Genesis chapter 29, we'll pick up the end of the chapter. We've been dealing with Jacob and Laban, and the business relationship that they had. I'm on. I'll turn that on. And the course, just to review, because it's been a couple weeks, I think, and not to go too far in review, but. The best thing you can do is not enter into a business relationship, a partnership I should say. I'll give you the quick advice one more time. I have learned over the years that every time I've done it, now maybe I'm the wrong example, maybe I'm just the one who always has a bad business deal, but I don't think I'm unique. I've done business deals with family, I've done business deals with not family, with Christians, Even with non-Christians, that's the worst thing you can do. But I've done it. And so what you want to do is don't do it at all. And you say, well, it would be perfect. You don't understand. If I did this, everything would go. No, it won't go the way you think it will. And that's just John Albrecht telling you from his advice. And I think it's scriptural as well to stay away from that. And just take less. Accept less in life, if that's what you want. Because better is little. if God is in it, right? And I know there's a verse like that in the Bible, it's just not coming to complete. I know it's in Proverbs. A dinner of herbs and a stalled ox and something like that without God. And so you're better off without it. And here we find the repercussions of Jacob and Laban and their partnership. and how Laban was like Jacob but worse. Jacob at least figured out that he was wrong and paid for his, but Laban, he was a trickster and he tricked Jacob. First he gave him the wrong wife, Leah. Then he gave him Rachel of course next and we'll look at that here now and also the Bible will tell us later that he changed Jacob's wages 10 times over the course of a 20 year period. And so it was a partnership that he should have got out of a long time ago but what happens is sometimes we get in relationships and forget the partnership part. We can do this in life. We can get in a relationship with people that we ought not to be in. And in those relationships, we don't have, we find ourselves maybe trapped and we don't find the way out. And Jacob ultimately got out. And we'll look at that if time permits today, he ultimately got out. But at the same time, he spent way too long in that relationship trying to, because it's family. And we mentioned that the worst thing you want to do is possibly get involved with family later in life. It's one thing when you're young and you're with family and your mom and your dad are raising you and all that. But when you get out of the house, you're supposed to be on your own. Now, I'm not saying that you rebel and get out on your own and, you know, all that. You're supposed to honor your father and your mother all the days of your life. You never lose that relationship. But when you're out on your, you're supposed to be out on your own. and family is not always, blood is not always thicker than water. That saying and the family pressure that comes on us to do things with family and I'm obligated to family and you know that's my family and we put up with things with them that we would never put up with anyone else because well maybe they'll get saved, well maybe they won't. You're not in charge of that. God gives every man in this world a free will. So you have a free will to choose God or not. It's not up to you to babysit someone their whole life just because they're family so that they might get saved. You might be better off, your testimony might be better off if you do what God says and make a clean break. And come out from among them and be ye separate He told that to Abraham. He told Abraham, get away from your family. Was God not concerned that Abraham's father might go to hell or something? No, he wasn't worried. God has a plan for every person's life. So I'm just saying, partnerships and even family partnerships especially, and that relationship can really get muddied. Your number one relationship in life is God. It's number one. He's the one ultimately in charge of your life anyway. And so if you want to cross God to save face with people, then you'll get what comes with that. But let's get into Chapter 29 here. I'm in Chronicles, that won't help. Genesis 29, and we'll look where we picked up. It's on your paper, verse 32. I just didn't give you every verse on your paper because it wouldn't fit. So Genesis 29, and when we get to, let's see, I'm not gonna pick it up from 32, we'll pick it up in 30. And he went in also unto Rachel, and this is talking about Jacob, and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, we talked about that last time, and served with him yet seven other years. Verse 31, and when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, And if you remember what that means, right? I'll just stop for a second and just remind you. Leah was hated. That doesn't mean she was despised in that way. It just means she was not preferred above Rachel. I can show you a Bible for that. I did show you a Bible for that. Go back to your old lesson sheet if you don't remember. But that's what that means. When God saw that Leah was hated, He opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Now that, I'm going to stop just for a second. That's the kind of stuff I can't explain about God. You know, God, both Rachel and Leah, later in the lesson you'll see it, realized, and they even said that we were sold. Our father sold us. Basically, you're our husband, but we were sold to you. We're property. And, you know, I don't know what God thinks about that all the way through the Bible. I don't think he likes that, but he allowed that, okay? What you're gonna find out about the Bible, too, is you read the Bible and you say, well, what kind of a God is that? That's not the question. The question is what kind of a person is that that would sell their daughters? What kind of a person is that that would make a bad business deal to their own family and connive and scheme and do those sort of things? God allows all kinds of things, doesn't He? I mean, there are people that are going to die today at the hands of another person. They're going to be murdered today. What kind of a God is that? No, no, no. What kind of a person would commit murder against another person? God gives you, I said it already, and we could stop and we could do an hour on just your free will. God gives every man a free will, including the murderer, including the rapist, including the sodomite, including you. And the choices that you make are all according to your free will. And if God didn't give any man a free will and he stopped all sin, we wouldn't be here today. We would all be burning in hell right now. Because God doesn't need that. He could have stopped it a long time ago. So get that out of your head. I'm just saying, I don't know why God allowed this. And he saw that Leah was hated, so he gives her a baby. And then he sees that Rachel was loved, so he doesn't. He keeps her barren. I don't know. I'm just saying you might want to think about that and come up with something and teach me something. Verse 32, And Leah conceived and bare a son, and called his name Reuben. For she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction. Now therefore my husband will love me. Pay attention to that right there. Now therefore my husband will love me. I'll get back to that. Verse 33, And she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, Because the Lord hath heard that I was hated. He hath therefore given me this son also and she called his name Simeon. Verse 34, and she conceived again and bear a son and said, now this time my husband will be joined unto me because I have born him three sons. Therefore was his name called Levi. And she conceived again and bare a son, and she said, Now will I praise the Lord. Therefore she called his name Judah and left bearing. Now notice on your sheet the statements that I highlighted for you, not the entire verses. Verse, what is it, 32. Now therefore my husband will love me. Why did she say that? Because she had a baby. So what I'm going to get to you this morning is Well look at the other statements, because the Lord hath heard that I was hated, verse 33. Verse 34, now this time my husband will be joined unto me. Verse 35, now I will praise the Lord. There's something about, I'm sorry women, I'm gonna talk to you for a minute. There's something about women and babies. and wanting to have a baby, and wanting to have, and I've preached this for years, wanting to have that little baby doll that you got at Christmas when you were two years old, and you just loved to hold that little baby doll and walked all around the house with that baby doll, and you shake it and it says, Mommy, Mommy, you know, and all that, and that's natural, that's okay, that's fine, that's the way God made you. All right. But at the same time, there are ladies all through this world right now that are having babies because of what Leah said. Therefore, my husband will love me. I'll have a baby and you'll stay with me now. These women that are getting pregnant in droves out there, and they're out there without husbands, and in certain places, I won't get into it too deep, but there's people that it's just common for them to just have all these babies, but no husband attached to these babies. And I think part of the motive, the reason that people do that, ladies do that, is because now therefore he'll love me, and now therefore he'll stay with me. And I'll use this baby to get after him. And it's a terrible motive. It's a wrong motive. It's a wicked motive. You don't bring a human being into this world as a pawn to get what you want out of life. That's wrong. So she was doing that and she was insecure. Now God opened her womb and she said when Judah was born, you know Judah is the tribe of Judah is where Jesus came from. She said rightly there, she said, now I will praise the Lord. There's a difference in that statement in verse 35 and the other statements about my husband will love me, he won't leave me, he'll prefer me now. But then when Judah was born, it's just interesting how it says, now I will praise the Lord. That's the right reason to have a child, is to praise the Lord. Thank you Lord for allowing me to bring something that brings pleasure to you into this world, giving me the privilege to raise this person for your honor, for your glory, Not for my own personal satisfaction or gain. Now, sure, it brings personal satisfaction to have a baby. Many babies being born in this church right now. I'm not trying to indict you in any way. I'm just saying, watch the motive. Watch the motive for it. There's a lot of ladies out there having babies to get money. And they make a living off the next baby. The government gives them more money. Again, that's terrible. But Leah's motive for wanting children doesn't seem to be pure. We can read chapter 30 and we'll do that here and we'll see what Rachel did as well and see more of the same. Let's go forward, let's read in verse one of chapter 30. And when Rachel saw that she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and we'll talk about that in a minute, and said unto Jacob, give me children or else I die. Now, ladies and men, you can both get a lesson out of this. That is manipulation. You understand that? That's manipulation. Give me what I want or else I'm going to leave you. Give me what I want or else I'm not going to do this for you. Give me this or else, and whatever the or else is, and whatever the give me thing is, in this case it was a baby. Give me children, she said, or else I die. Now that's pretty dramatic. And then verse 2, and Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, am I in God's stead who hath withheld thee from the fruit of the womb? And she said, behold, my maid Bilhah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Bilhah, her handmaid to wife, and Jacob went in unto her. Now again, don't expect me to explain all that. God allows things to happen. God allowed Jacob to have four wives. You say, well, then God is. No, don't stop right there and just realize that God is telling you history. And he's just showing you what took place here and what people are willing to do to get what they want. All right. And so verse five and Bill conceived and she bear Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged me and hath also heard my voice and hath given me a son. Therefore, she called his name Dan. In Bilhah, Rachel's maid conceived again and bared Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister. Doesn't that reveal right there what her real motive is? My sister's not going to outdo me. My sister's not going to have more children with that man than I will. I'll show her. And the jealousy between the two sisters, now of course, I mean, this is a weird dynamic here. Two sisters married to the same guy. I mean, this is, you'd think they were Mormons, right? That's funny. Yes, you can laugh. We laugh at other religions that are anti-Christ if we want to. That's an anti-Christ religion. But anyway, they're not. But she wrestled against her sister, and I have prevailed, and she called his name Naphtali. When Leah saw, verse 9, that she had left bearing, now when Leah saw this, she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her to Jacob. How would you like to be Jacob? Well, go take her then, and have a baby with her, and have a baby with her, and I'll claim the baby and it'll be mine. I'm telling you, this is weird stuff, really. Verse 10, and Zilpah, Leah's maid, bear Jacob a son. And Leah said, a troop cometh, and she called his name. And I said it last time, and I'll say it again. Despite all this, guess what God has to work with? He has to work with us. Jacob, you're going to be Israel. I'm going to name my people after you. You're going to be the father of my people. I'm going to change your name to Israel. And yeah, you're going to have four wives, and you're going to have envying and jealousy, and they're going to be pitting you against all of each other. But yet, at the same time, the twelve tribes are going to come out of these boys. That's going to be the twelve. You say, would God use something like that? Yeah. He did. Would God use someone like me to teach a Sunday school lesson? Yeah, He does. Would God use this man up front to preach to us? Yes, He does. Would God use you to hand out a track or to witness to somebody as sinful and wicked as you are? Yes, He will, and yes, He pretty much has to, right? Because He doesn't send angels in dreams and visions anymore. He's got His Word, but you know what the Bible says about His Word? Preach the Word. It doesn't. It just sits here on a desk in most people's houses. We'll talk about that, too, today, if I get to it, how the Bible just sits. But at the same time, he needs he uses it. I'm telling you, God is merciful. You might think God is mean and bad and look what he allows. But yes, look what he allows. I get to go to heaven because of what God allows. You don't deserve to go to heaven. You're not special. You're not the one person that was on this earth that God ought to save. You're the last person, and I'm the last person He ought to deal with. God is merciful. We ought to just give Him the thanks that Pastor talked about every single minute of the day, because God, thank You for not judging me. And so here's this boy. He was born, where did I leave off? Eleven. 12. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare Jacob a son. And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters, now listen, the ladies of the land, the daughters will call me blessed. Oh, when I walk around with my baby, they're going to say, Oh, how blessed is Leah? Look at Leah. Wonderful. Oh, look at the babies. Look how God has blessed. They're all consumed with their selves. Not one time, except for when Judah is born so far, is there a right motive for having these kids? It's all about, look at me, look at me. It's like Facebook. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. It's like Instagram. Hey, look at me, look at me. Look where I just was. Look what I just did. Look what I just ate. Don't you wish you were me? Look at all my blessings. Verse 13, And Leah said, Happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher. And Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field. Now read this with me. Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest, and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them unto his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, Is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband, And wouldst thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, therefore shall he lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. Now they're paying. I'm telling you, that's in your Bible. Listen, I'm just telling you what's in your Bible. I'm not going to start explaining everything. I don't need to. But verse 16, and Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him and said, thou must come in unto me. For surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes, and he lay with her that night. And God hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare Jacob, and God honored that. Go figure. I just want to get to heaven, and God give me a new mind. I just want to think like you, because the Bible tells me over and over, I don't think like you. My thoughts are not like yours. If I have the Bible, that's the closest I'm going to get right now. But I can't wait to get there and find out. But anyway, and Leah said, God has given me my hire because I have given my maiden to my house. You can look at you can read the Bible. You know, when you read the Bible, not everything is holy. The Bible is not always giving you the holy story. The Bible is just giving you the raw facts. All right. That's how God talks. What's the verse for the day? Well, how about this one? What if I pop this? I'd love to control the verse of the day on all your phones and then just send out verses like this to you and see what you think about that. This is the Bible? And Leah conceived again and bear, verse 19, and Leah conceived again and bear Jacob the sixth son. Verse 20, and Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me. See that motive again? Because I have born him six sons. Well, there you go, the magic number. Six sons, and now he'll dwell with me. And afterwards, verse 21, she bare a daughter and called her name Dinah. And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened unto her, and opened her womb, and she conceived, and bare a son. And said, God hath taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph. And now Joseph, we know who he is, and it's gonna be good when we get into his life. And said, the Lord shall add to me another son. So we read all that just because we needed to, first of all, but also want to show you the motivation behind these women and what they were doing. They weren't much different than their father. And their motives were wrong for having children. Even Laban, if we look at Chapter 31, look at Chapter 31, look at verse 43. Look at Laban when it comes to the children, he says later, he says, those are my children. Well, wait a minute. I know grandparents have a right to their grandchildren in a sense. And I know the Bible does say that they are your children. But they're not yours to raise. And they're not yours to control. And they're not yours to manipulate as well. And they're not yours to use as pawns either. And they're not yours. Right? They're the parents. But Genesis, what did I say? Where am I? 31 verse 43, And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters. Wait a minute, you gave them to him for wives. But he says, These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine. And what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? So this whole family dynamic is what I've been telling you about. This whole family thing. This is my family. I'm the leader of this home. I'm the patriarch of this family. That's the way Dad always did it. There's a lot of people that are living their lives with their deceased father or mother. and they're doing what they do, not because God has helped them or showed them any different. They're doing what they do because that's what dad always did. That's what mom always did. And you know what? I'm going to honor their their memory by doing what they always did, whether it's right or wrong, because we all put family and culture and all that stuff before God. And we just want to you know, we just want to have that, you know, we want to have that name, want to carry on the name and all that legacy business. And I'm saying be careful, very careful, careful, careful with that. In fact, just avoid it. You don't dishonor your father or your mother by serving God or doing right. You honor them even if they were lost. You're doing them honor by saying, I'm going to start the first generation of a saved family, a saved household. So anyway. Children are an inheritance of the Lord. That's on your paper. We won't look that reference up. They're not pawns. They're not ways to get your husband to stay with you. They're not leverage. They're an inheritance of the Lord. They're supposed to be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6.4 talks about that. Parents are leaders. I was watching Fox News, and I heard something, I almost fell out of my chair. I was watching Fox News, and you know, they're conservative, but they're not always that conservative. And I watched one of their commentators say that the problem with parents today is they want to be their children's friend. I said, did you say that? And he said it again. And I thought, wow. Now, I don't know if that man was saved or lost, but he's a regular on Fox News. And he said it, and then I watched it later. Yeah, I watch it from time to time. And I watched it later, and he was on again, and he said it again. He said, the problem with parents is they want to be their children's friend instead of being their parent. And you know what? He's exactly right. Listen, if you have young kids right now, it's fine if they get along with you. It's fine if they like you. But you know, one of these days they're going to look at you, and if they're like when I was a kid, and don't get upset, parents, when this happens, but they're going to look you right in the face and they're going to say, I hate you. And you know what you're going to do if you're the wrong kind of parent? You're going to cry about that. You're going to be worried about that. You know what? They don't hate you. They're mad. And they don't know how to control themselves. And they say stupid things, just like you do. And they're going to say, I hate you. Get away from me. I don't want you to be my parent. And Victoria, where is she? When she was little, she literally packed her bag and left. And I said, well, I'll help you. Well, she's still here. She's here somewhere. She's still here. But listen, anyway, parents are leaders. Let me just get to the lesson because time is just fleeting. Parents are leaders. Leaders are supposed to lead for the benefit of those being led. Do you understand that? Pastor Noel used to say that up in Michigan, my old pastor. He used to say, leaders are in the position they're in for the benefit of who they're leading, not for the benefit of themselves. I didn't have a child because I want to be loved by somebody. I didn't have a child because I like to cuddle somebody. Because after about a year and a half, they don't want to cuddle you the same way anymore. Once they're about five or six, they don't run to the door and greet you anymore. Once they're about 13, If you weren't doing your job, you're going to be in real trouble and you're going to wish you had never had. What did I? What did I ever think when I had these children? Right. And so it's not always you're a leader. You have children for a reason, not because it fulfills the desire of the motherly instinct inside of me or because I just can't wait to have. My goal is to have 10 children. Why? Now, I'm not against 10 children. I'm not against 20 children. I'm not. But why? Have you ever asked yourself why? Have you ever had that discussion with your spouse? Why? Let's have a baby. Why? You better have a good reason. You better be prepared for a 20 year long raising and being of a leader and it doesn't stop there. Today people are living with their parents for 30 and 40 years. But you better be prepared. And you better ask yourself why. And you better really want to do it I'm just trying to help you because most people, they kick their kids out to daycare as soon as possible. Three years? Oh, you'll take them at three years? Take them. Give me a break. Exactly. Exactly. Because it isn't what you thought it would be. Now listen, I understand if situations, you had a baby and you didn't plan it. But still, if you're a Christian, just take God's advice and be a leader. Leaders lead for the benefit of those being led, not for their own personal gain. You have a chance to shape and mold someone else's life. And you have a chance to look back when you do that and say, thank God, there's another generation of people that will hold to the Word of God, that will hold true, that will stay faithful and bring glory to God through the life of another person that you had the direct influence over. That ought to be your reason. So I was going to give you a really, let me just do that. We're in Genesis, go to Genesis chapter 6, and I'm going to just show you something that popped into my head. This may be really bad doctrine, but Genesis 6 and verse 4. Take it for what it's worth, but some people in the lost community know better than saved community. And I don't like the word community, but I'm just using it. Genesis 6-4, you know about the sons of God that saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they had chose? That's Genesis 6-2. And the Lord said in verse 3, my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he is also flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years. And then what happens is these sons of God had children with the daughters of men in verse four. These were giant, there were giants in the earth in those days. And also after that, when the sons of God came in under the daughters of men and they bear children to them, the same now, now listen, this is the strange doctrine. Okay. Take it for what it's worth. The same became mighty men, which were of old men of renown. Now I'm just speculating here that these angels had enough knowledge about who God is that when they had a child, they were going to be men of renown. They were going to be mighty men, and they were, and they were of note. Yes, they're giants, but they were also raised to be different. You don't think those, you don't think those, I was going to say little hellions, you don't think these little babies that were born to these sons of God were running around like little hellions like some of, well, No, they were mighty men of renown. Now that may be weird, but that popped into my head when I was studying this. Even the lost world sometimes realizes there's a purpose and a reason for this child to come to this world. They put a lot of money into the kid's education out there, and some of them do it for the right motives, right? Just a thought. So the admonition to Adam and Noah was to be fruitful and multiply, right? We're supposed to have children. I'm not discouraging children. I'm saying it's the right thing. Be fruitful and multiply, Adam, and replenish the earth. There's nobody here, so fill it up. Same thing when Noah came along. We just killed everybody, Noah. So be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. It's a right thing to do. It's kind of why you want to do it. You want to have children. It's a natural instinct, if you want to call it that. It's God-given. But, read your paper, but waiting or abstaining isn't a sin. And I use that word intentionally, a sin. It's not a sin that you don't have a child. It's not a sin that you don't want a child. Can I say it that way? It's not a sin that you don't want a child. You may be thinking unlike the next person and you may be saying, I'm not ready to have a child. I know me. I know my situation. I know what I'm capable of and I know what I'm not capable of. And it's not right for me to bring someone into this world and then not do it correctly. All right. It's not a sin. I'm just trying to give you some advice to leave your guilty conscience if you have one. So now chapter 30, verse 1 and 2, and Rachel saw that she bare no children. We talked about this. Rachel envied. She envied her sister and said unto Jacob, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, am I in God's stead who hath withheld thee from the fruit of the womb? So notice that Rachel's envy of Leah, which again was a wrong motive for having a baby, results in Jacob being blamed. Men, let me talk to you for a second. Ladies, you don't have to listen to, well, you should listen to this. But men, if your wife, you know what the Bible says about a woman that nags? Bible talks about it being like a drip. And it's a drip, and it's a drip, and it's a drip. And you know what God's advice for that is, men? It's better to dwell in the corner of a rooftop. Hey, that's in Proverbs. That's what God says, ladies, that's what God says for your husband to do to get away from you. I'm sorry. I love all you ladies. You're wonderful. And you men, you have great marriages. Everybody's wonderful in here. I'm trying to back up a little. dig a ditch or undig a ditch. I don't know what I'm doing. All right. But all I'm telling you is that's the Bible advice for a lady who is like Rachel, who says, give me children or else I die. Give me what I want or else or else or else. OK, listen, when you calm down, I'll come home. I'll be back. I'm not leaving. I'll just be over here. I'll be in my corner. Right. And the Bible says that. And it's not just for the men to get away. It's not for the men, you don't read that verse and say, well, the men should just get away while I have my mood. No, it's for you to stop having your mood. It's for you to quit nagging. It's for you to realize that maybe he does know what he's talking about. Maybe he's the leader of the home and maybe he made a choice and it's not up to you. And I'm just going to leave it right there. You can fill in the blanks for all the scenarios that might fill in there. But that's what the Bible says. And God realizes that a man doesn't like that. And so what happened? What was the response here from Jacob? He got angry. He didn't want to cuddle up closer to her and say, oh, that's okay, little lady, my dear, my lovely wife, my chosen wife. Oh, I'll just do whatever you say. And she thinks she's going to get that out of him. All she's going to get out of him is anger. All right, so just be aware that your tactics, God, you know, one of the great things about Proverbs is it's a book of psychology. It tells you how, you know, God made you. The psychiatrist didn't make you. God made you, He made your emotions. He made a man and He made a woman and He tells you they're different. And He tells you what a man thinks like and He tells you what a woman thinks like. But a woman just goes ahead and thinks, well, he thinks like me and so I'll just manipulate him my way. And a man thinks, well, she thinks like me, so I'll just do things my way. And they both clash. But if you just read Proverbs, if you read the Bible, you might get along a little better. Anyway, it results in Jacob being blamed. It's your fault that I'm not having the baby. By the way, go to Galatians 5.21. We're not going to get through these two. We'll get through this section and the one we just did and we'll be done. It's just not possible. There's something here in the book of Galatians that should catch your attention. It's verse 19, Galatians 5, 19. It says, now you understand we live in the flesh. And I'm not going to take you there, but I'll just try to quote it. Romans 7, Paul says, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? You know that body you drag around with you every day, you had to kick out of bed this morning and shower it up so it smells better and all the things you have to do to that body every day? You know that body is against you? And you know as a Christian, the number one thing that you have to recognize is that that body is not you. As a Christian, you have the Spirit of God in you and the Bible calls you a brand new creature, right? You're a new creature. And so, but that new creature, Paul tells you in Romans 7, that new creature lives inside of a stinking corpse. A rotten corpse that still has its own will. So when you read Galatians 5.19 with me, now the works of the flesh, we're talking about your number one enemy right now. Your flesh. Your number one enemy is not the devil. You know why? Because you've already defeated him. You have victory over death. He can't touch you. Now, and He's not omnipresent. He's not omniscient. He can't be with you and me at the same time. Alright, now His devils can be all over the place. And they are. And I don't even know how many there are in the world. Who knows? And how many you carry around with you and how many I carry around with me. Alright? You say you believe that? Yeah, I believe that. I believe like, you know how you get those flies away from you when you're eating a picnic? I believe that's how the devils are. They're just around you, around you. But that's not your number one enemy. You know what your number one enemy is? Your flesh. And God leaves you here for a reason. We won't get into all that this morning, but as you read this, now the works of the flesh, your enemy, are manifests which are these. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred. You're pretty bad. variance, emulations, wrath, strife. This is you, by the way. All these wicked people. Oh, the Bible is describing some wicked people right now. That's you. That's me. All right. And if you don't have these things in your life, if you say, well, I don't hate people. Good. You've overcome a few things. Evidently, that's fine. That's good. But this is what you really are. And when Pastor says, what do you say? If it weren't for grace, there go I? Something to that effect. He's right. Because this is what is in your flesh. And then it says this, I think I already read it, verse 21, envyings. We'll just stop there. What is Rachel doing right now? She's doing a work of the flesh. She's envying her sister. She's not weeping with them that weep and rejoicing with them that rejoice. She's not rejoicing, oh my sister had a baby, that's wonderful. No, she's envying. So this is what I was going to say earlier about social media. This kind of thing is magnified today with social media. Listen, you have this other enemy, and I mentioned him, he's the devil. He's called the prince of the power of the air. The prince of the power of the air. You know what? He can't get to you all individually. He may never get to you in your entire lifetime. But you know what he can do? He knows who you are. And He knows the flesh. And you know what? He was there in Genesis 3 when He saw that flesh manifest. And He saw that sin nature get on you. And He watched it as it all happened. And He knows you. He's been studying man for 6,000 years. He knows what gets us. He knows how to work on us and how to... So He shapes society because the Bible tells us He's the God of this world. And as the God of this world, He's running the world, not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ isn't running the world right now. Hey, JW and Catholic and all you kingdom builders, Jesus Christ is not sitting on some spiritual throne running this world. The devil is. One day, literally, Jesus will be sitting on a throne in Israel, in Jerusalem, and He'll rule it with a rod of iron, and wait till you see the law at that time. Wait till you see the speedy judgment at that time. Wait till you realize that it's not just me committing an act of sin in secret, but God is on the throne and He knows my thoughts and He knows exactly when it was done, and He sends His police. I've looked at that and that's really going to be an interesting time, but that's not now. Right now is the God of this world. So the God of this world says, how can I bring the worst out in all of you? How can I bring out envy in all of you? How can I bring out anger in all of you? How can I bring out jealousy in all of you? How can I bring out despising your neighbor, not loving your neighbor? How can, and how is it that America is so divided? Aren't you hearing that all the time? America is just so divided, we're against each other. And so if you're that, if you're a kind of person that's always opposite and always against, and you have a problem with everything, you might have, you might have been manipulated by the devil and how he runs this world. And that social media magnifies that. Like I said, oh, look what they had for dinner last night. Well, we didn't have that for dinner last night. When are we going to go out? Look what they're doing and they're on vacation and they get to do this and how come we're not doing that? Boy, we never do that. Give me a baby or else I die. Does it sound right? I'm telling you, you may have been manipulated and you don't know it. You may be acting away and you think that's just how I am and that's just what I want out of life. No, you may be manipulated by it. You know what Paul said? Whatsoever state I am, I've learned, I'm going to butcher this too, I've learned to be content. Learned. Brother Beard taught me that. He said, John, you know what Paul said? He said he learned that. I'm like, yeah, you're right, that's what it says. He had to learn, he had to figure that out. And so we might wanna figure a few things out. Hey, I've been manipulated by this world. Look what they have, look what they get to do. America's all about that. You know what they call you in America, right? You know what the government calls you? You're a consumer. Listen, pay attention to that buzzword. They call you a consumer. You know why? Because you don't make anything in this country anymore. You just consume, consume, consume. I did some research. The whole world is online by the way. You can go into the deepest darkest place around this world and they'll have a cell phone and they'll be on the internet. It's true. Anyway, including little babies. Do you ever wonder how it is a little baby can immediately start moving that They take my watch, and I'm part of the system, right? And they take my watch, and they know how to do this, and do this, and this, and you grown people don't even know how to do it. And they take your phone, and the next thing you know, they're doing this or that. If you give them three minutes with your phone, who knows what's going on? They figure that. How is it that they can figure that? Maybe there's a God of this world who knows human nature better than you do. And maybe He said, a screen, they love that screen. They love pictures. And they can do this thing and that thing, and they can figure things out, and I'll give them that. Just maybe. Because I see it happening. And I have to wonder. I have to wonder, why didn't God do that for me? I'll talk about that in a second, but before I do, let me give you some statistics. Do you know that there are over 1 billion hours of video watched on YouTube every day? Every day. 1 billion hours of video being watched every day. 1.59 billion users on Facebook every day. 1.44 billion on Instagram every day. 1.2 billion on TikTok every day. Now, here's God. You'd say, what a way to reach the world. Well, I don't think that's happening. I know Gene Kim gets more views than we do, but he's not reaching the world. And I would like to think he could or any one of us could, but they're not. A little bit of good comes out of that stuff, of course. But mostly, these billions and billions of people, they're getting envy, they're getting hate, they're getting jealousy. The kids are committing suicide. I don't look as pretty as her. I'm not as handsome as him. They have more friends than I do. How can I be seen? How can I be noticed? What can I do really stupid to get seen on there? Parents, I'm telling you, watch out. Your kids don't need that pressure. Envy, we're talking about envy. It's one of the works of the flesh. And the devil says, I can get, I want all the works of the flesh to come out of you. I want to just keep whipping that up about you, whipping that up about you. But God doesn't use those sort of things, right? That stuff, I believe the devil, and I titled him on purpose, what the Bible says, the prince of the power of the air. Your 5G, your 4G, your Wi-Fi, your airwaves. God's never used that. You look through history, you go back to Genesis, God put man in a garden. Why didn't God put man in Silicon Valley? He put man in a garden. And all through history, He worked through men, and He preached, and He wrote down the Bible. And so you know what we have? We have this. We have this. Now of the billions of things that go on every day online, what do you think goes on with this every day? How many times is this consulted every day? I don't know, but I have a statistic for you. Barna Research Group works with the American Bible Society. They do statistics on Bible reading and usage and all that kind of stuff. They only did US, the United States, but they said just over one-third, or 34% actually, of the US adults read the Bible once a week. Just one-third. in the United States, the Christian country, right? The ones with all the Bibles. And then they go on to say, while half, 50%, read the Bible less than twice a year, including in this statistic, never. So less than twice a year or maybe never. But billions, one billion hours will happen today on YouTube. Now God, why didn't you use YouTube? I mean, come on. This is what God does. Now I'm going to wrap it up with this. Go to Ecclesiastes 12. This is one of the last statements in the book of Ecclesiastes. And the sum of the whole matter, the conclusion of the whole matter is in verse 13. Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man. So that's the whole duty of man. Again, so you sum up your life really easily. You say, God, what should I do? Well, just fear God and keep His commandments and you'll be just fine. And He'll guide you from there. But, look at verse 12. Ecclesiastes 12, 12. And further, by these, my son, be admonished of making many books, there is no end. And much study is a weariness of the, what? Flesh. Huh. So what is not a weariness of the flesh? Billions of hours on social media. We love it. It can be three o'clock in the morning and we're doing it. It can be during church, and we're doing it. It can be on the job, and we're doing it. That is not a weariness of the flesh. You know what that does? That feeds the flesh. I'm not throwing out my phone, okay? I need a phone to communicate, and I have one, and you have one. I'm not getting rid of my Visa card. That was supposed to be the mark of the beast when I was growing up, right? I still have one. I'm not throwing out my automobile, and I'm not giving up my microwave. I'm not giving up, I'm just saying, I'm not telling you to get rid of your phone, I'm just telling you, it's not a... But the Bible tells you something, it's a clue right here, it should be to you, that study is a weariness of the flesh. So you know what God does to get our attention? He does something that is weary to our flesh. He makes us go against the thing that is our number one enemy, our flesh, and He says, you know what you're going to do if you're going to get to know me? You can't know me in that flesh. Knowledge puffeth up is what a pastor said before church. Knowledge puffeth up, that's your flesh. You can't get close to me in the flesh. So I'm going to give you an activity that goes against your flesh. I'm going to give you an activity that is weariness to you. And if you're like me, if you're one of the kids like me growing up in school, I never read one of the books. I never read the textbook. I only read the Cliff Notes or only read what you told me I need to read so I can pass the test. I didn't read until much later in life because it's a weariness to the flesh. Now, some of you might like to read. I know some people who do, so I can't say that nobody. But I don't like to read. It's a weariness to the flesh. It's opposite of the flesh. It's what God says that you're going to need to do if you're going to want to know me. Now, listen, we're out of time. But, you know, if we were still back, if we were still didn't have if we didn't have sin in our lives. Listen, you ought to hate sin. Now, I know you love sin. Right? I know you do because it's pleasurable. I do. Don't be so holy, okay? Laugh a little bit, okay? We're done. I know you like sin, but you should hate it. And the reason why you should hate it is because it's your enemy. It's against you. It messes up your life. Sin has messed up your life. Why do I feel this way this morning? Oh my goodness. Because of sin? The wages of sin is death, not life. Right? You're aching and paining and whining and complaining because of sin. You ought to hate it. Oh, not because you're so holy, not because you don't find pleasure in sin, but because you realize you're old enough, all of us here at Adult Sunday School, we're old enough to realize it's against us. It works against us. It's not our friend. It's our foe. And so if that's the case, you know what we ought to do? We ought to take the Bible's admonition. Jesus says, deny yourself, take up your cross. Yeah, He knows it's going to be hard and follow me. And then what happens? He says, but my burden is light. Don't worry, my burden is light. But if we were back in the garden, if everything was still continuing, if we were all still in the garden, you know this wouldn't be a problem for us. Communing with God and having pleasure with God and walking with God in the cool of the day and all the blessings of God would just be like wonderful and easy. But you know what it is now since sin came into the picture? Since Adam sinned, guess what? Serving God is work. It's a weariness. It's not always you came in the door this morning and rejoiced that it was raining. Now I'm rejoicing with him because we care about our grass, him and I. And we want it to be green because our neighbors think we're not Christians because our grass is so brown. But I'm telling you, you can rejoice in all of it just knowing that that's life. And life is not easy and God didn't give us an easy life because of sin. Not because He's not good. Not because He doesn't have things that I have not seen, nor ear, heard, nor entered into the heart of man, that when you get up there you're going to be blown away. But right here, it's miserable. I'll help you out already. I'm miserable, so you can be miserable with me, okay? Sin is miserable. Yeah, I know you're stuck on a certain sin and you can't seem to get rid of it, but recognize this about that thing. Recognize that it is killing you. And if for no other reason, be practical about it and say, it's killing me, this is hurting me. And if the closer I get to God, the better it'll be. Because Paul said some of the most amazing, I'm done, but Paul said some of the most amazing statements in the Bible. How could you say that, Paul? I was beaten, I was shipwrecked, and glory to God, and I'm in the jail, and I'm singing at midnight, and everything is wonderful. How can you say that? Because he recognized this. And this all comes from the idea of envying. Envy is the work of the flesh. And when you realize that that flesh is against you, and that flesh is what's causing it, and you recognize that the Bible, what does the Bible say in Romans chapter 8? Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That's the secret. Alright, we'll have to stop there.