The Story of Joseph - When Integrity Costs You - Genesis 39

Did you realize that the word dad is one of the easiest words in the English vocabulary to spell? A simple d a d. You can probably be in kindergarten as you're learning your your your your English and learning how to spell. dad is one of the first words they learn to spell. But while it may be one of the easiest words to spell, I think this that the word dad is one of the hardest words to define. Like what kind of definition do you put behind dad? And so there's so many ways to look at it. So I came up with a little test. If you're a dad here today, this is how you determine if you qualify as a real dad. Are you ready for this? Now, you may not admit this, but if you're the wife or the mother or the child sitting next to your dad, and this defines your dad, you feel free to go and elbow them if they don't acknowledge it themselves. Here it is. If you have ever said, "We'll see," when you already know the answer is no, you are a real dad. If you have ever stood in front of a project for 20 minutes with your hands on your hips before starting, you are a real dad. I wish you could stand where I'm standing right now. I can see the expressions of all these other people's besides dad's faces and they are incriminating every one of you left and right. Here's another one for you. You if you're a real dad if you've ever refused to ask for directions. There we go. There they go. The next one. You're a real dad if you have ever parked strategically for the quickest exit. You're a real dad if you believe grilling counts as cooking. And here's your last one. You're a real dad. If you've ever made three trips to Home Depot for the very same project, you're a real dad in there. Any real dads in the house? Yeah, lots of real dads in the house, right? That we truly qualify for that one. Um, but here's what I've discovered. It's a lot easier to qualify to be a real dad than to be a qualified dad. Can I say that again? It's really easy to qualify to be a real dad than to be a quality real dad. And I've had people every year come up to me going, "Keith, what are the greatest characteristics? We're getting close to Father's Day. What are the greatest characteristics that a father should have if you're going to be that quality dad? The ones that kids can't wait to hang on to when they're young and they can't wait to come back to when they're older. What are qualities of a real dad?" And they'll often often ask me, "Is the highest quality just simply being physically present and emotionally present?" That is definitely one of those qualities up there, right? I think another quality you could list is this is prioritize your family over your job. That our careers are important, but our families will be there when our job jobs aren't. That would be one of the qualities that someone might say. Here, here's another one. A third one could just simply be to lead your family spiritually by example. So many men think that leading my family spiritually means I drive the car to church and that's leading my family to spiritual um to God. But it's spiritually by example you lead them. Now those are all good. And if you're a father here today or you're soon to be father one day you will be a father. I hope you're making check marks in your mind going those are things I need to follow. But today here's what I want to do. And if you're not a father I'm going to have to say can you time out for a second because we are the family of God. This is a sermon that I want to preach specifically to dads. Now, here's the reality. You can listen to everything that we're going to look at in scripture today. And it doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, a husband or a father, a wife or a mother, a child. Every one of these are pertaining to every single one of us. But man, I just want you to know today as I prepare this sermon, you were in my mind. Your life was in my mind. your family's life was in my mind. And here's what I would say if you asked me what is the number one quality that a father must have to leave a legacy for his family. And by legacy, I mean not they just look back when he was the f funnest dad in the whole wide world and grandpa was the best. I'm talking when they look back and say, "Nobody influenced my life more than my father." That's a legacy. If you said, "Keith, what is the one characteristic needed in my life if that is going to be my legacy?" And here's what it is. To live a life of purity. And I'll go ahead and go from PG to RAR in here and say this in men even more so to live a life of sexual purity. Nothing nothing will tarnish the legacy of your fatherhood and your grandfatherhood and your greatgrandfatherhood more than not living a life of sexual purity. And you may be here today going, Keith, why would you pick this topic today? Okay, like we've been studying the life of Joseph. Okay, why are we jumping over here to sexual purity? Here's the ironic thing about God and his plan for our church at South Sub Church. As we're working through the life of Joseph, you're a guest here today. We began this brand new series two weeks ago and we're looking at the Old Testament character Joseph. And he's last about 9, 10, 11, 12 different chapters in Genesis. He's the longest running story of an individual person in the book of Genesis. So all summer long, we're going to be looking at his life. And the passage that we ended up on today by the chronological looking at the life of Joseph is about sexual purity. And so church, I want you to know as I prepared this message, as I'm thinking it's Father's Day, as I'm thinking the life of Joseph, as I'm thinking of of the fathers that would be in this room and others that are listening to this in this room today, it was like the Holy Spirit took the word of God and he said, "Watch mesh it together for the word that the people need to hear today." Here's another thing that went through my mind as I was preparing the lesson today or the the sermon today. Father's Day. I'm fortunate that my whole family's here. I'm fortunate that my kids are here. I am fortunate that my grandkids are here. There was a time when I was 20 years old before I was married. And I said, "God, keep me pure for my wife so I can live the life of purity and lead her as a husband." And then when I was 30, 35, I'm like, God, make sure I'm pure so I can lead a life for my kids to see you in me. And now that I have grandkids, my prayer is this. God, lead me. Let me live my life in such a way that my grandchildren will tell my story and my legacy one day of knowing God. And so men, the message today is a little PG-13 moving towards R, but we sent the kids downstairs. And so if you'll join me in Genesis chapter 39, we're going to pick it up. Now, you may be here going, Keith, I'm not 20 and I'm not 30 and I'm not 50. I'm 70 years old. I'm not even sure what this one relates to me. Here's what I know. It doesn't matter what season of life that we're in. Purity is a call that God places on our lives. I can't tell you how many men of 60 and 70 years old that come and counsel with me and going, "I'm dealing with the same struggles now that I did 50 years ago when I was 20." But it's more than just physical purity. It is emotional purity to stay focused on the things that God has placed before us and God's given us as gifts. It is our visual purity. It is our relational purity. So when we talk about sexual purity, it is more than just this idea of sex. It is a life of purity. And so here's the story as we pick up in in Genesis chapter 39. And to catch up what's if if you weren't here last couple of weeks, Joseph is a young man. He's 17 years old and he's got a very dysfunctional family. So dysfunctional that there's great bitterness, great jealousy. And what we ended up last week as we wrapped up chapter 37 was his brothers were so angry and so bitter at him. They actually one day he was out checking on them as they were taking care of the sheep and they grabbed him, threw him in a pit and ended up selling him to a bunch of traders that were moving on heading on to Egypt. And so Joseph, a 17-year-old boy, is now human traffick. And he is sent to work as a servant slave in the country of Egypt, a long ways away from his family. The brothers even went home to the dad and took his bloody robe and said, "Dad, we don't know what happened. Some wild animal must have ate him up." And so the Bible says that his dad mourned deeply thinking his son was dead while Joseph has actually been sent to Egypt to work and be traded and sold to somebody. So in verse one, it says this, "And when Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishelite traders, he was purchased by Piper, an Egyptian officer. And Piper was captain of the guard for Pharaoh the king of Egypt. And this Pharaoh or this Potterer guy, he was one of the highest ranking officials within the Egyptian army. In fact, many historians believe this that he was head of all the entire prison system system. In addition being head of all the prison system, he was also the chief executioner for the country of Egypt, but high ranking official. And so when when Joseph was taken to Egypt and he was put on the slave market, Piper is the one that said, "I'll take that one." and he brought him to his home. And then in verse two, the Lord was with Joseph. And so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. If you circle things in your Bible as we work and read our way through this, I want you to circle that phrase. And the Lord was with Joseph. Though Joseph life had been turned upside down, though his life was not headed in the direction that he ever dreamed it would head in, though he seemed like he was completely alone and forsaken by anybody that around around him that loved him. The Bible says this, "And the Lord was with Joseph." The scripture doesn't say this, but you could probably put in parentheses over here, "And Joseph chose to be with the Lord." There are times in our lives that we walk away from God and God is still with us. There are times in our lives that we choose to go our own way, not God's way, and he's still with us. And so God is always with us. He is faithful in being with us. But as we continue reading Joseph's story, you can see there's this underlying theme that Joseph still chooses God. And so God was with him, but Joseph was choosing God.

The Lord's with Joseph. So, he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of the Egyptian master. And if you keep reading that chapter, here's what you'll learn is that as Joseph was working in his master's home, Piper looked at him going, "Wow, you're doing really good." And Piper, his boss, the master, this chief execution, this prison guard, this chief guy, he looked at him and said, "Wow, you're so good. Let me give you more responsibility. Let me give you more responsibility." And here's what happened in the life of Joseph. this 17-year-old boy that was sold as a slave to this man by by the name of Piper. He rose up with such great responsibility in the household of Piper. Potterer got to the point going, "You're in charge of everything." In fact, the Bible says this that the only thing that Piper even thought about was what he wanted to eat. Because the Lord was with Joseph so much and he lived his life of such credibility that Piper just said, "Here, it's all yours." like it's not yours, but it is yours. You get all the responsibility without all the benefits, but you're in charge of the entire house. And then in verse six, it says this. It reminds us something about Joseph. Remember I said he's about 17 years old. And Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man. He was a little eye candy for all the ladies. And in verse 7, and Piper's wife began to look at him lustfully, and she said to him, "Come and sleep with me," she demanded. Now, I don't want you to lose the tension of the story just by the words on the piece of paper. Joseph is a 17-year-old good-looking boy. There's not many 17-year-olds out there today or back then that you could also describe him as a 17-year-old good-looking hormone raging boy. Right? I mean, the testosterone is going in there. He's your normal 17-year-old. And he's got this woman, an older woman, every day coming to him going, "Sleep with me. Sleep with me." Can you imagine the temptation that's going on there? Not only is he good-looking, not is he full-blown just at that season of life that all girls look good. Not only is an older woman chasing him, but he's lonely. Remember, his brother sold him as a slave. He has nobody that he calls family. He has nobody that he can grab hold of and say, "You're my secure place." And so, here's what I want you to see in this moment. Whether you're a man sitting in this room or anybody else sitting in this room, there was a temptation there that is so strong that it would have been difficult for any living, breathing person to back away from. And she came to him and she didn't discreetly come to him. She didn't shyly came to him. Look what it says. She said so overtly, "Come and sleep with me." And my passage says this, she demanded. You've got to believe there's one day she walked up to me and said, 'I listen, I've been telling you for three days, you need to come to me. But here's the deal. Your boss is my husband. So if your boss tells you to do something, you better do it. But I tell my husband what to do, so I'm kind of his boss. So therefore, I'm your boss. You need to come to bed with me. So there was this this authority figure that was over him as well. And then in verse 20, but Joseph refused. Joseph didn't take a step towards her. Joseph didn't think about it. Joseph didn't go her direction. The Bible says, "But Joseph refused." He said, 'Look, he told her, "My master trusts me with everything in his entire household." Verse 9, 39, verse 9, "No one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing?" And look what it says next. Next, it would be a great sin against God. Here's this woman coming out on him, going after his sexual purity, and he pushes her back and says, "There's no way." Because the conversation we're having is not about you and me. It is about me and my my God. That he saw the temptation for what it was. And like I said, today we're talking about the sexual temptation, but you can fill in the blank with any temptation that any one of us have in our lives at any point of the day. And any sin that we engage in is not only just about us in that sin. It is about us and it is about God. This was not about a potential relationship between a good-looking young man and a flirtatious woman. This was about a relationship between a man and his God. Then it goes on in verse 10. She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day after day, but he refused to sleep with her and he kept her out of her way or kept out of her way as much as possible. You you get this idea because you know he didn't live in the main house. He would have had his servants quarters and you get this idea that the day he needed to go over there and take care of some stuff, he might have sent one of the other servants over going, "Hey, would you go check and see if she's here? let let me know when her bridge day is because when she's playing bridge that's when I'm going to go to the house and take care of my stuff that he look for every opportunity to stay away from where she was. But then in verse 11 and then one day however no one else was around and when he went to do his work she came and she grabbed him by his cloak his robe and she man demanded come on and sleep with me and here's what it says. And Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran away.

So sexual temptation, the temptation to to push him beyond his purity boundaries and to take something or go somewhere that he wasn't supposed to go. It's the story of Joseph, but it's the story of us, too. We may not have our boss's wife chasing after us, but we have all the images and pictures and videos on the internet that chase after us. We have that person we work in the office with that there just seems to be a very friendliness going on between two people. You can go down the list and we are faced with sexual temptation to go beyond our boundaries of purity every single day. And so here's what I want to do men for you today because I believe that our purity is the most important thing that we hang on to as fathers. I want to give you four ways that we have to stay in the same shoes as as Joseph that we defeat this this this temptation of giving in to to these temptations. Let me give you four things the scripture says here that are critical. Here's the first one. We got to consider the casualties of our choices when we are faced with sexual temptation. And again, it's not just a temptation that 20-year-old boys have. It is a temptation that 70-year-old men have. It doesn't matter what season of life we're in. It doesn't matter how it's coming at you, but we must consider the casualties of our choices. Joseph looked at her and said, "Ma'am, no. No. Do you understand? He puts me in charge of everything." As Joseph said no that day, he he understood that if he did gave into this particular temptation and gave into her sexual advances that he would be betraying potterer himself, his boss, the boss that had entrusted him, the boss that had giving him rise in the ranks of of of the responsibility. He would have betrayed not only potterer, he he would have damaged the relationship between potterer and his wife. So he would have been stepping into a zone that it was not his zone to go into. Don't you think this if pot if Joseph would have gave into this temptation it would affected every servant in the household? What kind of trust would potterer have? He look at every other servant going oh are you the one after my wife? Are you going after my wife? And all the trust had been built in with all these other servants. It would destroy that trust. But I think Joseph also realized this. If he gave in and he because he considered the casualties, one of the casualties if he would have gave in would have been the name of God himself. The scripture doesn't come out and say it, but as you read and study the life of Joseph, it's obvious that he carries God's name as part of his character. That who he wasn't was wasn't just because he's going to be a good boy one day and grow up to be a good man one day. who he was is because the God of Israel lived in him and lived out of him. And Joseph understood when these sexual temptations were coming his way. If he gave into him, the casualties would have been Piper, would have been Piper's wife, would have been their marriage, would have been the household, but most of all, it would have been the name of a holy God that he represented in. You see, temptation often often narrows our focus to what we want right now. But a powerful defense of that temptation is to remember who might be affected by our choices. Anybody ever tried to go on a diet before? I'm going to go on a diet and I'm not going to eat this and this and this and I'm going to do this. And you get home and there's that big fat piece of chocolate cake right there. What do you focus on? that big fat piece of chocolate cake. You can walk into the other room and guess what's on your mind? The big fat piece of chocolate cake. You can go brush your teeth and come back going, "Well, I'll brush them again if I'll eat that big fat piece of chocolate cake." You just get focused on what you want right now. But if you go to the refrigerator and you look at that picture you put on the refrigerator of yourself five years ago before you gained these 30 pounds, you begin to see a bigger picture. And so that's what happens when temptation comes our way. It narrows our focus to what we want right now. But as we think about temptation, one of the biggest defenses is to think about what might be affected if I give into that temptation. Maybe a better way to say that is not what will be affected. Who will be affected? Your spouse, your family, your friends, your co-workers, people you go to church with, the name of God himself. Temptation says this, "Think about what you'd get if you give in." Godly wisdom says, "Think about what you'll lose if you give in." Let me give you the second thing. If we're serious about defeating temptation in our life, we need to consider the casualties of our choices. Here's the second thing. Don't rename what God calls wrong. Don't rename while what God calls wrong. Sin is sin. We live in a society that we want to rename sin and we want to make it not so harsh. We want to make it so not so black and white. So we give it a new name and somehow emotionally and somehow mentally and somehow even spiritually it lessens what it is. You see, what God calls a sin, too many times people now call a personal choice. What God calls lust, we call chemistry. What God calls a compromise, we call it freedom. What God calls wickedness, we call it the pursuit of happiness. Joseph was able to resist the temptation to give into the sexual temptation because he called it what it was. He called it a wicked thing. Look back at verse nine with me. He said this, "How then could I do such a wicked thing?" When's the last time that you're on the verge of giving into a temptation, any temptation, and you ask yourself, "How could I give into such a wicked thing?" So, calling it what it is, opens our eyes, and it's one of the ways that we can defeat the temptation in our life. Don't rename what God calls is wrong. Here's a third one. How do you defeat sexual temptation in your life? You love God more than the pleasure. You love God more than the pleasure. Joseph's ultimate concern wasn't Piper. Like he did. He's like, "Well, how could I give into this?" Because my boss Potterer, he he puts everything in my control. He's worried about that, but he's more worried about his relationship with God. He's more worried about how he represents God. Look at verse nine again. How could I do such a wicked thing? And then he went on to say it would be as great sin against God. Piper or or Joseph realized his sin while it would do damage to Piper, his sin wouldn't necessarily be as much as against potterer, it would be against God himself. Even though no one else might have known, Joseph realized something. Every choice that he made in life was a spiritual choice. You see, he he could have hooked up. He he could have went to bed with Piper's wife. They could have closed the door and nobody known. They could have made the bed back up when they got up out of bed. He could have went and maybe nobody ever knew but he and Piper's wife. But here's what Joseph understood. That every choice he makes, whether anybody else knows about it or not, is a spiritual choice. And he was in this moment and he said to himself,"I won't let my choice affect not just my legacy but my relationship with my living God. Here's a thought for you. At its core, temptation, any temptation, fill in the blank, sexual temptation, you what, every temptation you struggle with, every temptation that we struggle with is not as much of a sin problem as it is a love problem. Let me let say that again. Let it sink in. the core of temptation. Every sin that we're tempted with is not so much a problem with sin as it is our problem with love and how much we love God. In other words, will I love this pleasure more than I love God? Will I love this opportunity more than I love God? Will I love this approval of man more than I love God? Will I love this moment more than I love God? Do you see where temptation becomes a love issue? It's not about just making a choice this way or that way. It is a choice of who you will love more. This thing in front of me that's pulling me or the God that I've said he's the Lord of my life. Will I love him more? Joseph understood something that we often forget. We don't overcome temptation merely by saying no to sin. We overcome temptation by saying yes to a greater love.

You see, so many times like we're so defeated. Again, fill in the blank with whatever the sin is, we feel so defeated for it because we're going, "No, but you give in. No, but I give in." Even Paul said in the book of Romans, he said, "The very things I want to do, I don't do. And the very things I don't want to do, I do." He goes, "It just drives me crazy." And what we have to realize as we are looking to defeat the temptations in our life is quit trying so hard to say no to the temptation, but say low yes to the very God that we want to love. The question in temptation is rarely what do I want to do right now? The question is who do I want to love right now? Let me go on. Let me give you the next one. The next one from the life of Joseph. We're looking to how do we defeat sexual temptation or any temptation in our life. Here's the next one. When in doubt, get out. When it comes to temptation, when in doubt, get out. Let me read verse 11 and 12 for you. One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work. We read it earlier. And she came in and she grabbed him by his cloak and she demanded, "Come on, sleep with me." And Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. Don't you wish you could have been a kind of a bird's eye view on that scene right there? I mean, he's at the maybe maybe he's in the bedroom. Maybe he was doing some work in the bedroom. She walks in. She says, "Come to bed with me." And she fills it up. Maybe she tried to shut the door. She walked in and she reached over and this time she didn't ask. She grabbed hold of his coat and as she grabbed hold of his coat that he wore, he looked at her and he said, "No." And the Bible says this, that he tore away. So imagine the physical encounter going on. And he gets rid of gets gets loose of her. She's still hanging on to his robe. And he didn't wait and say, "Hey, but that's my robe. Give it to me." Just imagine he walked away, ran away, turned around, and as he left, she's left holding the robe in his hands. Now watch this. You ready? This is not the first time he had to leave a robe. Do you remember his very first robe he ever received from his father? The the colorful robe that we read about in chapter 37. And when his brothers threw him in the pit, they they took that robe and the Bible says they put animals blood on it and they tore it from him and gave it to the father. Like in my mind, I can imagine he's in the pit and they're pulling him out of the pit and they're going, "Give me that colorful robe. That thing we hate to show dad loves you more." And it was not just like they were ripping the robe off of him. They were ripping the security of his father from him.

I wonder if there was times that Joseph ever thought, "Man, I will never give up a robe again." I don't know about this for sure, but in my mind, I'm going, "If you're the top dude in the household of Piper, I'm guessing what you wear is a little bit better than everybody else." Maybe scripture doesn't say this, but maybe Potterer is like, "Hey, you're doing such a great job. Here's an old coat of mine. I'd like to give this cloak to you. What if Joseph wore it with pride around the house? Why? Because it gave him a sense of security of being in the role that he was in. Are you with my thinking here? I don't know. Maybe he got the robe from a garage sale. Maybe it was a handme-down that all the We don't know where the robe came from. But here's what we know. There was no physical, materialistic, anything that Joseph wasn't willing to give up to protect the purity, the sexual purity in his life. It didn't matter what it would cost him. He's going, "I will give up anything. I will deny everything if it means remaining pure to the life that God has called me to. One of the reasons men, one of the reasons, fathers, that we don't stay more sexually pure is we will not pay the cost.

It's too much to give this up. It's a little bit struggle not to go over here when everyone else is going here. It's it it's just it makes me unsettled to do this or it makes me unsettled to do this. Here's what we learned from Joseph is that he would do anything. When in doubt, he got out. Most of us live by the the the philosophy when in doubt, I'll try to negotiate. When in doubt, I'll linger but not jump in. When in doubt, and we fill in the blank with something that doesn't cost us so much, Joseph left everything he owned behind. When in doubt, get out. Because Joseph knew, because God was with him, and I believe that he also God was with him, but he was walking with God. The battle that he was going through didn't take place in that bedroom. The battle that Joseph was going through was not won or lost in the bedroom. It was won or lost in his prayer room before he ever got to the bedroom.

But somehow Joseph knew that God had something for him in his life. Remember chapter 37, there was a dream that God gave him. He had no idea what it meant, but there was a dream that God gave him. and he looked at the dream and he said, "I will not allow anything to blow up, mess up the dream that God has for my life."

Now listen to me,

men, fathers, I don't know what vocational dream God has for you. I I I don't know what kind of financial dreams God has for you, but as a father, the greatest dream that you can have in your life is to live a legacy that your kids and your grandkids and your great grandkids and the centuries beyond that will look back and say, "And I, that man, lived a life of holiness, lived a life of purity, lived a life that loved God so much that he would not walk the ways of the world.

And that is the dream men that as fathers that is the legacy that we should want to leave behind.

Now, here's here here's where I struggle, church.

Many of us don't have that story right now, do we? You can look back when you were 20 or maybe you're 20 and you look in your life now. You look back when you're 40, but there's these moments in our life and you're going, "Oh, Keith, where was this sermon 10 years ago? Where was this sermon 20 years ago? Where was this sermon 40 years ago?"

And so here's what we do. Joseph made a good choice. I haven't. And we drop our head in shame. And rather than moving towards that legacy, men, here's what we do.

We act out cowardly.

Rather than fighting for the dream that God has placed in your life, you act out cowardly. And most men will act out cowardly because they're so ashamed of choices.

Here's what I want you to know in the story of God on your life. There is no shame

because we've learned the story of Joseph is bigger than Jo Joseph. The story of Joseph as we keep walking through summer is going to lead us to the story of Jesus. And the story of Jesus exists to wipe away our shame. The story of Jesus is because every one of us have failed whether it's in sexual purity or some other temptation. And now we're not just talking men. We're talking all of us, right? The story of Joseph is bigger than Joseph. The story of Joseph, Joseph is about Jesus. And so, here's the good news I bring. Yes, I want to push you men towards sexual purity, but don't not go there because of your shame. The grace and forgiveness of Jesus is here today. And maybe God brought you here today for you to experience that. to walk with your shoulders high, not in pride because of yourself, but you walk in confidence and walk in calmness because Jesus Christ has forgiven you. I remember

him for years ago.

My best friend was getting married and I had walked through my best friend through a lot of the trials and temptations that we're talking about right here. He had confessed to me we've been accountability partners, the ups and downs and all of that. And I'll never forget about 20 minutes before the wedding, nobody can find him. And I go in a room

and he's sitting down by himself in the room

and I sat next to him

and I said, "You okay?

What you thinking through?" And this is what he said. Sh.

And he held out his hands and he goes, "God's washing me.

God's forgiving me.

God's making me new."

And church, here's what I want you to know. fathers, men. That's what he wants to do you to you today,

wash over you,

forgive you, make you new.

See, that's the relationship that Joseph had with God. Joseph wasn't perfect, but he had the relationship because he allowed God to forgive him.

And so I want to take just a moment here. Would you just bow your head where you are?

Fathers, mothers, men, women,

are you at a place today where you just want to say sh

and allow God to wash over you? If you are just in in a in a way just kind of submissive God, just hold your hands up with your palms and just allow him to wash you and forgive you.

I know in a sermon like this sometimes it brings back memories from many years ago that maybe God has forgiven you but you've never forgiven yourself.

Let God wash you and receive.

If you're here today and you've never began a relationship with Jesus,

it simply just says this. That's all it takes is Jesus, I believe in you. I trust you. Would you forgive me?

Father, we come before you now and regardless of our background, regardless of our gender, regardless of our roles in life, we need your forgiveness.

And so Jesus, thank you that regardless of what we've done, regardless of how many times we've done it, your forgiveness is there. And so Jesus, I pray that you would wash, that you would forgive, and that you would allow us to leave here with no shame, walking strong and confident in you. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.