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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Song 209, Sunshine in the Soul. Song 209, Sunshine in the Soul. Song 209, Sunshine in the Soul. There's sunshine in my soul today For glorious and bright Then glows in any earthly sky For Jesus is my light Oh, there's sunshine As the sun shines When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiley face There is sunshine in the soul There is music in my soul today A carol to the King And Jesus, listening, can hear The songs I cannot sing Oh, there's sunshine, glass and sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiley face There is sunshine in the soul There is springtime in my soul today For when the Lord is near And when the bloodbeef sings in my heart The thousand grays appear Oh, there's sunshine, glass and sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiley face There is sunshine in the soul There is gladness in my soul today And hope and praise and love For blessings which he gives me now For joys light up above Oh, there's sunshine, glass and sunshine When the peaceful, happy moments roll When Jesus shows his smiley face There is sunshine in the soul Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day. And thank you for our church. I pray for every person in here that you just bless them. I pray that you'd help this service to be honoring and glorifying to you. And we pray for those that are still sick, that they will recover soon. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. For our second song, we'll go to song 46, My Savior, First of All. Song number 46, My Savior, First of All. Song 46, My Savior, First of All. Sing it out. When my life work is ended And I cross the swelling top When the bright and glorious morning I shall see I shall know my Redeemer When I reach the other side And his smile be the first to welcome me I shall know him When I reach the other side I shall stand I shall know him I shall know him By the breath of the nails in his hands Oh, the soul thrilling rapture when I give his blessing praise And the luster of his kindly beaming eye And my full heart will praise him And bring me a mansion in the sky I shall know him I shall know him And redeemed by his side I shall stand I shall know him By the breath of the nails in his hands Oh, the dear ones in glory how they beckon me And are parting at the river I recall To the sweet bells of Eden they will sing My welcome home but I long to be my Savior First of all I shall know him And redeemed by his side I shall stand I shall know him I shall know him By the breath of the nails in his hands Through the gates to the city in a row of spotless wine He will lead me where no tears will ever fall In the glad song of ages I shall mingle with delight But I want to be my Savior first of all I shall know him I shall know him And redeemed by his side I shall stand I shall know him I shall know him By the breath of the nails in his hands Good singing Our Bible memory passage, John 1.9, that was the true light Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. All the children 18 or under that can quote that and receive some ice cream to help you warm up with all that cold weather, right? And then on the inside we have our service and soul winning times. We also have our church stats. I'm going to get a count real quick of any soul winning to report of. Was there anything from Monday? What about Tuesday? Anything from Tuesday? What about tonight? Oh, you had one for Tuesday? Wednesday, today we had two for the van. Was there anything outside of that by chance? Alright, keep up the good work on soul winning. On the right we have the list of our expecting ladies. Also we have our prayer list. I'm going to quickly go over that. Continue to pray for the Negara family Ms. Lucy's mother's tumors, Brother Cameron Hall's leg also our friends abroad continue to pray for their churches. Brother Jeremy Gore, his surgery ended up getting moved. It was supposed to happen but I guess he tested positive for COVID. He didn't even know he had COVID but he tested positive so they ended up rescheduling his surgery and so pray for him on the 30th. The Spurgeon family, the Stewart family both with health concerns. Ms. Nexus Cooper continue to pray for her recovery postpartum and so we got a lot of prayer requests we still have a lot of people I think maybe out because of sickness and everything so we'll say a quick word of prayer for those that were mentioned here. Thank you Heavenly Father for our church. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to be gathered together to hear the word of God being preached. I pray that you would just bless all of the ladies that are expecting in our church that you help them with their pregnancy that you help them with their delivery, give them strength and help their babies to be very timely and to be well developed and I just thank you for the rest of our church family that has various health concerns that you could be with them you'd strengthen them, please bless them with favor and health. I pray that you would bless our church friends across this world that they would have the ability to preach the gospel, you'd open doors unto them, that you would just strengthen them, you would encourage them I pray that you would also just bless our church family with favor and that you'd be with those that are not able to come this evening in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Also we have the congratulations to the Wood family on the birth of Lydia Mae Wood. She was born January 12th, 517 A.M. She weighs 4 pounds, 11 and 13 ounces or 11 and 3 ounces I'm sorry and was 20.08 inches long so congratulations to them that's really exciting and we also have one on the back. Congratulations to the Weathers family on William Holland Weathers. He was born on the 10th 937 P.M. Weighs 6 pounds, 7 ounces and 20, I guess they're the same height, 20.08 I don't know if that's a typo or they're just quinky dinks but there you go congratulations to them too. I heard that William is home with his family and everything like that so thank you for all the prayers for them Also we had had some upcoming events just to announce. The 16th this past Sunday I was in Oklahoma City and I was preaching for them and ordaining Tanner Fur as the evangelist there in Oklahoma and it was a great service, it was a great spirit everything went really well and brother Fur is doing a really good job up there and so we're real excited about that. Hopefully that God will just continue to bless that church and that area. I mean the Oklahoma City area is about a million people and so you know they need a good church and so we just need to continue to pray for them and think about them and we definitely love those people up there and they need some good doctrine I mean they still think that you should put beans in your chili and stuff like that and so we're hoping that they'll grow and go on to perfection and we don't have to keep laying down certain foundational doctrines but you know it is what it is but you can pray for them. Also we have the Colossal Baby Shower January 29th. We have a Waco Soul Waning Marathon February 26th. There's a sign up sheet right here on the cabinet We're also going to do something new and I'm kind of excited about this but in March we're going to do like a soul winning seminar conference and it's going to be open to anybody and everybody but I certainly want our church to participate. It's definitely for our church as well and basically the goal is just to really work on soul winning and have lots of soul winning time so the way it's going to be scheduled essentially it's going to be like a Thursday, Friday and a Saturday and we'll have soul winning available all day Thursday Friday and Saturday but I know especially since people here may still work that's fine. The conference portion will be in the evening so it'll be Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday morning so we'll basically have like kind of a meal and a slash workshop thing Thursday and Friday night and Saturday morning and the goal is to basically just go over a lot of just tips and soul winning instruction and then give people an opportunity to practice soul winning and even if you're a very experienced soul winner you'd be very valuable to us so that you could help others because the goal is going to be to even pair people up at tables and stuff like that to practice soul winning practice their you know basically the beginning of the presentation you know the presentation itself and just other tips and tricks in a safe environment and get good feedback and so if people you know are struggling or are needing some feedback it affords us the opportunity to basically train and to teach and then people that you know don't live here but just want to learn soul winning or get plugged in they can come and join us for the conference and we'll be you know feeding you and teaching you how to go soul winning and then giving you lots of opportunities to go and do it so I just think it'll be a great opportunity for our church to just improve on soul winning locally and then maybe encourage people to come and join us for a few weeks or for the weekend and learn how to do soul winning better and so I'm really excited about that it's going to be in March and the reason why I'm putting out there kind of in the distant future is so that we can you know advertise it and promote it and try to encourage people to participate and I really think it's going to be a great thing a great opportunity to do a lot of soul winning just get better we want to all get better at soul winning and improve in our soul winning and so that's something that we have scheduled and I'll probably get with some of the men of our church that are experienced soul winners to have you help me lead and kind of teach some of the things and work with people on that so that's just something to mark on your calendars we're going to have a homeschool field trip but it was going to be the 30th but you need to mark that that's going to be the 29th so sorry about the change there but it's the 29th which is a Friday and we're going to be doing the Fort Worth Zoo so we're going to wait until we get closer and we'll have a sign up sheet we just want people to at least be able to put it on their calendar so April 29th we're going to have a homeschool field trip we're going to the zoo and we'll have a sign up sheet for those that want to participate you do need to have a child at least 5 years old so you can still go to the zoo but if you want to participate in the homeschool field trip it's for parents that have a child 5 or older and we'll basically have you go with us on the homeschool field trip it's for those that are homeschooling their children also May 21st we have an Austin soul winning marathon and we have other stuff scheduled in the future too but I've just kind of given you a thing we're going to do the fire breathing Baptist fellowship begin this year October 5th through the night also so we just want to get a lot of things settled and put them on the calendar for you to think about also the New Testament challenge it's getting close to the end alright and so I just want to give you a reminder keep reading your Bible and if you do finish there will be a prize but you do have to read it ok it's not like well I just watched I watched the movie you know I watched like a gospel movie or something like that that doesn't count ok it also doesn't count if you you know listen to it on double speed on audio or something like that you actually have to read it ok so you know I love audio books and stuff like that and there's no problem listening to the word of God but this is a reading challenge so if you did not literally read it you do not get to claim a prize ok also your children have to read it as well they can't just you know hear about it they have to read it themselves so if you want to claim the prize you got to read the New Testament from cover to cover Matthew all the way to Revelation alright and no added books ok you don't have to add anything that's pretty much all I had for announcements but I do have one you you you you you you you you you one I don't know third song is 66 at Calvary song number 66 at Calvary song 66 at Calvary 66 66 66 66 67 66 67 68 69 79 70 71 79 70 I got word at last my sin I learned, then I trembled at the law I spurned, till my guilty soul and whole ring turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Hearted there was melted right to me. There my burden so found liberty at Calvary. Oh the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh the grace that brought it down to men. Oh the mighty both that God did spare at Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Hearted there was multiplied to me. There my burden so found liberty at Calvary. Now I give to Jesus everything. Now I gladly owe Him as my King. Now my raptured soul can only sing of Calvary. Mercy there was great and grace was free. Hearted there was multiplied to me. There my burden so found liberty at Calvary. We'll be reading the entire chapter prior to the beginning of the sermon, Genesis chapter 43, the Bible reads And the famine was sore in the land, and it came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you. And Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, The man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And we told him according to the tenor of these words, Could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? And Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones. I will be surety for him, if my hand shalt thou require him, if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time. And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this, take of the best fruits in the land and your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds, and take double money in your hand, and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand, peradventure it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise, go again unto the man, and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother. And Benjamin, if I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. And the men took that present, and they took double money in their hand, and Benjamin, and rose up and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home, and slay and make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph bade, and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. And the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house, and they said, Because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first timer we brought in, that he may seek occasion against us, and fall upon us, and take us for bondmen and our asses. And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of the house, and said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food, and it came to pass, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight, and we have brought it again in our hand. And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not. Your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money, and he brought Simeon out unto them. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom he spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom he spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where to weep, and he entered into his chamber, and wept there. And he washed his face, and went out, and refrained himself, and said, Set on bread. And they set on for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians which did eat with him by themselves. Because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, and the men marveled one at another. And he took and sent messes unto them from before him, but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for Genesis chapter 43 for our church, and for the opportunity that we have here to learn more about your word. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit, and help him to explain this chapter to us thoroughly so that we can learn more about it. And I also pray that you would just protect our church, Lord, moving forward, and bless us. And for those who couldn't make it, Lord, that you would be with them, and that they'd be able to get back soon. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. So we're in Genesis chapter 43, and the chapter here is kind of just continuing with the story that we kind of started, where Joseph has met his brethren, but his brethren are unaware that it's actually Joseph. And he's captured Simeon, and sent back the brethren saying that they can't come and basically recover Simeon, or buy food, or anything, until they bring their younger brother that they told him about. And we find our story here in verse 1, And the famine was sore in the land. It came to pass, when they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. So, the brethren had returned to their father Jacob, they explained the situation, and Jacob was very distressed because of Benjamin. There's a lot of love for Benjamin, and it makes sense that he favors Benjamin because of what we read previously, how he felt about Joseph. You know, the Bible said that Jacob had loved Joseph more than the other brethren because he was his son of old age. And essentially, again, this is just my personal opinion, I don't believe you can prove it either way, but I don't believe that Benjamin was born at the time of Joseph still being with his father. And that would mean that, essentially, after Joseph had left, Rachel ended up having Benjamin. We know from the Bible that Benjamin, whenever he was born, his mother passed away. And so, essentially it would make sense that Benjamin kind of is a replacement to Jacob, to Israel, in the sense that now he's his favorite son. Because before, Joseph was his favorite son, that's why he got the coat of many colors. And that's why he's very grieved when he found out that his son had perished, as it were, as how he believes the story. So, for Jacob to want to send, Benjamin is kind of just not on the table. And what's interesting about this is it's funny, and it's not funny, but if you think about it, no one really seems to care about Simeon. I mean, did you notice that it's like, hey, Simeon's in prison. And then it's like, after they ran out of food, right? When they had eaten up the corn, they're like, all right, let's go back and let's figure out what we can do. But there wasn't anything like, you know what, we need to rescue Simeon. Hey, we need to go and get Simeon. No, we're going to die because we don't have any food. Now, that would make sense that you would need to go and get food because, you know, if you're really not wanting to risk Benjamin's life, you wouldn't send him. But at the point that you don't have food, you're still risking Benjamin's life, right? If you can't eat, then all of you are going to die. So, I guess there's going to be the option of now sending Benjamin because you're pretty much backs against the wall. You don't really have any other options. If you're not going to eat, then you're going to die. So, it says in verse 3, And Judah spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you. So, Judah is telling his father, he says, hey, I'll go and get food, but you've got to give me Benjamin. Because if you don't give me Benjamin, the guy's not going to let us see him, so there's no point in me going down without Benjamin. I'm not going to waste our time, effort, energy, go back there, or be seen as a liar, or try to come up with some other story. It's either Benjamin or we're not going. Now, what's kind of interesting about this phrase, and it's interesting because it's mentioned twice, I don't think that it's an accident, but think about what he says. He says in verse number 3 and 5 at the end, Ye shall not see my face except your brother be with you. Well, that kind of reminds me of someone. It makes me think of God the Father. And it's kind of like you can't see God the Father's face unless your brother Jesus is with you. Because if you don't have Jesus, he won't let you see his face, and those that are in hell are kind of hidden from the Lord. They're not able to look upon him or anything like that. Another way you could look at this is the fact that we can't really see God or know who God is except through the person of Jesus Christ. And when you've seen Jesus, you've seen the Father, and so we get to see the Father, and we get to know who the Father is through the Son, Jesus Christ. And so we kind of have this loose parallel of the fact that you can't really see Joseph without Benjamin, right? You kind of have to have that person with you there. So I don't think that's a coincidence, but that's just kind of, it made me think of that. Verse number 6, the Bible says, Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as to tell a man whether ye had yet a brother? And they said, The man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And we told him according to the tenor of these words, Could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? Judah said unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones. So Israel's kind of like, they're kind of just arguing. He's just mad. He's just like, Why do you have to tell him we have a brother? And, you know, we don't know everything that Joseph was thinking. I presume, and this is just the way I interpret the story, the way I think about the story. I kind of think the reason why Joseph asked about, Do you have another brother? Is he was probably wanting to ask about himself. I don't know that he knew that Benjamin existed, but he was probably thinking like, Hey, do you got another brother? You know, he just wants to know if they'll bring him up or whatever. And yet he finds out about Benjamin. It could be that he did know that Benjamin existed. And so he simply just wants to see, wants to test them to know if they're being honest or not. But we don't really know if Joseph knew about Benjamin's existence or not. Again, I say that because I don't believe that you can really prove either way. You could say, Well, I think he knew Benjamin existed because he didn't ask about his mom. But we don't know every question that he asked. So it's kind of inconclusive. But the way I read it, it kind of reads to me that he didn't even know about Benjamin's existence. So he ends up finding out about his existence and he wants to see this brother really. Or he just wants to figure out if these guys are lying. Now, Judah is basically saying that we need him to come with us. Otherwise, we're not going to live. We're going to die. And literally everyone. You're not just sending it. Look, dad, if you don't give us Benjamin, it's not like, well, you're going to say Benjamin. We're all literally going to die. So our only option, our only hope is for you to send us Benjamin. Now, what's kind of interesting is think about this. Our only hope for salvation is through one person, Benjamin. And it's like the special son of Israel. Isn't that kind of similar to how we only have one hope of salvation and it's through God's son, Jesus Christ. And then unless he sends him down as a token, as that sacrifice, then we can't have any salvation. Everyone will perish. And so I think another loose picture here of Benjamin in the sense that he's being sent. He's that son. And even though we understand Israel has multiple sons, Benjamin's kind of like his only son in the sense that he's the only one he cares about. I mean, he doesn't seem to care about Simeon. I mean, Simeon's already in prison. Simeon's already toasted. He's just like, who cares? Whatever. He only seems to really care about Benjamin. And so I think it's kind of another parallel we could see of Jesus here. But let's keep reading just a little bit. It says in verse number nine, I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely now we'd return the second time. Judah also says, look, if we had already gone, if he had already sent us the first time, we'd already be back. But what's interesting, and again, not a coincidence, and this one's a really strong picture. This one's a for sure picture of Jesus Christ, is how Judah is saying that he will take the blame. Right? And notice how it's worded here. It says, let me bear the blame forever. That makes me think of someone like Jesus Christ, right? Of the tribe of Judah. Is it really a coincidence that Reuben is like, hey, have my sons. But then Judah says, have me. And I'll bear the blame forever. And that's what Jesus does for us, for the saved, is he bears our blame forever. Good Isaiah 53 for a moment. Let's look at a few verses here. I know this is a real easy doctrine, something we know, but it's good to just keep hammering it in. Isaiah 53, look at verse number six. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 53, verse six, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. Here's another way to say that. We're all sinners. We're all of sin and come short of the glory of God, right? We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. So Jesus Christ literally bears the blame of every sinner for all of eternity. That's why he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He's always going to be known as the lamb slain. Why? Because he's bearing our blame forever. Why else would he be pictured as a slain lamb? Because of the picture that he's bearing our burden. He's bearing our sins, our iniquities, our punishment, our chastisement is upon him, and it's forever. It's not just a one-time, just, oh, for the past or just for the present. No, it was a one-time for all. Okay, I go to 1 Peter chapter two. I want to show you one more verse in here about this particular thought or concept. But we see even in the book of Genesis, you know, we can basically formulate every single doctrine of the Bible. We can understand all the things that were going to happen with the gospel and Jesus Christ and replacement theology and the doctrine of the Trinity and just, I mean, it's all just right there in Genesis. Isn't that kind of incredible that just the very first book, you can already have all the end and all of the middle already decided. And you say, how did that happen? Because Jesus Christ is the beginning and the ending. He's the alpha and the omega. He already knew all the end, so it was really easy for him to talk all about the end at the beginning. Okay, now 1 Peter chapter number two, verse 24, the Bible says, who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed. Now, you know what's so funny to me? When you go soul winning and you try to talk to somebody about getting saved, it seems like it's easy for them to think that their past sins have been forgiven, right? But the idea of their future sins being forgiven is for some reason sometimes difficult, especially in America. But think about this. Christ died almost 2,000 years ago, right? You hadn't sinned yet. Did you realize that? Like every single sin you've ever committed at this point in the past happened after Jesus Christ died on the cross, right? So then why is it absurd to think that the sins you're going to commit tomorrow weren't also paid for, right? Because all the sins that you committed were in the future of when Jesus Christ died on the cross, wasn't it? So it's obvious then either he paid all of them or he didn't pay all of them. But it would be weird to subtract the present and say, well, I died for my past ones but not my future ones. It's like, look, all of your sins were in the future of what Jesus Christ already did because he already paid every sin you were going to commit in your past and in the future. Did you realize this? Jesus, when he died on the cross, every sin you're going to commit from now until you die, he was paying for those too. All of them. He bare all the iniquity of all people of all time. He knew every sin you were going to commit and he paid for it all. That's why we only have to trust in him and people will be like, well, I have to keep repenting of that sin in the future or something. No, no, no, no, no. It was already paid for. It was already bought. And it would be silly to put a weird timeline on it like, oh, only the past ones are getting forgiven today based on what he did 2,000 years ago. No, no, no. What he did 2,000 years ago, he was bearing the blame forever of all sins. Go back to Genesis 43. We'll keep reading here in our story. Verse 11, the Bible reads, And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this, take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds. Take double money in your hand, and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand, for adventure was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise, go again unto the man, and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin, if I be bereaved of my children I am bereaved. Now at least Israel's like a little concerned with Simeon. He's like, I mean, if you're going to go all the way down there, you know, might as well, and he doesn't even say it by name, just your other brother and Benjamin. That's not an accident. Think about it. He's like, hey, get the other guy and Benjamin, you know. How would you like it if your parents were like, hey, get the one kid and, you know, Benjamin. You know, it's like, hey, my name's Simeon. Hey, Dad, did you forget? It's Simeon. I'm the one that you don't have, right? You know, you can just kind of see the, just the, like, non-favoritism, or basically how he really prefers Benjamin over Simeon, can't you? I mean, it just really is very prevalent throughout this text. But one thing that's interesting is this concept, and it's a good concept, that if someone's potentially mad at you, or if you want to gain favor with them, give them a present, okay? Now, I'll show you this in the Bible. Go to Proverbs 21 for a moment, you know. Gentlemen, if you're worried that your wife could be upset with you, here's a good tip. Bring her a present on the way home. Now, the Bible literally teaches this. Look at Proverbs 21 and look at verse number 14. A gift in secret pacifieth anger, and a reward in the bosom, wrong wrath. So notice, you know, if you really want to get someone on your side, buy them a gift. And you're like, hey, are you trying to buy their love? Well, if it works, no, I'm just kidding. Here's the thing. Obviously, you know, you can use discretion, you can use a little bit of wisdom, and in certain circumstances, if you want to gain favor with someone, if you want someone to be pleased with you, if you want to get on their good side, if you're worried about your boss's wrath, buy them a present, right? Bring them a little present and say, hey, we got this for you, we're thinking about you. And the Bible is saying, you know, according to the Proverbs, I didn't write the Proverbs, he's saying that, look, it's going to benefit you, it's going to pacifieth anger. Meaning someone could literally mad at you and you say, I have a present, and they're like, oh, a present, cool, what is it? You know, and it's weird how people are like that, but that's just how it is. So, you know, just keep that in your mind. Whenever you run into certain situations, whenever you have a bad situation, maybe you can give them a little gift. Now, obviously we shouldn't rest judgment by receiving a gift, but at the end of the day, if you can use a gift to kind of win some favor over or to help people, you know, that's why I've thought of this verse and I've tried to apply it and I have applied it. You know, there's been times where people haven't liked our church or haven't liked me, or maybe there was a situation that didn't go right, or, you know, even if you're not at fault, you just want to make sure you're in good standing with those individuals. Just buy them a little gift or give them a little package or just say sorry for any convenience or whatever. You know, just send them something because it's better to just be at peace with people. You know, it's better to just have peace with people and say, look, hey, here's a little token to let you know, like, I'm not mad at you. I want to have a good relationship with you. And, you know, if you're not dealing with reprobates, it usually works. Okay. So, you know, you give a little gift, you help people, you try to do good on the people. It's like your neighbor. Let's say your neighbor, you know, does something and there's some tension. Maybe they, you know, are mowing their grass and they run over, you know, your sprinkler head and bust your sprinkler head or something like that, or, you know, vice versa. Maybe you are mowing and you ran over their sprinkler head and busted it or something. Well, buy them a new sprinkler head and maybe buy them another gift on top of that and just say, hey, I'm sorry about it. Make them some cookies, you know, even if they don't like you or you did everything right, you know, sometimes you bring a little present, you bring a little gift over, it can help smooth things over and it's just better to be at peace with people, especially the people that you dwell with, especially the people that you're next to, that you have to deal with on a regular basis. If you have a co-worker, maybe there's a little bit of tension, take them out to lunch. Just say, hey, I was thinking about getting a burger at this new place, can I buy you a burger, you know, or hey, I'm going to the gas station, I'm going to get a coffee, you know, do you want like a Coke? Because I know coffee and I was like, do you want like something else or do you want a coffee? You know, just help people out, do good on the people and it'll help you in the long run, okay. This is a good principle that's being taught by Israel. Go back if you would to Genesis 43. Let's look at verse 15. It says, the men took that present and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, bring these men home and slay and make ready for these men shall dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph bade and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. The men were afraid because they were brought in Joseph's house. And they said, because of the money that was returned in our sacks, the first time are we brought in. They may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen and our asses. They came near to the steward of Joseph's house and they communed with him at the door of the house and said, oh sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food. Came to pass and we came to the inn. We opened our sacks and behold every man's money was in the mouth of his sack. A money in full weight. We have brought it again in our hand. Another many have we brought down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. And he said, peace be to you. Fear not. Your God and the God of your father hath given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. Now again, it's just funny to me, it's like nobody was asking about Simeon. It's like Joseph had to bring Simeon out. It's like nobody's really concerned about him. He's just like an afterthought constantly. But there's a really good principle here. And you know, in this chapter, it's kind of a setup chapter to a lot of other things that are going to happen. But I think there's still some principles that we can kind of learn through. And here's a really important principle. That when you've potentially done wrong, or there's been an oversight, or there's some kind of a possible conflict, or an interaction where there could be an accusation of theft, or stealing, or doing something wrong with money, or any of those kind of situations, it's best to just be upfront, honest, bring things to light, be willing to just fix the situation. And you know, it's coming from a righteous place of fear in the sense that they're fearful that they could be accused of having stolen money or doing wrong, and they don't want that accusation. They don't want the punishment of having done something wrong potentially. They don't understand how they didn't pay Joseph the first time. And so by realizing that they could be in danger or threat of being mad at them, saying like, you stole from us, or you didn't pay last time, or whatever, they just straight up just say, look, I didn't pay, or something weird happened, somehow I still have all my money. We want to make sure that we're good, okay? Not only do we bring that money back, we have additional money on top of that to make sure that we're a paying customer. We're not trying to rip anybody off. We don't even understand how it happened. We're sorry. We have a present on top of that, right? They're trying every effort to rectify the situation, to do right, to not steal. And here's the thing. In our lives, you're going to have plenty of opportunity where there's going to be a situation where something doesn't add up right, and you have to be a person of integrity and just go ahead and fix it, you know? You give money to the cashier, and they accidentally give you an extra 20 back in change. You're supposed to say, hey, I looked at the money, and I don't think you did it right. I think you gave me 20 extra dollars here, and give the money back. Or, you know, you look at your cart, and you say, hey, I didn't pay for that. You go back, and you say, hey, I didn't pay for this. I think it was an oversight. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to walk out with it. I thought I had paid for it. Here, I want to make it right. You know, we don't want to be people that just say, oh, I don't know what happened, but, you know, it looks like it worked out in my favor. You know, here's where you get this bad doctrine from Monopoly, okay? And you say, well, how do you get this game? Because in Monopoly, you get those little, like, community chess cards, you know, whatever, and you pull it out, and it says, bank error, $100 in your favor. It's like, no, no, no, you're supposed to give that back, okay? Now, if you're playing the game of Monopoly, you're already sending. Okay, no, I'm just kidding. You just go ahead and take that 100, right? You know what? In real life, we shouldn't be people that just say, oh, bank error, sweet. You know, you walk up to the ATM, and it just starts spitting money out, you're not just like, oh, cool, sweet, you know. No, no, no, you should take it, and you should go inside and say, hey, this is just coming out, this is wrong, there's an error, you know. You don't, like, start putting your thumb over the camera and then be like, oh, you know. And look, in their situation, they could have gotten away scot-free, and there's even going to be situations where you could potentially have a scenario where you've gotten away scot-free, and the question is, what do you do? Well, you don't just get away scot-free, you go and you show up and you say, hey, there was an error, there was an issue, there was an oversight, I'm sorry that this happened, you know, I want to make it right. That's what an honest person with integrity would do. Go to Exodus 22, go to Exodus 22. So no matter what the scenario is that you find yourself in, you know, we need to make sure that we make it right. Because ultimately, if you can get away with it in this world, you can't get away from God. God notices everything. God realizes that you got that extra 20 bucks, or that extra item, or that extra money. And sometimes I believe that God allows these things to happen to test us to see if we even have integrity. And here's the thing, I would rather have less money and God know that I have integrity and character so that he can bless me in the future than an extra 20 dollars. I mean, how little is your faith if you were going to literally say, I would rather take 20 dollars and steal and know that I stole than for God to be pleased with me and for God to bless me for having character and integrity. Right? You substitute for faith. 20 bucks, right? Or 50 dollars, or whatever it is. You know, it's way better to just be right with God. You know, there's not a monetary value that you can put on having integrity, having character, being right with God, being a person that does everything upright. Look what it says in Exodus 22. It's going to give us a lot of commandments here that are on this concept. Verse 7. If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's house, if the thief be found, let him pay double. If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges to see whether he hath put his hand unto his neighbor's goods. Basically it's saying, let's say you ask your friend, you say, hey, can I borrow your tools? Right? You know, can I borrow your, I don't know, your truck or condenser or, you know, whatever it is. Let me borrow some kind of a tool from your buddy, your shop vac. Right? Let me have your shop vac. And somehow someone breaks into your truck and takes that tool out of your truck. Right? Well, essentially, according to the law, if there was really, you know, nothing you did wrong, then it kind of just gets lost. Okay? But what if you just smashed your own window and then went and hit it and say, oh, it got stolen. You know? Or you don't even smash your window. You just like, your buddy asks, hey, where's that shop vac? Oh, I don't know. I think someone stole it. But you know exactly where it is. You just put it in your garage or whatever. You put it at home. Well, it's basically saying that the neighbor could take you to the judges and they're saying like, did you steal this? Did you actually steal this? What actually really happened? Verse nine, it says, for all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox or for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing, which another challenges to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges, and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbor. So it's basically saying, you know, if for whatever reason, you know, you're, you actually stole this, but you're trying to like con it off. You have to then end up paying double if you get caught. You know, if you get caught kind of stealing this thing or whatever. Says in verse 10, if a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass or an ox or a sheep or any beast to keep, and it die or be hurt or driven away, no man seeing it, then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that he hath not put his hand into his neighbor's goods and the owner of it shall accept thereof and he shall not make it good. So the Bible basically has a couple exceptions. If someone gives you a good and by no fault of your own, it gets damaged or stolen or some bad thing happens to it, then you're basically exonerated in the sense that you don't have to make it good unto your neighbor. So let's say you ask your neighbor's truck and you borrow his truck, you drive out of the parking lot, and then the engine dies. Like you don't have to buy him a brand new truck because that wasn't really your fault. But let's say you then decide, hey, I want to see how fast I can drive this thing. And you floor it and then you run into a tree and break his truck, well then now you need to buy him a new truck. So it's basically a little bit determined on the circumstances, what you did, how things went down and everything like that. But if you in just good, honest faith are taking good care of his stuff, you're doing right, there's no wrong, no fault of your own, and something bad happens to it, then from a law perspective, you don't have to do anything. And we have to understand about the law is the law is just what's just. It doesn't mean that it's always the best thing to do. If it's of a small value, I personally think you should just go ahead and buy him a new engine. Okay? But I'm not saying you have to. That would be the law saying no. I'm saying that you should probably just go above and beyond. If it was a big major purchase and it was obviously flawed or something like that, then maybe you just give them a little present or help them with a down payment or something. You know, it might as well, they were being nice and kind to let you borrow it and you never know really what happened. But if you literally are the reason why something bad happens to their tool, you're using their tools and you break it, you buy them a new one. You replace it. That's what the law is literally saying. And in fact, if you lied about it, you're supposed to pay double. You know, if you lie about it and then get caught, it's like stealing, literally. It says in verse 11, I'm sorry, verse 12, and if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution under the owner thereof. It would be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for a witness and he shall not make good that which was torn. And if a man borrow out of his neighbor and it be heard or die, the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good. So in verse 14 is showing though, if you are negligent with it in a sense that basically you're being careless with their goods or not doing good under their goods and something bad happens, then you have to basically make restitution. But you know, if you're with it and a wolf comes out of nowhere and shreds it in pieces, you know, it's like, sorry, you know, that kind of sucks and you just bring the shredded animal and you're like, here you go, like, you know, you basically just, it kind of is a bad situation. This is kind of like, you know, your rental, like if you rent a house or something, if you're just doing normal stuff and the washer goes out or the oven goes out, you know, the landlord's supposed to fix that, right? But if you're doing fireworks in the microwave, you know, you should replace the microwave. Okay. If you're doing something kind of weird or fishy, then you're supposed to be the one. And we're supposed to have integrity to know what we're doing. It says in verse number 15, but if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good if it be a hired thing, it came for his hire. And if a man, and so basically you have like a couple of situations, I don't want to use it verse 16. So you have a neighbor's good, you're supposed to take care of it, you're supposed to, you know, appreciate it. So it's not really much different if you think about this. You paid theoretically, but it turned out that the money didn't get swapped, you still have possession of it. It's really your neighbor's good. So then it's your job to go and then make restitution and give that back to your neighbor, not to then just pretend like, oh, now it's mine again or something like that. That would be stealing from your neighbor. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 22, go to Deuteronomy chapter number 22. And it's important that we as God's people have integrity and that we don't have God's wrath on us for being a bunch of cheap thieves and cheats and fraudsters and whatever, because God doesn't look kindly on those people. Deuteronomy chapter 22, look at verse number one. Thou shalt not see thy brother's ox, or his sheep go astray and hide thyself from them. Thou shalt in any case bring them again unto thy neighbor. Now, the Bible's not going to spell out every situation, that would be impossible. The Bible does is it gives you a scenario that's going to be similar to every situation you could possibly be in, okay? That's the beauty of the Bible, that literally you come up with a scenario, a situation, and you can find the principles in the Bible somewhere, okay? So here in Deuteronomy 22 verse one, it's giving us a principle that if you're aware that your brother's goods are missing, misplaced, lost, or in a bad situation, you're not allowed to just go the other way and just pretend like you don't see it or you don't notice it, you're not aware of it. You're actually supposed to secure those goods, make them right, protect them, keep them safe, and return them upon your neighbor. Wouldn't that apply in the sense that if they have all this money in their sack, that's their neighbor's good, that's their brother's good, that's the Egyptian's good, that's Joseph's good, okay? They're not allowed to be like, I don't know what happened, you know, whatever, turn away from it. No, they're supposed to make good on that, you know? You see someone's wallet on the ground, you're not supposed to just be like, eh, you're supposed to try and restore that to its owner, you know? You see its dog, you see its kid, hopefully, you know, you see whatever it is, his, you know, Fido or, you know, and again, some people, they find a dog and they look for the owner, you know? You're not supposed to just take your neighbor's dog, okay, or cat, you're supposed to try and diligently restore that unto your neighbor. Now, it says in verse 2, and if thy brother be not nigh unto thee, or if thou know him not, then thou shalt bring it into thine own house, and it shall be with thee until thy brother seek after it, and thou shalt restore it to him again. So here's, here's all you animal rescue lovers, this is like your favorite verse ever. It's like, well, I didn't know who the owner was, and they never knocked on my door and asked for it back, you know? But theoretically, if you found your brother's good, and there's no reasonable way for you to figure out whose it is, like there's no identifying person, or you can't know for sure, then you can take that good, but if someone comes inquiring or asking or whatever, then you're supposed to give that back to them, essentially, okay? Kind of the lost and found, right? And we have a lost and found. But you know, our lost and found has an expiration date, so, you know, after about a month of that just sitting over there rotting, we like put it in a bag, and then we donate it to another brother, you know, at some charity or something, you know, Goodwill or whatever, or brothers at Goodwill, right? Verse number three, it says, in like manner, shalt thou do with his ass, and so shalt thou do with his raiment, and with all lost thing of thy brothers, which he hath lost, and thou hast found, shalt thou do likewise, thou mayest not hide thyself. So he gives the principle, but then he even makes it clear, he's saying, hey, this isn't just sheep and stuff, this is anything, anything that's lost that you find, you have to restore, you're not allowed to just keep it, you're not allowed to just say it's mine anymore, you're supposed to return it, you're supposed to give it back, you're not supposed to steal, you're not supposed to defraud your neighbor, and you know, these are great principles, and praise the Lord that the sons of Israel here are realizing we shouldn't just pretend like this money's ours, we need to go back to Joseph and say, we don't know how it happened, here's the money, we're sorry. Verse four, thou shalt not see thy brother's ass or his ox fall down by the way, and hide thyself from them, thou shalt surely help him to lift them up again. So again, even if it's inconvenient for you, right, is this easy, is this fun, you're having a good day, and then you see an ass in a ditch, and you have to literally pull it out, I mean, that's got to be hard work, to pull a literal donkey or a literal cow out of a ditch? I mean, I don't know, you know, they call it cow tipping, but that's easy compared to pulling it out of a ditch, there's a funny meme video I've seen, there's like a sheep that's like stuck in a little ditch, and there's like this little boy and he's like yanking it out, and I mean it's taken like all of his effort, he yanks this stupid little sheep out, and it hops, hops, and then just goes straight in the ditch again, it's just like come on, you know like, you try to help your neighbor's sheep here, and then it just goes straight in the ditch again, because they had no shepherd, right? So you got to go and pull that thing out again or whatever, right? But that's a lot of effort, it's a lot of energy, but here's the thing, if we have a society where everybody looks after everybody else's goods, and they're not just looking to steal and take advantage of everybody else, you know, you have a righteous society, you actually have a good society, and you know, in America, it used to be that people actually cared about their neighbor's goods, you know, their neighbor across the street, something happened, they would notice it and help them out or find it or say hey, I think your dog got lost, or here, you know, but more and more we see our society just rotting at the core, and people are not interested in restoring things to their neighbor, they're just looking for a quick fix, for a quick 20 bucks, for a quick thing, and you know what, it just destroys society, it destroys yourself, it's just a bad thing. Go to Psalms chapter 10, I want to go to one more place here, I'm kind of dwelling on this thought, but I think it's kind of one of the main, uh, emphasis of this chapter is the idea of having integrity, returning things to the rightful owner, fearing the Lord, you know, ultimately, you know, we're supposed to fear the Lord in all of our actions in realizing that he's looking at everything that we do, and we're supposed to have integrity. Again, no one's perfect, you know, it's going to be possible that you, every once in a while, have one of these exchanges and you're just unaware of it, but I'm saying, when it's real obvious, when it's real clear, when you know about it, you're not supposed to hide yourself, you're not supposed to pretend like it didn't happen, you're supposed to try and make it right. Psalms chapter 10, look at verse 4, the wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. Ways are always grievous, but judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them, he hath saddened his heart. I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity. Sit in the lurking places of the villages and the secret places that he murdered the innocent. His eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in weight secretly as a lion in his den. He lieth in weight to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbled himself that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath saddened his heart. God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He will never see it. We have a story in the psalm here of a man, he's very wicked, he's very evil. He's doing everything he can to trick people. He's full of deceit, fraud. He's willing to murder the innocent. He's literally willing to just kill people. He's willing to just steal. The Bible says he croucheth, meaning he's basically hiding, kind of like a lion in the bushes. When it says he humbled himself, this is not him being a humble person. This is saying he's lowering himself because the word humble means just lower. So he's doing it in deceit. He's lowering himself, he's crouching himself, he's hiding, ready to pounce on the innocent that the poor can fall by his strong ones. And notice his attitude. He said in his heart, God hath forgotten. He's saying nobody's paying attention to me. God doesn't care. I can just steal. I can just cheat. I can just lie. I can just get away with murder. And literally there are people in this world, they think that they can just do evil and God is not going to recompense on them. God is not going to repay them. Notice what the prayer of the psalmist is. He says in verse 12, Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up thine hand, forget not the humble. Now this humble is different than the one in verse 10. This is the actual God-fearing people, okay? Wherefore doth the wicked condemn God? He has said in his heart, thou will not require it. So he's saying, what's going on, God? The wicked are saying you're not going to repay. You're not going to do anything about this. You're not going to basically have them reap what they sown. But in verse 14, he says, thou hast seen it though. He's saying, God, I know you saw it, for thou beholdest mischief and spite to requite it with thy hand. The poor committed themself unto thee, thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Break out his wickedness till thou find none. That should be our prayer. You know, when someone is wicked and an evil thief and a liar and deceitful and full of fraud and all this stuff, we should be praying, hey, break that guy's arm. God don't have any mercy on him. Find all of his wickedness. Not just the wickedness stuff I know about, all of it. Just roll the wheel on this person and just find, hey, everything they've done in secret, every evil thing they've ever done, all the fraud, all the stuff on their computer, yeah, all of it, every single square inch of it, find it all and discover it all and just bring all of their wickedness out in the light. You know what? That should be the prayer of the righteous. You know, we want to be the people that want everything to be exposed, not the people that are like, oh, let's hide and cover up and be afraid. You know, the righteous are as bold as a lion. The wicked fleeth with no man pursueeth, is what the Bible says. And you know, you don't have anything to fear when you show up and you say, hey, Joseph, hey, the money was in the bag and we don't know what happened rather than being like, I hope he doesn't search the bag, I hope he doesn't try to figure out where that money went or whatever. No, you just need to go ahead and bring everything to the light and have integrity and be honest and not be a person that's full of fraud and deceit and stealing and taking things because even if you can hide in man's sight, you can't hide from God. And only an atheist, a fool, would think that God is not going to require it, that God is not going to requite it, repay it, avenge it. God will avenge it. Whether it's in this life or the next, it's going to happen. And there's no point in stealing from anyone because God takes it personally. You know, it's not like the goyim, you know, you can steal from the goyim or something like that. No, no, there's not a person that you should be stealing from or taking advantage of, especially God's people. Go back to Psalms or Genesis 43, Genesis 43, and they may not have realized it, but why would you want to steal from Joseph, right? If there's one person on the planet you don't want to steal from, wouldn't it be Joseph of all the people that you could steal from? I mean, that's the last person you should be stealing from. Now they don't know that necessarily. They don't know that it's who, who it really is, but this is God's man. Okay. Look what it says in verse four, 24 now and the man brought the men in a Joseph house and gave them water and they washed their feet and gave their asses pro vendor and they made ready the present against Joseph come came at noon for they heard that they should eat bread there. Joseph came home, they brought him the present, which was in their hand into the house and bow themselves to him, to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare and said, is your father well the old man of whom he spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered this thy servant, our father is in good health. He is yet alive. They bowed down their heads and made obeisance, lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son and said, this is your younger brother of whom he spake unto me. And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. Joseph made haste for his bowels did yearn upon his brother and he sought where to weep and he entered into his chamber and wept there, washed his face and went out and refrained himself and said, set on bread. So Joseph finally locks eyes with Benjamin. Now again, perhaps this is just a long time since he's seen Benjamin. I presume it's the first time he's ever laid eyes on Benjamin. Okay. Either way, it's a very emotional thing for Joseph. He can't even physically contain himself because he has so much love for Benjamin that he has to literally go and hide himself. He weeps over it. Then he washes back up. He comes back out and he's, he's bringing out the bread. Now I think why it's important for Joseph to continue concealing his identity is in his mind, he still is not yet convinced that his brethren aren't wicked. And I think he wants to potentially rescue Benjamin from them if they are still wicked and he still has a plan to test them one last time. So it's important for him to not yet reveal his identity so as to preserve Benjamin because he doesn't want to just have them go away with Benjamin and then something bad happened to Benjamin like happened to him. I believe he wants to preserve Benjamin. So he's very emotional, he's very concerned for his brother, yet he keeps his composure. And you know what, there's going to be times in our life when we have a very strong emotion about a particular situation. We have to keep our cool. We have to control our emotions so as to make sure that we're still making the right decision. Okay. And one example of this would be just simply, you know, the enemy tries to get under your skin. They'll try to rile you up and, you know, they'll try to get you angry and they'll try to get you to, you know, basically lash back out of them or to, you know, say evil to them or do evil to them. And the thing is we have to try our best to make sure that we're keeping our cool, that we're maintaining our composure in a difficult situation so as to, you know, remain integrous and make sure that our plan goes correctly, right? He has a very detailed plan and it's going to work if he keeps his composure. If he loses his cool, the plan may not work. Okay. So it's always important that we are able to maintain our composure and to conceal our emotions at the appropriate time, use discretion at the appropriate time, and just, you know, not always reveal our hand as it were, you know, have a good poker face, okay, as a, you know, pardon my phraseology, but essentially you don't always necessarily need to tell everybody that you're thinking, what you're thinking. You know, the Bible says, give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you. I didn't say that. Jesus said that. And I'm just quoting Jesus. So if he literally says, don't give that which is holy unto the dogs, and he's not talking about Fido, okay, talking about faggots, all right. And when he says that, he's saying, don't give anything to these people. Don't talk to them. Don't deal with them. You know, we have to use discretion, okay. And I know some, I had somebody tell me, he's like, where in the Bible did Jesus call anybody a dog? And I'm like, Matthew 7. Like, oh, okay, well, you know. Look, beware of the pit bulls when you go soul winning, okay, but that's not what Jesus was saying, my friend. Don't get mad at me for something that Jesus said, okay. You take it up with Jesus. He said, don't give it to the dogs, and in Philippians he said, beware of dogs, and in Deuteronomy, he said, you're not allowed to bring dogs in the house of God, okay. There you go. And he said it was a sodomite, so you put two and two together, all right. Now let's keep reading in this chapter. He says in verse number 32, and they set on for him by himself and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians which did eat with him by themselves because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. So at this time, the Egyptians hate the Hebrews. Keep your finger, I want to go to a place real quick, go to Proverbs 29 for just a second, and I want to show you a verse here. You know, I think that, you know, some people, maybe based on their background bringing up or the church that they grew up in, they have this concept or idea that they want to be friends with everyone, or like they're going to be buddies with everyone, world peace, you know, or something like that. This is not a possible concept, okay. Good people don't like bad people. Bad people don't like good people. But I'll tell you something, bad people pontificate lie and flatter by saying I love everyone, but they don't, okay. Now Proverbs 29, look at what it says in the last verse, 27, an unjust man is an abomination to the just. You know why you don't like wicked people? Because you're not just. So if you sit here and you want to tell me how wonderful child molesting, pedophile faggots are, it's because you're not just. And if you want to tell me how great murderers and adulterers and whatever, it's just because you're not just, okay, because the Bible says an unjust man is an abomination to the just. You know what, there should be people that you find an abomination. If you're just, if you say I think everyone's great, thanks for telling me you're not a just person, you're not a righteous person, you're not a godly person, because you know what, godly people will find some people in this world abhorrent. Just eat, ugh, that's what an abomination is, ugh. I mean you just don't like anything about them. They're disgusting and putrid and vile and wicked and just, you want nothing to do with them. And look what it says the opposite. And he that is upright in the way is abomination of the wicked. Here's another test. Does everybody like you? Or are there some people that find you to be the worst person ever, they can't stand you, they don't like anything about you. Look, it's just an inevitable reality that if you're a righteous person, wicked people are going to hate you, okay? And if you're wicked, righteous people are going to hate you. That's how it works. You say, no one hates me. Well, you're either in the middle or lying, okay? But you can't be a righteous person without drawing a little bit of hatred, okay? That's just how it works. Jesus was not loved by everyone. I don't know if you know this, but he died. And you know what, he died because people hated him. They killed him, they crucified him, they spat upon him, they beat him, okay? And it wasn't just him, all the prophets, all the apostles, I mean, they just hated these guys. Look, we read about all the people we love, do you not realize that everybody hated them? It's like, we love John, they hated John. He was in the Isle of Patmos. They literally sent this guy away. John wasn't even welcome to go to the church where Diatrophes was at. I mean, a New Testament church that had just been founded by the literal apostles, they hate the guy. I mean, it'd be like in 5, 10 years, Oklahoma City Church is like, Pastor Shelley's never welcome in our church. I mean, that guy's still teaching that you don't put beans and chili, you know, it's like, what's going on here, right? I mean, wouldn't that be weird if you like started a church and then like 10 years later you're not even welcome to come to the church? And it's like, well, John must deserve it or something. No, no, no, no, no. It's just how it is. There's going to be wicked people that hate the righteous and righteous that hate the wicked. That's just life. And the Egyptians, they hate the Hebrews. And you say, why do they hate the Hebrews? Because the Hebrews are righteous. They're God's servants because they love the Lord, because they go to a good church, right? Because they raise kids for the Lord, because they homeschool, because they didn't stab their kids with poison and call it vaccines, okay? Because they didn't, you know, want their kids to dress like whores and whoremongers because they don't let their kids watch Miley Cyrus, right? Then they just have to hate you. They get all mad. Oh, why don't you, why aren't you like us? Why aren't you getting drunk? You know, why aren't you committing fornication? Why don't you get divorced five times like me? Why don't you just commit all the sin and the evil and the wickedness like me? You must think you're good. You must think, you're a Christian. You're a goody two shoes, right? You have the Sunday school answer. That's what they'll say. Oh. But they don't like the fact that you're righteous so then they'll try to put it down. Oh, you're like in a cult or something. You know. Well, you know what? I am a worshiper of Jesus Christ and following him I'll do whatever the Bible says. You can call it whatever you want. You know, why did Cain kill Abel? It wasn't because Abel did anything wrong, it's because Abel did everything that was right. And I think it's easy to forget this. Especially depending on, you know, you go to Joel Osteen's church, it's like, I'm for everybody. Well, that sounds like you're not righteous then, Joel. How are you for everybody? Because according to the Bible, the wicked are supposed to be an abomination to the just. The unjust man is an abomination to the just. That tells me that Joel Osteen's not just. And what are you, more righteous than God, Joel? You more loving than God? That's sick because he can't be. He is love. Let's finish our chapter. There's just a few more verses. But we need to remind you that there's going to be people that hate you. It's life, get over it, okay? Just enjoy being, you know, a servant of the Lord, sitting at the right table. Verse 33, and they sat before him, the first born according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men marveled one another and he took and sent messes unto them from before him. But Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs and they drank and were merry with him. Now, I just want to go to two Psalms and I'll finish this story, okay? Psalms 112, go to Psalms 112, why does Benjamin get five times the amount of food as all the other brethren? Well, it doesn't say, so I'll just give you my opinion. You want to know why Benjamin got five times the food that everybody else got? Because Benjamin didn't sell his brother into slavery. That simple, okay? And you know what? Look at some people's lives and you say, why is this one Christian blessed a little bit more than the other? Sometimes it's because that person's just serving God better. There is a reward to serving God, okay? You see, some people that are Christian, they're saved. We're talking about two different saved people. Some people, their life is a screwed up train wreck and the other one's going really great. A lot of times it's because the screwed up train wreck had a lot of screwed up train wreck sins. It's just reality, okay? You reap what you sow. And you know what? God has grace and God has forgiveness, but lots of sins have permanent consequences. Let me give you a perfect example, okay? Tattoos. If you go and get a tattoo, okay, and let's say after you get the tattoo, you say, you know what? That was stupid. And you know what? That's the right thought. That was stupid, okay? Because tattoos are stupid. You get a tattoo and you say, that was stupid. That was a sin. Because the Bible says you're not supposed to put marks on your body, okay? And you say, you know what? God, I'm sorry. I wish I had never gotten this tattoo. You know what's not going to happen? The tattoo's not going to dissolve and disappear off your arm. Still going to be there. And you know what? You're going to have to live with the tattoo for the rest of your life. And you know what? God can forgive you. God cannot be mad at you anymore. But that doesn't mean you won't have a tattoo on your body for the rest of your life. And what I'm telling you is, yeah, you can go and sin and then later say, God, I'm sorry. Please forgive me. And you know what? He can take some of that wrath away or he can take some anger or he can decide to not be mad at you. But guess what? There can also still be lifelong consequences to that sin. And I've literally had people contact me and they literally say, hey, I know this is a sin but if I pray about it afterwards, you know, like, is it a permanent sin or whatever? And I'm thinking like it's permanent consequences? That's a stupid attitude to say, well, you know, I don't know, like, maybe I should just go ahead and just get remarried even though I've been divorced because I can ask for forgiveness afterwards. Well, guess what? You're going to suffer the consequences of making that stupid decision the rest of your life. And look, I'm not trying to condemn people that have been divorced and remarried. What I am saying is there is consequences to every action and everything that you do. Don't just have this stupid mentality, this stupid idea of like, well, I can pray, you know, and ask God for forgiveness afterwards. You know, that doesn't work with a tattoo, my friend. You're going to have that tattoo for the rest of your life. There is a reason why you follow God's commandments and so that you're blessed. You know, there's a reason why Benjamin got five times the mess as everybody else. Look at Psalms 112, look at verse 1. Praise you the Lord, blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his commandments. You know, the Bible says that you're blessed when you follow God's commandments. I believe that. Okay? It doesn't, it's not just saying that in vain. It's like, well, I'm saved. No, no. He's blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his commandments. Look at Psalm 128 and look at verse 4, Psalm 128 and look at verse 4. I guess we're going to all take off here in a minute, I don't know. Psalm 128, look at verse number 4. The Bible says, behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. Okay? If you don't fear the Lord in your life, you're not going to have blessing. You can have cursing. You know, obviously we can't go to hell after you've been saved, but you can still have cursing. You can still have punishment and chastisement and God can still be angry at you when you don't follow his commandments. That's why it's important to follow all of his commandments so that you don't get one mess. You get five. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this chapter, for this story. Thank you that there is a reward for following your commandments, that there is a purpose to following the word of God. I pray that we'd fear you in every action that we take, that we wouldn't just presumptuously sin, hoping to just get off scot-free, but rather we'd actually fear you and we decide to have integrity in every situation we find ourselves in. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our final song, we'll go to song number 64, Shall We Gather at the River? 64, Shall We Gather at the River? Song number 64, Shall We Gather at the River. Shall we gather at the river, Where bright angel feet have trod, With its crystal tide forever, Glowing by the throne of God. Yes, we'll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river, Gather with the saints at the river, That grows by the throne of God. On the bosom of the river, Where the Savior came beyond, We shall meet in sorrow never, With the glory of the throne. Yes, we'll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river, Gather with the saints at the river, That grows by the throne of God. Here we reach the shining river, Lately every burden down, Grace our spirits will deliver, And provide a robe and crown. Yes, we'll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river, Gather with the saints at the river, That grows by the throne of God. Soon we'll reach the shining river, Soon our village will cease, Soon our happy hearts will river, With the melody of peace. Yes, we'll gather at the river, The beautiful, the beautiful river, Gather with the saints at the river, That grows by the throne of God. Thank you all for coming. God bless. You are dismissed.