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Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Soon the Lamb will take his pride To be ever at his side Although most of heaven Will the sick will be O to be a glorious sight All the saints of Godless might On with Jesus they will Weest eternally Come and die the Master Come and die In the peace of Jesus Take hold all the time In the bed of the tombs Turn the water into wine Do the hungry call And have now been done Okay, what about Friday? Okay, what about Saturday? Alright, 11 for Saturday What about today? The church van had 5 What about outside of that? It's like 11 for the day Praise the Lord on that As well as a long list of prayers If you can keep everyone in your prayer Also if you have any Other additional prayer requests Please submit them So we can continue to pray with you Also on the back we have Our upcoming events We had music practice again And it was sounding really good when I walked in And then also We have a couple of soul winning events We have our conference And everything like that And the fall swap on October 2 Even if you're not having anything to donate Just show up, see if there's something that you'd like You don't have to You have to give in order to take You can just take I know lots of people like that They just take their whole life That's pretty much all I had for announcements Let's go to our third song real quick 160 It's gonna be 160 Crown Him With Many Crowns My soul and singing Amen Who died for thee And heaven As I match whiskey Through all eternity Crown Him The Lord of Love Behold His hand and side Praise to death His apple On above The dirty, Glorified No angel In the sky Can fully Bear that Sign But down for days Is wandering That mystery So bright Round in the Lord of Life Who triumphed Who rose victorious To the strike For those He came To save His glory's now We sing Who died and rose On high Who died eternal Light to bring Endless and Every night Round in the Lord of Heaven One with the Father Lord One with the Spirit Through His gift From yonder Glorious role To need the Endless praise For now For else has died Be thou The Lord through endless Days the Lord And magnified Amen As the offering points are being passed around please from your Bible see Genesis chapter 25 Genesis chapter 25 Genesis 25 the Bible reads Then again Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah And she bare him Zimram and Jokshan and Midan and Midian and Ishbak and Shewa And Jokshan begat Sheba and Dedan and the sons of Dedan were Ashurim and Latushim and Lumim And the sons of Midian Ephah and Ephir and Henoch and Abida and Eldea All these were the children of Keturah And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac but under the sons of the concubines which Abraham had Abraham gave gifts and sent them away from Isaac his son while he had lived eastward under the east country And these are the days of the years of Abraham's life which he lived In a hundred threescorn fifteen years Then Abraham gave up the ghost and died in a good old age an old man and full of years and was gathered to his people And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar The Hittite which is before Mamre the feud which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth There was Abraham buried and Sarah his wife And it came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac and Isaac dwelt by the well of Hyroi Now these are the generations of Ishmael Abraham's son whom Hagar the Egyptian Sarah's handmaid bare unto Abraham And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael by their names according to their generations These are the first born of Ishmael Nebeljoth and Kidar and Abdel and Mipsam And Mishma and Dumah and Massa, Hadar and Timah, Jetur, Nefesh and Kedemah These are the sons of Ishmael and these are their names by their towns and by their castles Twelve princes according to their nations And these are the years of the life of Ishmael in a hundred and thirty and seven years And he gave up the ghost and died and was gathered unto his people And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur that is before Egypt as thou goest toward Assyria And he died in the presence of all his brethren And these are the generations of Isaac Abraham's son Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife The daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram the sister to Laban the Syrian And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was barren and the Lord was entreated of him And Rebekah his wife conceived and the children struggled together within her And she said if it be so why am I thus and she went to inquire of the Lord And the Lord said unto her two nations are in thy womb And two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels And the one people shall be stronger than the other people And the elder shall serve the younger When her days to be delivered were fulfilled behold there were twins in her womb And the first came out red all over like in hairy garment and they called his name Esau And after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel And his name was called Jacob and Isaac was three score years old when she bare them And the boys grew and Esau was a cunning hunter a man of the field And Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison but Rebekah loved Jacob And Jacob saw it 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 Esau said behold I am at the point to die and what profit shall this birthright do to me And Jacob said swear to me this day and he swear unto him and he sold his birthright unto Jacob Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way Thus Esau despised his birthright Let's pray, do you Heavenly Father Lord thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church Thank you for all the souls that were one today I pray you would fill our pastor with your spirit help him preach boldly and help us apply the message to our lives That we may better honor and glorify you and in Jesus name Amen Amen The title of my sermon this evening is mixed families mixed families And I want to make it clear what I mean by that just so that people don't interpret this to be something different But to me a mixed family it's really like the Brady Bunch Where you basically just have two different groups of families that are intertwining through marriage or through adoption Or it's really just people living together with someone that's not maybe their biological father or their biological mother Or perhaps it's in connection with people who maybe were married and then they got divorced and remarried Or maybe their spouse died and they got remarried And then even in those situations there could be children that are brought along with those marriages So a lot of people have a half sibling or they have a step dad or they have a step mom Or they have I mean there's all kinds of crazy situations and scenarios Sometimes people have this times like three or four where it's like they have like I have a half sibling with this person And with this person and they're there my quarters it's just like all these weird hypotheticals and scenarios And all kinds of crazy family situations And sometimes we often forget that the Bible characters often find themselves in the exact same situations You know a lot of these crazy scenarios that you would dream up and think it's only on daytime TV They actually exist in the Bible too Where you see a lot of mixed families You see a lot of people who have these situations where they kind of have these half siblings Or they have men that are married to different women throughout their lives Or they have all these different scenarios And so I just want to kind of go through the Bible and show you a few scenarios And then just give you two points as far as how I view this particular situation Now look at Genesis chapter 25 verse 1 Then again Abraham took a wife and her name was Keturah And she bare him Zimran and Jokshin, Medan and Midian and Ishbaq and Shuah Now if you go down this list a lot of different children verse 4 says these were the children of Keturah Now when you think of Abraham you don't think about these people But they were real people I mean they really were brothers to Ishmael and Isaac And you already think about Ishmael Now Ishmael is a result of sin because he ended up taking on Hagar Which he shouldn't have taken on Hagar He was already married to Sarah That's basically them using their own wisdom and logic In order to try and figure out how to have a seed or have a child Whereas God had appointed Isaac to be born through Sarah And you know a lot of times mixed families are a result of sin But sometimes it's not necessarily even sin It's just the spouse dies, the parent marries another person or whatever the situation is And you end up having half siblings just as a consequence of one spouse dying or something like that happening So just because someone is in a mixed family situation doesn't mean it's sinful But often it is sinful Now it's not sinful that they're in that situation It was just the initial act that brought them into that relationship or that situation that was sinful It's not like Isaac should look at Ishmael and say Oh, you're my sinful brother, you know Or you're a result of sin so therefore I can't be friendly to you Or I can't be a brother to you or any of those type of situations Look at verse 12 These are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son So again, we have in one chapter We have the children of Keturah We have the children of Hagar And then verse 19 So you have half siblings with Ishmael and Isaac And all the children of Keturah They're all this kind of interesting dynamic This interesting situation where they have all these different siblings Go to Genesis 29 I want to show you some more scenarios So one could be a result of sin through adultery or divorce and remarriage Another scenario like we have in here Perhaps a spouse dies and then they end up remarrying And then they have children through that relationship And look, I've known plenty of people Where they have a brother that was from Basically their parent got remarried and brought a kid with them So they have that half sibling And then their new parents have a kid And then that's a sibling And then they get divorced and marry another And then they have another half sibling on the other end of the spectrum And so they just have all these different scenarios And dynamics and situations And there's all these people that are from all these crazy situations Look at Genesis 29 verse 32 Now we have to think about it Is Jacob is Israel, according to the Bible He gets renamed, he's Israel And his 12 sons He has more than that because he has at least one daughter, Dinah So he has at least 13 children But his 12 sons are what's considered the 12 tribes of Israel And what's so interesting about this when you think about it Is it's a huge mixed family I mean, because you've got children from Leah Okay, you've got Reuben, you've got other children of Israel The tribes that are coming from Leah But then you also have them coming from the handmaids Look at verse number, go to chapter 30 and look at verse 3 So Rachel was mad that Leah is getting pregnant and she's not So she offers up her handmaid, Bilhah Thinking, again, kind of the same logic that Sarah did Well I have children by my handmaid So then they end up getting children by the handmaid Well then Leah ends up stop having kids And so then Leah gives her handmaid unto Jacob And so then he has children by the handmaid Then Leah, Samel has children again So then he has more children than Leah And then eventually Rachel has children And so you have this crazy scenario where you have all these different kids Look at verse 9 So when you think about the children of Israel You've got children from Leah, Bilhah, Ziphah and Rachel And now the concubine children, they're kind of the worst of the children When you think about it, when you think about all the children of Israel It's like pretty much the worst ones are coming from the concubines And that's typically how it is throughout the Bible You've got Ishmael coming from the concubine But not always, because sometimes you have situations where God uses an interesting scenario to bring even his own lineage Through sin and all kinds of crazy situations Judah, who is one of the children of Israel He ends up marrying, not marrying, I'm sorry He ends up lying with his son's wife His son marries, dies, and then Judah lays with his own daughter-in-law Unbeknownst to him, he thought she was just a whore Doesn't make it that much better Then she gets pregnant and has twins And when you think about the Bible, it's crazy You'd think you'd be reading Kentucky Generation Archives or something Or New Jersey or something You're like, what is going on? But that's the Bible And it's not just the Bible, it's just life Who in here says, I have a half-sibling Or some kind of a weird situation like that? Virtually, you know someone that has this situation Or lots of people have this situation And I'm not trying to shame anybody Because at the end of the day, you can't really control that And sometimes even the children of the concubine are better I thought of Jephthah Jephthah seems to be better than his own brethren Even though he was rejected for having been the son of a concubine The son of a harlot It's like, how much better are they since their father had tons of different wives? I mean, does it really make you that much better? It's like, my mom was wife number 52 It's like, oh wow, that's so much better than the harlot That's so much better than the concubine What you have to realize is people are sinful And the family dynamics and the family relationships that exist in this world Are a lot of times a result of sin But not even just sin, just life People die, people get remarried People sin, there's all these different dynamics There's all these kind of relationships You have people raising other people's kids at times You think about Abraham when he leaves Doesn't he take his nephew with him? That's kind of weird, like why is the nephew going? But that just means family situations are always going to be unique People are going to see a lot of different unique family situations in this world They're going to find themselves in unique situations Go, if you would, to 1 Samuel chapter 1 I want to show you one more I really am just trying to set the stage For you to realize that mixed families is a very common thing Where people are being raised by parents that are not biologically their parents This could happen even through adoption Or it could happen through adoption in various ways Maybe a son dies or a daughter dies and their parents raise them And people are raised by their grandparents Maybe that's not an option so they're raised by an extended family It could be a fellow sibling which would be an uncle or an aunt Or a cousin I've met a lot of people that say, hey my cousin raised me Or my uncle raised me Or my grandpa raised me Or so and so raised me I've even known people where literally they didn't even have family They just had a friend Like a friend of the family ended up taking them on Or people that went through the literal process of adoption They were legally adopted by someone And someone took them on as their family So there's all kinds of different scenarios And in the Bible, one of the most common scenarios Is that men would take multiple wives Now, today you don't really have this in a formal sense But you definitely still have the same result You know, Antonio Cromartie, I'd already preached about him before But he's like a wide receiver for the Jets for a long period of time I think he played for a few other teams But that's who he stuck in my mind as a Jets cornerback I believe And this guy has like, it's crazy It was like eight or ten kids with like all different women So it's just like, so why he didn't marry all of them He ended up having kids with all these different women As if he had married all these different women But in the Bible you just see, you know, guys end up just taking lots of different wives You know, and if they lived back then Cromartie probably would have just picked up tons of different wives Because these celebrities and these high profile athletes and everything like that Have lots of groupies as it were Have lots of women at their disposal and so they just use them and abuse them But there's a lot of people in this world that would find themselves in these situations You know, it'd be called a bastard child But you can't really do anything about that It's not your fault If that's the situation or scenario you find yourself in And you know, if your parents made mistakes Or even if they didn't make mistakes You just happen to find yourself in these situations You know what, that's just life A lot of people fall in these situations A lot Look at 1st Samuel chapter 1 verse 1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathayim Zophim of Mount Ephraim And his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoram The son of Elihu, the son of Tohu The son of Zaph and Ephrathite And he had two wives The name of the one was Hannah And the name of the other, Peninnah And Peninnah had children but Hannah had no children And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship And to sacrifice under the Lord of hosts in Shiloh And the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife And to all her sons and her daughters portions But in Hannah he gave a worthy portion For he loved Hannah but the Lord had shut up her womb And her adversary also provoked her sore for to make her fret Because the Lord had shut up her womb Now this is, I went to this story for one specific reason, okay And again this is talking about two women that are married to the same guy So I guarantee you that probably no one in this room is in that exact scenario But if you find yourself in a mixed family scenario All the cases that I just gave you Or even more that I didn't think of What can often happen is there's a lot of fighting There's a lot of disagreement between these people There's a lot more adversity than just even normal siblings already have, okay And in this situation you kind of have two women that are mad at each other You can even see this in Leah and Rachel Where they kind of get mad at each other or despise one another Because why is Hannah being basically provoked by her adversary Notice that this other woman is her adversary Meaning this is her enemy, someone she does not like Well because her husband likes her more The Bible just plainly states You know why did Joseph's brethren hate him? Because his dad liked him more And you know as a person, as a human It's impossible to probably not have favorites You're just going to sometimes gravitate more to another person Even if it's all your own children You know all of these sons of Jacob are his sons literally But he just likes Joseph more He just is pleased with Joseph more Now obviously Joseph is the best son He's the one that's following the commandments more He's more godly, he's more righteous He's easier to love You know if you want your parents affection Why don't you just be easier to love Because I guarantee that has a lot to do with it You know if you're a hard and difficult child to deal with Often times your parents may not be as favorable towards you And you say man my siblings always seem to My parents are more pleased with them or they like them more or whatever Well here's my admonition Just be a better kid You know try to do a better job But even if you're not the favorite who cares You know at the end of the day you can't necessarily control that either Just realize it exists But if someone else is the favorite That doesn't give you license to then treat them bad Or be mean to them or attack them Or to be their adversary You should still have a cordial relationship Love them, treat them well In the story I don't see where Hannah is mean to back Or is retaliating Or doing wrong unto Penina It seems to be kind of a one way adversary Kind of seems like Penina is attacking her Because obviously Hannah is more loved of her husband And because Hannah is struggling to have children It gives Penina a reason to try and hold that over her head Or make her feel bad And this will often be what happens in these scenarios You know let's say a family adopts a child But then they actually have their own natural born children It could be in a scenario where those siblings will basically give the other ones a hard time They'll say oh well my parents love me more because I'm really their kid or something You know that would be a wicked thing to say That would be an evil thing to say to just try to provoke them Or perhaps you know the kids are from a different relationship You're from the current relationship so you think you're better than the other kids Because you're not in that relationship Or perhaps you're being raised by your grandparents And so you're treating the other kids differently Or whatever the scenario is You know don't use the circumstances of your relationship to basically attack the other person Treat the other person like dirt Be mean to the other person You know God doesn't like that God's not pleased when you're attacking people that are your family You know you should have love towards your family Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3 Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 3 Now when it comes to just a normal situation Which again there's a lot of people that are not in that situation I think we'd all be surprised how many people are not But even if you are Let's say you lived with your parents and with your siblings And you had nothing weird, nothing unusual It was just exactly how you would expect it There's something in the Bible described as natural affection And what that just means is When someone's just definitely your biological mom Definitely your biological dad Definitely your biological son Your biological daughter Your biological brother Your biological sister There's just something inside of you That just naturally just says I want to like this person I love this person It's called natural affection You just have a natural tendency to want To have a relationship with your mom, with your dad, with your brothers, with your sister I mean it's just inbuilt It's just part of who you are Now as time goes on Those feelings can change You know basically you can have them alter Based on again their behavior If they're mean, rude, a jerk or whatever A bad parent, a bad sibling, a bad son, a bad daughter Whatever that can shift the dynamic of the relationship It can cause people to even fall out of love with their own family But I would say that it's unnatural for you to not love Your brother, sister, mom or dad It would take some kind of an extreme situation You know like them becoming a reprobate or something For me to get to the place where I wouldn't love my brother Or love my sister or love my parent But look what it says in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verse 1 This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their own selves Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents Unthankful, unholy, without natural affection So the Bible says there's going to be a day When people, they don't love their brother, their sister, their mom or their dad That are their natural born parents Natural born brothers and sisters And not even for a good reason They just don't They just in their heart are full of hatred And they're just angry and they hate God They hate God's commandments And by proxy they end up hating their parents They hate their siblings Unnatural Because normally every person just loves their parents They just love their mom I mean even if you have a bad parent You just like love them anyways And you just want to be around them anyways And you appreciate the time that you get to spend with them There's just something inside of you that craves To be around and have fellowship with your family And there's a bond You know there's certain cultures especially Not that are American That actually family bond is a big thing I mean you talk about people from a Hispanic culture Family is a big deal I mean that's huge You talk about Russians It's a big deal Okay You know you talk about other cultures and other systems Asian cultures often emphasize family It's a big deal to people If you're in the mafia the family is a really important thing Okay You know You want to betray the family alright Wrong to marry outside the family Okay That's a different sermon But at the end of the day You kind of just have it natural Why am I saying this? Because When you find yourself in a mixed Family situation You have to realize that that love Is not always going to be that automatic natural love So what you have to end up doing Is you have to end up choosing to love them Here's my first advice If you find yourself in a mixed family situation You should choose to love These other people Whoever it is Whether it's a half sibling Whether it's a step parent Or a step sibling All manner of possible scenarios and situations Look I'm in that situation I mean my mom passed away And my dad remarried So I have a woman that's my dad's wife That in a theory would be my stepmother Even though I was fully raised You know I lived on my own I lived with my mom I lived with my wife I'm sorry I lived with my wife Before my mom had actually passed And my dad ended up remarrying But I have this other person That I didn't grow up with She wasn't there She didn't watch me skin my knee She didn't sing me to sleep Or anything like that She was just married to my dad You know what I should still choose to love her Even though it's not natural You know To me the first time I meet her It's just meeting any normal stranger You know there's no like special feeling There was no special emotion It wasn't fireworks Or whatever You know what I can do Is I can say you know what This is a person that's in my life now So I can just choose to love that person You know whenever your spouse Whenever your siblings get married Or your children get married That's introducing a person That's not blood You didn't necessarily know before And you should choose to love that person Like they are your siblings Or like your sibling Or like your son Or like your daughter It's a new person in the family And I believe the best way Is to just treat them like family And just choose to love them But what I'm emphasizing Is this main point That it's not going to necessarily be automatic It's not normal To just love them right off the bat You have to choose to love them It takes daily action And it takes work Go to Romans chapter 5 Let me show you a couple more verses on this Whenever you find yourself in this situation Whoever it is You should end up Just choosing to love the person Choose to love them Don't hold grudges And look Even if it's a result of sin Okay Even if the person that's introduced in your life Is because they got divorced and remarried Or as a result of some other sinful situation Fornication You know Children that are born As a result of fornication You know I don't think that you should give the children A hard time about that Now if you want to tell the parents Like that was wrong You should get married Or you know Explain to them What they did was sinful Or try to encourage them to get it right But at the end of the day I'm not going to sit here and be like Did you realize you're a result of sin You know And try to rub it in Or make them feel bad Or worse of a person Like there's all kinds of situations like that You know And so We should still choose to love that child And still choose to love those people Now I'm all for having grace towards those people And having mercy But at the same time I'm not to the extreme Where I would only show grace and mercy in this situation I think you should still call out the fornication Okay I think you should still tell people What they're doing is wrong So People often come to me Hey I have this family member They're getting remarried They invited me to the wedding But it's divorce and remarriage Here's my philosophy I would just tell them Look I don't think you should marry that person And I don't support this getting remarried It's against the bible So I'm not going to come to your wedding You know what I'll still love the person And I'll still be friendly to you guys And if you still choose to do that You know what I'll still You know Basically love you the same And I'll take them in as my family And I'll love them But you shouldn't do it That's my philosophy I'm not going to sit here And then every time I see them be like Adulter her Adulter her You know Stand by thyself Stand by thyself Pray I'm holier than thou art I'm not going to act like that But at the same time you can still make it clear What you believe Say I don't want to be a part of the ceremony Because I don't approve of the ceremony But you know what After the deed's done You know Hey I'll treat you like family I'll love you And I'll do the best that I can I don't think it's like a sin to hang out with them or something Look I've had people literally ask me Are we even allowed at your church Because we've been divorced and remarried I'm like really Of course you are You probably will leave during a sermon where I call out divorce and remarried Obviously right That's your fault But I'm just again saying that When you find yourself in these situations You're not going to just automatically Love the person It's not just a natural thing You have to choose it Let me show you a verse that kind of emphasizes things like this Romans chapter 5 verse 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die Yet peradventure for a good man Some would even dare to die But God committed his love toward us And that while we were yet sinners Christ died for So it's saying here there's only a few people that love someone enough That they would actually lay down their life Meaning what? Love is not a normal thing It's not a natural thing It's not an easy thing Only a few people on this planet the Bible is saying Would be willing to sacrifice their life for someone else And in this case it's saying for someone they believe is good But it's saying like someone that's not even a good person Most people would not lay down their life They would not love that person to that level of extremity Where they'd be willing to sacrifice their own self I mean it's like if I walked up to you and said Hey will you be Joe Biden's secret security Would you lay down your life for Joe Biden? It's like no I bet his secret security doesn't want to be asked that question With a lie detector attached or whatever You know maybe in their mind if they're convinced that Joe Biden's a good person they would But I bet if someone broke through a lot of those Those even security guys would be kind of like Eh, you know They'd lean out of the way of the bullet You know I'm just saying But you know if you really thought your leader was a good guy You really love him You really appreciate him You know it's possible that some people would take the bullet They would step in front of danger They would be willing But what's the point that I'm trying to make Or that the Bible's making here It's that it's rare And God's love is so much more infinite than ours And the fact that he wouldn't even just die for good people He died for bad people He died for everyone That's how incredible his love is And what's our example Is that we're supposed to love the good and the bad Meaning what? If I have a good sibling It's going to be easier to love them But what if I have a bad sibling? You should still choose to love them You should still choose To appreciate them And to do good unto them And our example is God and Christ Not what Joe Biden's secret You know secret police or service would do Okay Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 Go to 1 Timothy chapter 5 So I'm just giving you some thoughts I'm just giving you some Things to chew on And to appreciate You know if you find yourself in this situation You have people in your life like this You know maybe you can increase your love Towards them And try to be more friendly to them Now again Obviously we have to balance everything in the Bible You know the Bible says If a man hate not his father his mother And it goes down the list You know he cannot be my disciple I'm not trying to say like Go find the worst person The scummiest person in your family And go grab a beer with them And go you know Do wicked evil things with them Obviously you're going to be a fundamental Baptist Obviously you're going to preach the gospel Obviously you're going to be separated from the world But at the same time You know when these situations arise Where you can show love or be kind or gracious To these family members You should do it Even if they rub you the wrong way Even if you don't like their face Even if they remind you of something bad Like a sin that your parents committed You know some people just don't like a sibling Because it just reminds them Of the fact that their parents got divorced Or it reminds them of the fact that their parents aren't together Or it reminds them of adultery Or it reminds them of fornication or whatever Don't take it out on the person Don't take it out on the kid Don't take it out You know in those relationships You should just try to be as loving kind and gracious As you can to those people Now when it comes to these dynamics If you decide to marry someone And they already are bringing kids Into the situation You should treat them like your own And you have to provide for them now Their party responsibility Look at first let me chapter 5 verse 8 But if any provide not for his own And especially for those of his own house He hath denied the faith And is worse than infidel You know once you enter into that marriage contract They're yours And I believe this If they're yours They're yours forever Like if you soil a child In your wild oats They're your child still You're not allowed to just walk away And pretend like they don't exist You know even if the parent takes them away from you You should still try to be in that child's life As much as possible As much as reasonable You should make sure they're provided for You know as a man You're supposed to provide your family You're supposed to take care of your family No matter who it is No matter what the situation Or the dynamic Go to Exodus 21 Let me prove this even further to you Exodus 21 go in the Old Testament And I'm going to show you some commandments there But you should make sure That all your responsibilities are taken care of The same goes with a wife You know if you end up finding yourself in this situation You know home school those children Love those children Read the Bible to those children Sing lullabies to them at night Hold them when they're crying You know don't just be like Well he's not really my kid You know and just embrace them as your child Love them as your child Treat them like your child Exodus 21 look at verse 9 And if you have betrothed her unto his son He shall deal with her after the manner of daughter So notice the Bible gives a scenario All the in-laws are supposed to be treated like Natural born children And one thing I can really appreciate about my parents You know my parents aren't perfect But they did a lot of good things They really would treat The kids that married their kids Basically my wife And my brother's wife And my sister's husband They did treat them like family You know they treated them just like natural born children And they tried to love them And they tried to show them the same type of affection Often times it would be frustrating Because you'd feel like the parents would take their side over you And you're like whose parent are you? You know Like what's going on here? You know my parents they would give gifts out And they would even try to make sure at Christmas And at holidays and stuff They would give the same level or quality of presents To every kid They didn't show favoritism to just theirs They tried to embrace The person that got married And you know what As an in-law You should try to embrace Your children's spouse Whoever it is Just view them as just a child that you had As a new child into the family And again It's not natural It's not like you're just going to instantly Love them like you would your own flesh and blood The kid that you change the diapers on And the kid that you clean up all the spit up with And the kid that you've gone to the games with Went to church with Raised them or whatever That's easy Ok Loving the other person is the more difficult task But you know what The Bible teaches you should treat them that way Verse 10 If you take them another wife Her food arraignment and her duty of marriage Are not diminished You know Again Today's society in America We don't really have people that have two wives Per se But If you do have other relationships You have to provide for both You know If you got divorced And then remarried I believe that the man should make sure that Both women are provided for Now you're only off the hook Is if they get remarried Ok If they get remarried Then that's that guy's problem Ok But you know what If you married a woman Divorce or marry another Or go You're with another woman Or something like that You should make sure that you're providing For your original wife And you're providing for the new wife Or whatever However many times that Had happened Ok Hopefully it's not a lot Because that gets expensive quick Maybe that should discourage you from getting another wife Ok Gentlemen It's stupid Don't do it But until Until you know She basically goes and joins up with another dude I think you should take care of her She's still technically even your wife You know From a biblical perspective Because in Romans It says it's adultery Now if she wasn't your wife still How could that even be adultery It's adultery Because you got married forever Just because you signed a paperwork With the United States government saying I'm no longer married to this person It doesn't matter Ok Obviously That's kind of how divorce works In a theory sense But you know If you've been married No matter what paperwork you sign If you marry another person Or you lay with another person While they're still alive That's adultery And so that's why it's important You know Just like your child No matter what document I sign I can't change who my dad is That's already been established That's already been settled There's no amount of paperwork That's gonna change that Or fix that Or alter it I'm still gonna look like him Gonna look like me Still have blood That's related And that's just not gonna change Go to Matthew chapter number 12 Go to Matthew chapter number 12 So when it comes to mixed family Again Point number one Love them Just love them Just decide to love them Treat them as you would If they were flesh and blood Treat them if they were your real parent Treat them if they were your real brother or sister Treat them if they were your real son or daughter Treat them like your real cousin or whatever I think when it comes to cousins It doesn't really matter At that point you don't really care I mean there's half cousin Quarter cousin Double cousin I don't even know how you All these things are so confusing sometimes In fact Figuring out what they are But you know what You should love people in your life That God has given you And Let's take this to a spiritual picture For a second Okay Matthew chapter 12 Look at verse 46 While he had talked to the people Behold his mother and his brethren Stood without Desiring to speak with him Then one said to them Behold my mother and my brother Stand without Desiring to speak with thee But he answered and said unto him That told him Who is my mother And who are my brethren And he stretched forth his hand Toward his disciples And said Behold My mother and my brethren For whosoever shall do the will of my father Which is in heaven the same Is my brother and sister and mother Now look at Jesus Christ's attitude And again I believe that from a carnal perspective You should love Your family But then Jesus Basically takes the spiritual family To such a level And such an extremity That he would rather Fellowship with people that love the Lord And are serving God Than his own flesh and blood Mother and brother He's saying Hey you want to know who my real brother is? Right here Meaning that The carnal thing didn't even really matter that much Because guess what? Your carnal family doesn't matter It really doesn't have that much of significance And it's not very permanent Your real permanent family status Is if you're saved or not And notice how Jesus Christ wants to spend more time With his saved brethren His saved family And love them And to treat them well As opposed to his own flesh and blood wanting to talk to him I mean that's pretty extreme When you think about it But again What's the message? It's mixed families Did you realize that this church We're a mixed family? Virtually nobody in here is related physically I mean you got small Obviously your own family is potentially But I'm saying like We got very few people in here That their actual flesh and blood Want to be in the same church with them I mean you got If you have that You should count yourself blessed It's rare We have some people in here That have their brother or something Or maybe another sibling Or maybe another kind of relationship But it's rare Notice you don't see Grandparents, children and grandchildren In the same church very often do you? Like ours And in a lot of situations Even a lot of other churches Even if you go to the old IFB You got the grandparents And then it's like missing It's like Where are all their children? And so it's important to realize When it comes to a spiritual family We're a mixed family And let me say this It's not natural to love one another You have to choose to love one another You have to choose to look Some of the people in the room You may not be like I really want to love that guy But you know what You should choose to love them anyways Because they're now your family If you get saved Every saved person is your family Whether you like them or not Whether they're nice or not Whether they're as legitimate as you or not You know we see in 1 Corinthians People arguing about who's better Based on basically like who they're of You know like I'm a Paul I'm a Paul It's like I got saved by Pastor Anderson Who did you get saved by? You know And it's like it doesn't matter If you got saved you're in the club Just like Well I'm the natural born child I'm a Paul You know it's like who cares I'm of Apollos You know it's not like the Apollos Christians Are worse than the Paul Christians Or if they got saved by Priscilla and Aquila You know Or if they got saved by Demas You know Wouldn't that be kind of like a bummer If you're going to church And they're like who got you saved Demas Oh that guy that quit You're like yeah The guy that quit church That's the guy that got me saved But does that matter? It doesn't matter because you're in the family We're all spiritual brothers and sisters And you know what you should love them And treat them the same And not look down upon them Like they're lesser or something Or maybe they're newer to the family right? I mean because Maybe some of us know each other From a longer period of time We've had a deeper relationship You have newer people coming in Newer people getting saved And it's just like someone gets married Right A child finally gets married And now they're bringing in a whole new relationship And so It's not as easy to love that person You don't have as many memories You don't necessarily have all the same tastes And preferences You basically have to bring them in Be nice to them You don't have to drink their tea Or eat their bean chili But you know what You still love them alright So if you went to Luke 12 I want to show you another verse here The Bible says There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother You know you can actually have Close relationships with someone Or closer relationships with someone That's not even flesh and blood You can have friends That you're actually closer to Than a real brother Than a real sister Than a real parent And you know what There's nothing wrong with that There's nothing even wrong with making And having closer friendships And relationships with people That are not even physically related You know you shouldn't even feel bad about it If that's what happens Especially if that person you've drawn close to Is your spiritual Brother, sister, mother, father, son, daughter Anything like that You know The real relationship The deep relationship There are going to be spiritual relationships Not the carnal ones And you say why do you say that Well look at Luke 12 verse 31 Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth I tell you nay but rather division From henceforth there shall be five and one else divided Three against two and two against three The father shall be divided against the son And the son against the father The mother against the daughter And the daughter against the mother The mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law Notice That Jesus is saying When I get entered in the situation When I'm added to the equation Oftentimes the carnal relationships are going to fall apart There's going to be animosity There's going to be envy There's going to be the adversary Remember Hannah and Penina Adversary Division Division Problems But Be the Hannah of that relationship Not the Penina Notice Hannah Or Hannah I'm sorry Penina Hannah is not attacking Penina We don't see her being mean It's a one way meanness It's a one way hatred It's a one way problem causing relationship And look that's how I've always taught And I believed it Go to Matthew chapter 10 Go to Matthew chapter 10 When it comes to your family relationships You should try to love them to the best of your ability And if they hate you Despise you Do evil Let them be the only ones that fall Now I'm not saying you have to hang out with them I'm not saying you have to be around them Sometimes you even have to separate from the physical family 1 Corinthians chapter 5 If they're saved And they're a railer A fornicator A drunkard Extortioner The Bible says with such one No not to eat So there is going to be a time when you separate from that person And you know There's going to be plenty of times where you choose to not be around somebody Because they're a negative influence on you And serving Christ Look at Matthew chapter 10 And look at verse number 34 Think not that I'm going to send peace on earth I came not to send peace But a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his father And the daughter against her mother And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law And man's foes shall be they of his own household He that loveth father and mother more than me Is not worthy of me And he that loveth son or daughter more than me Is not worthy of me Look the Bible is really extreme in this category If your dad says I'm not going to have a relationship with you I'm not going to hang out with you I'm not going to give inheritance if you go to that church and you serve Christ You know what you're supposed to do? Well I'm serving Christ And you're not supposed to love them over Christ You're not supposed to choose them over Christ And it could even get to a point Look you're either going to love the one and hate the other Or hold to the one and despise the other You know when it comes to these type of relationships You should end up despising or hating or loathing A relationship that's going to take you away from Christ Even if it was as close as a father relationship Obviously that's not to say that you would dishonor your father You know the Bible says to honor thy father and thy mother But that doesn't mean you wouldn't be mean That doesn't mean you should be rude to them I'm not saying you should hate them like you would hate or reprobate That's way different Obviously the way I hate ranch is not the way that I hate pedophiles In English vernacular you have to realize there's different connotations to that word And sometimes you'll hate certain things You might hate certain music What does it mean to hate music? It means you don't like it It means you don't want to be around it It bothers you It irks you It causes problems And there could be a certain family relationship where it bothers you It irks you It vexes you And you say I can't be around this person Because it's dragging me down in the gutter with them Because it's causing me to not go to church Or not read my Bible Or not think spiritually And so I have to choose to reject that relationship Not be around that person And be separated into Christ And to choose Christ And to love Christ And to want to be with Christ You know you can't love everyone I know that you constantly are told that Love everyone Why love everyone? No you don't. You're a liar And you know the people that really scream this They hate me I'll tell you what Boy they hate me While they want to pontificate about how they love everyone And they're just so much more loving than Christians today But the reality is they hate everyone Okay They even hate themselves I hope you would defer to me chapter 4 I'm going to give you a second point real quick Point number one is this though It's real simple Love your mixed family And you know what? If you have to lose carnal family Just embrace your spiritual family Isn't that great? That you still get a whole spiritual family Even if you don't have a great carnal family Because no one's guaranteed a great carnal family You know what? You're guaranteed a great spiritual family When you believe in Jesus Christ You're automatically brought into the fold You know you get that spirit of adoption Is what the Bible says Now first Timothy chapter 4 Look at verse number 8 The Bible says For bodily exercise profit a little The godliness is provable in all things Having promise of the life that now is And of that which has come I want to say this When you find yourself as the outsider coming in Is that going to happen? You get married You know what? I have my family And my wife's the outsider And then she has her family And I'm the outsider coming in Right? So I've already taught you That you should love the outsider coming in You should love the person that's not whatever But here's the second part of that equation When you're the outsider coming in You should choose to love them back You should embrace the foreign love You know if your brother and sister Half brother and sister want to love you Love them back If people are doing good on you You have a new parent You have a new whatever it is New uncle, new aunt, new cousins, new anything You should love them back When they're showing love And gratitude towards you But when you love them back And you realize that your dynamic has changed Something that's interesting about this though Is that who you are has not changed I could be adopted Let's say my parents died When I was little And I got adopted by a new family They may even change my name You know what? Who I am hasn't changed I've retained my identity And even when it comes to spiritual things And Christian things Your identity continues Think about this He's saying that godliness Has the promise of life that now is And of that which is to come Meaning your current godliness Is going to carry with you into the next life And is going to be part of your identity In the next life So whoever I was before my family dynamic changed That's still there I'm still Jonathan I'm still me Even if he changed my last name Even if I have new parents Or a new spouse Or a new whatever I'm still me And I'm going to carry forward that identity Go to Revelation chapter 7 Go to Revelation chapter 7 This is an interesting thing to think about And you know what? I should still love Those who are new to me Or the new environment Or the new situation And not get disgruntled About the fact that things have changed Okay, the environment's changed Made my name change You know what? You still get to retain you And you still get to be you Look at Revelation chapter 7 verse 9 So now think about what it's saying though When you die And you go to heaven Okay You're going to kind of actually experience The adoption a little bit more When you got saved You were adopted into God's family You became a child of God But you probably didn't really feel the adoption process It wasn't very practical to you There wasn't necessarily anything that changed in a physical sense You still go home to the same normal family And you're still kind of in your same environment But when you die and go to heaven It's going to be a whole new environment, right? And you're around all these people But what's interesting is who you are didn't change Notice that when they're looking in heaven They still have people that are nations, kindreds, people and tongues So your tongue is a part of your identity Your nation is a part of your identity You're still you You still get to be you Up in heaven Obviously it's a lot better version of you You might look a little better But you know what? It's still you somewhere down the side You know, like, man, I didn't know you were that good looking Or I thought you looked a little weird Or whatever Look at verse 4 Verse 4, same chapter Look, they didn't lose their identity Aren't they still of that tribe of Israel? And the Bible even describes them as being virgins Meaning that that part of their identity had stuck with them Now, I use this phrase They were still virgins It makes it clear that they were virgins that he picks the 144,000 So all you Jehovah's Witnesses that are married are screwed, okay? And if you're not a man, you're not going to make it, alright? That's why it's so funny When women Jehovah's Witnesses that are married come and talk to me I'm just thinking like, you're not going to make it I don't think you understand On top of that, they're not of the children of Israel either, okay? Nor is only the 144,000 going to heaven Isn't it funny? The 144,000 are only mentioned as coming to earth The people going to heaven are not them They're the other nations and tongues, right? But if they retain the identity of their virginity What other godliness attributes are retained with you when you enter into heaven? Ah, it's fine We're going to make it to heaven anyways Just let's live however you want You know, I want my identity when I get to heaven to be that I was godly You know, well, now I'm in a new family I don't even have the same parents anymore So I'll just be however I want Now, why don't you retain your integrity? Why don't you retain who you are And be a good child Even though you're in a new environment Hey, you're still you Just because your environment changed Doesn't give you a license to just be a bad person Look, be a good person Love the people that you're around Choose to love them back You know, we're a spiritual mixed family But we get to keep our identity Go to Ephesians chapter 1 Go to Ephesians chapter 1 And when you think about adoption What is adoption? Adoption is someone choosing to love someone that they don't have to That's my definition Adoption is choosing to love someone that you don't have to Now, in some ways This is, in my opinion, actually more special than being born Because think about it When you're born, your parents just kind of automatically love you They kind of have to or whatever Adoption is saying, I don't have to love you You're not even mine But you know what? I want to choose to love you in this That should make you feel special If someone is willing to take you on That didn't have to You should feel really special and honored that that person took you on Adoption is a great thing Now, look I've preached against adoption in the past But I want to make it clear I only am against baby picking Okay I'm against where these people go And they find someone that is giving birth And they pay them a $10,000 bounty to basically steal their child away from them That's not really adoption That's baby picking in my opinion Okay I don't think you should do that But you know what? The parents that are just wicked and just hand their kids off to somebody And someone just chooses to love them and take them on That's great That's wonderful I'm not against that That's really what God did with us When you think about it God didn't have to love you He chose to love you God was not obligated to love you He chose to love you You didn't start off a child of God You became a child of God Through God choosing you God chose you and God loved you And He wanted to adopt you into His family Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in how many places in Christ According to Him that has chosen us and Him before the foundation of the world That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love Having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself According to the good pleasure of His will To the praise of the glory of His grace Where He hath made us accepted and indeed beloved So again modern day adoption They let fags and trannies just take kids and put them into sex trafficking And abuse them and molest them And a lot of these rich celebrities instead of having kids themselves They just baby pick from all these different countries So the virtue signal about how they're not racist They go to Africa and get their little token African baby To just pontificate and showcase how they're so spiritual And look even Baptist churches do this Where they basically have us for no more And then they glorify the fact that they adopted some kid in Africa or something But it's not really that they just love that child and wanted to choose that child It's that they want a virtue signal about how much more righteous they are than everybody else And the mom wants to be skinny so she doesn't want to have any more kids and ruin her body anymore So she's on birth control killing her own children And then pontificating how she rescued some kid from Haiti or rescued some kid from Africa or whatever Look I'm against that You know what? Just because I'm against that doesn't mean that adoption is bad Adoption is wonderful Adoption is great Because you know what? That's what God did to us And God's not trying to virtue signal God's not just trying to have us as a showcase We're not even a showcase anyways There's nothing to brag about us anyways God just genuinely loves you And that's what adoption should be Adoption should be a child that's just chosen to be loved and to take on And the parents just want them And they're willing to take on that burden And look children are a burden We were a burden There was a cost associated with it Jesus had to pay a pretty big penalty A pretty big fine, a pretty big bounty A pretty big ransom as the Bible describes it for us Go to Romans chapter 8 I'm almost finished this evening Point number one We should choose to love those who have been adopted in our family But number two If you've been adopted you should choose to love them back And you know that's the beauty of the gospel That you can be saved and not even love God back You know what? You should If you love me keep my commandments But here's the thing You don't have to love Jesus Christ back to get saved All you have to do is accept the free gift of adoption And now that you're in the family, you're in the family period You know what? As a new adopted child of God You should choose to love God back And you know what? You should choose to love your brothers and sisters That you just made All the family that you're in And at the end of the day We're all adopted kids So we can't give anybody No one was a natural born child No one's Only Jesus And you know what? Thank God that Jesus Isn't going to rub our nose in it He's going to say hey we're joy heirs He's going to be such a great sibling isn't he? Isn't he a great brother? I mean you already have the greatest brother ever And you know what? We shouldn't be mean to our other brothers and sisters in Christ Look at Romans chapter number 8 Look at verse 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God They are the sons of God For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear That you receive the Spirit of adoption Whereby we cry Abba Father Now this is really special when we think about it And I liken this into the carnal illustration too You get adopted by someone that's not your dad But then what's the Spirit of adoption? Call him dad And you know what? God wasn't our father in a sense But then when we became the children of God Now he's father And that's what we should call him He's our heavenly father We now have the Spirit of adoption where we cry Abba Father We don't look at God the father as a stepfather We don't say heavenly stepfather We say heavenly father because he's now our father And we embrace the new relationship We choose to love him back We don't look at it as a second rate relationship We look at it as a first rate relationship And we say Abba Father There's your Hebrew in the Bible There's your one Abba Verse 16 The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit That we are the children of God And if children then heirs of God And joint heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with them That we may be also glorified together Look if God's going to treat me like a natural born son If Jesus is going to treat me like a natural born brother And I literally am because I'm a joint heir I mean the relationship I've given full status Then I should look back and I should say Well then you're my full status father And you're my full status brother And you know what if you've done to the least of these my brethren You've done it unto me You should treat your brothers and sisters in Christ the same way Your whole family Go to Proverbs 29 last place of return 1 John chapter 3 Beloved now are we the sons of God And it does not yet appear what we shall be We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him For we shall see him as he is Look we are the sons of God We don't know exactly what it's going to look like You know we're not in our glorified state We don't have those things but Point number one To mixed families You should just choose to love your mixed family And number two when you are entered into a new mixed family And people are showing you love you should love them back You should embrace the new relationship You should embrace that situation Because at the end of the day we're all adopted We're all adopted And you say well how can someone not be part of the family And become part of the family Well look what it says in Proverbs 29 verse 21 He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child To have him become his son At the link Notice the relationship changed Because he showed him love And you know what you should love him back And then you become his son Look don't get so fixated on all the realistic natural sibling relationship Who cares about that stuff The Bible is full of crazy scenarios You know everybody should be on Jerry Springer in the Bible basically Okay He's not the father he is the father you know he is the brother And look from a spiritual sense we're all it's a mixed family You shouldn't If you're in a mixed family Great because you're all in a mixed family spiritually no matter what Oh I'm in a natural family Oh well that doesn't matter You're not better than anybody else No that doesn't make you more special God doesn't love you a little extra And you know what whoever you find in your life Whether it be carnal or spiritual family You should just love them and love them back Let's close in prayer Thank you Heavenly Father for adopting us That we can be children of God I pray that we would look at the example you set Of how you embrace children that were not yours You adopt children that are not yours That you treat them like your son You treat them you know as part of the family And that the example of your son That he's were joint heirs with him And the love that he has for us and his brethren and his sisters He's not even ashamed to call us brethren Even though of all the shameful acts we did We sent him to the cross and he's not ashamed to call us brethren He loved us and he's washed us in his blood to present us back to you And he's excited for us to all be united as one big family I pray that we would just get that spirit of adoption Deep in our hearts We cry Abba Father In Jesus name we pray Amen Amen with that let's go ahead and sing one more song Before we head out tonight Go ahead and take out your hymnals To song number 56 When we all get to heaven Great reminder where we're all going Amen Song number 56 When we all get to heaven Sing the wondrous love of Jesus Sing his mercy and his grace In the mansions bright and blessed He'll prepare for us a place When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory While we walk the pilgrim path When clouds will always spread the sky But when traveling days are over Not a shadow, not a sign When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Let us then be true and faithful Trusting, serving every day Just one glimpse of him in glory Will the tours of life repay When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory Onward to the prize before us Soon his beauty will behold Soon the pearly gates will open We shall tread the streets of gold When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all see Jesus We'll sing and shout the victory When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all get to heaven What a day of rejoicing that will be When we all get to heaven