 Okay, so we're here in Romans 1, so what we're going to do on Thursday nights is we're going to just have a Bible study, we're going to go through a book of the Bible every Thursday night, and I chose to start in Romans not to be, you know, controversial, but I just like the book of Romans, I've liked the book of Romans for several years and I just think that it's a very deep book and there's a lot of good doctrine in the book of Romans that can help us as a new church and as a growing church, so we're just going to go through the book of Romans and not to disappoint you tonight, but I'm going to take two sermons to get through Romans 1 because there's a lot in Romans 1 and I want to make sure that I properly get through all the things that I want to preach about in Romans 1, so we're going to get through about, you know, verse 22 today and then next Thursday we'll continue and we'll finish off Romans 1. So I have a main point that I want to give about the first part of Romans 1, but first let's just do some introductory and let's go through the beginning verses, you know, the greeting and salutation is really in verses 1 through 7, and in verse 1 Paul says, Paul, servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle separated unto the gospel of God. Now this is a good segue because we're going to also talk about separation on Sunday morning and then we're going to have a three part series after Brother Stuckey preaches on the 8th. I'm going to have a three part series about, you know, separating your life in certain areas. I've identified three very specific areas that are very pertinent to the world and the society that we live in here, that's an imperative that you separate yourself from if you want to live the successful Christian life and especially if you want to raise children through this mess that we're dealing with out in our country today. So notice how it says in verse number one that Paul was separated unto the gospel of God. Now of course we know the story about Paul on the road to Damascus and how he was blinded, but you have to remember, turn your Bibles to Acts 23. It's important to remember who Paul was before he got saved. And in Acts 23 in verse number six, just one book back is the book of Acts, just a few pages back you'll find Acts 23. Acts 23 in verse number six, the Bible reads, but when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees he cried out in the council, men and brethren, and this is what I want you to focus on, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. So Paul was a high up Pharisee before he became saved and he was actually a Pharisee that was a Jewish religious leader that was actually a leader in persecuting Christians. So Paul was separated from that unto the gospel. You know maybe you're not, you don't look at yourself as a Pharisee or somebody quite that wicked, but the point is you still need to be separated in your life. So I'm not really going to preach on separation tonight, but I just want to point that out that the best evangelist that has probably ever lived was considering himself to be separated unto the gospel. And of course we know much of the New Testament was written by Paul and he committed the rest of his life up until his death just preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. In verse number two, turn to 2 Samuel chapter 7 when I'm reading verse number two. Go to those one and two books and 1 and 2 Samuel are the first ones in the Old Testament. And Romans 1 and verse number two we continue and the Bible reads which he had promised before by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning, so he was separated unto the gospel of God and then in verse three concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. Now this is just an interesting side note that I want to give you. If you turn to 2 Samuel chapter 7 and go to verse number 13. I'll wait for everybody to get there, but this is very interesting because you know the Bible says that Jesus Christ our Lord was made of the seed of David. There was a certain promise that was given to David. The story goes that David wanted to, he finished building his house and he wanted to build the house of the Lord and the prophet Nathan came to him and said you know what you're not going to be able to build the house of the Lord. Your son is going to build it instead and that's what we're going to read here in 2 Samuel chapter 7. But a very important promise was made to David after he was told this and the Bible reads in starting in verse number 13. He shall build a house for my name. This is talking about Solomon your son and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity I will chasing him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men. But my mercy shall not depart from him as I took it from Saul who I put away before. You remember God basically killed Saul. He sent the Philistine army against Saul and I believe Saul was saved but God killed him. I mean so there's your chastisement from God right there. So God was just done with Saul but he's saying that you know I'll chastise your son Solomon on this earth but I won't my mercy will not depart from him from him. And in verse number 16 we see the promise and thine house talking to David and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee and thy throne shall be established forever. So how could he have said that to David? That David's throne would be established forever. Well if you look at what happened when Solomon's son Rehoboam lost the kingdom and you had the split between Jeroboam and Rehoboam you basically had the northern kingdom of Israel peeled off with Jeroboam and then you had Rehoboam who took over the kingdom of Judah. Now the amazing thing was that if you follow the history and the hierarchy of the dynasties of the northern kingdom of Israel it is just insurrection after insurrection after insurrection. There's one family rules for a while and then his whole family is judged by God using the next family and his whole other family is wiped out. This happens like three times with the first three kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. So it's completely different dynasties is what I'm getting at but if you then if you look at the the kingdom of Judah which they had better kings but there was plenty of wicked kings in the kingdom of Judah as well every single king is a line it's father to son to father to son to father to son and of course that ends with they went into Babylonian captivity but that lineage was kept alive until the birth of who? Jesus Christ and of course Jesus Christ he has that line back to David. Jesus Christ establishes David's kingdom forever. So you see that God kept the kingdom of Judah even though the kingdom did split he kept the kingdom of Judah a direct with direct descendants of David as king and then Jesus Christ takes it into eternity so it fulfills this prophecy in verse number 16. So I just want to point that out. Now if we look at verse 4 through 7 there's one other detail I want to point out at the beginning and declared to be the son of God of power according this was Jesus according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead by whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among among all nations for his name among whom you're also called also the called of Jesus Christ to all that be in Rome beloved of God called to be saints grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ now turn to Acts chapter 8 I just want to show you who the saints are tonight because there's a lot of confusion about who's who's a saint and who's not a saint and who gets to decide who's a saint especially if you you know you had it grow up in a Catholic home or a Catholic background you know the Catholic Church or the Pope or whoever gets to decide who they can and who they can recognize or whatever maybe 100 years after this person died but let's just look at what the Bible says because that's all we care about is what the Bible says because we're Baptist and the Bible is our final authority. So go to Acts chapter 8 and look at verse number one and we'll just see I just want to show you how the Bible can define things for us if we just just look a little bit closer the Bible will just define words for you it's it's it's a wonderful thing in Acts chapter 8 and verse 1 the Bible says and Saul was consenting unto his death this is talking about Saul who was Paul before he was converted and he was consenting unto the death of Stephen. Stephen has just been stoned and it says Saul was consenting unto his death and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which is at Jerusalem there was a great persecution against the church that was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered about through the regions of Judea Judea and Samaria except the apostles and devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him as for Saul he made havoc of the church entering into every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison so he made havoc of the church which was consisted of what men and women that were members of the church okay in where in Jerusalem not the universal church not the church on earth not any of this garbage it was a very specific church that he was persecuting and then that's when he was actually headed to Damascus to do some more persecuting there and because he was persecuting the church in Jerusalem at the time now in Acts chapter 9 just flip one chapter over let's look at what the Bible says in Acts chapter 9 of verse number 13 in Acts chapter 9 of verse number 13 the Bible reads then Ananias answered Lord I have heard by many of this man this is talking about Paul or Saul how much evil he had done to thy saints at Jerusalem so here we see the Bible basically just use these two words synonymously the men and women of the church in Jerusalem and the saints at Jerusalem so basically folks I mean we could study the word saints throughout the entire New Testament what you're gonna find is that if you're saved tonight you're a saint so congratulations I just canonized you all so if you're saved that's what the Bible is talking about as far as who the saints are so don't let anyone throw you off it's a very easy thing to prove from the Bible now let's look at verses starting in verse number 8 let's look at a section in Romans 1 that is basically defining our responsibility to preach or our responsibility to proclaim the word of God and in verse number 8 the Bible reads first I thank this is back in Romans first I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all that your faith has spoken of throughout the whole world for God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the son gospel of his son that without seizing I make mention of you always in my prayers Paul was praying for a lot of people all the time I mean if you noticed in most of his salutations he's saying that I'm praying for you I'm always praying for you Paul is somebody who probably spent a lot of time every day in prayer you know he's always praying for people that's just a good thing to do verse number 10 making a request if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come to you Paul wanted to come to Rome his whole ministry he never got there till the end but he always wanted to get there and appeal to Caesar in verse number 11 for a long to see you that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift to the end you may be established that is that I may be comforted together with you by the mutual faith both of you and me now I would not have you ignorant brethren that oftentimes I purpose to come unto you but was let hitherto and I might have some fruit among you even even as among other Gentiles so Paul was preaching to the Gentiles he went all these missionary journeys all over to the Gentiles he wanted to get to Rome as well it's a long ways if you look at a map from where Jerusalem is and where Paul went on his missionary journeys Rome is is out there I am a debtor in the verse 14 I'm a debtor to to the Greeks and to the barbarians both to the wise and to the unwise so as much as in me I am ready to preach the gospel to you there in Rome also for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith so there it is there's our responsibility to preach the gospel even in Rome and this was getting to be a time when Rome was getting less and less tolerant of Christianity starting in 64 AD when you know Nero took over in Rome that's when the Roman persecution really started and there was 10 main Roman persecutions that was much worse than what they went through when they were getting persecuted by the Jews so basically if you want to look at the history of persecution up for the first few hundred years you have the Jews persecuted the Christians heavily in the Roman Empire up to about 64 70 AD and then Nero started that there was 10 main Roman persecutions and the Roman persecutions were absolutely brutal they were trying to exterminate the Christians but you know if you want to get people fired up for the gospel you want to get Baptist fired up for the gospel start persecuting them start killing them you know that's that's you can't wipe this thing out so what I want to get and after that of course you know in 313 or whatever it was that's when you have the Constantine establishing the Roman Catholic Church and then the persecution really started because the Catholics were were very brutal in the persecution of people who were still holding to biblical beliefs okay now why this push to reach the Gentiles this is kind of my my point I want to get to on the first half of Romans chapter 1 and if we start reading in verse number 18 we're gonna see that the reason that Paul and the other apostles went out and we're pushing to the Gentiles because what you're gonna see is that there is no excuse for not believing the gospel for not believing in God and then also not seeking the truth of Jesus Christ okay so that's what we're gonna see in verse number 18 Paul is gonna explain why I have to come there why we have to reach these people because there's no excuse for them all right there they're gonna be just as damned as somebody who grew up a Jew in that time or was a religious person okay now in verse number 18 the Bible says for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath showed it to them now don't miss this in verse number 20 for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and God had so that they are what they are without excuse look what the Bible is saying here is that the proof of God is in this creation that we were all living in okay we're all here we're all living in the same creation now look even before I was saved I've been a I've been a Bible believing creationist my whole life okay and I believe from the top of my head to the bottom of my toes that if you do not believe the Bible you cannot be saved and what you will find what you will find is that if you believe you find and I'm not talking about somebody who just gets saved at their door and they just don't know anything about the Bible and they have a public school education and they believe in evolution they believe in the Big Bang and all this because that's what they've been told their whole life and then they get saved that's not what I'm talking about what I'm talking about is going up to someone and showing them the Bible and they say yeah I don't believe that God created the world in six days I've met several of these people I don't believe I believe the earth is millions years old or whatever it is now I don't know it changes by hundreds of millions of years all the time it seems but I do not believe that you can hold that belief that certain parts of the Bible is true and certain aren't and be saved it's that Jesus is the word become flesh period so if you get somebody saved and they're truly saved when you show them these things they're gonna believe it because they have the Holy Spirit in them they've been sealed by the Holy Spirit they're going to believe what the Bible says if they're saved right now what you're gonna find now here's the beauty of it this is my been my experience giving the gospel to somebody who thinks that you know they believe in Darwinism and all this kind of stuff there will be something about the gospel that they will not accept you mark my words isn't it funny how it works that way but there will be you will go through the gospel with I just did this six months ago there was a guy he was this super smart intellectual guy and he just he just loved you know philosophy and all these things talking about you know all these different theories of where we came from but he was a Christian he was a Christian so I was I was bored one day and I just got out my Bible and I said hey let me just do you but do you actually know if you're going to heaven he's like all right show me what you got so I showed him and there's parts of the gospel that he won't believe he just won't believe it and usually it's eternal security because somebody like that you know they're they're not humble enough to believe that somebody else did everything for them so but there will be something that they won't believe so it's not like they're just gonna accept the gospel and then not believe you know God doesn't do that to us it's funny how he just makes it so they won't believe certain parts of the Bible now the proof of God is in creation I've always believed in creation and frankly it's clearly seen in the world around us I often told Garrett you know we're when we're growing or when he was growing up on the farm that often told Garrett that it's much easier for people to grow up in the country to believe in God than it is for people to grow up in the city and I know you're all from the city but think about it you're surrounded in the country you're surrounded by things God made and in the city you're surrounded by things man has made right so too many people live in the concrete jungle they don't get to see the systems and the things that God has created I remember one of my favorite things we used to raise sheep one of my favorite things the last the last spring that we were on the farm we had 180 lambs 180 little tiny lambs about 8 pounds running around and one of the things that I loved seeing was when we went to feed their mothers every day we would go give the mother's grain and most of the mothers had twins because sheep have twins and so there's 180 lambs and when we would go feed the mother's grain all the moms will leave their babies and the babies would just gang up in this little mob and they would run around like little kids and just run around we called it the lamb gang they would run around the feedlot up and down and up and down but as soon as all the grain was gone the moms would turn 180 lambs they all look the same every single one of them and then they just start the moms turn around and they start yelling and the babies start yelling it sounds it's chaos but within three or four minutes every single mom has their own lamb back right by their side just because they can hear the sound of their lambs voice and they can smell their their sound how many of you moms when your kid when your child falls behind the back door you you know that that's my child God gave you that you know that's proof of creation that's proof I mean these things don't happen by accident so you know that's just a small example but what one thing that I like about the Bible is that the Bible documents so much so much science and and there's it never gets credit for any of it turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter one Ecclesiastes chapter one I could talk about creation for several hours so I just I just love the topic the Bible talks so much about it in Ecclesiastes chapter one which of course was written by King Solomon which was some you know 1500 years before Christ that's about 3500 years ago or so look at verse number seven first of all let me let me just say this this water cycle waters a big deal in California right you know the farmers fight with the people in the city because the people in the city want the water and that you know it's this big debate on who gets all this water from the mountains right but think about the water cycle if you go and you look up in an encyclopedia or Google or whatever the the internet's gonna tell you or an encyclopedia is gonna tell you that the water cycle was discovered in the 1400s or the 1500s somewhere around that time okay by water cycle I mean the you know that the rivers flow into the ocean and then it evaporates into the clouds and then it rains either on the fields or up in the mountains and then it repeats again right turn your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter one if you're there and look at verse number seven and the Bible says in verse number seven all the rivers run into the sea yet the sea is not full until the place from whence the rivers come thither they return again sounds like Solomon or God told Solomon how the water cycle worked and we can get even more specific if you go to the book of Job open your Bible right in the center in the book of Psalm and go to the one book back and you'll be in the book of Job look at Job 36 Job 36 Job 36 in verse 27 the Bible says for he maketh small the drops of water they pour down rain according to the vapor thereof the vapor is that is the evaporation of the water into the clouds which the clouds do drop and look at this word distill upon man abundantly you know what distilled means distilled means purify so God is telling you here that first of all the Bible documented the water cycle God created the water cycle period you know when you look at water treatment plants are a real big deal as well in California treating water you know taking the water that's been used and cleaning it up guess what two of the main ways they purify water and water commercial water treatment plants gravel filtration and UV light disinfection well guess what the rivers in the mountains do that's God's gravel filter and the rivers are shallow when you get to the top of the mountains they're shallow and they're clear who knows what I'm talking about they're shallow and they're clear so that UV light can shine right through there and disinfect and kill any microorganisms that's in that it's in the water so by the time it gets down to you in the valley it's clean so that cycle just repeats itself again and again and again now I have an object lesson here I love water I love talking about water I could talk about water for several hours to I need something to hold this here so this glass of water did you know that this is probably the most amazing substance on the planet 60% of your body is made of water if you go three or four days without water you'll die it's you need it that that badly the one thing about water that I like the most is that water this liquid right here has the highest what we call specific heat on the planet of any liquid meaning that that water can hold heat better than any other liquid that we can make now think about this for a second how many of you seen all the refineries that you drive by and all the chemical plants do you know the amazing materials that man can make we can make Kevlar we can make nanotube fibers we can make all these refined chemicals that can do all these amazing things yet if we want to create a liquid we can't create a liquid that can hold thermal energy better than that glass of water anything that I add to that water makes its ability to hold thermal energy worse no one can did you know that 95% of your electricity because of this fact is created using water as the working fluid that's why I have a book at home it's called steam and it's all about adding heat to water that's what the book is the book is 1200 pages long it's in its 50th edition you know what that means that means that we still don't understand that glass of water it's in its 50th revision we still don't understand what that liquid can do completely all the graphs and the calculations and all this we're still revising that book I don't understand all that book no one person understands that that book even as it's written when you go out soul winning on Saturday it's going to be hot right because of this waters ability to hold heat you're going to sweat and then when the wind comes up you all sudden you're going to feel cool you know why that is because that water that beat it up on your arm as it evaporates it's taking that heat away from you it's pulling that heat off your body and it's cooling your body who designed that I mean that's amazing that's evaporative cooling is what that is if I would take I mean we could have an object lesson I could take this bottle or this glass of water I could throw it in brother Ryan's face and he's sitting under that ceiling fan in about two or three minutes he's going to start getting a little chilly right but I'm not going to do that look folks you have to be blind to not notice these things and it's not necessarily blindness I'm going to show you what it is that makes people not able to notice these things last thing about water who's ever jumped into a lake where's the coldest water in a lake brother Ryan where's the coldest water in a lake when you jump in at the bottom okay something funny happens in a lake when it gets really cold I'm from North Dakota we go ice fishing we drive on lakes and we drill a hole through the ice we drop a line and we fish the fish live in the frozen lake all winter long do you think the fish could live in a lake if the lake froze from the bottom up and they couldn't see that they couldn't get to the the food on the bottom because most fish eat off the bottom right something funny happens in a lake when it drops below 39 degrees and it heads towards freezing and we get what's called temperature inversion in the cold water comes to the top and the warm water goes to the bottom I've always said that's proof of God just that one thing right there because no no marine life could live if lakes for it just kept their temperature cold to hot they would freeze from the bottom up and then we would never have any fish and cold climates it's beautiful you have to be blind to not notice it now why don't people recognize this right you and I were sitting and we could go on and on and on we just talked about a glass of water why don't people recognize this well the answer is in verse number 21 verse number 21 Romans chapter 1 in verse number 21 in the Bible reads because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened and then in verse number 22 we see the real answer professing themselves to be wise they became fools now you can see proof of this it's it's vanity it's pride academia and science today has become filled with prideful arrogant people and they do not acknowledge God and God has turned them into fools and I'm telling you in the last hundred years you can see this plain as day you can see this plain as day you look at men what nobody nobody argues that Einstein or Stephen Hawking had IQs of 160 that they had some engines up here that were that were gifts from God you know I'm sure they could do math faster than me or you or whatever but the point is they never produced anything did you know that Einstein the thing that Einstein is known the most for the theory of relativity has produced no machine not one Einstein had nothing to do with atomic energy he had nothing to do with the atomic bomb all these things he gets credit for he had nothing to do with him engineers built all those things chemical engineers other other people he had nothing to do with it they just theorized and they just it was vanity and just theorizing and and and doing things that work on paper but if you look back at you know 150 years back when men still believed in God and I'm not saying that all these scientists were saved I believe Michael Faraday was maybe saved but if you looked at them they were steeped in experimentation you know names like James Maxwell Michael Faraday even Isaac Newton they were steeped in experimenting things and if things didn't work they tried something different they weren't so hung up with their own selfishness that they didn't even you know they just theorized all day long I mean Michael Faraday actually turned down like every single title that he was given he was voting into all these societies and then they wanted him to be president he would constantly turn it down because he just wanted to study his and do his experiments and because of him you know we have lights and transformers and in electric motors all these things look they're all we're trying to do all these men were trying to do is unlock what God already had put there all they're trying to do is just create some machines that work together with the laws that God created that's it and their humbleness is what made them you know I believe God unlocked those things because they were humble because they acknowledged him now men like you know Stephen Hawking spent his entire life searching for dark matter and theorizing on multiple universes in multiple I mean I'm talking multiple realities I mean it's crazy I mean it's crazy he spent this man spent his whole life he actually went to his death believing that every look brother Richard every single possibility of anything that I could do right now like me walking up and grabbing you by the shirt me going over to brother Angel grabbing him by the shirt me running out of here like a crazy person every single one of those things exists in its own universe in its own multiple dimension that's what he believed he stood up in colleges and universities and he taught this and people who are also vanity you know filled with vain imaginations they worship this man it's crazy it's crazy to think about it it's crazy thank God that we're saved look I believe that the proof of a scientist is the same it as far as his merit is the same as the proof of a false prophet you shall know them by their fruits you know could we have gotten Stephen Hawking to invent a more efficient lawnmower please that would have been better right instead it was just a complete waste right now scientists today and I've listened to this preaching for the last 10 10 years scientists today turn to Genesis 8 I'm gonna solve this one for you right now and they're gonna move on scientists today all you hear about is global warming global warming global warming and then it gets cold and they're like climate change you know I'm gonna disprove global warming for you right now straight from the Bible Genesis 822 while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease God will end it it will not be us okay I'm not for throwing trash all over you know I like to have you know clean air to breathe and all that stuff but you know what that we're gonna destroy the earth and everyone's gonna get flooded because of a coal-fired power plant in Montana is ridiculous and it's not true all right now I'm gonna steal something so here's the first thing that we have we have no excuse men have no excuse that's why Paul was going to the Gentiles that's why they're all going out to the Gentiles because they're going to hell just like everybody else unless they get saved okay now the first thing that I want to point out to you tonight is because you know we're all living in the same creation just because the Gentiles didn't grow up in a Jewish home they're living in the same creation that the Jew was okay now the second thing I want to steal from Romans chapter 2 and I want to give you the second reason tonight that were without excuse as men on this earth and if you look at Romans chapter 2 and verse 14 the Bible reads for when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law these having not the law or law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing each other we all have a conscience whether or not you're saved we all have this we're all born with the same conscience you have to get rid of that conscience you have to do something where you deny and sear that conscience but God gives it to every man we all start with that so we have there's no excuse for anyone we all have proof of God through creation and we all have the law written in our hearts so there's no excuse for any of us okay now look there's there's some more blessed than others of course and the Bible teaches this all right if you grew up in a Baptist home and your dad was constantly preaching the Bible to you you have a serious advantage over somebody who grew up in you know Norway or wherever we never even heard of God but the bottom line is we all have those two things and if you look at Romans 3 in verse 1 through 4 we see that the Jews had an advantage the Jews had an advantage the Bible says in Romans 3 verses 1 1 and 2 what advantage then half the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision saying what good was it if the Gentiles can get saved to what good was it to be what was it to be a Jew that's when you say what what advantage did they have much every way chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God they had the Bible that's what they had that's a pretty big advantage right they had the Bible and you'll notice that when you're reading people believing on Jesus in the Gospels you'll notice that they already knew that there was a Messiah coming look at the woman at the well Jesus didn't have to say too much to her because she knew there was a Messiah coming all he said was hey it's me right she already knew that a Messiah was coming all she had to do was believe on that and she was saved that's it so that's a pretty big advantage folks now in the same way also there's people who are cursed all right you don't have to turn there just let me read you Exodus 20 and verse number five you know read the Old Testament and many people in the Old Testament cursed future generations all right that in Exodus 20 and verse five the Bible says thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them for I the Lord thy God I'm a jealous God visiting the iniquity the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me we're gonna look at this a little bit on Sunday morning I'm gonna tell you a story on Sunday morning that to me is one of the most fascinating stories in the Bible about somebody who is a terrible curse on his family now this isn't saying that those generations you know it's impossible for them to get saved because they start with those two things but the odds are if you're a drunken wife beater that you're you know your your children are gonna be headed down the wrong path in life the odd you know you're not really starting them off with a winning hand right so look you can be a blessing and you can be a curse on future generations so for those two reasons you know there's no excuse now we're gonna pick this up next week and we're gonna see what happens when these people that have no excuse take it a step further they get vain that's the first thing the first thing is they get prideful and then they take it a step further okay and before before you leave tonight we actually went to the beach on Tuesday and we picked up some gifts for everybody and what I have here you all are from California you've probably seen this but this is a sand dollar right and I remember in maybe 10 or 12 years ago we went to the Creation Museum in it's I think it's in Kentucky and my favorite place to go in the Creation Museum was the bug room I mean forget the dinosaurs and all that stuff I love going in the bug room they had these thousands of bugs you know on with the pins on the boards and you looked at all the elaborate patterns on all these bugs and look there's no reason for it there's no reason for it other than an artist just being artistic and if you look at these sand dollars there's no reason for that other than an artist just practicing his art so there's tons of examples of creation that we could talk about but please pick one up you know brother Frank don't take them all let the kids get one okay but pick one up on your way out it's just a it's a great little it's just a I'm looking at it right now and the funny thing about it is I was looking at him earlier yesterday none of them are exactly the same they're all a little bit different some of them have bolder lines some of them have sharper curves on the pattern itself it's pretty amazing okay let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer you're helping me father we thank you for this creation this created world that we live in we thank you for just the perfection of it all you know help us always to be an awe of it Lord and even though we're we're living right now in the middle of a city you know whenever we do get out and and get out in the outdoors to just help us notice these things and just appreciate you for this this amazing earth and this system that you've built Lord and it's amazing Lord we thank you thank you for tonight thank you for your word we love you in Jesus name we pray amen