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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Perfect submission, perfect delight Visions of rapture now burst on my side Angels descending, bring from above Echoes of mercy, whispers of love This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Perfect submission, all is at rest I am my Savior and happy and blessed Watching and waiting, looking above Filled with His goodness, lost in His love This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my story, this is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Good singing brother Stephen, will you open us in a word of prayer? Lord God, thank you so much for the opportunity to come to your house and worship with your preaching Lord and may you be the master of the gospel he preaches and bless and bless your God for yours. Amen Amen, we're going to be doing favorites tonight, if you have a favorite song, Miss Sheila? 275 275 Almost Persuaded, page 275 Page 275, sing it out on the first Almost Persuaded, now to believe Almost Persuaded, Christ to receive Seems now some soul to say, Go Spirit go thy way Some more convenient day, on Thee I'll call Kayla? 355 355 What a friend we have in Jesus, page 355, sing it out on the first What a friend we have in Jesus All our sins and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer What peace we often forfeit What needless pain we bear All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer Brother Brandon? 99 Page 99 Come ye disconsolate, page 99 Page 99, sing it out on the first Come ye disconsolate, where ye languish Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish Earth has no sorrow, that hand cannot heal Brother CJ? You got it in the green? What's the name of it? Yeah, I don't think that's in the green. You got another song? Any other? 319 Sorry brother CJ Just a Closer Walk With Thee, page 319 I am weak but Thou art strong Jesus came me from all wrong I'll be satisfied as long As I walk, let me walk close to Thee Just a Closer Walk With Thee Granted, Jesus is my plea Daily walking close to Thee Let it be, dear Lord, let it be 787, sing it out on the first 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 Last one, Brother Ramon? Page 49 Meet me there, page 49 Sing it out on the first On the happy golden shore Where the faithful part no more When the storms of life are o'er Meet me there Where the night dissolves away Into pure and perfect day I am going home to stay Meet me there Meet me there Meet me there Meet me there Where the tree of life is blooming Meet me there When the storms of life are o'er On the happy golden shore Where the faithful part no more Meet me there Good to see you Welcome back to Sure Foundation Baptist Church Let's take our bulletins and go through them again real quickly On our front cover we have our verse of the week If you need a bulletin would you lift up your hand Someone will bring you a bulletin Alright, thank you Brother Sean And the Bible says Our verse of the week The Bible says Prove all things Hold fast that which is good 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 21 Our service times are 10 30 a.m. Sunday morning 3 30 p.m. Sunday evening And we're in Genesis 33 tonight Thursday Bible study We're finishing up 1 Corinthians And we'll be in chapter 16 the second half And our soul winning times Are listed below we had soul winning today Was there any salvations today? Did anybody have one? Not one It was a rough neighborhood I heard So Anyway well God rewards you for The things that you do right For the work you put in And uh If you look down you can see our praise report The salvations Baptisms and attendance totals And uh Just a quick reminder we have the Kids choir practice immediately after the service So Kids if you're in the choir Just come straight up to the front where you were You want them right here While you're doing it in the back this time No instruments Where's the piano? You're not going to use the piano? Okay perfect Well so the back so the back room back here Mom baby room Okay so moms get out as soon as the service is over I'm just kidding But that's where we're having the Just joking So that's where it's going to be though the mom baby room Anyway I'm just I'm totally kidding But I'm not But I am But I'm not no I'm just kidding Alright so that'll happen right after the service So kids go straight there Throw the mothers out of the room no I'm just joking No don't do that But just as quick as possible Cause there's people that are from out of town They're trying to get home as quick as possible So let's just make it happen December 11th we have the Ladies Cookie Exchange Great elephant game at 1pm at the Bender Home Please bring three dozen cookies or treats And a container for goodies to bring home stuff For your husbands And December 16th we have the kids cookie and ornament decorating Here at the church building at 2pm And if you have any questions about that see Rachel Woods December 19th is the kids Excuse me the Christmas service Children's choir Prime rib dinner after the morning service December 23rd we have the candlelight service December 31st we have Our service here Pray in the New Year have a game night Probably be a game afternoon Ping pong tournament, foosball and all that good stuff So just January 1st Just put your heart to Doing the New Testament challenge Which is reading the Bible Nine chapters a day for 30 days And when you get to the end You'll have read the whole New Testament So I highly encourage you to do that if you've never read the whole New Testament It's on your way to reading the whole Bible Amen And then all the other info I think is pretty much Everybody knows all that stuff So I'm just going to skip through it because I want to get into the sermon here as quickly as possible Remember to congratulate the Alcordo family for the birth of Lydia Lynn Alcordo who was 8 pounds 2 ounces Beautiful by the way And 19 and a half inches long So Congratulations to their family And we do have a baptism Right after the service so if I give the ushers Help with the towels Ms. Sherry, is there a dress That she can wear or She brought something, okay So as soon as the music Not the music I feel like I'm doing like an invitation As soon as the music begins to play No, as soon as I pray As soon as I start to pray, go ahead and just go get changed And when you're ready just come right out by that back wall And I'll be standing right there So then I'll know that you're ready, okay Are you good with that? I'll sing another song and then I'll receive the offering We're going to be doing a chorus of the week We're going to be singing My Life is Yours to Control If you need a paper Please raise your hand and brother Ramon will get you one My Life is Yours to Control Let's sing it out on the first verse With my whole heart I humbly seek you Now use my life oh Lord I pray I yield my stubborn will completely May your commandments slide my way My life Lord is yours to control I give you my heart and my soul I'll seek your will never mind Rich treasures to find Give wisdom to choices I make Along every path that I take So when I complete life's race Well done you will say Your word has promised me the victory And all I need to do is claim Your strength to soar with wings as eagles To walk, to run, and not to think My life Lord is yours to control I give you my heart and my soul I'll seek your will never mind Rich treasures to find Give wisdom to choices I make Along every path that I take So when I complete life's race Well done you will say Good singing, we're going to receive our offering now Brother Bill, if you'll bless the offering Brothers, thank you for bringing us all to church Just bless the gift and the giver And I hope the offering will be used for your purposes In Jesus' name we pray, amen Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Genesis 33. Genesis 33 the Bible reads And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked And behold Esau came 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 hinder most 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 handmaids 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 has Unto thyself And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee If now I have found grace in thy sight Then receive my present at thy hand 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 Had 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 knoweth That the children are tender And the 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? And Jacob went down that day On his way unto seer And Jacob journeyed to Sukkoth And built him an house And made booths for his cattle Therefore the name of the place Is called Sukkoth And Jacob came to Shalom A city of Shechem Which is in the land of Canaan When he came from Padanaram And pitched his tent before the city And he bought a parcel of a field Where he spread his tent And he erected there an altar And called it Eliel-o-Yisrael Brother Tim will you pray for us? Amen, alright We're in Genesis 33, remember last chapter Jacob ends up wrestling With the angel of the Lord which we know As we studied in there Is that that was a Incarnate Lord Jesus Christ So I said he wrestled with a man Then he saw the face of God And so I took him at his word And he named that place After that meeting So also this is a big Time of stress For Jacob, his brother Who hasn't seen in 20 years Is coming with 400 men He's got his plan of action He's prepared to try to appease him Actually uses that word appease And he wants Jacob to give him grace And give him mercy And so just like I was talking about this morning You know if you get God gives grace to the humble But he resists the proud doesn't he And so what do you see Jacob Doing here he's being very humble If you want mercy you should learn to be humble Because God is going to give mercy To those that are humble And he's going to resist those that are proud And I kind of said this before I feel like had Jacob had a different attitude Had Jacob come at him differently Maybe things would have changed Maybe that's why he did have the 400 guys Maybe he thought he was going to be a little jerk Or whatever But he wasn't He was totally respectful Even calling Esau my Lord Esau Because who really is the Lord Of that inheritance It's actually Jacob Remember he sold his birthright And Jacob stole his blessing Well there was nothing really left For Esau Obviously Esau is blessed But as far as being the spiritual Leader of his household That moved on to the line of Jacob Not Esau Now Jacob is afraid He prays that God delivers him And God did tell him to move back To Canaan Remember he was not living in Canaan He was living and working for Laban Which was basically Rachel and Leah's dad So now let's start off in Genesis chapter 33 verse 1 And the first point of this sermon is Showing favoritism Is hurtful So look at Genesis 33 verse number 1 It says, And Jacob lifted up his eyes And looked and behold Esau came And with him 400 men And he divided the children Unto Leah And unto Rachel And unto the two handmaids So he's making these divisions And the first chapter kind of explained How he was going to do that And how he was going to He had all these offerings These gifts that he wanted to give Esau And he had them all line up In different packs or whatever Where he would give one than the other So Esau has seen these guys come towards him With all these offerings And he's riding past them And he breaks up his own family So now remember Jacob kind of has a little bit of a You know just like many of us Have a dysfunctional family But he actually has four wives Two of them are handmaids They're concubines And then Rachel and Leah So notice how he positions Them though Says that he put the handmaids And their children foremost So in the front line Right? And then it says And Leah and her children after So he's made these divisions On Joseph hind her most So if he's coming to kill them all Who's he going to kill first? He's going to kill the people that are bringing the presents Then he's going to kill the handmaids And their children Then he's going to kill Leah and her children Then finally Rachel And her one son that she has at the time Joseph So I mean you can see he's putting them In the order of importance To himself And I just say If I was one of them I'd probably feel a little bit slighted Wouldn't you? Leah's like At least I got a little bit of favor over the handmaids At this point You know I know that favoritism Is something a lot of times that people can't help People say well that's your favorite child Or that's your favorite grandchild Or that's your favorite aunt, that's your favorite uncle And it's hard for us to You see favoritism all throughout the Bible But showing favoritism And having favorites are two different things And especially with your children If you have children You should try your bet Again all kids are different Some kids are more well behaved than others And so They can easily They can easily fall into Favor or out of favor pretty quickly But But like if your children think Hey he doesn't love me as much as he loves that As much as he loves this one What do you think that that does to them? It probably doesn't make them feel too good So I would just say this You might not be able to help it have favorites But as a parent You should probably not show your Favoritism to the other kids And I'll prove this later on In the book of Genesis You probably know the story of Joseph All of his brothers hated him Why? Because he was the favorite son He made him a special coat that he didn't make for anybody else The coat of many colors You know that was when Rainbows were not Taken away from the people Of God that were given over to the Sodomites But I'm just saying that We should try our best To not show favoritism When it comes to our children And when it comes to our grandchildren When it comes to other people in your families And again you can't help sometimes Sometimes one kid likes you And the other kid likes the dad more than mom Or maybe not likes them more But you know what I'm saying They cling to that parent Like they'll say that's a mama's boy Or that's daddy's little girl And that happens And it's hard for you to not feel that Extra connection with that child When they're clinging to you More than they're clinging to the other Makes you feel special doesn't it? But at the same time it can hurt the other kids feelings And so I'm just saying that When you have children When you have grandchildren You know and so Like I said you can't help But feel those feelings sometimes I mean look at this situation here He's like basically saying well You know if the handmaids get hit first Then I'll be okay because Rachel's still here With Joseph and you know what I'm saying Like Jacob wasn't a perfect person And I'm not ever claiming that he is But I'm not a perfect person either You're not a perfect person Jacob has issues And we'll see even in the next chapters How he wasn't really exactly Always the most attendant parent either And sometimes we're not The most attendant parents So we need to focus on our families And make sure that we realize how precious They are to us and we don't want One child to feel like they're not loved As much as the other ones And sometimes it's hard because The ones that are misbehaving the most Seems like the ones that get the most attention And that you can't really help either because you're always having to correct them Because if you leave them to themselves Then they're going to be even worse If you just let them grow up and be brats Then you're going to be dealing with a brat For the rest of your life that you're bailing out of jail They don't understand You know God's You know the way God looks at things If you never spank your children You never correct them Obviously you're in a world of hurt When it comes to When they grow up And later on in life And then you know it's a lot easier To correct a child when they're young Than to try to change them when they're older So Again I realize that Favorites are natural and sometimes You can't help it but it does harbor resentment It does harbor bitterness In the other children I'd say this like my mom would always try to Do her best To make sure that all kids Had equally the same exact amount Of dollars and Christmas presents every year And She really still feels that way to this day Like she's not going to give me More or my brother more or Whatever I mean as far as I know Maybe she's changed her ways but She was really big about that and I never Felt like you know Growing up that my mom loved my Brother or my sister more than me Now Obviously you know In this story Jacob has more Than one wife That's not a problem that we're ever going to have to deal with Unless you're like in a Mormon Colony somewhere in the middle of nowhere But in this country you're only allowed to have One wife at a time But you know They knew the pecking order right here They knew where they were in Jacob's heart from the way he Positioned them and obviously he His plan was to Mitigate the damage You know maybe some of them could escape If the first wave got hit or whatever But like he's ranking his children In importance too because he puts the children With their mothers So who is the most important child To him even right here? Joseph Who is the most important wife To him right here? Rachel Now and I'd say this men You know your wife should be You know we can't compare this situation Necessarily to our lives But I would say this that your wife should be the most Important woman in your life Period hands down If you're choosing your mother Over your wife Then you should have cut the Apron strings a long time ago homie Seriously like And maybe your moms right in A situation but here's the thing Your mom shouldn't be butting into things that are not her business So I mean Be grandma Be my mom Obviously you honor and respect your parents But if you're constantly Choosing your mother Over your wife Or your sister over your wife Or even your daughters Over your wife That's not good You're one flesh with your wife The Bible doesn't say that about anybody else So you should have loyalty To each other and wives you should have loyalty to your husband You know there shouldn't be Someone that you favor over your husband And if you have problems In that area then you need to get them worked out Because you two Together if you're Divided Or if you're showing favor to somebody else Then it's going to be a hard Strain on your marriage Now let me just tell you this if you're choosing mommy Over your wife all the time You know you got mommy issues And you need to figure it out So I mean it sounds funny But it's actually true So we need to be aware about those things The reason why I say this is because I just see it happen so much It's just like Did you not hear the part In the marriage vows That you leave father and mother And cleave onto your wife That's your wife That's the reason why you got married Because you're cleaving onto them You're leaving and cleaving Right? Leave mommy and daddy Alright? And cleave onto your spouse That's what it says right? And so that's how we should look at things Our spouse should be Your spouse should be the most important And if you married someone that you don't like Well you know again You done messed up But you need to work it out So You done messed up Alright so So you know That's any woman Any woman should never be chosen over your wife Be bad about each other To other people Whether that be the husband or the wife You know? That's where a lot of divorces I feel like happen Is because someone is listening to somebody Outside the marriage That's telling them wrong advice Oh girlfriend you better leave him You know he can't hold a job down Or he's this or he's that You know what? That person's telling the wrong advice They're telling them wrong advice Not marrying but making another wrong That God God hates divorce He hates it Now and I know that people Get upset when I preach stuff like this I'm not saying that if you're divorced You can't come to this church I'm not saying if you're divorced I'm mad at you Cause I'm not You didn't divorce me so I'm not mad at you If you've gotten divorced Move on Move those things in front of us And leave those things that are behind us You can't just ask God to forgive you And move on with your life And serve him the best way that you can Now 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 So he's basically you know he's bowing And he's moving and he's bowing and he's moving So he's actually bowing himself To his brother It says, and Esau ran to meet him And embraced him And fell on his neck and kissed him And they wept So you know all this stuff that Jacob's been stressed out about this whole time Doesn't come to pass because Esau has forgiven him And he obviously loves him As if he hated him And still wanted to kill him he wouldn't act like this right? So they even wept Like they've been 20 years since they've seen each other You know as much as you know the Bible says The brother is born for adversity And that's true I mean who's had a brother they fought with before Raise your hand You don't have to raise your hand if you don't want to I mean my brother used to get in fist fights all the time Growing up And I always won But you know I was the bigger brother too I mean he's not as big as me so he didn't have a chance But Sometimes brothers fight And they were in a fight to the point where Esau was threatening to kill him You know And so brothers are born for adversity Sisters fight Don't they? They're just like yeah They get after it But when you haven't seen that person For 20 years and you love that person Even though you might have adversity with them You know you're still going to show love to them I mean unless that person is just like the worst scum of the earth But most of the time You can get past your differences With someone that you deeply care about And especially like a brother or a sister That you grew up with and they're twins They're not just Twins do have like this connection That most people don't have They weren't identical twins obviously But they were still twins And so they did still care about each other Excuse me It says So look at verse 5 it says And he left up his eyes and saw the woman The women and the children said who are these with thee And he said the children which God hath graciously Given thy Servant So you know again Jacob Before I get into this verse Jacob you know he was looking for mercy And what did he get? He got mercy didn't he? Didn't God do what he promised to do? He got him there safely He's with Esau Esau's not killing him He's not killing his family And so basically God did everything he said It's this stressful thing that's just like nagging at us It's some kind of pressure in our lives That we like we know we're gonna have to face it It's coming And then when it happens you know you're asking God You're begging God to help you in that situation Then when it comes It usually ends up being better than you expected it to be Right? Now that's a hope that God's people can have It's a great benefit of the Lord That his you know the Bible says His mercies fail not You know he loves us he's gonna take care of us And when we have a humble attitude God's gonna get us through our hard times also But again verse 30 Or verse 5 It says you know Esau's asking Like who are these women and children He's like the children which God has Graciously given Thy servant So notice he's still very humble here Calling himself Esau's servant But look at what it says it says graciously given See children are a gift From God But unfortunately today in 2021 People don't always treat their children Like they're a gift Your children are a gift they're a blessing From God Your grandchildren are a blessing from God And don't ever forget that Because people lose track of that You know sometimes when you got a lot of kids You got a lot of littles and you're like they're always Sick and you're changing diapers And it seems really hard But I'll tell you what If someone has raised children before And those children are all pretty much out of the house You're gonna miss those times You're gonna miss the times When they were little When they weren't saying things right And you'll remember those things that they say You know a lot of those things The cute little expressions that they would say Or they'd call you Like Emmy calls Sherry Hema I don't know if you've ever heard her say that Hema, Hema, Hema What did it used to be? Brandon what, it used to be something else Like, oh it used to be mamma Mamma But then it turned into Hema But those are the cute things that you remember When children are little How you know like What was one of the things that I would say to Remy when he did something good I'd say good boy Remy And then he started saying He'd start Good boy gaga Or whatever Like when I would do something He'd figure I was doing something right Josh called me Galga When he was little, but see those are the things You don't forget those cute things about your children But when you're in it When you're there, this is something I would Like to just express to young parents That enjoy your children while They're little because you are Gonna miss them when they get older You're gonna miss that time And think man I wish I wouldn't have been so Stressed out and so All the time with them Because there's times when You don't like if you have a lot of children It probably is really hard We had children Two years apart and You know they were a handful But you know looking Back on that I wouldn't take that Back for a minute I mean Remy was, I didn't even know Remy Was a bad kid He wasn't bad but He was very hyperactive He was like you know he was really strong He was really hyperactive But I didn't know any better I'd never had a child before so I just thought that's how kids are My wife's just like Why won't you sleep child? You know He didn't like taking naps And you know some kids are just like that But remember you're gonna miss those things And like ignorance is bliss So if it's your first child you just don't know any better Than all the better but You know I think that people lose track of the Fact that children are a blessing Children are the heritage of the Lord Look at Psalm 127 verse 3 Psalm 127 verse 3 And then when they're all teenagers at the same time You know they're all awkward And they don't want to hang out with you And you know you don't miss those times So much But You know every stage of their life Is important And so even though they don't want to hang around you Or whatever they don't want to talk to you You're not cool enough to be around or whatever You can still guide them And you still should continue To guide them when they're teens Don't just leave them to themselves Let them do whatever they want Look at Psalm 127 verse 3 It's his reward So God gives us children And he wants us to raise them In a manner where They're going to get saved He's seeking a godly seed He wants people to be saved So if children are born into a Christian home They're far better off and way more advantaged Than being born rich Or any other thing because They have the advantage of being raised in a home That's Christian that's going to teach them Christian principles And manners and homeschooling Christian children Are advantaged and they think When they're growing up Oh I'm just trapped I have to go to church Kids you ought not to think that way because You could have been born in different circumstances You could have been born in a circumstance where your parents Don't care about you All they do is go out and party all the time And they could care less whether you have all the things that you need That's a worse place to be born into At least your parents care about you They care enough to bring you to church They care enough to teach you the Bible They care enough And they're not perfect Your parents aren't perfect I know you can get up here and say how perfect your parents are Or not but you shouldn't do that You should respect your parents and honor them Even though you don't feel like You feel like you're right I know as soon as you turn 13 You're right about everything But guess what when you're older you're going to go Man I was really stupid when I was 13 Well you know when people are older they learn more And so they have that life experience over you That makes them more wise than you Look at verse 4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man So are children of the youth Happy is the man That hath his quiver Full of them They shall not be ashamed They shall speak with their enemies In the gate So the Bible says happy is the man Who hath his quiver Full of them, full of what? Children And so if you're A parent today and you're like I have too many kids I'm done, I don't want to have any more kids And you feel Anything other than happy that you have a lot of kids Then you're not right with God Let me just say that right now Your heart is not right with God Because what does the Bible say It says happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them Why would you be unhappy Even if you just have one you should be happy about that one And maybe they're not turning out The way you want them to turn out Because you're not training them right Why don't you start doing what the Bible says And chasing your child while there's hope Why don't you start Teaching them about the things of God Instead of the things of the world Teach them Train up a child the way he should go And when he's old he won't depart from it Isn't that what the Bible says? He's not going to depart from that training So maybe you're just failing as a trainer And you know what the worst thing is This is the worst thing to see For me is when When Christians go to church They have kids but they completely ignore All the child training stuff They completely ignore it And I'm just like I just don't know what to do The Bible tells us what to do Tells us how to train our children So If you're not happy with the way they're being raised Well maybe you just need to fix how you're Raising them and make them better It looks poorly upon You when you can't control Your own children Proverbs 17 Proverbs 17 verse 6 The Bible says in Proverbs 17 verse 6 It says children's children Are the crown of old men And the glory of children Are their fathers This is talking about grandchildren Children's children are the crown of old men I'm blessed to have six grandchildren already And I got the seventh on the way The first man child And I got six princesses That are already born And I'm happy I'm happy about that It is a crown to me It's a testimony of the fact that my kids believe That having kids is a good thing So I'm Happy about being a grandfather I don't have this attitude like I'm going to retire soon and get away from all my family I'm going to go down to Florida It's too hot Too many bugs But anyway I just don't have that attitude I don't want to retire away from my grandchildren I want to spend time with my grandchildren I want to spend time with my children I want to spend time with my grandchildren I want to spend time with my family And that's the way we should look at things Instead of looking at them like I'm going to retire in 30 year retirement Then I'm going to retire and go off and travel in an RV And leave all my family behind I don't feel that way I want to be involved in my grandchildren's life If I can have some kind of godly influence over them I would like to do that Now I realize I'm the grandparent I don't have rights to them I know that the state of Oregon Might have a different opinion about that But I don't feel that way I feel like I'm going to defer to the parents every time They're going to ask me for advice I'll give it to them But I'm not going to sit there and try to raise somebody else's kids for them Now I'll help I'll help and do whatever I can to help My grandchildren get raised right But at the end of the day It's the parent's job to do that So I already raised them I'm not raising their other kids Anyway So let's look at verse 33 back in our text So number 3 tonight We should also be minding our manners Look at chapter 33 verse 6 of Genesis It says 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 So all these families came to Esau Jacob bowed seven times Before he even walked up to him And his family is bowing To them His wives are bowing to them with their children Together And That's a sign of respect It's a sign of manners And maybe we don't do that kind of mannerism In our culture But what else would you do? Hello, hi, how are you? Hey, good to see you Fist bump In the winter Shake hands in the summer That's our culture though But in Japan like people bow And look each other in the eyes When you're talking to someone You know look them in the eyes as much as possible I mean some people got that Like dead stare and you're just like you have to look away Sometimes you know what I'm talking about But the point Is that I believe that They're doing something and Their children have already been taught to respect You see how You know they have probably varying ages of kids Here and maybe some of them are adults I don't know But they're showing respect You know and so It's up to us to teach our children Respect and manners Right I mean So respect and manners I believe are lost in this generation For the most part And what really bothers me is when I see Christian children Not having respect for other people Not having showing Respect and manners You know like I said look at people in the eyes Shaking hands How you dress How you eat How you talk to people All those things you know if you're going to be in society I know we live in a texting lol society or whatever But don't let your grammar become Like really text talk Like you should be able to have a conversation With someone and not get really awkward Obviously if you're an introvert I understand Different people are comfortable with different levels But like I feel like manners are Lost on this generation because people don't try Or they're not taught You don't sit down And just start scarfing your face When you're invited over to someone's house For dinner I mean maybe wait to see if they want to pray You know I don't know you're just like Like what's wrong with you people Why aren't you eating I'm just saying that no situational Situational manners And I'm not saying you have to like Go to, what is that school Where ladies become, you know what I'm talking about Anybody It's like a manners school or something like that Ladies used to go to that when they were kids And they'd teach how to put the forks and the plates And everything, where everything goes The salad forks on the left or whatever All that stuff I mean we don't have to get ridiculous with it But I'm just saying that Good manners are a good testimony To your parenting It's a good testimony to our church Sometimes people just get too familiar Sometimes people get too casual You know and I'm not like A super rigid like You know stuffy shirt type of person I can kind of let loose And have fun sometimes But sometimes we get too casual You meet someone for the first time and you're telling them Your life story I mean that's too casual Like do you really know that person that well You're going to tell them your whole life story And every sin you've ever done First of all it's a shame To speak of those things Unless you have a purpose for saying it Even people you've known For a long time, why going to Some of the worst things about your past Because people can't help but judge sometimes So I think it's too Casual I think it's getting too familiar with people And I'm not saying don't be friends with people I'm just saying that sometimes people just puke their whole heart out to people And then they wonder why they don't want to be friends with them anymore And the way people Dress Look, I'm not saying that we all have to wear a suit And tie it 24-7 But we should probably dress For what we're doing And teach your children to Respect other adults To answer them And respect them We went to this church a couple of Churches ago Where the pastor's daughters He had a whole bunch of daughters And you'd walk in and say hello to them Like this I'm serious Like they'd even roll their eyes And turn away from you and stuff It was just like really awkward But Their parents never corrected them You know, isn't that Is it really that hard to say, oh hi, how's it going? No, it's not really that hard And I know that there's shy people Like I know that the brother I was going to say Pastor Richie Brother Richie is what I meant He's got some quiet family members But you know what, if you say hi to them, they're going to say hi back You know, and so I think that it's respectful To answer an adult when they talk To you Hey, I'm not expecting toddlers to like have Conversations with me or something like Goo goo ga ga, goo goo goo No I mean Be, you know, realistic about it But, you know And here's the thing Here's something, I'm kind of on one Right now, so You know, when I ask a child at church to Stop doing something And they look at me like Who do you think you're talking to? And they just continue to do what they're doing That pisses me off And I'll just, you know And you're like, well, I teach my kids To not answer to anybody except for me Well, then you're wrong Because if you're not watching them And they're off doing whatever they want And they say, hey, stop chewing on the chair Or whatever it is that they're doing I don't expect them to continue to do that And look at me like they're big or something I think it's rude I think it's disrespectful And If someone in this, if an adult in this church Tells your child something because they're out of control Then you should have been watching them It's not my job to watch your kids It's your job to watch your kids So don't sit there and get mad at me If I correct your kids I wouldn't have to correct them If you were correcting them yourself Right? And I'm the pastor of the church and I'm going to correct whoever I want In this church If they're doing something that they're not supposed to be doing I correct old and young I correct myself if I have to I'm just saying If that's your attitude Don't ever listen to what an adult says Only listen to me Well, that's disrespectful Especially, you know You should respect your elders Have you ever heard the term respect your elders? Now there's no fool like an old fool I understand that If someone's an old grey-haired man And they're just some crotchety old foul-mouthed You know, atheist Trailer trash or something I get that Maybe they might not, I mean You can still be respectful to a certain extent But I don't expect you to sit there and take their abuse You know what I'm saying I'm talking about a normal person You know Teach your kids to respect their elders I'm not saying go with them in a car I'm not saying take candy from them I'm just saying if someone says hi to you Say hi back It's respect, it's respectful And so if you're teaching your kids the opposite I'm not saying anybody is I just, I wonder sometimes When I ask a child here to do something And then they just continue to do Whatever they want Then I think, well maybe they're not being told To listen to the adults That are asking them to do something And if I have a problem And I'm going to say something And you don't want to say anything to me because I'm the pastor Well we can talk about it You're wrong Right off the bat, but we can talk about it Because when I'm having to correct someone's kids And the adult's not there watching them Then I'm gonna, I have to do something You know I have to stop whatever that action is And so I'm not going to grab your kid I'm not going to spank your kid I'm not going to yell at your kid But I am going to say stop Stop doing that or get out of here You know that's usually what I'm saying Get out of here Quit playing with the doors You know, just stuff like that You know, I mean I know I'm taking a lot of time with this But I just feel like We need to get back to a place Where respect and manners Are something that we have Moral, I think it is moral Turn to Leviticus chapter 19 verse 32 Here's just an example And while you're turning there You know, when we talk to each other Maybe this needs to be something that we Put into our Just how we talk to people every day But calling Someone brother or sister so and so That's probably the proper way to address somebody Hey sister Amy How's it going? Maybe it's my fault Maybe I haven't enacted that culture Into our church, maybe we need to change that You know, I'll admit I don't always say that, I might say Kyle Or instead of saying brother Kyle But maybe we need to get to that Maybe I need to practice what I preach too You know, maybe I need to Do better At manners At having manners with other people So, you know But when someone talks to me It should be Pastor Thompson Or Brother Thompson or Brother Aaron I'll respond to all those And I don't get offended when someone goes Hey Brother Aaron blah blah blah I am Brother Aaron I'm not like I'm not some special person or something I don't expect people that come to this church to go Hey Aaron, what's going on? I have had people do that and I usually don't say anything It's just like, eh, whatever You know, but like, it is something This is a term of respect You know, say Mrs. Thompson or Miss Sherry Or Sister Sherry Those are the ways I think that, you know, like I said Things have become too familiar Things have become too casual in our society And I think that we could do better I'm not saying go way over the top And everybody's bowing when people come in or something like that I'm just saying we could do better, that's all So, you're in Leviticus chapter 19 Look at verse 32, it says Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head And honor the face of the old man And fear thy God, I am the Lord So, would that be considered like a manor? But it says thou shalt Is it a commandment? So, what is the hoary head? Someone with gray hair When I come in, you better stand to attention No, I'm just kidding, I'm not fully gray But it's talking about old men Old ladies, you know, stand up Rise up when they walk in the room It's a term of respect that God's asking you to do You know, and sometimes I forget to do that But when I think about it, I do do it But it's something that maybe you should think about Hey, can we be more respectful? Can we, you know, be respectful and rise up when an old man walks into the room? I think it's possible, right? And that teaches our kids to do the same things So, how about offer a seat to a pregnant lady? You know, you're in an office or something and there's a pregnant lady and she's walking there and she's holding her belly or whatever and you're just sitting there and you're a young man and you can just stand up Offer that seat to a pregnant lady What's wrong with that? I think it's respectful Offer that seat to an elder person You know, don't don't stand around while women are working, men and you know, pastor and men just kind of cover this We need to have more people helping and helping work You know, it's weird when a bunch of 15, 20 year old kids are all playing games while other people are working around them So, yeah, I'm stepping on some toast and I'm sorry, but not sorry, because I just think it's something that we can get better at Nothing wrong with that Well, you want to get better? Am I here to preach to you so you can feel better about yourselves when you go home? Oh, I want you to feel terrible when you leave here No, I just want you to get better That's all I'm not trying to harp on people or be rude. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15, 33 1 Corinthians 15, 33 The Bible says, 1 Corinthians 15, 33 it says, Be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners Now, manners is also the way you live your life the manner or custom, the way you do certain things right? But manners is also it applies to this So, evil communication corrupt good manners Evil communication is like hey, you don't have to listen to adults when they ask you to do something Does that corrupt good manners? I think it does And so anything that you would communicate that would stop people from having a good manner in their life you know, hey, you really don't have to go to church three times a week, the pastor is just ridiculous Evil communication corrupt good manners I don't think that the King James Bible is the only one that's right I think there's other ones that are right and we should be able to use those Evil communication hey, stick with the King James stick with a good manner and read this book and put away your RSV your NASB your HIV whatever translation you have this modern translation, put that away from you So, let's get back to Genesis chapter 33, look at verse number 8 The Bible says in verse number 8 And he said, What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? This is Esau talking 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 wast pleased with me So, he's trying to just, he's saying Esau's like, hey, you know what, I got plenty, obviously I have 400 men I also have a lot of other stuff, I don't need your presence, but Jacob's like, no I insist Have you ever had someone that tried to give you something and then you're like, nah, it's okay, I don't really need that, and they're like, I insist I want you to have this, please take this and basically I mean, I think that that's bad manners too, to not receive something that someone's trying to give you He's trying to give him a present He's like, I got plenty too but I wanted, you know You received me how I was asking to be received You had mercy on me when you didn't have to I want to give you this present I want to make things right between us and I want you to take this and it says, 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 so he's urging him, he's saying, no, please take this I think it's a rude manner when someone offers to give you something and insist and you're like, no no, no, I'm serious, I'm not going to take it I mean, I personally think that that's rude Now, you might disagree with me and that's fine You could be wrong, I'd agree with you but then we'd both be wrong No, I'm just kidding That's my opinion I know that a gift can pervert people's judgement and if someone's trying to do it for that reason then I understand what you're saying but like, if it's just like someone genuinely just wants to do something nice for you and I think that it's and someone urges you to take it and I think it's respectful to do that so once you take it, it's yours, you can just give it away to somebody else if you want but you can re-gift it if you want but some people like to give you stuff so they can make sure you're wearing it too though, like, with ladies, I know this is a true thing right? Ladies are like, you know, whatever happened to that shirt I gave you you know, five years ago I've never seen you wear it since I gave it to you it's like, it was ugly what am I going to say, no but you know, if you give somebody something, it's theirs so don't follow up with them about it that's kind of weird anyway turn to Mark chapter 9 verse 41 Mark chapter 9 verse 41 while you're turning there, I'm going to read from you Matthew chapter 10 verse 42 Matthew chapter 10 verse 42 says and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple verily I say unto you so you know, you could be stopping someone from getting a reward you say, I don't want your cold glass of water in the disciple's name, buddy I'm out here soloing, I'm trying to starve myself I'm fasting right now when you're out soloing, do people ever offer you cold drinks of water? You should take it even if you don't want to drink it, you just go you know, whatever but most of the time that comes in pretty handy because you're already like man, my water bottle I've been holding my back pocket, it's already warm a nice cold glass of water would be nice and then sometimes the Lord provides it for you, you're like, no thanks and obviously if it's like shady or something I can understand, but like you're robbing that person of their reward you know, they're going to get a nice reward, look at what it says in Mark 9 41 so it's worded a little differently, here it says for whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name because you belong to Christ verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward so some people will just they might not even be saved have you ever had an unsaved person give you something? absolutely, but the Bible says they still get a reward for that and maybe that seed that you're allowed to plant maybe that's a big thing to them for you to receive what they've given to you, it's rude to not take it, in my opinion I think the Bible kind of teaches that but I definitely think I think it's just common sense it's common courtesy now number 4 tonight, it's the last point lead your tender ones softly lead your tender ones softly, look at Genesis 33 verse 12 Genesis 33 verse 12 it says and he said let us take our journey and let us go, and I will go before thee, so this is Esau saying hey let's go together let's go, I'll go before thee I'll lead the way, I got 400 men and it says and he said unto him my lord knoweth that the children are tender and the flocks and herds with young are with me and if men should overdrive them in one day all the flock will die and so Jacob's considering his children here this is a time where he's being a good father he's being a great father right here he's saying hey I got a lot of young children I got a lot of young animals with me and if we overdrive them because 400 men are not going to want to wait for a bunch of crying kids and baby calves and stuff right so he's wise here he's saying hey I don't want to overdrive my family, I don't want to overdrive the cattle that's with me let my lord I pray thee pass over before his servant and I will lead on softly so Jacob says 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 seer so we have to be careful as Christian parents that we don't overdrive our families in the working of the lord now there's a lot of expectations that God puts upon us, it's not my expectations you know but God puts a lot of expectations on us and there's a lot of families here that drive for a long ways and it's hard I'm not saying don't take your family to church don't misrepresent what I'm saying here I'm saying we shouldn't overdrive them, like if there's a lot of activities going on and you sit out for one of those activities I don't think there's anything wrong with that cause your kids can only handle so much if I was doing missions trips like every week then you'd probably be like yeah maybe we need to sit out this one and people do and that's the right thing to do so we don't want to overdrive our children because they're tender especially when they're young, it's not easy it's easy to just drag them all to all these soul winning times and like if you went to every soul winning time and you took your small children to every single time that would be overdriving them don't you think? so I mean I'm just saying that we need to learn to lead on softly and obviously the men are leaders of the family, you're the one that sets the precedence in everything and so if you think that it's too much then no just lead softly, you don't have to just drive them into the ground it says overdrive them you don't want to overdrive them and you want the children to be able to endure, there's only so much they can endure if we had like revival every week or I had these preachers come in and we all did a potluck for three, four straight days, I've gone to those they're nice, you know, for the first day or two, then you're like on day four and your kids hair's all twisted and your wife's hair's all twisted and you're falling asleep in the pew I'm just saying you can go too far, even like some of the conferences we go to are pretty heavy duty and if you have small children then they can be rough, I'm just saying as a dad as a leader, we should lead softly, especially when we have young and tender children and just remember that your wife is the weaker vessel and so she's not going to be able to endure all the things that you can do and so if you want to go hard charging and do the most you can do, but you know what, your wife needs you when you have a lot of small children so you don't want to overdrive them by you overdriving yourself does that make sense? Like, you know, your wife needs you to be there for her you know, when she's been with the kids all day, you got six screaming kids or six kids that have just been you know, they're bouncing off the walls dad comes home and he's like, time to check out I worked all day I ain't doing nothing and you know, obviously it's our job to go out and bring home the bacon and all that good stuff but, and obviously if you need twenty minutes to relax and take your shoes off and start training your children to rub your feet or something I mean, there's all kinds of you can lay on your stomach and let them pop your back you know, walk on your back hey, I've done it Remy used to be able to crack my back better than anybody and Josh you know, I mean Nia, she used to rub my feet but there came a point where she was like you know, I think it was when she was a teenager dad, ew, your feet stink but anyway I'm just saying, we shouldn't over drive our family to the point where they're just, you know where they're not able to endure it okay, and again don't mistake what I'm saying, I'm not saying stop going to church three times a week, I'm not saying that I'm just saying that you can you can roll back on some of the other stuff and let up on some of the other stuff that you're doing and you know, there's nothing wrong with your kids having fun in the ministry yeah, we take our kids out soul winning and we train them and we teach them we can't expect them to have the same you know, the same you know what's the word I want to say we can't expect them to be the same as we are because they're weaker than we are your wife is weaker than you are and we can endure a lot more things than our children can endure so there's nothing wrong with making a soul winning trip out for the day fun take them somewhere to get them something to take them to Dairy Queen or something afterwards or take them to have a dinner reward them for their hard work and when they're good, say hey if you're good out soul winning and you're not like kicking rocks at the people I'm talking to or whatever then I'll take you to get some Dairy Queen afterwards kids shouldn't dread church and we can get to the point where we make church not fun it's like all, you know we're not Amish here we're not like Mennonites we actually want to have some fun and I think we do fun things here at church and I think that the kids can have fun but you know I think that we need to make sure that we're not just over driving them and a good father to young children is great but don't forget about them when they're teenagers I already mentioned that but it's important we don't want to lock them away because they're awkward because they don't want to talk to you anymore you make them talk get in here and talk to me right now find out what's going on in their lives find out what they care about be interested in some of the things that they're interested in just because they're teenagers and awkward doesn't mean that we can't still get down on their level we were teenagers once too remember we know what it was like hormones are raging they think they know everything they think they're smarter than you all that stuff but we all went through that and we realize now that that wasn't true right turn to Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4 Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4 I feel like I was making a good point that I lost oh yeah about church being something that kids dread you don't want it to turn into that you don't want Bible reading time to be something that they hate and abhor you know I knew somebody that when their kids got in trouble they sat there and made them read the Bible all day long you want to get someone to hate God force them to read the Bible all day long you want someone to hate God make church something that they hate make prayer time something that they hate I mean don't use church as a punishment for your children that should never be the case ever and if you've done that just stop doing it realize you're wrong and stop because if you want your kids to hate God then go ahead and just force them to read the Bible when they're in trouble but to me that's a weird thing you spank them then force them to read the Bible it's like yeah they're going to turn into reprobates just so you know Ephesians 6 verse 4 of the Lord so you know obviously we don't want to provoke our children to wrath overly teasing them making them hate us some kids you know eventually they grow up and they say I hate you you know and if your kid ever says that you should spank them but you know do they hate you for a good reason? they might God says don't provoke your children to get to this point where they're wrathful towards you they just can't stand the side of you it says bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord I fully agree with corporal punishment and spanking like the Bible teaches but I also agree that you should love those children you know you spank them and then you tell them you love them afterwards and you try to admonish them to do right next time isn't that what God does to us? you know when we do something wrong he spanks us and he says don't do that again and then we do it anyway don't we? but eventually that correcting is going to help us out you know you're like I don't know if I want to deal with that sting again you know because God can punish us in a lot of ways that you know is far worse than a spanking right? so my point is lead on softly you know lead your family softly and I'm not saying don't don't be a strong leader I'm just saying you know because sometimes that term might seem like oh you're being Mr. Softy Mr. Squishy or something not over driving them you don't want them to hate church right? 1 Peter 3 verse 7 1 Peter 3 verse 7 now we should feel this way we should lead our wife softly also because they are the weaker vessel yeah I know that 2021 you know women earn the same amount of money as men because they can work just as hard wink wink nah nah or anything like that I'm not saying women are dumb they're not dumb you know the Bible teaches that women are supposed to marry bare children and guide the house and there's nothing wrong with that that's a good thing but men are physically stronger than women you know any woman in this room I'll arm wrestle you right now and I will beat you really fast come on bring it on anybody want a challenge? sure? okay well I gave you an opportunity I'm just saying that's just how God made us men strong so they could work harder and they're the stronger vessel look at verse 7 it says likewise you husband dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel as being heirs together of the grace of life that your prayers be not hindered we have to dwell with our wives with knowledge and realize they can't do the same things that we can do to sort of drive them and to make them weary sometimes my wife has to ride my wave and my waves are big sometimes I'm out just doing all kinds of stuff and she's like I'm sick of traveling stay home then but I don't want her to I want her to come with me someone's got to iron my shirts while I'm out I'm just kidding she always says that but it's true but I just love having my wife with me but you know she can only handle so much and so my point is that we've got to dwell with them according to knowledge and not overdrive them also turn to Ephesians 5 verse 25 Ephesians 5 verse 25 so as a husband you know what I'm really getting down to in the details is this is talking about men's leadership okay now women have their own rules and leadership in the house they leave the children but the husband is the man of the house and he's the one that should be running the household so I'm not saying an older son or something I'm saying the man the man of the house so husbands love your wives verse 25 even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it now skip down to verse 28 says so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies he that loveth his wife loveth himself for no man hath yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the church men you know I mean I know that you guys like to work out and stuff you know you nourish and cherish your body you put the proteins in you know you're eating right you're trying to like be all sculpted and ripped or whatever and have a six pack abs and all that stuff you take care of your body but what's the point that God's making here is that hey if you're going to nourish yourself and cherish yourself that's how you should treat your wife also you should treat your wife like you would treat yourself if you love yourself you love your own you know you want to nourish yourself you want to eat good food you want to take care of yourself you should take care of your wife also and remember that they're the weaker vessel so we have to you know make sure that we're not over driving them and we're not making them hate going to church making them hate the ministry I mean there's times when you know your wife might want to sit into a service and listen to the preaching and again I don't want to meddle here I'm just saying you know sometimes a lot of women just have to sit in the mother baby room and obviously there's times and seasons for that I get that cause some kids just can't you know most kids that are small can't just sit through a whole service that's fine but you know you could take them for a service maybe but obviously when they're newborns they need mommy I understand that you know believe me I understand that cause I've had little ones that I tried to secure and it didn't work out very well anyway that's a different story for a different time Matthew 11 verse 28 and here's the thing that God doesn't want us to be over driven obviously there's times when we're working really hard and we're trying to get a lot of work done for the Lord and I'm not saying that he doesn't want us to work hard I know he does but he doesn't want to over drive us to the point where we quit too this race that we're running the Christian life the race that we're running we should not just be on a dead sprint all the time because if you're on a dead sprint you're going to lose your gas tank and you're going to quit before you finish the marathon our goal is to finish this race that we're running and I mean when I was in the fourth grade or something I think I used to run track and I was the fastest kid in my school it was elementary school but I was still the fastest kid I could run a mile and I can't remember what the time was but I ran the mile and I I was way faster than everybody else but one thing I learned really quickly is if I sprinted the whole time that I couldn't finish so I mean that's a lesson for us is that you know we need to understand there's times when we need to draw back a little bit and we can't just keep on a dead sprint all the time and expect it not to affect us as husbands and fathers and we can't expect it to not affect our wives we can't expect it to not you know affect our children so Jesus said in Matthew 11-28 he says come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lonely in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now obviously this pertains I believe to salvation and people trying to work their way in he's like hey I got a better way my yoke is easy my burden is light it's not going to be it's not hard to get saved but Jesus Jesus is the one that did all the work for us to get saved you know we don't have to do all that work to get saved I talked about in the sermon this morning we the work we do is the work we want to do because we love God and we want to further the kingdom of heaven but that can all be lost if you're a Roman candle Christian and you just you know you shoot off a bunch of Roman candles and then you're done you're a flash in the pan you quit you drag your family out of church because you're done because you over drove yourself you over drove your family and you know as as a dad as a grandfather as the pastor of this church I'm telling you that you need to pace yourself in the Christian life or you're going to burn out and so as a pastor I recognize and I'm supposed to tend to what the church's needs are and I recognize when we're going too far you know when we're going too fast like the holidays is a time when I like to slow it down and I let people enjoy their time with their families and yeah we do have some things going on but I mean I'm very I'm being very selective about what I allow to be put into our calendar right now because I just don't want us to get so over done that we never have a time like they call it the holidays for a reason it is a time to kind of take time away from working really hard and you know just take a couple days for yourself I mean the Thanksgiving holiday you're thanking God for everything and we had it at our house and so if you had it at your house you probably didn't feel like you had a very restful holiday but you know it's still I mean it's still a time to just relax and kind of have a holiday that's what it was in the Bible the holidays in the Bible they were resting weren't they? and they were feasting and they were I mean people act like that's such a bad thing oh they were feasting you're feasting on Thanksgiving it's like they feasted in the Bible all of them were feasts it was all just they were Baptists back then too I mean if they weren't if they were meeting they were eating right? so anyway so we got to understand that God doesn't want to over drive us to the point where he's that we're just like done he wants us to stick with it and so we do need to pace ourselves let's finish up in Genesis 33 verse 15 Genesis 33 verse 15 it says and Esau said I will leave with thee some of the folk that are with me so he wants to leave some people with him and he said what needeth it? let me find grace in the sight of my Lord so he's like Jacob's like you don't need to leave anybody with me his plan is to never go back home with him I mean you don't see him go back to Seir with him he doesn't he's like kind of shining him on here like he loves his brother he's happy that he got mercy but like there's a reason why they were not together for the last 20 years okay and this is something we have to recognize with our families too yeah love your family yeah have a good time with them sometimes but if they're a bad influence in your life maybe they're a profane person like it says Esau was or a fornicator like it says Esau was those are the people that you should kind of keep at arms length they shouldn't be your best friends that you hang out with all the time Jacob never goes to Seir it says in verse 33 so Esau returned that day into his way into Seir but Jacob never goes with him so cause in verse 17 it says Jacob journeyed to Sukhoth so did he go to Seir? No he didn't so he goes where God told him to go now Esau was trying to lead him to go with them and hang out maybe they wanted to hang out with him and live up to good old days or whatever remember when he stole my blessing? sometimes when you love someone it can be hard to separate from them when you know that they're not good people to be around and so we gotta recognize those things and again in the context of family here he's making the best decision for his family that he could make and so another thing I would say is that we should settle down and make a suitable place for our families to live we shouldn't always be on the go moving from place I moved a lot when I was younger and I regret it, I hate moving I hate I hate my pastor you shouldn't say hate, hate I hate moving and I'm retired from moving, other people too by the way so I've moved a lot of people too cause I felt like well if they help me move then I'll help them move or whatever I'm getting a mover, professional movers to move my house next time, trust me I've gotten talked out of it like three times I don't care if it costs 500 bucks I'm gonna have someone else do it when you get old and you've moved as much as I have you'll feel the same way so anyway but we should settle down and have a suitable place to have our family, I've been at the same place for like almost 10 years now but that wasn't me early on and kids are resilient kids can handle moving or whatever but kids should also feel they don't like moving away from their friends they don't like moving away from their church cause I kinda went through that with my kids sometimes and you know they didn't like moving they didn't like moving away from different churches even when we started this church our kids didn't want to move from the church we were going to cause they just make friends they settle down and there's nothing wrong with settling down but if you found a good place to go to church, if you found a good place to make your home you should make it suitable for your family like what it says in verse 17 Jacob's journey to suck off and built him a house and made boosts for his cattle therefore the name of the place was called suck off so God told him to go back and he said you know what I'm going to settle down for a while I'm going to actually build a house he built a house and he made a garage for his cars he made the covered garage so his cattle had someplace to go look at verse 18 and Jacob came to Shalem the city of Shechem which is in the land of Canaan and he came from Patanarim so 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 100 pieces of money so and I believe that this is just Jacob trying not to overdrive his family they've already been gone they went on this big journey away from Laban but he was settled down before he left right, that was a big move for him he had to talk his wives into it you know he had to tell them what was going on his children had to walk all that way to be carried in carts or whatever it was but when he went back to Canaan he was like I'm just going to settle down in a place when I get there and I think it's good for men to just bouncing around and moving from place to place is probably not the best thing for your family so let's see anyway, so the last part here is the last point I want to make, I'm not going to have you turn there I'm going to give you the verses in John 17 actually go ahead and turn over to John 17 it'll be the last place I have you turn so here's the thing, God tells him to go back to where? to Canaan, what does Canaan represent in the Bible? Canaan represents the world, Egypt represents the world so, but where does God tell him to be? where does God tell him to be? a prophet of God, he tells him to go back to the world now, but he's not telling him to mingle with them have their daughters marry their sons have his sons marry their daughters that's not what he's doing we should marry within our kind and what I mean by kind is by Christians but Jesus, he never wanted us to be away in some bomb shelter hiding out, he wants us to be in the world so we can have an effect on the world around us but he doesn't want the world to affect us, he prayed for us in John 17, look at verse 14 it says I have given them thy word I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but thou shouldest keep them from evil, so he's not saying take them out of the world to God the Father he's saying keep them there, but keep them from evil, they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world, so God's plan has always been for his people to affect the people around him and to reach the world for the Savior and have them call upon the name of the Lord Jacob and Isaac and Abraham, they had servants that were born into their house, Abraham for sure had servants born into his houses that were not you know, from his tribe or whatever from his people but yet they loved him and they followed him, and they you know they were circumcised, they were part of Abraham's people by being circumcised and agreeing to move on with him all I'm saying is that Jacob went back to where God told him to, God wants us to be in this world but not of the world and he doesn't want us to just hide out some place in the mountains you know, when we run for the mountains that's when you know the abomination of desolation happens you want to run for the hills? Run them but until then you stay put where you're at and be in a place where you can be effective for God, be effective for the local church, be effective for your family and I know that you know, at some you're like, I just want to be a homesteader out and you know milk cows and make butter and stuff okay cool, but you know what you have all eternity to do that right now God wants you to work for his people, for his kingdom and he wants you to make the name of Christ famous so in verse 20 it says he erected there an altar and called it Eli-Ohi-Israel which means the God of Israel I probably didn't pronounce that right but anyway, so he settled in Canaan surrounded by unbelievers yet still separated, he wasn't in the city he was kind of on the outskirts of the city and he made an altar a place for him to show his spiritual side to others around him do you think that the Canaanites didn't look at that altar and go what is that? you know that's kind of, this is before the local New Testament church but Jacob wanted to show people that he was spiritual he did care about the things of God and I'm sure people asked him what is this altar, what is this all about? it's the God of Israel I want to show you the God of Israel so if you're going to be someplace be someplace where your light is going to shine before men so that they will see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven so number one, showing favoritism is hurtful maybe this is something you're doing and need to change are you favoring one child over another openly? you should work on that because you don't want your kids to grow up and resent you and be bitter towards you number two, children and grandchildren are a blessing and a gift from God and you don't ever forget that maybe you're at a point where you're finding your children to be a curse instead of a blessing and you need to change something in your heart if that's how you feel you need to change your actions you shouldn't feel that way because it's wrong and you need to take responsibility for what you're doing in your own home and if your children aren't obeying you, if your children are giving you all kinds of problems and they don't mind you then maybe you need to stop patting them on their little dipe and give them a real spanking you know if they're not crying real tears, then it didn't hurt I mean if they ain't crying, you didn't do it good enough and they're never going to be corrected from a spanking like that so number three we should be minding our manners maybe you've let your manners slip or never had any to begin with maybe you're just an uncouth hillbilly that never learned any manners and I probably am too, but either way you can change that, you don't have to continue to be a person that doesn't have good manners and don't be too casual with people don't be too casual with the way you dress, don't be too casual with who you are and who you talk to about your personal life because there should be some boundaries in life you don't have to tell everybody everything about yourself number four, lead your tender ones softly and when I say lead I mean lead but don't overdrive your children, don't overdrive your wife enjoy these years of tenderness like I said, trust me you're going to miss it one day and right now you're in the thick maybe you're in the thick of small children and I get it but you're never going to want you're going to feel bad for feeling the way you do right now and never choose another woman over your wife, I don't care who it is let's pray, Heavenly Father we thank you Lord for the lessons we've learned out of Genesis chapter 33, Lord I pray you help us to put all these things in place in our families Lord, men would lead their homes and that wives would care and love their husbands, care for their children, Lord we would make something normal in this wicked world Lord I pray that people look at people in our church and say I want to be I want something like what they have because we can be a good example Lord and I just pray that you'd help us to be that way and when people see us outside they see us the same way we are here inside Lord everybody's a hypocrite at some point in time but I just pray you'd help us to not be a church that people think I can't believe that person goes to church but anyway Lord we thank you so much for all your blessings here and for the baptisms to follow in Jesus' name we pray, Amen O little town of Bethlehem page 434 let's sing it out on the first verse yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight for Christ is born of Mary and gathered all above while mortal sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love O morning stars together proclaim the holy birth and praises sing to God the king and peace to men on earth how silently how silently the wondrous gift is given so God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his hand no year may hear his coming but in this world of sin where meek souls will receive him still the dear Christ enters in O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray cast out our sin and enter in be born in us today we hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings too O come to us abide with us our Lord Emmanuel O come to us abide with us O come to us abide with us O come to us abide with us O come to us abide with us O come to us abide with us O come to us abide with us O come to us abide with us abide with us O come to us abide with us abide with us abide with us abide with us abide with us abide with us abide with us