 Amen. So you're wondering right away this evening. We're studying Joshua chapter 19. That hasn't changed Why didn't the world that we just read Genesis chapter 30? And the reason for it is because we're still going to study Joshua chapter 19 But I didn't have the heart inside me to make brother Ryan read Joshua chapter 19 Again and again and again because we're going to be there for the next three weeks or so And plus I wanted it to be as edifying as possible. We're continuing to just study through the tribes of Israel in Joshua the chapters in Joshua that kind of lay out the inheritance of Israel turn to Joshua chapter 19 if you would we're going to start in verse number 10 and If you're wondering if you ever wondered about that story in Genesis 30 where Jacob put the poplars and the rods and all that stuff You ever wonder well Let me just explain that from a from a livestock from a cattleman's perspective real quick before we get started with The sermon basically what he was doing was all the speckled in the certain type of of sheep Were to be his so what he did was when those type of sheep or what they called the strong ones At the end of the chapter came to drink He put something in the water that want that made them want to breed basically so he's sitting there He's controlling their breeding cycles. So as soon as the ones that he knew would be his Would go to the water. He would put something in there that would make them breed and then thus after You know time all you would have all spotted and speckled cattle, you know if you have You know genetics are a funny thing But basically you have better odds of getting a speckled lamb if you have a speckled mom and a speckled dad You can still get a white lamb or or a brown or a solid colored lamb, but it's more likely than not So that's what he was doing there. He was just he was selective. He was selective breeding is what he was doing So selective breeding in the Bible. All right cattle ranchers and and registered People raising red registered cattle and brother Trevor knows what I'm talking about registered cattle registered livestock They do this all the time they measure traits of animals and they they breed certain animals with certain animals to get certain traits And they measure those traits and they make sure that they they breed With the right animals and then they end up with a very strong Crop or a very strong herd or flock or whatever my wife's dad was one of the Very well-known Black Angus cattle rancher in Western North Dakota and he was just known to have Some of the best cattle in the state and the reason he did that it wasn't an accident It's not like all you know I just have nice looking cattle it's because he was very good at this and he was very good at what Jacob was doing here He's very good at seeing traits of animals and judging animals and making sure certain animals breed with With higher quality animals as well. That's exactly what Jacob was doing Here. Okay, Joshua chapter 19. Let's look at verse number 10 and get into the sermon We're gonna be talking about the tribe of zebulin this evening now these tribes that we're gonna be talking about in the next couple of weeks They're kind of like what I call just the obscure Or you know, you just don't we haven't really heard much about them But we can still learn things about these tribes in the Bible So let's go ahead and look at it this evening look at verse number 10 The Bible says and the third lot came up for the children of zebulin According to their families and the border of their inheritance Wasn't a sered and their border went up to the sea to Mariah and reach to Dabasheth and reach onto the river that is before Jockneum so basically zebulin if you look at where Judah is in the southern kingdom So we you know when we break up the kingdoms We have the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom later on and then of course the ten tribes are What is made up of the northern kingdom and zebulin is one of these ten tribes and zebulin kind of just gets Holded into the ten tribes, but if you look at a map of the twelve tribes of Israel Zebulon is to the northwest of Judah and it's a small kind of obscure Little tribe that is next to is very close to the coast and you'll see that when we read Some of these things from the Bible go to Genesis chapter 49 and let's look at Jacob's Prophecy or Jacob's blessing towards his son zebulin we saw simian last week was quite an interesting story We went through that let's look at zebulin starting in the same place in Genesis chapter 49 Jacob's Prophecy or Jacob's blessing towards zebulon is in verse number 13 where the Bible says this it says zebulin Shall dwell at the haven of the sea just making reference to the location that zebulin is it's next to the sea to the northwest of Judah and he shall be for an haven of ships and his border shall be on To Zion as I done so that doesn't tell us a lot there There's not a lot that Jacob is really saying about zebulin other than the fact that he's going to be by the sea But here's something that we do know turn to judges chapter 1 turn to judges chapter 1 and Judges chapter 1 in verse number 30 that we're going to read here will kind of tell us why Zebulin is kind of just gonna you know, we haven't heard much about it. It's kind of obscure It kind of just Went to the wayside as far as the history books are concerned or as far as the Bible history is concerned Look at judges chapter 1 in verse number 30 zebulin was one of the tribes that made this dire mistake Look at verse number 30. It says neither did zebulin Drive out the inhabitants of Ketron nor the inhabitants of Nahalo But the Canaanites dwelt among them and became tributary. So these this is one of the tribes This is one of the northern most tribes that just they didn't and especially towards the coast the Canaanites This is where the Philistines were they never really totally conquered the land They kind of got to the end of the battling in in the book of Joshua And they're just kind of they started setting people into tributaries and I can about imagine somebody thought it was a pretty good deal Somebody thought this was a pretty good idea. Hey, why destroy all these people? We can just have them work for us We can have them pay taxes and we can take that from them So zebulin is one of the one of the tribes that made that mistake They did not utterly destroy the people and this is why by the way because there were so many tribes in the northern kingdom This is one of the reasons that the northern kingdom was destroyed, you know Some hundred and sixty years before the southern kingdom of Judah So right away we see that they started off on the wrong foot zebulin did they ended up folded Of course into the northern kingdom to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 33. Here's some interesting We'll just look at some interesting. Maybe this will come up in a Bible trivia Game the kids are playing or something I actually think I heard the Bible trivia game going on last week And I think one of the questions if I heard right was this guy died on the cross Was that really a question in the Bible trivia game? I mean because I think that Bible trivia is is pretty dumb down if that's the case right this guy died on the cross That's pretty bad when that's that's considered a trivia question that most people wouldn't know But I suppose most people don't know that anymore But anyway Deuteronomy chapter 33 look at verse 18 and of zebulin He said rejoice zebulin in thy going out and it's a car in thy tents. It's a car as a neighboring Tribe they shall call the people unto the mountain there They shall offer sacrifices of righteousness for they shall suck of the abundance of the seas That's interesting and of the treasures hid in the sands So that's an interesting point right there that zebulin because it's close to the sea They're being blessed like probably economically here from the seas There's easy commerce close to the coast and they're talking about you know the the coast itself being an economic, you know Blessing so to speak to zebulin because of their location now turn to Isaiah chapter 9 Turn to Isaiah chapter 9 So here we see that you know we know the location of zebulin We know that they didn't overcome and to totally destroy utterly destroy the people that they That they took over the land from and we see that they're they're blessed at least right away in Deuteronomy chapter 33 They're blessed because of the abundance of the seas Maybe there's there's fish and commerce and and ships from other places that come in From the sea turn to Isaiah chapter 9. So here in Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 The first few verses of Isaiah chapter 9 is talking about the Messiah. It's a messianic prophecy in Isaiah. Look at verse number 1 Look what the Bible says nevertheless the dimmest not shall shall not be as was in her vexation When at the first lightly afflicted the land of zebulin and the land of nethali and afterward did more grievously Afflict her by the way of the sea Beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nation. So here we see that zebulin and these places next to the sea Now this blessing has suddenly not it's not a blessing anymore. It says that they are Grievously Afflicted how by the way of the sea so here we see the same way that was a blessing in the past is Now a curse to them so it's interesting to note here just to kind of a lesson is that you know blessings can easily become curses In your life I mean these people were blessed from a certain place and you know once they turn from the Lord once all these things You know they let go of God and they let go they forgot the Lord, you know that became a curse to them And that's exactly what will happen to us. That's exactly what will happen to our nation That's exactly what happened to the nation of Israel again and again and again in the Bible We now look at verse I look at the end of verse number one and it says beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations look at verse number two The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light now We're talking about the prophecy of Jesus Christ They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shine so look at the the first the last four words of This first verse it says Galilee and that's interesting because zebulun Galilee is inside of zebulun So what came out of Galilee turned to John chapter 2 John chapter 2 So verse number 2 is saying that these people that walked in God in darkness. They're now cursed They're they're now cursed from the same sea that bless them and they're in darkness now It's but they're gonna see a great light And of course we see the messianic prophecy of Jesus Christ in the coming verses in Isaiah chapter 9 But look what happened in Galilee turn to John chapter 2. Here's your Bible trivia for you right here Where did Jesus begin his ministry? John chapter 2 and verse number 1 in the third day There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there the first miracle that Jesus ever did the water Into wine happened in Galilee. That's where Jesus began his ministry in the land of zebulun so For the most part zebulun is kind of this tribe. They just kind of faded into obscurity They kind of got folded they kind of went they didn't do things right from the beginning They kind of got folded into the the northern kingdom and we know that that the northern 10 tribes They were just wiped off the face of the earth the Assyrians took them and just mixed with them And you know you can't find the 10 tribes of you know of Israel anymore But let's look a little bit deeper who was zebulun and that brings us back to Genesis chapter 30 I want to look at really what I want to look at that was all just for Introduction I want to look at who the man zebulun was what is the story of zebulun that brings us back to Genesis chapter 30 So turn there if you would and look at Genesis chapter 30 and verse number 19 now First of all before we get into Genesis chapter 30 and verse number 19 and 20 talking about zebulun Genesis chapter 30 is a very sad chapter in the Bible if you read Genesis chapter 30 Especially the first part of the chapter and you just read you know There's a reason that Jacob got to the end of his life and he said you know what? You know if my days have been short and they've been evil, you know It's just they haven't he hasn't had a good life, you know Genesis chapter 30 is giving us you know kind of a frame of Jacob's family life and what a mess what a mess it is look at Genesis chapter 30 and verse number 19 Let's look at the story of zebulun and see what the Bible says here and Leah conceived again and bear Jacob the sixth Son and Leah said so this is the sixth Son that she has given Jacob and Leah said God hath endued me with a good dowry now Will my husband dwell with me because I have born him six sons And she called his name Zebulun so zebulun was Leah's six sons Jacob of course had four wives that produced the twelve tribes of Israel the twelve sons and Leah was One of those wives and she was the wife who was always You know kind of competing with Rachel to have the affection of her husband and you see that here Rachel was the one who was barren at the beginning of the chapter and she couldn't give you know Her husband a child and she was very sad But she was the favorite of Jacob and Leah was always just you know She was yearning for the affection of her husband. So here we see multiple wives Competing for the favoritism of their husband. It's really kind of a sad situation in Genesis chapter 30 But you know we've talked about favoritism in the Bible as far as children goes, you know many times in this church I preach sermons on that I've talked about how we are not to do that, but you know, what about this situation? What about favoritism with wives, you know, I mean we all don't have that problem here because if you're married you have one wife, but That's really what I want to address this evening I want to address this idea of multiple wives in the Old Testament because many people are Frankly very confused about this many people read the Old Testament and they're very confused about this idea of men Having multiple wives in the Old Testament. So let's talk about polygamy in light of the Bible in light of the Bible this evening You know, first of all, it appears it appears at first reading and this is why people will ask so many questions to their pastor I've had people ask me several questions about this. It appears and it's not altogether untrue That God allowed this That God allowed men to have Multiple wives in the Bible. I mean look he certainly didn't kill people for it It's not like you married your second wife and God just killed you That's not what happened in the Old Testament But I want to explain to you this evening that God might well He might not have just struck someone dead at that moment for having multiple wives I want to show you this evening that God did warn about it God did warn about it and not only did he warn about not doing it But he warned that a specific judgment would come from it From having multiple wives. So I'll be it. It's a it's a indirect Judgment, but still it's judgment all the same and we'll look at that this evening So first before we get into this study this evening Let me just say that that that you have to understand here's a Bible reading tip for you You have to understand in the Bible when you're reading the Bible particularly the Old Testament where there's a lot of historical events and things that are things that are listed I mean just history that actually here's what happened to the nation of Israel Here's what happened with these tribes. They're historical books of the Bible stories in the Bible are not doctrine You have to remember that we study through Judges there's a lot of absolutely terrible things that happen in the book of judges and people are like how could this be in the Bible? How could this be in the Bible these terrible things that are happening these people doing these terrible things? But first of all you have to understand that stories that historical books of the Bible. They're not doctrine Turn to judges chapter 21 judges chapter 21 Judges chapter 21 and look at verse 25 judges chapter 21 and verse 25 after all these horrible stories that we read about in Judges here's what the Bible says in judges chapter 21 And I'm glad that this verse is here because although we know if you're a mature Bible You know person you know what I'm telling you is true This is kind of a comfort rate here in judges chapter 21 verse 25 because look there's many cases in the book of judges Where every single person on every side of the story was doing the wrong thing? Yes, there was tons of wicked people and Sodomites and all these things in the stories in judges 19 But there's also these guys that are like hey take my daughter Trying to save themselves save their friends just look everybody was wrong There's many people that were doing wrong things in judges chapter 21 25 We kind of get this sigh of relief where it says in those days There was no king in Israel and every man did that was right in his own eyes It's kind of prepping us for the first king and prepping us for this nation that comes out and says hey You know this is out of control. We need a leader. We need a king here You know they were they just weren't listening to God who was in charge and they should have kept in charge But everybody's just doing what they thought was right. I mean sound familiar But the point I'm trying to make is this before we get into this study Just because we have a story in the Bible does not mean that that's the way we are to do things Okay, be careful with this stories must be coupled with doctrine You see a lot of young preachers making this mistake They'll just want to preach something and they'll have an idea and then they will go pick a story out of the Bible that Backs up their idea and it's like no you must have doctrine and Story to prove what the Bible actually says because I mean quite frankly I mean most stories in the Old Testament where people doing the wrong thing Let's get I mean let's be realistic about it people weren't really doing the right thing So people need to use Bible, you know people can't just use Bible stories to justify doctrine. Okay, so that being said What does the Bible say about having multiple wives in Genesis chapter 30? We see this story It's not a great story, but here's some Bible doctrine for you turn to 1st Timothy chapter 3 1st Timothy chapter 3 Now again 1st Timothy chapter 3 and the verses that I'm going to read for you We're talking about the qualifications of a pastor But many times I've told you this before the qualifications of a pastor are all things that are also good for you The only difference between the qualifications of a pastor between you and me is that if you do the things or you Don't do the things that are the qualifications listed in 1st Timothy chapter 3 Then you have to confess that to God and you have to work on that You have to get that that right and get that better if I don't do these things I'm not qualified to have this job is what the Bible says But let's look at it The Bible says 1st Timothy chapter 3 look at verse number 2 a bishop then must be blameless Then it says the husband of one wife Then it goes into many other things vigilance sober of good behavior given to hospitality all good things all good things that every Christian should be and one of those things listed is the husband of one wife turn to Deuteronomy chapter 17 Deuteronomy chapter 17 Deuteronomy chapter 17 is giving commands to kings It's talking about what a king should be like what the leader of a nation should be like look at Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse number 15 Deuteronomy chapter 17 and verse number 15 again this is this is God speaking. This is doctrine here This is not a Bible story. This is a command. This is what the Bible says that is to happen period Deuteronomy 1715 thou shalt in any wise Set him a king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose one from among thy brethren Shalt shalt thou set a king over thee thou may us not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother saying Hey when you're gonna pick a leader of your nation don't go find some heathen Don't go find some heathen that doesn't even believe in the Lord to rule over you That's a pretty simple one right there. It says but he shall not multiply horses to himself Nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses for as much as the Lord had said Under you he shall henceforth henceforth return no more that way He's saying hey, he should keep you where you're supposed to be look at verse number 17 Neither shall he multiply wives to himself. So the horses he's saying hey Don't have this guy that's just going and trying to get everybody means of transportation to get out of this land That you're supposed to be in says neither and then he goes into another reason neither shall he multiply wives to himself Why why shouldn't he multiply wives to himself and the Bible tells us that his heart turned not away Neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold so verse number 17 is talking about a command to a king to keep his heart right get that It's all about verse number verse number 16 is is pragmatism that you need to stay put you need to stay where God has you stay where God wants you verse number 17 is about the king's heart going bad and It's talking about two things could do that money can make your heart go bad and Multiple wives and you're like what well. Let's let's look. Let's look at that this evening in the Bible Look at Genesis chapter 2. Let's go back to the beginning of marriage Let's go back to the beginning of marriage. You say, you know, I mean who invented marriage God invented marriage God invented this thing. So, I mean, I think he gets to make the rules That's why you know, I don't care what they say about Marrying a donkey or marrying a wall or whatever. It's not marriage Marriage is when a man marries a woman. That's marriage You know, I can stand up here and say that I'm an elephant with polka dots, but that doesn't make it true Man, look, that's where Christians went wrong 20 years ago Like the debate over homosexual marriage. Should it be legal? Should it be legal to for homosexuals to get married? Well, what do you mean? It's not even real. I reject the question. I Reject the question. I'm not taking the poll should have been the answer All right, but see it the devil's tricky The devil's tricky go to Genesis chapter 2 look at verse 23 Genesis chapter 2 and verse number 23 and Adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife One and they shall be One flesh look one flesh not for Not seven hundred, you know, not this polygamy was never God's plan It was never God's plan polygamy Multiple wives. This was man's plan This is what man did and we know and I'll show you this evening when we diverge From God's plan when you diverge from any part of God's plan in your life If you stand I stand up here and I preach some sermon on X Y and Z and you're like, you know what man? It's like I like what you preach the last five sermons and I liked what the Bible said there but that one I'm not doing go ahead and diverge and And I don't have to do anything about that because look when you diverge from God's plan. It's all gonna go wrong for you So one thing that you notice in the Bible is that men that have multiple wives you find me one men that had multiple wives had nothing but conflict in Their lives it look it was never it was never a romantic relationship It was never a good relationship. I mean look look at Genesis 30. This is a terrible situation I mean you literally have this woman who is just like she is just torn down to pieces She has literally given her husband six sons and she's like maybe he'll love me now It's sad. I mean look but here is basically these men they were following the lusts of the flesh and they were Sacrificing a loving relationship with a woman. That's what they were doing look turn to song of Solomon chapter one in Solomon in Solomon's life. We can see this Directly we can see both sides of this coin you can see it in the Bible It's documented in the Bible with David and Solomon. I'll show you both of those this evening But Solomon's is the most in your face. Just Man, this is what he gave up right here So song of Solomon documents the relationship between Solomon and his first wife and His first wife and if you read let's just read just a couple verses. Look at song of Solomon chapter 1 and verse number 9 In song of Solomon it's basically this letter being written back and forth between These two between the king and his wife Look at verse number 9. I have compared the oh my love to a company of horses and pharaoh's chariots Pharaoh's daughter is who she was. Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels thy neck and chains of gold We will make thee borders of gold and studs of silver while the king sit at his table my spike Narts send us forth the smell thereof a bundle of myrrh is well-beloved unto me He shall lie at my night betwixt betwixt my breasts. This is her speaking to him My beloved is under unto me as a cluster of campfire and the vineyards of eggnettie Behold thou art fair my love now. He's talking to her. Behold thou art fair thou has dove's eyes Behold thou art fair my beloved. Ye pleasant are also our bed is green the beams of our house are cedar and our rafters of fur I mean look it's embarrassing to read this you read this and you're just like you feel like you're reading some Intimate letter between some man that he's just and his wife and you're just like man I've opened up someone's diary and I shouldn't be reading this But I mean that's why God puts it in here the book continues and following chapters is just ridiculously over the top Between these two. I mean it's very loving very intimate almost embarrassing to read out loud Now turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Let's look at the end of Solomon's life Ecclesiastes chapter 7 so I mean basically Solomon when he married this woman He married Pharaoh's daughter. It was just this huge Romantic relationship. They were totally in love with each other the story at the book of song of song of Solomon is like no I love you. It's like no, I love you more and I love you Like stop it You're just like I shouldn't be reading this But look it's just this huge love story between these two Well then look at Ecclesiastes chapter 7 Ecclesiastes chapter 7 also written by Solomon, but at the end of his life Ecclesiastes chapter 7 look at verse 28 But what the Bible says it says which yet my soul seeketh Solomon is saying I'm still looking for this But I find not He's like I'm still looking for this, but I can't find it It says one one man among a thousand have I found he's like one good friend one good man among a thousand good men He's like I've found that needle in the haystack. What he says, but a woman among all those have I not found You're like what? You're like what in the world what happened? What happened turned to first Kings chapter 11? I'll show you what happened You're like you're like he had it. You're like he had it. We just read it What is he talking about one one woman? I can't find he's like I can find a good man If I go through a thousand men, I'll find a good one He's like I can't find a good woman I can't find a good woman look at first Kings chapter 11 look at verse number one first Kings chapter 11 verse number one And here's where it all went bad that caused him to write Ecclesiastes chapter 7 at the end of his life But King Solomon loved many strange women together With the daughter of Pharaoh Women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Zidonians and Hittites of the nations by the way of nations He weren't even supposed to marry women from these heathen nations of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel He shall not go in unto them neither they shall come in unto you for surely they will turn away your what? your heart after their gods Solomon clave unto these in love and he had seven hundred wives Princesses and three hundred concubines which is all you know It's like a wife who's a who's a handmade or a servant and his wives What what did they do? What did his wives do they turned away his heart? I mean that's what the Bible told us that was going to happen and that's exactly what happened to Solomon I mean it sounds familiar. They turn turned his heart away from what I mean mainly they turned his heart away from the Lord is Especially these heathen women, but also clearly if you read Ecclesiastes chapter 7 They clearly turned his heart away from his wife and guess what I can guarantee you that it turned his wife's heart away from him as Well, I mean just think just think of this pragmatically Think of this pragmatically. Could you really have a close relation all you married guys? Could you really have a close relationship with your wife if there was multiple other women involved? No, of course, of course you couldn't I mean 700 300 more. I mean it's crazy It's crazy. Look at David and Michael David and Michael David in 1st Samuel chapter 18. We won't turn there I'll just tell you the story in 1st Samuel chapter 18. The Bible says that Michael loved David It says Michael loved David. It was Saul's daughter and How do we know David loved her because Saul thought he was going to kill David By he's like oh my daughter loves him and Obviously David loved her because he went out and Saul's like I'm gonna have him go out and say he has to go get me a 100 foreskins from the Philistines I'm gonna kill David. Saul hated David. He was jealous of David He was he wanted David dead so he tells you want to marry my daughter go go kill 100 Philistines David's like, okay, he kills 200 And he brings you know the trophies back and he marries his daughter But then in 2nd Samuel chapter 6 David has married so many other women and he has just you know He has gotten it his marriage to the point where it says Michael literally despised him It says she literally despised him So you say you know you say okay, I see I see what you're getting at You know, but why why preach this, you know, why preach this is not like you know, we're struggling with this today I mean even in America with all of our problems, you know You don't see polygamy everywhere So what's the point? You know, we don't seem with all of our issues that we have and all of our perversions that we have We don't seem to have this problem, but yes, we do And you're like what? Look, here's what we know from the Bible We know from the Bible when when it when the right thing is not done that there are severe Consequences in this case that your heart is turned from the Lord that your heart is turned from Your wife and hers look it hers is turned from you I can't imagine something worse like on earth happening to me than my wife's heart being turned from me I mean what a severe thing that would be look and look you look at You'll get Genesis chapter 30 It's causes of wife the wife a lot of pain You can just literally hear the pain and I mean think about that as a person when you're reading those verses And just imagine the emotional pain that this woman has I just want my husband to want to be with me And this woman thinks maybe if I just gave him one more son one more son I mean, it's it's it's a sad terrible thing. I mean look what she says Goddoth and dude me with a good dowry Now will my husband dwell with me because I have born him six sons And she called his name Zebulon so There's real consequences here And you say, you know, why did they do it and how does it apply to me? Well, here's why they did it They did it to fulfill the lust of the flesh That's why they did it. I hate to break it to you, but that's why they did it You can't say they did it so for more children. I mean 700 children, you know 700 times four 2800 children I mean could you really say, you know, most people can't handle one or two You're gonna say his home is gonna raise 2800, you know 5000 children and be a great father to them. That's not why they did it You can clearly cannot be a he didn't do it to be a parent to hundreds of children But here's the thing it does apply to us. You say how you say how because men today seem to have a problem with fulfilling the lust of the flesh Men today do the same thing Married men today do the same thing married men Christian men do the same thing and they may not have Physical relationships, but guess what what you are looking at The Bible says does it's the same thing look at Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 28 It's almost like it's almost like Jesus knew the future You think it's almost like Jesus knew what was gonna happen Matthew 5 Verse number 28 Matthew 5 verse 20 number 28, but I say unto you That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her have committed adultery with her already in his heart notice here Notice here. It's it's a heart issue again We're talking about the same thing We're talking about the same thing that Solomon did look on both sides with the husband and the wife We saw that in the Bible The heart issue will be the same as with Solomon the same as with David and you say, you know Well, well God bless it. Here's the thing here's the thing and I looked up You know, I hate having to look up these statistics, but here's the thing these statistics are changing I've been doing this now for two years a little over two years. These statistics are getting worse They're getting worse 66% of men today regularly look at pornography 66% and guess what when you look at 18 to 24 year old men. It's 70 71 72 percent It's going like this Look, let me do the math for you on that that means that if you have a young man between 18 and 24 And we're just randomly, you know gonna grab one you have a you have double the chances of Grabbing one that regularly looks at pornography And the scary thing is is that when you look amongst and I understand that Christian in these polls What a Christian man is is not is all messed up. I get that but there's really no significant statistical difference That's pitiful Look, here's the thing How is that different than having multiple women that you're in relationships with I? Mean, I bet I wonder if the wives in the room tonight would think it's different. I Wonder if the wives I mean, I mean how many wives in the room tonight wouldn't care If that's what their husband did on a regular basis and even if they said I wouldn't care I wouldn't believe them. I bet most would view this exactly as Leah views her life Think about that think about that man. You're making your wife Leah You're making your wife ask the questions. Why am I not good enough? What is wrong with me? What is wrong with me that he needs to seek out wide? What do I have to do to get my husband to love me? This is what you're turning your wife into And guess what guess what the consequences will be the same Even if you think no one knows The consequences will be the same You can ruin the biggest blessing that God has provided for you on this earth Folks you better think about this when you're raising kids, too How many how many I mean I brought an example with me, and I can't remember what I did with it Okay, here we go. I've never bring this up here, but How many devices you have in your house that are connected to the internet? If you allow your children to ever be on a device that is connected to the internet Please listen to me carefully if you allow your children to ever be on a device that is connected to the internet Without proper supervision. You are brain dead brain dead Mentally not there. Why not just shoot them up with heroin? You're like I'm serious Shoot them up with heroin You need to have monitoring programs and then you need to be monitoring the monitoring programs You can't just put a monitoring program on something and just forget about it You know how smart kids are today You got to monitor the monitoring programs look when I looked up the stats for this sermon I got to tell my wife. I got to be a look out Look out you're gonna be getting like a bunch of like your phone's gonna light on fire here pretty quick Because I mean I just you just type in certain things on anything in my house My phone anybody's phone computers whatever anything that could possibly connect to the internet You type in the wrong things and things just explode You will raise I mean look you don't think it's a big deal. You'll raise a child that'll ruin some girls life one day Is what you'll do You'll raise a child that'll ruin a girl's life. You want your daughter what you want your daughter to be a Leah You want your dog? I mean look we're supposed to do things different. We're supposed to be smarter We're supposed to have what's this word? We're supposed to have wisdom Same problems exist today folks just in different forms We have to protect these kids from these things and this takes Effort here's another thing you can do a lot of you are sitting here in the room tonight You're like you know my kids are young. I don't worry about this my kids are one two three four years old They're not on the internet. Here's another thing you can do You can teach them to I don't know not fulfill every lust of the flesh that comes in front of them You can like here's something that that's some people in this church Just it seems impossible for them to do you can say no to your kids. I Want that no, you know how many how many times should I say no to them several times a day? because kids in their natural state are like I want that Give it to me and it takes you stopping them. It takes you. I mean that's what what? Parents that's what they're for You will raise and you think it's no big deal. You say it's no big deal. It's a cookie. It's no big deal It's a toy. It's no big deal. Just you know, I just want them to be happy Here's the thing it'll start out with a cookie and a toy and this is how it ends right here It ends up with them just whatever desire that they have fulfilling it and That will be a disaster Man, you're gonna have problems Please listen or you are gonna have problems as your kids get older. These problems will get more and more serious You say man, this is pretty this sermon took a turn for the For the depressing every single time I have to preach on this. It's depressing Because the numbers are getting worse and worse all the time and I'm just like how could that be? How could that be look I you go around you go out and you go to work and you see people I get it I see how that is it shouldn't be getting worse for us Shouldn't be an issue for us. It's like look. I'm a problem solver. There's there's ways to solve this problem There's things to put in place to solve this problem to make sure it doesn't become a problem for your families and you can't homeschool your kids and Protect them from the public school and do all these things and bring them to church and then just allow the gates of literal hell into your house Through your computer and set your kid in front of it or set yourself in front of it because guess what guess what? You got a problem. You better get rid of it because your problem is gonna be multiplied in your kids David had eight wives David had eight wives Solomon had a thousand Think about that think about that when you got problems men ladies think about that when you got problems You got sin in your life, and you're like, oh, you know what it's just me my kids are gonna be better No, good chance. They're gonna be worse Than you Pulling me in the Bible. We see that it just it ruins relationships. It ruins relationships. The same thing can happen to us today Through this stuff. I'm gonna scare the literal hell out of you on Sunday morning With the sermon on Sunday morning I'm gonna I'm gonna you probably just take everything that's connected to anything you'll probably just throw in the garbage if I do a Good job. I had to stop right in the sermon twice I'm gonna scare the little hell out of you and that's that's the that's my goal on Sunday morning It's you think man, this sounds bad. It's way worse than you think It's way worse than you think it's like I mean I'm talking demons I'm talking. I'm talking Satan himself Is running this show and I'll prove it to you and I'll prove it to you it's been going on for 30 40 years and it's Man the game's almost complete the way I see it. I'm just like how could it possibly get worse than this Think about this stuff Every single thing that you see in the Bible applies to you There's a reason Jesus said that just looking and lusting is the same as adultery because you can do the exact same thing That Solomon did and David did to your marriage today to your kids today Save somebody's daughter and raise your kids right save your son's marriage and Say no to your kids, and you know what put some protections in place You're gonna go through all this effort to homeschool your kids and put these curriculums together It's so dangerous. It's so dangerous. They just just let them play with a loaded gun This is what we're talking about here. This is how serious it is Lessons from Zebulin and not how not to have a Genesis 30 Family let's borrow heads and have a word of prayer