I needed to be here. I needed to kind of get my mind cleared up. I've got the same responsibilities, whether I'm here or whether I'm home around the print shop. It seems like here, I don't think about it as much. Pressure's not on as much. And so, it's been good for me. I appreciate it. And, you know, okay. It really comes across as being real. You folks don't act hypocritical and preachers are just real, just real. I was preaching in Phoenix, somewhere north of Phoenix once, and just preached one time. preacher, just the one time being there, he said, I think we ought to have Brother Fuller back for a Bible. So, I went back out there and preached for a Bible. And after three or four days of preaching he said something to the church and used a word I'd never heard before. I didn't even know what it was. But he said, Brother Fuller has not pontificated one time this week. Pontificate. I wonder what that meant. I know Pontiff has had a ring about something Catholic. I hadn't always thought about it. So I looked it up and tried to figure out, and I think what it is, that there are some preachers that if you're outside in the parking lot, or you know, maybe even the best viewed talking, it is plain Jane. But there's something about some people when they step on that platform, they put on a ministerial air. They change their tone of voice, they change their actions, they're different, two different people. Came to the pontiff, and that's pontificate. know, he could have said that a lot simpler and I had to look it up and see what it meant. But Brother Carpenter had not pontificated one time. You've actually got people out there in the ministry and you do that kind of stuff. Terrible. Amen. But anyway, there is a spirit of reality. There's a ring of reality here and I appreciate it. Amen. I would appreciate your prayers. I'm fighting off that with this right eye and vision. I don't know. Doctors appointment in the morning, maybe he'll change that medicine, do something, I don't know. But hard to read, hard to, you know, burn the neck, I think. I see him tomorrow, but then Thursday morning I got to go to Greenville, North Carolina. I'll meet the preacher there a few hours and drive on a little bit. He's got to be in Richmond Friday to pick up a piece of printed equipment. And then if I was riding a mule, I'd just pull the bridle off and let him go to the house. But I ain't riding a mule. So I got all that drive back to Florida. And that bright light driving, boy, that's, you know, I don't know. I might get a patch of that right eye, but the vision's not real good in the left eye. So, we'll see what happens. You say, what are you telling me? I'm telling you I'm getting old. Amen. But, you know, the old timer, I like the old time ways. I was over in Milan, Tennessee and that boy at that mule farm out there, they told that story about that old boy. All he'd ever done was ride a horse and a buggy. But them Model T Fords come out, and he's about 80 years old, but somebody talked him into getting one and said he got one. And he rode that Model T to town about every two weeks, you know, and all the old-timers that do. But after about six months, he got accustomed to it and relaxed. One day, he come in town, drove that Model T Ford up in the barn, pulled back on the steering wheel, and hollered, didn't stop that. Tore a side out of the barn. He sold it. Somebody said, John, you sold that truck? He said, yeah, I sold it. I said, why? He said, it didn't have as much sense as a dead mule. You couldn't keep it out of the ditch. You had enough sense to stay out of the ditch, but that Model T didn't have enough sense to stay out of the ditch. But you know what, there's something to that. You know what he was used to? Life. Wasn't no life in a Model T, amen. That was mechanical. But anyway, I feel like that's me, you know, ancient, old time. But that's all right, I like old fashioned way, amen. But, you know, pray for that eye one. Brother Chavez's wife, Chavez, Chavez, Chavez, Chavez, his wife come in one day, and I saw her come in and set some food down, and I went over there and said, say something. She said, what? I said, say something. I want to hear her voice so I know who it was. I couldn't look at her and tell. Maybe you just speak, I don't know who you are. So, you know, I may have to feel you. I might as well have a good time with it while it's here. Boy, but maybe I can get that eye covered up, amen. Heard about one fella had his hat, some people they wear them backwards, I don't know why they got a ball cap turned around backwards. And one fella started wearing his sideways, new fad, the bill's sticking out here. So I said, why'd you turn it back around? He said he got tired of people coming up and whispering in my nose. That'd be bad, wouldn't it? Whispering your nose. Amen. Mother-in-laws, boy, they say a lot of stuff about them, don't they? Say, what's the difference between mother-in-law and outlaw? Outlaw's wanted. come down one day and said they wanted to put in his will to bury him at sea. I said, why do you want to be buried at sea? He said, because my mother-in-law said when I die she's going to dance on my grave. Amen. Billy Kelly said he heard his mother-in-law was coming he cut the dog's tail off. I said, why? He said, I don't want no friend in the snow when she shows up. Amen. Isn't that terrible? I'm just repeating what them guys said. All right, let's turn to the book of Genesis and find a place here to start. And I would like to finish up with enough thoughts on this to not try to preach a long time tomorrow about Jacob. you'll take your faith promise, right preacher, tomorrow night, and you'll take time to count that and whatever. So really, if we can get the real burden of it finished up here tonight, and then you'll be praying tomorrow, and what you're going to do for worldwide missions in the following year, through your church, and we'll take a lot of time to do that. But, what we've been reading, the text that we've been using all week is that Genesis 32, Verse number 27, and he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And of course, understanding what we previously said, you know the essence of it now. That's the punchline to the story. And he said, my name is Jacob. Now, there's some interesting stuff back here earlier on, and I tried to do a little work on it today, best I could, but I couldn't work on it much. But when we've dealt with Jacob being very successful, of course, hook and crook, conniving, lying, cheating, manipulating, doing whatever he had to do, deceiving his brother Esau into letting him have the birthright, whatever privileges that gave Jacob, he used it. And then finally when it was time for his daddy to die, we talked about how that he went in and deceived his daddy. He got the family inheritance. he found out that Esau was going to kill him as soon as his daddy died. And so Jacob left and went to live with his uncle Laban. And we haven't said anything about the relationship that he had between him and Laban. But it's not evident that Jacob just became a plain liar and a scoundrel, he just manipulated. And by manipulating Laban, man he ended up more than Laban had. But finally, when God told him he met the Lord, had that divine encounter, he said, you'll be my God. And the Lord started a process of turning Jacob around. But he let him go a long ways. And a lot of times, I believe still in life, God has a goal for you. And sometimes, you don't know what it is, until way down the road. And you travel a long time to have a lot of experiences before you get to that place to where God shows you what He wants you to do. And you say, why is that? I believe God will let you set yourself up. And I heard a fellow say one time that he got saved. And so when he got saved, boy, he started living for the Lord, man. I mean, life turned around. He just, boy, he was just doing great. And started making some money, got a nice house, had a good job, planning for a career. I mean, just, you know, boy, had a wife, had a family, everything. And he's really, I mean, he was living the American dream. And then he said about that time, God called him to go to a mission field. So going to a mission field meant that you have to get rid of all this other stuff, okay? And so he was praying. He said, Lord, he said back there when I didn't have anything, why didn't you call me then? And the Lord said, well, I want you to have something to give up for me. Amen. So that could be it. So God let him accumulate a lot of stuff. Well, that's the same way it was with Jacob. God let him set himself up. And then when the Lord told him to go home, he starts home, he hears about Esau coming. And so Esau is on his way for his servants. And earlier in the chapters, if you read the story, go all the way back to chapter 25, and the Lord said, God said, Jacob said, you will be Lord over your brother Esau, you'll be Lord over him. And so that was, he was Lord over him. But we talked last night about when Jacob begins to turn around, he told those servants, he said, you go tell my Lord Esau that his servant Jacob. So he went back and reversed it in his own mind, like it should have been originally. He's going back, getting that thing right, getting it straight. But he sends those gifts And you know, there's something about giving that reflects the heart of a man. You know, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Not where your heart is, there will your treasure be, but where your treasure is, there will your heart be. So you tell me where your money is at, I'll tell you where your heart's at. No matter how many times you come to the altar, no matter how much you shout, it don't matter. It don't matter nothing. He said that's the barometer of a man's spiritual condition is what it does with his treasure. Where's your treasure? That's where your heart's at. You know, there are people, and we talk about these automobiles sometimes, there are people who make God out of an automobile. a car, out of a house, you know all kinds of things. But anyway you can tell there is becoming a turnaround because all of a sudden Jacob becomes a giver, he is giving. Now his motive is probably not all right when he is giving these gifts to Esau. trying to appease him. He's trying to buy him off, but yet he's willing to turn loose of that stuff. Now, in chapter number 31, look at a verse there, chapter 31, yeah, that's the verse, 31.14. And in chapter 31, it says, number 14, is that it? No, that's not it. Maybe I need chapter 32, I'm sorry. Chapter 32 and verse number 14. And the Bible said, well let's back up to get the context. Go to the book of verse 13, and he lies there that same night, and took of that which came to his hand to present for Esau his brother, and So, here's what he's going to give to his brother Esau. 200 she goats and 20 he goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milk camels with their colts, every kind, and 10 bulls, 20 she asses, and 10 foals. Now, if you want to count that up, in verse number 14, that's 440 animals. And then in verse number 15, that's another 140 animals. That's 580 animals. And I got to thinking, I wonder how much that was. Well, I just looked up camels, you know, and I couldn't find a sale price anywhere but Australian, even today, $1,000 to $1,500. But I did my best to kind of put a conservative figure on that. And you know how those 580 animals, you know what he gave? He gave about a quarter of a million dollars. Pretty good gift. I mean, if you'd put that in today's currency in America, United States currency, that guy gave about a quarter of a million dollars. Now, I don't care how much he had, that's still a big gift. Amen. And there are people who say, well, the size don't matter. Yeah, it does. It does. It does mean something. Now, if you give $10 a month to missions, that's all you can do, fine, give you $10. But I'm telling you in America, buddy, I mean, we're tipping God. You know, ministries that run like our ministry. You know what we operate on? We operate on the crumbs that fall from the king's table. That's what we operate on. You know what missionaries do? And it's a shame. Missionaries go to the mission field. And I don't know a missionary that's over-supported. Now, if he's a dud and he gets anything, he's over-supported. But you know, I was thinking about another thing, Brother Carpenter. Of all the years that I've been coming here, I don't think I've ever seen a missionary give a presentation that I sit there and thought, that guy's no good. of them have been all right. Amen. Everyone that I remember, these missionaries, man, Ireland, you know what they need? They need that missionary. Amen. I'm convinced, you know, Peru, they need that missionary. You know, he'll get straight sometime on the Spanish Bible and do a lot for the Lord. Amen. He knows we got a little personal joke going there. But that missionary man, I'm telling you, just what I've seen. I just pulled these guys a heartbeat, you know. But most missionaries, they don't have enough working money. They can't buy Bibles. They can't get a building. They can't get a vehicle. They can't get a lot. And you don't hear a lot of complaints coming from them. But you know what they did? They gave up the life that you have. I mean, they abandoned the American dream, you know, and they go off to a mission field. They don't have the luxuries of America, they say. I mean, I kind of enjoy, I talk about that old house we live in, but I'll tell you what it does have. It's got a little box back there with two little dowels on it, up and down, and I can set the temperature within one degree either way. make it all over the house just as comfortable as comfortable can be. I mean, I turn the faucet in my bathroom, kitchen and so on, it's hot and cold water, you know. I'm kind of grateful for that kind of stuff, you know. But, you know, the automobiles that we drive, that's a blessing, man. In America, we're spoiled. And we walk down these car lots, and you can look out there, there's a $50,000 vehicle, there's a $75,000 vehicle, there's a $40,000 vehicle, and we support missions $25 a month. I've told a lot of times about Billy Allen. Billy Allen is an old veteran missionary and started about 40 churches in South Louisiana. And Billy said really what most of us need is a check up for the neck up. And he said, I'm living by faith and I feel no alarm. We need to change it to I'm giving by faith and I feel no alarm. And Billy Allen, and I've said it here, but you need to put it in your thinking. Billy Allen used to say when we'd preach together in that mission conference in Houston, Texas, and Billy would get up every year and repeat it. He said, I want missions to be the biggest item on my budget. He said, I'd hate to have a house note bigger than my mission giving. and I kept working on it, working on it, working on it. Finally, we got our mission support up about the size of our house note, and God took the house note away. Amen. I said, what'd you do? We took what we lost paying on the house and added that. Amen. And he'd say, I'd hate to have a car payment bigger than my mission giving. And I thought about that. And so now we've got the missions up to, we've never had a payment on anything as much as our mission giving. They say, bragging on yourself. No, I'm nothing and a nobody. But when God puts money in your hand, what's He put it there for? Not to please ourselves. You know what that guy did? That guy gave a quarter of a million dollars to a brother. That's pretty good, isn't it? But let me say something else. God did something with him after giving that. He's going the right direction. And the Lord, would you say the Lord blessed him? I'd say the Lord blessed him. I mean, the Lord blessed him back there when Jacob said, you'll be my God. He wanted the God of Abraham and Isaac to be his God, and he became his God. And that became a process where God now is going to really put the blessing on Jacob. But what happens, we read last night, when Jacob sees Esau coming and he said, oh God, he's in distress, he's going to die. Now, he's got the blessing of God on him. He's got all this stuff. He acknowledges that. He said, I'm not worthy of the least of all thy blessings. Everything that you've given and put on me, I'm not worthy of it. So God had blessed him, but you know what God did? God broke him. I mean, he brought him to the place, and he said, who are you? He said, Jacob. That was the breaking point. I mean, that was his confession. I'm guilty, this is all my fault. I am a shyster, I am a crook, I have done wrong, and God broke him. Now, there's a thing in the Bible that we don't like to preach on much, if they used to preach on it, but you know that there used to be regular preaching on brokenness. and a broken heart and a contrite spirit, thou wilt not despise, oh Lord. And what we're trying to do, and I'm for it, we're trying to get people to do right, but somehow it backfires on us sometimes, because when people get to doing right, they get to living by rules and regulations, they get the chest out and think they're pretty good. We're not trying to make good people out of you, we want broken people. In fact, I say this a lot, that morality or morals is not in the Bible. God never used the word, and really God is not interested in your morals. Now I am. It makes a safer community for my wife and my children and grandchildren to live in, but morals is not the issue. the brother showing all the abortion rates and all the problems in Ireland. We got them here and this is an immoral world. But I'm telling you, if you made everybody moral, they'd still be a stench in the nostrils of God. And there is a word that God uses that is much stronger than morality. You say, what is it? It's the little word holiness. And you say, what's that? I tell you what it is, it's the work of God in the heart that flows out in a life according to the Word of God, and that becomes holiness and worship. That's what God's looking for. But I'm gonna tell you, that Adamic nature in you is rebellious, it'll fight it, it does not want to surrender to the will and the work of God. Brokenness, brokenness, brokenness. In fact, did you know, I believe you can take a person, that by all the standards that we can paint is disqualified from doing anything. And God will wash him off, pick him up, set him straight and use him. I ain't qualified to do nothing. But you know, let me look at a passage over here for just a minute. And you see if I've got this right over here in 2 Samuel chapter number 23. Now, you know, David, somebody said David was a good fellow, but you couldn't trust him around your wife. Well, he did have that problem, didn't he? And I'm not for that. I'm not condoning any immorality whatsoever. But you look at chapter number 23 of 2 Samuel, and these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, said, here's what he said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel said, here's what he said, the spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, here's what David said, the God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain. You know what he said? He that ruleth over men must be just ruling in the fear of God. Look at verse five. Although my house be not so with God, we failed the test. They said, there's the qualification, but we didn't meet it. You think God used David? believe so. In fact you hear talk about the patriarchal age. You know what they are saying from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the patriarchal age. And they say the three patriarchs was Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the progenitors of the Hebrew race. But I tell you what there is another patriarch David is called a patriarch. You know what David did? David was a paper driver. He started the kingly line. You believe God used him? Yeah. That one man God used. In fact, I'll tell you the truth about it. Here's a little heresy maybe, but I don't think so. They talk about who got up, who raised from the dead. When Jesus got up, went into the Holy City, and you know, many of the saints arose, went into the Holy City and were seen. And many, they said that was all the Old Testament saints. Man, I'm telling you, I don't believe they could have all got into the Holy City. If all of them got up, it might have been a crowd. Amen. I don't believe they all got up. I'll tell you one didn't get up. You say, who, David? They say, why? Well, you know what Acts chapter 2 and Acts 3 said? That David had not yet ascended into the heavens, for he was both dead and buried in the sepulchers with his son to this day. That's what he said. You know what? David didn't get up. I mean, you read it. That's what it said. He didn't get up. But I tell you, he will one of these days. You know what? David won't go to heaven. You say, really? No. You know what Israel was? Israel is an earthly people, and they were looking for a kingdom. And one of these days, I believe that Jesus Christ is going to come back, and He's going to rapture us out, and we're going. Then sometime later, He's going to come back again to the earth, and He's going to set up a kingdom. And you know what's going to happen at the end of that tribulation period when Christ comes back? I don't know how many of the Old Testament saints didn't get up, but brother, there's going to be a bunch that get up and go into that millennium, and one of them is going to be David. And I believe that under Jesus Christ, that David will mount a throne and reign over that exalted nation of Israel. See, that's just one man. He had a big effect, didn't he? But you know what David was? David was a broken man. Boy, you realize that he was a broken man, brother. And that's something that we don't look for. We don't look for a brokenness. We look for somebody, you know, and throw his shoulders back. And I mean his chest out and his head back and be like a soldier for Christ and be somebody and face the world and be a man. Go ahead and be all of that. But I'm telling you without a broken spirit, God will never do much with you. You know, the book of Job, and I've probably preached it here. Maybe I've got the only view in the world on the book of Job that I have, but still, I tell you what I believe about the book of Job. Boy, when you look at that book of Job, and people say, why do good people suffer and that kind of thing, and God making a liar out of the devil? Hey, God didn't have to come down here and prove nothing to the devil. And when the devil had to go give a report, he had to report it, and the Lord said, where you been, what you been doing? Report. And he gave a report, and God initiated and said, have you ever considered my servant Job? He said, yeah, you've got a hedge about him. He said, you do this and this and this. And God said, I'd try him out. And somebody talk about Job being so strong that God could trust him even to fight. There had never been a creature that could whip the devil in his own power. Never been one. But I'll tell you what was going on. Boy, when you look at those scenario one, scenario number two, and in this, Job sinned not with his lips. In this, that scenario, he went through another one. And in this, Job sinned not with his lips. But he went through the third scenario, and when he did, you know who turned against him? His friends turned against him. And when his friends turned against him, he lost all of those animals, 11,500 animals. He lost all of those animals. He lost his family. But when his friends turned against him, the Bible said in Job chapter 3 and verse number 1, then Job opened his mouth and spake. And that's what I do. Open your mouth and speak. That's the biggest mistake you'll ever make. Open your mouth and speak. And when Job opened his mouth and spake, and you know what he did? He started bringing charges against God. I mean, charge after charge after charge after charge. And you know what happens? You start with Job chapter three and verse number one, Job opened his mouth and spake, and he goes through dialogue after dialogue with those three friends. And it's an amazing thing, when one of those friends would speak, Job would come back with an answer, and you check all eight scenarios, and in every case, Job always out-talked all of them. you get to the end of it, if you count the words and the verses, Job spake a little more than half of the other three put together. But here's a strange thing. God didn't say a word. God didn't say nothing. I wonder why. He wasn't listening. He was talking. But when you get to the end of chapter number 31, you know what it said? Thus the words of Job are ended. He didn't have any more to say. didn't have any more to say, you looked two verses later and then came Elihu, that was God's man. And he preached a six chapter sermon to Job, he burned his hide buddy. I mean if you don't believe it, you read it. I mean he took him to task. And Job never rebelled one time. He He never spoke back. He never said, preacher, that's your opinion. No, sir. And sometimes that preacher gets up and boy, he's plowing the row. I mean, he's coming down close to you and he's naming sins that you just thought about. And he's already plugged in. And I mean, he just, you think he's being cruel to you. No, that's God taking his man to bringing you to a place where God can touch you and bless you and use it. And when Elihu got through speaking to Job, when Job never rebelled at that message, you know what it said in chapter 38? Then the Lord answered Job. Now what you want this week, you want God to speak to you. But as long as you know everything, and you're doing the talking, and you're doing the teaching, and you know all about it, God is not going to say anything to you. I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to take that faith promise card, and you're going to look at it, and you're going to see what you did last year, and you're going to try to figure in your mind, what can I do this year, and can I really afford to up it, or can I not? Listen, you're not a candidate for God to speak to you yet. And you're going to have to get broken out of that self-figuring out and that calculator use and all that stuff and get in a place where God can speak and God can tell you something. I'd have never dreamed, I'd have never dreamed, I'd have never dreamed that I'd be involved in the stuff I'm involved in. And it's certainly not me. It's not me. It's God. It's God. know what the Lord did? He said, by the way, Job, was you there? No, you wasn't, but I was. Job, did you see? No, you didn't, but I did. Job, thou knowest it all. You know what God said? God called him to know it all. You know what happened when God got through talking to Job? Job said, I repent of who I broke. God broke him. You know what the events in the book of Job was for? He said make Job good and he was already good. The Bible said there was a perfect and an upright man, nothing like him in all these first of all. And then later on God said there is nothing like him in all the earth. He is the best man there was. But you know what the best man that ever was needs? He needs to realize he's no good. But for the touch of God, but for the touch of God, he'll never do anything that'll honor God. And that's what that book of Jacob and that word Jacob, I'm Jacob. I mean, I beat my brother, and I got the first rites, and I became Lord over him, and he was my servant, but I want to turn it around, and I want him to be my Lord, and I want to be his servant, and he gave him a quarter million dollar offer to start with. And so the Lord, he said, what's your name? He said, Jacob. And God turned him around. He said, we're gonna call you Israel. So for the sake of a little outline, let's put it like this. God blessed Jacob, but God broke Jacob. And then when God broke Jacob, he branded him. He put a brand on him. That brand will tell you who you belong to. You better not steal that cow that's got a brand on it, another rancher, he owns that one. And that brand will tell you who you belong to. And that Bible said, and by the way, you might notice that Job's family wasn't with him. They're the other side of the book. I mean, it's him and God. And that first encounter, it's just him and God. And now it's just him and God. And do you know, this is an individual thing. It's not you and your family. It's you and God. And the Lord touched him. And when the Lord touched him, sinews shrank, hollow of his thigh, And the Bible said that he halted upon his thigh. And if you check what the word means, it means from then on, he walked with a limp. God branded him. They say, I've seen people walk with limp. Yeah, I have too. I've seen some young preachers full of jumping joy, man. They jump over this platform right there and run down there. I'm begging, I can't do that. Why? Well, I'm getting old, but I'm branded. Amen. And you know what the best thing a young man could do if he's called a minister? Find you some old preacher that walks with a limp. He might be able to tell you some things. You know what, if a man's walking with a limp, you know what that says to me? Somewhere down the road he's been hurt. Say, how'd he get hurt? Might have got hurt working. That's strange folks, isn't it? Yes. Might have got hurt in the war. Yeah. But he got hurt. Yeah. And he can't run like them young fellas. But he ain't quit. Yeah. Amen. He's still a going. Amen. Well, you know what? God touched him. You know what you need? You need God to reach over and touch you. Amen. And when God touched him, And then he met with Esau. But I'm telling you, talk about a reunion. And it says in verse number one of chapter 33. Boy, let's read down through this. What a precious chapter. And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau came, and with him 400 men. He divided the children under Leah, and under Rachel, and under the two handmaids. And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel, and Joseph hindermost. And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, and he came near to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. They wept. Well, that's a reunion of two brothers that have been divided for 20 years. And you know what our Christianity is on earth? It's a unity of the brethren. You're my brother in the Lord. Amen. If we just use you to make merchandise of you, if you go down the tube, that's just one tree out of the forest. And that's the way some people see people, black trees, something to commercialize. That's not Christianity. And they wept. And it said in verse number five, And he lifted up his eyes and saw the women and the children that said, who are those with thee? And he said, the children which God hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens came near and their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves. And after came Joseph near and Rachel, themselves. And he said, what meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And they said, these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast done to thyself. He said, Jacob's off the hook. He don't have to give it. But let me, before I read another verse, tell you something. If you've ever had the touch of God on you, he said, it's hard to give. It's much more difficult to not give. It'll hurt you worse to not be able to give than it will to not give. He said, I don't need it, you keep it. And Jacob said, nay, I pray thee. If now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my presence at thy hand, for therefore I have seen thy face as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased with me. Therefore I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God has dealt gracious with me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took it. took it. You know, you know how you can tell a mooch? How do you know how you can tell him? He'll never give you an opportunity to constrain him, but that is in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus is traveling with those who are His disciples, and He's opening the scriptures unto them, and He's teaching them the Word of God, their hearts burn within them. And when they get to their destination that they invited Him in, and to be their guest. And he made as though he would have gone a little farther, he would have passed on. But they constrained him. What do you mean they constrained him? They came to the place where they live and they invited him in and he said, no, I'm going to travel some more tonight. I'm going to move on a little bit. They said, no, no. Some people just being polite. Let me buy you lunch. Yeah, I thought you'd never invite. I thought you'd never ask me. might have just been being polite. I'll tell you how you can tell. I said, no, man, I bought supper and I thought I was going to have to whip the preacher. We'd fight over who's going to pay. That's the Christian spirit. We're not fighting to get you to pay. We're fighting you letting me pay. And I had lied to the waitress. I told the waitress, that's a look. Now, I know this guy, he's tied in a bark on a log, and if you give him the bill, he won't, you won't get a dime tip. Amen. credit card out and put it in her apron before she ever took the order. Amen. What a blessing, got the values of her. That was a blessing. I got more blessing than you did. Amen. You know what? When you take that faith promise card, you say, I'm going to go help God. I'm going to make his job a lot easier this year. No, this is not for God's benefit. This is for your benefit. This is for you. This is for you. And you don't know what you're missing. My boy called me today and I hang up, I just cried. Man, cried like a baby. He said, you watch video church Sunday? I said, yeah. I watched it Sunday night. I don't want 70 years old talking about Rwanda. They believe that with his strategy, reach that country in eight years. Eight years. They've got radio stations that are through their radio stations. They've got little pockets of people, 15 people, 20 people, 25 people all over that country having Bible studies, wanting churches. They are going to build that Bible Institute. They are going to train them preachers and they are going to send them out over Rwanda. And in ten years build ten churches. eight years reach that country. You know what that's going to do? That's going to cost a lot of money. I'm going to be a part." He said, how are you going to be a part? Well, I don't know, but I'm going to be a part. But let me show you something. When Jacob said, take it, take it, please take it. Let me be a part of missions. Let me get involved in that. Yeah. He already had a gift lined up of a quarter million. He said, let me get involved. I want to give you something. I said, okay. And he took it. Now they leave and they're going back home. As it says in verse number 12, and he said, let us take our journey and let us go. And I will go before thee. And he said unto him, My Lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me. And if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die. Now this is Jacob talking to Esau. He said, Let my Lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant, and I will lead on softly according as the cattle that goeth before me, and the children be able to endure. And then I come unto my Lord and to see her. And here's what he said. He said, no Esau, he said, you go ahead. It's never been Jacob's temperament to let somebody else go first. But he said, you go first. I'll come last, I'll come up second. You go first. the reason he gave, he said, because the flocks, and the herds, and the children, the young elephants, he said, if the servants don't drive them one day they might die. I don't believe they can make it. What about Esau's flocks and herds, can they make it? Same. I'll tell you what Jacob was really thinking about. He wasn't thinking about the flocks and herds, he was thinking about himself. He didn't say it, but I think it is on my mind. He said, I can't keep up. I don't think I can do it. I don't think there's any way I can't do it. I can't. That's the way I feel sometimes. I can't do this. I can't. I can't do it. I mean, they hand me, they said, all right, here's a little piece of metal, 14 inches long, three inches wide, got a little rubber magnetic strip on the back of it, and they're leaking. How much was it, $579. That's four of them on that press. That's about 2,000 bucks. Well, they say the rollers gotta be redone on that press. So okay, how much is that, $4,700, okay. New rollers on this press, how much is that? That's $3,600, okay. A load of paper, how much is that? About $35,000, need two of them. That's $70,000. How much does it cost to put covers on 50,000 Bibles? That's $25,000. I can't do this. Can't do it. You got four employees in the shop. Got them field reps out there. one of them pulled his motor home and over up Memphis and they said it had a, kind of dealer had a fuel injector leak and they put one in it. He didn't have the money. Who'd they call? Me. $1,750. Okay. I can't do it. I gotta come up with about $350,000 a year to keep that French Alpaca. And you know, I think in my mind, I get to thinking sometimes, I need to find Mia Jacob. willing to put about a couple hundred thousand in there every year, kind of solve it. And I get to thinking about, I need some money. So I'm going to sow in it, but I'm going to try to catch a fish with money in its mouth. And God will say, no. The reason I slowed you up was so you'd just have to trust me. I can't do this. And you can't either. tell you what God branded him and he never lost it. And he didn't lose his effectiveness because 2,000 years later Jesus went down to that well and that woman came out. He said, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is sent to thee you would say to him, give me a drink. He would give you a living one. She said, you think you are greater than our father Jacob? great fellow, wasn't he? And I'll tell you something else, that walking stick, the book of Hebrews said when he died, he died worshiping, leaning upon his staff. Amen. You need to be broke. You need to be touched. Amen. And you need to trust God. I'll tell you what, there's no talent in What faith promises, this church can do. If you come to God and say, Lord, I'm sick of myself. I want you to touch me. Jesus said, go where the two ways meet. And you'll find a colt, you'll find an ass and a colt full of the ass. He said, where our never man sat, lose him, bring him to me. if any man say unto thee, what doest thou? So the Lord hath needed him." He went over and got him. And he brought that little coat where no man had ever sat. And they sat Jesus on him. And he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem. You ever tried to ride a coat for the first time? believe the Lord Jesus pulled his ear down and said, whoa, boy. And he submitted to the Lordship of Christ. And the Lord Jesus rode him into Jerusalem. And there is no more said about him. I believe they retired him. I believe they turned him out, put him out there to graze the rest of his life. All the other little old donkeys say, you notice that donkey? Something different about it, isn't there? Yeah, there is. One of the donkeys said, I'll tell you what it is. So what is it? He said, he had God on him. That's the difference. He had God on him. So let's go ahead and limp. I can't do this. I know you can't. Neither can I. you what God could take you and touch you and break you and mold you and make you. Did you read what Job had at the ending of that book? Man, he had twice as much as he had before. Yeah. Jacob, did you ever read the wealth that he had? And you know the ironic thing about it was God had already promised him land, and riches, and wealth, and inheritance through Abraham's seed. He was about to work it out himself. He didn't have to work it out himself. He just had to live on the promise. You can do the same thing, you can live on the promise. Here's what we need to do tonight, if you're here, you say, I don't understand this stuff. just get before the Lord and say, Lord, here am I. Take me, break me, mold me, make me, whatever you want, here am I. And you get one of those faith promise cards, and you pray. You say, Lord, I'm thinking about cutting my faith promise this year in half. See what He says. If He says to your heart, that's what you ought to do, then that's what you ought to do. If you say, Lord, I'm thinking about doubling what he says. Do you think, Lord, what about 15%? Charles Crean said, God works out of a suggestion box. Well, I don't know that, but I do know that if you want to know where the fruit is, it's out on the limb. That's where the fruit is at. And you take that faith promise card. Lord, I read about Jacob. You touched him. You broke him. You blessed him. You branded him. You how God used Jacob. I read about Job, you broke him, but you blessed him, you branded him. And all through the Bible that is the situation. And you and God, you just said, God, that is all I want to know, what do you want me to commit to? To get these missionaries on the field, reach these countries with the Gospel of Christ, and right here in Manhattan, North do exploits for God around the world. He'll use you. Let's bow for prayer. Heads bowed and eyes closed. Before anybody moves, before we use this altar tonight, anybody here, you'd like to lift your hand and you're saying to that, preacher, pray that God will touch me, break me, mold me, make me whatever he wants out of my life. but I'll find out what it is and be obedient to it. I just want to know the will of God at this point. Pray for me. Anybody like God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. Amen. Father, I pray tonight that you'll break us out of ourselves. And I don't believe the people are misunderstood about the morals and the immorals. We believe people ought to live right and do right. But oh, how good it is to have the touch of God on us and know that it's being done for the glory of God. And Lord, without your touch, without your leadership and your direction, we're just hobbling around, just crippled up, can't do nothing. Lord, when you put your hand, your seal, your brand on somebody, they might limp through life. That's all right. Lord, I'm an old man now, getting broken down. But I don't detect any difference in my desire to serve you. I pray you speak to my heart this year. Mission Conference coming up at our church in a little over a month. And Lord, you already begin to deal. I don't know. I just want to be open to you, Will. And I pray whatever you say, we'll put it on the card and do it. And Lord, if they're here tonight that need to come to this altar, say, oh God, touch me. I pray you help me get out of their pew and come. The preacher will come, pray over them. And God, if they need to do it, help them do it. Let's stand together, heads bowed, eyes closed. You need to come to this altar. I say, God, touch me, break me, mold me, make me.