Let's open our Bibles tonight to the book of Genesis chapter 39. Begin reading with verse 1. Joseph was brought down to Egypt and is having been sold by his brothers in chapter 38. They sold him to a group of Ishmaelites or Midianites. One verse calls them Ishmaelites. Another verse calls them Midianites. It's the same group. It would be like me saying that you are Americans and you are Kentuckians, same people. One refers to their nationality, the other refers to something else. But having been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, very prestigious position, an Egyptian, brought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph. And he was a prosperous man, that is Potiphar. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Joseph was prosperous. Potiphar was prosperous. And so Potiphar took Joseph home to work in his house and to help around those things. His master saw that the Lord was with him. It doesn't make any difference how I live. Nobody notices anyway. Potiphar noticed the Lord was with Joseph. Very important point. He saw from his life, from his actions, from his attitude, from his behavior, Potiphar recognized there was something different about Joseph and that difference was the Lord was with Joseph. Your life does matter. how you act, how you treat people, how you behave, how you do all kinds of things. People notice, even though you may never get promoted, people notice your life and everything you do. But Potiphar noticed, he saw that the Lord all capitals, that's the translator's way of seeing that this is the God Almighty. Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. Even Potiphar was made to understand that Joseph was like he was because the Lord was with him. Moving on. Joseph found grace in his sight and he served him. He worked for him. He worked faithfully. He served him. Many people served the clock. I remember when I was working at a factory years ago, there were some people that 15 minutes before break time, they would start stopping their job and start getting ready for their break. Well, they were stealing 15 minutes, but that's another account. Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him. We'll get to that in my application point. And he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand. As I said this morning, there are many questions that I would like to ask Potiphar, that I would like to ask Joseph about this incident. There are many questions that we may never know the answers to, but the facts that we do have in the Bible tell us a lot of things that I think we can safely make some assumptions about. Based on what we know, based on human experience, based on the lives of countless thousands of other people, I think we can safely make some assumptions. about Potiphar and the whole situation. Now, and I realize that I may get shot, I may get tarred and feathered, I may get run out of town on a rail, But one of the first things that I thought of when I thought of Potiphar is that he was a slave owner. He owned slaves. And I know even saying that, there are people, if they're listening and watching even later, who will probably hate my guts. But in the Old Testament, slavery was a very common practice throughout the entire Bible. Now, in the Old Testament, the Jews were not allowed to own other Jews as slaves. Slaves were mostly made up from the conquered nations that they conquered, they defeated, and they took the people as slaves. Jews could be servants. But at the end of so many years, a Jew was required to be offered his freedom. Jews could never be slaves. They were servants who were to be treated as brothers, even though they were servants. In the Old Testament, it was never Never, never, and I've got it all capitals, bold face, underline, never, never, never okay to abuse a servant. Very strict rules. If you knocked out a servant's tooth, you had to offer him his freedom. If you were the cause of a servant losing an eye, you had to offer him his freedom. They didn't, and well, I'm getting ahead of myself. In the Bible, it is never okay, never all right. to abuse a slave in any shape, form, or fashion. They were to be treated as people, as higher hands. In the New Testament, Philemon is one of the best known slave owners in the New Testament. Do you recall the Book of Philemon? How many of you have read the Book of Philemon? Oh, good, everybody. If you read the Book of Philemon, he had a slave by the name of Onesimus. Onesimus had run away from Philemon and in running away, he had stolen something from Philemon. Probably money, but all we know for certain is that he had stolen something when he fled from Philemon. Onesimus went to Rome. In Rome, he met the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul witnessed to him, God saved him, and once God saved him, Paul sent him back to Philemon with the letter of Philemon asking Philemon to forgive him, and he said, whatever he stole, put it on my account. I will pay you back everything, every penny that he stole. Now, Philemon, I have a request. He's your slave. I respect that. God saved him while he was in Rome. He was a tremendous help to me in Rome. Now, Philemon, I'm asking you as a friend, give him his freedom, send him back to Rome so that he can continue to be a blessing unto me. In the other letters that Paul wrote, You know, we're all familiar with visions. Husbands love your wives more than football. No, that's not what he said. Husbands love your wives and only beat them once a week. That's not what he said. Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is good and right. Most people stop with husband, wife, kids. But in those verses, most of those verses, Paul goes on below the kids and said, servants, obey your masters. Masters, treat your servants with honor and respect. In fact, Paul had a lot to say about how servants were to work for their masters. and how their master was to give them a fair wage and a fair life, and how they were to treat their slaves. You won't find anywhere in Paul's writing that he ever condoned mistreating anyone. Husbands, you don't mistreat your wife. Wife, you don't mistreat your husband. Children, you don't mistreat your parents. Masters, you do not mistreat your servants. Servants, you serve them as unto the Lord, which I'll read to you later on. Now, then we come down to slavery in our history, our history. And this is where most people, when they think of slavery, it's not in biblical terms. It's in historical terms. Nowadays, if you're great, great, great, great, great, great, Great, great, great, great, great granddaddy owned slaves. You should be tarred and feathered because your great grandfather 200 years ago owned slaves. You are a slave owner. You're a descendant. You should be tarred and feathered because your great, great ancestry owned slaves. I'm not responsible for what my great 16 greats grandfather did. I don't even know what he did. I know that my grandmother was half Apache. My grandfather married a Cherokee. I always tell people I'm a savage either side of my family. You go on, I'm Cherokee on one side and Apache Grandma was half Apache, Mom was a quarter. That would make me one-eighth Apache. You know what? Who cares? I don't really care. I know that on one side of my, my grandparents on one side were pretty low-down people. doesn't affect me. What my great-great-grand, or my granddad, yeah, it would be my granddad, what my granddad did has no bearing on what I do whatsoever. But what really most people think of is slavery in America, and I'm gonna just very briefly touch on that, give you my opinion, so there's no doubt. Most slave owners in America forsook the Bible. The Bible was very clear. You treat a slave like a brother, almost. You take care of them. You provide for them. You provide food, you provide shelter, you provide a decent living, and you protect them and guard them as much as you would anyone else. But you don't have to read a whole lot of history to understand they forsook the Bible. They started abusing physically and even sexually. They considered slaves, and all of this is anti-Bible. They considered them as little more than owning a pair of shoes or a pair of coveralls. They were nothing but property. There was some question whether their slaves were even human or not. And if they're not human, who cares if I beat them with a whip? Who cares if I beat them with a tuba fork? They treated them worse than they treated animals. Slavery as it became in America was sin, sin, sin, and sin. There was nothing biblical about slavery in America. It was atrocious. And as such, because it was so unbiblical, anti-biblical, that it needed to be abolished. And I know I'm going out on a limb. Slavery in America was a disgrace. It was atrocious. It was a shame to even be mentioned. That was never the slavery in the Bible, never, never, never. In another sense, today, some of you may not know this, but you know that slavery is still alive and well, not in America as much, but in other countries. Human beings are bought and sold, especially women and children. They are sold into the abuse market where men take unfair advantage of women, abuse women, mistreat women, rape women, and young children. We just don't hear much about it, especially when presidents fly on airplanes to meet up with 14-, 15-, 16-year-old girls and are taken to a private island to spend a few days with men, millionaires, men in powerful positions, even one former president, and for several days, they get to do whatever they want with these young girls. Every one of them should be shot or stoned. I like stoning better. Slavery is still a big, big market today. In some third world countries, People will come into a village and take the best of the women and the strongest of the men and put them on a ship and take them to another country and sell them as slaves. And they are mistreated as much as slaves were back in our country in the early days. It was wrong in America. It's still wrong today. Selling women and young girls is a multi-billion dollar industry. But in a lighter sense, if you work for somebody, in one sense of the word, you're their servant. I'm not a servant. Your boss tells you be at work at 7 o'clock. What time do you get to work? 8, 8.30, 9 o'clock? Is that how it was when... Do what? Okay. But when you said work starts at 7 o'clock, you meant 7 o'clock. So in other words, you controlled their lives. I need Joe, I need you to go over to Erlanger, and I need you to put up a fence. What did Joe do? He went to Erlanger. So in other words, you controlled him. If you work for somebody, you work for them. If you don't like it, you're free to be fired or to quit, whichever. But you work for your boss. When I was working through a temp agency, I think they picked every hot, dirty, filthy, physically exhausting job they could find to give to me to show up for. But they would tell me, we need you to be in Hopkinsville, We need you to be at this factory, and we need you to do this at the factory. I got the dirtiest jobs in that entire factory. But you know what? I did it. I'd come out the grinding room. You don't know what the grinding room is. It's where they grind up all the mistakes. You know, I would grind it up into little powder, then they would take it, run it back through the machine, melt it down, and make something else out of it. That was the hottest job. It was in a little bitty room with no windows, this great big machine, grinding, grinding, grinding, no air conditioning, no windows, and all of that dust and dirt flying back on you. You know what? I worked for the temp agency, who had contracted with the factory, and I did it. Didn't like it always, But I did it. Why? Because I worked for them. And I did what they told me, except one job they sent me to, and I refused to work there. But otherwise, I did what they told me, because they were my boss. I was their servant, if you will. Now, let's get down to Potiphar and Joseph. I mentioned this morning that every time I read Potiphar, there are a couple of questions that come to my mind every time. I'm not going to give them to you just yet. Let's look at Potiphar. Potiphar bought Joseph. Bought him off of the slave market. See, when they would take a slave from anywhere, they would take him down to Egypt, they would put him up on a pedestal-type thing, and there, they would bid on him based on how big his muscles were, how old he was, you know, whether or not He acted like he had a brain. They would stand there on this pedestal, they would examine them, and then they would bid on them based on what they thought they were worth. If it had been me, I'd have still been waiting for somebody to bid on me. I would have never had anybody bid on me. But he bid on Joseph. And he not only bid on Joseph, but he kept bidding until he got him. He won him in the auction. Joseph could have been sold to an abusive, mean, vindictive boss. and he would have been probably killed. In fact, his brothers knew when they sold him to Egypt, they knew they were signing his death warrant. Slaves in Egypt did not live very long. But Potiphar, for some reason, saw something in Joseph that made him beard on Joseph until he actually won him. He brought Joseph home, and he noticed that everything Joseph did prospered. Not only what Joseph did, But what Joseph did on behalf of Potiphar prospered. And so Potiphar said, I'm going to promote this guy. And he was promoted. We don't know how many times or how long, but he was promoted because he was trustworthy. He was dependable. And so eventually Potiphar promoted him to where he was over everything that Potiphar owned. Joseph, I put you in charge of everything. Because he had already seen Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him and he had enough sense to promote Joseph because he knew he was trustworthy. He treated Joseph very well until one day Potiphar's wife falsely accused Joseph of an attempted assault. We know she lied. We know she lied. We know that Joseph was completely innocent of all charges. And I put in my notes. You cannot help what people lie about you. I had a man years ago was telling me that he was being accused of something, and he said, what do I do? And I said, you cannot stop people from lying about you. I said, you can't. but you can live so that anybody that knows you won't believe the lies. Potiphar's wife lies on him. She falsely accused him. And when Potiphar came home, she said, this is what that Hebrew tried to do with me. What's Potiphar gonna do? This is one of those questions. Not the one, but certainly one. If he ignored the claim of his wife, he had to live with her for the rest of his life. And if he ignored her claim, in essence, he was calling her a liar. You see where I'm going with this? What do you do? You've got this guy that works for you. His character is impeccable. He has been faithful and loyal. God is with him. God has blessed him. God has blessed me because of him. But do I really want to call my wife a liar and ignore her accusation? Hmm. It's a tough situation, isn't it? If I ignore her, I'll have to live in total misery for the rest of my life. And every husband here knows exactly what I'm talking about. Even if you don't nod your head, you know what I'm talking about. A wife can be the most wonderful thing on earth. You can find a virtuous woman. Her price is far above rubies. But it's better to dwell in the corner of a roof than to dwell in the house with a contentious woman. Solomon said that over and over, and he ought to know. He certainly had enough experience. If he believed her claim, he believed that Joseph really did try to molest her. The penalty was death, not prison. You did not just simply put somebody in prison that tried to molest your wife. It was very clear you were to die. But he didn't kill Joseph. Which brings back the question, do you think maybe he struggled with the accusation? He chose peace at home. overdoing what he may have deep down inside believed to be truth. If he really believed his wife, he would have had Joseph killed. But there was some reason he didn't. Put him in prison, but he did not kill him, which would have been true, had he really believed his wife. So he's, he's conflicted. I can't ignore my wife, not and live at home from now on. But on the other hand, I can't kill a man that deep down I have reasonable doubt that he's guilty or not. Now, before you condemn Potiphar for what he might have known, Please, I'm going to close my eyes because I don't want to see or get any feedback. How many men have given in to their wife just simply in order to keep peace? I don't know of any man like that. Hello. What was it we used to have a saying growing up? Liar, liar, pants on fire. Some of y'all heard that one. How many men have chosen peace at home rather than stand for what deep down they probably know to be true. But if they stood on truth, Solomon nailed it. It's better to dwell in the corner of the roof, up in the attic, over in the corner, than to live with a contentious woman. Solomon understood. Sometimes, in fact, it was giving in to his wives that eventually brought down Solomon. The Bible said his many wives turned his heart away from God. Who was it that turned Adam and convinced Adam to eat the forbidden fruit? Satan had already disappeared. Satan appealed to Eve, and when Eve ate, Satan disappeared and left Adam with Eve. The Bible said that Adam chose to eat because of Eve, his wife. How was it Samson lost his strength? It was through the constant, consistent, sort of say nagging, but I better not use that word, It was through Delilah constantly working on him that Delilah finally wore Samson down, and he told the secret to his strength. He cut his hair, and he became just like any other man. Now, here's my questions. And there is no answer. So I guess I'll be left with these questions until I get to heaven, and then I won't care. I've heard people say, well, when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask Abraham. No, you're not. You won't care about the petty things down here. How did Potter for Field when the man he put in prison is now his boss. Every time I read Potterford, that question goes through my brain every time. You ever wonder if he thought, hmm, I think I made a mistake. He was captain of the guard, which means he had direct access to the king's quarters. And it's more than probable that he had to meet Joseph. As being captain of the guard, he had to have met Joseph somewhere along the way. I always wonder How did he feel when he met Joseph and thought, I hope he doesn't remember I threw him in jail. I remember one night I was with the police and we made a traffic stop. The guy was drunker than a whodowl. I mean, he was so drunk, he couldn't even stand up. So we got him in the back of the cruiser, the officer handcuffed him, strapped him in, took him to jail for driving under the influence. He cussed us out the entire way to the jail. He threatened to kill both of us if he ever caught us out anywhere. I'll kill both of ya! And he did that. The jail was in downtown Covington at that time. So we went from southern Kenton County all the way up to Covington with this guy threatening us, cussing us, and everything you can think of. The next day, I took my wife out to eat. And we're sitting there eating. And I was facing the door. Who do you think walked in that door at that restaurant? The same guy we had just arrested and put in jail the night before who threatened to kill both of us if he ever caught us out. I looked up. Here he came in the door. And I was sitting at the table. When the light came out for this, I immediately started shrinking down. Now I can't get back up. He walked right past me. He had been so drunk he didn't recognize me. But I often think, how did Potiphar feel when Joseph became his boss? One of those questions. Did he ever confront his wife about her accusations? My experience tells me probably not. Who wants to stir up a hornet's nest if you don't have to? How did the wife feel when the man she falsely accused is now her husband's boss? Those are just questions that, so what's in it for us? What can we learn? Number one, be careful how you treat others. It may come back to bite you. Potiphar's wife falsely accused him, and now her husband works for the man she falsely accused. Number two, be careful. Follow the truth, regardless of who or what you must stand against. Joseph spent many years in prison because Potiphar didn't kill him. But in my opinion, Potiphar chose peace over truth. And Joseph paid a dear, dear price. Number three, the person you mistreat now may end up being your boss down the road. Number four, whether you're a servant or a boss, treat others according to biblical directions. Paul wrote in Colossians 3.23, whatsoever ye do, now he's writing about servants, whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as unto the Lord. To masters, Paul wrote, and ye masters do the same things unto them. Forbearing threatenings. Forbearing threatenings. And by the way, that's great advice for parents as well. Fathers, provoke not your children under wrath. Forbearing threatening, knowing that your master is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with him. Paul wrote in the book of Colossians, masters Give unto your servants that which is just and equal, knowing that ye also have a master in heaven. Jesus said, summing up the Ten Commandments, he said, the first four are love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. with all thy soul, with all thy might, and the last six, that we are to love our neighbor as ourself. If we did that, we would never have to worry about abuse. Bosses would treat their employees with respect, with dignity. And employees would work for their boss. Because in reality, you're not working for Mr. Smith. In reality, you're working for God. You just happen to be in the position of working for Mr. Smith, but you're actually working for God. That means if your boss is working, I'm sorry, if your boss is watching, or if your boss is out of town, you work as unto the Lord. Father, we come.