Alright, we're in Genesis 29. Everybody have a sheet? Raise your hand if you don't, we'll get one to you. Alright, we're just going to start in verse 1 and read all the way through verse 14. It says, Then Jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the people of the east. And he looked, and behold, a well in the field. And, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered the flocks. And a great stone was upon the well's mouth, and thither were all the flocks gathered. And they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place. And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well. And behold, Rachel, his daughter, cometh with the sheep. And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together. Water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep. And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted up his voice and wept. And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother. and that he was Rebecca's son. And she ran and told her father. And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister's son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And he told Laban all these things. And Laban said to him, Surely thou art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him the space of a month. Now the reason we just read through all that right there is for two reasons. Number one, I'll make a small spiritual application there, but that's what we would call narrative in the Bible. It's just giving you what happened, what's leading up to the next event. There's not a whole lot in there that I could just stop and dwell on in teaching. The Bible is not always that way. But what I will say is this, and we prayed it already this morning, that the Bible does say that the words of the Lord are plain to him that understandeth. And so people often say, when I go to the Bible, I just don't understand. And I read the Bible and it's like, what is that saying? And it talked about the well's mouth. Well, I think if you're halfway intelligent, you understand that that just means the opening of the well. right we don't have to go I watch brother Kim he's so funny I'm glad we had him here because now I can tease him a little bit better and not worry about it so much like I don't know him but he goes through Genesis 2 and you might want to check that out if you if you want to look him up and watch more but he goes he goes word for word and he says now that low and behold means this and the mouth of the well means this and all these things you know mean this and that and it's very obvious is all I'm saying And he makes a point of saying, well, we're going to go word for word. I'm going to tell you every word. But, you know, we can read the Bible is all I'm saying. You know, the Bible is now depending on what you read, the Bible, the King James Bible is written on a sixth grade level. some parts I think are considered even seventh grade level but I think I'm looking around at everybody who's graduated at least graduated the sixth and seventh grade right and so we have no excuse not to get into the Bible and read it and my retort to people who often say well you know what does that word mean I say well you know that there's a guy named Webster and you know that you can open up the dictionary. In fact, it's on your phone now. You can just look it up and find the definition. Why would you throw the Bible out, right? Because you don't understand one passage that you read. I guarantee you that none of us in this room have read the mortgage papers completely through on your house. And I guarantee you that if you did begin to read those mortgage papers, you'd put them down after the first paragraph or two and say, who can understand this? But you don't walk out of your house and never live there again. You continue to pay the bill. Same thing with any lease you have, any car loan you have, anything you have. So we would not want to treat the Bible any different. That's one point I want to make. We just read through. I hope everybody read through there with me and paid attention with me and didn't fall asleep already and understand that this is just a story of Jacob coming to his mother's family and trying to find a wife for himself and discovering Laban and Rachel at the well. The second thing you can look down at your paper is There are three flocks here in this story. You look at verse number two. It says, And he looked, and behold, a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep. Now, I'm a believer in this one thing too. That even though we might read through what we call a narrative and we might say, well, that just tells a story. There's not really any significant truth in there. I'm of the belief that when we get to heaven, The words of this book are literally going to leap off the page. And we are going to see patterns of things and numerology like we've never seen before. And we are going to see how God laid this Bible out. And we're going to get to something very simple like this spiritual truth. There are three flocks of sheep. Why three flocks of sheep? Why wasn't there four? Why wasn't there two? Why wasn't there one? The Bible makes a point of saying that. Well, a spiritual application could be that there are three kinds of people that God recognizes in the world. Now when God dealt with Peter, we know that when He resurrected, He met Peter after that and He sat down with Peter and what did He tell Peter? He said, feed my sheep, right? And so we make the application, rightly so, and the Bible does it in many places, that we are like sheep. All we like sheep have gone astray, the Bible tells us. So we're just like sheep. And in fact, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, right, was as one of us. The Lamb of God would take away the sin of the world. And so God looks at us as flock. And the Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 10, 32. We don't have to turn there right now, but you can later. It's on your sheet that there are there is Jew, there is Gentile and the Church of God. So this morning, and we've known this truth, we've presented this truth before in this church, there are only three kinds of people in the world. You know, we know that there are white, there are black, there are Asian, right? There are three that came off the ark, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And we know there are what we call races. Now we dealt with that before, and I don't really like the term races because the Bible does tell us in the book of Acts that we're all of one blood. Right? We are all of one blood. Now there are differences, and we studied those differences, right? You can't help it. No matter where you come from, you're going to be different than the guy who came from over there. Even if you come from where I'm from, Detroit, when you move to Florida, I've heard he's getting a taste of it now. He's like, Florida's different. And what's wrong with Florida? Not always what's wrong with Florida. You know that we have, there's a joke, the United States of Florida, have you heard that? And somebody told us recently, we were together and we made that joke, and the guy who gave it back to us, he goes, yeah, also, there's another saying, make Florida great again, or no, make America Florida again. I think that's what it was. Because people are rightly so they're envying the state of Florida how we run things here. And I think it's good. But regardless, I'm saying that there are races and there are differences in races. But God looks down and he don't see that. Now he sees that he's the one who made that. But what he sees is you're either a Jew and that makes you the people of God, not today. Not today. Today the people of God are whoever received Jesus Christ. To them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. So if you're a Jew, you must believe on His name. So we preach Jesus Christ for that reason, right? So, you're either Jew, you're Gentile, which is the rest of everyone else. That's everyone else, you understand? No matter what race you are, that's you. You're a Gentile if you're not a Jew. And then there's the Church of God. And what happens is when you get saved, you become a new creature in Christ. You're literally a new creature. The Bible says that you're part of his body, your bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh. Your joint airs with Christ. You're destined. You're destined to be with him forever. Never separated in his body. I don't know what that's like. I think, like I said in the prayer this morning, I think I can imagine what that's like. I have no idea. I know the Bible says, John, you have no idea. I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared. So I don't try too hard, I just know that it's going to be wonderful. And if you just keep that in mind, that it's going to be wonderful, that'll help you out a lot in your life. I mean, this life is miserable. Have you figured that out? Maybe I'm the only one today who feels that way. But this life is miserable when you look at it for what it is. If you watch the news at all, if you see what's going on behind the scenes and the things that this world is trying to do to you and use you like they know you're a sheep. I was talking to Brother Sarkoski. He's got a book. I want to look it up. I won't give the title out because I don't want you to look it up. But it's about it's about it's the art of manipulating people. That's not the title. Don't go looking for it. I'm interested in that because I know that we are being manipulated all the time. In your mind you think, well I'm an independent thinker. Are you? Are you really so independent thinker? Do you know when you become an independent thinker is when you begin to think like God thinks? And when you begin, I caught myself the other day and I was thinking about, you know, how do people talk to God today? I mean, I have people that I know that's and I know I'm drifting here. But how do people say that? I talk to God. God gave me a revelation. God gave me a word is what they like to say. What's the word today, brother? Did you God give you a word that God direct? God told me what to do, they say. Well, you know, and it's like God showed me and versus just kept coming to my mind. And I thought, yeah, I'm talking to you. That's how God talks to you. God doesn't give you just ideas. Now you can get ideas from God. He can help you out. Ferdie and I were working on my car yesterday and he made a joke. He dropped something. We all drop something. Him and I both. We drop something. It goes down. It gets in the oil pan or down there where it catches and you're sifting through a drudge and sledge and all this stuff trying to find it. And we were looking, looking, looking, and we were shining the light. I said, give me the light. And I look down there and I'm like, it's right there, right straight down from where I was standing. And, you know, it's like, well, God did that for you. God gave you a special blessing. I don't know about that. But what I know is that God does talk to us and God does help us. He gives us he gives us blessings like that. But when he does talk to us, it's always according to his word. And I know I got off topic there, but getting back to this, there are Jew, there are Gentile, there is the Church of God. God looks down and He sees three simple divisions. You're either saved or you're lost. You're either destined for the Great Tribulation, which is the time of Jacob's trouble, it's for the Jewish people, or you're going to get raptured out of here as a church of God, or you're going to be a Gentile that gets caught up in the mess of the Tribulation. So the well that's here, there's three flocks, and the well represents the Word of God. And the stone is Jesus Christ. We all could go to the verse after verse after verse talking about Jesus as the rock and he's the stone. Pastor was talking about digging deep in his last sermons and we dig deep to get down to the foundation of Jesus Christ, right? So he's that. And the sheep get fed from the well. right? They came and they gathered together and he said I couldn't we're not gonna do it till they all get here and that's what we do here. This is a picture of the church and when we roll that stone away from the well you just imagine that's the Lord uncovering and opening up the words of God. The Bible talks about as why do I need a teacher? You know why John are you up there teaching this morning? Why do we need a preacher? Well, the Bible says that that's the order of things. And the Bible even says about preaching, it says in Titus that it makes the word of God manifest. It opens up our eyes. There's something about it, the foolishness of preaching to confound the wise. God takes advantage of those opportunities. He says, you know what? We're going to just open up the Bible today and we're going to preach. And while you're preaching, you may be saying things that aren't exactly right. You may be not even correct in your doctrine. But I'm going to use that occasion to send the Spirit of God to the people who are faithful enough to come to the well. when the stones trying to be rolled away and uncovered so that they can be fed so that they can be fed by the spirit of God and many times many times will get will always give an invitation here at this church will always be an opportunity in a preaching service for you to come forward and pray and many times and believe you we understand this completely and hopefully you understand this too don't judge the person coming up to pray The person that's coming up to pray may be dealt by the Holy Spirit for something totally different than what was even preached. It has nothing to do necessarily with what was preached. It's just that that is an opportunity that God uses when that stone gets rolled off the well and the sheep come faithfully to hear the preaching. And that's why we go to church, right? We're just trying to be obedient to what the Lord has set up. He says, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So if God's going to build his church, then what are we doing at the ball game? If God's building his church, what are we doing out at the park? On the boat? At the resort? Right? It's okay to take a vacation, but listen, church ought to be a priority. Because the priority is God in your life, I trust. And that's why you're here this morning. But anyway, God uses those occasions to speak to us. So it's a great picture of the New Testament church. And I gave you the reference John 21, 17. He tells Peter to feed his sheep. So moving on to verses 15 through 19 then. It says, and we'll spend a little time here, most likely, it said, And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou serve me for naught? You might want to underline that in your mind at least. Shouldest thou serve me for naught? He's assuming that Jacob, I'm reading into the story perhaps, but he's assuming that Jacob shows up to serve him. What you're going to find out if you read the life of Laban, he's a deceiver. The word beguile shows up here. The only other time the word beguile, I believe, shows up prior to this is in Genesis 3, where the serpent beguiles Eve. It's a trait of the devil. Now, yes, the name Jacob means supplanter and he tricked his father to get the blessing, but he was already owed the blessing and he just swapped. But Laban is called the beguiler. Anyway, shouldest thou serve me for naught, tell me what shall thy wages be? Verse 16, And Laban had two daughters, and the name of the elder was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. And Jacob loved Rachel, and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy daughter. That's quite a thing to bargain for, right? And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to another man. Abide with me. All right, so we see right off the bat, he says, because thou art my brother, shouldest thou serve me for not. Now, just a real quick note. This is how the Bible speaks. This is one of the ways the Bible talks about family. All right, and we're going to talk about family a little bit this morning, because we might want to just, well, I'll get to it in a minute, but we'll talk about family. But the Bible, he says here, you're my brother. Now, he's not his brother. If you understand the story, he's his nephew, right? Now we go over to the book of Timothy and we won't do it, and it talks about widows there. And it talks about if a widow is a widow indeed. And a widow is not a widow indeed if she has nephews who could take care of her. It doesn't mean they do take care of her. but they could take care of her. And so the Bible, when it comes to family, the Bible has some strong ties there in terms of what your responsibility is towards family. But Laban is not really interested in the fact that he's his brother. He's just trying to pull the family card out so that he can use it against him. And so notice there Jesus in Matthew 1.1, Jesus, I just gave you the reference, is the son of David. And they call him that throughout the scriptures. He's not the direct son of David, but he is a son of David. And the seed, the seed that what you are, and I've said this many times, what you are, if you're Irish or German or European of any kind or Asian or whatever you are, it comes through your father. It doesn't come from your mother. And so one of the things that Laban says early on, he says, your bone of my, I think it's in verse 14, your bone and my bone and flesh, but he doesn't say you're my blood. See, because he's not, he doesn't come through the man, he comes through the sister of Laban, Jacob's mother. So he even knew that back then. So that's just a brief aside in terms of how the Bible will reference things. So you'll read through the Bible and you say, oh, that's an error in the Bible because they were not his son, that was not his direct descendant, but that's how the Bible speaks. And that's how God views it. Notice also that Laban is interested in a business deal. I mentioned that. He says right off the bat, thou art my brother. Shouldest thou serve me for naught? So he's a good negotiator. Laban, you could learn a few things if you're into sales or into negotiations. You might want to learn, maybe not this persuasion book, but maybe the idea that, hey, I'm being played. Jacob, I don't think, figured that out right away. And so he said, so he's interested in a business deal. Be careful of business deals, especially with relatives. Now, I'm just giving you from some small personal experience, and I'm not going to name any names of any kind in any way, but I have worked with family throughout my lifetime. And I've known people who've worked with family throughout their lifetime. And sometimes, I'm not going to say, I'm not going to paint with a broad brush, but sometimes it works out. But I'm going to tell you this, most of the time it does not. And the old saying, blood is thicker than water, you might want to be careful about that. Because when we look at this dynamic here, and we're going to look at this family, I heard one preacher say one time that, you know, most of the families, and I don't know if this is true, I'm just going to give the statement, he said most of the families in the Bible are dysfunctional families. You're not going to find a lot of role models when it comes to fathers or mothers in the Bible. Now, what you're going to find in the Bible is you're going to find a lot of advice from God. But we can go right back to Adam and Eve, and we can say, were they a functional family? Did they do everything right? How did their kids turn out? One of them murdered the other one, right? First thing they got a chance to do, kill each other. So, I'm just saying, it's probably a true statement. Most of the families you find in the Bible are dysfunctional, but maybe that's intentional on our part for us to learn from that. And we get a lesson that, listen, you are, and I'll say it again, there are three kinds of people in the world. There's Jew, there's Gentile, and there's the Church of God. When you got saved, you know what you did? You pulled out of this world, whether you knew it or not. The spirit of God came into you and he's trying to separate you out. He's trying to get into your mind to get into your thinking. And you know what we do instead? We say, yeah, but my family. My family, blood is thicker than water. And, you know, my family is everything, the family, the family. And we believe in the family. We believe that you ought to, you know, be a strong home and all that kind of thing. But family can be your worst enemy. Family can be your downfall. And many people make decisions based on family that they should never make and end up in ruins because they weren't willing to walk out. Like, what did Abraham do? Back in Genesis here, what did Abraham do? What did God tell him to do? Get away from your family. Get away from them, separate from them, and let me deal with you. And he drug that family around with him, and he went into basically partnership with his family. Well, God, I'll take them with me because, you know, if they don't come with me, if they don't come with you, what? What if I kill them all and leave you alone? Then what will you do? Is your life going to be over? No. We all have to come to the place in life. I believe this about God. I believe that God wants to make you an individual. Now, I'm not saying disown your family. I didn't say that. I'm not saying run away from everybody, all your friends, and go live on an island. I would like to do that. That's what I want to do. But I don't do that. But in this world, you can still be separate. What does the Bible say in Corinthians, first Corinthians six, right? Come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord. We need not only just be separate from like alcohol and drugs, and we need to be separate in our minds and how we think and how we do life. I don't like that saying, but I shouldn't have said that. That slipped. I don't like when people say I'm just doing life. That's a worldly thing. But anyway, when we're when we're living this life, we need to be independent in our minds and in line with God's thinking. And so be careful of business deals, especially with relatives. Laban was shrewd and a deceiver. He started suggesting Jacob was there to serve. You see the art of manipulation there? I am suggesting, the power of suggestion. Well, you're my blown and my flesh. Surely you came here to serve me, but I'm not going to let you serve me for free. He's already roping them in. You know in sales what they tell you to do? I'll give you a hint. When you go to buy the car, or when you go to buy the furniture, or when you go to buy whatever, and there's a salesman that As soon as you walk in the door, how can I help you? How can I help you? You can't help me right now. Stay away. That's how you can help me. Let me just walk around and browse. There's a rule, and there may be more than three, but at least three times I have to get you to say yes. The word yes has to come out of your mouth. It's like this. Spell toast, T-O-A-S-T. All right, say toast, toast. And then I have you say toast like four or five times that way. And then I say, so what do you put in the toaster? And you say, no, you put bread in the toaster. See, the idea is that I get you to say something long enough so that when it's time to make the sale, you're already going to say yes to me because you've been saying yes to me. Right. And I know that's not Bible, but I'm telling you, that's that's the world we live in. And so Laban's doing it here. He's suggesting he came to serve. Notice, by the way, it's on your sheet. Notice the word serve. is there but it what is it talking about it's coming work for me voluntarily come and work for me and serve me so I'm just making the connection I gave you some references and for sake of time we probably won't well we could let's go to one first Corinthians chapter 7 We've talked about it before when we talked about politics here. We had a series on politics and we talked about slavery and what the Bible has to say about slavery. And if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you right now, but I'm going to tell you that it's opposite of what you might think if you live in this world, because this world has already persuaded you, as I said earlier, and gotten into your mind already and given you your opinion on what slavery is. And you've already said it's a bad, evil thing, and if anybody does it, they should get the death sentence. And the Bible doesn't say that. Alright, so are you an independent thinker with God or are you running with this world? But the Bible, in terms of serving, when you have a job, you are serving. You understand that? When you have a job, you are serving the person you are working for. There's no other way to look at it. You are not doing them a favor. You might be doing them a favor, but they are paying you to do that. And when they pay you to do it, they have the right to tell you what to do. And you know what your right is? You have a right, too. Your right is to say, no, I quit. I'm not going to do that. If that's my ultimatum, if I have to do that, you can negotiate. Don't you know if you have a job? That's why I don't like unions. I know I'm getting into a lot of things here. But I'm from Detroit. And you say, why is Detroit such a mess? Why is Michigan such a mess? Because they're Democrats. Now, if you're a Democrat, I'm sorry, but you can figure that out on your own. But it's run by unions, and you know why they keep voting in all these weirdo governors and senators and politicians? Because they have the unions. And you know what the unions does? They say, we'll bargain for you, John. You just sit still. We'll send the union boss, and he'll go in there, and he'll do the bargaining. And you just sit there and you take whatever they give you. No, I'm not like that. I've never been like that. That's why I can't work for anybody. I typically can't work for anybody. I've always run my own business. Because I don't like people telling me what I have to do. And so because of that, I get kicked out. I've gotten fired more than I've quit. And I don't mind telling you that because I think some of you might learn from that and say, well, I'm willing to get fired too because I know what I can do and I know what I need to do. And it's called negotiation, right? And so if someone tells you, hey, you've got to work on Sunday, you say, well, I'm not doing that. They say, well, you're fired. I say, well, fine, then fire me. Well, wait a minute, wait a minute. See, bosses can get a little out of line too. And bosses can get hasty too. And I fired a guy one time who was working for me, and I realized, oops. I was a little hasty, I was a little mad at him. I said, you're fired. And then I had to eat crow and I brought him back. I said, hey, you want to come back? I'll give you this if you come back. Well, he didn't. I learned a lesson from that too. But my point is, when you work for somebody, you serve them and you do whatever they say because you're getting a paycheck for it. That's what you signed up for. And if you don't like that, quit. That's all. You live in a free country. Hey, go get another job. They're begging for people to come work everywhere around here. And so you can get another job. But anyway, 1 Corinthians 7, verse 20 says, Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? I got saved and I'm a servant. Now God's going to surely set me free. No, that's not what it says. Are thou called being a servant? Care not for it means don't worry about it. But if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. OK, good. If you if you're free because of that, then use it. Good. You're out. But 2022, for he that is called in the Lord being a servant, you got saved being a servant is the Lord's free man. Likewise, also he that is called being free is Christ's servant. Either way, you're Christ's servant. You can't get out of it. Listen, you got saved and you say, well, I didn't sign up to be Christ's servant. Yes, you did, or else maybe you're not even saved. You know that what Paul said, he needs the example for us, right? Paul said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Why did Paul say that? Why is that recorded in scripture as Paul's conversion? What wilt thou have me to do? Well, because you're supposed to do something for the Lord. Whether you're bond or free, the Lord pushes that aside. It doesn't matter to me if you're bond. I don't care if you're a slave. I don't care if you're the master. You're going to be my servant either way. You're going to be somebody's servant. You say, well, again, I'm moving to an island. Yeah. Well, good luck with that, too. Being all alone, all by yourself, nobody there. And, you know, we can get a death complex. I just want to die then. Well, okay, then if you die, well, you're still not going to be alone. You're either going to be with the Lord in heaven or you're going to be burning in hell and hearing the screams and torments of all the other people that you can't even see. So there's no getting out of it. That's depressing news, but there's no getting out of it. You're here. Make the best of it, right? And so anyway, we won't look at the other ones, but the Bible has a lot to say about being saved and serving the master. That's who you work for. And yes, they're your master. Even you look at the million dollar players in the NBA and the NFL and the hockey and all the sports, you know what they're beholden to? The master. Who pays their checks? Who trades them? We're trading you. You're trading me? I'm a great athlete. Yeah, well, we're trading you. We're getting rid of you. We're getting two of him for one of you. And that sounds like the slave market, doesn't it? But it's not, of course. They're getting millions for it. But you understand the idea? If you want to make the millions, you're going to do what they say. So you can't get out of it. And so Laban then employed his negotiating skills by saying, what shall thy wages be? putting Jacob in a position to speak first. Now, another tip for worldly life. When you're out there and you're trying to negotiate on something and you're trying to see what someone will do for you, maybe you're out there bidding on a job and you might want to be the one who asks first. And that's what Laban is doing. He's saying, what will thy wages be? And I think Jacob was a little naive here because Jacob fell in love with this with this girl from day one. Right. He saw he was smitten by her beauty. And that's my family. And boy, if I could marry her and I don't know what all about a time passed here and all the kind of, you know, ways the culture was back then and just picking a wife, you know. But he said, I'll take her. But see, that puts Laban in the driver's seat, right? Because he hears what Jacob's willing to work for him for first. And he's not going to say, oh no, that's not enough. You understand? They're never going to say, oh, that's not enough. Let me give you more, and let me give you this, and let me give you that, right? That's where you might want to take the upper hand and value yourself of who you are and your capabilities and say, well, I can do this, and I can do this, and I can do this. And here's my resume. If you don't have one, you might want to have one. And say, look, if you want me, this is what you're going to have to pay to get me. Jacob didn't do that. And I think he really got sold, rolled under the bus for it. But Jake, I'm just telling you, just a little life skill when you're out there, you know, you might want to be the one who asks first to hear what somebody wants out of a situation. You know, like, what do you want for that car? I don't know, give me a hundred bucks and you can take it off my hands. A hundred bucks is worth $3,000. Don't say that. Right? You just say, OK, I'll take it for $100. I'm not telling you to trick people. You ask them what they want. Right? And they say what they want. And you say, OK, that's a good deal to me. Right? And so that's just something that Laban, I think, knew. But he took advantage of the situation. He said, you're my bone and my flesh. Do you understand what I'm saying? Don't go into partnerships with family. You say, well, family would never do me wrong. Oh, really? Here's an example of family doing family wrong. and taking advantage of family and using family as the reason to actually take advantage of them. Well, we're family. Okay. You're also a sinner. You're also a human being just like me. Just because you were born in that family doesn't mean you're destined to be that all your life. Right? Well, my dad was a drunk and so I'm a drunk. Oh, really? You got a problem because you excuse yourself. Well, I have a tendency towards my DNA, I have a tendency towards drugs. No, you don't. I can show you the science that proves that you're wrong, but still, I don't need science. That's not true. Well, we have a tendency to lie in my family, so I lie too. Oh, really? How extreme do you want to take it? When are you going to stand up and be an individual and take responsibility for you instead of the circumstances around you or I live in an impoverished country or I live in a in a wealthy country or I live in, you know, these circumstances or I was raised by those parents or I was raised with no parents. I understand those things are unfortunate and some of those things do shape the way you originally think. But when you get a hold of God and you get in the Bible, God wants to make you independent of all that. God wants to bring you out of that stuff. God wants to make you an individual is what I'm saying. So getting back to this, he negotiated, meaning Jacob, negotiated for Rachel, which also gave Laban the upper hand. Meaning that Laban's like, okay, seven years, I got seven years to figure this thing out. I don't have to worry about it right now. And in seven years you want my daughter. Okay, well that's a great deal for me. Free labor. Now chances are he gave him food and all that kind of lodging and all that. It was a bad deal on the part of Jacob. He should have been wiser. He should have negotiated for himself. In the end, Laban gave Jacob the wrong wife and changed his wages 10 times. You can see that in Genesis 31. We won't turn there. But let me just show you some things here. I brought a book here. It's a big book. It's called The Men's Manual. And I learned from this book, I don't know how many years ago, 25 plus years ago, we went through a course about finances. It's all about finances. And it's a Christian book on finances. I'm just going to read you a little bit out of here. We're just going to be very practical today. I hope it's already been practical for you. It's not so much spiritual, but it is. But this chapter 17, you can see, I'll just show you in case you don't like it. Hey kids. That's what we used to do in school with the teacher. This chapter 17 is about avoiding partnerships. Now the Bible talks about avoiding partnerships and Jacob is entering into a partnership with a type of the Antichrist who happens to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Who happens to be near Ken, his mother's brother. And his daughter, I want to marry your daughter. So surely I can enter into a deal with you. Not smart. You see, we do that. And one of the reasons we enter into partnerships is because we don't think God can take care of us. So I need you. And so that's what happens. Let me just read a couple things from you here. I've got to find the right page. A partnership jeopardizes your reputation. Here's one thing. One of the obvious motivations of a business partnership is to get a greater return on your investment. God warns, however, that a good name is more important than great riches. That's Proverbs 22.1. In forming a partnership, you become identified with the reputation of your partner. So when you're hooking arms with somebody, you don't know, he didn't know what Laban's reputation was in the community. I'll tell you what Laban's reputation in the community was when we get down to it. Laban said, I give you Rachel because it's not so done in our country to give the younger before the older. Oh, I wish I would have known that before I entered into an agreement with you. He kind of withheld that information. And so he took the brethren of the country more than the flesh and the blood that you are to me. See, the country doesn't like that, Jacob, that I would do that to you and not give you Leah and trick you and make you work seven. Country doesn't like that because that's our culture in our country. Our country doesn't do that. Well, I thought you were independent, Laban. I thought you had a mind of your own. I thought we made a deal. I thought you served God, maybe, and that you did what was right. I didn't think you just went according to tradition. So anyway, you take on the identity of the partnership with the reputation of your partner. You may acquire their friends, but you will also inherit their enemies. As the partnership continues, you'll become identified with each decision that your partner makes, both on and off the job, because you are in the partnership. You do not have full control over these decisions. There's more, I'm going to stop right there. Another thing that a partnership does, it hinders your freedom to obey God. God wants every man to be free to follow scriptural direction in regard to business decisions. In a partnership, you delegate partial authority for those decisions to others who may not understand or appreciate scriptural financial principles. Hey, listen, John, you're my partner. We need this so bad, we need to get this loan for this. Well, I don't believe in getting that loan. Well, I do. Well, I don't. Now what? Well, I believe that when we're negotiating this deal, we ought to say this and leave that part out, like, you know, it's not so done in our country to give the younger first. Even though I said that, hey, I just said it, you know. Oh, see how it reflects on you and how you have to go along. Now, there's more, and I'm just looking at the clock. I'm not going to go into it, but I'll just give you the subtitles. A third thing, a partnership usually ignores God-given limitations. You know, the fact that God may be limiting you to not get into that business for right now because it's not the right time, but you go out and seek a partner so that you can get into it anyway. You see, a partnership's not always good. A partnership often ends in bitterness. You end up breaking up with that person eventually, and you look back and you say, I wish I'd have never done that. I wasted five years with that person. I wasted tens of thousands of dollars with that person. I lost my reputation in the business world with that person. And now I'm tied to that for the rest. I wish I'd have never done that when God would have said, yeah, I was trying to stop you, but you did this and did that to try and get your way. And so an equal partnership will produce conflicts among the employees. That's a good section. A partnership forces you to share any chastening which God gives to your partner. What if your partner is off on God and doing something they shouldn't do and God says, well, I'm going to punish you and your business. Oops, John's a part of your business. Oh, well, I guess I'm going to punish him too along with you because you're partners. And there's more, but big book and a lot of good principles in there. I'm just saying, say, well, I'll never get ahead in life if I don't become a partner. Well, is that your goal to get ahead in life? Let's stop and let's look at your goals. What is your main goal in life? To get ahead? To achieve? To get rich? To have wealth? So what? So you can end up like Elon Musk? Or Jeff Bezos? Or Donald Trump? Or whoever it is that you aspire to be like and have what they have? Why not do what the Bible says? Here, I got some verses for us. Let's go to Proverbs chapter 23. Proverbs 23. Say, well, all Americans are supposed to have, have, have. Well, that's part of your American problem. You've been culturized. You've been told that you need to be educated. You've been told that you need a successful job. You've been told that you should not raise a family. You've been told, told, told all these things and you believe it. And so you run around this world doing things that God says, what are you doing? Why are you doing that? Where are you going? Why are you hooking arms with that person? Why are you doing it? Why? So you can have a better house? Don't you like the roof over your head now? with food and raiment? Didn't I tell you? Didn't I talk to you in the Bible? Or are you just listening to the voices in your head that say, go, go, go, go? So Proverbs 23, in verses one through eight, when thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee. Now this is entering in, see the Bible talks about, this is negotiation. The Bible says when you sit with a ruler, hey Jacob, when you go to meet Laban, When thou sittest to eat with the ruler, consider diligently what is before thee." What did He put before you? His daughter? What did He put before you? His steak dinner for you? You know they take you out to wherever you want to go, take you on the golf course, take you out to parties, treat you like a king because they want your money. So when you consider, put a knife to thy throat, 23-2, and put a knife to thy throat, cut your head off, kill yourself, if thou be a man given to appetite. If you want that, you want that steak dinner, you want that party, you want that lifestyle, you want that Mercedes Benz, you want whatever they are showing you that all of our employees have and all of our people have, if you just come join us, You want what all the Democrats have as they lock arms and say, we agree, we agree, we agree, because then they all have backdoor deals and they're all millionaires by the time they leave Congress and the Senate. How do they go in there with nothing and come out millionaires? I mean, are we stupid or what? And it's not just the Democrats. Verse three, be not desirous of his dainties for they are deceitful meat. They're deceiving you. I'm telling you. Oh no, he's a good guy. No, he'd never do me wrong. He's my family. He even said it. He said, you're bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Surely he values me. Labor not to be rich. That's all you need to know right there, verse four. Then why do I labor, Lord, to put food on the table? That's all. That's enough, isn't it? Did you eat this morning? Praise God. Did you sleep in a bed tonight, last night? Praise God. He didn't even tell you how bed was. You know what Jesus slept on? The ground. And he had a rock for a pillow. The birds of the air have nests. I don't even have a place to lay my head. So labor not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. That's your own wisdom. You know what that is? That's the Gentile wisdom that you were once part of. Once you were one of three flocks, the Jew, Gentile and Church of God. Once you were just that Gentile that Peter and Paul joked about there in Galatians. And he said, we're not sinners like the Gentiles. Maybe you haven't read that in your Bible, but it's in there. And they said, you know, the Gentiles are just a bunch of filthy, rotten, good for nothing, low down sinners. And so the Lord says, you know, just cease from your own ways of thinking for a minute, please. Labor not to be rich. This life is but a vapor. It appears for a little time. Vanish of the way. I have you here. I let you live. You understand? That's how I think about God. I let you live, John. If I wanted to, I could have killed you when you were lost and you could be burning in hell right now. But I let you live. I let you live even when you turned your back on me and walked away from me the thousands of times that you did and went your own direction the thousands of times that you did. I let you live. I let you breathe my air. I let you eat my vegetables that grew out of the ground. I let you have a mom and a dad. I let you have a place to live. I even put you through school. I let you learn school. I gave you some talent so you could make some money. And you didn't even know me. And I didn't know you. And I would have cast you into hell without even thinking twice about it, but I let you live. Why don't you wake up for a minute and cease from your own ways of thinking now that you are mine and let me teach you a couple of things that might actually help you so that when your vapor is gone, that when you get up here, I can give you a little bit more. So verse four, labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. Will thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings. How many of you can know that one? Raise your hand. Praise the Lord. Riches make themselves wings. You say, what does that mean? Read on. Then they fly away as an eagle toward heaven. As soon as it comes in, it goes right out. And you know what? You might want to figure out in verse five, you might want to figure out there. Fine. So I don't have a fortune in my savings account, fine. I know Dave Ramsey would get all over me for that, but you know what, don't have to listen to everything he says. If you don't have a third of your income sitting in a bank somewhere, don't worry about it. Jesus didn't do that, David. I get it, I get the advice, but I can take you to 95% of the world does not have that ability. You do here, so take advantage of the advice. If the money comes in and goes out, praise the Lord, you had the money to come in and go out. Praise the Lord, I paid for your food today, like I said, and I put a roof over your head one more day. Don't fret over that. Don't you think God knows that? Sometimes you dread what you preach because it might just come right on me. But it has to be alright. Verse number six, eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye? Don't even eat the bread with that guy. Just recognize the situation and get up and walk away before you get snared in there, because I'm telling you, if you take one step, you'll take two. If you take two steps, you might not ever come back. Neither desire thou his dainty meats, for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. The morsel which thou hast eaten, thou shalt vomit it up and lose thy sweet words. You know what that means is? One of these days you're going to wake up and you're going to say, what did I do? And you're going to be so sick to your stomach and you're going to be so sick of what you did and you're just going to all that stuff that you ingested that was so good that day that you took in and you said, yes, I want more. You don't mind. You're just going to vomit it up and wish it never entered into your body. That's what that's telling you. Go over to Proverbs chapter 16. I knew we wouldn't finish today, but I didn't think we'd get this stuck. Proverbs 16 and verse 8. This is God's opinion. Take it for what it's worth, but it's God's opinion. Proverbs 16, 8. Better is little. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. No, America tells me better, more is better, more is better, more education, more talents, more skills, more abilities, more homes, more yachts, more money in the bank. God's given you a little Bible here and he says in one verse, better is little with righteousness than great revenues without right. You know how people got where they got? That's not good English, but you know how people got where they got? Without right. They made a deal here, they made a deal there, they did a Laban here, a Laban there. And they said, you know what? Look at me now. Look what I have now. Hey, John, you want to come to my seminar and hear how I got where I'm at? Yeah, I'll pay you $500 to come hear how you did that. And people are paying for all that stuff and all the positive mental attitudes and the things that they're taking you away from God for. And God says, you want to come to my seminar? Here's my seminar, Better is Little with Righteousness. Just a little. What more do you need? I don't need more. I want more. You see? I don't need more. Well, I burned up my life, and my kids are gone astray, and I never knew my family. Listen, there isn't one person laying on their deathbed today. And we can go to the hospital, and we can meet those people. And they're laying on their deathbed, and you say, what's the one thing you wish you could do and go back if you were getting your health back? What's the one thing, if you could go back in time, what's the one thing you wish you could do and do more of? You know what they're not going to say? They're not going to say, like Howard Hughes said this, though. They said, Howard, how much more money? How much money is enough money? He said, just a dollar more. Just a little more. That guy was off his rocker. Well, he was wealthy. He was a billionaire. I don't care. He's off his rocker. He's probably burning in hell right now, and his billions didn't go with him. But you know what people are not going to say? They're not going to say, I just want to go out and make one more dollar. I just want to make one more business deal and sit in that office one more time, and I just want to be away from my family a little bit longer. That's not what they say. They say, if I had time, I'd go back and I'd correct all the mistakes that I made with the people in my life that I hurt to get where I want to go. I'd go back and I would never do that again. I would start over and I would do what verse 8 says, Proverbs 16, 8, I would have a little. And I would have things be right. And I wouldn't do that. That's what they would say. Because you know on their deathbed, you know what they're thinking? I'm dying. And you know what? I don't care. Every atheist does it too. I'm going to face judgment. I'm telling you God puts it on your heart because there is a God and God puts it in your heart to know even the worst atheist laying on his deathbed is going to know I'm about to face death and face the one who gave me life and I am not going to pass that test. And so why have those regrets? Why don't you just live your life that way? Why don't you just say, there's a song, I think, little is enough when God is in it, something like that. Little is much when God is in it. Go to one more. Go back to chapter 15, verse 16. You might already be there. It's on the same page as in my Bible. Proverbs 15, 16, better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. You know there's a lot of trouble that goes with that money. The pastor says it often, you don't want to win the lottery because if you win the lottery you'll never be left alone. There will be people calling. You think you've got telemarketers now? You'll have worse than telemarketers. You'll have people trying to take every dime you have, trying to kill you, putting death threats on your children, trying to extort you, trying to get everything. Your life is going to be full of trouble when you have money. Listen, I could give you stories even my life, and I'm not rich, but I can give you a story of how people want what I have. And I don't have like, you know, like these guys do. But I mean, and some of you what you have and if you and people knew what you have and they want what you have and they'll put on sob stories to put it all over you so that they can get a piece of what you have and they're not willing to work for it. Listen, I got some verses here. I'll give you this. We'll wrap it up on this note. I'm not going to go any further. I was going to talk about Leah a little bit and we'll deal all this next week. But I'll stay on this subject. You know why people are poor? You're in Proverbs. So let's stay there. Go to Proverbs 29. We've dealt with this many times about feeling sorry for people. And I think, you know, there was some kind of family guilt here in terms of Laban and Jacob's guilt towards family. And his mom told him to go to run to family. And because he did, he felt obligated to his mother because she helped him in the deception. So he was already caught in that guilt trap where I'm going to have to do what she says, because if I don't, and then Laban, he's my uncle, that's my mother's brother. And he's knowing that too. He's not the best uncle, he's not the favorite uncle, right? He's the one that says, I'm gonna take advantage of this situation. I already know why he's fleeing to me, perhaps. I already figured this thing out before he got here. Rachel called me up before he got here. And so anyway, people, anyway, that's family situation, but people end up getting themselves in financial problems of their own. Go to Proverbs and I say 29. Look at verse seven. The righteous, are you righteous today? If you're saved, let me give you a clue, you're righteous. You're not righteous, Jesus is righteous, and you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to you. We don't have to teach that, right? We all know that that's how we got saved. We got His righteousness, not ours. So when you see that, when you see the righteous, understand that that does include you, even if you're a sinner as a Christian, and we all sin. but you're considered in the classification, you're a son of God, a child of God, you're the righteous. The righteous considereth the cause, I have that underlined in my Bible, the cause of the poor. But the wicked regardeth not to know it. See, the one borrowing money from you, he doesn't want to hear from you why I'm poor. Yeah, but you know, if you weren't lazy, you wouldn't be poor. I don't want to hear that. If you would stop doing the drugs, I don't want to hear that. Are you going to give me the money or not? And then they start berating you and they start belittling you and they start to guilt trip you because I thought you were a Christian. I thought you were compassionate. I thought you had all this money. You're just going to keep it to yourself and they make you feel this big. Right? And they beat you up verbally. They're like Laban. Well, you're my family. You love my daughter. You want that. I can give you that. And so they negotiate and they don't care about you at all. And they're your family. They're selfish. They just want what they want. But the righteous considereth the cause of the poor." Do you know why you would do that? It's because you say, well, then you don't deserve my money. You don't deserve help. You want help? Okay, great. Let's do this. You're down and out. You're living in a box under the bridge. You have nowhere to go. Then come on over to church Sunday morning and meet me there. You know, I told you the story. That's what I did in the Philippines, right? I said, okay, kids, you want to go to Wimpy's to get a hamburger after church? That's what the restaurant was called. I'll take you there. I'll feed every one of you. Come on to church first." You know what they did? Like good little soldiers? Here we go. They all went to church with me that Sunday and the next Sunday and the next. It was like a thing. But you know what people won't do? Well, I don't need to go to church on Sunday. You don't understand. I don't have anything to wear. I didn't ask you what you had to wear. I mean, you've got clothes on right now. That'll do. well you know I just don't you know Sunday's a bad day for me and they give you all the excuses and so you know what you say yeah okay I've considered this and no I'm not gonna help you if you want help maybe you can come get help first spiritually and then you can get my help financially but financially the Bible already told you is not the answer to your problems and so we consider the cause of the poor look at 29 verse 14 Talking about a king. What's a government supposed to do with all the poor people? Well, the same thing. Verse 14, the king that faithfully judges the poor, his throne shall be established forever. There are some people that are paraplegic. They're crippled. They don't have any limbs. They've been war-torn. They're messed up. Their face has been blown off. They can't work. You know, all these things you might see on TV. Those people, hey, give them help. Help them. If I was that way, I'd want help. Man, I can't go to work. I can't feed myself. I can't even clean myself. And so help those people. I'm glad the United States of America helps those people. But you know what else they do? Oh, you had another baby? Here's more money. Here's the welfare check. Oh, you don't need to go to work. You might catch COVID. We'll just pay you. Right? And we're so benevolent as a society. We're giving away and nobody wants to even go to work anymore. Right? And it's happening in other places, too. But let's wrap this up. Look at Proverbs 10. There are reasons people are poor. And we consider the cause. Well, here's some of the causes. Proverbs 10, 4. Some of the causes, look, it may not be your own fault. It may be hard times. It just may be hard times. And we're not saying that everybody who needs money is desperate and can't take care of themselves. And we're not saying that they're, you know, lazy or all, but some are. And you have to discern between that. So Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 4, it says, he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand. But the hand of the diligent maketh rich. I gave this illustration before. She's in here, right? No, she's not. Victoria, when she first got her first job, she wanted to work at Hobby Lobby. And I was like, OK, fine. At least it's a Christian company, and go to Hobby Lobby. She goes to Hobby Lobby, gets a job. And I told her, I said, one piece of advice. Start off wherever they hire you, one piece of advice. Do whatever they say. Show up on time. Don't leave early. Keep the hours they tell you to keep. And the next thing you know, they'll be asking you to be the manager. And you know what happened in about three weeks? Can we give you more money? Will you be the manager? You know what she did? She was like her dad. She goes, I don't like this job. I'm out of here. I don't think I want all that responsibility. And I don't want that. And I don't need that. I got other things. I'll do something else. And she was smart for that. But she negotiated her own way. But the hand of the diligent, you see what it says there? The hand of the diligent maketh rich. Look at Proverbs 13 and look at verse 8. Proverbs 13.8, the ransom of a man's life are his riches, but the poor heareth not rebuke. You know why some of the people are not, have any money? Because they don't hear rebuke. You did this wrong. Well, then I quit. You don't like the way I do things? You don't like me? Fine. All right. Have a chip on your shoulder the rest of your life. Be proud of yourself and nobody else can tell you anything. You don't hear rebuke. You don't get, you don't even take the subtlest corrections. And you get corrected and you get a chip on your shoulder and you walk away and you hate that person. You're going to become unemployable pretty soon. And you know what? When you go to work for other people because you started your own business or something like that, you're not going to want to even do the work for the customer because they're too picky. You better learn. You know, we didn't get into it today. We'll get into it next week. But you better learn how Jacob behaved himself. Jacob did some amazing things. He behaved himself very wisely. And he took the wrong and he ended up, the Bible tells you, he ended up with great riches. Because he was blessed by God for taking the wrong, realizing I should have never entered into this partnership. He fled from it eventually, he took his kids, his family, he said, let's get out of here in the dead of night and let's leave Laban. And so he wakes up, he won't know where we're at. But he got blessed along the way. because he took it, but some people won't even take it. Proverbs 13.23, it's a lack of discernment. Oh, that's not what I want. Yeah, 13.23. I'm in 14.23. You know what that person is? He lacks discernment. He has things and he doesn't put it to use. He doesn't till his land like he should. He doesn't do what he's supposed to do with the benefits that God's give him. And so one day he stands before God and says, God, how come you didn't take care of me? How can you provide for me? How can you let me live like that? And he says, I put you in the United States of America. I gave you a good family. I gave you resources. I gave you opportunities to do this and to do that. And you didn't even do it. You just squandered it. You just sat there and waited for the gravy train to show up. You just sat there and said, well, it's going to come to me. It's not going to come to you. Another one is Proverbs 19, 7. We got to wrap this up. Proverbs 19, 7. All the brethren of the poor do hate him. All the brethren of the poor do hate him. How much more do his friends go far from him? He pursueth them with words. yet they are wanting to Him. We already covered that. You know what that person is? That person has no character. They've broken their promise so many times and all they're doing is, well, my word is good. I'll pay you back. You can trust me. I need it for this. I need it for that. Well, when I gave you the money, you didn't do it for that. Well, I know, but this other thing came up and I needed that. And this time it's true. At this time, it's the boy who cried wolf. And that's why you're poor and that's why not only are you poor, you can be poor and people can love you and they can help you and they can wish for you and they can pray for you and they can give you opportunity, but you can be poor and people can hate you. And the reason they hate you and despise you and kick you to the curb is not because, oh, woe is me, no, it's because you deserve it. Because you've been lying your way through life so long and you've been the manipulator so long that people don't even want to look your way anymore. They see you coming and they go, oh, there they are, let's go, let's go. and that's what happens. Was that Proverbs 19-7? Last one, Proverbs 21-17. There's more, but this is the last one. Proverbs 21-17. He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man. He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich. We already read the verse, labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom. But if God allows you to have riches, he allowed Jacob to have riches. You know what you don't do? You don't say, well, let's live it up. Let's take our money and let's just buy wine and oil and let's just get the best of everything. Let's drive the best car. Let's live in the best house, the best neighborhood. Let's have the best clothes. Let's show everybody the label on my clothes. You know, made in China. Mine says made in China. Everything I have made in China. But let's have the brand names, let's show everybody. And you know what the Bible says? One day you'll wake up like the prodigal son and you'll be like, I'm in the pig's pen. Where's all my money now? Where's that seminar now where I'm supposed to put a third of my money away for a rainy day? I didn't do that. And you might say, well, you know what? My husband hasn't been getting very much money and I didn't get what I wanted and so he brought home a check and I'm just going to go get what I want. I'm just going to go treat myself. I'm gonna, I deserve, and the world will tell you, you deserve that break. You deserve that vacation. You deserve that ring. You deserve that necklace. You deserve that coat. You deserve that, those pair of shoes or whatever it is. You deserve this and you deserve that. And so the next thing you know, how come we never, you know, that makes wings like eagles and flies away? How come we never get ahead? Well, you might wanna look at your spending habits. You might wanna sign up for a Dave Ramsey course. You might want to learn to budget your money and not just spend, spend, spend, and treat yourself, treat yourself, treat yourself, and have this, and have this. So the Bible does tell you, hey, the righteous consider it the cause of the poor. And there are causes for being poor. It's not just all unfortunate. It's unfortunate that you ended up that way, but it's your fault many times, and my fault. So we might want to take the Bible advice. We'll get into the rest