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We'll sing it on that first. 🎶 Wonderful Grace of Jesus, Greater Than All My Sin 🎶 🎶 How shall my tongue describe it? 🎶 🎶 Where shall His praise begin? 🎶 🎶 Taking away my burden 🎶 Setting my spirit free For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the light of dawn and sea Sparking as a mountain Sparking like a fountain False, sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater for than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching to all of us I in I have been pardoned Saved to the honorable Chains have been torn asunder Giving me liberty For the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than a mountain Sparking like a fountain False, sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater for than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name Wonderful grace of Jesus Reaching the most newfound By its transforming power Making God's dear child Purchasing peace and heaven For all eternity And the wonderful grace of Jesus Reaches me Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus Deeper than the mighty rolling sea Higher than a mountain Sparking like a fountain False, sufficient grace for even me Broader than the scope of my transgressions Greater for than all my sin and shame O magnify the precious name of Jesus Praise His name Alright, great singing. Thank you so much for being here. Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. We are in our second week of the fall program, amen? So we're going to fill out those sheets today, amen? I'm going to make sure you get your sweaters, amen? And so we're looking forward to it and thank God for the wonderful grace of Jesus. Let's go ahead and pray and we'll get started. Father, we thank you so much for your grace that saved us, Lord. And of course we need your grace on a day-to-day basis just to live the Christian life. I pray that God you continue to be with us throughout this service, Lord. May you bless it. Bless the preaching, the singing, the fellowship, and of course the soul wanting to follow. That all things may be done for your honor and for your glory. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You may be seated. This world is not my home. I don't know, do we have a song sheet for that? Oh, we do have a song. Does everyone have one of these sheets here? If you do not have a sheet, go ahead and raise your hand. One of the ushers can get one for you. Brother Jason right over here needs one. This world is not my home. Amen. Amen. This world is not my home as our second song. We'll sing it on that first verse. This world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then, Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. They're all expecting me and that's one thing I know. My Savior pardoned me and now I onward go. I know He'll take me through, though I am weak and poor. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then, Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. I have a loving Savior, loving glory land. I don't expect to stop until I watch Him stand. He's waiting out for me in heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then, Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Just up in glory land we'll live eternally. The saints on every hand are shouting victory. Their songs of sweetest praise rip back from heaven's shore. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Oh, Lord, you know I have no friend like you. If heaven's not my home, then, Lord, what will I do? The angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers can get one for you. Some important information on there along with the fall program point sheet. Try to say that five times fast. Some of the announcements here, of course, our Sunday morning service is at 10.30. Sunday evening at 5 p.m. and then we have our Thursday night Bible study at 7 o'clock. We will be concluding the book of Malachi this coming Thursday at 7, so make sure you don't miss out on that. If you look to the right there at some of the upcoming church events, things that we've got going on here. Today is Caramel Apple Sunday and that'll be after the service. And so, you know, give you that nice sugar boost before soul winning, amen. And give your kids that crash, crankiness and all that as well. And so, looking forward to that. And then along with that is Lorena's Baby Shower and that'll be after the service approximately around 12.45, 1 o'clock if I'm not mistaken, 12.30. And so, we will still be meeting in here for soul winning. So, all ladies are welcome to stay for the Baby Shower, of course. You guys, ladies, all are welcome to go there. It's going to be in the fellowship hall. But if you want to go soul winning, we're going to be meeting here and we'll dismiss approximately around 12.45. And so, just keep that in mind. Alex and Tamara's wedding is Saturday, October 16th, this Saturday. What time, Brother Alex? 2 p.m. at Verity Baptist Church. Hope you can make it to that. I will be there as well and so looking forward to that. And then on Sunday, October 17th, is the Apple Cider Fellowship after the Sunday night service. Ladies prayer meeting on Friday, October 29th. And if you look on the left there is the fall program schedule. One thing that I'm really looking forward to is not necessarily the prayer meeting, I'll just be honest with you. I mean, it's good to pray, amen. But October 24th is the state contest. Amen? And so, someone told me, and they better not defraud me, that they're, I'm just going to go ahead and say who it is. It's Adam Kinzari. He said that he's going to be doing picanha. Okay, for the state contest. So, I don't know, man. You guys got some pretty good competition there. Anybody know what picanha is? Oh yeah, okay. So, he's already won in my mind. But I'm not going to be doing, I'm not going to be the judge. So, yeah. So that will be on the 24th. 29th you have the team bowling activity with Pastor, of course. That will be on a Friday evening. And that's a weekend for all the teens. And so on the 31st, after Sunday night, we're going to go to Coldstones. And so all teenagers are welcome to come to that. Of course, bring your parents. Parents, we want you to come. Because, as I mentioned before, we don't want to babysit all your kids. And so, but, if you're a teenager in our church, we encourage you to come to both the bowling activity and Coldstones. It's a free activity, so come by. We're looking forward to having you. We'll have a good time those evenings. And then the pie baking contest is on November 7th. And then concluding on November 23rd for our annual Thanksgiving banquet. Of course, the theme is the 1800s. How many already got your outfits? All right. Cool deal. And so you still got a couple more weeks. And, of course, we are in the fall program. So along with all these great events that are taking place, we are also in a contest. Hey, Ben. And so make sure you're filling this out. In fact, we're going to fill it out right now. Why not? All right. So does everyone have a point sheet, you know, quarter sheet thingamajig here? Everyone have that? Does anybody not have one? Raise your hand if you don't have one. Miss Francescini needs one. Our song leader needs one. Right here, Brother Marcos. Anybody else need one? Can you play some passing out music, please? That's exactly what I had in mind. Actually, that's a little too slow. Can you speed that up a little bit? And pants. If you need pants, raise your hand. Play something a little more peppy. That's sad. That's more somber. Play This World Is Not My Home. Oh, the song sheet, man. All right. Does anybody else need a pen or a sheet? Okay, you can play a little softer. Lower those decibels, Brother. All right. Okay, so let's just fill this out right now. All right. So go ahead and put your first and last name right there. Everyone put your first and last name. Put today's date. Which today's date is the 10th. Okay. If you brought a visitor last week, go ahead and check that little part where it says visitors 2,000 per visitor. And depending upon how many visitors you brought, of course, you need to do the math. If you need to pull out a calculator, go ahead. Looking at you, Maria. She brought like a bunch of visitors on last Sunday. All right. So first and last name, Sunday's date, which is today. And then visitors, 2,000 points per visitor. So many. If you went so many at least once this week, go ahead and check that as well. And then if you attended all three services. Now, it has to be all three services, though. It's not like, well, I came Sunday morning, so what's a fraction of that? No, it has to be all three services. If you did not attend all three, then you could just put N-A or zero there. You got to make sure it's accurate. And then put the total amount at the bottom, please. Total amount at the bottom. Brother Jake, Jacobs. You got both Jacobs here. Go ahead and put out the, if you can bring the offering plates, please. We're going to collect these right now. Who needs more time? Who needs a calculator? Anybody need a calculator? Anybody need more time? All right, go ahead, and we're going to collect these right now. Brother Jacob, Brother Don, Brother Glenn, go ahead and start collecting them from everyone. And raise those decibels up a little bit. It helps them move a little faster. Let's collect all these. Very good. Keep going. All right, great. Thank you, Brother Eric. So we'll go ahead and put those on an Excel spreadsheet. We'll keep track of those. We're going to do that every week to make sure you get your sweater, and we collect all those points. And, of course, the prizes are, if you reach 14,000 points, you get a King James hoodie. First prize, paid missions trip. Second prize, $50 gift card. Third prize, $35 gift card. And that's pretty much it. Christmas program practices will begin on October 17th. If you have any questions, see my wife for more details regarding that. We had a great Christmas program last year, and with the orchestra, and, of course, with the children singing. So that was great. And so that'll begin on the 17th of October. And then we need help with the Thanksgiving dinner. If you'd like to sign up to get involved, see the sign-up sheet at the Ester Station, which is right there in the back, if you want to be a blessing and help out with that. We'd greatly appreciate it. Quiet time resumes from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the main auditorium in Mother Baby Room. Make sure you take a power nap. Get some rest in before the Sunday night service so you can be nice and refreshed. No food or drink allowed in the main auditorium except for water and coffee. And make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction during the service. All right? And that is it. Let's go ahead and sing our next song. 397, Little Is Much. Song number 397. Song number 397, Little Is Much When God Is In It. Song number 397. We'll sing it on that first. In the harvest field now ripen. There's a work for all to do. Hark the voice of God is calling to the harvest calling you. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Does the place your goal to labor seem so small and little known? It is great if God is in it and he'll not forget his own. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Are you made aside from service? Body worn for toil and care. You can still be in the battle in the sacred place of care. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. When the conflict here is ended and our race on earth is won, He will say to all the faithful, Welcome home, my child well done. Little is much when God is in it. Labor not for wealth or fame. There's a crown and you can win it if you'll go in Jesus' name. Amen, wonderful singing. At this time, our ushers will be receiving the offering. You can tune your Bibles to Genesis chapter 30. We'll be receiving the offering. piano plays softly piano plays softly piano plays softly Good morning. We're in Genesis chapter 30. Genesis chapter 30 in the Bible reads, And where Rachel saw that she bear Jacob no children, Rachel 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 from thee the fruit of the womb? And she said, Behold, my maid, Billa, going on to her, she shall bear upon my son Jacob, and she shall bear upon my son Jacob, and she shall bear upon my son Jacob, going on to her, she shall bear upon my niece, that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Billa her handmaid to wife, and Jacob went on to her, and Billa conceived and bared 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. And Billa Rachel's maid conceived again, and bared Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed, and she called his name Mephthali. And Leah saw that she had left Bering, she took Zilpah her maid, and gave her Jacob to wife. And Zilpah Leah's maid bared Jacob a son, and Leah said, A troop cometh, and she called his name Gad, and Zilpah Leah's maid bared Jacob a second son. 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, and brought them onto 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 wilt thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. 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 buried Jacob the fifth son. And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again, and buried Jacob the sixth son. Leah said, God hath endued me with a good dowry, now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons, and she called his name Zebulun. And afterwards she bare a daughter, and called her name Dinah. And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to 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 said, the Lord shall add to me another son. And it came to pass, when Rachel had borne Joseph, that Jacob said unto Laban, Send me away, that I may go on to mine own place, and to my own country. Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served thee, and let me go, for thou knowest my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thine eyes, For I have learned by experience, that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. And he said, Appoint me thy wages, and I will give it. And he said unto him, Thou knowest how I have served thee, and how thy cattle was with me. For it was little which thou hast before I came, and it is now increased unto a multitude. And the Lord hath blessed thee since my coming, and now when shall I provide for my own house also? And he said, What shall I give thee? And Jacob said, Thou shall not give me anything. If thou wilt do this thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock. I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and of such shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come, when it shall come for my hire before thy face. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats, and brown among the sheep, that shall be count stolen with me. And Laban said, Behold, I would it might be according to thy word. And he removed that day the he goes that were ring-streaked and spotted, and all the she goes that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons. And he said, Three days' journey betwixt Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks, and the gutters, and the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-streaked, speckled, and spotted. And Jacob did separate the lamps, and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring-streaked, and all the brown in the flock of Laban. And he put his own flocks by themselves, and put them not unto Laban's cattle. And it came to pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in. So the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger is Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly, and had mushed cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels, and asses. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for such a wonderful church. Dear God, we thank you for all the brothers and sisters you've given us. We thank you for our pastor. Please bless him as he preaches your word this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, here in Genesis chapter 30, and the title of my sermon this morning is Getting the Right Things the Wrong Way. Getting the Right Things the Wrong Way. There's a pretty interesting story here in Genesis chapter 30, towards the latter end, regarding the ring-streaked, spotted, and speckled goats. And we'll get into that story in just a bit. Go to Genesis chapter 25, if you would. Hold your place there in Genesis chapter 30. Getting the Right Things the Wrong Way is the title of the sermon. And what I'm going to specifically focus on or look through here is stories throughout the Bible of people. They got a blessing. They got something that was valuable. They got something maybe even God wanted to give them, but they obtained it in the wrong way. And it's important for us as Christians to understand that, you know, God is concerned with what we possess along with how we possess it. He wants us to have that which is good and righteous and that which is appropriate for us to have, but he also wants us to obtain it in the right way. It's called integrity. Amen. And so he wants us to get the right thing the right way, not the wrong way. And unfortunately, throughout the Bible we see men and women of God who have obtained a blessing. They've obtained some sort of increase, some sort of possession, but they got it in the wrong way. And God is very much interested in us as Christians having integrity by which we possess things, whether that is in marriage or even a promotion at a job, you know, a raise or whatever it may be, a position in a church. These are all good things, but God wants us to get it the right way. Amen. The Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 16 verse 11, Just weight and balance are the Lord's, all the weights of the bag are his work. Proverbs 19 one says, Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity. So God actually is themes of individual who is poor, he doesn't have as much, but he's a man of integrity. Okay, rather than a person who has riches, abundance, and even so called honor, but he attained it deceitfully, he obtained it crookedly with no integrity. He says, Better is the poor that walketh in his integrity than he that is perverse in his lips and is a fool. And what I want to talk about this morning is the importance of, you know, just obtaining certain things the right way, making sure that we have God's blessing the right way. Because you know, a lot of times people could actually manipulate a blessing or they can manipulate a situation or a circumstance to work in their favor, and it's not right. Amen. So people who get the right things the wrong way. And the first example we're going to look at this morning is Jacob. Okay, now Jacob is a pretty bad name. Sorry guys, those of you named Jacob. But you know, it means deceiver, supplanter, you know, heel catcher. This guy is a person who is just not an honest individual. Now when you really study the life of Jacob, what you see is good qualities of hard work. Okay, he's a strong individual, he's a hard worker, but he has some character flaws. One of them being a deceiver, okay. He lacks integrity, he's a deceptive person, he's willing to manipulate situations, and this isn't something that he just learned on his own. He actually got it from his mama, okay. Which by the way, parents, you know, that's why it's important that we as parents are making sure that we're people of integrity, that we're people of character, because we are going to basically raise children who are just like us. And what we see with Jacob is that he grows up to be just like his mom. And I don't mean like he's soft or something like that. You know, the guy's pretty strong. He's the one who removed the stone off of the well's mouth. I'm referring to the fact that he had a character of just being a deceptive person, always manipulating situations to work in his favor. And let's look at an example then. Genesis chapter 25, in verse 29 it says, And Jacob sought pottage. Of course, Jacob's brother Esau is his older brother. Jacob is the younger. It says, Jacob sought pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Tell me this day thy birthright. First of all, that's messed up. It's like your brother's like hungry. He's out, you know, working and hunting. And then he comes and he's just like, hey, can you feed me? I'm faint. I don't feel very well. And Jacob immediately sees this as an opportunity to obtain something that doesn't belong to him, which in reality, you know, he was still going to be blessed with God even if he didn't do this because God basically chose the younger to serve the elder. But yet he takes this opportunity to basically sell a bowl of pottage for Esau's birthright. He says in verse 32, And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die. What profit and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he's swearing to him. And he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. I mean, it wasn't even a good soup. I mean, what is this? Bread and pottage of lentils? I mean, was there any meat in there? Was there any venison in there? I mean, was it worth it at least? By the way, folks, you know, this shows us that sin, okay, afterwards, that mouth shall be filled with gravel sometimes. You know, it could be sweet in the beginning and then afterwards when you're done, it's just like that wasn't even that good, okay? Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. Sorry for those of you who got offended because you like lentils. And he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. So obviously Jacob is guilty of what just took place. But Esau is not innocent either because obviously he did not esteem the birthright that was given to him. I mean, he was willing to sell it for a bowl of soup. It wasn't really that important to him. Now, what is it that he sold unto Jacob when he talks about his birthright? Referring to the fact that Jacob basically received authority over the family after his father Isaac would pass away. The birthright of the firstborn was the fact that they were going to receive a double portion. They were to be in charge after dad passed away. They would receive all types of property. But obviously this birthright didn't belong necessarily to Jacob. Jacob was going to be blessed of God in spite of this anyways. He didn't even receive any property after Isaac died. So this is kind of in vain, you understand? But yet in Jacob's mind, he's thinking, well, if I'm going to be blessed of God, if I'm going to have authority, if I'm going to have property, I need to do it this way. Now, these are good things to want. Property, you know, possessions, you know, authority over your family. These are all good things, but he obtained it in the wrong way, okay? Go to Genesis chapter 27, if you will, Genesis chapter 27. So he takes Esau's birthright as being the firstborn. He's going to be the leader. You know, he wants to have the property, et cetera, and he makes him swear this in order to obtain that bowl of pottage. Look at Genesis 27 in verse 15. It says in Rebekah. So what we have here is Isaac, he's about to pass away. He's about to pass away. He's getting kind of old. And prior to him passing away, you know, one of his favorite dishes is venison. And of course Esau is a hunter. He can hunt venison and cook it for his dad and make him his favorite meal. And Rebekah, the mother, knows this. But Rebekah loves Jacob. She favors Jacob over Esau. And this is another lesson for us as parents. We should not have favorites in our family, amen? We should love all our children equally and favor them equally. You see, they all come with different characteristics, flaws and strengths, but there should never be favorites amongst our children because then you have conflicts such as this. Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. So Rebekah is scheming. She's conspiring with Jacob to basically rob Esau of the blessing. But she obviously understands Esau is hairy. He's like an Armenian type of a guy, you know? He's very hairy. Jacob, on the other hand, is smooth. He's like a Filipino, you know what I mean? He's like a smooth person. He doesn't have much hair on him. So they have to deceive their dad in order to basically get him to bless Jacob instead of Esau. So what she does is he gets his goodly raiment, which is nice and hairy, places it upon Jacob, which basically shows you how hairy Esau really was, okay? Puts it upon Jacob in order to deceive the dad. It says in verse 16, And she put the skins of the kid of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck. And she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I, who art thou my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou batest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? Because this thing is like, Man, that was quick, even for you. You went out, you found it. I mean, this takes a lot of work to hunt it and then to like skin it, cook it, and bring it on a platter to his dad. He's like, You brought it so quickly. How is it that you did it? And look at the response here. And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. That's deception. So he's crediting God with something that God did not do. Now, is it bad that he brought him some venison? No. Is it bad that he wanted to be blessed of the Lord? No. But he did it in the wrong way. And in fact, he gave credit to God. He accredited God with providing this venison for his father. That was a complete lie, folks. You know, he's blaming God, or he's bringing God into the situation here. And what this reminds me of is Christians who often will try to justify divorce, for example. Right? And they'll say something like this, You know, God told me that he wants me to leave my husband, or he wants me to leave my wife. I just know of the Lord. This is of God. That's false. You're crediting God with something that goes completely contrary to God's word. Don't bring God into the situation. It comes from your deceptive heart. Okay? So obviously, we see what takes place here. Look at verse 32. I mean, what a brazen statement to make, right? The Lord thy God brought it to me. Trying to sound all ultra-spiritual. You know, I was reading the Bible, and I just came across this verse, and that was the justification for the divorce. You know, it's like, what? What are you talking about? Don't accredit God with something that God did not sanction. Look at verse 32, And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? Now he's talking to Esau. Esau went to go actually get the venison and brought it to him. And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it to me and have eaten of all before thou camest and have blessed them? Yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. And behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved the blessing for me? And of course we know that he blessed them, but not as greatly as he blessed Jacob. So what did we learn from this situation? Well, we learned that Jacob is doing the right things, but he's doing it the wrong way. You know, even though he was the second born, even though he wasn't necessarily going to have authority over his family or whatever it may be, God had a different plan for him. I mean, Jacob was going to eventually become Israel, who led the twelve tribes, which eventually would end up reaching the entire world. You understand? I mean, he is one of the descendants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's an important character in the Bible. He didn't need to go through these deceptive, deceptive, you know, avenues to get what he wanted. He could have had it the right way. You understand? So he took the birthright by deception. He took the blessing by deception, the deception of his mother, of course. He's being crooked about these things. He's getting the right thing, but he's getting it the wrong way. And again, God had already told Isaac, Hey, the older shall serve the younger. He'd already told him like, Hey, you know, obviously this is the manner in which things work, but here's the exception to the rule. Esau will serve Jacob. Okay. Cause God already had a plan for Jacob, but Jacob of course is leaning upon his own understanding. He's doing his own thing and is being deceptive about it. Go to Genesis chapter 30. So obviously we see that there's a character flaw with Jacob here. It's called deception. Okay. Being a liar, manipulating situations to get it to work in his favor. Look at Genesis chapter 30. In Genesis chapter 30, of course, this is a pretty interesting story here regarding the livestock. And I remember reading this when I first got saved and I was like, I don't know what this is, like ring straight, what's going on? So this is good or bad? Like, what's, is this a good thing that's happening? Is this a bad thing? I'm not a farmer. I don't care for these things. You know, just, you know, it was kind of hard to understand, but really what's taking place here is just Jacob being deceptive again. Okay. Look at verse 31. He says, and he said, what shall I give thee? This is Laban speaking to Jacob. And Jacob said, thou shall not give me anything if thou will do this thing for me. I will again feed and keep thy flock. I will pass through all thy flock today, removing from thence all the speckled and spotted cattle and all the brown cattle among the sheep and the spotted and speckled among the goats. And of such shall be my hire. Look what it says in verse 33. So shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come. Now, what is it that he's saying here? Laban is saying, what shall I do for thee? You know, what's going to be your hire? He goes, look, this is all you need to do. Give me the worst of your cattle. Because when he talks about the spotted and speckled, he's referring to the cattle that are with blemish. Okay. They're not really, you know, quality livestock is what he's talking about. So he's saying, look, I'll take the cattle that's basically kind of lame and you don't want, it's not very good quality. I'll take it for myself. You keep the good ones and you know what? My righteousness shall answer for me in the time to come. In other words, God's going to bless me anyways, even if I have low quality livestock, he's going to be with me. It's going to show that I'm a righteous person because I'm allowing myself to be defrauded of that which is quality. And, you know, I'm giving you the good stuff and so my righteousness will answer for me in the time to come. Now, if the story just ended there, that would have been great, you know? And I believe that God would have blessed them. He says, so shall my righteousness answer for me in the time to come when it shall come for my hire before thy face. Every one that is not speckled and spotted among the goats and brought among the sheep, that shall be counted stolen with me. So in other words, he's saying, look, I'll even go as far as to say this. If you, you know, take inventory of my livestock and you find one that's not spotted or speckled, just consider it as me stealing from you because I'm only trying to take that which is, like, bad. So if you find good quality livestock with me, it just shows that I stole from you. He's basically saying, like, this is my integrity, right? He's putting forth as though he's being honest. And Laban said, behold, I would, it might be according to thy word. Now, I don't know exactly what he meant by that. I don't know if he's being facetious or something, like, because he kind of knows Jacob. He's like, I hope that's true. He's basically saying, you know, I hope you're being honest here. I would that it might be according to thy word. Look at verse 37. There's a good relationship between the father and the son-in-law. By the way, Laban is deceitful, too. All these people are just deceptive towards each other. Laban is, like, you know, what goes around comes around sometimes, you know, you understand? Look at verse 37. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar and of the hazel and chestnut tree and peeled, we would say peeled, white strakes in them and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had peeled before the flocks and the gutters and the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods and brought forth cattle ring-straked, speckled, and spotted. So I'm not a farmer. I'm not exactly sure how this works. But basically, what's taking place here is that Jacob created a way in which when the livestock would give birth, they would pass through these rods and it would cause them to appear as though they were spotted and speckled. You understand? So he's like, you know, using these poplars and these peeled trees or whatever, causing them to look, have the appearance as though they are blemished. Verse 40, and Jacob did separate the lambs and set the faces of the flocks towards the ring-strake and all the brown and the flock of Laban. And he put his own flocks by themselves and put them not unto Laban's cattle. Look at verse 41. And it came to pass, when so ever the stronger cattle did conceive, that Jacob laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters, that they might conceive among the rods. So when he looked at the cattle, he's like, oh man, this is going to be a strong one. This is going to be a lively one. This is going to be a quality livestock. He would quickly put it in the gutters so they could pass through the rods, causing them to look as though they were not quality. I mean, this guy's being deceptive. Going through like crazy lengths just to get it to basically, you know, manipulate the situation in his favor. He says in verse 42, but when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in. So the feeblers were Laban's and the stronger Jacob's. So he's like, oh, this one sucks. I was like, we're going to give this to Laban. He's like, payback, you know. Verse 43, and the man increased exceedingly. Yeah, of course he increased exceedingly when you're being deceptive. And had much cattle and maidservants and manservants and camels and asses. So what do we see? We see that he manipulated this entire situation just so he could come out on top with quality livestock, but he lied about it. He did the right thing the wrong way. He said, what was the right thing? Well, the right thing is that he wanted good livestock. The right thing is that he wanted to be righteous. The right thing is that, you know, he wanted to be blessed of the Lord in spite of, you know, Laban's defrauding him and treating him like garbage and changing his wages. You know, Laban is obviously inexcusable, but that doesn't make it right for Jacob to basically return that favor or whatever, you know. It's never right to do wrong to do right. It's never right to do wrong to do right. Jacob, even in this very verse, Laban's telling him, I know God has blessed me because of you. So God's already blessing Laban, you know, with good livestock and abundance and possessions because of Jacob. What makes you think that Jacob would not be able to partake of that from God's blessing as well? God's hand is on him. Why does he have to be deceptive? God's hand is on him. Why does he have to try to manipulate the situation to try to work in his favor? Okay, he didn't need to do this. He could have simply took all the bad livestock, defrauded himself, allowed himself to be defrauded, and God would have just fixed those livestock or created some miracle or gave him something else because that's just the way God's economy works, folks. Okay, and it's better for him to have had these lame livestock, you know, the speckled and spotted, but be a man of integrity because it's better to be poor, but yet be a man of integrity. You understand? You will be blessed in your latter end. So what's the lesson that we learned from Jacob? The lesson is this. You know, he did the right thing, but he did it the wrong way. Now, what's the application that we can learn from this? Well, you know, you shouldn't try to get a promotion at your job or a raise deceitfully. How can you get it deceitfully? By making other people look bad? By trying to make your contemporaries or, you know, the people you work with look worse than you or try to expose them or talk crap behind their back to the boss? Try to expose them or whatever. Try to plant some sort of evidence to get them fired or something. That's wicked. Why? You know, I need this promotion. I need to be able to pay the bills, and this is just what... You don't understand this line of business, Pastor Mejia. Then, you know, a Christian shouldn't be in that line of business if it's causing you to be deceitful. So if you're in a line of business that's causing you to lack integrity, to be deceptive, to manipulate situations to favor you, then you probably shouldn't be doing that job. Because that's obviously not honoring to God, and at the end of the day, you work for God. At the end of the day, God's your boss. Well, you know, I have to lie a little bit, you know, in order to get overtime. I just clock out, you know, a little later or something, and I just don't do any work or whatever. You know, I just got to do what I got to do to make ends meet. God understands. Yeah, he understands you're being deceptive. He understands that you lack character. He understands that you obviously don't have faith in him, and therefore you have to try to be deceptive, to try to work things your way in order for you not to receive the spotted and speckled livestock. We should be Christians who are just willing to take the worse and trust God for the rest. You understand? You know, don't be a person who, for example, let's say in church, let's just talk about church, positions in church. You know, don't be an individual who seeks a position in church and you do it by putting other people down or something. You know, and you try to do it by means of tearing other people down in our church or tearing other leaders down or saying, you know, or trying to, you know, just trying to make yourself look better than anybody else who's in our church who's a potential leader. That's a wicked way to move up, amen? You know, the way you should move up in any organization, but even in a church, is to allow the Lord to magnify you. You understand? To allow the Lord to magnify you, to lift you up and to bless you because if not, it's just gonna be a superficial type of a promotion where you made it happen. You understand? You know, and this is definitely applicable even in churches because you have pastors who will literally manipulate a situation in order to become a pastor. Adam Fanon being one of them, right? I mean, there's an individual out there, his name is Adam Fanon. He's in that one part of the country that's like really weird and stuff. It's like at the end, like way over there, you know? Yeah, Florida. That one that has weird water and all that and alligators that eat people, you know? And this guy is an evangelist. He was removed from being an evangelist, but he just forced himself into the pastoral position. Now folks, is it bad to want to be a pastor? No, right? If a man desired the office of a bishop, he desires the good work. It's an honorable, noble thing to have a desire to want to be a pastor, to want to preach God's word, to lead a congregation, to teach the Bible, to go soul winning, to lead a church into the ways of righteousness. That's a good thing, but here's the thing. Never get the good thing the wrong way. He got a good thing, but he got it the wrong way. You know, he got it through deception and manipulating situations, manipulating a congregation, forcing himself into an ordination that does not belong to him. And look folks, people at that church can call him pastor all they want. He's not a pastor. No, he wasn't sent out of a church. In fact, I take that back. He was sent out of a church. There's two ways of being sent out of a church, folks. And both require the pastor to lay hands on you, amen? One of them is to ordain you. The other one is to boot you out. You know, we ordained those two, that couple. You know, I laid hands on that couple a couple weeks ago when we threw them out of our church. We sent them out, but not to evangelize. We just sent them out for being heretics and being railers. And so, you know, he's forcing himself into this position of authority. He's forcing the blessing when it does not belong to him. He's not a man of integrity. And, you know, it's wicked that a person would seek to do that in the house of God. You know, it's like a man who is divorced and he's still forcing himself to be a pastor or something like that. Or, you know, he doesn't have many children or whatever. He doesn't even have children. He still wants to be a pastor. You know, you're forcing yourself in a position that does not belong to you. You're trying to do the right thing, trying to get the right thing the wrong way, okay? Go to Genesis chapter 34, if you will, Genesis chapter 34. Jacob stole the blessing. He stole the birthright. He's stealing livestock. And he didn't need to do any of that. He could have just been blessed of God and got something way better, but he's leaning onto his own understanding. He's working. He's being deceptive. And, of course, we see later on God breaks him. He wrestles with the angel, which is a pre-incarnate Christ, and he messes up the sinew in his leg, and he's limping for the rest of his life. But then, you know, he kind of transforms him. He becomes Israel. The goal is this, is that for you to learn some character before God has to deal with you and shrink the sinew in your leg so that you're just, you know, for the rest of your life, limping spiritually. Sometimes that's what it takes to get your attention, though, where God has to remove something from your life or just cause some sort of permanent damage in order to wake you up and help you to get back on track. You know, I want to keep the sinew exactly how it is. You understand? I want to, you know, Jacob probably walked with a pimp walk, but I don't want a pimp walk. You know? And here's the thing is that when Jacob's sinew shrank, people saw him from a distance. He's like, you know, people can see him from a distance. And you know what? Spiritually speaking, when God shrinks your sinew, to a certain extent, people see you from a distance. Like, oh, that's the guy who disobeyed the Lord because of X, Y, and Z. Oh, that guy must have suffered punishment of the Lord because of X, Y, and Z. You know, it's better to just do it the right way and maybe you don't get as much quantity, but the quality of the blessing is there. And at least it's sanctioned by God and you don't have to, you know, rest your head on your pillow at night knowing that you were deceptive in obtaining some sort of blessing. I mean, folks, Adam Fan is not the only one. I know people in my personal life, you know, from times past who literally forced themselves into a pastoral position even though they were removed and in manipulated situations with money. You know, this one guy, he had parents who just gave a ton of money to the building program and it's like they removed him from the position and what did he do? He sicked his mom and dad at the pastor and said, if you don't, you know, put me back in there, then we're not going to give anymore. And all of a sudden, you know, the situation just changed like that. That wasn't God blessing that. That's a person forcing themselves into a position of leadership, being a Jacob, trying to receive the blessing of something that they don't deserve. Genesis 34, what's another example of this, getting the right thing the wrong way? Simeon and Levi, okay? Look at Genesis 34, verse 1. And Dinah, the daughter of Leah, which she bare into Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. And when Shechem, the son of Hamor, the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her and laid with her and defiled her. So, you know, Dinah's going out. She wants to go out and party and look. I just want to experience the world. You know, I just want to look out and see what's going on. You know, I want to go hang out with the daughters of the land. Well, the end result is that she committed fornication with some unbeliever. When it says defile her, it doesn't mean that he raped her. It doesn't mean he forced her. What it means is that he basically laid with her, they committed fornication, and did a wicked thing. Look at verse 3. And his soul clave unto Dinah the daughter of Jacob, and he loved the damsel, and spake kindly unto the damsel. And Shechem spake unto his father Hamor, saying, Get me this damsel to wife. Jacob heard that he had defiled Dinah, his daughter, and now his sons were with his cat on the field, and Jacob held this peace until they were come. And Hamor the father of Shechem went out unto Jacob to commune with him. And the sons of Jacob came out of the field when they heard it, and the men were grieved. And they were very wroth, because he had folly in Israel and lying with Jacob's daughter, which thing ought not to be done. So they're pretty mad. You know, it's like they're the older brothers. They're like, man, this guy slept with our sister. You know, they defiled her. They were all folly in Israel. They're wroth means they have wrath or angry. I think this is any natural response of an older brother. Amen? And look, Hamor is your typical unsafe person. And it even says later on that Hamor was more honorable than all his household. It's like this is the most honorable man you got, is the guy who's willing to just sleep around and fornicate. But that's how unsafe people are sometimes. Sometimes even, like, Christians are like that. Okay? Look at verse 24. And unto Hamor and unto Shechem, his son hearkened all that went out of the gate of his city, and every male was circumcised and all that went out of the gate of his city. So what's taking place? The sons of Jacob basically came and said, well, you know, we can't marry into you guys because you guys are not circumcised. And we're Israel. We're God's people. So, you know, if this is going to take place, then you have to be circumcised. Your entire city has to be circumcised. Now, look, if that was the case, you know, then that would have been fine. What's done is done, folks. Right? And if they would have been circumcised and Hamor would have, and his city would have assimilated into Israel and became believers of the true God, you know, all things can work together for good to them that love God. You know, sometimes you have a bad situation, and out of that bad situation can stem something really good. Okay? And so, you know, you think to yourself, okay, you know, these guys are being pretty reasonable. But no, they're not. They're being deceptive. And what do they really want? They want vengeance. They want blood. And it came to pass in verse 25, on the third day when they were sore, that two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brethren, took each man his sword and came upon the city boldly. Oh, yeah, because everyone's hurting. Because no one can move. What a punk move. So remember when Jacob, at the end of his life, what did he say to these guys? He goes, you guys are instruments of cruelty. Why were they instruments of cruelty? Because these men were circumcised so they weren't fit to fight. Fight like a man. If you're going to fight, you know, it's just like, hey, don't circumcise yourselves. Women ought to keep silence in the church. He's basically telling them to get circumcised so that they can't fight back or something. I mean, what a punk move. Not willing to fight face to face. They're just trying to like. And it's like the other way around. So they're trying to jump these people with swords while they're incapable or incapacitated. And folks, even growing up, I mean, this is pretty bad. This is like the equivalent to you walking and then a group of guys want to come and jump you or something. Why do all of you guys have to jump me? Why can't there just be one person who's fighting you? Is it because none of you can fight? Is it because you feel like I'm going to beat you up if it was one on one? So why is Simeon in Levi, why are they conspiring to do this in such a way where it's just like, hey, if you really want to show your manliness, you know, then challenge them to a war or something like that when they're fully capable. Okay. But what do they do? They come upon the city boldly. You know, they're like, ha ha, you know, we got the upper hand here and slew all the males. This is pretty bad. He says, and they slew Hamor and Shechem and some with the edge of the sword and took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went out. I'm sure Dinah was pretty bitter towards Simeon and Levi for the rest of her life. The sons of Jacob came upon the slain and spoiled the city because they had defiled their sister. They took the sheep and their oxen and their asses and that which was in the city and that which was in the field and all their wealth and all their little ones and their wives took they captive and spoiled even all that was in the house. Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, ye have troubled me to make me stink among the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites and all, and I being few in number, they shall gather themselves together against me and slay me and I shall be destroyed, I and my house and they said, should he deal with our sister as in Harlot? Well, no, he shouldn't have but you shouldn't kill them because this is wrong. They had this excessive judgment upon this guy which was it wasn't a righteous move, you understand? Now, what is it that they wanted? They wanted vengeance. Now, can you blame them? I can't blame them. Vengeance is a normal thing for people to want. That's a normal emotion for us to have. You know, when someone wrongs us or does evil against us or our family, you know, within every one of us, myself included, the pastor of the church, I want vengeance. I want vengeance. What does that mean? I want that person to pay. I want that person to suffer. Pastor, man. You know, like what would Jesus do though, pastor? Well, Jesus is, he would take vengeance though. I'm just, that's the only thing I can't do but he would actually take vengeance and he is going to take vengeance. These be the days of vengeance as the Bible says, okay? But, you know, it's a normal emotion to have to say, I want vengeance for what was done. I was wrong, we were wrong, we were defrauded. You know, don't listen to this contemporary Christianity out there, this limp-wristed, soy boy, tofu Christianity out there that says that, you know, this Jedi Christianity where all anger is wrong, all hatred is wrong, it leads to the path to the dark side. I don't know, those Sith guys look pretty cool. I don't know about you. Just being honest. You know, all that's wrong and, you know, what is it? Anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering or something like that. What are you talking about? I'm not suffering and I get angry every once in a while. I'm hateful and I'm happy. I can do both. Don't listen to some little alien that can't speak in like complete sentences and it's all like backwards and stuff. Like, why would you take any advice from some little lizard-looking thing who's like a thousand years old and hasn't even learned English in those thousand years or something? Proper English. Don't listen to someone who sounds like they got a frog stuck in their throat telling you not to hate, not to have anger. Folks, that's nonsense, it's not biblical. You know, it's actually, in my opinion, it's actually detrimental to a man to like suppress those feelings. Just bottle it up and, you know, no, I'm really happy right now. That's actually unhealthy. The Bible says, pour out thine heart like water. That's what the Bible actually says. We would say today in 2021, vent. Just vent. Now what we shouldn't do is take matters into our own hands. So it's a right thing to desire, but the wrong way to go about it would be to take matters into our own hands and go bomb El Mani or something. I'm just venting here. To go find whatever organization that did that and take vengeance upon them by basically bombing them or throwing a glitter bomb in their little thing or whatever. You know, that would be wrong to do that. Because God has not commanded us to do that. He doesn't want us to avenge ourselves. And in fact, the Bible says, avenge not yourselves. Vengeance belongeth to me, saith the Lord. I will repay. So what would Jesus do? Well, he's going to avenge me is what he's going to do. If you really want the right answer, if you really want to go down deep like that, the real answer to this is that God is going to avenge me one day. He's going to repay my enemies and the enemies of the Lord for they're wrong upon me. He says, so what's the right thing to do? To pray. Pray, keep serving God, vent a little, pour out thine heart like water, you know, memorize some imprecatory prayers, get it off your chest a little bit, and then you keep serving God. You just keep moving on, you keep serving God, you do not take vengeance upon yourself. Now look, there's obviously instances where you're in the heat of the moment and maybe you could take vengeance. I don't, you know, I'm not for that, but I know it can happen. You understand? And I'm definitely not saying that, you know, if some person is attacking like your family member outside the church or something like that, physically causing them harm, or anybody in our church. You know, if someone's attacking anybody in our church, you know, I'm going to go out there and defend my brother in Christ. And, you know, I'm not a brawler, I'm not a striker, you know, and just doing it once every once in a while, you know, does disqualify me, okay? You know? But I'm not looking for a fight, I'm not looking to, you know, the guy who came last week or whatever, I wasn't trying to fight that guy. I'm just trying to check him to let him know, hey, this isn't like Calvary, go to Calvary Chapel, they'll welcome that all day, every day. You know, I'm not trying to get into a physical altercation with someone. Now if someone's like trying to attack my family, then obviously, you know, it's my duty as a father, it's my duty as a husband to protect my family. But let me just be real honest with you, those situations will probably never happen. You know, a lot of the scenarios that we come up with in our mind, like we're going to fight and all these things, they typically never happen. Do you know why they never happen? Because God delivers us from evil. And if he commands us not to do those things, commands us not to, I mean, folks, I was in like Satan's seat, I was like in the beast of the belly and still nothing ever happened to me. I mean, I was like this close to sodomites, where they're shoving me from behind. I mean, they could have shanked me or something, right? The guy who pushed me, he could have just brought a knife and just shanked me in the kidneys or in the liver and just, you know, just killed me. He could have killed me if he wanted to, but it didn't happen. You know why? Because God is with me. The Lord is with me. And I don't need to create these scenarios in my mind, you know, of what am I going to do? You know, I'll face that problem when I face it, but it's probably never going to happen because God has a plan for me. And if I'm to die in the line of fire, then so be it. So be it. Now, I'm saying that now. But I'm not saying that I'm actually going to like say that when I'm in the thick of it. You know what I mean? Because I'm a human being, folks, all right? So don't throw this in my face if I do get into physical altercation, if that ever happens again, okay? And, you know, if someone attacks me and one of you, you better come help me. You better not be like, hey, pastor, remember that sermon? You told me not to do it. Hey, vengeance is on the Lord, you know? Dude, I will take vengeance on you. I expect you to help me, right? And obviously the men in the church will not allow things like that to happen to me if the situation ever arose. I know that for a fact. We were in a war like that and we all had each other's back and it was great. What I'm saying is this. The point is is that Simeon and Levi were instruments of cruelty because they took matters into their own hands. And they were so excessive in their punishment that Jacob was like, you're making us think. You're giving us a bad reputation. We're like a bad testimony to the rest of the land because of your cruelty towards this city, understand? And we never want to be a bad testimony. You know, if they testify evil against us, maybe, maybe because of our bad spirit. Maybe because of the word of God that we preach. Maybe because of our message because we could care less what people think about that but may not be because we're instruments of cruelty. You understand? Be not overcome evil but overcome evil with good. You know, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. So, and look folks, you know, my philosophy is if you ever get in a physical altercation, what should you do? Run! Like, oh man, isn't that cowardly? No, it's not cowardly. It's smart, folks. Because here's the thing, you know, if you ever get in a physical altercation out there with some random person, you don't know what they're capable of. And look, it's, you know, it's no-holds-barred out there. Literally. There's no rules in the street. That means they can be like, pow! Right? Ain't that right? They can just cap you and fights over. And you can't be like, that wasn't fair. You know, they'll treat, the people out there will treat you like Sibian and Levi treated that city. They don't care. You know, so it's better to just run. But obviously if you can't run, then headbutt. Go to Acts chapter 4. Headbutts work really good. I'm saying if you can't fight, you know, if you don't know how to throw a punch, just throw your head. Dude, you can break someone's nose. I'm not teaching you to be violent. I'm just saying, like, if you can't do anything, that's like one of the best things to do. If you've ever been hit in the nose, I mean, you know what that's like. Everything, you know, you start crying and stuff, you're just, you know, and then everything's kind of, you see stars. It gives you enough time to run, amen? Let's look at another example. What's the title of the sermon? The title of the sermon is Getting the Right Things but Getting it the Wrong Way. We wanna make sure that we get things the right way, possess things the right way, and even if we don't get it, you know, with the quality that we expected or the quantity that we expected, at least we know we have quality because we have God's favor, okay? And God will end up blessing us with more in the long run. Look at Acts chapter 4 and verse 33. Look at the example of Ananias and Sapphira. Actually, I'm sorry, go to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5, excuse me. Ananias and Sapphira, look at verse 1, but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. So what is it that we see here? Well, look at chapter 4, verse 33. It says, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked, for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet, and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, which is being interpreted as the son of consolation, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having a land, sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet. So you have all these people selling their possessions, bringing at the apostles' feet, they're trying to be a blessing, they're trying to provide for the needs of the believers, etc. And you have Barnabas who sells this land, he brings the money at the apostles' feet. Now let me ask you, what will that do in the eyes of everyone else? They're going to recognize that. They're going to be like, whoa, this guy sold his entire land and brought it at the apostles' feet. And I don't know how much money that was, but obviously it was a great amount. That's something that everyone saw. I mean, we're reading about it. So I'm sure this caused some level of recognition, like Barnabas is a pretty sacrificial guy. Must love the Lord. This guy really did it. So then in chapter five, what do you have? Ananias and Sapphira, I don't think it's there by accident. They sold the possessions and they kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. So they do the same thing, but here's the difference. They kept back a little bit. Now, if I were to speculate what's taking place here, I'm assuming Ananias and Sapphira saw the recognition that Barnabas got. They wanted the same, but they didn't really want to sacrifice that much. They wanted the praise and the recognition of the sacrifice. Now, is wanting recognition bad? It's not. Is recognition bad? No, it's not, right? I mean, we want to be told good job for things that we do. If they're good things, for soul winning, if you're preaching a sermon or you're discipling someone. If you do a good work, it's normal to want to be recognized for it and have someone tell you good job. It feels good. It kind of affirms what we're doing. It's encouraging. But the Bible says, Let another man praise thee, not thine own lips. So obviously we don't want to be these people who are just like, wasn't that a really good job that I did? We don't have anyone in our church like that, but you know, you know, Eric doesn't come off the piano and be like, what'd you think? Tell me what you really think, you know? No, it's just, you know, but I'm sure a lot of people tell Eric, hey, you did a great job and he does do a good job. That's my praise for the year, right? I'm just kidding. Eric does an awesome job. And it's okay to want recognition. It's okay to want praise. It's okay to want a pat on the back, right? These are good things, but it's bad to try to obtain it in the wrong way. See Barnabas, he did what Ananias and Sapphira did. Here's the difference. He didn't die. Look what the Bible says in verse three. But Peter said to Ananias, of course it has to be Peter, right? Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? Man, that's embarrassing. Like in front of everyone, he just like calls them out. Why does it remain? Was it not thine own? Why does it remain? Was it not thine own? And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this matter in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. So what we see here is that they lied unto men. Because he's saying, hey, before it was even sold, it belonged to you. And even after it was sold, it still belonged to you. But yet you chose to lie unto men. Because they're basically saying, we're going to give it all. But they chose not to give it all. They chose to retain a part of the price. Why? Because they wanted the recognition, but they didn't want it in the right way. Or they didn't obtain it in the right way, should I say. Verse five, Ananias, hearing all these words, fell down and gave up the ghost, and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young man arose, wound him up, carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. Peter answered unto her, tell me whether you sold the land for so much. And she said, yeah, for so much. So it was like, they came up with a price, right? They're like, we're going to give 500,000 or something. And so that was like the deceptive price that they were putting forth. And then Peter says, hey, tell me if you actually sold this for 500,000. And they're like, yeah, 500,000. Absolutely. And so she basically condemned herself. Yea for so much, then Peter said unto her, how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them, this is such a savage statement here. Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out. Not even the men, he's like the feet. Then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost. And the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things. I'm pretty sure everyone started tithing at this point. Honey, for sure we need to give, you got to check every single cent, every might, make sure it's 10%. Because they saw it and they're like, oh man. And by the way, this is obviously an isolated situation. I don't think anybody who is guilty of what Ananias and Sapphira did will fall down and just die. I'm not saying it won't happen, I'm just saying this is probably a unique situation in order to cause fear to come upon the church at this time. But I'm not saying it's not going to happen. Because it might happen to you. If you choose, you're boasting about some sort of giving, you're boasting about some sort of sacrificial giving that you've done and you don't really do it, fall down dead, and then we benefit because of it because fear comes upon us. And we tighten up the screws in our church because of it. Amen? So what do we see here? What we see is people desiring vainglory. They just want the recognition, they want the respect, they want the admiration, but they're going about it the wrong way. They're being deceptive in what they're doing. What are some examples that we can come up with this when it comes to this story here? Well you know, there's times, not necessarily in our church, where people will claim all these crazy numbers of soul winning, right? Salvations. It's like this crazy inflated number of salvations. It's like you got 50 people saved in one hour. It's like, what? And we've had it in times past. Now folks, our church sees a lot of people saved. And we get a lot of people saved, we're preaching the gospel all the time, getting a ton of people saved, and obviously we're gonna have a lot of numbers, but there's instances where sometimes people kind of exaggerate those numbers a little bit, where it just seems a little outlandish. You say, why would people do that? Probably because they want recognition. Is it bad that they want recognition? No, because we recognize people in our church when they get people saved. You know, people are like, three, two, one, five. But here's the problem, when you're like an hour and you're all... Come again? Like how many times was that five, that five was flashed or whatever? And it's like in an hour or something? You know, obviously that's an issue there, okay? You want recognition, which is a good thing, but you're getting it in a bad way by just not really counting well, or inflating the numbers or whatever it may be. And we did have this issue in times past where this couple would come up with some crazy numbers. This is a long time ago, okay? And it was just like, for an hour and a half's worth of soul winning, it was like 20 people, 25 people, 30 people or something. It was just like, I don't know about that, you know? That seems a little crazy, okay? And let me just say this, when it comes to soul winning, when you're winning, when you're talking to a group of kids, for example, because you know, we come across that, right? Which is a great opportunity, which is a great opportunity to come up across, like let's say six, seven kids, teenagers, you know? I personally do not, this is what I do when I come across a group of seven teenagers. Because here's the thing, you can't really determine who's really paying attention and who's not. You can say because they're present with you that they're all listening, but I personally don't count all seven if all seven pray because I don't really know. So in order for me to know for sure, at least that one's getting saved, what I do is when I start talking to those seven, I hone in on the person who's really paying attention to me. Because you know, in a group of seven, you're always going to have one that's just kind of like picking their nose and they're just, what's up, bro? You know, they're just like talking to other people. They're kind of halfway listening, you understand? But then you always have one who's like making eye contact with you. They are asserting what you're telling them, they're confirming it, they're listening. So what I do is when I'm talking to the seven, I'm scanning the crowd, seeing who's paying attention, hone it down to like three, then I literally turn my body to those three, and then as soon as one loses interest, I hone in on two, and eventually if those two, one of those two lose interest, then I hone in on one. Oh man, but you could have gotten all of them saved. Yeah, but I prefer to get at least for sure one saved. And be sure of it. And look, we've had times when we're witnessing to a group, I get one saved, and then the other guy's still standing there and I just go over it again with him. What's wrong with that? Right? And if there's another guy there, I'm like hey, you know, and I'll talk to that person and I'll try to get him saved. I'm not saying winning a group of people is bad because it happens. I'm just saying if you want to make sure that at least one person's getting saved, you know, you want to make sure you focus in on one person. Okay? The most two, obviously. Because, you know, you can kind of confirm whether they're paying attention or not. You understand? And in fact, I remember when we went to South Central, I think I was with Brother Ray. We met those Belizean guys. It was like four Belizean gangsters there. And, you know, I was like talking to them and then one guy just like literally just walked away. You know? And then the other one was just kind of not paying attention and I literally, my body language just faced the two guys and out of those two guys, I got the one guy saved who was sitting down and then I talked to the other guy and he got saved. And I was able to confirm whether that's what they believed or not because here's the thing. If you start trying to like confirm whether they believe or understand what you're saying, this is what's going to happen. Where do you go when you die? Hell, hell, hell, hell, hell. They're just going to repeat what the other group is saying. You understand? So it's better to just one on one. Yeah, but then I don't get all those numbers, though. Why are you just doing it for the wrong reason? And here's the thing. It doesn't mean you can't get all the numbers. It just means that it's going to take you a little longer to get them. You understand? Get this guy saved and then you confirm with this guy and then you confirm it with this guy. You know, that's how it should be done. You understand? Because we don't want to be just vainglorious and say, well, I got 30 because I talked to like, you know, five different groups or whatever and it added up to 30 and I'm pretty sure all of them listened and I think they all got saved. And look, you know, if we ever get the opportunity to preach at a school, we'll be able to preach the gospel but you know what, one thing we won't do is we won't count them. Because how do we know? Even if they all pray, right? Like if they all pray, that's not confirmation that they all got saved. Unless afterwards you can literally talk to them one on one and confirm that they got saved. You understand? And so we want to be conservative with our numbers. We want to make sure that we're doing a good job. We want to make sure that we do a good thing the right way, not the wrong way. All right? I'll finish. I'm done. I'm going to have to continue this next week. I got some more examples in the Bible. So what's part one about? Part one is about doing, getting the right things the wrong way. We looked at some examples this morning of people who have done that and you know, at the end of the day, we as Christians, we as a church just want to be a church of integrity. We want to have integrity because God blesses us if we use the right process. You understand? He blesses us if we're willing to go without or to be defrauded of quantity in order to have quality. You understand? And in the long run, he blesses us more because of it. Because he sees that we are upright in our heart rather than upright outwardly but inwardly we're being deceptive, we're lying, we're manipulating situations to favor us, et cetera. Don't be like Jacob who basically created this entire scenario just to get the right type of livestock. He could have had the good livestock because God was blessing him. He didn't have to go through those lengths to do that. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, help us, Lord, as your people to be men and women of integrity and obviously we all fall short. We all make mistakes, Lord, and I pray that you help us to rectify them when they're made and to make sure that we're constantly taking into account our own integrity to do things the right way, Lord, so that we may be blessed of you with not just quantity but even with quality. And I pray that you bless the remainder of our afternoon up until, of course, our service tonight and bless all there is in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Song number 19, there is a fountain as our last song. Song number 19, there is a fountain. Song number 19, we'll sing it on that first verse. There is a fountain filled with mud drawn from Immanuel's veins and sinners clutched beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stains and sinners clutched beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day and there may I no vow as he wash all my sins away wash all my sins away wash all my sins away and there may I no vow as he wash all my sins away dear dying lamb thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more be saved to sin no more be saved to sin no more till all the ransomed Church of God be saved to sin no more there sins by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds abide till all the love has been my thief and shall be till I die and shall be till I die and shall be till I die redeeming love has been my thief and shall be till I die then in a no worse, sweeter song I'll sing thy power to save when this poor little spring-standing tongue lies silent in the grave lies silent in the grave lies silent in the grave when this poor little spring-standing tongue lies silent in the grave Amen. Wonderful singing. You are dismissed. you