All right. I don't know if everybody keeps their sheets with you as you come back Sunday to Sunday, but we didn't finish last week and I want to. There's a lot of practical lessons here in chapter 23 of Genesis and 24. It won't be necessarily deep doctrine in these chapters, but it is deep. My old pastor, whoops, my old pastor, I just lost my pen. used to say to us, he used to get on us and he used to say, Oh, you call yourself a Bible believer. You claim to believe the Bible. You know, the King James Bible is the word of God, do you? And he would go on and say, Well, let me ask you a question. Do you live the King James Bible? And if you don't live the King James Bible, then you are not a Bible believer, because you might believe you have the right truth there, but you don't believe it enough to actually act upon it or do anything with it. And we're guilty of that, if we're honest. We're not perfect, are we? We want to be. The Lord tells us to be. He even tells us to be holy. And that seems unachievable sometimes. So the practical lessons are really what we need. It's great to learn about the gap and it's great to learn about dispensations and it's great to learn about all the things that are out there in the universe and all that. But if we can't take some practical things and go out into the workplace tomorrow and live our Christian lives in front of the world and have a testimony and even be able to witness for God, how much do we really believe the Bible? So we'll get back to Genesis 23. And actually it's a good portion of the chapter. We don't necessarily have to read it, but I'll read and we'll see how far we get. I don't want to use too much time just reading the text, but it says in Genesis 23, 5, And the children of Heth answered Abraham, this is now Sarah dying. You see that in the first verse. And the children of Heth answered Abraham in verse 5, saying unto him, Hear us, my Lord, thou art a mighty prince among us. In the choice of our sepulchers, bury thy dead. None of us shall withhold from thee his sepulcher, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. And Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. And he communed with them, saying, If it be in your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat me to Ephron, the son of Zohar. that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which is in the end of his field. For as much money as it is worth, he shall give it me for a possession of a bearing place amongst you. And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even all that went in at the gate of the city, saying, Nay, my lord, hear me. The field I give thee, and the cave that is therein I give it thee. In the presence of thy sons of my people, give I it thee. Bury thy dead. And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land, and he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me. I will give the money for the field. Take it of me and I will bury my dead there. And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, My Lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that betwixt me and thee? Bury thy dead. And Abraham hearkened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had set, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth 400 shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. Now we can just stop right there. These verses describe Abraham's negotiation for Sarah's burial place. We see that Abraham was a good negotiator, if you remember. He was good at negotiating the terms for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. And he's doing it again here, but he's doing the honorable thing. He wants to pay for the land. He doesn't want to have it be given to him. So we see that Abraham would not take a burial place for free. More than likely, Abraham wished to disassociate himself from the children of Heth by not allowing Sarah to be buried in their land. So he refused them, and certainly not at their expense. He requested the cave of Machpelah instead, which is in Ephron's field. And in like manner, Ephron offered the cave at his expense, but Abraham respectfully declined his offer. And we can learn a lesson if we look at verse 15. The statement is made by Ephron. My Lord, hearken unto me. The land is worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that betwixt me and thee? Now, understand you would read this passage and you think, well, these people are kind people. They're wonderful people. I mean, look at they're so giving and caring and they want to take care of Abraham. They recognize he's a prince. They recognize God's blessed him and they want him around because they can see the blessing of God comes on them if he's around and whatever their motive was. But Abraham, knowing that he didn't want to associate with that crowd and want to have anything, he didn't want to have anything given to him. from them so that he didn't have any strings attached. Again, we can go back to the king of Sodom. And I forget what chapter it is right now, around chapter 14 or so, where the king of Sodom offered everything to Abraham and he refused. He said, not even a shoe latchet. I don't want anything from you. He wanted to disassociate himself. He didn't want to say that that king had made him rich or that king had taken care of him or that God didn't supply his need. So we learn a lesson here. The question was asked, what does that betwixt me and thee? And if you have your sheet, how many of you have your sheet? I'm looking at mine. Okay, good. You can see there on the paper, Proverbs 22, 7. And it says, and it's just part of the verse, the borrower is servant to the lender. And that's, I believe, the lesson Proverbs was not written at that time, but I believe that's the lesson that Abraham already knew. I am not going to have any strings attached to me from you giving me the cave for my own wife as she died. I'm going to let the Lord provide, and I'll pay my way. And then he owns that field now. So be careful of potential strings attached when accepting freebies. Now this is where it gets practical for you and I. This is written. Why is this written in the Bible? Well, I think there's a good practical reason that we ought to be not so eager to accept the gifts of this world. This this world comes along and says, oh, don't worry, you don't have enough money. We'll take care of that. And the government steps in and they want to provide. They give you checks. They give you insurances or whatever they're giving you to take care of you. They give you rent. They'll give you food. And but what we don't realize is there's strings attached. You say, well, the government's never come knocking and asking anything from me. Yes, but even in our own minds, we feel like we have an obligation now towards anybody who's done a favor to us. Now, I'm not against people doing favors for anybody, but I'm just let's get into this a little bit deeper. It says in Proverbs 23, verses one and two. when thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Now you understand what the Bible is telling you there? If you go now, a ruler's got more than you have right rulers. If you sit down with a ruler, maybe there's going to be some favor here. Maybe there's going to be something that he can offer me. And the Bible says, if he invites you to eat with him, put a knife to your own throat. If you're given to appetite, don't say, oh, this is delicious and eat everything he has to give you. And then now he's like, well, now that you've eaten well and you've taken of my table, I have something I want to ask of you. You're better off sitting there and not eating at all and abstaining and just hearing what he has to say, because now you're free to walk away from the table. You see, and it goes on in that same chapter, verse six and seven. Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he, but his heart is not with thee. especially if I look around the room at young people and you're coming up in life and people want to offer you this or offer you that and you think, wow, what a break. Look at what they're giving me. Yeah, you better think about that a little bit and you better consider that. And don't be like this guy who sits down and he's hungry and he's at that ruler's table. He said, Lord says, put a knife to my throat if you're given an appetite, because he'll put a knife to your throat if you don't. And his heart is not with thee. Not everybody's motives are pure. Not everybody's motives are pure charity and we just want to give. Look at all the foundations that you hear about in the news of people giving to charity. And why do they give the millions that they give? For favor. For political favor. Right? And so we might want to take that advice. Let me just give you this. It's best to pay your own way or go without. I mean, are we willing to go without? Or are we looking for a handout? Sometimes we say, well, again, that's a hand up. People are helping me. They give me a break. And look at this opportunity. And that's fine. Really, people are very generous. And especially amongst the brethren. If the brethren are willing to help you and they offer you something, you know what a piece of good advice on that is? Take it. Take it if the brethren, I mean, there's no better crowd of people that you can get a favor from is other believers. And if they do it with the wrong motive, they stand before God for it because you're expecting that they're doing it out of a pure heart. But if the world comes to you and offers you a favor, you might want to think twice about it. People tell me, and I hate to discourage people sometimes when they're happy, but I've had several people come to me, young people, and say, I work at whatever they work at, like the Home Depot, Lowe's or the fast food restaurant, and they say, how's it going for you at work? I say, it's great, they just promoted me to manager. I'm like, really? You want that? I say, let me ask you a question. Are they raising your pay? Well, no, but it's a step up the ladder. And I'm like, hold on. A lot of times the world says, oh, we're going to promote you to manager or whatever it is, and they're just wanting to offload more work onto you so that you think there's something in the future for it. And that's how the world operates. And so we better be careful. We might be willing just to pay our own way. or go without. God can provide, and I like to give this piece of advice to people. Remember, it's just money. It's just money. You know, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, and you can get entangled with money. And when you get caught up with money, and you look at money, and money becomes your God, whether you know it's your God or not, you look at money and you say, well, that's an opportunity for me. Maybe not. Maybe we ought to just say, well, it's just money. God can provide the money. I don't need you to provide it. I can just wait on God. And that's that's good advice. That's what Abraham was doing here. They said, look, we'll give you the field. You're a great man among us. We want to we want you to help you bury your debt. Sure. Good intentions, good motives. But he knew better. Even if they didn't have anything in mind today, they might have something in mind tomorrow. They say, remember that field we gave you? Well, maybe we could you could you do this for us or that for us? I mean, after all, we did that for you and it comes back to bite you. I'd rather go without. I'd rather walk away from the table, put a knife to my throat and say, you know what? Thanks, but no thanks. And let God provide. Furthermore, one other thing, if you loan money, have you ever loaned money? You don't have to raise your hand, but have you ever loaned any money to anybody? If you loan money, decide ahead of time that you won't be offended if it's not paid back. I don't know what the statistics are in the banking world about loans that don't get paid back, but I'm sure they're pretty significant. You know, there's a lot of people that don't end up paying their loans. One of the things that bothers me about that too is I've known people like this who will, and I don't mean to make this a financial seminar, but that's where we're at. Good, it's a practical lesson. I know people who aren't even intending to pay their bill. Their electric bill, for example? Well, I don't have the money, so FPL can wait. Well, why don't you shut off every light in your house, then, and turn off every electrical device and your air conditioning? Because if you're not intending to pay it, why are you then taking it? You see? Now, to me, that's stealing. Now, if hard times come, and you say, I meant to pay the bill, I had every intention of paying the bill, but I got cut off, and I don't know, whatever happens. Things happen, and my money just flew out the window, and I lost my job, and I can't pay the bill. Then you ought to do everything in your power to pay that bill back. Don't put them on the back burner. You took of that, you should pay that. So if you're going to loan out money to people, expect that they may not pay you back. or don't loan it out. Just don't do it. I learned that a long time ago. Again, my former pastor, he's the one who gave me that advice. He said, John, if you're going to loan out that money, just make sure that you may never get that back and be prepared for that. And don't get mad at the people, because you're the one who gave it to them. You're the one who said it was okay. And just understand that people are like that. I said, no, people aren't like that. And sure enough, I've had several situations where I didn't even take my own advice. I should have just not loaned the money, but I realized if you're going to live by what you say, then if you don't get the money back, you don't get the money back. Don't lose relationships over money. We call that burning bridges. We don't go back there ever again, because we burned that bridge, and we don't ever want to see those people again, or talk to those people again. Don't do that over money. It's better off if you just don't loan the money, or don't take the money if you can't pay it back, than to do that and burn that bridge. Again, it's just money. It really is just money. In America, of all places in the world, you may not be able to say that in a lot of places, but in America, you can say that. It's just money. Do you know that you could go out tomorrow and earn money? There is no lack of money in this country. There is no lack of jobs. Do you know that they are still telling us because of COVID, I guess, that people still aren't going back to work? I went to the bank Friday, and I was literally standing in a line of about six people, and there was one teller in the bank. And there was a manager saying, sorry, everybody, we're just a little backed up. I'm like, yeah, it looks like it, and where's the rest of the people? I don't know what was going on that day. I usually don't go into the bank, but there are opportunities for you to get a job and to work. There is just money. Learn to not get upset and all wigged out or whatever the word is over money. It's just money. It's just the thing. And the relationship that God gives you in this life, especially amongst this group here, the brethren, you ought to preserve that and not let money be a thing between you and someone else. If you're going to give it out, give it out and don't expect it in return and don't hold it over somebody's head. And if you take it, then know what you're getting into. There are some things that are worth more than money. Proverbs 22, if you want to look over there, I'll just point this out and we'll move on. Proverbs 22. It's amazing to me, honestly. My father was in business for himself, and he taught me well with regard to money. I learned things, and I was always interested in finance and business, so I've always been careful in my finances. I try not to borrow money, I try not to loan the money, and so I believe when you're going to go to work, you might as well make as much money as you possibly can. Whatever you're doing, earn as much as you can in that field. But there are some things that are worth more than money. And the one thing in Proverbs 22, 7, as we already looked at it, is the borrower is servant to the lender. It says, the rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender. One thing that's way more important than you having money in the bank or paying a bill or having something that you could just do without is your independence. You don't want to be servant to the lender. And I believe that was really the motive here with Abraham. He didn't want to be their servant. I'm not going to be beholden to you guys at some point in the future. I want to be free. So I'll just pay my way. Thank you. Thank you for the offer. And he says he bowed himself in front of the people and he respectfully entreated the people. And he even said, name your price. And Ephron said, well, what is that between me and thee? Well, it's a lot between me and you. It's my independence. I want my independence. Another thing that Proverbs says in verse 1 of that chapter, a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. How about your good name? You know, well they borrowed money from me and they never paid it back. Is that the way you want your name to be? Is that your reputation? Oh, they're always taking money from people, they're always in need, they're always coming with a need, they can't ever do without. And they're always looking for the next victim, if you want to call it that. I've had that happen. And it's a little bit of a dilemma for me because I wonder, well, how many people are you going to do this to before I should start warning other people that they might do this to you? And I don't want to besmirch someone's reputation in a hard time. But you see what I'm saying? A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. The same thing in that same chapter. Look at verse 27. This will be the last thing. What's more important than having money? How about a bed to sleep on? If thou hast nothing to pay, why should he take away thy bed from under thee? Hey, listen, it doesn't happen much in this country. You can foreclose on your house and still live there. We're so generous, you know, you can rent from your landlord and not pay your rent, and the government's trying to make laws and say, well, they can still live there, you can't evict them. I mean, we're crazy in this country, right? And we're lopsided on the side of the criminal. But in a normal society, a normal society, they'll come and take your bed away from you. You'll lose. You'll be out on the street like a bum because you wanted something else so badly that you were willing to sell your soul. And a lot of people do that, literally sell their soul to the devil to have what they want in this life. and your bed is taken right out from under you and you have nothing. And now all you are is beholden to everyone else who's ever helped you in your life. And a lot of people in Hollywood are doing things they never thought they would ever do because of all the favors they've been given in life. And a lot of rich people, you say, why are the rich people usually always Democrats? And I don't mean to get Republican, I mean Republican. I don't mean to get political on you here. But why are the rich people always like Democrats and like Socialists? This is why. Because they feel like, well, and I've heard him say this. Well, the country has been so good to me and the people has been so good to me and life has been so good to me that I just feel like we need to give back. And the way they think they need to give back is not the way they earn their money. They give back more of a socialist mindset, and that's where the country is. The Bible says that you can be rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing. And it says about the Church of Laodicea that they forsook God in that time of riches. And that's if you're forsaking God, you're going the other direction. You understand? So anyway, that's I just want to hit that point in Chapter 23. Abraham said, No, I'll pay my way. I'll pay the money. I don't I don't want your favors as nice as that is and as nice. So what what you might do is the next time you have a need, you might want to just bow your head and pray and say, Lord, you see my need. And I pray that you'd help me with that need. And don't pray that someone will come bail you out. Pray, God, what can I do to take care of this need? And don't just sit around and wait for, you know, someone to come rescue you. Take initiative and and sometimes just pay your own way and trust God for the rest. All right. We're going to get into Chapter 24 now. Genesis, Chapter 24, verse one through nine. We're going to read large sections like we just did going through Chapter 24. It's a long chapter. And Abraham was old and well-stricken in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of Canaanites among whom I dwell. But thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac. And the servant said unto him, Peradventure, the woman will not be willing to follow me into this land. Must thy needs bring thy son again into the land from whence thou camest? And Abraham said unto him, Beware that thou bring not my son thither again. That was what the Lord commanded him originally, right? He's not going to go back. and send his son back there. The Lord, in verse seven, the Lord God of heaven, which took me from my father's house and from the land of my kindred, which spake unto me and swear unto me, saying, And unto thy seed will I give this land. He shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence. And if the woman will be not willing to follow thee, then thou shall be clear from this my oath. Only bring not my son thither again. And the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham, his master, and swear to him concerning the matter. Now, that thing about the hand under the thigh, I've read some things about that. And they say that, you know, the thigh is one of the biggest muscle in the body. And that is where your strength is. You know, you're supposed to lift things when you're lifting supposed to use your legs, not your back. to lift things. And so it was customary, they would say, and I don't know if this is all true or not, but I think it sounds good. It was customary to he put his hand under his thigh under Abraham's strength and swear to me. And that's why he did that. So if you have something better than that, let me know. But Abraham was most likely 140 at this time. 140 years old. We know. How do you know that? I know that because when when Isaac took Rebecca, it's on your sheet. He was 40. And so I assume this all happened within a few months, maybe, if that even. And he was 40 when he took her. So that would make Abraham 140. But even at 140, he was taking the responsibility of finding a wife for Isaac. And again, that's a custom of that day where they would make an arrangement of the marriage. And obviously, Isaac didn't want he didn't want Isaac to take a wife of the children of Canaan. He wanted it to come from his land. If you're 40, are you going to let your 140-year-old dad do that to you, and say, It doesn't say that the Bible never says that that was going on. Isaac, again, if you go with what I think, he was 33 when he was laid on that altar. He was already willing to be under subject to his father and to get on that altar and to submit himself to that. And so this is just a few years later. And he was still willing. He was still with his father. I think Isaac understood that the blessing of God was to be with his father and to understand that they were going to be given the land, that he was the seed and that he was supposed to be the future of what God had promised Abraham. So I think he was willing to submit even at 40. Now we can get a real quick lesson from that. You know, the Bible says, honor thy father and thy mother. You say, well, you know, I'm so old, they have their own lives, I have my own life. Well, yes, but are you honoring your father and your mother? I don't see in the Bible where it says to stop doing that when you reach 20 years old, or 40 years old in this case, or even 50 or 60 years old. We're supposed to do that, and Isaac was doing that. It's a little different circumstance, I'll grant you that, but he was doing that. Just something to think about. This is still customary in some countries, that is, to arrange the marriages, and I just put something, you can get mad at me if you want to, and this may not be a bad idea for American Christians either. Say, to arrange my children's marriage? Yeah, to the best of your ability, you might want to do that. Everybody's like, are you awake, or are you just not agreeing with me? Listen, I don't know. Everybody's got children, and maybe your children are long gone and married, and all that. I don't want you to raise your hand, but I'm talking in general. How many people regret who their daughter or their son married? I wish they would've never married them. They've had problems all their lives, because they didn't choose right. Well, why didn't they choose right? I thought you were their parent. Say, well, it's not my responsibility when they get a certain age, they just think for their self. Oh, really? Train up a child in the way he should go. And when he was and when he is old, he will not depart from it. That's the goal. Isn't that the goal? Now I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I am not for arranged marriages. I did not arrange Victoria's marriage. Uh, she arranged it and it worked out okay. I mean, I'm still, I'm still waiting to see how it's going to go, but I was, you can talk to them. I was instrumental in their relationship. I had a lot of rules for their relationship, and we had some discussions during their relationship. I let her choose, and I let him choose, and they chose each other. It was amazing. But, I was instrumental in that, and I'm not patting myself on the back by any means. I'm just telling you that a lot of times, our culture says they're just who they are, and they're exploring who they are, what they like, and who they like. You can't stop them. Once they're 18, that's the magic age for being an adult. in this country, and they're going to do what they want. Well, that shouldn't be what happens in your house. Listen, I'm warning you, young parents, when you have young children in your home, you ought to be grooming them, you ought to be highly involved in who their friends are, and you ought to be highly involved in who they're interested in. You have the right, as the parent, to say you are not going to be their friend. And you are not going to marry that person, so there's no reason for you to be with that person. You have that right. So take it. There are other customs, however, that we should be hesitant to observe, like swearing by the Lord. You notice that's what happened here. Now, Abraham is an Old Testament saint. And Abraham is the father of faith. There's a lot of things that Abraham can do and we can look in the Bible and we look at the Old Testament and we can learn, right? It's there for our learning. But we don't necessarily follow everything that they did. And one of those things that I would highly suggest against is swearing by the name of the Lord. Look at your sheet. Moses, Solomon, Paul, and even the Lord warned against this. And we'll turn to these real quick. Numbers 30. We'll look at that one first. It's on your sheet. The references. So if you want to go ahead of me, you can. But Numbers chapter 30 and verse two. It says, if a man vow a vow unto the Lord or swear an oath to bind his soul with a bond, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeded out of his mouth. So what that verse is establishing is that it's a serious thing with God that if you vow a vow, you better not break your word. All right, look at Ecclesiastes chapter five. You know, I'm good at the Bible drills. I don't know how I do that on Thursday. I want a couple of Bible drills, but I can't do it here on Sunday mornings. No. How could I mark my Bible? That means you gave me the answers ahead of time. That would be funny, though, wouldn't it? We should do that. Ecclesiastes five, look at verse two. It says, Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven and thou upon the earth, therefore let thy words be few." That's real good advice on many levels. More than just making an oath, you don't just get under conviction. I say this, some things may be true and right and you need to change to those truths, but you may not want to do it in an instant. You may just want to consider for a little while and then come to a conclusion. and then vow a vow if you're gonna vow, which we don't recommend. We're looking at verses for that. Before you bow your head and say, God, I promise you I will read my Bible five chapters a day the rest of my life every single day. Because you're under such conviction from the sermon you just heard. And then tomorrow you get busy and you're like, oh no. I don't personally hold myself to a Bible reading schedule, just so you know. I try to read as much Bible as I can. And I want to read the Bible and I read the Bible every day, but I don't hold myself to a schedule because I don't want to do that to myself. I don't want to become a religious fanatic and bind myself to a bunch of things that I can't always be true to certain times of the day or whatever. And if you want to do that, that's fine. If that works for you, that's fine. I'm just telling you what I do. Look at verse four and five in Ecclesiastes five. When thou vows to vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldst not vow. This is God talking now. Well, God wants me to make this. He says it's better if you don't. Better is it that thou shouldst not vow, than thou shouldst vow and not pay. Go over to 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1. Look at verse 17. This is what Paul recommends. He says, When I, therefore, was thus minded, did I use likeness or the things that I purpose? Do I purpose according to the flesh that with me, thou should be? Yeah, yeah. And nay, nay. So, you know, that means that means Christians ought to be people of their word. If you say, yes, I'm going to be there at this time. Yes, I'm going to do that for you at this day and this time. Whatever you say that you're going to do, you ought to be a person of your word and you ought to do what you say you ought to do. You don't need a vow of I promise you. Where's the Bible? I'll put my hand on the Bible and I'll vow a vow. I promise I'll be there. You don't have to do that if you're telling the truth. Your reputation will precede you and let your name be. Nay. Listen, I said no to that. Don't ask me again. This is good advice for you parents. The child comes back to you and says, well, can I do it, you know, please? No. I said, no. Don't ask me again. If you ask me again, I'm going to give you a spanking. Don't even ask me again. That ought to be the way you do it. Say, well, that's the way you do it. Well, yeah. That ought to be the way. Yeah, thank you. Amen. Thank you. I need an amen up here. Matthew chapter 5. Matthew, chapter five, look at verse thirty four. Now, this is Jesus talking. Matthew 534, it says, But I say unto you, swear not at all. Well, that's pretty definitive. Now they swear back there, put your hand under my thigh and swear that you're going to get a daughter, a daughter of the people of my people for my son. Well, the Lord says here, but I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is a city of the great king. You know what? What more can I swear by house? I'll swear by the city of God that I won't do this or I will do that. Just don't do that. Nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication, Paul agreed with this one, be yea, yea, nay, nay. For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. So the Lord will hold us to what we say. We better be careful what we say. Esau swear to Jacob regarding his birthright. And we won't turn to it, but Hebrews, I gave you the references of Genesis 25, where he did that. He says, well, you know, I'm so hungry. I'm about to the point to die. What good is that piece of paper or whatever that birthright is that that that I have? Just give me something to eat. If I die, then what good is my birthright? Right. And the Lord says there in Hebrews that Esau sought repentance carefully with tears, but he wasn't granted the repentance. because it says in that same place in Hebrews, he despised his birthright. And he made a promise to his brother, you can have it in a in a moment. He didn't think about what he was saying, didn't hesitate. He I'm sure he was not going to die that day if he didn't eat. And he gave it up and God says, You're not getting it back. I don't care how much you cry. I don't care how much you repent. You did it and you're responsible for it now. So it's good advice. If you do have to swear, however, You took a loan on that car, or that mortgage on that house, and you swore to pay back that debt. Then we talked about that earlier, you pay the debt or you give it back. I knew somebody who didn't pay his car loan, because he was behind. After all, I'm behind and I need to eat. I have to have a roof over my head, where am I going to sleep? and I really do need the car, and I know I'm overdue, and I know I haven't paid the bill on it for several months now, but I need the car. We all need a car, but you're stealing it now. You're not paying for it, and so he said when they would come by, because they would come by to repo the car, and he'd see them come by, he'd pull the car in the garage. Because he knew when they were coming and he'd pull his car in the garage and hide it from them. I'm like, what are you doing? It's really not your car. Right? So, if you do have to swear, notice the way out in Genesis 24, 8. We're back to Genesis 24 again. This was, I mean, Eliezer was willing to swear. I mean, what more could he do? He was a servant, right? And he was supposed to do this for Abraham. And I'm sure he was very willing to do it. But it says in verse 8, and if the woman be not willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath, only bring not my son thither again. It's just another good practical advice. The Bible is very practical. It's not all super spiritual stuff and it's not all deep doctrines that we can fill our heads with knowledge and get puffed up about. There's some everyday practical living stuff in there. And if you are going to make a vow with somebody, make sure there's a way out. Before you sign that dotted line on that thing you're borrowing that you just have to have and can't live without, make sure that if you don't make all the payments that they can't come after you and put a lien on your house or put a lien on your paycheck, garnish your wages and all the things that people can do in the fine print. It might be wise to look over some of that stuff before we do that. I don't use TikTok at all. I know you guys know what TikTok is, but I purposely have never even opened it up to look at it. I don't want anything to do with it. Do you know why? There's a lot of junk on there, for one, but do you really know why? Because I've been told. I've been told by people who know and actually work in the industry that the Chinese are watching you through that app. They're learning everything about you, and if you like that, then fine. But what they're doing is spying on our country. And they're learning what our culture is like and what stupidity that we do, so that they can use that against us and manipulate our country. Oh, I just love it. I just use it, and I even put videos on it. I watch it. And I know people who say, I watch it all the time. I'm addicted to it. I know a grown man who told me, I'm addicted to it. Well, you better get away from that. I don't know how I got on that subject of TikTok. I don't remember. You don't remember either. All right. The Lord took me there. Yeah, the clauses. Understand what you're getting into when you get into something. Alright, look at verses 10-20 now. It says, And he said, Oh, Lord, God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the well of water and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water and let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down my pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also. Let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac, and thereby shall I know that thou hast showed kindness unto my master. And it came to pass before he had done speaking that, behold, Rebecca came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother. with her pitcher upon her shoulder. And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin. Neither had any man known her. And she went down to the well and filled her pitcher and came up. And the servant ran to meet her and said, let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher. And she said, Drink, my lord. And she hasted and let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink. And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw waters for thy camels also. That's exactly what he prayed for until they have done drinking. And she hasted and emptied her pitcher into the trough and ran again under the well to draw water and drew for all his camels. We'll stop right there. Now, Eliezer did something very wise here. He was very capable. He took the camels, he made the journey, he was very capable of doing what he was asked to do, but he did not plan to do it all without prayer. Men, we can go out every day and say, like Samson, I've slain these people before, And lo and behold, one of those times, the God was not with Samson there because he had had his head shaved. And he says, I will go out just like other times. And he didn't know, he says, the Bible says, he wished not that the Lord was not with him. And everything we do, everything we do every day as we go out to that work world and even you ladies, we might want to just take a moment to pray and ask God for to bless the day and give direction and give light and guidance and wisdom to every decision we make and even throughout the day. And that's what he did here. Seeking God in everything we do keeps us from believing that we are self-sufficient. We are not self-sufficient, no matter how young you might be, no matter how strong you are, no matter how much health you've ever had in your lifetime and the you're capable of doing this or that. We ought to just realize that we are not self-sufficient. Not one of us in this room, not one of us in this world are self-sufficient. The Bible says in Second Corinthians three, five, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. So Eleazar didn't have to even finish his prayer before God began to prosper his way. We see once again, however, a potential pitfall for the Christian. While God can certainly provide specific answers to prayer, we must be careful not to place such an experience above scripture. Now, how many of you have been in a situation where you prayed God to bless your way so that you would know what to do? It's not wrong to do that. I do it, too. Lord, I'm going to I'm in this situation and I need your guidance. I need your help. I really don't know what to do, but we ought not to make that our our only criteria for knowing what to do. There's a lot of times when we should know what to do and we don't know what to do because we don't know the scriptures and we're not following God in the plain things he's already told us to do in scriptures. And instead, we resort to things like, well, I'm just praying about it. And when we ask sometimes in the ministry, you ask people, well, what are they doing? And well, what I'm doing, I'm not sure what the Lord wants me to do. I'm praying about it. And as a minister or as somebody that who knows the Bible, even anyone who might know the Bible would say, well, I already can tell you what you should be doing. And maybe, maybe I'm the answer to your prayer. Maybe God sent me here to tell you what the Bible actually says so that you could know what to do. So it's a pitfall for the Christian. God can certainly provide specific answers to prayer, but we ought not to rely on those experiences. I know many people who rely on experiences for what God is showing me or telling me to do. And that is a bad judge. We all we often say, because of what Jeremiah tells us, our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Who can know it? We often say, don't follow your heart. That's the reason we don't follow our hearts, our emotions and everything that our flesh wants to do is not necessarily godly. In fact, most of the time it's not godly at all. It's the opposite. And so we ought not to just put these fleeces out like Gideon did to prove God about matters and say, well, God, if you do this, then I know. And if you don't do this, then I know. Because God's not obligated to do that for you, first of all. And second of all, He's given you something Gideon didn't have. He's given you something the Eleazar didn't have. And that is a whole Bible. In fact, it's such a big Bible that most of us don't even bother to read it because it's just too much. It's overwhelming to me. You know, I try to read the Bible, and when I sit down to read the Bible, I just fall asleep. Nobody's going to shake their head to that one, right? I just fall asleep. Or, you know, how about this? Or I get bored. You know, I just don't even really know what I'm reading. Well, that's OK if you don't know what you're reading. You know, that's a holy book. That's God's book. And I often tell people who say, well, the King James Bible, hard to understand. Well, you're talking about God's word, mind you. It's it's God's word. And God says that my ways are above your ways and my thoughts are above your thoughts. And he talks about hid treasures in that Bible and he tells you to study that Bible. And so it's not an ordinary book that you can just pick up and be like, oh, yeah, this is great all the time. Sometimes it's very mundane, sometimes very boring. Sometimes you scratch your head. I can't tell you how many times I scratch my head as I read the Bible and I stop and I say, Lord, I don't even know what I'm reading. I don't understand this. You're going to have to teach me. And you know what? Little by little, he does. But we have the answers in the Bible. People use the excuse that I'm praying about it. Here's a good example. Well, are you going to church right now? Well, not right now. Well, how come? Well, I'm praying about it. What do you mean you're praying about it? Well, I'm praying about where to go. Well, where have you gone? Well, God hasn't really shown me where to go. Well, you're wrong. That's not how God works. Where did you read that in the Bible? What the Bible does say, forsake ye not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. So you you're already commanded to go find one. So there's no reason to pray. You know, there's a lot of things we don't need to pray about. And I think about that when I pray. And I think, Lord, is this one of those things that I'm not even supposed to pray about? You know, I should know the Bible enough to not be asking you for this because the answer is already in there. And I've ignored the answer that's in there because I want a different answer. And so I'm praying to you. I don't know how much the Lord likes that. And I don't want to make him angry at me. But sometimes we just say, well, you know, it's like your child. Well, can I have this? No. Well, can I have that? No. Can I have that? No. I already told you that, you know, 10 minutes ago. Well, can I have that? No. And so we do that to God. And God says, well, I gave you the Bible. I already told you what to do and you're not even doing it. And then you keep asking me for things that I told you never to ask for. Or I already told you what to do. Others live unscriptural lives while claiming God told me to do this. And that's what they do. They live by feelings. They live by emotions. They live by their prayer life. They don't read the Bible. Listen, you may not know this, but Christians are of this philosophy today. The evangelical world out there, the liberal Christian crowd that goes to the rock and roll churches, this is what they do. They look for you ever heard anybody say, what's the word? What's the word of God for today? What's the word of God today? Do you have a word from the Lord? And they they talk like that. And what they're saying is, how did God speak to you today? Not did you read your Bible and what did what did you get from your Bible reading today? They don't ask that question. They say, what's the word of the Lord today? as if God gave me some kind of prophecy or gave me some kind of insight that I don't get from the Bible or that you don't get because you're not as close to God as I am. And God speaks to me. And folks, let me just tell you, that's wrong. Don't be seeking for that. Don't be listening to other people who make YouTube videos and say, this is what the Lord told me is going to happen this year. This is what the Lord told me is going to happen in 2023. I can't tell you the number of times I think I have told you the number of times I've went online and saw all the prophecies about how Trump was going to be back in the White House. You just wait any day now, he'll be back in the White House. And he never did get back in the White House. But God told every one of those people on YouTube that he was going to get back. Well, what's wrong with you then? Well, I don't know. I was just my antennas must have been off that day. You know, I wasn't in the right yoga position. It's it's funny, but that's how Christians live their lives. A lot of Christians, they'll say, I feel God brought this person into my life. Well, they're not saved. You shouldn't be with them. Well, yeah, but God, you don't understand the circumstances how we just came together and it just had to be of the Lord. No, they're not even saved. The Bible is very clear not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, especially in marriage. And that works for business, too, by the way. You shouldn't be making business deals with the lost world. One of the things I swore I would never do again, I mean, don't swear, but I swore to me, is John, don't ever make another partnership with not even a Christian in business. I don't care if you're saved. I don't care if you're my family member. And especially if you're lost, I'm not going into partnership. Partnerships are bad business. I don't know if anybody's looking to get into business or if you're in business. Do not go into partnerships. It ends badly. All right? And so just a piece of advice. But you say, well, God brought it together. I mean, the whole thing, the business deal, it just was perfect. Don't be so sure. Don't be living by that kind of emotion. Live by the word of God. The principles of business are in the Bible. If you follow them, you'll be you'll be fine. And remember, it's just money, remember? Just because there's more money with that person attached to you, maybe it may be the demise of you, because one day they'll come back and they'll take everything you have and they'll say, well, I want things this way. And you say, yeah, but that's not what we agreed on. And I want things this way. And it just never quite works out the way we had hoped it would. Um, people say, I really feel God wants me to go there. You know, I feel called to the hills of whatever country, you know, state. And I just feel called there. Well, you know, you can feel called all you want. But what does the Bible say? You know, if it takes you away from church, many of these things take people away from church and they take people away from God, but people feel like they're called. Um, so anyways, Paul warned against this. Look at one verse here. Look at Galatians five. This is not the exact context of what we're exactly talking about, but it'll fit. Galatians, Chapter five, look at verses seven through nine, it says you did run well, Paul's getting after Galatians for going after another gospel. They're believing the Judaizers are coming along. They want the glory in their flesh. They wanted to bring circumcision back. You can't be saved without circumcision. I mean, after all, that's what Moses said. And I don't want to get into all the things that he's going through, but that's what the context is. You get to verse seven and he's saying you did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be and that whosoever he be may be you and me. our own selves, deceiving our own selves. The Bible does say that we can do that and we can deceive ourselves. And he says, you did run well. You were doing pretty good up till now. Who's hindering you that you should not obey the truth? The Bible. Even if it's yourself, look in the mirror, it's myself that's hindering myself. Or it's that person there that's trying to convince me that that's okay. No, it's okay to do this. It's okay to hang around them. It's okay to go there. It's okay to move there. Whatever it is that goes against scripture, we ought to obey the truth. And this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you, This is what we ought to be persuaded by. We ought to check everything against the Word of God. And we ought to not just rely on our own understanding of the Bible. We have a pastor here, and one of his roles as a pastor is you could say, hey, I got something I think I want to do. What do you think about it? Now, I'm not trying to say anything necessarily that he's more spiritual than anybody here. But you know what? He does spend a lot of time in the Bible. And he does put a lot of time into that that we can't do because we have jobs and things that we go through in life. But thank God we have a full-time pastor who does that sort of thing. And it might not be a bad idea to run. Now, I'm not trying to put him on the spotlight. Thanks a lot, John. Everybody's going to run every idea past me in the church. Don't do that. But if you have something that you're thinking about doing that's serious, like I'm about to do this, make this major purchase, I'm about to move away, I'm my children are asking if this is OK or that's OK. What do you think? That might not be a bad idea in the multitude of counselors. There is safety and there are other people that you can talk to as well. And so that's just good advice. Let's see here. Look at verse 21, Genesis 20, Genesis 24, verse 21. And the man wondering at her held his peace to wit whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. And it came to pass, as the camels had done drinking, that the man took a golden earring of half a shekel of weight and two braces for her hand, and of ten shekels weight of gold, and said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee, is there room in thy father's house for us to lodge in? And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bare unto Nahor. She said, moreover unto him. Now, isn't that quite an answer? I mean, she just gave her gave him his her lineage. I mean, that's God working in his favor. She said, moreover unto him, we have both straw and provender enough and room to lodge in. And the man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord. So Eliezer, that word wondering in verse twenty one and the man wondering at her. That just means he was amazed at the situation. I can imagine him not knowing what to say, dumbfounded, like, maybe you just don't want to agree with me. Maybe that's not you, but maybe you know people like that. You say, oh, it's them. I'm not going to say this. I have an example, I'm not going to use it. But maybe there's a person that when they call you and you see the phone, you're like, oh no, that's a 30-minute conversation. That's an hour conversation. I was going to use someone as an illustration, but I won't, but I know people who say, I'm not going to answer that right now. You ever do that? I'm not answering that one right now, because I don't have time for that one. The other person thinks, how come you never take my calls? You're thinking, well, if you only knew. But sometimes, we can say too much. And sometimes we don't listen to the other person. And so he wisely held his peace. He asked for a drink of water. And then she went ahead and offered. Right. To give him water for the camels. And the Bible says that he held his peace. So we don't want to influence the results if he had said, OK, she gave me a drink of water. Then if he said, would you give me a drink? Would you give my camels drink? Then he's basically she's going to be a nice person to say, oh, sure, I'll do that, too. He wanted to make sure that God was in this thing. He had prayed for that. The one I asked to give water, may she give my camels also. And so that happened. So he didn't influence. He knew at that point he didn't influence the results. Right. So the advice is on your sheet, a tip. Don't talk over people. It's best to let people talk when discussing the Bible. I take it to a spiritual realm here. It's best to let other people talk when you're talking about the Bible. I've been guilty of this, where I've sat down and literally I've been the over-talker. And maybe 15, 30 minutes goes by. I mean, I'm a long-winded speaker, I know that. But I can speak on it, and I might have lost my person a long time ago. They may not have been interested in where I went with that conversation, and I'm just going on thinking I'm having a good time, and they're loving what I'm saying, and they're not. Right. You lost them. And so when we're discussing the Bible, especially with people we know who need the Bible, you might just want to sit and listen to what they think and what they think they know about God and what they think they know about the Bible and what they understand about the Bible so that you can actually really help them. And don't naively assume that what they what they believe or put words in their mouth. And this happens a lot in the setting of little children. because we so badly want our little children to receive Christ. I mean, I understand completely. We don't want to. We fear as parents, when our kids are around that age of accountability, that they might not get saved. And we're worried that they get saved as soon as possible. And our prayer for your children is that they do get saved as soon as possible, as soon as possible. Lord, wake them up to the truth. But don't be an overtalker as a parent. and might want to listen and have real conversations with your children and learn their heart. Because my fear is this, that we say, one, two, three, repeat after me. Little Johnny is saved now. Hey, hallelujah. And there isn't there isn't a child alive that wants to burn in hell. I mean, maybe you do as an adult. I've had people tell me as adults, I'm just going to go burn in hell and we're going to drink beers together, me and the devil. I've heard that. I don't know if you've ever heard that, but I've heard that a lot. I'm just going to go down there and party with my friends. Yeah, if there's a hell, I'll see you there. So as an adult, we get a little more stupid as we get older, right? But there is no child who wants to burn in hell. There is no child that doesn't feel guilty and remorseful of their own sin. We as parents let things go and we sear their