Undeserved Blessing - Genesis 46:1-34 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning everyone.

Hope you're all doing well this morning.

I've got only a few short announcements.

Um, as always, if you want to fill out

the welcome card, either as a prayer

request card or just to get to know you.

Any information you give us, we just use

to contact you and you can get subscribe

to our e- bulletin. goes out less than

once a month, but we do put important

information that you probably want to

know if you want to get connected with

the church. So, fill one of those out.

You can drop it off at the connection

table if you're new. And we've got a

gift card for you. Um, I announced last

week, but I'll be announcing this

periodically, too, just in case you

haven't heard, but um, Ay Creek has

invited us to participate in their I

call this a largescale evangelistic

event at the Moto Center. This is just a

car sticker here, but it's called PDX

Crusade. Um, I have not that much

information to offer you yet until I

meet with Brett, which will be on the

11th. So, you hear more after that. They

have a lot of ways that we could serve.

I'm not entirely sure exactly how we'll

be involved. The way that we'll

definitely be involved is they said they

want to point to Boon Fair as a f uh as

a um faithful church that people can

come to that have either come to faith

for the first time or recommitted, which

is a huge favor God is showing us to

have such a large event and even have

our name mentioned. And I think there

will be uh growth at the church as a

result of it and uh I'm excited for

that. So um I'll I'll keep you informed

on that as well. Um that I guess the

maybe most important thing for you

schedule-wise to remember is that um

normally August the first weekend in

August on Saturday um would be our pig

roast. And so people, you know, we like

to have that on the same weekend every

year so people just kind of know and can

plan vacation around that if they want

to. But since this is on the first

weekend, we didn't want to double up on

that. Plus, we thought it'd be an

amazing opportunity to invite people

from that event to the pig roast. So,

the pig roast will be the very next

weekend, not the first weekend of

August, but the second weekend of

August. So, you guys can mark that on

your calendar. Uh, that's all, by the

way, or I guess I should mention Easter.

You don't really need dates or or times

for that other than Good Friday will be

at 6:30 right here. We're doing it at

6:30 because of feedback from you guys

saying it's kind of hard to get to a

4:30 or 4:00 service after work. And so,

um, I'm we were excited to hear that

feedback because it shows people want to

come. And so, we're doing that at 6:30

this year. Our Easter service will be at

10:30. And I would just consider

inviting family and friends. Um, the

sermons at at Boon Ferry are

evangelistic when the scriptures call

for it. Um but the sermon on any uh

given um Easter is always just a gospel

presentation really of what the cross

and resurrection means. This is a great

time to invite um family and friends and

especially maybe those that have uh not

yet surrendered their lives to Christ.

It might be their day of salvation and

it may just be an invitation that God

uses in their lives from you. So with

that being said, let me uh let me go

ahead and pray here.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the

opportunity to continue marching through

your word. The foundations of how you

created the world, how you made us

perfect in your image, both male and

female, how we were naked and unashamed,

had nothing to be anxious or concerned

or worried about in relationship to you.

Thank you also for teaching us how

original sin came into the world and how

as a result we live in a fallen world

with a fallen nature and therefore are

sinful. Thank you for teaching us as

well that sin unchecked leads to just

absolute debauchery and violence and um

even abomination against you. And so uh

although you did flood the world, Lord,

you promised that you would never do

that again. And uh we seem to pro be

proving as a as a world that um without

your cross over and over again, we just

fall more and more into depravity. And

so the story of redemption that started

with Abraham and has now in a in a

really powerful way uh climactically

come together in the reunion of Jacob

and Joseph in Egypt is a very powerful

way to have our faith uh refounded uh or

founded for the first time or just

reinforced. And we're thankful for the

work that you're doing in our hearts

through it. And we pray these things in

Jesus name. Amen. All right. Go and open

your Bibles to chapter 46 of Genesis

today. And as you have remembered

probably if you've been here in the last

couple weeks um and if you felt, wow,

the sermons are kind of repetitive.

Well, the content of what we have been

talking about for the last four to five

weeks, lots of sermons, has just been

about reconciliation and all the work

that God does to humble um Joseph's

brothers and the stages in which he

brings them back together and shows

Joseph that they are indeed uh have

changed and have humbled themselves. And

it was really a climactic um ending to

that in the last couple weeks. But we're

really changing gears here in 46 and

we're going to be talking about

blessing. And I I don't want to take

very long to uh introduce it, but get

right into it because there's just again

a lot of content that we need to go

through, a lot of different ways that

God has blessed Jacob. But one thing I

want you to consider is areas where you

feel like the opposite of blessed, you

know, so like when you feel blessed,

when you are experiencing blessing,

there's thanksgiving in your life.

There's gratitude. uh you come to church

with a desire to worship that feels

natural. It's not like going through the

motions. You know, going through the

motions, by the way, I I got that term

from football. Coaches would always

accuse us of going through the motions

during stretching time, you know, and

back then, I don't know, young just

didn't pull a whole lot of muscles. But

now, if I go through the motions before

weightlifting and don't really stretch

out, I'm genuinely at risk for some kind

of lower back injury or some kind of

injury keeps happening when I don't

properly warm up. Um, and so it's not

actually safe to go through the motions

in your worship. It's God wants the

heart. He's not looking for you to just

to come to church and kind of do the

thing that almost I wonder if we do that

more for other people than we do that

for God. And so, uh, again, when you're

feeling blessed, when you're feeling

really thankful towards God, when it's

just, wow, you've given me so much. Um,

it's it's not it's not a going through

the motions kind of faith. Your your

life feels vibrant. Your relationship to

God feels vibrant. And you can

experience this whether things are sort

of by human standards good or even by

your human standards good or not good.

You'll see people that just talk about

how blessed they are that have almost

nothing and have gone through terrible

hardship in their lives. So, where are

you at with that? Are you feeling

blessed? Are you experiencing blessing?

Is a thankfulness coming out of that

when you come to church today? Are you

like, "Wow, I I really want to be here.

I'm so excited to be here." Or is it and

and this is not a guilt trip. Or is it

right now in the stage of your faith,

it's just like I know I have to be here,

but I just I don't feel close to God,

you know? Uh this is a sermon that where

that you can reconsider that and

consider just how blessed you are. And

one of the most key portions of that is

that none of God's blessings are

actually deserved. In fact, if you could

put the main point up here uh for the

entire sermon is God's blessing

blessings over our lives are greater

than we

deserve. God's blessing over our lives

are greater than we deserve. Jacob's

story tells that in such an obvious way.

We're going to we're going to figure

that out as we walk through that. But

when you realize especially that

undeserved blessing part, that's where

uh your experience of God's blessing,

the thankfulness that comes out of that,

the worship that flows out of that

becomes very much real. When when we

feel entitled to things and then don't

get them, that's when the the

thankfulness goes away. you know, um,

we've been talking, not not we, but our

our culture, our societyy's been talking

a lot about, um, and now I guess it's

kind of moved on from millennials to

zoomers and the entitlement culture

where they they feel entitled. And I'm

not saying all of them, but um, and I I

didn't, um, I didn't live here until I

was 12, and I only started really

thinking about things in any kind of

deep way in my actually probably mid20s.

So, um I don't have much of an

experience of what um um anything other

than like college life in terms of that,

but I felt very entitled in college. I

was angry at God for not helping me to

get in the NFL, like I was entitled to

get in the NFL. So, you're not thankful

when you're entitled for things. But

when I really recommitted in my faith

out of a life of rebellion, I'll never

forget it, and I say it relatively

often, um, I I knew that I did not

deserve God's forgiveness over my life,

but that I actually deserve

condemnation. And condemnation is where

you lose everything, including your

relationship to God. And I knew that's

what I deserved after I had lived,

especially with how good of parents I

had and how well they taught me the

gospel. I just had zero excuses. And I

knew that I deserved condemnation. And

then God forgave me. And and the anger

was traded for joy. The sense of

entitlement was traded for this

unbelievably felt powerful felt

experience all the way deep down that I

deserve nothing. I lived downtown at the

time playing football at Portland State

and I I'll just never forget it. I

walked by on one of those freezing cold

nights like where it almost feels like

the concrete's harder than normal. And I

saw a homeless guy sleeping on just a

little piece of cardboard. And I looked

at him and I I thought I don't even

deserve a piece of cardboard like that.

And I I meant it. I meant it so deeply.

Um and I knew it to be true. So then

anything that God gave me, anything felt

like a blessing that I did not deserve.

So there's a function of humbling

ourselves that is so it's a self a

blessing when God humbles us in that

way. But what's really in the way, and

this is the places where the sermon will

feel confronting, maybe convicting and

difficult. What's really in the way of

you experiencing the joy you want to

experience in worship, the thankfulness

that you want to have in your hearts,

the sense that your faith is alive and

things are good, even if they're not,

they're good in relationship to God, is

it it's a giving up of your pride. Um,

so I think we all want to experience

that that feeling that sometimes we see

other Christians experience or that

we've experienced in our own past lives,

well lives in the past or maybe even

experiencing now and you want to

experience to a greater degree. Um, the

the reality is, and you're going to see

this in his word, it's it's a ma it's a

function of humility when you realize

that you don't deserve any of the

blessings than everything God gives you.

And he gives you so he gives you

abundantly more than you even need. Uh

it just it's just amazing and you're so

thankful and your heart's overflowing

with the desire to worship him. So let's

look at how that is really happening in

Jacob's life as well. And let's get into

chapter 46 and let's start with verse

one. So Israel took the journey, his

journey with all that he had and came to

Beeba and offered sacrifices to the God

of his father Isaac. Now, when we think

of someone offering an animal sacrifice

like this or offerings of uh fruits and

grains or whatever it was, sacrifice

usually is a sacrifice of of some kind

of animal. Um, sometimes that seems

relatively far removed from what we're

experiencing in faith. And I don't mean

to say this in a shocking way, but do

you know that you still offer sacrifices

to God? And we're even commanded to

offer sacrifices to God. They don't

require the life of an animal. They're

different kinds. because Christ's cross

has once for all um atoned for sin. And

so there is no longer a need for those

kinds of animal sacrifices in the lives

of God's people. But if you were to turn

with me to Hebrews um uh to Hebrews

Hebrews 13:15

13:15, we've got it up here. Here's what

the author of Hebrews says. Through him,

let us continue offer up continually

offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

That is the fruit of lips that

acknowledge his name.

Did you know that all like real worship

is sacrificial? It's a sacrifice of

praise and that sacrifice is the fruit

of the lips that acknowledge his name.

And so what does worship really mean

when when we talk about sacrifice? Well,

I want to go to Romans 12 uh to talk

about that. Romans 12 also talks about

um sacrifice. And here's Romans 12 1-2.

I appeal to you therefore brothers by

the mercies of God to present your

bodies as a living sacrifice holy and

acceptable to God which is your

spiritual worship. So here again you

have the concept of sacrifice married

with the concept of worship but this

time it's talking about a living

sacrifice. A living sacrifice. What is a

living sacrifice mean? All you got to do

is read verse two. It means not being

conformed to this world but being

transformed by the renewal of your mind.

that by testing you may discern what is

the will of God, what is good and

acceptable and perfect. And there are a

lot of things and a lot of powers. The

world has a a intense gravity to its

conformity. I think we have such a

recent memory as Americans and the world

really does as well, but especially in

America where this did not like really

seem like it would be the result, but

where people just conformed to the to

like just kind of to one sound bite in

in relationship to CO particularly and

and and even in Oregon, the governor

Kate Brown instructed neighbors to tell

on their neighbors and families to tell

on their family members if they weren't

following the rules, you know. So, and

and people just went right along with

it. Just almost everything that was said

was just absolutely accepted. Now, these

things are kind of coming to light and

there's a lot more information and

people are realizing, wow, a lot of that

wasn't the right way. But the reality of

it is there just such a conforming power

to the world. The same thing with things

that are happening with with DEI. I've

been thinking a lot about diversity,

equity, inclusion in and why these um

you know private companies even if

they're publicly traded companies that

are not uh controlled by the government

or all of a sudden just giving that up.

It's like well was it idealistic? If it

was idealistic then you would continue

doing it whether the current

administration's against it or not. But

it wasn't wasn't it was just whatever

they thought the majority of the people

wanted. There is such a conforming power

to uh to to standing with the majority,

right? And the majority of the world is

not for the actual truth. That's not the

way it works. You know, the the road is

too narrow uh and the the gate is too

narrow and the road is too hard and few

find it, Jesus says. So, there's this

incredible conforming power to the

world. And but the the reality is we're

not supposed to be nonconformists. Do

you know that being a non-conformist is

just another kind of conformity at the

end of the day? Uh that's just one

pattern of oh, you're going to be not a

conformist, you're going to be a

non-conformist, Satan sees is like,

well, I got you again, right? It says,

but be transformed by the renewal of

your minds, which we know happens

through the word of God. And and when

that happens, when you when you've

presented your life as a living

sacrifice, remember that's afforded to

you because Christ was a dying

sacrifice. You don't have to die for

your sin because he died for you. So God

is just in forgiving you. And in that

forgiveness, you have this power for

your mind to be renewed so that by

testing you may discern what the will of

God is, what is good and acceptable and

perfect. And that goes all the way down.

All the way down. So you can actually

worship God with a truly clear and

transformed conscience. It can be real

worship, real felt worship, not going

through the motions. And we connected

the idea of being being thankful. It's

interesting again Psalms just to include

an Old Testament verse here about the

very same thing. Psalms 50:14 says this,

Psalms 50:14

"Offer to God a sac sacrifice of

thanksgiving and perform your vows to

the most high." Again, speaking of

worship, a a sacrifice of

thanksgiving, right? Think of sacrifices

of thanksgiving, sacrifices of praise,

living a a life that itself is

sacrificed.

Um everything about worship is

sacrificial because everything about our

worship was uh was founded in Christ

sacrifice in the first place. So it's

not that well the Old Testament saints

they sacrificed but we don't really

sacrifice. It's that the very reason and

meaning behind sacrifice has been

fulfilled. And so now we can actually

have our hearts entirely sacrificed to

God. And that's that's where it all

starts. Now I want you to consider

Jacob's life. And and so is it a

blessing to engage in sacrificial

worship to have your heart turned

towards God that you would be willing to

give up some of your wealth in sacrifice

to God? Yeah, that's a huge blessing. So

the very first blessing I would point

out here in chapter 46 is the bless

blessing of sacrificial worship. If

you've experienced it and aren't

currently, there is a part of your heart

that longs to be back in a place where

your worship is actually sacrificial in

that way. I think probably most of us,

if not everyone in here has that, if

you're a Christian, has that at one time

experienced that. And and if you're not

there right now, you want to find your

way back to it. Now, consider whether

Jacob deserved to experience this

blessing of sacrificial worship in

relationship to God throughout his life.

It is not an exaggeration nor any kind

of defamation of his character to say

that he lied and cheated and stole and

manipulated his way through

life. Still and amazingly, but I think

rightly because God has said faith can

never be earned or worked for so that

I'm in your debt, but rather it's by

faith alone. In the same way that

righteousness was credited to Abraham by

faith, it was also to Jacob. And so he's

in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11.

Right? So I don't want to say, "Wow,

what a wicked man." No. But a very

sinful man and he was only saved by

grace, but in his own power again,

cheating, lying, stealing, manipulating

over and over and over again. And God is

gracious to bring him to an end of those

ways, even his favoritism, as I'm

convinced he did when he let go of

Benjamin. And so he is worshiping a

transformed man, a man who's sacrificing

from the heart. He's not going through

the motions. And that's something that I

say is one of the most powerful

blessings that we can experience where

you're just pouring. I mean, that is

heaven. Heaven is that kind of real

worship just all the day long in

everything that we do. And and it's it's

going to be amazing. It's going to be

the mo whatever the most amazing thing

you've ever experienced most you know

pleasurable satisfying deeply meaningful

or purposeful orders of magnitude

greater than that is what heaven's

worship will be and and you can

experience a foretaste of that in a very

powerful way. So again, he experienced

this undeserved blessing of worship, a

sacrificial worship. And notice that

Paul said that it's when you're in that

kind of worship, a worship that uh the

the person who's worshiping is being

transformed by the renewal of their

mind, then you will be able to do what?

Discern God's will. Right? Which is

really interesting because that's where

we go to the very next verse. And God

spoke to Israel, that's Jacob, his new

name, Israel, in visions of the night

and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said,

"Here I am." I want to point out the

second blessing I see, and there may be

more in here, but I'm kind of going

through the major ones. Um, is the

blessing of God speaking to us in short,

but the blessing of communication with

him as well. And you look at what's

happening here, and God is definitely

speaking to Israel. Do do we deserve to

be spoken to by God? Is that something

that we're entitled to? Or is it just

his gracious promises that he'll

communicate to his people? Again, it's

not something that's deserved. It's not

something that we're owed. It's

something that God does. And so, I want

to consider here for a second because

I've heard friends and Christians and

I've felt this way myself sometimes sort

of experience a maybe jealousy is too

strong of a word, but a sense of wishing

that God would have spoke to them the

way that he spoke to Jacob. And uh in

this case it was in visions of the

night. So it seems like dream dreams or

visions. I mean that was such a

patternistic way of the way he spoke to

the patriarchs. You can see it all the

way through uh the Bible. We talked

about that in in another sermon about

whether uh dreams and things like that

are still things that God gives today.

So um if I can think of the name of that

sermon, I'll let you know. But it's it's

backwards uh in one of the dream

sequences in in the past. But the point

is he's speaking to Jacob and it's this

this huge blessing and and Jacob's

available to it. I want you to consider

if you do feel like I wish that God

would speak to me like that. How greater

our blessing is. Because it's it's one

thing to sacrifice an animal. It's

another thing to sacrifice your whole

life and to be given the power to do

that. It's one thing to have God speak

to you in the vision of the night. It's

another thing for him to have spoken to

you by his son. And this is the entire

point. All of Hebrews is about

sacrifice. But if we go to Hebrews 1,

what does God say about how he speaks to

us? Hebrews 1:1. Long ago at many times

Hebrews 1:1

and in many ways, God spoke to our

fathers by the prophets. So in many time

many times and in many ways, lots of

different ways, not just in dreams and

visions, but through prophets and in

others really strange ways, in images,

in prophetic signs, in just all kinds of

miracles. He spoke to them in in many

times in many ways. God spoke to our

fathers and prophets. But in these last

days, he has spoken to us by his son

whom he appointed the heir of all things

through whom he has also created the

world. And we know that Jesus was human

because the Bible says that he was

human. But also Hebrews goes on and the

author of Hebrews goes on in verse 6 and

again when he brings the firstborn,

that's Jesus into the world, he says,

"Let all God's angels worship him." So

if this is God's word, we are to worship

Jesus. And if Jesus is to be worshiped,

he must be God. So God has decided in

his son to become human, stay God, but

then communicate to us through his son.

Literally, my Bible doesn't have the red

letters in it, but if your Bible has the

red letters, that's actually Jesus

actually speaking. But did you know that

he is the word incarnate, right? It's

not just that God speaks to you. you

know the name of his word and it's Jesus

Christ. So when you're reading God's

word which to our knowledge was not yet

written down for Jacob. We have it all

written down. The complete compendium of

God's word the whole council of his

will. The Bible we've got it all written

down. It didn't these things in Genesis

didn't get written down until God

commanded Moses to write them write them

down. We've got no other evidence of

when they were written down. So, we have

it all at our fingertips at any time.

And there's a whole lot of objectivity

to it. You can know God's will for this

age in its entirety. That's a wild

statement. You can know God's will for

Christians in this age in its entirety.

And all it takes is just devoting

yourself to studying it. And when you're

studying it, Jesus himself is speaking

to you. I don't know how how much closer

it gets than than just seeing him and

it's not being by faithful anymore, but

hearing him speak out loud in heaven.

It's the closest he's ever been in the

way he communicates to his people. So,

we have it the very best. We have it the

very best because he's actually

communicating to us by his son. And we

have Jacob saw Jesus in the form of a

vision of the ladder to heaven. Remember

that? Well, we have eyewitness accounts

of Jesus Christ and he indwells our

hearts by the spirit. So when he speaks

to us in a in a way very real but also

strange. He's speaking from within us.

He confirms his word inside of your

heart in the deepest places of who you

are. So we ought not to say that we

somehow don't have God speaking to us as

deeply. We have an even greater blessing

than Jacob did in the way that God

communicates to us. And so, you know,

sacrificial worship is a blessing, but

also the fact that God spoke to Jacob

here, huge blessing, even greater

blessing the way that God speaks to us.

I don't know. We don't need to stop

there and take a long time. But is is

your relationship to God's word one

where you're just like, I'm so blessed

to have this Bible. I'm so blessed to

have this word. I can't wait to get into

it. And you're available to Are you

available to

it? Availability. You know, we all

understand exactly what that means

because we have people that we would

love to be close or friends with, but

we've realized after months of pursuing

them, they're just not all that

available. You know, we're probably that

person to somebody. Sometimes you just

are in a season where you're not as

available. Other times, people are just

focused on other things and it's hard to

break in and build that relationship.

God is never unavailable to you. Jesus

is never going to just not speak to you

unless there's some kind of

directionally incorrect sin. That's when

you begin to hear just silence in

relationship because he's already told

you what to do and you're not listening.

But that's really the only time. So, are

you available? And and availability, you

know, I like to think of in

relationships to other people. A

counselor told me this a long time ago

that as a pastor and a minister, you

ought to do your very best to leave uh

space for relationship and not just, you

know, have every little slot for

relationship in your life fully filled

up. And that's not an easy thing to do.

Uh but he said it's like a little Lego

piece, you know, it has little those

little nodes and you put on there. Leave

some of those nodes open. You don't fill

them with another another relationship.

Leave them open if you can for as long

as you can in a church. I I think of

that it's like God's word is just always

open to you. He's waiting to speak to

you and uh he's drawing you there and

you have to resist him drawing you to

speak to to him and and your relation.

It's not like there's some like barrier

between you and God. Uh whoever was the

closest to God in the Bible, you could

be exactly as close. It just continues

to take sacrifice and surrender and

willingness to be honest from the

innermost places in your heart, which is

also a function of God's word. we'll

deceive ourselves, but God's word will

set us straight. So, there's just again,

are you available? Are you making time?

Is it a priority? You know, you could

start the the commands of scripture,

too. Um, it said in James 1 that anyone

that seeks wisdom, God will give it

freely. But don't ask with

double-mindedness, right? If you're if

you're going to, oh, I really want to

hear what you say, but he already knows

that if he says it, you're not going to

do it. That's double-minded. You don't

really want to hear what he has to say.

So, don't come to the word in a

double-minded way. And we do that when

we say, "Well, I'm available." But then

you don't obey the commands of

scripture. God has designed a rhythm in

our life. He says, "Do not forsake the

gathering as is the habit of some." So,

and that's Hebrews uh 10, I think 24.

Um, so it's actually commanded that we

would not forsake going to church where

the word is preached regularly. I think

that uh another step you could take is

carve out time on Wednesday nights to

come to our Bible studies. We call them

disciplehip communities. we eat

together, study God's word together, and

pray. But it's a time where you can have

a midweek time with the people of God um

to study God's word. It's a powerful

rhythm to have studied Genesis 46

yourself, getting the questions online

under our disciplehip tab at the very

bottom, scroll down, going through those

guided questions, which are there to

help you get into the passage uh in a

deeper way within a short period of

time. They're only usually like six or

seven questions. Um they're definitely a

guided study. Um, so sometimes we tip

our hand at what we think the passage

means, but the point is they're they're

meant for discussion and we discuss them

on Wednesday night and then you hear

that sermon. Um, one of the things that

I am like most blessed by as a pastor is

I find you guys so excited to find out

about the next sermon series which will

be seven weeks in Titus. By the way, I

think one of the reasons you guys are

excited is that you've built a rhythm in

your life where you attend, you do your

own study at home, you attend a group

and then you hear it on Sunday. In those

groups, oftentimes deep questions will

come up about God's will and human is

human will free or how does this work?

And people can't wait to hear uh the

sermon all of a sudden. You know how fun

it is to be a preacher at church where

people can't wait to hear God's word

preached. It's amazing. So best life

ever is how I feel about it. And so um

embed God's word in your lives and

choose to do so. You can choose to do.

Don't let something else be the

priority. You know, that's one way that

you can be available. Just like Jacob

says, "Here I am." He's available middle

of the night. Verse three though then

says, and it's because it's even deeper

than God just communicating to us.

There's something he has to communicate.

Verse three says, "And he said, I am

God, the God of your father. Do not be

afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I

will make you into a great nation."

Whenever God says, "Don't be afraid," he

says it to someone who is afraid. He

doesn't say it to someone who's not

afraid. What would be the temptation to

fear for Jacob about going down to

Egypt? I think it's twofold. For one,

and maybe most importantly, he was

commanded to go to the promised land. If

we go to um chapter 31 of Genesis, verse

13, we see that uh command. This is

still while he's uh uh battling out who

can be the better manipulator between

him and and Laban. And uh they he met

his match. Uh maybe Laban even won. And

so he has to flee. And here's Genesis

Genesis 31:13

31:13. I am the God of Bethl where you

anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.

Now arise, go out of this land and

return to the land of your kindred. And

that's just one command. But the whole

context is that God has commanded

Abraham out of the Calaldanss to go live

in the promised land. And what happened

when Abraham got in the promised land?

There was a famine. And what did he do?

He wasn't told to go down to Egypt, but

he went down to Egypt. And was it a good

episode? For you wives out there, you

probably feel most deeply how bad of an

episode it was. You know what he did out

of fear for his own life? Because his

wife Sarah was so or Sarai at that time

was so beautiful, he decided to have her

conspire with him and say, "I'm his

sister." So that he wouldn't be killed

and his wife taken from him. And she

ends up getting taken into Pharaoh's

herum. How would you enjoy that as a

wife if your husband was so cowardly?

Again, I say so cowardly. Abraham was

also a great man of faith. None of us

should think that we necessarily when

faced with fear apart from God would do

any better. But the point is, I don't

know if you knew this, but if you look

at how long these patriarchs lived,

Abraham was most certainly alive while

Jacob was young. Um, and and probably

even during the whole episode with Esau.

But the the point is, um, there's no

reason to believe that Jacob didn't know

about this. So, they have a pretty

negative family history with Egypt. and

here's another famine. So, well, Abraham

went during famine. That didn't work out

well. God still blessed him greatly, but

it was undeserved. So, I probably

shouldn't go down to Egypt. That's I

think, yes, we're reading between the

lines, but I think that's probably what

was going on for why um Jacob needed to

hear this. So, what's God really doing?

Well, he's reassuring him that it's his

will for him to do so, that it's okay.

He wants to he wants to go see J Joseph.

It's not that he doesn't want to, but

there's a faithfulness that's been built

in Jacob's heart. So God has to reassure

him of a new direction for the time

being. Turns out God's not going to

build his nation in the promised land.

He's going to build it in Egypt and go

and then send them to the promised land.

Okay, that's really the story of Exodus.

But point being here that it's a huge

blessing for God to reassure you that

you're in his will. Have you ever needed

that? Have you ever needed for God to

reassure you that it is will? You're

coming from a place where you really

want to know that you're doing what he

wants you to be doing, but there's this

new direction that you did not see. You

felt maybe called to one thing, but now

it's looking a lot different than it

was, and it doesn't seem to be within

your control to continue in the

direction that you were. Or maybe you

actually really desire to go in a new

direction. And there's all kinds of deep

heartstrings that make you desire that.

And you know that all too often when

your emotions are involved in that,

you'll do what you want to do. get off

of that sacrificial altar as a as a

living sacrifice and go do your own

thing. And so you're begging God to let

you know, is this actually his will? And

and often times maybe there isn't even a

clear directive that I will stay here,

don't go there. So you need to be

redirected, but maybe it does take a

geographical change. You're thinking,

should I really move? Should I really

change jobs? Uh what should I do? And in

in most of these cases, it's it's

already not 100% clear what the

scripture says about this. So it's not

like it, oh, should I get divorced? No,

you shouldn't. Right? That's obvious in

scripture. So it's not those kinds of

questions. It's questions where you're

needing reassurance that the the road

that you're thinking may be the best to

go down, in this case for Jacob, the

road to Egypt and family reconciliation

and reunion is indeed God's will. And

God reassures him. And all you have to

do is ask. You got to be available for

him to speak to you. I really think he

does it primarily through his word. Even

though it's not like it's like sometimes

I think um men and women will need a

reassurance uh when they're dating that

it's right for them to marry, you know,

like is this what you want for me?

Should we get married? Is this the right

relationship? Am I making a mistake?

It's a very terrible mistake to to to

marry the wrong person. And uh once

you're married, that's no longer the

wrong person. But God very clearly says

to not marry a non-Christian person, you

know. So you might want to ask like, is

this person's faith real? Is there

evidence of a real relationship to the

Lord? So we are not to be unequally

yolked in that way. Scripture says, and

it's just a heartache after heartache

when you are. Imagine raising your

children where you want them to worship

Jesus, but your partner doesn't. It's

just and public school. Should they go

schooling? Should they go what? And and

and politically there's just all this

division. You know, one partner is being

conformed to the world, one partner is

being transformed by the new mind.

You're just you're being separated in

your worldview and spiritually over and

over again. So, it's just it's

heartache. So, we need reassurance.

Whatever you need reassurance in, God is

willing to bless you. You need to be

available for that blessing. So, but

it's a blessing of reassurance. And

there's even a greater version of it in

the very next verse, verse four. I

myself will go down with you to Egypt

and I will also bring you up again and

Joseph's hand shall close your eyes. I

don't think there's anything more

reassuring than God's presence. And I

would just call it an actually, you

know, a separate blessing. We have

sacrificial worship. We have God

actually speaking, communicating to uh

Jacob. That's another blessing. We have

God reassuring Jacob that he's in his

will. And we have God here promising

that he will go with him, that he'll go

with him. What a huge blessing that is.

And I was considering some of the ways

in which it's a blessing to us today uh

in an again even more powerful way

because God dwells in us in his spirit.

Uh but there are ways that we can grieve

the spirit and quench his work. And he

doesn't leave us like he's just gone.

But when we grieve him or quench his

work, there's a relational distance in

in relation. It's a power. I like to

think of it like a disconnected circuit,

right? The power is still running to the

circuit, but it's disconnected because

of some kind of sin. And one of um the

sins that doesn't get talked off enough

about because it's so controversial and

I think because uh conforming to the

world uh wants to disagree with this

idea. And so I want to go to first Peter

to see that because there's um a way

that we are to be in God's presence and

it's not with pride but with humility.

This is 1 Peter 5 if you got in your

Bible. It's up on the screen. Um and it

says this chapter 5 6. Humble yourselves

therefore under the mighty hand of God

so that at the proper time he may exalt

you casting all your anxieties on him

because he cares for you. I mention

anxieties because it's directly the

issue in Jacob's heart. There's fear.

There's anxiety. In this case, almost a

kind of of good one. Initially, the

anxiousness is am I in God's will?

That's not itself a a sin. But then to

not cast that anxiety on God is because

he said do it. And why don't we? For the

exact opposite reason of humility. So if

what it takes to be under the powerful

protection and I don't know if you can

get any closer to God than being under

his mighty hand and it takes humility to

be there, right? It takes humility to be

under his mighty hand in a way that's

not fighting against it. He's not going

to crush you. What does he say? That you

are to cast all your anxieties on him

because he cares for you. It's a caring

hand. It's a hand of protection and a

hand of peace. So I want you to

consider, have you ever heard that

holding on to your anxiety is prideful?

Why is it prideful? Where does anxiety

come from? From trying to do things you

have no control over in your power,

which might just be thought issues in in

your mind. You're trying to control

things. You're worried because what's

going to happen? And and you're just

constantly afraid. So the experience

initially of anxiety, that's not what I

believe to be sin. Paul even talked

about his anxiety for all the churches.

But he lived a life where he was

constantly casting as anxieties on God.

But the continued holding on to them to

the point where it's just your life is

ruled by anxiety. It's because we have

not humbled ourselves in the mighty hand

of God. That's why. Did you know that

long-term holding on to anxiety is a

function of pride? And I I want to talk

about this because um this is what I

think the conformity to the world is. Um

it's modern psychology really and I

become more and more convicted that uh

that modern psychology there there's

truth in modern psychology there things

that needs to be considered there are uh

truths to be discovered about the mind

about the brain about the way things

work and so my point is not that somehow

we should disband modern psychology

things like that but modern psychology

will never unless handled by a Christian

point to God for the for the answer

right in the vast majority of modern

psychology is is atheistic and so it has

to point to something else. Well, this

is just the issue of some kind of

disordered brain or some kind of mental

health or this or that or you're

genetically given to it and so what

should we do? Well, we should put drugs

in your system. And I'm not saying that

there are never situations where

pharmaceutical

um uh pharmaceuticals shouldn't be

considered. I'm no psychiatrist, but I

want to say I believe that all the

answers for all the anxieties of all

people ever are God. That's a bold

statement. Let me read to you what it

says. Humble yourselves therefore under

the mighty hand of God so that at the

proper time he may exalt you, casting

all your anxieties on him because he

cares for you. Either any human being

ever can do that and they can cast all

their anxieties on him or they can't. I

think the major mistake that people make

apart from God in any scheme of thought

is in relationship to anxiety is not

recognizing that it's a spiritual issue.

It's a spiritual issue. Your spirit is

afraid. It is very very deep. And can

the spirit and things that trouble the

spirit cause physiological problems?

Yes, they can. That would be an

absolutely fascinating field of study

that um I was going to say I wish I was

called to. don't wish I was called to.

It's not my calling. I'm happy with my

calling. But uh maybe there are men and

women that have studied that and that

would be fascinating to discuss. And so

the point is not like boo philosophy.

Boo modern philosophy apart from God

absolutely all day long. But when it

comes to the wisdom that you might hear

from a counselor, it needs to be

filtered through God's word. You will

never do anything to your anxiety

without God. Anything good. Never. Every

pharmaceutical that's ever only created

will always only mask the symptoms. You

take it away and actually it'll create

other symptoms that may be even more

problematic, right? Some cause you to

struggle with your sleep. One of the

most important things about being calm

and sense of peace and security in life

is sleeping well, right? Anxiety can

interrupt that, but then the drugs you

take for it can interrupt that. So, I'd

be very careful with those. I'm not

saying they're never warranted. I would

say that you pray about it. Consider it.

If you want to talk to the elders about

it, um, we're we're not going to come

down necessarily banhammer, but I think

there's they're obviously

overprescribed. There's no question

about it. But the real consideration

here is not one of, hey, do I need to

take drugs, but could I let go of my

pride and trying to control things

myself? Cast my anxiety on God, humbling

myself under his mighty

hand. That's how you live in the felt

and experienced presence of God. That's

that blessing. You can't receive it

while you're holding on to the pride. He

wants to give it and he'll bring

humbling things into your life, but you

have to you have to be willing to humble

yourself. He's not he's not smashing

your pride. He's taking it like a

surgeon. So, humble yourselves on the

mighty hand of God. That's how you

experience the mighty blessing. And if

you struggle with anxiety, um it's not

like we're going to be like, "Oh, you're

just a sinner and you're never giving it

up." I'm just a sinner, too. And I have

anxieties and have to battle them. And I

don't always give them up immediately.

The goal is not, "Oh, we're better than

you or Christians are better you or that

anyone's better than anyone." The goal

is that to anchor your conviction in the

idea that anxiety has as its solution

the presence of God. And that is a huge

blessing. So, I want to continue in the

story here. I want to recap uh the

blessings so far. We mentioned

sacrificial worship, God communicating

to us, God reassuring us that we're in

his will, and God's presence. And now,

let's continue in chapter 46 because

there are more blessings to consider. Um

chapter 46 and I think we're in verse uh

struggling to find my way there. There

we go. Um in verse five, he just got

done saying that uh Joseph's hand will

close your eyes. You could say a mini

blessing in there is that God uh gives

us some knowledge about the future. And

uh we have you know um I saw this

interview about how uh Elon Musk

believes that the world is going to end

because of population decrease if we

don't do something about the birth rate.

And I think the birth rate drop is

serious and it will have grave

consequences. But I don't agree with his

esquetology. The Bible already tells us

how the world's going to end. And it's

by God's hand. And it's not an unhappy

ending for those who repent and believe

in Jesus Christ. There's a new heavens

and a new earth with endless resources.

And uh whether we'll be a space fairing

civilization there or not, not sure.

Might be pretty cool. But anyway, let's

continue here because verse 5 has

another blessing embedded in it. Then

Jacob set out from Burshiba and the sons

of Israel carried Jacob their father,

the little ones, and their wives. the

wagons that Pharaoh had carried had sent

them. He also took all their livestock

and their goods which they had gained in

the land of Canaan and came into Egypt.

Jacob and all his offspring with him,

his sons and his sons sons with him, his

daughters and his sons daughters, all

his offspring were brought with him to

Egypt. Now, because a genealogy follows

in which I'll make the point that

children are a blessing, I want to just

point out verse six here. They also took

all their livestock and their goods. Um,

God does bless us with property and

possessions and he's blessed us to live

in a nation unlike the vast majority of

Christians in all of history that

actually protects that property with a

constitutional uh amendment and actually

two constitutional amendments. I think

there's protection in the freedom of

speech because that is oftenimes used to

take people's property and there's

protection in the second amendment. So,

it's really a powerful thing to consider

that God has blessed us with property in

the first place and that he's blessed us

with a a nation that upholds that right.

The scriptures uphold that right. Uh the

law talks constantly about what happens

if your neighbor steals your property.

That means he sinned against you because

God has given you that to own. On top of

it, how would you ever give freely in a

cheerful way if it wasn't yours to give?

Right? In all reality, God owns the cows

on a thousand hills. So he he owns

everything and he only even asks for

like 10% back. It's kind of the

beginning Bible standard there. But the

point is he's looking for it freely. So

the only way to do that

is by you surrendering your will and

saying yes, I'll give some of these

things that you've given to me back. So

reverse engineer that whole thing. God

supports you owning property. If for

example, like in many communist nations

or totally socialist nations, the

government basically believes that it

owns all your property and you by law

have to give it, you're never giving it

freely, right? And by the way, little

children understand this after watching

Aladdin. Guess what Aladdin's genie

can't do? Force Jasmine to love him.

Forcing people to give is no generosity

at all. So, this is an unbelievable gift

that God has given him that he does not

deserve. uh he and it's it's in a

specific area where he lied, cheated,

and steal to get all of it and

manipulated and yet he has all of these

goods. So consider in your life if you

came in here not really feeling blessed,

consider how much God has given you and

whether you deserve any of it. I told

you a piece of cardboard was too much

more more than I deserve and I wasn't

being hyperspiritual. I really felt it

at the time. I I could spend an hour

listing the things that I own now.

It's unbelievable. And and in this case,

I was not even able to buy my house

without my parents' help. And they

helped me dramatically. Do you know my

house is paid off? My parents just sold

another house and paid my house off. I

would have never purchased a house. Uh I

grew up with just an absolute a hatred

of debt that my parents passed on to me.

And so I back then, Germans wouldn't

even buy houses on loan, right? They

would buy them outright on cash. That

was the thing. Uh there was such thing

as owning a house when the bank actually

owns it. So I looked at that I thought,

you know, I don't really want to buy a

house that I have to pay on for 30

years. Kind of a radical notion, but I

was hoping that I wouldn't have to. And

I was the rebellious son who uh walked

away from God, walked away from my

parents, my whole heritage, a prodigal,

right? And here my parents are giving my

inheritance long before they die. That's

how they thought of it. Saved me

$250,000 on interest. That's how much a

house in Toualin costs these days. By

the way, it's grown by 300,000. I am not

able to purchase my house

again. Talk about not earning it.

Literally didn't earn it. So, blessing

after blessing after blessing. And if

you know my testimony, you know I don't

deserve it. And I don't know your

testimony, but I know the Bible says you

don't deserve it. And that's not some

kind of harsh thing. That's one of the

best things you can accept if you want

to experience great joy and thanksgiving

and just worship

overflowing. Even just thinking about

the things that you have, the property

that you have, however little, however

much, it's far more than you deserve.

And it's that's that's another source of

just praising him and thanking him. And

instead of feeling discontent and

unsatisfied and just life is kind of

gray, it's in living color all of a

sudden. So, let's continue here because

we want to go through this genealogy.

And I think in this case, sometimes I

think it's really important to go

through uh certain names and consider

their meaning for the future. I don't

think there's a lot of that here. I

think the meaning here is God showing

through Moses, look at how much I've

prospered Jacob. Look at how much I've

prospered him. Look at how many. There's

going to be 70 people depending on your

account. You know, Steven said 75. He's

adding some more people, but in the 70s

of people that are part of Jacob's uh

heritage now. And so when we read this,

instead of think, oh, boring kind of uh

uh um uh genealogy, think rather this is

a genealogy that shows the abundance of

God's blessing. Actually, before we even

go through it, let's look at Psalm 27.

Some of you have it memorized. Many of

you already know it. But it's such a

powerful reminder, especially if you

have young kids, and lots of them.

Behold, children are a heritage from the

Lord, the fruit of the womb, a

reward. Something is wrong. If you don't

naturally now, well, not naturally. It

is supernatural, but if you don't

honestly genuinely feel like your

children are reward, something's gone

wrong because they are they are a

reward. So something must have gone

wrong if they're not if you don't think

they are anymore. Like arrows in the

hand of a warrior are the children of

one's youth. Blessed youth. Blessed is

the man who fills his quiver with them.

He shall not be put to shame when he

speaks with his

enemies. So quiverful, that's where that

comes from. So Jacob had a quiverful and

then some, right? And did he deserve it?

He had four wives.

Do you know every man in his heart knows

can't handle more than one woman? Can't

even do that. Right? And vice versa,

too. I'm not trying to say women are

difficult to handle. They are. So are

men, though. You know what I mean? So

consider that. Consider the fact that he

was a

polygamist and God blesses him right

through

it. It's from a wife he should have

never had that he has Judah. and Judah

is in the genealogy of the Messiah. Such

powerful stuff. So when we read this,

consider the way that God has blessed

your family, too. By the way, I just

want to say if you're not able to have

children, I think one of the blessings

that's analogous to that is God giving

you people to disciple whether they're

they're older than you even when there

if you have something to pass on to

someone spiritually. It's a very

powerful thing. And sometimes just like

Paul even says that uh in there there

are ways in which it's better not to be

married because you can have God as your

only concern. Uh a similar thing I think

spiritually logically is true when um

when you're not able to have children.

There could be a greater devotion and

focus on actually discipling people. So

I think this is a blessing um that God

gives through the church or through

natural means through childbirth. But

it's a blessing either way. Now these

8:8 are the names of the descendants

descendants of Israel who came into

Egypt, Jacob and his sons, Reuben,

Jacob's firstborn, and the sons of

Reuben, Hanuk, Palu, Hezron, and Carney,

and the sons of Simeon, Jamu, Jaman,

Ohad, Jacan, Zohar, and Shaul, and the

sons of the Canaan, the son of the

Canaanite woman, and the sons of Levi,

Gershon, Kohath, and Marari, and the

sons of Judah, Er, Onin, Shayla, Perez,

and Zarah. But Er and Onin died in the

land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez

were Hezron and Hamuel. The sons of

Issachar, Tolah, Puva, Yob, and Shimron.

The sons of Zebulon, Sarid, Elon, and

Jalil. These are the sons of Leah, whom

she bore to Jacob and Panaram, together

with his daughter Dena. All together,

his sons and his daughters numbered 33.

The sons of Gad, Zephian, Haggi, Shuni,

Esbon, Ary, Arodi, and Areli. The sons

of Asher, Imna, Ishwa, Ishvi, Bar,

Bariah, with Sarah their sister, and the

sons of Bariah, Heber, and Malciel.

These are the sons of Zilpa, whom Laban

gave to Leah, his daughter. And these

she bore to Jacob, 16 persons. The sons

of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph and

Benjamin. And to Joseph in the land of

Egypt were born Manasse and Ephrame,

whom Asenath, the daughter of Piphera,

the priest of O, bore to him. And the

sons of Benjamin, Bailah, Becker,

Ashbel, Gar, Nammon, Ehi, Rosh, Mupim,

Hoopam, and Ard. These are the sons of

Rachel, who were born to Jacob, 14

persons in all, and the sons of Dan,

Hushim, the sons of Nahali, Jazil,

Gooni, Jezer, and Schillam. These are

the sons of Bilha, whom Laban gave to

Rachel his daughter. And these she bore

to Jacob, seven persons in all. All the

persons belonging to Jacob who came into

Egypt who were his own descendants not

including Jacob's sons wives uh were 66

persons in all and the sons of Joseph

who were born to him in Egypt were two

all the persons of the house of Jacob

who came into Egypt were

70 and he's going to take that 70 and

make it millions in the land of Gosh so

it's just a blessing so far beyond

Jacob's deserve serving. So I want to

actually consider the idea of children

and whether you're experiencing them as

a blessing. There's multiple kinds of

things that can go wrong. Sin in our own

lives as parents, sin in the lives of

the children. And the reality is when

you're living a life that sacrificial

worship, then children don't start

feeling like a little pest that are

messing up your plan because they're

very much part of God's plan. So it says

train them up in the way. And it says

that children are to honor their father

and mother. And I want to just have you

consider, I don't know if it's Satan's

work or just the work of our flesh, the

amnesia, but we know that we're to train

them up in God's word. And then problems

happen. And we try to fix it just not

that discipline is wrong, very much good

and also biblically commanded, but we

try to fix it only with rules and

discipline. And I think oftenimes don't

even consider telling these little kids

or reading verses over them about that.

And I've done that recently. I've been

playing a video game with all the kids.

It's multiplayer called Smash Brothers.

It's a fighting game, but super cartoony

and totally safe and a lot of fun and

they're quite good. It's very

competitive. But sometimes they'll start

trash talking and then the trash talking

turns mean. And I had a conversation

with Isaiah talking about how you need

to be it's fine to say, "Oh, I got you

and I did this." And a little bit of

trash talk's fine, but when you you when

it turns mean and you're actually upset

at the person and trying to cut them

down personally, that's unacceptable. In

fact, you need to be doing the opposite.

Uh there would be times where like

another not just Isaiah, it was

happening from the other kids, too. But

uh where a kid would be crying because

of something someone said, right? Which

is then no more fun. We're only playing

because it's fun to do. It's like the

same reason you do board games or other

activities like that. And I I told

Isaiah about how we're to be kind to one

another, tenderhearted, forgiving one

another as God in Christ forgave you.

And it changed his attitude dramatically

for the rest of the night all the way up

the stairs cuz Judah was crying just cuz

he played so well and lost in the

finals. We do tournaments. He played so

well and then still got beat by Isaiah.

The whole way up, Isaiah had his arm

around him encouraging him. God's word

is powerful in the hearts of your kids.

Maybe, maybe, I'm not assuming this.

What's missing is not that you're not

disciplining your kids. Hopefully, you

are. Not that you're not giving them

rules and boundaries and enforcing them,

but that God's word is missing in the

training up of them. Foolishness is

bound up with the heart of children. You

just watch them for a little bit and you

see

it. But God's word can really bring

wisdom into their little heart. So,

that's just that's the only thing I'll

say about that. But man, blessing our

children if you train them up the way

that uh God has called you to. doesn't

mean there won't be hard times, but then

you can experience that they're blessing

even when things aren't working

perfectly. I like to think of this like

I'm so thankful and so undeserving to

even have children that

disobey, right? Like it's all part of

the context that like it's a challenge.

It's a challenge to be a good father. It

makes me want to be a better man. It

drives me to scripture. It gives me

people I don't have control over that I

have to entrust God. I mean, you have a

degree of control, but like the

spiritual things that really matter, you

don't. He beg God for them to have

hearts that follow him. So it's it's

just it's a blessing

regardless. And then does the world try

to conform you to say it's not? There's

a reason why the birth rate is so low

even in what I call a formerly Christian

country, America. So and and hopefully

it's returning to that. But the reality

is your children are a blessing and and

you can you can repent of the things

that have gone wrong that you're in

control of. Uh uh like not really

teaching them God's word if you want to

receive that blessing again. Before we

go on to the last um blessing which is

really one of the very most important

ones and one of the most neglected ones

in the American church today. Let me

reiterate. We talked about the blessing

of worship, the blessing of God speaking

to us, the blessing of reassurance of

being in God's will, the blessing of his

presence, the blessing of property of

things, and the blessing of children or

heritage through disciplehip. And last,

it's the blessing of holiness. And I

want to show you that because this one,

you have to dig deep into this passage

to really see it. But when you do,

especially included with the entire

context of Genesis and beyond, I think

you'll see it very clearly. So here

verse 28, he had sent Judah ahead of him

to Joseph to show the way before him in

Gan. And they came into the land of Gan.

Then Joseph prepared his chariot and

went up to meet Israel his father in

Gan. He presented himself to him and

fell on his neck and wept on his neck a

good while. And Israel said to Joseph,

"Now let me die since I have seen your

face and know that you are still alive."

No, Jacob doesn't always just have a

death wish. He's saying, "I'm so

satisfied. I'm okay with my life being

over now." Which is dramatically

different than if you take Benjamin for

me, I'll die. Right? Unsatisfied,

unhappy, not feeling

blessed. So, a dramatic thing has

happened. I jumped the gun on going to

holiness. There's another one. I'll

spend less time on it. But it's the

blessing of being reunited in

relationship to people. Almost every one

of us if you lived for any length of

time has relationships where they fell

apart. Maybe you were unfriended. Maybe

you had uh what do they call it? Falling

out. Uh or maybe it's not even that

something happened between you and them,

but something happened between you and

someone they're close to. And so then

there's distance as a result of that. I

don't know if you thought of this, but

if Jacob's brothers, excuse me, Joseph's

brothers had not repented, he would not

invited them to Egypt in that way. And

he may still have gotten his plan

figured out. We know obviously this is

not what God planned. So it's in a way

silly to talk about it happening a

different way. But the reality is he had

to stay in Egypt no matter what. And he

wasn't about to have brothers that were

untrustworthy under undermining and

dishonest who had sold him into slavery

get really close with him again. And

it's not like Jacob can just leave his

tribe. So God had to work a powerful

reconciliation for this uh for this

reunion between father and son to be

that powerful. Right? So the reason why

I'm not going to spend that much time on

this is that we've talked so much in the

last 5 weeks about reconciliation. But I

think it'd be worth to say

reconciliation and reunions of any kind

are a huge blessing from God. And we so

so if God has been highlighting

something that you need to do like admit

that you sinned or talk to somebody

about their sin that's causing you to

feel distant from them. Uh don't we

moving on from it but don't move on from

it. Do it. Go do it. You have the power

to do it. Don't wait. If possible do it

today. If not make a plan and make an

appointment and just go ahead and do it.

Um but I want to move on to the holiness

piece because here's verse 31. Joseph

said to his brothers and to his father's

household, "I will go up and tell

Pharaoh and I will set uh say to him,

"My brothers in my father's household

who were in the land of Canaan have come

to me." And the men are shepherds, for

they have been keepers of livestock, and

they have brought their flocks and their

herds and all that they have. And when

Pharaoh calls you and says, "What is

your occupation?" You shall say, "Your

servants have been keepers of livestock

from your youth, even until now with

both we and our fathers, in order that

you may dwell in the land of Gan. For

every shepherd is an abomination to

Egyptians." Now, I want to say this.

There's a misinterpretation of this

passage that very strangely almost every

scholar I read on verse 34 makes. You

can look it up. Go to like Bible Hub and

look at uh commentaries on verse 34. And

and none of these scholars are

untrustworthy scholars. And I'm not

trying to put myself like above them in

some way, but I'll show you and you'll

see it what they say in this case. And

it's not like some massive

uh uh bad faith kind of mistake, but it

is definitely a mistake. And it leads

away from what God's actually trying to

say. So they say that here the reason

why Joseph was saying, "Your servants

have been keepers of livestock from your

youth until now." rather than saying

they're shepherds is because the

shepherds are an abomination to the

Egyptians. And so he's being shrewd in

this case. There's two huge problems

with that. First of all, he says to his

father and his brothers in verse 32 that

he's going to tell the pharaoh what that

the men are

shepherds. So he's not hiding anything.

Also ver uh chapter 47 verse3 I think we

have it up just a couple verses later.

Pharaoh said to his brothers, "What's

your occupation?" And they said to

Pharaoh, "Your servants are shepherds as

our fathers were." So really, we should

look at keepers of livestock and

shepherds as synonyms here. Two

different ways of saying the exact same

occupation. Here's the problem. If you

try to say that this is really about

Joseph's shrewdness, and shrewdness is a

thing that Jesus teaches we should do. I

don't think in this case, intentionally

hiding from the Pharaoh who's been

nothing but good to you as as a man,

hiding their actual occupation is the

thing we should do. And I think it's the

opposite way that we should relate to

the world. In this case, Egypt's the

world. And they hate the shepherds. But

they don't just hate the shepherds. It's

not just the occupation. It's the

nationality or ethnicity of them being

Hebrew. I think I might have of the

verse um I want to look this up here. I

think it's uh one that I deleted

thinking I didn't need it, but it's uh

it's

chapter it's the one where they're

eating um with with Joseph. And it says

at the end that they um yeah here it is

I think uh chapter 43 maybe. Yeah. They

served him by himself and then them by

themselves and the Egyptians who were

with them ate by themselves because

Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews for

that is abomination to Egyptians. So I

think we need to consider the fact that

it's it's foreign shepherds. There's no

and particularly Hebrew shepherds.

There's no evidence that um that within

Egyptian culture it was an abomination

to be a shepherd. They have livestock

and herders just like that. It's also no

evidence that sheep or cows were somehow

sacred. In that very meal they

slaughtered an animal, presumably a

sheep goat or cow to to eat. So none of

that stuff and all that stuff is outside

of the Bible evidence here. What's

really happening is that we have the

actual words for the reason for why he

said tell them your livestock uh keepers

of livestock. He said in order that you

may dwell in the land of

Gan because they're going to dwell apart

from the Egyptians. So there won't be

that kind of conflict of them thinking,

well these Hebrews and these shepherds,

they're an abomination. By the way, an

abomination is a religious kind of

abhorance. It's not just, oh, they hated

him like they were racist. something

abominable is abominable and a religious

on a spiritual level. And I want to talk

to you just a little bit about that

because when it comes to being conformed

by the world, what you're being

conformed to is Satan's will. And I'm

not being too extreme there. I'll show

it to you. So, what was God judging when

he was judging Egypt and Pharaoh with

the 10 plagues? I don't know if you know

this, but he explicitly says in Exodus

Exodus 12:12

12:12 that he was judging their gods.

And some of these gods um the kinds of

sacrifices that they would deserve I

think makes it clear they were there was

demonic power behind the gods. It seems

like some of the the um magic that the

uh uh the Egyptians magicians um were

able to do was beyond just trickery. And

there is real power in magic when it's

demonically empowered or satanically

empowered which is really the same

thing. But here's Exodus 12:12. For I

Exodus 12:12

will pass through the land of Egypt that

night, and I will strike down all the

firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man

and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt

I will execute judgments. I am the

Lord. So God, we can tell from that that

the Egyptian abhorance of the Hebrews

and the shepherds has a spiritual

dimension

that tale is old as time. God's people

have always been

hated. They were hated in Germany in

absolutely abhorrent ways. Uh they're

hated now. Anti-semitism is on the rise.

The hatred for Israel continues to grow

and grow and grow. And people justified

like somehow it's just okay to hate an

entire nation and ethnicity group. So I

have to consider why are the people of

God so

hated? Why are they so hated? Is it just

that oh we don't like their occupation?

I don't think so. Is it just I don't

like that ethnicity or is the enemy

behind it? The enemy was behind it in

Egypt. They end up enslaving them. They

have this amazing favor and blessing of

uh Pharaoh. We could have called it the

blessing of favor with position of high

power. Uh we have that too in America

often times. Um but I think this is the

blessing of holiness being set apart.

You can also talk about more property,

more riches, more land. The very best

land. It's hard to buy land today. You

try to get 5 acres anywhere near here,

it's 1.5 million minimum. 1.5 million.

Who could? Nobody, right? Unless you're

basically rich buying land and they got

the very best of it for free. And during

the famine were provided for for free.

All the other Egyptians had to pay for

the grain. Joseph just gave it to them.

That'd be another blessing I could

highlight. But I want to spend any time

we have left here on the idea of the of

being set apart. God knows they're

hated, but it's not just because of the

Egyptians hatred or abominable view of

Hebrews and and

um uh and shepherds. It's that God is

setting a nation apart for himself and

he has very different moral standards

for them that he's going to hold them

to. And they will also have worse

consequences even the nations around

them at times for disobeying them

because they had the word less excuses.

So holiness really does mean set apart

and we need to be set apart from the

world and I want to talk about two

different kinds of being set apart. One

is like set apart in your worldview and

another one is set apart in the way that

you live in terms of morality. Um, so

regarding set apart your worldview and I

think this one will really hit home with

conservative Christians especially these

days is I want to talk about the America

first doctrine and whether not whether

it's biblical or not but whether it's

anti- being set apart and I don't

believe it is but it's confusing if you

don't think about it spiritually. A very

simple way of America first is like no

different than saying to a mother she

needs to put on her oxygen mask first

and then on her children. It's not

because you're being mean to the

children. It's that if you run out of

air, you won't be able to put a mask on

them. Right? That's all America First

means. It means it's actually a biblical

concept that you can't give out of debt.

That's not God doesn't want you to give

money you don't have. Right? If you're

trying to put on a credit card and give,

if we knew that, we would be rejecting

it. Don't give out of debt. It doesn't

mean that you can't be getting out of

debt while also giving. I continue to

give even though we have um certain

debts that we're paying off. Um and and

uh but but the idea is that don't give

money you don't have. So for example, in

that case uh don't give so much money

that you're not able to pay for your the

obligations you have to your family. God

said it's a priority to provide for your

family. So husbands, you have to not

make the church a higher priority of

your family. Did you know that your

family is a higher financial priority

than any giving to the church? I have uh

had friends whose fathers were pastors

who kind of violated that principle and

they uh have a really broken

relationship to giving because their

father didn't provide for them. You

don't want to do that. It's not a good

example. It's not the kind of giving God

wants. Um and and so you can just extend

that to a national level. We ought to

care for the needs of the citizenship

before we go beyond the citizenship.

Very simple. So America first. Now

here's the way to be wrong about America

first. By the way, Norway should say

Norway first. God's not against nations.

He wants the glory brought in from all

the nations. He's not a globalist in

that sense. He will be a king of all

those nations, though. It's not just

going to wipe away the boundaries,

though. There's a glory that Denmark

brings. There's a glory that Canada

brings. I don't I don't know that we

have all that many reasons to be

particularly angry at Canada right now.

By the way, be careful with that. I I

like strong negotiations, but don't go

along with the crowd too much. But the

point is when we become Americans first

and Christians second, this is not

holiness at all. And here's how you get

tempted in your world view. Are you way

more excited to find out what's

happening on Fox News or whatever

conservative outlet you go through or

whatever news media you look at than you

are to get into the word? Are you way

more excited when the current

administration has some kind of victory?

There's a lot of fraud, financial fraud

that's being brought to light. That is

exciting. Nothing wrong to be exciting.

Is that more exciting than discovering

things about God that you can learn and

teach others? If you're way more excited

about the kingdom of this world than you

are about God's kingdom, you're an

American first, which is not what we are

anybody means by America first, which is

just a political doctrine. So I think

that even though our convictions

according to the Bible like the sanctity

of life in the womb, the sanctity of

marriage being defined between just one

man and one woman, uh the the the

reality that God's word uh supports our

freedoms of speech and the the uh the

ability to protect our property that it

gives us the right to have property. So,

it protects us from uh really wrongful

justifications of of uh justifications

of of oh, what's it called? Starts with

this coveting, which is what socialism

is. It's just a justification for

coveting. I don't have what this person

has, so I'm going to take it by law

here. And and God protects from from the

dangers and curses of those kinds of

systems. Not that capitalism is perfect

by any means, but the point here is that

when you're set apart, your worldview

needs to be set apart and it needs to be

brought into conformity with God's word.

Uh, which means that you are not an

American first, but you are a Christian

first and American second. Which means,

and I pray that it doesn't happen, but

your faith ought not to be ashaken if

America fails as a nation. That's what

happened when Rome fails a nation. And

Augustine wrote, "The city of God is not

Rome." Right? So, is your faith shaken

when terrible things happen in America,

or is it just grieving you because you

know it's not God's will? Yes, we can

vote. Yes, you can be politically

active. Some of what I've said about uh

uh not being too focused on politics

here and being more focused on the

kingdom of heaven is not true. If you're

called to be in politics, then that's

your job. But even then, you should be

especially Christian first and American

second. And I want to go to the place in

2 Corinthians that talks about that.

This is 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

here's really where we're where we're

closing. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 is

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

about being

ambassadors of Christ. Here's what it

says. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,

he's a new creation. The old has passed

away. Behold, the new has come. All this

is from God who has through Christ

reconciled us to himself and gave us

this ministry of reconciliation. That is