Dealing with Death - Genesis 49:28-50:14 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning everyone. Morning. Welcome

to Boon Fairy.

My name's Mati Scaring and I'm glad

you're here today. It's actually a

special Sunday. It's Boonfair's 50th

anniversary. Can you believe that?

I found out um that Boon Fair started in

uh 1975 from Vern. But I also had to

research it because when we originally

demoed the walls of the stage, we had

concerns that there was going to be

asbestos in them, which is like

absolutely massive spending to do the

mitigation of that. And so right around

that time is when they stopped using

them. So we prayed and they didn't find

any asbestos. So that was that was

amazing. But um I thought about what I

could say that would be the most

honoring kind of thing for the church.

And um we are going to be having cake

afterwards in a celebratory way. So hang

out with us afterwards if you want to

and you can get a piece of cake. But um

I'm actually kind of amazed to think

about it. I've been here for a fifth of

the existence of the church now. It does

not feel like it's been that long. I've

been here for eight years, nearly nearly

a decade. Um it just went by so fast. Um

but church turnover is a lot. People,

you know, get upset, they leave or they

leave for just fine reasons, whatever it

is. It's it's very rare to have people

that are in your church for almost the

entirety of the church. And I want to

honor some of the men and women that

have been here that long. And if if I

miss you or if you've been here for a

while and then stand up too if I don't

name you, but um I'm going to start on

the on the lower end and then come up

higher. So I want to I want to have Ben

Jansen step up. That's 41 years uh time

that he's been here at Boon Ferry.

and he's an elder at Boon Fairy and he's

41 years old. He's never even been to

another

church. Just kidding. But uh then also

Mike Crowley, 42

[Music]

years. And then Mitch and Jenny Jansen.

And we were trying to calculate it

somewhere between 42 and 43 years. And

they're there. Maybe just wave if you

don't want to stand

up. But but Vern, you got to stand up.

48 years faithful to one church. Come

on, stand up. Also an elder at our

church. Those numbers are highly unusual

and you know just as well as I do the

faithfulness. I mean, you go through

some rough seasons in a church when you

are there for decades. So, I just that's

probably what I'm most thankful about.

I'm thankful that Boon Fairy exists and

that it was originally a church plant,

you know. Um I You want to tell us how

much they bought this entire land for

back in the day? You've told me before,

but I don't want to get the number

wrong.

Yeah, I'm I'm not going to be able to

repeat all that or tell the story as

well as Vern has who actually knows all

about it, but just for those listening

at home, uh the very purchase of the

land uh was something that God

orchestrated and would not have happened

without him. And so God really started

this church and it's been um a joy to be

the pastor here. I'm thankful espec I

mean you guys are an example to me that

kind of faithfulness. I I hope I get to

retire at Boonferry and I'm not looking

forward to retiring. I will preach here

as long as I can and as long as it seems

like the right thing to continue to do

um depending on age and those kinds of

things. Um but I'm thankful for Boon

Fairy. I'm thankful for all of you who

are attending and I don't believe that

God has done and as long as we remain

faithful there's no reason that our

church shouldn't be 100 years old and

thriving by then. So let me pray for

Boon Ferry. And we thank God for the 50

years that he has caused this church to

survive and even thrive. And then we'll

get right into Genesis. Heavenly Father,

it's only by your grace that any

community stays

together. It's only by your grace that

it's founded in the first place and

continues. You sustain all things,

including the church. We're thankful for

your promise that even the gates of hell

will not prevail against the church. Uh

that does not however mean that there

aren't individual local churches that

sometimes fold. And so we still rely on

you and we're so thankful for the 50

years that you've given this church. I

am personally very thankful for the

commitment of those that have been here.

Uh some of them almost their entire

lives and and some of them more than

half of their lives. What an example of

faithfulness that is to us of steadfast

love to one community. I pray that you'd

bless them for that in their lives in

ways that they recognize and then praise

you for as well. And I ask that we would

have a fun time celebrating after church

today. Uh now we want to shift gears

though, Lord, and look to your word,

which is what Boon Fairy is about. It's

about what you teach us about Jesus

Christ and him crucified and your word.

And so we want to have our hearts opened

to your word and your word open to our

hearts, which is something we know we

only have by the spirit. We're thankful

for that, too, in Jesus name.

Amen. We are in Genesis 49:28. So, the

Genesis 49:28

very end of Genesis 49 and then we're

finishing up about half of uh Genesis

50. This is the second to last sermon in

Genesis. We've been in Genesis now for

the better part of 2 years. Um, and it

honestly feels like we haven't really

even plumbed the depths. It's just

amazing how much there's been here. But

there's something climactic happening

here that you might miss. You might

think, "Oh, this is just about reporting

Jacob's death and burial." But honestly,

other than the famous line of what you

meant for evil, God meant for good and

for the saving of many lives. Um, I

think there's a a climactic portion here

because if we've recently been in

Joseph's life, right? But if you

remember back when we went to Jacob's

life, try to when we're going through

Jacob's life, try to remember the

feelings you had when you saw what he

did to Esau. He cheated him out of his

birthright. He lied and stole his

blessing. Uh, Esau was in tears, weeping

over that. He mistreated his brother

grievously. And he didn't need to. God

was going to give both of those things

to him anyway. They were promised to him

to his parents before their birth

prophetically. Um, and so that seems to

be this pattern all the way through the

patriarch's life where even when God

promises them the world, literally that

they will inherit the earth. The only

reason we will inherit the earth is

because we've been included in that

Abrahamic covenant. We really will

inherit the earth. Um, the new heavens

and the new earth ultimately. um even

though they're given these extravagant

promises and they're unconditional, it's

nothing they did caused it to be brought

about and nothing they could do would

take it away. It's a unilateral

unconditional covenant. And you can see

that all the way through because they

seem to think not I don't want to accuse

the patriarchs, but if you look at it,

it's like are you just doing whatever

you can to thwart God's plan? So he

says, "I'm going to give you a child

through Sarah, your wife." A bio child

as we call him today. So what do they

do? Well, it's not happiness, so I'll

take a concubine. Their solution to

God's plan not working is polygamy.

Ridiculous, right? They're called men of

faith. They live their life. And that's

actually where I'm going with this. I

just like to say it because um I think

it's a huge mistake to judge men that

God gives a a you know, a faith grade

out, right? They're they were righteous

by faith and there's nobody that's

that's righteous in any way except for

by faith and not their actions. But we

have to take their sin seriously and the

patterns especially. There was

cowardice, there was thieving, there was

um and and each one of them seems to

have a different sort of set uh or

species of sin. But one thing they all

have in common is they try to do God's

uh will their way. They try to do God's

will their way. It was the same with

Isaac. he actually copied some of the

sins like oh I'm afraid so I'm just

going to pretend like you're my sister

to this king you know and then for uh

Sarah twice was taken into that king's

herum to be his wife and the only reason

she was protected um was God's grace to

Abraham. Same thing happens with with

Isaac. He he repeats that sin and then

Jacob seems like he's actually the worst

of the patriarchs in terms of looking

he's he's a cheater. He's a liar. He he

steals. He's a manipulator and he he has

this this really ugly favoritism, right?

And we watched all that and we took it

seriously as sin. Again, hopefully not

judging him. Christians do judge Jacob.

And uh uh there's with the measure you

use will be measured to you. So if you

want to enter God's school of hard

knocks, judge a patriarch. It's a great

way to do it. Um but my point is

actually just that you know you would

think that we titled the series Genesis

creation fall and redemption. You know I

would say creations in chapter 1 through

three there's the fall in three and then

all the way through 11 the flood is the

result of that fall ultimately and the

only reason God doesn't just destroy the

whole world again is his own promise not

to do it. And then everything from

Genesis 11 on has been this story arc of

redemption. You might think, well, when

we're in the portion of of Jacob, is the

redemption really happening? Because

they don't seem to be getting better.

And then along comes Joseph, right? A

man who has that pattern broken in his

life and not without pain. Um he all out

of all the patriarchs who trusted God's

sovereignty most even when in suffering.

Him. Him. Over and over and over again.

There's not one mention explicitly of

him taking God's will into his own hands

like any of his fathers did. But what

about Jacob? Is Jacob's life going to be

redeemed? Do we find evidence? We talked

about that. We talked about how he ends

up actually giving up Benjamin and how

he really did love his sons. He just

happened to love any son. Um started

with favoritism of one wife. You know,

it's it's going to happen in polygamy.

It's not God's plan. It's never right or

good. It wasn't right uh then. Um but uh

God was gracious still because of this

amazing co amazing covenant. But he he

had this favoritism for any son born of

Rachel and that was Joseph and and

Benjamin. And the other sons

hated hated Joseph for it. That became

the focus of their hatred because they

didn't have the love they wanted from

their father. And so ultimately Joseph

is sold into slavery and uh Jacob loses

him and then um he still has Benjamin

but he even gives up Benjamin. And you

also just to rewind he he got a mirror

image of himself in Laban. Remember that

if if if you refuse to give up a pattern

of your sin, God's going to put someone

else in your life that has the exact

same pattern so you can feel exactly how

terrible it is. He does that over and

over and over again. He's done it in my

life. Um, and often times it'll require

somebody else when you're griping,

complaining of that about that person be

like, "You're the exact same kind of

person, man." You know, it's a friend

that says that and doesn't hate you, by

the way. Don't reject those kinds of

people. Um, but anyway, you get all the

way to the end of the story and here

he's he's died and it says death and

burial. And did was there any real

redemption of his life? And how would

you know? And I want to I want to with

that said um before even really proving

that this ma is the main point of the

passage I want to put the main point up

because it's an unbelievably hopeful

one. Even though we die, God's

redemption has the last

word. Even though we die, God's

redemption has the last word.

We're going to see that here in this

passage that you might think when

someone dies and certain sins that they

had committed weren't really broken and

they didn't ever really repent of them

that that means God redemptions failed.

But I'm going to show you biblically how

that is not at all true in a very real

way. Every single person that dies in

faith will be fully redeemed. And you

can be certain of that. But there's

something special here about the last 17

years of Jacob's life that shows just

how much redemption happened in his

life. And we're going to be talking a

lot about death here. So, uh, it's I

don't think it's going to be easy sermon

for some. Uh, I think our culture is

very much death avoidant, but also

deeply entertained by death. Kind of a

paradox. Uh, they're avoidant of really

talking about death in its weighty real

sense. Uh, but there's seemingly I mean

there's a huge entertainment history

industry about movies and shows that are

all just about the entertainment of

death per se. We're going to talk about

that too. But when you really look at

what death actually is and and allow

yourself to feel those feelings, it's

weighty. And I understand why people

tend to gravitate away from it. But

because this is what God's word is about

today, we're going to talk about it. If

you don't remember anything else, just

remember that in your life and in any

Christian's life by faith, um, even

though we die, God redemption has the

last word. Let's get into verse 28 of

Genesis

49. All these are the 12 tribes of

Israel. This is what their father said

to them as he blessed them, blessing

each with the blessings suitable to him.

To be honest, you can go to any other

translation, NASB, KJV, NIV, CSB, HCSB,

any other one, and they'll group 28 with

27. I, after researching, have no idea

why the ESV, which among those

translations is my is my favorite. Not

that I don't enjoy aspects of the other

ones. Um, but it should have really

belonged with the last portion. I'm not

sure why they separated 28 from 27. Um,

and we've already dealt with in a past

sermon that was about Jacob blessing

each one of his sons with prophetic

blessings and consequences suitable to

them. And that's only possible um for

him to do because God gave him those

words. They're ultimately God's

blessings and consequences. And so,

we're not going to deal much with 28

because it belongs to a past sermon.

Really, in a way, our sermon starts with

verse 29. Then he commanded them, that's

his his sons, and said to them,"I am to

be gathered to my people. Bury me with

my fathers in the cave that is in the

field of Ephron the

Hittite." It's so easy to

just run right over a verse onto the

next verse. But there's a lot here in

just those words. I am to be gathered to

my people. I'm to be gathered to my

people. I'd like um Matthew 22, the very

first verse I gave you guys. Matthew 220

20 2232 to be put up. This is what Jesus

said. I am the God of uh this is what

Jesus a quote from Jesus red letter if

you have a red letter. I am the God of

Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God

of Jacob. He is not God of the dead but

God of the

living. That had already been revealed.

you know, you'll actually find liberal

scholars talking about how um heaven and

the idea of an eternal state after uh

death is not something that's talked

about in the in the Old Testament. It's

just a blatant lie. It's talked about

all the time in the Psalms, life

everlasting and joy everlasting. And

right here, Jacob is talking about being

gathered to his people. And it's not

just an idiom about I'm going to die.

He's going to be gathered back to

Rachel, to Isaac, to Abraham. He hasn't

seen Rebecca since he left home. No

evidence that he ever got to see her

again. That was the final goodbye for

them. That was one of the costs that God

did not alleviate of him having been a

cheater and a liar in relationship to

his brother. Never get to see her mom

again. He was close with her and he was

going to get to see her again. And yes,

there are some changes. He won't see

Rachel again as his wife. Jesus makes

very clear there's no marriage in heaven

in that way. And that's sometimes hard

for people to understand or accept. It's

not anywhere near the scope of of this

sermon. And so we're not going to deal

with it. But the reality is he does get

to see them again. I think often times,

probably more often than not, the way we

feel about someone dying on earth that

we cared about is that we've lost them.

That's the primary way. We think

probably less about how they have

returned to relationships they've been

missing. family members, faithful

departed

ones. But this is really actually

something Jacob was looking forward to

being gathered to his people. And to me

that shifts the view. Um there's not a

single person of God, whether Old

Testament or New Testament Christian who

believes in Jesus Christ that once they

die and go to heaven would ever want to

come

back. It's not because they don't love

you. It's because now they have been

fully redeemed. There's no more sin. not

in them and not in others. They're

around the people they've been

missing. Especially if you've lived into

an older age, you have seen and been to

a lot of funerals and there's been

plenty of loved ones that you can't wait

to see again and hope ultimately we're

saved. And so he's being gathered to his

people and he's he's looking forward to

it. In that way, for those who die,

death is just an open door to

unimaginable joy

everlasting. And our whole faith is

based on that. By the way, this whole

church is just worthless. If that's not

true, everything I could ever say is

worthless if the resurrection isn't

real. Paul says that. I'm not saying

that other than that Paul says it. So

that's the foundation of everything we

preach in the gospel is that we will be

resurrected to eternal life by faith in

Jesus Christ in his cross and that we

will live forever and there will be no

more tears and no more mourning and no

more loss of relationship ever again.

Why would you ever want to leave that?

Just the being sinless alone would not

be I would not leave.

So that doesn't mean that but I mean

what's really happened when someone dies

is they switch dimensions and I don't

mean switch dimensions like they remain

in a physical dimension the way science

is positing the idea that there may be

more than one dimension. I believe there

is more than one dimension but the

dimensions are categorically different.

There's a spiritual dimension where God

dwells and there's the dimension of

creation. Um, so heaven is I I think I

you think you can think of it as a

spiritual dimension. You can't get

there. There's no lever that science has

to get you there. There's no way to

manipulate yourself uh with any kind of

power to get to that place. Um it's a

place you go by faith just by trusting

and believing God's gospel. Um so that's

where people go. They in a very way in a

very real way it's it's like they've

left us to go somewhere else uh but are

alive and we will see them

again. It's it's it's a little bit more

like way back in the day when if you

left from Europe to America, you're

probably not coming back as an average

person. So, it's a final goodbye. And

maybe there's some, you know, male or

maybe not even. But it's it's in a way

it's death for us is that kind of

goodbye. Let's go to the next verse. Uh

1 Corinthians 15 uh 54 because Paul has

something to say about how the sting of

death is gone. When the perishable puts

on the imperishable and the mortal puts

on immortality, then shall come to pass

the saying that is written, "Death is

swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where

is your victory? Oh death, where is your

sting? The sting of death is sin, and

the power of sin is the

law. But thanks be to God who gives us

victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So we we do not mourn death like the

world mourns. What are some of the words

that you would put in the place of the

difference? Well, one of them would be

hope. We mourn with hope. What's the

opposite of hope? I mean, maybe despair.

So we do not mourn with despair. We

mourn with hope. We mourn with a very

concrete hope that we will see the

people that died in faith

again. So we mourn with with even a joy

over what they're currently experiencing

too and a thankfulness that they've been

reunited with the people that they've

been

missing. That the sting has been taken

out because there is no despair. I was

speaking of Vern. Um he talks about

Japanese culture sometimes and how he

was speaking to I think it was a

Japanese man and I forget exactly the

story and I'm going to botch you if I

try to tell it but the moral of the

story was basically that this Japanese

man was so impressed by American

funerals because they're nothing like

Japanese funerals. And I'm saying this

vicariously. I don't know anything about

Japanese funerals. But what he was

saying was there was this hope and even

joy in memorializing the person and and

that at least at the time that he had

experienced whenever he told Vern this

was just entirely absent from that and

um Japan has been relatively

impenetrable to the gospel.

So there's just a lot of it's it's not a

hostility like some militant atheist

hostility, but it's just kind of um

another story in a lot of those um

Japanese hearts and minds. We could pray

for that. But the point is um there is a

a desperation to stay alive in those who

do not have that kind of hope.

That's why I believe there was a

difference between the way that

Christians reacted to CO.

Um, was it a threat to life? Yes. Was it

a threat to life that justified the

response of terror? Definitely not. I

mean, how are people going to react if

there's actually like a 10 or 20% chance

you

die? Can you imagine what will happen?

So, there's no courage either. We face

death with a courage. With a courage.

You might not like the fact that your

pastor's a gamer, but I am. But I like

to think um I play a game where I have

zero lives. They call a rogike game.

It's like arcade. You die, you go all

the way back to the beginning. Very

differently than one that I have

two, right? We have two. And the second

one you can't lose. So there shouldn't

be the same kind. It doesn't mean we

take this light this life lightly or

foolishly do things that harm our

bodies. Not the point at all. But

there's a huge difference and and there

was for Jacob too. We're going to talk

more about that difference as we go on.

But Jacob says, "Bury me with my fathers

in the cave that is in the field of

Ephron the Hittite." Verse 30, "In the

cave that is in the field of Mebilah to

the east of Mamray in the land of

Canaan, which Abraham bought with the

field from Ephron the Hitittite to

possess as a burying place. There he

buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, and

there he buried Isaac and Rebecca his

wife. And there he buried Leah, all who

he is about to see again. And the field

of the cave that is in the in it were

bought from the Hittites. When Jacob

finished commanding his sons, he drew up

his feet into the bed and breathed his

last and was gathered to his people.

Then Joseph fell on his father's face

and wept over him and kissed him.

So, we just got done talking about how

death for the faithful, those who

believe in the one true God in terms of

an Old Testament sense of those who

believe in the death and resurrection of

Jesus Christ for our sin and for the

hope of eternal life uh face death in a

very different way with hope with

courage not with despair and

overwhelming and controlling fear. But

that does not mean that we do not mourn.

It does not mean that we do not weep. It

does not mean that you might not at

times

feel overwhelmed with emotion when

you've lost someone that you've

loved. I've thought a lot about the idea

of the second greatest command. The

first is to love the Lord your God with

all your heart, with all your soul, with

all your mind, or with all your

strength. Um, but the second is to love

your neighbor as yourself. Second

greatest thing you can ever do according

to God is to learn and grow how learn

how to love others and grow in that

love.

which when you're

married, that's the primary person

you're to be learning how to love. And

if you have succeeded in growing in love

for them, then it's all the more painful

when they

die. I think marriage, the loss of a

spouse may be the hardest loss of all

because there is uh by the spirit, a

portion of the spirit has been given to

make you one in a mysterious way. You're

not one with anyone else like that, any

other human being on earth like that.

And so that's there's a tearing apart of

that. There's a death is is terrible in

that way. And it may not feel like the

victory at the time. I think a death of

of parents especially from a young age,

but at any time is another terrible a

death of siblings, a death of a close

friend.

You've probably I don't know maybe maybe

some of you have not experienced that. I

remember

um I probably should not have had

favorite uncles. Um but Uncle Byron was

one of my favorite uncles and it's

probably just because of how much he

paid attention to me. And he's very

wealthy, lived in Tahoe. And I got a

call, this is a while ago, years ago

now, um that he had fallen off his bike

and he was unconscious. I thought he

maybe hit his head or something, but

there was no evidence of trauma to the

head. Um, and that he was on life

support in the hospital. And so we um

flew to Reno, drew from Reno to Tahoe.

And I had opportunities talking uh to

his brothers and I'll hopefully return

to that story because I want to tell you

something that all my uncles were

talking about that really left an impact

on me. But I got to the hospital. I

looked at Byron and I don't know how to

explain it, but his eyes were closed in

a way that I knew his spirit had already

departed his body. And I just tried not

to I just went to the bathroom because I

didn't want to get emotional around his

wife Yasa. I wanted to be I felt I

should be strong for her and um not

unfeilling but just not making it about

me and crying. That's how it felt. You

know, I don't know that that's really

the case when I think it's fine to cry

around someone you think may be dead. Uh

but the point is that I just I just knew

it was just the life support that was

propping him up. Uh, I don't know if

you've ever seen an open casket, but

it's it's strange. It's like the

eyelids, they're just not they're not

alive. They're not

asleep. They're not asleep. They're

dead.

So, I've I've been confronted with

death, but that's an uncle. And although

I was close to him, it's nowhere near as

close as I am to some of you, nowhere

near as close as I am to uh friends

outside the church, obviously. Nowhere

near as close as I am to Christine. So

when you but I think about my parents

they they're getting older. My mom's

limping, walks with a cane, had a botch

surgery, nerve can't feel her leg from

her. So I'm I'm seeing it and it

happened like that like they were kind

of a young 70 and all of a sudden now

they seem like their age in their mid70s

and uh so I'm thinking about that and I

love my parents very much. So yeah,

there's mourning and the Bible

legitimates that and that there's time

for morning. Let me read on. 40 days

were required. Uh, excuse me. Verse two.

And Joseph commanded his servants, the

physicians, to embalm his father. So the

physicians imbalmed Israel. 40 days were

required for it. For that is how many

are required for imbalming. And the

Egyptians wept for him 70 days. It's not

immediately obvious what the 40 days of

inbalming are included in the 70 days.

It seems to me the way emotion works to

be weird to like wait for 40 days before

you start mourning. So my guess is they

were included. Um and and the 70 days is

an Egyptian tradition. My point is not

like that's that should be how long we

mourn. Um but there was a time period

given for it, a formal time period, a

recognition that this need this is so

important that we need to spend a

significant amount of time uh allowing

ourselves to mourn this beloved man. I'm

going to go to Ecclesiastes 3:4 because

Ecclesiastes 3:4

the Bible Bible says there is a time to

mourn. There's a time to weep, a time to

laugh, a time to mourn, a time to dance.

So let nobody ever tell you that you

that it's somehow unspiritual to weep.

It's not. It does not mean that you

don't believe that the sting of death

has been taken out. It does not believe

mean that it's sort of you're giving an

unfaithful witness to the victory over

it. Jesus wept and he is the victory.

He's the resurrection and he wept over

Lazarus death. So, there's more than

enough proof in the Bible that you

should feel your feelings around

mourning and death. You

should, it's not wrong to, in fact, and

I'm speaking more from experience. Um,

but I don't believe this is in any way

against the grain of scripture. Uh, but

I'm speaking more from experience in

applying this spiritually. I believe

that when we repress our feelings or

suppress them, honestly don't know the

difference between those two words, but

when you shove them down and try to

cover them up, which it takes a a lot of

power to do that. It takes powerful

things. Uh you might be able to do it

with entertainment. You might be able to

do it with alcohol. Um looking for kids

here, not that many. You could do it

with sex. Anything that's really

powerful

can suppress really deep emotion. You

have to distract yourself from it or you

have to put some kind of layer between

you and it. I want to tell you a story

about how that happened to me. And I I

think it's actually somewhat of a

humorous one. At least my parents

laughed at me when it happened. But um

so I got my wisdom teeth pulled and they

I think they put me on Percoet Vicodin,

something like that. And it just didn't

even seem to touch the pain like this

white hot screaming pain. And I I

thought I was tough. I don't know how

high my pain tolerance is after watching

my wife give birth naturally to six

children and barely make a peep. Even

the the midwives were like there was uh

somebody's um daughter that I knew came

as like a that was her like observation

of that and they're like you're going to

have to come again. This is not a normal

enough

sample. Yeah. It's almost like a silent

birth. Um but

um so so I'm not even saying I

necessarily have a high pain tolerance,

but this was extreme. And so my mom took

me back to the doctor and he gave us a

prescription for I think it was

something like demoral significant step

up. Um and he I I wasn't really paying

attention what he was saying but I

remember afterwards he told us that this

is is so powerful that it can actually

affect your emotions as in suppress

them. So you need to get off of it as

soon as this prescription is done. Don't

ask for another one. I'm not going to

give it to you. Um and so uh that that

happened. I I didn't care about school

as much as uh some people did, but I I

cared about succeeding at what I wanted

to do enough to not just like not care

at all. But I remember I didn't care

about wrestling. I didn't care about

football. I didn't care about I forget

what season it was. I didn't care about

school. I didn't care about video games.

I didn't care about really anything. It

just kind of seemed But it's weird. You

don't really notice. it's in the back of

your mind that you don't care. And so

some of these pharmaceuticals have have

a very emotion suppressing effect. Some

of them that is either the side effect

or the actual intended use for them. And

so then I didn't really do as much

homework. Um most of my life is driven

by passion per se. I've learned that

that's not always a good fuel, but

sometimes it is when directed by God.

And so if I'm not interested, I just

don't really do it. um unless I have to

and unless it's good to do it anyway

just by duty. But in this case, the

first subject that goes out the window

is math, especially things that I've

deemed um no real world application. And

there's lots like long division by hand.

Give me a real world application other

than teaching other people that. Um

someone said like, "What about the

apocalypse?" So, I'm like, if your

greatest concern in the apocalypse is

losing calculators and that you can't do

long division by hand, I don't even know

what to say. But anyway, long story

short, I the only thing in my opinion

more worthless than learning long

division by hand is proofs in geometry.

Proofs in geometry. And uh so we were

have a test and it's all proofs and I

hadn't been studying. And so I got like

a C minus in the test and I took it home

and I just showed my parents and melted

into tears and my mom laughed like she's

pretty emotionally careful and she just

laughed like who is this kid that all of

a sudden started caring about grades and

math you know what had happened is I

went off to Denver all and all those

emotions just kept coming out and I'm

I'm ashamed I cried about proofs I can

never I'm a man who cried about proofs

Right? So, that's a funny story about

emotion popping out, but that's not

always the way it goes when you've

suppressed your emotion. Sometimes you

end up saying something you can't take

back that deeply wounds a

person. Maybe they just decide not to be

your friend ever again. And that would

be wrong, especially if you sought

forgiveness, but it may not be something

within your control again. people have

gotten fired uh that I know for that

exact reason. They've been letting

stress build and build and build and

build and been suppressing the emotion,

try to keep it all contained and

eventually to boom, right? And if it's

boom at your boss, you might get fired,

right? There can be in marriage in what

about in relationship to your children.

Children are pretty resilient. Like you

say you're sorry that you said

something,

but sometimes it sinks down into their

little hearts and it's like a little

negative code, a virus you wrote on the

operating system of their soul. Right. I

I still remember um a friend of mine

said that um all he ever really

remembers his dad saying is, "You're a

knucklehead and you'll never amount to

anything." His dad was angry. And my

guess is that his dad didn't really mean

that like every morning woke up and it's

like that guy will definitely not amount

to anything. He said it in anger.

Probably it's some kind of repetitive

thing that he had done. But still it it

wrote a code on his life that he had to

undo, debug, cause all kinds of

problems. So if if you're suppressing

emotion, this is not a good thing. You

don't want to push. You need to feel all

of the feelings of loss that you feel.

And there's a time for that. God says

there's a time for that. But that time

also has to come to an end. This is the

portion of the sermon that I worried

about the most that I care about. Well,

I don't know about care about the most,

but I'm the most concerned that I might

be misunderstood or that you might not

receive it. Uh because there's no one

that can tell you, "Well, it's this many

days and then you have to stop

mourning." Where does it say that in the

Bible? This is not prescriptive. It's

just what they did. But I am here to

tell you that at some point you have to

come out of it. It's crushing to the

spirit to just keep mourning and

mourning. It will diminish you as a

person. God will call you out of that.

And when he does, and you don't, it

begins to cause a drift between you and

him because he's got a purpose for you

in that morning. any morning, any

affliction, any difficulty that you face

that causes suffering or pain, God has a

purpose for it, we call that purpose

comfort. Let's go to the very next. This

is one of my favorite passages in all of

scripture regarding comfort. And it's um

I think 2 Corinthians chapter 1 3-5. If

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

you guys could put that up. Blessed be

the God and father of our Lord Jesus

Christ, the father of mercies and the

God of all

comfort, who comforts us in our

affliction, so that we may be able to

comfort those who are in any affliction

with the comfort with which we ourselves

are comforted by God.

There's I wish it wasn't so, but there's

a way that God

works in our suffering and through our

suffering and sometimes even bringing

suffering into our lives. I mean, he's

in charge of all life and death. No one

ever dies except by his permission. So,

you know, he could have stopped someone

from dying. He could have healed someone

if you want to. All death is ultimately

a God issue when you're being honest.

And so you got to take it to him. And he

has a plan for our morning and it's

comfort. But it goes beyond just

comforting us. He builds in us a

capacity to understand experientially

not just the pain of loss through death

or whatever kind of suffering you

experience, but then also the experience

of him comforting you in it. And what

can you then do with the experience of

comfort during affliction? you can bring

it to somebody else. It's not even just

about you being able to understand what

it's like for people to suffer or for

you to be able to give them some kind of

piece of advice that uh you were given

that was helpful. It's about passing on

the comfort that you received from the

Lord while you were suffering to that

person. And it grows our capacity for

empathy, for compassion, but most

importantly, I don't know if you can

even have the ability to point people to

God's comfort in the same way that

someone who has had that experience of

comfort. It's a

testimony. You can say, "This is what I

was feeling." Similar feelings to you.

It's not like I understand or totally

know how you're feeling, but this is how

God comforted me and I know he can

comfort you at that way, too. And you

need to draw near to him. And when you

draw near to him, God intends to heal

you of the sorrow. And he might have a

process for that, but it's not

forever. I've seen uh people get lost in

that kind of suffering, and it's it

withers their spirit. You can see it in

the eyes. They're

withering. There's no victory anymore.

I've seen it in Christians. It can

happen to Christians,

too. So, there's a time for it to come

to an end. And why do I say that? Verse

four. And when the days of weeping for

him were passed, Joseph spoke to the

household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I

have found favor in your eyes, please

speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My

father made me swear, saying, I am about

to die in my tomb that I hewed out for

myself in the land of Canaan. There

shall you bury me. Now therefore, let me

please go up and bury my father. Then I

will return."

The reason why I started thinking about

getting fired by your boss if maybe

you'd been suppressing emotion and then

just blew up at them was that Joseph

once again is just a shining example of

how to relate to your boss when I mean

it's not just because the 70 days went

by that Joseph's not still

sad ve weeping about the loss of his

father. We're going to find out when

they go and to bury him. There's another

seven days of mourning and it's grievous

lamentation. Very grievous, God says.

When God says something's very grievous

in terms of

lamentation, you better believe it was.

So, but he goes to his his boss. He's a

second command of the world power,

right? Is way higher power than the vice

president. Um, we don't really know what

it's like to experience someone who's

really the executive leader of

everything. And then you have almost

like a figurehead above him. But he's

definitely actually in authority, a

king, and the one who carries out the

king's will. That is who Joseph was. And

he still asks Pharaoh for permission to

go. He's got a job to do. How are you

going to keep carrying out your job if

you are just withering and lost and

mourning day in and day out? How are you

going to, you know, when you I've said

this before, but um and I kind of picked

it up from a movie that was basically

about the pain the children experienced

from having lost their sibling and

therefore basically lost their parents'

love, too, because all they could think

about was the loss of that child. They

there are other people to love. The

command to love God and your neighbor

hasn't ceased. And it's not like, hey,

shove that command on your throat. It's

that people need your love. God doesn't

need your love. You need to love him.

It's a pathway through which he

transforms you.

But mourning can get in the way in that

and it can get in the way of you and

God's purpose in relationship to others.

You're certainly not going to be able to

comfort people with God's comfort until

you yourself have received it. And if

you're stuck in mourning, you have not

yet received it as deeply as God wants

you to. So, I say that carefully and I'm

not going to assign amount of time to

it. Um, but I have I have an experience.

I'm I'm not going to get into it for

time sake, but I just let it go on for a

year, maybe a year and a half. And I

knew I was drifting. I knew long time

past God's, you know, freshness stamp of

mourning. And I was just pity party,

pity party. All kinds of bad things came

into my life. It harmmed my relationship

to my wife, to my children, my job, to

everything. And I had to repent. I had

to repent of allowing myself to turn

idwards into myself so much for so

long. But Joseph didn't. And he treated

his employer, so to speak, with respect.

So Joseph went up to bury his father

with him went all went up all the

servants of Pharaoh and the elders of

the household and all the elders of the

land of Egypt, as well as all of the

household of Joseph, his brothers and

his father's household. Only their

children, their flocks, and their herds

were left in the land of Gan. And there

they went up with him, both chariots and

horsemen. It was a very great company.

First of all, yeah, chariots and

horsemen, better than by foot, but it's

300

miles. All the important dignitaries,

every single one of his children of his

sons, his grown sons and their wives,

only the little ones of his uh growing

tribe didn't come. And all the

dignitaries, it seems Pharaoh may not

have, but all the dignitaries of Egypt

all have important jobs. Can't just like

leave those jobs and not have there be

any consequence. And they all decide to

come along on a 300mile journey by

horseback and

chariot. So what were we talking about

the beginning? Did God really redeem

Jacob's life? He's only been I mean 17

years I guess is a long time but he's

been in in Egypt for 17 years and all of

the dignitaries of Egypt find him in

such great esteem that they'll come to

his funeral 300 miles away not by plane

not a quick trip back and forth saw a

lot of people going to the the Pope's

funeral and maybe they stayed for a

while and I'm not saying there was

anything wrong with them going to that

funeral but um if people had to travel

300 miles by horseback and chariot and

it took a month to get

there, you know, probably less people

would have come. So, it's a big deal

that everyone's coming. And would they

have come for a guy they'd known as a

manipulator, a cheat, a liar, a guy you

can never trust, who a guy is going to

try to get one over on you? Of course

not. Of course not.

But if you have any more doubt that his

children and even in these dignitaries

actually loved him, listen to what God

says next in verse 10 of Genesis 50.

When they came to the threshing floor of

Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they

lamented there with a very great and

grievous

lamentation. And he made mourning for

his father seven

days. I don't know if you've ever

experienced anything like this.

Um, I don't think it's good to compare

our pain. What's the use of that? I like

to say just because someone's starving

in Africa does not mean it doesn't hurt

when you stub your toe. It hurts. You

might have broken your toe. You may need

to go to the doctor. Every person's

suffering is their own. And there's no

reason to compare it. And so, I won't

either. Um, and I I don't even want to

compare it to this, but I I I feel that

I know what it's like to have such like

it's like waves of overwhelming emotion

and you can't stop crying. And then when

you think you're like, there's no way I

have more tears in my body, something

comes up like a memory and the whole

thing just happens again. And none of

your tears brings them back either. It's

like nothing you can do to change the

situ situation that the person or thing

or hope you had for your life seems to

be done and

gone. The pain is

extreme and that's with the sting of

death taken out of

it.

So I want to tell you a story about

Macau Kulkin, right? Home Alone Kid. And

then also I want to go back to those

those uncles. And neither of these is

funny and I'm not trying to make them

funny. Uh I saw an interview with

McCaulay Coin and he became estranged

from his father probably from both

parents but he's mostly talking about

his father after Richie Rich which was

way I think even after Home Alone 2. He

was one of the most famous child actors

ever and in a significant part because

of his dad. His dad really drove that,

but he drove so hard, at least according

to Macaulay, that it broke his

relationship. And he hasn't spoken to

him since. And again, according to

Macau, none of his other children have.

And you can tell there's a hatred in his

heart for his father. He hates

him. But the reality is that there's

always other side of the coin. had his

dad changed. Truly changed. Every

father, even to his adult son, still has

a sliver of that you're my hero in them.

It never goes away. It's one of the

reasons why sons can slip into hatred so

much because the fall from where they

saw their father is so high. How dare

you be so opposite of who you said you

were or who I hoped you to be. And uh so

so when fathers don't change, the sons

stay aranged. And here they're all

weeping. And I don't know, is there any

way to say that the weeping was greater

than to say they lamented there with a

very great and grievous lamentation?

What words would you use to say that

their weeping was worse than that? Was

more painful than that. There

isn't. Back to the story. In the car, a

big truck. I think there's like four

uncles. Uncle Mark, Uncle Phil, my dad,

and probably uh Uncle Arnold. He had

nine siblings. He's one of nine big

farming family in Silverton. And they

began talking and they clearly didn't

mind that I overhear this. And uh I at

this point I'm not I'm no longer like

the little nephew, but I I was already a

pastor. And they were starting to treat

me more like a peer. It felt like never

that they'd look down on me or anything

like that, but I was one of the adults

with in the conversation. And uh what

they were talking about is how um my

grandfather, their father, Lawrence

Winston Garing,

um only really cared about their success

and failures in as much as it reflected

on

him and how much that wounded them. And

so they loved Byron, but Byron was one

of the most successful kids. And so he

was beloved by LW. They call him my

grandfather.

uh because it reflected so well on him.

So it was what they were calling and and

they were saying it respectfully. He

came to faith at the end of his life. LW

did um I should probably call him

grandpa, but everyone calls him LW, so I

don't mean any disrespect, but um he

came to faith. He's in heaven. He's all

that sin is redeemed. Uh but it it had a

a negative impact on the sons. It's a

selfish love. It's a turned inwards

love. Uh it's not the kind of love that

builds people up. It's a kind of love.

It's just crooked selflove really. Um,

and even they mourned at his

funeral, right? There's a lot of sin

that sons can overlook. Uh, but it's

just not the same thing as just weeping

for seven days after already having

mourned for 70. And all the Egyptians,

too. Now, there's no greater evidence in

my mind in the book of Genesis that God

had done a great work of redemption in

Jacob's

life. I look at it like, you

know, I think it's funny and painful to

say at the time, but I I find myself a

relatively unusually unlikable person.

Um, I know that because of how many

responses I have like that. And I mean

that apart from God. I think when

someone dislikes something Christlike

about me, they're in the wrong, right?

and I I learn more and more about what

those are. So, I'm confident about some

of those. But apart from Christ, I'm the

kind of guy that turns into the enemy of

nice people and just an angry tyrant.

And if you really know me, you know,

there's still a strain of that species

of pride in me. So, um, surprise. I

don't like being unusually unlovable. I

don't enjoy being like that, but God

made me this way. you know, and and when

I'm surrendered to him, you get a man

who will not yield preaching the cross

of Jesus Christ and him only no matter

what the cost. And you love it. But I'm

still a sinner and I still have that

species of pride and I don't enjoy being

like that. I don't want to be like that.

Uh not everyone is that unusually

unlikable. I feel like people start

sometimes with a base personality that

isn't so costic and aggressive and isn't

always turned towards anger. It's no

one's not a sinner. That's not my point.

Um, but if I had only half of the

redemption of Jacob at the end of my

life, I'd be satisfied. Everybody loved

him.

Everybody. And if you've been judging

him this whole time, are you

experiencing as much redemption as he

has in your life? Are you taking your

sin as seriously as God took Jacob's?

And when you are being humbled, are you

accepting the hum are you recognizing

that the hard knocks that have come into

your life? Are probably to those around

you very clearly God knocking the door

on your pride and wanting to break it

down, but he won't do it without you

opening it. The spirit is a

gentleman. There's just such powerful

redemption

here. Maybe you're on the very other

side of that.

You're not judging Jacob, but you still

want to see redemption in your life, and

you're worried it might not happen. Let

me read you another promise from Paul.

Therefore, from God, Philippians

Philippians 1:6

1:6. And you ought to be sure of this,

too. This is Paul speaking. For I am

sure of this, that he who began a good

work in you will bring it to completion

at the day of Jesus Christ.

At the very least you can know that even

death won't have the final word over

your redemption. Not ever. It's made me

think that I I wonder if we're missing

something in memorials. uh because

especially as someone that gets asked to

speak at memorials quite often and more

often now uh as I know more and more

people you know boomers basically I have

a great respect for but they're you know

they're at that age where pretty close

to the average life expectancy and so

maybe that's why there's more funerals

and when I get asked and um sometimes I

mean you have to be honest I'm not going

to not be honest but I'm not looking to

say like a negative report card of the

person but um What? So, you talk to

people and what if like most people

really dislike them and there's just a

lot of negative stuff there. Like, what

do you say? What do you say about that

kind of person? Well, if they're a

Christian, none of those things are true

anymore. But I've never been to a

memorial, including ones I've spoken at,

where people just talk about who that

person is

now. Everything that wasn't like Jesus

is now like Jesus in them. and

everything that already was

stayed. So, just as a little side note,

if you're having a struggle, having fond

memories of someone, at least if they've

died in faith, uh they are now

perfect and you can remember them in all

the ways you'd hoped they would have

become on earth

already. But for yourself, turning this

inwards, uh there's no reason why you

can't experience more redemption now.

His work in you happens through his

word. And it's not just reading it and

it's not just understanding it, but it's

surrendering to it. And according to

Jesus, that means taking up your cross

because the only thing in you uh is is

your flesh. That's the only thing you

came to the word with. The spirit is

from the

outside. Martin Luther, the first one,

called it alien righteousness. It's from

the outside, right? And it's his work,

the Holy Spirit's work to put to death

the things in you that desire the very

opposite of God's word. It's by my

spirit, not by force. My flesh wants it

to be by

force. So what does your flesh want that

is opposite of the spirit? That's what

the spirit's trying to redeem. And he

doesn't do it by force. That means that

he when you surrender your false and

crooked

uh desires and affections, he gives you

godly and good and righteous desires and

affections and they really become your

own. It's amazing. Have you ever, you

know, I say angry tyrant, uh, a non-

angry tyrant is better than an angry

tyrant. And I've been an angry tyrant at

times and I I know when I'm slipping

towards that apart from from him, you

know, woke up grumpy for what feels like

no reason today. And I'm like, I just

need God not to be like upset about

something I can't even explain. When I

wake up in the first first point in the

morning, I have no I can't even I'm

usually pretty self-aware. Don't even

know just I'm grumpy, you know. And uh

so I need God to to encourage me to to

wash my spirit clean. And when I'm

angry, sometimes I'll ask God, God, I

don't know why I'm angry. I don't feel

like I have control over it right now.

I'm concerned that it's going to uh it's

going to pop out in a way that's going

to harm somebody and I just need you to

take it away. Like I just think of him

like dissipating it out of my spirit.

And when I really surrender, he does. He

does. And I'm just like, wow. I'm just

people. It's they think I'm schizophren.

I wonder if Christine sometimes thinks

I'm schizophrenic. Like he was so angry

a moment ago and he's just not. And

that's how powerful the spirit is. And

it's not fake. I'm just not angry

anymore. Supernaturally. God took it. I

gave it to him. He can handle it. Jesus

had to be crucified for that sinful

anger. There's power in the

cross. So whatever it is that needs to

be redeemed, I'm just talking about my

sins, they're not necessarily yours.

Anger is pretty relatable for most

people. But the reality is we have even

if you started out having abandoned your

children, no matter what mess you've

made of of your family, you turn towards

God and begin walking in his spirit, in

his way, and his power, God can redeem

anything. It's only Satan that'll tell

you you can't redeem

that. So consider that. I mean, it's

such a hopeful message for me. I I worry

sometimes I'm not going to grow as much

as I'd hope to. All your growth

glorifies God, by the way. It's it's the

best thing you can give him

is increased and maintained

Christlikkeness. Nothing will glorify

God more than that.

So consider that we have that's really

sort of the climax of the sermon and

we're coming down off the mountain.

There's one more thing we need to talk

about and then we'll close. When the

inhabitants verse 11 of the land the

Canaanites saw the mourning of the

threshing floor of Atad they said this

is a grievous mourning by the

Egyptians. Thus his sons did for him as

he had commanded them. For his sons

cried car, excuse me, for the sons

carried him to the land of Canaan,

buried him in the cave of the field of

Mechbalah to the east of Mamray, which

Abraham bought uh with the field from

Ephron the Hitittite to possess as a

burying place. And after he had buried

his father, Joseph returned to Egypt

with his brothers and all who had gone

up with him to bury his father. I just

want to go back to verse 11. It had a

impact. I don't know about a profound

impact, but it definitely had an impact

on the Canaanites. They noticed the way

they were

grieving. Full strength. There wasn't

anything held back. They're

weeping. But it's a different

kind. They the world doesn't have a

category for this. How can you be so sad

and then return to joy and purpose and

things in your life? How can that

happen? It's it's only by the spirit.

It's only because of God that we can be

people like that and people have no

category for

it. How have you overcome that? There's

no answer. So there is a huge witness in

us and the way that we relate to death.

But if you mourn for way too long, you

diminish that

witness. I thought long and hard, should

I say we have a responsibility? But yes,

we do. We have a responsibility to

witness faithfully how to mourn the dead

to our world. It it may be the thing

that brings someone to salvation is

watching how they have a joy that even

the death of their loved ones even

though it's so grievous cannot

overcome. But it's again it's not hey

you better don't think of it as a duty.

Think of as something that only the

spirit can help you to accomplish that

you know deep down you want

to and that is to be fully

comforted of whatever mourning you've

experienced whatever you're mourning

currently so that you can go around and

comfort others. It just returns to the

second greatest commandment of loving

others as you love yourself. Have you

ever been comforted by someone who just

knows? They know. You know they've been

through it. No better person to sit

right beside you right now because they

just know they can carry the burden.

They've been there. They have the

capacity for compassion in that area.

Very, it seems like

few seems like we got more Job's

counselors that think they know what to

say rather than have experience the pain

and know how to

minister. So there's it's a very

powerful thing. And one other way and I

don't feel this is really a side note

but this is a way that the death that

death really ends up having the last

word and I think it's a scheme of the

enemy um he either has people just avoid

the concept of death altogether. So

avoidance would be one. It's like I

don't think don't think about that.

Don't think about that. Whereas the

spirit or God tells us uh we you're dust

remember that you are dust until dust

you shall return. Contemplating your

mortality is not unspiritual. It's

something that God tells us to

remember. Not in despair though, but

yes, remember it. It's it's a weighty

thing. You ought not to avoid truth

ever. But there's another way he can

distract us from it. So, you get

distracted through those kinds of

powerful things I mentioned before. It's

not just that you're like, "Oh, I'm not

going to I'm definitely making a

conscious choice not to talk about it."

It's just you're over here thinking

about other things. And then there's

another way and this is to see this is

how you can see how just brilliant Satan

is. Um he'll entertain us with it. Have

you ever thought about that? There are

so many movie

genres and the only reason why they're

successful is that death entertains

people. I think that's what the horror

genre is. What is that other than being

entertained by death?

I have certain boundaries and and I

don't consider these universal. You need

to in your own convictions. I call them

personal convictions. Think about what

what you feel in relationship to God.

You should watch, you shouldn't watch.

Like I'll watch Gladiator. Very violent.

I don't think the purpose of Gladiator

though was to uh glorify death or be

entertained by death. There's like a

redemption justice story there. That's

part of what was attractive to me to it.

I do not watch horror ever. It affects

my dreams.

I I I also don't like the feeling of

feeling scared in that way. Uh I don't

it's not that I don't like thrillers or

like a little bit jumpy movies, but it's

the gore and the evil of it and it just

I feel convicted in my spirit I

shouldn't be watching it. Um but you you

do that for yourself or you know are

there forms of media that you're

ingesting that are really just

death death entertainment? You know, you

can be scrolling and there's lots of

like YouTube channels, reals, Tik Toks

where all it is is just fatal car

crash. Why are those so

popular? Because death has the Satan has

convinced a whole society and world that

death is entertaining. It's

entertaining. So then you think about

the cross and is there anything

entertaining about the cross? People can

make the cross itself entertaining too.

But but the way God looks at death is

that it's an

enemy. It's an enemy of his people and

his own son has to suffer and die to

have victory over it. It ought not to be

something that the people of God

entertain themselves with. It ought not

to be something that the people of God

allow them to be themselves to be

distracted from. And it ought not to be

something that you just keep wrapped up

tightly and don't think about. It's

something that you move through with

biblical truth, with spiritual comfort

from God and by

faith. And again, I just to repeat

everything that I've been intending to

say here, let's put up the main point

one more time and I'll close us in

prayer. No matter where you're at in

God's story of your redemption, even

though we die, God's redemption has the

last word. Let me pray. Father, thank

you for this message. just not easy to

discuss death because of the great pain

that comes loaded with that

subject. But we're so thankful that you

were willing to die for us, Jesus. It's

because of that death and because of

that resurrection that we don't despair,

that we have great hope, and that we

know that even our own death will not

have the last word, but your redemption.

I pray that we would take that

redemption seriously now as we come to

communion. It's the table of redemption.

It's the table of the forgiveness of

sins. It's your body broken and your

blood shed. And there's anything that

needs to be redeemed in our lives if we

bring it in true surrender and

sincerity. We will make

progress. We'll be forgiven of our sins

and cleansed of unrighteousness.

Patterns and strongholds of sin can be

broken.

thought patterns about your word that

are mixed with error can be

purified. Anything and everything that

needs to happen that makes us more like

Jesus is

possible at the

table of your crucifixion and

resurrection. And I pray that we would

come with a heart for that today with

the desire to be redeemed even now. And

I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.