(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

All right. OK. OK. OK. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could find your seats and grab your song book. Let's turn in our hymnals to 228, I Love to Tell the Story. 228, I Love to Tell the Story. Song 228, I Love to Tell the Story. I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell a story. It did so much to this truth. It satisfies my longing as nothing else can do. I love to tell the story, will be my dream in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Song 228 on the second. I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems, than all the golden fantasies of all our golden dreams. I love to tell a story. It did so much for me. And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee. I love to tell a story, will be my dream in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell a story. It is pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it, more wonderfully speak. I love to tell the story, for some have never heard the message of salvation from God's own holy Word. I love to tell a story, will be my dream in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell a story for those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest. And when it seems a glory, I see the new, new song, will be the old, old story that I have loved so long. I love to tell a story, will be my dream in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Good, sing, let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for all the people that are able to come and gather tonight to sing praises to you and to hear your Word preached. I pray that you bless each and every one of us and bless his service. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our second song, we will go to 195. I will sing of the mercies. Song 195, I will sing of the mercies. 195, I will sing of the mercies. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing, I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness. With my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. Amen, thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already, get a bulletin this week. You can slip up your hand nice and high and one of the ushers can come by, get you a bulletin. On the front, we have our Bible memory passage and it's actually verse seven, but if your child can quote seven or eight, we'll get them ice cream or candy just in case they might have accidentally memorized the verse and if you're upset about that, you can talk to Dylan afterwards. No, I'm just kidding. And then also on the inside, we have our service and soul winning times, church stats. I'm going to get a count for the past few days. Anything to report from this past Monday as far as soul winning is concerned? All right, two for Monday. What about Tuesday? Was there anything? Four for Tuesday. What about today? Two, okay, great. So three for today and then on the right, we have a list of expecting ladies. I continue to pray for all of them. Also, the prayer list, we have several to mention here. Continue to pray for the Negara family for their health, both Brother David and Miss Rebecca, also Miss Lucy's mother's tumors. If you'd pray for Cameron Hall's leg, just continue to have healing. Also, a couple of our foreign friends that are definitely going through the wringer, they're Verity Baptist Manila with Brother Matthew Stuckey and then Pastor Kevin Sepulveda in Australia and then also Miss Eva Garcia has an appointment October 19th. She likes prayer for Brother Malcolm's friend Jonathan. He's been here several times. He's dealing with cancer. The Shane Warner with health. Miss Alicia's dad also with health. Miss Lana Proctor's cousin Megan with salvation and health. Then Miss Nexus Cooper, also another health. Miss Maricela, health and pregnancy. She got baptized recently here and she was here for our Spanish services. Also, Brother Dylan Oz's mom and brother, Miss Lisa and Dustin, also have health prayer requests. And then we also have Clayton West. He got an injury on his face and so just praying for healing and recovering for him. A lot of people are sick right now. A lot of health issues and concerns. Definitely want to be praying for all of these people as well as just a lot of pregnant ladies that we need to be in prayer for. So I'm going to say just a quick prayer as a church family and then we'll go to our events. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity to come and to hear the word of God preached and for us to be able to sing praises unto your name. I thank you so much for our church family. I pray that you bless all the ladies in here that are expecting that you would just give them strength right now. That you would just help them in their delivery. That it would be in the right timing. I pray that you would also just bless all the rest of our church family with various health concerns. That you could give them favor, wisdom, give them peace right now and just bless them with health. I pray that you would also just help those that are needing salvation, needing wisdom. Also, if you could just bless those that are being persecuted right now or being oppressed or under tyrannical rule in this world. That you just allow them to get back to business as usual and to be able to be a bright and shining light of the gospel. And I pray that you just give us free course in this country to continue to preach the gospel so that way we can give more honor and glory to your son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the back we have upcoming events. We still have music practice at 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoons if you'd like to participate. September 25th we have, this is this Saturday, we have a Pure Words Soul Winning marathon followed up in the evening by our false Bible burning. And this is the day to get me that Bible. So if you don't have it with you, I'll probably just use it for next year. But I have a whole hoard in my office that I need to make sure and bring with me. But it's going to be a lot of fun. Or you can just bring it down to me Saturday. You can be like, hey, this is a special delivery and we will take those. But we're doing Soul Winning from 9, or we're showing up at 9 for breakfast. We're also winning from about 10 to 1230. Lunch is at 1230 at Pure Words. And then we're going to go back out for a couple hours of Soul Winning. We'll meet back and at 5 p.m. we're going to do the kindling. And then we'll also have some s'mores and cook out for a little bit and just have some fellowship. So if you're down there, I'm going to be preaching both sermons down there on Sunday. And so just pray for us that we'll have a good time and that everything will go well. Also, October 2nd, there's our fall swap. Just any item that has value that you're not using that you'd like to donate, you can give it to the church. And then basically, it's a two-sided thing because if you don't have anything to donate, you may be good at taking. And we need lots of people that are willing to take stuff as well. So we should have lots of different items. And so if you just want to drop by, please do. Any items that are left over will just be donated to charity. We have our Firebreathing Baptist Fellowship, October 6th to the 10th. And really looking forward to that event. We're going to have shirts. We're going to have lots of guest preachers, fellowship activities, our kids spelling bee. And so I'm really looking forward to all those activities. Also, November 13th, there's an Oklahoma City soul winning marathon. And so lots of different events to get plugged in and to participate in. That's pretty much all I have for announcements at this time. Let's go to our third song for the evening. 332. 332 channels only. Song 332, channels only. Song 332, channels only. Now what praise thee, precious Savior, that thy love laid hold of me. Thou hast saved and cleansed and filled me, that I might thy channel be. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power. Blowing through us, thou canst use us every day and every hour. Empty background shouldst fill me, a clean vessel in my hand. With no power, but as thou givest, graciously with each command. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power. Blowing through us, thou canst use us every day and every hour. Witnessing thy power to save me, setting free from self and sin. Thou who bought us to possess me in thy goodness, Lord, come in. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power. Blowing through us, thou canst use us every day and every hour. Jesus fell down with thy spirit, ours that full surrender know, that the streams of living water from our inner man may flow. Channels only, blessed Master, but with all thy wondrous power. Blowing through us, thou canst use us every day and every hour. Genesis chapter 29, the Bible reads, Then Jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and behold, a well in the field, and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And there there were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot until all the flocks be gathered together, until they rolled the stone from the well's mouth. Then we watered the sheep. And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekah's son, and she ran and told her father. And it came to pass, when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh, and he abode with him the space of a month. And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for naught? Tell me, what shall thy wages be? And Laban had two daughters, the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man, abide with me. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her. And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast. And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him, and he went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for an handmaid. And it came to pass that in the morning behold it was Leah. And he said to Laban, What is this that thou hast done unto me? Did not I serve with thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years. And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah conceived, and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction, now therefore my husband will love me. And she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, Because the Lord hath heard I was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also, and she called his name Simeon. And she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his name called Levi. And she conceived again, and bare a son, and she said, Now will I praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah, and left bearing. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the Genesis series that we've been going through here on Wednesday nights at the church. I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now and help him to expound Genesis chapter 29 for us. And also I pray that you would help us to pay attention so we can learn about the spiritual and carnal truths that are encapsulated in this chapter. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. Genesis chapter 29 verse 1, the Bible says, Then Jacob went on his journey and came in the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and behold, a well in the field, and lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks, and a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And thither were all the flocks gathered, and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we? And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. And he said, Lo, it is yet I day. Neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And he said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, until they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep. Now, in Genesis chapter 29, Jacob is on his journey to find a wife. And he's been commanded by his parents to go back to his own family, and specifically to Laban, and to basically try and get a wife of a specific lineage. Now, this is a carnal thing, where it's just talking about a physical lineage, but it always illustrates the greater spiritual truth that it's important to marry someone that is of the same family. And spiritually, if you're saved, you're of the same family. So therefore, it's important to get married to someone that's saved. Marry a brother or sister in Christ. And obviously, for carnal reasons, you don't marry your actual cousin or brother or sister. Okay, that's gross, right? But hey, from a spiritual perspective, it's great. You want to be married unto someone that is saved. Now, when Jacob is going and seeking for this wife, he basically stumbles onto a group of people. Now, we don't know exactly how many people he's communicating with. But it does indicate to us there's three flocks of sheep that are already at this place. And so there's a group of people that are gathered at the well. And when he sees Rachel coming, he asks about Laban specifically. And he's asking about his daughters. And they're like, hey, speaking of Laban and his daughters, here comes Rachel on her way. And he's very concerned about Rachel. So he's telling them, hey, it's high noon. Basically, it's high day. It's kind of like noon or 3 o'clock. It's some point in the afternoon where it's the hottest part of the day. And he's very concerned about their well-being. And so he's telling this group of people, you guys need to make sure to water their flock, take care of them, help them. And they make this interesting statement that they say that we cannot. They say the reason why they cannot is they say all of the flocks have to be gathered together. And then it says they. It says until they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Indicating that rolling the stone from the well's mouth is something that's very difficult. It takes everybody. It takes a group effort. It's taking a lot of people in order to basically remove this stone in order to give them water. And I think there's a couple spiritual pictures that can be illustrated here. But I want to read a few more verses and then I'm going to kind of illustrate those. Look at verse 9. While yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. So he asked them to do it. He wants them to do it. And because they're unwilling to do it, because they're not capable of doing it, he ends up stepping in and doing it for them. Now, there's a lot of things that we could unpack here. But go if you would to Matthew chapter number 9 for a moment. Keep your finger and go to Matthew chapter number 9. Some of the truths that we can pick out of this story is, number 1, Jacob must have been really strong. I mean, think about it. They're saying, the group of people that's already there say they can't do it. They need even more people. And they're basically illustrating that it takes they in order to move it. Meaning it takes multiple men or multiple people to know we're moving this stone or this rock. But then Jacob just does it. You know, he just kind of mans up. He's just kind of showing off or whatever. Hey, I'm going to move that stone. And here's the thing. Look, being a man, you should try to be strong. Now, obviously, that's not all there is to being a man. And at the end of the day, carnal strength will only get you so far. It's only so valuable. But you know what? As a man, you should strive to be strong in every area, I believe, physically and spiritually. We need to be a man in both capabilities, in both categories. But when we look at this from a spiritual perspective, I look at Jacob as oftentimes picturing Christ. And Rachel in the Bible is picturing God's people. And you can see this illustrated in the New Testament when the Bible talks about Rachel weeping for her children because they're not. And Rachel kind of pictures the town of Bethlehem and the suffering they go through. We kind of have a picture of Rachel picturing just God's people, his children, and how Jesus really cares about them. And he's asking the other shepherds, think about it, what would you call the occupation of someone that's keeping sheep at the well? The shepherd, right? And he's asking the shepherds, hey, water the flock, take care of my people, help out my people. And they refuse to do it, don't they? They say, no, we're not going to do it. And so Jacob and his concern for Rachel ends up taking care of it himself. And I think we can see this illustrated with Jesus Christ. He cares about his people. He wants his people to be watered. And because the shepherds aren't doing it, because nobody else is capable of doing it, he does it himself. Now look what it says in Matthew chapter 9 verse 36. But when he saw the multitudes, talking of Jesus, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainting were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labors into his harvest. And you know, in this parable, or in this basically portion of scripture, it's also similar to when Jesus Christ has the great multitudes coming out to hear him preach, and because they have no food, he has compassion on them. He wants to feed them, and he wants to make sure that they're nourished, and he wants to make sure that they're taken care of. But more important than a physical meal, more important than a physical drink, is a spiritual meal, and is a spiritual drink, which is salvation. And Jesus wants his people to get saved, he wants people to come to Christ, and he wants them to be well taken care of, and he looks at them as having no shepherd in the New Testament, and it reminds me of Jacob looking at Rachel coming and having no shepherd to help her or take care of her, so he steps up to the plate, and he ends up taking care of her. Go back if you went to Genesis 29. You know, it makes me think of other stories in the Bible or other passages of scripture that say things like, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want, he maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters. So the Bible teaches that Jesus is the great shepherd, he's the one that is going to lead us ultimately to the still waters, and after salvation, Jesus doesn't cease to being our shepherd. The Lord is still our shepherd, and the Lord still wants to lead us to still waters, and what do waters do? You know, waters give you nourishment, and they give you the things that you need, and it's also refreshing at the same time. And, you know, there's a lot of beverages out there, people like to drink all kinds of different beverages, but at the end of the day, if you're really thirsty, you kind of just only want water, don't you? I mean, if you're just really quenched for thirst, you don't want a soda, you don't really want lemonade or something like that, you want water to satisfy that thirst. You know, I think of my children, they primarily drink water, but if we go to a restaurant or we go out, sometimes they'll let them get something different, maybe a lemonade or a Coke or something, but if they drink that, they'll eventually just beg for water, because they get to a point where they're just actually thirsty and they want that thirst to be quenched, and they realize that kind of a beverage isn't going to really do them service, so they just want that water to nourish them. And here's the thing, the Word of God is the same way. We can get to a point spiritually where our spirit inside is craving something to drink, and the world cannot satisfy that thirst. The only thing that can satisfy the spiritual thirst that we have in our lives is the Word of God, and that shepherd Jesus Christ wants to constantly give you that drink, he wants to constantly nourish you and provide for you and take care of you, and so if you feel like you're constantly distressed and you're full of anxiety and woe and you're going through difficult times, the only thing that's going to really bring you any kind of true refreshment, the only thing that's going to actually give you peace is the Word of God, is Jesus Christ. People try to find this in a bottle, but it's not a bottle of water, it's a bottle of alcohol. They try to find refreshment, they try to find nourishment, they try to find these things in the world, but they're never going to be satisfied. It's only going to bring them more pain, more woe. That's why we should seek unto the Word of God, seek unto church, seek unto spiritual things, to look for that kind of a fulfillment, that kind of refreshment. Look at verse 11. And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. Now again, this reminds me of Jesus, and I want you to go to Luke chapter 19 for a moment. Go to Luke chapter 19. But notice Jacob instantly loves Rachel. He was concerned for her well-being. He's seeking for others to take care of her, and when they won't, he steps up to the plate. He provides for her. He rolls the stone away. He may have gotten a hernia in the process. We don't know, I'm just kidding. I mean, you know, he all thinks he's strong and tough, but I mean, moving that rock probably hurt a little bit. I mean, he might have scratched himself up a little bit, moving that out. But you know what, it didn't matter to him because he's already in love. He's already had great care for her, and the kiss here in verse 11 is a greeting, okay? It wasn't anything inappropriate or anything. He's just, that's how you greet. Because later in the chapter, he kisses Laban too, okay? So don't get too excited already. But basically, he greets her. He's kind unto her. He lifts up his voice. He wants to be known, and he weeps for her. Now you could look at these tears in a couple different ways. It could be joy in the sense that he's found her. It could also be just, he's overwhelmed with emotion. You know, a lot of times people weep when they're just overcome with emotion, whether it be positive or negative. You can see this in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah when they rebuild the temple. And the people that had seen it before, when they see the foundation laid again, they're weeping. And it's like some are weeping, you know, for joy, and some are weeping for sad. It's like you can't even tell what's going on because it's just, everybody's just overcome with so much of emotion. And you know, it's interesting how the body responds to different events. Because even laughter is an interesting emotion. You know, when you're uncomfortable, a lot of times you just laugh. Laughter is just a typical emotion when you're very uncomfortable. But it doesn't mean that you're enjoying the situation necessarily. You know, it could be awkward laughter. It could be joyful laughter. It could be a mocking laughter. And even with weeping, it can be a lot of different emotions here. But we see Jesus Christ kind of having the same feelings for his people. You know, he weeps for Lazarus when he dies. You know, you can see that Jesus deeply cares for people. And he really has emotion. You know, he's not this robot, just like, I am Jesus, I am word of God, worship me now. He actually, in his heart, heals things. He feels joy. He feels happiness. He feels, you know, distressed at times. You know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he's very distressed. He's very anxious about what's going to happen with the cross. We see all range of emotion from Jesus Christ. And he even weeps himself. Look at Luke chapter 19, verse 41. And when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, now they are hid from thine eyes. For the day shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation. Now, I'm not necessarily connecting these two stories of Genesis 29 and this one as being exact parallels. The point that I want to make here is more about just emotion in general. That we see that Jacob is weeping for Rachel, meaning that there's something deep down in his heart. He has actually real feelings for her. And we see Jesus Christ has real feelings for Jerusalem and for his people. And, you know, it saddened him to see the fact they rejected him. It saddened him to see the fact they wouldn't hearken to his voice. It saddened him to think about the fact that they were going to be destroyed eventually for the rejection of the gospel, for the rejection of Jesus Christ. And so, you know, Jesus feels all this emotion. And, you know, if you want to know if someone really cares about you, tears is a pretty good sign. You know, people that actually have real feelings often have real emotions. This is why you know Sandy Hook was an inside job or whatever. Go back to Genesis 29. Look, there was videos out there, YouTube's taking it all down now, but there was a video compilation of all the parents that had lost all their children crying without tears. And, you know, that's really weird, okay? There's no way you could have dozens and dozens of parents lose all of their five, six, seven-year-old children and not shed a single tear, you know? And you say, oh, how could someone not shed a tear? Because they don't have any real emotion. There's no actual true emotion connecting them with someone. And let me help you out because there's a lot of people that will cry and they're really good at crying. Do you know what they can't do? They can't bring tears on. That's a whole other level. You know, the Hollywood actors that can cry on cue is like a rare thing because most people, I mean, you can't just cry like that. If I just said cry, you know, a lot of you would not be able to do it. Most of us would not be able to do it. You know, it's only these Hollywood actors that do what's called method acting. And it's a practiced skill in order to basically perform this operation. But even in method acting, you know what they do in order to actually successfully create the scene? They imagine and think about something horrifyingly sad to try and stimulate that emotion. So they'll bring up something in their mind that's happened like the loss of a loved one or something evil or something that causes them that really deep emotional pain. And then they basically just channel that thought while they're going through the scene. But the scene itself is not going to necessarily draw out that type of emotion. That's how they actually can perform under those circumstances. And, you know, a lot of these politicians and all these other people, they're just bad actors, okay? Where they get up and they're like, I'm so sad. And then you'll notice like whenever detectives are researching or trying to, you know, investigate, they look for these factors called like drooping delight. Where psychopath and criminals, what they'll actually do is they're like crying. Every once in a while they'll kind of like grin in the moment of their sadness, showing that they're actually getting satisfaction out of trying to trick people and deceive people. And they actually don't have any real emotion. So here's the thing. You can't fake emotion. You can try, but at the end of the day, these tears and things like that, it's real. You know, so when Jacob is crying over Rachel, it's real. When Jesus Christ is weeping for Lazarus, it's real. And here's the thing. If you're not weeping for certain things in your life, you have to ask yourself, do you really care about it? Do you really love it? You know, all these people are so sad about America, but here's my question. Are there any tears? You know, or is it, I mean, hey, the people that are dying and going to hell, does that bring a tear? You know, they that go forth weeping, bearing precious seed so doubtless come again with rejoicing. You know, the person that's going out weeping means he actually cares about the loss. To him it's not just like, I got five outs all winning. You know, to him it's like, five people aren't going to hell for all of eternity. You know, when you look at the person and you care about them and you're sad about them and you don't want them to go to hell, you know, you have to ask yourself, do you have any real emotion? You know, deep down, inside. And look, obviously men are not going to cry the same as a woman would. Women cry because they got their Starbucks order wrong, okay? Obviously they really like coffee, okay? Women cry for unknown reasons, even to themselves. They don't even know why they're crying, they're just crying. But you know what, apparently women just care a little bit more than men, don't they? It makes sense that women are going to be the ones raising your children because they have a lot more emotion. They have a lot more empathy, they have a lot more care when it comes to a child. You know, us as men, oftentimes we're just like, dust it off. You know, can you still move, can you still walk? You don't really have the same emotional connection that a mother would. And that's why you need both a mother and a father. But I say all this to say the main point, again, is Jacob's great care and love for Rachel. I can see that same emotion through Jesus Christ and it reminds me of the fact that Jesus truly cares for us. Look at verse 12. Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother and that he was Rebekah's son and she ran and told her father. And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. Laban said to him, Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed but Rachel was beautiful and well favored. Jacob loved Rachel and said, Now, I want to pause for just a second. But think about, it's really easy to just read the story and just kind of go through it. But think about the proposition that's being offered to him. Laban is saying, hey, you shouldn't just be working here for free. Let me pay you something. Now, what does he not say? Because it's really easy to focus on what he did say. What did he not say? He didn't say, pay me gold, pay me silver, pay me money. Notice he only cared about one thing, the persons. You know, and again, it makes me think of Jesus Christ. He's not in it for the money or the goods or the possessions. He's in it for the souls. And you know what, as God's people, we should not be in this world looking for the wages to be silver and gold but rather the souls. The souls that are out there and caring about the people, that's what he wanted. He's like, hey, I'll serve seven years. And you know, this should also motivate you young single men to realize there might be a bounty to pay for that girl of high value. I mean, think about this. There's a lot of guys in this room that you could, a girl could walk in and she'd be the one. But then I say, you have to serve seven years for her. And they'd be like, see ya. Seven years? Look, Jacob, he's a real man's man and he's willing to serve. I mean, he's willing to put down the bounty. You know, I said that the tradition or the custom is to buy a ring which is like three months labor. Seven years labor, my friend. That's a lot. I mean, this guy is willing to really lay it on the line. He really cares about her. He's going to show her how much he cares, how much he loves her. He's willing to sacrifice seven years of his life while he's in his prime just to obtain her. That's how valuable she is to him. And you know what, men today need to show their wives that they're valuable to them. It's really sad today how pathetic men are today and how little they want to care about their wife. I mean, men today are often, especially outside the church, you know what they're really concerned with? The woman they're going to sleep with that's not their wife. And talking about other women and being interested in other things and interested in their car and interested in their job and interested in all these other things. They don't really care about their woman and after they get her it's just kind of a trinket on their shelf or whatever. But notice that Jacob is willing to sacrifice for his wife. Jacob is willing to lay things down for his life. Jacob is willing to say that his wife is of great value, of great importance. And in fact, he's basically thinking his whole life about his wife. I mean, think about it. Isn't he basically centering every aspect of his life around his wife? I mean, he completely left where he lives. He's doing an occupation only for her. I mean, just everything about Jacob's life is about one thing and it's Rachel. It's just all about Rachel and laying down his life. Hey, that reminds me of somebody. Go to Ephesians chapter number five. Go to Ephesians chapter number five. Let's get the example for marriage from the word of God today, not from Hollywood. Not what Hollywood has to say. Not a cheap pickup line. You know, this guy was willing to pick up the rock for her, okay. And notice he didn't ask to commit fornication first. He said I'll work seven years first. He didn't ask for a body. He asked to put his body down on the line. Ephesians chapter number five. Look what it says in verse number 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, notice this, and gave himself for it. Notice the situation is not the church giving itself to Christ, but it's Christ giving himself to the church. And what is the example for men? That we would give ourselves to our wives. That we would lay down our lives for our wives. Look what it says in verse number 28. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherished it, even as the Lord the Church. You know, some men will take two showers a day, making sure they take care of themselves, but they don't spend any time taking care of their wife. Some men don't have a problem taking too much care of themselves. But you know what? You should still take care of your wife. You know, and that's the type of care. I mean, think about how much responsibility just your body is. Isn't your body, I mean, you have to take care of that thing so many times a day. I mean, you've got to feed it three times a day. You've got to use the restroom. You've got to groom it. You've got to clean it. You've got to go to sleep. I mean, you're doing a lot of stuff, you know, clipping your nails, getting a haircut, hopefully brushing your teeth, you know, hopefully doing it. And honestly, not all of us are perfect in these areas, but you're going to notice a pretty big impact as soon as you stop taking care of your body, aren't you? Or if you're just feeding it junk, you're not really exercising, you're not doing these things. And the same goes with marriage. When you're not putting effort into your marriage, into your relationship, you will see consequences through those actions, okay? And I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but when you read this chapter, it's a lot about reaping what you sow, and it's important to realize that Jacob, he's just all after Rachel. Go back to Genesis 29. Go back to Genesis 29. He has two options, Leah and Rachel. Now, obviously, Jacob is a little bit interested in just beauty because he goes for the attractive one, right? Beauty is vain, though, as the Bible says. So, you know, you don't necessarily always want to just go for whatever's the most physically attractive. There's a lot of other qualities that are important when it comes to a woman. And, you know, Leah's tender-eyed, and Leah, you know, according to the Bible, in my opinion, when you just study both characters, ends up making some better choices. Because Rachel ends up taking all the idols, and she's, like, stealing her father's possessions, and she seems to be causing a lot of other issues. Leah just wants to be, you know, loved by her husband. That's, you know, she just wants to have a good relationship. And, you know, sometimes the tender-eyed girls less problems than the beautiful one, quote-unquote, or whatever. Look what it says in verse number 19. And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man abide with me. Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed on him but a few days. Notice this, for the love he had to her. Notice it was quick to him because he just loved her so much. Verse 21, And Jacob said unto Laban, Give me my wife, my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her. And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast, and it came to pass in the evening, that he took Leah his daughter, and brought her to him, and he went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpha his maid for a handmaid. And it came to pass that in the morning, behold, it was Leah, and he said to Laban, What is this thou hast done unto me? Did I serve thee for Rachel? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban said, It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn. Fulfill her week, and we will give thee this also for the service, which thou shalt serve with me, yet seven other years. Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week, and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also. Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years. And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Now, this is a really interesting story. First of all, it's really confusing. Because it's like, how do you get married to the wrong girl? You know, you think after seven years of talking to Rachel and Leah and being around all of them, you would have known which was the right one, right? Well, I'll give you just my personal opinion on how that could have possibly happened. Because first of all, it almost seems really unreasonable that that could have even happened. But I believe probably Leah and Rachel look the same from a physique perspective. Like, they basically have the same height, body shape, weight in general. Now, obviously Rachel is more attractive in her facial structure or whatever it is that she looks like. But you have to understand, if you go back several thousand years, they don't have incandescent light bulbs. They don't have all the street lights. And here's the thing, if we go out in the wilderness where there is no city, where there's no street lights, at eight o'clock at night or seven o'clock at night, you know what it's going to look like? Black. It's going to be dark. You're only going to be able to see the form or basically just an essence of a person or whatever. You're not going to really know. Now, obviously it says that he had pissed Rachel, but it was only a greeting. It wasn't anything intimate. So, he hasn't known this woman intimate or physically or anything like that. And so, most likely, especially in the wedding, they're going to wear a veil. Right? So, the girl's walking down. You're just excited that there's a girl there. She has the same physique as what you would expect. And often, your eyes play tricks on you. You often see what you want to see. So, if you're just expecting it to be Rachel, you're not going to be like really examining and making sure and, you know, whatever they got going on with that wedding dress, it's unique anyways. You're just kind of like, okay, and it's got the veil and then it's dark. And then, you know, when it's dark and you're in a room with a woman, you know, for the first time, it really takes daybreak to then shine some light. And then, when the light gets shone, you're like, whoa, this is not the girl that I thought. And it wasn't that she took the makeup off, okay? It was just Leah. It was Leah, okay? It wasn't Rachel. She's like, wait a minute, something happened. Where did Rachel go? Now, the story's kind of puzzling because I'm always wondering like what was Rachel thinking? Because obviously, Rachel had to realize she's not getting married and not with her husband on this evening. So, I don't know what happened. Maybe her dad locked her in the room or something. I don't know. But it is plausible, okay? It could really happen especially when you consider the fact that they don't have the same kind of lighting that we do. But beyond just how that could happen physically, I think it's possible that we could draw out some spiritual ideas here or some things that could make sense spiritually as to what these things could mean or how to interpret these stories. But again, if you consider that Jacob is Jesus, okay, for the Lord in our parable, as it were, he really wants Rachel. And what does Rachel represent? God's people, okay? He's after God's people. The Lord doesn't want someone that's not his people. The Lord's not interested in those that don't want to serve him. You know, God has ordained it that those that believe in Jesus Christ are his people. So, God gives us all a choice, okay? But in anticipation to marrying Rachel, he ends up getting a different woman. He gets Leah, which it's really confusing. Now, this is how I interpret this story. And if you have a better way, you can tell me later. But I think that Rachel and Leah kind of picture the two covenants of the Bible. And Leah is like the first covenant and Rachel is like the second covenant, okay? Now, God, going into the first covenant, he wants Rachel, in a sense. He wants people to be saved and to choose him and to love him and to be his God's people, okay? But there's a problem with the first covenant. Now, if you go to Hebrews, chapter number 8, I'm going to explain this to you. Go to Hebrews, chapter number 8, and you say, well, what's wrong with the first covenant? Technically, there's nothing wrong with the covenant itself. The problem is with the people, okay? And let's read a few verses here. Hebrews, chapter 8, look at verse 6. So, the Old Testament was given to the children of Israel as a general sense, physical Israel. But there was a problem. It wasn't the right people. And you say, why wasn't the right people? Because they weren't saved. Because they didn't actually choose him and love him. It was the wrong person. Just like Jacob gets married and then, whoops, it's the wrong person. Now, notice he says, if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no reason to seek for another one, right? Meaning, if Jacob had gotten married to Rachel, he would have never gotten another wife. It would have been a done deal, right? But because he ended up getting married to Leah, now he wants to get married to Rachel, okay? And Rachel pictures what? Spiritual Israel, whereas Leah kind of pictures physical Israel, in a sense, okay? Where, basically, he makes the covenant. Now, you think about a covenant, how do covenants work? You make a promise, you make a vow, and then, in order to seal the covenant, blood has to come into the dedication process, okay? Go to Hebrews, chapter 9. Just flip the page, maybe if you're already there. Look at verse 18. Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood, for Moses had spoken every precept to all the people, according to the law. He took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the testament, which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified of these, of the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these, for Christ has not entered in the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but in the heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entered in the holy place every year with the blood of others, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. So according to the Bible, we have two covenants. We have the Old Covenant, the New Covenant, the Old Testament, the New Testament. Both are dedicated with blood. So when Moses delivered all the law to the children of Israel, he killed blood, he got blood from the blood of bulls and calves, and he put it on hyssop, and he literally sprinkled them, and he sprinkled the book, and he makes this big ordeal about their blood being on there. And then you have Jesus Christ in the New Testament. His blood is going to be shed. And notice that the Jews, they even literally say to Pilate, his blood be on us and on our children. So you even have like a metaphorical picture of the blood being sprinkled onto the people again, under the Jews again of Jesus Christ. But then literally, Jesus takes his own blood after the death, burial, and resurrection, sins up into heaven, and sprinkles his blood on the true tabernacle, the true altar up in heaven, and that's where we get the real remission for our sins, is by his blood being on the real altar, the heavenly altar, the true altar. That's what's known as the doctrine of the blood atonement. Some people get real confused on this. Blood atonement is specifically Jesus' blood on the altar in heaven. It's not just that it was shed at Calvary. Now, obviously, that's the process by which we got the blood, because Jesus Christ was going to inflict a self-loond. That would have been weird. He's not going to sin, so he had to have his blood shed innocently, and then he could take that innocent blood, sprinkle it on the altar in heaven, and that's what gives us the full atonement for our sins, his death, burial, resurrection, and the blood being sprinkled. It's the whole package, okay, my friend? Everything that he did for us. It's not just one thing or two things. It's all of it. But think about this. Marriage is the same way. And I'm not going to get graphic here, and the Bible doesn't get real graphic, but, you know, there is a thing called the tokens of virginity described in the Bible. And so when a virgin man and a virgin woman get married, their first night, the man is supposed to lay a cloth down, and the tokens of virginity are supposed to be present to indicate that the woman is a virgin. And this is because her hymen will be broken at the first encounter, the first time that the man knows the woman. And so the blood is shed, and that illustrates that the covenant has been made into effect, where an annulment comes into play, and you have this illustrated in the Bible, in a sense, where a man is told that the woman's a virgin before she gets married. And then he finds out that she's not a virgin on her wedding night. Then the contract is null and void because there was no blood. So it wasn't dedicated in blood, so therefore it's a null marriage. It's called an annulment in a modern vernacular. That's what we typically would call this as. And because of the fraud, then basically, according to Moses, he gave them an option of getting out of that contract, and he could give them a bill of divorcement. And if you ended up getting remarried in the future, it wasn't considered adultery. But every other situation where a man knows his wife, the tokens of virginity were there, or once he realizes it's not, he just accepts it in that day, any future consequence of divorce or whatever is described as adultery in the Bible. Now, even in that weird hypothetical, Jesus still said that Moses gave them that precept because of the hardness of their heart, meaning that if you married a woman who was not a virgin on her wedding night, you should still stay with her, period. I believe that you should never divorce for any reason. The only hypothetical that Jesus gives where it's not a sin of adultery on top of that is the one that I just explained. But realize that with Leah, you have the first covenant, and then with Rachel, you have what? The second covenant. And so you have the two covenants, and I liken this, too, because you'll read in the Old Testament where Jesus, or God specifically, the Lord, will say stuff like, this is a covenant forever, okay? And people will say, well, then why did it change if it's forever? But here's the thing. It's just like when Jacob gets married to Leah, she is his wife forever. But if she dies, she ceases to be his wife, okay? And here's the thing. With the old covenant, it's in effect, and on God's part, he's gonna honor that contract forever. But here's the thing. If they on their part break it and ruin it and destroy it or die or whatever, then it ceases to be in effect, essentially. It ceases with them. And that's what happens with the old covenant. The old covenant is basically fulfilled, so it's no longer in effect. It's ready to vanish away. It's decaying because it's already been done, okay? So some people will say, oh, well, the Jews, they have their covenant. No, their covenant's been done. Their covenant's been fulfilled. Their covenant has been changed. They now have the new covenant or no covenant. They're either Rachel or nothing, okay, at the end of the day. But throughout the Old Testament, we have this interesting scenario where you have a Leah and a Rachel. And you gotta think about it this way. In the future, there will be no Leah and Rachel. It'll just all be Leah. Because at one point in the Bible, it says, and all Israel shall be saved, meaning that both physical Israel and spiritual Israel will be the exact same person. There will be no longer this delineation. And the New Testament, you can only be Rachel because there is no one that's God's chosen people that's not saved. You're either saved and you're God's chosen people or you're not. So you kind of have this interesting dynamic where you have these people that are considered God's chosen people and they're not saved yet. And even though a lot of them are rejecting them and having nothing to do with them, and so you kind of have this weird situation. So I wanted to kind of illustrate a few of those points. Go through it back. I want to read a few more and then we'll kind of illustrate. Go back to Genesis 29. We'll finish the chapter and then I want to talk about a few more points here. But it's kind of a lot of interesting parallels that we can look at. Rachel ends up getting married. So you understand the story. Leah gets married to Jacob. One week later, seven days later, he ends up marrying Rachel. But then he's already made a future contract deal where he's going to serve for another seven years. So he doesn't have to wait another seven years to marry Rachel, but he does have to work that seven years for getting Rachel, okay? So the first wife, he had to work before he got the wife. He works after he gets the wife, okay? And so they're married very quickly. So during this time, Jacob's just really only interested in Rachel and Leah just becomes kind of like this secondary thing. He doesn't really care as much about her. He's not really interested in her as much. And the Bible makes it clear that Leah is kind of hated and Rachel is more loved. So it says in the Bible that God opened Leah's womb. Look at verse 32. And Leah conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben. For she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction, now therefore my husband will love me. He conceived again and bare a son, and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, yet therefore given me this son also. And she called his name Simeon, conceived again and bare a son, and said, Now this time will my husband be joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons. Therefore was his name called Levi. He conceived again and bare a son, and she said, Now will I praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah, left bearing. So Leah is the only one that's getting pregnant. And the Bible says God's doing it so that Jacob will love Leah better or want to be with her. And Leah's hoping that her husband will basically love her. But it doesn't necessarily work in the sense that, like, there's still kind of this animosity between Leah and Rachel, and you can kind of still see that Jacob kind of favors Rachel, in a sense. But if we kind of stick with our parallel, I think what God's illustrating here is the fact that Leah is going to be the first one that's fruitful. And Rachel's not. Meaning what? For the whole Old Testament, Rachel's not even in play. Right? I mean, it's only Leah, it's only the physical Israel that's basically gotten the action, bringing forth the fruit, and you have some of the greatest people as far as the tribe is concerned. You have the firstborn, which he ends up turning bad. But then you get Levi. And think about this. Levi is the physical, the carnal priesthood, right? Which is coming through specifically Leah. But then you also have right on the heels of that Judah, which is where you're going to actually get the Lord, and you're going to get that spiritual priesthood, too. Now, you can't take these perils and run with them in every category, because technically the children of Israel are made of both Leah and Rachel. And I think why you have this conundrum is because in the Old Testament you have both. You have people that are physical Israel and spiritual Israel. You have people that are unsaved and saved. You have this mixed bag of people and groups. But you see, Rachel's not going to have children for a really long time. In the Bible. And I think that that's a picture of how in the New Testament we're going to end up having the fruit of Rachel and spiritual Israel and the Gentiles and all of those people finally have their children. And the Bible makes it clear that Joseph is of the old age. Meaning what? It took a long time to get to that part of the chapter. It took a long time to get to that part of the story. And you know what? Just because the Gentiles are not necessarily the first part, it's going to be more love. Think about it this way. Does Joseph, and I'm getting a little ahead of myself, those that know the story. When we get to Joseph in the Bible, does he love Joseph more than the other brethren? Yeah, he does. He gives him a coat of many colors. If you've read the Bible, you've heard. He has a coat of many colors. He gives his father who loved him above his brethren. And I personally believe that it's because Jesus actually cares more about the New Testament than he does the Old Testament. And that the New Testament is more glorious and he has more favor for the New Testament. You know, Jesus has favorites. And you say, I don't believe that. Well, you know, ask John about that. Have you read the Gospel of John? John's clearly the favorite. You know, Jesus has more favoritism towards certain people and certain events and certain things. And look, it makes sense because isn't the whole New Testament emphasizing Jesus and the Gospel and all these other elements? Whereas the Old Testament, while it's foreshadowing and it's picturing this, there's a lot of other elements involved in the Old Testament and different pictures and different things. Whereas the New Testament is just Jesus and the Gospel and reaching the Gentiles. And it's like Jesus loves it more. That's why it's called the New Testament. It's called the better Testament. Why? Because it's better. And look, why is Joseph loved more? Because he's better. And, you know, we could look back in the Testament and say, oh man, I wish I was in the Old Testament or I wish I was with David or I wish I was, you know, fighting Goliath or I wish I was at the time of Jeremiah. No one says that. I wish, you know, I wish I was at the time of Daniel. No one says that, right? But, you know, sometimes you could think like, oh man, I missed it all. But when you think about it, we're like the best part. We're like the cream of the crop in a sense. We're where the real show is. You know, when it comes to the later part of the Bible, it's, you know, Revelation can be, you know, interpreted as the show. Just read the Jesus book called the show. That's an inside show, correct? There's this weird Bible called the Jesus book, okay? And then instead of saying Revelation, they call it the show. Okay. But yeah, it's basically when everything's revealed, right? You reveal, you show things, right? You reveal them. And so Revelation is the cool part of the Bible. You know, some people fret the end times rather than thinking like it's the grand finale. You know, when it comes to fireworks, you don't like the beginning. What do you like? The end. When it's just like bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. You know, like Mark of the Beast and war and famine and pestilence. It's just like bam, bam, bam. And you're just like, yeah, woo! It's exciting, you know? We should get excited. Why do we fret? You know, we look at the world getting worse and sometimes it makes us feel like worse inside rather than thinking like our light's shining brighter. Woo! Yeah. Turn down the lights so that the light can shine, right? I mean, because when it was just we were all so righteous and so godly or whatever, the light didn't shine as bright. You know, now it's just getting turned way down. It's like our light's just shining super bright. And people are like, you guys are not as weird as I thought. You guys, I mean, look. I used to be ridiculed by everyone that I knew personally for being an anti-vaxxer. And you know what? Almost all those same people that ridiculed me are now an anti-vaxxer. At least for COVID. Think about that. I'm like, great. You know, all kinds of weird stuff. I talked about all kinds of weird stuff in the government. I freaked out my family. I said, I think Michelle Obama's a man. And man, did they freak out on that one. Now they believe it. Some of them are like, yeah, I see what you're talking about. Look, you don't even realize most of the pictures of them, like Michelle and Obama, they're photoshopped just to make him look more manly and her to look more like a woman. And it still doesn't usually work. Even the Photoshop picture, I'm thinking like, there's something weird about this. Then they show the real thing and you're just like, whoa. I mean, that guy is like bench pressing Obama in the night. That dude. And they're like, ah, why do you believe such weird conspiracy theories? Well, how come there's zero pictures of Michelle Obama pregnant ever? You say, well, I came to church to hear the Bible. Well, welcome to the steadfast, okay? I've given you a lot of Bibles so far, all right? Go over to Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter number four. We've got to make it applicable today, all right? And talk about marrying the wrong woman. I mean, that's the one you don't want to wake up next to. I mean, this world's so weird. It's getting so dark. You know what? I say bring it on. Hey, fight the good fight. I didn't have anything to fight. You know, sometimes people will call me or they'll talk to me and they'll be like, I'm sorry about the difficulty you're going through. And I'll just open my Bible and I'm thinking, like, I'm not going through anything. Like, what? You know, the persecutions that we get so worried and nervous about, it's just sad. And, you know, even just reading the news. You know, I read, I can't remember where it was. I'm trying to think. It was somewhere in Africa, I'm pretty sure. But it was like a couple pastors got drug out in the street and just shot in the face or something recently. Just for being a Christian pastor. And I'm just thinking, like, that's not even usually on my radar. I'm not thinking that. You guys aren't thinking that. We're not having to deal with that on a regular basis. I mean, it's, and I don't know if the guy's a false prophet or not. I don't care. But what I am saying is there are real persecutions happening in this world today. Even today. People are being drug out. You know, people in Muslim countries, they have their family drug out and killed. They'll be killed. You know, there's people where you can't own a Bible in this world. You know, you can't get up and preach Leviticus 2013 in this world. You can't, you'll go to jail or you'll get persecuted heavily. You know, we live in such a warped society today where we don't understand the Bible often because we don't go through the same difficulties and struggles. And so people believe in stupid things like the Pre-Trib Rapture. Where the Pre-Trib Rapture is basically exclusively an American doctrine. Just like Pentecostalism. It's like an American doctrine. You know, America has all these weird heresies because they don't experience a lot of the persecutions and a lot of the normal stuff that happens in the Bible. So they come up with all these weird, goofy ideas that don't actually really exist. And they just make up stuff and live in fantasy world. Whereas, you know, it'd be impossible to convince Christians that live in a Muslim country like, hey, there's this Pre-Trib Rapture where no one's going to go through tribulation. They're like, look, my whole family got drug out and beheaded. What more is there? Because on a personal level, the highest levels of persecution have always been happening. The Great Tribulation is not on a personal level, it's on a global level. It's saying, from a global perspective, there's never been this many Christians that are being killed and persecuted on a regular basis. From an individualistic level, read Fox's Book of Martyrs. You're not going to get any worse than all the things that have already happened. Christians have been horribly, brutally tortured and killed for the cause of Christ every century, all the time, in all kinds of places, even today. It's still constantly happening. And, you know, God also delivers a lot of people. Obviously, the Rapture means people are going to make it. Someone's going to make it. I don't know who. But the people that are faithful, the people that are, you know, I believe the people that are faithful and they're taking a stand and they're doing the works of God, to me makes the most sense. Because I don't see why God would reward all the Christians that are hiding under a blanket with the Rapture. I think He's going to reward the ones that stand tall. You know, when we see the Bible, all the ones that stand tall get delivered. Which one hides and gets secured? No. No, it's Daniel in the lion's den. No, it's Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. No, it's Jeremiah, you know, sticking it to them in the face. No, it's those are the guys that get delivered. It's those are the guys that come out of the fire unscathed. And so I believe the people that are going to be raptured are the ones that stand tall and they're not ashamed of Christ and they're standing for His Word. You know, the compromisers and losers, I think, that are going to get destroyed. But to illustrate, you know, this point of Rachel being barren and then, you know, kind of being the spiritual Israel. I looked at Galatians chapter 4. Look at verse 26. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not. Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not. For the desolate have many more children than she which hath a husband. So eventually the barren ends up having more children. And you think about it, she has Joseph. Now Joseph is notorious in the Bible for having been one of the most bountiful children of Israel. Having Ephraim and Manasseh and getting a double portion. He literally even gets to take on a double portion and he gets to multiply and expand. Even if you look at a map, Ephraim and Manasseh are some of the largest areas in the territory of Israel, as it were, because of, you know, them bringing forth. And so I look at that in a spiritual context. Even though we're late to the party, there's probably going to be more people saved in heaven from the New Testament than there is from the Old Testament. Or at least a huge portion is going to be the New Testament rather than the Old Testament, which is going to break for, even though it wasn't producing for the longest period of time, it eventually produces. Now the last point I want to make is just, you know, when we think about this story, it's important that you realize you're going to reap what you sow. You know, you're going to reap what you sow in this life. And look at Galatians chapter 6. I'm going to read a few verses before I get there. The Bible says, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. The Bible says, He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity. The Bible says, He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. So the Bible gives a few different scenarios. Reap good, you're going to reap good. Reap wicked, you're going to reap wicked. Reap nothing, you're going to reap nothing. You know, I've heard this quote attributed to Trump. I don't know if it came from him or not, but I like it. It says, Nothing is free, but who wants nothing? I mean, at the end of the day, oh, nothing's free! Well, who wants that, though? At the end of the day, there's a lot of people that just aren't sowing into anything. They're just being lazy. And if you don't sow into anything, guess what you're going to reap? Nothing. You're going to get nothing back. Now, if you sow to the flesh, if you sow to iniquity, you reap nothing back, too. You reap only evil or consequences. And when you sow that which is spiritual, you're going to reap spiritual blessings. You know, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 9, He which sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. That confirms, again, the fact that you reap nothing. You're not going to, if you sow nothing, you're not going to reap anything. And if you sow a little, you'll reap a little. But if you sow a lot, you'll reap a lot. Now, that sowing and reaping principle that the Bible teaches, you have to understand has a good and a bad. You sow a whole lot of bad, you're going to reap a lot of bad. You sow a whole lot of good, you're going to reap a whole lot of good. And a lot of times we think of a reaping and sowing as like only good. It's both. You know, if I sow a bunch of weeds in my yard, I'm going to reap a lot of weed. You know, if I sow a lot of evil in my life, I'm going to reap a lot of evil in my life. Now, look at Galatians chapter 6 verse 7. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what sower man soweth, that shall he also reap. Be that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the Spirit, shall the Spirit reap life everlasting. So, notice you're going to reap what you sow in this life. Whether that's good or bad. I can show you multiple verses. I've told you many and I showed you one that's very clear. And the context of Galatians chapter number 6 is both positive and negative. It's saying, hey, this is a good thing and a bad thing. But realize, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, you're one of these people. You're either sowing nothing, a little bit, or a lot. And you're also sowing good or you're sowing bad. You're somewhere in that spectrum. No matter who you are in this room. But guess what, you're going to reap that way too. And you say, man, I just keep reaping nothing in my life. Nothing good's ever happening to me. Here's my question, are you sowing anything to have good return to you? You say, well, what does that look like? Well, it's like, my marriage sucks. Well, are you sowing anything good in your marriage? I want my spouse to love me. Are you sowing love in your spouse? I want my spouse to do good on me. Are you sowing good in your spouse? You know, and marriage is a two-way street. Now, I say this, even if your spouse is not sowing into you, you should sow, you know, anyway. You know, you can only control yourself and you can only do good under your spouse. But I'm telling you what, you know, if you're not reaping anything very good, my question is, are you sowing anything very good? You know, marriage cannot be an only-take relationship. You're going to suffocate the marriage. You've got to sow into your marriage. You've got to do good under your spouse. Often what happens is the person that feels like the marriage is the worst is probably the person that's not sowing at all. In their mind, they think the problem is the spouse. It's like, if you're sitting here and you think, I really hope my spouse is listening, you need to be listening. You say, oh, my spouse isn't doing any good to me. My spouse is always nagging me. My spouse is never telling me anything I like to hear. My spouse doesn't want to be around me. Whatever it is, whatever issue you have with your spouse, are you looking at yourself and saying, am I sowing what I want out of them? I want them to talk more sweetly to me. Okay, are you talking sweetly to them? I want them to be more loving towards me. Are you being loving towards them? Whatever it is that you want in your relationship, here's my question. Are you sowing it? Well, a little bit. Well, then are you reaping just a little bit? Well, I don't sow much. You're probably not getting much. You know, the people that have the best marriages are sowing a ton into their relationship, sowing a ton into their spouse. And the people that are dissatisfied, my encouragement is this, sow. Didn't God say God's not mocked? If you sow a lot, you're going to say, hey, I want friends. Well, are you sowing friendships? You know, no one ever wants to be my friend. Well, are you being friendly to other people? You know, a man that has friends must show himself friendly, meaning you have to go out and make the initiative. You have to talk to people. You have to be kind to people. You have to take people out and do fun to other people if you want that reciprocated, if you want to have friendship. You know, if you want to be blessed in the workplace, are you sowing blessings in the workplace? Or are you just constantly nagging about? You know, I see a lot of people, they think they deserve a promotion. So instead of just working hard and hoping they get one eventually, they start getting really bitter. And they make snide remarks to their employer. They're constantly chippy with the boss. They start feeling like they're entitled to things. Well, I deserve a promotion, so I think I can just start showing up late because they haven't given me it yet. Or I think I just start taking money out of the register because they owe me that money or whatever. They start getting this entitled attitude. Well, guess what? You're going to reap that. You're going to reap where people are going to do the same thing to you. You know, oh, man, I want this out of my kids. Well, are you sowing it into your kids? Are you sowing love and affection and obedience? You know, often I find that people, kids, are going to just be a direct parent of themselves. Meaning what? If your kids are struggling to be obedient, well-behaved, or doing right, here's what I ask. How are you doing to your authorities in your life? Are you obedient to the authorities in your life? See, all my kids always talk back. Well, do you talk back about the authorities in your life? You know, are you constantly criticizing your boss at home? Because then your kids might think, oh, so I should criticize my boss, which is mom and dad. You know? Or, hey, the kids are always disobedient to me. Well, here's the thing. Are you disobedient to your husband? Are you bad talking to your husband? Are you doing good under your husband? Husbands, are you doing good under your wives? Are you doing good under your employer? Are you doing good under church? You know, you're going to reap spiritually. Do you leave church and then talk crap on church all the way home? Guess what? You're going to reap that in your children. You're going to reap that in yourself. You know, people that get disgruntled against church, I guarantee on the way home, they talk crap on church. They were bad-mouthing and they were just sowing evil. They were sowing harm. And look, you know, if I teach something wrong in the Bible, you should teach your family what the Bible says. But at the end of the day, you know, it's not my goal to just see how much crap I can talk on God's people and the church and pastor and my workplace and whatever. And you're going to often reap what you sow. The weight and attitudes that you have, you know, I can show you this in all kinds of places in the Bible. Let's do one more. Go to John chapter 7. Go to John chapter number 7. Good, bad, ugly, all of it. You're just going to reap what you sow. The actions you have, there's going to be a reaction to those things. Now, just because you're only so good also does not mean you can't reap evil for that. Because the Bible says, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So by you loving God, doing right, and helping people, you can end up reaping evil. But it's a consequence of sowing. There is always consequences of sowing. Sometimes consequences will end up having a negative carnal effect. Look at Jesus, what he said in John chapter 7 verse 7. The world cannot hate you. Me, it hated because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil. Now, here's the thing. He's giving you a reaping and sowing. Because he testifies that the world's evil. Because Jesus gets up and calls out the Pharisees. And he says, beware the leaven of the Pharisees. And he calls them whited sepulchers. And he's rebuking the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the lawyers. And he's calling out evil. And he's making clear what sin is. There's a consequence to that, isn't there? And he's going to end up reaping, but he's sown. He's sown a lot of the word of God into these people by rebuking them. So what does he end up reaping? He ends up reaping basically all the evil from the Pharisees. He takes on a lot of their lies and their slander. And he'd say, well that doesn't sound good. Pastor Shelley, why in the world would I want to get up then and preach the word of God, testify of the evil, if knowing I will reap evil from that? Because here's the thing, when men speak evil of you, guess what? It's a spiritual blessing. So even though he was sowing and it seemed like he was getting a negative reaping, he was actually getting a spiritual blessing and a spiritual reaping from sowing the word of God. But you have to realize you have to count the cost. And that sowing is going to come with a cost. And I'll tell you what, preaching the word of God in 2021, there's a cost. Evil will come back at you. And you know why they want to attack you? Because you're calling out their evil. You call out the false prophets of today, they're going to call you a cult, they're going to lie about you, there's going to be slander slung your way. And look what happened. You call out the flat earthers for being stupid, they don't like that. You call out the heretics for being a heretic, they don't like that. You call out the bozos, you call out the Judases, you call out whatever, they're not going to like that. So what they're going to do is they're going to sling mud. They're going to lie about you and falsely accuse you, and they're going to come after you. But you know what? At the end of the day, them coming after you is actually a spiritual blessing. And you say, well, you know what? No one ever speaks evil of me. Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. That's what the Bible said. You know, it's like, ah, you guys have all these people that hate you. Sounds pretty good to me. You know, I'm not here to please men today. Are you here to please men? It's not going to work. This church doesn't please men. I mean, I offered a lady my card tonight. I said, hey, we're from a Baptist church. She looked at it, and she says, steadfast? And she goes, I don't want that. I want nothing to do with your church. And I'm just thinking like, okay, bye. I picked up the card, okay. I didn't let it just litter her. But I'm just like, look, there's literal people that just want nothing to do with Christ. They'll falsely accuse you. Look, I'm there to give her the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm there to tell her how to go to heaven. How could you say that I'm doing some evil or some wicked thing? Look, I'm just there to try and get someone saved. But then they rail on you and lie about you and say that you're evil and say that you're wicked and try to cast you out. Look, when Jesus showed up in towns, he healed them. He just performed miracles, and they were like, get out of here. Go. Get lost. We don't want you. They tried to throw them off a cliff. What did Jesus do that was wrong? You know what? You're going to reap what you sow. And if you sow the word of God in this world, if you're a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you're going to testify of the world that it's evil, you should anticipate evil reaped at you. But, you know, the blessing is that you get a lot of rewards in heaven. Because if you don't have any evil thrown your way, then I guess you're not going to have many rewards. You know, because you lived such an easy, charmed life. You know, I'm not looking to see how charmed a life I can live. And you know what? Jacob had to work really hard for the things that he got. And we should look at his example of being a hard worker and making sure that we're going to reap what we sow, as opposed to just saying, you know what? I just want to live as easy and comfortable life as possible. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this chapter. And thank you for giving us these instructions so that we can realize that our actions have consequences and that there is, you know, always going to be a reaping of what we sow. I pray that we'd realize the importance of sowing into spiritual things, sowing into things that matter, and not just even sowing sparingly, but sowing bountifully so that we can reap bountifully. I pray that we'd have the faith to trust in your promises over what we experience in the carnal. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our final song, we'll go to 203, The Windows of Heaven. 203, The Windows of Heaven. We'll go ahead and sing it through twice. Song 203, The Windows of Heaven. The windows of heaven are open, The blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart, Since Jesus made everything right. I gave Him my old tattered garden, He gave me a robe of dear wine. I'm feasting on manna from heaven, And that's why I'm happy tonight. The windows of heaven are open, The blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart, Since Jesus made everything right. I gave Him my old tattered garden, He gave me a robe of dear wine. I'm feasting on manna from heaven, And that's why I'm happy tonight. Thank you all for coming. God bless your righteousness.