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I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. I'm going to learn a little bit more. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Sunday morning service at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here this morning. Ready to hear God's word preached. Let's go ahead and make our way to our seats, please. And when you get there, grab a hymn book, please, and turn to song number 230, Heavenly Sunlight. Song number 230, Heavenly Sunlight. Let's lift up our voices unto the Lord on the first. Walking in sunlight all of my journey Over the mountains through the deep veil Jesus has said I'll never forsake thee Promise divine that never can fail Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight Flooding my soul with glory divine Hallelujah, I am rejoicing Singing his praises, Jesus is mine Shadows around me, shadows above me Never conceal my Savior and guide He is the light in him is no darkness Ever I'm walking close to his side Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight Flooding my soul with glory divine Hallelujah, I am rejoicing Singing his praises, Jesus is mine In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing Pressing my way to mansions above Singing his praises, gladly I'm walking Walking in sunlight, sunlight above Heavenly sunlight, heavenly sunlight Flooding my soul with glory divine Hallelujah, I am rejoicing Singing his praises, Jesus is mine Amen. Brother Moses, will you open us with a word of prayer please? Lord, for this day I pray that you are just with us and that you sing praise and praise in your name. And I pray that you will come to preach forth the message that is laid on the cards. Amen. All right, well good singing. Let's turn to song number 165, O Worship the King. Let's continue on to sing it out loud. Song number 165, O Worship the King. Worship the King, all glorious above. On the first. O worship the King, all glorious above And gratefully sing his wonderful love Our shield and defender, the ancient of days A billionth in splendor and girded with praise Who tell of his might and sing of his grace Whose robe is the light, whose canopy's face Whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form And archisms hack on the wings of the storm Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite Whose robe is the air, it shines in the light Its streets from the hills it descends to the plain And sweetly distanced in the dew and the rain The frail children of dust and feeble as frail In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end Our maker, defender, redeemer and friend. The only thing I would say if you want to go Thursday, don't forget to let us know. 208-391-5323. Praise reports, we're at four salvations for November and 92 year to date. So praise God for that. David got two people saved in Eagle. So yeah, there's a shrinking number of places we haven't gotten people saved at. And I was surprised that Eagle was more receptive than over by the university downtown. Praise God for all that. Alright, back page. Let's see, tonight we'll be in 2 Samuel chapter number 23. Don't forget about the Pi Social, that's next Wednesday. So right after the evening service there is a Pi Social. So bring a Pi, sweet or savory, homemade or store bought. A look ahead, December 18th at 5pm is the Ladies' Christmas potluck slash gift exchange. Bringing a dish to share and a gift of $20 or less. Let's see here, birthdays and anniversaries for November. So next up is Brother Scope. So don't forget that he will be singing a special for us on the 24th. He's been promising for years to sing a South African song. So I'm waiting. Alright. Luke chapter 17 verse 17 is this week's memory verse which says, And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? We are a family integrated church. What that means is children and infants are always welcome in the service. If you need privacy, there's a daddy baby room right over here to your left. And the mother baby room is right across the hallway. It should be all set up and ready to go. If you ever have any issues with the monitor, you can just come back and ask Caden. We'll be able to help you out with that. Let's see here, don't forget to turn your phone off. We'll place it on silent so it's not a distraction. And the very bottom line says, You can't keep it real if you're looking at everyone else's highlight reel. And that was from last Sunday morning. So with that being said, we're going to have one more song before we receive the offering. All right, let's grab those hymn books one more time, please, and turn to song number 123, Christian's Good Night. I don't know if we've done this one before. 123, Christian's Good Night. It has a familiar melody. 123, the Christian's Good Night. Sleep on, beloved, sleep and take thy rest. Lay down thy wake, no fun, the Savior's breast. We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best. Good night, good night, good night. Calm is thy slumber as an infant's sleep. But thou shalt wake no more to toil and weep. Thine is a perfect rest secure and deep. Good night, good night, good night. Until eternal glory lights the skies. Until the dead in Jesus shall arise. And he shall come not to lonely eyes. Good night, good night, good night. Only good night, beloved not farewell. A little while all his saints shall dwell. In hallowed union, in limits of war. Good night, good night, good night. Until we meet again before his throne. In the spotless grove he gives his own. Until we know even as we are known. Good night, good night, good night. Good night, good night, good night. All right, well, let's go ahead and pray. Thank you so much, Lord, for allowing us to be able to meet here this morning. We just pray you bless the service, Lord, bless your tithes and offerings. And we just pray that you continue to take care of us, Lord, and be with us throughout the week. And thank you for everything that you do for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Open to Genesis chapter 43. Genesis chapter 43. Genesis chapter 43, start in verse 1. And the famine was sore in the land, and it came to pass when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, You shall not see my face except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brothers with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send them, we will not go down, for the man said unto us, You shall not see my face except your brother be with you. And Israel said, Wherefore dealt you so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, The man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And we told them according to the tenor of these words, Could we certainly know that ye would say, Bring your brother down? And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him, of my hand shalt thou require him, if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time. And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this, take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, a little honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds. And take double money in your hand, and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand, peradventure it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise, go again unto the man, and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that ye may send away your other brother and Benjamin, if I bereaved of my children I am bereaved. And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin, and rose up, and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay and make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph bade, and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house. And they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time are we brought in, that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen and our asses. And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of the house, and said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food. And it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight, and we have brought in again our hand. And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food, we cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not, your God and the God of your father have given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money, and he brought Simeon out unto them. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave their asses preventer. And they made ready the present against Joseph, and they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought him in the present which was in their hand in the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom he spake, is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant, our father, is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom you spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother, and he saw it were to weep. And he entered into his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, which they eat with them by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled one at another. And he took and sent maces unto them from before him, but Benjamin's mace was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him. Brother David, you want to preface? Thank you, Father God, for the Bible. Thank you, Father God, for Genesis 42. It blesses all in the blessed passage of the Holy Spirit. Yes, you know, it's hard, but we just ask you to give us all a year to be here in college to receive the passage. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. All right, well, I said the pi social was next Wednesday. It's this coming Wednesday. The very next service is the pi social. Just so you know, I said next Wednesday thinking the following one. But you get it. Just bring a pie. We'll be good. You bring a pie every Wednesday if you want, really. No one is going to fight you on that. So with that being said, look down at Genesis 43 verse 32. Genesis 43, look at verse 32. The Bible says, and they set on for him by himself and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him by themselves because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews. For that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. So what's going on here is obviously segregation. OK, the Egyptians won't eat at the same table as the Hebrews. And Joseph is eating by himself. We're going to take some time over the next couple of weeks to break this down. I'm starting a new sermon series called Segregation Nation. Segregation Nation. Now, it's not like you think, right? We're not talking about segregating people's skin colors. I'm going to give you the allegorical meaning of this and we're going to talk about it. But basically, the title of the sermon today is this. Change Your Gratitude. Change Your Gratitude. Because we just read this entire chapter, OK? And what's going on in the world during this time here? There's a famine. So there's a scarcity of food and resources. And yet Joseph, being second in charge, being the leader of this nation, takes it upon himself to have his servants in his own house provide a meal for these groups of people, right? And if you think about it, I'm sure that they're all happy. I'm sure that they're all thankful that they are able to eat food during this time, especially in the second in charge of the nation of Egypt's house, right? They would have to be all thankful. But really, when you read this, the only person who I see expressing that gratitude is honestly Joseph. And you say, well, how is he expressing gratitude? Well, he's respecting their boundaries, right? I mean, think about this. This whole thing is just very interesting to me because Joseph, was he married to a Hebrew woman? No, he was married to an Egyptian. What does that make his kids? Half Egyptian, right? So, I mean, think about that. This guy is in charge of the nation, married to an Egyptian, and he's still respecting the cultural boundaries of the Egyptians, right? Because the Egyptians, they viewed the Hebrews as an abomination. Well, what do you think that's a picture of? Well, Egypt in the Bible is never good allegorically, or even physically, for that matter. But Egypt always represents the world. It represents sin, okay? Hebrews here, right, Joseph's brethren, they represent God's people, okay? Well, we know that the world doesn't respect us. They view our ways of doing business as an abomination. But yet, we're still in the world, okay? And so, what I mean by all this, where I'm going with all of this, is we have a choice, okay? We can either fall more in line with the Egyptians and how they do business, i.e. the world, or we could kind of be like the Hebrew people, which, obviously, if you're saved, you're born again, you are God's chosen child, and you could just be thankful and not express it, or you could be the leader, right? The one, Joseph, who provides that gratitude and actually expresses that emotion, and that's what I'm talking about today, we're talking about the feeling of thanks. That is what gratitude means, it's a feeling. But here's the thing, you have to understand, this is very important, you need to understand what to do with that feeling of thankfulness, what to do with that feeling of gratitude. So if you're here today and you're working on a relationship, you're trying to build a relationship, improve a relationship, maintain one, repair one, whatever it is, relationship, I'm telling you, this is a humongous thing that you've got to understand, and you're going to see that this morning, otherwise that relationship is going to either stunt or completely fall apart, okay? This is absolutely huge. Now, you can leave your place there, like I said, we're going to really break this down in the coming weeks, what's really going on here, but go to Luke chapter number 17. Luke chapter number 17. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read for you a very familiar verse that we read all the time, 2 Timothy 3, 2, which says, For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful and unholy. I find it very interesting that God preserved his word in this way, where he puts unthankful in between disobedient to parents and unholy. Okay, you say, well, what's the big deal here? Well, the problem is we live in Egypt, we live in the world today, and as the end times get closer and closer to the end, you're going to see all of these things explode and really just increase abundantly, and one of those things is unthankfulness, right? Now, the problem with that is the world has a tendency sometimes to rub off on us, right? And we need to be on guard, we need to make sure that we don't fall down that same path, because like I mentioned already, and you're going to see this very clearly today, when we don't handle that feeling of gratitude, when we don't know what to do with it, we are going to wind up ruining relationships, ruining organizations, and you could even wind up ruining your own life. Now, as I was studying this sermon out, you know, I realized how ungrateful I've been for certain things. You know, I'm thinking to myself, like, man, this is definitely needed for me, because I'm a quiet person, right? I have the feeling of gratitude. You know, I'm thankful for all of you who continuously come to church, who have volunteered for things, who have said, you know, I'll help you do this, but sometimes I'm thinking back, like, man, did I ever, you know, did I ever thank you for it? Did I ever express gratitude? So I need to be careful myself and realize I need to make sure that I continuously do that before I just go blaming everybody for all of our problems, so just to keep that in mind. Now, I'm going to give you the main thought for today, and we're going to wind up proving and studying the statement, and it's this. Not expressing the emotion of gratitude will give the notion of ingratitude. You say, well, what's ingratitude? Well, that's the feeling of dissatisfaction, not being satisfied, not feeling appreciated. You know, I started this new job on Monday, and when we were going through a little new hire training, this guy, he just kept saying, like, I'm so thankful to be here. The other place I worked at, they suck, and they don't appreciate their employees. You know, he just kept mentioning that over and over again. And the HR lady, she's like, yeah, I can tell. She's like, listen, buddy, I can really tell you're excited. This is great. Guess what? I never saw that guy again the whole week. I don't know what happened to him. But apparently the place where I worked didn't appreciate him enough, and he just left or something like that happened. And so we also, with that being said, want to be careful and not jerk the steering wheel too far either way, right? There's a balance like there is with everything. We ought not to be the type of people, when someone doesn't thank us for something, doesn't express gratitude, that we just come off edge, you know, we just get offended and start, you know, holding grudges. That's not what Joseph did. That's not what Jesus is going to do here. What they did is they are mature, and they just realized, you know what? It is what it is. Now I got your number. I kind of got you marked. I understand that. But the main thought for today is this. Not expressing the emotion of gratitude will cause the notion of ingratitude. And when you really think about it, if you've ever done something nice for someone and they didn't return or they didn't say thank you, didn't, you know, show any kind of emotion, how did you take that? Think about that for a second. How did you take it? You know how you took it, right? It comes off as arrogant. It comes off as, you know, ingratitude. And so we're going to be studying that today, and this is why it's so important that we understand what to do with that feeling of emotion, because it's natural. When someone does something nice for you, you know, God put these feelings and emotions inside of us, right? You're going to feel that thankfulness. You're going to feel that, but you've got to know what to do with it. So let's start off here in Luke chapter number 17. I want you to look down at verse number 11. Look what it says. So it says this, And it came to pass as he, that's Jesus, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off. So very familiar story. We've read this before in the past. I think it's been a while, but you know where we're going with this. So what's going on here? Jesus is in town, and there are these people who have a nasty, nasty plague, and they're standing back right there. They need to be social distancing. And they're like, you know, Jesus, please help us out here. Look at verse 13. It says this, And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. So obviously these people have heard about the power of God. They've heard what he has done, how he's gone around and taught the people, done many miracles, healed many people. And so they have faith. They're like, hey, there he is. You know, we can call out to him, and he's going to help us. Look at verse 14. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed. So the situation is they call out to Jesus, and all he does is say, hey, go show yourselves to the priest. Hey, why did Jesus say that? Because the priest during this time had the knowledge to actually give the okay, like, okay, your leprosy or your spots in your flesh, they're actually healing. You're no longer contagious, right? You didn't go down to, you know, St. Al's and get the diagnosis back then. You went to the priest. That's how they did business back then. And so he just says this to them, and they actually do it. They actually go, and they say, okay, well, we'll go ahead and just go. We'll have that leap of faith, and we'll go see the priest. And as they're leaving, what happens? They realize, wait, we're all cleansed. That leprosy that's been plaguing us for so long, it doesn't say how long, but that's been bothering us, that's been inflicting us, is gone, right? Who wouldn't be thankful for that? Look at verse 15. And notice this. And one of them, and one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back with a loud voice and glorified God. That's interesting. That's very interesting, right? He said, well, what's so interesting about it? Well, weren't they all healed? How many were there? There was 10 guys. And there was one that turned around when he saw that he was healed and glorified God with a loud voice. So understand what's going on here. He sees the healing. He's thankful, automatic feeling. What does he do with that feeling? He does the right thing. He expresses that emotion. Look at verse 16. And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan, which obviously would upset any Jew during this time frame. And it upsets the Jews that are around even today. So what did the Samaritan actually do with his emotion? He gave it. Look what it says in verse 16. And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks. So thanks, gratitude, is something that we have to give. It starts inside of the heart. It starts inside of your body. But you need to do something with it. You have to somehow give it away. Otherwise it means absolutely nothing. So point number one this morning is this. Gratitude is an emotion that only works if given. It only works if given. And that's exactly what we see here. Now go to 1 Kings chapter number 12. 1 Kings chapter number 12. And keep your place there, Luke. We're going to come back to it a little bit later on. But go to 1 Kings chapter number 12. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you Psalm 119 verse 62, which says this, At midnight, so this is the psalmist here writing, At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. I mentioned this last week. This is November. We've got Thanksgiving next week. And it seems like everybody's in kind of a thankful type of a mode. And so I mentioned this last week. As American citizens we have a tendency to go from a thankful heart to the shopping cart. And that's exactly what happens, right? Because we're thankful on Thanksgiving. We've got food. We've got friends. We've got family. Hopefully your employer gave you the day off. You've got some time off. And then what's the very next day, like midnight? Black Friday. That's right. Black Friday. From a thankful heart to the shopping cart. You see how quickly Egypt, i.e. the world, throws away their gratitude? I mean, look, we do still have a lot to be thankful for in this country. But the problem is you've got a bunch of commies out there that aren't thankful for anything. That's right. So you're there in 1 Kings chapter number 12. So this is the beginning of the split of the nation of Israel here. Solomon has passed on. And the kingdom is supposed to go to a man named Rehoboam, which was his son. And I want to highlight some things for you here. Look at verse number 1. It says this. And Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel were to come to Shechem to make him king. Okay? So understand that. He is supposed to become king of the entire nation, all 12 tribes. Look at verse number 2. And it came to pass when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, for he was fled from the presence of King Solomon and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt. So just to give you the context here real quick, what happened is a prophet went to Jeroboam and said, basically, God's going to give you ten kingdoms and you're going to rule that. Solomon heard about it and said, yeah, I don't like that. So I'm going to go ahead and try to kill you. So Jeroboam, he goes to Egypt. Now he has heard rumor, which is true, that, hey, Solomon's dead. You know, I don't have to worry about running anymore. I don't have to flee anymore. So he's coming back and all he wants is some respect. He just wants a job. He just wants to be left alone. He wants his burden to be lightened, to be, you know, to be lessened. Look at verse number 3. It says that they sent and called him and Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spake unto Rehoboam saying, thy father made our yoke grievous. Now, therefore, make thou the grievous service of thy father and his heavy yoke, which he put upon us lighter, and we will serve thee. Okay, that's, you know, when I started that new job on Monday, that was the attitude of the guy sitting across the table from me. You know, he was like, you know, I just feel like this place is just going to be such an awesome place to work. It's going to be less of a burden. The place I was at before in Garden City, they didn't care about me. You know, they were just, you know, paying me, you know, garbage, money, and just kept going on and on. And, you know, you can tell the HR lady was kind of upset, but he was really appreciative. And look at verse number 5. So that's kind of the same thing that these guys are going through here. They're like, look, can you just like lighten the load? Maybe give us two days off at the end of the week. Look at verse 5. It says this. And he said unto them, depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed. So Rehoboam, he does the right thing here. He does the wise thing. You know, he's like, I need to think about this. I need to get some counsel. I need to get some advice on how to answer these guys because I'm not really sure what's going on. So look at verse number 6. And King Rehoboam consulted with the old man that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, how do you advise that I may answer this people? So, again, nothing in the world wrong with what he's doing here. He's going around trying to find some counsel, trying to get the right information on how to lead and how to respond to these guys. Look at verse number 7. And so these guys tell them this. And they spake at him saying, if thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and will serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants forever. Now what these guys are not saying, and what I'm not saying, is that we ought to give everyone a trophy no matter what. When people have failures and people, you know, do stupid things, that needs to be called out. It needs to be dealt with, okay? But, generally speaking, we ought to be grateful. We ought to show appreciation when people do nice things. And especially, you guys, if you're in a leadership position, and really if you think about it, everybody in here is in a leadership position. You've got a family member, you've got people that are younger than you, you've got yourself, right? You are a leader and you need to understand servant leadership goes a long way. And that's what these old guys are telling Rehoboam. But look at verse number 8. But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him. Well, what's the result of that? What eventually happens? The kingdom splits. That's right, the kingdom splits, and then what happens? All hell breaks loose for many, many years, right? You've got wars, civil wars, you've got God's nation completely divided. All because Rehoboam decided to hearken unto his friends, which we're going to read about here in a minute. So because he decided, you know what, I don't want to appreciate, I don't want to show gratitude, I don't want to do any of that, the nation splits. So what do you think happens with us when we continuously make a habit of not being grateful, not demonstrating, not exercising the emotion of gratitude, what happens? Yep, bad relationships, your relationship with your kids will go south, your spouse will go south, with your church will go south, with your employer will go south. You know, a lot of the problems that we have as God's people can really be traced back to not being grateful. Or being stuck in this mindset like, you know what, everybody owes me. Everybody owes me something, everybody owes me something for what I've done. But here's what we all need to understand. Nobody in here got here by themselves. Somebody helped you out, right? And we need to remember that. And you say, I'm like Rambo, you know, I'm that lone survivor. I got myself under control. I don't need anybody. You know, I'm like the Navy Seals that make these videos, right? Like David Goggins, I don't need anybody. You know, the heck with everyone else. Right? No, that doesn't work. That might get you a few clicks, it might get your Patreon account full. You know what, but in life you are a failure. That is a real weakness. And so point number one is this, gratitude is an emotion that only works if given. You know, I'm sure Ray Abom was thankful to be king. I'm sure he was thankful that he could actually go to these men who knew his father's wisdom. But what happened? Decided not to be grateful. He forsook their counsel and broke a relationship with ten tribes of God's people. All because he didn't want to appreciate them. And that's exactly what happens with us. So let's keep moving on here. We're going to look at the second point. Look at verse number eight again. But he forsook the counsel of the old man which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him and which stood before him. So again, this also shows us who did he want to please? We wanted to please his own peers, his own crowd, those that knew him from his youth. Look at verse nine. And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon his life? There is a lot to talk about here, okay? Look at verse ten. And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us, thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins. The Bible pulls no punches, okay? You want to say stupid things? God's got to make sure that that comes to light. So what are they ultimately saying? They're basically saying, hey, you need to demonstrate that you've got more testosterone than your father did, right? And that you're more of a man, okay? And isn't that what the world demonstrates? Isn't that the wisdom of the world? You need to show how tough you are by how arrogant you are. You need to show how tough you are by how rude you can be to people. That is not okay. That is, I mean, this whole story is teaching us not to go down that road, not to act like that. Look at verse number eleven. Jump down to verse number eleven. It says this. And now, whereas my father did lead you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke, my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Verse twelve. So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, come to me again the third day. Verse thirteen. And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him. Notice how the Bible keeps telling us that he forsook that. God really wants us to understand this here, right? This also could be a whole other sermon by itself. When you go to get counsel, when you go to get wisdom, you know, it's always a good idea to ask people who have been doing what you want to do, which you need help with, longer than you. Okay? That is very, very important because they're going to tell you how it is. More than likely. They're going to say, hey, look, I've been in your shoes. I was your age once. I was in your level once. And here are the mistakes that I made. Here are the mistakes that I saw. Right? Because if you go to your peers, the people who just hired on with you, you know, the same day, or the people who grew up with you like Rehoboam did, they're going to tell you what you want to hear, what your flesh wants to hear. They're going to just say whatever, you know, whatever's hip that day, whatever's trendy that day. That's the advice I'm going to give you. And it always, always, always fails. So again, verse thirteen. And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him. Verse fourteen. And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, my father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. Verse fifteen. Wherefore, the king hearkened not unto, who? The people. That's right. For the cause was from the Lord that he might perform his saying, which the Lord spake by Ahijah the Shillo knight unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat. So again, you do have to understand that this was from God because of the sins that Solomon did, because he took on many wives, and those many wives took his heart away from God. He no longer was grateful. He no longer started to express gratitude towards God, whom he did, you know, early on in his kingship. And what happened? He turned his heart away from God, and God said, you know what? I'm just going to take the kingdom from you, and we're just going to start over here and just really go on. So it's important that we understand that, okay? When we get to the state where we think, I don't owe nobody anything. I don't have to be grateful for you, you snowflake. I don't have to be thankful. And you know what? There's a time and a place to call people snowflakes. There are some serious snowflakes out in the world today, and they need to be dealt with, and they need to be called out, okay? But giving somebody gratitude who's helped you out, or even somebody who's maybe done something wrong to you, you know, being mature and just looking the other way sometimes, that can go a lot farther. You know, and we ought not to look at that as a weakness, but here's point number two. We often fail to give gratitude because it feels like an admission of weakness. Think about that. Why was Rehoboam so tempted to listen to his friends? Because remember, God doesn't make you do that. He used that emotion that he had. Obviously, Rehoboam didn't probably have the most consistent upbringing. You know, he probably saw his father at some point in his younger life, you know, being on fire for God, and, you know, praying to God, being thankful for the temple that God allowed him to build, and the peace that God gave that nation. But then the latter half of his life, he saw the downfall of his father, and he saw his father take on many wives and concubines and just insanity. And he saw his dad actually fail, actually cease to be grateful to the things that God did to that nation, and it had an impact on him. So when his friends came along, he basically took out his hedge trimmer, sawed a big old hole in his hedge of protection, and God said, when that day of temptation comes on you, I will not be able to protect you, Rehoboam, and I'm going to actually use that for my own glory and for my own plans. Okay, so please understand that is what's going on here. But we oftentimes don't give gratitude to people because we feel like it's just this admission of weakness. Everybody in here, if you're honest with yourself, you've felt that. You have felt that. You know, and that's why the old men said, hey, put your pride aside, put that away, and just understand that if you appreciate these people, humble yourself, serve them, everything's going to be fine. It will go well with you. Guess who else understood that? Joseph, second in charge of the nation of Egypt, right? He could have been like, you know what, you Egyptians, you need to just suck it up. You're eating bread at this table with these Hebrews, right? They don't have leprosy. They don't have the coronavirus. They don't have these problems. You know, they're not sick. You can just get over yourselves. But he didn't do that. He actually just respected their boundaries and actually served them the way that they wanted to be. And you can tell by the way that the nation played out and the way that the things went that they trusted him. And when the famine got worse and got worse and got worse, what did they do? They kept coming to him for help. Hey, now we'll sell you our cattle. We'll sell you this. We'll give you our lives. We'll give you everything you want. Just give us something to eat. They trusted him. And he was able to maintain control with dignity and respect. So it's very important that we understand this. The world is always going to say, you know what, if you tell someone that, you know, you appreciate them and they've only been working for you for a couple of days, that's weak. You're weak. You shouldn't do that. You need to come down with that hammer on people. Be careful with that. Be careful with that because that speaks volumes about what's inside their hearts and what their agenda is and what they are all about. Do you think Rehoboam's friends were with him the rest of his kingship? Probably not. Right? Because as soon as God started to hold him accountable for his actions, they were probably like, yeah, this show's not going the way we want it. We're out of here. We are done. Go back to Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter number 17. And while you're turning the memory for you, 1 John chapter 4 verse 18, which says this, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We ought not to fear to show our emotions. Now some of them, yes. Okay. There's some emotions that we get and we need to kind of like push them in, but that's a sermon for another day. But when it comes to gratitude, when it comes to expressing gratitude, don't succumb to that little voice in your head that's saying, if you tell them things, you're being weak. You've had beef with them your whole life. You've had a problem with them. And if you say thank you, they won. They got you. They own you. No, you're the bigger person. You're the one that's mature when you do that. Because the Bible says there is no fear in love. And we've talked about this on Wednesday. The solution to maintaining or getting a good conscience is what? It's charity. It's putting yourself down here. The Bible's very clear. If you want to go up, the only way up is down. If you want to be promoted, the only way to get that promotion is to put yourself low, to humble yourself. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear. So do you have the desire to have that perfect love? You should because it's a commandment. Not to stay saved. That's not what we're talking about. I thought we were trying to be disciples in here though. Isn't that the goal? Isn't that what we want? To serve God and to do things His way? Well guess what? We need to put that fear of extending that emotion of gratitude. We need to put that fear away because it's holding you back. It's holding us back. It's causing a prideful, proud, arrogant attitude. And the Bible is very clear. When we fall prey to that, we are not made perfect in love. So let's move on here. Luke chapter 17. Look at verse number 17. This is the verse on the bulletin. And Jesus answering said, were there not ten cleansed, but where are the nine? So again, Jesus doesn't ask questions because he doesn't know the answers. He's trying to teach a lesson here. He's trying to teach a principle that we better pick up on, that we better realize, that we better take to heart. Verse number 18. There are not found that returned, don't miss this, to give glory to God, save this stranger. Now this is another allegory because Jesus came to His own and His own received Him not. It's the stranger that are coming to Him. How many times did Paul say, I'm done with these Jews. I'm going to the Gentiles. I'm done with these guys. I'm sick of these guys. And that's kind of what you're seeing here. You know, ten people. Obviously it doesn't tell us the exact mixture, but it's implied that a lot of them were Jews. That's why He's saying, save this stranger, this Samaritan. He's the one that's actually thankful. He's the one that doesn't feel like, ah, I don't want to say nothing. I'm just going to take the blessing and run. Look at verse 19. And He said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath made thee whole. So let's add Rehoboam. Let's take Rehoboam and his situation. What did he do? He forsook the counsel of the old man. He decided not to give gratitude because his friends told him, hey, if you do that, you don't have as much testosterone as your dad. You're weak, right? That's literally what he's saying. So when we add that to these nine, right, I bet that these nine were appreciative. I bet that inside they had the emotion of thankfulness. They looked down and they're like, oh, yes, He healed us. Yes, we are cleansed. We're definitely going to keep running to the priest now, right? But one, one actually decided to use that emotion and to give that thanks. Go read Psalm 136 later on and tell me how many times you see, oh, give thanks unto the Lord. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. It's all throughout the Psalms. It's all throughout the Bible because you know what? He deserves that. He's owed that. We owe Him that. We ought to give Him thanks and we ought to do the same thing to each other. And, you know, you can do the same thing to people out in the world that don't believe like you, that aren't saved yet. You can give them thanks, too, when they do something that's nice to you, when they help you out. Because here's point number three, failing to give gratitude indicates an inflated view of oneself. Failing to give gratitude indicates that you're full of pride. Not always, but when it becomes a chronic habit, when it becomes who you are, it becomes the norm. It becomes the majority. I'm telling you right now, it indicates that you have a puffed up, arrogant view. Think about it. People who are not grateful, right, aren't they under the same cloak as those who are just arrogant and prideful? You do something nice to them, they're just like, ha ha, you did something nice for me. You're weak. I don't have to do nothing for nobody. I'm running the show here, right? Okay, Rehoboam, how did that work out? How good of a leader was Rehoboam? He was terrible. He was horrible. Because he never understood this. He never got this. And so, again, the bottom line is this. Not expressing the emotion of gratitude will lead to the notion of ingratitude. And this is why relationships have such problems. Think about this for a second. You know, those nine, I'm sure that they were thankful. I'm sure that they were, you know, just filled with gratitude. Who wouldn't be? Let's say you had leprosy. You had boils or some sort of skin disease, anything. And then Jesus comes down and heals you. You would be thankful. And you know what? It would be right, it would be a righteous thing for you to express, to give that thanks, to give that gratitude. That's what I'm saying. This is something that we need to give. We need to make sure that we stay a church that is grateful. I mean, I hope that you all are grateful that this church is here in Boise. A church that believes the Bible, has a vision to reach the lost. Do we do things perfectly? No. No one does. You know, I have a different background. I look at things sometimes through a different lens based on my experiences. All of you do. But we can still get along. We can still show each other gratitude. And you know who we should be showing gratitude the most to? Is God, to the Lord, right? So we ought not to keep pulling back. We ought not to be making commitments and then backing out on them. Because you're not hurting me, you're hurting yourself when you do that. And you know what you're doing? You're upsetting God. Jesus is looking at you and saying, wasn't there 40? And yet 16 of you were here on Wednesday? Right? Look, this is a church that's going to tell you the truth. You know, people have, you know, coming up with all kinds of excuses. Having babies. What's wrong with you guys? And I'm totally just kidding. I'm, Kara, you cannot leave. I'm just teasing. I'm just teasing. That's a joke, right? I am not capable of that. I just, you know, I don't see Mike back there. And I'm, in my, you know, I need to pick on Mike. And when he's doing that, I need to pick on him. And I'm, in my, you know, I need to pick on Mike. And when he's not here, it's really difficult for me. So I just figured I'd get him through the internet there. And we'll get him when he comes back. And so hopefully he's glad that Miss Rachel's chilly won. Because next year, it's going to be a different story. All right. So we're going to wrap this thing up here in just a minute. Go to Psalm 136, actually. Go to Psalm chapter 136. So again, point number one was what? Gratitude is an emotion that only works if given, right? We see that here in this chapter. We see that throughout the entire Bible. We all have the emotion of gratitude. We all have the emotion, rather, of thanksgiving. And we need to express that. We need to learn to exercise that, especially as God's people. You know, we often fail to give gratitude, point number two, because it feels like an admission of weakness. You know, and again, understanding that and knowing that, that teaches you, you know what? It's not that there's something wrong with you. It's just human nature. And then once you realize that and you understand that, you can suppress that. And you can push that down. And you can overcome that. And you can abound past that. And you don't have to go down the road of Rehoboam. You don't have to be like the Egyptians, right? The Egyptians, I can almost guarantee it. If you were to go back to the days of Joseph, right, and you were to go back there and just kind of talk to the Egyptians, I'll bet they were like, yeah, we ain't eating with these Hebrews. Good thing he set up a table for us. We're thankful for the bread, man. Don't get me wrong. We're thankful for this bread. But, you know, we're just glad that we don't have to eat with these Hebrew people because it's an abomination. You know, it's funny. Who else did they think was an abomination? Shepherds. That's what it says. They thought the Egyptians, they viewed shepherds as an abomination. We're going to talk about more of that next week. But point number three, failing to give gratitude indicates an inflated view of oneself. And so even if you don't, in your heart, feel like you're full of pride or like you have an inflated view or you're arrogant, you know what? That's how other people can see you. Like, man, he or she didn't even think so-and-so for what they did for him. And you might, in your heart, be like the nine. Like, no, we're thankful. We are. It just comes across as arrogance. Sometimes it is arrogance, but other times it just comes across that way. All because we failed to give the emotion of gratitude. Look at Psalm 136. Look at verse number one. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord. And you say, well, okay, great. Why? Well, he tells you why. For he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. Think about that. His mercy endures forever. Why is that important? Because we sin every single day, and we're full of mistakes. We're always messing things up, right? But he is the one that will help us. He is the one that does help us. He is the one that is our rock, that is our comforter. Look at verse two. Oh, give thanks unto the God of gods. You know, these gods, these other religions out here, you guys know this. You see it every single week. They are weak. They are disgusting. They're like chameleons, right? They change based on the trends of the culture. You know, most of these gods out there, what are they preaching today? Communism. That's what they're preaching, right? But our God is a God over their gods, and so we don't have to stew in hatred and in anger all day and night long because of these things, because we can rest knowing that our God is greater than their gods. And guess what? When was the last time that we thanked him? Do we express that? Do we give that to him? You have to give. You have to exercise that emotion of gratitude. Verse three. Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords for his mercy endureth forever. Do you think that there's a point that the psalmist wants us to understand here? Look at verse four. To whom alone doeth great wonders for his mercy endureth forever. Look at verse five. To him that by wisdom made the heavens for his mercy endureth forever. And it just keeps going on and talking about his mercy, his mercy, how it endures forever. And then he starts talking about the famous kings that God slew for the nation of Israel. Og and the king. Look at verse 18. It says, and slew famous kings for his mercy endureth forever. Look at verse 19. Sihon, king of the Amorites. Didn't we just spend some Sunday nights talking about that? You know, we as God's people in 2021, we need to be thankful that that happened. We need to express gratitude that that happened. And when a preacher gets up in front of a congregation and says, you know what? In the original manuscripts, the guy was only like, you know, really just like, you know, I don't know, just like a kind of a genetic disorder. You know, they really try to downplay those stories. You know what? That's somebody who's not thankful. That's somebody who doesn't understand that God's mercy endures forever. Look at verse 20. And Og, the king of Bashan, for his mercy endureth forever. Look at verse 21. And gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth forever. Look at the last verse of the chapter there, verse 26. Oh, give thanks unto the God of heaven. Why? For his mercy endureth forever. We need to understand that. You know, the mercy of America, it doesn't go on forever. They're trying to get into your bank account. They're trying to do away with us. They would like us Bible-believing Christians to just go away forever. There are people right now trying to pass laws to shut us up, all of us. They hate God so much, they want to destroy the liberal Christians too. Think about that for a second. But you know what? Our God is greater than their God, who is the devil. We need to remember that. We have to show thanks. And there are many ways that we can do this. Like I've already mentioned, go to church, pray for one another, right? When we treat each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, and we have respect to each other, and we edify one another, that makes Christ happy, and it demonstrates to Egypt, it demonstrates to the world that we are his disciples. Because every week, we run into the faux disciple out there. I'm already saved, bam, shuts the door. You're no disciple. I just told you I was a Bible-believing Christian. I'm here with the King James Bible Church. I'm here with the King James Bible, just trying to get you saved. And you say you're already saved, okay? Do you know anyone else around here that isn't saved? Can you maybe just give us good? No. You knocked on my door. You must be bad. You must be a J-Dub. You must be a Mormon. You're undercover Mormon, right? It's like, dude, shut your mouth. So go back to Luke 17, and we are going to wrap this thing up. We are almost done. So point number three, failing to give gratitude indicates an inflated view of oneself. And here's what I've seen, and here's what I know. When people fail to give God glory in their lives over time, they fail to respect their brother and sister in Christ. They fail to respect God's organization, the local New Testament church. And then what happens is they become puffed up. They become arrogant. And the next thing that you know, they are out into Egypt. They say, you know what? I don't need to sit with these Hebrews. I'm going to hop over here to the Egyptian table because it's cool. It's fun. They've got better jokes. They've got better stories. They've got the right way to live life. They're free in Christ, which isn't true. You should never look to the world, to these liberal churches, and say, wow, they really are free because they've got the band. I was talking to a guy on Friday, and he's like, you know, why did you move here? And I was like, oh, we started a church. And he's like, oh, I've got a church too, man. I go to the RH, the Rock Harbor. You know what I like about it? I was like, please, tell me. It's just like the world. It's like going to a concert. I'm like, I can tell. I can tell, man. You must be having a great time. Oh, it's upbeat, man. It's rock and roll, you know? Instead of having this kind of a pulpit, they've got the music stand, like the little glass thing, right? They've got the Pac-Man background. You know, it looks like a TED Talk. And the guys up there mentioned three Bible verses, and just like, God loves you no matter what you've done or ever do. Everyone's going to heaven, just no judgment, co-exist, right? Let's get Kenny Chesney here. He's going to play some good old-fashioned God-fearing country Christian music for you. No. No. You know, we ought to be grateful that we have a God who's stern, right? We ought to be grateful for a God who's given us standards. We ought to be grateful for a God who has given us segregation, which means sanctification, which means being holy. And we ought to be thankful that he has called us to be separate from the world. You know, Joseph was grateful for that. You know, that one guy who got healed, who turned around and gave thanks, you know what, he was grateful for that. He said, I'm not going to be like these other nine guys. I'm actually going to express this emotion here and give thanks because he deserves it. It's owed him. It is due him. So again, the bottom line is this. Not expressing the emotion of gratitude leads to the notion of ingratitude. If you don't remember anything that I have said today, please remember that. When we fail to give thanks, when we fail to express, to exercise, to work out that emotion, you know what? People take that as you being ingrateful, ungrateful. Instead of gratitude, it's ingratitude. It's being dissatisfied. And so back to where we started. The title of the series that we're doing is called Segregation Nation. And what I mean by that is we're taking a look at how Joseph divided that meal that he was having when his brethren came back, how he had the Hebrews at one table, he had himself at one table, had the Egyptians at the other table. We're going to take that and we're going to really break that down and go through that. We're going to talk about leadership. We're going to talk about several things, what that means, how that applies to us, and obviously how that in and of itself is wrong because the world will preach that. Segregation works. We ought to have a Korean church. We ought to have just a black church. We ought to have just a white church or whatever it is. And that's wicked because the Bible says that God hath made all the nations of the earth of one blood. I'm pretty sure everybody in here gets along. This isn't an all one-color church. I think we have more people from Mountain Home than we do at the end of the day from here, but we don't let that bother us, right? We don't let that slow us down. Skulk's like, be careful, boy. Be careful. And so the title of the sermon is this, Change Your Gratitude. Change it from an internal emotion to an external expression because then it pays off. Look, God has given you that tool. He's given you that emotion. And it pays dividends to actually go forth and use it. And so the challenge is, do you want to be of the nine or do you want to be the one? Do you want to be the Egyptians or just going with the flow with the Hebrews or do you want to be the Joseph who says, you know what, despite how they feel, despite their customs, though they're wrong, we can go ahead and still implement gratitude. That is the challenge. That is how we need to make sure that we are. And, again, I'll say this, I am glad that you guys are having babies. It's what needs to happen, okay? But what I don't agree with is that Kinley didn't win the chili cook-off. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just teasing. We are grateful for the chili cook-off. We're grateful for you guys. Even if I don't show it, you guys know I'm busy, got a lot of things going on. So if I'm not showing you gratitude, don't be afraid to let me know. Say, hey, you know, I did this for you. You know, I opened up the record book when I couldn't sleep at night and, you know, my wife was reading the records. And, you know, have you ever been thanked for this by a pastor? And if not, let me know, you know, if I'm messing up. And I will change, okay, because we all struggle with this. It's easy to forget, okay? So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this church and for everything that you do for us. I pray that we would continuously be a church that is thankful and demonstrates our gratitude so that we don't hold it in and become just ungrateful or, I guess, inflated or puffed up or prideful because we don't want to be even perceived that way even if that's not how we feel. You know, I just pray that this would be a blessing to all of us, Lord, and pray that you bless the fellowship and soul winning today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. All right, let's grab those hymn books one final time this morning and we'll turn to song number 45 in front of your hymn book. Song number 45, When I Can Read My Title Clear. We'll sing it out loud with all the hearts. Forty-five, When I Can Read My Title Clear. On the first. When I can read my title clear Two mentions in the sky A bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes And wipe my weeping eyes I'll bid farewell to every fear And wipe my weeping eyes Should earth against my soul Engage in fiery darks Be girl Then I can smile at Satan's rape And face a frowning world And face a frowning world And face a frowning world Then I can smile at Satan's rape And face a frowning world Then tears like a wild deluge Come and storms of sorrow fall May I but safely reach my home My God, my heaven, my all My God, my heaven, my all My God, my heaven, my all May I but safely reach my home My God, my heaven, my all There shall I bathe my weary soul In seas of heavenly rest And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful rest Across my peaceful rest Across my peaceful rest And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful rest Amen Brother Kevin Lee, who closes the floor for us? I just want to thank you, God, for a great service today. It was a great service. I just want to thank God for being grateful in all things. All the gifts and all the gifts that He gives us that can fly and take us deeper. Thank you, God, for being grateful. I just want to thank God for being grateful that we all can get up into a time that says that there is no doubt between God and Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen.