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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab a song book. Actually, if you'll grab your white handouts, we're gonna do Psalm 148 in your white handouts or in your King James Bible. Psalm 148. Psalm 148. Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Excellent. All right. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you so much this evening and thank you for all those that came here safely. We pray for those that will be traveling in this weather, that you would just give them travel safety, Lord, and pray that you bless this evening. Help us all to just sing praises to you in our hearts and just to learn more about your word this evening. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. For our second song, we'll go to Psalm 120 in the hymnals. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. 120, Jesus, Savior, pilot me. Very good singing. Thank you for coming. Very good singing. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin, just lift up your hand real quick and we can have one of our ushers come by and get you a bulletin. We have our Bible memory passage. John chapter 1 verse 11. He came unto his own and his own received him not. That was a pretty easy one. Hopefully we'll get you some ice cream to cool down with all this hot weather. No, I'm just kidding. We have on the inside our service and soul winning times as well as I'm going to get a couple, I'm going to get the count for the last few days from soul winning. Is there anything to report from Monday by chance for soul winning? What about Tuesday? Anything for Tuesday? All right. What about today by chance? Anything from today? All right. Keep the good work on soul winning. If you have any other numbers, you can always email them in to us. On the right, we have the list of our expecting ladies. Please add Miss Sierra Illy to our list. Congratulations to them. And then also down below, we have our prayer list. We'll continue to pray for the Negara family for their health. Miss Lucy, her mother's tumors. Brother Cameron Hall is lag. Verity Baptist Manila and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda. Continue to pray for them. Jeremy Gore, January 30th surgery, but that had changed. But continue to pray for him for his surgery and recovery. I think that's all I had for announcements or for the prayer request. Is there anything? Okay. We'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer for those that were mentioned. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our church family for giving us this opportunity to come together and to worship you. I just pray that you would just bless all the ladies that are expecting. That you would continue to bless their babies to develop and that they would have an easy delivery. I pray that you would just help our church family that has various health concerns. That you would just be there to comfort them. That you would give them healing. That you could bless them. That you would help them make the right decisions. That you would give them favor. I pray that you would also help our church friends from afar. That they would be strengthened. They would be encouraged as they go through difficult struggles. That you would help them realize that you're there with them and that you care about all of their needs. I pray that you would just continue to bless all of our church family and all of our efforts. That all of our soul winning would be done in honor and glory of you. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the back we have our upcoming events. The Waco, or depending on which bulletin you have. I think it kind of is a little bit different. But we have the upcoming events. Waco Soul Winning Marathon. The cabinet over here. We have our Soul Winning Seminar March 24th, 25th, 26th. It's a great event to encourage, to invite people. You know, like say, hey, if you haven't gone soul winning, you'd like to learn soul winning, or you have family members or friends, you'd like to invite them to a church event. That would be a great weekend to come down. Also we have a, there's a Soul Winning Marathon going to be happening in College Station. It's not in our bulletin, this one, but it is a pure words Soul Winning event. And so we've been to College Station before, and it was really great. It's a good area to be down and preach in the gospel. And so that's April 2nd. So that's the weekend after the Soul Winning Seminar. But obviously we try to invite everyone to everything. So everybody's always invited and welcome. Hopefully we'll have a good group come down from here as well. And we'll have a sign up sheet for that too. Austin, we're going to do a Soul Winning Marathon there May 21st. So that'll be a great opportunity to go there and make Austin normal. That's what we should call it, the Make Austin Normal Marathon. And then we have our Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship there October 5th. There is a homeschool field trip. April 29th is planned. And we'll be going to the Fort Worth Zoo, God willing. And so that's pretty much all I had for announcements at this time. We'll go to our third song. I think we're doing 100, song number 100 in a hymnal. Song 100, day by day. 100, day by day. On the first. Day by day, and with each passing moment Strength I find to be my trials here Trusting in my Father's wise resettlement I've no cost for worry or for fear In whose heart is not even a measure Is unto each chamber leading fast Plumbingly it's part of pain and pleasure It would toil with peace and rest Every day the Lord himself is near me With a special mercy for each hour All my cares he'd fain would bear and cheer me In whose name is counselor and power The protection of this child and treasure Is a charge that our names have be paid As I gaze, I swear to be in measure Is the pledge to be made They'll be then in every tribulation So join trust thy promises, O Lord That I whose love makes sweet consolation Law for me within thy holy birth They'll be born with joys of old being They're to take us from the Father's hand One by one the days the moment's fleeting Till I reach the prophet's hand The Bible reads in Genesis 45 Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him And he cried, Cause every man to go out from me And there stood no man with him While Joseph made himself known unto his brethren And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph your brother whom ye sold into Egypt Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither For God did send me before you to preserve life For these two years hath the famine been in the land And yet there are five years into which there shall neither be earing nor harvest And God sent me before you to preserve your prosperity in the earth And to save your lives by a great deliverance So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house And a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him Thus saith my son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt Come down unto me, tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen And thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children And thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine Lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin That it is my mouth that speaketh unto you And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt And of all that ye have seen And ye shall haste and bring down my father hither And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept And Benjamin wept upon his neck Moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them And after that his brethren talked with him And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come, and it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye, laid your beasts and go, get you unto the land of Canaan And take your father and your household and come unto me And I will give you the good of the land of Egypt And ye shall eat the fat of the land Now thou art commanded, this do ye, take you wagons out of the land of Egypt For your little ones and for your wives and for your father and come Also regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours And the children of Israel did so And Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh And gave them provision for the way To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment But to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver And five changes of raiment And to his father he sent after this manner Ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt And ten she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way So he sent his brethren away and they departed And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way And they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive And he is governor over all the land of Egypt And Jacob's heart fainted for he believed them not And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him The spirit of Jacob their father revived And Israel said, It is enough Joseph my son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer Father we thank you for Genesis chapter 45 Lord And for the opportunity that we have to learn more about it this evening I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit And enable him to explain this chapter to us And also help us to pay close attention to his sermon tonight And we thank you for this church Lord and pray that you protect it And be with those who couldn't make it this evening In Jesus name I pray, Amen Amen, so we've been going through Genesis And we've been in the middle of Joseph's story And to kind of bring you back up to speed in chapter 44 Joseph's brethren had returned back into Egypt after having left And essentially Joseph had planted the silver cup into Benjamin's sack They had said that we would be their servants And you know kill the guy that has the cup But not realizing Benjamin had it So therefore they returned And Joseph simply said Why don't you just go ahead and go and I'll just keep Benjamin And Judah ends up making an offer saying Why don't you take me instead of Benjamin I made myself surety And it causes Joseph to become very emotional To the point where he no longer is going to keep up the charade He can't contain himself And that's kind of where we pick up here in verse number 1 It says Then Joseph could not refrain himself Before all them that stood by him And he cried Cause every man to go out from me There stood no man with him While Joseph made himself known Unto his brethren Now one thing that's very clear in chapter 45 Is that Joseph is very emotional And we see the personality of Joseph You know Joseph was a real person That had real feelings And you have to realize this had been a very extreme situation for him A very emotional situation Having seen his brethren The brethren had betrayed him But you know Joseph really has a good attitude In this chapter in regards to his brethren And specifically you know he really is glad to see Benjamin He's kind of nervous about finding out about his father Potentially seeing his father again Or the fact that his father is still alive And we see that going through this situation And Judah being willing to lay down his life Or his brother causes him to become too emotional To continue the charade And it's probably a lot of mixed feelings Essentially you know I would think One emotion or one thought that might come in his head is Why didn't you do that when I was on the chopping block You know why now But at the same time he's probably a little bit relieved That his brethren have kind of changed who they are And he's kind of starting to realize at this point That God really wanted all that to happen And it's not While it is his brethren's fault He kind of excuses it all away Because he just believes you know what That's what God really wanted to happen And he just allows evil to have happened in the past And to kind of basically forget it And just basically forgive it And basically not dwell on the evil Because he realizes he wouldn't be in the good situation If it weren't for the evil And I think sometimes it's easy to not realize That some of the good that happens in our life Is a direct result of the evil that's actually taken place And so in order to have that good thing You have to go through the evil And so sometimes we might look at the evil And still harbor bitterness Or bad feelings Or resentment Or we can't get over it But when it's attached to something good You need to learn how to just let it go Because Joseph would not be in the position he's in If his brethren had never sold him into slavery He would have never found himself in this place He wouldn't have been able to preserve life And so you kind of have to take the good and the bad Isn't that the same with the gospel of Jesus Christ? I mean we kind of have to take the good and the bad The good, we go to heaven The bad was the fact that Jesus was literally crucified I mean he literally had to go through all that evil But yet Jesus is glorified But why is he glorified? Because of the evil that befell him And when it comes to us If we truly want to be glorified If we truly want to have a lot of recognition with the Lord Or for him to elevate us It's going to come with a cost It's going to come with suffering, evil, persecution You know if you want to serve the Lord There's going to be a cost associated with it There's going to be an evil There's going to be a sacrifice that comes with it And you kind of have to take the good with the bad You know you want to enjoy lots of grandchildren Well you have to kind of go through the evil of lots of little children, right? And all the diapers and all the complaining And all just the frustration of it all You can't necessarily just have all good Sometimes you have to realize that some evil is going to come to play You know you want to have a big salary Well you're probably going to have to work really hard You know you're going to have to labor And you're going to have to do a lot of overnight And working late And going in on the weekend And doing stuff when nobody's paying attention You know to get to a place where you do make a good salary Or you do bring in a lot of income You know people want the big income but they don't want to work hard And it's like you can't have both You know you can't have it all You kind of have to accept the good with the bad And what I like about Joseph is he pretty much just is like Hey this is all so good Why would I dwell on the negative stuff that's happened to me in the past You know and sometimes we find ourselves in a position Where we're in a good spot But we just still harbor bitterness Or essentially bad feelings towards our past And we really need to say like if I'm in a good spot I need to just let all that go You know get past that and realize the Lord used that to get me to where I am now What I like about this verse too though is it kind of gives me a little bit of an inkling of Some of the picture of Christ here Because if you think about it Joseph is not really known to the Egyptians exactly Who he is or what's going on But in this scenario he commands everyone to go out from him Accept his brethren And then notice how it's worded It says in the end of this verse It says Joseph made himself known unto his brethren So who are the only people that are privileged to know Joseph are his brethren right And this is similar to the Lord Jesus Christ If you think about it keep your finger here Go to Mark chapter number 4 Go to Mark chapter number 4 for a moment One of the interesting things about the Lord Jesus Christ about God Is having a relationship with him is different based on who you are If you've been saved and then specifically how you live your life Is going to impact how well you know Jesus And how well you know God You know it's not just everybody has the exact same relationship with God Or with the Lord Jesus Christ And the same is with Joseph Not everybody gets to know Joseph intimately like his brethren do And when it came to Jesus and his ministry Not everybody got to know everything the same There were some people that had a closer relationship and knew who Jesus was specifically Yet multitudes would come out and want to know Thousands would come out and they would say like who art thou And you know where did you get this authority Pharisees are asking like where are you getting this authority And where did you come from And they're all arguing about where he was born And where he came from And what's going on They're all wanting to know who he is But here's the thing The disciples know who he is His brethren know who he is Look at Mark chapter 4 and look at verse 34 But without a parable spake he not unto them And this is talking about everyone It says and when they were alone he expounded all things to his disciples So notice whenever Jesus is preaching to everyone They get the parable But then when he's alone with his disciples They get everything don't they They get to see it all They get that intimate relationship with Christ They get to be known of him Go if you went to Mark chapter 9 Go to Mark chapter 9 Even beyond that Even within the disciples themselves There's kind of an inner circle of Peter, James, and John And you could also think about the resurrection I'm not going to go to verse here But when it came to the resurrection Who got to see the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ Only the brethren Only those that were the saved Did he appear unto and have fellowship with He didn't manifest himself unto the world He manifested himself unto his brethren And then it was his brethren's job to go and manifest him unto the world When Christ comes in the world in its manifest It's too late That's when his wrath is going to be poured out on the entire earth And everyone's going to weep and wail and mourn at his return That's not a believer And it says in Mark chapter 9 verse 1 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you That there be some of them that stand here which shall not taste of death Till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power And after six days Jesus taketh with them Peter and James and John And leadeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves And he was transfigured before them This is them getting to see who the real Jesus is Think about this He's kind of making known himself unto Peter, James and John He's revealing himself in a very unique way unto Peter, James and John It just makes me think of how Joseph is kind of making himself known unto his brethren It's kind of a unique experience It's only given to his brethren Only given to those that are the closest to him Not all the Egyptians get to know everything about Joseph Just like the Gentiles or the Romans or the Jews get to know everything about Jesus It was his disciples and specifically even his inner circle that get to see some of the greatest things about the Lord Jesus Christ Go back if you went to Genesis chapter number 45 Go back to Genesis chapter number 45 So something kind of unique about that that kind of reminds me Verse number 2 we'll read here And he wept aloud And the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard So this guy can cry pretty loud, okay? Verse number 3 Here's another thing that's kind of interesting He's so terrifying at his presence they can't even speak And you know that's a pretty common thing when you read the Bible Anytime someone has an encounter with the Lord or with even one of the angels They usually can't even speak They fall down, they basically are just terrified It's a terrifying sight And again it kind of reminds me of Jesus a little bit But obviously that would strike a lot of fear in their heart Because the last person they want to be in charge of everything is the brother that they sold in slavery And especially if you think about the circumstance They're already on the hook for having done evil They in his eyes have stolen the cup And they said that they'd be slaves And they're in a bad spot And then he's like, oh by the way I'm Joseph That would really strike a lot of fear into their hearts wouldn't it I mean it'd be a pretty terrifying thing You wouldn't even know what to say Because you don't know if it's good or bad yet But you're kind of thinking it's probably bad I mean you know if I was Izzacar or Dan or whatever I'd be thinking like crap You know like, oh man what's about to happen You know, this is Joseph? What did we do? But it says in verse number four And Joseph said to his brethren, come near to me I pray you And they came near and he said, I am Joseph your brother whom he sold into Egypt Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither For God did send me before you to preserve life For these two years at the famine been in the land And yet there are five years In the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth And to save your lives by great deliverance Now it was not you that sent me hither, but God And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh And lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt Notice Joseph not only did he forgive essentially the sin of his brethren He goes beyond that to say you guys didn't even do anything It was all God God sent me God is the one that wanted me to come here Don't even be mad at yourself Don't be upset You know, and this has got to be a giant relief to them In the sense that they're thinking like wow He's not even mad at us? Like he's not even, you know, frustrated? And not only that, like, he wants to save our lives and he wants to do good unto us It's kind of like really just a complete twist You know, it's kind of like that plot twist If you've never read the Bible I mean, think about it We've read this story a lot of times We've probably heard this story a lot of times But imagine, you know, being in this conflict In this interesting moment in time You know, most people would just like slay their brethren at this point Or do something bad to them Or get back a revenge or something like that They don't know what's going on And yet Joseph, notice, he doesn't want to hurt his brethren He wants to do good unto his brethren He wasn't trying to plot their destruction But rather was just trying to see what was in their hearts And after realizing they're not the same brethren that sold him into slavery Obviously God allowed them to just have evil thoughts temporarily To sell him into slavery He has a really great attitude about this Again, I feel like you can't help but realize that all these verses here Just seem to just talk about Jesus when you think about it Right? Because notice when he says in verse number 5 He says, for God did send me before you to preserve life What happened with Jesus? He was sent by God the Father And what was the point of him coming? He didn't come to condemn the world But he came to save And think about it Couldn't Jesus have come down to earth and just started striking people dead? I mean, doesn't he have all the right to do so? I mean, the Jews are super wicked Everything's evil It's an adulterous generation It's an evil generation They're not even believing the Bible whatsoever I mean, couldn't Jesus have just come down and just started zapping people And being like, what's going on? Why aren't you believing me? Worship me now, or whatever He could have done whatever he wanted But rather he came in meekness He came in humbleness He came to save, to love, to do good It makes me think of Joseph here Where Joseph's not condemning his brethren Joseph's not avenging himself Or doing anything like that But rather he's just simply preserving life And he's realizing that God sent him Not only that, he said God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth And to save your lives by a great deliverance That's a good way to describe the gospel Great deliverance And think about this This is what's really cool Not only did Jesus Christ Save us from going to hell But then on top of that He allows us to become partakers with him in his inheritance And he's reserving unto us a posterity in the earth So it's like not only do we not get what we deserve We get then on top of that a whole bunch of stuff we don't We didn't even earn It's not even ours to really have He's just sharing with us all that's his Think about it Isn't this all Joseph's? Who's making Joseph share any of his wealth with his brethren? He doesn't have to It's all Joseph's It's all Joseph's to do whatever he wants with it And what does Joseph do? I want to share it with you guys And think about this He wants to share it with his brethren who have only done him evil his entire life What good thing did his brethren ever do to him? They only disliked him Mocked him Didn't believe in him Sold him into slavery You know what? It makes me think of you and me with Jesus Where we basically just sinned every single day Constant rebellion Constant disappointment Constant just, you know, doing bad We sent Jesus to the cross Just like Joseph's brethren sent him into Egypt and sold him into slavery We sent Jesus to the cross Our sins is what he had to take And had to bear It's not this abstract thing Of like, oh he died for us No, the lies that you told yesterday Jesus took those And the lies you'll tell in the future Jesus took those And the bad things that we've done in our lives The horrible things that we've done That Jesus took for us We only did him evil We only did him bad And he just decided to go ahead and take all of that evil And then reward us good for evil Say hey, I'm gonna give you a posterity on top of that I'm not only gonna save you guys I'm gonna give you all of my wealth on top of that I mean, this is incredible And really, you know, what possessed Joseph to do such a thing Because he's a picture of Christ That's why, he's one of the greatest pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ And one of the greatest loves that a person could have Where he repays good for all the evil that his brethren did unto him Now it also says That he's a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt This is another type of Christ In the sense that Jesus Is not only the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings He's not only God Almighty He's not only Jehovah He's not only ruling in heaven There's gonna be a literal Period of time where Jesus rules on earth In a physical reality It's not like spiritualized Or some kind of analogy Or some kind of a metaphor Or whatever No, it's gonna be a physical reality of Jesus ruling on this earth, okay Now the Bible brings this up in a lot of places Skip down to verse 26 for a moment In this chapter It says, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive And he is governor over all the land So he's called ruler and governor Okay Now, go if you would to Isaiah Actually, before you go there Stop for one second Go to Genesis 42 This is the second time the word governor is found in the Bible Or govern, or government, or anything Kind of any form of govern The first time is Genesis 42 And look at verse 6 And Joseph was the governor over the land So the first two mentions Of any variation of govern, government, whatever It's Joseph both times And that's, you know, I believe in the principle of first mention Maybe there's an exception to that But generally speaking, the first time a word is introduced Or brought up in the Bible has some level of significance And I don't believe it's a coincidence that the first governor is Joseph And twice Which is really ultimately symbolizing Lord Jesus Christ who's going to be a governor Of the entire earth Okay Now, go if you would to Isaiah chapter number 9 I'm sorry, I kind of wanted to go to that verse as well And, you know, when we think about a governor It's one who governs Now, their realm of authority Is going to vary based on The circumstances, you know, in America Governors are typically the leader of a state That's what we think of We think of the Texas governor And that's Greg Abbott And, you know, he doesn't seem to take a stand on very many issues So, hopefully they might end up changing But I don't know, I mean, I looked it up I think there's a lot of people running I think the primary race is pretty soon I think I looked it up There's a decent number of contenders So who knows, you know, who's going to end up being the governor As long as it's not Beto O'Rourke, okay Man, why would anybody vote for the guy that says he's going to take all your guns away What a horrible governor You know, he's definitely, you know, having evil intent A malicious intent to want to take people's rifles And take people's guns In the state of Texas? I mean, come on Obviously, if he won, it's really rigged, you know I mean, there's no way anybody would vote for that fraud That skateboard punk, or whatever But, you know, when it comes to the governor It's an important role It's an important job And it impacts daily life You know, and so it's important to have good governors Governors, though, could be in a bigger sense or a smaller sense You know, it's not like it's The Bible's not based on the US Constitution or something like that You know, it's not based on American politics You know, in fact, everything's based on the Bible, actually If you understand it That's where we get terms like governor is from the word of God But governor is mentioned in the Bible And it's specifically about Jesus But here's a passage that's pretty interesting Talking about government It says in verse number six For unto us a child is born Undo us a son is given And the government shall be upon his shoulder Now, if I said, hey, this guy's at the top of the government What would be his title? The governor, okay One who's governing, okay So, it would be easy to understand here In this context that we're talking about The child that's being born is going to be a governor, okay And when you have that in your mind You understand the context The next part of this verse is going to make a lot of sense It says, and his name shall be called Wonderful, counselor, the mighty God The everlasting father, the prince of peace Now, when we talk about names You know, sometimes this can just be generally In the reference of what you're going to call someone And what do you call someone? You know, when Jesus is giving people names in the Bible Like, you're no longer going to be, you know, shaking with the wind, Peter You know, thou art Peter, right He's kind of changed his name to Cephas Or he's changed his name to Peter That's just what he's calling him He's just coming up with a name that he's going to then call them So, if you have someone that's in charge of your entire government What would be a name you could give him? Governor What would be other names you could give him? Wonderful, counselor, the mighty God Now, some of these adjectives, though Are going to be specific to one person, the Lord Jesus Christ We're not going to call Greg Abbott the mighty God, okay We're going to call him the mighty God of Texas, right That would be a bad title for him Because, number one, he's not mighty, okay Now, some context I believe the word God can just simply mean ruler So, we're not obviously using this title to reference The fact that he would be a deity He would be a deity We know that, you know, no man is deity But the word God can just simply mean ruler So, if we're looking at this context It's actually making a lot of sense here What we're talking about What about the everlasting father? Well, how long is Jesus going to be the ruler and the governor once he's established? Forever And the word father is synonymous in your Bible with the word ruler in certain contexts Not every context, in some contexts The next phrase, Prince of Peace The word prince is synonymous with ruler just virtually every single time I don't know if there's an exception, I don't think that there is Anytime I see the word prince I just automatically think the word ruler That kind of helps you understand what that word means So, a prince is the ruler And, of course, when Jesus is in charge What's the world going to be like? Peace It's going to have a lot of peace, right? Look at the next verse Of the increase of his government and peace There shall be no end Now, doesn't that fit exactly what we're talking about, the context? It brings up the government's going to be upon his shoulder Gives him a few names And then it talks about his government being how long? Forever And being what? Having peace Doesn't that match with the previous adjectives That were there to describe his name Of being an everlasting father or the Prince of Peace, specifically? Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom To order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice From henceforth, even forever The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this So, Jesus is known as the governor He is going to be the everlasting father He is going to be the mighty God in the land On earth, okay? He's going to be that person in charge The ruler, the one that we're going to all look to And say it is truly wonderful, okay? Now, go over to Isaiah 22 for just a second I want to compare some verses here To help you with that everlasting father Because a lot of people make up weird doctrines based on that particular passage But you have to take it in context What's the context? Hey, there's going to be a future child coming Who's going to end up ruling on the earth That's the clear context, okay? So, what does everlasting father mean? It means everlasting governor or ruler That's what that means It's exactly in the context It fits exactly what we're talking about And I can even prove to you that that's what that means in other places in the Bible Look at Isaiah 22, verse 21 So, when you commit the government into someone's hand What's a title or a name you give that person? Father! Now look, this is not even a foreign concept Whatsoever Every single person in America uses this title It's called our forefathers Have you ever heard of the forefathers of America? What are we talking about? We're talking about the previous leaders The previous rulers Those who helped found our nation Those who were in charge of our nation When we think of our founding fathers, who do we think of? People like George Washington Who is what? The first president of the United States Who's the first, essentially, governor As it were The government was upon his shoulder I mean, this guy's in charge It's not a strange title for people to be called father Now again, we may not use that very often in our modern vernacular And I get that But the everlasting father in Isaiah 9-6 Cannot be anything other than just meaning the ruler or the governor It's certainly not teaching a modalist Jesus, okay? Anybody that believes that is basically just not saved, okay? And let's go, if you would, to a few more places, though Go, if you would, to Psalms 22 Psalms 22 I want to show you another few verses here Psalm 22, look at verse 21 The Bible says Save me from the lions I'm sorry, yeah Psalms 22, verse 28 I started reading a different verse here For the kingdom is the Lord's And He is the governor among the nations Now, is there any question That the Bible clearly says that Jesus Christ is going to be the governor? I mean, the Bible is, and look You say, well, what's the context of Psalms 22? Well, look at verse 1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Sound familiar? Look, this is a passage all about Jesus And as you read Psalm 22, it's incredible Because it basically just hammers Just all the prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ Being on the cross They basically cast lots for His garment And we go down the list as they revile them And then just over and over And then it kind of gets down to the end It's talking about the kingdom is the Lord's And He is the governor among the nations So, there's going to be a literal point in time When Jesus is the governor Go to Psalm 67 This is one that we sing It has a really good tune to it And it's also going to make the same point here Psalm 67 Look at verse number 4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy For thou shalt judge the people righteously And what? Govern the nations upon earth So, when we sit there and sing that What are we talking about? We're talking about Jesus is going to govern And obviously we understand He's governing from heaven as well Go to Matthew chapter number 2 Matthew chapter number 2 Let me prove this even further That Jesus Christ is known as the governor in your Bible Matthew chapter number 2 And look at verse number 6 Now this fits perfectly when we think about Isaiah 9 We think about the prophecy in Isaiah 22 About a child and then him being the governor Well, in Matthew chapter number 2 We're still kind of in context of Jesus' birth, ok? And look what it says in verse number 6 And thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah Art not the least among the princes of Judah For out of thee shall come a what? A governor that shall rule my people Israel Notice the Bible says that there's going to be a governor that's going to rule Israel Now think about this It's saying a child Had Jesus Christ been born before the New Testament? No So there's a child coming that's going to be a governor When Jesus Christ lived on this earth Did he govern Israel? No He did not So that means there has to be a literal physical point in time When Jesus is going to govern the children of Israel Which we know as the millennial reign of Christ Yet a lot of people try to spiritualize this Or hyperbolize this Or try to create some kind of a weird interpretation of the end times But we have to realize it must be interpreted literally And that Christ will literally return and be a governor Just like Joseph was a literal governor of all of Egypt Jesus is going to be a literal governor and it's going to be the whole world Of all the nations And it kind of is symbolized and pictured through Jesus Christ So if you go back to our story Genesis chapter number 45 Go back to Genesis chapter number 45 So Joseph pictures a lot of things about Jesus I mean really Joseph is one of the most interesting characters in your Bible Because he pictures so many aspects of Jesus The death, burn, and resurrection multiple times He pictures the trinity and illustrates all kinds of truths from the trinity He illustrates the millennial reign of Christ He illustrates his love for his brethren The sacrifice for his brethren The fact that he's going to share his inheritance with his brethren I mean it's hard to think of anything about Jesus that Joseph doesn't symbolize Look at what it says in verse number 9 And there will I nourish thee For yet there are five years of famine Blessed thou and thy household And all that thou hast come to poverty Behold, your eyes see in the eyes of my brother Benjamin That it is my mouth that speaketh unto you And ye shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt And of all that ye have seen And ye shall haste and bring down my father hither And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept And Benjamin wept upon his neck Moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them And after that his brethren talked with him So he kind of is singling out Benjamin throughout this In the sense, you know, he's like, you guys see me? Even Benjamin sees me And then on top of that he kind of first goes to Benjamin He weeps on Benjamin He wants to, you know, hold Benjamin Yet the Bible even says that he kissed all of his brethren Showing that he really has no ill will towards his brethren at this point Think about that I mean, you're not going to go and embrace your brethren And give them these kind of physical forms of intimacy and affection If you still hate them in your heart And you're basically holding animosity towards them So we see it's a true forgiveness of Joseph And, you know, that's a great attribute of Joseph Is that he's able to forgive his brethren That he's able to let things go And, you know, we need to learn from Joseph and say I need to forgive my brother And you say, well, you don't know what he did to me Here's the thing, did he sell you into slavery? Because if he did less than that You need to learn from Joseph and say I'm going to let it go Because I'm pretty, I'm guessing that most everybody in this room If you have bitterness towards someone It's probably not as bad as what, you know, they did to Joseph And, again, it's not like they had a good relationship They had a good relationship before that If you realize the story, you know, he's even brought up an evil report on his brethren There was a lot of tension there beforehand, wasn't there? I mean, it doesn't seem like anybody's really loving each other It's a lot of clanking and a lot of clashing And his brother's home in slavery Yet notice he does good on them And I think this is symbolizing the power of the gospel The fact that God really separates our sins from as far as the east is from the west That he truly forgives, he truly forgets He really has love towards us And he's let these things go And he's willing to embrace his brethren And when he commands them, notice he's telling them to do something He's telling them in verse 13 You should tell my father of all my glory Now that's an interesting statement I kind of interpret this as it's got to be because it's prophetic Because I don't think that Joseph is really just like being kind of prideful in this moment Like, hey, tell them all about how great I am or anything like that You know, he's definitely wanting to encourage his father to come So he's saying, look, I'm in charge of everything, so go tell But you know what, that's what we're really supposed to do when we go out and preach the gospel Is we're telling all the glory of Jesus You know, when we come to church, we're not here to glory in ourselves We're here to glory in the Lord And we're here to glory in Jesus Christ And you know, we sing praises to the father And when we sing to the father, you know we're supposed to glorify to the father? Jesus, not ourselves So I think that this is really more in essence of like a symbolism Of the fact that, you know, we come to church, we're not here to glorify anybody but the Lord Jesus Christ And that's what's pleasing to the father Is that we're glorifying his son And that we're giving honor and basically praise to him And you know, Ephesians chapter number 2 makes it very clear that all of our glory is supposed to be going to him, not ourselves You know, if it was by works that we got to heaven, then we could glory about ourselves, right? But the only reason these guys are delivered and saved is because of the glory of Joseph Not their glory, not by works of righteousness which they have done They did none I mean, what goodness did they do? Nothing! But by the sheer grace and just complete mercy of Joseph that he's going to allow his brethren to end up being rescued and saved here When they don't deserve it whatsoever Let's keep reading, it says in verse 16 He shall eat the fat of the land Again, this is just, this is crazy Because if you think about the symbolism again You know, I deserve hell But not only am I not going to go to hell I will literally inherit all of the riches of the earth And you know who's also going to do that? Every person in this room that's saved Every person that's saved I mean, if you think about it We deserve hell I mean, his brethren deserve to go to prison Or to be sold into slavery Or to be beaten They don't get any of that What do they get? They get the fat of the land They get just blessings and goodness to come upon them They get an inheritance Keep your finger and go to 1 Peter chapter number 1 1 Peter chapter number 1 Now, this kind of I don't know, it just kind of Motivated me today I was thinking about this Because I was thinking about I literally deserve hell And because I deserve hell No matter what happens to me on this earth I can just think that it's great anyways Because it's still not hell Like, no matter what happens to me I mean, no matter what evil befalls me It's not what I deserve I'm still getting better than I deserve And I think that's really hard for us to think about Because when you actually go through something tough You know, it's easier to kind of think of a state In which you are kind of feeling better or doing better You know, as we age I'm getting there, alright You start realizing how it was better to be young You know, you work out and you don't recover as fast, right? You can't jump as high and run as fast You don't recover as well You know, things just hurt You know, it's like you go to bed and you wake up And just things hurt and you're just like, what happened? I don't know, it's being old I can't even I remember talking to my grandpa And he would get up at like 4.30 or 5 o'clock every morning And it was just bizarre to me Because, you know, when I was a teenager and I was in college I would sleep till like noon, you know I would stay up late and just sleep forever And I asked my grandpa, I said Grandpa, why do you wake up so early every day? And he's like, it just hurts too much to keep laying in bed I was just like, I never want to get old But I mean, that's just how it is You talk to old people and they say, look, it just hurts too much to lay here Or to go lay in his chair and fall asleep watching TV, you know But even then, no matter what pain it is It's still better than hell No matter, if you got fired It's still better than hell If you were out on the street, I mean if you were homeless It's still better than hell I mean, if you lost all of your family It's still better than hell I mean, there's literally nothing that can even kind of comprehend In your mind, how bad hell is So it's like the worst day that you have, you're still not in hell And that just kind of motivated me to just think like I guess I can't complain about anything that happens to me in this life Because I'm not getting what I deserve, which is hell I mean, because what I truly deserve You know, it's easy to get kind of, I guess I don't know, arrogant or prideful About the fact that you're not going to hell And you start forgetting the fact that you really deserve it though Because if you think about it, like did Joseph's brethren They kind of deserve something bad here, didn't they And they just got off hook scot-free And really we get off scot-free And not only do we get off scot-free We get to inherit on top of that Now look at 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Which according to his abundant mercy Hath begotten us again unto a lively hope By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled And that faith is not a way reserved in heaven for you Who are kept by the power of God through faith Unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time Think about this We're going to have an inheritance incorruptible It's reserved for us And I like this wording, it's reserved for us Kind of like he's saying hey, your hotel's booked here in Egypt Go get dad and come back We've already got all the inheritance reserved and laid up for you And look, it's like Jesus is up in heaven and he's got it all booked He's got it all taken care of It's already reserved We already get all this great inheritance It's just ready for us And we don't have to do anything We just get to have it We just get to, you know, share in that blessing We get to just reap those rewards that Jesus did for us And it'll be revealed in the last time That's also interesting Because his brethren took a while to get to this position It's not the beginning of the story We've gone through a lot of Joseph, right? It's at the end that they finally get the inheritance They finally get that reward They finally get to see the fruition of this hope And with our lives You know, it's gonna be a while in our minds You know, it's a vapor, our life's a vapor But to us, it's ticking by kind of slow, right? Obviously, as you age, it seems like it's going a little bit faster But at the end of the day, it's going to take time We have to be patient, but it will come There will be a day in which we get to inherit this, you know, great blessing And at that point, it's all done It's just rest It's just joy It's just all just good And there's no evil God's gonna wipe away all our tears eventually And there's gonna be no more suffering There's gonna be no more, you know, faggots I mean, there's just gonna be none of this stuff You won't even remember them You'll forget them Dude, it seems like when I go to the store now, everybody has blue hair What is that? I will never see blue hair again I won't see the green hair Now, there might be some red hair, okay? But I'm not gonna see blue, right? I mean, I'm not gonna see all these weird things that are going on All these freaks I'm gonna be able to tell the difference between men and women, praise God You know, it's gonna be a great day And beyond all that, we're gonna get to see Jesus Beyond that, we're gonna get to see God And, you know, these stupid Trinity-denying losers How do they even read verse 3? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Oh, Jesus is the Father How are you own Father? It's obviously a different person Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Because we're talking about God the Father, my friend And, you know what? Blessed be God the Father who is willing to sacrifice His Son So that we could inherit all these blessings And the love that a Father has for us And He's our Father So we go back to Genesis Go back to Genesis Be reminded every time you have something bad happen to you this week This is what you need to think I'm not in hell I'm not in hell And that just, I can just bring a smile to your face I'm still not in hell And I never will be Look at verse number 21 And the children of Israel did so And Joseph gave them wagons And commandment of Pharaoh and gave them provision for the way All of them, he gave each man changes of raiment But to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and 5 changes of raiment Now I've been harping on this fact that you're not going to hell Not only that, you're getting to inherit But that does not mean that your life is meaningless There is still a blessing to serving God There is still a reward for not being wicked And notice, one of the brethren gets a lot more than the other Why? Because he didn't sell his brethren to slavery Because he wasn't wicked Okay, so I'm not saying like, oh sweet, do whatever you want No, I'm saying, why don't you go ahead and get some rewards on top of that We already know where you're going Why wouldn't you want to go ahead and get the blessing of the silver And the extra changes of raiment And we see that Benjamin's being elevated above his brethren He's loved more than his brethren And you know, again, God loves all the children of the world that are saved He loves every single one of us, children of God But you know what, he loves some people more Sorry to burst your bubble My wife's already told me many times that she's God's favorite So we're all fighting for second best here But at the end of the day, Jesus, whenever he's with his disciples He would talk about the one whom he loved He's leaning on John the Baptist I'm sorry, John, the disciple John He loves that guy more than the other disciples He tells us, it's in the Bible It's hard to get that out Jesus loves John And he favors John And you say, why? It's based on how you live your life, my friend And of all God's children on the earth, let me tell you something God loves the new IFB more than other denominations Why? Because they keep his commandments Better Now I'm not saying perfectly, no one's perfect It's not a competition at the end of the day And I'm not saying that people of other denominations can't be greatly loved by God What I am saying is those that are doing the most for God Those that are serving him, God loves more He has more favor, more blessing to them He wants to do more good unto them There is a reward to serving God, to loving God And he loves them, okay? You don't see Jesus standing up for everybody, he stands up for Stephen, though You don't see Jesus going into the fiery furnace with everybody But he does with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego You don't see, you know, the lion's mouth being stopped for everyone, but it was for Daniel When God talks about not wanting to spare, I don't know if I'm like hitting something I don't know if God, he doesn't always talk about everybody in the Bible But when he's talking about destroying Jerusalem He's saying like, even if these three guys, you know, Job and Daniel Even if these guys were here, I still would nuke it You know, meaning that those guys are better than other guys He picked Abraham for a specific reason Abraham has a special title, the friend of God Okay, so there is a reward to serving God We see favoritism with Benjamin You know, you don't want to be Simeon Nobody even remembered him, nobody even cared that he was in prison It's like, you know, there's going to be that one guy that you go to heaven and you're like, you made it, okay cool It's like, I'm just kidding, maybe you'll like him a little bit more than that, okay But there are some people that just barely make it to heaven, a lot, right There's probably even people we know that are going to barely make it into heaven, aren't they I don't want to barely make it into heaven You know, I want to be like Benjamin where he says, hey, not only did you get inherited I'm going to give you a little extra, I'm going to give you five times the mess, right I like to eat I want the five times the heavenly food Okay, give me the extra portion here Well, go to Matthew chapter five, Matthew chapter five Oh, I don't know why you would say that the new IFB has more favors, more blessed, more worship Well, let's see what the Bible has to say Matthew chapter five, look at verse number eleven Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you Let me tell you something The group that is the most persecuted, hated and reviled is the most blessed and loved of God But, you know, it does not stop with us or start with us, it was all people Brother Illy had said he ran into somebody who is a member of First Baptist Dallas and he was talking to some guy there and this gentleman basically told him, he said their church is being sued for hate speech So it's like, I guess we're joining the club, you know It's like, hey, I mean it's not just us that they hate They hate every child of God They hate all the children of God because he reminds them of the fact that they're wicked You know, even the most liberal Christian is superiorly godly compared to the world today I'm infinitely more godly and more righteous than the world today And you know what, even they are going to be spoken evil and they're going to hate them as well You know, we're just one of the many people that are hated of this world And it's not us that's special, it's Christ that's in us that that hatred is being drawn out You know, the world can't hate us, it hates Jesus It hates the fact that we're saved It hates the fact that we represent the Bible Because you know what, there's lots of people that on the surface they seem to represent God I mean, there's people that, you know, even would say the gospel like we would say Say harsh statements like we say Yet they're somehow loved to the world or they're celebrated or they go unfettered I mean, how about the stupid Ray Comfort I mean, the guy almost has a million subs on YouTube How did his channel not get news? And I mean, he says all kinds of weird stuff And weird junk and is on there Like, why is it that he's not getting attacked? Because the devil's not going to attack himself, my friend You know, and look, picking a fight with somebody on purpose or being stupid is not persecution Okay, when Ray Comfort says something stupid and people laugh at him, that's not persecution He's just being stupid Okay, so he has fake persecution Where he's going out on the sidewalk screaming at people and then they scream back at him Anybody can do that, right? How about you go quietly serve God and then have people come scream at you That you didn't ask for You say, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war Let me go to 1 Corinthians 3, but let me tell you something There's people that are getting rewards every single day Not just the inheritance, not just not going to hell They're getting rewards, why? Because people are speaking evil of them Because people hate them Because people revile them Because people lie about them and slander them You know, the normal reaction when you get slandered is to be angry and upset And to want to lash out And to want to defend yourself And maybe you could even go on a more negative approach You could become depressed You could be sad about it You could think, you know what, poor me But you know, the right reaction according to the Bible is just to rejoice When you're serving God, when you're doing that which is right When you love the Lord The right reaction is to be excited You know, why would I want to go my whole life and say, you know No one ever lied about me No one ever reviled me No one ever separated from me Because then you're basically just saying, I didn't get any blessings No one thought that you were really a threat Look at 1 Corinthians 3, look at verse 8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one And every man shall receive his own reward According to his own labor Look at verse 14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereon He shall receive a reward Go to Colossians chapter 3 We're just going to skip through the Bible real quick Colossians chapter number 3 Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians Chapter number 3 Look at verse number 24 Knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward Of the inheritance For you serve the Lord Christ So even though we're saved, we're still serving Christ Go to Hebrews Keep going to the right in your Bible Go past all the Ts Straight into Hebrews chapter number 11 Look at verse number 6 Hebrews chapter number 11 Look at verse number 6 The Bible says But without faith it is impossible to please him For he that cometh to God must believe that he is And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him So notice, God wants to reward you But you have to seek after him It's not automatic So if you went to 2 John chapter number 1 Go to 2 John chapter number 1 Almost all the way to the end of your Bible There's the three little books First, second, third John 2 John look at chapter 1 verse 8 Look to yourselves that we lose Not those things which we have wrought But that we receive a full reward You know, you want to keep serving God So you get a full reward not a half reward Go to Revelation 22 Go all the way to the end Straight to the end Revelation chapter 22 The Bible just hammers this fact Of there being rewards But look at Revelation 22 look at verse 12 And behold I come quickly And my reward is with me To give every man According as his work shall be But notice there is going to be a rewards day You will be recompensed According to your labor Don't think that you labor in vain God is not unrighteous To forget your work and labor of love Would you do show towards his name Clearly articulated in Hebrews chapter number 6 That we're supposed to go on into perfection That we're supposed to keep Serving the Lord Keep doing right So that we can get a full reward Not a half reward Let's go back, kind of finish our chapter There's only one more verse I kind of want to look at With this When I think about this chapter You know what I really just think about is just rewards And it's kind of nice because it starts out And they're not really sure what's going to happen But then all of a sudden It's reward fest It's just blessing fest It's just goodness being out poured on them You know what it makes me think of? It makes me think of the end times It's in their greatest moment of despair Just all of a sudden it just flips a switch And it's just all blessings Right? I mean right before the coming of Christ I mean this is the worst moment This is the greatest fear that they could have Being on this earth And then it just flips a switch Christ is here We're getting rewards We're having the wrath poured out I mean it's just going to be great, great, great, great And look I'm looking forward to the wrath show I don't know about you I am I'm real excited about it The Bible says that we're going to rejoice The Bible says that we're going to be excited You know and praising the Lord And we're going to be thankful that he finally poured out judgement All that justice that didn't happen here Is going to happen there He's going to finally pour it out And it's just going to be like That's how I'm going to do it Okay So I don't know how you're going to do it Mine's going to be in English too Because you're going to hear all nations at all times And it says in verse number 23 And to his father he sent after this manner Ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt And ten sheasses laden with corn and bread And meat for his father by the way So he sent his brethren away and they departed And he said unto them See that ye fall not out by the way They went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father and told him saying Joseph is yet alive And he is governor over all the land of Egypt Jacob's heart fainted for he believed them not And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him the spirit of Jacob their father revived And Israel said It is enough Joseph my son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die But you know hey He got his spirit revived Maybe you know I could kind of get on board You know I didn't think about this phrase here You know it is enough right But hey his life is revived By knowing his son's alive And think about this We should revive knowing that our loved ones are in heaven Think about 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 It is kind of a motivator To help encourage those that have lost Loved ones to say hey we are going to see them again You know it kind of gives them that reviving So just like his spirit is revived That he gets to see his brother again We should have that kind of same feeling Go to Psalms 27 one more verse I want to look at But you know Whenever they first found out that Joseph was there You got to think of the range of emotions They probably had that you know Cat got your tongue The pit of their stomach was just hurting They were so terrified And so scared and so nervous But then just all of a sudden It is just like the greatest thing that ever happened And again it just makes me think of how God Constantly drags Christians Through these moments where they are in their greatest moment of despair And then just All blessing and reward I mean you just see this over and over again Joseph stuck in prison In a horrible situation Pulled out Great riches and honor right Daniel in the lion's den Probably a pretty intimidating situation Great riches and honor You know the Jews about to be destroyed by Haman In the hands of all these wicked men Yep what they destroy them And they get all the riches and the honor We just see this over and over and over again Constantly themed throughout the Bible Of people being drug out To this moment of despair But then just right Right at the last moment God just rescues And gives them this great deliverance Look at what it says in Psalms 27 verse number 11 Teach me thy way O Lord And lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies Deliver me not Over unto the will of mine enemies For false witnesses are risen up against me And such as breathe out cruelty I had fainted Unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord In the land of living Wait on the Lord Give good courage and he shall strengthen mine heart Wait I say On the Lord You know I think that When you go through adversity The feeling or the thought Is just to quit Give up Stop What does the Bible say? Wait Just let the Lord encourage you Just keep holding on Just keep being steadfast You know you just think about Paul When he's on that boat And they've got all those men And it's just like storm after you know night after night They haven't even eaten for days and days And it's just like You know how long And it's just kind of a picture Of just the fact that sometimes in our lives We just have to wait and just hold on and hold on And eventually the storm will clear Eventually the Lord will deliver Eventually the Lord will come Eventually you'll have that deliverance Eventually the Lord will destroy your enemies But you know we still want to do our part We should pray that we would not be delivered Under the will of our enemies We should serve the Lord There is a reward to those who serve him We need to diligently seek him Every single day of our lives Let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father for this chapter Thank you for delivering us from hell I pray that when we go through hard times Or difficult times that we would constantly Be reminded of what you've done for us And that we're not going to suffer the great Evils and the wraths of hell that we all deserve Very much deserve But not only do we not have to go to hell We've escaped such evil But you've given us a great inheritance To inherit with you Thank you for being willing to share the glory Of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth And not only do we get all of these blessings We have an opportunity to earn rewards For our labor For our work I pray that we be motivated to keep serving God Till the bitter end And if we fill in moments of time And if we had a point of no hope Of all despair That we would be reminded of Psalm 27 That we would wait That we have our hearts strengthened That we would be of good courage And that we would wait on the Lord for his deliverance In Jesus name we pray amen Alright for our final song this evening We'll go to song 472 This is my Father's World 472 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472 This is my Father's World 472