May the Lord Bless You and Keep You

Numbers chapter 6 verses 24 through 26. Some

Numbers 6:24–26

of you may have heard this passage before. It's

a pretty popular passage. It's a passage that

I read at just about every wedding I do. It's

a good closing passage. It's a good blessing.

That's what this passage is. It was a part of

God's command to the priest in the Old Testament

that this is how the priest were to bless God's

people. And what a beautiful... few verses I

think this is for us to look at today. So we'll

read through it and then we'll pray and then

we'll talk. Numbers chapter 6 verse 24. May the

Numbers 6:24

Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause

his face to shine upon you and be gracious to

you. May the Lord lift up his countenance toward

you and give you peace. Let's pray. God we thank

you for being good to us. We thank you for the

freedom we have today to be in this place. I

thank you for the people who are here today,

dear Lord. We come today and we seek you because

we need you, God. We praise you because you're

good. We seek you because life is hard. And so,

God, I pray that your Holy Spirit would just

be among us this morning. I pray that you free

us from the distractions and the worries and

the things of this world, but that in these...

few minutes, God, that we would just feel your

presence in a mighty way, that we would be encouraged

by that, God, that we would feel your blessings

today, that we would recognize the many blessings

that you give us in our life. So I pray, God,

that every word that comes from my mouth will

be for your glory. Take away any pride or fear

that's within me and let the Holy Spirit take

control of us this morning. And I ask these things

in Jesus' name. Amen. What a beautiful blessing

that God's priests were to speak unto God's people.

And in some way, we make it loosely say that

a blessing is kind of like a prayer in a sense,

and praying for the goodness and the protection

and the grace to be bestowed on someone. And

so, in that sense, the priests were kind of praying

for these people that God would bless them. But

what does it mean to experience the blessing

of God? I think sometimes when we think of being

blessed, we may tend to think of materialistic

things. And that's not a mistake, by the way.

The things that we have are blessings from God.

If we've got a little money, a little food to

eat, some clothes to wear, those things are certainly

blessings from God. But God's blessings are far

greater than the things that we wear. God's blessing

is far greater than the money that's in our bank

account. God's blessing is far greater than the

material things that we see. If we really are

blessed by God, then we experience the peace

of God and the grace of God in ways that really

begins to transform our lives and work in our

lives and brings us a certain joy that the things

of the world can never bring us. blessed by god

and to be living in that blessing well i think

jesus gives us a good example of that in matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 if you want to turn there this little

section we're going to look at today is often

referred to as the beatitudes jesus gives us

this beautiful list of of The blessed and really

what it means for them. What does it mean to

be blessed? If you've never read through the

Sermon on the Mount, that's Matthew 5 through

7. That's some good homework for you this week.

But in Matthew chapter 5, starting in verse 3,

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

listen to what Jesus says. Blessed are the poor

in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for

they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful,

for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the

pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed

are the peacemakers, for they shall be called

sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted

for righteousness' sake. for theirs is the kingdom

of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and

persecute you and say all kinds of evil things

against you falsely for my name's sake. Rejoice

and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward

in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets

who were before you. What are the things that

Jesus said accompany those who are blessed? It's

comfort. It's peace. It's mercy. It's these types

of things. It's a filling with righteousness.

It's not a materialistic gain that Jesus is speaking

of here. In fact, Jesus is not speaking of all

good in our life through blessing. He even closes

this section by saying, even in the worst of

days, if you are living for me and people are

attacking you because of that, Jesus says you

are still great. Blessed are you and your reward

in heaven for those who would seek me. Blessed

are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs

will be the kingdom of God. And these are the

kind of things that accompany blessing. So many

times in our world, we get so caught up in seeking

the material and the worldly. And we think that

that's where our joy is going to come from. But

oftentimes, the things that we may consider as

blessings may very well be a curse. Some of you

have probably heard this. In Liberty last week,

we had somebody that won the lottery. That's

pretty incredible. Some of you are probably saying,

I wish I could win the lottery. They won a million

dollars, as best I can understand, and that's

pretty incredible. And some may say, what a blessing.

And in some way, it is a blessing. But perhaps

in another way, it's a curse. I was reading about

lottery winners this week. I was curious. I know

that lottery winners usually don't hold the money

for very long. Within five years, 70 % of people

who win the lottery have lost everything. 70%.

People that's won hundreds of millions of dollars,

70 % of them within five years have lost everything.

I was reading one story of a gentleman who won

$325 million. Can you imagine what that would

be like to go from just your normal wages to

having $325 million? We think, man, I wish I

could do that. What a blessing that would be.

But you know what he said? He said, I wish I'd

never cashed that ticket in. He said, it ruined

my life. He said, I wish I were to tore it up.

Since he had won the lottery, things had gone

downhill. He had lost a child and another family

member to drugs that occurred through all the

excess money that they had living a wild life.

And it had cost him greatly. And so sometimes

the things that we may consider to be blessings

are actually curses. Perhaps some of the situations

that we go through in life, things that are hardships

that we don't understand. And some of you have

stories like this. You go through life and something

bad happens and you lose a job and you say, man,

God, things are tough. What am I going to do?

I lost my job. And in the moment, we don't consider

things like that a blessing. And then lo and

behold, what happens? You get a better job. There

are so many things in our life that in the moment

we don't realize that God is blessing us, but

we have to realize that wherever we are today,

God is good. And we may not always see the blessing

of God, but you need to know today that God loves

you. And that God never promises us that life

is going to be easy. He never promises us...

health and wealth that everything is going to

be great and our pocketbooks will be full and

i know that there are a lot of people that preach

that message today but i just don't think that

that is the message that jesus christ preaches

And there's so many today that teach that the

blessings of God are the things of this world.

And if you don't have the things of this world,

you don't have the blessings of God because you're

not seeking Him. And I can tell you the secret

to getting all the things of God if you would

just buy my book, Hope, Faith, and Wealth, The

Secret to Success, for $29 .95. That's often

the message you hear. People that say, I want

to tell you of the blessings of God. I want to

tell you of the goodness of God. And I'm going

to tell you in this book. And once you get through

with this, I'm going to want you to buy my other

book. And the blessings of God are not for sale.

The blessings of God are free. And the blessings

of God don't just come in the material things,

but the true blessings of God come through the

comfort and the peace and the joy and knowing

that we are forgiven and loved by God and have

a place with Him for all of eternity in heaven.

Those are the blessings of God. And those are

not secret and those are not for sale. They have

been paid for by Jesus Christ. And what a beautiful,

beautiful prayer blessing that we see in Numbers

Numbers 6:24–26

chapter 6, verses 24 through 26. May the Lord

bless you and keep you. Some of your translations

may say something like protect you. That's what

it means there. May the Lord watch over you and

take care of you. Is that not what we desire

in our life? In this hectic world that we live

in and our stress and our pain and our losing

our job and our health problems and our money

problems and our marital problems and all of

our problems and the chaos and the wickedness

in the world. Don't we desire? protection? Don't

we desire some comfort? Don't we desire some

shelter and to feel safe? And that's what this

is. God, bless us and protect us. Take care of

us, dear Lord. May the Lord cause his face to

shine upon you and be gracious to you. Boy, the

grace of God is a powerful thing. There are so

many times in our life that we blow it. And by

blow it, that's a Kind of a nice way to say we

sin greatly. We do some really wicked stuff.

There are times in our life that we... feel like

such failures, and we are such failures in some

sense. We have done some evil and wicked things,

and we have sinned against God, and we have hurt

people that we love, our spouses, our children,

our friends. We have just done evil things that

we, even now as they come into our mind, we cringe

to think that we ever did and do some of the

things that we do. And that is a horrible place

to be, is drowning. in the midst of all of that

sinfulness it is a painful and scary place to

be it's like jonah when he was in the whale in

the darkness and and it was dark and and he was

overcome by seaweeds and wrapped up and he and

he thought his life was coming to an end but

yet once more he said i'm going to call to the

lord in my distress So many times our sin, as

we talked about a few weeks ago, it just entangles

in us and it's got us wrapped up and it's dragging

us down. And so many times we feel like we're

in a place where we're too far gone and we even

come to church and we sit on a pew and we know

God's word is good, but we just feel like I'm

just too far gone. But the solution to that problem

is the grace of God. That God has looked at you.

And God knows that you are a hot mess. He knows

that your life is full of sin. He knows that

you have done some things that you don't even

want to think about. But even still, God's grace

is good. What a beautiful blessing of God's graciousness.

God, let your face shine down upon me. God, don't

turn your face from me and my wickedness as David

says in the song. God, please look upon me and

have mercy on me. God, let me experience your

grace. And there is no greater feeling in this

life, not a greater feeling in this life, than

the moment you pray to God and seek him. And

through Jesus Christ, you can know that your

sins are forgiven and that you have received

the grace of God, that your sin is not held against

you anymore. That your sin has been taken care

of. Yeah, you still hurt people in the past.

Well, go make up those relationships. Go apologize

to those people. Go ask those people to forgive

you. Go show people the love that God has shown

you. Go say, look, I'm a new man. I'm a new woman.

That God has changed my heart and changed my

life. And I've experienced the grace of God.

And I was a horrible, wicked man. I was a horrible,

wicked woman. But God has touched me. And I've

experienced the joy of God. And I live in the

comfort of God. and I'm blessed by God. I can

guarantee you that that feeling of grace and

joy and comfort that comes from the Lord will

far surpass any material blessings you can ever

gain. It's a beautiful thing to live in the grace

of God. When we live in the grace of God and

are content with God, then everything else kind

of falls by the wayside. Even the greatest things

that we are up against in this world seem like

nothing to us. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul

2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

talks about his momentary light afflictions.

And then when you flip to 2 Corinthians chapter

2 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

12, he goes through and he lists some of his

momentary light afflictions. It's beatings, it's

imprisonments, it's stonings. And yet Paul calls

these things momentary light afflictions. How

can he do that? Because he's living in the grace

of God. He's living in the comfort of God. He's

living in the joy of God. And so Paul says these

momentary light afflictions, they pale in comparison

to the glory that I will one day experience in

the presence of God. That is the blessing of

God. Verse 26. May the Lord lift up his countenance

toward you. And give you peace. God, would you

just look upon me? Would you smile down upon

me, dear Lord? And would you give me peace? I've

said this many times. But that's what we really

desire in life. We just desire peace. We desire

peace. And it is peace that the Lord gives us

and the Lord alone. That's what our world needs

today. Our world is in so much chaos. There are

so many people that are living in so much wickedness

and doing so much and battling so much. And some

of us here today, we can relate to that in our

own lives. But what we really desire is just

peace. But so many times we look for peace in

the wrong places. We're looking for peace in

the chaos. We're going out into all of the world

and all of the things the world offers, and it's

just chaos and evil and wickedness, and we're

trying to find peace there. And we're trying

everything the world tells us to try, and there's

no peace. And we're looking everywhere the world

says, and there's no peace. And that's because

peace comes through Jesus Christ alone. Maybe

you're looking for peace in your life today.

Maybe you've tried the ways of the world. You

have not found peace. Maybe for a moment. Maybe

a momentary something that seems like peace but

it's always fleeting. It doesn't last. It's because

you're looking in the wrong place. But if we

would come to Jesus, all of us who are weary

and burdened, Jesus will give us rest. The blessing

of God is... It's His protection. It's His grace.

It's His peace. When we're living in the blessing

of God, everything else falls by the wayside.

What about you today? Are you seeking protection

and grace and peace in your life? Are you longing

for something better than what the world has

to offer? I will tell you today, it's only found

in Jesus Christ. That God so loved the world,

He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever

believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal

life, but have eternal peace. Let's pray. God,

I thank You today for being good to us. I thank

You for the goodness of Your Word, dear Lord.

So oftentimes we are... led astray by the ways

of the world. So oftentimes, dear Lord, we're

deceived on what your blessing is, dear Lord,

maybe, but God, let us not seek material gain

as blessing from you, dear Lord. That shouldn't

be our only motivation, dear Lord. Maybe you

bless us in those ways, but God, let us be blessed

by knowing who you are, by trusting in Jesus

Christ and by living in accordance to your words.

God, I pray that you'd bless the people who are

here today. God, I pray that you would just look

upon them today wherever they are, dear Lord.

I pray that you'd bless the ones who are struggling

with sin. I pray that you'd bless the broken

marriages and the broken relationships with family.

I pray that you'd bless those that just struggle

with work and with school. God, I pray that you'd

bless those who who struggle with anxiety and

fear and worry. God, I pray that you just bless

our nation, that you would help us to be a people

who would seek you. God, I pray that you'd pour

your grace out on us this morning. I pray that

you would help people to be encouraged today,

dear Lord, that maybe they come in here with

a lot on their heart. And I pray, God, that through

Jesus Christ, they would seek you today and that

that burden would be removed. I pray that you

would just encourage them and give them joy today,

God, that you would bless their heart, that they

would seek you, dear Lord, that they would seek

your righteousness today and they would be filled.

God, that if their spirit is broken and poor

today, that they would come to you and that they

would enter into your kingdom, God. God, I pray

for those who know that they have struggled with

sin. God, they would receive your mercy today

and be merciful to others. God, I pray that we

would just know the blessing that is grace and

eternal life and forgiveness of sins. God, I

pray that you just bless each one here today,

that you would give them peace. If just for a

moment, dear Lord, a moment of peace in your

presence is a powerful thing. So I pray in these

few moments, dear Lord, that we would seek you,

each one of us, that we would pray to you, that

we would ask for your forgiveness, that we would

praise you, dear Lord, that we would confess

our sins to you, that we would open our hearts,

God, that we would ask you to forgive our sins,

that you would protect us today. Give us grace

and give us peace. God bless these people. And

I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.