Thank you.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you could please find your seats and grab a songbook.
Let's turn in our hymnals to song 248,
Now I Belong to Jesus.
Song 248, Now I Belong to Jesus.
248, Now I Belong to Jesus.
Jesus, my Lord, will love me forever.
From Him no power of evil can sever.
He gave His life to ransom my soul.
Now I belong to Him.
Now I belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone,
but for eternity.
Once I was lost in sin's degradation.
Jesus came down to bring me salvation.
Lifted me up from sorrow and shame.
Now I belong to Him.
Now I belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone,
but for eternity.
Joy floods my soul for Jesus has saved me.
Freed me from sin that long had enslaved me.
His precious blood He gave to redeem.
Now I belong to Him.
Now I belong to Jesus.
Jesus belongs to me.
Not for the years of time alone,
but for eternity.
All right, let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, thank you so much for this evening
and thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church.
I pray that you would bless this service,
that you'd fill us all with the Holy Spirit
and help us to sing out to you in our hearts.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, for our second song, familiar song for us,
257, Look and Live.
I've a message from the Lord, hallelujah.
The message unto you I'll give
is recorded in His word, hallelujah.
It is only that you look and live.
Look and live, my brother, live.
Look to Jesus now and live.
It is recorded in His word, hallelujah.
It is only that you look and live.
I've a message full of love, hallelujah.
A message, oh, my friend, for you.
Tis a message from above, hallelujah.
Jesus said it and I know tis true.
Look and live, my brother, live.
Look to Jesus now and live.
Tis recorded in His word, hallelujah.
It is only that you look and live.
Life is offered unto you, hallelujah.
Eternal life thy soul shall have.
If you'll only look to Him, hallelujah.
Look to Jesus who alone can save.
Look and live, my brother, live.
Look to Jesus now and live.
Tis recorded in His word, hallelujah.
It is only that you look and live.
On the last, I will tell you how I came, hallelujah.
To Jesus when He made me whole.
Was believing on His name, hallelujah.
I trusted and He saved my soul.
Look and live, my brother, live.
Look to Jesus now and live.
Tis recorded in His word, hallelujah.
It is only that you look and live.
We have our Bible memory passage.
Any children 18 or under that can quote?
John 1-12 will receive an ice cream after the service.
We also have our soul winning times there and our service times.
Down below we have our stats.
I'm going to get a count for any soul winning report for the last few days.
Was there anything to report from Monday?
Nothing. What about Tuesday? Anything from Tuesday?
One. Alright.
Today the van had five. What was outside of the van?
Anything?
Alright, keep up the good work on soul winning.
Also on the right we have our list of expecting ladies.
We have our prayer list. We'll go over that real quick.
If you'll continue to pray for the Negara family for their health.
Continue to pray for Ms. Lucy's mother, her tumors.
Continue to pray for brother Cameron Hall, his lag healing.
Our friends Verity Baptist Manila and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda.
If you would pray for them.
I saw an update video with brother Matthew Stuckey.
They had something like eight or nine hundred salvations in the month of January.
They were saying how they were so restricted.
Obviously that's amazing.
They were saying they were so restricted and hoping to have more.
I guess that's a low number for them.
Man, that's incredible.
They had a chess tournament or something too.
I guess they need to get out there and preach the gospel more.
No, I'm just kidding.
Eight hundred salvations. That's incredible.
I've never been to the Philippines. I know a lot of people here have been.
I've heard it's really receptive, but that's awesome.
At least the Lord is still allowing them to be a bright and shining light over there.
We'll continue to pray that they have some receptive numbers eventually.
I'm just kidding.
That's great.
Also, brother Jeremy Gore.
He already had his surgery.
He had texted me a day or two ago.
He's still trying to recover from that, so we'll just keep praying for him.
I think he's already on his way home by now.
Pray for brother Paul Weathers.
This is his work situation.
Matt, Ellie, if you would pray for Jasmine.
She's sick with COVID.
I think it was a friend or a co-worker or something like that.
What is it? Soul winning?
Yeah, soul winning.
She asked for some prayer.
Also, Brian Robertson.
He was asking if we'd just pray for more soul winners for our church.
Brother Goodwin was asking for health prayers for his family.
Tony and Miss Eva Garcia, they were just asking for prayer for their work situation.
We have a lot of people on here.
We'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our church.
Thank you for giving us this evening to study the word of God.
I pray that you would just bless all the ladies that are in here, all of our expecting ladies.
That you would bless them with just an easy pregnancy.
That you would help their children develop timely.
I pray that you would just bless all the rest of our church family with their various health concerns.
That you could be with them. That you would strengthen them.
That you would just hear our petitions.
That you would give them recovery and health.
I pray that you would also just bless our friends that are in the other parts of the world.
That they would just continue to be a bright and shining light.
That you would just give them open doors.
That they can continue to breach many people with the gospel.
I just thank you so much for our church and all that we do.
I pray it would be in your honor and your glory.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Also, we still have plenty of gift cards for our New Testament challenge.
So if you did not receive your gift card yet.
If you did not receive your prize for completing the New Testament.
See Brother Dylan. Okay?
And he'll get you that gift card.
If you want to do it right now, you can.
Or you can do it. Any takers?
Anybody not get it? Okay.
Or you can get it after the service.
Also in the back, just a couple announcements about our upcoming events.
We have the Waco Texas Soul Waning Marathon sign up sheet.
Please, if you haven't signed up, do it now.
We already ordered food and stuff, but we'd just like to know.
If you signed up for church transportation, we're going to meet here and leave at 7.15.
So if you want to ride in the van, we'll leave around 7.15.
We're meeting at Pecan Bottom Park.
It's 9 a.m. and we'll meet there, have a little bit of breakfast.
We'll go out sewing for a couple of hours.
We're going to meet back at the same park for lunch.
And then we'll go out again for a couple of other hours.
Really looking forward to the Waco missions trip.
Hopefully we should just pray for good weather.
I don't know. February 26th, Waco.
I guess it could be dicey, but we'll make it work.
Also, our sewing seminar is going to be in March 24th through the 26th.
Definitely something you can promote to people.
It's going to be a lot of fun.
We'll probably even have some goodies for you.
So you want to show up to this thing, all right?
Get some people saved.
And then also we have the College Station sewing marathon.
April 2nd, April 29th, the homeschool field trip.
May 21st, Austin, Texas sewing marathon.
So a lot of sewing marathons.
That's pretty much all I have for announcements this evening.
We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
250, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
Song 250.
And that song, 250, Burdens Are Lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Troubled soul, the Savior can see.
Every heartache and fear.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Calvary, Calvary.
Burdens are lifted at Calvary.
Jesus is very near.
Good singing.
As the offering plates are passed around,
please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 46
and follow along as we read the entire chapter.
Genesis chapter 46.
The Bible reads in Genesis chapter 46.
And Israel took his journey with all that he had
and came to Beer Sheba and offered sacrifices
unto the God of his father, Isaac.
And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night
and said, Jacob, Jacob.
And he said, Here am I.
And he said, I am God, the God of thy father.
Fear not to go down into Egypt,
for I will there make of thee a great nation.
I will go down with thee into Egypt,
and I will also surely bring thee up again,
and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
And Jacob rose up from Beer Sheba,
and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father
and their little ones and their wives
in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
And they took their cattle and their goods,
which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,
and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him,
his sons and his sons' sons with him,
his daughters and his sons' daughters,
and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
And these are the names of the children of Israel
which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons,
Reuben, Jacob's firstborn,
and the sons of Reuben, Hanok, and Phalu,
and Hezron, and Carmi,
and the sons of Simeon, Jemuel, and Jamon,
and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar,
and Sheol, the son of a Canaanitish woman,
and the sons of Levi, Gershon,
Coath, and Merarai,
and the sons of Judah, Ur, and Onan,
and Shelah, and Pherez, and Zarah,
but Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan,
and the sons of Pherez were Hezron and Hamuel,
and the sons of Vissachar, Tola, and Fuva,
and Job, and Shimron,
and the sons of Zebulun, Sared, and Elon, and Jaleel,
these be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob,
and paid Anarim, with his daughter Dinah,
all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three,
and the sons of Gad, Ziphion, and Haggai,
Shunai, and Esbon, Eri, and Erodai, and Erelai,
and the sons of Asher, Jimna, and Isshua, and Issui,
and Bariah, and Sarah their sister,
and the sons of Bariah, Eber, and Malkiel,
these are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter,
and these she bare unto Jacob even sixteen souls,
the sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph, and Benjamin,
and unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim,
which Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An, bare unto him,
and the sons of Benjamin were Beelah, and Bekir, and Ashbel,
and Gerah, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Mupim, and Hupim, and Ard,
these are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob,
all the souls were fourteen, and the sons of Dan, Husham,
and the sons of Naphtali, Jaziel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shelom,
these are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter,
and she bare these unto Jacob, all the souls were seven,
all the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins,
besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six,
and the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls,
all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten,
and he sent Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his face unto Goshen,
and they came into the land of Goshen, and Joseph made ready his chariot,
and went up to meet Israel his father to Goshen, and presented himself unto him,
and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while,
and Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face,
because thou art yet alive, and Joseph said unto his brethren,
and unto his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh,
and say unto him, My brethren and my father's house,
which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me,
and the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle,
and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have,
and it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say,
What is your occupation, that ye shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle from our youth,
even until now, both we and also our fathers, that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen,
for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you for Genesis chapter number 46, and for our Bible study tonight.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit, and help to explain the chapter to us,
and give him clarity of mind, and also, Lord, minimize distractions in the room,
so that we can pay close attention and learn more about this portion of scripture,
and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Amen.
So we're in Genesis chapter 46, and we had just left off with the children of Israel returning back to their father,
letting him know that Joseph is actually alive in Egypt, he's the governor of all the land,
and not only that, that they've provided wagons for them to return back into Egypt,
and for him to be able to see his son again, and he was very excited about this.
The Bible says in the previous verse, if you look at it in verse 27 of chapter 45,
it says, The spirit of Jacob their father revived.
So he really kind of gets his youth back a little bit, he gets his energy back about him,
he's excited to go back, and to see his son, and so it starts here in verse number 1,
Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
So Israel here is Jacob, he's returning, or he's not returning, but he's essentially traveling,
or journeying to his son into Egypt, and he goes to Beersheba.
Now, I can't ever really think of where these places are on my head, I kind of need a map,
I kind of need some assistance or whatever, so I drew a little picture to kind of try and help y'all,
and it's caused me to kind of change a little bit of my viewpoint, and I'll explain why here in a minute,
but I kind of drew you guys a little bit of a map here, and so if you can imagine this is kind of the sea,
and you know, here's some water here, this is kind of the land of Israel, kind of a blown up view,
the Samaria is up in this region, this would be Judah in the future, and we have some cities here.
Well, it says that he went to Beersheba, and what's interesting is his journey in general,
but I just kind of want to do a quick refresher to kind of make a point here,
but if you go back to chapter 35 for a moment, go back to chapter 35,
someone else had pointed out that, you know, to me about the travelings here might be pertinent to kind of
determining a few different things, but it says in chapter 35 verse number 1, it says,
And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel.
So when Jacob is returning from Laban, he's going back with his wife, back to the land of Canaan,
back to see his father, and everything like that.
On his way, God is telling him he wants him to go to a specific place to Bethel,
so that's where he's headed, that's kind of his journey.
But they can't just journey in one night, they don't have a car, they don't have a train or plane or anything like that,
so often their traveling takes a long period of time, in fact it could even take years,
and on the way they'll stop in a particular spot for a while,
and they could stop there for nights, weeks, even years potentially,
and so, you know, it's not like this is just a real quick trip necessarily.
On his way though, it says in verse number 4,
And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand,
and all their earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem.
Now in the previous chapter, Dinah had been with Hamor, the son of Shechem,
and essentially they killed everybody in Shechem, so now they're just like, let's go ahead and leave.
And he ends up putting all the false gods, buries them in Shechem,
and if we kind of look at our map here a little bit, here is Shechem.
Okay, so as we kind of pick up in chapter 35, we're in this area, generally speaking,
and he's been coming south, he's been coming down from Samaria.
Look at verse number 6,
So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people that were with him.
So he's finally making it down unto Bethel.
It says in verse number 19,
And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
So he continues journeying throughout the story, and he's been going southward, he goes to Bethel,
on the way to Bethlehem, somewhere just shy of Bethlehem, Rachel dies.
And they bury Rachel somewhere, I don't know where, you know,
I think in Israel they have a place that's like Rachel's tomb or whatever, just kind of somewhere around here.
But it's kind of interesting, it's near Jerusalem, kind of just outside the city of Jerusalem.
Kind of makes me think of Jesus, you know, how he kind of dies without, outside of Jerusalem.
She's the one that kind of pictures him in some ways in the Bible, and so we kind of have that.
Obviously she kind of pictures the birthplace of Bethlehem.
So it kind of makes sense that she's buried around Bethlehem,
and when the Bible talks about Bethlehem losing all its children, it says Rachel wept.
And it's talking specifically about Bethlehem.
Now, skip down to verse 27, it says,
And Jacob came unto Isaac his father and Amamri, unto the city of Arba, which is Hebron.
So then he travels even further down into Hebron.
Now, I had previously stated, I wasn't dogmatic about it,
but I had previously stated that I kind of believe that Benjamin was probably not alive when Joseph is,
we find him in verse, in chapter 37.
But I think I've actually changed my mind, and he probably definitely was.
And it's based on this journeying that kind of makes sense to me that he probably was,
because it says in verse number 13, look at chapter 37 verse 13,
And Israel said unto Joseph, Doth not thy brethren feed the flock, and Shechem come,
and I will send thee unto them.
And he said unto them, Here am I.
So, at this point we just know that he's going to Shechem.
Now that would be before she died, because that's Bethlehem.
But wait a minute, look at verse 14,
And he said unto them, Go I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks,
and bring me word again.
So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
So, actually it's saying that he was in Hebron, and based on our journey,
if they are in Hebron, then his mother would have already died, and they would have buried her in Bethlehem.
He's journeying back up north to Shechem.
In fact, as he goes to Shechem though, he doesn't find his brethren.
It says in verse 17, And the man said, They are departed hence, for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan.
So they went even further up here.
And I think it's just kind of a little symbolism here.
You can kind of see the children of Israel, they want to go to the ways of Samaria,
and they want to go the way of false gods, and they just want to return back to their old ways.
And Joseph's kind of tracking them, and the father is coming down into Jerusalem, coming into the Promised Land.
But Beersheba is going to be his journey down into Egypt.
So we kind of see, they've been in Hebron, and as they depart,
he travels down to Beersheba on his way down into Egypt.
And so that's kind of where we get our story.
I just kind of wanted to draw you that and explain how it actually kind of makes sense maybe that Benjamin was actually already alive.
He's probably just very young at that time, but I wouldn't put an exact age on it.
If we go back to our story though, Genesis 46, look at verse number 2 now.
Genesis and God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob, and he said, I am God,
God of thy father, fear not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great nation.
I will go down with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.
Jacob rose up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father and their little ones,
and their wives, and the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
They took their cattle and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt,
Jacob and all his seed with him, the sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters,
and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.
So they're now going to travel into Egypt specifically, and kind of an interesting time in the Bible,
simply because Egypt is not a holy place.
Egypt is not considered a place that fears God or worships the God of the Bible,
yet God specifically wants him to go down into Egypt.
But what is the promise that he makes him going down in Egypt?
What is God going to do for him in Egypt? What is part of the plan of Egypt?
Well, it says in verse number three at the end, I will there make of thee a great nation.
So where do the children of Israel actually begin to grow and multiply and become an exceeding great people?
It happens in Egypt, okay?
And this is the fulfillment of the carnal aspects of God's promises to Abraham.
Go to Genesis chapter number 12, go to Genesis chapter number 12.
Now, we understand that the Bible has, you know, dual meaning in a lot of places in the Bible,
and with Abraham, the Bible has a lot of dual meanings from the promises that God's giving to Abraham.
Abraham was certainly going to end up becoming a great nation from a physical carnal perspective,
a multitude of millions of people, okay?
But the more important aspect of who Abraham is, is he's the father of faith
in the sense that he's also going to have a great multitude of descendants spiritually, okay?
And that's where we get kind of our dual fulfillment.
But it says in Genesis chapter 12 verse 1,
Now the Lord has said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred,
and from thy father's house into a land that I will show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation,
and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that cursed thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So, in the Bible, Abraham is blessed, and specifically, his descendants are going to be blessed.
Now, in the Old Testament, the physical descendants of Abraham and the physical children of Israel
had this unique blessing from God, where God basically considered them his chosen people,
he protected them, he guided them, he guarded them, and he valued them above other people groups.
And it was kind of just a, everyone just kind of gets grafted in a little bit,
in the sense that whenever Balaam later in the Bible tries to curse the children of Israel,
God doesn't let Balaam curse any of the children of Israel.
For certain, it's not like every single person was saved.
It's not like every single person in the nation was a saved, born again, child of God,
you know, someone that really worshiped the Lord.
Obviously, there would have been some bad people mixed in,
but they just kind of get the grace for having been in that group,
and God just kind of considers them all the children of Israel,
and just gives them that mercy and that kind of protection
to illustrate the greater spiritual truth of what the children of God are really like.
And we understand that this fulfillment is ultimately fulfilled spiritually,
where those who worship, or those who bless the children of God,
those who are the children of God, are going to receive a great blessing from the Lord,
and that those that attack the children of God, or curse the children of God,
they themselves will be cursed.
So it has a dual fulfillment a little bit.
Notice the promise is that he's going to make him a great nation.
And we see this is going to be fulfilled through the children of Israel going down into Egypt.
They're going to become this great nation.
Go to chapter 15 and look at verse number 12.
He gets even more specific with Abram, okay?
And he sees Abraham later. We can call him Abram, Abraham. It's all the same.
Chapter 15, look at verse 12.
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram,
and lo, a chor of great darkness fell upon him.
And he said unto Abram,
Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs,
and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years.
And also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge,
and afterward shall they come out with great substance,
and thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and thou shalt be buried in a good old age.
So, here, there's no way to misunderstand the application.
The application's clearly talking about the physical descendants.
We're talking about Abraham's literal children here are going to go into a foreign land,
and they're going to be afflicted for a very long period of time,
but God promises that they'll come out with a great substance.
So, number one, they're going to be a great nation.
Number two, they're going to have a great substance for having to go through this.
It's also symbolizing the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ himself will one day go into the land of Egypt,
and he'll sojourn for a temporary space.
But, what we have to realize is that God is allowing the children of Israel to go into Egypt.
He wants them to go into Egypt, okay?
Go to chapter 18 and look at verse 17.
Chapter 18 and look at verse number 17.
And the Lord said,
Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation,
and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.
So, again, we have another reiteration of the fact that Abraham would become a great nation.
The children of Israel become a great nation.
And when the word great is used in the Bible here, it's not talking about equality.
It's talking about the quantity, okay?
So, it's saying that it's going to be a great people.
Whenever God is talking about Ishmael, he says they're going to be a great nation.
Again, it wasn't talking about quality because they don't have quality, okay?
The children of Israel, frankly speaking, when they come out of Egypt,
God doesn't look at them and say, you all have quality.
But they did have quantity. They had a lot of people, okay?
Now, obviously, there was some people in that group that had high quality, people like Moses.
But, at the end of the day, Joshua and Caleb, these were men of high quality, great men of the faith.
Abraham, a great quality man. Isaac, a great quality man.
But, in general, the nation, it's not like they're just so much better than everybody else.
It's that God is illustrating great spiritual truths and he's blessing them for their father's sake.
He's blessing them for Jacob's sake, Isaac's sake, and Abraham's sake.
That's why they get their blessing.
And, often, throughout the Bible, God makes it clear he's blessing the children of Israel for someone else's sake,
for David's sake, or for some other great man of God's sake.
It's really not because they're just so wonderful.
And he even tells them in the law.
He's like, hey, don't think that I'm casting out the nations before you because you guys are so much better.
No, it's just they've done really wicked and I need to get rid of them.
And, if you guys do the same, which you will, then I'll get rid of you, okay?
So, it's not like they're not wicked too, okay?
Go over to Exodus, chapter one, Exodus, chapter one.
Now, this is what's interesting, though.
Why would God put the children of Israel in a nation that doesn't like them, doesn't serve God, isn't going to treat them fairly, is going to do them evil?
Well, there's going to be a benefit and a reward from doing this, but look at Exodus, chapter number one, and look at verse number eight.
So, this is like right after Joseph and we're not going to really do Exodus after this, but it's important to kind of see what's going to happen on the horizon.
It says in verse eight,
Now, that seems to be a quick escalation because think about when they come in to the land of Egypt, they're not a lot of people, okay?
In fact, according to the chapter, there's only really 70 men.
Now, it doesn't count all the women, you know, so we don't really know how many servants and how many women also in this group.
But, I mean, arguably it's under 200 people probably, maybe 300 people if they had a lot of servants.
I don't know exactly, but that's not a lot of people.
Yet, in Exodus, chapter one, not a long time after Joseph, they're already more than all the Egyptians.
But, you have to think about it. It did escalate pretty quickly because it's just Jacob, right, starting the story.
Now, all of a sudden, 70 people, okay?
That went pretty quick and some of them, you know, have a lot of children.
Like Benjamin, he has 10, okay?
So, he got busy, right?
But, you know, when you have a lot of abundance and you're living a life of luxury, you know, it helps, you know, multiply, be fruitful and multiply.
And God gives them commandments to be fruitful and multiply.
And numbers really are crazy when you start doing math.
If your kids have like 8 to 10 kids and then their kids have like 8 to 10 kids, you're going to have so many grandchildren, it's not even funny.
I mean, you won't know all their names.
I'm just being honest with you.
Like, you think that the names in the Bible are hard to remember.
You'll be like, I now know why. I can't remember all my grandkids, okay?
And so, they're going to become a great and mighty people down here.
Let's keep reading.
It says, come on, let us deal wisely with them.
Verse 10, lest they multiply and it come to pass that when they fall without any war, they join also under our enemies and fight against us and so get them up out of the land.
Therefore, they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens and they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pytham and Ramses.
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew and they were agreed because of the children of Israel.
So, notice, what is the benefit of going into this affliction?
They grow and multiply.
They grow and they multiply.
So, God is wanting them to go down into Egypt to do what?
To grow and to multiply.
And you know what?
It's no different than today.
This story is the exact same story that we have for us today in that God wants to put us in Egypt which is the world and we're going to be afflicted and we're going to have them not like us but it's for our benefit that we can grow and multiply.
And they don't get it because they think the more that they afflict you and the more that they attack you or whatever, it's going to cause you to basically decrease in number.
But in fact, it caused them to grow and multiply.
And think about this.
It's saying they were already growing and multiplying.
They already exceeded them but it's like then they afflict them.
They're growing even faster, even more.
That's incredible.
So, it's like God just in his infinite wisdom realizes, hey, if I want to get a lot of people, I know what to do.
I'll put them down there in Egypt where they're going to get whipped into shape and they're going to grow and they're going to multiply exceedingly.
And they're going to have a lot of people.
And you know, that's our goal.
That's our job is that we're supposed to go out and we're going to preach the gospel.
And I've noticed though that affliction does cause growth because whenever our church or churches like ours have people attack us or bad people get found out or anything like that, it causes a lot of people to say like, wow, this is like real.
Or they say like, this is actually important, isn't it?
Or, man, you know, I need to get plugged in.
I need to do something.
You know, if it was all just easy and there was no problems and no real threat, anything like that, people wouldn't really do that much.
It's kind of similar when it comes to sporting events.
And I find this myself.
If you play with people that aren't very good, a lot of times you kind of play down to their level.
But if you play with people that are better, sometimes you'll perform a little bit better because you're kind of challenged, you're kind of forced to do a little bit more, work a little bit harder, and it brings out the best in you.
And really, I believe God's giving us the same thing here.
He's putting them in a difficult situation because he wants to bring out the best in them.
And you know what?
God puts us in difficult situations.
He brings afflictions in our lives to bring out the best in us.
It's not that we're glutton for punishment or something.
It's not that God just wants to see his children suffer or anything.
He wants us to be better.
And that's the way that he models it for us.
Go to Psalms 23.
It's like God just loves putting us in the middle of the show.
He wants us to be in the middle of the action.
He wants to put us in the heat of the battle.
People that are really good warriors, they want to go to battle.
Like, they're not afraid of the battle.
They would be disappointed if they weren't in the battle.
They'd be disappointed if they didn't get the biggest fight.
If they didn't get to fight the biggest guy or have the biggest challenge.
You know, when people have, it's the end of a football game, and they ask them, they say,
hey, do you all want the ball or do you want to be on defense?
It's like, we want the ball.
Like, we want to be in possession.
We don't want to, you know, allow someone else to have our fate in their hands.
You know, they want to be the person that has the opportunity to do something.
Go out.
Be challenged.
And you know what?
God wants to put us in the middle of the action.
Why?
Because that's where people are.
You know, the goal for us is to multiply.
And, obviously, we do it physically, and they did it physically.
That was their primary goal.
But the more important thing is to multiply spiritually.
By preaching the gospel and by reaching people and going out into the world.
You know, if Jacob just stays by himself in his own little compound in the land of Israel,
you know, how are they going to reach anybody?
Now, they have to go into Egypt.
They have to go into the world.
They have to actually be a model for the word of the Lord.
And, you know, when the children of Israel left, the Bible says a mixed multitude went with them.
It was not just them that got saved or was with the Lord's people.
I mean, think about Joseph himself.
He marries a priest of one of these false gods.
You know, that girl's, you know, pulled out of the fire.
You know, she's basically rescued from a false religion, and Joseph's bringing her into the fold
and making her, you know, a godly woman.
And he gets to raise, you know, some godly children with her.
Psalm 23, look at verse 5.
Thou preparest the table before me in the presence of mine enemies.
That's an, I just, I was, this verse just kind of blows me away.
It's like God's saying, you know what?
I don't want you to just feast.
I want you to feast in front of your enemies, right in their presence.
And think about this.
The children of Israel are going to go into the land of Egypt,
and they're literally going to have a table set before them in Goshen,
in the presence of their enemies, their literal enemies.
They're just going to sit there and grow and multiply and flourish, just right out of the open.
And here's the thing, God doesn't want to do things in private.
God does things in open.
God wants you to succeed in the face of adversity.
God's going to prepare you a table in the presence of your enemies.
And he's just saying, hey, you're not going to do anything to me.
You're not going to do anything to my people.
Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
So God wants his people to be out front and center.
He wants them to be, you know, on display, to give him honor, to give him glory,
and to basically say, you can't stop us.
You can't do anything to us.
And it gives him the glory that we would be willing to serve the Lord in the presence of our enemies.
You know, a lot of people would be intimidated or scared or nervous to serve the Lord
when they know people don't like it, people get offended by it,
or people are, you know, basically dissatisfied or find an abomination.
But God gets all this glory when we're willing to do it in the face of adversity.
Go to Psalms 34, go to Psalms 34.
You know, if you're in the, if you're in public and you're dating someone,
it's not cool to be like, hey, is that your girlfriend?
Oh, we just, we're friends.
You wouldn't like that.
You want to say, yeah, I'm dating her.
You know, you want to make it known that you're with her, right?
And the same is with God.
God wants us to make it known that we're Christian.
Now, we don't have to put on a fake show.
You know, we're not going to put, I don't have to put like a 20-inch cross on my chest or something.
You know, I don't have to get it tattooed on my head like God's child or something like that.
I don't have to wear some special garb that says, you know, I'm a child of God.
You know what?
If that was what he wanted, let's put it on.
And you know what?
We should still dress in a way that honors the Lord.
And, you know, for men, it's not really that way, but for a lot of ladies,
you can kind of tell the ladies that love the Lord by the way they dress
because they don't look like a bunch of whores.
They don't look like a bunch of hoochie mamas or whatever.
And you say, oh, why would I have to go through the affliction of dressing modest in public?
Well, that's how God likes it.
God likes that you say, you know what?
I'm a Christian.
You know what?
I love the Lord.
You know what?
I'm not going to flaunt off my body for the world to see.
I'm not going to basically do as the world does, as Egypt does.
No, I'm going to dress like a godly Christian.
And it might come a day when men dress, you know, really weird.
I can see it on the horizon, okay?
Clothing is getting weird these days, you know?
And, you know, wearing it off their rear end or whatever, not wearing a belt.
I mean, all kinds of people just dressing, all kinds of weird.
I mean, the pants are getting so tight and effeminate.
I see guys wearing short shorts like this short.
And I'm thinking like, bro, no one wants to see that.
No one.
I promise.
It's gross.
It's weird, okay?
We should dress in a modest, conservative way and we should make it known that we're a Christian.
You know, when I go soul winning and I hold my Bible, I'm not like, hey, come here.
You see what I got here?
The gospel.
You want me to show you?
No, no, no.
I just hold my Bible up.
Hey, we're Christian.
Hey, we're Baptist.
Hey, steadfast Baptist church.
Are you from steadfast?
Yes, I'm from steadfast.
Yes, I love the Lord.
Yes, I actually believe the Bible.
I'm not one of these lame, fake Christians today.
I'm one that actually believes the word of God and stands up for what the Bible says.
Oh, but what about all the afflictions?
Well, you know what the Bible says?
There's going to be a lot of afflictions but that's going to help us grow.
Look at Psalm 34.
Look at verse 15.
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry.
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil.
Cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry and the Lord heareth and deliver them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.
Oh, man, I just feel like I'm afflicted all the time.
Well, maybe you're righteous.
What is the Bible?
The Bible says many are the afflictions of the righteous.
So, don't think that serving God or being righteous isn't going to have its cost.
Oh, there will be a cost.
Oh, people won't like you.
Oh, people will afflict you.
Oh, people will lie about you for doing nothing wrong.
Just the fact that you don't want to lie, the fact that you don't want to steal,
the fact that you don't want to drink alcohol, the fact that you don't want to go to bars,
the fact that you don't want to look like the world, dress like the world, talk like the world,
go and watch all of the world's filth and smut and you even rebuke it.
They don't like that.
They're going to afflict you.
They're going to lie about you.
They're going to make fun of you.
They're going to say evil against you.
You know, it was really frustrating because I remember at one point in my life,
I kind of told my whole family, I said, look, I don't want to be around alcohol anymore.
So, you know, not only do we not drink, I don't want to be around anybody else that's drinking,
okay, in my family specifically.
Obviously, you know, you go to a restaurant, good luck.
I mean, obviously people are doing whatever, but I'm not wanting to be at my table.
I don't want to be in my house.
I don't want to be around my family.
And so we're kind of telling this and it's like I'm telling my family like, you know,
I'm joining, you know, Jim Jones down in, you know, Guyana or something.
And it's like, ugh.
But at least one person in my family, one person privately, you know,
it's kind of like Nicodemus at night, they like call me.
And they're like, I don't know why it's such a big deal.
It's like, all you want to do is just not drink alcohol.
And I'm like, right.
And they're like, it's not like you're doing anything weird.
You're just not wanting to get drunk or anything or be around people that are drunk or anything.
And I'm just like, right.
And she's like, okay, well, I don't think it's a big deal.
I just want to let you know.
I know people are giving you a hard time.
And I'm just like, finally, someone has a brain in their head.
You know, it's like why would someone get mad at you for not wanting to inebriate yourself,
not wanting to poison yourself, not wanting to be like the filthy, disgusting world today by saying,
hey, I don't want to lie.
Oh, what was that?
But look, when you decide to serve God, people will be mad at you for that.
People won't like that.
People will make fun of you.
People say, oh, you're a goody two shoes, the Sunday school kid.
You know, oh, you think you're better than us, huh?
Or they'll say like, I love Jesus too.
And Jesus wants me to have a beer.
It's like, no.
But, you know, I can't convince everybody of what the Bible says.
Oh, you believe in fairy goddesses because I don't want to drink alcohol?
That doesn't even make any sense, you know.
You're just going to be lied about and people are going to afflict you and think that you're a weirdo and think you're a freak.
But at the end of the day, if you know what the Bible says, just go ahead and rejoice that you're following God's commandments.
So if you went back to verse number 8.
And look, there's going to be people out there, they're going to hear the message, they're going to say,
that actually makes sense because my dad was a drunk and he beat me up every single night and it sucked.
Oh, you know, I was with my spouse and they were drunk every single day of their life and they committed adultery on me all the time.
And like, I get it, alcohol sucks.
I was with my buddy, he drank alcohol and then we rushed from the hospital and he died.
I was with my friend, he drank alcohol and then he drove and ran in a red light and killed the whole family and is now in jail for the rest of his life.
That's the stories. People hear that and they'll hear the word of God and be like, wow, the Bible makes sense.
And unfortunately for most people, they won't realize the truth until it's too late.
They're ready for the truth when they're in jail, they're ready for the truth when they're injured,
they're ready for the truth when their marriage and their life is a complete train wreck.
And that's the real affliction.
The way of transgressors is hard.
If you think being made fun of every once in a while is affliction, you don't even know what affliction is.
But I'm not going to tell you that you won't have affliction because the Bible says many are the afflictions thereof.
You will have affliction in the land of Egypt.
The Egyptians will not like you, the Egyptians will be envious of you for all the good blessings that you have.
But what I like about this chapter is we see all these different people.
All these different people are a result of following God's commandments.
We have all these children and, you know, these children are going to end up becoming a great nation.
And when I see a big list like this, it just makes me think of like our church.
We just have lists of all these different children.
And they weren't afraid to have lots of kids.
Benjamin had ten. Let's read some of these names correctly.
And these are the names of the children of Israel which came into Egypt.
Jacob and his sons, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.
And the sons of Reuben, Anak, and Phalu, and Hezron, and Carmi.
And the sons of Simeon, Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohat, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul.
The son of a Canaanitish woman.
And the sons of Levi, Gershon, Kohath, and Merai.
And the sons of Judah, Ur, and Onan, and Sheila, and Phares, and Zerah.
But Ur and Onan died in the land of Canaan.
And the sons of Phares were Hezron and Hamel.
And the sons of Issachar, Tola, and Fuva, and Job, and Shemron.
And the sons of Zebulun, Zared, and Elon, and Jehalel.
These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, and Pedan, and Ram.
With his daughter, Dinah, all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.
The sons of Gad, Ziphion, and Haggai, Shunai, and Esban.
Eri, and Erodai, and Erelai.
This guy just likes to rhyme with his kids, you know?
People do all kinds of weird stuff with their kids where they like have the same first letter,
or they'll rhyme, or they'll spell their name or something, you know?
Or they'll just name them after them, you know?
George Foreman times ten or whatever, you know? Some kind of a weird thing.
This guy wanted them all to like have an eye or whatever at the end.
So it's kind of funny.
Verse seventeen.
And the sons of Asher, Jimna, and Eshua, and Ishuai, and Bariah, and Sarah, their sister.
And the sons of Bariah, Eber, and Melchiah.
These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter.
These she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.
The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph, and Benjamin.
And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim,
which Ashenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of Aun, bare unto him.
The sons of Benjamin were Bela and Bekir, and Ashbel, Ira, and Naaman, Ei, and Rosh, Mupim, and Hoopim, and Ard.
Is that like twins or something? Mupim and Hoopim, you know?
It's like Basler. Mupim and Hoopim, you know? I don't know.
Twenty-two. These are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob, all the souls were fourteen.
And the sons of Dan, Hushim, and the sons of Naphtali.
That wasn't very many sons. What happened, Dan?
One, Hushim.
And the sons of Naphtali, Jasiel, and Gunai, and Jezer, and Shilam.
These are the sons of Billa, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter.
And she bare these unto Jacob, all the souls were seven.
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins beside Jacob's sons wives,
all the souls were threescore and six.
The sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls.
All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.
And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his face unto Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.
So, we have here a list of the children.
Pretty much only two don't seem to make the cut.
Air and Onan, okay? So they died.
But, and I don't know if this is just me, but maybe it's just me. I'm kind of slow.
When I was reading this, I got confused because it has 33 children for Leah, 16 for Zilpah, 14 for Rachel, 7 for Bilhah.
And then he brings up, he says there's 66 that were like coming into Egypt.
And then he says there's 70 souls.
And I was like, how does that work?
Because you have Joseph and then you have his two sons, so that's only three.
And I was like, I couldn't figure this out.
Anybody else have that same thought, or did you all figure it out?
Okay, maybe you all are smarter than me, all right?
But, all you have to do is an understanding in verse 26.
It said, all the souls that came with Jacob.
So the 66 doesn't include Jacob.
So when you add Jacob at 67, and then you add the three, Joseph, Manasseh, and Ephraim, that's the 70.
Okay, because I always just read that and I'm just like, I don't know how this math works whatsoever.
But that was just something that I had struggled with.
Now, Benjamin had 10 sons listed in this passage.
And it's very clear that they're coming into Egypt.
Another reason, it's not conclusive, but another suggestion is why I was probably wrong, probably already born.
Because to have 10 children in time if he had not been born when Joseph was 17 is going to cause a few issues.
Because he was 30 when he's basically coming back out of prison, and maybe he's 31.
I kind of, whenever the seven years start, we don't know exactly when the seven years start.
Let's say it was 31, okay, we're kind of giving benefit of the doubt here.
Then there's seven years of plenty, so that would make him 38.
Then there's another two years because he says it's the second year that they're in the famine.
So that would make him about 40 max.
Well, if he was 17 at the time that he left, that would make Benjamin 23 years or less if he had not been born.
Having 10 kids at 23, while theoretically plausible, not super likely.
So he probably was already born, probably, you know, maybe just a young child or something like that when Joseph was sold into slavery.
Just an interesting tidbit, it's also interesting that he's the youngest, yet he has the biggest family.
Meaning that, you know, sometimes the last will be first, and the first will be last, okay?
So, you know, you've got to think about things like that.
So if you would to the rest of these verses, let's finish this chapter.
Verse 29, and Joseph made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him.
And he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while, and Israel said unto Joseph,
Let me now die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.
And Joseph said unto his brethren and unto his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh and say unto my brethren and my father's house,
which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me.
Men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.
And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you and shall say, What is your occupation?
That ye shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now.
Both we and also our fathers, that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
Now the first point I'd like to make is that they know how to eat.
They raise cattle, okay? Amen.
This is what we like about Texas and Fort Worth is the cattle, okay?
They're not abomination to us.
You know, it's funny, to some, and it seems like there's a little tip, it's like Fort Worth is kind of an abomination to Dallas, isn't it?
You know, like Dallas and they kind of don't like each other or whatever.
But, you know, I always grew up really liking Dallas.
Now that I kind of see how politics and everything work, Dallas is kind of gross, you know?
It's full of a lot of freaks and weirdos and liberal ideology.
Whereas Fort Worth tends to be a little bit more conservative and I kind of fit a little bit more in with that crowd, I feel like, in my heart, okay?
Especially with the cattle, okay?
When you got cattle, I mean, that's where you win.
Now you can eat some good cattle over on the Dallas side, okay?
And I'm not against Dallas.
It's more about, it's kind of like California.
California is like a paradise.
It's lovely, it's wonderful.
It's all the cockroaches there that I don't like, okay?
So it's like, I love the idea of Dallas.
I mean, the skyline and they got the ball and they've got all kinds of cool stuff.
They got a cool sporting teams.
I mean, I like the sporting teams and stuff like that.
I just don't like all the cockroaches down there, okay?
You know what I mean?
But I like the cattle, okay?
And so that's just, if you've never met me before, you know, this is your first time to learn.
I like steak, okay?
That's just a fact.
But you know what?
You know what?
They were shepherds.
And that's a really important, you know, concept in the Bible is a shepherd.
This is actually the first mention of shepherd in your Bible.
And it's talking about them being shepherds.
Now, I want to go to a few places in your Bible for a moment.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number 5.
When we think of a shepherd, I typically think of a pastor.
And it's because that's the role of a pastor in general is to be a shepherd.
And some people take offense to this.
And it seems like more and more, there's more and more people that attack the idea of a pastor or a shepherd.
But this is for sure a biblical doctrine that we have...
I mean, the word pastor is found in your Bible.
It's not like I invented the word pastor.
I didn't invent the word shepherd.
I didn't invent the word bishop, okay?
I didn't invent the word elder.
These are words found in your Bible for a reason because they're a literal person that does this work.
Now, let me prove this to you.
Look what it says in 1 Peter chapter number 5 and look at verse number 1.
Now, when we think of a flock, and then the person that is the oversight of a flock,
what would you call that person?
A shepherd. Yeah, it's really easy, isn't it?
If you're not an idiot, then this passage makes perfect sense.
Now, it's saying that you shouldn't do it by constraint.
Meaning, you know, we don't want people that don't like beef being the shepherds.
We want people that love the steak to be the shepherd, right?
That's doing it willingly, but not for filthy lucre,
meaning they're not doing it for an advantage to take money that they don't deserve.
Now, I've taught on this before in the past, but I'll just remind you.
I believe the word lucre, especially in this context, filthy lucre, is taking money that you don't deserve.
Not just money, though, because obviously, according to the Bible,
you know, they that preach the gospel are supposed to live of the gospel, okay?
And there's nothing wrong with someone being paid for doing work.
Nothing wrong with a shepherd being paid for his wages.
What would be wrong, though, is taking advantage of the flock and stealing from the flock
and going above his wages to take things that would be considered filthy lucre,
meaning money that's not rightfully his.
He's not actually laboring for that kind of money.
That would be a wicked thing.
It says, but of a ready mind, neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples of the flock.
The Bible also puts leadership in check by saying, okay, you want to be a leader?
You need to lead by being a servant.
You need to lead by being an example.
You need to lead by not lording over people.
Now, what would be an example of lording over people?
Lording is a simply, you know, telling, forcing them to do what you want, okay?
Now, in the church, someone has to make decisions, okay?
And at the end of the day, it's supposed to be according to this will.
This is the will that the shepherd is supposed to abide by, whatever the Bible says.
But obviously, to some degree, God gives discretion to his shepherds to then make decisions based on the Word of God, based on the principle.
You know, as far as the minor details, of course, someone has decided exactly where you're going to meet,
when you're going to show up, how we're going to have the service, who's going to preach, things like this.
As long as we're following the Bible, I believe God then gives the discretion to those shepherds to then make those decisions.
But a lord is a simply one who's being served, not serving, okay?
So you have to ask this question, is the decision the shepherd making for his benefit or for the benefit of the flock?
That's how you start seeing the difference between a lord and a shepherd.
A shepherd is leading you beside the still waters, you know, in the green pastures.
He's restoring your soul. He's refreshing you. He's taking care of you. He's beating off the wolves.
You know, he's basically laying down his life for the sheep.
But you know what? He's telling the sheep where to go.
And that's what a good shepherd does. A good shepherd leads his flock.
He guards his flock. But at the end of the day, the decisions he's making are for their benefit, not for his.
What would be a bad shepherd? One who's not helping the sheep, not leading them to the pasture,
or just literally just, you know, taking all their goods, eating their goods, selling the sheep to the wolf,
saying, hey, I got a nice looking flock over here. How much? For a couple sheep or whatever.
And start selling them off or basically, or just not watching them.
But in a modern fashion, and some independent Baptist churches do this,
you know, the pastor will start making rules that go above the Word of God that impact people's personal lives.
And I find that to be lording over someone being inappropriate. What would be examples of this?
Well, they start coming over to your house and telling you how to live your life.
How to dress, how to, you know, what to watch, what not to watch, what to wear.
And you would say, well, you do that, Pastor Shelley. Here's the thing. I preach what the Bible says.
And I tell you what the Bible says. You know what? When you don't do it, you know what I don't do?
I don't call you up and say, hey, did you live, what's going on, buddy? Why are you wearing that?
Why are you doing it? And some people get confused because they'll even want you to do this.
They'll want you to what I call police people, where essentially they'll notice someone's not doing what was preached behind the pulpit,
and they want you to come and enforce the law. That's being a lord.
You know, it's my job to get up and make it clear what you should do, but then you have complete freedom to do that.
Here's another thing. I won't tell your wife what to do. That's not my job. That's not my realm of responsibility.
I'm not going to correct your wife. That's for you to correct. It's not for me to come and correct your children.
It's not right for me to go around and tell you what to do or to have you come and serve me, say, hey, you come and do this for me or I'm throwing you out of the church.
That's not how it works. That would be a lord. But some independent Baptist pastors will do this where they'll literally rule people's lives.
I've even heard it said that pastors will get up and they'll say, don't make any major life decision without asking me first.
And I'm thinking, like, that's the lord. You know, that's weird. That's when you start getting into the cult territory, okay?
When people call me and they ask me, you know, hey, should I move? Should I do this or whatever? I'm just like, do whatever you want.
Go for it, you know. I'll help them, you know, have a pro and con list. You know, I'll give you some suggestions or whatever.
But I try my hardest to make sure that I'm not giving them any kind of suggestion where they can come back to me and say, oh, you told me to do this.
You said you told me to go here and be here and do this and move there. Because you know what will happen?
Someone will call me and be like, hey, Pastor Shelley, should I move to Dallas-Fort Worth area? And I'll just be like, yeah, you need to.
And then they'll move and they won't like it and they'll be like, oh, I hate you because you told me to move here or whatever.
So usually when people ask me, like, hey, should I move there? I'm just like, why not stay? Just do your own thing, you know.
Moving sucks because it sucks. You know, it's expensive. You know, it's frustrating. You know, the housing market here is terrible, you know.
I don't want to buy anything. I mean, it's just like, it's a seller's market, you know, but it's not a buyer's market. It's a nightmare.
You know, I'm not against people moving here. I'm just not going to tell people what to do with their life.
And so here's the thing. If I'm not going to do that, you shouldn't either.
You shouldn't go around and police people and tell people what to do and get in their business and be gossiping about them and trying to lord over them and tell them what to do, whatever.
Just mind your own business. Lord yourself, okay. Work on yourself. Work on your own family and work on your own children.
Don't worry about everybody else and everybody else's problems and everybody else's children.
Look, would I at times love to lord over some of your children? Yes. Because they need it, okay.
But you know what? My children need it too and I need to take care of my business and not worry about everybody else's.
And typically the people that are so concerned with everybody else's problems, they need to be worrying about their own.
And I'm just trying to give you some helpful tips here. Go to Luke chapter number six. Go to Luke chapter number six.
God doesn't want us to be lords over each other. He wants us to be servants unto each other.
And the Bible describes him as being the chief shepherd in that passage that we're reading.
Now if he's the chief shepherd, that sounds like something. There's more than one shepherd, okay.
Because the Bible clearly teaches that we have pastors, elders, shepherds, bishops. This is the same type of role function in the New Testament.
And it's an important job. It's an important role. But we ourselves in this room, if you're a man in this room, I guarantee you're probably a shepherd.
Because you at least got a wife. You at least have children. You have people that are under your direction, under your care.
And it's important for you to be a good shepherd. You know what? Even in your own family, you're not supposed to be a lord over your sheep.
You're supposed to be a servant. You're supposed to be a good example unto your family.
You know, it makes me a little bit frustrated when people come to our church and they start learning the right doctrines and they start realizing, okay, women are supposed to submit to their husbands.
So then men use that as an occasion to be a lord over their wife. Lord over them. And you say, what's a lord?
A lord is one who's making decisions that benefit him and not her. Now again, a shepherd's still telling people what to do.
A shepherd's still in control. A shepherd's still guiding and leading. You know what he's not doing? He's not selfish about it.
And you know what? There's a lot of guys that are very selfish because they're in charge. Really easy. Look at Solomon.
A thousand women? You think that was selfish? Or do you think that was in the best interest of his first wife?
Do you think his first wife appreciated the next 999 women in his life? No. Obviously he was being very selfish, wasn't he?
And we see throughout the Bible, consistently, when men are put in positions of power, authority, they're given these things, they start becoming very selfish with these things.
That's why dictatorships are very scary in the world that we live in today because men are so selfish and they just take all these things under themselves and do good under themselves.
Whereas Christianity should be the exact opposite. We put people in positions of power and leadership that want to serve and bless other people, not just see how much they can get served.
Oh man, I can't wait to get a bunch of people to serve me. Not in Christianity. That's what the Gentiles do. That's what the heathen do. They exercise lordship.
We're supposed to exercise servantship. Loving people, doing good unto people. And if you want to be a great leader, you have to be a great servant.
But you have to realize that when you are a shepherd and you serve other people, the world will hate you. They find that an abomination.
They don't like someone that serves. They want someone that's going to brag about themselves and glorify themselves and do good unto themselves.
Luke chapter 6, look at verse 20. And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples and said, now let me ask this question, who is he talking to?
His disciples. Blessed be ye poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh.
Blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake.
Now, why would this verse be in the Bible if Christians are supposed to be loved of the world?
It makes no sense. The Bible constantly teaches that men are going to hate God's people. Look at Luke chapter 21. I'm going to skip through.
Look at a lot of verses quickly, okay? Luke chapter 21, look at verse number 17. The Bible says, and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.
Does that sound like people are going to like you? If you're Jesus' disciple. Now remember, who are we talking to? Disciples.
We weren't talking to just the guy that got saved and then went and acted like the world the rest of his life.
No, we're talking about the people that are separated unto God, the ones that follow his commandments, the ones that love the Lord and do right and they're righteous.
They're the shepherds of God's flock. He hates those people. Or the world does, I'm sorry. The world hates those people.
Go if you would to John chapter number 7. Go to John chapter number 7. The Bible says that they hate him that rebuketh in the gate.
That they're righteous in their abomination and the unjust. The Bible constantly tells that the person that's going to say what's right and going to tell people that they're wrong, they hate him.
You know, when someone's doing wrong and you say, hey, don't lie, they don't like you. Hey, don't steal. Don't gossip.
You know, when a lady tries to gossip to you, if you say, hey, I don't want you to gossip to me, she's going to be mad at you.
They're usually not like, thank you, I needed that. Want to go get coffee? They're like, see if I ever talk to her again.
I wasn't gossiping. I don't gossip. I'm not a gossip. It's like, look, every lady in this room is gossip. You're all gossips, okay?
Just like the Bible says, you're all liars. You all gossip. And if someone called you out on it, don't get all butthurt about it.
Just say, hey, I screwed up. Thanks. Because you know what? The world, if you told the world, hey, I don't want to hear this gossip, they'll hate you.
Why would you then want to be like the world and hate someone for doing right? That doesn't make you the righteous person. That makes you the unjust person.
Now, in John, chapter number 7, Jesus explains where this hate was coming from. He says in verse number 7, the world cannot hate you, for me it hateth.
Because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Fill ye up unto this feast, go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet full come.
So Jesus is saying, look, when people hate us, they don't really hate us. They really just hate Jesus.
And you say, well, how does that make sense? Because whenever you tell someone they're doing something wrong from the Bible, what you're really doing is you're saying the words of Jesus because he's the Bible.
And it's not really you that they hate, it's the words that came from Jesus that they hate. Because he's saying, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery.
When John the Baptist gets up and is rebuking Herod for Herodias' sake, the daughter of Herodias, for the fact that he married his brother's wife, it's not that he hates John the Baptist, he likes John the Baptist, in fact, according to the Bible.
He thinks he's kind of cool. But you know what? He doesn't like being rebuked. And his wife really doesn't like it, so she wants his head on a platter.
He wants him killed for what? Just telling him what the Bible said. It wasn't John's words, John didn't make them up, John's just giving them the law.
And here's the thing, I didn't write the Bible. But yet you quote the Bible people and they just get a vis of like this. That's Old Testament. Yeah, it is. I like it.
You want me to give you New Testament on top of it? No. You're taking it out of context. What's the context? I don't know, but it's not that.
My Jesus is all about love. You know, love. Yeah, well, love sometimes is rebuke. Go to chapter 15.
Why would Jesus in the Gospel, I mean, think about this. Isn't John like the greatest Gospel? I mean, it's about how to get saved. John 3 is 16, it's all love, love, and then it turns a little bit.
Chapter 7, they're going to hate you. Hey, chapter 15, look at verse number 18.
If the world hate you, you know they hated me before they hated you. Hey, guess what? They hated Jesus before they hated you, buddy. Okay, you're not special.
Verse 19, if you're of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
Now, here's my question. Why would I care if someone says, hey, did you realize that a lot of people hate you and your church? Yeah.
Jesus told me. They hated Jesus too. Why would I want the world to love me? Oh, have you looked at your Google reviews? Yeah. They hate Jesus.
You're like, oh, people ask me this all the time. They say, why do you have protesters in your church? And this is why I always say, because they hate Jesus.
If we didn't preach Jesus, they wouldn't hate us. If I got up and just said, your best life now, just come on down to the aisle and put your hand in my Bible and you'll go to heaven, just come on down the aisle.
You know, you just touch it. Just touch it and be healed. You'll be healed in your seat today. You just touch your own heart, okay?
We're not really here to worship God. We're just here to worship ourselves. This is Victoria Osteen, sorry.
They don't hate that message. The world goes to children's church. They have him on their show. He's on Oprah. He's on whatever. They love the guy.
He won't even say that if you don't believe in Jesus, you'll go to hell. Well, you know, I just, God, I don't know. What a real man of God.
I've met some Muslim people and, you know, Indian people. They love the Lord. They love, they ain't, whatever's up there, you know.
It's Jesus. That's who it is and they don't. They hate Jesus. How could this verse make sense, Joel Osteen, if everyone loves Jesus?
The Bible says the world hates him and they hate us too. Look at chapter 17, look at verse 14.
I have given them my word and the world have hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world.
Look, we're not of the world. They're going to hate us. Go to 1 John chapter number 2. Go to 1 John chapter 2. I'm almost finished this evening.
I want to make something real clear. chapters are abomination to Egyptians. Let me tell you something. The world is going to hate a godly pastor. Get used to it.
If you think that I'm ever going to be loved in this world, then you're going to think that I became the biggest compromiser. That's the only way.
And frankly speaking, I've already ruined that. Because if I got up and I'm like, I'm so sorry. Everything I said was wrong. I love everyone. Men are women.
They wouldn't love me back. They wouldn't be like, oh, we now forgive you or whatever. Apologizing these people is stupid. Don't be Joe Rogan. Don't apologize.
Don't back down. Well, what if they afflict you? Great. Rejoice. Be exceeding God. But don't back down. What if they take everything from you?
Well, you know what they can't do? They can't force me to apologize. What if you lose your 100 million dollar contract? I don't have one.
What if they cancel your YouTube channel? I already did it. What if they sue you? I mean, what are they going to do? They can kill us, right?
I mean, they can afflict you more. But you know what? The more they afflict you, the more you grow. The more you grow in Christ. The more you grow up to just be a man.
We need more men in this country. You know, a man doesn't just apologize because of the pressure that's being put on him. There's a time to apologize. There's a time to say you're sorry when you've done something wrong.
You know what? When you're standing on the truth of God's word, never apologize. I don't like apologetics because I don't apologize for the word of God. I stand boldly on the word of God.
Like it or lump it. And here's the thing. I'm expecting the world to hate it. That's my expectation. I expect the world to hate me.
Look at what it says in 1 John 2, verse 19.
Now when Jesus is talking about them hating us, he says, hey, those that love us, they're going to hear our words in John chapter 17. I should have read a few more verses there.
But those that don't hear us, those that don't like us, you know what? They're not of us anyways.
And it always comes to fruition. People that are real are going to stick around. People that are fake, they'll eventually expose themselves.
Okay? And you know how you can really tell the ones that are really fake? They just start hating you. Like out of nowhere, you're just like, wow, I thought you were like our buddy. Why do you hate all of us so much?
I mean, you must just be a fake phony. You must just not be of God. Because, you know, those people that are of God are not just going to hate you.
There's plenty of people that come and go to our church, come and go to good churches, and they don't hate you. They're just either backslidden or move on or life happens or whatever.
But the ones that just start hating you and hating everyone in there, they're of the devil.
Don't kid yourself. There have been plenty of people that have walked through these doors that are filled with devils.
Okay? Filled with evil spirits and they're of Satan and they're fake Judas Iscariot type wicked people and it won't stop until Jesus comes.
There's going to be pairs that are sewn amongst the wheat and you have to realize they're going to hate you, the world's going to hate you, but you know what?
Us that are saved, we're going to love one another. And that's how they're going to know that we're the real deal because we actually love.
Look at chapter 3 verse 13. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hates you. You know what Jesus said? Don't be shocked when they hate you.
Now, I want to draw one more parallel if you think back to our story, what I just taught you.
When they enter into Egypt, what is the initial reaction from Egypt?
I think it's great. They're like, oh, sweet, Joseph and his brethren are here and they give them Goshen. They think it's wonderful.
And here's the thing, sometimes that can happen with a church too. You come in and it's like, hey, we're starting a new church and everybody's like, great.
I love church. I love Jesus. You all are Christian? I'm Christian too. And they all think it's great and wonderful.
They just haven't had time to learn who you really are. But then once they learn who you really are, then they're going to hate you.
Hey, they love Jesus at first, then they hate him. And you know what? Sometimes you knock on a door and you get this, they're like, oh, that's so great.
You're preaching the gospel. And you're like, yeah. Hey, are you sure you're going to heaven? Why would you ask that question?
Get out of here. You're like, what just happened? It's like the opposite of those sweet and sour candies or whatever.
First they're sweet, then they're sour. Candy's like sour then sweet. But that can even happen here. Someone's like, hey, the business partners you have, your neighbors, the people around you.
They're like, oh, that's great. You're Christian. But then once they start to really know who you are, it's like, so let me give you one practical tip, okay?
And this is something that I've learned the hard way in a few ways. When I'm doing business with someone, I wait to finish the transaction before I try to preach them the gospel.
And I'm just telling you, there's a reason why. Because they're going to hate you if they don't get saved.
So knowing that I'm going to have such a visceral reaction from someone, I don't want to go ahead and just lay all the cards on the table while I'm in the middle of business necessarily.
And the handful of times that I've done this has gone really bad, okay? And look, I'm not trying to discourage you from preaching the gospel to someone.
I want you to get people saved. If you feel the Spirit leading you to get someone, hey, if he's saying join yourself to this chariot, you join yourself to the chariot and you open your mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel.
But there were times when Jesus used discretion and he kept his mouth shut. And Jesus preached in parables to the mobs for a reason.
Because if he just said things plainly, they were just going to pick them up and throw them off a cliff. So he had to kind of cloak some of his language. He had to cloak some of the things about him. He had to use a little bit of discretion.
Here's the thing. You don't need to tell every single person in your life everything about you right on the onset. Because, yeah, they might not like you.
And I don't like this fake persecution, what I call it, when people keep saying, like, I keep getting fired from jobs. And I'm like, well, what happened?
And it's like, well, I walked over to my boss and I'm like, man, I hate faggots. And here's a DVD about it, Sodomite deception. Jews are wicked as hell. Oh, you go to the Catholic church? I mean, do you worship false goddess Mary or what?
And it's just like, he's like, I got fired. I don't even know what happened. It's just like, I know. You don't have to start there day one, okay? You can use a little bit of discretion, right?
You don't have to just lay all your cards on the table. You know, Jesus used discretion. Jesus didn't tell everybody everything he thought, every single time he was around people.
And if you realize, the world is going to hate me, then you exercise discretion. Then you exercise a little bit of self-control. Have the right expectation.
And realize that it's a dangerous world out there. And you know, as the world gets, you know, in some countries, by even just preaching the gospel to the wrong person, you get killed.
You live in China and you preach the gospel to the wrong person, they tattle on you. I mean, they might just kill you. I mean, it's severe persecution and so you have to use a little bit of discretion.
You have to think about situations and the people you're around and just realize, look, the world's going to hate you. You know what? Jesus loves us. He's going to put us in a place where we're in a position where our enemies can't touch us.
As long as we're in his will, we're exercising good discretion. Let's go in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the word of God. Thank you for giving us a table that we can just feast in the presence of our enemies.
I pray that we wouldn't get discouraged by the hatred that's out there, but rather we'd realize it gives us an opportunity to grow and to multiply.
I pray that we would look at the challenges that are set before us with excitement and joy, that we get to serve the Lord, that we have some real mission to accomplish, and that we live in an area where there's just so many people that need the gospel.
I pray that you would motivate people's hearts to get a real zeal for soul winning and to have the Holy Spirit fill them with a righteous desire to follow your commandments. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, for our final song this evening, we'll go to song 256, Look to the Lamb of God.
256, Look to the Lamb of God.
If you from sin are longing to be free, look to the Lamb of God.
He to redeem you died on Calvary, look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you, look to the Lamb of God.
When Satan tempts and doubts and fears assail, look to the Lamb of God.
You in His strength shall overall prevail, look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you, look to the Lamb of God.
Are you weary? Does the way seem long? Look to the Lamb of God.
His love will cheer and fill your heart with song, look to the Lamb of God.
Look to the Lamb of God.
For He alone is able to save you, look to the Lamb of God.
On the last.
Fear not when shadows on your pathway fall, look to the Lamb of God.