WEBVTT 00:00.180 --> 00:02.880 Okay, we're in Genesis chapter 26 this evening. 00:03.040 --> 00:04.720 We're continuing with our Bible study in the book of Genesis. 00:05.640 --> 00:11.140 And in this particular chapter, we have somewhat of a repetition of what took place in the days 00:11.140 --> 00:13.500 of Abraham, specifically in the matter of a famine. 00:13.640 --> 00:17.440 We see in verse number one, it says, there was a famine in the land beside the first 00:17.440 --> 00:20.100 famine that was in the days of Abraham. 00:20.540 --> 00:24.440 And Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Giroir. 00:24.440 --> 00:28.780 And the first point I want to make here is that famines exist in the will of 00:28.780 --> 00:29.080 God. 00:29.640 --> 00:33.260 We have Isaac, he's in the will of God, he's serving the Lord. 00:33.760 --> 00:39.300 He's geographically in the will of God because he's in the promised land that he had given 00:39.300 --> 00:40.640 to his father. 00:41.240 --> 00:42.880 And of course, he's fulfilling the will of God. 00:43.020 --> 00:44.680 He's doing that which God has called him to do. 00:45.240 --> 00:52.420 But yet we see a famine taking place, a time of need, a time of difficulty where food 00:52.420 --> 00:53.060 is scarce. 00:53.520 --> 00:55.520 And so we have an issue here. 00:55.520 --> 00:59.620 And what Isaac decides to do is he decides to go to Egypt. 00:59.760 --> 01:03.440 Now he doesn't make it all the way to Egypt because God stops him and he ends up dwelling 01:03.440 --> 01:05.700 in Giroir for quite some time. 01:06.040 --> 01:10.660 But the point that I want to make here is that just because a famine comes along, it doesn't 01:10.660 --> 01:12.780 necessarily mean that you're not in the will of God, right? 01:13.380 --> 01:19.540 Just because needs arise, just because difficulties arise, just because hard situations come 01:19.540 --> 01:23.300 up, it doesn't mean you're not right with God, it doesn't mean that God's 01:23.300 --> 01:24.240 not blessing you. 01:24.240 --> 01:26.940 It doesn't mean that God's hand is not on you. 01:27.260 --> 01:28.940 It just means there's a famine, okay? 01:29.340 --> 01:31.760 Sometimes famines exist for a variety of reasons. 01:32.180 --> 01:35.780 You have situations come up where maybe you're low on funds. 01:35.920 --> 01:38.740 Maybe you are low on certain needs that you have. 01:38.940 --> 01:39.960 The bills aren't getting paid. 01:40.260 --> 01:44.180 And maybe it's just an opportunity for you to step out in faith, to pray, to work. 01:44.560 --> 01:47.940 And God wants to show himself strong on your behalf, okay? 01:48.460 --> 01:52.820 And so it's important for us that when we experience a famine, which of course at 01:52.820 --> 01:55.760 this particular time, no one knows what a famine is, right? 01:56.180 --> 02:00.340 We have more than three square meals, okay? 02:00.520 --> 02:05.100 And obviously the Bible tells us, I've not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed 02:05.100 --> 02:05.700 begging bread. 02:06.160 --> 02:10.140 And with that in mind, we need to make sure that when we experience a time of need, 02:10.580 --> 02:14.500 it's an indication to us that we need to have faith in God, look for 02:14.500 --> 02:19.340 opportunities to serve God and to be provided for while not disobeying the 02:19.340 --> 02:19.900 Lord, right? 02:20.220 --> 02:24.360 Not going out of the promised land, leaving the boundaries of God's will. 02:24.840 --> 02:29.300 And keep in mind that Girard, though it's a little further from where Isaac and 02:29.300 --> 02:33.580 Abraham were, it's still geographically in that same region that's considered 02:33.580 --> 02:34.280 the promised land. 02:34.920 --> 02:37.740 You know, Isaac would have done wrong to go to Egypt, okay? 02:38.440 --> 02:41.680 Egypt in the Bible is a picture of the world, it's a picture of the world 02:41.680 --> 02:42.060 system. 02:42.600 --> 02:46.560 And often it's a picture of, you know, when a believer goes there, 02:46.560 --> 02:50.460 it kind of indicates that this person is backslidden or they're having a relapse 02:50.460 --> 02:50.980 of faith. 02:51.500 --> 02:54.080 And we had this in times past with Abraham, right? 02:54.480 --> 02:58.500 There was a famine, he goes to Egypt and of course he ends up picking up 02:58.500 --> 03:03.880 Hagar there, he took his nephew there, he ended up developing an Egyptian 03:03.880 --> 03:07.700 appetite, so to speak, which worked against them later on. 03:08.080 --> 03:12.200 And so obviously you can go to Egypt, you can get out of the church, 03:12.700 --> 03:16.060 get out of the will of God in order to provide for your needs because 03:16.060 --> 03:19.680 life is just so hard, but just know this, it's going to come at the cost, 03:19.860 --> 03:20.080 right? 03:20.520 --> 03:22.020 There's a price to be paid. 03:22.520 --> 03:27.680 And so God does not want Isaac to repeat that same mistake that his father 03:27.680 --> 03:29.660 made by going down into Egypt. 03:30.060 --> 03:35.600 So he commands him to not go to Egypt and to stay, or at least 03:36.260 --> 03:40.040 geographically, still stay in that same promised land region known as 03:40.040 --> 03:40.400 Girard. 03:40.560 --> 03:43.420 It says in verse number two, the Lord appeared unto him and said, 03:43.420 --> 03:48.200 Go not down into Egypt, dwell on the land which I shall tell thee of. 03:48.380 --> 03:52.220 So God already knows, I know where you're going, you know, you're going down, 03:52.480 --> 03:52.640 right? 03:52.740 --> 03:57.040 Because Egypt is directionally south and spiritually south as well. 03:57.480 --> 03:59.640 He knows that's where he's going, he knows that's where he's headed, 03:59.980 --> 04:03.160 and so he speaks to him and he tells him, don't go there, 04:03.560 --> 04:06.260 dwell in Girard, keep the commandment of the Lord. 04:06.400 --> 04:09.980 Because he says there, dwell on the land which I shall tell thee of. 04:10.240 --> 04:10.460 Okay? 04:10.920 --> 04:13.640 And it's important for us as Christians that when we're going through 04:14.180 --> 04:18.220 a tribulation, a trial, a time of famine, we allow God to continue to speak 04:18.220 --> 04:20.020 to us through his word, right? 04:20.720 --> 04:25.740 We allow God, and we listen to God by reading the Bible and not get off 04:25.740 --> 04:29.820 kilter and off track, you know, we still need to adhere to the statutes 04:29.820 --> 04:33.600 and the commandments of the Lord in order to gain proper direction 04:34.120 --> 04:35.960 for the decisions that we have to make, right? 04:36.680 --> 04:40.440 And so, you know, the Lord tells Isaac not to go 04:40.440 --> 04:44.140 to Egypt and so, you know, famines exist in the will of God and just 04:44.140 --> 04:47.120 know that even when there's famines, God can still provide, right? 04:47.220 --> 04:50.760 He has them dwell in Girard and as we're going to see later, he ends 04:50.760 --> 04:51.420 up blessing them. 04:51.560 --> 04:55.120 I mean, he, you know, ends up having exceeding many flocks 04:55.120 --> 04:58.220 and possessions and he sows and he reaps. 04:58.340 --> 05:01.520 I mean, God blesses them in a tremendous way in Girard showing 05:01.520 --> 05:05.200 us that even if there is a famine, God can still bless us. 05:05.480 --> 05:06.880 He can still provide for us. 05:06.880 --> 05:10.920 The principle there is that if we seek first the kingdom of God and his 05:10.920 --> 05:14.520 righteousness, these things, and of course, Matthew 6, when it says 05:14.520 --> 05:17.320 these things is referring to the food and raiment, these things 05:17.320 --> 05:18.840 shall be added unto you, okay? 05:19.480 --> 05:22.820 But it takes faith and here's how you step out in faith. 05:22.960 --> 05:24.520 You stay in the promise land, okay? 05:25.360 --> 05:28.560 Do as God tells you to do and you stay in the promise land. 05:28.760 --> 05:32.520 And so, you know, don't allow the famines, the trials 05:32.520 --> 05:36.080 and the difficulties, the necessities of life to demonstrate 05:36.080 --> 05:39.080 to you that somehow, oh man, you just need to make a drastic 05:39.080 --> 05:39.600 decision. 05:39.760 --> 05:41.540 You need to just get out of church. 05:41.660 --> 05:45.120 You just need to get a third job that it will take you out 05:45.120 --> 05:45.420 of church. 05:45.540 --> 05:46.760 You just need to make sure you do this. 05:47.080 --> 05:49.620 You know, when you start thinking that way and you don't 05:49.620 --> 05:52.720 allow the word of God to kind of, you know, determine 05:52.720 --> 05:54.740 your direction, you're going to go down. 05:54.860 --> 05:55.880 You're going to go down into Egypt. 05:56.300 --> 05:57.320 You're going to pick up baggage. 05:57.600 --> 05:58.420 You're going to get a Hagar. 05:58.920 --> 06:01.440 You're going to develop, you know, worldly appetites 06:01.440 --> 06:04.400 in your children, in your nephews or whoever's with 06:04.400 --> 06:07.400 you and you're going to pay for it in the long run, okay? 06:08.120 --> 06:11.360 And so God provides in Girar, he shows himself strong. 06:11.920 --> 06:14.700 And then what we see here, so that's verses two, 06:14.860 --> 06:17.820 all the way to six, of course, we have God reiterating 06:17.820 --> 06:20.780 the promises to Isaac that he gave to his father. 06:21.420 --> 06:25.080 Skip down to verse six, verse seven, excuse me. 06:25.740 --> 06:30.020 Now he goes to Girar, but unfortunately he continues 06:30.020 --> 06:33.480 to attempt to repeat the same sins of his father. 06:34.100 --> 06:37.300 So the first attempt was when he tried to go to Egypt, right? 06:37.880 --> 06:41.920 God stopped him, but then he repeats another mistake 06:41.920 --> 06:44.720 that his father made, which is lying, okay? 06:44.840 --> 06:45.760 There's actually two sins. 06:45.900 --> 06:47.060 One of them is that he lies. 06:47.840 --> 06:51.000 And the second one is that he's a coward, okay? 06:51.680 --> 06:52.600 Look at verse seven. 06:53.400 --> 06:56.320 It says, in the men of the place asked him of his wife 06:56.900 --> 07:00.680 and he said, she is my sister, for he feared to say 07:00.680 --> 07:04.280 she is my wife, lest said he, the men of the place 07:04.280 --> 07:07.500 should kill me for Rebecca because she was fair to look upon. 07:08.220 --> 07:09.820 You're like, oh man, this is bad, you know? 07:10.300 --> 07:12.240 Yeah, it is pretty bad, especially considering that, 07:12.280 --> 07:16.260 you know, at least Abraham was telling a half truth, right? 07:16.820 --> 07:18.860 You know, when Abraham said this of his wife, Sarah, 07:19.480 --> 07:21.420 he, you know, he was being deceptive, 07:21.420 --> 07:23.220 but there was still a little bit of truth to it 07:23.220 --> 07:25.140 because it was his half sister. 07:25.700 --> 07:26.760 That was kind of weird, but you know, 07:26.860 --> 07:28.160 that was just what they did, you know? 07:28.160 --> 07:32.260 The son of, excuse me, the daughter of his father. 07:32.800 --> 07:34.120 And so, but in this particular case, 07:34.200 --> 07:35.980 this is not true at all, okay? 07:36.600 --> 07:39.860 You know, Rebecca, I think she's like a cousin removed 07:39.860 --> 07:41.400 or something like that, second cousin removed, 07:41.460 --> 07:44.040 I don't remember exactly how that stated, 07:44.480 --> 07:46.240 but it's definitely not his sister. 07:46.560 --> 07:47.920 So he just blatantly lies. 07:48.300 --> 07:49.660 Now, what's the principle that we can learn here? 07:49.960 --> 07:51.240 You know, what we do in moderation, 07:51.900 --> 07:53.280 our children can often do in excess. 07:53.960 --> 07:56.660 Our followers, our children can often do in excess. 07:56.660 --> 07:59.400 If we provide a bad example, you know, 07:59.460 --> 08:01.680 it is likely the percentage is higher 08:01.680 --> 08:04.940 for our children to repeat those same mistakes as well. 08:05.360 --> 08:07.700 And you know, where did Isaac get this idea anyways? 08:08.560 --> 08:10.700 Where did he get this idea to say, 08:10.940 --> 08:13.120 Rebecca's my sister, if not from his father 08:13.120 --> 08:15.600 who said this about Sarah, okay? 08:16.180 --> 08:19.640 So, you know, they're asking him of his wife 08:20.160 --> 08:22.740 and instead of saying like, yeah, this is my wife. 08:23.600 --> 08:25.700 And you know what, let me just be honest with you, 08:25.700 --> 08:29.120 it's better for you to just to tell the truth, be honest 08:29.620 --> 08:32.800 and not allow your imagination to just run wild with you, 08:32.840 --> 08:33.000 right? 08:33.700 --> 08:35.860 Because, you know, we don't really know 08:35.860 --> 08:39.040 if anything was really gonna happen to Isaac, okay? 08:39.360 --> 08:40.280 They could have been like, oh, am I bad? 08:40.860 --> 08:42.460 You know, good looking wife, you know? 08:43.060 --> 08:44.640 You got to, you pick a winner, like, 08:44.740 --> 08:47.720 hey, you hit the lottery, good for you or something. 08:48.020 --> 08:49.920 But the first reaction he had is just like, 08:50.040 --> 08:50.560 she's my sister. 08:50.920 --> 08:51.960 And then he tells Rebecca like, 08:52.040 --> 08:53.060 hey, I don't want these guys to kill me, 08:53.060 --> 08:54.780 so I need you to kind of play along with this, okay? 08:55.340 --> 08:57.100 You know, apparently she's fair to look upon. 08:57.220 --> 09:00.140 When it says fair to look upon means that she is attractive, 09:00.720 --> 09:03.720 she's beautiful and Isaac recognizes that 09:04.240 --> 09:05.460 along with the men of Girard 09:05.460 --> 09:07.860 and this is why they're in the situation that they're in. 09:07.940 --> 09:09.320 Verse eight says, and it came to pass 09:09.860 --> 09:11.640 when he had been there a long time 09:12.160 --> 09:14.680 that a bimilek, king of the Philistines looked out 09:14.680 --> 09:16.240 at a window and saw him, behold, 09:16.800 --> 09:18.900 Isaac was sporting with Rebecca, his wife. 09:19.100 --> 09:21.460 Now, this bimilek is not the same bimilek 09:21.460 --> 09:24.580 that his father Abraham had encountered years before. 09:25.140 --> 09:26.800 It's a different a bimilek. 09:26.920 --> 09:28.760 Bimilek simply means father of a king. 09:29.180 --> 09:31.980 It's kind of used as a term to identify 09:31.980 --> 09:33.040 somewhat of an office. 09:33.620 --> 09:34.840 So this is a different a bimilek. 09:35.320 --> 09:37.080 And what we have here is that, you know, 09:37.400 --> 09:38.700 he's there for a long time. 09:38.800 --> 09:40.140 They're keeping up this charade, 09:40.460 --> 09:42.420 this lie that this is his sister. 09:43.040 --> 09:44.020 It's not his wife. 09:44.340 --> 09:47.280 But then a bimilek, he's looking outside of a window 09:47.730 --> 09:49.060 and the Bible says here that Isaac 09:49.060 --> 09:50.480 is sporting with Rebecca's wife. 09:50.480 --> 09:52.000 This doesn't mean they're playing soccer. 09:52.760 --> 09:54.860 Okay, they're not practicing the World Cup. 09:54.980 --> 09:57.140 They're not playing football or something like that. 09:57.780 --> 10:00.780 Sporting means like he's playing with her, okay? 10:01.420 --> 10:04.740 And the implication here is that, you know, 10:05.020 --> 10:06.880 he's basically, you know, 10:07.160 --> 10:09.320 he's basically just making out with his wife possibly. 10:09.480 --> 10:10.660 We don't know exactly what. 10:11.160 --> 10:13.240 But obviously whatever he was doing 10:13.240 --> 10:15.280 with his wife out in public that was appropriate, 10:15.860 --> 10:17.800 you know, it let a bimilek know like, 10:17.800 --> 10:18.940 hey, wait a minute, you know, 10:19.300 --> 10:21.080 you guys are not siblings, okay? 10:21.600 --> 10:22.700 Because siblings don't do that 10:22.700 --> 10:24.720 except for in the South, no offense, Ben, you know? 10:25.600 --> 10:28.520 You know, this is not a regular occurrence here. 10:28.820 --> 10:31.160 So obviously sporting means that he is being 10:31.840 --> 10:33.380 physically affectionate with his wife, 10:33.940 --> 10:36.240 not just a hug, not just a kiss on the cheek. 10:36.380 --> 10:38.180 Obviously there's other things going on there 10:38.180 --> 10:41.540 that a bimilek is like, okay, bro, the jig is up. 10:41.600 --> 10:43.900 Okay, I know that this is not your sister, 10:44.000 --> 10:44.600 it must be your wife. 10:45.400 --> 10:46.300 And you know, it's good. 10:46.300 --> 10:48.120 I'm glad Isaac is, you know, 10:48.360 --> 10:50.620 being affectionate towards his wife as he should, 10:51.120 --> 10:52.360 as all husbands should. 10:53.020 --> 10:54.760 Verse nine says an abimilek called Isaac 10:54.760 --> 10:57.200 and said, behold, of a surety, she is thy wife. 10:58.000 --> 10:58.840 And I'll say this to you, 10:58.860 --> 11:00.720 she is my sister and Isaac said unto him, 11:01.040 --> 11:03.940 because I said, lest I die for her. 11:04.520 --> 11:05.820 And abimilek said, oh, you know, 11:05.940 --> 11:07.740 she's like, lest I die for her, oh man. 11:08.380 --> 11:09.140 What does this say? 11:09.200 --> 11:10.100 It's like cowardice. 11:10.260 --> 11:11.140 He was like, well, you know, 11:11.840 --> 11:13.160 you are the savior of the body. 11:13.320 --> 11:14.480 You should probably should have just died for her 11:14.480 --> 11:15.040 if that was the case. 11:15.380 --> 11:16.720 Verse 10 says an abimilek said, 11:17.380 --> 11:18.800 what is this that thou has done unto us? 11:19.280 --> 11:22.940 One of the people might lightly have lying with thy wife 11:23.320 --> 11:25.800 and now should have brought guiltiness upon us. 11:26.320 --> 11:27.640 So this kind of shows us that, you know, 11:27.680 --> 11:31.000 when we decide to deceive and to lie, 11:31.600 --> 11:33.920 to save our rear ends, okay, 11:34.360 --> 11:35.980 just know that it could end up 11:35.980 --> 11:37.900 affecting other people as well, right? 11:38.480 --> 11:40.360 Because abimilek, he's not necessarily 11:40.360 --> 11:42.600 a righteous person as in he's a believer. 11:43.320 --> 11:44.840 He's not a believer in the God of the Bible, 11:45.240 --> 11:48.160 but he's obviously somewhat of a moral man to the degree 11:48.160 --> 11:51.040 that he understands that adultery is wrong, right? 11:51.480 --> 11:52.980 That it's wicked, it's wrong. 11:53.280 --> 11:54.580 And he's specifically saying here, 11:54.720 --> 11:58.440 like your deception could have cost us guiltiness. 11:58.560 --> 12:00.280 We could have gotten a lot of trouble for this. 12:00.660 --> 12:03.200 You know, guiltiness could have come upon us. 12:03.720 --> 12:05.960 And obviously, I don't know if this is the case. 12:06.040 --> 12:09.560 It seems to imply this that maybe there was a law 12:09.560 --> 12:13.380 within Girar that adulterers were put to death, okay? 12:13.800 --> 12:14.360 How do we know that? 12:14.420 --> 12:16.640 Because it says in verse 11, abimilek charged all his people 12:16.640 --> 12:18.680 saying he that touched this man's wife, 12:19.040 --> 12:21.980 this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. 12:22.060 --> 12:25.020 And I do think that that is in the context of adultery. 12:25.660 --> 12:28.220 We don't know for sure that that's what the case is 12:28.220 --> 12:30.160 as far as the laws in Girar are concerned, 12:30.540 --> 12:34.320 but this man obviously understood this is a grievous sin. 12:34.740 --> 12:38.080 It's a criminal act and your lie could have got us 12:38.080 --> 12:40.500 in a lot of trouble because someone could have slept 12:40.500 --> 12:42.420 with your wife, committed adultery with your wife, 12:42.600 --> 12:44.160 not knowing she was your wife, 12:44.500 --> 12:46.920 and they could have suffered the consequences because of that. 12:47.460 --> 12:51.500 It says in verse 12, then Isaac sowed in that land 12:52.140 --> 12:55.060 and received in the same year a hundredfold 12:55.060 --> 12:57.260 and the Lord blessed him. 12:58.000 --> 12:59.520 So this kind of shows us again, 12:59.900 --> 13:01.860 kind of what we saw with Abraham in times past 13:02.440 --> 13:04.440 that there's people that can be blessed 13:04.440 --> 13:06.680 despite the fact that they have some serious flaws, 13:07.580 --> 13:11.040 and I would say that that's the reason I've been blessed. 13:11.640 --> 13:12.880 That's the reason our church has been blessed. 13:13.140 --> 13:14.360 That's the reason you've been blessed 13:14.360 --> 13:16.480 is because of the fact it's not because we're perfect. 13:16.780 --> 13:18.040 It's not because we're great. 13:18.360 --> 13:20.560 It's not because we have no flaws. 13:20.840 --> 13:21.940 It's because God is great. 13:22.020 --> 13:22.940 He's gracious to us. 13:23.080 --> 13:27.160 He's merciful and we are all he has to work with. 13:27.580 --> 13:29.720 And so don't think, oh man, 13:30.040 --> 13:31.840 I'm being blessed because I'm such a great guy. 13:32.000 --> 13:33.640 No, often it's God just blessing 13:33.640 --> 13:36.820 despite those attributes, despite those characteristics, 13:37.220 --> 13:37.900 despite those flaws. 13:38.040 --> 13:40.200 Because Isaac is clearly just, he's a coward. 13:40.980 --> 13:43.580 He has the propensity to lie just like his father. 13:44.020 --> 13:46.680 But yet because he sowed there, God was with him. 13:47.140 --> 13:49.240 He allowed him to reap a great harvest. 13:49.400 --> 13:51.160 He sowed in that land, it says in verse 12, 13:51.900 --> 13:54.960 and received in the same year a hundredfold 13:54.960 --> 13:55.940 the Lord blessed him. 13:56.400 --> 13:57.940 Verse 13, the man waxed great, 13:58.420 --> 13:59.740 meaning he grew to be great, 14:00.260 --> 14:04.020 and went forward and grew until he became very great. 14:04.580 --> 14:06.220 So this is a verse indicating 14:06.220 --> 14:08.460 that Isaac is becoming very successful. 14:09.160 --> 14:11.400 He has a lot of possessions in the midst of the famine, 14:11.540 --> 14:12.200 by the way, right? 14:12.620 --> 14:13.580 There's a famine going on. 14:14.320 --> 14:15.000 He's succeeding. 14:15.820 --> 14:17.000 He has a great harvest. 14:17.440 --> 14:18.380 He's growing great. 14:18.560 --> 14:19.920 It says he's going forward. 14:20.400 --> 14:21.140 You know, he's progressing. 14:21.680 --> 14:22.620 The Lord is with him. 14:22.800 --> 14:23.520 Everything's going great. 14:24.040 --> 14:27.300 Verse 14 says for he had great possessions of flocks 14:27.700 --> 14:31.140 and possession of herds and great store of servants 14:31.860 --> 14:33.200 and the Philistines envied him. 14:33.520 --> 14:35.580 So aside from the fact that he has, 14:35.700 --> 14:38.540 he's multiplying his possessions, his harvest, 14:39.000 --> 14:40.360 things of that nature, you know, 14:40.480 --> 14:42.200 he even has people working for him. 14:42.540 --> 14:44.720 So he's a man of great stature. 14:45.140 --> 14:46.560 He's a man of great influence. 14:46.820 --> 14:49.080 Obviously he's building somewhat of an enterprise there 14:49.080 --> 14:51.660 in Girard, and you know, the Lord is with him. 14:51.780 --> 14:53.460 Now, what is the result? 14:54.040 --> 14:58.840 What happens when you begin to succeed financially, 14:59.660 --> 15:02.040 spiritually, or in any manner of life? 15:02.140 --> 15:02.960 What's gonna happen? 15:03.520 --> 15:05.480 Well, we see here in verse 14 15:06.060 --> 15:09.880 that the Philistines envied Isaac, okay? 15:10.540 --> 15:12.180 You can't have some success 15:12.180 --> 15:14.920 without a little bit of friction with others, right? 15:16.100 --> 15:18.060 Someone is gonna view your success. 15:18.320 --> 15:19.480 They're gonna look at what you're doing. 15:19.820 --> 15:21.700 They're gonna look at the raise that you got. 15:21.700 --> 15:24.140 They're gonna look at the amount of souls that you've won. 15:24.320 --> 15:26.520 They're gonna look at the success that you're experiencing, 15:26.760 --> 15:29.540 the spiritual success, monetary success, whatever it may be. 15:30.060 --> 15:31.840 And they are going to envy you 15:32.460 --> 15:35.020 because success in others, in some, 15:35.280 --> 15:37.940 produces envy in others, okay? 15:38.540 --> 15:40.300 And you know what, you can't expect to succeed 15:40.300 --> 15:42.440 in any area of life without having some haters. 15:43.440 --> 15:46.120 That's just the common denominator there 15:46.120 --> 15:47.460 that's always gonna take place. 15:47.780 --> 15:49.900 You're always gonna have someone envying you 15:49.900 --> 15:51.720 for the things that you do. 15:52.040 --> 15:52.700 And what is envy? 15:52.900 --> 15:57.060 Envy is when someone feels a sense of discontentment 15:57.780 --> 16:01.000 and maybe even some anger over the success of others. 16:01.340 --> 16:03.640 They want someone else's success. 16:03.820 --> 16:07.920 They want their success. 16:08.220 --> 16:09.720 They want their position. 16:10.300 --> 16:11.400 They want what they have. 16:11.700 --> 16:12.820 They want their status. 16:13.240 --> 16:13.940 That's what they want. 16:14.180 --> 16:16.260 And so they have this envy in their heart 16:16.260 --> 16:17.080 towards that individual. 16:17.600 --> 16:20.060 Not because that individual got it unrighteously. 16:20.560 --> 16:25.200 Not because, oh, this person just got there by wicked means. 16:25.520 --> 16:26.580 It's just because they're lazy. 16:28.320 --> 16:30.680 An envious person is a lazy individual, my friends. 16:31.460 --> 16:33.800 And obviously, you know, there's a spectrum. 16:34.400 --> 16:35.340 There's people who are just lazy. 16:35.540 --> 16:36.880 There's people who are extremely lazy 16:36.880 --> 16:37.780 and extremely wicked. 16:38.480 --> 16:40.420 Point being is that they're envious. 16:40.940 --> 16:41.620 And you know what? 16:41.840 --> 16:44.500 This is gonna happen in a successful marriage. 16:44.660 --> 16:46.780 It's gonna happen in a successful church. 16:46.780 --> 16:48.620 It's gonna happen with successful Christians. 16:48.860 --> 16:50.200 It's gonna happen at your job. 16:50.320 --> 16:52.980 You're always going to have haters, okay? 16:53.480 --> 16:55.900 Who don't like the success that you are experiencing 16:55.900 --> 16:58.660 and you can't do anything about it, okay? 16:59.060 --> 17:00.580 There's nothing you can do about it 17:00.580 --> 17:02.320 because you can't change someone else's heart. 17:03.480 --> 17:05.900 Now, what we have to guard ourselves against 17:05.900 --> 17:10.220 is having envy over other people's success, right? 17:11.440 --> 17:14.400 We see someone being successful at our job, 17:15.280 --> 17:18.440 in their finances, in their marriage, or spiritually, 17:18.560 --> 17:20.120 whatever it may be, at their church. 17:20.400 --> 17:23.880 We can't have this heart of envy, say, man. 17:24.100 --> 17:25.260 Well, I deserve that. 17:25.540 --> 17:27.160 Why does that person get to have that? 17:27.320 --> 17:30.000 Why does this person get to have this level of success, 17:30.340 --> 17:32.580 this level of attention, this much money, 17:32.880 --> 17:34.620 that kind of car, this, that, and the other, 17:34.800 --> 17:36.340 that kind of wife, that kind of husband? 17:36.500 --> 17:37.120 That's called envy. 17:37.780 --> 17:38.380 And we need to make sure 17:38.380 --> 17:39.900 that we protect ourselves against that. 17:40.610 --> 17:41.620 Because at the end of the day, 17:42.120 --> 17:47.320 envy is a sin that, yes, even Christians can fall into, right? 17:47.960 --> 17:50.560 You can have the propensity, because of our flesh, 17:50.980 --> 17:53.960 to envy other people over things that you don't have. 17:54.200 --> 17:56.100 And obviously, it's closely related to covetousness. 17:56.920 --> 17:58.940 Covetousness is more closely related to 17:59.680 --> 18:01.600 wanting the things that other people have. 18:02.100 --> 18:05.180 Envy has more to do with wanting to have 18:05.650 --> 18:07.760 their position, their status, okay? 18:08.500 --> 18:11.460 And so, we need to be aware of envy. 18:11.740 --> 18:13.480 It is the rottenness of the bones. 18:14.160 --> 18:16.260 And envy can drive people to cruelty. 18:16.540 --> 18:20.000 It can drive people to wrath, and anger, and slander, 18:20.380 --> 18:22.300 and all manner of wickedness, 18:22.320 --> 18:25.280 because of the fact that we have things, 18:25.540 --> 18:27.240 we accomplish things that they can't. 18:27.760 --> 18:29.460 Or they won't, okay? 18:30.700 --> 18:32.180 And to those who are envious, 18:32.900 --> 18:34.760 just get off your rear end and do something then. 18:35.260 --> 18:37.920 You know, if you don't like the success of others, 18:38.620 --> 18:40.580 okay, that's lame for not liking it, 18:40.900 --> 18:44.480 but if it's making you so angry, and upset, 18:44.820 --> 18:46.080 and discontent with yourself, 18:46.120 --> 18:49.120 because you just suck, then don't suck, 18:49.260 --> 18:51.640 and go do something extraordinary, right? 18:52.280 --> 18:54.540 Go put in the work, go, you know, 18:54.860 --> 18:56.380 and you know, I have people message me 18:56.380 --> 18:57.640 all the time on Instagram, 18:58.500 --> 19:00.880 and it's just amazing the kind of things 19:00.880 --> 19:02.220 that people are willing to message you, 19:03.560 --> 19:04.760 just embarrassing stuff. 19:05.640 --> 19:07.540 You know, oh, you don't deserve this kind of following. 19:08.420 --> 19:10.180 You know, you need to post this 19:10.180 --> 19:13.300 because this is what you have this following for. 19:13.680 --> 19:15.800 It's just like, well, why don't you grow your account 19:15.800 --> 19:17.440 to 180,000 followers, 19:17.700 --> 19:19.860 and then you can do what you want on that. 19:20.200 --> 19:21.740 Don't try to piggyback on me. 19:22.240 --> 19:23.500 Don't try to hate on me. 19:24.080 --> 19:25.400 Don't try to make me, you know, 19:25.520 --> 19:27.360 try to do what you want me to do with my account. 19:27.620 --> 19:29.640 And if you don't like the success that I'm experiencing, 19:30.060 --> 19:31.200 well, tough luck, stop sucking. 19:32.580 --> 19:37.620 Don't produce sucky material, you know, crappy content. 19:38.320 --> 19:39.800 You know, if you want that attention, 19:39.880 --> 19:41.020 if you want that amount of followers, 19:41.240 --> 19:43.540 you want the likes, you want the influence, 19:43.640 --> 19:44.360 then go do it. 19:44.420 --> 19:45.780 What's stopping you from doing it? 19:46.160 --> 19:49.160 Nothing other than your suckiness, okay? 19:50.020 --> 19:50.660 And it's true. 19:51.280 --> 19:52.640 It's absolutely true. 19:52.980 --> 19:54.920 You know, everyone is a Monday morning quarterback, 19:55.480 --> 19:57.900 you know, in, on social media. 19:58.600 --> 20:00.480 This is the way you should be doing it. 20:00.480 --> 20:02.340 You go on their account, two followers. 20:03.520 --> 20:05.080 This is how you should be stating that. 20:05.180 --> 20:07.720 You go on their account, five followers, 20 followers. 20:08.000 --> 20:09.180 Oh, I'm really gonna, you know, 20:09.400 --> 20:11.180 and then you have people that message you, 20:11.220 --> 20:12.300 and obviously some of these are bots. 20:12.820 --> 20:13.880 But you know, people message you, 20:13.920 --> 20:15.640 it's like, hey, you really wanna grow your account. 20:15.780 --> 20:16.940 Let me just show you how you can get it. 20:17.120 --> 20:19.200 You go on their account, 100 followers. 20:19.460 --> 20:19.900 Oh, great. 20:20.060 --> 20:20.980 I'm really gonna take advice 20:20.980 --> 20:22.900 from someone who has 100 followers or something, you know? 20:24.480 --> 20:26.020 It's called envy, okay? 20:27.000 --> 20:28.620 We need to guard ourselves from envy. 20:28.800 --> 20:29.680 And how do we do that? 20:30.280 --> 20:32.140 Well, obviously, you know, number one, 20:32.240 --> 20:34.040 we gotta learn contentment with what we have. 20:34.660 --> 20:36.640 And contentment in its simplest form 20:36.640 --> 20:41.180 is just being satisfied with the current state 20:41.180 --> 20:41.940 that you're in, right? 20:42.800 --> 20:44.380 Current finances that you have, 20:45.020 --> 20:47.000 this life situation that you're experiencing, 20:47.120 --> 20:48.080 the possessions you have. 20:48.500 --> 20:49.960 But you know what, just because you're satisfied 20:49.960 --> 20:51.340 doesn't mean you can't have more, 20:52.060 --> 20:54.800 or it doesn't mean you shouldn't aspire to have more, 20:54.980 --> 20:57.500 but you should be happy in whatsoever state you're in. 20:57.500 --> 20:59.220 That's what contentment is, right? 20:59.940 --> 21:02.180 So, you know, contentment is being satisfied 21:02.180 --> 21:03.280 with where you're at, 21:03.480 --> 21:07.460 but having the ambition to endeavor, to work hard, 21:07.500 --> 21:09.260 put in the effort to get more if you have to, 21:09.560 --> 21:10.220 if you want to. 21:10.940 --> 21:13.280 You know, if you have the aspirations 21:13.280 --> 21:16.320 to become greater, to make more money at your job, 21:16.700 --> 21:18.300 to have greater influence, 21:18.640 --> 21:21.680 just don't let it drive you to become an envious person, 21:22.060 --> 21:24.020 to compare yourself with others, 21:24.380 --> 21:26.940 to try to tear down others in order to elevate yourself. 21:27.860 --> 21:30.800 And look, I compare myself with my peers all the time. 21:31.400 --> 21:32.640 Yeah, you heard right, I do. 21:33.180 --> 21:34.660 But not to hate on them, 21:34.940 --> 21:37.780 but to glean wisdom from them, right? 21:38.120 --> 21:38.820 I compare myself to like, 21:38.840 --> 21:41.220 what am I doing that this person is doing 21:41.220 --> 21:43.340 that they're doing better, right? 21:43.820 --> 21:45.660 What am I doing in this particular area 21:45.660 --> 21:47.580 that maybe I'm not succeeding in, 21:47.880 --> 21:49.580 I need to look at what my past friends are doing, 21:49.800 --> 21:51.660 I need to look at what other people are doing online 21:52.080 --> 21:53.180 and kind of see what they're doing 21:53.180 --> 21:54.460 and kind of emulate that 21:55.060 --> 21:56.520 and not hate on them for it. 21:57.520 --> 21:58.100 That's safe. 21:58.420 --> 21:59.520 But you know, a lot of people are just like, 21:59.560 --> 22:01.420 well, let me just go ahead and tear them down 22:01.420 --> 22:02.920 to bring them down to my level 22:02.920 --> 22:05.120 since I can't climb the ladder of success. 22:05.960 --> 22:06.980 That's not right to do. 22:07.560 --> 22:08.940 That is a hater mentality. 22:09.560 --> 22:10.500 That's what envious people do. 22:10.920 --> 22:13.320 Envious people make, you know, 22:13.560 --> 22:17.440 Facebook groups hating on a particular successful movement. 22:17.880 --> 22:19.020 It's getting a lot of people saved, 22:19.320 --> 22:20.140 it's growing their churches, 22:20.380 --> 22:21.300 it has great preaching, 22:21.300 --> 22:22.760 it's getting a lot of influence out there. 22:23.180 --> 22:24.200 That's what envious people do 22:24.200 --> 22:25.720 because they can't do it, okay? 22:26.180 --> 22:27.600 You know, I'll give you this example. 22:28.040 --> 22:29.780 You know, a couple of months ago, 22:29.900 --> 22:30.800 I don't remember how long ago. 22:31.000 --> 22:33.140 You know, I did the podcast with the Hotch Twins, right? 22:34.480 --> 22:35.360 And it was an awesome podcast. 22:35.440 --> 22:36.360 I love the podcast. 22:36.940 --> 22:39.040 It was fun, a little random at times of course. 22:39.860 --> 22:41.680 You know, I went to a conference earlier this week 22:41.680 --> 22:42.920 and someone was like, I know you, 22:43.220 --> 22:44.860 you're from the Hotch Twins, you know? 22:45.300 --> 22:46.720 And I'm like, well, I'm from a church, 22:46.760 --> 22:48.840 but yes, I was on the Hotch Twins podcast. 22:49.320 --> 22:49.760 It was great. 22:49.760 --> 22:51.560 We got a lot of views. 22:51.800 --> 22:53.820 There's clips on there that hit over 100,000 views. 22:54.120 --> 22:55.320 It's great, it's awesome. 22:55.700 --> 22:56.980 And we even got people in church 22:56.980 --> 22:58.360 who were reached through the Hotch Twins. 22:58.920 --> 23:00.340 Okay, so it was great. 23:00.940 --> 23:02.680 But then you have, you know, a group of haters 23:03.580 --> 23:05.320 who because they can't influence anybody 23:05.320 --> 23:06.920 because they're just a bunch of weirdos, 23:07.500 --> 23:08.440 just a bunch of haters, 23:08.740 --> 23:10.480 they have to promote their garbage 23:10.480 --> 23:12.340 on the comments section of that podcast. 23:14.260 --> 23:14.660 Why? 23:14.800 --> 23:17.020 Because they have to use my audience and my influence 23:17.660 --> 23:20.680 in order to get, you know, in order to get an audience 23:21.100 --> 23:22.160 because they can't get it themselves 23:22.740 --> 23:26.040 because they're too weird, you know? 23:26.600 --> 23:31.020 They can't make a video that hits 100,000, 200,000, 23:31.040 --> 23:33.260 300,000, 500, a million views 23:33.720 --> 23:35.420 to get the word out because they just suck. 23:36.360 --> 23:38.200 So it's just like, well, out of envy, 23:38.380 --> 23:39.480 then we need to go on the comment section 23:39.480 --> 23:40.560 of this person's video, 23:40.920 --> 23:43.340 of this person's successful video 23:43.340 --> 23:44.860 and put it in the comment section, 23:44.860 --> 23:48.340 hey, go watch this stupid movie or whatever, all right? 23:49.440 --> 23:51.760 This gay movie that no one even cares about. 23:52.960 --> 23:54.000 And you go on the comment section, 23:54.240 --> 23:56.200 no one's giving them a thumbs up, 23:56.340 --> 23:57.760 no one's really acknowledging, they don't really care. 23:57.900 --> 24:00.180 They're just like, if anything, they're just like, 24:00.280 --> 24:01.620 well, what does this have to do with Jews, you know? 24:01.900 --> 24:05.160 Like, and in fact, I had someone contact me 24:05.160 --> 24:07.960 and said like, hey, I saw this movie, you're in it. 24:08.380 --> 24:10.000 And it seems to be like, you know, 24:10.860 --> 24:11.880 exposing some pastor, 24:12.940 --> 24:14.860 but honestly, I saw five minutes of it 24:14.860 --> 24:16.120 and I was just like, this looks stupid. 24:16.560 --> 24:17.980 Who didn't get spanked when they were younger? 24:18.460 --> 24:19.960 And they said, and they said this, 24:20.140 --> 24:21.620 I think it's a Jewish PSYOP too, 24:21.680 --> 24:23.780 because the director sounds Jewish. 24:25.380 --> 24:27.900 So like, I want nothing to do with it, you know? 24:29.020 --> 24:29.940 And these aren't new, I've even, 24:30.020 --> 24:30.780 these are people who have reached 24:30.780 --> 24:33.720 through these podcasts and stuff, you know? 24:34.040 --> 24:35.220 The point that I'm making here 24:35.220 --> 24:37.300 is that it comes with the territory. 24:37.540 --> 24:39.120 Envy comes with the territory. 24:39.780 --> 24:42.140 You just gotta make sure it's not on your end. 24:42.860 --> 24:44.900 You gotta make sure that you don't feel envy 24:45.400 --> 24:46.880 towards another team leader, 24:47.360 --> 24:49.580 towards another team, another family in our church, 24:50.020 --> 24:51.940 another marriage in our church, 24:52.500 --> 24:54.700 another, you know, Christian 24:54.700 --> 24:56.940 who's experiencing success in our church. 24:57.260 --> 24:58.980 You need to make sure you temper yourself 24:59.440 --> 25:02.400 and allow the success of others, 25:02.520 --> 25:07.220 listen to me, to provoke you to greater heights, okay? 25:07.880 --> 25:10.420 Allow other people to be an example unto you 25:10.420 --> 25:13.240 of what you should be trying out and doing, okay? 25:14.240 --> 25:17.400 And so success can often breed envy. 25:17.720 --> 25:19.880 The Philistines are envying this guy, 25:20.100 --> 25:21.920 you know, because of his wife, 25:22.260 --> 25:24.100 because of his possessions, 25:24.440 --> 25:26.100 his success that God is blessing him with. 25:26.540 --> 25:28.000 Look what it goes on to say here, 25:29.080 --> 25:32.760 verse 15, for all the wells which his father's servants 25:32.760 --> 25:34.740 had digged in the days of Abraham his father, 25:35.110 --> 25:37.060 the Philistines had stopped them 25:37.060 --> 25:38.560 and filled them with earth. 25:39.480 --> 25:40.720 So what does envy do? 25:40.900 --> 25:42.820 It causes people to not like you 25:42.820 --> 25:46.080 and then it also moves them to try to hinder your success. 25:47.100 --> 25:50.420 Try to fill up the common section with nonsense, 25:51.500 --> 25:53.920 with earth, with nonsense, right? 25:54.040 --> 25:58.480 With just bad content, with slander in lies and nonsense. 25:59.040 --> 26:00.160 This is what the Philistines are doing. 26:00.460 --> 26:02.600 So instead of, you know, the Philistines saying, 26:02.600 --> 26:05.440 you know what, maybe we should sew as much as he did. 26:06.400 --> 26:09.180 Maybe we should put in the work to be blessed of God. 26:09.460 --> 26:10.160 They're like, well, actually, 26:10.220 --> 26:12.780 why don't we just fill up these wells that belong to him 26:13.340 --> 26:15.000 with earth to hinder his success? 26:16.100 --> 26:16.900 It's godless. 26:18.640 --> 26:19.840 It says in verse 16, 26:21.960 --> 26:23.480 and by the way, I love verse 15 26:23.480 --> 26:24.520 because it says, for all the wells 26:24.520 --> 26:25.920 which his father's servants had digged 26:25.920 --> 26:26.900 in the days of Abraham his father. 26:27.200 --> 26:29.360 You know, obviously what Isaac is doing 26:29.860 --> 26:31.980 is he is utilizing the wells 26:31.980 --> 26:34.300 that were once dug by his forefathers, 26:34.380 --> 26:35.600 specifically by his dad, right? 26:36.400 --> 26:37.960 And I'll get more into that in just a bit. 26:38.140 --> 26:40.480 I love the concept of the wells being dug here. 26:40.940 --> 26:41.620 Verse 16 says, 26:41.720 --> 26:44.100 and Abimelech said unto Isaac, go from us, 26:45.060 --> 26:47.580 for thou art much mightier than we. 26:47.800 --> 26:48.840 And Isaac, the part of the fence, 26:49.300 --> 26:50.820 and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar 26:51.280 --> 26:52.140 and dwelt there. 26:52.300 --> 26:54.440 So, you know, we don't exactly know 26:54.440 --> 26:56.620 what Abimelech's intentions were here. 26:57.080 --> 26:59.800 We don't know if he also feels envy 27:00.340 --> 27:02.700 or if he agrees with the Philistines in this area. 27:03.440 --> 27:06.620 You know, he is removing Isaac from the land 27:07.060 --> 27:10.620 and he's using the pretext, oh, you're mightier than us, okay? 27:11.400 --> 27:13.020 And the reason I say we don't know 27:13.020 --> 27:14.400 is because towards the end of the story, 27:14.700 --> 27:17.340 he comes back and he wants to make peace with Isaac. 27:17.740 --> 27:19.260 And so it could be that he thought like, 27:19.300 --> 27:22.400 hey, you've just outgrown us, okay? 27:22.940 --> 27:25.060 You've outgrown us and so it's time for you to move on 27:25.580 --> 27:27.600 and get your own thing going on or whatever. 27:28.040 --> 27:28.820 And that would be good. 27:28.820 --> 27:33.480 But obviously, you know, we could infer into the text here 27:34.060 --> 27:37.040 that Abimelech was provoked or highly motivated 27:37.040 --> 27:38.760 by the Philistines who envied Isaac, 27:39.560 --> 27:41.160 probably like, and get this guy out of here, 27:41.300 --> 27:41.760 you know what I mean? 27:41.900 --> 27:45.300 We don't like this guy and he's sewing in our land, 27:45.420 --> 27:47.280 he's being successful, we don't like it. 27:47.760 --> 27:48.760 And so we see that. 27:48.900 --> 27:50.000 Look at verse 18. 27:50.700 --> 27:53.360 And Isaac digged again the wells of water 27:53.920 --> 27:56.480 which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father 27:56.930 --> 27:58.540 for the Philistines that stopped them 27:58.540 --> 27:59.760 after the death of Abraham. 28:00.520 --> 28:02.020 And he called their names after the names 28:02.020 --> 28:04.480 by which his father had called them. 28:04.640 --> 28:07.220 Now I love this concept because, you know, 28:07.380 --> 28:10.020 Abraham and his time put in a lot of work. 28:10.160 --> 28:13.520 I mean, it requires a great amount of work. 28:13.680 --> 28:16.500 It's very arduous to create wells and dig them, 28:16.900 --> 28:19.660 make them function in order to utilize them. 28:19.800 --> 28:21.140 And so, you know, water is life. 28:21.480 --> 28:23.760 You know, you need this for your livestock, 28:24.140 --> 28:25.340 your cattle, for yourself. 28:25.840 --> 28:27.240 And Abraham put in a lot of work. 28:27.680 --> 28:30.820 But the Philistines, because they're lame, you know, 28:31.120 --> 28:33.120 they obviously have ought against Abraham. 28:33.620 --> 28:35.060 They filled up the wells with earth. 28:35.180 --> 28:37.840 Instead of actually utilizing them, okay, 28:37.980 --> 28:39.360 they could have just used them. 28:40.000 --> 28:41.920 Instead, you know, they're being spiteful 28:42.500 --> 28:44.360 and they are filling up the wells with earth. 28:44.660 --> 28:48.040 So what does Isaac do after Abraham is long gone? 28:48.300 --> 28:49.760 He goes back to those wells again 28:49.760 --> 28:51.020 and begins to dig them up, right? 28:51.900 --> 28:53.540 And, you know, in a spiritual sense, 28:53.540 --> 28:55.680 the spiritual principle that we can learn here 28:56.380 --> 28:58.900 is that, you know, our spiritual forefathers, 28:59.080 --> 29:02.120 so to speak, you know, they fought a lot of battles. 29:02.960 --> 29:05.000 They dug many wells, right? 29:05.600 --> 29:08.000 And then you have these godless Philistines, 29:08.560 --> 29:10.760 these haters of God, false prophets, 29:11.100 --> 29:14.360 who are filling up the wells with earth. 29:14.760 --> 29:16.260 They're kind of packing it out. 29:16.640 --> 29:19.280 They're trying to hinder that living water 29:19.280 --> 29:20.580 from coming out of the well, right? 29:21.500 --> 29:22.560 Throughout the generations, 29:22.560 --> 29:24.340 there's doctrines that are fought for. 29:24.460 --> 29:26.900 You think of the fight for the King James Bible. 29:27.520 --> 29:29.500 That's something that our forefathers fought for. 29:30.120 --> 29:32.660 Soul winning, you know, being a fundamental Baptist, 29:33.220 --> 29:34.420 the fundamentals of the faith. 29:34.900 --> 29:38.500 And then over time, because we experience success 29:38.500 --> 29:41.300 in those areas, we become a little lenient. 29:41.560 --> 29:43.100 And I think it happens with every generation. 29:43.800 --> 29:45.180 And what happens, Philistines come 29:45.180 --> 29:48.600 and they fill up those wells with earth, okay? 29:49.220 --> 29:51.580 Then it requires for a new generation to arise 29:52.340 --> 29:54.580 and dig those wells again, right? 29:55.000 --> 29:59.280 It requires a new generation of fundamental Baptists 29:59.640 --> 30:00.860 to come and say, all right, 30:01.080 --> 30:03.340 let's dig up the wells again of soul winning, right? 30:03.760 --> 30:05.940 Let's dig up the wells again of the King James Bible. 30:06.360 --> 30:10.400 Let's dig up the wells again of, you know, hymns. 30:10.600 --> 30:12.000 Let's dig up the wells again 30:12.000 --> 30:14.820 of just local New Testament churches 30:15.180 --> 30:18.180 that preach hellfire and damnation. 30:18.480 --> 30:20.280 And instead of being so practical, 30:20.280 --> 30:22.360 we're teaching a lot of doctrine. 30:22.920 --> 30:24.500 We're digging up the wells of end times prophecy. 30:24.780 --> 30:27.100 We're digging up the wells of just living 30:27.100 --> 30:28.740 a holy and sanctified life. 30:28.920 --> 30:30.300 We're just digging up these wells 30:30.960 --> 30:32.260 that our forefathers dug, 30:32.420 --> 30:33.860 but they were filled up by the Philistines. 30:34.640 --> 30:35.240 And you know what? 30:35.500 --> 30:37.140 We're gonna put in a lot of work in our lifetime. 30:37.660 --> 30:38.920 But let me tell you, once we're gone, 30:39.040 --> 30:39.980 they're gonna get filled up again. 30:41.300 --> 30:42.680 They're gonna get filled up again. 30:43.680 --> 30:47.040 Some lame Philistine out of envy 30:47.040 --> 30:49.720 is gonna come and try to bury the heritage, 30:50.780 --> 30:54.060 bury the work that was put years prior to that, right? 30:54.740 --> 30:56.540 But it's okay, because Isaac's gonna come 30:56.980 --> 30:58.180 and he's gonna dig again the wells. 30:59.120 --> 30:59.860 And you know what? 31:00.020 --> 31:02.220 We as Isaac are to do the same. 31:02.400 --> 31:05.380 We need to make sure that we are reviving 31:06.020 --> 31:07.440 the doctrines of the faith. 31:07.560 --> 31:09.040 We are reviving the practices 31:09.440 --> 31:11.360 of the local New Testament church. 31:11.620 --> 31:14.080 We are reviving missions and soul winning 31:14.080 --> 31:17.880 and hard preaching and systematic doctrine 31:17.880 --> 31:20.340 and preaching against sin, 31:20.460 --> 31:23.100 preaching against the abominations of the land, 31:23.460 --> 31:26.020 making sure that we're looking at the wells 31:26.020 --> 31:29.360 that were dug in times past and revive them once again. 31:29.780 --> 31:31.380 One well that we need to dig up again 31:31.380 --> 31:32.260 is just church attendance. 31:33.080 --> 31:37.440 After 2020, you have the whole COVID thing 31:37.440 --> 31:39.580 and people just get really comfortable 31:39.960 --> 31:42.740 with just live streams and just staying at home 31:42.740 --> 31:43.940 because it's just a lot easier. 31:44.120 --> 31:46.440 You could eat chips off your belly and have soda 31:46.440 --> 31:49.380 and just hang out at home and watch church like that. 31:49.600 --> 31:49.920 But you know what? 31:49.940 --> 31:50.720 That's not God's will. 31:51.700 --> 31:54.380 God says not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together 31:54.380 --> 31:57.340 as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another 31:57.340 --> 31:59.160 and so much the more as you see the day approaching. 32:00.240 --> 32:01.860 No brother, we are the church. 32:02.020 --> 32:02.580 No you're not. 32:03.180 --> 32:05.420 If you're out there in your own house, 32:05.540 --> 32:06.240 that's not church. 32:07.120 --> 32:09.320 Church is you assembling together 32:09.320 --> 32:11.840 with a group of baptized, saved believers 32:12.260 --> 32:14.000 to hear the word of God being preached. 32:15.080 --> 32:17.640 And let me just remind you, a church is not the building. 32:17.800 --> 32:19.200 We need to meet in a building for sure. 32:20.120 --> 32:21.080 But a church is not the building. 32:21.220 --> 32:22.720 This is what Catholics have to say, oh man, 32:23.020 --> 32:24.880 yeah, go ahead and meet your strip mall. 32:25.280 --> 32:27.320 Oh yeah, while you meet in your cathedral 32:27.320 --> 32:28.920 and just split a whole wide open anyways. 32:31.340 --> 32:33.040 You're just a whiteed sepulcher, 32:34.600 --> 32:35.760 beautiful on the outside, 32:35.920 --> 32:37.760 but just full of dead men's bones on the inside. 32:37.760 --> 32:40.940 You know, we need to make sure we revive 32:41.580 --> 32:42.740 and make sure we keep alive. 32:42.980 --> 32:44.940 We dig the wells of church attendance. 32:45.320 --> 32:47.740 We dig the wells of the Romans road, amen? 32:48.780 --> 32:50.540 Preaching the gospel, the Romans road. 32:50.880 --> 32:52.320 We don't need to be cute about it. 32:52.560 --> 32:57.240 We don't need to give some sort of cartoon illustration 32:57.840 --> 32:59.460 and you can watch this video 32:59.460 --> 33:01.000 and you can get saved that way. 33:01.280 --> 33:02.820 And I'm not saying people haven't got saved that way, 33:02.860 --> 33:03.340 but you know what? 33:03.400 --> 33:04.560 We just need to dig up the wells 33:04.560 --> 33:06.800 of just preaching, opening our mouths boldly 33:06.800 --> 33:07.940 to make known the mysteries of the gospel. 33:08.540 --> 33:11.880 Okay, and so it's a great principle here. 33:12.120 --> 33:13.780 So we need to train the next generation 33:14.720 --> 33:16.560 to understand like I'm not gonna always be here, 33:16.620 --> 33:18.120 you need to fight these battles after I'm gone. 33:18.920 --> 33:20.920 Okay, you need to dig up these wells. 33:21.400 --> 33:23.340 And you know, it almost seems like a losing battle is like, 33:23.400 --> 33:24.500 man, I'm digging up all these wells 33:24.500 --> 33:27.080 just to know that they're gonna be filled up with earth 33:27.080 --> 33:28.420 again after I'm gone. 33:28.760 --> 33:29.340 But you know what? 33:29.340 --> 33:30.120 It's necessary. 33:30.760 --> 33:31.340 It's necessary. 33:31.680 --> 33:31.880 Why? 33:31.960 --> 33:33.520 Because the next generation has to fight for something. 33:34.120 --> 33:35.320 They gotta fight for something. 33:35.770 --> 33:36.600 And so it's important. 33:36.860 --> 33:39.080 And thank God, you know, you have Isaac coming here. 33:39.340 --> 33:41.960 And I'm sure as he's digging, he's appreciating dad. 33:42.940 --> 33:45.480 He's like, man, my dad put in a lot of work 33:45.480 --> 33:46.580 for this, a lot of work. 33:49.140 --> 33:50.880 Look what it says in verse 19. 33:52.120 --> 33:53.960 And Isaac's servants digged in the valley 33:53.960 --> 33:55.880 and found their well of spring and water. 33:56.500 --> 33:58.600 And the herdman of Girard did strive 33:58.600 --> 34:01.500 with Isaac's herdman saying, the water is ours. 34:02.140 --> 34:03.960 And he called the name of the well east sec 34:03.960 --> 34:05.520 because they strove with him. 34:06.160 --> 34:09.200 So throughout this project of digging again the wells, 34:09.960 --> 34:13.240 you see that each of them are named a particular name 34:13.240 --> 34:14.480 that means something. 34:14.680 --> 34:16.120 So east sec means like contention. 34:16.760 --> 34:19.040 Meaning that, you know, when a generation 34:19.800 --> 34:21.360 decides to dig up a well, 34:21.980 --> 34:24.340 they're gonna experience some contention from others, right? 34:24.940 --> 34:28.160 We cannot revive a particular well 34:28.160 --> 34:30.600 that has living water without having some opposition. 34:31.280 --> 34:32.180 It's always gonna be opposition. 34:32.640 --> 34:34.120 There's always gonna be contention. 34:34.540 --> 34:35.620 There's always gonna be people who say, 34:35.680 --> 34:36.880 well, this water is ours. 34:37.100 --> 34:38.340 So it takes fighting. 34:38.980 --> 34:42.220 It takes, you know, facing the opposition, 34:42.620 --> 34:46.440 making sure that we dig as we're fighting and so forth. 34:46.500 --> 34:48.740 It says in verse 21, and they digged another well 34:49.340 --> 34:50.520 and strove for that one also. 34:51.160 --> 34:53.340 And he called the name of it sitna. 34:53.800 --> 34:55.660 And sitna simply means opposition. 34:55.880 --> 34:58.740 So the first two is just referring to like striving. 34:59.500 --> 35:00.780 It's referring to opposition. 35:01.440 --> 35:02.980 It's basically addressing the fact 35:02.980 --> 35:06.220 that you can't revive these things 35:06.220 --> 35:08.260 without having some friction with other people. 35:08.760 --> 35:09.860 You're always gonna have people 35:09.860 --> 35:12.280 who don't like what you do, okay? 35:12.840 --> 35:14.680 You can't expect to live the Christian life 35:16.180 --> 35:20.080 and have all your teeth crossed and your eyes dotted 35:20.540 --> 35:22.520 and everything's good and your doctrine's great 35:22.520 --> 35:24.400 without having someone fight you on it. 35:24.520 --> 35:26.340 It's gonna happen, okay? 35:26.680 --> 35:28.160 You're gonna have a sitna and you're gonna have 35:28.160 --> 35:29.600 an east sec, you're gonna have contention 35:29.600 --> 35:31.320 and you're gonna have opposition. 35:31.840 --> 35:33.840 A great ineffectual door is open unto me 35:33.840 --> 35:34.900 and there are many adversaries. 35:35.420 --> 35:37.160 It's just the way it works, okay? 35:39.420 --> 35:41.320 This is what the Bible says, fight the good fight of faith. 35:42.320 --> 35:44.000 The Christian life is a life of fighting, right? 35:45.580 --> 35:47.200 We know, we understand we wrestle not against flesh 35:47.200 --> 35:48.580 and blood, but against principalities, 35:48.680 --> 35:50.660 powers against the rules of the darkness of this world. 35:51.200 --> 35:53.020 But there is fighting involved 35:53.020 --> 35:55.260 and these principalities have human agents. 35:56.040 --> 35:58.180 So sometimes it requires for us to fight against them as well. 35:58.600 --> 36:00.360 Verse 22 says, and he removed from fence 36:00.740 --> 36:03.840 and digged another well, and for that they strove not. 36:04.380 --> 36:06.720 And he called the name of it, Rehoboth, 36:06.880 --> 36:09.760 and he said, for now the Lord hath made room for us 36:09.760 --> 36:12.800 and we shall be fruitful in the land. 36:13.180 --> 36:15.300 So I love this because the first two is just like, 36:15.400 --> 36:16.940 kind of like a headache, it's just stressful. 36:17.560 --> 36:20.480 You're striving, you're fighting, that's our water. 36:20.800 --> 36:22.780 People are just like giving you a hard time. 36:23.320 --> 36:24.720 You're just like, dude, shut up. 36:24.960 --> 36:26.540 I'm just gonna get some water here 36:26.540 --> 36:28.280 and people are opposing you, 36:28.620 --> 36:30.360 but then when you stick with it, 36:31.220 --> 36:31.980 what happens? 36:32.120 --> 36:32.620 You become fruitful. 36:33.240 --> 36:37.140 And you get to a point where you experience a season 36:37.700 --> 36:39.240 where there's no striving at all. 36:40.180 --> 36:42.260 Now obviously this doesn't mean that Isaac will not 36:43.040 --> 36:45.060 experience any type of strife thereafter 36:45.700 --> 36:47.200 because we obviously know the story, 36:48.080 --> 36:49.880 but in this particular era he's like, 36:49.920 --> 36:50.680 oh, there's no more striving. 36:51.000 --> 36:52.640 God has made room for us. 36:53.440 --> 36:56.460 So we can picture this as like the Christian life as well. 36:56.920 --> 37:00.000 In the Christian life, when you initially get saved, 37:00.280 --> 37:01.940 you have a lot of digging to do. 37:02.800 --> 37:05.100 You have a lot of digging in your conduct. 37:05.340 --> 37:06.680 You got a lot of digging in your knowledge 37:06.680 --> 37:07.340 of the word of God. 37:07.640 --> 37:10.760 You gotta dig into the Bible to get that living water. 37:10.900 --> 37:12.880 You gotta study to show thyself approved unto God. 37:13.700 --> 37:16.280 You gotta dig deep in order to correct your conduct 37:16.280 --> 37:19.040 and your conversation, but there comes a point 37:19.040 --> 37:20.460 where you mature in the Christian faith 37:20.460 --> 37:23.880 not that you've arrived, but where you can look back 37:23.880 --> 37:25.100 and say, man, I've come a long way. 37:25.720 --> 37:27.020 God has made room for us. 37:27.200 --> 37:29.560 And how do we know when that's the case, 37:29.800 --> 37:32.180 when you become fruitful, right? 37:32.600 --> 37:34.400 When you begin to produce fruit. 37:34.760 --> 37:35.000 Why? 37:35.320 --> 37:38.320 Because fruit grows where the stream flows, amen? 37:39.480 --> 37:41.760 He's digging the well and then fruit begins 37:41.760 --> 37:44.000 to spring out and it begins to produce fruit. 37:44.260 --> 37:46.020 And it's just like, oh man, it was worth it. 37:47.360 --> 37:48.000 It's great. 37:48.940 --> 37:50.200 He's made room for us. 37:50.660 --> 37:52.980 Verse 23, and he went up from Thence to Bersheba. 37:53.880 --> 37:55.520 And the Lord appeared unto him the same night 37:55.520 --> 37:57.880 and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father, fear not. 37:58.400 --> 38:00.000 For I am with thee, and I will bless thee 38:00.000 --> 38:03.020 and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. 38:03.180 --> 38:05.880 So notice that throughout the striving, 38:06.640 --> 38:09.500 throughout the difficulty, God's always been there. 38:10.540 --> 38:11.820 He's just always been there, folks. 38:13.480 --> 38:14.860 You know, God didn't disappear. 38:15.780 --> 38:16.640 He was still in the midst. 38:17.680 --> 38:21.080 Even in the middle of fighting and opposition 38:21.700 --> 38:25.380 and strife and contentions and people envying him, 38:25.860 --> 38:26.920 you know, God is always there. 38:28.340 --> 38:30.340 And you know, I've said this before, you know, 38:30.420 --> 38:31.960 he doesn't have, he's not obligated 38:31.960 --> 38:33.100 to prove that he's there. 38:33.580 --> 38:35.160 We just gotta kind of, we just gotta believe it. 38:35.980 --> 38:37.120 That's what it says, right? 38:37.740 --> 38:39.620 And after all of it's done, when he's fruitful, 38:40.140 --> 38:42.400 God shows up, he's just like, I'm with you. 38:43.700 --> 38:44.540 I am with thee. 38:46.200 --> 38:48.180 I am the God of Abraham, thy father, fear not. 38:48.320 --> 38:50.360 For I am with thee, I will bless thee 38:50.360 --> 38:53.720 and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake. 38:53.800 --> 38:54.900 So he reiterates the promise. 38:55.760 --> 38:58.420 And I will say that this takes a level of maturity 38:58.420 --> 39:01.380 to just understand when you're going through a trial, 39:01.540 --> 39:02.500 doesn't mean that God's not there. 39:03.580 --> 39:04.720 If you're experiencing opposition, 39:05.020 --> 39:05.820 doesn't mean that God's not there. 39:05.900 --> 39:08.380 He is present and he is with you. 39:08.780 --> 39:10.500 All things taken that you're right with God 39:10.500 --> 39:12.100 and you don't have sin in your life and so forth. 39:12.900 --> 39:15.260 Verse 25 says that he built in an altar there 39:15.260 --> 39:17.480 and called upon the name of the Lord 39:17.480 --> 39:18.760 and pitched his tent there 39:18.760 --> 39:21.700 and there Isaac's servants digged a well. 39:22.320 --> 39:24.860 Then Abimelech went to him from Girar 39:25.490 --> 39:28.440 and Ahusath, one of his friends in Fikol, 39:28.580 --> 39:30.000 the chief captain of his army. 39:30.940 --> 39:32.280 And Isaac said unto them, 39:32.660 --> 39:34.980 wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me 39:35.600 --> 39:37.480 and have sent me away from you? 39:38.480 --> 39:41.160 They said, we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee. 39:41.640 --> 39:44.200 We said, let there be now and oath betwixt us, 39:44.460 --> 39:45.640 even betwixt us in thee 39:45.640 --> 39:47.360 and let us make a covenant with thee. 39:47.760 --> 39:50.820 So obviously, Isaac feels a little bit of resentment here, 39:51.900 --> 39:53.140 maybe towards Abimelech, 39:53.240 --> 39:54.700 maybe towards the guys that are with him, 39:54.720 --> 39:56.460 just in general with the men of Girar, 39:57.600 --> 39:59.900 because when he was experiencing success, 40:00.100 --> 40:01.340 they just kind of removed him. 40:02.060 --> 40:03.520 Just like get out of our country. 40:05.280 --> 40:07.220 And Abimelech said that, 40:07.380 --> 40:08.760 oh, you're mightier than us, 40:08.760 --> 40:10.660 but obviously Isaac didn't take it that way. 40:11.500 --> 40:13.720 He took it as you hate me. 40:14.360 --> 40:15.440 That's why you removed me. 40:15.880 --> 40:18.840 Envious of me, you hated me, that's why you removed me. 40:19.380 --> 40:22.720 And Abimelech seems to be very humble here. 40:23.560 --> 40:24.420 And what does he say? 40:24.540 --> 40:25.940 We saw that the Lord was with thee. 40:27.400 --> 40:27.940 And you know what? 40:28.100 --> 40:28.800 Let me just say this, 40:28.880 --> 40:33.320 is that you're gonna have people in your life 40:35.060 --> 40:38.020 that in the beginning stages of your Christian life, 40:38.640 --> 40:39.640 they're gonna envy you, 40:39.800 --> 40:41.240 they're gonna remove you from their company, 40:41.900 --> 40:43.100 they're gonna hate on you, 40:43.540 --> 40:44.720 they might criticize you, 40:44.820 --> 40:46.080 your family, friends or whatever, 40:46.760 --> 40:49.020 they don't like what you believe and whatnot. 40:49.900 --> 40:51.280 And it's gonna take some time. 40:52.560 --> 40:53.840 And then you know what it's gonna take? 40:53.940 --> 40:55.480 It's gonna take you digging some wells, 40:56.560 --> 40:57.340 being fruitful, 40:58.180 --> 40:59.840 and then somewhere along down the line, 40:59.840 --> 41:00.960 Abimelech comes back and he's like, 41:01.000 --> 41:04.080 we see that the Lord is with you, right? 41:04.740 --> 41:09.320 We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee, right? 41:09.860 --> 41:12.220 They say like, oh man, it wasn't just like a phase. 41:12.960 --> 41:15.540 It's not just like, oh, he's just going through 41:15.540 --> 41:18.660 like a small period of just, 41:19.000 --> 41:20.560 he just got into this church thing, 41:20.960 --> 41:22.380 she just got into this church thing, 41:22.580 --> 41:24.140 she'll get over it, he'll get over it. 41:24.400 --> 41:26.440 No, he's saying like, okay, 41:26.500 --> 41:27.740 now we know that God's with you, 41:28.160 --> 41:30.040 like God's blessed you, right? 41:30.420 --> 41:32.780 It's the fruitfulness that testified 41:33.220 --> 41:34.340 that the Lord was with him. 41:34.620 --> 41:35.160 And you know what? 41:35.260 --> 41:35.960 Let me just tell you this, 41:36.200 --> 41:37.300 like this sounds awesome, 41:37.420 --> 41:39.060 but sometimes it does take years though. 41:39.940 --> 41:41.240 It takes years. 41:43.080 --> 41:44.440 You know, he's like, how do you know? 41:44.580 --> 41:46.900 Well, I'm going on 20 years saved next year. 41:48.880 --> 41:50.980 And you know, people are just starting to come around. 41:52.220 --> 41:53.720 People are just starting to come around. 41:54.460 --> 41:58.380 You know, people are finally starting to realize like, 41:58.520 --> 42:00.300 all right, God's with you. 42:01.180 --> 42:03.780 It's like, what's all that stuff you were saying before, huh? 42:05.780 --> 42:07.720 What's all that nonsense you're talking? 42:07.900 --> 42:09.360 That's what I want to say. 42:11.040 --> 42:12.660 But they realize like, oh man, 42:13.200 --> 42:14.760 God's obviously like blessing you, 42:15.300 --> 42:17.640 his hands on you, like God's using you. 42:18.580 --> 42:19.960 And you know, he, 42:20.740 --> 42:22.640 Abominan humbles himself and he says like, 42:22.640 --> 42:25.400 okay, you know, let there be now an oath betwixt us 42:25.400 --> 42:26.420 and betwixt us and the, 42:26.760 --> 42:27.940 let us make a covenant with the, 42:28.300 --> 42:28.840 what does he say? 42:29.040 --> 42:30.140 And let's read verse 29, 42:30.460 --> 42:31.920 that thou will do us no hurt 42:32.500 --> 42:34.040 as we have not touched thee 42:34.040 --> 42:37.020 and as we have done unto thee nothing but good 42:38.040 --> 42:39.680 and as sent thee away in peace. 42:40.520 --> 42:41.700 Thou are now blessed of the Lord. 42:41.820 --> 42:44.340 Now, that point is debatable, right? 42:45.420 --> 42:47.020 But what is Abominan like asking for? 42:47.120 --> 42:49.180 He's like, I want peace, okay? 42:50.040 --> 42:51.400 I want there to be peace between us. 42:52.020 --> 42:53.780 And you know, Isaac did the right thing. 42:54.760 --> 42:55.560 He made peace. 42:57.180 --> 42:58.160 You know, he could have been like, 42:58.880 --> 43:00.360 no, I'm mightier than you remember. 43:02.140 --> 43:04.600 I'm gonna go ahead and just take over your entire land. 43:05.020 --> 43:06.800 I'm just gonna destroy you. 43:07.240 --> 43:07.760 You're done. 43:07.880 --> 43:09.360 Look what you guys did on my dad's wells. 43:09.920 --> 43:11.960 I've been spending all this time digging back up. 43:12.240 --> 43:12.540 You know what he did? 43:12.640 --> 43:13.280 He made peace with them. 43:14.440 --> 43:15.300 And you know what? 43:16.480 --> 43:20.080 The temptation years from now 43:20.800 --> 43:23.760 is for you to kind of rub their mistakes 43:24.400 --> 43:27.100 and their bad assessment of you in their face. 43:28.280 --> 43:29.200 It's the temptation. 43:30.480 --> 43:31.240 It's my temptation. 43:32.840 --> 43:33.540 But you know what? 43:33.620 --> 43:35.220 God has called us to be peacemakers though. 43:35.940 --> 43:36.840 You know? 43:37.260 --> 43:38.280 And at the end of the day, 43:38.660 --> 43:40.860 if someone humbles themselves before us 43:41.560 --> 43:43.100 and asks for an apology, 43:43.840 --> 43:44.860 they ask for forgiveness, 43:45.940 --> 43:48.320 they recognize the error of their ways, 43:48.860 --> 43:50.440 we should just like, 43:50.620 --> 43:52.720 leap to the opportunity to forgive that person 43:54.080 --> 43:55.780 and restore relationships, amen. 43:57.440 --> 43:58.740 I just can't. 43:58.760 --> 43:59.840 I just have so much hurt. 44:00.060 --> 44:01.440 I have so much, you know, these people, 44:01.720 --> 44:03.680 they separated me from their company 44:03.680 --> 44:07.040 and you know, my brother said this 44:07.040 --> 44:08.320 and my aunt said this 44:08.320 --> 44:11.200 and you know, the people from my previous church did this 44:11.200 --> 44:14.160 or you know, I get it, you know, it's hard. 44:14.740 --> 44:16.620 Now look folks, obviously I'm not referring to reprobates. 44:19.580 --> 44:21.260 Reprobates, they have no forgiveness. 44:22.720 --> 44:24.600 Not in this world, not in the world to come. 44:25.540 --> 44:27.240 Like I'm not obligated to forgive reprobates. 44:27.360 --> 44:28.620 Well, if God doesn't forgive them, 44:28.680 --> 44:30.040 then you're not obligated to forgive them either. 44:31.600 --> 44:33.860 So let's just, you know, shave that off 44:33.860 --> 44:36.840 and we know we're not talking about reprobates, okay. 44:37.600 --> 44:41.060 And so I'm talking about just people, Christians, 44:42.860 --> 44:45.720 brethren who, you know, they envy you. 44:47.480 --> 44:51.340 They thought you're just being a bad testimony, you know, 44:51.380 --> 44:54.720 they may have done things to hurt you, okay. 44:55.840 --> 44:57.400 But then later on, if they come back 44:57.400 --> 45:00.320 and they humble themselves and they make it right, 45:00.900 --> 45:02.300 we should accept the apology. 45:03.360 --> 45:04.040 We should. 45:04.860 --> 45:07.060 We should accept the apology and reconcile. 45:07.460 --> 45:09.280 And I'll be honest with you, one of my favorite things 45:09.280 --> 45:11.500 to do in the Christian life is reconcile. 45:12.240 --> 45:13.360 I love reconciliation. 45:14.200 --> 45:15.020 It's great. 45:16.300 --> 45:19.700 Maybe it's because it reminds me of how merciful 45:19.700 --> 45:21.680 and gracious God is towards me. 45:22.020 --> 45:24.900 When I fall short, I sin against the Lord 45:24.900 --> 45:26.560 and he's just ready to forgive, right. 45:27.180 --> 45:28.680 If we confess our sins, he's faithful 45:28.680 --> 45:29.940 and just to forgive us our sins 45:29.940 --> 45:31.740 and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 45:32.420 --> 45:34.440 You know, God is always like waiting 45:34.880 --> 45:36.120 for us to get right with him. 45:36.240 --> 45:39.080 If we're, you know, if we've deviated from the path, 45:39.200 --> 45:40.160 if we got involved in sin, 45:40.520 --> 45:41.540 he's like ready to forgive. 45:41.540 --> 45:42.920 He's ready to pardon. 45:43.780 --> 45:45.640 He will not always chide, right? 45:46.560 --> 45:47.020 He's ready. 45:47.260 --> 45:47.780 Well, you know what? 45:47.780 --> 45:49.560 We should do the same, okay? 45:50.500 --> 45:52.220 We should be ready to forgive people 45:52.660 --> 45:53.480 when they come around. 45:54.120 --> 45:56.040 And I'm speaking to you, you know, 45:56.280 --> 45:58.120 but you just, I just need you to remember this 45:58.120 --> 45:58.920 20 years from now. 45:58.940 --> 46:00.960 So make sure you like put it on a piece of paper or something. 46:01.220 --> 46:04.000 You just gotta remember this because it will happen. 46:05.020 --> 46:07.640 If you are faithfully serving the Lord, 46:08.540 --> 46:11.080 you're loyal to the cause of Christ, 46:11.760 --> 46:14.840 you're winning souls, you're living a godly life, 46:15.100 --> 46:16.840 you're being sanctified. 46:17.460 --> 46:21.000 I mean, the house of God, the service of God, 46:21.120 --> 46:22.820 the Bible's like the centerpiece of your life 46:22.820 --> 46:26.120 as much as you can, as much as it can be in your life. 46:26.540 --> 46:27.800 You know, you're gonna be fruitful. 46:29.320 --> 46:30.120 And you know what? 46:30.260 --> 46:32.220 God's gonna give opportunities in the future 46:32.740 --> 46:34.220 for those people to come around again. 46:35.560 --> 46:36.980 And you know, may not be said 46:36.980 --> 46:37.820 that when they do come around, 46:37.960 --> 46:39.840 they just find a just bitter person 46:40.200 --> 46:44.520 who just is still angry about the past, right? 46:45.720 --> 46:46.400 May not be said. 46:47.680 --> 46:49.780 And I experienced something like this this week, actually. 46:51.460 --> 46:54.040 You know, I had a pastor friend. 46:54.820 --> 46:57.900 It's not new IFB, old IFB, 46:58.240 --> 47:01.240 someone who I greatly admired, greatly respected. 47:01.820 --> 47:03.780 I looked up to a lot. 47:04.440 --> 47:07.520 And you know, we had a major falling out years ago, 47:07.940 --> 47:08.820 major falling out. 47:08.960 --> 47:11.020 And I'll be honest with you, I was hurt. 47:11.360 --> 47:14.140 Like, it hurt my feelings, you know? 47:15.380 --> 47:16.820 My feelings were hurt. 47:17.140 --> 47:19.540 I was embarrassed in front of all the internet 47:19.540 --> 47:20.200 because of it. 47:20.820 --> 47:23.080 And I couldn't believe what took place. 47:23.160 --> 47:25.040 And I'm not gonna go through all of it, 47:25.320 --> 47:25.980 but it was bad. 47:26.620 --> 47:27.300 And you know what? 47:27.380 --> 47:29.000 There was strife between us for a long time. 47:29.280 --> 47:31.080 And it just sucked, you know what I mean? 47:31.180 --> 47:31.840 It was just like, man, 47:32.320 --> 47:35.880 because this person was such a pivotal influence in my life. 47:36.700 --> 47:40.880 Just like such a man of God that like, 47:41.120 --> 47:42.700 he's like the man that I, 47:42.980 --> 47:45.980 that inspired me to like be a hard preacher, 47:46.620 --> 47:47.080 to be a, 47:47.220 --> 47:49.700 he made me like proud to be a fundamental Baptist. 47:51.120 --> 47:51.620 Right? 47:52.580 --> 47:55.160 And so it was very difficult to experience that. 47:55.620 --> 47:57.660 And I even preached against him, you know? 47:57.920 --> 47:59.800 Like, I let him have it. 48:01.380 --> 48:04.160 But, you know, this week we reconcile, you know? 48:05.220 --> 48:08.540 And quite frankly, like, I went to go see him 48:08.540 --> 48:11.180 not with the expectation that he was gonna 48:11.660 --> 48:13.020 ask for forgiveness or anything. 48:13.680 --> 48:15.580 I just went there just as a way to honor him. 48:15.620 --> 48:16.840 Because you know, I do believe 48:17.320 --> 48:19.700 that we should still honor those 48:19.700 --> 48:21.740 and love those who reached us. 48:23.260 --> 48:23.620 Right? 48:24.600 --> 48:26.560 Like if a pastor got you saved, 48:26.620 --> 48:28.160 or if a pastor played a major role 48:28.160 --> 48:30.440 in your salvation in some way or shape or form, 48:30.620 --> 48:32.300 no matter what happened between you and that pastor, 48:32.400 --> 48:33.520 you should appreciate that man. 48:34.200 --> 48:36.720 Like God used that man in a great way to get you saved. 48:37.240 --> 48:38.720 Or to help you to grow spiritually. 48:39.920 --> 48:42.320 And I believe in giving honor where honors do. 48:42.740 --> 48:43.480 And you know what? 48:43.780 --> 48:45.340 Like, I've matured and so like, 48:45.560 --> 48:46.380 I just thought to myself like, 48:46.420 --> 48:48.600 I wanna go see him and just thank him. 48:48.640 --> 48:50.020 Cause I know that this would be pleasing 48:50.020 --> 48:51.440 unto the Lord for me to do this. 48:52.360 --> 48:54.420 I know that God would be pleased with me 48:54.840 --> 48:57.740 to just set my differences aside 48:58.240 --> 49:00.000 and not even expect an apology or anything. 49:00.240 --> 49:02.020 But just tell that man that I love him, 49:02.380 --> 49:03.140 give him a gift 49:03.140 --> 49:04.580 and just let him know how much I appreciate 49:05.180 --> 49:06.940 for everything that he's done in my life 49:06.940 --> 49:08.000 and not even bring up the past. 49:10.840 --> 49:12.880 And you know, I went there 49:13.660 --> 49:15.920 and he saw me in the hallway right before this. 49:16.100 --> 49:19.740 And he just came up and he hugged me 49:20.160 --> 49:22.900 and he just held me for a really long time. 49:25.380 --> 49:26.420 And he just gripped me 49:26.420 --> 49:28.260 and he's like, this is what he's like, 49:28.300 --> 49:30.480 I missed you, I missed you. 49:31.300 --> 49:32.580 He's like, I love you, brother Bruce. 49:34.700 --> 49:37.500 And you know, we didn't conversate exactly at that moment 49:37.500 --> 49:39.420 like what, you know, I just told him the same thing. 49:39.680 --> 49:41.180 And I said, I came here to see you. 49:41.340 --> 49:42.280 I just wanna see you. 49:42.720 --> 49:43.620 I said, we can talk afterwards. 49:43.940 --> 49:45.940 Afterwards, after he was done preaching, 49:46.800 --> 49:47.780 I came up to him 49:48.260 --> 49:50.200 and before we could even start the conversation, 49:50.320 --> 49:51.480 he said, I wanna let you know 49:51.480 --> 49:53.120 that I want you to forgive me 49:53.580 --> 49:55.240 for what I did to you years ago. 49:57.080 --> 49:58.660 He said, I have regretted it for years 49:59.760 --> 50:01.360 and I need you to forgive me for that. 50:01.620 --> 50:02.300 And I'm sorry. 50:03.680 --> 50:06.080 And it was very, it humbled me 50:07.000 --> 50:07.880 because you know, 50:08.280 --> 50:10.100 you don't really expect spiritual giants 50:10.100 --> 50:11.060 to do something like that. 50:11.600 --> 50:13.960 I mean, I guess you kind of do, but you kind of don't. 50:15.140 --> 50:16.420 And I was just kind of taking it like, 50:16.520 --> 50:17.120 I didn't expect it. 50:17.160 --> 50:18.360 And he's just like, I'm sorry. 50:19.020 --> 50:20.540 He's like, forgive me for that. 50:21.340 --> 50:23.320 He's like, it's plagued me for years. 50:24.580 --> 50:27.040 You know, and it's just bothering me and I'm so sorry. 50:27.660 --> 50:29.220 And this man is an established man. 50:29.380 --> 50:31.180 Like he doesn't, he gains nothing, 50:31.400 --> 50:33.040 especially from being friends with me, you know what I mean? 50:33.040 --> 50:34.700 Like, you don't get anything 50:34.700 --> 50:36.160 from being friends with me, you know what I mean? 50:36.380 --> 50:37.700 Like, it's not like, you know, 50:37.800 --> 50:39.020 maybe we could get some of the students 50:39.020 --> 50:40.800 on our Bible college or something like that 50:40.800 --> 50:43.480 or, ain't no way that's happening, you know? 50:43.980 --> 50:44.900 Like, it's not like, you know, 50:44.980 --> 50:47.080 if anything, I kind of would be like a liability 50:47.080 --> 50:48.320 to him to a certain degree. 50:48.620 --> 50:49.700 If people found out that, you know, 50:49.700 --> 50:50.820 we're friends, which they are now. 50:53.240 --> 50:54.540 But, you know, he gained nothing. 50:55.740 --> 50:57.660 But not, according to him, according to him, 50:57.840 --> 50:59.860 he, this is extremely important to him. 51:01.080 --> 51:02.680 And, you know, and he said, like, 51:02.820 --> 51:04.100 he's like, I want to be your friend again. 51:05.340 --> 51:07.600 And I want to know what's going on in your life. 51:08.920 --> 51:10.720 I want to know what's going on in your church. 51:11.320 --> 51:12.440 I want to know about the salvation. 51:12.840 --> 51:15.400 Like, I want to stay in conflict with you. 51:16.880 --> 51:18.640 And I told him, I was like, I forgive you. 51:18.640 --> 51:21.080 I was like, you don't ever have to bring it up again. 51:21.680 --> 51:23.460 I was like, apology accepted. 51:24.060 --> 51:25.180 It's all done. 51:25.960 --> 51:27.900 And let me just tell you, it feels good 51:27.900 --> 51:28.640 to forgive someone. 51:29.660 --> 51:31.960 If you've never done it, you should try it sometime. 51:33.340 --> 51:35.160 You should just, I'll offend you. 51:36.220 --> 51:37.320 Just so you could try it. 51:39.520 --> 51:40.940 I'll offend the fire out of you 51:40.940 --> 51:41.860 and then, you know, you can, 51:42.520 --> 51:44.500 you can wait for me to apologize to you. 51:46.620 --> 51:49.040 It feels great to forgive someone. 51:49.720 --> 51:52.720 It's like a, it's like a load that I didn't know I had. 51:53.700 --> 51:55.860 And it felt, just in my heart, 51:55.960 --> 51:58.260 I felt such a swelling sense of joy 51:58.890 --> 52:03.940 over just relieving someone of the offense that they felt. 52:04.920 --> 52:06.000 It feels great. 52:06.720 --> 52:10.380 And I said, I love you and you changed my life. 52:10.840 --> 52:12.900 It was under your preaching that I got saved 52:12.900 --> 52:14.760 and you were such an example unto me. 52:15.160 --> 52:16.740 And I'm just so thankful that like, 52:18.100 --> 52:21.580 that you're here when I was 21 years old 52:21.580 --> 52:23.680 and I came as an unsafe person 52:23.680 --> 52:25.340 and I'm so thankful that you're the one that was preaching 52:26.380 --> 52:27.780 and just everything you've done, 52:27.840 --> 52:30.980 I said, it's all forgiven, you know? 52:31.860 --> 52:33.480 And he said, I appreciate it. 52:33.500 --> 52:34.780 He said, thank you for forgiving me. 52:34.880 --> 52:36.440 And it's just like, you didn't have to say all that, 52:36.540 --> 52:36.720 you know? 52:38.520 --> 52:39.980 And I told him, I said, forgive me. 52:40.980 --> 52:42.640 And we're having this conversation in front of like, 52:42.640 --> 52:43.340 all these people, you know, 52:43.360 --> 52:44.680 people are just like waiting to get his autograph. 52:45.120 --> 52:46.040 And we're just kind of like, 52:46.140 --> 52:48.000 we're like this far away from each other 52:48.480 --> 52:50.280 just because the conversation was just intense. 52:53.260 --> 52:54.740 And he said, you know, I'm gonna come back 52:54.740 --> 52:55.780 and I wanna go visit your church. 52:55.840 --> 52:57.420 I just wanna know what's going on with your life, 52:57.600 --> 52:59.860 keep in contact with me, you know? 53:00.020 --> 53:01.700 And I told him, I said, well, let me just tell you, 53:01.800 --> 53:05.680 we got 6,100 salvation so far this year at our church. 53:07.340 --> 53:08.940 I said, a lot of that goes to your account. 53:09.040 --> 53:09.720 Just remember that. 53:10.140 --> 53:12.840 We got like 40 baptisms serving God, 53:12.980 --> 53:14.140 we went to, and I just started telling him 53:14.140 --> 53:15.160 about all these exploits 53:15.160 --> 53:17.240 and he's just smiling ear to ear. 53:18.520 --> 53:22.180 He's like, man, I'm so happy about that, you know? 53:22.400 --> 53:23.700 And, you know, I could have been like, 53:23.880 --> 53:26.780 no, you hated me, you know? 53:27.180 --> 53:28.380 And it's not like he thinks, 53:28.980 --> 53:31.280 he knows who I'm affiliated with. 53:31.780 --> 53:33.420 He knows who I'm associated with. 53:34.100 --> 53:35.560 He knows it all, okay? 53:36.560 --> 53:36.920 You know? 53:39.920 --> 53:45.140 And, you know, but he doesn't care, you know? 53:45.260 --> 53:47.280 And so, and I'm not saying we're gonna be best friends 53:47.280 --> 53:47.920 or anything like that. 53:48.020 --> 53:50.060 It's not like, you know, hey, what are you doing? 53:50.300 --> 53:53.660 You know, like, well, let's go in and out, you know? 53:54.960 --> 53:57.140 But, you know, just the most important thing 53:57.140 --> 53:59.700 that I got from that is just the peace between us. 54:01.260 --> 54:01.580 Peace. 54:02.820 --> 54:05.120 Because in my mind, five years, six years ago 54:05.120 --> 54:05.940 when all that took place, 54:05.940 --> 54:08.500 I thought to myself, I'm heartbroken 54:08.500 --> 54:10.120 that I will never have a good relationship 54:10.120 --> 54:11.740 with this person, this side of eternity. 54:12.560 --> 54:13.780 And I look forward to the day 54:13.780 --> 54:15.240 that I can see him in the millennial reign 54:15.240 --> 54:16.480 and we can put our differences aside. 54:16.560 --> 54:17.500 That's literally what I thought. 54:18.900 --> 54:20.500 And I'm just thankful that came a lot sooner. 54:22.000 --> 54:22.840 Don't hold grudges. 54:24.760 --> 54:26.040 Don't be bitter towards people. 54:26.540 --> 54:27.480 Don't hold grudges. 54:28.200 --> 54:30.740 You know, I don't consider being angry 54:30.740 --> 54:32.620 towards reprobates as bitterness, by the way, you know? 54:33.480 --> 54:34.640 That's pretty justified. 54:34.640 --> 54:36.720 I'm talking about just people and Christians 54:37.320 --> 54:40.760 who you felt like did you wrong or something like that. 54:40.760 --> 54:41.120 Okay? 54:42.160 --> 54:44.440 And, you know, obviously Isaac is a humble guy. 54:44.560 --> 54:45.640 He's just like, yeah, let's do it. 54:45.760 --> 54:47.120 And then they got it right. 54:48.100 --> 54:49.820 And, you know, and look, folks, 54:50.000 --> 54:51.960 it's just better to live life 54:51.960 --> 54:54.800 not constantly having to think about the past. 54:56.160 --> 54:57.880 Carry that load with you everywhere you go. 54:57.980 --> 54:58.960 It's just not worth it. 54:59.500 --> 55:00.740 It's just not worth it at all. 55:02.160 --> 55:03.800 And I've learned in the Christian life 55:03.800 --> 55:06.280 that one of the greatest exploits that you can do 55:07.280 --> 55:08.360 is forgive people. 55:09.560 --> 55:10.220 Forgive them. 55:10.900 --> 55:11.820 Forgive your parents. 55:12.340 --> 55:13.640 Forgive your siblings. 55:14.560 --> 55:15.820 Forgive, you know, your spouse. 55:16.600 --> 55:17.360 Just forgive them. 55:17.440 --> 55:18.700 Just like relieve them of that. 55:19.240 --> 55:20.260 Because I'm going to tell you right now, 55:20.360 --> 55:22.560 it's very pleasing unto the Lord when you do that. 55:23.940 --> 55:25.240 It makes God happy. 55:26.440 --> 55:29.300 And just, you know, from a selfish perspective, 55:29.780 --> 55:31.180 you know, if you want to be forgiven of God, 55:31.640 --> 55:33.400 you need to make sure that you forgive others. 55:33.980 --> 55:36.760 And if you want God to forgive you speedily, 55:37.180 --> 55:39.360 you make sure you forgive others speedily as well. 55:42.080 --> 55:44.400 And so it was an awesome week for me. 55:44.620 --> 55:47.180 I've been thinking about it every single day. 55:48.100 --> 55:49.040 I'm thankful for it. 55:49.960 --> 55:52.820 It goes on to say here in verse 30, he says, 55:53.000 --> 55:56.340 he made them a feast and they did eat and drink 55:56.340 --> 55:58.320 and they rose up B times in the morning 55:58.320 --> 56:01.260 and swear one to another and Isaac sent them away 56:01.700 --> 56:03.520 and they departed from him in peace. 56:03.800 --> 56:04.520 Let me say one last thing. 56:04.900 --> 56:07.540 You know, this could apply to just your old IFV pastor. 56:07.640 --> 56:09.220 Maybe you didn't have a good experience there. 56:09.760 --> 56:11.680 Maybe you were kicked out or something. 56:12.320 --> 56:15.000 They criticized you and they did this, that and the other. 56:15.700 --> 56:17.100 You know, just put all that to the side. 56:17.180 --> 56:17.560 Who cares? 56:17.660 --> 56:18.540 We got a great church now. 56:19.260 --> 56:20.700 Got a great church. 56:21.300 --> 56:22.780 Got awesome preaching, amen. 56:24.380 --> 56:26.160 Got a lot of soulening going on. 56:26.740 --> 56:28.020 You can speak freely. 56:30.360 --> 56:32.140 You know, we're having a great time. 56:32.220 --> 56:33.320 The Lord is with us. 56:33.860 --> 56:35.200 Everything is just beautiful. 56:36.580 --> 56:39.160 So why even worry about that? 56:40.340 --> 56:40.780 You know what I mean? 56:41.300 --> 56:42.000 Just be thankful. 56:43.000 --> 56:44.880 Now, if your old IFV pastor was a reprobate, 56:45.700 --> 56:46.840 screw that guy, you know what I mean? 56:47.000 --> 56:47.900 It's just a different story. 56:48.240 --> 56:48.700 But you know what? 56:49.160 --> 56:53.400 If he's just an old IFV guy, okay? 56:54.360 --> 56:55.980 Just let him be an old IFV guy. 56:56.820 --> 56:57.560 You could still love him. 56:58.660 --> 56:59.840 Still appreciate what he did. 57:00.580 --> 57:01.360 And look, let me just tell you. 57:01.540 --> 57:04.040 Like, I, you know, and I preached my share of sermons 57:04.040 --> 57:05.780 against the old IFV and I probably will continue 57:05.780 --> 57:06.700 to do so over the years. 57:07.120 --> 57:08.960 But let me just tell you, I do appreciate 57:08.960 --> 57:10.120 and love the old IFV. 57:10.740 --> 57:12.140 We will never be just like them 57:12.140 --> 57:14.220 because we just, certain things we just don't agree with. 57:15.160 --> 57:15.760 You know what I mean? 57:16.560 --> 57:18.140 But you know, just because we don't agree with them 57:18.140 --> 57:20.140 just doesn't mean that they're not great still 57:20.720 --> 57:21.600 in a lot of ways. 57:22.560 --> 57:24.680 And it doesn't mean we can't appreciate them 57:24.680 --> 57:27.080 for the greatness that they have done and will do. 57:28.180 --> 57:29.700 Because we don't want to have this mentality 57:29.700 --> 57:31.020 is just like, oh, we're the only ones 57:31.020 --> 57:33.720 committing great things and doing great things. 57:33.960 --> 57:37.920 And you know, that might be true in certain areas 57:37.920 --> 57:39.840 where there's like no churches, you know, 57:40.020 --> 57:41.880 in that particular geographic location. 57:42.520 --> 57:44.220 But in general, you know, there's old IFV churches 57:44.220 --> 57:45.300 that are doing great works for God. 57:46.000 --> 57:49.540 Still got great preaching, still seeing souls saved. 57:50.420 --> 57:51.160 And you know what? 57:51.720 --> 57:53.900 If I was not a pastor, you know, obviously like 57:53.900 --> 57:55.660 I would want to be in a new IFV church. 57:56.040 --> 57:58.320 I probably would not ever go back to an old IFV church. 57:59.080 --> 58:01.520 It's not gonna happen, you know? 58:02.040 --> 58:03.260 Because you just, once you get, 58:03.520 --> 58:05.040 once you're in the new IFV, you just, 58:05.600 --> 58:07.240 you know, you just kind of hooked. 58:09.380 --> 58:12.120 It's like, it's like spiritual crap, you know what I mean? 58:12.200 --> 58:15.240 It's just like, this is good, you know? 58:16.840 --> 58:20.160 You know, someone's gonna clip that, clip that. 58:23.200 --> 58:25.060 Except the MSG, you know what I mean? 58:26.120 --> 58:28.220 It's like the MSG over the preaching. 58:28.480 --> 58:30.800 It's just like, you know, you can listen to other stuff, 58:31.020 --> 58:33.620 but you always come back to new IFV preaching. 58:33.860 --> 58:36.040 That's a fact, that's just how it is. 58:36.160 --> 58:39.320 And you know, it's all good, you know? 58:39.860 --> 58:41.000 But obviously a spiritual person 58:41.000 --> 58:42.280 can listen to any kind of preaching 58:42.280 --> 58:44.140 at any given time regardless of who it is 58:44.140 --> 58:44.700 and still learn. 58:46.820 --> 58:50.400 So, you know, he leaves, they depart in peace, 58:50.620 --> 58:52.140 they're happy, verse 32, 58:52.280 --> 58:55.300 and it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came 58:55.300 --> 58:57.300 and told them concerning the well, 58:57.620 --> 58:59.740 which they had digged and said unto him, 59:00.040 --> 59:02.580 we have found water and he called it Sheba, 59:02.740 --> 59:03.540 therefore the name of the city 59:03.540 --> 59:04.740 is for Sheba unto this day. 59:05.200 --> 59:06.980 So it's interesting, after they make peace, 59:07.220 --> 59:09.420 God allows them to find this great well called Sheba. 59:10.960 --> 59:11.260 You know? 59:11.940 --> 59:13.720 And you just never know what kind of blessings 59:13.720 --> 59:15.460 things are on the other side of your forgiveness. 59:17.460 --> 59:19.100 On the other side of your reconciliation, 59:19.320 --> 59:20.480 you just never know what God might do. 59:20.800 --> 59:23.340 And he allows them to find a great well. 59:24.040 --> 59:27.200 Now, you know, I love the Bible because it's just real 59:28.160 --> 59:30.160 and it's such a beautiful story. 59:30.360 --> 59:33.240 It's just like, man, it's so good. 59:33.680 --> 59:34.900 Peace and everything, you know? 59:35.080 --> 59:37.300 It's just like, and then end credits, right? 59:38.300 --> 59:40.280 Fade scene, end credits. 59:41.100 --> 59:43.580 Verse 34, and he's always 40 years old 59:43.580 --> 59:45.820 when he took a wife, Judith, the daughter of B.R.I., 59:45.820 --> 59:48.020 the Hittite, and Beth Shemath, the daughter of Elon, 59:48.140 --> 59:49.600 the Hittite, which were a grief of mine 59:49.600 --> 59:50.520 and to Isaac and to Rebecca. 59:53.680 --> 59:56.140 It's like, you know, it fades out. 59:56.320 --> 59:57.120 It's just like, by the way, 59:57.560 --> 01:00:00.160 like Esau's wives are just a grief. 01:00:02.400 --> 01:00:04.860 You know, they're a grief to Isaac and Rebecca. 01:00:05.080 --> 01:00:06.000 It just finishes off with that. 01:00:06.040 --> 01:00:07.800 I love that, okay? 01:00:09.260 --> 01:00:11.800 And so, you know, Esau is over here committing polygamy 01:00:13.200 --> 01:00:14.980 and it finishes off with that. 01:00:15.100 --> 01:00:18.220 It just says like, his wives are just like, you know, 01:00:18.360 --> 01:00:19.340 the parents are just like, 01:00:19.360 --> 01:00:22.020 ugh, can't believe this guy married these women, you know? 01:00:23.020 --> 01:00:24.880 And so, hey, that shows us parents 01:00:24.880 --> 01:00:27.580 that we need to make sure that we pray for our children 01:00:28.000 --> 01:00:31.740 to find the right spouse, one, find the right spouse 01:00:32.680 --> 01:00:34.860 so that they don't become a grief later on 01:00:34.860 --> 01:00:36.300 because it can happen, okay? 01:00:36.360 --> 01:00:37.320 We see this with the situation. 01:00:37.920 --> 01:00:38.740 What's the sermon tonight? 01:00:38.980 --> 01:00:40.840 The sermon's simply this, you know, 01:00:41.800 --> 01:00:44.460 we need to make sure that we are doing our part 01:00:44.460 --> 01:00:46.120 in this generation to dig up the wells 01:00:46.680 --> 01:00:49.360 that our forefathers have dug, okay? 01:00:50.080 --> 01:00:51.880 And, you know, when we do so, 01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:53.800 we have to expect opposition, contention, 01:00:53.960 --> 01:00:56.240 but there's also blessings and room that God makes for us. 01:00:56.480 --> 01:00:57.520 He allows us to be fruitful. 01:00:58.100 --> 01:00:59.840 And along with that, we need to make sure 01:00:59.840 --> 01:01:02.240 that along this journey that we're taking, 01:01:02.940 --> 01:01:05.300 that, you know, when God provides opportunities 01:01:05.300 --> 01:01:07.000 for us to reconcile with others, 01:01:07.520 --> 01:01:10.160 we do put our differences aside and forgive 01:01:10.680 --> 01:01:13.800 and allow them to move on and so forth, you know? 01:01:13.920 --> 01:01:16.500 And so, it's important for us to reconcile 01:01:16.500 --> 01:01:19.000 with the Bimalak and reconcile with those of Girard. 01:01:19.380 --> 01:01:20.420 Because, you know, Isaac could have said, 01:01:20.480 --> 01:01:22.800 you know, you guys did let me live there. 01:01:22.920 --> 01:01:23.700 That's true, you know? 01:01:24.200 --> 01:01:25.420 You guys did let me live there. 01:01:25.500 --> 01:01:26.200 You gave me a spot. 01:01:26.580 --> 01:01:27.700 You allowed me to be successful. 01:01:28.180 --> 01:01:29.220 I grew there. 01:01:29.920 --> 01:01:31.900 I, you know, I became successful there. 01:01:32.280 --> 01:01:34.260 And then you guys kicked me out. 01:01:34.300 --> 01:01:36.160 But I'll never forget the fact 01:01:36.160 --> 01:01:38.260 that you guys let me live among you. 01:01:38.820 --> 01:01:41.400 And so, you know, I feel that way 01:01:41.400 --> 01:01:42.560 about my old IFB church. 01:01:44.660 --> 01:01:47.740 You know, obviously, we can highlight all the bad stuff. 01:01:48.460 --> 01:01:49.180 But what's the point? 01:01:50.180 --> 01:01:50.600 What's the point? 01:01:51.440 --> 01:01:52.300 I got there. 01:01:52.460 --> 01:01:53.400 I was there for 10 years. 01:01:53.580 --> 01:01:54.060 And you know what? 01:01:54.220 --> 01:01:54.820 I was blessed. 01:01:55.740 --> 01:01:56.120 How blessed? 01:01:56.260 --> 01:01:57.040 I got saved there. 01:01:58.900 --> 01:02:00.840 I learned about the King James Bible there. 01:02:01.800 --> 01:02:03.920 I came into the new IFB and people were coming to like, 01:02:04.040 --> 01:02:05.520 I just heard about the KJV. 01:02:06.180 --> 01:02:08.000 I never heard about soul winning. 01:02:08.180 --> 01:02:09.780 I never heard about any of this stuff 01:02:09.780 --> 01:02:10.380 because they went to another. 01:02:10.720 --> 01:02:13.280 I'm like, I got saved in a Baptist church 01:02:13.280 --> 01:02:14.500 where this stuff was just normal. 01:02:15.500 --> 01:02:18.280 Where it was just like KJV only, soul winning, 01:02:18.600 --> 01:02:20.500 heart preaching, you know? 01:02:20.760 --> 01:02:21.960 I'm thankful for that. 01:02:22.980 --> 01:02:24.260 Very grateful for that. 01:02:25.100 --> 01:02:26.940 I'm thankful for Girard and everything 01:02:26.940 --> 01:02:27.980 that I got in Girard. 01:02:28.380 --> 01:02:31.020 And I'm thankful that I grew in Girard 01:02:31.020 --> 01:02:33.860 and became prosperous and succeeded there. 01:02:34.120 --> 01:02:34.820 And you know what? 01:02:34.820 --> 01:02:36.640 Sometimes it's just time to move on. 01:02:37.580 --> 01:02:38.640 Go dig some wells, amen. 01:02:40.100 --> 01:02:40.640 Let's pray. 01:02:40.720 --> 01:02:41.840 Father, we thank you so much for your word. 01:02:41.980 --> 01:02:43.920 Thank you for the examples that we have here. 01:02:44.440 --> 01:02:46.280 Help us as your people to be ready to forgive. 01:02:47.440 --> 01:02:50.740 And I pray that, Lord, you'd give us a tender heart 01:02:51.560 --> 01:02:54.500 to forgive one another when people have offended us. 01:02:55.000 --> 01:02:56.640 And even if they don't come to ask for forgiveness, 01:02:56.740 --> 01:02:58.300 sometimes we just need to do it in our hearts. 01:02:58.860 --> 01:02:59.880 As unto you, Lord. 01:03:00.600 --> 01:03:02.960 But especially when they come to us asking for forgiveness, 01:03:02.960 --> 01:03:05.380 may we extend that hand of mercy towards them 01:03:05.800 --> 01:03:07.560 and be ready to forgive, to reconcile, 01:03:08.160 --> 01:03:10.700 and to restore that friendship once again. 01:03:10.980 --> 01:03:11.620 I love it, Lord. 01:03:11.760 --> 01:03:12.600 I'm thankful for it. 01:03:12.980 --> 01:03:15.680 And I pray that others would extend that same grace to me 01:03:16.180 --> 01:03:18.560 that when I offended and I ask for forgiveness, 01:03:18.960 --> 01:03:20.980 the people would readily forgive me as well. 01:03:21.560 --> 01:03:23.000 And I pray you, bless us as we go on our way, Lord. 01:03:23.100 --> 01:03:23.800 We love you, we thank you, 01:03:23.860 --> 01:03:24.860 and pray this thing is in Jesus' name.