got together. Why is it that when I look at society, all the monsters always get together? Why do vampires hang out with werewolves? Whether it's China, whether it's Russia, North Korea, they're all together in bricks. And what do they say? We've got to gradually thwart the conspiracy of the United States and its allies. Let me ask you a question. When you're dealing with Frankenstein and mummy and vampire Dracula, who do you want to put boundaries on them? Because you have to corral the monsters. Someone's gonna have to put boundaries on Putin. Someone's gonna have to put boundaries on Iran. Just saying, because these guys are wanting to push to confront the West. Okay, they're pushing back on our boundaries, the West's boundaries. Okay, so it's a fight of a territory of boundaries. Ask yourself, who do you want to reign in, the monsters? Who can reign in the monsters? Hmm. So what you have here then, what, What's happening with him, with Joseph, is he's putting these boundaries down. So you've seen the theological boundaries, right? You've seen the verbal boundary, but then you have to put the emotional boundary down too. And that's what he's doing. Because if you go back to the thing, it's day by day, he did not heed her. He's not heeding her. He's not letting himself be worn down. And here's what you have to understand. If you don't guard your emotions, then day after day, as this temptation comes your way, it will start wearing you down, okay? And that's why it's unrelenting. It's trying to wear you down. So like, if you have someone in your family that just keeps doing the same thing over and over again, and Eventually, if you don't protect yourself emotionally, they will wear your emotions down and then you will compromise and give in to them. And you won't have any boundaries. That's the tactic. Satan, if he can't get you to sin, he'll just wear you out. So eventually you give in. Okay, so how do I protect my emotions? You're going to have to learn to detach from those who are trying to work on your emotions. Even if it's your own family member, you have to learn to detach your emotions. Here's what ends up happening. Well, I start feeling sorry for them, and they had a run of bad luck. Now, all of a sudden, your emotions will make them a victim. The minute you make them a victim, your boundaries will go down, okay? And what you have to do emotionally is detach and say, no, no, you need to be responsible for your life. You're an adult, you need to get it together, okay? I can't keep helping you and enabling you and pretending that you're a victim of this whole world. Because we're all suffering here. It's not just you, it's all of us here. So join the club, get on board, and be responsible with your life. The only way you can do that is detach emotionally. Now, that's how you do that in a nice, good way. There's bad detachment, but there's good detachment. Because if you don't, your emotions will go in and you will succumb to that emotional drain, because it's emotional draining, okay? So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, again, unrelenting, that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her. So the focus on this one is to lie with her. So this is the relationship that she's trying to establish. So this is a relational boundary. So we got emotional boundaries, then you have a relational boundary, okay? And in relational boundaries, what you have to go through is... In my relationships, who is bringing me life and who is bringing me death? And I mean that in a principle sense, right? Not in a literal sense. But there's people that we're in relationship with that when you're around them, they're encouraging to you, they build you up, it motivates you to be the best person possible, and they help you. Okay, those are people that bring life to you. And hopefully you're that kind of person that does that for other people. But then you know there's other people in your relationship that suck the life out of you. That every time you're around them, they just, I lose all my energy, and I gotta listen to their victim, I gotta listen to all this junk, and when I'm done with them, I gotta go take a nap. Because I'm so, there's no energy. They kill me, right? See, the problem is, if you don't discern who's bringing life and who's bringing death, then you don't have good relational boundaries. You won't know who to be in relationship with and who not to be in relationship with. Look, and here's the thing, you all know this, bad company corrupts good character. If you're around people sucking the life out of you, you will become like them. That's what Paul was saying. You will become who you hang out with. Now I know the problem with our families is sometimes we're stuck with them, right? Even your spouse, you're sometimes stuck with them. And then they're sucking the life out of you like a vampire. I get it, I get it. And you gotta figure out coping mechanisms to deal with that and ways to protect yourself from having this life sucked out of you. But in his situation, Joseph's situation, he is keeping a distance relationship with her. Because what she's trying to do by coming to him day by day, she's establishing a bond. That's what she's doing. She's trying to create a bond. And what the devil knows is that if he can create a bond with you, then you'll give in to the relationship. That's how it works. And notice what it says, that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her. Okay, that's another clue right there. What is that? That is a physical boundary. He wouldn't be with her. Every time she wanted to be with him, he left. Hey, good idea. Physical boundaries are important. People think they're, well, it's juvenile to think like that. No, it's not. You have to have physical boundaries. I'll give you an example how important physical boundaries are with people. Nevada's women volleyball team forces forfeit wins showdown with school over competing against trans players. So what this school did is say, hey look, we're gonna put a physical boundary down to protect our girls because the other team has a dude on it that's pretending to be a girl and we don't want him hurting our girls. So we're just not gonna play you. So we forfeit. until you get rid of this carnival circus act in your school. Okay, that's called a physical boundary, right? Good for them, that's how you do it, right? You put a physical boundary down. Now, something that a lot of parents need to wake up to, I'm sure I'm talking to the choir here, but more and more of these cartoons that these kids are watching are all socially indoctrinating them. I mean, Disney's the worst, right? Disney has completely abandoned the concept of entertainment. They're continuing to try to get people to be gay, okay? So what's a physical boundary? It's called an on and off button. But so from some reason, parents can't find it. They can't find the on and off button. You know why? Because the TV has become the babysitter for the children or whatever, or the video games or whatever it is, right? And so the parents won't turn it off. Now, I know I'm speaking to the choir and you're like, well, I don't want my kids to, I know that. I'm talking about them. The majority of the public is not turning the TV off. They're letting the kids watch this and they're seeing dudes kiss on a Disney program. Now let's move to something else. Now more societal boundaries, okay? Societal boundaries. What did I say boundaries are for? It's not just to protect you, it's to protect those you love. That's what boundaries are for. So now we have a situation in FEMA, which is supposed to help disasters in like North Carolina or in Florida, and we've run out of money. Oh, why? Did we spend it on other disasters? Is that why we ran out of money? No, we spent $640 million on a program to house illegals. Thank you very much. So we ran out of money to help North Carolina or in Florida because we were helping non-citizens. Wait a second, boundaries are there to protect those you love. If you have no boundary and if all the world is gonna be helped by the United States, you're not going to protect the ones you love. At last year, the cost came at 780 million. I wonder if that could have helped North Carolina. I wonder if that could have helped get the rescue teams quicker to North Carolina. I wonder. I don't know. But listen to this. What if you did this in your own personal life? That you said, you know what? I really want to take care of the neighbors. I want them to keep up with the Joneses. So I'm gonna start dishing out a lot of money to my neighbor even though I'm sacrificing my college money for my kids. I'm gonna give some of the neighbor my college money for my own kids. Who in this building would do something like that? You wouldn't hurt your own kids for the sake of the neighbor, would you? That's insane. No, and that's not Christianity, by the way. That's called Marxism, okay? That's Marxism. You steal from others to help your agenda, and you don't care that you steal from people. Now let's move to Israel as another boundary example. Israel now is having to get their boundaries back because their people are threatened. They've lived out of their houses for nearly over a year now, and they can't move back because Hezbollah has fired 14,000 rockets from the north in one year. Let's put this in perspective. Let's say you and I lived in San Diego and Tijuana shot 14,000 rockets into San Diego. And we had to tell all the people in San Diego, get out of your houses and get out of there and flee your house and move up to LA and stay there in LA in hotels until Hezbollah stops firing rockets, or sorry, Tijuana starts firing rocket. You would say that's crazy. That's what Israel is facing in the north with Hezbollah. So now Israel's moved all its troops up in the north and they're going to a ground assault. They're gonna take Hezbollah out and they need to. So when you hear people say, cease fire, cease fire, that would be like the same saying, cease fire, United States. Don't protect yourself against Tijuana shooting 1,400,000 rockets into your land. No one would think like that. You would say, no, no, we're not gonna allow that. We're not gonna let the San Diegoans not live in their home for nearly a year. No one would say ceasefire, would they? But how come they're telling Israel that? So Israel is going up and what Israel has to do just to show you a boundary, they have to push Hezbollah and these terrorists up past the Latani River, that yellow line. Otherwise that zone right there between the blue and the yellow, that's all Hezbollah. They've got to get rid of the terrorist group, okay? So no one should be doing ceasefires. You've got to push the boundary back. That's a literal boundary, right? And then you have to deal with Iran. Iran is the ones funding Hezbollah and Hamas and Houthis and whoever, all these proxies. So Israel is going to have to deal with Iran and they've already started. They've already started attacking military sites in Iran. Last morning, yesterday morning, they already went and did a second wave of attacks. Okay, what they really need to take out is the nuclear institution or installations and the oil. But the Biden administration is not allowing them, they're holding them back, but they need to take them out. Because if you don't deal with Iran, you have a border problem, you have a boundary problem. Otherwise, you're just gonna go nuclear on you. So Israel is starting to fire back and they've taken out a few things. And of course, there's boundary resistors. So Macron says, well, you know, there needs to be an oil, not oil, but arms embargo for Israel. You know who Macron is? He's your crazy uncle wanting to come to Thanksgiving who's drunk. Can I come over? I've just had two. No, you're not coming over. That's Macron, he's drunk. He doesn't even know what he's talking about. Now, let me shift just real quickly to prophecy. Just real quick, since we're talking about Israel. We're watching Israel attack Iran, right in front of our very eyes. This hasn't happened since like 1980, by the way, or something like that. But you have a couple of prophecies that need to be fulfilled in the future. And this could be setting things up. So the prophecy of Jeremiah 49 is something interesting I think you guys should study on your own. It says, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might. The bow of Elam is not the arrows, it's the bow. It's the capabilities of shooting arrows. You catching the drift on that one? It's the capabilities of shooting arrows. And then where is Elam? Elam is right here, if you look at the Persian Gulf, and you have, this is the ancient world, but that's Persia right there. Where Elam is, is that area, generally speaking. This has never been fulfilled in biblical prophecy. By the way, If you look today, what's in Elam near the Persian Gulf, it is Iran's Bashir nuclear place, okay? This is where they're enriching uranium to nuclear levels, okay? But check out what the prophecy says. Thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the capabilities of shooting rockets. I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might. Against Elam, I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven and scatter them, all those winds. There shall be no nations where the outcasts of Elam will not go, for I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies and before those who seek their life. "'I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger,' says the Lord. "'I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them. "'I will set my throne in Elam.'" That's the judgment throne, okay? "'And I will destroy them from the king "'and their princess,' says the Lord. "'But it shall come to pass in the latter days.'" So that's the earmark. It's the latter days. "'And I will bring back the captives of Elam,' says the Lord. "'So I'll bring back a remnant.'" So what he's saying is this. I'm gonna destroy the capabilities of Elam to shoot arrows. And how I'm gonna destroy it is gonna leave the place desolate where no one can inhabit it anymore until the kingdom, when I gather back the remnant of Iran back. So you tell me, what would cause a disaster where people couldn't live in Elam anymore and they would be scattered to the four winds from something that happens in Elam? You're catching on, right? I'll break the bow, the capabilities of shooting. Look, I have no other way to interpret that other than that's the nuclear facility and it's gonna break the capabilities of Iran to be able to shoot nuclear weapons, but whatever destroys that, maybe Israel doesn't allow people to live there anymore because maybe a radiation leak, maybe. But look, we're living at a time where that stuff is a possibility. I'm not saying it's going to happen. It's definitely gonna happen in the future, but things are in motion right now. But let's go back to boundaries. But it happened about this time when Joseph went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was inside that she caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. Hmm, big problem. So he's working in the house, he's all alone, and she captures him alone. She does this on purpose. She knows no one's in the house. Now, what this is calling for is situational awareness. This is not Joseph's fault that he's alone, but he is aware of the situation with her. She's looming around. This is the big thing for all of us as far as boundaries are concerned. You must know what situation you're in at all times. I don't care if you go to the grocery store and it's 9 p.m. at night and you're gonna go into the grocery store, you need to have your head on a swivel thinking that maybe someone might attack me, right? or whatever, I'm not trying to say you're paranoid, but if you're being tempted by something, I think it would be to your best interest to be situationally aware, hey man, I have a problem with alcohol. Maybe I shouldn't go to the bar. That's probably not a good place for me. It's not a good time to go to Trouts when I'm feeling down and I'm feeling a little depressed. Do they even have Trouts anymore? I don't know. No, it's gone, right? Okay, okay. How come you guys know it's gone? How do you know that? Situational awareness, right? Situational awareness. So, you're caught, you're trapped, what do you do? Well, I think you better take your cue from Joseph, but he left his garment in her hand and he fled and ran outside. Good for him, God bless him. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just get out of the situation, that's all you can do. Especially in a sexual situation, right? You know, the interesting thing, this is called a flea boundary. Not a flea like goes on a dog, but a flea, like run boundary. There are situations that you might be in and all of a sudden it comes upon you and you feel entrapped, okay? Here's the great news from God. According to 1 Corinthians 10, no temptation has overcome you that is not common to man. So what he's saying is, I'm gonna put a limit on your temptation. You're not gonna be tempted beyond what you can bear, he says. You will not be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he says, I will provide a way of escape. Oh, so he says, I'm gonna put a limit on your temptation, and in every temptation, there is a way of escape. That's from God, okay? So you might say, I fell, I couldn't get out of it, I was entrapped. No, no, no, you can't say that, because God says there's always a trap door that you can get out of. So Joseph takes the trapdoor and the trapdoor in many cases might be just to get out of there. Get out of the situation, run. Now think about this as far as sexual sin. It is the only sin that is told that you need to run. flee also youthful lusts, flee sexual immorality. It's the one sin that God says, don't sit there and think you can overcome it. Don't sit there and think, I can resist, I'm strong. Don't sit there and think, well, let me test myself. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't test yourself in sexual sin, you run. Okay, if you can't control yourself, you remove yourself physically. It's the only sin that says that, by the way. Like, for instance, it'll say resist the devil and he will flee. It doesn't say resist sexual sin, never says that. It says run. Oh, there's something inherently difficult for most humans, they can't overcome it. And typically it's because they're lonely and they need self-affirmation. But anyway, that's another sermon. So let me ask you this question. Everybody's sitting in this room, you're like, okay, man, I'm gonna be like Joseph, and I'm gonna put boundaries down, I'm gonna get my crazy uncle not to come unless he's sober, I'm gonna do all these things, I'm gonna be like Joseph, I'm gonna have theological boundaries, emotional boundaries, all this other stuff. You're saying, I'm on board. Great, now let me add one more thing that might take you off board. Watch what happened. So Joseph, he just does a miraculous job of withstanding the temptation, right? And now, the way the story ends, and they all lived happily ever after. And so it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, see, he has brought in to me a Hebrew to mock us. That means, the Hebrew actually means to sexually play with me. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And it happened when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me and fled and went outside. What happened? CNN flipped the story. That's what happened. Do you understand what just, I mean, we see this in today. All of a sudden something happens. Don't believe your lying eyes. This is called projection. Have you seen it in politics today? They accuse you of that which they're doing. I'm not having an affair. And then Fannie Willis was having an affair with this guy for I don't know how long. I'm not doing that. Well, we got the phone records and it shows that he was at your house like 249 times. I don't know what was happening. I don't know. It didn't happen. Wow. Wow. So she kept his garment until the master came home. That's Potiphar, right? Then she spoke to him with words like these, saying, the Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came into me to mock me. And mock me means to sexual play with me. He was flirting with me, wanted to have sex. That's what it means. So it happened as I lifted my voice and cried out that he left his garment with me and flat out said, I have the evidence. I have it right here. It's the evidence. I have his garment. Of course, what is Potiphar? So it was when his master heard the words, which his wife spoke to him, saying, your servant did to me after this manner, that his anger was aroused. Then Joseph's master took him and put him into prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. Thank you very much. So question, does it pay to obey God? Because he got put in prison. What are you learning here? What are you seeing? He's doing the right thing. And when you do the right thing and boundary resistors don't like that you won't conform, don't like that you won't cave in, don't like that you won't play their game, guess what they do? They take revenge on you. They will sue you. They will take you to court. They will malign you. They will flip the narrative and say that you did this to them and when you didn't do anything. They will lie about you. Oh, Christians wouldn't lie, Brandon. Oh, are you crazy? Counsel a couple going through the divorce and see who's lying. You'll see a lot of lying. A lot of things being made up. So what's the point? you're gonna do good. And you're gonna do it because you have integrity. You have integrity with God. And you're gonna realize that you're doing it in a world that hates you. And you're gonna realize, I'm gonna do it, but I realize that they will not reward me for doing good. God will, but not they will. They won't. There will be a consequence for me not compromising with their false narrative. And so they're gonna try to demoralize you, they're gonna manipulate your public perception, they'll try to malign your reputation, and they're gonna change everyone's opinion about you, they're gonna demonize you, and say you're Hitler, and say you're Islamophobic, and say you're xenophobic, and say all these crazy things about you. Are you okay with that? You better get some thick skin, I'm telling you. If you're gonna resist the devil, if you're gonna resist this culture, get some thick skin and say, all right, call me whatever you want, I don't care. I'm gonna obey God and I don't care if it lands me in jail. I really don't because the truth makes the most sense in life and it brings the most value to my life and I'm not departing from that. If you can do that, you're gonna do just fine. You're gonna do just fine, you won't cave in, you won't compromise, you'll put up the proper boundaries, and you will be a survivor. And that's what God's asking you. Can you be a survivor in all this crazy world? Joseph is. The guy's gonna go to prison, by the way. But you know what's gonna happen? God's gonna work through him and get him out of that prison and put him in second in command in Egypt in order to save people. So it all makes sense, it all pans out, don't get me wrong. But. You will pay a price. I just hope you're willing to pay that price. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for what we can learn from Joseph's life. and how it applies to us about boundaries, not only in our personal life, but our community and our church and our society. It's a crazy world that we live in. Help us to have the guts like Joseph, the strength like Joseph to resist the temptation every day, every day of our lives, to put these boundaries down to protect us and protect the ones we love. And I pray, Father, if there's anyone here that doesn't know your son, the Savior, that we come to faith in him today, realizing Jesus paid for their sins on a cross, was buried and rose on the third day to give everlasting life to anyone who simply believes. We pray now in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for joining us for another lesson. We hope that this message is a blessing for you and helps you grow towards a more mature understanding of God's word. For more information about our ministry, we invite you to check out our website at rockharborchurch.net. Until next time, remember, keep looking up for our redemption draws near.