Music
Alright everybody, welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church, if you could find your seats
and grab your songbooks and turn to page number 286 in your blue hymnals, go tell it on the
mountain.
Good afternoon and welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church, if you could find your seat
and grab your songbook, your blue songbook and turn to page number 286, go tell it on
the mountain.
Song number 286, let's sing it out on the first.
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born, while shepherds kept their watching, for silent flocks by
night, people throughout the heavens, there shone a holy light.
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born, the shepherds feared and trembled, went low above the earth, ringing
out the angel's chorus, that hailed the Savior's birth.
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born, down in a lonely manger, the humble Christ was born, and God
sent a salvation that blessed the Christmas morn.
Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, go tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born.
Amen.
Good to see you, brother Alex.
Okay, can you give us a royal prayer?
Thank you, dear Father, for bringing us here safely.
Thank you to our church.
Thank you to the pastor for putting all things in order, and we ask that you give us the
Holy Spirit to listen and pray for each and every one of us.
Amen.
Our second song will be song number 276.
Song number 276, Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Song number 276, in your blue hymn of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King, peace on earth and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled, joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies
with angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King, Christ by highest heaven adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord, late in time behold Him come, offspring of a virgin's womb,
veiled in flesh the Godhead see, hail the incarnate deity, pleased as men with men to
dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King, hail the
heaven born Prince of peace, hail the Son of righteousness, light and light to all He brings,
risen with healing in His wings, mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die,
born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth, Hark the Herald Angels Sing,
glory to the newborn King, come desire of nations come, fix in us thy humble home,
rise the woman's conquering sea, bruise in us the serpent's head, Adam's likeness now he faced,
stamp thine image in its place, second Adam from above, reinstate us in thy love,
Hark the Herald Angels Sing, glory to the newborn King.
All right good evening welcome back to Sure Foundation Baptist Church let's take our bulletins
and go through them again real quickly on our front cover we have our verse of the week if you
need a bulletin as you lift up your hand or Ryan will bring you a bulletin that's good Ryan by the
way and on our front cover we have our verse of the week it says now the God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace and believing that you may abandon hope through the power of the Holy Ghost
Romans chapter 15 verse 13 it's a great verse there and our service times are Sunday morning
at 10 30 a.m sunday evening at 3 30 p.m and tonight we have Genesis chapter 35 in store
for you tonight and Thursday we'll have 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 so our soul any times
blow we had sowing today at one o'clock and I know Amy had one salvation did anybody else
have a salvation out there all right well hey one's better than none I heard it was a
rough spot where the rest of the group went the HOA demons were after you and all this other stuff
but yeah it was at least we got one saved amen praise God for that and you can see the praise
report the salvations baptisms and attendance totals there on the bottom left and on the right
hand side tonight we have choir practice for the last time for the kiddos and so kids right away
after church just come up here up front get ready to practice and then the men are you guys still
meeting is this happening what's going on Robert was in charge of it but he's not here so somebody
else taking the helm tonight anybody Bueller huh okay so are you guys still gonna do it because
all right all right good all right you got the songs picked out everything you know sound like
the Mormon tabernacle choir no not Mormons yeah but anyway so okay so the men's practice is going
to be in the other room the main fellowship area so that'll be right after church so anyway the
December the next upcoming event is this coming Thursday and that's going to be the kids cookie
and ornament decorating at 2 p.m that'll be here at the church building it's absolutely free and
you're welcome to come bring the kids have a good time and that's the same day as church
that'll be on Thursday and December 19th we have our Christmas service here at the church building
and we'll have the children's choir the men's choir singing for us and then we'll have a
prime rib dinner after the preaching service and then we'll be in a coma while I preach for an
hour and a half so anyway I'm just kidding but hopefully we'll get some people saved at soul
winning and it might be a short soul winning time but anyway it's gonna be a great day looking
forward to it December 23rd we'll have our candlelight service and then December 31st we'll
pray in the new year we'll have a game night we're doing the ping pong tournament for sure
and any other games you guys want to bring just make sure they're appropriate for church
no harry potter games or anything like that okay we're not playing quidditch in here
or whatever the stupid I don't know I don't even know what it is but I just remember there's a game
so something has to do with broomsticks or something I think anyway yeah it's the baptist
church okay all right so you guys are all thinking about you've watched the movie haven't you I've
never watched the movie so there I'm spiritual anyhow January 1st we have our new testament
challenge that begins nine chapters a day for 30-31 days there's a couple cheat days in there
where you can play catch up and just remember don't don't get it down on yourself if you fail
just pick yourself up and start reading and hey what if you just do it in 20 you know you do it in
two months or you do it in a month and a half I mean it's still getting it done is the important
part that's what we're trying to spur to spearhead here with this and so the signups for the prime
rib cook the whoever's cooking the prime ribs that'll be in there this week and then there'll
probably have a separate sign-up sheet for whoever's bringing potatoes and all that stuff
or whatever all the side dishes and desserts and so make sure you're going to post that in the
group sometime tomorrow okay all right so that'll be in there and then I just want to again mention
the trip to Canada so it's actually not a trip to Canada it's a trip to Washington but Canadians
are going to be allowed to come to the church service so it's basically on us soil but it's
on the border I don't know it's the dnz demilitarized the dcv I don't know demilitarized
covid zone but anyway so we rented a building that's 100 it can fit 100 people so if you really
want to go I need to know so we'll need another sign-up sheet for that so but I want to know if
you're going for sure I mean obviously you know things happen but I want to make sure that
everybody that wants to go can go and so 100 people we I mean we put over 100 people on a plate
in the Yakima I mean at a church service we we've done that a couple times so I don't think it'll
be too hard I think they got about 30 to 35 people from the Canadian side they're gonna be coming so
um I think we could fit a lot of people but I don't think everybody's gonna want to drive
four hours but you never know I want to so um then we'll we're still gonna have our regular
church services the next day so if you just want to go up there enjoy one of the church the
preaching services and then come home that's totally up to you you're not held hostage once
you get there there's no mounties that are gonna you know ask for your passport or anything like
that so anyway but the food everything's free so we're gonna have breakfast and like a big lunch
so we're not we don't have time to do a dinner or a second a second or third breakfast or
whatever you guys want to do but we're baptists that kind of happens but just if you want bring
snacks maybe for the ride home if you're planning on going that'd probably be a good idea so we'll
have more about that coming up but I just wanted to put that on your radar because it's uh what
is the date today it's like a little over a month away so it's January 15th on Saturday between 8
and 5 and then I can get all you guys the address and all that stuff when uh when we need it okay
so anyway um special prayer for brother Robert Alcorta and his family as uh he lost his dad
yesterday and I believe it was COVID-related symptoms and also for Miss Shanae Adams she's
come and visited our church and she goes to faithful word Baptist church she lost her brother
to COVID I think yesterday I'm not 100 sure what day it was but it was recent and then for Miss
Kimmy who's got some strange symptoms and not really sure what's going on unless you know nobody
came up to me and said it otherwise but just continue to pray for those three people those
are some special prayers that are on my heart right now so if you would pray for them I'm sure
they would appreciate it we're a family integrated church that means the children and infants are
welcome during the church services and we do have mother baby rooms and dad baby rooms provided for
you mother baby rooms back there dad baby rooms over there and uh if you need to use those rooms
for any reason please utilize them you can still hear the preaching and all that stuff and uh
pregnant and nursing mothers and elders are only allowed to use the rockers the rocker chairs I say
rockers that kind of sounds like I'm talking about rockers or something but no it's the rocking
chairs is what I mean anyway no unattended children in any area of the church building please
and no food in the assembly area silence your cell phones if you would or put them on silent
um I mean on airplane mode and you can get an escort to your vehicle by one of the ushers the
ushers are the guys with the jackets that have a pin that says usher on them so they'd be happy
to help you with anything you need so and then you can see the ties that have come in so far
for December we've sang happy birthday there's no anniversaries I don't think that there's any
other announcements and let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering oh one more
announcement there's a baptism you're getting baptized today or tonight all right great Nicole
got saved and shows she's gonna get baptized right after the service the water's a little cold
our next song is song number 291 in your blue hymnals what child is this
song number 291 in your blue hymnals what child is this
song number 291 what child is this song 291 let's sing it out on the first
what child is this who laid to rest on mary's lap is sleeping
whom angels greet with anthem sweet while shepherds watch are keeping
this this is christ the king whom shepherds guard and angels sing
haste haste to bring him love the babe the son of mary why lies he in such mean estate where rocks
and ass are feeding good christian fear for sinners here the silent word is pleading
this this is christ the king whom shepherds guard and angels sing
haste haste to bring him love the babe the son of mary so bring him incense gold and myrrh
come pet send king to own him the king of kings salvation brings let loving hearts enthrone him
this this is christ the king whom shepherds guard and angels sing haste haste to bring him love the
babe the son of mary amen good scene hello ryan could you bless the offering for us
dear lord thank you for this day thank you for bringing us all back together this evening
and please bless this offering
so
genesis 35
genesis 35 the bible reads and god said unto jacob arise go up to bethel and dwell there and
make there an altar unto god that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of esau thy
brother then jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him put away the strange gods
that are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up and go up to
bethel and i will make there there an altar unto god who answered me in the day of my distress
and was with me in the way which i went 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 and they journeyed and the terror of god was upon the cities that were round about
them and they did not pursue after the sons of jacob so jacob came to luz which is in the land
of canin that is bethel he and all the people that were with him and he built there an altar
and called the place el bethel because there god appeared unto him when he fled from the face of
his brother but deborah rebecca's nurse died and she was buried beneath bethel under an oak
and the name of it was called alan baccath and god appeared unto jacob again and when he came
out of bedanaram and blessed him and god said unto him thy name is jacob thy name shall not
be called anymore jacob but israel shall be thy name and he called his name israel and god said
unto him i am god almighty be fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations
shall be of thee and kings shall come out of thy loins and the land which i gave abraham and isaac
to thee i will give it and to thy seed after thee will i give the land and god went up from
him in the place where he talked with him and jacob set up a pillar in the place where he
talked with him even a pillar of stone and he poured a drink offering thereon and he poured
oil thereon and jacob called the name of the place where god spake with him bethel and they journeyed
from bethel and there was and there was but a little way to come to f f wrath and rachel
travailed and she had hard labor and it came to pass when she was in hard labor that the midwife
said unto her fear not thou shall have this son also and it came to pass as her soul was in
departing for she died that she called his name benonai but his father called him benjamin and
rachel died and was buried in the way in f wrath which is bethlehem and jacob set a pillar upon her
grave that is the pillar of rachel's grave unto this day and israel journeyed and spread his tent
beyond the tower of edar and it came to pass when israel dwelt in that land that rubin went and lay
with billa his father's concubine and israel heard it now the sons of jacob were 12 the sons of leah
rubin jacob's firstborn and simon and levi and judah and isaacar and zebulun the sons of rachel
joseph and benjamin and the sons of billa rachel's handmade dan and neftali and the sons of zilpah
leah's handmade gad and asher these are the sons of jacob which were born to him in pedanaram
and jacob came unto isaac his father and amamra under the city of abrah which is hebron where
abraham and isaac sojourned and the days of isaac were in hundred and four score years and isaac
gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his people being old and full of days
and his sons isaac and jacob buried him brother bill will you pray for us
genesis chapter 35 look at verse number one the bible says and god said unto jacob arise and go
up to bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto god that appeared unto thee when thou
fled us from the face of isa thy brother now if you remember in the last chapter dina was defiled
and jacob ended up saying you're making uh my name to stink among the name of the inhabitants
and he was worried that they were going to try to kill him and you know because
words are going to travel fast you're strangers in another country and then all of a sudden your
sons slaughter all the men in one city take all their wives captive take all their children
captive steal all their stuff basically and you know obviously what that prince had done
was wrong and lying with dina you know but on the on another side he wasn't a saved man
and you don't have to be saved to know that fornication is wrong but you know he was saved
or he wasn't saved and you know they just went and overreacted to the situation there's no call
for the death penalty for that sin in the bible and they just went way overboard they were classic
overreactors as i said last week and they just uh they they really made they did make their the name
of god to stink in the land because who was their god the god of israel and i'm sure everybody knew
that and so kind of one of my points was that when christians mess up in front of other people
it can really be a detriment to the cause of christ it can be a detriment to your name
and it can and and obviously we don't want god's name to stink among the inhabitants at our
workplace where we live our neighbors our family members and so moving on from there this is why
he's um asked to go to bethel and remember bethel is the place where jacob made the pillar and he
poured the oil on it and said if you'll be my god then you know i'll give you a tenth and i'll you
know i'll you know if you take care of me then i will worship you and you'll be my god basically
is what he said and so that place is called the pillar and ground of the truth in the new
testament and that represent you know that pillar represents christ you know this the rock and the
holy spirit is represented by the oil and so he's asking him go basically go back to bethel which is
which means the house of god and so that's the i mean so if you want to translate bethel into
english it's the house of god and so that's where you're at tonight the house of god and so praise
god for that we actually are able to have a place where we can call the house of god and this
building doesn't make it the house of god what makes it the house of god is all the believers
here gathered together called the church so look at verse number two then jacob said into his
household and to all that were with him put away the strange gods from or that are among you and
be clean and change your garments so jacob's like hey we're gonna go to we're gonna go to church
so you guys seem to put away the strange gods that are among you so you gotta understand he's
not just traveling with his family he's traveling with his servants people that work for him you
know he's basically like a cowboy and they're free-range cowboys where they're just kind of
you know you know he didn't have i'm sure they didn't have six shooters and all that but
they're basically that's what he did he's a he's you know he's a shepherd he keeps flocks
and he has people that work for him and even his own wife rachel remember she stole her father's
gods you know the false idols that he had and remember laban when he came and chased after him
she had hidden them underneath her and then pretended like she was at the time that comes
upon women once a month and so she wouldn't get up and allow him to check uh under her saddle
or whatever it is you know where she was riding that the camel i think and so basically rachel
his own wife had strange gods i don't know if she's one of the ones that gave him up or whatever
but jacob knew that there was strange gods among them he knew that there was people that's hearts
weren't right and he's like hey you need to you know put away the strange gods that you
have among you and be clean and change your garments so now in carnal terms you know it's
that literally means get rid of your false idols your false gods that you have the statues or
whatever it is you're worshiping and be clean you know take a bath and put on some new clothes
but like what would that represent spiritually to you well number one you can't believe in other
gods and then believe you know you can't serve two gods you can't serve two masters you can't serve
these false gods and serve god at the same time you're either going to hate one you're going to
hate one or love the other that's just the way it is so in order to get saved you can't just say
well i'm going to stay a muslim and then i'm i'm going to just add jesus to one of my gods that's
not how it works you you know when we believe at this church biblical repentance is changing your
mind whatever it is that's keeping you from being saved whatever god you believe in whatever
philosophy you believe in whatever scientific mumbo jumbo that you believe in you have to get
rid of that and you have to believe on the true god which is the father which is jesus which is
the holy spirit the trinity you have to believe in the correct god and so he's saying get these
strange gods these gods don't belong in our camp and you know last last week he had a failure as a
father didn't he he had a failure and he allowed his daughter to go out in the land to be defiled
he allowed some man to put his hands on her and and and do things that you're not only supposed
to do when you're married and so you know now he's he's like cleaning up his act here a little bit
he said hey my household when we go to bethel which is the house of god we need to put away
the strange gods that are with us we need to put on some new clothes and be clean but what would
that being clean represent well being clean from sin right so once you put away the strange gods
whatever you believed in before you got saved then you when you get saved you become clean
you become justified right and then it talks about it in several different places in the
bible changing your garments and putting on that robe of white that robe of white represents
you know uh sin you know being sin free and so once you are saved you're justified it's just
as if you'd never sinned and then cry you know in heaven we're going to have these robes of white
and you know so i kind of think that that's the picture that it's showing here that he's saying
you know you need to get right with god you need to be clean you need to change your garments
and put away your strange gods now strange gods literally are gods that are not real the bible
says in a couple different places that they they they sacrificed unto devils so the god they
thought they were gods and any religion that teaches a different god they think that they're
real gods but what are they really they're devils see the devil satan himself fell from heaven and
he took a third of the angels with him when he left so though that third of the angels that's
he they're here on earth and they influence things in life they influence and we can't obviously see
them but they're influencing governments in high places they're influencing religions being started
they're influencing every aspect of life because the devil's ultimate goal is to destroy you to
kill you and to not allow you to get saved he wants to put some system or belief in your life
where you just won't believe the truth it's like these people that believe in evolution
you know they they have no evidence for it they have no intermediate fossils they have no proof
of the big bang they have no proof of any of the stuff that they have they still keep lies in their
textbooks they're still talking about you know horse evolution that's not true it should have
been ripped out of the textbook a long time ago but yet they still teach that to kids today
acting a lot you know these they'll have these pictures of when they're when they're you know
in the first uh in the womb or whatever those pictures aren't true they're not real and you
know the bible teaches that everything comes forth after its own kind and so guess what we see today
here's science things you can observe and test you know what i observe what i test human beings
having human beings chimpanzees having chimpanzees elephants having elephants zebras having zebras
horses having horses pigs having pigs do you see anything else do you see any other kind of animal
coming out of another animal no and you know what all it takes millions and billions of years for
that to happen don't you know yeah that's their magic formula billions of years millions of years
ago it's all a lie this world hasn't even been around for millions of years only been around for
about six thousand years see we're all everybody's look from the day you can open up a child's book
they're telling you dinosaurs lived billions of years ago aren't they aren't they or millions of
years ago i i had dinosaur i know my mom said that i used to set my dinosaurs up and i knew all their
names when i was like two or three years old but i mean those kind of things can influence you what
is the first thing that they tell you about dinosaurs they lived millions of years ago
so what do people think all throughout their life you're like pastor thompson they didn't
live millions of years ago no they didn't they were made with adam and eve you're like well they
were pretty big right yeah they were but all a lot of animals were bigger back then reptiles
never stopped growing before the flood people lived to be longer they lived to be 900 years old
so you know that should tell you that probably the other animals live long too and so when a
reptile continues to grow and grow and grow and grow they're going to get pretty big aren't they
how long is the reptile going to get when they're 500 years old i mean how big do
saltwater crocodiles get right now i'm scared enough of those i'm kind of afraid to go to
australia i don't want to go to that little part where they yeah they'll jump out and kill you
they live in the ocean they swim in the ocean and stuff like i'm not going surfing i'm not
going swimming i don't know maybe i'm a big chicken but we don't have that kind of stuff here
we don't even have poisonous spiders around here so uh you know i'm good you have to go up to the
mountains get killed by anything it's a mountain lion or bear or something but anyway i'm going
off on some other stuff here but so when you talk about strange gods it's a belief system you know
just think of it this way today whatever's stopping people from believing in jesus
is some strange god some strange belief some straight you know and if it's science what are
they what are they trusting in look i like science i think science is interesting i think
studying animals is cool you know there's a lot of different kinds of science but i don't like
science that tries to say that god isn't real you know what the russians did when they first went up
to space supposedly they said we've been to we've been to space and god's not real that's exactly
what they said and so you know there's a there's a big movement of trying to stop people from
believing in god now strange gods are still all over this world right now but back then
they were you know it was a big deal then too so but really what are they they're devils that's
what they really are they're not there's no other gods besides god remember i just read those
scriptures to you this morning in isaiah chapter 43 but if you if you worship a strange god you're
also going to have you know you know if you believe in a strange god or some other kind of
form of of worldview you're going to have a way that you worship those things and what is the way
that we worship those things well you talk they talk about the high places a lot in the bible
right all throughout the kings and the chronicles and you know actually throughout the whole bible
they pretty much talk about these high places and high places are where they would go and they would
sacrifice to these other gods they'd set they burn incense to them because that was just the
way that they worship their god so what would be some high places today you know and let me just
tell you this christians do still have strange gods among them christians still have high places
in their life christians have things that they still do that they know that it isn't right but
yet they do it anyway or you know they still you know hold to something that they know isn't right
but they still hang on to it and that's what jacob's telling his people here he's like hey get away
get these strange gods from out from among you we're going to church we're going to bethel god
told us to get get back and get right and so he's being the leader here which he's being a strong
leader isn't he you're saying get this garbage out of here clean your act up get on some new clothes
you stink and let's go to church you know so what are some high places that people have today well
entertainment is a big high place in people's lives and i think you know and and basically
those things are like things that you just haven't quite put away yet and no no christians perfect no
christian has arrived and is you know that they have everything figured out they float into the
church you know the nobody's nobody's perfect at everything okay but you know the high places in
christians lives can be entertainment food music family clothing education science video games
gardening sports hiking animals your job some people just skip church all the time because
they're working it's like hey you know there's other jobs out there that don't necessarily make
you work during every church service you know are are you making god your priority or in your life
are you making all these other things a priority in your life some people get into sports after
serving the lord for a long time and then they just quit they just go and follow some hockey
team all over the place so they go and follow the seahawks or whatever it is and they forget about
the lord that saved them they forget and and they those strange gods come back you know and
when you're making provision for the flesh when you're just allowing that stuff to hang around
then you know you're eventually going to go back to it so but are all those things wrong
that i just listed they're not wrong but where it's wrong is when you put that in place of god
in your life and make that more important than him that's when it becomes a high place in your life
that's when it becomes a strange god among you and so we got to get a handle on these types of
things because if you don't then it can destroy you and you're like pastor thompson it's not
that big of a deal it is a big deal and you know why it's a big deal because it's it's proven to
be a big deal in the bible now just liking women can be a downfall to men just you know you can't
your eyes are never full what you know you can't just concentrate on the one woman that you're
supposed to be with you got to concentrate on all the other ones and solomon who was a great
king and very wise had a problem with this area let's look at first kings chapter 11 verse 1
and solomon you know at first started off as a great king did he he was very wise
you know god loved him god appeared to him multiple times he actually appeared to him
multiple times just like he appeared to jacob multiple times
but look at what it says in verse number one he also built the temple you know he was he was he
was a great king very wise but look at what verse 11 first kings 11 says or verse 1 but king solomon
loved many strange women together with the daughter of pharaoh women of the moabites
ammonites edamites zedonians and hit tights of the nations concerning which the lord said
unto the children of israel you should not go in to them neither shall they come in unto you
for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods what's the warning god's the they're
going to turn these women these strange women what it means by strange women is these women
that believe in other gods these women that don't believe in the lord and he just loved
all these women right it says they will turn away your heart after their gods solomon clave
unto these in love so his high place his strange god was women you know he's a saved man isn't he
not and say people can have high places and gods in their life too look what happens though god
warned him don't do that don't multiply horses don't multiply wives you should have one wife
and he had multiple wives look what it says verse three it says and he had 700 wives
okay that's you know 699 more than i'm able to handle but anyway princesses and 300 concubines
so he had a thousand wives basically and it says and his wives turned away his heart just like god
said was going to happen what happened he loved all these different women he couldn't keep his
eyes to himself he just had to have more women you know what what do you want what did henry
ford want when he after he made his first million another million you know what did solomon want he
wanted more women a thousand women i mean you wouldn't even if you're just given one one night
for each wife it'd take you a few years to get to see them all man this guy's got it bad
but it says they turned away these the his wives turned away his heart look at verse four and it
came for it came to pass when solomon was old that his wives turned away his heart after other gods
now listen i know people will say well solomon really didn't go after those other gods it was
just his wives he was just doing that to appease them is that what it says what does it say for
solomon went after other or they turned we'll see what verse am i at let's see uh i'm sorry yeah
his wife turned away his heart his heart was not perfect with god for the heart for good night i
can't speak as was the heart of david's father let's see okay verse five i'm sorry for solomon
went after ashtoreth solomon went after does it say he was trying to appease his wife is that
what it says no it says solomon went after ashtoreth the goddess of the zidonians
and after milcom the abomination of the ammonites and solomon did evil in the sight of the lord
and that's what it says after every king that it mentions in the books it says if they were a bad
king or if they were a good king you said he did they did evil on the side of the lord now was
solomon saved though yes he was you know what it's possible for save people to do evil on the side
of the lord it's possible it says and solomon did evil inside the lord and went not fully after the
lord as did david his father then did solomon build an high place for chimash who built it
solomon built it he built the high place for chimash the abomination of moab
in the hill that is before jerusalem and for molek the abomination of the children of ammon
well do you guys understand who moloch was who's moloch he's the one that people would sacrifice
their children to in the fire solomon the king of israel a saved man is building high places for
these false gods it's not just his his wives you know appeasing his wives he did it he did evil on
the side of the lord i don't like when people make excuses for solemn because what he did was
super wicked and it was a snare unto israel for many many years after this he actually made a
place for people to to burn their sons in the fire and it says and likewise did he for all
his strange wives so he did it for all of them how many different gods were there i don't know
what it's mentioning the main ones and it says which burnt incense and sacrificed under their
gods and the lord was angry with solomon because his heart was turned from the lord god of israel
which had appeared unto him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing that he
should not go after other gods but he kept not that which the lord had commanded solomon messed
up and you know why he messed up because he was dabbling in things that he shouldn't have been
dabbling with he was playing a game that he shouldn't have been playing and he lost didn't he
now all the great things that he did those are all chronicled in the book of the kings first kings
and second kings first second chronicles and you know he wrote a bunch of proverbs he wrote the
song of solomon he wrote the book of ecclesiastes he was obviously saved but in the end of his life
he messed up and he caused not only his self to sin but he also caused all the children of israel
to sin turn to first kings chapter 15 verse 11 now you have a a place where there's i just want
to show you just an example because this this is said throughout the whole books of kings and
chronicles okay this same type of situation here it says and in verse 11 and asa did that
which was right in the eyes of the lord as did david his father so asa was a good guy who's
did what was right he took away the sodomites out of the land yeah bonus and removed all the idols
that his fathers had made great job and also makai his mother even after her after her he removed
from being queen because she had made an idol in a grove and asa destroyed her idol and burnt it
by the brook kidron so it sounds like he's a good guy even his own mother he was like no mom
you're out you're not the queen anymore you're serving other gods bye-bye see my sermon from
earlier today okay verse 14 but the high places were not removed who made the high places solomon
made the high places they were not removed this is this is years later nevertheless asa's heart
was perfect with the lord all his days so you see how that's a snare to the children of israel
to the day of asa now let's fast forward deeper in hundreds of years later
at second kings chapter 23 verse 13 turn to second kings chapter 23 verse 13
says verse 13 and the high places that were before jerusalem which were on the right hand of the
mount of corruption which solomon the king of israel had builded for ashtaroth the abomination
of the zedonians for chimash the abomination of the moabites and for milcom the abomination of
the children of ammon did the king defile we're talking about josiah here josiah had the right
idea let's take it all down let's rip it all to shreds but look how long solomon's stuff
lasted until finally josiah right before the second temple was destroyed josiah got right
with god but it was too late for israel and the blood had already been spilled
god was going to judge it he was just kind of giving him a state of execution with josiah
because josiah was such a good king but look at how long that lasted many many years later
solomon's high places are still in in the place that they were when he first made them
so you see the effect like how many people do you think went and sacrificed to those false gods
because of solomon not being able to control his eyes see your sin does affect other people
and your sin can affect the rest of the camp and so what i'm trying to show you today
is that it is a big deal when we are clinging to other gods and and obviously you're not
nobody hopefully nobody is at home worshiping literal statues and stuff like that but i'm
talking in a spiritual sense here if there's something that you've put above god or a place
in your heart that that you haven't gotten rid of that you need to put away from yourselves
that's a good thing to do take inventory every once in a while of your life and say is there
something i need to get out of my life is god not blessing my life because i need to get rid
of these high places is god not blessing my life because i need to put away these false gods from
among me is there something that you're doing that is causing god to not bless you it's possible
isn't it and because it's possible for christians to sin it's possible for a great man like solomon
it's possible for you to fall too and it's possible for you to get dragged out
and and be in the same situation that solomon was and god was angry with him and god said he
did evil on the side of lord i don't know about you but in the end of my life i don't want there
to be some chronicle in heaven that says pastor thompson in the end of his life you know screwed
up and started worshiping other gods or something i want to go out on a high note i want to go out
you know with my head held high and doing what's right and so that's that should be your goal too
it's not how good you start it's how well you finish and so we need to finish well and solomon
did solomon finish well he didn't finish well he finished badly did david finish well yeah david
finished well but solomon didn't now let's look at verse number two in our text again
in genesis chapter two
it says then jacob said unto his household and to all that were with him put away the strange gods
that are among you be clean change your garments now if you if you take this and spiritualize this
obviously i believe it's it's you know if you look at it from a spiritual aspect you're talking about
you know cleaning up your life now once you're saved all your sins are forgiven
you're going to heaven no matter what you do okay you have everlasting life but you still can sin in
the present and still draw the anger of the lord against you you know it's kind of a weird thing
to think about it's a weird dichotomy but you know you can still be wrong with god and saved
at the same time so you can still be into sin and being your life is dirty your life is filthy
and what's god going to do in those in those times when you're you know when you're not living right
before the lord you're saved but you're not living right well god's going to punish you
he's going to spank you he's going to take you to the woodshed you know so to speak
so the best thing for us to do is live as clean of a life as we can now you know be you know
clean in our in our thoughts be clean in our actions you know deal truthfully with every man
with his neighbor you know be real don't be a hypocrite and try to just be the best christian
that you can and so you know there's there's a thing about you know you're clean because you're
saved as far as like going to heaven wise but you can still live a dirty life and you know because
god that's what grace is folks grace is when you get something you don't deserve so if you're saved
you're only set you're saved from hell but what do we deserve we deserve hell we absolutely deserve
hell and you know thinking about these idols and stuff these things in our lives we knocked on a
door and i was with ryan and brother bill and i'm not kidding this is exactly what the guy said
he first of all bill had the card he's like hey we're from sure foundation baptist church
and he's like the guy was just like stone cold looking at him like i was like man what's this
guy gonna do you know he's like me and my daughter or big time san francisco 49er football fans
and the game's on right now and that's what we're doing something like that i don't know if that's
exactly what he said but he was dead serious he was like see ya do you think that's an idol
do you think he's made san francisco 49ers his idol and you know if you're gonna make
something you're idle at least make it a good team good night san francisco anyway but you
know that guy might be going to hell because he refused to cast aside his god cast aside his false
idol and cast aside his high place and actually listen to what the god of the bible had to say
about getting saved that man's gonna walk away and if he doesn't get saved he's gonna go to hell
and why because he wanted to watch the services give 49ers play foolish stupid
so you know god wants us to be clean and so if we uh we start to say well you know what the same
the the seahawks game is more important than being a church then you're not right with god
and you need to fix it you need to clean up your your act you need to get back
to bethel get back to church get back to the pillar and ground of the truth where you belong
turn to matthew chapter 23 verse 26 matthew chapter 23 verse 26 we need to get spiritually
and morally clean spiritually and morally clean jesus addressed this with the pharisees in a
scathing rebuke in matthew chapter 23 verse 26 it says thou blind pharisee cleanse first that
which is within the cup and platter that the outside of them may be clean also what's he
saying hey your your fancy wizard outfits and your long phylacteries and all this you know you dress
like you're religious everybody thinks you're so cool you look nice the outside looks great but
inside you're full of dead man's bones you're a whited sepulcher you're a venomous snake full
filled with poison you're wicked and so he said first the first thing you need to do is cleanse
what's inside and see we can't see what's inside people's hearts god can see it though and we need
to cleanse that which is first inside so we need to cleanse ourselves spiritually and morally look
at second corinthians chapter seven verse one second corinthians chapter seven verse one i try
to fly three through these real quick second corinthians chapter seven verse one the bible
says having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit you see it's the flesh and spirit that we need to clean up
cleanse ourselves god if god didn't have a way for us to do that then he wouldn't tell us to do it
you can cleanse yourself from the filthiness of your heart you can cleanse yourself from the flesh
and the spirit otherwise he wouldn't say it in the bible right now turn to ephesians chapter
five verse 26. Ephesians chapter five verse 26. Ephesians 5 verse 26 says that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word well what's one way you can cleanse
yourself by taking heed thereto according to thy word how shall a man a young man cleanse his way
you know the god's word will help you wash that away and if you meditate on it if you read it
but if you never read the bible then how's it going to help you how are you going to get
helped if you if you have the spirit of god in you and you don't read the bible then it's not
going to help you you know the holy spirit isn't just going to he'll bring things to your
remembrance and stuff like that but if you just you know if you don't use it you lose it if you
stop reading it your habits and it seems like when it comes to bible reading your habit can
change in one day if you screw up one day you're just like you feel beat down don't you but that's
what the devil wants you to think he wants you to stop reading your bible oh it's too late now i
messed up the the 30-day challenge no you've got to keep reading it because cleansing it says to
cleanse it with the washing of the water by the word the word of god can wash away those impurities
when you apply those things to your life when you apply those things to your heart
then that begins to purify your life that's what sanctification is you get better
and more and more uh holy and sanctified as the years go along
now turn to james chapter four verse eight james chapter four verse eight
and you know when we sin we don't feel close to god do we we feel far away from him when we do
a sin that we're really ashamed of don't you just kind of you don't want to read the bible
you don't want to pray you feel you know alienated from god you know you feel like
they're you know god's not there with you anymore and that's a common feeling for people to think
well how could god you know how could i even be some people would even question their salvation
how could i even be saved if i would do that but here's the thing god loves us and he wants to have
he does want to have a friendship and a relationship with us that we can you know fellowship
with him he didn't save us just so he could never talk to us for the rest of all of eternity
i mean do you think he's going to talk to us when we're up there sure he's going to talk to us
you know we don't hear him audibly how we hear him now is through the word of god
if he spoke oddly audibly to us we'd probably melt we'd probably catch on fire and burst into flames
all right he's not you know one of the children of israel were scared they they heard they heard
god's voice in the thunder and they were terrified it's like hey don't moses don't let him talk to us
anymore you speak for for him because they were so scared of hearing the law of god that they were
trembling they were terrified and afraid so people were like well i believe in god if he just came
down and talked to me are you sure that's what you want because have you ever seen the rage of
the lost ark where their faces all melt off that's probably what's going to happen to you too
so god isn't going to talk to you audibly and if he does please come see me and we'll get you
checked into a great doctor and we'll try to find somebody to help you with some psychiatric
problems all right james chapter four verse number eight says draw nigh to god and he will draw nigh
to you see when you feel away from him why don't you draw to him it says if you do that he will
draw nigh to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double-minded see a
lot of people are double-minded and if you're double-minded you know the bible says a double
minded man is unstable in all his ways but you know what you don't have to stay double-minded
you can change that he says cleanse your hands you sinners hey you want to get close to god
why don't you cleanse your hands why don't you cleanse the filth off your hands why don't you
cleanse your heart and your mind and your soul by the washing of the water and by the word and
drawing close to god you know what makes you draw close to god when you're less sinful
when you stop being double-minded when you purify your heart when you go back to baffle
get your heart right with god why do we come to church you know for the perfecting of the saints
you know we're supposed to be perfected here that's part of what we're doing here
and fellowship is part of that preaching is part of that singing unto the lord is part of that
going out and mobilizing to go soul winning is part of that and so you know you're not gonna
your life is not gonna be complete unless you're faithful to the lord that's why god's like jacob
go back to baffle go back you know and so when you're out of church when you got the strange
gods in the high places among you hey you know what the best thing is to do is get rid of that
stuff cleanse yourself change your garments and get back into church and some people are sitting
in church that their heart and mind are so far away from what's going on they're just waiting
for an excuse to walk out the door and never come back and and people love to blame the pastor it's
the pastor's fault you know it's no sometimes it's just your own heart sometimes you just suck
and you're and your uh your character sucks my wife's probably mad because i said suck but
that's true hey some people just don't have any character they don't have any backbone they can't
just go through hard times they can't stick and stay and make it pay they're not going to just
stay in church because you know what the their god is calling them their high place is calling them
and so we got to get away those high places out of our life we got to tear them down and burn them
in the fire like joseiah did and start serving the lord because there's a lot of people they
come to church and they're just checked out and i'm not saying i know who they are you know who
you are maybe there's someone in here that is you're just waiting for the next time that i say
something you don't like so you can leave and hopefully that's not your attitude but you know
there's always that one thing that god's gonna that's gonna be said out of god's word that
someone doesn't like so it's set the bible says if we draw an eye to him though he'll draw an eye
into us we got to cleanse our hands we got to purify our hearts we got to not be double-minded
look at uh first john chapter one verse nine verse john chapter one verse nine now people say
they mock this and say oh you're just going to first john one nine you know you live however
you want live like the devil and then you're going to first john one nine well let me just
tell you something right now first john one nine is in there for our benefit first john one nine is
one of the greatest scriptures of the whole new testament in my opinion because i don't know about
you but i'm a sinful person and you know we're all sinful people in here some to varying degrees
some worse than others but i'll tell you this this verse gives me comfort because i know
that you know if i draw an eye to god you know if you just a little confession goes a long ways
but you know what we don't have to confess our sins to a catholic roman catholic priest
we don't have to go and kiss some relic or some picture on a wall it's not some kind of religious
thing that we do we go right to the creator of the universe who we have the right to go to
by the blood of jesus christ and we can talk to him and we can say god would you forgive me
would you cleanse me would you forgive me let's let's let's get back to our close fellowship now
look what it says if we confess our sins he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness do you think he's just saying that for vain reasons no
he wants to cleanse us he wants to forgive us those sins he wants to restore that relationship
now when your children are acting up they're acting a fool they're tired you know but when
they're tired they seem to just like yeah you know they're just like they're just acting like
whirling dervishes you know they get crazy right or they disobey you you know and we we get to
the point where just like okay you're gonna get punished you know and then you spank that child
and that child becomes a new child again you know it's like we forget that we forget that that's
what works like i just don't understand why they won't behave now you know they'll behave now
give them a swat they'll they'll love you they'll hug you oh i love you they'll put their little
head on your shoulder you know they're so cute but you know what god will do that for us too
you know and you know what what's what's good is when your child says you know what i'm sorry
you know to you as a parent because a lot of times especially in the teen years you'll you'll
see this some of you guys uh when that when your children are teens or some of you already have
experienced this but the sorries come few and far in between the flash the the looks the flash that
they give you that comes a lot more often so when your child you know but that i mean think about
god looking at us that way we have that defiant look we have that i know this is wrong but i'm
going to do it anyway i know that this is not something i should be doing or something i should
be involved in but i'm going to do it anyway and what that's a defiant eye you know what god's
going to be less merciful to us when we act like that but when we come to him hat in hand so to
speak when we come to him humble then god's going to deal with us in a different way isn't he he's
filled with mercy god is full of mercy and long suffering and he he doesn't want to just sit there
and beat us all the time he wants to enjoy us and just like you don't want to sit there and
spank your kids all the time do you doesn't it hurt you to have to spank your kids i mean
sometimes it's like you really got this one coming but but for the most part nobody really likes to
spank their kids but you do it wise so that you can correct them so you can help them because
if you don't do that if they just run around do whatever they want then it's going to cause their
life problems isn't it they're going to grow up wrong they're going to have their families are
going to be dysfunctional and look we want to break that chain of dysfunction in the christian
homes look let's look at verse number three so look what god tells them and let us arise and go
up to bethel and i will make there an altar unto god who answer oh is this jacob saying excuse me
let's arise he's telling his people this and let us arise and go up to bethel and i'll make there
an altar unto god who answered me in the day of my distress and was with me in the way which i went
and so we we know about the story we we went through this a couple weeks ago
that jacob called upon the lord he asked him to deliver him from his brother esau and what did
what did god do he delivered him from his brother esau didn't he so he's going to obey god he's
going to say you know what let's let's get up from where we're at and let's go back to the house of
the lord let's go back to bethel and you know some of us in this room like i said are are checked
out but and maybe you're not maybe you're all paying attention it seems like everybody's paying
attention right now so i guess when i start saying stuff like that people start paying attention
but anyway um but you know i don't i'm not here to beat you guys up or anything like that everybody
drifts when people are preaching especially when people are preaching for like an hour and 20
minutes or whatever and i can see where you drift sometimes but let me just say this that maybe we
need to put in this room some of the false gods out from among us i'm not saying you literally
believe in a false god i'm just saying the things in our life you know we need to go back to bethel
before it's too late because if you wait till it's too late then you know bad things are going to
happen in your life and i'm sorry but that's just the truth do you see that god just is long
suffering to people in the bible and then all of a sudden he just destroys them because he does
give us he gives us way more chances than we deserve probably sometimes more chances than we
would let somebody else have but see the way you deal with other people might be the way that god
deals with you too so if you're getting punished often maybe you're punishing people too often also
see because you know god god's funny that way he's just gonna you know the way we treat other people
we're gonna get treated that way also what you know it's not we don't believe in karma at this
church but what we do believe is whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap so let's move on
here to verse number four it says and they gave on to 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 so before they even leave they all give up their strange gods they give up
their earrings you know i don't know what that has you know back then earring left what they
put the ear homos will put the earrings in their left ears or something i don't know i'm just
kidding but when we were kids that's what the people said right was it the left ear
was it the right ear okay i don't know it's some kind of queer signaling or something
but uh i think it was the right yeah the right was the homo ear wasn't it because i had i had
my ear pierced on the left but anyway it's not pierced anymore so it finally grew over i don't
think i could put an earring in there anymore but uh yeah i think i made sure not to get that
side so anyway i think it was but anyway they give up their earrings jacob takes all this stuff
and he hides it under the oak which was by shechem i mean i guess this this tree in my
mind symbolizes the cross you know all those sins that you know christ took upon himself the sins of
the whole world he took you know jacob saying here take let me see those false gods let me
give me your earrings the stuff that's valuable to you you know the stuff that you're worshiping
or whatever and bury it under this oak tree so now you know jesus christ the bible says he died
upon the tree he died upon you know a cross is made of a tree so that's kind of how i see it
and our sins are hidden under the cross and the blood of christ when god the father looks at us
he doesn't see a sinful person he sees a blood-bought born-again believer that's
covered with his son's blood he sees the the righteousness of christ on us when we're saved
so let's turn to psalm 103 verse 8 psalm 103 verse number eight
now so there's a living in the flesh being a sinful christian yes your sins are all forgiven
but you know on in this life god will chastise his children and he's not going to just let us
get away with everything if they're not his children he doesn't care do you spank other
people's children do you imagine what would happen if i spanked somebody else's kid in this room
you'd flip out wouldn't you and rightly so because you haven't given me permission
but believe me if you give me permission i might no i'm just kidding i wouldn't
but uh you know god spanks his children just like you should spank your children
he's not going to spank other people's children but look at psalm 103 verse 8 it says
the lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy
he will not always chide neither will he keep his anger forever he hath not dealt with us
after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities he hasn't dealt with us the way that
he could he's merciful he's gracious he's slow to anger plenteous and mercy says in verse 11
for as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him
see when we fear him when we love him and we screw up he's going to be more merciful to us
isn't that what it says as far as the east is from the west so far hath he removed our transgression
from us so our transgression does not exist to him in that in the way of when you're thinking
about the totality of salvation right when it comes to salvation he doesn't see those sins
and we're not going to be judged like an unsaved person look at verse 13 like as a father pitieth
his children so the lord pitieth them that fear him see it's god gives us things to relate to
why he thinks the way he does and that doesn't that help you think like just like we pity our
children like and i really just don't really want to come down on that hard you know maybe
give them another chance you know we would have like i would have where i would not spank the
kids sometimes i'd say okay i'm going to give you grace on this one but you do it again you know
what's going to happen so and and i i would try to exercise grace because look i don't want god to
smash me over the head every time i do something wrong either i want to have a chance to where
god will have pity and mercy on me right and so just like a father pities his children the lord
pities them that fear him for he knoweth our frame he remembereth that we are dust he understands
we're sinful people we're sinful creatures and we're prone to getting ourselves into trouble and
to committing sin now let's look back in genesis chapter 35 verse 5 it says and they journeyed
and the terror of god was upon the cities that were round about them and they did not pursue
after the sons of jacob but i think that this is directly tied to the fact that jacob said hey
give me all this stuff give me your false gods you know you guys need to get right with god
then we're gonna go but had they not done that i don't know if god would have protected them in
the way that he did because what was the point of him doing that it was obviously he wanted to get
favor with the lord right and he knew that his name was mud around the inhabitants there and
because of what his sons did and so uh let's turn to genesis chapter 34 i'll just refresh you
on the story here real quick of what happened so genesis 34 verse 25 says and it came to pass
on the third day when they were sore that two of the sons of jacob simian and levi
dina's brethren took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly and slew all the males
and they slew haymore and shechem his son with the edge of the sword and took dina out of shechem's
house and went out the sons of jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had
defiled their sister they took their sheep and their oxen and their asses and that which was in
the city and that which was in the field and all their wealth and all their little ones and their
wives took they captive and spoiled even all that was in the house and jacob said unto simian and
levi you have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land among the
Canaanites and the perizzites and i being few in number they shall gather themselves together
against me and slay me and i shall be destroyed i in my house so this is why jacob makes these
moves and and so he's basically you know shamed by his own sons and so i would just say this
you know it was shameful to their father and to god and you know you like i said last week all
you have to do is mess up a little bit a little folly you know with those people that are
considered wise those people that are saved a little folly you know can make you know you
stink in the land also just a little bit you know i was kind of talking about that last week how
you know if you're late for work and you're a christian everybody rides you about it but there's
people that can just walk in late all the time nobody ever says a word you're going to be judged
differently than the other people around you because once they know that you're a christian
they're going to hold you to this super high standard that most people can't really keep
so when you screw up in front of other people and you're saved you're going to be held to a
higher standard and sometimes i think god allows that to happen to us so he can say so it's like
his way of saying i know what you're doing i know that you're doing wrong and now i'm going to make
you look stupid now i'm going to confound you in front of other people so it's something to think
about you know and i used to tell my kids this you know when they'd go do stuff i'd say remember
what your last name is and you know you should try to maintain a good name for your family children
you know there's a lot on the line with your parents sometimes and hey you don't want to be
the kid running around at the restaurant during fellowship that's all the all the other people in
the restaurant are looking at going man they're christians and my kids had a good testimony at
at restaurants you know people would come up to us all the time and say hey your kids are
so well behaved what do you do beat them
they just we just made a mind it's just that simple you know but all kids can get to the
point where they're so tired they're tired of hearing their parents talk and they get all
wiggly and stuff i'm not saying that that's that's natural but look the bible teaches us
that we're supposed to you know honor our mother and father and so do you as kids like when you do
when you make big mistakes and mess up it reflects on your parents and that's dishonorable to your
parents so if you want to live long on this earth the bible says that you will honor and respect
your parents you'll obey your parents and if you want to live a short life then just keep on being
bad keep on you know sassing them and telling them you're gonna you know you hate them or whatever
hopefully no kids in that do here do that here but you know you should be good to your parents
and you should bring upon a good name upon your house you shouldn't be the cause of shame for your
parents in any way shape or form and because it only takes a little bit of folly like i said
you know you're in a christian family you know people are watching you other christians are
watching you and sometimes other christians can be the most judgmental people you know around you
and so you got to be careful proverbs chapter 22 verse 1 says all of you turn to ecclesiastes 7 1
proverbs 22 verse 1 says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and a loving favor
rather than silver and gold so when you're choosing names just so you so you know here guys
when you're choosing names you know pick a good one okay but i i think that you know the bibles
you know obviously you don't want to name them something like what was what was uh uh david's
wife abigail's was it was it nayball nayball yeah and his name meant fool it's a bad name to choose
fool what's up fool come on over here you know i mean name your kids something good but the point
of me showing you this is just that you know choosing a good name is is good but living up
to that chosen good name is good also right jacob was called the supplanter that's what his name
meant and it's like you know it's kind of you know but he lived up to it didn't he he supplanted his
brother and then god called him something different didn't he called him israel which
means prince so look at ecclesiastes 7-1 where i had to turn to says a good name is better than
precious ointment and the day of death as the day of one's work so hey to have a good name
a good reputation among people is a good thing so you know the jacob's sons these two sons they put
shame upon the name of their dad and made his name to stink about among you know among the people and
kids you know you have a choice to make too you're just you know your children you don't
you know you have growing up to doing all that but you still know what's right and wrong
and so you should make the right choices you don't want to bring shame upon your family name
you don't want to bring shame upon the cause of christ and you know obviously everybody makes
mistakes but there's some things that you shouldn't those there's some mistakes you just
shouldn't make especially being in a christian christian home let's look back at our text verse
number six the bible says so jacob came to luz which is in the land of canan that is bethel
and he and all his people that were with him and he built there an altar and called the place
l bethel because there god appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his mother but deborah
rebecca's nurse died and she was buried beneath bethel under an oak and the name of it was called
alan bakuth and god appeared unto jacob again when he came out of patan aram and blessed him
and god said unto him thy name is jacob thy name shall not be called any more jacob but israel
shall be thy name and he shall and he called his name israel so again jacob means supplanter
and basically he was the second born but he was gripping the heel of his brother with his hand as
he came out you know he really wanted that first place he really wanted to be number one but that's
why his parents named him that and then what did he end up doing he ended up supplanting the first
born and you know basically buying you know isa sold his his birthright for a bowl of soup you
know and so jacob wanted something that didn't belong to him but he wanted something that was
spiritual he wanted something that was good you know obviously the inheritance you know
he wanted the bigger inheritance too so i mean that wasn't exactly good everything jacob did
wasn't good but the pictures that you see in the bible are pictures that are good you know we want
to be the best we can be we want to um you know be as spiritual as we can be and you know basically
the the new testament is better than the old testament i mean it kind of a picture of that too
but anyway let me move on here so it says in verse 11 and god said unto him i am god almighty be
fruitful and multiply a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee and kings shall come out
of thy loins and the land which i gave abraham and isaac to give or to thee i will give it and
to thy seed after thee i will i give the land so god confirms here the covenant of faith and the
line of christ through jacob so remember in the beginning of genesis you know the seed of a woman
was going to crush the head of the serpent and that seed is christ that seed is tracked
throughout the whole old testament and when he's born in bethlehem that ends the need for
genealogies okay there's genealogies are no longer necessary we don't need to follow them
they're good to study to show where the line of christ came from but jacob is in the line of
christ and we'll learn later on that judah is the one that the line goes through after that out of
the 12 sons that he has we'll get to that later look at verse 22 this isn't it came to pass when
israel dwelt in the land that rubin went and lay with bilhah his father's concubine and israel
heard it now the sons of jacob were 12 so he so this is obviously another thing that can you know
just it's disgusting first of all that's his father's wife it says concubine but she's still
like a wife she was given to him for a wife and you know israel heard about it that's just a
it's first of all it's weird second of all it's wicked i mean it's both weird and wicked but what
does it do it it it stains the name of jacob and his family doesn't it i mean he never really you
know it's rubin really never amounted to much did he and he was you know he was his first born
so basically because of him doing this jacob no longer counts him as his first born because of
this we'll find that out later on in the book of genesis but where jacob just says you know you're
not going to excel you're you're unstable as water verse 23 it says the sons of leah rubin
jacob's firstborn and simian and levi and judah and isacar and zebulun the sons of rachel joseph
and benjamin the sons of bilhah rachel's handmade dan and neftale and the sons of zilpah leah's
handmade gad and asher these are the sons of jacob which were born to him and patan aram
so you know i mean if you just notice the the ones that are born of the concubines
dan and neftale gad and ash aren't exactly the most popular names and that you know they're
not the most popular tribes in the children of israel i mean dan i don't even think he's
mentioned in the 144 000 that's there's there wasn't 12 000 you know virgins to and dan to
uh to to put in that in that category so um but anyway i mean their family their family's kind
of messed up obviously it's a little bit dysfunctional but i've said this in the past
you know a lot of families are dysfunctional we all come from probably some sort of dysfunction
our family you know maybe your immediate family isn't but i'm sure that there's i could hear
stories i know i'm sure their story is my family dysfunction you know we put we put the fun and
dysfunction right so um anyway but you know their family's messed up but you know again i
think that this is god's just way of showing us that no family's perfect even jacob who's called
whose chain his name is changed to prince you know is and he's a great man of god has some
problems doesn't he not a perfect parent not a perfect dad not a perfect husband you know shows
favoritism but in the end you know god we're all sinners you know we all have problems we all have
issues look at verse 27 jacob came to isaac his father into mammary unto the city of arba
which is hebron or abraham and isaac sojourned so if you remember it's been like over 20 years
since he left remember he tricked his dad put the fur on his neck put the fur on his you know
tried to pretend like he was esau pulled it off then they sent him away to go get married
and he's never been back since so he comes back to isaac after not seeing him for over 20 years
which is his dad and it says and the days of isaac were 104 score years so that's 180 years so see
even back then people still lived longer lives than we do now people don't live to be in 180 now
just in case you didn't notice that i think that living to 100 is like a milestone nowadays there
are the occasional people that like live to be 120 maybe 130. i want to say the guinness
book of world records in the recent times maybe 136. i could be wrong about that someone could
pull out their smartphone and prove me wrong but you just don't see that anymore and as you see in
the bible progress if you look at any of the genealogies they start living less than they did
so it says and isaac gave up the ghost and died and was gathered into his people being old and
full of days and his sons esau and jacob buried him and the last thing i just want to say is
the bible teaches burial the bible doesn't teach cremation now i know this is a sensitive subject
so i'm just going to briefly talk talk about it i know that not everybody has the choice or
somebody might have did cremation at some other point i know some people do like the they do the
cremation but then they bury the cremated bones or whatever and you know obviously it's hard it's
expensive today it costs thousands of dollars more to bury someone and have that plot and stuff like
that and i understand that but i do think if it's an option for you i think that you should bury
your loved ones in the ground just like the bible teaches because i mean if people you know did
cremation i mean it wasn't the death cremation and resurrection of jesus christ it was the death
burial and resurrection of jesus christ and so i mean you see abraham bury sarah and you know isaac
you know all these people are buried in certain places so i just think that's what the bible
teaches now again i'm not gonna say well you're not right with god if you don't get buried and
you know not everybody can afford thousands of dollars i get that but if you can bury
that's what i think the biblical you know it doesn't it's not a commandment
you know your ashes can still come together and the bones and the particles and all that stuff
hey god's a god of impossibility it shouldn't it shouldn't even be a question in your mind that
can god raise my cremated loved ones from the dead absolutely can all that stuff can form
back together those little dry bones are going to live again and if your loved ones saved and
they're cremated they're still going to be resurrected it doesn't mean that they're
annihilated forever or something we're not joe's witnesses anyway so not create cremated not
mummified not cast in the sea buried right all right that's genesis chapter 35 let's pray
dear heavenly father we thank you lord so much for another great chapter in the bible
pray lord that you just bless us as we go our separate ways and i pray that you would take
care of us watch over brother robert as he travels home and miss kimmy for her health
and lord for miss chanay that you comfort her heart and help her with the loss of her brother
lord i pray for each and every person in our church that's going through hard times
and lord we don't i just pray that you'd help us to be a comfort to people lord
help us to have some christian charity and compassion for each other and pray that you
would bless as we go our separate ways again in jesus name amen all right
180 in your blue hymnals oh little town of bethlehem
song number 280 in your blue hymnals oh little town of bethlehem
song number 280 oh little town of bethlehem song 280 let's sing it out on the first
oh little town of bethlehem how still we see thee lie
above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by yet in thy dark streets shineth
the everlasting life the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight
time for christ is born of mary and gathered all above while mortal sleep the angels keep
their watch of wandering love oh morning stars together proclaim the holy birth
and praises sing to god the king and peace to men on earth how silently how
silently the wondrous gift is given so god imparts to human parts the blessings of his head
no ear may bear his coming but in this world of sin where meek souls will receive him still
the dear christ enters him oh holy child of bethlehem to send to us we pray
cast out our sin and enter and be born in us today
we hear the christmas angels the great glad tidings tell
oh come to us abide with us our lord emmanuel
another song uh-oh we got some favorites who got a song jack and the green switch to your greens
whoa whoa chill out with that all right song number 100 day by day
so
day by day am with each passing moment strength i find to meet my trials here
here trusting in my father's wise bestowment i've no cause for worry or for fear
he whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what he deems best
so lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure mingling toy with peace and rest kjv kayla
27 oh shoot
the old rugged cross
she says 427 427
oh never mind oh we're good sorry kayla you got cancelled
you
so