And that's why the Bible also says you can't get the folly or the foolishness out of a person. If you grind them up in a millstone, you can't get rid of their foolishness. I mean, if you took them like you would corn and put it in a mill and grind it or grain and how you break it down and crush it, you can't get foolishness out of a person. No matter what you do, you can crush them, they will go through an eternal judgment before God, and that's not gonna get foolishness out of them. They'll spend an eternity separated from him as a fool. Because just because you decide to do it right today don't mean you'll do it right tomorrow. But you're wrong tomorrow, it can't cripple you for the following day. You just gotta keep getting up and doing the right thing. Right, right, because everybody has them. Another phrase I was thinking about, talking to Christopher when he was preaching. You can't preach the foolishness out of people. Is that what, how does that go? Well, you can't fix a fool, so feed the flock. Feed the flock or fix the fool. Yeah. Okay. Because you can't fix a fool. Yes, God ain't in the fool fixing business. He's in the transformation of a fool. He takes dead men and makes them alive, and you can't fix a fool. There's a handful of principles throughout the word that teaches us that. The one that really stuck out to me at the time was Proverbs 16, 22, where he says the correction or instructions of fools is folly. It's twofold. One, you can't fix the fool. So focusing on trying to fix the fool is foolishness. That's folly, but also instruction coming from a fool is also folly. And so it's a two-fold because the following phrase is that understanding otherwise is a wellspring of life. So the idea is if you're going to glean wisdom, you have to glean it from those who have understanding. That ability to take the knowledge that God gives us, which is knowing a thing and knowing about a thing, and the idea of accurately knowing and having the right information. Wisdom is knowing how to put that information to work, but understanding is that ability to know how that works with other truths that correlate and come together. It's like piecing it together, like putting the puzzle together. Why we do what we do. Yeah, I know how to do, I know how to put that to work, but why do I put it to work that way? And so we got to have all three of those dynamics, understanding, wisdom, and knowledge. And then out of those will flow discernment, will flow discretion. Those are all gifts that come out of it, and those types of things keep us from that which is going in error. And you can recognize it, but without understanding, without wisdom, without knowledge, that doesn't happen. But in a teacher's perspective, a preacher's mindset is that you want to help people. You're a problem solver in a lot of ways, you attempt to, You want to, but you can't fix every problem and you can't fix every fool. So you recognize, okay, be careful about trying to fix the fool because what you'll do is neglect feeding the flock if you focus in on their foolishness. And a lot of times that happens. You get so caught up in a circumstances situation or somebody doing something the wrong way and you're trying to correct that. but you can get so focused in on it that you miss feeding everybody else what is essential about the Lord. So it's just a foolish thing to do. And that's why the Bible also says you can't get the folly or the foolishness out of a person. If you grind them up in a millstone, you can't get rid of their foolishness. I mean, if you took them like you would corn and put it in a mill and grind it or grain and how you break it down and crush it, you can't get foolishness out of a person. No matter what you do, you can crush them. They will go through an eternal judgment before God, and that's not gonna get foolishness out of them. They'll spend an eternity separated from him as a fool, or even judgment. We see that in the flood, right? when they went through the flood on the other side of that harsh. Devastating judgment, men's heart was still bent toward folly. And only God's grace is able to alter and transform that place. And even when he does, folly is still connected there. As the scripture says, our flesh is still at enmity with the Lord. I personally like to bring those things up from time to time, especially when I go to new places or around new people, or with other preachers. I know I got other Bible teachers and preachers there, just say, look, one of the free and true you gotta help you with is quit trying to fix the fools and feed God's people. Feed the flock and it'll make all the difference in the world and your people and you as well, because you're not gonna fix them fools. God doesn't fix them either. He transforms them. And that's what you gotta recognize. You, we all were once a fool, right? You had to transform us. Jacob, like we talked about this morning, was a fool. And God had to do a work in his life to change him, no doubt. But even in his, Finally, he was still able to recognize some things. And you take, like, for an example, if you would, go look at Genesis 31, Genesis 31. These are some of those things that I like to draw out and make note of as we walk through, and I think about them in my own journey because they'll help you. when you consider that here's a guy that really didn't have an intimate relationship with the Lord, but God had plans for him. It wasn't about the man, it was about what God was gonna do in the coming days with him. For God knows all things, and he knows what he's gonna do, with whom he's gonna do it with, and when he's gonna do it. And God's not threatened by us. He's not threatened by our folly. He's not threatened by our Wickedness he's got answers and solutions for those but in 31 when he is dealing with God's put it in his heart to go back and that God had made the promise he was with him He says these words to his wife. He says verse number 7 yet your father has deceived me and It's verse seven of chapter 31. Your father has deceived me and changed my wages 10 times. But God did not allow him to what? Hurt me. That's a word. He deceived, he altered, he did not do what he said he was gonna do, he attempted to hurt me, but God didn't let him hurt me. God had already told Jacob, even though Jacob had not put his confidence in him. Remember, he laid out those conditions. If you'll do this, if you'll do this, if you'll do this, if you'll do this, then you shall be my God. Well, remember, this is all in the workings of God's grace. That's what natural men say. Well, man, if God'll show me this, I'll trust him. or if God'll do this for me, I'll tell somebody else about him. It's always, I'm gonna trust myself first. And God's gonna have to prove himself to me that he's more trustworthy than myself. That's what natural men do, and that's what Jacob was doing. But see, he's at that place where God has been doing things that it could only be explained that God did it. even though he does not entrust himself to him in a sense that we're gonna see in the coming days, because it's coming, But at this point, he has recognized that God has kept him. God has fulfilled these things that he has promised to him. But that word there, your father has deceived me and changed my wages 10 times, but God did not allow him to. hurt me. It didn't turn out the way he wanted it to turn out. Matter of fact, it turned out to my advantage. Remember how the problem was is that we see that Laban's sons looked at Jacob and recognized that Jacob had surpassed them. Here's a guy that's been with him for the past 20 years. He worked 14 years for his wife, Rachel. Her dad deceived him with Leah and Rachel. So he committed 14 years to him to serve him, and he stayed an additional six years, and served him an additional six, but he gets to the place where he knows that envy has crept in with these brothers. And they're envious, and now an envious person is gonna set out to bring you down, and what it was, it was time for Jacob to leave. Not as much as a time for, on his time schedule, or Laban and his son's time schedule, but on God's time schedule, it was time for him to leave. We're gonna see this with the children of Israel when they enter into Egypt, when they're on God's timetable. Egypt welcomes them in. Egypt doesn't necessarily like Jacob's children down the road when they go into Egypt, which we're about to get into, when they sold Joseph off. And remember, Joseph is in authority and he was put there for what reason? To preserve life and to have bread for his people. Egypt didn't know this was the reason Joseph was there. Egypt didn't have any clue this was happening the way it was happening, but God had what? Already predetermined to send a man before him to prepare for this. Joseph's gonna go in there, and then when they bring Joseph's family in because they're shepherds, remember, he wanted them to tell them, you are shepherds, you shepherd sheep, where the Egyptians looked at shepherds as very low-class citizens. They didn't want anything to do with them, and they had to separate themselves. Well, they weren't nomad people. They were shepherds. They did take care of flocks, but what it did was give them the land of Goshen, and Goshen was a fertile, fertile land. fertile, fertile, green land that they got some of the best land was given to them because it was isolated, and they didn't want them Hebrews, them Jews, they didn't want them with them being shepherds, so they put, matter of fact, the Egyptian wouldn't even eat with a Jew, wouldn't even eat in their company, wouldn't even sit with them, and specifically wouldn't even be around these guys who were these shepherds. So it played in, too. And they took care of him, they blessed him, but there's gonna come a point down the road in that we know because we have the full story that those leaders, the pharaohs that eventually come on the scene, Joseph is out of the picture. what Joseph did is gonna be out of view. Even though history can be chronicled and they can see that Joseph was a great asset to our people and really helped us and kept us alive, but they're gonna start mistreating the Israelites and they're gonna start mistreating them so to the point because they're getting larger in number and they're gonna start putting these taskmasters over them, they're gonna start making them make bread, and then they're gonna wanna kill the children, and they're gonna start envying and coming against them, but it was all predetermined by God. Why? Because they were on God's timeframe, and he was gonna get them out of there. Just like with Jacob, it's in the same view. And no matter how you look at it, we see it, that what they attempted to do to him did not hurt him, it actually turned out for his good. Just like Joseph's gonna say, hey, what y'all meant for harm, what did God mean it for? For good. Okay, we see in a principle established by God that what the enemy means for hurt and harm, God uses it for our good. And it's a transformational thing, he's changing us in our confidence toward him that we become more reliable to him because we see that everything matters. What we say, how we say it, when we say it, what we do, it all matters and God's teaching us those things. And when you consider how the New Testament sheds light on the spiritual warfare that is being fought, that God will not allow the enemy to tempt us beyond what is natural. Meaning if the enemy could use unnatural, uncommon things, he would, to trap us. And we would always be trapped by him because we wouldn't be able to overcome him or defeat him. But God has made it where he has boundaries. Just like the waters, the seas, the oceans, they have boundaries. And every once in a while, in areas, those waters come over those boundaries, but God has made a commitment that never again will the seas flood the entire world, for God has put a limit on them. But you can mark down in your scriptures, I wanna say it's gonna be 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. 10 or 11, and let's go look at it in this idea of what the enemy attempts to deceive and to alter, to change, but God doesn't allow him to hurt us. So, 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 10 and 11. I'm almost positive it's there. Last week in that revival, And to apologize to the folks, I told them, Second Kings, when I meant to say First Kings, so it kept weighing on me. And at the close, I said, look, I told y'all to look at Second Kings, but I meant to say First Kings. So I didn't want them to go look for it, and Second Kings couldn't find it. But I knew, Stephanie said when I said it, she can tell him the way I said it was like I was checking my spirit about it, and it was. So I had to- I don't always get it. I knew when I said, it ain't 2 Kings, but I kept rolling with it. I kept going with what I was, the point I was teaching, but at the close, when the pastor said his last words, I said, hold on, let me say something real quick. I told y'all 2 Kings, but I really meant to say 1 Kings 19 is where it was at. And I knew that, it just slipped out. I used a lot of truth, so it slipped out on me. 1 Corinthians chapter number 10. Yes, yeah, chapter number 10. Look in verse number 11, verse number 11. Of course, These things that took place that Moses wrote about is what he's talking about in verse number 11. So verses one through 10 are these examples, the things that happened to them. They happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition so that we can learn, so that we can be warned, and that we can be made wise. Our admonition is the idea of a learning. And to learn, we're worn by them and we're made wise by them. So that's the idea. The word, when you admonish somebody with teaching, you put it in their mind. That's what preaching does. Preaching is to put it in the mind of someone where it's before them, where they can hear it and see it. So these things that we're reading currently in relationship to Jacob with Laban, with all this, we know from other passages they were written for our admonition and learning. This within the setting is dealing with while they walk through the wilderness and the troubles that came because of their unbelief because of their sin and the consequences of that. So verse 11 again, now all these things happened unto them as examples. And I gave y'all a word a couple weeks ago around that. Did I say case studies? Y'all remember hearing that? These are case studies, things we study. Circumstances that surround an event, we study them so that we can be wiser and be warned of what takes place when we don't trust and therefore follow. They're case studies, case studies. And they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. We're in that. We've been in the end of the ages for 2,000 years now. That almost doesn't make a whole lot of sense to man because we think the end of the age would only apply to where we are right now, but it's been the end of the age since Jesus came. That's the end, that's when it began, when Jesus came. Verse 12, therefore let him, let him, whoever he is, who thinks he stands, because they all thought they stood. These examples that we have warnings and wisdom from, he who thinks he stands, let him take heed to these warnings, for fear lest he fall. Remember, we're called on by God to keep ourselves in the love of God, the unhindered flow. But our keeping ain't what's keeping us. We gotta keep her. That's what you gotta remember, gotta keep you. So you're dependent on him to keep you from falling and not yourself. They all were dependent upon themselves and they failed. That was the issue. Jacob, for an example, He's saying, I'm gonna rely upon me, and God's gonna have to really do something showing out to make me believe him, because I'm more trustworthy than he is. Well, we know that's yourself up for a fall. But see, God'll let you fall so that he can, what, pick you up, you'll realize that, hey, I can't stand. I don't have what it takes to stand. So these things, these case studies are given to us so that we can glean from them and learn from them so we don't make the same exact mistakes that they've made. But remember, if you mess up, your mess ups don't have to mess you up. Because at some point, it's inevitable, you're not gonna do the right thing, you're not gonna say the right thing, you're not gonna think the right thing. but we need God to help us up. Verse number 13. He's gonna say these were temptations. There's always temptations. They fell in these traps of temptations because they relied upon themselves. No temptation. has overtaken you except such as is common to man. You're not isolated in this. No man can say, no man will ever be able to say that I was put in an extremely unusual situation that nobody else was ever put in and that's why I did what I did. You follow with me? That's what that's saying. That the enemy, if he could, he would. If he could put you in a place that he's never been able to put anybody else before, he would have already done it. He would do it. If he could put you in a situation that you had no chance of overcoming or having a way of escape or This being in an unnatural means, in an unnatural way, if that was possible, he would have already done it, but he can't. God has put boundaries on him and will not allow it. Goes back to the idea with Jacob and Laban. Laban deceived, changed, and attempted to what, hurt, Jacob, but God wouldn't let him hurt him. God wouldn't allow it. He would do everything he could to harm and hurt him, but whatever he did, it wasn't possible, because God would not allow it to happen. And the same thing with this. No temptation has overtaken you, because that's what we all wanna think. Boy, the devil made me do it. or pour the devil's on me or we point the finger at the devil for that and he's saying wait a minute no you are overtaken by that temptation you were you allowed it to happen but there was nothing that the devil did that put you in a compromised position that It was impossible for you to get out of because it was so out of the ordinary and so out of the norm and so out of your capabilities that none of us would be able to say that at all. James even makes it more clear. You were led away by your own desire. See, that's where Satan uses. He uses your natural, desires your natural desires God-given yet fallen desires Because everything about our desires everything about our delights that are natural are all falling You can't get away from that. We're falling creatures We're children of wrath apart from the things of God. And the only thing that can produce godliness is that which comes from God. God's desires, God's delights, God's ways that work in us. But anything apart from God is unwise. Anything apart from God is folly. Anything we do, Eve, for an example, is the first person who acted apart from God's word or God's will, and what did it produce? It was death, and yeah, it is the product of sin, but that sin produces death and destruction and deception and devastation, and all that we see today is a product of her misstep. that operated in a way that God wasn't in it. That's all it takes. God ain't in it. And anything we do that God's not in is the product of natural man in his flesh and not the product of God. So I have to go back to that there's not anything in me that has any eternal value in it if Jesus ain't in it. That's why Jesus said you can't do anything unless you abide in me. That means you can't do anything of eternal significance unless you abide in me, and I'm in you and work through you. Remember, we're the branch, and he is the vine, and it's the fruit of the vine flowing through us. We have a couple responsibilities. That is, by faith, we stay connected to him. By faith, we provide safe passage for the fruit of the vine to flow through us, and by faith, we lift up the fruit so that the world around us can see Jesus. See, his fruit. That's our responsibility. That's what we do. They're all done by faith, but they're all intimately connected to him, and then he works through us. And when he works through us and we work with him by faith, he glorifies himself out of our life with his fruit. But the branch doesn't get credit for it. The vine gets the credit for it, because that's where it came from. All we're doing is displaying it so that the world can see it and enjoy it. But if that ain't happening, anything that does happen is destined for the fire. Because if you get disconnected, what happens? You get collected up and it's good for the fire. What does the fire do? The fire fuse the enemy's fires. The enemy's fires. So anything man produces naturally fuse the what? Enemy's fires. So he says, verse 13, no temptation has overtaken you except that is common, natural to man, but God is faithful. And all God's people said, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able. Remember what we said, if the enemy could, He would. And just remember that. If the enemy could, he would, but he can't. Praise God. Because we would be in bad shape if he could. But he can't. And, that word but, you can use the word and, and with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Bear what? The temptation. You can bear it. Why? Because for every temptation that the enemy will use that is natural, because that's the only thing he can use, natural desires, even though they're natural fallen desires, with every one, God has a solution. to bear through the temptation. It's not that the temptation will crush you. It's not that the temptation will destroy you. It's the fact that you can bear through the temptation. It's not that the temptation will be removed from you. When you bear something, that is you endure something. So to endure something, that means that which you endure is not taken away because you had to endure through it. That is, the temptation is present. The temptation is active, at work, in your journey, but you can bear it because God's given you his way out. And therefore, not only does he provide the answer, the solution, the way out, but now he will sustain you to bear you through as the temptation keeps coming at you. You can walk through it. And if you're overtaken by it, you can't say that I was overtaken by something that was beyond the natural. No, I was overtaken because I gave in to my natural desires. that I gave in to me rather than yielding to him. Now we've all given in to us, haven't we? We have. Look over in James. That make sense to y'all? That's what he's talking about. You're not able. It goes back to what we're talking about with Jacob and Laban. He says that Laban attempted in every facet, the temptation was to deceive me, to alter things, as well as to hurt me, but God wouldn't allow it. What did God do? I endured it. and God brought me out the other side through all the troubles more abundantly than what it was when I entered into it. Because that's what he does. James, look in James, James chapter one. Let's keep this thought in mind. Now remember, your mind is going. I mentioned to y'all this morning, your mind's always gonna be what, initiating all the wrong stuff to you. That's why your mind has to be consistently renewed. The transformation and the renewing of our mind, that's what, us yielding. That's us, what, abiding. That's us yielding to Jesus, looking unto him. James 1, look in verse number 12. Blessed is the man who, what, What did he say in Corinthians? That you can bear it. Blessed is the man who bears it, who bears through, who endures through temptation for when he's been approved. Who does the approving? I don't put the stamp of approval on me. I don't put the stamp of approval on you. You don't put the stamp of approval on me. Only God can approve. Well, he is never gonna approve if we don't endure with him and take his way. in a situation. We gotta go his way. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him. So now he's getting down to an issue of it's things that we treasure. It's gonna be things that we treasure and love. It's gonna be relational, right? This is a relational thing. It's a relational thing. And when there's a vibrant, growing relationship centered around the love of God in our life, that in itself will allow you to go through some things for him, knowing that he's gonna use this, not only in your life, but in other people's lives. and you're not just so easily pulled away. It's kind of like a man who has a relationship with his wife. He comes home every night. He comes home every evening. He's at home every day, unless he's got a job where he's gone and all that, but nonetheless, if he was home, he would be home, but not the guy who finds another place to lay his head every night, and every so often, he shows up at the house. Most wives that have any sense wouldn't approve of that, right? Well, that's the idea. I'm in a relationship with the Lord. I'm the bride, I'm his, and he's going to show up every day and gonna be the husband who lays his life down for his bride that he can wash her and cleanse her and sanctify her. But let's say the bride decides she's only gonna come home once or twice a week and she's got other couple places she goes. what husband would approve of that? Okay, well, that's the image that I have in my mind here. It's based on a relational value. Verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted that I am tempted by God. No, God doesn't tempt. He doesn't tempt. Matter of fact, God gives you the solutions to endure the temptation with everyone. Matter of fact, he won't even let the enemy tempt you beyond which you're able to bear. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. Verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is what? drawn away by his own desires and enticed. All the enemy does is provide you with an opportunity to cultivate your desires. Because God won't let him do anything more than that. If he could, he would, but he can't. It's just natural. Now, we have a lot of natural desires that are built into us. Just natural affection. Men are naturally attracted to women. Women are naturally attracted to men. There's a natural desire to put food on the table and to have an income and to work. But see, if you go beyond, remember what we talked about the word lust? What is lust? Lust is a natural desire in excess. That's why it's called lust. It's natural. You have a natural desire, but then you cultivate that natural desire in an excessive manner, and now that natural desire's controlling you because it's in excess, and that's what the Bible refers to as lust. And there's other ways of just lusting or coveting or things like that that go beyond just in the physical or the sexual way of thinking. You can be cultivating an excess of a natural desire and it trap you. That's all the enemy wants to do. That's what we talked about turkey hunting next Friday. A youth season opens here in Mississippi. Greg's down in Florida right now turkey hunting. How do you kill a turkey? Well, one of the ways, you do it like a female turkey. And you disguise yourself and cover up in camouflage and get in a blind and get behind bushes and trees so you can't be recognized or noticed and you be still as possible. Make that male turkey think that he's talking to a female turkey and if you can put a decoy out there that looks realistic and you talking to him in the same kind of language he talks and as a At this time of the year, those gobblers have a natural desire in them to breed, to mate, to reproduce, for God says to the creatures, those of like seed shall produce like seed. It's a natural thing, God's made it that way. Turkey Hunt is capitalizing on that and making that male gobbler think that he's talking to a female and she talks to him in such a way that tells him, I want to know more about you, I want you to come see me, and I want you to come talk to me, and I want you to come know me, and he comes in and he's feeding on those natural desires, but he has no idea that there's somebody lurking behind the scenes who all they want to do is take his head off. And that's how the enemy works. The same exact way, that's how he plays into the temptation. You're drawn with the temptation, the natural desire. You're enticed by something. But then the more you think about that enticement, the more you pamper that enticement, the more that enticement becomes the draw on you, you start throwing off all the other indicators. And you don't pay attention that you're being set up. by an enemy to come on in. The natural desire is a good thing. God gave it to you for a reason. But if you're operating in the natural desire without his guidance, you're gonna be grabbed by something and it's gonna control you. And that's what he's saying here. Verse 14, but each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Verse 15, then in that stage when desire has conceived with the opportunity, that Satan provides, that the enemies provided. Conceive, it gives birth to what? Sin, and sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. Can you see it's just an image, that's the image there, it's about, it's an image of procreation. that there is conception, there is a birth, there is a growing, and there is a death. And that's the idea of sin. It started with a seed, that seed that was an opportunity, and then a natural design, the two come together and they give birth to sin, and sin always produces death. But no man can say it was God who brought him there, even though God gave the man the natural desire. No, the natural desire was taken into excess by the man. But the whole time, what did Corinthians tell us? That God provides a way of escape. He provides a way of escape. Verse 16, do not be deceived, my brethren, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation of shadow or turning. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So now, he's then turning around that, hey, this is not what God does, this is what you and the enemy do together, but God has something greater for you. God wants you to bear his DNA. God wants you to bear his characteristics, and he can't be tempted, nor does he tempt anyone. And he's not threatened by any temptation, because he can't be tempted. and he won't tempt anyone, so if you turn to him, and even though the temptation keeps coming at you on every side, and your mind's playing games with you, God will what? Allow you to endure it. You can endure it, you can endure it, but you can't endure it by yourself. You gotta stay connected to him, amen? And we can keep pulling a lot of these things together, but that's the idea that we see that hey, Jacob said hey, He tried. God wouldn't allow it. God wouldn't allow it. God didn't let him hurt me. Joseph, they did all they could. Physically, yeah, I went through some trouble, but God meant it for good, didn't he? Just like Jacob's gonna come to that conclusion. Now, Jacob is still in the place, and that's something that we see. Go back to Genesis, and we'll wrap it up with here. This is just one of those temptations, one of those temptations. I wonder, not that it really matters, If he didn't figure out that's what other people feel when he deceived them. Sometimes the easiest person to deceive is a deceiver though. They want to believe that they can outsmart you. I grew up playing games with people. And the easiest person for me to play a game with was a gamer. I could game them easier than I could just anybody else. What happens at a lot of that, they feel like they can always stay a step ahead of you in what they're doing and you can be trapped. Now fortunately, Jacob, because of the grace of God, Not that he actually was walking in intimacy with him, but God had made a commitment of what he's gonna do with the man, and then we're gonna see God do something with him. We haven't gotten to those places yet. We're gonna see it as you continue to read, over like in chapter number 32, as you're daily reading, you see him wrestle with the Lord. But notice in verse number 51, 51 of chapter 31. 51 of 31, and we'll go. This is a temptation. This is one of them. Not even the enemy realizing what he's doing. But Jacob recognized and wanted to make a distinction. And we just wanna learn from this. Verse 51, then Laban said to Jacob, here's the heap and here's the pillar which I placed between you and me. They're making an agreement with one another. This heap is a witness and this pillar is a witness that I will not pass beyond this heap to you and you will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me for harm. The God of Abraham. the God of Nahor, and the God of their father judged between us. And Jacob chose to swear by someone else. Why? Because Jacob knew that Jacob's grandfathers served other gods. And Laban served other gods. Remember all the idols and the other things we've been picking up on that they took from Laban's house and what he traced them down to find because they had idols? They served other gods. So this was a temptation for him to acknowledge, to join in with him. And Jacob said that he swore by who? The fear of his father, Isaac. Laban still had in his mind that Abraham, who he knew him as Abram, when he lived in that area, that Abram and Nahor, which were brothers, who had a father by the name of Terah, and who had grandfathers, according to Joshua. The place you wanna put down by that is Joshua 24. According to Joshua 24, the Bible tells us that Terah and Nahor and even Abram When he lived on the other side of the river, they served other gods. So Laban is gonna steal in his mind because he looks at Jacob as being a grandson of Abraham. And he's a grandson of Nahor. He's a grandson of Terah. And he's saying that we are the same people. We're the same blood. We have the same gods. But Jacob in enough sense of God at work didn't tie him back to Abraham. because Laban just did. He's saying he don't know who my grandfather served. So he's gonna say, I'm gonna swear by the fear of Isaac. Why? Because the God of Isaac and the God of Abraham changed Abraham and gave Abraham a new mission, and he ain't the same God that they served when they lived on the other side of the Euphrates. So Joshua 24 is clear that those men and those families years ago served other gods and other idols. So that is a clear distinction. That's why he's going to bring this up several times. He's going to bring up the fear of Isaac, the God of my father Isaac, because he's making a distinction. We're not talking about the same God. He's different. He's not the one that you believe Abraham served. Abraham served him years ago, another God, but he's no longer serving that God. Matter of fact, the God Almighty has rescued his life, gave him an assignment. That assignment's been passed to my father, and now my father's God has passed on the assignment unto me. So that is one of those that can go easily. You can miss it. You can miss it. You can miss it. That's why he keeps bringing up the fear of Isaac, the fear of Isaac. He said it twice, the fear of Isaac, because he's making the distinction. For an example, you and I, there's gonna be temptations for us. When we're out and about, people are gonna tell you, yeah, man, I love Jesus. I know Jesus, but there's no evidence that the Jesus they love is the same Jesus we see in the scriptures. Yeah, man, we serve the same God. Yeah, you've heard that before. And Brother Shannon was saying he was watching something the other day and a guy was sitting there and I think he was in California, but behind him he had representations of all these various religious groups. of every walk of life that he had representation behind him, and that is the kind of mentality somebody say, yeah, I believe in God, but I'm gonna cover all my bases. I'm gonna have the same God that, we're all serving the same God, for an example. Some may call him Allah, some may call him this, and some may call him that, and some may call him this, but we say, that's not the God that, our God's different. Matter of fact, our God died for us. Our God shed his blood for us. Our God came out of an empty tomb. Your God's still in the grave. That's right. Your God's still in the grave. He's dead. But my God is a living God and he's the God of the living. When he talks about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's not the God of the dead, he's the God of the living. They're alive today. They're with Him, so we make that distinct. But that's a temptation, a temptation to want to ascribe worth to these unknown or these false ideas of who God is, but we always want to make sure we're talking about the right Jesus, the Jesus who gave His life on our behalf, that became a substitute for us in every facet, that His temptation that the enemy tempted him is a credit to us, because he overcame it. He overcame it. I'm not going to overcome it every time, but he did, and I can put my confidence in him. Amen? To him be the glory. Father, we bless you tonight. We thank you. We thank you for helping us. We thank you for giving us insight. We do, as we started out the service tonight, asking for help for our folly. Wisdom and understanding and the knowledge of things and how to be able to put that to work. knowing what to do next in a thing and being able to see why things come together the way they do, we pray that you help us with it and that we can recognize and that we would acknowledge more than anything when we go wrong. a wayward in our heart, and that we don't pass the buck on to anybody else, and we don't blame anybody else, that we clear it up, confess it before you. As you say, if we would judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged. So help us, help us. Abide, work in us, work with us, and thank you for working through us. So we pray over these tonight, lift them up to you, ask your hand a favor, and that we would be able to say that what the enemy attempted to use to hurt us. You wouldn't let it harm us. Matter of fact, you turned it into our good. So we're gonna praise you and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Love y'all. Y'all have a good night.