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Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh! Almost. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could find your seats and grab a song book. Please turn your hymnals to song 43, We're Marching to Zion. Song number 43, We're Marching to Zion. Song 43, We're Marching to Zion. Song 43, We're Marching to Zion. Come we that love the Lord And let our joys be known Join in a song with sweet accord Join in a song with sweet accord And thus around the throne And thus around the throne We're marching to Zion Beautiful, beautiful Zion We're marching upward to Zion The beautiful city of God Let those refused to seek Who never knew are gone But children of the heavenly King But children of the heavenly King May speak their joys abroad May speak their joys abroad We're marching to Zion Beautiful, beautiful Zion We're marching upward to Zion The beautiful city of God The hill of Zion yields A thousand sacred suites Before we reach the heavenly fields Before we reach the heavenly fields Or walk the golden streets Or walk the golden streets We're marching to Zion Beautiful, beautiful Zion We're marching upward to Zion The beautiful city of God Then let our songs abound And every tear be dried We're marching through Emmanuel's ground We're marching through Emmanuel's ground To fairer worlds on high To fairer worlds on high We're marching to Zion Beautiful, beautiful Zion We're marching upward to Zion The beautiful city of God Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this evening. Thank you for all the people that came here. I pray that you bless every person here. And that you fill us all with the Holy Spirit. I pray that you bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches to us. And help us all to pay attention tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our second song, we will go to song 187, Jesus Loves Me. 187, Jesus Loves Me. Song 187, Jesus Loves Me. Jesus loves me this I know For the Bible tells me so Little ones to Him belong They are weak but He is strong Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Jesus loves me He who died Heaven's gate to open wide He will wash away my sin Let His little child come in Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Jesus loves me He will stay Close beside me all the way Thou hast pled and died for me I will henceforth live for thee Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me Yes, Jesus loves me The Bible tells me so Alright, looks like you're still out sowing, so I'll go ahead and do the announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, if we have any more in the back, go ahead and raise your hand and the usher will bring you one. Our verse of the week is Psalm 148, 14. If you can quote that to any non-family member, you can get a piece of ice cream or a piece of candy if you have any left, that's if you're under 18. And then next week we'll probably have a grace period for this as well. And if you get the whole chapter done, there'll be a big prize at the end of that. We have our service times on the left side of the bulletin. Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. Spanish service every Sunday at 4 30 p.m. Sunday evening at 5 30 and you're all here for the Wednesday service, 7 o'clock p.m. We have our soul winning times there on the left as well. The ladies time was kind of on pause for a while, that's back now. So if you're a lady and you'd like to go soul winning during the week, all the ladies meet here at 10 30 and go out soul winning, usually at a location that's very close and usually it's houses as well, so if you have strollers or anything like that, it's real easy for the ladies to go out with their kids. All of our regional soul winning times are there on the left there. You can talk to any of those leaders if you have any questions about that. And then we have our stats for the month of November. Let's go ahead and get a count for the last couple of days. Does anyone have any salvations for Monday? Anything for Monday? Okay, two for Monday. What about Tuesday? Anything for Tuesday? Two for Tuesday? And anything for today? I guess we'll find out. Anything besides the van so far today? Okay, we'll update that one later. Then we have a list of our expecting ladies on the top right there, which seems to be half the ladies in the church. Our church has grown by like 15 to 20 people just by kids alone this year, so be fruitful and multiply. Our church seems to be doing really good in that area for sure. Also, we have our prayer list. We have the Noguera family for health. Lucy James, Lucy Hymas, sorry, for her mother's tumors. Cameron Hall for his leg healing. Verity Baptist Church for the health of those people and that the COVID restrictions would be lifted in their country. Same for Pastor Sepulveda, the health of all their people. And I know in Australia I have heard from an Australian sister in Christ that there's a possibility that those restrictions will be lifted soon in the winter, so just keep praying for that. The end might be near for that restriction in Australia, so keep praying for them. Miss Stephanie Weathers, praying for her pregnancy health. Brother Ever Garcia for her mother's health. I know that she had some tests and I'm not sure of the result of those yet, but just keep his mother in your prayer. Also, Matt Illy has a co-worker named Trey Russell, whose brother passed away in some sort of tragic incident. So just be praying for his strength and comfort. And let's go ahead and say a word of prayer as a church now. Lord, thank you so much for this day and thank you for all the believers here. I just pray that you would continue to strengthen our church. I pray that you strengthen our pastor. Give him wisdom, Lord, and I pray that you would add laborers to our church to go out and reach more people, to get more people saved, Lord. I pray for the Nogueira family, that you bless their health, as well as for Miss Lucy's mother. I pray that you would just form a miracle and just completely get rid of all those tumors and rid of all the cancer, Lord. I pray for Brother Cameron, that you would continue to help him in his healing process, his leg surgery, Lord, and also pray for Verity Baptist Church Manila, that you would lift the restrictions in their country. And bless the health of their people, Lord. Same with Australia. I pray that you'd strengthen Brother Stuckey and Pastor Sepulveda, that you'd help them to lead their congregations through a difficult time, and that you would lift the restrictions in Australia as well, Lord. I pray for Brother Edward Garcia's mother. I pray that she would have good news with her results and that she would just strengthen their whole family. I pray for Miss Stephanie Weathers, that she would bless her pregnancy, and also for Brother Matt Eley's friend, that you would just strengthen him and his family during this difficult time. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Right on the back there, we have our yearbook pictures, which the first week of that is going to be this Sunday. There is a sign-up sheet for the 14th, the 21st, and the 28th. And don't forget there's a little spot there to check if you've had a baby in 2021. We're going to have just a spot in the yearbook for all the babies that are born this year. Also, Saturday, December 18th, there'll be a baby shower for Miss Megan Wood, and she is registered at Bye Bye Baby. If you'd like to get her something nice there, please bring a dish to share when you come to this, and it's nurselings only preferred. So obviously we don't want to turn anyone away. If you can't, you know, if you want to bring all your kids, you can, but it's nurselings only preferred. Upcoming events this Saturday, we have our OKC Soul Winning Marathon. I saw a good amount of names over there, so really looking forward to that. Pastor Shelley and I will be down there Friday, and then all the events start Saturday morning. Like I mentioned, the church yearbook pictures. November 24th, we have a Thanksgiving dessert fellowship. December 9th through the 11th, we have our Brownsville Matamoros Soul Winning Marathon. So if you speak English only, you want to come soul winning, or if you speak Spanish and you just don't have a passport or don't want to go over the border for some reason, then you'll be soul winning on the Brownsville, Texas side. If you'd like to go into Mexico, make sure you have your passport. Make sure obviously you speak Spanish, and then you'll be able to go into the Matamoros side. December 14th, we have our Christmas caroling here at 5.30pm. Last year was a lot of fun. Like Pastor said, it's a really good reception. We'll have to see, you know, maybe not go to Hearst. I don't know if they'll like us too much this year, but we'll see. Maybe they will. December 18th, like I said, that baby shower for Miss Megan. December 24th is our candlelight service and cookie bake-off. And then December 31st, something we started last year is a New Year's party, where basically at I believe it's 7 o'clock. It says it on there. At 7 o'clock, basically we're going to have a men's preaching night. And this isn't a men's preaching class. This isn't a spiritual leadership class or anything like that. So the whole church is welcome, but all the men that would like to preach will be able to preach a 5 or 10 minute sermon, depending on how many people sign up. And so the whole church is welcome for that. After the men's preaching night, then we're going to have pizza, and basically people can just bring games and hang out until midnight. It's a great way to spend New Year's Eve. It's a safe way to spend New Year's Eve. While the world's out drinking and getting in car accidents and getting DUIs and hurting people on the roads a lot of time, your family can be safe in the house of God and actually get to spend quality time with the brethren, doing wholesome things, playing games, not having to worry about any of the danger and temptation that's out there on New Year's Eve. And then as always, as you guys know during our situation with our bank, don't try to donate online or write checks to Set Fast Baptist Church at this time. Please just make sure you're giving your checks to Pure Words Baptist Church or donating online at PureWordsBaptist.com. I think it's all for announcements. For our last song, or for our third song, we'll go to song 402, our best. Song 402, our best. Song 402, our best. Here ye the Master's call give me thy best for be it great or small that is his test do then the best you care not for reward, not for the praise of men but for the Lord every work for Jesus will be blessed, but he asks from everyone his best our talents may be few, his may be small, but unto him is do our best our own wait not for men to laud heed not their slight winning the smile of God brings its delight hating the good and true there goes unblest all that we thank for to be it the best every work for Jesus will be blessed, but he asks from everyone his best our talents may be few his may be small, but unto him is do our best our own. Good singing. While the offering plates are being passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 33. That's Genesis chapter 33. Genesis chapter 33, the Bible reads, And with him four hundred men, and he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children, and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves, and after came Joseph near, and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother, keep that thou hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand, for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it. And he said, Let us take our journey, and let us go, and I will go before thee. And he said unto him, My Lord, know it that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me, and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my Lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my Lord unto seer. And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? Let me find grace in the sight of my Lord. So Esau returned that day on his way unto seer, and Jacob journeyed to Succoth, and built him a house, and made booths for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Succoth. And Jacob came to Shalom, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Peydanarim, and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for one hundred pieces of money. And he erected there an altar, and called it Elal He Israel. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for Genesis chapter number 33, and I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit, and help him to expound this chapter to us, so that we can learn more about the truths that are encapsulated here in this portion of Scripture. I also thank you so much for our church, and for the brothers and sisters in Christ who are gathered together in your name tonight, in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. So we're in Genesis chapter 33, and in chapter number 32, we kind of have the set up to this chapter where Jacob is returning back to the Promised Land, and he's sending off to his brother Esau, but he hears that there was a great company coming with Esau, and it scared him, it made him nervous about this encounter, about this basically meeting between him and his brother, because previously his brother wanted to kill him, so he's pretty nervous about returning back and meeting Esau, and he's kind of divided his company up a little bit here, and it says in verse number 1, it says, And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold Esau came and with him four hundred men. He invited the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids, and he put the handmaids in their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, Rachel and Joseph, kindermost. So one thing that ends up happening is when there's all this pressure on Jacob about Esau's coming, and he's coming with four hundred men, which sounds pretty intimidating, like, why is Esau traveling with such a large host of men? You know, you could definitely interpret this as like maybe an army, or he's coming not to necessarily be friendly, but to hurt and harm them. And so he ends up dividing his family because he doesn't want to lose them all in one big bang, but in efforts to divide his family he kind of makes it really clear who he favors over others, okay? He has favorites. And here's the reality in life, is you're always going to have favorites, okay? Now, some people, they try to say like it's wrong to have favorites or something like that. I don't even think it's necessarily wrong to have favorites. It's just a normal emotion. Sometimes you're just going to favor a particular family member over another family member. You may favor a certain child over another child. And obviously as a parent you want to make sure that you're equitable in your judgments, that you're not a respecter of person, that you do good unto all your children. But at the end of the day, sometimes you just can't help just favoring one kid over another, okay? Sometimes you have the black sheep of the family, sometimes you have the white sheep, and you know, you're going to have some favorites here and there. You're going to gravitate towards certain people in your family a little bit more than others. But I believe that the Bible actually teaches this concept of favorites and how you can actually gain this favor, as it were. Keep your finger and go to Proverbs for a moment. Let's look at a few Proverbs this evening as we kind of think about this, but it makes it really clear to all the other children, like Joseph is the one he likes the most. Okay, and that's going to be brought up again later in the Bible about Joseph being his favorite. He favors Rachel, obviously. That was the woman that he wanted to marry initially. Leah and the handmaidens were kind of you know, not necessarily what he wanted initially. He didn't necessarily choose them or pick them. They just kind of, different circumstances came to him, okay? Now, in Proverbs the Bible teaches in chapter number 3 something about favor specifically. Look at verse 1. My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. The length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee, bind them about thine neck, write them upon the table of thine heart. So they'll find favor and good understanding in the sight of God, notice this, and man. So according to the Bible, following God's commandments not only gives you favor with God, but also favor with man. And let me tell you something children, if you want your mom and dad to favor you, obey. It's that clear. It's that simple. Typically, you're going to favor the children that are doing right, that are obeying their parents, they hearken unto their parents, they like the same things their parents like. This is what's going to give you favor with your parents. And if you're struggling with your parents, if your relationship is kind of on the outs with your parents, sometimes you have to ask yourself this question, well how good am I at obeying my parents right now? How obedient am I being? How good of a relationship am I having with my parents? Maybe that's the reason why I don't have favor. Maybe I'm not the favorite because I'm the black sheep. Maybe I'm not the favorite because I'm causing them all kinds of pain and sorrow and woe and that's the reason why they're not giving me this kind of favor. Go to chapter 8 for a moment, go to chapter 8. And look, Jesus has favorites. It's called John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. He got the lean on his breast. You know, Jesus is going to have favorites and you say, why? Because he's going to favor those who truly love him, who are following his commandments, that are more sincere, that are basically having the same kind of love back to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, even today, God has favorites. And you know, fortunately, my wife always reminds me that she's one of God's favorites. Whenever we're driving and there's like a front parking spot and we get it and I'm like, how do you always get that? She's like, because I'm one of God's favorites. And I get it. But I always tell her this, I say, well, that just means that I'm his most favorite because I got to marry you. So, you know, if I got you, then that makes me his most favorite because I got to be married to the greatest woman ever. So obviously, I'm the most blessed. She had to settle with me, so obviously she's not as blessed as I am. Now, look what it says in Proverbs chapter 8, verse 34. Let's read some more verses here. It says, Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. He that sinned against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death. So again, the Bible ties the favor of the Lord to what? Finding him, bless the man that heareth him, that's at his gates, that's waiting. So notice, if you serve God, if you're following the Lord, you're going to gain favor with God. And, you know, some people, they get really annoyed with the idea of, well, why do I always have to go to church? Or why do I always have to read the Bible? Or why do I always, you know, have to serve the Lord? You know, pray. Or why does God want me to go soul-wanting? But here's one of the benefits. You get favor from God when you do. God is going to favor those who are waiting at the gates, who are those that are seeking after the Lord, that want to find them, that want to hear them. And look, people that come on a Wednesday night to hear the word of God, these are people trying to find Jesus. You know, there's not a lot of people that are interested in finding Jesus today. You know what? They're interested in finding, you know, money, or they're finding drugs, or finding the next hit, or the next high, or whatever it is out there, the next hookup. That's what they're trying to find out there today. You know what? People that show up at church on Wednesday night, they're trying to find Jesus. And let me tell you a benefit. Favor. You're going to be one of God's favorites when you're seeking after Him, and you're trying to follow His commandments, and you're doing that which is right. Go to Proverbs chapter 13. Go to Proverbs chapter number 13. You know, we're reading a story about a man named Jacob. And let me tell you something about the Bible, and I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but it's almost always isolated to a single person. Think about the storyline of the Bible. It's just like we just go from one guy to the next guy. It's just like Abraham. There's a lot of people on the earth, but isn't the Bible just, it's Abraham for a while, and then it's like Isaac, and then it's Jacob, and then it's Joseph, and then it's Moses, and then it's Joshua, right? I mean, it's just like one guy that's just being really highlighted, really just focused in on, we're really identifying. I mean, even the New Testament. It's like Peter, and then it's like Paul, and then it's like Paul, and then it's like Paul, and then it's like Paul, and then it's like Paul, and then it's like Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. And then we get some John at the end, right? But what am I telling you is I'm telling you, you know, it's better to just be right with God because He's going to give you so much more favor, so much more blessing, you know, when you're seeking after Him. And it doesn't have to be everyone. It's just you. You're in control of God favoring you, of God blessing you, and it comes with your service to Him. It comes to your faithfulness for Him. We have the Hall of Faith about individuals that are seeking Him, and they're going to have great favor with the Lord. And you know what? I would rather if my dad were in a pressured situation, and he's deciding which of my families are on the front lines and which ones in the back, he's like, you go in the back. I don't want to be like, hey, get way up there in the front. Why don't you go lead the charge? Why don't you go meet Him first? And I'd rather be the one that God is saying, stay back. Isn't that what you want in the tribulation? Isn't that what you want in the end time? When there's severe persecution, do you really want God to be like, you're just like the pawn. Just go ahead and go. Or does He want you to be like, you know, the king on the chessboard and say like, we've got to protect you at all costs. We'll sacrifice anything, but we want to keep you as far back away from danger. We want to protect you. Why? Because you're His favorite. And God is going to be the same way with us when we follow His commandments. Look at Proverbs chapter 13 verse 15. Good understanding giveth favor. But the way of transgressors is hard. The Bible teaches to get wisdom. And with all that getting, get understanding. We're supposed to get the wisdom from God. We're supposed to get the understanding from God. And it's going to give you favor in your life. Favor with God. Favor with men. Look at chapter 14 verse 9. Fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. Oh, going to church. They mock going to church. Do you know what? The people that show up at church are going to be favored and the people that forsake church are going to be cursed. Sin is not something to mess with. There's consequences. You know, most people's world is falling apart. I mean, if we just went out and just talked, you just talk to anybody. Hey, is life going real easy today or real hard? Isn't it just like almost everybody like it's really hard right now. Life sucks. Life's terrible. Life's a problem. And it's like, you know why? Because the way of transgressors is hard. And the more sinful a nation is, the more sinful a state is, the more sinful a family is, the more sinful an individual is, the harder their life is. And you look at people in your life, think about the people that have the worst life. And I'm not trying to contradict the book of Job here, but what I'm telling you is generally true that those that are living really messed up lives, it's almost always a severe consequence of the sins in their life. You look at the people that forsake the Lord, they mock his commandments, they mock the wisdom of God, and they're just living a train wreck of a life. Just a horrible, messed up life. And the people that are having the happiest lives, the most joy, the most stress-free lives are the ones that are closest to God. It's just how it is. Even in the midst of all kinds of persecution and evil, you can still have joy. But you know, even in the midst of all the mirth and joy, the heart is still sorrowful. Even in laughter, the heart is sorrowful, as the Bible says. Even these people that have all this money and they're having all these parties or whatever, they're just still sad and depressed because no one really likes them. Nobody really cares about them. They could be the next victim of cancel culture like that. They could be the next victim of AIDS like that. They could be the next victim of all kinds of evil and horrible things that happen to them. And you know what? They have no peace. They live out stressed out lives. That's why they're always on drugs. You know why people are on drugs? Because their life sucks. When you're really happy, you don't need to take a drug to get happy because you're already happy. Why do people take drugs? Why do people drink alcohol? Because they feel bad. And they want to either forget that they don't feel bad or they want to get some kind of high because they don't feel good enough. They don't feel happy enough. And that's why these celebrities are always hooked on all kinds of drugs and alcohol and they're addicted to all kinds of fornication and adultery because they live miserable lives. They just go from hit to hit to hit to hit. If you want to have true favor and true blessing and true just peace, it comes from following God's commandments. It's that clear. It's that simple. And you say, well, nobody's coming to church. Yeah, look, the world's screwed up. The world's living a really hard life. You say, well, we'll fix it. Getting their butt in church. Opening up a Bible. Actually realizing that you're supposed to have some judgment in your life. Oh, judge not. Where's that verse? Oh, okay. Then let's read all of it. Not just the first two words. Okay? Because, yeah, there's all kinds of two-worded sentences that could come up from the Bible that are twisted out of context. But at the end of the day, we need people to actually serve God and read the Bible and get some wisdom so they don't just destroy themselves. Look at verse 35. Same chapter. The king's favor is over a wise servant. But his wrath is against him that causes shame. Look, you know why you like a certain employee over another one? Because one employee follows all the rules and does a good job and the other employee sucks. The other employee's late. The other employee breaks the rules. The other employee doesn't do a good job. It's really clear why someone would be someone's favorite is because of their actions. And I'm telling you something between Joseph and the sons of the handmaidens. Joseph loves God's commandments. Joseph is a righteous person and the sons of the handmaidens are wicked and lazy and slothful. That's why he's like, I don't care if you kill them. Esau, just take them out. It'll probably be easier on me. He doesn't really feel that way. I'm just, I'm hyperbolizing. But at the end of the day, he's a lot less worried about losing them than he is losing Joseph. Joseph is more special to him. Joseph is his favorite. And I'm telling you, if you want to be a favorite, it comes through following God's commandments. Look at chapter 18. I want to show you another verse here. Flip the page. Chapter 18. Look at verse 22. Here's another way to get favor. Whoso findeth a wife, findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord. You know, getting a wife is a good thing. And when you find a wife, the Bible says that God gives you favor by finding a wife. And you know what? You need it. Wives can be a hard thing. Wives can be a lot of work. But at the end of the day, God's going to give you that favor. And in this chapter it's really important to understand that Jacob is a shepherd. Literally. But not just literally like keeping sheep. He's a shepherd of his family. He's a shepherd of his wife. He's a shepherd of his children. And he's very conscious of what it takes to be a good shepherd. And whenever you're a good shepherd, God's going to give you favor. You know, if you find a wife and you start leading in the right directions and you start guiding her and you're doing good under her, God is going to want to bless you because everything rolls downhill. And whenever the man is reading his family in the right directions, God's going to want to give that man favor because of the decisions he's making for his family. When a guy's not taking care of his family, he's not taking care of his wife, he's not taking care of his kids, he's not being a good shepherd, then oftentimes they may even lose the goods that God gave them. That's why it's important to be a good shepherd. And when you find this wife and you're doing good under this woman, God is going to give you favor. Okay? Now, go if you would back to chapter number three. It's just like when you get married, your parents want to see you more. And when you have kids, they want to see you even more. It's kind of the same way. God likes you more when you've got a wife and have kids and you're reproducing, they want to see them more and they want to spend time with them more. It eventually gets to the point where they're like, just drop the kids off and don't come home. They don't really care about you, they just want to see the kiddos or whatever. But you get more favor, your parents like you even more. I'll tell you a trick. You want your parents to like you? Have a lot of kids. And have a lot of good kids. Because they'll be like, man, I just really love these great little grandchildren that I have. It'll make your parents like you even more. Marry a good woman. Marry a good husband. It'll make your parents like you even more. Now, I want to read just verse three here. We're in Genesis chapter 33. Look at verse three. It says, and he passed over before them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. Now, I talked about favorites and he divided his family. But then notice what he does. The Bible says in verse three, and he passed over before them. Notice, even though he staggers his family, he still put himself in front of all of them. He still passed over them and he's still going to lead them and protect them and be the good shepherd for his entire family. So even though he might favor Joseph over Nathalie, or Gad, or whatever, he's still going to stand in front of Nathalie and Gad. He's still going to be in front of the handmaids. He's still going to be in front of every single one of his family members and he's going to lay down his own life before his family. He's not following behind them. He's leading the family. He's taking the charge. He's the protector and the guider of his family. And you know what? As men, we need to be leading the charge for our family. Go to 1 Peter chapter number three. Go to 1 Peter chapter number three. And the thing about Jacob is Jacob is a normal person where he's got good and bad. And when we read about Jacob, he does some things that are really bad and really horrifying. And he does a lot of good things and he has a lot of good attributes. And I believe that's why God picked him. God has favor towards him. Because generally speaking, he's a good guy. Generally speaking, he loves his family. Generally speaking, he's doing that which is right. He's a good shepherd. He's a hard worker. He loves the Lord. And yeah, he has faults. Like every man has faults. But at the end of the day, Jacob is making a lot of good decisions here and we can learn from this example. 1 Peter chapter three, look at verse seven. Likewise, ye husbands dwell with them, talking about their wives, according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. Now, let's slow down and think about this verse for a moment. Okay? Number one, it makes a distinction between the gender. Men are stronger than women. Fact. Okay? Now, anybody that denies that is just a lost cause. Don't worry about these people. Okay? There's no point in even talking to them. They're just so brainwashed and deluded that there's no point ever describing any of these people. And the world we live in today is having a raging battle over that. But we need to understand that our wives are weaker than us so that we can behave appropriately. You know, there's no glory in a dude putting on a dress and dunking on a woman. Okay? There's no glory in a dude wearing a dress and tackling a woman or beating up a woman or whatever. That's disgusting. That's sick. That person should be taken out and shown what it's like to fight real men. Okay? And it's funny, all these little tutu dress-wearing freaks could never compete against real men. You know? They just have to try to pretend to be a man to beat up on women. Okay? And sometimes they even lose. That's even funnier. Alright? But the Bible's telling us it's not, you know, this is not written for the atheist. I don't know if you don't realize it. This is written to you and me. This has meaning to us. We realize that men are stronger than women. Okay? But it's only from a physical perspective. Okay? In this context. It's not talking about the fact that they're lesser value or anything like that. It's not saying like well, your vessel is worth more than their vessel. It's not about worth. It's about just practical things. They're just not physically as strong as us. And in some areas of mentality, they're not as strong as men. And in some areas spiritually, they're not as strong as men. Okay? But at the end of the day, they're still equal in value. Just like your little baby, it's not like your baby's life isn't the same as your life as far as value. It's just as weaker. You know, it can't defend itself. It's not as strong. It's not able to learn as much. It needs to grow and develop. And from a physical perspective, women will never be as strong as men, generally speaking. And there's certain aspects that men mentally are gonna always be better than women. As far as being more logical, being more cognitive thinking, maybe more prone to math or science. Whereas women are gonna have some strengths too. Women, you know, they're better at multitasking. They have more empathy. They're better at reading situations and basically anything dealing with feelings. Okay? They're like a triple expert and we're like we don't even understand what feelings are. We can barely spell it. Okay? So, but those differences help. Because we need those differences to complement one another and to work together and to realize they have value by being different. They have strengths that we don't have. And sometimes you need to lean on the strengths of your wife and realize, hey, your wife has some advantages that you don't have. Take advantage of those things. You know, be complementary to your wife. You know, my wife is better than me at lots of things. Cooking, I mean, she makes some great rolls. I had some last night. So, that's how you know you're blessed, right? And I mean, she just, she does lots of things really well. She's a little bit more gifted when it comes to paying attention to details and things like that. So, you know, if I write something or I do something that's, you know, literature, I might have her proofread it. She's way better at commas than me, okay? Apparently, I leave them all out. She puts them all back in, alright? But, you know, there's nothing wrong with my wife being better than me at something either. Okay? So, I'm not intimidated by my wife being better at something than me or smarter or understanding something better than I am. But at the same token, she shouldn't be intimidated by the fact that I'm better at certain things. When it comes to what? Physical strength, leading, being logical, being reasonable. You know, a man is really even-killed. He's going to be very consistent. You know, when there's pressure or stress, he's going to be able to handle it. Women are like this, you know? It's like, and that was like the last five minutes, okay? I mean, especially when you throw in pregnancy and postpartum and you throw in all these other variables, dealing with children all the time. I mean, it's just insane. You know, you can't rationalize it because they're irrational. But it's okay because we're different. But notice that there's still an air together with us of the grace of life. And we're supposed to treat them with respect. We're supposed to love them and guide them and take care of them, understanding that they're weaker. And notice what happens when you do this. Your prayers are not hindered. You know what that sounds like to me? Favor. You get favor with God because you're taking care of them. So, when Jacob is leading the charge when he's in front of the pack, you know what that tells me? God's going to hear his prayers because he's considering the fact that they're weaker behind him. Whereas if he led them, he put them all up in front, now he's less likely to have God answer his prayers. His prayers are now going to potentially be hindered because he's not considering the fact that they're just as valuable even though they're a little bit weaker. So, as a man, we have to take charge. We have to lead. We have to set the example. You have to man up. You have to say, you know what? I'm going to make the decisions. I'm going to make the choices for our family. I'm going to rule the family. And you know, when it comes to ruling and leading, you know, we need to take Jacob's approach here because Jacob, and I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but Jacob does it with gentleness. He does it with care. He does it with love. He's not just ruling to rule. He's not just ruling because he just thinks it's fun and he just likes being in charge. Now, he just cares about his family. He realizes he's the best suited one for the job, so he's going to do that job. You know, whatever we're best suited for, we need to fulfill that role. My wife's best suited at making babies. You know, I can't do it. You know, my participation rate is less than one percent. Okay? She does everything else. I mean, she carries the thing for nine months and then she's the exclusive feeder of the child and teacher and just like everything. I mean, for the first six, seven months of a baby's life, they only like mom anyways. I mean, mom is their best and only person on the planet they really care about. I'm not even a close second. You know, it's like they have to start getting weaned and later in life they actually think that dad's a real person that they can like or something, you know. It's like, who are you? You know, get out of here. It's like, give me back to her. You never feed me. You know, you never do anything. You know, it's not even a fair comparison. You know what? I'm a better provider. I'm a better leader. I can be more strong. I can be more direct than her. So, I need to do that. I need to fulfill that role in my life and you know what? Every man needs to do that. And it's not just me. It's you. Every man in this room is stronger than their wife and they need to lead the charge of their wife and they just they need to face the ESOLs first and not make their wife do it and not make their children do it. They need to be the ones that confront the difficult situations, the pressured situations of life. Go back to Genesis chapter number 33, verse 4 for a moment. So, even though we have a lot of spiritual pictures in the book of Genesis and we have a lot of other things we can look at, it has a lot of practical advice. You know, I think it's good to get a balance here. You know, a lot of verses in the Bible point to Jesus but then a lot of them also just picture life circumstances and principles that we need to learn from. Verse 4, the Bible says, and Esau ran to meet him and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they wept. He lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant. You know, that's the attitude you guys need to have. This is the wife that God graciously gave me. Now, what does gracious mean? Something you don't deserve. Hey, the woman that you have, that you married, you don't even deserve her. God has graciously given me. And the children that you've been given, you don't even deserve them. God just graciously gave them to thy servant. Verse 6, Then the handmaidens came near, they and their children they bowed themselves. And Leah also where the children came near and bowed themselves. And after came Joseph near and Rachel and they bowed themselves. And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that, thou hast unto thyself. Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee, if now I have found grace in my sight, then receive my present in my hand. For therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it. So, preceding all of the family members, he also sent multiple presents, multiple gifts unto Esau. And Esau's coming and meeting him, and all the fears that he had were totally unwarranted, because notice Esau is just so glad to see his brother. He's just glad to have him back, and you know, one thing that we could learn from Esau, and I know Esau gets kind of a bad rap in the Bible, but Jacob never really came to Esau and apologized. At this point, before, he hasn't really apologized yet. Yeah, these gifts are coming, but he doesn't really understand it. He hasn't really had time to talk with him yet. It seems like he was already prepared to forgive him, or already had forgiven him very clearly, according to the Bible. You know, you can't just go from rage of killing your brother to just, like, love and weeping that quickly. It must have been a genuine emotion he was already feeling on his way there. And here's the thing. Sometimes you just need to let things go. You may be angry in the moment, in the season, and some people struggle with this. They say, oh man, you don't know what my brother did to me ten years ago. And it's like, let it go. You know, move on. Like, if you got a chance to go see them again, or whatever, don't then just, like, bring up ten years ago again. Just be like, I'm just glad that we're getting to hang out again. We got another day here. Just let some things go. Just have some grace for people. And that's what Jacob was asking for. Grace. Again, not that he deserved it, but that Esau is just gracious to him, loving, kind, needs of him. But here's another thing that I think is interesting about this. Jacob gives all this money and goods into Esau, and what was the purpose to find grace, which tells me Jacob valued people more than money. Go to Proverbs, again, I want to show you a few more verses here. Jacob valued people more than money. You know, he didn't, it's not a big deal for him to part with all this stuff. All this money, all this goods, he just gave it to Esau. But he wanted to make sure that his family was safe. He wanted to make sure that nothing bad happened to his family. And unfortunately, the world that we live in today, there are some parents that would sell their kids out for a nickel. There are some people that money and their job and all the things that they have is more important than their family. And let me tell you something, nothing is more important than your family that's in this life, you know. Obviously the Lord is more important, we elevate him, okay. But I'm saying, you know, the things of this world, sports and money and your job and all these other things, they're not more important than your family. You know, and people elevate so many things above their wife and over their children and all these things. You know, I want to have a great job. You know, I'm not one of these type of people that just wants to have a weird job or a loser job or not make good money or whatever. But I'll tell you, there are certain jobs that I refused to take in my life because I knew that it would be putting my family on the back burner. And sometimes I have had to put my family on the back burner for a job because it was temporary, you know. When I became a software developer and changed positions or when I was going back to school to get like a master's degree and stuff, there were times I was making some sacrifices with my family to maybe get ahead in my career. But I was doing it on a temporary basis. It wasn't something that was supposed to be permanent and if it had become permanent I would need to make a change. Because I don't want to just live my life neglecting my family the whole time. You know, I don't want to be on this career path. Or sometimes I would look at a job and I would say if I get promoted it's going to be worse for my family, not better. Whereas there's other jobs and things that you can do in your life where it gets better. You know, it gets easier or you're spending time with your kids. And you know, even pastoring. Pastoring can be something that's very easy to neglect your family, neglect your wife, ministry and all these things. It's easy to say because you're serving the Lord theoretically so you kind of want to be like, well that's more important than family and everything like that. And at the end of the day God is more important. I'm not saying He isn't. But even myself included, I have to sometimes try to make sure I'm balancing work and my family. And I don't always do great at that, you know. I'm sure every man in this room doesn't do great at that at times. I'm just here to try to encourage you that it's something that's very important. You need to think about it and I believe you'll be more happy and more right with God having a worse job and spending more time investing in your family than investing in some career and having all this money and neglecting your family. And look, you know, that's a little subjective, okay. And I'm not here to condemn anybody or tell anybody that you're wrong or that you need to spend this many hours you know, with your family. Because even in America we're pretty lazy. I mean the Bible says six days out thou labor. Most people only work five days a week, okay. But I'm saying at least give your family like a day a week. You know, try to spend some time with them. There was a company I was working for doing software development and they wanted me to leave at like seven or eight at night or get home at seven or eight at night. And I basically told my boss, I'm like if that's what you want I'm going to look for another job. Because I said my kids go to bed at seven or eight. I'm like you're basically saying I can't see my kids Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And I'm like that's just not important enough to me. It doesn't matter what money you throw at me, you know. And again, I could be tempted just like anybody else. I could look at that promotion, I could look at that money and I could say well I just, I really want that. You know, I guess I need to make that sacrifice. But I'm telling you that Jacob is not valuing money over his family and if you want to have favor with God you're going to evaluate your family and say my family is more important than money. My family is more important than you know virtually everything else. You know I would even say a specific church. Not church in general but a specific church. You know if I had to pick you know my family and going to an okay church or not having my family at all in church and going to a better church it's like I'd rather just have my family in at least a decent church where we can serve God together and do things that are right. I'm not saying go to a bad church. My philosophy has always been go to the best church in your area. And I believe that with all my heart. But I'm just saying if push came to shove and I can get my wife and my family into one church and they're going to actually serve God versus they're just not going to go to church I would rather take the sacrifice and get them in some church. And even sometimes, you know, taking my wife, I remember we went to this old IMB church and it was not perfect, okay. Just like every church is not perfect. I don't know if you realize this. No church is perfect, okay. It had some problems. And that's a big problem. What I notice is by just dragging them there three times a week, they started getting really sick and tired of all the problems. So I'm like this thing kind of sucks, you know. These doctrines suck. This preaching is not that great. This program they have I see the problems. And they start seeing all the problems and then they start desiring a better church. It's like well if we're going to go might as well go to the best church in the area. So by even going to a little bit lamer of a church or a worse option, it then motivated us all to realize this is why we want to go to this kind of a church. And then you start going to the good church. You start appreciating what you have. You know, some of you, maybe you've only gone to this kind of a church. You don't even know what's out there. It's a jungle, okay. I'm just being honest. And I'm not trying to like put us on a pedestal or anything because I don't even think that we're that exceptional. I just think everybody else is that bad. It's just so, the options are just like, you know, leftovers from McDonald's and you're just like that or rotting food or whatever and it's like just anything that's edible is just like nice to have. No one wants to preach the Bible anymore. Okay. But what we can learn from Jacob is that he valued, you know, he said look take all my money. Just don't do anything to my family. Just give me grace. He'd rather, I guarantee Jacob would rather have started over with nothing. After working for 20 years and acquiring great wealth, he probably would have pressed a button that said take all of my money as long as I have my family and I'll start over again. That's how much he loves his family and that's, you know, a good mentality and a good heart of a shepherd. Proverbs chapter 19, look at verse 6. Many will entreat the favor of the prince and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts. I wonder if that runs through Jacob's mind. He's like, hey, if I give gifts to Esau, he might give me some favor, right? Proverbs 22, look at verse 1. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold. Notice what the Bible says. Loving favor is better than silver and gold. How did you get that loving favor? Following God's commandments. How about other things? So, find the wife. Find his favor. Obtain a favor of the Lord. Right? So, we see, you know, loving your spouse, providing for your spouse, protecting your spouse is better than having all the money in the world! Look, the people that have all kinds of money, they would press a button and get all of it away if they could have a loving spouse and loving children. Because it's not, money just doesn't matter. It's a vanity that you can never get enough of. It'll never satisfy you. It's just a lie. Let's look at the last portion here and I want to have a few more thoughts. Genesis chapter 33, look at verse number 12. And he said, Let us take our journey and let us go, and I will go before thee. And he said unto them, My Lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me. And if men should drive them one day, all the flock will die. Let my Lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my Lord and to see her. And Esau said, Let me now leave with thee some of the folk that are with me. And he said, What needeth it? Let me find grace in the sight of my Lord. So Esau returned that day on his way unto see her, and Jacob's journey to Sukkoth, and he held him in house, and made booze for his cattle. Therefore the name of the place is called Sukkoth. Jacob came to Shalom, a city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, when he came from Pedenarim, and pitched his tent before the city. And he bought a parcel of a field where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money, and he erected there an altar, and called it El Elohim Israel. Now I don't know exactly what that means, but the word El is God in the Bible, so it's kind of like God God, and it's probably just the God of Israel. I'm pretty sure that's what that means. You could look it up. Obviously you have to like trust Jewish rabbis on some of these things, so I don't even know, but we know that El is God, we know that Israel is obviously Israel, so it's probably just saying God, the God of Israel, is what that kind of is saying. And it's interesting, you know, he ends up setting up this altar, and he buys this field, and we kind of see him giving tribute to God, that he returned back to the land, because he left to get a wife, he came back safely, he got his wives and his children, and he got all kinds of money. Success! I mean, in a sense, isn't it? Obviously it's not exactly how he envisioned it, because he got a few extra wives, okay? He's got a few extra children, probably got more than he was anticipating. But he probably got a lot more money than he was anticipating coming back with, too. He didn't even go for the money. He went for the girl and came back with it all, okay? But his heart hasn't changed for the money, his heart's still on the people, because notice how he describes them journeying, he says in verse number 13 that the children are tender, okay? And he says in verse 14, I will lead on softly. Now why does he lead on softly? Because the flock, because the children, because the wives are tender, they can't endure the same as he can. And this is what men often don't realize. What's the whole point of 1 Peter chapter number 3 and the verse is talking about the weaker vessel? You can do things your wife can't. You can do more than she can. You can do more than your children can. And it would be foolish to put the same expectations on her that you put on yourself. You should have higher expectations on yourself than on her, okay? Especially physically, right? Imagine if, you know, you and your wife were working out and you're trying to help her. You know, you're like, let's lift some weights, right? And you pick up the dumbbell and you pick up 50 pounds or whatever and you do like 10 reps. You're like, all right, your turn, honey. Wouldn't it be normal to be like, how about you do like a 20 pounder, right? Or a 10 pounder because she can't do the same weight. That would be an unrealistic expectation to put on your wife to lift the same amount of weight that you are because she's obviously physically, you know, weaker in a sense. Or if you go running. She can't necessarily run the same pace, the same rate, the same length of time that you're running. Isn't this real obvious? I think everybody's just like, this is really obvious, Pastor Shelley, okay? We get it. Okay, we'll go to 1 Timothy chapter number 2. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number 2. It's just so obvious. Well, the reason why it's so obvious is so that you can understand the spiritual part, okay? The spiritual picture here. Just like it would be unrealistic to anticipate your wife to lift the same amount of weights and be as physically enduring as you also would be the same spiritually. Look what it says in 1 Timothy chapter number 2 verse number 11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. So the Bible says, I didn't make this up, okay? I didn't write the Bible. The Bible plainly says that Adam wasn't deceived and Eve was deceived. And that there's a reason why women are supposed to keep silence in the church because they're more easily deceived, okay? And we're talking about spiritual matters. And we're talking about the fact that what did the devil do? He came and he tempted Eve, okay? So if I'm not going to put the same expectations on my wife physically, here's another trick out of here. How about spiritually? Should I put the exact same expectations on my wife spiritually? Now what does this look like? I would say it looks like this. You know, how about you're facing really severe persecution or some kind of a spiritual enemy or some kind of a fearful thing? You should not expect your wife to have the same spiritual bravery as you do. Because you're the man of the house. So sometimes you have to lead your wife even when they're a little bit more fearful, they're a little bit more afraid. It's harder on them. And you shouldn't give them a hard time if they struggle with things that you don't struggle with. You're like, you know, hey, walking into church with a bunch of fags yelling at me, I think it's great! I think it's wonderful! I'm just like, woo! Praise the Lord! You know what? Your wife might not think that way. Your children might not think that. It might actually be stressful for them. They might feel uncomfortable. You know, walking out at night and there's a bunch of protesters screaming, you know, all the horrible things they're going to do to you and your family. That might hurt them a little bit more than it would hurt you. That might intimidate them more than it would intimidate you. So it would be a wise thing to do is to lead on softly. There'd be something you could do. Go get the car and bring it up to the front door and let them just get in right there. Be valet. Why? Because you're the stronger vessel. You can handle them screaming and yelling at you. You can handle the heat. You can handle the problems or whatever issues may arise. And that's one example. There's a litany of examples. You know, don't look at your wife and be like, well, you need to be as spiritually strong as I am. You know, you must be weak in faith or whatever. You know, that would be a silly attitude to have. That would be the same attitude as a guy expecting his wife to lift the same amount of weights. Sometimes your wife is going to struggle with things that you don't and vice versa or be weaker in certain areas and you have to lead. You have to protect. You have to guide. And you know what a good leader, a good shepherd does? Is he doesn't criticize people that are under him for being under him. The best leader, the best managers, the best shepherds take someone that's not as strong as you, not as capable as you, knows less than you, and develops them into the people that you want them to be. You know, instead of looking at someone that's under your leadership as being inadequate because of their own deficiencies, why don't you look at it as I need to encourage them, support them, help them, and lead them so they can be better. Maybe it's your fault. Most people have this idea when it comes to the work. They say the reason I'm not good at my job is because my boss won't give me the training or my boss won't give me the opportunity or my boss won't help me. They're not sitting there like, the reason why I'm not getting ahead is because I'm just lazy and I don't work hard and I don't obey. They always blame someone else. They always blame the upper management. Man, if my boss would just let me do more, if they would just give me the opportunity, if they would just teach me, if they would let me give me that training, whatever, then I could just really shine. Maybe your wife feels that way. Maybe your wife feels like she would shine if you just let her, if you guide her, if you lead her, if you teach her. And you know what? When you guide your wife in the commandments of the Lord, she can shine. And if you say, I feel like my wife's not all the woman that I want her to be. Well, sometimes you have to look at yourself and say, how are you doing? Are you leading them gently, softly? Are you putting unrealistic expectations on them? Here's an unrealistic expectation. Expecting your pregnant wife to go soul winning in 100 degree heat. That's stupid. Or, I heard, this is hearsay, I believe it's true. Some guy was preaching that his wife needed to fast for 18 hours while pregnant. What in the world? What kind of bizarre thing is that? Or, just any kind of physical endurance, physical strength, expecting your spouse to be able to keep up with you when they're pregnant or nursing or having to deal with kids all day or whatever. You have to realize there's a difference between you and her. And you know what? You need to be the man to lead the house and to study the Bible and to teach them. And look, I hope that women are as smart as humanly possible, know as much as humanly possible, the spiritual giants of this world. But at the end of the day, the potential for a man is higher. It's just how the Bible, you know, paints the picture. That's why they're the leaders. That's why they're the pastors, the teachers, the prophets. They're the ones that have the higher potential. Because you have a higher potential, you need to use it. And look, it's a shame when your wife is out doing you spiritually, that's not her fault, that's your fault. And you know what? You go girl, okay? I'm not against you being spiritual. Alright? You get all excited about the word of God. You memorize Scripture, but it's like women can only get so physically strong, right? The strongest woman will never compete with the strongest man. This is not reality, okay? And the spiritual giants of this world should be men. That's why it's a shame when you go to a church and there's a woman pastor, a woman leader. It's like there's not a man that can come to her level. There's not a man that can exceed her level. It's like, what happened to all the men in the world today? You know, it's a shame when we have all these women in places of authority. Women governors. A woman vice president. There's not a man that can lead the United States of America. What a shame and a folly when we have women doing the job of men. It's not her fault, it's his fault. It's the men of this country's fault that we have women leading this nation. And you know what? It's a shame when women have to lead their family. And you know what? It's not her fault that she has to lead her family. It's your fault. It's the guy's fault. It's the man's fault. It's a culture issue. I'll just say, look, in black families there's a lot of women leading their family. Not because it's their skin color. It's because of their horrible culture and the rap music and all the lies that they've been fed and taught and all the men are lazy and weak leaders and they don't actually rule their home and get in the home and be a real man today. They're just a young punk. They never grow up. They're still a toddler. Their pants are still hanging around their ankles. And their rap music sounds like incoherent babbling. They're a literal toddler. They can't control themselves. They always get in trouble. They don't like no. They don't like being told what to do. They just didn't grow up. And you know why they didn't grow up? Because they didn't have a dad there to beat their behind and make them grow up. Give them the rod of correction and to teach them and to train them and to lead them and we need men in this nation to be men today and we need men to lead their families today and we need men to say, you know what? Who cares about money? Who cares about all the women? Who cares about all the drugs and all the lusts of this flesh? I'm going to be a good shepherd of my family and obtain favor of God. And be like Jacob and be like, I'm going to lead softly. You know when it talks about leading softly or leading gently, you know who's doing that? A man. A man is the one that gently leads. Let me prove that. Go to Isaiah chapter 40. You know who's the gently leader of the Bible? Jesus. He's the great shepherd. And Jacob is a great example of this. I'm all for leading gently but you know who needs to do that is the man, the husband. He needs to rule. He needs to lead his family gently. My wife isn't going to lead me gently. I'm going to lead her gently. Isaiah 40, look at verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and shall gently lead those that are with young. God just picks us up like little sheep and just holds us in his arm and he just takes care of us. And you know what? That's what a real man is like. He just picks up his little kids and he guards them and he shields them and he takes care of them and he loves them and he doesn't look at them as like you little puny weak man. You girly man. Pump some muscle. What are you, seven? Come on! He's like, you're seven. I get it. I was seven once. We were all weak and puny at some point in time, right? Go if you would to 2 Timothy chapter number 2 for a moment. You know the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 5 that we're supposed to train our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Nurture. We're supposed to lovingly gently and lead on softly and realizing your children. You know, your children are not robots. Your children are not perfect. Your children are going to mess up. Your children are not like you. Your children aren't going to be strong like you in all the areas and you need to be patient with them. And man, it's hard. But a good shepherd, a gentle shepherd like the Lord is going to be patient with his children. Be patient with his wife. And this is how you know if it's right or not. If you're going in the right direction. Don't worry so much about the pace. Just worry about the direction. And some people get so impatient and they're so worried about the pace. Just make sure you're going in the right direction. We're going to church. Hey, we're opening up the Bible. Hey, we're learning a new word. We're learning a new... You know, it takes time to learn things and instead of getting so fixated on the pace, you need to get more fixated on which direction you're headed. Because no matter what pace you're going, the direction is the most important. And you don't want to be going in the wrong direction at any pace. Going in the right direction, the pace is, you know, is less consequential. You can always speed up in the right direction. You know what? It's harder to change direction. It's harder to get the ship going in the right direction. And that's why it's more important to worry about just getting... Let's get it all lined up. Let's get it all pointed in the right direction. And then we'll hit the turbo, you know. You don't want to hit the turbo and then try to turn it. You know, that's going to be a crazy. That's why I'm saying, look, when your family's not perfect, when you're not perfect, why don't you start working on getting in the right direction and lead on softly. And why don't you lead by example first. Why don't you fix yourself first and then start trying to help your family go in the right direction. 2 Timothy chapter 2. How about spiritually the same thing? 2 Timothy chapter 2. Look at verse 23. The Bible reads, But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strives. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men. Act to teach patient and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, paired venture, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and they may recover themselves of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. Now, I want to end on this point. We talked about a lot of things and I think this chapter really is emphasized as being a shepherd in general. All of us men in here are shepherds to some degree. Shepherd of your wife, shepherd of your children, shepherd of the knowledge that God's given you. At the very minimum, you're a shepherd of the gospel because you're saved. And when you go soul winning, it's not going to be as effective to just come on super strong and be like, you're an unsaved person going straight to hell, buddy. Let me tell you how to get saved. And they're like, I'm not that interested. Well, go to hell then. It's not really the best way. It's probably better to lead on softly. That's why when I ask questions, I try to even give them a positive response. I'll say, what do you think you have to be saved? Do to be saved. Follow all the commandments. Well, that was stupid. You're an idiot. You're going to hell. No, no. I say, you know what the Bible does teach? It's important to follow God's commandments. But you know what? It says something different about being saved. Can I show you how to be saved? You know, when people have wrong answers, you don't want to just be like overly harsh or overly critical. You want to be gentle with them. You want to be soft with them a little bit. You want to level with them and you want to help them in meekness and not just be like, you don't know about this. I can quote the entire book of Romans 1. Just a chapter. But it's like a book. I mean, you know, don't be all high and mighty. And it's easy to be high and mighty when you're really strong. It's easy, you know, for the guy wearing a tutu to dunk on women. Because he's a dude. You know, it's easy for him. Okay? And I think that sometimes, and let me pick on the home crowd for a second. I think sometimes the new IFB has this mentality. Where because you're so strong spiritually that you pick on people that are less strong. You pick on people that go to a different church that's maybe not soul winning. Maybe they do believe in the preacher of rapture or whatever. And look, I'm all for preaching the word of God harsh. Okay? I preach the truth. You know, when I run into people, I'm not just like screaming at them and yelling at them. I know it may not seem like that. I don't do that. Okay? Normally. Alright? And when we run into people, when people come visit our church, when you talk to your family members and friends, you don't want to berate them for being weaker. For being lesser spiritually. We want to in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves. We want to help them and guide them. We want to be like, oh man, you're just a fag-loving idiot, aren't you? Be like, here's the sodomite deception. It's an interesting one. Let's watch the first beginning a couple times and then I'll show you the end. Okay? No, I'm just kidding. You want to, and even them making the film. Me and Ben were making the film and there was a lot of rough edits. Okay? And I would watch the film and we're just, it's like just a few minutes in and just like showing some clips of like some fags on the screen or whatever like a limit or something, you know? And then just like three minutes in, it's just like, facts should die and go to hell but a bullet in your hand. I was just like, whoa! I was like, hey, we need to build up to that, okay? It's just like all these clips are just like, just like radical doctrine or whatever. And I was like, let's just like ease them in to some of this, okay? We want to lead on softly in the film. And I get his heart. I felt that way too. And I laughed. It was funny. But I said, look, we got to help these people gently. And it's not like we're a cult hiding what we believe. But at the end of the day, sometimes you just don't want to come on too strong at first. You want to give people a chance to build up. You want to level with them. You want to condescend them in a little state. And you want to lead on softly. And let me tell you something. This room is full of the knowledge of God. You guys are really blessed along with me. We're very blessed. We have so much knowledge of the Bible. And when you compare it to the world today, I mean, it's night and day. It would be literally like LeBron James playing against a bunch of toddlers. There's no glory. You know, there's no glory in winning that game. There's no glory in being like, I can beat all of them or whatever. There's no glory in going around and pontificating about how much more of the Bible we know than these people. Because you know what? Everything we got, we received is a gift anyways. It's all just handed to us. You know? We're all just blessed and God gave us. Look, lots of the stuff that I found in the Bible, I know it's just, God just gave it to me. It's just a gift. You know? Reading the Bible and the Holy Ghost gives it. Because sometimes you read the Bible and you're just like, I don't know what that meant at all. And you read it like a hundred times and you don't understand it at all. And then sometimes you read a passage and the first time it just clicks. And it's like, it's not me being special. It's just God just being like, here's a free gift. You know? Here's more understanding. Here's more knowledge. And you're just like, thank you. This is great. But I shouldn't then be like, I'm just so much better than everybody else or whatever. You know, that's just stupid. You know, our movement should be, you know, known for a lot of things. But I don't want to just be known as being unable to be gentle. We need to have gentleness. And here's where the gentleness comes in. People here. Okay? Because outside and online, they're never going to say we're gentle. Okay? They're always going to be like, they're a bunch of mean, hateful jerks or whatever. But I notice that people actually show up at the church. They're like, wow, that's like some of the nicest people I've ever met. Some of the most compassionate people I've ever met. Some of the gentlest people I've ever met. But we need to stay that way. When you be like that, when we go out into the world, when we run into people, we have real interactions with our family, with our friends, with the people in our lives that we care about. We need to be gentle unto them and try to help them and encourage them and not just get mad when they don't see things our way like that. Because a lot of us took a while to come to a certain conclusion. You know, it took me a while to change my mind on certain documents. It took me a while to learn and grow in certain areas. And even if it didn't, there's some, you know, I became King James only like that. Okay? But just because I did doesn't mean I should go around and be like, well, you have to too. Right? It's not like you have to lift as much weight as Jason and Brother Conley or whatever to be a man. Okay? They would put us all to shame real quick. We have to build up to that. Okay? Alright? They did it by a lot of work and effort. Okay? And just like spiritually, it took a lot of effort to get to where we are now. But, you know, we don't want to just look down upon everybody that's not where we're at. We want to be a good shepherd and help encourage them and lead them and find people that have less than us and develop them into the people that we want them to be. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this great chapter and this example that Jacob is showing for us. And ultimately realize that you're the good shepherd. You're the one that leads on softly. You're the one that's patient with us and long suffering with us and constantly leading us, you know, and only giving us that we're capable of handling and you're not tempting us above that we're able and that you're such a merciful and loving father unto us. I pray that we would have the same spirit. We'd have the same gentleness. We'd have the same kindness. That we'd have the same meekness about ourselves. That those that we have an opportunity to shepherd and lead, that we would love them and care for them and be patient with them and they'd give us the right spirit in how we handle them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our final song we'll go to 116, He Leadeth Me. 116, He Leadeth Me. 116, He Leadeth Me. 116, He Leadeth Me. Oh blessed thought, oh word with heavenly comfort, fraud. What e'er I do, where e'er I be, still tis God's hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me. His faithful fall where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Sometimes with scenes of deepest gloom, sometimes where Ethan's powers bloom, by waters still our troubled sea, still tis His hand that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me. His faithful fall where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. Lord, I would clasp Thy hand in mine, nor ever murmur nor repine, content whatever lot I see, since tis my God that leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me. His faithful fall where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me. And when my task on earth is done, when by Thy grace the victory's won, He death's cold wave I will not flee, since God through Jordan leadeth me. He leadeth me, He leadeth me, by His own hand He leadeth me. His faithful fall where I would be, for by His hand He leadeth me.