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In Genesis chapter 3, of course, we have the famous story where Moses is out on the backside of the desert. He's been there for 40 years and he's been just living his own private life. He left Egypt 40 years ago after he killed the Egyptian and basically there was a warrant out for his arrest. He had to get out of there and flee that fate. Well, while he was on the backside of the desert and he's feeding the sheep, all of a sudden he sees off in the distance this sight of a burning bush. And it's a bush that's burning but it's not being consumed by the fire. So it's not that it's just simply on fire. So he goes to see the sight and of course God appears unto him in the flame of fire out of the bush and speaks unto him and tells Moses that he has heard the cries and the groans and the affliction of the children of Israel that have been oppressed and in bondage and slavery in the land of Egypt. And he says that he's going to send Moses there to bring them out of Egypt, to free the people, to face off with Pharaoh and so forth. Now look what it says in verse number, actually let's go to verse number 17 of chapter 3 there. It says, and I have said I would bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hyrites and the Jebusites. And look at this, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. So what is he saying in that verse? He's saying I'm going to take you from a place where you're enslaved, where you're in bondage, where you're in affliction, where it's a horrible place for you to be and I'm going to bring you into what sounds like a paradise. A land that floweth with milk and honey, you're going to have total freedom. So this all sounds great. Now go if you would to chapter 5 of Exodus. Go to chapter 5, let's see what happens when Moses actually goes and faces Pharaoh and he's going to lead the people out of Egypt. It says in verse number 1, and afterwards Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice, to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with a sword. And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore, or why, do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works get you under your burdens? And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters, the people and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. And the tail of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them. Ye shall not diminish aught thereof, for they be idle, therefore they cry, saying, Let us go, and sacrifice to our God. So when he goes to face his Pharaoh, Pharaoh says, No, I'm not going to let the people go. And in fact, I think that the people must be lazy or idle or sitting around doing nothing to even have dreamed up this whole idea of going out in the wilderness and holding a feast to serve God and make sacrifices to God. It sounds like they're not working hard enough. So in fact, instead of giving them straw and making them work like a slave all day to make these bricks, he says, We're not even going to give them straw anymore. We're going to make them at night go and gather straw from all over Egypt and use that, and we're not going to let them make less bricks. The tally of the bricks must be the same. They have to make just as many bricks as before. Now they have to get their own straw. So he's increasing their workload, and really he's giving them a task that's impossible. It says in verse 9, Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein, and let them not regard vain words. He's talking about the word of God. He's calling the word of God vain words, which is why later God's going to turn Pharaoh over to a reprobate mind and harden his heart because he's blaspheming God's word. It says, The taskmaster of the people went out and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go you, get you straw where you can find it, yet not aught of your work shall be diminished. So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfill your works. Your daily task is when there was straw. And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had sent over them, were beaten and demanded, Wherefore have you not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today as heretofore? So these people are given this impossible job to make all these bricks without straw. They're gathering every bit of stubble and grass they can find to use instead of straw. They're not making their quota of bricks. They're being beaten and whipped for it because it's just impossible to do. And they go to Pharaoh to complain. And at the end of verse 15, they say, Wherefore doest thou thus with thy servants? There's no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick? And behold, thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in thy own people. But he said, Ye are idle. Ye are idle. That means you're sitting around doing nothing. Therefore, ye say, Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord. Go therefore now and work, for there shall no straw be given you. Yet, shall ye deliver the tally of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in an evil case after it was said, Ye shall not diminish aught from your bricks of your daily task. So notice, have things gotten better for them or worse? A lot worse. I mean, they were already in slavery. They're already in bondage. They're already living a terrible life. God comes to Moses and says, Moses, I'm going to send you to these people. You're going to bring them out. You're going to do these miracles. You're going to lead the people out of Egypt. They're going to be free. They're not going to be enslaved anymore. And you're going to bring them to a land that flows with milk and honey of basically a paradise. Look what actually happened. Then he gets there, Pharaoh says, No. Now they're being beaten. Now they're being worked into the ground. Insane work clothes that they can't even do. And no end in sight. They go and complain. He says, No. I'm standing by my guns here. I'm not giving you straw and you're going to make the same amount of bricks or you're going to be beaten. So things don't look like they can get any worse. Now, look at verse 20. It says, And they met Moses and Aaron, these are the elders of the children of Israel, who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And they said to them, The Lord look upon you and judge because you've made our saber to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Lord, wherefore, why hast thou so evil and treated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people, neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. So Moses is now basically complaining to God, saying, God, why did you even send me? Why have you done this? You've made it even worse for these people. You're not delivering them at all. You're making things worse. Now, go back to chapter 3, if you will. And we read the whole chapter before the service. But right after he told them about the land flowing with Belka and honey, look what he says in verse 18. They shall hearken to thy voice, talked about the elders of Israel, and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us, and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. Look at verse 19. And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go. No, not by a mighty hand. So did God already know that Pharaoh was going to say no? In fact, this is all something that God had planned. He said, I'm sure he's not going to let you go, look at verse 20, and I will stretch out my hand and smite Egypt with all my wonders, wonders or miracles, which I will do in the midst thereof, and after that he will let you go. So God very clearly explains this to Moses. He says, you're going to go into Pharaoh, you're going to say, let my people go, and God says, I'm sure he's not going to let them go. So then I'm going to smite him, and I'm going to smite the whole land of Egypt with all these plagues and do all these miracles, and then he's eventually going to let them go. So this was God's plan. God knew this all along. Moses already knew it going into it. Moses had been warned up front. You know, Moses shouldn't seem surprised when he's saying to God, why have you done this, when God already told Moses that this is exactly how it was going to play out, and this is how it was exactly going to happen. See, what can we learn from this? Well, God wants to bless us in our life, and the Bible talks a lot about how God's going to bless his people and how a faithful man will abound with blessings and how God is going to do good unto us and not evil. But you see, a lot of people don't understand that before you get to the land of milk and honey in your life, you have to go through some hard times first to get there. It's not like God just comes along, and this is what a lot of the prosperity preaching that's out there today, you know, the TV preachers and the Joel Osteen and so forth, you know, they basically tell you, hey, if you start serving God, if you put your faith in God, you know, everything's going to go great for you, and you're not going to be sick again, and you're not going to have problems at work, you're going to have health and wealth and prosperity, and you're going to have a nice car, and your marriage is going to be perfect, your family's going to be perfect. But look, that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says, many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. You know, you're going to go through hard times in your life, and especially when you're starting out in Egypt, and you know, Egypt represents a few different things. It represents ungodliness throughout the Bible. It's always used as an example of the ungodly, okay? It's used as an example of the sinful world that we live in. And of course, the promised land represents, you know, God's will for us where he wants us to be, a place where we're being blessed by God. And you see, a lot of people have spent, and really pretty much everybody has spent part of their life in Egypt. That's where we all start out, in Egypt. And you know, maybe you get saved, and then you get baptized, and you start serving God, and basically you start on that journey toward the promised land, so to speak, in your life. But you see, a lot of people, they think that when they get saved, and when they get in church, and they start looking for God, that all of a sudden they're just going to be in the promised land instantly. But that's not the way it works. You see, go, if you would, to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter number 13. We're going to come back to Exodus, but go to Matthew 13. This is a great parable about the sower, and it's talking about different people that receive the word of God. Now, different people have different opinions about this parable, but I think one of the keys to understanding this parable is to realize that this parable does not deal with every human being on the planet. It's just about certain types of people. Because, for example, in the parable, the first type of person, and just to give you the parable quickly in case you don't know it, it talks about a sower going out to sow seeds, like a farmer. He's sowing seeds in the field. And as he's scattering the seed, as he's throwing the seed out there, some of it fell by the wayside. Basically, it fell upon the road. And so the road is very packed in from all the animals and the people and the wheels that have driven over it. So that seed's not going to be able to get into that earth. So the seed that fell by the wayside, the fowls came and devoured it up. Birds came and ate it before it could go down into the earth. And then some of the seed fell into stony places. And that seed was received into the earth, and it began to spring up, but it didn't have any root because the root could not penetrate the stone. So it had a very shallow root system. So eventually it was washed away. I'm sorry, it was scorched when the sun came up and scorched it and it had no deepness of earth. Then, of course, you had the third category, which was the seed that fell among thorns or weeds. And what happened is the thorns came and sprung up and they choked out the good seed, the good plant, and it never brought forth any fruit. It was an anemic plant that could not produce fruit. And then some of the seed fell into good ground. And the seed that fell into good ground, it sprung up and it produced fruit some 30, some 60, some 100. And Jesus explained in that parable, and he explains that the first group of people, he said, was the seed that fell by the wayside. He said, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, and if you looked down at your Bible, let me see what verse is in that. Verse number 19. When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh that winded one and catcheth the way that which was sown in his heart. So that's talking about Satan coming, and when someone hears the Gospel, they don't understand it, so Satan comes and takes it out of their heart. And it says, this is he which received seed by the wayside. So this guy didn't get Satan, clearly. You know, you can also look this up, and you don't have to, but in the book of Luke, it says that Satan comes and takes it away lest they should believe and be saved, before they can believe and be saved. So they hear the Gospel, and they don't understand it, so then the devil basically makes them forget about it, he takes it away, distracts them, whatever, so that they don't ever get Satan. Okay. So that's the guy who hears the Gospel but didn't understand it. And then the second one, the one that fell among stony places, look what it says about that guy. It says, but he that received the seed of the stony places, verse 20, the same as he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not root in himself, but doereth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseeth, because of the word, by and by he is offended. Now the Bible tells us in the book of Luke, when you look at the same story, that this guy believed. Okay. And it talks about he received the word with gladness, kind of like in Acts chapter 2, when it says, then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and that, you know, that they were added then the same day, about 3,000 souls. The Bible is talking about the fact that these people received the Gospel, they were joyful, they believed it, but because they had no root in themselves, as soon as any persecution or tribulation arose because of the word, by and by they're offended. Okay. They're out, you know, and I've seen this happen many times. People get saved, they get excited about it, but usually it's their family persecuting them, whether it's a brother, a sister, parents, their wife, their husband, and pretty soon they get discouraged, and they just don't have the backbone to handle that persecution. They haven't been saved long enough to have developed a strong root, and to be really planted in the local church, and planted serving God, so they get offended. And then, of course, the thorns come and choke up the other one. That's the one who gets basically busy with the cares of this world. No time for soul winning, no time to get anybody saved, no time to preach the Gospel, because they're too busy having fun, and making money, and doing all the things that this life offers. Then the one on the good ground is the one who hears the word of God, believes it, also obeys it, follows God's commandments, stays in church, serves God. He's the one who's going to bring forth fruit. He's the one who's going to reproduce himself. He's the one who's going to get others saved, and so forth. That's what bringing forth fruit is. Everything brings forth after its own kind. Oranges produce oranges, Christians produce Christians. So, in this story, really the one that's not saved is the first one. The other three are people that are saved. Two types of saved people who aren't bringing forth any fruit. One, it's because they got persecuted, they got discouraged, so they quit on God. The other group was too busy with everything else. And then the third group is the one who actually brings forth fruit. Now what you need to understand is that, I think why a lot of people misunderstand this parable, is that they think that it covers every person on the planet. But here's the thing. Did this parable cover the person who hears the gospel, understands it, and rejects it? Wouldn't you say that's a lot of people? There are a lot of people, you give them the gospel, they understand it, but they say, no, I don't believe that. They just reject it. They just don't want to believe it. They just don't put their faith in Christ. The only unsaved person this deals with is the one who hears it and doesn't understand it. Okay, so there are a lot of other types of people, other scenarios. These are just four types of scenarios that are common scenarios that Jesus is trying to show us. It's not showing us every type of person on the planet, okay. And so, why am I bringing this up? Well, because I think that our story in Exodus ties in perfectly with the one who received the seed in the stony places, the one who gets any kind of persecution or tribulation, and they're offended. You know, when the children of Israel received Moses, and Moses came in, he preached the word of God unto them, he showed them the miracles, and the Bible says in Exodus chapter 3 or 4, wherever it is, it says, chapter 4, the people believed Moses. It says that the men of Israel, the elders of Israel, they believed Moses. They believed God's word. But then notice, they started going through persecution. Now they're having it worse than ever. They're being beaten. They have to go gather straw in the middle of the night and work all day, work all night, and what is it? They're offended. They start turning away from Moses. They want to quit on God. They want to go back to being Pharaoh's little slave. Oh, you're making Pharaoh mad at us now. Oh no, you made our saber to stink to Pharaoh. Who cares if you stink to Pharaoh? He told you he's going to take you out of Egypt. He already told you he's going to deliver you. They'd already seen the miracles, but they were losing faith in them. Now they're starting to not believe. They're starting to not believe anymore what Moses had said about how they're going to be brought out of Egypt. And what I'm trying to say is that these are the type of things that are going to happen in your life. Just because you're saved and just because you go to church and just because you're serving God, that doesn't mean God's just going to instantly just lay in the milk and honey, instantly bless you, instantly everything's going to be great. No. A lot of times it's going to make things worse. A lot of times you're going to go through harder times. You're going to suffer for a while, and then after you've suffered a while, then you get to the promised land. But first you've got to go through suffering, then you get to the promised land. Go to Exodus chapter 15. This is what causes people to be offended. This is what causes them to quit church and to quit serving God and to go back to the world. You see, people today that are under the sound of my voice, that used to be out living a worldly life, maybe you used to do the bar scene and you used to be an ungodly person, you used to commit fornication, you used to be drunken, you used to do all this worldly stuff, but now you've gotten right with God, you're in church, you're serving God, but let me tell you something, that doesn't mean your life is going to be a life of milk and honey instantly. You know, you may have to suffer for a while. Things might even get worse in your life in the short run as God brings you through trials and tribulations. A lot of people are going to let that cause them to be offended and say, well, I've been serving God for two months now and, you know, things aren't getting any better for me, so I'm going to quit on God. Well, you're the one who has no root. Your name is Mr. Stony Places or Miss Stony Places, okay? Or maybe you say, well, it's been two years or five years or ten years or twenty years. Yeah, but how long did you disobey God for in your life? You know, and then you disobey God your whole life, and then all of a sudden you start living for God and you want instant results. You know, you've been in Egypt your whole life, you're not going to get out of Egypt overnight. You're not just going to easily just walk out of Egypt and then just boom, you're in the Promised Land. If it were that easy, everybody would be doing it. But it's not that easy. That's why most of the people kept turning in their heart back to Egypt because even after they left Egypt, it wasn't over. You see, Pharaoh made their burdens worse. He beat them and punished them. Then God sent his plagues on Egypt, he punished the Egyptians, and then finally Pharaoh let the people go. So the people go and they're leaving. Well, next thing you know, the Egyptian army is pursuing them. They're afraid for their lives. They got backed into a corner where they had nowhere to go. They were backed up against the Red Sea. They had nowhere to go. God performed a miracle, parted the Red Sea. They went across the Red Sea on dry land, and then when Pharaoh's troops tried to pursue them across the Red Sea, God brought in the waters upon them and drowned them. But that wasn't over because after they got through the Red Sea, now they're on their way to the Promised Land. Look at Exodus 15, verse 22. This is right when they're leaving the Red Sea. So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now this is a bad situation. When you're going out into the desert, and wilderness means desert, when you're going out into the desert and you go three days without finding water, you're in bad shape. Now they probably had a little water with them, but they went through that water pretty fast and they were getting really thirsty. They're out in the desert, and thirst is a terrible thing. Thirst is a lot worse than being hungry. You can go a month without eating. I mean, it's not a good idea, but you can go a month without eating and then survive. But you can't go very long without water. In the desert, sometimes you can even die in one or two days without water. But in a normal climate, in a normal situation, people can usually go about one week without water before they die, and then it's too late. But you can go a month without food, okay? Well, depending on who you are, depending on how much reserves you have. Some of you can go over here, but I'm just kidding. No, you can't, because you've got to get your vitamins and minerals and nutrients. You can't just live off of old reserves. But obviously, the more reserves you have, you're probably going to last longer. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong on my science there, because maybe you need more. I don't know. But anyway, I'm not a nutrition expert, okay? But what I'm saying is that going a few days without water, let's put it this way, it's not going to kill you. It didn't kill these people. But it's painful, is it not? You're definitely suffering. These people are suffering. Now, a lot of times, when we look at the children, we go, man, why do they keep complaining? Shut up and do what you're told. But wait a minute. If you were there, though, if you were the one who's thirsty, if you're the one who doesn't have anything to drink, so they get out there, they get three days out there, and off in the distance, they see some water. And they're like, praise the Lord, finally. They come running up to it, and they get there, they're all excited, and they put that water in their mouth. It was bitter. It was dirty, poisoned water. They can't drink it. Oh, man, now they're mad. You know, when you get all excited about something, and then you're let down? And look, that's going to happen to you in your life. It's happened to me. It's going to happen to you. We've all gone through life where it looks like, hey, finally, things are getting better. This is going to be great. You know, we've all been there. And now they're really mad when that happens. It says in verse number 23, they came to Merah. They could not drink in the waters of Merah, for they were bitter. Therefore, the name of it was called Merah, which means bitter. And the people murmured against Moses. And they were starting to complain, saying, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and said, if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord by God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I brought upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord that healeth thee. Look at verse 27. And they came to Elam, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees, and they encamped there by the waters. So, of course, they lacked faith. Because if they would have just gone just a tiny bit further from Merah, they got to Merah, the waters bitter. If they would have just gone a little bit further, they got to Elam, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees. So they lacked faith. And a lot of times, we lose faith at the darkest time, when really, help is right around the corner. I mean, right there, the children of Israel, when they got to Merah in the bitter water, if they would have just kept going, they would have found the real water. It was just right on the other side. And so we need to not lose faith in God, and we need to stay with it, and so forth. But you see here, this is another trial and tribulation that they had to go through. You know, not only are they beaten, not only are they having to work too many hours, way too many hours, not only are they having to go without water for days and march through the wilderness. You know, they're going to go through all these things, and of course, then when they get to the Promised Land, they got to fight. You know, it's not just going to be handed over to them. They get there, and there are giants in the land, and these armies that have iron chariots. God's going to do it all for them. God blessed them and sent the hornets before them, and God made the walls of Jericho fall down. But was it easy? No. Was it hard work? Yes. Was there suffering that they had to go through? Yes. Eventually, they make it to the Promised Land. Of course, they mess up and then delay it by 40 years, but that was their fault. They could have been there in six months. But the bottom line is that they eventually get there. They eventually get to the land flowing with milk and honey, but they've got to pay their dues first. They've got to go through the trials and tribulations first, and that's exactly how it's going to be in your life. That's exactly how it is in my life. We are not just going to have an easy life where everything's handed to us. Don't make the mistake of looking at your current situation and saying, well, things are going bad. That means God's not blessing me. I mean, you've seen people have that attitude. Hey, things are going bad right now. God's not blessing me. And people even base life decisions. Somebody will even start going to church and start doing a good thing, starts holy, and then things start going bad in their life. God's not in this. God's not blessing this. I must be doing the wrong thing. No, you're probably doing the right thing. When the tomb of Israel did the right thing, did things get better or worse? It got worse. Now, in the long run, they got their freedom. In the long run, they got the land of milk and honey. In the long run, they were blessed by God. But in the short term, they suffered. In the short term, they were afflicted. And so we need to get off this mentality that says, I want everything now, all the blessings now, or I'm going to quit, or I'm not going to trust God. I'm not going to serve God. Go to Luke 15. Luke, chapter 15. You see, God has warned us in advance that this is how life is going to be. Moses was complaining, God, why did you even send me? Why did you do this? But he had forgotten just a few chapters earlier that God already predicted that Moses would say, or that Pharaoh would say no. God had already predicted that Pharaoh would say no and that God would have to punish Pharaoh and smite the land with all kinds of plagues before he let him go. Well, the plagues hadn't come yet. That hadn't happened. He should have told the elders of Israel, hey, wait a minute, God already warned me about this. And I don't really know, the Bible doesn't necessarily record this, but maybe Moses should have passed on that warning to the elders of Israel. Because God told Moses, he's going to say no, and I'm going to smite them with plagues, then they'll let you go. You know, I wonder if when Moses showed up to the elders of Israel, he might have just focused on the positive only preaching. God's going to deliver you. Check out these miracles. I can turn water into blood. I make my stick turn into a serpent. You know, these are signs that God's showing you that you're going to be free. It's going to be great. You know, oh, I forgot to mention, Pharaoh's not going to go with this. I forgot to mention that Pharaoh's not going to believe any of these miracles and that God's going to have to smite the whole country with plagues. Then he'll let them go. You see, it's like we only hear the part that we want to hear. Either Moses only heard the part he wanted to hear, or if he did pass that on to the elders of Israel, they only heard the part that they wanted to hear. You know, you come to church, and you're just like, wah, wah, wah, wah. God's going to bless you. Wah, wah, wah, wah. Everything's going to be great. Wah, wah, wah. And by the way, a lot of churches, that's all they're preaching anyway. You know, they're preaching like the 10% of the Bible that's telling you everything's going to be great all the time. They didn't preach the 90% that's warning you, you know, about all the bad stuff that's going to happen first and all the stuff you've got to go through. And then even the church that preaches that stuff, people, it just goes over their head. They hear it, wah, wah, wah, wah. And then it's like, well, why isn't God blessing me like you said? What happened? You preached that sermon. I'm like, that was one sermon out of 156. Did you hear the other 155 where I was railing and talking about all the bad stuff that's going to happen? And so, you know, we only hear what we want to hear, the good part. But Jesus often warned. He often warned, and here's what he said. He said, these things have I spoken unto you that should not be offended. He said, they'll cast you into prison. They'll throw you out of the synagogue. You'll be beaten, you'll be hated. People, you know, he's always warning us in the Bible so that when it happens, we don't flip out. We don't get offended. Like it said about the parable of the soul where they got offended. Look at Luke chapter 15. This shows the mentality of people living today in the United States in 2012. Look at verse 11 of Luke 15. It says, and he said, this is Jesus telling a parable, A certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that fall to me, and he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey, excuse me, into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want. So here's a man who has two sons, the elder son and the younger son. Well, they each get an inheritance, okay? Well, the younger son tells dad, I don't want to wait until you die to inherit. I want whatever part of your goods is for me, I want it right now. I don't want to wait for it. He didn't have patience. He said, I don't want to work my whole life and not have anything and not have any money and not be able to enjoy anything. Give it to me right now. So dad says, okay, fine. And dad gives it to him. The elder son stays behind, does what he's supposed to do, keeps working and waiting patiently his term. But the younger son gets all the money out of Friday and he says, oh man, this is great. And he just goes instantly into his own self-made land of milk and honey where he goes and, you know, spends all his substance on riotous living. You know, what does it mean riotous living? Well, you know, if you look that word up in the bottom, basically he's just out drinking and partying. It's what people would do today, young people who don't have any morals, what are they going to do if they just had a ton of money? What are they going to do? Buy fancy cars, go out drinking, partying, not work, fornicate, go to the casino, gamble, just blow all their money on whatever, just having fun, eat, drink, and be married, just blow it up. That's what this guy did. He had fun. He enjoyed it. But it was only very short-lived. And then there arose a famine in the land, he spent all the money, he can't get a job, and now he's in want, and eventually he gets a job feeding pigs and he begins to lust after the food that the pigs are eating and wish that he could put some of that food in his own mouth. That's when he realizes how he's hit rock bottom. He goes back home to dad, you know, dad takes him back in, but here's the thing, he doesn't have any inheritance anymore. I mean, he's lost all that. He's just, now he's got nothing. I mean, he's still working. He's still got to do all the same stuff he did before, except before he knew he had a big inheritance coming. Now he's got nothing coming. The older son, he's got the big inheritance coming someday. He's going to have to wait for it, but the dad told him, everything I own is going to be yours, clearly stating that this younger son is not getting an inheritance. He says, hey, everything I have is yours. It's all yours, because the older son is like, why are you even taking him back? He says, well, we're glad to see him, but everything I own is yours. Okay, so you see, there are two choices in life. You can be like Moses, who the Bible says, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, the short-lived fun of living for pleasure and fun and the partying life. You see, you can go out now, and you can party and have fun. It's not going to be fun for long, and then you're going to screw up your life for a long time to come, and then for all eternity, and obviously you're saved. You can't lose your salvation. You believe on Christ. You have everlasting life, but for all eternity, you're basically going to have missed out on all the rewards and all the inheritance for those who serve God, because, yes, anybody who believes on Christ is going to heaven, but if you serve God, if you work for God, you have an inheritance of rewards and crowns and things that you earn. Unlike those who did nothing for God, the Bible says that they will lose their reward. They will miss out on their reward, 1 Corinthians 3, but they themselves shall be saved, but hey, they're suffering loss. They're losing out on rewards. They're missing out on the things that they could have had. They're missing out on really ruling and reigning at a high level with Christ. Instead, they're going to be at a very low level, and that's something that's going to go with them for all eternity. So the bottom line is this. You can either choose to have everything given unto you right now, or you can put your hand in a plow, work hard, serve God, go through the trials and tribulations, go through the hard times, go through the suffering, and eventually at the end of it is the land of milk and honey. God's going to bless you. God's going to take care of you. And then beyond that is even eternity. Even beyond the land of milk and honey is heaven, which is even greater than the land of milk and honey on this earth. But you see, everybody wants it right now. They're like this younger son. Give it to me right now. I don't want to wait. They don't want to suffer, though. You see, people who are wealthy, some people who are wealthy are wealthy because they are dishonest people, and they're stealing, and they're involved in corruption with government or corruption with corporations, and that's how some people get their money, you know, just by being dishonest. I mean, I've known some guys who are dealing drugs, and, you know, by dealing drugs, they drive fancy cars, and they, you know, have a lot of nice clothes and a lot of nice things, right? But, see, eventually they end up going to prison, losing everything, getting shot, you know, whatever. But in the short run, have you seen them? With the Escalade and the clothes and the money, and, you know, they have it all right. So some people get wealthy through dishonest gain, whether it be, you know, legal or illegal. You know, a lot of dishonest things are legal. But a lot of dishonest business practices, people can become wealthy off the backs of other people, not by working hard. Other people are wealthy because they just inherited everything. You know, everything was given to them. They grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth. But then there are a lot of people who are wealthy because they worked hard and became wealthy, right? They started out at the bottom. They started out poor and they worked hard and they studied and they learned things and then they got trained and then they worked, you know, 80 or 100 hours a week starting a business, getting it off the ground, and they have wealth and money. But, you see, you know what people today want in America and what people think is reasonable? They want to not work hard, not study hard, and just have wealth. Isn't that true? They want, they say, well, you know, as long as I just go to college and do my beer pong and do my part, you know, I'll take my four hours of classes in the morning and, you know, I can't get a job. I mean, I'm in school full time. I've got four hours of classes a day. You expect me to work a job? So then they just, oh, just give me free money, loans, student loans. Did you know that there's more money today borrowed out on student loans than there is on credit card debt in America? Isn't that insane? Because there's a lot of credit card debt in America. Did you know there's more money on student loans? People owe $50,000, $75,000, $100,000 on student loans. Why? Because they want, they go to college because that's their path to wealth. Right? But they don't want to work hard to get to that destination of wealth. And by the way, that's not the destination I'm after in life because the Bible says labor not to be rich. Did you hear me? Let me say it again. Labor not to be rich. Cease from mine own wisdom. It's not about being rich. It's about serving God with your life. It's about being rich in good works. It's about being rich in souls that you've won to Christ. Rich having a godliness and righteousness in your heart. That's the true riches, the Bible says. But you see, their pathway to wealth is go to college and then I can get an easy job where I just work, you know, 8 hours a day only yet I make tons of money and have all this wealth. But I want somebody else to pay for it. I want it all to be given to me on loan and then I don't want to pay back the loans. So this is what it is. They go through college instead of working and paying their own way through by either ringing up a credit card or ringing up student debt while they're drinking and partying and fooling around when they could have been working and making a living and paying their own way. And I spent a few years in college and I worked and paid my tuition every month and paid my own way through. I worked full-time and went to school full-time. That's hard! Yeah, no kidding, it's hard! No kidding, it's hard, but so what? Well, I'd hate for you to do anything hard now, wouldn't we? And not only that, but it's hard, but at the end of the rainbow you get the wealth that you're trying to earn, the money that you're trying to earn. So you work hard, are you listening to me? You work hard, then you get the money. You work hard, then you get the wealth. But they want to just fool around and they get the wealth. Drinking, partying, beer pong, dormitory, frat house, sorority, go to school, sit around in a classroom with some long-haired left-wing hippie teaching you whatever. Some burned-out hippie teaches you some stuff for a few hours, you fool around, you turn in your little assignment, and then it's like, okay, now where's the job? Government, give me jobs. And the thing is, there's a famine in the land today. And a lot of these people, they're starting to be in want. Well, if they hadn't done all that riotous living, they wouldn't have all that debt. And you know, okay, that's just one aspect, that's just college students, okay? But there are other pathways to making a living. You know, a lot of people just get a job, they work hard, they learn a skill, they learn a trade, they climb the ladder, they start a business, whatever. There's other ways to make money. But you've got to work hard. Most people don't grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth. And unless you want to be a dope dealer, you're probably going to have to work hard, or unless you're going to be a crook. You've got to work hard, you've got to struggle. But you see, you've got to get the order right. First you work hard, then you get paid. You don't start out making tons of money, sitting around, kicking back, having a kush talk. And you know, maybe your boss at work, and by the way, a lot of people have a bad attitude at work, and they need to change their attitude. The Bible says that you're not supposed to be bitter toward your boss. And you know what? You look at your boss who's 55, and you say, well, he's sure got it easy. Well, yeah, but he's 55, and he's spent the last 20, 30 years getting where he's at. Now he's kicking back. Now he's driving the fancy car. But when he was your age, he wasn't driving that car. When he was your age, he was working 80 hours a week while you were at a drunken stupor somewhere. He was out working and making the money. So what I'm trying to say, and that's kind of just applying this biblical principle to just the carnal illustration of making money in life. People want to spend first and then make the money later. I mean, you can tell people, hey, you're getting a tax return on this and that day. They spend it before it even comes. It's already been spent. Or they get a raise, and they're like, okay, that means I'm going to make an extra $5,000 over the next two years. Well, let's go take out a credit card and spend 5,000 bucks. And we'll pay it off. Look, we need to be people who work and earn and then spend, not just going out and living a lifestyle that is above your means, above what you make. You know, when you start out young and you just got married, you're not going to be able to afford the amenities of somebody who's been married for 20 years. You got to get there. You got to work up to that. You know, and ladies, you may look at somebody who's been married that's in their 50s that's got all the gadgets in their kitchen. You're not going to have that when you're 20. And she probably didn't have it when she was 20, or 30 or whatever. You know, you got to earn that. You got to get there. You got to work for it. And everybody just, right now, give it to me right now. Have it your way. You know, it's this fast food mentality where you just pull up and you want a gourmet cooked meal and you want it in 90 seconds at the window at the drive-thru. No, you're going to get garbage in 90 seconds. You're going to get food that's disgusting in 90 seconds because it takes more than 90 seconds to make a real meal. And if you go to a fancy restaurant, you're going to sit around and you're going to wait and you're going to wait and you're going to wait and you're going to wait and you're going to wait and then the food's going to come an hour later. But it's actual real food that's actually cooked and prepared for you. Okay? That is the way life is. Life is like that. Anything that has value takes time. You know, let's say you young guys that are thinking, hey, I want to start a church someday and I want to follow in the footsteps of Pastor Anderson or Brother Roger Jimenez or other great men of God that are greater than either of us that start churches and do great things. Listen to me now. If you want to do that, you got two choices. You want to start at the church someday, guys? There's your two choices. Work hard, be hated, be rejected, have very few people in your church in the early days, struggle and suffer and go through trials and tribulations and eventually you'll get to the land of milk and honey of pastoring a great church. And look, I feel like I'm in the land of milk and honey because I'm the pastor of a soul winning church, a real bonafide soul winning church, which is what I set out to do and what I've always wanted to do with my life was to pastor a real bonafide soul winning church. That's what I'm the pastor of. But let me tell you something. I didn't start out pastoring a real bonafide soul winning church that's preaching to God. No, I started out with a couple of people in my living room. And it took a long time to get to this point. And it's taking Brother Ximena's time. But he's doing it right. And it's going to take anyone lots of time to do it right. Or you can take the shortcut. You can take the shortcut to pastoring the thriving, growing church by bringing in rock music, by bringing in entertainment, by bringing in shallow 20 minute sermons, by bringing in contemporary music, by bringing in worldliness, by not preaching on sin, by not preaching anything controversial, and you can have it all right now because those churches spring up overnight. And you'll be the senior pastor. You won't be the senior pastor. You'll be the lead pastor. You know, when I was a kid, it was like lead guitar, lead singer. And then it was the pastor. And now they're trying to be so cool and hip with the young people that the pastor calls himself the lead pastor. Sort of like bands have a lead guitar and lead singer. I'm the lead pastor. I'm not the lead pastor. I'm the bishop. You like that term? Hang your stupid modernistic lead pastor. I'm a bishop. I'm a pastor. I'm what the Bible calls it. And look, this church didn't spring up overnight. And when you go to start a church, young man, someday, your church isn't going to start up overnight unless you're one of these liberal party churches. The fund centers, as I like to call them. Okay. And so the thing is, you've got to choose in life. And these are just a couple of examples. You know, making money, starting a church, or for example, you know, the way that you run your finances where you want to have everything right now and pay for it later, suffer later. You want to live a party life as a young person. Listen to me, young, and listen to me, teenagers. I'm almost done with my sermon. But listen to me, teenagers. You want to live your stupid party life now, you're going to suffer for that for the rest of your life. Amen. Oh, there's always a second chance. Yeah, there's a second chance. There's a second chance to go back and owe nothing. There's a second chance to go back to dad's house and do the same life that you would have lived except without the inheritance. Yeah, God gives a second chance, but guess what? You still have to suffer the consequences for your actions. Oh, God's always got a second chance. Yes, he does, but guess what? The second chance isn't as good as the first chance. And the third chance is even worse. And if you're smart, you'll decide, the Bible says in Lamentations chapter 3, that it's good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. It's good for young people to work hard, to struggle, to go through trials and tribulations, to be in church, to be out soul winning, to work hard, to earn their right in life, to learn the skills that they need in life, to learn soul winning, to learn the Bible, to struggle and do without and suffer. And then they'll earn the right one day to live in the land of milk and honey. The people who went to the land of milk and honey grew up in the wilderness. They grew up hard in the wilderness doing without, and then they went to the land of milk and honey. They didn't start out with milk and honey in their baby bottle. And you see, you're going to be the same way in life. You teenagers and you young people, don't be stupid. And any young person or teenager who's listening to my voice and goes out and lives a worldly lifestyle is stupid. Because most people who are out living a worldly lifestyle are just ignorant. They didn't hear this kind of preaching. They don't know better. And maybe there are people under the sound of my voice that are thinking, man, I wish I would have heard this preaching because I went out and did dub stuff as a young person. But the teenagers and young people that are listening to me right now, if they go out and forticate and if they go out and be drunken and if they go out and take drugs and if they go out and go to one of these liberal stupid fun centers and marry some girl at the fun center, and then all of a sudden turns out she's not even saved because the gospel's not even preached at that church. And you go out and you party and you dance and you go out and to the clubs and the nightlife and the drinking and the fun. You know what, you're an idiot because you're going to ruin your life. You're going to ruin it. You young ladies, you like that guy that's got the bad boy image. That bad boy. Forget the fact he's a Catholic. He's so cool, he's such a bad boy. And you'll fix him later on that. No you won't. And you dead sure won't fix his family, the in-laws. You marry that Catholic guy and your in-laws are going to be trying to baptize your baby. That's what's going to happen when you marry that Catholic. You're going to be fighting your in-laws as they try to baptize your baby. And if you're a teenage girl and you're listening to me or if you're a young lady your husband's going to say, no, it's being baptized because I'm Catholic. And look, you marry that worldly, sinful guy who's all loose with you and wants to get physical with you. Guess what, after you're married he'll want to get physical with somebody else. He's such a bad dude and he dates all the girls. Well he's going to keep dating them. That's the problem though. Yeah, it's so cool. And then the guys, you know, you like that girl that's got the short shorts and she's so beautiful and she's wearing promiscuous clothing. You're going to be fighting her for the rest of your life about what she's trying to wear out of the house. Because you know what, something's going to... Let me just teach you something. Before you're married and that girl's wearing that... What do you want to call it? Sleazy clothing? Coochie mama clothing? Okay. Before you're married, do you think it looks great? As soon as you say I do and as soon as you kiss the bride all of a sudden it's never going to look cool to you again. Did you hear me? Because you're going to be thinking to yourself, no, this is my wife. And by the way, if you're one of these guys who likes your wife to dress like that then there's something wrong with you. Any normal guy, the moment he says I do says, okay, now it's time for those short shorts to become a skirt down your ankles. Because you know what, we're married and I don't want you going out of the house attracting a bunch of other guys. You say you're a jealous... Yes, I am a jealous husband. Amen. Yes, I am. And I hope my wife's jealous of me. I hope she doesn't want me out hanging around with a bunch of other women. The bottom line is this. When you're young, you make these mistakes, you enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, you will suffer for those for the rest of your life. Believe me or don't believe me, it's true. You will carry around consequences from those days for the rest of your life. Whether it's disease, whether it's bad memories and things you can't get out of your mind, whether it's divorces and remarriages, whether it's children out of wedlock, whether it's drugs that have racked your body, alcohol that's damaged your body, whether it's a criminal record, all these different things that you do when you're young, when you're sowing your wild oats, you're going to reap what you sow. Or you can be like Moses, you can be like the children of Israel who went into the Promised Land, the good generation that came next, who suffers now. I mean, look, what's more fun? When you're 15, what's more fun? Going out and partying or sitting in church, what's more fun? You want to go play video games or going to church? Watching movies or going to church? Going to the rock concert or going to church? What's more fun? It's fun to go out and have fun. But you know what? The one who's wise will sit down and shut up in church and maybe you suffer through the preachings a little too long or whatever, but you know what? This will pay off for the rest of your life. Every minute that you spend in this building with me screaming and yelling Bible verses at you is going to make your life better in the long run. Every minute of it. Every minute you spend down at the water park checking out the babes and the bikinis and every minute that you spend rocking out to all the worldly, sinful music, every minute that you spend watching a bunch of R-rated videos and PG-13 and PG and whatever videos, every minute that you spend hanging around with a bunch of fags at your school, every minute that you spend hanging around with a bunch of gang bangers, every minute that you spend drinking beer and smoking pot is going to make your life worse in the long run. Every minute. Every minute of it. And so you've got to decide, my friend, are you going to take the route that's the difficult route, the hard route, the one that takes work, the one that takes patience, the one where you have to struggle and strive, or are you going to take the route that's just the easy way? The easy way is not God's way. But wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, you said something about milk and honey. Okay. But that's in the end. That's the result. That's not the route. He didn't say, I'm going to make milk and honey come out of a rock for you. He didn't feed them with milk and honey from heaven. He gave them bread and water. He kept them alive. He kept them going. But they had to pay their dues. You want to pastor a church someday? You've got to pay your dues. You want to have wealth and do it honestly? And again, I'm not saying you should work hard to make money because that's not what life's about. But if you do want to have money someday, you've got to work hard, just in general. Whatever you want in life, you want to have a godly marriage someday? Then you're going to have to basically keep yourself pure. That's part of the steps to getting there, getting where you want to be. And guess what? You're not going to be dating Catholics. You're not going to be dating... You say, why are you so hung up on that? It's just that I've seen it so many times. Yep. It's the truth. You're not going to be dating unsaved people. You're not going to be dating... Okay, fine. Mormons. You're not going to be dating Mormons. You're not going to be dating Muslims. You know? Or whatever. You're like, I wasn't really tempted in that area, but okay. Maybe there is a Muslim kid at your school. I don't know. You know? She looks great in that head covering, guys. Listen to me now. She's not the one! Anyway, you're not going to be dating unbelievers. You're not going to be drinking. You know what the Bible says about people who drink? Who serve and deceive thereby is not wise. That's right. It's that simple. And so, be wise. Just because you're 15, just because you're 16, 17, doesn't mean you have to be stupid. Oh, I'm supposed to be stupid. I'm a teenager. Ha ha ha. No, you're not. I've known people that were 15, 16, 17 that were very wise. And they acted like an adult, not like a little kid. That's who you want to be. And your life will be so much better because of it. What you do now as a young person is setting the course for your entire life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this great story in the Bible. It's a great example of people who, they had a great destination. They were leaving a miserable Egypt, bondage slavery place, and they were going to a land of milk and honey, a paradise. But Father, thank you for the example where we can see how they had to go through so much suffering to get there. They had to be beaten. They had to be hated. Their saber had to stink. They had to go without water and food at times. Father, help us not to believe the world's lies that tell us that everything's going to come to us on the silver platter. Help us to take the hard way, the difficult way, the real way, not the world's fake easy route to life. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.