Bickering, Battling, Blessing

Today marks the 13th week from the How It Started series.

And that's an interesting number for us, not because of superstitions,

like the number 13 is unlucky or anything like that, but because by most church leader standards,

anytime a series goes longer than six to eight weeks long, they say it gets stale.

Ooh, I like that answer wrong. That's good news to hear, right?

In that case, this series is double expiration date stale.

Ever had a stale, crusty piece of bread? It ain't good.

Have you ever taken that big swig right from the milk carton and found out that it was sour?

Or even add to it a little curdle to it? Oh, man, that is gross. Or how about this one?

Oh, there's the cottage cheese. Somehow it got pushed all the way back to the fridge.

And there you get to it. You take that lid and open it. and you find all these

colorful and fuzzy things to it.

Yeah, that is icky, icky, gross. I have found the expiration date and we are plenty safe.

And here it is. The grass withers and fades away. That's like bread,

grain, cereal, all those things. But the word of God, it lasts forever.

There is no expiration date. It doesn't exist.

So that is really good news to know because there are 50 chapters to the book of Genesis.

So how long is this series? I don't know. Now, if you were hoping that this

was going to go a little differently, a new direction, like,

oh, a new series is coming.

Well, we've got a complaint department. You can contact them at any time.

Make your requests known.

All right, seriously, I do, I pray, I hope this series has been good from the book of Genesis.

It's been profitable to you as we've been going through this verse by verse.

The plan going forward is to keep this fresh, engaging, and relative,

and as much as possible, stay away from stale, boring.

That's God help us to do that. Like we need eyes, ears to see his word and that

it's alive and fresh for us.

So in part 13, we come to a time in Abram's life that includes fighting with

family members, fighting with kings, and being blessed by this super unique,

mysterious, Jesus-like person.

Now, when you hear that, who doesn't like a little drama to be told?

You hear about these things.

And certainly a good war, good battle. We like stories like that. I think some of us do.

And certainly on top of all that, We've got God is working in someone's life

and you get to hear about that.

That is not boring. That's not stale. That's exciting. No rotten cottage cheese here.

Genesis 13 and 14, it is fresh and it's full of tasty things.

So bickering, battling, blessing.

That's the title that's gonna cover these two chapters. And I wanna give a shout out to my kids.

They helped come up with that title name today. Bickering, battling, blessing.

Good job. Turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter 13 and follow along as I read

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

from this chapter and make some comments throughout it.

Then Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev.

Quick picture for you. This is the Negev. So you get a little mental picture

of what's going on here. It's a desert region, okay?

He went up from Negev, he, his wife, and all he had, and Lot with him.

Abram was very Yeah.

With a map's help, here's what we've got. Actually, it's a big map.

He started out at one time with his family over here in Ur, but now we're all

the way over to here, right? He has left Canaan.

He's gone to Egypt, and now he is retracing his steps back. So maybe that helps.

You can see how they travel next to water.

Actually, in chapters 13 and 14 today, this whole area, and really,

if the map even kept going lower, it would be all down here in this area.

That's the region that we are talking about here.

And he is doing this. And what we see right here is he is off to a much better

start than what we saw last week.

Remember last week, Egypt's episodes of his lying and deceit,

and it was all centered around Sarah, his jaw-dropping gorgeous wife.

Remember that? That was there. And again, the spectacular thing wasn't that

Abram had a beautiful wife.

The spectacular thing there was that God kept his promises to Abram despite Abram.

And we come to verse five.

Now Lot was traveling with Abram, also had flocks, herds, and tents,

but the land was unable to support them as long as they stayed together.

For they had so many possessions that they could not stay together.

And there was quarreling, bickering between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock

and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock.

At that time, the Canaanite and the Perzites were living in the land.

Then Abram said to Lot, please, let's not have quarreling between you and me

or between your herdsmen and my herdsmen, since we are relatives.

Isn't the whole land before you? Separate from me.

If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right,

I will go to the left. Lot looked out and saw the entire Jordan Valley as far

as Zor was well watered everywhere like the Lord's garden in the land of Egypt.

This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. So Lot chose the entire

Jordan Valley for himself.

Then Lot journeyed eastward and they separated from each other.

Abram lived in the land of Canaan, but Lot lived in the cities of the valley

and set up his tent near Sodom.

Now the men of Sodom were evil, sinning greatly against the Lord.

After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, look from the place

where you are, look north and south,

east and west, for I will give you and your offspring forever all the land that you see.

I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth. Interesting.

So that if anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your offspring could be counted.

Get up, walk around the land through its length and width, for I will give it to you.

So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the Oaks of Mamre at Hebron,

where he built an altar to the Lord.

Really what this chapter is going to do, it's going to let us review back and

think back to some three months plus ago when we were in this series,

How to Handle Relational Drama.

Anybody remember that series? Right? Okay. It had 11 parts. I don't think it was stale. It was good.

Right? And so here we're going to see in Genesis 13, Abram serves as a good

example and a models for us peacemaking. He's a peacemaker.

Now, as we have seen in this series, people don't often give us many good examples

who to follow and how to follow. But here, Abram does.

The conflict comes, it's very simple to see, simply there is not enough room

for both he and his nephew Lot.

Both men now are extremely wealthy. They've got a lot of gold,

a lot of silver, and a lot of livestock, which takes a lot of land,

lots and lots of land. And all of this being put together, it causes,

well, it causes the boys to be boys.

They are bickering and quarreling.

Now, I don't know how many of us can relate to like, whoa, fighting here over

land such and like this livestock.

So perhaps, perhaps a better way for us to understand this on a smaller scale

is think of this. Maybe some of you have done this.

Have you ever gone on a vacation with extended family?

And here we are.

Where are we all going to fit? Yeah, it's one of those moments.

Or husband, wife, and now you've got your family, your children with you,

and something happens, and now you've got to move back into one of the parents' house.

Now you've got the in-laws and everyone all together.

That can get tricky in a hurry.

Putting a lot of people in a small area makes relational drama come alive,

normally in a negative way.

Basically, anytime a lot of people get together in a small area,

add a little stress to it, like tight living arrangements, or here we've got

herdsmen scuffling over watering holes or grassy fields, it's got the potential to.

Explode.

Abram sees the trouble. He sees the fighting and the bickering.

He feels the strain of it. You know, that weirdness that comes over relationships

and he becomes a peacemaker.

He allows Lot to pick first the land that he wants, which is interesting because Abram is the uncle.

Abram is older. Abram is the leader.

And yet he doesn't pull any of those, this is why I should choose first power place.

You ever done that? Like, I'm entitled to this. He doesn't do that here.

He allows Lot to pick first the land that he wants.

And that gives us an application. And it's this.

Sometimes in peacemaking, we must give up our rights.

Now, key word, sometimes. There are times where you cannot give up.

I get that. You understand it.

You have to stay committed to whatever that thing may be.

Again, this would be like a godly type thing, a sinful type thing.

Sometimes in peacemaking, not always do we give up.

I don't think anyone here could say, no, I always give up. Actually,

we probably fall on the other side of the spectrum of this, that we don't always give our rights.

We are, I ain't never giving up my rights, right?

You could very well be the person who crosses your arms and stomps that foot.

I'm doing it my way and no one's telling me otherwise. Is that you?

Maybe. I didn't ask to raise a hand, so that might be a good thing.

But my guess is, in a room this size, that most of you have been told that you

are more stubborn than you've been told more agreeable. Now,

how about that? Who would raise their hand on that?

I have been told more stubborn than not being more agreeable.

Well, some of y'all don't vote, confused. You don't know either one, not voting at all.

Okay, I'm gonna take the leap and say, in my life, I've been called more stubborn,

more than acceptable, and you are just like me. That's what I'm gonna say on that, okay?

That's how I think it goes here, that we never give in.

So if that's true, when it comes to conflicts, Become the peacemaker.

Be the one who gives in. Don't be the foot stomper.

Abram, the leader, gives up his rights to keep peace.

Husbands, leader of the house, Abram is giving you and me an example to follow.

In conflicts with your wife.

Is it the known? It's my way or the highway.

These are my rules. I make them around here. This is my house.

Like all those things might be true, but those are not peacemaking sentences.

And husbands, husbands, you didn't know you were on the hot seat today.

Sorry about that. It's just for a little bit longer.

Husbands, even when the conflict exists and she's really at fault,

Like, even when that's true, be the peacemaker.

Abram models this for us. Parents, as leaders over your children,

do you demonstrate acts of peacemaking for your kids to not only see, but to receive?

Like, what exactly do they see from you in those times of conflicts?

Siblings. Do you ever give your brother or sister a chance to go first? Pick first.

Sit in the front seat of the car first.

Play the PlayStation 5 Slim first.

Eat the last piece of pizza first. Have the bathroom first.

Like these are all ways of being a peacemaker.

And of course, peacemaking needs to extend to people outside of the family as well.

Workers, coworkers, neighbors, and definitely church people also.

Now, in the first service, literally people were pointing at each other and

elbowing each other on some of these.

Like, playful maybe, perhaps passive aggressive, like, listen up, honey.

Big brother, you get that?

And the point here, whether those are bony elbows with real intent,

listen for yourself before you listen for someone else. Ooh.

Be the kind of person who is eager to find a way for peace.

Abraham was. He was willing to give up his rights and he let Lot choose first. So, good.

Second observation that we get from these bickering relatives in Genesis 13 is this.

Peacemaking means that sometimes we go in opposite directions for the good of the relationship.

Again, here clearly, you must keep the word sometimes in proper consideration.

Because in this family conflict between Abram and Lot,

the motivation for going opposite directions was not because they couldn't stand

each other and they hated each other's guts and they couldn't stand to be in

the same field together. Like that's not what's happening here.

They go in opposite directions to keep unity.

Abram was committed to Lot. He's the one who said to Lot, Lot,

let's not quarrel. We're relatives, we're family. Let's find a way to make this work.

So it's important that we note this was not an angry separation bringing an end to a relationship.

That this peaceful, this was a peaceful separation to help the relationship.

Are you following this? You with me?

Because this is real important. Because we cannot have the attitude of with

the first sign of trouble, I'm out of here you cannot have the attitude of well you.

I tried. I guess maybe getting a divorce would solve things. Absolutely not.

That is taking the reason of Abram and Lot's going their opposite directions

completely out of context here.

God loves it, loves it, loves it when we work on our relationships,

especially the marriage relationship.

And God hates divorce.

And yet the Bible is very realistic. God is very realistic.

Like he already knows, he understands we are going to struggle with relationships.

Do you know he already knows that?

So no matter your relationship, your marriage, your BFF, whoever,

your coworkers, church people, God already knows that our relationships can

get sideways in a hurry with each other.

It's one of the reason he has given us verses like Romans 12, 18.

If it is possible, if, that's a word of hope, on your part, live at peace with everyone.

So you see it, that's realistic and it's got a touch of hope to it.

You don't and you can't control others. You can't control if they wanna be peaceful

with you or not. What can you control?

If you will be peaceful with them, you can control your words.

You can control what you say.

And so maybe I am only talking to myself right now and I battled through this

this week, but I'm going to say it out loud, but maybe it's going to help you.

Stop blaming yourself. Stop blaming yourself.

Stop blaming when I am non-peacemaking ways on someone else because they were

unkind or selfish or mean to me.

Stop justifying my own ugly words, my own sinful actions, because it's a response

to what someone else has done to me when they treated me poorly.

Do you follow that? Like, you choose if you will be a peacemaker or not,

regardless of what other the person is doing.

Even if they are being a jerk, we still have a response of peacemaking ability.

Often, we just be a jerk right back.

As it is possible for you, put forth every effort to live at peace,

which means we get to ask some questions.

Think of your relationships. Think of the harder relationships.

How much effort for peace are you putting forth?

Barely any? A little? Some?

It might lead to the reason why the relationship is the way it is.

Hear it clearly. God's word for all of us is put forth every effort.

Have an eagerness to be a peacemaker.

So Genesis 13, it serves as a good reminder how to handle relational trauma,

trauma and drama, where there's quarreling and bickering.

How? Be a peacemaker.

Okay, on to chapter 14, battles and blessings.

24 verses. Check out these names.

In those days, Amraphael, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elisir.

Kedor-Laramir, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goim, waged war against Bera,

king of Sodom, Bersha, king of Gomar,

Shinob, king of Adma, and Shimeber, king of Zeboim, as well as the king of that is Zor.

All of these came as allies to the Valley of Sinim, that is the Dead Sea.

They were subject to Kedorlamir for 12 years, but in the 13th year, they rebelled.

In the 14th year, Kedorlamir and the kings who were with him came and defeated

Rephaim and Asheroth-Car-Naum, the Zuzim, don't forget them, in Ham,

the Emim in Shavah, Kiratim, and the Horites in the mountains of Seir,

as far as El Peron by the wilderness.

Then they came back to invade the Emisfat, that is Kadesh, and they defeated

all the territory of the Amalekites, as well as the Amorites,

who lived in Hazan-Tamar.

Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma,

the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is Zor, went out and lined up

for battle in the valley of Siddam against Kedor-Lamir, king of Elam,

Tidal, king of Goim,

Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Arioch, king of Elessar, four kings against five. Okay. Wow.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, maybe a third of those are right. We'll see.

Okay, so we got this mouthful of complicated names.

Yes, it reminds us of the genealogies that we've done chapters past,

but verse nine just makes it real simple for us to understand.

I like simple, here it is. We have two teams fighting.

One team has four kings on it, four players on it. The other team has five players, five kings on it.

It looks like this Qadir Alamir, he seems to be the BMOC of the 14 king.

You guys know what a BMOC is?

Big man on campus. He is the BMOC. He's the captain.

He's the captain of this four-man team. And for 12 years, he's been ruling over

all these other kings in the region.

But in year 13, the ruled over kings unite and say, that's it. That's enough.

And they rebel, which leads again now to Kedorlamir and his buddies.

They are ferociously attacking and crushing and reinforcing their reign over

this region as they make their way to more fighting in verse 10. Here it comes.

Now the valley of Siddam contained many asphalt pits.

Okay, best I can tell, these asphalt pits were like, they were natural tar pits.

To fall into one of them, it'd be really sticky, you'd be entrapped.

So think of a person or an animal falling into it.

Basically, you are a sitting duck if a war is going on and you fall into this.

And as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them.

Not good. But the rest fled to the mountains.

The four king team, they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their food and they went on.

They also took Abram's nephew Lot and his possessions for he was living in Sodom and they went on.

One of the survivors came to Abram, the Hebrew who lived near the oaks belonging

to Mamre, the Amorite, the brother of Ashul, and the brother of Aner,

they were bound by a treaty with Abram.

So just like the movies, except for this is a real story, one person escapes and he goes to get help.

And now Abram, with the help of three others, they form their own four-man team.

You with me? Okay, verse 14.

When Abram heard that his relative had been taken prisoner, he assembled his 318 He says.

Now, I'm thinking that if this four-man king team, if they would have left Lot

alone, this probably doesn't even make it in the Bible.

But soon as you mess with Abram and his family, uh-oh, details coming.

And that's what we have here. And we're gonna see why this matters a little

bit in the third B, the blessing B.

But right now we're in the second B, the battle B. And what we see is Abram

and his, I'm gonna say completely undermanned army.

I mean, 318 may sound impressive, but not compared to four other kings and their warriors.

And he pulls off this impossible feat of defeating the mighty four kings in

a surprise night attack.

Ah, it's an underdog win.

Abram brings everyone and everything back. Okay, verse 17.

After Abram returned from defeating Kedorlaomer and the kings who were with

him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh.

That is the king's valley.

Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

He was a priest to God most high.

So two kings are now wanting to talk with Abram, the king of Sodom,

and we have this new, brand new king to the story, King Melchizedek.

Both have two very different agendas and why they want to meet with Abram.

First up is Melchizedek in verse 19.

He's got his bread and he's got his wine and he blessed him.

And said, Abram is blessed by God most high, creator of heaven and earth.

And I will give praise to God most high who has handed over your enemy to you.

And Abram gave him a 10th of everything.

And now the second king gets his turn to speak to Abram. It's in verse 21, starting there.

Then the king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the people, but take the possessions for yourself.

So we've got one king, Melchizedek. He says, bless you. The other king,

king of Sodom says, give me.

Two very different agendas, two very different intentions.

Now, Melchizedek is going to come up a little later, but right now,

Abram gives a response to the king of Sodom in verse 22.

But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have raised my hand in an oath to Yahweh,

God most high, creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread or

sandal strap or anything that belongs to you so that you can never say, I made Abram rich.

I will take nothing except what the servants have eaten, but also for the share

of the men who came with me.

Aner, Ashol, and Mamre, they can take their share. So what we have here is the

king of Sodom, he wants to strike a deal with Abram.

Abram, you keep the stuff, but give me the people.

Now, which if you think about it, Abram, he can keep it all.

He doesn't have to give anything back. This guy isn't, he does not have leverage

here to try to work out a deal.

But Abram, he wants nothing to do with this king. He doesn't want a partnership

with him. He doesn't want to be connected to him. He doesn't want his stuff.

Other than what we saw here, the troops, they need to eat, so they ate some food.

And he's making sure that his three allies, they get their fair share of the

cut of the recovered goods. Other than that, he gives everything back to Sodom.

He wants total separation from this guy. I'm not accepting even a penny,

a sandal strap, a thread.

It's as if Abram understands that

making a deal with this king is going to somehow come back and haunt him.

I can't be in debt to this guy down the road.

And there is a good lesson for us in this.

Abram, he would have known, he would have known about Sodom.

He would have known about their greatly sinning ways.

He would have known that their leader, their king, was that's their kind of

lifestyle. Well, Sodom was a wicked city under his leadership.

And so a lesson here is do not make a deal with the devil or people who act like him.

There are a lot of businessmen in this room, especially take note of this.

Gaining materialistic wealth at the cost of jeopardizing one's relationship

with God isn't worth it. Like that is a bad deal.

Okay, so that's Abram and the battle story. And now we get, okay,

there's bickering in Genesis 13. There's battling in Genesis 14.

What does that have to do with Genesis? Really, what does it have to do with me?

How does this matter to me? Okay, we're gonna get there.

There's some blessings that come, two to be exact. And then I want us to finish

with two other things that I think we see clearly in these chapters.

Here's the first one. We've already touched on it. Blessed are the peacemakers.

Those are Jesus's words. We've already seen from the peacemaking habits of Abram

that if we apply some of these things, that it's going to help our relationships.

Can't we agree there is no shortage of needing to use good sound wisdom when

it comes to peacemaking practices?

Sometimes we give up our rights. Sometimes we go in opposite directions,

but always we should live with this eager attitude of desiring peace and unity in our relationships.

So if anyone ever says, why do I have to be a peacemaker? Because Jesus preached

it. Blessed are the peacemakers.

And the second one, it is a blessing that God's promises are unstoppable and invincible.

That has been the theme, the theme throughout the book of Genesis.

And here's the thing. Do not let that become stale.

Do not hear Doug say that again and go, I got that.

No, do not. Instead, let it deepen your faith and encourage you.

Think back. Chapter 12, famines. Chapter 13, family feuds. Chapter 14, fighting kings.

No one and nothing is stopping God and his promises.

Now, why do you think that week after week we see this kind of pattern of God keeping his promises?

Could it be that he wants us to know that about him?

And could it be that we are often quick to forget it?

I think so. Look again at God's invincible promise to Abram.

Don't yawn at this. Be excited.

I will make you a great nation. That is happening.

Abram has now conquered the region's superpowers with his stealth 318 man warriors

there fighting force. Abram is becoming a great nation.

I will bless you. That is happening. Have you noticed everywhere this man turns,

someone is trying to give him something? Here, take more stuff.

In Genesis 13, God said, just look around, Abram, wherever you see,

east, west, north, south, it's yours.

Kings are trying to give him stuff. God is blessing him.

I will make your name great. This is happening.

His reputation, gotta be spreading. Word is out. Hey, have you heard about Abram?

This God's man, you heard what's going on? He beat the four kings.

Yes, he's making his name great. You will be a blessing to others.

That's happening. From Lot and his family, first of all, getting the fields

that he picked and then getting rescued.

And think about this, even undeserving kings are being blessed.

Abram is a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you. That's happening.

Everyone on Abram's side is getting blessed. Again, we think of Lot,

but also Abram's allies, they are getting rewarded handsomely for being on Abram's side.

I will curse those who curse you. That's happening.

Don't mess with Abram. Like I know Texas has the t-shirt, don't mess with Texas.

Abram needs one of those shirts.

Everyone who comes on the wrong side gets it and kings are not exempt from facing

God's curse and protecting Abram and his family and so we get all of that and

we go okay what are the promises,

from God that you are struggling to trust because there are difficulties in your life right now,

got got any abram-like famines going on how about family feud got any abram

family-like feuds going on or abram-like wars going on in your life.

By faith, believe the promises God has made to you because they are invincible,

unstoppable, no matter the difficulty or the circumstance.

Stay locked in on that truth. And this is not a health, wealth, prosperity thing.

Our blessings are not identical to Abram's.

And honestly, we should be thankful for that. unless you want to have a newborn at the age of 99.

It is different.

Be excited and thankful for God's invincible promises.

Okay, two last things that come out of these chapters that I want to give to you.

There are times to be passive and times to be active in our faith.

And we need divine wisdom to know the difference.

Last week, remember last week we saw Abram and his beautiful wife,

if they are actively running to Egypt because of the famine.

And it looks as if he is trying to control the entire narrative with all of his deceptive ways.

It does not seem he is acting with divine wisdom. Rather, he's acting with human

wisdom. And it gets him into all kinds of trouble.

And now chapter 13, today, we see a completely different Abram.

He's trusting God. Lot, pick whatever land you want. God's got my back.

I know I'll get what I need to have.

He lets Lot have first choice. Abram seems to be passively following God to work all things out.

And his passivity looks divinely wise.

But then chapter 14, he's far from being a pathesis.

Here he is yelling, charge! As he's on his way with his troops, battling to rescue Lot.

So now he's like super aggression.

And it certainly looks to be divinely wise.

So which is it? I think there's a point for us to understand here that there are times to sit down,

sit still, and be quiet, and times to stand up, go, and it takes divine wisdom to know the difference.

So again, think through the areas of your life.

Are there some areas that you need to chill out, settle down and let go?

And what are the areas where you need to get up, go, and act?

Because both kind of acts, they come out in this living by faith life that we're called to live.

Have you noticed that God gives us days and they just don't look the same?

Some are passive, some are active, and we need God-given wisdom to know the difference.

And the second thing, last thing, let's finish with this show up out of nowhere

and then disappear mysterious king, King Melchizedek.

If it wasn't for Hebrews chapter seven, he'd be a greater mystery.

Hebrews 7 says, follow this. This is amazing to me.

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God,

who met with Abram and blessed him as he returned from defeating the kings,

and Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

So this is the history lesson. This is Genesis 14 being told now in Hebrews.

First, his name means king of righteousness.

Then also king of Salem, meaning king of peace,

without father, mother, or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end

of life, but resembling the son of God. He remains a priest forever.

Who is this Melchizedek? It's a person, it's a priest, it's a king that resembles Jesus.

It's a type of Jesus, and perhaps it is Jesus himself.

And here's the big, big, big, big, big point of all this.

Melchizedek was a sign to Abram that God was his salvation and his protection.

And then Hebrews 7 goes on to say that Jesus comes from the same order of Melchizedek,

which is a far superior priestly line than the Levites and Aaron of Israel right there.

And then get this, Hebrews 7 ends with these words, for this,

talking about Jesus, this is the kind of high priest we need.

Now I know we, they weren't writing to us, but we are the we in this.

We need holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day as high priests do,

first for their own sin, because he's perfect, and then for the sins of other people.

He did this once for all when he offered himself.

Just as Melchizedek was a sign of salvation and protection for Abram,

the same is true for fathers of Jesus Christ today.

How awesome is that? Like everyone needs a Melchizedek in their life.

And his name is Jesus.

Let's take the Lord's Supper after we pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

By your grace, with the help of the Holy Spirit,

Let it be fresh and exciting to us. Let it be what fills us up.

Guard us from ever just seeing words on a page.

Instead, let it be just a sweet, savory delight to read your word,

to learn from it, and turn all of that into worship and praise to you. You are worthy.

Thank you for Jesus Christ.

The perfect high priest. The perfect king. The perfect sacrifice.

The perfect savior.

Thank you for what he did. He only had to do once. that's how perfect he is.

Lord, give us a heart and an attitude to be a peacemaker.

Even when we're 100% wronged,

let your people be peacemakers.

Father, would you be gracious to us? Let us know when we need to sit and be

still and when we need to go and go and act.

All of it predicated on your divine wisdom.

Thank you for the time of remembering. In this Lord's Supper now,

in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Let me close with 2 Corinthians 5, 21.

God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become

the righteousness of God. That's good news.