Jesus in Genesis: American Ninja Warrior

OUTLINE

• Pleasure Struggle (Genesis 39:1-8)

• Power Struggle (Genesis 39:8-18)

• Pride Struggle (Genesis 39:19-23)

QUESTIONS:

1. What stuck out to you from today’s passage?

2. We all have a course to run. Sin tempts us with a constant gravitational pull to choose our own course and write our own story. Where do you find you confront this reality most in your life? Are there areas of temptation you have struggled with for years?

3. (Genesis 39:1-23) Joseph must confront three large temptations: pleasure, power and pride. Which of these most often knock you off course? (1 John 2:16)

4. (Genesis 391-8) Overcoming temptation isn't about repressing desire, but recognizing design and using created things as directed. Where do you struggle to use food, sex, or any other created thing according to design? What is one area Jesus wants to meet you in and grow you? (1 Corinthians 10:13)

5. (Genesis 39:19-23) Pride may be the most insidious and difficult obstacle to overcome. We often expect that if we do things right, things should go right. Joseph does everything right and everything goes wrong. When have you been tempted to despair and give up on God’s story because things haven't worked out? How has retrospect and hindsight helped you see that God has a bigger plan and bigger story than you could ever perceive?

SCRIPTURE REFERENCE:

Genesis 39
Joseph’s Success in Egypt
1Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. 2The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. 3Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. 4So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge. 5It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the Lord’s blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field. 6So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” 8But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. 9There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” 10As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. 11Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. 12She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside. 13When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, 14she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us; he came in to me to lie with me, and I screamed. 15When he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside.” 16So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. 17Then she spoke to him with these words, “The Hebrew slave, whom you brought to us, came in to me to make sport of me; 18and as I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”
Joseph Imprisoned
19Now when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your slave did to me,” his anger burned. 20So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail. 21But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. 22The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. 23The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.