.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome back to our services tonight here at Faith Ward Baptist Church.
It's so nice to see you all here on this Sunday evening.
If you don't please find your seats now.
Take a hymnal.
Go to hymn 379.
We'll begin tonight.
Hymn 379.
Bringing in the sheaves.
Hymn 379.
And once you find your place, we'll lift that up together on that first verse.
379.
Sewing in the morning.
Sewing seeds of kindness.
Sewing in the new tide.
In the new age.
Waiting for the harvest.
At the time of reaping.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
Sewing in the sunshine.
Sewing in the shadows.
Peering by the clouds.
Till the wind is shivering.
By and by the harvest and the liberating.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
Sewing for the evening.
Sewing for the master.
All the lost and stained.
All is clear and all can breathe.
When the weeping's over.
In the bitter's welcome.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
We shall come rejoicing.
Bringing in the sheaves.
Spread the blessed tidings.
All the world around.
Tell the joyful news.
Wherever man is found.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever will.
Send the proclamation.
All prevail and do.
Tis the loving Father.
Calls the one for all.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever come.
Let me not delay.
Now the door is open.
Enter while you may.
Jesus is the true.
The only living way.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever will.
Send the proclamation.
All prevail and do.
Tis the loving Father.
Calls the one for all.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever will.
The promise is secure.
Whosoever will.
Take forever.
Must endure.
Whosoever will.
Tis life forevermore.
Whosoever will may come.
Whosoever will.
Send the proclamation.
All prevail and do.
Tis the loving Father.
Calls the one for all.
Whosoever will may come.
At this time we'll go through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin, slip up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service times.
Sunday morning at 1030 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at 6.
Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study.
This week we'll be in 2 Chronicles chapter number 16.
We've got the soul winning times listed there below.
As well as salvation and baptisms.
Don't forget Thursday at 4 p.m.
that particular soul winning time is cancelled this week.
So again Thursday at 4 p.m.
Not happening this week only.
Across the page the baby shower this afternoon.
That ship has already seen it.
The baby shower this afternoon.
That ship has already seen it.
The baby shower this afternoon.
That ship has already sailed.
Thank you to all those who participated.
And I hope you all had a good time.
And then keep praying for the expectant ladies in our church.
Including Lola.
Who for some reason was deleted from the list.
But she'll be back next week.
I'm assuming.
And so I just found out about that this morning.
Getting caught up on all the news.
Since I've been gone.
Of course I was in Armenia for the last four weeks.
I didn't announce in advance where I was going.
Because at this point it's probably just one phone call.
To get me stopped from going to some of these places.
So I spent four weeks in Armenia.
I spent a few months before that.
Learning the language.
I was over there for four weeks.
I got to preach four full length sermons.
While I was there.
And do soul winning.
And also look at ancient manuscripts of the Bible.
In museums.
And study up on that.
It's really interesting.
Because the Armenian Bible is one of the oldest.
Bible translations in the world.
And it supports a lot of King James readings.
And things.
It's one of those pieces of evidence that is often not looked at.
Because it's kind of an obscure language.
It has a totally different alphabet.
It has a totally different language.
It has a totally different alphabet.
And stuff like that.
So it's something that I've wanted to interact with for a long time.
Because there's so much great evidence out there.
For the truth of the traditional text of scripture.
And it's just ignored.
Because there's a certain agenda.
That only wants to look at just this tiny sliver of the evidence.
To promote these modern Bible versions.
The critical text.
And all this junk.
Instead of the traditional text that God has been blessing and using for centuries, millennia even.
And so that was really interesting to get to study that.
I'm going to be doing more with that in the future.
And of course we've got the missions conference.
I don't want to talk too much about the specifics of my trip.
Simply because I don't want to steal my own thunder for the missions conference that I'm going to be preaching at.
So the missions conference is coming up at the beginning of November.
And we've kind of nailed down pretty much the schedule for that week.
We're going to be having a sermon by Brother Segura about the Dominican Republic on Wednesday.
Then on Thursday we're going to hear from Brother Caleb Acanosho.
Preaching about his experiences in Tuvalu.
And then God willing Brother Raymond Cooper is going to preach that evening about the Samoa.
Sorry I'm super tired fighting the jet lag.
I just got back yesterday evening at 6 o'clock.
It's a long trip to Armenia.
And so we're going to then have on Thursday.
Sorry that was already, I already talked about Thursday.
On Friday there's going to be Fiji sermons.
In the morning Pastor Kevin Sepulveda is going to preach about his experiences in Fiji.
In the evening Pastor Jonathan Shelley preaching about Fiji.
Then on Saturday we're going to have a Germany day.
We're going to have Brother Anselm Urban preaching as well as Brother Dylan Oz.
And then who I believe will be ordained as pastor by the time that conference comes around.
And then on Sunday I'll be preaching about Armenia.
I'm probably going to do a morning sermon just about my soul winning experiences over there.
And kind of talking about it from a missions perspective.
And then probably Sunday night I'll change gears and just do a whole sermon about the Armenian Bible.
And the King James Version and tie all that in and break that down for the layman.
And so I'm really excited about the missions conference.
It's always a great time.
I look forward to it. I hope you do as well.
I hope you had a great time while I was gone hearing all the guest speakers at the mega conference.
And so anyway I won't go on and on but those are just a few basic things that I wanted to mention.
But I had a great time in Armenia.
There were a lot of things.
Obviously it's always good to be back in America you know when you go to these places.
Because let's face it we live in the best country in the world.
And we should be thankful to God for that every single day.
But you know some of these other countries though there are a lot of things that are actually like superior about these other countries.
Every place has its pros and cons.
Like one thing for example is when you're in Armenia.
So good about Armenia was that the water tasted so good just straight out of the tap.
It was ice cold. It was the best tasting water I'd ever had.
And you could just get it out of any bathroom faucet.
I'd just be like in a public bathroom flip open the tap and just fill my bottle.
Ice cold best tasting.
I mean would you even dream of doing that in America?
Like you wouldn't just be filling it up in a public restroom.
But over there that's what you did.
There were just drinking fountains and faucets everywhere.
And the water was good.
The food was good.
It was great that that people at least had a little bit more of like a conservative traditional culture a little bit.
The soul winning was kind of a mixed bag.
It was not necessarily super receptive.
It was a lot of people were hard to talk to.
There's definitely a big language barrier.
You needed the language.
But I'll go into a lot more details about all of that.
But there were some you know some really great salvations and some really nice experiences spiritually.
And you know seeing the church over there is really encouraging.
There are actually a bunch of Baptist churches over there.
They don't have any connection to the United States at all.
They're just like indigenous Armenian Baptist churches.
And so there's actually you know at least a thriving community of believers over there.
But you know the mainstream religion over there is the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Which is just another one of these kind of you know hocus pocus type religions.
A lot of candles and icons and crossing yourself and all that.
But anyway we'll talk about that later at the conference.
So I don't want to spoil it.
Anyway thank you to everyone who was faithful while I was gone.
And got good reports from the guest preachers about the hospitality and friendliness of our church.
They really like to be here and be around you guys.
I like to be here and be around you guys.
So thank you so much for being cool and being faithful.
Alright on the back of the bulletin the roller skating night.
This Thursday night is the roller skating.
It's totally free.
All of our church events are always free.
And so you just show up and you know tell them the password.
And you get it.
There's no password.
I'm just kidding.
But it's August 15th.
Make sure that you go to the correct skating rink that's at this address.
Because we kind of go back and forth between the two depending on which one's available.
So make sure you go to the right branch.
And then Navajo stuff of course four soul winners went up there.
Had 15 people saved.
There's another Navajo trip coming up August 23rd and 24th.
An overnighter small town soul winning trip on Saturday August 17th.
And then another baby shower coming up in a couple weeks for Mrs. Olivia Stiles.
And that's going to be from 2 to 4 right here.
And the don't go back to school party at Sval Park.
That's water balloons and ice cream.
And that's going to be on Monday September 2nd.
And so that's about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days.
Going back to Thursday.
Anything to report from Thursday.
Okay gotcha gotcha.
Okay and then how about Friday?
Okay got it got it gotcha.
Okay alright.
And then what about Saturday?
Is that the 15 from the res trip?
We're going to log that.
Okay gotcha gotcha.
Okay.
Alright and then today Sunday for the Scott.
4 for the main group with brother Scott.
Got another 2 over here.
North Phoenix alright.
Gotcha.
Okay anything else from today?
Very good.
Keep up the great work on soul winning.
And with that let's sing our next song.
Come lead us.
Alright take your hymnals please.
Go to hymn 411.
Hymn number 411.
We'll sing hold the fort.
Hymn number 411.
411 begins hold my comrades.
See the signal waving in the sky.
Hymn number 411.
Sing it out together.
Hold my comrades.
See the signal waving in the sky.
Reinforcements now appearing.
Victory is nigh.
Hold the fort for I am coming.
Jesus said no still.
Wave the answer back to heaven.
By thy grace we will.
See the mighty host advancing,
Satan leading on.
Mighty men around us calling,
courage almost done.
Hold the fort for I am coming.
Jesus said no still.
Wave the answer back to heaven.
By thy grace we will.
See the glorious banner waving.
Hear the trumpet blow.
In our leader's name we'll triumph
over every foe.
Hold the fort for I am coming.
Jesus said no still.
Wave the answer back to heaven.
By thy grace we will.
Years along the battle ranges,
but our help is near.
Onward comes our great November cheer.
My comrades cheer.
Hold the fort for I am coming.
Jesus said no still.
Wave the answer back to heaven.
By thy grace we will.
Oh,
Zion makes thy mission
high fulfilling.
To tell to all
the world that God is
wise that he
lay.
All nations is not living.
One soul should
perish lost in shades
of night.
Accomplish like tidings.
Tidings of peace.
Tidings of Jesus.
Between them shred and repeat.
We hold how many
thousands still are lying.
Bound in the
dark some place that
counts us free.
With light and
light above the
Savior's dying.
O'er a home I
be died for them to
win.
Accomplish like tidings.
Tidings of peace.
All nations is not living.
One soul should
perish lost in shades of
night.
All nations is not living.
One soul should
perish lost in shades of
night.
All nations is not
living.
Accomplish like
tidings.
Tidings of peace.
Tidings of Jesus.
Between them shred and
repeat.
Give up thy sons to bear
the message glorious.
Give up thy well
to see them on their
way.
Be victorious and
all the grandest.
Jesus will remain.
Accomplish like tidings.
Tidings of peace.
Tidings of Jesus.
Between them shred and
repeat.
Alright this time we'll pass our offering plates around. As the plates go around
let's turn our Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter
number 5. As we always do we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse
number 1. Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads Matthew chapter 5
beginning in verse number 1.
Matthew chapter 5 the Bible reads,
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely
for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your
reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith
shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out
and be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle
and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that
are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am
come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever
therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be
called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
enter into the kingdom of heaven. Ye have heard that it was said by
them of old time, thou shalt not kill, and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger
of the judgment. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause,
shall be in danger of the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother
Raca, shall be in danger of the council. Ye have heard
that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say
unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her
already in his heart. And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast
it from thee. For it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body shall be cast into hell. And if thy right hand
offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement.
But I say unto you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of
fornication, causeth her to commit adultery, and whosoever shall
marry her that is divorced, comitteth adultery. Again, ye have heard it been
said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform
unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all.
Neither by heaven, for it is God's throne. Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool.
Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king.
Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
But let your communication be yea, yea, nay, nay.
For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Ye have heard
that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say unto you, that ye resist
not evil. But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have
thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,
go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow
of thee, turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies.
Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
despitefully use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your father
which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you,
what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye
salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven
is perfect.
Father in heaven, thank you for your word
which is eternal life, which is your son Jesus Christ. I pray that you please bless Pastor Anderson
with the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit as he preaches your word, Father,
so that all of us, your children, here and that are not, those that are here and those that
are not here would grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Help us every step along the way, Father. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
And the title of my sermon this evening is The Extra Mile.
The Extra Mile. This is a famous
turn of phrase that we use in our modern English language that comes directly from
the Bible here when Jesus talks about going the extra mile
with those who ask something from you. Look, if you would,
in your Bibles at verse 38
of chapter 5 it says, You've heard that it has been said,
A eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you, that ye resist not
evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law and take away
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever
they had a lot of man-made rules and traditions that they kept
that weren't even in the Bible, or even based on the Bible, but just their own
man-made, over-the-top sort of interpretations
of scripture. But Jesus is actually elevating
the righteousness and saying, you know, your righteousness should exceed that
of the scribes and the Pharisees. And of course
you have to be perfect to go to heaven, and that's
why the only way any of us is going to go to heaven is through the blood of Jesus.
But Jesus Christ here is preaching that, you know,
the Old Testament says one thing, and in the New Testament we should strive
to even go beyond what the Bible is explicitly stating
us in the law as just sort of a minimum requirement
for how to live our lives. He says in verse 38, you've heard
that it has been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And of course, this
is a true statement. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a truth
is biblical, and Jesus is not negating what the
Old Testament said there. Earlier in the chapter, he flat out said,
I think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy
but to fulfill. So we don't want to misunderstand the Sermon on the Mount
as Jesus negating what the Bible says, because
idiots like Martin Luther King Jr. and others will come along
and actually preach against an eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth as like something wrong or false or wicked
or something, when in reality it's the word of God.
But what Jesus is teaching here is to go the second mile
to do something extra and to forgive
people that have wronged us even when they don't
deserve it. Okay? This is not negating what the Old Testament
says, but rather just preaching something that's even higher
and that goes even beyond that. Obviously, our criminal justice system
still needs to exist to punish criminals, but in our personal lives,
we can actually choose to forgive people who don't deserve it.
And that's a higher level of righteousness that God's preaching.
He says here in verse 39, but I say unto you that you resist not evil,
but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
You know, just letting things go, forgiving, and not having
to necessarily right every wrong that is done against you.
Verse 40 says, if any man will sue thee at the law and take away
thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
And again, just to help you understand the passage, this isn't really
what I'm preaching about, but I just want to explain the context here before we get into the actual message.
I have better things to do. God's going to avenge me
and I am going to just turn the other cheek
and I'm going to forgive and let things go. I'm not going to resist every evil
that is done to me and just fight every battle, you know,
for my own sake. But here's what the Bible's not saying. The Bible's not going to say,
oh, if other people get slapped, let it happen.
Let other people be defrauded. Let other people be slapped.
Let other people be raped and murdered and do nothing about it. Is that what the Bible's saying?
And this is what the bogus libtard interpretation of this
passage will say, oh, eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
No, eye for an eye is the word of God and that's about criminal justice
and, you know what, we should, which says, hey, let's just go
soft on crime. Let's just let murderers
and rapists go free. That's not what the Bible's saying. What the Bible's
saying is if you're a victim of something, you have the right
to just forgive and move on, but you're the one who has that right. And, you know,
there's even a semblance of this in our criminal justice system where you
have the right when people do something wrong against you to not press charges
and say, you know what, I'm not going to press charges here. But what you
don't have the right to do is to say that for other people that are victims.
And there's a huge difference here, right? It's kind of like the difference between
giving your own money to the poor versus stealing someone else's money
and giving it to the poor, which is another left-wing doctrine.
Okay. And so, you know, we don't want to twist the word of God here.
We want to apply the word of God to ourselves,
saying, hey, if people wrong us, it's better to
go through life, erring on the side of forgiveness,
letting things go, not having to fight every battle. But this is not something
to bludgeon other people with who are actual victims of crime
and tell them you can't have justice.
You know, if somebody is making you go a mile, go two miles.
You know, do extra for people, even when you don't
necessarily have to. Do more, do extra,
go the second mile, give to him that asketh thee, and from him
that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away.
Now, when I read this passage and read about
going the extra mile, you know, my mind goes to the
workplace, because at the workplace, we're obviously constantly
being told to do things, right? We have to do this, we have to do that.
Either the boss is demanding that we do something, or the customer
is demanding that we do something, and not always is the customer
right in a literal sense, not always is the boss right
in a literal sense, but even when people aren't necessarily right,
you know, being a great worker, being a great employee
is going that extra mile and maybe doing something that's
not exactly your job, maybe doing something that you
don't think you should have to do. You know, there's nothing wrong with just
doing extra at your job, even
when you're not necessarily treated well, okay?
Being a great worker anyway. When it comes to
customer service, right? Sometimes we
have great experiences and sometimes we have bad experiences, because some people
are really going the extra mile, and other people are just
lazy and not wanting to even do the basic requirements
of their job. Now look, I had a great time on my trip,
I don't want to be negative about it, because there were a lot of wonderful things and great things,
but customer service was not one of them.
You know, sometimes when you go to other countries, the customer service is not necessarily great.
Let me give you some examples of some bad customer service experiences that I had
of people who just did not understand this concept at all, of going
the extra mile. You know, I wanted to print out something, right?
And so there was this little shop that had a sign in the window that said
Xerox, and there were all these kind of places where you could print things out,
and a lot of them, when they had that Xerox sign, they'd print something. So I walk
in and I ask the guy, hey, you know, I need to print a document, can you
help me out with this? Just one word answer, no.
This is another language, of course, this is not in English.
So it was just che, you know, just one word. And, you know,
I thought that was a little curt. And so, and I
knew that there was a place somewhere right around here where I could print something. So I go
wander around for about two minutes, I come back to the same guy and said, well,
you know, do you know of a place nearby where I could
print my document that I need to print? Oh yeah, it's right over there, yeah, you just
he points out to me it was like 200 feet away. And I'm just
kind of thinking to myself, you know, you could have told me that the first time,
but no, you didn't, you just, no.
Okay. You know, another place I walked in,
hey, you know, is it hard if I use your bathroom? Do you guys have a bathroom I could use? No.
One word. I went to the drugstore, I was
trying to find some medicine for a friend,
and I'm looking at the, I went to like several drugstores, and I'm just
asking people for help, they wouldn't even look at me, they won't tell me
where I can get it, you know, do you know where I can get it? Nope. I was struggling
to get the pizzas done, right? I'm like, okay, that's whatever, you know,
I'll wait 20 minutes, no big deal. But then this other dude
comes up and he says to me, hey
man, I can make you a great sandwich right now,
I'll have you out of here in a couple minutes. And this
black dude that came up and offered me the sandwich, you could just tell he
wanted to work. Bro wanted to make a sandwich, okay?
And so he walked up and he's like, hey man, and he's recommending
sandwiches to me, I said, okay, give me a spicy Italian. Done.
He just cranks out an awesome sandwich, he's fast,
he's working hard, I mean, he's not looking to do the minimum, he didn't,
you know, I could have just waited for the pizza, but he jumped in and said, hey, let me make you this sandwich.
You know, he actually was going the extra mile,
he was wanting to work hard, he was trying to take care of the customer,
and it ended up being a great sandwich, and I enjoyed it more than I would have enjoyed
the pizza, and so, you know, I was thankful that this guy, and this
is how God wants us to be in our lives, you know, Jesus Christ admonishing us
to go that second mile, to do extra,
to give things our best, to take care of people, to help people out,
and if you work in the customer service industry, you know,
you should really strive to do a good job, even though those are
sometimes thankless jobs, even though they're not necessarily the highest
paying or most prestigious jobs, you should give it your best
if you work in that industry, because no matter what industry you work in, you should always give it
your best. And by the way,
I, you know, I mentioned somehow in the morning sermon about tipping, you know,
I am one who doesn't whine and complain
about giving tips, and oh, I hate to give tips, and oh, I hate this
tipping culture, whatever, you know, here's the thing about that, is that
the way I look at it is that giving tips is a way to be generous
to people that are usually a little bit poor, because those
aren't necessarily high paying jobs, and at least those people are actually going
to work. I would a thousand times rather give someone a good
tip who's working at a shop or a restaurant or something
than to give it to some lazy derelict by the side of the road. You know, people give money
to drug addicts and alcoholics and lazy derelicts by the side of the road,
I'm not interested in giving those people a dime of my money, but I would love
to give actual working people a little bit of extra. She is the
one who drew the water. Who's this guy? This guy is
a stranger. He does not have any right to her water or
anything like that, but yet he just runs up and says, hey,
just give me a little bit of water out of your pitcher. You know, he's
compelling her to go a mile, or he's asking her to go a mile with him in a sense.
He's asking her to do something for him, and it says
in verse number 18, she said,
drink my lord, and she hasted, I love that
word, right, she's not a slacker, she's working hard, she's moving fast,
she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink.
And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water
for thy camels also, until they've done drinking. Now look,
who do you think drinks more, this guy or the camels? Camels
drink a lot of water. This guy just said, hey, give me a little bit of water to drink,
and she says, I'll do better than that, I'll give you a little water to drink, and then I'm going to
draw water for your water guzzling animals.
Okay? And she says
that she's going to do that, she hasted, verse 20,
and notice multiple times we have this verb,
she hasted. This woman's got some hustle.
She hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough
and ran again under the well to draw water and drew for all his
camels, and the man wondering at her held his peace
to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. Because, of course,
just to give you the context, this guy is a servant of Abraham's,
he's looking for a wife for Isaac, she doesn't
know that, he just shows up at the well, sees a woman, and
asks for a little bit of water. Of course, there's a similar story in the New Testament
where Jesus walks up to the woman at the well and says, woman, give me a drink,
and, you know, of course, they have the conversation that
ultimately leads to her and the whole town hearing the gospel and
rejoicing about Jesus Christ being the Messiah.
But the idea here is that this woman
doesn't know who this guy is, doesn't know what the future holds,
and she just goes the extra mile. She gives him water, and then she also
has so much hospitality that she gives the camel's water
and everything like that, and this guy, he's wondering at her,
and he's wondering, is this the one, is this the woman that God
has provided for Isaac to be his wife? Look at verse 22, it says,
It came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden
earring of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets
for her hands of ten shekels of weight of gold.
And so, right away, immediately, we see her being
handsomely rewarded, I mean, this is a huge
opportunity. And so, what's the moral of the story here? Well, go if you would to
Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6, and by the way, her son Jacob
is the same way. Hard working guy, going, it's not you
might get rewarded, you will get rewarded if you work hard
at your job. You say, well, I just have this crappy customer service job
or whatever, but you know what, if you work hard at it, God's going to bless you.
Maybe God will bless you by giving you a better job, or maybe God will
find a way to bless you rich, and I liked it.
But the point is, that that guy is going to go far, that guy is going to
be blessed by God. God looks down and he sees that, and he
will bless the one who works hard like that, especially his children.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6, verse 5, Servants be obedient to them that are
your masters, according to the flesh, with fear and trembling
in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ draw. Not just saying,
well, what's the minimum that I have to do? No, no, no, let's be maximum,
not the minimum, let's go above and beyond, not the minimum one mile,
for the work that you're doing, even if you're not even getting paid.
You say, well, you know, I just get paid a set amount
and no matter if I do a good job or do a poor job,
I'm going to get paid the same. That isn't true. On these job sites, if you work in construction,
where everybody is just sitting around and there's some stupid little job
that needs to be done that's going to take like an hour, and everybody's just refusing to do it.
Because let's face it, when contractors are
designing these jobs and lining out different trades, sometimes
there will be one little job that gets missed or falls through, immediately rewarded,
just the way Rebecca was rewarded by people on the job,
just immediately. You know what? That means not only just doing the minimum
chores of, you know, cleaning up after yourself,
he will bless you for the rest of your life.
And you know what? Everything rises and falls on the blessing of God in your life.
If God is for you, no one can be against you.
If God wants to bless you, you're going to be blessed, you're going to do well.
If God's working against you, you're the other, but both.
This is what the Bible teaches. And so, you know,
you want to someday have everything
going your way. You want to prosper financially.
You want to have the food and things, and then they just would renege on it.
And it was really frustrating. And, you know, I wasn't
appreciated at this job, even though I did my best and worked hard
and whatever. And, you know, I didn't like it at all. And I just
kind of wish that I had not taken this job, but I worked there for a few years.
A lot of information, and I've worked here for years, and obviously there needs
to be a transition. It was obviously a ridiculous thing to do.
I was paying way too little. And I was just thinking,
I'm not even getting these jobs, and I don't even know if I moved to Indiana.
I ended up getting a job that really ended up paying me
super well, and I was able to work there for years and make a ton of money. You know,
because why? God sees what you're doing, and
He'll sometimes reward you. Think about it all the time. It's a verse that I've thought about
for years, because it's such a powerful promise that anything
you do, you will get paid. One hundred percent.
Even if your boss doesn't pay you, even if the customer doesn't pay you, you will get
paid for every stitch of holes that the Bible talks about
because you're not doing a good job. And so you need
to get an attitude that says I'm working for Christ, I'm
serving the Lord, and therefore give it your best.
You know, people have this attitude, well, if I had a good job, I'd work harder.
If I had a better boss that appreciated me, I'd work better. Or how about
this, wives that say, well, if I had a godly husband, man, I'd be the ideal wife.
No, you wouldn't.
You just wouldn't. Okay? And then you got children,
oh, when they grow up, they're going to be the superstar at their job, right?
And oh, the girls, the teenage girls, man, they're going to be a superstar wife.
Well, hold on a second. Are you getting along with your parents?
And you might think, well, that's different with my husband because we're going to be
in love. Yeah, you know what? You're going to be in
love except when you're not. Because
parents telling me, hey, if you can't get along with your sister,
if you can't get along in this family, how are you going to get along with your wife someday? And I'm like,
oh, please.
But we weren't really buddies growing up.
My father didn't get along with him and didn't have a right attitude toward him. But you know what?
I thank God that I fixed those relationships before I moved out.
I didn't end up storming out.