Now, we kind of take a break from Jacob and Esau, and we kind of enter into a different
story in chapter 26, and it's interesting because it's very, very similar to a story
that we've already read, we've already gone through, where it wasn't necessarily Isaac,
but it was Abraham that was making the exact same decisions and going through the exact
same events that Isaac goes through.
But it says here in verse number 1, it says, And there was a famine in the land beside
the first famine that was in the days of Abraham, and Isaac went unto Abimelech king
of the Philistines unto Gerar.
Now, again, I bring that up because of Abraham, because this is a similar event, and it's
actually the exact same event that caused Abraham to make the exact same decisions.
Go back in your Bible, and let's go find that story where Abraham's doing the exact same
thing.
Go back to Genesis chapter number, I'm going to remind myself here, I believe it's, find
it together, yeah, chapter 20, it says in verse 1, And Abraham journeyed from thence
toward the south country, and dwelt in Kadesh, and Shur, and Sodom, and Gerar, and this is
beforehand, right?
I'm going to get that mixed up, someone help me here, yeah, 20 verse 9, well that's where
he's coming out, you're saying verse, well he goes unto Abimelech, but let me make this
point, the reason why they're going is because of famine, okay, and he says in verse number
1, There was a famine in the land.
Now, we have to understand about serving God and going through this life, is not everything's
going to be good, not everything is going to go your way, there's going to be hardships,
there's going to be difficulty, there's going to be struggles, and when it comes to Isaac
and Abraham, it's not like they are doing anything wrong, and then all of a sudden a
famine comes in the land, you know, the Bible doesn't just come into the story and say,
and Isaac sinned really bad, and then there was a famine in the land, you know, it's not
like Isaac did something wrong, and there was this horrible famine in the land, no,
it just starts out and says, hey, there was a famine in the land, and we're seeing Isaac
having to deal with this problem, having to deal with this hardship or this difficulty,
and what you have to understand is that famines are not a unique thing, they're constantly
brought up in the Bible, go to Matthew chapter 24 for a moment, go to Matthew chapter 24,
and what you have to understand is that there's going to still be famines even today, there's
going to be difficulty in bringing forth food, there's going to be all kinds of hardships
and evil that happens to all of us, Matthew chapter 24, look at verse number 4, the Bible
reads, and Jesus answered and said to them, take heed that no man deceive you, for many
shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many, and ye shall hear
of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come
to pass, but the end is not yet, for nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against
kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes and diverse places, all these
are the beginning of sorrows, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill
you, and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake, and then shall many be
offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another, and many false prophets
shall rise and shall deceive many, and because the iniquity shall abound, the love of many
shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved, and
this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations,
and then shall the end come.
So in Matthew 24, Jesus Christ is talking about his return, he's asked specifically
by his disciples when he's going to return, when is that going to happen, and Christ doesn't
just answer the question directly, he ends up bringing up other information, bringing
up what it's going to be like as a precursor to his return, how things are going to kind
of go down, and he kind of warns about the fact that there's going to be a lot of people
who are trying to say that Christ has already returned or they're going to be a false Christ
well before his actual return, and he had said in verse number seven that there is going
to have nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be
famine.
Now this makes a lot of sense, especially if you think about our world economy today,
a lot of the food that you eat is not grown in the United States.
Go to the supermarket, they'll have a sticker on it, it'll say from Mexico, or it'll say
imported from Chile, or it'll say imported from these other places around the world,
and because we have such a diverse economy where it's kind of a world economy nowadays
and where people are having all these different goods imported from all these other regions,
other areas, some things that, this is a thing that some people don't realize, but that's
a really poor strategy from a military perspective when you have all of your goods imported.
Because as soon as war ensues, then all of a sudden a lot of those supply lines are cut,
and because of those supply lines being cut, now you're at a disadvantage, now you have
a lot of problems.
In fact, one of the most common strategies in war is actually to besiege an area.
And what besieging, or besieging a city, besieging does is it just cuts off all supply lines,
meaning nobody's going into the city, no one's coming out of the city, and this is an act
of war, it's very oppressive, it causes a lot of problems, a lot of damage.
So especially when you read through the books of Jeremiah, and you read through a lot of
these books, most of the time that you're reading, they're under siege.
And since the Babylonian army is surrounding them, and they're not allowed to go and come,
and that's why famine is going to destroy and kill a lot of these people, because they're
running out of food that they have stored up.
And in America today, I mean, it does not, it would not take long for people to start
dying of famine if the supply lines were even barely interrupted.
I mean, most of the food is coming in on trucks, and all kinds of different things.
I mean, most of the food for the Dallas-Fort Worth area is not like grown in the Dallas-Fort
Worth area, okay.
So because of agriculture and the way these things work, and especially since a lot of
people have been trying to push agriculture to other areas of the world, like China, or,
you know, parts of South America, or these other areas, if they can disrupt that supply
line, they can kill lots of people just simply through famine, and famine alone.
That's why it's actually from a military perspective, it's better to be insulated, to make sure
that you're producing your own goods, your own food, and America has pretty much sold
everything out.
It's basically pushed everything offshore, outsourced everything, and outsourcing has
its benefits.
You know, you can grow your economy quicker, you can lower the price of goods sometimes.
But ultimately, from a military perspective, it's one of the worst things you could ever
do is to outsource all of these items to another nation, because they may not have the same
vested interest you have, or the same ideals, and when wartime comes, there could be a problem.
When we look at the Egyptians, they were upset with the Hebrews, or they were mad about how
many people the Hebrews were, because they said in war, the Hebrews might end up siding
with the enemy, and then we're going to be destroyed.
That's why they wanted to keep them subdued, and keep them having less of a population.
That seems interesting, I wonder if there's anybody today that would want to decrease
population so as to control people.
I'm not going to go down that rabbit trail.
What I am saying is this, if you have nation rising against nation, you're going to inevitably
have a lot of supply lines cut, you're going to have a lot of people start starving to
death because they just don't have the access to the food that they normally would.
And because of this, you're going to probably also have less cleanliness.
Because of less cleanliness, you're going to have pestilences, you're going to have
diseases, you're going to have all kinds of things entering in.
I mean, you look at Europe, you look at other places where they went through horrible bloodshed.
I mean, if you kill a million people, you're going to have some sanitation issues.
You have all this blood everywhere, you're going to have maggots, you're going to have
flies, you're going to have all kinds of disease, and unclean things.
When it comes to the Black Plague, they had all kinds of rats and all kinds of sewer things,
and so it just really kind of compounds.
All these things are compounding.
War is horrible.
A lot of people die from war, and not even directly just combat, just on the field.
There's a lot of other ways people can die in a war-type scenario, a war-type situation.
People sent to concentration camps, or people fighting each other, and supply lines.
Also in America, since all the men went to work, all the women start going to the factory,
and they start even dying on factory jobs, or hard labor jobs, or just trying to transport
goods and just all the evil that can happen.
People are just dying left and right when it comes to war.
War is an ugly thing, it's an evil thing, and notice, before Christ ever comes, there's
going to be a huge war, and that war is going to be nations against nations, and all kinds
of kingdoms against kingdoms, and it's just going to be horrible.
There's going to be earthquakes.
That doesn't help anything.
On top of just natural humans just causing all these problems, then you've got the earth
just causing all kinds of ruckus and all kinds of issues going on.
It says this, verse 8, all these are the beginning of sorrows.
Some people say, oh, Jesus could come at any minute, but does that really describe the
world we live in right now?
No.
Obviously, there's still wars that happen here and there, and there's still supply lines
that get cut every once in a while, and still some people die of famine and everything.
When I read this, this does not sound like the current landscape that we're in.
We have to go through this before we can ever get to where Christ is going to be coming
in the clouds.
You have to understand, this is going to be a real life scenario that we have to go through,
a real famine that people are going to have to go through.
Hardships are going to happen.
They're inevitable.
Even if Christ doesn't come, though, famines are inevitable, difficulties, hardships, struggles
are going to happen, and it's not even necessarily that you're doing something wrong.
You're just living your life trying to serve God, and then all of a sudden a famine comes.
All of a sudden a hardship comes.
All of a sudden the loss of someone comes in your life.
All kinds of evil can befall even God's people throughout their lives, and you're going to
be tried and tested.
He says in verse number nine, then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall
kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for our name's sake.
So there's going to be war and pestilence and earthquake.
All these horrible things are going to happen, and then all of a sudden everybody's just
going to turn on the Christians in just unison.
Everybody's going to hate Christians, and it's going to be a full-scale spiritual war.
And it says in verse 10, and then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another,
and shall hate one another, and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
But he that shall endure unto the end, the same, thou be saved.
Now what's interesting about this is all this horrible stuff's happening.
But notice God is still expecting and even anticipating that some people are going to
be able to endure all of that.
I mean, you got war, you got pestilence, you got famine, you got earthquakes, you got everybody
coming after you.
I mean, you're public enemy number one.
You are now the new Taliban, you know, as it were.
I mean, you're basically on everybody's hate list, if you weren't already.
And I mean, some people are still going to endure all of that.
Some people are still going to get through all of that, and they're going to be saved.
And that's the whole point of God even sending his son and ending it short so that some of
those people are rescued.
Some of those people endure and go through all of that and still are saved.
And why would God allow us to go through all that evil?
Verse 14, And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations.
And then shall the end come.
You know, it's interesting when there's a famine, what happens to Isaac and Abraham
is they get pushed out to a different heathen area or new region.
And we see this exact same thing happen in the New Testament, where you see there's persecution
come against the church in the book of Acts, and then all of the apostles are pushed out
into Samaria and they're pushed out into other areas and new people get the gospel.
And it wouldn't surprise me if in the end times, when there's all this war, pestilence
and bloodshed, that God ends up pushing his people to all kinds of different parts of
the world.
Why?
So that the gospel will go into all the world and lots of people would get saved.
Now that might, you know, destroy your little American heart there you got, but I'm just
telling you what's real.
And in fact, some of the people that are going to endure are probably the ones that get pushed
out the sooner.
You know, the people that cling under their American flag might be the ones that die first.
You know, when you think about it, the ones that stay in Jerusalem, they're going to be
persecuted the most and probably killed with the sword.
The ones that are running and escaping to the Gentiles.
I mean, look, when you're in Africa, there's not as many cameras around watching it.
I mean, most of us have like a hundred cameras in our house, it seems like, you know, with
all the phones and all the gadgets and all the gizmos and all the listening devices and
all the things that are going on.
I mean, there's all kinds of ways to be tracked here.
I mean, it's hard to imagine getting anywhere here.
I mean, there's literally cameras everywhere.
You know, I saw this movie and it kind of makes me think it's probably real, but it's
called like Batman Begins or something like that.
And Batman is going into his cave or whatever.
And all of a sudden he's like, hey, I'm going to try this new technology.
And he's like, listen to all the telephones.
And basically what it does, it just listens to everybody talking on telephones and it
hones in on certain conversations.
And then he identifies people and is like trying to go and find the bad guy.
And I'm thinking like that probably already exists in the CIA against us where they can
just turn on your phone with a switch and just start listening to your conversation.
And really they're not listening.
They have Google Translate listen and it's identifying keywords and you start saying
keywords and then you get targeted on a list and they're like, this guy, you know, we're
going to deal with this guy or this type of information.
It probably already exists.
And I'm just telling you, you know, when you're in Africa, it's probably not as, you know,
easy to track those people down.
You know, when you're going from hut to hut or whatever, they may not be able to track
you, you know, in South America or in the freezing cold or some of these other areas.
But look here, I mean, you can't get away with anything.
I mean, you're going to get tracked down, hunted down in, in real quick.
So I'm just saying like, there may be a point in time where you have to flee.
The Bible teaches that now I'm going to stay here until the bitter end is as long as I
possibly can.
But you know, if it gets to a point where it's like, preach the gospel and get a bullet
in your head, it's time to just move on.
You know, you can endure lots of affliction, but if it's literally just like stay here
and die or go somewhere else and live and preach the gospel, it's like, here I come
to Mexico, you know, hola compadres, you know, some of you have been putting off,
I keep telling you, learn Spanish, learn Spanish, and then you're going to be in Mexico be like,
I wish I'd learned Spanish, you know, like, man, Pastor Shelley, because I'll tell you,
as soon as you cross the border, English is gone.
And it's like, there's a precursor before you get to the border.
It's like all the signs turn into Spanish.
And you're like, where am I?
You're still in America.
So man, when you cross the border, it is Spanish, buddy, you know, and the Spanish
may not be as good, you know, their tracking devices, their Google Translate, so you know,
maybe it'd be better.
I'm just, that's what I'm banking on, all right?
Go to Romans chapter number eight, go to Romans chapter eight, you say, you're trying to scare
me.
Look, I'm just telling you what's real.
If Isaac went through a famine, why would we not potentially go through a famine?
And look, arguably, while it's not necessarily as bad as a famine, the last few years haven't
been that great.
A lot of people have been pretty oppressed.
A lot of evils happen to people, people have lost their jobs, people have gone through
a lot of stress, people have gotten really sick, they've lost family members.
I mean, for some people, this has been really horrible.
For some people, it has been famine, you know, different parts of the world.
I mean, in China, when they were doing their quarantines, literally, they would lock people
in their house and not give them food.
And if you came out, they would have detained you arrest you or potentially even kill you
and everything like that.
So people are literally starving to death in that part of the country.
And I'm sure there's other parts of the country where people have gone without food.
A lot of children rely upon the public school system to feed them literally, where if they're
not getting fed by the public school system, they're not getting fed.
And so them being at home alone, they're literally just begging for scraps, they have nothing.
And so, look, a lot of people probably experienced famine in the last few years.
So you don't want to undermine, just because you are living fat on the cow, just because
you are doing great, doesn't mean there isn't a lot of other people struggling and going
through a hard time right now.
But no matter what hardships we go through, look what the Bible says in verse 35, who
shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution
or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
None of those things, none of those things are going to separate you from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And notice one of those is famine.
So just as much as you love your little children, just as much as you would never want your
spouse or your children or your family to go through anything difficult or be without,
God feels that much more love towards you.
And so even when we go through those evil times or difficult times, God can still be
alongside of us, God's still going to love us, God's going to still want to take care
of us through that difficulty.
Go to Psalms 33, go to Psalms 33 in your Bible.
And so, you know, it's not like God stopped loving Isaac when he was going through the
famine.
It's not like he didn't care that he was going through the famine, he wants him to still
be provided for, he wants him to still have the things that he needs.
And so we don't want to lose sight of the fact that even if we're going through something
really difficult, think like God's mad, like God doesn't love us or something, or that
even God's mad at us necessarily.
I mean, the story didn't start out, and God was really mad at Isaac, so he went through
a famine, did he?
It's just fact, going through a famine, okay?
And of all the people on the earth, Isaac's probably God's number one.
You know, I mean, if you think about it, like, of all the people on the earth, who is God
the most pleased with, who does he care about the most, who's probably his favorite, and
you say God has favorites, yes, he does.
God is the beloved disciple, the one in whom Jesus loved, he got to lean on Jesus' breast.
Some people are closer with God than others, okay?
Abraham was God's friend.
So I'm going to say, if you're talking about the top person on all the planet is Isaac,
and he's going through famine, okay?
So my wife always reminds me that she's God's favorite, but I'm saying she can still go
through famine, she can still go through difficulty even being God's favorite.
You know, Psalms 33, look at verse 13.
The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men.
From the place of his habitation, he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
Fashioneth their hearts alike, and considereth all their works.
There is no king saved by the multitude of an host, a mighty man is not delivered by
much strength.
The horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy, to
deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waited for the Lord, he is our help and our shield.
So notice what he's saying.
God is paying attention, you know, his eye is beholding them that fear him.
It's not like God stopped looking at Isaac or paying attention to Isaac or noticing what's
going on with Isaac like, oops, I forgot to put the bread in the oven, famine.
No, he realizes what's happening and he's paying attention to him and notice he's going
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
Does it say here he's never going to give them famine though?
No, he's actually bringing up the famine and then saying I'm going to preserve my people
through the famine though.
And the reality is God's people can go through some of the worst times and still just be
fine.
Like all their needs are being met, everything that they have is going well while the whole
world is burning.
And some people get mad.
They're like, oh man, I don't want to see America burn.
And what's their primary thought because of that, because they don't want to suffer.
Wait a minute.
What if America could burn and all the evil with it, but then you still are fine.
It's like, well then burn, maybe burn, you know, like what's, what's the problem there?
I mean, Jeremiah is going to see Jerusalem burn before his eyes, but he's going to be
fine.
Now he's obviously upset about that because he cares about the people around him.
He wants, you know, people to be saved.
He wants good, but God's even saying like, don't even pray for these people.
You know, just they're done.
I'm just sitting here to have you preach to them to just show what it's going to be like
when Jesus comes and preaches to the Pharisees and how they won't receive it either.
You know, you're just a picture of Jesus preaching to a really unreceptive crowd, but you know
what?
Praise God.
We're in the new Testament where he says, if they're not receptive, just move on.
But Jeremiah, he gets the uncomfortable job of preaching to people that are reprobate
literally.
I mean, talk about an annoying preaching job.
I mean, just preaching to a crowd that nobody cares.
They're all mad.
They all want to kill you.
Every time you preach, they throw you in the dung pit.
I mean, it's just evil after evil.
They're calling you a false prophet to your face.
I mean, imagine just, you're just a street preacher in a pride parade.
I mean, there's Jeremiah's ministry, you know, it's just like, man, this is rough.
This is hard to kind of have to deal with.
So praise the Lord you're in the better Testament.
You know, you got better promises.
You got better job tasks to do, but even if we go through evil like that, God can keep
you alive.
You say, why would God do all that?
Let's go to Psalms 26 for a moment.
Go to Psalms 26.
It's because God wants to test us.
He wants to try us through hardships to see what we're really like.
God wants to see, hey, will you serve me when your life is hard?
I know you're serving me now, but would you keep serving me?
You say, who's like that?
How about Job?
He's like, have you concerted my servant, Job?
And what is the devil trying to say?
Well, the only reason that Job serves you is because his life's so great.
You know, he read My Best Life Now and he's just thinking like, great, I want to serve
God.
But God's saying, you know what, I could make Job's life miserable and he'd still serve
me.
He'd still be my servant.
He'd still praise the Lord.
And you know what, after he took away his whole family, his health, everything, his
wife snagging him, I mean, it's rough.
And he's just like, you know, blessed be the name of the Lord.
He could still show up at steadfast baptism.
Job was steadfast, and look, nobody's going through that.
I know you're going through hard things, but no one's going through Job's things, okay?
And he can still serve God, but why did he do that?
He wanted to show that Job had great faith in the Lord, that no matter what happened
in his life, no matter what difficulty, he was going to serve God.
Look at verse 1.
Judge me, O Lord, for I have walked in mine integrity.
I have trusted also in the Lord, therefore I shall not slide.
Examine me, O Lord, and prove me.
Try my reigns and my heart.
Here's a question.
Would you keep serving God if he tried you?
Would you keep serving God if he put an enormous amount of pressure on you to serve him to
follow?
I mean, what's an enormous amount of pressure?
I don't know.
How about a fiery furnace that you're going to be tossed into unless you bow down to a
false god?
That's a lot of pressure.
You know?
How about throwing into a lion's den if you just pray?
I mean, praying's not like a huge thing.
I mean, Daniel's like, hey, I'm going to still pray three times a day.
I'm going to open my window, so you know what?
You can even see me pray.
If someone wants to notice me praying, they're going to notice me praying because I'm going
to serve God.
That's a lot of pressure.
How about standing in the face of Pharaoh and telling him, you know, let my people go
for free.
Let us go and worship the Lord, and he says, you know what?
You guys are lazy.
You're going to have to make the same amount of bricks, and you can't even have the straw
anymore.
You have to go pick by night.
You don't think that that got a little tense when he came back, and he's like, all right,
guys, so I talked with Pharaoh.
He's not going to let us go, and you have to work 10 times harder.
You're welcome.
You know, you don't think people are like, wait a minute.
Hey, it was way better when you weren't talking with Pharaoh.
You know, it was way better when you weren't putting all this pressure and all this threat.
So here's the thing.
Are you going to keep serving God?
I mean, doesn't it take a little bit of faith to say, you know what, Moses?
We'll go gather at night then, being that person, rather than the person being like,
well, who's this Moses guy?
Why'd he come around?
My life was better being a slave.
My life was better without him.
Who needs to go serve the Lord anyway?
If things got way worse for you, would you still want to serve God is the real question.
And the thing is, that's why God will bring hardships into your life.
So sometimes you have to ask yourself, you know, maybe this hardship's not because I'm
doing wrong, but because God wants to see if I'll keep doing right.
God wants to see if I'll keep reading my Bible, if I'll keep going soul winning, if I'll keep
going to church, if I'll still make a stand for the word of God.
And that's the type of attitude, that's the type of behavior that we should have when
we go through something difficult.
Not to back off, not to be less spiritual, not to say, you know what, you know, maybe
I'm taking this church thing a little too serious, but rather say, I need to take it
even more serious.
I need to dig in.
I need to draw closer to the Lord when things are going wrong in my life, rather than worrying
about the fact that some evil has befallen you.
Go to Psalms 37, I want to show you another verse here, and I know I'm spending a lot
of time on this first verse, but I think it's really important in setting the mood or setting
the tone.
It says in Psalms 37 verse 18, the Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance
shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs.
They shall consume, and to smoke shall they consume away.
So basically, God just promises in the Bible over and over and over again, hey, I'll keep
you alive in famine, hey, you won't be ashamed in the evil time, hey, you're going to be
satisfied in the days of famine.
I mean, you have days of famine with Elijah, and ravens come and feed him, okay.
Now here's the thing.
In those horrible things we read in Matthew 24, you might get beheaded, okay.
You're basically not going to starve to death.
Isn't that like a, isn't that kind of a bonus?
I mean, it's like, hey, the best way to get to heaven, beheadment, or you're going to
make it anyways.
So you're basically set with just win or win.
All things work together for good.
I mean, if I were to say, you're going to have to go to heaven, you're going to go to
heaven tomorrow, but you have to die.
Of all the ways to die, being beheaded for the Lord Jesus Christ has got to be the top.
I mean, because from the pain perspective, it's not that big of a deal.
And you get to be in heaven and be like, I got beheaded.
You know, you get the extra awards of having been beheaded.
You know, you start thinking of other ways to die.
They all are really horrific.
You know, being shot, being sad, you know, cancer or something.
I mean, some of these things are really horrible to have to go through, you know, dying slowly
of some disease, dying of COVID, you know, dying on a ventilator, dying at the hands
of a doctor, dying from, you know, lesions or all these other things.
I mean, beheaded is like, tops.
I mean, I can't, other than just dying in your sleep, baby, I mean, I don't even know
what could be more easy to have to go through.
You won't even probably be looking, you won't even see it.
You know, you won't even see it coming and it'll just be over like that.
And I mean, what's, even if it hurts, let's say it was the worst pain you've ever had
for five seconds.
One, two, three, four, five, eternal bliss.
You know, it was over.
And it's never that way.
I mean, who's been injured severely and the first like 30 minutes you didn't feel anything
or the first 10 minutes, okay, nobody.
I have, okay.
I mean, I've had horrible injury, you know.
At first, you're just like, adrenaline kicks in, you don't even realize you're injured.
You don't even know anything bad happened necessarily.
It's usually the after the fact that it's really horrible, it's really, you know, painful,
really gruesome or whatever.
I mean, that kind of a severing has got to be pretty great.
I'm just trying to pump you up to get beheaded, okay.
Go back to Genesis chapter 26.
I just don't, you know, I just don't want my church members, it's like steadfast Baptist
churches all lined up to get beheaded and they all chickened out.
I'd rather them be all like, they're just lining up.
I mean, all the other churches ran away, steadfast lined up for the beheaded, you know.
It's like, sweet, you know.
They're all wearing these shirts called sodomite deception, I don't know.
Genesis 26, look at verse 2.
And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt, dwell in the land which
I shall tell thee of, sojourn in this land and I will be with thee and will bless thee.
For unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries and I will perform the
oath which I swear on Abraham thy father and I will make thy seed to multiply the stars
of heaven and will give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge,
my commandments, my statutes and my laws.
So notice, he's still doing this by faith, okay.
Obviously people doing stuff in the Bible could be right or wrong, we don't know.
But notice God then puts his stamp of approval right on it and he says, look, go and you're
going to be blessed, I'm going to be with you, you're going to be fine.
And so that's why, you know, when I read the New Testament, I read verses that I showed
you in Romans chapter number 8 and I show you in Matthew 24, it's like, hey, we can
go through the famine knowing that God will still be with us, that God is still going
to provide for us.
We can read and sing the Psalms where it's talking about the fact that, hey, he's going
to keep us alive through the famine, you know, the fact that we're going to be satisfied
through the evil and the famine and the things that are coming before us.
We can claim those promises just like Isaac can here in the Bible.
Now he's also going to inherit the promised land, we've gone through a lot of that, we've
talked a lot about that, this is obviously talking about Jesus Christ and when it talks
about them being multiplied like the stars of heaven, you know, that's, you know, talking
about saved people, that's talking about us.
You know, we are that fulfillment of this scripture, we are the seed that's been multiplied,
we're going to be those that are the stars of heaven as it were, okay, and all the nations
of the earth are blessed.
Again, you know, it's interesting that he's just constantly telling them all nations,
all nations, every nation, and then people want to make this only about Israel, you know,
or only about the chosen people or whatever.
Look, this is for everybody over and over and why did they get this?
Why did they choose Abraham?
Why did they choose Isaac?
Well notice Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and
my laws.
Notice there's a reason why these guys were picked, because they actually care about the
Bible, because they actually follow God's word and notice before the law quote unquote
was given, Abraham was following the law.
Because notice everything that God tells you, let me just help you out, is the law.
You know, some people want to make it like, well, you know, is that really a commandment?
It's like, did God say to do it?
Yeah, then it's a commandment.
Well, do we have to do that?
If God said it, yes.
Look, when I tell my kids to do something, it's a commandment.
It's a law.
It's a statute.
You know which commandments I follow?
All of them.
It's gonna be like, oh, there's 613 commandments in the Old Testament.
You're probably just not counting right, because everything that God said is a law.
Now, obviously there's something called the law, you know, and it's with Moses and the
law was given by Moses and everything like that and it was written, you know, we have
the 10 commandments written on stone and everything like that.
And so that can be a word that's used to reference that time.
But it's not like Abraham didn't have the law of God.
Some people will say, oh, they didn't have the law of God, you know, back then.
Look, they have always had the law of God.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden, the law of God existed because he already told
them not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden.
Law!
You know?
Already a commandment.
Now, that commandment necessarily, doesn't necessarily have any effect on us in the sense
that we don't live in the Garden of Eden, we don't even have an opportunity to eat of
that tree, per se, but you know what?
We have our commandments, we have our statutes, we have our laws that apply to us today and
you know what?
We should follow all of them.
Look at verse 6.
And Isaac dwelled in Gerar, and the men of the place asked him of his wife, and he said,
She is my sister, for he feared to say, She is my wife.
Lest, said he, the men of the place could kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair
to look upon.
Now again, this reminds me of something, it reminds me of, you know, the same story when
Abraham did the exact same thing, doesn't it?
Now, I would say this, the reason why I think this happens is just because when you're put
in a pressured situation, you kind of just default to your natural instincts, okay?
And Isaac probably just didn't even think about this.
He probably didn't think about this event or this scenario or this situation before,
but because he's already known that his father did it, when he's put in this situation, that's
the only thing that probably comes to mind.
Is like, well, that's what dad did, so that's what I'll do, you know?
And lots of times, like father, like son, whatever your children see modeled is going
to end up being what they typically do, just because they've had nothing else modeled for
them.
You know, the way you get angry, they're going to probably get angry the same way.
You know, the way they handle conflict, your parents, probably the same way you handle
conflict, you know?
If someone does something wrong, a lot of times, the kids do the exact same wrong behavior.
You pick up a lot of the same attitudes, attributes, mannerisms, remember, in fact, it's funny
when you meet people, parents for the first time, and they have the same laugh, and they
like wrinkle their face the same way, and they just have like all the same manner, you're
like the same person.
It's just natural.
You just take on a lot of things that you don't even realize.
You smile like them, you talk like them, you behave like them.
That's why it's important as a father to try and model the best behavior, to make sure
that you realize that their sponges, they're going to pick up all the same habits, words,
phrases.
You know, those don't come out of a vacuum, parents.
You know, when your kids say those cute little phrases, it's like, we know where that came
from.
Oh, it's a TV.
Well, you know, the way that mom and dad behave, the way that they act, the things that they
do, kids often are going to do the same thing.
Look at Exodus chapter 20, go over your wood for a moment over there, and this is something
that really struck home with me.
You know, when I was thinking about having children and we started having our first child
getting pregnant, I started realizing like my actions are going to have a direct impact
on my children.
And so it's really important that I'm a good person, not for me, but for my children.
And I kind of thought like, I thought about all my mistakes, I thought about my worst
decisions in my life.
And I said, I don't want my kids to make those decisions.
And I said, if I don't make a proactive choice to be different, different than what my parents
did or do things a little bit, you know, unique, they're going to do the same.
They're going to make the same mistakes I did.
You know, I think about me putting my child in the same scenarios that I was put in and
I'm saying like, I'd probably make the same mistake.
I'd probably do the same wrong things.
Hey, you put your kids in public school, they're probably going to make the same mistakes you
made in public school.
You know, if you let Dinah go see the daughters of the land, which we'll get there later in
the chapter.
But look, if you just let your kids go and hang out with the opposite gender, and you
have no rules or boundaries for them, they'll probably commit fornication.
And you say, why?
Because you put people in certain scenarios and certain situations, they end up making
the same choices you did.
Because we're all the same basically.
A lot of times we're going to be a product of the same situations, unless you've taught
them differently, you don't put them in those same scenarios, you don't put them in those
same situations.
And you know what, Abraham should have thought about the fact that not only was he hurting
himself and his wife potentially, but even his children, when he decides to lie about
his wife, when he decides to make these type of mistakes and problems, because Isaac is
going to end up doing the same thing.
Now fortunately for us that are saved, we have the opportunity to break away from a
lot of the bad decisions of our parents, and not necessarily suffer all the same consequences.
Sometimes we still can.
But those that are unsaved, look what the Bible says, Exodus 20 verse 5, thou shall
not bow thou in thyself to them, talking about false graven images, nor serve them.
Pray it, the Lord thy God, I'm a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children of the third and fourth generation, of them that hate me.
Notice this, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me.
So notice, if a parent hates God, their children are going to suffer for their parents hating
God.
And then if they hate God, their children are going to suffer for their parents and
their grandparents hating God.
And then if their kids hate God, they're going to suffer from their parents and their grandparents
and their great-grandparents.
To the third and the fourth generation.
You wonder why you look at certain countries in this world and it's just a literal hell
on earth.
It's because they hate God, hate God, hate God, hate God.
And then it's just this compiling pounding of iniquity that's just on these people.
I mean the worst places to live in this world hate Jesus, they hate God.
I mean North Korea, who wants to live there?
Is anybody worshipping Jesus there?
Nope, they worship their leader, Kim Jong whatever.
Eun, um, il.
Some other phrase, some other just cough noise or whatever.
The fat guy, the only fat guy in the whole country.
The one that gets to eat.
Everybody else is in permanent famine.
I mean you have China, you have some of these other nations that hate God, India.
I mean who wants to really live in India?
I mean only like 0.01% of these people are enjoying life, the ones at the very top are
getting to eat and enjoy the upper echelons of luxury.
But the majority of the people are living in filth, they're living a slave life.
I mean they're having all their freedoms and things taken away from them.
And the worst thing is they don't have a Bible.
I mean at least if you were poor and you had nothing but you had a Bible, you could
still have joy in life.
But I mean when you don't even have a Bible, you have just poverty, slavery and false religion,
I mean you're just getting attacked from all sides.
The only food that they're starving in India and then they'll make a feast and dedicate
it to a false graven image God and they won't even eat it even though they're starving.
Because they're literally not only being oppressed physically, they're being oppressed
mentally because they're just stooped into lies and false religion and taken advantage
of.
And you say why?
Because they hate Jesus, they hate God and when you hate God there's consequences.
And the only way to break that is get saved.
Verse 6, and showing mercy on a thousand of them that love me and keep my commandments.
You know you can get a lot of mercy when you turn to the Lord, when you get right with
God.
You know what the cure is for all these nations under heavy oppression?
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Hey, if Australia wants to really be, you know, having a lot of good things happen to
them, if they want to be liberated, you know where the spirit of liberty is coming from?
The spirit of the Lord.
There is liberty.
Maybe they shouldn't kick gospel preachers out of their country.
Maybe they shouldn't ban people like Pastor Steven Anderson from coming into their country.
You know, you ban guns, you ban the gospel preacher, pretty soon you're banned.
You know, pretty soon you're just in trouble.
I mean, what happens if America starts banning guns, banning liberty, banning truth and banning
the gospel and banning preachers and churches can't even get up and preach the gospel without
fear of lawsuits and harassment and evil?
Woe unto those people.
Woe unto that nation that hates the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Consequences and affliction are going to happen to them and you know it's not just them, it's
their children that are going to suffer too.
Go to Proverbs 14, go to Proverbs chapter 14.
And look, just because the unsaved get it worse doesn't mean the saved can't have the
same consequence.
When you forsake God, you know, I've known people that are saved, they know the right
doctrine.
You know what?
They drag themselves out of their church and you know they drag with them?
Their children.
And you know what, there's consequences to dragging your kids out of serving God.
Proverbs chapter number 14, look at verse 1, every wise woman buildeth her house but
the foolish plucketh it down with their hands.
You know what, a wise person is going to actually think about the decisions they make, how they
impact the children.
What they say, what they do, where they go.
And Isaac was obviously negatively affected by his father, he learned some bad habits
from his father, even though they're both great men.
But even you as a godly Christian, be careful, the things you do, the things you say, where
you go, because they're going to affect your children.
Psalms 109, go to Psalms 109, I'll show you another one.
But you know, when it comes to the wicked, they're going to get a double punishment.
Psalms 109, look at verse 14, let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
That's intense.
You know, when you serve God, it's just like triple win and when you don't serve the Lord,
it's triple lose.
I mean, it's just, it's really that drastic of a difference.
That's why it's so important to us to go out and preach the gospel and get people saved
and to compel them to follow his commandments.
Go back to Genesis 26, go back to Genesis chapter 26 and look at verse number eight.
And it came to pass when he had been there a long time that Abimelech king of the Philistines
looked out a window and saw and behold Isaac was sporting with Rebekah's wife.
Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold of a surety she is thy wife.
Now saidest thou, she is my sister.
And Isaac said unto him, because I said, lest I die for her.
And Abimelech said, what is this that thou has done unto us?
One of the people might lightly have lying with thy wife and now so does have brought
guiltiness upon us.
So you know, it's interesting, Abraham had the same thing.
When he went down, he said that there's not the fear of God here.
That's why he lied about his wife.
And Isaac is kind of saying the same thing again in the sense that he's afraid that they
would just kill him for his wife murder, just cold blooded murder.
But notice Abimelech is offended at the idea of adult, of adultery.
And I would think that most people, I mean, especially when you study history, people
have always considered murder worse than adultery.
I mean, in fact, the book that I have, or the book that I have, the 1673 laws of Connecticut,
of all the capital punishments, all of them were exactly like the Bible, except for adult,
for adultery.
That one was not the death penalty for some reason, you know, because people are always
like lighter for some reason on adultery.
But notice adultery to him is still super grievous.
He's like, I didn't want to commit adultery.
We didn't want to have this grievous thing happen to us.
We wouldn't want to commit adultery, yet he's projecting on them that they would have committed
murder.
And I think that what some people think is that they look at unsaved people as just being
the most godless, you know, god-hating, lawless people ever, when that's not necessarily a
fair assessment.
You know, they still have the law of God written in their heart.
You know, there's plenty of people that are not saved that would still never murder.
They wouldn't want to commit adultery.
They wouldn't want to commit these grievous sins.
They still realize that it's really wrong to do these type of things.
He wanted to project that on other people and act like they're just trashed, you know,
and make this horrible mistake and just, you know, offer your wife to the wolves, basically.
And it says in verse number 11, and Abimelech charged all his people saying, he that touches
this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year a hundredfold and the Lord
blessed him.
So notice Abimelech even putting the death penalty on anybody that would touch his wife,
commit adultery.
He believes in the death penalty for adultery, you know.
Yet Isaac is so afraid that they would kill him for his wife, okay.
Now what's interesting is Isaac sows and then he receives a hundredfold.
It's a famine, yet what happens?
Isaac's bringing in a hundredfold.
And I mean, they're just looking at this like, what in the world?
I mean, this guy comes in here and think about this.
Isaac goes, he lies about his wife, he's causing all these problems, and then God's blessing
him.
Isn't that crazy when you think about it?
But that's how it is when you're a saved Christian, is that even when you screw up, God can still
bless you.
You know, God has favor and mercy under those that are saved, and those that are unstaved
just still don't necessarily have blessing or favor and they have evil befalling them.
It's great to be a child of the Lord.
And when you think about it, you know, your kids, I'm sure they get all kinds of blessings
when they don't deserve it, you know, they have a bad day.
I was trying to teach my kids grace through the day, because it was Abby's birthday, and
my wife made these cupcakes, and her cupcakes are to die for, they're super great, and no
one was eating their dinner.
Now, in our house, if you don't eat dinner, you don't get dessert, and it's pretty much
no exception.
But, because it was her birthday, no one was eating dinner, I said, why doesn't Dad just
give y'all grace tonight so you can have one?
And they're like, what's grace?
And so we're trying to teach, it's like, you don't deserve it, you know, but you can
just have it anyways, because we love you, and we want to do good in you.
And so it's like, that's what God does to us, you know, and so sometimes you even have
good things happening to you when you're doing wrong, you have bad things happening to you
when you're doing right.
You can't judge if you're right with God or wrong with God, I mean, you just got to keep
following His commandments by faith, and just not worry about the circumstances in which
you find yourself.
Verse 13.
And the man waxed great, and went forward and grew until he became very great.
He had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great store of servants, and
the Philistines envied him.
And all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father,
Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us, thou art much mightier than these.
And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there,
and Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham
his father.
For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and he called their
names after their names, by which his father had called them.
Now, we have, you know, the Philistines are envying it, and look, why do people hate Christians?
It's just because they're envious of God's blessings, envious of God's favor.
You know, why did Cain kill Abel?
Because God had respect unto Abraham.
And you know, they just can't stand that, they just can't stand it when God's people
are being blessed, and having the favor of the Lord, and doing well, and having great
possessions, so they envy them, they want to kill them.
You know, why did the Pharisees want to kill Jesus?
Because they envied him.
What did they envy about Jesus?
The fact that he walked into town and everybody wanted to hear what he had to say.
But they didn't want, you know, people didn't want to hear what the Pharisees had to say,
they were hypocrites, they didn't care about him, but they wanted to hear what Jesus had
to say.
And you know what, the same is yesterday.
Why would a bunch of people hate a Baptist preacher or a certain preacher today?
Because they envy him.
They envy his authority, or they envy his influence, or they envy the things that he's
doing.
Why do people envy Christians?
Because they're happy.
Because they have children.
Because they, you know, are doing things that are right.
They get mad because they don't have that.
I notice that a lot of people that get mad at our church and come and harass our church,
they're not bringing a lot of kids with them.
I don't see the like eight, nine, ten kids, you know, being drug around.
I bet they are envious of that.
People are envious of, you know, all the blessings that God gives a church like ours.
They look at us being happy and smiling and they're like, I'm always depressed and angry
and sad.
It's like they envy the joy of the Lord, they envy the peace that comes from God.
And so, you know, when you have something of value, people want to take that from you.
People get envious of you.
They want to take your freedom, they want to take your liberty, they want to take your
joy, they want to take your happiness.
And you know what?
They can take your possessions, they can take your physical goods, but you know what?
They can't take your joy, can't take your peace, can't take your faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Don't let them have it.
Don't let them have those things.
Now, he's naming all the wells, Isaac, the same names that Abraham did.
And you know, what I like about that is, hey, if it was good for dad, it's good for him,
right?
Verse 19, and Isaac's servants digged in the valley and found there a well of springing
water.
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, the water is ours.
And he called the name of the well, Isaac, because they strove with him.
And they digged another well and strove for that also.
And he called the name of it, Sitna, and he removed from thins and digged another well.
And for that they strove not.
And he called the name of it, Rehoboth, and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for
us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Now, what I like about Isaac is he's really, I mean, if you think about this, he's a peacemaker.
You know, as he's digging well, he dug it.
And then they're coming and saying, this is ours.
It's like the mafia or whatever, you know, they walk in and they say, it's like the government,
you know, with taxes, you know, like, this is ours, you know.
But notice what he did, have it.
And then he went and digged another one.
And they're like, oh, that one's ours too, have it.
And then he just digs another one.
You know, in the Christian life, we should realize that this is not our home, we're just
a passing through.
Hey, just keep digging wells.
And they're like, well, we're going to take that one.
Okay, I'll just dig another one.
Notice it didn't discourage him from working hard.
He didn't say, well, I'm not going to dig another well because they'll take that one
too.
Nope, he just kept digging.
Eventually, he got his own well, you know.
And you know what?
They're going to take from you and take, but just let them take because they're going to
just waste it and ruin it anyways, and God's just going to bless you.
God's going to take care of you, and he's still giving you a job, and eventually you're
going to inherit the whole earth anyways.
So you know, what are you really working for?
You know, blessed are the peacemakers, for they should be called the children of God,
is what the Bible says.
And you know what a peacemaker does is he lets himself be defrauded every once in a
while.
He lets evil come upon him, he lets someone do him wrong, he lets someone take something
that's his that he didn't want, that he didn't want them to take, you know.
And again, the Bible talks about seeking peace.
What is peace?
It's when someone does you wrong and you fix it anyways.
You know, I think some people have this idea of peace is like, as long as you're doing
good to me, I'll continue doing good to you.
It's like, that's not peace.
Even the Gentiles do that.
Even the unsaved do that.
Peace is when someone does you wrong and you say, you know what, I'm going to still do
good to you.
You know what?
I'm going to fix this.
Hey, you took that from me?
Have it.
I mean, when's the last time someone took something from you and you thought, have it?
Or are you like, that's mine.
I need that back.
He won't give me that back.
Just say like, get another one.
Go build another one.
You know?
And at the end of the day, we should, as Christians, seek peace, be a peacemaker, try to talk people
down, allow ourselves to be defrauded here and there.
Now look, obviously there's always a limit to all these things, right?
If someone says, Hey, you know, I want your coat, have it.
If they say, Hey, I want your kid, you know, it's like over my dead body.
Okay.
I mean, there's always going to be a line, you know, I'm all for peace as much as possible.
You know what?
You come on my property at night, it's not going to be peaceful, but I will make peace
by ending you.
Okay.
That's how, that's how I'm going to be a peacemaker.
It became unpeaceful when you showed up and then I make it peaceful again with the peacemaker,
you know, and Hey, it's September 1st, constitutional carry in America, Hey, praise, or at least
Texas, you know, we're bringing back the law.
Hey, you know what that tells me?
We can make a positive change in the world that we live in.
Hey, you know what?
Well, a lot of bad laws have been passed recently.
Isn't that a good one?
Hey, let's keep preaching the truth.
Let's keep believing the truth because maybe we'll influence people in the right direction.
You know, at least slow things down a little bit.
Look at verse 23, and he went up from thence to Beersheba and the Lord appeared on him
the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father, fear not for I am with thee and
will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
And he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent
there and there Isaac's servants digged a well.
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar and Ahuzah, one of his friends in Phichol, the
chief captain of his army.
And Isaac said unto them, wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me and has sent me away
from you?
And they said, we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee.
And we said, let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make
a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt as we have not touched thee and as
we have done unto thee nothing but good and has sent thee away in peace, thou art now
the blessed of the Lord.
Now these guys are classic gaslighters.
Okay.
They literally sent him away, took his well, then took another well from him.
And then they come and they say, hey, make a peace treaty with us as we've only done
good unto thee, nothing but good.
It's like this guy's a liar.
Okay.
This guy's a gaslighter.
This guy's done all kinds of evil.
Do you know why I think Isaac doesn't even bring that up?
You know why I think Isaac's going to make an oath of them?
Because he, he understands what forgiveness means.
It means you forget.
And here's the thing, if I forgot that you did evil to me, then when they bring up this
lie, I can just say, you know what, you're right.
But if I remember all that stuff, if I hold bitterness in my heart towards every transgression,
then all of a sudden, it's going to be a war again.
They're not going to have peace.
What's a peacemaker do?
He forgets transgression, he covers transgression, he's loving.
Verse 30, and he made them a feast and they did eat and drink and they rose up at times
in the morning.
Man, I want to be Isaac's friend.
You take his well and then you show up and lie to him and he makes you a feast.
I mean, this guy's just a good guy, right?
And swear one to another and Isaac sent them away and they departed from them in peace
and it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the
well which they had digged and said to them, we have found water and they called it Sheba.
Therefore, the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day and Esau was forty years old
when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Bihrei the Hittite and Vashtramath the daughter
of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Now, he calls the same well, the same name Beersheba like Abraham did, but we kind of
transition here to back Jacob and Esau.
So we kind of, we're talking about Jacob and Esau, then we kind of have this like interlude
about their parents and then we kind of go back to Esau here and it just brings up a
real negative thing about Esau.
We don't know a lot about Esau, but the Bible just says he married two heathen women and
it was a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebekah.
Go to Proverbs 17, the last place I'm going to return this evening, Proverbs chapter 17.
But here's another thing, the decisions you make are going to impact your parents.
We already saw that the decisions the parents made impacted the children, didn't we?
Abraham with Isaac.
You know what?
The children's decisions also impact the parents.
So you children should learn that you should obey your parents.
You should be a good child because you know what?
You can be a pain in the neck to mom and dad.
You know, in fact, some of you, mom and dad could probably point to the kid, the black sheep.
You know, this kid's always getting in trouble.
This kid's always causing me problems.
This kid, and you know what, the worst thing you can do to your parents is not serve God.
That's the worst thing.
Proverbs chapter 17, look at verse 25.
A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her that bear him.
Notice, just like it said earlier, it was a grief, and look, Esau decides to just marry women
that don't want to serve God, want nothing to do with the Lord, and because of that, he's not going to serve God.
You know, you can't just marry whoever you want and feel like it's not going to affect you.
You know, if you marry an unsaved person, you're going to have consequences to that.
You're going to suffer for that, and in fact, most of the time, they're going to drag you down.
If they don't drag you down, you might just be serving God alone.
It's even then, it's going to be hard, it's going to be difficult.
That's why it's important to teach and train your children, you know, marry a godly person.
Marry someone that wants to serve the Lord.
And you know, figuring out if that person loves the Lord or wants to serve God might take longer than a week to figure out.
Some people, they just, she's the one, I want to get married in a week, and it's like, wait a week, you know, wait another week, you know.
Now, I mean, like, let's say you're friends for a long time, and then you get serious, okay, you know, that's better.
At least you've known them, you've seen them interact in the world, you see what their heart and affections are like.
But someone that's just a complete stranger, last week, it's like, good luck, you know, with that kind of relationship.
That's a lot of faith.
I don't have that kind of faith, you know.
You know, me and my wife dated for five years, but I don't recommend that either, all right.
I'm just saying, you know, find a happy medium.
But, you know, you should know your spouse, you should figure them out, and don't marry someone that doesn't want to serve God.
If you want to serve God, you better find someone who wants to serve God, too.
You know, that should be a huge, to me, the two things that I'm really looking for is how much does this person love God, and how much does this person love me?
And you say, well, how do I know, how do I figure those two out?
Here's what love means, sacrifice.
Is this person making any sacrifices in their life to serve God?
And is this person willing to make any sacrifices for me?
Or are they only liking me when I'm wining and dining them?
Are they only liking me when I'm really nice to them?
Are they only liking me when things are good?
You know, how do they feel about you when there was some kind of a problem, or there was some kind of an issue,
or something was difficult, or they said something you didn't like, or, you know, because when you get married, you're going to see a lot more of that.
You're going to see a lot more of that reaction, of those experiences.
Is this someone that would sacrifice for you if you went through difficulty?
You know, that's what real love is.
And a lot of people are not willing to sacrifice for their spouse.
Not willing to do good under their spouse.
They're only in it for what they can get out of it.
And as soon as they start, they stop receiving, they stop giving.
As soon as they stop receiving a lot, they'll stop giving at all, you know.
And so we have to realize that marriage is an important relationship.
It can cause a lot of problems.
You know, serving God is an important thing.
What it says in verse 21,
He that begateth a fool doeth it to his sorrow, and the father of a fool hath no joy.
Notice if your kids are stupid, you're just going to, your life is like ruined.
A lot of times.
You know, in your mind, you're just like, man.
Now again, it's not ruined.
I'm just saying how you feel.
Because even if all your kids went to the devil, you could still serve God.
You know what, you screwed up.
Hey, your sons were Hophni and Phinehas.
Okay, well, you served the Lord, Eli, okay?
Just David, I mean, he screwed up a lot.
But he could still serve the Lord.
He still had at least one good kid, you know?
That's Solomon.
You have to be cognizant of the fact that your decisions
are going to affect other people around you.
You're a bad father, it's going to affect your kids.
You're a bad son, it's going to affect your parents.
There's a lot of other people that are impacted by every decision that you make.
And so we need to be careful that we're not so
selfish as to only worry about ourselves.
And when we go through a famine, we don't want to just abandon everybody else.
You know, when you go through a hardship, don't get all selfish about it.
Realize other people are going to, you know, it'd be real easy for
us in America to just be like, man, COVID's so bad.
Because, you know, I don't have every kind of grape that I want at the grocery store.
You know, this fancy imported chocolate I got at Whole Foods isn't coming in right
now.
And it's because all these people in South Africa are being enslaved and
in prison and tortured.
Woe is me.
Not the people that are being enslaved and tortured and having their issues.
You know, people are being locked up, you know, all over the world right now and
going through horrible oppression.
And you just sit here and you just worry about you, worry about you, you know.
Or you have some, something that's not even that big a deal happen at work.
And some people are being forced to either get a jab or like quit their job.
You know?
Or some people are facing get a jab or lose their children.
You realize in this world, like in some countries, divorced parents are suing for
custody of their children unless they get a jab and their kids a jab.
And if they don't, and the courts are literally awarding full custody to
the other parents.
They're losing all of their children right now.
I mean, of the things that we go through and the difficulties we go through,
the world is just so much worse.
There's just so much more evil.
And when you're going through the famine, you know,
stop worrying about your difficulties and struggles.
Why don't you think about how your spouse is feeling about it?
How your kids are feeling about it?
How your church members are feeling about it?
How this world, how the unsaved, how the lost.
I mean, we have the joy of Jesus Christ.
We have church to go to.
You know, some people, they're locked into their, their apartment.
And they work in their apartment.
And they have food delivered to their apartment.
And they have nothing, I mean, they have no one, they have no social interaction.
The only social interaction they have is CNN.
I mean, that's gotta be rough.
You know, at least we have church and stuff.
I mean, we have some cool things.
I mean, kids are being put in the public school system where they have to put
a, a, a diaper on their face all day long.
And they can't interact.
They can't talk.
I mean, in Australia, they said, you can't even,
when you go to the grocery store, talk to the people in the aisle.
They said, you can't even go outside and enjoy the sunset.
It's not time for that.
You can go out and enjoy the sunset whenever you want.
You know, I mean, it's way worse for some people.
And yet, it's easy to get really worried about you.
Why?
Oh, my difficulty, my struggle.
They ran out of my type of latte at Starbucks.
You know, woe is me.
You know, my day isn't horrible now.
You know?
Or like me, I went to go eat at Taco Bueno last night and
they closed like two minutes when I showed up, right when I showed up.
The sign said open.
I'm like, you're open.
And they're like, no, this is not a big deal.
This is fine.
I ate at Whataburger, it was just as bad, okay?
But, you know, let's take a page of this book and say, you know what?
When we go through difficulties and struggles, dig into the word of the Lord.
Don't worry about the problems that you see.
Just have faith that God's gonna deliver you out of them, all right?
Closing prayer, thank you so much for this chapter.
I pray that you would just keep us encouraged when we go through difficulties
and go through hardships.
And then instead of just worrying about ourselves and just being so selfish and
not realizing the horrible things that other people are going through,
I pray that we would have awareness, that you would help
allow us to have empathy for others, to look upon the things of others,
care about other people, to be seeking peace for other people and
loving and compassionate towards the lost.
And realizing that every decision we have and we make is important.
It can affect our children, it can affect our parents,
it can affect the relationships around us.
And I pray that we would thrive to make the best decisions,
no matter where we find ourselves, no matter what we're going through.
And that your love will never be taken away from us, in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.