Prophetic Blessing - Genesis 49:1-33 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning.

Welcome to Boon Ferry.

I've got a couple announcements. As

always, if you're new or if you're

wanting uh to be prayed for, you can use

our welcome cards. Fill those out. Give

us any information you want. Hand them

to the connection table and we'll give

you a gift card. Um or just write a

prayer request on the back. It's nice if

you give your name so we can pray for

you by name, but know that anybody that

comes to the Wednesday 7 a.m. prayer

ministry will read those prayer

requests. So maybe, you know, make sure

that you're okay with what you put on

there being known publicly. Not that

we're going to tell people outside of

the prayer ministry, but that's

something to consider. Um, maybe the

most important announcement right now is

that this coming weekend, which is the

2nd and 3rd of May, we are going to be

doing another 24-hour prayer time that

starts on Friday at 5:00 p.m. in the

prayer room or on Zoom, which you get to

online. And um, so you just go on our

website and find the 24-hour prayer Zoom

and uh, and go on there. And um, it'll

probably actually be under the Wednesday

prayer. So you can go under Wednesday

prayer, click on Zoom, and then you'll

join the prayer room remotely. Um, and

we're just going to be praying for 25

hour 24 hours together, and we're

looking for people to sign up for hours,

and then, you know, as people sign up,

you'll see which um hours still have

nobody signed up. Um, so usually every

hour gets filled and it's a wonderful

thing. And I want to tell you something

about 24-hour prayer. might you might

think, "Oh, I've never I've never done

anything like 24-hour prayer." And that

itself might be daunting. Really, all

that's happening is you're coming uh to

the prayer room or on Zoom and you're

just praying together, and there'll be

some instruction for how that looks. And

this here is going to be a little bit

different. In fact, I'd like you to open

your Bible to Titus. That's not where

the sermon's from. We're still in

Genesis, but I we are going to be

praying a little bit differently than we

even normally do. So, if you've been

part of a 24-hour prayer time, it's

going to be slightly different than

that. Even um what we're doing is

praying through scripture, specifically

the three chapters of the letter to

Titus. Paul wrote a letter to Titus

instructing him on all kinds of things

regarding the church and the body and

how to lead. And that's the book that

we're going to be going through next

after Genesis, starting in about two

weeks. This is the third to last sermon

today in Genesis. So, we're very near

the end and we'll be getting into Titus.

and we thought it only makes sense that

we'd pray through Titus. And so that is

different than a discussion about the

doctrine of Titus. That's what we're

going to be doing in our Bible studies

as we walk through Titus. But this is

praying through Titus. And so what that

might look like um the elders do did

this with Titus. We prayed and discussed

through Titus um uh at an elder retreat

regarding wanting to figure out should

we have this be the next letter or book

of scripture that we um go through as a

church and uh if so what are the things

that we see the spirit wanting to say to

the church? What does Jesus want to

instruct us as a church and individuals

through his word? And so if you if you

look for example at verse um uh let's

see yeah let five 5-10 these are these

are instructions for the qualifications

for elders and what I explained to the

elders which they'd heard before is this

idea that when you pray through

scripture um you're scuba diving okay

it's a metaphor that might be easy for

you to remember what we're talking about

the goal of scuba diving is to be

underwater, right? You're breathing. You

have an apparatus and you're underwater

and looking things underwater. You're

not on the surface. I recently got just

last year uh um certified for scuba

diving and it was unbelievable

experience to be in the depths. Uh, I

got to go do that on uh uh US Virgin

Islands and we saw a 7 foot reef shark

at about 100 ft deep and you know like

you can blow bubbles up and they just

become bigger and bigger and bigger

because of the decreasing pressure um on

compressible air. So, lots of fun things

about scuba diving. But when I compare

scuba diving to prayer, the goal is to

go into deep prayer around the things

that the spirit is saying to you in

Titus. Does that make sense? So you will

though come back up to the surface for

quick breaths of air. So maybe you're

actually less scuba diving and more

snorkeling here in this case. But the

point is when we discussed the elder

qualifications, we didn't decide for

hours to talk about a certain

qualification, but rather to talk about

that and then to go into prayer for it.

For example, if you look at verse six,

it says, "If anyone is above the

reproach, the husband of one wife and

his children are believers and not open

to the charge of debauchery or

insubordination." So that that is a

qualification, multiple qualifications

right there for an elder. Uh you need to

be able to keep your children in line

and lead them well so that they're not

rebellious. But one thing I noticed here

is that what are the limitations of

that? So for example, husband of one

wife. Does that mean that a husband

could have never been divorced in the

past? What if he was divorced as a

non-Christian? You have all these

questions about it. So we said, we

mentioned these questions, discussed a

little bit, and then went right back to

the depths, scuba diving in prayer,

asking God to help us understand what

this meant. We didn't come to it with no

understanding. Uh I have my views and we

have our convictions about what it does

mean or not. Another question would be,

well, what happens if children uh are in

their late 20s and they walk away from

the faith and they're living a wild and

disobedient life? If that happened to an

elers's son or daughter, does that mean

that they're not qualified? Right. Well,

it does say children, you know, and so

we discussed that. It doesn't say adults

in this case, that would be a burden, I

think, too heavy for elders that if any

child ever disobys uh the Lord in the

future once they're an adult, that that

still applies. And I think it's more

about the family when the children are

of a certain age. And then we prayed

about that because we didn't want to

just decide things based on our own

understanding, but we wanted to lean on

the Lord's understanding about these

important qualifications. That doesn't

mean that you have to discuss or pray

through the qualifications deeply.

Anything that the spirit puts on your

heart that seems to jump out at you and

you may not even need to process it.

Extroverts like me like processing out

loud. I think introverts like to think

deeply within themselves before they

even answer. But what I'm saying is if

you notice something and you're not even

sure why it's popping out to you, you

can say, "Hey, I'd like to me," while

you're praying, "Hey, I'd like to

mention this." And and then can we pray

through this? And you go right back

scuba diving. Is that making sense? So

even in the very first sentence, what

you'll be doing, and this same video

will be in the room, and you can play

it. There also be written instruction

for how to pray through a book. you're

just going to start reading and someone

will eventually say stop. So what it

would look like is Paul a servant of God

an apostle of Jesus Christ for the sake

of the faith of God's elect and their

knowledge of the truth which accords

with godliness. And I'm pretending here

but let's say I said stop there. I'm

noticing something. This is the purpose

of the whole book. This is for God's

elect. So it's for Christians and it's

for their knowledge of the truth which

accords with godliness. In other words,

it's not just about knowledge. That's

50% of it. But it's about godly living

that comes from that knowledge.

Knowledge of scripture and application

leading to transformation for the

church. That's what this about. And then

I'd say, so let's pray about that. And

then you go back down scuba diving into

prayer and you start praying, Lord, help

us not only to learn what the Bible

says, but by your spirit begin to obey

it more deeply as a church. And then

somebody else, and it's conversational

prayer. So someone else says, Lord, I

agree with that, and here's an area

where I think I could obey more. Here's

an area that I hope the church grows and

develops in its ministry. You see what I

mean? You're taking the things that

you're seeing here and immediately

taking them into conversational prayer.

Um, there will be for some of the hours,

we don't have 24 leaders for every

single hour. That may be something that

we do in the future, but there will be

leaders in the church that will come to

these. And if you still feel like, I

don't quite understand what's in and

what's out here, remember, there are no

legalistic rules about prayer. Um, we're

reading through this and then letting

the scriptures inspire our prayer. And

it's more about prayer than it is about

discussion of scripture. In fact, you

can even discuss things while you're

praying. Lord, I really agree with what

that person said and I also think it

applies to this and would you help us in

this area? I hope this is making sense.

Some of it I, you know, I was taught how

to pray through scripture like this and

it was modeled to me and once I had it

modeled and seen it happen, then I

really understood how powerful it is. It

is absolutely amazing how the spirit

will use his word to guide our prayer.

And um so do give your peri yourself

permission to say to stop at any time.

If something grabs your attention, say

stop. Mention why it grabs your

attention then go right back to prayer.

Don't get stuck in long paragraphs of

discussion. Discussion of scripture is

fantastic. But this is about going back

to the depths of prayer. I hope that

makes sense. We're taking this little

clip out and we're going to be posting

it so that you can watch it before each

prayer hour. I just wanted to give you

that that opportunity to think about

that. I think it's going to be really

powerful and another different way to

ingest scripture to pray through it, not

just study it like that. Uh the Holy

Spirit can do very powerful things. So

that's I think all the announcements.

Let's go to Genesis. And we are in

Genesis 49. There's only 50 chapters and

we've got um this sermon and two sermons

left. And I'm I'm really excited about

today's sermons because it it sermon

because it um it addresses something

that doesn't get talked about very often

and sometimes just kind of gets sped

through to get to the end the climactic

end of Genesis. But here we are. Genesis

491-27. Let me pray. Heavenly Father,

thank you for the opportunity to study

Genesis over the course of I think it's

been two years. really uh it might seem

like a slow approach to some, but we

haven't even been able to cover all the

depths of Genesis even going at that

speed. And we've learned so much as as a

church. I've learned so many things. Um

your word is just new and fresh with

mercy for us every morning. And it's the

same way today. I pray in in particular

that today we would be encouraged and

challenged and convicted along the lines

of receiving more of your blessings

through repentance and obedience. I pray

that we'd really hear and be able to

personalize what we're supposed to, not

personalize what we're not supposed

to exact passage and that your spirit

would speak what you intended your word

to say to our hearts and help us apply

it in obedience. And I pray these things

in Jesus name. Amen. I'm just going to

start off with verse one because it sets

the whole tone and then we're going to

talk about verse one a little bit. Then

Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather

yourselves together that I may tell you

what shall happen to you in the days to

come." So what is about to follow is

prophecy. It's a specific kind of

prophecy. We called it prophetic

blessing. But that's not quite enough

because it's at least prophetic blessing

and consequences, if not in some cases

prophetic blessing and cursing. And

we'll explain what that means. I think

the difference between consequences and

curses is just the intensity of what's

being said. If it's really intense, uh

there there's a curse there. And and

some of the things that these sons did

in the past is cursed. Um so everything

here is of a supernatural foretelling

the future kind of nature after this and

that is its purpose. They're not just

blessings given by Jacob in the sense

that a father is just saying some things

he wanted to say in either blessing or

chastisement towards his sons. But these

things are from God. And I want to show

you how scripture itself actually says

that. So let's go to second

2 Peter 1:19

Peter 1 verse 19. And I'll show you how

Peter makes this point. So this is again

second Peter chapter uh 1 verse 19.

And he says, "And we have the prophetic

word more fully confirmed to which you

do do well to pay attention as to a lamp

shining in a dark place until the day

dawns and the morning star rises in your

hearts." Knowing this, first of all,

that no prophecy of scripture comes from

someone's own interpretation. For no

prophecy was ever produced by the will

of man, but men spoke from God as they

were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

So I'm going to make two or three points

here short and move on back to Genesis.

The first one it comes from uh verse 19

and it's that we have the prophetic word

more fully confirmed. So we have had

things revealed to us in scripture about

what prophecies mean and it more fully

confirms that for us. Okay. The second

point I want to make here is that we

would do well to pay attention to it.

So, it's a very important Sunday to pay

attention because we're talking about

prophecy more fully confirmed and

scripture says we do well. And how

should we pay attention to it? As a

light or lamp shining in a dark place.

Are we in a dark place? Not literally

here right now, but are we in a dark

place in our nation? I really believe we

are. People are calling good evil and

evil good in numbers of like almost 50%.

Maybe it's less than that. Maybe it's

just 35 to 40%. But it's a huge amount

of Americans who have been deceived into

believing that something is that is

morally reprehensible is somehow good

and we should do it and we should teach

other people to do it. And this is what

Paul talks about in Romans 1 as you know

the cycle of depravity that just keeps

getting worse and worse and worse. So

we're in a dark place. So, if you found

yourself concerned, maybe anxious, maybe

somewhat fearful about where our

nation's going, what's happening, maybe

you have children and you're worried

about the public school system and

trying to figure out what to do there.

Prophetic blessings and curses, prophecy

altogether from scripture, when we pay

attention to it, it's like a lamp

shining in a dark place. It's a guide to

you. It's something that uh will repel

the darkness, even the darkness that is

trying to crowd into your own life in

the ways that our uh world tries to

conform us. And so there's something

transformingly powerful regarding the

guidance of prophetic uh teaching. Um

but the sec the third thing I want to

tell you is that no prophecy of

scripture comes from someone's own

interpretation and it does not ever get

produced by the will of man. And that

means that as we go back to um uh what

Jacob says here, Jacob didn't come up

with these blessings and curses. He

didn't sit down and think, okay, now how

would I like to bless and correct or

even curse certain sins that my sons

have committed? How would I like to do

that? It was something that

God that he was carried along by the

Holy Spirit to say, right? So, it's God

that is saying these things really

through the prophet Jacob. That well,

that doesn't mean that Jacob disagreed

with them. You can tell when he's

talking about Reuben and he's talking

about Levi, he agrees that these pro

prophetic blessings and curses or

consequences are suitable for these

sons. In fact, that's what verse 28 of

Genesis 49 says, that these blessings

were given suitable to each son. Okay?

So, they're matched to them correctly.

But it was God that matched those. It

was God that spoke them. It's God that's

saying them. And that's an important

thing because it's not just a father

coming up with them. Um, one other point

that I want to make comes from Romans

Romans 15:4

15:4. And this is uh sort of less about

um do we have it up already? Yeah. I'll

just read it from here. Less about

prophecy, but more about all of

scripture. For whatever was written in

former days was written for our

instruction, that through endurance and

through the encouragement of the

scriptures, we might have hope. The

point is that this too is scripture. And

this too is written down for our

instruction, for our endurance, and for

our encouragement leading to hope. Um,

and that means that if you don't

personalize what's being said here,

you're not going to grow in instruction,

you're not going to grow in endurance,

and you're not going to grow in

encouragement, and you're not going to

grow in hope. But there can be pitfalls

in personalizing scripture. Not all

that's being said here and actually

significant portions can't be

personalized. You can't that's not a

promise for you for example. But there's

parts of it that are very instructive

and right to personalize to apply to

your own life. And when we do that, this

is what happens. It's the intended

result of scripture. So, armed with

those ideas about prophecy and about all

of scripture being instructive and

helping with faithful endurance and

encouragement leading to hope, let's get

back into chapter 49 and we'll just read

verse one again. Then Jacob called his

sons and said, "Gather yourselves

together that I may tell you what shall

happen to you in the days to come."

Actually, one more little point, and

this is another something that you need

to be warned about. um when it comes to

prophecy and when I say liberal I mean

theologically liberal maybe they're also

politically liberal but this is not a

political point it's a point about

scripture and interpretation liberal

pastors theologians commentarians

scholars um will just reject the

supernatural component to prophecy

altogether and so what's said here for

example is so comes comes true so

specifically that what they say is well

that could not have been said you know

thousands of years before it ever

happens. In fact, what this is is a

historian actually just writing history

and and saying it's prophecy. And so

somebody after these things actually

happened to the tribes named after their

patriarch like Levi or Simeon or Judah

um wrote this again like prophecy. We

have a word for that kind of behavior.

It's called lying, you know. And so that

that makes out an author of scripture to

be a liar. And so you need to be warned.

Uh these kinds of scholars have no good

intent. They're not right with God.

They're not interpreting scripture from

a good faith perspective. And I just

wouldn't even read them to be honest.

Now you might say, "Well, do you read

them?" Yes, I do. But only like going

behind enemy lines to find out what

their tactics currently are. They don't

change that much, but there's always

something that's working in the culture

now. And the way that they construct

their lies and try to mislead the church

and undermine the truth of God's word is

different in certain seasons. And so the

only reason I do it is so that I know

what's going on in order to warn you.

But even I just it's so discouraging to

watch. These are these are the foot

soldiers of the enemy. People that

intentionally undermine scripture,

subtract from scripture, add to

scripture, all in a way that undermines

the truth of his word and undermines the

faithfulness of the church. So be very

careful. prophecy is oftentimes

um something that that you might think,

oh, you're reading a faithful commentary

and you start hearing them say it's

like, oh, this was someone that read it

wrote it after the fact. As soon as they

say that, they're taking the

supernatural future predictive element

that only God can do and is his calling

guard. He calling card who he says, who

else can tell you the future like that?

Nobody can. In fact, I actually believe

that when humans try to predict the

future, God intentionally thwarts it.

kind of like a a Tower of Babel kind of

thing. But anyway, just be careful, be

warned. Not everyone is trustworthy when

it comes to teaching about prophecy or

prophetic blessings. So, Jacob says,

"Assemble and listen." Just like Peter,

listen. This is really important. I read

that and I thought, "Okay, okay. I'm

going to listen more carefully. I'm

going to read slowly. I'm going to try

to hear really closely what is being

said. Oh, sons of Jacob, listen to

Israel, your father. Reuben, you are my

firstborn, my might, the first fruits of

my strength, preeminent in dignity and

preeminent in power. Now, if the

blessing just stopped there, it would be

such a wonderful thing. And there are

ways in his life that we saw that

preeminent dignity and power. He thought

it was wrong to sell Joseph to slavery.

He thought it was wrong, their first

plan, to kill him. He did not want to

harm him. I don't think that necessarily

means he wasn't somewhat jealous, but he

did not let that jealousy come to a

point where it so poisoned his mind that

he wanted harm to befall his brother

Joseph. And then when he and and he he

played a role in convincing along with

Judah, Judah for a bad purpose, Reuben

for a good purpose and convincing them

not to kill him, you know, and Judah, if

you remember, became the spokesperson

and comes up with the idea to sell him

into slavery because it'd be more

profitable for them. What does it profit

us if we kill our brother? Judah had

didn't have the right attitude there,

but Reuben had the right attitude. But

then when he is gone and and fails to

protect Joseph from being sold into

slavery, he goes along with the lie that

his uh that his other brothers have come

up with to put blood on on Joseph's

special garment, the multicolored

garment, and then show their father like

he'd been torn by wild animals, not sold

into slavery. He he went along with the

lie to get rid of Joseph. This is one

example of how he had the right thought

and the right judgment and even

seemingly the right heart toward Joseph,

but then he failed to do the right thing

with it. You know, I think of

rimchecking a dunk. You don't get any

points. You have the right knowledge,

that's 50%, it's good. You should learn

knowledge from scripture. You don't

apply

it, you get zero credit. What do you get

in school if you get a 50% on a on a a

test? A failing grade, right? So, in

fact, it's even worse than that because

there are it's it God is more strict in

his judgments and chastisements for

those that actually know from scripture

the right thing to do and yet do the

exact opposite. The Pharisees are an

example for that. Their judgment will be

more severe, Jesus says, because they

knew all the scriptures and yet still

rejected him as God's only son. So there

there are ways in which it's it's not

anywhere near good enough to know the

right thing to do or to even want to do

the right thing but then not actually do

it and something happened that makes him

entirely unreliable and unstable. So

although he was preeminent in dignity

and preeminent in power, all that's

interrupted by this double-mindedness.

So look at verse four. Unstable is

water. You shall not have preeminence

because you went up to your father's

bed. You defiled it. You went up to my

couch. Remember, he slept with Billha. I

don't see I see a couple kids in here,

so I'll keep it as sort of PG PG as I

can. But this is a really this is a very

very red line to cross with your father.

It's a very deep betrayal. And I want to

show you because I think there's a

simplistic view of sin that Christians

hold that's not right. It's not true to

say that every sin is as bad as any

other sin. It's also not true that sins

can't grow in their severity. There is

one way that that's true. Every single

sin and even one of them committed uh

makes it just and right for God to

condemn us. So everyone's in the same

boat in that in terms of condemnation.

But in terms of the severity sin as

discerned on other vectors, for example,

um, every one of you knows that if you

had a choice between God says, "Hey, I'm

going to give you a choice. Your son is

going to either steal a candy from a

candy store or murder somebody, which

one would you choose? If you had to

choose, you could say neither, but if I

had to choose, definitely the stealing

the candy store." Is theft something

that's going to be condemned?

Absolutely. Thieves do not inherit the

kingdom of heaven unless they repent.

But murder has such more serious

consequences. Well, it's particularly

that way with um sexual sin. And this is

something that that gets taught falsely

that sexual sin, you ought not to say

that's more severe than the other sin.

That doesn't mean that you say if

someone's committing sexual sin, well,

I'm better than them. Judging someone's

always uh out of line, but the question

is whether some sins are actually

mentioned in scripture to be worse than

others. Can we go to the 1 Corinthians 6

passage? I might have not put a tab in

for myself. I'm having a hard time

finding it. Flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is

outside the body. Already there, this

sexual sin is different than all other

sins. And so we ought to think some sins

are different than others. But the

sexually immoral person sins against his

own body. A modern way of saying this is

that sexual sin creates core damage.

core damage to yourself. And you see

that you see how damaging sexual sin can

be when it's perpetrated against young

children, when it's perpetrated against

women, or when it's perpetrated against

men, or when it's when it's just engaged

in freely in kind of like a 60s sexual

revolution kind of thing. Uh all kinds

of evil comes from that and much of it

is inside the persons. People have deep,

deep scars in their inner person as a

result of being bonded spiritually to a

person they're not married to and then

ripped

apart. For men, if you had maybe a

lustful thought about a gal dressed, you

know, scandalously like they do these

days, many of them in in different gyms

and or online and you had an an errant

thought there that would be in that

category like it's lust, right? and you

would you would say, "I'm sorry, God.

Forgive me. I won't do that again." But

if you went online and just like fully

indulged in pornography, if you've done

that, which I have, uh it is I remember

in the past it's a massive sin I

repented of and it so convicting. You

know, it the con the conviction is so

intense from the spirit. You just know

that was so wrong. When you keep doing

it, it like just it it callouses your

heart. sears it from experiencing that

conviction. It has to your heart has to

pro your heart not your literal heart

but your spiritual heart the innermost

person has to be calloused and hardened

against the Holy Spirit because the the

feeling is so painful in the the guilt

that he's pointing out of what you did

and he wants you to be forgiven. He's

not trying to condemn you in that way.

Um, and so you know, you know from

experience and you know from scripture

that this kind of sexual sin is is

really damaging. And that's what Reuben

did. He he

really broke a foundational line of

loyalty between father and son. And it

had this horrible impact on his

blessing. This would be uh it's at least

a a prophetic consequence, maybe even a

prophetic curse.

However, I forgot to mention my main

point up front on which that I think a

lot of this hangs. I want to go back now

and say it, but it'll make more sense

now, too. Some of God's blessing and

consequences are contingent on

repentance and obedience. And this is

good news for Reuben and for any of

Reuben's descendants. What it means is

that even this idea that

Reuben does does this prophecy about

Reuben being unstable mean that he could

never be reliable? Mean that if he

repented and recognizes that

double-minded mindedness that he would

never be able to receive wisdom of God

and then apply it in a way that becomes

more reliable. No, it does not mean

that. Let me show you that from

scripture. Let's go to the James 1

passage.

James 1 says something. Know this about

wisdom. Know this, my beloved brothers.

Let every person Oh, sorry. Uh, it's the

James 1, the earlier passage. Uh, James

James 1:5–8

1:5-8. This one's also important. We'll

get to the anger one. If any of you

lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives

generously to all without reproach.

Reuben would be part of all if he's

asking God for wisdom, and it'll be

given to him.

But next verse, let him ask in faith

with no doubting. For the one who doubts

is like a wave of the sea that is driven

and tossed by the wind. Next verse. For

that person must not suppose that he

will receive anything from the Lord. He

is double-minded. He's a double-minded

man. Unstable in all his ways. Okay.

Double-mindedness is when you know

something to be true and right and then

live the opposite way. That is

double-mindedness. And it has a profound

spiritual impact on your faith life.

It's disintegrating to to your inner

spiritual person. It's a split that's

happening. Uh sometimes you'll see

people being double-minded in the world

where you ask them for a definition of

something. They give that definition and

then you say, "Please apply it here, but

it has a consequence to apply it." And

they're like, "No, we won't." Right?

This kind of double-mindedness, it leads

to hypocrisy. It leads to dissipated uh

uh faith and dissipated uh

sanctification. And it's it's really

dark. But maybe worst of all, it leads

to you no longer receiving from the Lord

wisdom for the future. So in other

words, if God knows that if he gives you

wisdom and you've shown this pattern

that oh yeah, but that I don't want to

do that. So tell me something else. If

it's like that, he's not going to keep

giving you wisdom because there's no

point. You don't receive it anyway. And

now you start slipping into not just

foolishness, but becoming a fool because

you know the right thing to do. You've

been told the right thing to do and you

just keep doing the opposite. But the

question for the reason why we came here

in the first place is does it mean that

Reuben could not become more reliable?

No, it doesn't. What should you do if

you found out that you're double-minded?

You should repent of that. And then what

do you need to do? You can't just go

right back to being double-minded

because the same pattern will start

happening again. You have to be

obedient. And the first thing that God

is going to do is take you all the way

back to the wisdom you refuse to apply.

even if it was years ago. He does his

word does not come to him empty of its

purpose. It always comes back fulfilling

what he sent it for in the first place.

So already we're in a place where even

Reuben's uh prophetic consequence or

curse uh has powerful instruction and it

is imported to application for personal

life. So I look at this and I think to

myself, you know, where am where do I

know the right thing to do but don't do

it? Whether by commission like I'm not

doing the thing I should or by omission.

I am leaving something undone. Um like

uh serving is one of those things that

that I think uh many people will omit

like you don't serve. Um it's not as

noticeable because it's not like you're

committing a sin. You're not doing this

thing that's so wrong. it's something

right that you're not doing. And you

know, those those kinds of places put

the main point back up

again. There's a decision that has to be

made in the heart of Christians, too, of

whether or not they're going to remain

double-minded. Some of God's blessings

and consequences are contingent on

repentance and obedience. Now, we have

an example of Reuben not being

double-minded, although he was being

accused of being double-minded by

Joshua, um Moses and God's faithful

servant. Remember the story? They're

about to enter the con uh the um

conquest period of the promised land,

and they have to drive out all these

nations, and God told them to. And these

nations are unbelievably wicked,

practicing things like child sacrifice,

burning children in the fire to demon

gods. And so God, not only in judgment,

but also in blessing of Israel, is going

to give them the land through conquest.

But Reuben, who's a livestock herder,

finds land to the east of the Jordan

before they enter into the land and

says, "Hey, let this be our land

aotment." Right? And Joshua interprets

that to mean that we don't want to go

into fight there. This is good enough

for us. You know what Reuben says?

Reuben, the tribe, and the leaders of

the time, "No, no, no, no. We'll come

and fight with you and then come back

here. we just want this land, but we'll

fight with you. And so he says, "As long

as that's what you do, yes, you can have

this land." That means that Reuben

preeminent in dignity, preeminent in

power actually, and he actually follows

through and does it. And he gets no land

aotment in the areas that they fought

for, right? So the motivation is purely

honorable. We already found this land

that's really great for livestock um

hering. it's just fruitful and I'm sure

there was lots of water sources and

grazing lands and so but but now they're

still going to do the right thing for

gaining nothing that that they didn't

already technically have if they just

broke their word. Right? So I see

there's a sense in which we can see that

some Reubenites uh did not remain under

this prophetic curse in the sense that

they repented of that and were not only

preeminent in dignity and power but

actually actionably so. Okay, let's go

on to the next one because this one's

even more clear that that this

particular there's a curse here uh a

prophetic curse of sin against the sin

of Levi and Simeon. Um that we'll see

how how contingent that was on

repentance and obedience and how

applicable that is to us. Simeon verse 5

and Levi are brothers. Weapons of

violence are their swords. Let my soul

come not into their counsel. In other

words, let these people not be people

that impart wisdom to others. Don't

listen to them. Don't listen to that.

Hold that in your mind cuz that's really

important. Weapons of violence are their

swords. Let my soul come not into their

counsel. Oh my glory. Be not joined to

their company. So you don't want to be

around them. Do not be deceived. Paul

says, I think it's in 2 Corinthians,

might be in first. Uh for bad company

corrupts good morals. In other words,

people are deceived that it's okay to be

around bad company and that it won't

corrupt their morals. Don't do that. It

always will. So like these people,

they'll corrupt your morals. Don't be

around them. It's like a contagious kind

of anger that leads to violence. For in

their anger they killed men and in their

willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed

be their anger for it is fierce and

their wrath for it is cruel. I will

divide them in Jacob and scatter them in

Israel. Now it's Judah or uh Jacob

that's saying it. Jacob their father.

Israel their father. He's been renamed.

Their father is actually saying it. But

who's really saying it? Who says that?

That kind of anger is cursed. God says

that kind of anger is cursed. God is

slow to

anger. That kind of anger is like cold

honey. It doesn't mean that he's never

angry. I have to paraphrase and I forgot

the location, but he experiences

indignation every day. There's I think a

proverb that says that every single day.

So, it's not true. There's never a time

where God is not angry about something,

but is anger in relation to us

individually and as a nation. It's slow

to anger. Slow, abounding in steadfast

love. He's merciful and gracious and

patient. But this kind of anger that

leads to just the murder of an entire

city is a cursed anger. God says it's

cursed. So how this applies to Levi and

Sime Simeon in a way that you could

never apply. It's not saying that, hey,

um, since you have anger problems, and

some of you do, all my life, I've been

dealing with anger problems and growing

out of them. I'm currently at the best

place in relationship to anger, but

still not done growing out of them. And

I certainly would not like to have some

kind of consequence like Moses did, who

was the humble man, most humble man that

ever lived and still at the end of his

life got barred from going to the

promised land because he angrily struck

the rock as if it was him giving them

water, not God. Right? So, I I take that

anger in my flesh very seriously. and I

just want to keep killing it off,

killing it off, killing it off. So, if

you struggle with anger issues, whether

they're sort of repressed and deep down

and cold anger or hot, flaring, spiking

angry, yelling kind of anger, um either

way, there's definitely something here

for you. But God's not saying that if

you overcome that and repent that you

will get some land aotment at Israel.

And that might sound funny. Well,

obviously not. But it's harder to see

exactly how that would apply. So, let's

go through some scriptures. Let's start

with Ephesians 4:26-27 because there's a

Ephesians 4:26–27

misconception about anger. This is

hyperspiritual nonsense. And that

hyperspiritual nonsense is that says

that anger is always sinful and that

somehow if you never get angry that

means that you're a particularly

righteous person. That is false. There

are things that every Christian should

be angry about. And when you're not

angry about them, you don't care enough

about righteousness and you don't hate

wickedness enough. We are to abhore

wickedness. Hate it. And so when we see

it, if we're not angry about it to some

degree, uh we're not like God the Father

who's definitely angry about it to some

degree. But here's what Ephesians says

about anger. Be angry, but do not sin.

So how would you know that you're

sinning with your anger? Well, the very

next verse, do not let the sun go down

with your anger. So you're angry about

something in a day. You ought to let the

Holy Spirit clear that anger even if it

can't be resolved in that day to clear

the experience of you like in anger

before you go to sleep and give no

opportunity to the devil. I think we

have one more verse 27.

Did I not give you 27?

It's there. Oh, there you go. And no.

Okay. It's Yeah, it's the it's the very

next one, but I'm not going to I'm not

going to give it. I meant 28. Um but the

opportunity for the devil I think the

next verse talks about giving him a

foothold. So um the the idea is that

when you give the enemy um give into the

enemy to let the next day come without

having cleared your anger in any way.

And again it does not mean it does not

mean at all that you have resolved the

issue. So let's say in marriage you're

angry at your spouse and you haven't

found out a conclusion to it. You do not

have to find a conclusion. I remember a

couple in our DC talking about how

sometimes it's really wise to just

forgive the person and go to sleep

without that kind of bitter anger and

say, "We're not going to try to resolve

this." You know, when one of the worst

times a day is to resolve a really hot

conflict at 12:01 a.m., you know, why

are we screaming each other right now?

Or why are we having this slow, hot,

passive aggressive fight? Just go to

sleep. Wake up in the next morning and

sometimes you're just like, I'm sorry. I

got angry for no reason on that issue.

you know, it's happened to me. But that

doesn't mean that it's okay to let that

anger continue boiling overnight. When

you do that, it gives the enemy some

degree of influence in your life. And

when you do it long enough, it turns

into this dark bitterness. Seen people

with that bitter look in their eyes. And

that bitterness has an effect on all

your relationships. It says that it

defiles many. So looking at that kind of

fierce anger, um I want to consider

going back to the original passage here.

Is this something that had to remain a

curse for Simeon and Levi? Were they

never going to get a land aotment? The

fact is they never did get a land

aotment. But what if I could show you a

passage um from scripture that you

probably know if you've read through the

Bible, especially Exodus, that shows

that actually God turned this curse into

a blessing for Levi. And I can. Let's go

to uh Exodus

32. Yeah, it's Exodus 32 starting in

verse 25.

I'm going to give you a little time to

get there. I want you to see this with

your own

eyes. So, Exodus 32:25. And when Moses

Exodus 32:25

saw that the people had broken loose,

for Aaron had let them break loose to

the derision of their enemies. And Moses

stood in the gate of the camp and said,

"Who is on the Lord's side?" To give you

a little background of what's happening,

they had created this golden calf and

they were worshiping it. And this is

right after God through those 10 amazing

plagues had not only um destroyed the

world superpower but judged all the gods

behind each one of those plagues. All

these demon gods basically shown them to

be powerless against him. So they saw

the most epic miracles seemingly of the

Old Testament. 10 plagues I think could

be said to be the most epic miracles.

And they saw the the the parting of the

Red Sea. And so clearly the Lord has

proven he's the only one. There's only

one God, one true God. And here they're

worshiping a golden calf. And Moses saw

the people had broken loose in idolatry.

That's what that means. Then Moses stood

in the gate of the camp and said, "Who

is on the Lord's side? Come to me." And

all the sons of Levi gathered around

him. And he said to them, "Thus says the

Lord God of Israel, put your sword on

your side, each of you, and go to and

fro from the gate to gate through the

camp. And each of you kill his brother

and his companion and his neighbor."

That means anybody that is refusing to

stop committing this idolatrous

worship, that's what they had to do.

Terrible, terrible task. And the sons of

Levi did according to the word of Moses.

And that day about 3,000 men of the

people fell. Interestingly, in this

case, are they being violent? Yeah,

they're being very violent, but they're

being violent in the service to the

Lord. Right? And Moses said, "Today you

have been ordained for the service of

the Lord, each one at the cost of his

son and his brother so that he might

bestow a blessing upon you this day."

I'm just going to actually stop right

there. So, if you know the story, you

know that the tribe of Levi ends up

encamping closest to the tabernacle

where the glory of God uh dwells at

night with a pillar of fire during the

day with a cloud pillar with this what's

called Shikina glory resting over the

ark specifically over the mercy seat.

And all things including the Holy of

Holies were run by Levites. All the high

priests were Levites, Aaron and his

sons. and all of the temple work. Uh the

Garites, Marites, and Kathites, I'm

pretty sure, were the ones that te that

that got to do all the temple work, camp

the closest to the Lord. So if their

hearts were also right as an individual,

they would be not only closest to God in

terms of proximity geographically, but

also closest to God in terms of the work

that they're doing for the sake of the

atonement of the sins. They're the

pastors. They're the priests. They're

the workers of the temple. And this

turns out to be that the reason why God

has them do this and not have an

inheritance land. They don't get

inheritance land back, but they're

scattered throughout all of Israel as

priests and as workers and as people who

guiding others. What did Jacob say that

we should never do? Come into the

council of Levi and Simeon. Listen to

them. And now because of the

faithfulness of the tribe of Levi, God

turns that curse into a blessing. We're

the they're the exact ones that Israel

should listen to on things about

forgiveness of sin.

So God can most certainly turn a

prophetic curse into a blessing. But

what had to happen, right? It wasn't as

though the Levites hadn't been sucked

into the idolatry, too. But when Moses

called, they gathered to him and decided

that day on whose side they were, even

if it required them going to a war

against their own neighbors.

Sacrifice. Terrible sacrifice, but

incredibly zealous obedience. So point

being that in the case of Levi because

of repentance of allowing his anger to

be out of control and violent and not in

the Lord's service there was this curse.

Well, what happened to Simeon? There's

no example of that kind of faithfulness

for the tribe of Simeon. And so if I had

a map to show you, uh you would see that

in the lower western southern portion of

Judah, Simeon as a tribe just gets kind

of absorbed into their land inheritance.

They never get their own, right? their

blessing, their curse was not really

turned into a blessing the way Levi's

was. Again, put up the main point

because here's my point about these

things. Unlike prophecy that's

absolutely fixed, like the double dream

of the Pharaoh, there was no way on

God's green earth that there wasn't

going to be a seven-year abundance and a

seven-year famine, and that the

seven-year famine wouldn't swallow up

the seven years of abundance. That was

fixed and absolutely certain. In this

case, some of God's blessings and

consequences are contingent on

repentance and obedience. And I put that

in the positive because I think that's

more encouraging encouraging, but

they're also sometimes contingent and

unrepentance and disobedience. Meaning

that Simeon didn't get out of it at all.

His curse was not turned into some kind

of wonderful blessing. You know, I'm a

hunter and and to me, the idea of

someone gifting you a bunch of land you

could hunt on is like a dream. But I

would much rather be like a Levite, like

a pastor who um just literally depends

on the giving of the people of God and

then gets to devote myself to the

teaching of God's word than have that

land. You know, God redirected me from

trying to become wealthy and getting

whatever I want. And quite forcefully, I

had to repent and obey. But I love where

I'm at right now. And there's great

there's great blessing in that. So,

let's talk about anger um and then move

on to some of the other blessings. I'm

not going to be spending as much time on

every blessing as on these basically on

the discernment that some of these

things I think have far more fruitful

application and more relevance to just

such common sins like outofc control

anger. So let's go now this time James

1:29-20. This is a really important

thing to say. Um, so before we even read

that, remember anger itself is not sin.

Not necessarily. We're not even talking

about it has to be righteous anger. Just

you're angry about someone that

something that someone did. You're just

angry. Be angry but do not sin. Well,

that boundary between be not angry, be

angry but do not sin. Takes a lot of

self-control. When I say self-control, I

don't mean self-help self-control. I

mean the fruit of the spirit of

self-control. It takes a lot of

surrender to the spirit. Why does it

take so much surrender to the spirit?

Well, I again a mentor one time says,

"Doesn't anger kind of taste good?" And

I'm like, "Yeah, it does." It's it it's

like a rush and it feels right and good

at the time to give full vent to your

anger. If you struggle with anger, you

know exact. It's like a drug. You know

exactly what I'm saying. You feel so

justified and being so angry, but

there's such destruction afterwards. I

have literally

never never not regretted. I have always

regretted giving full vents to my anger.

It always destroy things and it's never

justified. It never brings anything

good. Know this, my beloved brothers,

let every person be quick to hear, slow

to speak, slow to angry, slow to be

angry. For the anger of man does not

produce the righteousness of

God. I've got time to tell you. I went

to a seminary where there were a lot of

feminists and the seminary has been kind

of turning towards feminism. And one of

them, I won't mention her by name, but I

befriended some of them. We were in

groups together, discussion groups and

stuff. And so we became friends to some

degree. And uh I brought up the fact

that her sign off was rage is the only

thing that fuels me. Uh rage is so

angry. So angry. And I I could connect

with that. I said I that's literally

what fueled my football career. And to

some great success, fuel rage is rocket

fuel. It's very powerful. Your body can

do things in rage that it's not capable

of doing without that kind of adrenaline

and intense emotional con conviction

towards a towards a goal. So I said, I

know what that's like. But the scripture

says that anger does not produce the

righteousness of God. So if as a

Christian rage is the thing that's

fueling you, whatever you're wanting to

accomplish in ministry to whatever end,

even if I disagree with the end or the

means even, it's not going to happen.

And they all just fell

silent. And believe it or not, I told

this person who's so angry. I said, "I

think you should just stop signing that

off that way. I think that's a curse for

your life." And they listened and she

did. It was amazing. Well, God's word is

powerful. But nothing you want for your

children, nothing you want for your

marriage, nothing you want for your job

in terms of God's righteousness, the

right thing to happen that happens in

heaven already, but you want it to

happen on earth. None of that will ever

happen through

anger. Anger is not the tool that God

uses for that. So if that's the case, we

ought to really consider learning if you

have boundary issues with anger.

Boundary issues are mentioned with anger

in scripture. Proverbs 25:28. Let's go

Proverbs 25:28

there. A man without self-control is

like a city broken into and left without

walls. You've got no boundaries on your

anger. They've been broken down. I like

to say when I was playing football and I

won't get into it, but regrettably

things I regret, have been forgiven for,

but regrettably still, I took a lot of

steroids. You ever heard of steroid

rage? Anabolic steroid rage. Well, it's

like some kind of silverback gorilla or

some kind of charging bull. It just

you're so much more angry than before.

So, I feel that spiritual sort of tracks

were laid during college football when I

used rage as a fuel uh chemically

enhanced rage even. And when I came out

of that, how much value does raged in

enhanced performance have in any

applicable way to real life to a job?

None. It's only a negative. Undermines

everything. And so I felt like

forcefully God had to rip up the tracks

I'd be running that I'd run already for

the train of anger to just rage through

my life. There were no boundaries. The

walls had all been broken through. That

train just ripped through them. But I

wanted I didn't want tracks for that

train anymore. You understand what I'm

saying? It's just a spiritual metaphor.

And so what needs to happen is that you

need to start putting brick by brick

walls back up that don't allow your

anger to that that makes your anger have

a boundary. You've seen mature

Christians do this. They get angry, but

they decide I'm not going to sin. And

the best way I can do that right now is

to just walk away from this

conversation. And you don't have to like

rage quit a conversation. That's not how

that works. And like, hey, I'm so angry

right now. Can I can we please discuss

this another time? By the way, don't say

that if you have no intention of not

discussing it the next time. That's

deceptive. But you're just giving

yourself a breather. Sometimes it might

just take 5 to 10 minutes of relaxing to

say, "Okay, I can come back to this."

But you were like peeking on red and you

know, you're about to say something you

can't take back. So that would be one

wall. What I have found, yes, there's

preparation. You know, you can go to the

passages that um that talk about anger.

There's a lot in the proverbs. Proverbs

would be a bl just type in Google what

does the proverb say about anger lots of

verses and this is one that I found

because I think it's so easy to app well

so easy to understand how to apply very

hard to apply because there's a lot of

surrender but here's where I find to be

the most effective time to apply this

thing and it's when you're angry and you

want to break out and give full vent and

you just ask the Holy Spirit to help you

not and that is laying one more brick on

the wall of self-control regarding angry

anger. So think of that if you have

anger issues like I've had all my life.

If you have intense emotion that bubbles

up, doesn't matter if you are

extroverted or introverted, if it's

there, God sees it. And if you want to

gain self-control over that so that harm

does not come to your children so that

the righteousness of God could be

produced in any area of your life, you

need to start laying bricks on there. So

very practical application is just

commit right now and ask God to give you

the strength. The very next time that

you're tempted to be angry, instead of

breaking more bricks down the wall,

you're just going to not do that. And

maybe you'll give yourself a simple out

and just say, you know what? I'm going

to take a break here. I'm going to go

get on my knees in prayer. Pray. I'm

going to go on a walk. I'm going to come

back. I'm not cutting you off. I'm not

hang up the phone here, whether in

person or not. I'm just going to take a

break. I'm so angry. I'm worried I'm not

going to be able to control it, and I

want to. So, I'm going to let God

minister to me here. Okay? And if your

husband or wife says that, let them.

What? That's a You don't like their

anger. That just destroys the walls,

right? So, let them lay another brick.

Help them. Maybe suggest it in a gentle

way. Hey, maybe we should take a break

here, right? We we will come back to

this. It has to be resolved, but let's

take a little break.

Um, and then you start learning that

it's like the muscle of your

self-control, the obedience to the Holy

Spirit starts growing in strength. And

the very next time you can build on that

and build on that and build on that. It

does not mean that you always have to

have this cursed broken down wall in

your anger. Let's continue. We are on to

uh Judah. Judah, your brothers shall

praise you. Your hand shall be on their

neck on the neck of your enemies. Your

father shall your father's son shall bow

down before you. Judah is a lion's cub.

From the prey, my son, you shall shall

have gone up. He stooped down. He

crouched as a lion, as a lioness. Who

dares rouse him? The scepter shall not

depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff

from between his feet, until tribute

comes to him, and to him shall be the

obedience of the peoples, binding his

foe to the vine, and his donkeyy's cold

to the choice vine. He was washed in

garments of wine, and his vesture in the

blood of

grapes. His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth whiter than honey. If I

had been a son back then, I would have

been struggling with jealousy that that

wasn't my blessing. That sounds wow.

Judah was the one who who suggested and

sort of facilitated as a leader Joseph

to be sold into slavery and he's getting

this blessing. How's that fair? He's

already repented. Remember, he was the

one that was willing to sacrifice his

own life and he really meant it to get

Benjamin back. Even though Reuben said

the same thing, Jacob didn't listen to

him because his life was dissipated in

double-mindedness. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you

say that now, but what happens when you

don't bring him back? Are you really

going to be the kind of man who swears

to his own hurt and follows through? But

when Judah said it, he believed it. So,

there was already this amazing

repentance in Judah's life. Another

example of that is when he's been

mistreating his uh daughter-in-law uh uh

by not allowing her like breaking this

promise that she'd marry his son after

her two first husbands died um because

they were wicked ultimately. And uh I'm

not even going to retell the whole

story, but basically uh he realizes that

in trying to punish her for a sin that

she had committed, he is way less

righteous than she is. Humble thing to

say. He has to eat, what do they say?

Eat crow. Eat crow in front of this

whole budding tribe. You know, all of

his sons and all of his officials are

people that are leaders in the tribe at

that point. And so he has this he

reminds me a little bit like David,

which is interesting because David is a

descendant of Judah. And that's where we

start learning how we can personalize

this. Um, and you might say, "Well, this

isn't about us ruling." Yeah, it is.

That's the coolest thing about it, I

think. The fact that with Christ, we

will rule on earth in the millennium.

Amazing promise. So, we're included in

this prophecy. If you think, "Oh, that's

the one I wish I had." You do in Christ.

Let me show you that. So, we talked

about the idea that Judah is Judah is a

lion's cub. This is one of the passages

where it comes with the lion of Judah.

You know who the lion of Judah? It's

Jesus Christ. Let's go to Revelation

Revelation 5:5

5:5. And one of the elders said to me,

"Weep no more. Behold, the lion of the

tribe of Judah, the root of David has

conquered so that he can open the scroll

and its seven seals." This is Jesus

Christ. You read Revelation, it's a

revelation of Jesus Christ. That's what

it's all about. And who is he? He is the

line of Judah and the root of David from

the tribe of who? Judah. But it's more

than that. So it says here that and also

he's a ruler. So to him shall be the

obedience of the people. And binding is

full to the vine of a donkekeyy's cult.

It was just Palm Sunday. And we actually

read it. Do I have it? Mark 11. Maybe.

Do we have that? Mark 11

9-10. And those who went before and

those who followed were shouting,

"Hosana. Blessed is he who comes in the

name of the Lord." Lord. And this is

while he's riding into Jerusalem on a

donkey. Remember, blessed is the coming

kingdom of our father who? David. Hosana

in the highest. And they're saying this

about Jesus. They're recognizing that

he's the king Messiah. Okay. But there's

even more. It says here that um that he

has washed his garments in wine and the

vesture of his blood in grapes. And

furthermore, even his eyes are darker

than wine and his teeth whiter than

milk. Let's go to Revelation 19.

Revelation 19:13 says this, "He is

Revelation 19:13

clothed, speaking of Jesus, in a robe

dipped in blood, and the name by which

he is called is the word of

God."

So, if you're not seeing messianic

prophecy here, uh it let me put it

again, it'd be wrong not to see. It's

obviously messianic prophecy. And this

is also very clearly about the cross.

And in application about communion,

we'll be doing communion today together.

That means at the end of the month, we

do it in a corporate way. I'll come back

up and after you've grabbed your after

two songs, you've grabbed your elements

and I will lead us in communion. We'll

do it all together. So, just remember

that if I forget to say it at a sermon.

Um, but that table is the table of his

body broken and his blood shed. It's the

table of repentance. It's a table of a

new covenant of the forgiveness of sins.

So when we apply anything and everything

that you've heard here by the spirit,

whatever he is convicting you or

encouraging you to apply, that's the

place to do it. Let's put the main point

up one more time. That's the point where

you realize that you know there are

blessings in my life I'm missing out.

I'm leaving grace on the table and I can

repent and ask for the power to obey and

I can expect according to God's promises

that he'll turn even things that I've

messed up that are becoming curses in my

life into blessings. You don't even know

how, right? It's amazing how God did

that with Levi. So don't leave any of

those blessings on the table. You can

repent and you can ask for the power to

obey and you gain also even Judah's

inheritance in that we will rule with

Christ literally be judges in and in his

uh in his coming kingdom. So again see

how you can apply these. It doesn't mean

that you will somehow be a leader in

Israel right now but it does mean that

you'll end up being a leader according

to um God's

promise. By the way, the eyes darker

than wine, it makes me think of

bloodshot eyes. Um, I don't know if you

get bored of me ever telling weight

lifting stories, but I remember on max

days where you're doing a single rep max

on squats or on deadlifts. Sometimes

we're talking about like for me, I think

the highest was just above 600 lb that I

squatted and you have to go below

parallel. And the amount of time that it

takes you to get up from that is like

maybe 10 seconds. And that's a long time

to be under that kind of strain. And

you're just screaming and shaking and

and I almost passed out. Finally got it,

racked it and just kind of fell down and

slumped down. Everybody's screaming. It

was the highest max I've ever gotten.

And um and I just I just kind of slunk

away into the bathroom because I was

like I didn't know if I was to pass out.

Didn't want to look weak. And I looked

into the mirror and my eyes were just

bloodshot. It had blew the little I

think they might be called vesicles or

vessels that are near the the the skin

or near the surface of your eye and also

in my neck was all just all just red. So

I think of like Jesus carrying the

cross. I'm I'm not saying that's for

certain what that's about, but I think

of Jesus eyes being bloodshot in

suffering of carrying the cross and just

being beaten and his body just failing,

you know. So I wonder whether his eyes

darker than wine and his teeth whiter

than milk is a contrast between his just

marred broken face and his teeth which

don't change color just cuz you're

beaten. Um so again there's nothing that

repentance in the cross can't overturn.

Um so you went to prison because you did

something terrible. There are often

times where God has a prisoner that

repents started Bible ministry. There

are people in prison that are more free

in Christ than people outside who are

addicted to drugs and yet have all the

freedom to stop in Christ

alone. So there's there's there's

nothing that God can't redeem if you

repent. Verse 13, Zebulun shall dwell at

the shore of the sea. He shall become a

haven for ships and his border shall be

at Sidon or Sidon. Um you think, well,

how can I apply that? So maybe you

really want to live by the ocean. By the

way, I just came from a uh beach

vacation and we're going right back out

to Rockaway Beach. You might have

wondered why I'm wearing jeans. You

never I left my pastoral pants in

Rockaway Beach. So, no such thing, but I

don't really believe in investments, per

se. But,

um I love the ocean. Part of me would

love to live at the ocean. So, what's

this really about? Is there such a thing

as like God blessing us geographically?

Yes, there is. Let me read Psalm 16.

It's not as certain. You got to be

careful. It's not like God promises

you're going to live by the ocean. But

he has blessings suitable to you, too.

Prophetic blessings and also

consequences. But here's uh Psalm

Psalms 16:6

16:6. The lines have fallen for me in

pleasant places. Indeed, I have a

beautiful inheritance. So being

thankful, grateful, and even worshipful

for the boundaries of your inheritance,

like where you live, the the the place

that God has given to you to live

currently. You say, "Well, is there a

New Testament verse that says that God

like determines where we live?" Yes,

there is. Acts 17, every nation, let's

go to Acts 17:26.

Acts 17:26

And he made from one man every nation,

that's Adam, of mankind to live on the

face of all the earth, having determined

allotted periods and the boundaries of

their dwelling place. God determined

that you would be an American citizen if

you are, that you would live here in

Talton, that you would live in the house

or the rental situation that you're

currently living in. And it is a

blessing suited for you for this time.

You might not feel that way. You might

feel like, I wish I could buy a house by

now. But if you really think about it,

um God has been generous to you and kind

and the boundary lines have fallen for

you in pleasant places too. And when you

are living in a repentant way, you see

that because you know you don't even

deserve the situation that you're in.

It's better than you deserve. Better

than I deserve. Way better than I

deserve. So yeah, there is a way to

apply this. God's blessings in our lives

will include uh putting us in a place

that we're suited for.

I don't want to live in Oregon. I don't

like its politics at all. I'd rather

live in a much more conservative place,

but I also love living here. I love the

challenge. I love that this conservative

evangelical church is a real light to

this place. I like the fight. I like the

idea that that the doctrine preached

here is is needed and that it's

sometimes corrective of bad doctrine

being taught. And I I believe it's a

really valuable calling and one that has

eternal value to be here. and I'm not

going to leave. That's not my plan at

all. I don't want it to be my plan. Um,

and so I look at being in Oregon.

There's there's blessings to it if

you're willing to receive it. The same

for

you. Issachar is a strong donkey

crouching between the sheepfolds. He saw

that uh that a resting place was good

and that the land was pleasant. So he

bowed his shoulder to bear and became a

servant of forced labor. It depends a

little bit on your interpretive sense on

whether that's a blessing or whether

that's actually a consequence. It seems

more like a consequence to me. Um,

again, not one that they that they

couldn't have gotten out of. Um, but

forced labor is not usually looked at in

Israel as something that's that's good.

Um, but the first one is that he's a

strong donkey. So, what would that look

like? We don't really know exactly how

that panned out for Issachar, but the

idea here is that he was very strong in

service. And if that service had been

rendered only as unto the Lord, I don't

think he would ever have been sort of

relegated to forced labor. And that's a

uh that's a point for us too. Um not not

that forced labor, I think, is not

something anybody wants, but not that

manual labor is a bad thing. I think

it's very noble for men to work hard

jobs. You know, um construction jobs are

very hard, but if they if they provide

for your family, that's a noble thing

that you can do as unto the Lord. Very

powerful. Dan shall judge his people as

one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall

be a serpent in the way, a viper by the

path that bites the horse's heels so

that the rider falls backward. And this

is almost certainly although they became

a strong warrior tribe, this almost

certainly a negative consequence. Um,

and we don't know exactly necessarily

what triggered that in the past other

than maybe just him taking part in

things like selling uh, Joseph, but um,

they end up just pouncing on uh, the

habitants of a little town or nation

state like in leation. You can look at

that up in Gen or Judges 18. And it was

a treacherous kind of thing to do. And

so exactly like I said, it took place.

And

um yeah, when when when Joseph like as a

human being here uh thinks about the

consequences of these future foretold

blessings and curses, uh he just

exclaims, "I wait for your salvation, no

Lord." He cares. I just want to make the

point. He cares. And he he realizes that

it's all dependent on the Lord if

anything good would happen. Raiders

shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at

their heels. Another kind of warrior

blessing. Asher's food shall be rich,

and he shall yield royal delicacies.

Naftali is a dough let loose that bears

beautiful fawns. I just think like I I

look at this too and I think of the

terms of the blessings that I want to

pass on to my sons. I don't see them as

prophetic blessings like this. Like I

don't know that I can know that what I'm

saying is directly from God. And so I

I'm not going to look at them as future

predictive either, per se. But one

blessing that I can offer my sons is to

not pressure them in any way to be

something that I want them to be. You

know, so just thinking about delicacies.

If one of my sons wants to be a gourmet

chef, what I'm going to say is why don't

you pray and ask God if that's what your

calling is and and if it is, then go for

it and do it and be the best chef as

unto the Lord that you can be, you know.

Um, so and especially if you see

aptitude in that area, talent in that

area, you can fan that into flame. Um,

one example of this is I I wouldn't say

I couldn't care less, but I'm not

pushing all my sons to play football.

Not at all. A lot of it was a negative

experience for me. I'd rather have them

have a lifetime sport. If they want to,

I'll get excited about helping them with

it. Um, I don't actually think that in

high school it's that dangerous. It's

not till the weights and the strengths

become way stronger that you get brain

injuries really. Um, but anyway, I think

that as fathers and mothers, we ought

not to push our children to be something

God doesn't intend them to be, but guide

them to seek what God's will for their

life and their calling and vocation

ought to be. Moving on to Joseph, and

we're finished. Joseph is a fruitful

bow, a fruitful bow by the by a spring.

His branches run over the wall. What a

wonderful thing to say about him. But

the archers bitterly attacked him, shot

at him, and harassed him severely. Yet

his bow remained unmoved. His arms were

made agile by the hands of the mighty

one of Jacob. From there is the

shepherd, the stone of Israel. Who's

that about? It's the rock. It's Jesus.

By the God of our father who will help

you by the Almighty who will bless you

with blessings from heaven above,

blessings of the deep, the crouches

beneath, blessings of the breast of the

womb like fruitfulness and childbearing

and nursing. The blessings of your

father are mighty beyond the blessings

of my parents. up to the bounties of the

everlasting hills. May they be on the

head of Joseph and on the brow of him

who was set apart from his brothers. So,

uh what this is pointing to uh very

clearly is that Jacob was was treated

very unjustly, right? It was it was

really wrong what they did and Jacob was

not the cause of that in any way. And

what we call that biblically is um

persecution for righteousness sake.

Specifically by potterer's wife. He was

very righteous doing exactly the right

thing. Fleeing from the temptation to

sleep with her and and completely betray

his his master on on earth uh Potterer

but also betray God and commit adultery.

The worst kind really. And or one of the

worst kinds. And he flees. And then

what? He gets falsely accused, injustly

imprisoned for what seems like may have

been up to a decade. That is being

persecuted for righteousness sake. And I

want to I want to talk about that verse

in Matthew 10. And this is our last

scripture reference and then we're going

to conclude here. So we're very close to

done. So just hold on because this is a

powerful one too. Verse 10 of Matthew 5,

the biatitudes. Blessed are those who

are persecuted for righteousness sake

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you

and persecute you and utter all kinds of

evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is

great in heaven. For so they persecuted

the prophets who were before you. I want

you to consider and I don't think it's

that far off. It's already starting.

Legal persecution is already starting to

happen in America. Just depends on what

the administration thinks of Christians.

and uh the past administration was

legally persecuting um Grand Canyon

College. I don't think that's the exact

name, but it's a Christian college and

they're intentionally going after them.

The IRS even admitted that they were

unfairly targeting conservative

Christian groups. So legal persecution

of Christians already happening. So I

want you to imagine a trial in the

future. Persecution has broken out even

more legally and you are being accused

of being a Christian and that has turned

into a crime. Hard thing to happen in

America because we have constitutionally

enshrined religious liberty but not

impossible. So this is happening. You

are being accused of being a Christian.

Would there be enough evidence in your

life for them to convict you? It's not

my quote. I read it somewhere yesterday.

I forget who it was. Maybe somebody

famous. I don't know. You can look it

up. I just don't want to get credit for

it. But the point is I thought it was a

powerful quote. If you were being

accused of a Christian, charged with the

crime of being a Christian, would there

be enough evidence to convict you in a

jury of 12 of your

peers? If there's not, you cannot be

persecuted for righteousness

sake. So, in other words, you will

sometimes

experience injustices because you're

saying, doing, and living the right

thing. And I would say not necessarily

if you never, but if you think that

wouldn't even happen because you're not

living that clearly and boldly of a

Christian faith, that's an area where

you can repent and

obey. It's with gentleness and respect.

It doesn't look like becoming, you know,

what's commonly known as a hate

preacher, screaming at people on the

sides of the road. But it does mean

speaking up when something's wrong in

your profession, when something evil,

when when evil has been replaced with

with good is being replaced with evil.

You know, for I'll give you an example.

I don't think any Christian can ever use

pronouns without sinning. Jesus never

would. I don't mean saying he when the

man's a he. Of course he would. He does

about himself and about others. But he's

the one that created us in his image.

Male and female who created them. That's

a spiritual idea just as much as it's a

physical idea. And there's nothing a

human being can decide. And there's

nothing a human being could do

surgically or monil to change their

spirit from being made female in the

image of God or male in the image of

God. That doesn't mean you have to slam

people online or in person with anger

and and you know kind of vicious

rhetoric because they're using that. I

think you simply say no. I believe that

God created us male and female. And I

believe that it will be damaging to you

in the innermost places for you to

reidentify yourself in opposition to

what God created

you. That you will get persecuted for by

some people, but God will support you

and you will be blessed. Joseph was

greatly blessed. Um it's not a

motivation to seek persecution, but it

is a great reward for being faithful in

and through it. It's a very powerful

thing.

Lastly, the the blessing of Benjamin.

And again, there's there are some

examples of that this exactly happening.

They were a very powerful warrior tribe.

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf in the

morning devouring the prey and the

evening dividing the spoil. And you can