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The title of the sermon this morning is, We That Are Strong, We That Are Strong. And it's saying here in Romans 15 that it is the duty of the strong to help the weak. And we can apply this in many different ways, but he's saying there in verse 1, We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please ourselves. It is the duty of those of us that are strong to help the weak. Should be strong. If you would, go over to 1 Peter chapter 3, keep something in Romans 15, but go over to 1 Peter chapter 3. The Bible says in Proverbs 17 verse 6, we read it in the bulletin, children's children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers. The glory of children are their fathers. You see, children, they naturally assume no one is stronger than their dad. And I'm sure there's many other, I've had this argument when I was a child with other kids and I'm sure other people can attest to this, that you know sometimes you get into with another guy and say, yeah, well my dad's stronger than your dad or my dad can beat up your dad. Anybody else ever do that? I'm the only one. Okay. All right. A few hands. Thank you. Leave me hanging there. Right. And then it always comes down. Well, my dad has a gun and it's like, Ooh, you know, but it's what I'm trying to get across here is that children just naturally assume that no one can beat up their dad, that their dad is just the biggest, strongest guy that he and it's true kids, your dad is, you know, and. But what I'm trying to get across is that it's natural to assume that a father should be strong. And because fathers are strong, we fathers that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. You know, fathers should use their strength not to please themselves, not to accomplish all the things that they want to accomplish in life, but rather to strengthen and to help their families. And not in a, you know, a patronizing way. Did I say it right this time? I don't know. I heard that word this morning and my wife corrected me. That word patronizing or patronizing, or you said it was a bit of a joke, but if you get it, great. But I'm saying fathers should help their families and not in this, you know, condescending, kind of just looking down on you. Well, I guess I have to. You're so weak. Let me help you with that. But because, you know, wives naturally are the weaker vessel, the Bible just plainly states that the woman is the weaker vessel physically, you know, and in other ways. Now, of course, they have their own strengths. They have their own abilities. They have the things that they can do that men cannot do, that they have things that they have more natural capabilities in different areas, you know, and that was the Mother's Day sermon, okay? But the point being today is that fathers that are strong, because they're strong, at least are expected to be strong, should use that strength to help their families, to help the infirmities of the weak. And you say, well, I think a family can get along just fine without a father. And you know what? A father probably can get by okay without a father, but not as well as it could if it had a father. And I'm not going to, you know, I made it a point not to just get up here and bore you with a bunch of statistics about, you know, the fatherlessness in our land and the effect it's having on the family. But I don't think I have to convince people up here today that, you know, not having a father in the home is a detriment to any family. You know, I can speak to that in personal experience. My father left our, my parents divorced and he left the home and didn't have very much to do with us. By the time I was seven or eight years old, I can look back at my life and see all the areas that I suffered in, all the things I had to learn the hard way, just because of the fact that my father wasn't around. So fathers today, they should use their help, not in a patronizing way, but out of duty. They should do it in a way, because it's their duty to help their families. If you're there in First Peter chapter three, where I had you go, look at verse seven, it says, Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. You say, well, I don't appreciate you saying that women are weaker, but the Bible says it. You know, and even nature itself attests to this fact that the ladies, the wives, are the weaker vessel. And it says there that we, husbands should dwell with them, you know, according to knowledge, knowing this, understanding this, and they should give honor unto the wife. You know, they should not please themselves. They should use their strength to help their wives and lift up their wives and honor their wives as being heirs together of the grace of life. The Bible says, if you would go over to First Timothy five, it says in Proverbs 20, go to First Timothy five, it says, The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is the gray head. You know, the glory of the old man is the gray head. You know, he lived, he lived that long life. He made it. You know, he didn't get taken out by sin, he didn't get taken out by, you know, some disease. He kept himself in good shape. He kept himself in good health. He loved the Lord. He saw, you know, long days and length of days and good life. God blessed him. You know, that was his glory as an old man. But the glory of the young man, the man that has not, you know, got the gray head is his strength. You know, God gives men strength for a reason. And we see here in Romans 15, it's not to please ourselves, but to bear the infirmities of the weak. But, you know, fathers should provide for their families. They should use their strength to help their families and to provide for their families, you know, not just, not just, you know, financially. Now, they should provide for their families financially. And the Bible is very clear about that. It says, you know, the Bible says that women should be keepers at home. They should guide the house that they should, that the elder women should teach the younger to love their husbands, to love their children, and to guide the house. That's God's given role. And I know that's not popular, but that's what the Bible says. And the man's role is to provide for his family. And it says there in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 8, but if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel. The Bible says that if a man refused, doesn't take the strength, the glory that God has given him, and does not use that to provide for his family, he is worse than an infidel. That he has denied the faith. He's actually denied the commandments of God to go out and as he told Adam to eat bread in the sweat of thy face, to toil all his days and to work hard and to bring home the bacon. That's his job. Fathers should use their strength to provide for their families physically. You know, they should be able to put food on the table, clothes on the back, a roof over your head. That's their job. That's what they're supposed to do. That's why God's given us that strength. You know, they should also be able to protect their families physically, I believe that. They should be able to keep their families safe from danger. Now I understand that, you know, men can be overpowered, you know, if, you know, if they roll up in an M1's Abram, you know, they might have a chance at taking me out. They might take a tank, you know, might take a helicopter gunship, but it could probably happen, right? I'm not, I'm not Rambo up here with my, you know, grenade tipped bow and arrow, but you know, I can't, I should be able to, as a man, protect my family, you know, and physically, even if it came down to it, you know, keep intruders out, keep those that would wish harm upon my family from being able to do so. And I believe that that's a whole sermon right there. So they should be able to earn the, earn the money that's needed. They should be able to protect them from danger, but they should also provide, you know, emotionally, you know, they should be there to support their family emotionally, not just be this basket case. You know, men by nature should just be very stable and steady people. They should not, you know, when the world's going crazy, people should not, the man is not the one that's supposed to start pulling out his hair and freaking out. You know, the wife's, you know, women are by nature more emotional. They get more concerned, they get, you know, they worry more. That's the natural tendency because they're more, you know, nurturing and caring. They care more for those things and they want, but what does a woman want out of a man? They want stability. They want security. They want protection. And if a man can't provide that, if the wife comes to the husband and says, oh, this is, the world's, it's crazy. Can you believe what's going on? What are we going to do? And he's like, I don't know. What should we do? You tell me, honey. That's not what the man's role is supposed to be. Man's just supposed to say, hey, it's going to be all right. Even if in the back of our heads, we're like, we're not so sure. You know, maybe we do feel like just headed for the hills, you know, but you know, we should be there to, to protect our families and be emotionally stable when they come to us and they're worried and they're fretting and you know, kids too, I mean kids, they're watching what's going on. They're seeing what's going on. They're seeing how mom's reacting to a situation and they look to dad and you know, dad's gone pale, you know, and it's just, you know, shivering in the corner somewhere. That's not going to, you know, inspire confidence in dad. And that's not you using the strength that God has given you to be strong for those that are weak. We that are strong, not to bear the infirmities of the weak, we ought to do it physically. We ought to do it emotionally and we ought to do it spiritually. You know, fathers should be, husbands and fathers should be the spiritual leaders in their home. You know, it's a shame when the wife is more spiritual than the husband. It really is because you know, we are as husbands are the ones that are supposed to be leading our wives spiritually, teaching them the things of God, being an example of the things of God, leading, taking them to church, you know, helping them and all of that. That's again, each one of these, we could just spend a whole sermon on. But these are areas that fathers need to be strong. Now if you would go over to Genesis chapter 29, Genesis chapter 29, you see, fathers are a target for the devil. It's no wonder today that, you know, there's so many homes without a father. It's no wonder today that fathers are mocked, you know, in the cartoons. I mean, I think of the cartoon I watched the most growing up, you know, The Simpsons, you know, Homer. They want to turn every dad into a Homer, just a big dumb galoot who doesn't know anything. He's just stupid and his kids just run roughshod over him. He has no control over his temper and you know the character. And every other cartoon character that's out there, every sitcom dad that's just this big dumb dopey dad and he's got the sarcastic, you know, nagging wife, that's what they want America to be today. That's what they want in our homes. You know, our families are a target for the devil because if you can break down a family, you can break down an entire society. And fathers are the number one target, I believe, often in families. The devil wants them out, you know, and he wants them to be, not be there, to give them that strength, to provide that strength in these areas that God has ordained men to provide for. The Bible says in Mark 3, no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoils his goods except he will first bind the strong man. Now I understand this is, you know, in the context, Jesus is talking about the fact that, you know, he's defending the Jews that come and said, hey, he cast out Beelzebub by the prince of the devils. You know, and he says, how can a house divided, you know, stand, a house divided cannot stand? But he's using this principle to make that point and he says that no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods. No man's going to come into my house and rob me and take my things and harm my family and just work evil in my house. No man's going to come into my house and spoil my goods except he first bind me. You know, and that goes for every man in this room that, you know, that has a house and so on and so forth. You know, first he's going to bind the strong man. That's going to be his number one thing. He's going to say, let's find the strong man, let's take care of him, let's take him out, and then we'll spoil his goods. And that's exactly what we see playing out in society today. The devil has a target on the family and says, I want to spoil these houses, I'm going to bind the strong man first. And he doesn't say he's going to bind the weak man, he says he's going to bind the strong man. Not the guy that's just already, you know, an emotional basket case, the guy that's already, you know, a spiritual failure, the guy that, you know, just has no physical strength whatsoever, has no desire to protect or provide for his family. That guy's already bound. That guy's already spiritually been taken over, and his house is going to get wrecked, but maybe perhaps for the grace of God. So we that are strong today, we need to provide for those that are weak, we need to bear the infirmities of the weak. It's our God-given role as fathers. We that are strong should bear the weakness of others, and we see many examples of this throughout Scripture. Of them that are strong bearing the infirmities of the weak in all these different areas of, you know, physical, emotional, and spiritual support. The first example I want to look at is Jacob. You know, Jacob was a physically strong guy, and some preachers, I've heard them give up, kind of rip on Jacob as being like a mama's boy, but he wasn't. As I said, he dwelled in tents, but you know, Esau was a man of the field, you know. But he was a strong guy, and we'll see that here in the story. Look at Genesis 29, verse 1. Then Jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the people of the east, and looked and behold, a well in the field, and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it, for out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. Now when it says a great stone, it doesn't mean it was like, man, this is a great stone. This is better than other stones. It means it was very big, right? That's what it's talking about, a great stone. He says, a great stone was upon the well's mouth, and thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stones from the well's mouth and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth and his place. So you see that it took several people to move this great stone, okay. Now jump down to verse 7. And he said, lo, this is Jacob speaking, in his high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together, water ye the sheep and go and feed them. And they said, we cannot until all the flocks be gathered together. And remember, there was already three flocks there, so there's already multiple people there, and they're saying, look, we'd love to feed these sheep, but we're waiting for everybody else to show up, so then, it says there, and they will roll the stone away from the well's mouth, and then we will water the sheep. This is a big rock. And it says, verse 9, and while he yet spake with them, Rachel came from her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, that the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth. So here's one man going, and I don't think it's any coincidence that he sees Rachel and then goes and does this. He says, man, she must have been pretty good looking or something. Some babe comes walking out, and he's like, oh, let me show her what I can do. Because he's looking for a wife, and maybe he got that burst of adrenaline or whatever, and he just runs over there and rolls the stone away, and he's flexing, basically, what he's doing here, right? But just so as to show you that Jacob was a man that had physical strength, and he put it on display. Not only that, but Jacob was a very hard worker, which all men ought to be. We as men, if we're going to provide for our families, they're going to have to learn to work hard, physically and any other way. Maybe not every job is going to be just this grueling, labor-intensive job. Other jobs require a lot of above-the-shoulders type of work. We ought to work hard at that. But go over to Genesis chapter 31, we'll see what a hard worker he was. This is, of course, when he's left Laban, he's gone back to his, he's taken everything that was his, his wives and his children and the flocks that he's gained, and he's kind of pleading his case to his father-in-law Laban, why he's going away, and he says in verse 38, this twenty years I have been with thee, thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their own, their young, the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee, I bear the loss of it. Of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was in the day, in the day the drought consumed me. He's out in the heat. He was out under the burning sun, and he's out, you know, just, you know, the drought is consuming him, he's saying, and the frost by night, and he's working day and night. He's out in the cold, he's out in the heat, and my sleep departed from mine eyes. He's putting in long days. You know, we as men should not just get this mentality of, well, I'm only going to work forty hours, and if we need more money, my wife's going to go work. Not in my house, you know, and I'm not just saying that, I've done that. You know, I've gone out and said, my wife's staying home, she's taking care of the kids, that's an important job, that somebody needs to do that, and if it needs be, I'll go out and work seventy hours. I'll go work out, I'll go get a second job, delivering pizzas and driving for Uber, whatever I have to do, to use the strength that God has given me to provide for my family as I'm supposed to. I mean, see, that's the type of man Jacob was, he was a very physically strong man, but he used that strength to work hard, and he's working day and night, hot, cold, sleep's departing from his eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thy house. See, I did this for twenty years, and this is a guy, this is a grinder, this is a guy who can just get in there and just get it done. I have served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters and six for thy cattle, and so on and so forth. We see Jacob was strong physically, he was a hard worker, go to Genesis 32 verse 24. He was also very spiritually strong. It says in Genesis 32 verse 24, and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled him a man until the breaking of the day, and I believe, of course, that this is an Old Testament appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's physically wrestling with Jacob, and it says he wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Okay, now, I don't know if anybody here has ever done any wrestling or just roughhousing with your buddies, but those don't go all night. You don't get into it with some guy and wrestle around, you probably make it a few minutes. If you're me, maybe that. You know, you get into it, and then, of course, the trick is, after it's kind of over, you try not to sound exasperated, you're just like, neither guy wants to be caught breathing hard, and you're like, oh, that was nothing, you know. But here Jacob is, he's just wrestling all night with the Lord, you know, and this is just an average man. He says there, verse 25, and we saw that he prevailed not against him, so he's not prevailing against Jacob. Jacob's given him a fight, but he says he touched the hollow of his thigh, and he just touched it, right? I mean, it could have shown you that, you know, the Lord could have just stopped this anyone. He just touches him on the thigh, you know, he's got the five finger death strike or whatever, right? And he just touches him on the thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. So now he's wrestling all day with the Lord, and his thigh is out of joint. It's a very tough guy. And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh, and he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, and he said, Jacob, and he said, thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince thou hast power with God and with men. He's a very spiritually strong man. This has, of course, often been preached as an illustration of prayer, how we ought to get with God and just stay with the Lord and break through with the Lord, and so on and so forth. What he's saying here at the end, he said, look, you have power with God, Jacob. I'm going to change your name. I believe this is showing us that he was a man who was close to the Lord. I mean, when the Lord Jesus Christ is showing up and challenging you to a wrestling match, you're somebody. He's picking you out and calling you out, and you're getting into it with him. I think it was in a sporting way, and he's trying to make a point here, but he's saying at the end, thou hast power. So Jacob is just a great example of a guy who had great physical strength, great spiritual strength, but he didn't just use that for himself. He has power with God and with men, and he used that to provide for his family and to work hard. And not only that, go over to Genesis chapter 33, he used this power that he had to protect the weak. He didn't just walk around and strut his stuff and tell everybody how strong he was. You know, he didn't put on the muscle shirt and go down to the beach. He was protecting the weak. That's what he did with his strength. He did something. He did it as God-given duty. He bore the infirmities of the weak, as it says in Romans 15. Look at Genesis 33, verse 1, and this is, of course, when he's returning after this wrestling match, he's returning to see his brother Esau, who that relationship had ended very poorly. He doesn't know how Esau is going to react because it tricked him out of his birthright, and he's a little concerned about how Esau is going to react. It says in verse 1, And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. So it kind of looks like maybe Esau hasn't gotten over it. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. So those are the four mothers of his children. And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hind her most. Now if you recall, Rachel and Joseph, they are the youngest, you know, his wife, but Joseph is the youngest at this point. So what he's doing is he's kind of putting the older children out there first. And you say, well, how is that fair? Well, if you recall later, I don't know how much time goes by, but I don't think it's very much. In like the next chapter, Levi and Simeon, which are his two oldest, go out and destroy an entire city. So these guys are already to a point in their life, his sons, these older sons, where they can handle themselves. They can go out there, and they can probably even have enough strength to protect themselves and their families. But he says here, and he passed over, and it says, he puts Rachel and Joseph at the hindmost, and then verse three, and he passed over before them. So after he gets everybody laid out, puts the weak all the way to the back, gets his older boys in the middle there, they can kind of protect everybody around him, then he goes in front of everybody, and he puts himself out there in harm's way. In front of Esau, and in front of Esau's 400 men, you know, he doesn't, he didn't go hang back behind Rachel and be like, you know, see how this turns out. You know, hold me back, Rachel, hold me back, you know. He went right up there, and confronted the situation. And of course, we know how it turns out, verse four, it says, and Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck, and it turns out Esau was very glad to see him. But what that shows us is that, you know, we that are strong ought to use our strength to bear the infirmities of the weak. You know, we ought to protect those that are weak. You know, and we that are strong, we should lead, we should be like Jacob. You should be able to, you know, when there's danger, we're at the forefront. You know, it reminds that story, brother, Adam was telling us about this pilot the other day. You mind if I share that? You probably don't want to share that. He's telling us a story about, there's a story about this pilot, and he met the guy, and he looked it up, it's true. The guy was in, had a plane like a Cessna or something like that, and he's, the landing gear gets stuck. So he's landing, and he's got a skid, and the thing's sliding, all the sparks are flying out, and the pilot, the dad, he's there with his wife and two daughters, thinks, man, this plane's gonna blow up. So what do you think he did? You know, grabbed his wife and kids and threw them out and tried to get out? No, he just ditches them and jumps out of the plane. Everything turned out okay. He got bumps and bruises, but it came to a skid, and the fire department's there and put out everything, and I can't imagine being that guy walking back up to that plane. My wife's over there, you know, getting oxygen. My kids are, you know, the ambulance guys, the first responders, they've got blankets around my kids, and I'm like, hey, how's it going? You know, glad you guys are okay. Yeah, thanks dad, thanks honey. You know, that's no Jacob there. You know, Jacob would have, you know, I would rather go out in a blaze of glory with my kids and wife than to live with that. But don't be, so don't be that guy. You know, that's the moral of the story there. But we that are strong, we should lead. You know, we should be like Jacob, put ourselves in harm's way. We should be like Moses, right? Go over to Exodus, you're right there, go to Exodus chapter two. Exodus chapter two. Karen, give me some more water. Exodus chapter two and verse 11, it says in verse 11, Exodus chapter two, and it came to pass in those days when Moses has grown that he went unto his brother and he looked on the burdens and spied an Egyptian smiting in Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that, and when he saw there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hit him in the sand. So we see right away that Moses was a tough guy. I mean, he was pretty physically strong. He sees this guy beating up one of his brethren and he takes it upon himself and he actually goes and slays him and then buries him in the sand. I don't know what the soil is like in Egypt, but if it's anything like it is over here, you know, that takes a lot of work right there just digging a hole. You know, I don't know if he had something in his hand or not, if he used a weapon, but he overpowered this guy so we see that he had physical strength, right? He was a strong man. He had spiritual strength. The Bible says the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. Kind of like Jacob, right? Lord's very near him. The Lord came and visited him and wrestled with him. We see that, you know, Moses was so close to the Lord that God spoke to him face to face so much so that his face even shone. That's what it says in Exodus chapter 34. Go over to Numbers 11. Exodus 34, and it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount that Moses whisked not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. And he was so close to God and spent so much time with the Lord that his face physically shone to the point where they had to put a veil on him, and he didn't even know it. They're like, Moses, we can't even look at you, put a veil on your face. And Moses, you know, so he has physical strength, he has the spiritual strength. You know, and Moses, he's the type of guy that, you know, was pushed to his limits. You know, he didn't just, you know, give up when things got tough. You know, when the landing gear wouldn't come down, you know, he didn't just bail. You know, he toughed it out. He was there when things got hard. When he saw, you know, when he saw the danger, he didn't duck and cower. You know, he faced it. And when things got tough, he pushed himself to his limits. It says there in verse 10, then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent, and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly. And Moses also was displeased, and Moses said to the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? And wherefore have I not found favor in thy sight? Thou hast laid the burden of all this people upon me. Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them, that thou shouldst say his son to me, carry them in thy bosom as a nursing father, beareth the suckling child unto the land which thou swearest unto the father? And so he was kind of, you know, kind of complaining a little bit, you know, expressing the grief, the frustration that he's experiencing in leading these people. Because if we recall, you know, the children of Israel weren't exactly the easiest people to lead. They were, they murmured, they were, you know, they didn't have a lot of faith, you know, and so on and so forth, and Moses, you know, was constantly had to drag them along and correct them. He says in verse 13, When should I have flesh to give unto all this people? So he's saying, Look, I'm getting pushed to my limits, you know, I didn't conceive these people, you're making me bear the burdens of all these people as a nursing father. He's being pushed to his limits. He says in verse 14, I am not able to bear all those people alone because it is too heavy for me. And he says, And if thou wilt deal with me thus, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favor in thy sight, and let me not see my wretchedness. This is a man that's been pushed to his limits. And of course, we know the Lord said unto Moses in verse 16, Gather unto me seventy men of the children of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them, and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And it says how he put his spirit upon them, and then they had some help. But you know, that wasn't his attitude right out of the gate, he allowed himself get pushed to that point, to where he had to go to God and just say, You know what, just kill me. And then of course, the help came. He was a man that was allowed himself to be pushed to his very limits. Now we all have limits. As men, we might be strong, but we all have a limit. The question is, are we willing to allow ourselves to be pushed to that limit? And that's what we should be willing to do, be like Moses. Allow yourself to bear the infirmities of the weak to the point where you would just rather die, that you would rather die than fail. Then you'll get the help, you get that supernatural help from God. We that are strong should endure hardness. We that are strong, we should provide, we should protect, but we should endure hardness. We should be willing to be pushed to our limits. Go over to Genesis chapter 50. I know I'm looking at a lot of scripture tonight, or this morning, but it's important. Genesis chapter 50. I think of Joseph, you know, when you think about somebody enduring hardness. I mean, Joseph has taken and, you know, has done nothing wrong and has just taken and sold into slavery. He's thrown in a pit by his own brethren. They sell him to the gypsies or whatever they're going to buy, and they take him down to Egypt, and he ends up, you know, a slave in Potiphar's house. He rises to, you know, he gets promoted, and then he gets falsely accused of rape, and then he's thrown in prison, and he's there for two years. I mean, the guy had, you know, just hardness after hardness after hardness. He did nothing wrong, and he's just suffering and suffering and suffering. We should be willing, those of us that are strong, we should endure hardness. We should be able to do that. Be pushed to our limits. He says in verse 15, and when Joseph's brethren saw their father was dead, of course, you know the story how they came down during the famine, and he provided for them, revealed to them that he was their brother Joseph, and then, of course, Jacob, Israel goes and dies, and then his brethren are kind of wondering, you know, how's Joseph going to react. They said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him, and they sent a messenger unto Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died, saying, so shall he say unto Joseph, forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren in their sin. Now I don't think he actually said that. They're just like, let's just send a messenger and tell them that's what dad said. How convenient Joseph wasn't there when he said it, right? And he says to us, for they did evil unto thee, and now we pray thee forgive the trespass of thy servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him, and his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said, behold, we be thy servants, and Joseph said unto them, fear not, for am I in the place of God, but as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring it to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. And now therefore fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones, and he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. But remember, you know, that didn't come easy for him, you know, and he endured a lot of hardness up until this point, but you know what, he had the strength to do it, and he didn't use his strength as the second in command in Egypt to just get back and be vengeful and punish his brethren. You know, he endured the hardness. He suffered the reproach, right? Much like the Lord, in Romans 15, where it says that even as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon me, you know, he was willing to bear the reproach. That's what Joseph was willing to do. Bear reproach, endure hardness. That's what those of us that are strong should be willing to do for others. We that are strong should make sacrifices. We should be willing to make sacrifices, and of course there's no greater example than this than the Lord Jesus himself. Go over to 1 Peter chapter 2, 1 Peter chapter 2. We that are strong, you know, ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. We ought to provide physically, we ought to provide spiritually, we ought to provide emotionally, we ought to be stable. We ought to be, you know, pushing ourselves to the limits, we ought to work hard, we ought to endure hardness, and we that are strong should make sacrifices. The Bible says in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 21, For hereunto were ye called. This is our calling. What's God's will for my life? Well here you go. For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. That reminds me of Joseph, doesn't it? He's such a great picture of the Lord. He never sinned. There was no guile in his mouth. He didn't wish vengeance on his brethren, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously, who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye are healed. For ye were a sheep going astray, but now returned unto the shepherd and bishop of your souls. You know, we that are strong ought to make sacrifices. That's the example that Jesus Christ set for us. I mean, there's no doubt, I mean, Jesus has strength. Out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp two-edged sword. He's going to use that one day to just slay entire armies. He is the most high. He has all strength, all power. But what did he do? He condescended to men of low estate and made sacrifices. Why? For the weak. For me and you. We are the weak in that example. We are those that have reproached him, and he bore our reproach. That's the example of Romans 15. We that are strong ought to make sacrifices. We that are strong ought not to please ourselves. That's what it said back there in Romans chapter 15. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Go over to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. We'll begin reading in verse 1 of Philippians 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded, having the same love being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but also on the things of others. That's a command for us. Not to look on the things of others. We that are strong should not please ourselves. We should be able to sacrifice and put other people first. You know, we that are fathers, of course, that's our family. Our families come first. We should put our families first, and their well-being, their physical provision, their spiritual protection, their physical protection. We ought to provide all those things for our families. We should look on the things of others, beginning with our families, but also beyond even that. Our friends, our church members, fellow church members, complete strangers even, people that maybe are out there in the world that just need help. You see some guy who's trying to push his car into the gas station because he ran a gas, he's got a flat tire. Maybe we pull over and help them bear that infirmity. We look also on the things of others. He says in verse 5, let this be mine being you, which also was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, that sounds like strength to me, a man who has strength. When you're in the form of God, you're strong. Thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but what did he do? Verse 7, made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. This is our example. We that are strong ought to do the same. Those of us that have been given strength ought to take on the form of a servant. We should humble ourselves and become obedient. We that are strong, go back to Romans chapter 15, we that are strong should edify others. We should help other people out. And I'll say this, even to our own detriment, we'll say we'll help, we'll help, but as soon as it starts to backfire on me, as soon as it actually starts to cost me something or it's going to work evil towards me or it's not going to benefit me or it's going to cause me to suffer, I'm not going to help them. But that's not the example that we've been given. That's not the example of Christ. It said where we were in Philippians, he said he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That's how strong he was and that's how much he was willing to suffer, even to the point where it was to his own detriment. Romans 15 verse 1, we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to plea of ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good edification. For even Christ pleased not himself, but as it is written, the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. Christ bore the infirmities of the weak. Those of us that had offended God, we had reproached God, he bore that reproach himself. He said let me take their reproach upon myself. I'll bear their sins in my own body, to my own detriment. That's the example that we're given. Those of us that are strong, that's the steps that we have to follow in. That's the example of Christ to us. Every example that we looked at this morning bore the reproach of the weak. You think of Moses, these murmuring, complaining people, this faithless generation just constantly bearing their reproach. Joseph wearing the reproach of his brethren. So on and so forth. We need to bear the reproach of the weak. You say well I'm convinced, how do I do that? You have to understand this. We that are strong, if we're going to play the part as men for our families and be the fathers, the husbands that we're supposed to be, we have to understand that God is the source of that strength. Of course the physical strength, we can work on that, we can do whatever it is that guys do to get strong, I don't know, lift some weights. I'm joking of course, but lift some weights, do some push ups, do whatever it is you need to do to stay in shape. But that's only going to help you with one part of it. There's a lot of other things that are just even more important than the physical strength, it's the spiritual strength. And God is the only source for that. And if you would, go over to 1 Corinthians, we'll wrap it up here. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, it says for you see your calling brethren, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty. This isn't God trying to insult us. I look around, self included, none of us in here is some big shot politician. The world wouldn't look at us and say, well, those are some mighty people over there. They look over and say, in the world's eyes, they say they're nobodies, they're weak. But that's who God has chosen to do what? To confound the wise, to confound the strong. He said in verse 28, and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God hath chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught those things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is of God made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Look, if you're in the room today, to some degree, whether you're a father, mother, child, whatever, in the world's eyes, we are weak. We are weak. They would look at us and say, who are they? And we know that because God has chosen the weak things. God purposely used the weak things of the world. God didn't go out and call Donald Trump or some senator or some big shot corporate CEO to use all his wealth because then God wouldn't get the glory for all the things that's done. Because then nobody would be confounded by it. We might not confound anybody on this world and this present life, but I'm telling you when the Lord comes and when we're in heaven, there's going to be a lot of mighty people that are going to be confounded by the people that are exalted then. All the nobodies in this earth that serve God with their life, that were faithful to the Lord, that God exalts in due time. But in the time being, we are the weak. That's what we are in the world. We're the weak. We are that little flock. That's what Jesus said of us. My little flock. Go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. We'll end here. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. The psalmist said in Psalm 62, my soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is for him. He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. God was the source of his strength and God is my salvation and my glory. The rock of my strength and my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. So we're the weak, but God is our strength. Look there in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5. Paul said this, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves. And who would deny that Paul was a mighty man of God? I mean the man did great things. You know what Paul said? We're not sufficient. Not that we think we are sufficient. He's not saying, look, it's not in us. He's like, I'm not doing this by my own strength, by my own hand. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. That's the source of our strength this morning. Maybe we have the physical strength down, but I'd have to ask, you know, are we lacking in any of these other areas? You know, are we working hard to provide for our families? Yeah, great. But are we protecting our families from sin? Are we keeping the sin out and keeping the sin away from our families and protecting them from the devil getting in and affecting their minds and their hearts? Are we making sacrifices for our families or are we just seeking to please ourselves? Because that's the example we've been given. Are we edifying our families? Are we leading in all these areas? You know, that was the questions that I would ask to all the fathers in the room this morning. Are we working hard? Are we protecting? Are we making sacrifices? Are we edifying and leading our families? You know, and I'd ask, you know, to those that are not fathers, but one day might be, you know, are you developing these characteristics? It's not too, you know, it's never too soon to start. You know, if we that are strong please ourselves, if you say, you know, I'm going to use the strength that God has given me not to bear the infirmities of the weak, not to be strong in all these areas and provide in all these different ways, I'm just going to please myself. You know, unfortunately what's going to happen is, you know, you might have a fun life. You might have, you might be able to please yourself and get your kicks, but you know what's going to happen? The weak are going to suffer. The weak are going to suffer, you know, and eventually we'll suffer ourselves, but we don't want that. We should not want that to happen. Our goal as fathers today, we that are strong should be to bear the infirmities of the weak and to bear it, take that burden on and I say it's one of the most rewarding things you can do. It's one of the most rewarding things you can do to know that as a man, as a father, you're providing financially, you're providing spiritually, you're being that example, you're edifying, you're protecting. There's real fulfillment in that. We think it's an, oh, it's the thing. Let me just please myself that, you know, that's going to be fulfilling. You know, that's just one vanity after another. Everything gets old after a time. But the idea of, you know, raising a godly family and seeing, you know, generations go on living for the Lord, that's truly rewarding. So let us that are men play the part, you know, be the man that you're supposed to be. Be the father, be the husband and support those, support the weak, bear the infirmities of the weak of those that are relying on us in so many ways. Let's go ahead and pray.