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Jesus is mine, O Lord of thine! Heir and salvation, righteous above, one of his Spirit, washed in blood... This is my story, this is my story, Jesus is mine, one of his Spirit, washed in blood... This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior, running on This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior, running on Perfect salvation, perfectly done Visions of rapture now burst from my sight Angels be standing there from above Angels of mercy, worshipers of love This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior, running on This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior, running on Perfect salvation, all is at rest I am my Savior, happy and blessed Watching and waiting, looking up Love is good, this love is love This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior, running on This is my story, this is my song This is my story, this is my song This is my story, this is my story God will take care of you When he gives wings of heart or thigh God will take care of you. God will take care of you. When we give all the way, we will take care of you. God will take care of you. Good to turn the heart of man, God will take care of you. When we give peace or man or spirit, God will take care of you. God will take care of you. When we give all the way, we will take care of you. God will take care of you. God will take care of you. God will take care of you. Nothing to ask or peace be done, God will take care of you. God will take care of you. Wherever we may go wrong or free, we will take care of you. God will take care of you not. No matter what may be the test, God will take care of you. When you are upon his breast, God will take care of you. God will take care of you. Wherever we may go wrong or free, he will take care of you. God will take care of you. All right, great to see everybody out at our first service. This is a straight pad Baptist Church. Thanks everybody for being in attendance. Turns out we've already broken the record for the annual service tonight at the Alpine Records. So we'll be adding popcorn after the service tonight. I guess I should get in the four days more often. There's almost no service. Let's see if we can pass this pass and do it again next week. Let's keep this ball rolling. But I really appreciate everybody coming out tonight. It's a great privilege to serve God in any capacity. Whether we're in the pulpit or in the pew, God's in the beginning of us. We're really pleased with him, and I found it a great honor and privilege to be the pastor of this church. I know he's kind of already been that way for a long time, but I guess we just kind of made it official. I just want to thank everybody for their faith in us over the years. I look forward to serving alongside you for many more years to come. If you had any reservations about whether or not I was sticking around, if you laid all that for us, if you put that to bed last night, you're stuck with me now. So anyway, I should be joking about it. I won't. Let's just go ahead and go through the announcements real quick. We're going to be in Genesis 38. We'll be back this Sunday at 10 30 a.m. and again at 5 30 p.m. Thursdays at 7 as I just mentioned. And then there's a soul winning time. If you need a bulletin, by the way, go ahead and slip up your hand. But we have the attendance totals there, averages rather. And then don't forget this Sunday, we're going to have the donuts in honor of everybody celebrating a birthday or an anniversary in the month of October. And then also just kind of impromptu. I couldn't really plan anything. If you're kind of wondering why it's kind of a shotgun ordination, so to speak, it's because I found out Monday that I was getting ordained. So I got voluntold into the pastorate. I think it's a good idea for you to get ordained. And I was fine. I was always thinking about it. I was like, yeah, it makes sense to me. I'm not complaining at all. But it was just kind of funny because that's just classic Pastor Anderson. Because as soon as that happened, I'm thinking this Wednesday. He's like, so can you think of a day? Should I come down there on a Thursday night? He's like, when would be a good time? And he says, I'm thinking Wednesday. I'm like, I know you were. And that's exactly what you were thinking. So I'll see you Wednesday, right? I say all that to say that that's why it's not like we actually have everything with our name on it. So we don't have bulletins that say that. And we're having to do all this stuff, which is fine. But also that's not why we haven't made a big, you know, we didn't have like a big service plan or anything like that. But I do want to do a potluck. It sounds like you guys are just going to do it with a Robbie anyway. So we're going to have a potluck on Sunday, kind of impromptu. You don't have to bring anything. There's usually plenty of food. The church will get, you know, like the refreshments, some chips, some salsa, maybe a few snacks, things like that. But if you want to bring a dish to pass, a side or dessert, ladies here are pretty good about communicating. There's not, you know, it's never been a problem there. So let's plan on doing that Sunday. So if you folks want to join us again on Sunday, we'll have a potluck service, just kind of in honor of our official service. And I'll preach more of a, like, you know, an appropriate sermon that morning. Tonight's just going to be Genesis 38. I know it's our official service, first service, but this is like the soft opening, right? It's been six years of a soft opening, really, when you think about it. Like it's been six years of soft opening, and now we're going to have one more soft opening. And then Sunday will be like, you know, the actual service, service, whatever you want to call it. But anyway, that's going to do it for announcements. Let's just quickly count up the salvations going back to Monday, the 30th, if there's anything from Monday. Or Tuesday, or Wednesday, or, you know, everyone was up in Tempe Wednesday. And I'm glad you were there to hear Pastor Anderson say all those nice things about me. Glad my wife was there to hear it. Anything from today? Anyone from today? Praise the Lord. All right, we'll keep up the great work slow on everybody. Let's go ahead and sing one more song before we get into preaching tonight. All right, please look at your symbols. Song number 377. We'll be singing song number 377, Rescue the Parishing. And then that's song number 377. I don't believe this. Jesus. Jesus. See. Yes. Jesus. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Amen. So Genesis 38 is kind of an interlude in the story. You know, we're kind of getting into the life of Joseph here and all the events that are going to take place. But you get this kind of just, you know, this one chapter before it kind of picks back up with him again where we're dealing with Judah and his wicked sons here. It says there in verse one, and it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren and turned into a certain Adulamite whose name was Hira. And there's just so many little lessons in this chapter that, you know, we can learn from. It's not even really what I was in my notes, but just reading this again just now, you can see a lesson here that when people are away from family, that's when they tend to get into trouble. They tend to, you know, start to do things that they shouldn't do. Now, of course, in this instance, you know, Judah's going down and he's seeing a certain Canaanite whose name was Shuah and he took her and he went in unto her. Right. So he's again, he's marrying with or at least having children with these Canaanites and he's doing it when he's away from where he's his brethren. Right. It says there he went down from his brethren. When we get away from people that, you know, would scold us or maybe tell us what we're doing is wrong, people that would hold us accountable, you know, that's when we start to do things that we shouldn't be doing. Right. And that's kind of what's going on with Judah here in more than one instance. Later, after his wife dies, he goes down again to the same Adulamite and goes in to Tamar thinking that she's a literal whore. And he's doing that when there's distance, there's geographical separation from those that would hold him accountable, those that would shame him into doing the right thing or prevent him from even doing it at all. Right. So that's a lesson. You know, we don't want to get, you know, we don't want to leave ourselves vulnerable and open to sin. Right. And one way we do that is we stick with people that are going to hold us accountable. And of course that applies to family. But, you know, one great place where people will hold you accountable and help you stay, keep sin out of your life is church. You know, people who get out of church, I'm not saying coming to church is going to make you sinless and perfect. Of course not. But people who get out of church, you know, they're probably not living their best life for Christ. They're probably not, you know, reading their Bibles. They're not doing any soul winning. They're probably even getting into sins that they otherwise wouldn't if they had just stayed in church. You know, that tends to be a pattern with people. When they get away from the people that would encourage them to do the right thing, that's when they start doing the wrong thing. So Judah, he goes down there. He sees the certain Canaanite, Shewa. He takes her. He goes in unto her. She conceives. She bears a son named Ur. She conceives again and has Onan. And she yet again conceived and bears a son and called his name Shelah. And he was at Kizib when she bare him. And then it says, Judah took a wife for Ur, his firstborn, whose name was Tamar. And Ur, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him. And it doesn't even tell us exactly what Ur did. It just says he was wicked. That he was just a wicked son. So God killed him. I just love how it just kind of says that matter-of-factly. You know, his son was wicked, so God killed him. And it wasn't Judah that did anything about it. It wasn't anybody else that took matters into their own hands. God saw he was wicked in his sight and slew him. And Judah, in verse 8, said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise obscene to thy brother. Now this is interesting because this is something that's actually prescribed in the Levitical law in Deuteronomy 25 if you want to go there. But Judah, you know, here is predating the law. This seems to already be a practice. That if your brother would pass away without having had any sons, that the younger brother would then take that woman as his wife and raise up sons unto his brother. And that's actually something that the Bible was commanding the Israelites to do in Deuteronomy 25. If you look at verse 5 it says, If brethren dwell together and one of them die and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in unto her and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of the husband's brother unto her. And it shall be that the firstborn, when she beareth, shall succeed in the name of his brother, which is dead, that his name be not put out of Israel. So it was real important to God in order to maintain the inheritance within those families that these children would, that these husbands that passed away, these women that were widowed, that that inheritance would be passed on in the father's name. It wouldn't just be absorbed by somebody else. And it says in verse 7, and I always get a kick out of this chapter, this passage here. Everyone kind of probably knows why. It says in verse 7, And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, so if he chooses not to do it, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate of the elders and say, My husband's brother refused it to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel. He will not perform the duty of my husband's brother. So she's going to go make a public example of this guy. So God, you can see, and again, this is God that's telling them to do this. So you can see this is real important to God that children are raised up unto a man, right? That it's important that we have children. This is something God takes seriously. It says if she doesn't do this, then she's going to go and she's going to go to the gate and she's going to say, Hey, this guy won't do it. Verse 8, Then the elders of the city shall call him and speak unto him, and if he stand to it and say, I like not to take her. Then his brother's wife, then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face and shall say, So shall it be done to the man that not build up his brother's house. So it's basically he's being publicly humiliated. And it's a humiliating thing. Of course it's humiliating if anyone spits on our face ever. But how much more so when a man is having his face spat in by a woman publicly. That's pretty demeaning. It's always insulting, but it's especially demeaning because typically if someone spit in your face there'd be some kind of retaliation. And you can't really retaliate here because it's being prescribed. So the woman is just getting away scot-free and just being able to spit in this guy's face, take his shoe off, and just basically shame him in front of everybody. And again, God's the one that's saying this is the way it needs to be handled. Because God is saying it's a shameful thing to not raise up a son under your brother so that his name is not put out from the children of Israel. That's important to God to have that genealogy carry on. And I like verse 10. This is what I always get a chuckle out of. And his name shall be called in Israel the house of him that has his shoe loosed. And it's because it sounds kind of like an Indian name. It sounds like I am him who has a shoe loosed. And this is son of him that has a shoe loosed. So it makes you wonder again if those Mormons had it right that the Native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel because they have names like that, like running bear and sitting bull and crazy horse and all that stuff. But of course that's not what's going on there. And again, this is a byword. This is a derogatory statement about this guy. And it's being prescribed by God. God's the one that's saying that's what you're going to call a guy like that. This is what he's going to do to him and this is what you're going to call him. And it's going to be a shameful thing unto him. So again, I believe this passage is teaching us that it's important that we have children. God wants us to be fruitful and multiply. And even in the story back there, if you want to go back to the story real quick, we'll catch up again. It happens again. God kills her and then Judah said unto Onan, go unto thy brother's wife to marry her and to raise up the seed of thy brother. And this is before Deuteronomy. This isn't even written down in the law and Judah is already telling him to go do this. And we can see that this is something that God is going to later prescribe. So as Judah in the story, of course, he's not perfect. He's doing wrong things. He's going and sleeping with the Canaanite. He's going to sleep with the whore. But at the same time, he's not necessarily a terrible person because he's telling Onan to go do something that God is later going to say this is how you handle that situation correctly. Because it says, and Judah said unto Onan, go in unto thy brother's wife and marry her and raise up seed to thy brother. So this is just a clear, explicit command from Judah. He's making it perfectly known this is the will of God here. This is what you need to do. This is how to handle the situation correctly. This is what's right. But look at verse 8. And Onan knew that the seed should not be his and it came to pass when he went unto his brother's wife that he spilled it on the ground lest that he should give seed unto his brother. So he like half obeys. But he doesn't follow through with the command. He doesn't raise up the seed unto his brother. He doesn't do it. And what this shows us is that we can command our children to do the right thing and they can disobey us. That should be a lesson to us. Obviously anyone with kids knows that's the truth. We can teach our kids what's right. We can tell our kids what's right. We can show them this is what the Bible says about this. This is what the Bible says about that. This is the clear cut commands in God's word. You can tell them. You can instruct them. You can show them. You can even be an example of it in their lives and they can just still on their own because we all have free will decide to do the complete opposite. Still decide to rebel. Still decide to disobey. Still do things that are even wicked. Right? Because God says this displeases him. Right? And he does wickedness. You say well it doesn't call him wicked. Well it was so displeasing that God kills him. You know that's not like well God's just like you know I'm mildly upset with you over this minor infraction so I'm just going to kill you. When God's killing you, you've probably done something pretty wicked. Right? We don't know what Ur did but Onan here refuses to raise up seed unto his brother and it makes God mad so much to the point where he kills him. And he's disobeying the clear command of his father and he's displeasing to God. And God slays him. And he's wicked. Ur was wicked so that's a pretty strong lesson in the story isn't it? You know if we're going to disobey our parents and we're going to cast off doing that which is right, if we're going to in our adult years go against what we've been taught as children, God's going to take note of that. If we decide as you know you young people who have been taught the word of God as I've preached even recently you know unto whomsoever much is given shall much also be required. The servant that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes the Bible says. Whereas the servant that knew not his Lord's will shall be beaten with few stripes. The more you know from God's word the more accountable you are. Which is why I'm convinced most people don't want to come to church. They're like I'll just take a mild beating right? But even knowing that if you know that's the case are you really off the hook? I would say no. But my point is that the more you know the more responsible you are. I mean Judah's telling him this is what's right. Go in unto her. Raise up seed unto Ur the firstborn. That's the correct thing. And he doesn't do it and God kills him. It's wicked. So you kids and this goes for adults too. I mean adults it's not like you reach a certain age and you're just beyond committing sin and going against God's will. Any of us that has been taught the word of God. Any of us that have been instructed and know what's right out of the word of God. If we just presumptuously sin against it there will be consequences. Now I'm not saying God will strike you dead. But let me tell you something. These stories are in the Bible for a reason. If God decides that you've done something wicked enough. Don't be surprised if he kills you. It wouldn't be the first time he did it. And these are just two examples. Don't think that's the only time God's done this. You know just reading an axe. With Sapphira and her husband. They lied to the Holy Spirit. Ananias and Sapphira. And they lie and say that they hold back part of the price of the field that they had sold their possession. And God literally killed them in church. And that was in the New Testament. And look they were a married couple. They were probably serving God. They were just lying about an offering that they gave in church. Was it so much? Yeah it was so much. They died. You know the story. So this isn't a rare occurrence in Scripture. And if we disobey the clear commands of God. I'm not saying that God's going to come down on us every single time. But if it's something serious enough. It's a big enough fraction. If people would look at what you're doing and the way you're living your life and the things you're doing and say you're wicked. And you're displeasing to God. God just might kill you. And you know what I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Look do you think it might be possible that today out of all of the just thousands of people that died today. That one of them was a result of God's judgment. Would it really shock us to find out that God today just killed a few children of his own children. Right because these guys may have been saved. Who knows right. You know Paul talked about the Corinthians that you know because they were eating the supper of the Lord. They were taking the Lord's Supper you know unworthily that some of them were even sleeping then. And by sleep he doesn't mean they were you know in the back taking a nap. They were taking a dirt nap. They were they were dead because that's what the Christian does. You know we don't die we sleep. And that's what he was saying. He's saying look some of you God's own people. God is killing them. Some are sickly and weak among you and some even sleep. You know God will punish us in this life even to the point of death. I mean why else is this story in the Bible. I mean what's it warning us of. You know look out for Canaanites. No that's not it. You know the warning is if you're wicked if you go against what you've been told and what you've been instructed and you're a wicked person. Don't be surprised if God slays you and kills you. And you know we might of course if you're the person who's being wicked you're not going to like that. You might even scoff at it and mock at it and I just think well keep scoffing and mocking and see where it gets you. You know he that being often reproved and hardened at this neck shall suddenly be destroyed that without remedy. God will just kill you. Keep scoffing harden your neck. You know the person who's doing wickedness they don't like the sound of this. But you know to those of us that are doing right that are not wicked. To those of us that are actually perhaps the victims of people that are being wicked. Maybe we're the target of wicked people. This is actually an encouragement. It's nice to know that God takes vengeance on the wicked. That encourages me. That's why I don't want to appreciate pastors who want to get up and soften that message. Because basically they're saying oh the wicked get away with it. There's no justice. There's no punishment. They don't want to talk about hell. They don't want to talk about God's judgment. They don't want to talk about God's wrath. Like sometimes we need to hear that. When we're being persecuted. When we're being treated unjustly. When the wicked are you know surrounding us and attacking. It's nice to know that we don't have to avenge ourselves. Because that's the temptation often isn't it? To fight back. To avenge ourselves. Whereas the Bible commands us to not give place to wrath. Right? But to actually to reward evil with good. That the Bible says that vengeance is mine. I will repay sayeth the Lord. And what's great about that is you know when you understand and believe and know that God punishes wicked people. You don't even you just believe that. I don't even have to see God do it. I don't even have to know about it. Right? Like if there's people that are being wicked and attacking us. Attacking our church or whatever. You know I don't even necessarily have to see it come to pass. I just look at the Bible and say well I know it's going to happen. I know it's going to happen. You know and maybe it's not going to happen now. Maybe it's not going to happen. Maybe these people will even stop what they're doing. And God will just catch up to it with them ten years later. Maybe God will be gracious and give them space to repent. Maybe not. But I know one thing if they persist. If they keep attacking and if they don't take up God on his grace. They're going to get it. It's going to catch up with them at some point. And you know what? I don't have to know about it because I don't need to rejoice in that. I'm rejoicing already because I know God is going to avenge me. God's already going to avenge those that are mistreated. Those that are being persecuted. If you want to go over to Psalms 139. Go to Psalm 34. Go to Psalm 34. You know these two guys were wicked in God's sight. You had Ur. It just says he's wicked in the sight of the Lord. You know Onan you could say well it just says he displeased him. But yeah but God killed him friend. You know there's probably something you and I did today that was displeasing to God. There's probably something you and I thought or said or did today that God would probably say you know I don't appreciate that. But he didn't kill me over it. You know yeah it's using maybe a lighter term there. It displeased the Lord. But what was the result? He got killed. It's not like he was rude to some old lady at the grocery store or something. God's like that's it you're done. Right. He did something serious and God killed him. God and that tells us you know God takes this seriously. What. Having children. Raising up children. And yet people today you know they don't want to have kids. They go to great measures to not have children today. Such as in the story. You know but they go to even greater measures than are described briefly here in this in the scripture. I mean people are you know inserting devices in their body. They're ingesting chemicals. They're you know having parts of their body you know surgically manipulated to not have kids. You know or they're they're making sure they only have one or two kids or three kids. You know they're they're limiting it. They're choosing when they're going to have them. And you know that's not biblical. It's not biblical. The Bible says in Psalm 127 that children are in heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward. You know children are not this grievous burden to be born. Of course it comes with a lot of responsibility. Of course there's a lot of burden that goes along with it. Because it's a huge responsibility to you know take care of another human being and have them not turn into a horrible person. You know try to raise them up right. That's a lot of work. But the Bible says that that's a reward. It's a privilege. It's a great opportunity is what it is. Because the Bible says his arrows are in the hand of a mighty man. So are the children of the youth. Right and it's children of the youth not children of the middle age. Not children of you know after you've had a dog or two for a couple decades. You know after you've achieved a certain level in your career. After you've you know made X amount of money and you've got everything just right. No it's children of the youth friend. When you're young newly married you should be having kids. You know I'm glad I didn't take up some of the advice I was given when I was first married. Right before I got married someone came to me and said you know you should just take a couple years. Just get to know your wife. Hang out. Have time with her because you're never going to have that time together again. You know it's like well we'll be we won't always have kids like hopefully we're going to live long enough to have that again. You know we're we talk about it. What are we going to do when we're old. You know feed each other mush. You know. But I'm glad I didn't take her up on that advice because you know I mean maybe I wouldn't have a couple of the kids that I have. You know maybe I wouldn't have one of my children right now. I mean I'm glad I have all the children I have. I want more. You know but it's children of the youth right that that the Bible is saying that this is a reward. And yet that's completely countercultural to what you see today. Today you see people that are getting married if that even if even if they're doing that they're just shacking up committing fornication living in sin. And there's you know they're not having they're not getting married and having kids in their youth. And they just treat children like they're just some you know like something I just put up with later or something. First of all what's that what kind of a message does that communicate to your children. You know oh you know we waited to have you because we want to have a life first. You know and what kind of a life is it really. It's a selfish one. It's a selfish life that people that's what people always brag about. Yeah I don't have all these kids so I can do this and I can do that and I can go there and go that and like yeah. You can go be selfish. And that's what it's that I mean listen to yourself. It's all about you. Right. That's why a lot of those same people often you know are kind of jerks to be around. You know there's something about having kids that makes you a nice person. I mean imagine how bad I'd be if I didn't have kids. Right. Some of you thinking well I don't know maybe you should have a few more. Hey I will. I'll take them. Right. Imagine how much worse I'd be if I hadn't had the children. Right. It makes you empathetic. It makes you a nicer person. It does. You start to realize everyone was like this. You have your first baby you're like every person was like this and you're kind of then you look at other people and you're like oh you were a little baby once. You know. I don't know maybe nobody else thinks that. Probably not. You're like okay. Right. But everyone was someone's little baby at one point and it makes you try it. You know it kind of makes you a nicer person. I don't know what it is. But you know the people that say no I'm not going to have kids. I'm going to wait before I bring any monsters into this world. So I can do what I want to do. They're selfish people. And they're not very much fun to be around really unless they're around other people like them. You know they're all getting along because they got something in common. They're all selfish jerks. Birds of a feather. You know the Bible says here in Psalm 127 that having children is you know a reward it's also an opportunity. It says as arrows in the hand of a mighty man so are children of the youth. It's like an arrow. Right. You're drawing back and you're sending something out beyond your reach. You know the children that we're having you know they're going to you know take what we've taught and learn them and it's going to have an impact beyond our own years. It's going to go farther than I could reach. That's kind of the picture there. It's an arrow. It's not a sword. It's not a staff that's you know just limited by my reach. It's an arrow that can go far beyond what I could capability or what I had the capability to actually do myself beyond my own extension. I think that's the picture there. And it says in verse 5 happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. Happy is the man that hath 1.8 of them. It said no archer ever. Right. You think an archer goes in the battle and says I'm glad I only have two arrows. I'm glad I only have 1.8 arrows. No. That's dire situation. That's not good. You're going to lose that fight. You want a full quiver. Right. You want like the video game archer where it just never stops. Right. It just keeps coming. That's how we should be with our children. As many as God gives us. And look I understand God's not going to give everybody the same number of children. And that's fine. God has his reasons and I'm not going to sit here and try to figure all that out. That's just the way it is. You know and we should cherish all the children any of the children that God has given us. And we should never look at our kids as just something to be put off something to just have to deal with later or just this burden has to be borne. You know don't have this Onan type mentality. Because that's what it says about Onan. Why did he do that? And Onan knew that the seed should not be his. Well it's not my son. You know. People that don't want to have kids they become these self absorbed narcissists. They're just so focused on themselves. They're just so focused on their own lives. They're just so focused. Everything's about them. It's not my son. You know it's going to be after my father's name. I'm only going to have kids after me. Right? It's kind of that same attitude there. Just narcissists. Selfish people. But you know that so it's kind of a couple meaning a couple a couple of messages here. A couple of lessons we could learn. One you know having children is something that God takes seriously. We should not take unnatural measures to prevent having children. I believe that's a sin. You say how is it a sin? Because God commands us to be fruitful and multiply. God commands women to guide the house and to bear children. So if they're negating that through unnatural means how is that not a sin? It's a clear command in scripture. Right? There's no command that says thou shalt bear children. Thou shalt not use contraception. But it's clearly taught. I mean it's just taught that God is saying have kids. Be fruitful. I mean I didn't even put it in here but there's just so many verses that say be fruitful and multiply. There's New Testament verses commanding women to have children. The Bible is putting a premium on having children. We have a story where a guy practices birth control and it displeases God and he kills him. So again that's a lesson there but the other lesson is that God slays wicked people. You know that's kind of the direction I started to go in. And I had you go to Psalm 34. The Bible says in Psalm 39 surely thou will slay the wicked. Oh God depart from me therefore ye bloody men. Someone should make a song out of that. Oh wait we did. That's right. Surely thou will slay the wicked. You know I'm glad that verse is in there. I don't feel sorry. I mean I feel sorry that wicked people are wicked and they're going to suffer the consequences. I wish they weren't wicked. But if they're going to choose to be wicked then they deserve everything they got coming to them. You know these wicked sons they got what they deserved. They displeased God. And it wasn't even Judah. Judah wasn't trying to do anything about it. God took it into his own hands and said I got this and slew his own sons. You know that's an encouragement to people when the wicked people are turning on you there's nothing wrong with saying you punish them oh God. Of course and I would prefer that people repent but if people are going to persist in their wickedness then whatever God chooses to whatever degree he chooses to punish them and avenge the righteous I'm for it. Even and up to and including death. Oh would you ever pray for somebody to die? Yeah. I would. I would pray that God would take wicked people out. Not the guy that cut me off in traffic. Kill them God. Of course not. Right. You know but some wicked reprobate some some wicked person who's just hell bent on destroying good people. But that's what it takes God. Take them out. Make an example out of them. And the Bible says surely thou wilt slay the wicked oh God. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked. God's going to do it without us. Judah doesn't even have to get involved. God's just like I'm doing this. Look at Psalm 34 verse 21 evil shall slay the wicked. Evil shall slay the wicked. I just don't think God should kill anybody. I can't believe he'd say that. Well they're evil. I mean I know it's God that's killing them but it's because they're evil. It's their own wickedness. It's their being evil that's getting them killed. Evil shall slay the wicked. Yeah God's the one that's making it happen but he's doing it because they're evil. Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. They're going to be judged and they're going to have nothing. I mean here's let's tie it in tonight with my other point about having children. You know if you hate the righteous commandment of God of having children then guess what one day you'll be desolate. You know desolation is like empty. It's like being barren. It's like having nothing. Right. That's not a pleasant experience. Right. If you're somebody you know in your youth that says I'm not going to have kids you know you let the biological clock tick down long enough to where you can't have kids you're probably you know a lot of women regret that later in life. They don't have kids in their 20s. They don't have kids in their 30s. They struggle in their 40s and then some of them that's it. It's over. And now you're desolate. Right. They that hate the righteous shall be desolate. And I'm telling you something man this world hates people that obey the righteous commandment of having kids. I don't understand it. Like what. Why is it your problem. You know why is it your problem that we chose to have more kids than you. Why is it your problem that we chose to obey the commandment to be fruitful. Like why is my having kids a problem to you. Oh is it my carbon footprint. So stupid. Overcrowding. You could like fit the entire world population in like the state of Arkansas or something. We're overcrowding. We're going to we're going to use up all the water. You know it rains right. It's so stupid. But people just they just believe things that they're told they're taught these wicked worldly philosophies and they want to believe them because they're selfish because they're like Odin here. It's not going to be mine. It's all about me. It's all about my life. They're just selfish narcissistic jerks. And they hate people that are trying to you know just obey the righteous command. Like well I don't want to be desolate in my old age. I want to have children of the youth. I want to have you know a quiver as full of as many arrows as I can get. What's it to you. You know go ahead go live. Go have another dog. You know go put a stupid decal in the back of your car that says my kids have paws. And look I get it. The dog moms and you guys love your dogs and treat them like babies and not you know what I mean. Not against you. OK. But some people get way too carried away with it. Dogs because people suck. Well I can think of one person that sucks. It's a person who put a decal like that on their car. It's like stay away from that person. I bet you're a real pleasant. I bet the family loves having you over at Thanksgiving. You're probably some you know wet brained ant that nobody likes. You know just complains. Just complain about this. Complain about that. You should have just shut up found a man and had some kids. Showing everybody a bunch of pictures of your dogs at Christmas. Who cares. Like I had more I had more pet babies. Man. Weird. But that's the that's the that's the culture we're living in man. People are there. They hate people hate other people they hate people like like any of us if we're you know we're trying to obey God's commands in whatever way we're trying to obey him. We're just trying to live a righteous life and the people just hate it. You have you know you tell some guy at work yeah I've got five kids. Well you know what causes that. Yeah. You know. You ever heard of getting a television. And I always say oh I love my kids. Oh yeah yeah I love my kids too. It's like the why you know the why make a stupid joke like that. I like putting them on their heels. Oh that's all right. I love my kids. Anyway I got it. I should probably move on. But you know that the encouragement is that God will slay the wicked here. Look at look at Psalm 34 again. Evil shall slay the wicked and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. The Lord redeem it the souls of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. You know God is going to avenge the righteous. God is going to slay the wicked. And look even if the wicked managed to make it through this whole life without being slain all it's waiting for them is hell on the other side. Genesis back and we got to hurry up here through the chapter. The E.G.'s is melting. Yes we got E.G.'s too right. Verse 11 it says then Judah then said Judah to Tamar his daughter-in-law remain a widow at the father's house till Sheila my son be grown for he said lest be prevention he die also as his brethren did. And so you know Judah is kind of like trying to preserve this last son. Right. Like let's make sure we do things right here. Let's see you know my Sheila here is killed too. Now I don't recommend that name if you're if you're naming a boy do not go Sheila. But man that kid must have grown up tough man. It's like a boy named Sue. Right. And in verse 12 in the process of time the daughter of Sheila Judah's wife died and Judah was comforted and went up to the house under the sheep shears of Timnath. He and his friend Hyrra the Adulamite. So again he's getting away from his brethren he's getting away from people he's accountable to and going out and hanging out with Hyrra the simp. Right. That's what he is somebody who's overly sympathetic towards him. And you know there and it doesn't seem like there's any kind of that those feelings are not being reciprocated. Right. Because later Judah sends him to go do work. Right. And so Hyrra's bit in the story is a bit of a simp. I just love that word. I was like man if I could find a way somewhere to use it I'm using it. The kids are using it. So you know I got to I got to stay on the cutting edge. Right. Just use the modern vernacular. So Hyrra the Adulamite is there to just oh you're coming down. Oh I'm so glad you're here. What can I do for you. You know let's go find a whore. That's basically what's going on here. And that's a Bible word. And it told it was told Tamar saying Behold thy father in law goeth up to Timnath to shear sheep. And she put her widow's garments off from her and covered her face with a veil and wrapped herself and sat in an open place which is by the way to Timnath. For she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given to him to wife. Now obviously what she's doing here is super wicked. But look at the length she's going to to have children. This should tell you something about human nature. In a minute or not they want to have kids. It's just written into their DNA. They can deny it all they want. How do you explain someone like well if I dress up like a whore and I go down to where he is and I sit out and maybe maybe I can get him to get me pregnant. I mean this is Jerry Springer stuff right. I mean this is like this is like Phil Donahue level human nature taking place. This is bizarre. Right. Like you're expecting somebody you know like the crowd's going to start weighing in you know I think you're going to sit down. You are not the daddy. I mean something's going to happen here. It's bizarre. But you know that it should tell us like this is the length that she that Tamar is willing to go with just to have children. Verse 15 and when Judah saw her he thought her to be a harlot. Now why did he think she was a harlot. The Bible is real clear here because she covered her face. See this is back in the good old days when the whores were ashamed to be whores. When the whores would cover their faces. That's how you knew a whore. She didn't want everyone to know who she was. This is the good old days where at least the whores had some decency. Not so today. Today the whores have a website. Today the whores have a web page. Today you know the whores have the OnlyFans account. Right. Today the whores they go on the podcast and they talk about being whores. Just openly. They put their names out there. This is who I am and I'm a whore. Doing daddy proud. Again the family reunion must be real exciting when you come around. And I mean that stuff is out there forever. And one day maybe they'll come around and stop their whoring around and have kids and then their kids are going to find out. And then maybe one of their schoolmates will say is this your mom? Is this your mom? Is this your mom? Oh you didn't think of that. You didn't think of that in the age of the internet. Right. Look I'm not condoning whoredom at all here. But at least in this story it was a shameful thing and she knew it. She wasn't proud of it. Can't say that about the whores of today who just flaunt it. They have no shame. They can't blush. It's like Proverbs 30 verse 20. Such is the way of an adulterous woman. She eateth and wipeth her mouth and say I have done no wickedness. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with today. They have no shame about being these whores. Let's move on to the story. Verse 16. It says, And he turned unto her by the way and said, Go I pray, let me come in unto thee. For he knew not that she was his daughter-in-law. And she said, Well thou give me that thou mayest come in unto me. And he said, I will send thee a kid from the flock. And she said, Well thou give me a pledge till thou send it. So you know the story. He gives the signet, the bracelets, the staff in thine hand and he gave it her and she came unto him and she conceived by him. He came in unto her, excuse me. And he rose and went away and she laid by her veil from her and put on the garments of her widowhood. And Judah sent the kid by the hand of his friend the Adalemite. So there again, that's Hira the simp. Go take care of my dirty work. Every time Judah comes around, his friend the Adalemite, Hira, is just ready to do all this dirty work. They're buddies, but you know. And the lesson is, if you want to do wickedness, there will be somebody there that will help you facilitate it. You want to go be a wicked person? You can find somebody that will help you do it. There will be somebody that will sympathize with you. There will be somebody that will be your friend while you're committing that sin. They'll even help you clean up after the fact. They'll even help you cover for it. You can go find somebody to go be wicked with. They're out there. There's no shortage of them. You don't even have to go meet them physically. You can go find them on YouTube today. You can go meet up with them via chat. You can go do interviews. You can go have somebody give you an ear while you are wicked. You can go down to the casino and get in all kinds of wickedness. There will be people there to take your money and help you get into all that. There's a bunch of simps for sin out there that are going to help you commit a bunch of lewdness and wickedness. And that's what people fail to realize is that these people that are helping you in sin, they're not really your friend. They're not doing you any favors. The friend is the one that's warning you about sin and trying to keep you out of sin. Your friend is your parent. Your friend is your mom. Your friend is your dad. Your friend is your pastor. That friend you have at church is saying, this isn't right. You shouldn't do that. That's wicked. You shouldn't do that. You're just lame. You're such a Debbie Downer or whatever. You're such a buzzkill. No, they're your friend. The Adalamites of this world, the Shua's, they're just useful idiots that are just going to help you get into sin. There will always be someone to help you get into sin. And it says in verse 21, then he asked the men of that place saying, where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? They said, there was no harlot in this place. And he returned to Judah and said, I cannot find her. And also the men of the place said that there was no harlot in this place. And Judah said, let her take it to her. Just let her keep the stuff, I guess, the pledge, lest we be shamed. If we start making too much inquisition, why are you asking after a whore to begin with? Oh, well, she's got my stuff. Well, why does she have your stuff? This is the good old days too when it was a shameful thing to go to a whore. Whereas today you can go to a place like Las Vegas or you can go to one of these places where escorts are legal. I mean, I don't know where they all are. You can go haul up an escort service. You can go up to Vegas, get you a whore. And there's going to be plenty of Adalamites and Shua's up there that are going to help facilitate it. And no one's going to be like, what stays in Vegas? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Yeah, except, you know, STDs don't. They come with you on the plane. They come back with you. They come back with you when you go back to your wife. That doesn't stay there. The shame, the reproach. This is the good old days. Even back then we were like, let's not let anyone know we went to a whore. Whereas fast forward to today, it's like, hey, I'm getting married. Alright, bachelor party. Let's call the stripper. Let's go to Vegas. You can start to see how we're living in a time where there is no fear of God before people's faces. They're not ashamed to commit wickedness. They're not ashamed to commit lewdness. They're not ashamed of sin anymore. People's, you know, their conscience is becoming seared. Their hearts are becoming hardened. Their hearts are becoming hardened. The love of God is growing cold in this country. How do I know? Just look at what people are just so brazen to do. And this is just one sin. There's so many other examples. So he's like, well, let's not ask around too much. I don't want anyone to find out what happened. And it came to pass after about three months that I was told Judah, saying, Tamar, thy daughter-in-law, hath played the harlot. And also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, bring her forth and let her be burnt. I mean, what a hypocrite. Right? And that's not even the biblical prescription for this. And not every case of fornication is necessarily punished with death. Sometimes there's other punishments. But, I mean, Judah's just like, burner. Right? And this is another thing that people, I love the Bible, because it tells you about what people are like when they're trying to be deceptive. Right? Like there's this one tactic, you know, that I've seen people use, like judges and things, where someone's claiming to be innocent. And it's like, kind of, everyone knows he did it. Right? And he's like, well, what do you think should happen to the person that did this? Bury them under the prison. You know, life, no parole. They just want to seem like they're just so upset by this great travesty, this crime that's been committed, that they're ready to just destroy this person. Because they're guilty. They're actually the ones that are guilty because they're trying to, like, distance themselves. Right? I don't know exactly how to explain all that, but that's part of what they do. And that's kind of what's going on here. Well, what should we do to Tamar, who was with child by boredom? Uh, burn her. Because I have nothing to do with it. Certainly wasn't me. I think you should just burn her at the stake right now. That's so wicked. Whoever did that, you know, should probably go down with her. You know? It's like that meme with that puppet. He's like, you know, your daughter's pregnant. Your daughter-in-law's pregnant. Your daughter-in-law's pregnant. Uh, burn her. And then, of course, he gets found out, right? When she was brought forth, she sent to her father, saying, by the man who these are, am I with child? And she said, discern, I pray thee, who these are, the signet, the bracelet, and the staff. Ooh. Ouch. Uh, maybe we shouldn't burn her after all. And Juna acknowledged them and said, she hath been more righteous than I. Because I have not given her to Sheila, my son, and he knew her again no more. So, you know, he gets found out at the end. You know, be sure your sin will find you out, right? And, of course, you know, she set him up, but it doesn't matter. He still went in and, you know, if he had just stayed where he's supposed to be, didn't go hang out with, you know, uh, you know, the, the simp down there, the Adelomite, who's ready to just cover for him and do all his dirty work, he never would have been put in this situation. If he had just done what was right and give his youngest son to her, you know, she would have had her children, and the son would have been brought up unto her, and everything would have been fine. And he would have been publicly humiliated for being such a huge hypocrite. Now, you know, I almost want to cover this on Sunday night, but I'll, I'll just very quickly talk about this the last few verses. Because, you know, she has a son, and it's almost like, you know, God's making up for her having to put up with Judah and his, being squirrelly and his sons being wicked, because she has twins. You know, maybe it's just because she's older. That's something that happens to women typically when they're, when they're older. But, you know, it could be that God's rewarding her in the end, you know, despite that it was by whoredom, right? And it came to pass in the time of her trail that, behold, twins were in a room, and it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand, and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out, and she said, How hast thou broken forth? This breach be upon thee, therefore his name was called Phares, and afterward the brother that had the scarlet thread upon his hand, and his name was called Zerah. There's probably so many great illustrations here, but, you know, just at first glance, just as you're kind of reading over it, the thing that I see here is it's a picture of salvation. There's the first birth, and then there's the second birth. And in the second birth, what do you have? You have a scarlet thread, which, you know, is the color of blood. For example, they put a scarlet robe on Christ, right? There's tie-ins here, I think. I think it's a picture of the new birth, right? There's the first birth, then there's the second birth. The second birth has the scarlet thread. It's a picture of being born again, so to speak. At least that's just at first glance. That's what I got out of it. You know, I probably should have taken more time to develop that point than to have gone on about whores and wicked people and simps, but, you know, that's probably the lesson that more people need to hear than not. The interesting tie-ins with salvation at the end are there, but, you know, we're living in a day and age where people have no shame over their sin, they have no problem being wicked, and what they need to realize, and what we all need to realize, is that we do not get away with it. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And that can work for you or against you. You want to go sow sin and wickedness and rebellion? That's what you'll reap. Guaranteed. And the comfort is, is that that's what the wicked got coming to them. We don't have to do any taking upon ourselves. We can just happily and merrily go along our lives sowing good and reaping good and let God avenge us and let God punish the wicked. Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for this church, Lord. Thank you for the opportunity to serve and to pastor this church, Lord. And I pray that you would continue to help the people here to be faithful to the work that you've given us to do. And, Lord, that we would continue to bring many souls unto glory through this ministry and that you would be glorified through all that is accomplished in the years to come. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we dismiss. Stick around. We did break the record by two, I think. We were 28 and this is the annual record. We got to 31. So whoever you are that helped us, we appreciate it. But we'll have popcorn and eg's after the service. And don't forget about the potluck on Sunday. We've seen songs of 296. Follow along with a song of 296. I will follow the one. Walking in his footsteps I'm proud to be one. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere, everywhere I will follow one. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere he leads me I will follow one. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere he leads me I will follow one. Down in the valley I will walk the mountain's peak. Close beside my soul but my soul I will be. He will lead me safely in the path that he has shown. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere, everywhere I will follow one. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere he leads me I will follow one. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere he leads me I will follow one. I will follow, I will follow Jesus. Anywhere he leads me I will follow one. Thank you for watching!