back to indexSunday Worship Service 1/24/2021
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11:21 Hebrews
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Good morning church family, happy Lord's Day. 00:15:12.000 |
Let us prepare our hearts for worship as we come before our God, 00:15:16.000 |
who is the author and perfecter of our faith, who is the fountain of every blessing. 00:19:44.000 |
And again, we want to remind you, again, each Sunday, 00:19:47.000 |
we're going to have this room kind of quiet for about 15 minutes before the service. 00:19:51.000 |
So we encourage you to come and participate and take some time to pray. 00:19:58.000 |
And, you know, I was meditating and thinking about that. 00:20:01.000 |
Again, as I mentioned before, when I was preaching on that, 00:20:05.000 |
that we can't, like normally in our life, if we don't communicate with that person, 00:20:10.000 |
an individual in our lives, we don't normally say we have a relationship with them. 00:20:15.000 |
We kind of know them, but we don't, it's not like an intimate relationship. 00:20:19.000 |
And so in the same way, you know, our walk with God, 00:20:23.000 |
not only is a measurement of what we believe and how much we interact with the Bible, 00:20:30.000 |
How often do we personally interact with God? 00:20:32.000 |
Is a direct reflection of the relationship that we have with Him. 00:20:36.000 |
And so, again, we want to emphasize that, and that's why we're trying to implement various things 00:20:40.000 |
to kind of give you opportunity to pray corporately. 00:20:43.000 |
But again, corporate prayer is just a reminder to the rest of us 00:20:51.000 |
and we're hoping that that will kind of initiate our private prayer as well. 00:20:57.000 |
And along with that, this coming Friday, we have our time of corporate prayer. 00:21:03.000 |
And so we're going to be having it inside and outside. 00:21:06.000 |
And so if you are planning to come, just so that we can be better prepared 00:21:11.000 |
So if you come early and you want to come inside, you guys can come stay in here. 00:21:14.000 |
Otherwise, we'll be outside. So please sign up for that. 00:21:17.000 |
So we'll know how many chairs that we need to set up for that. 00:21:20.000 |
Along with that, every Wednesday, starting this past Wednesday, 00:21:23.000 |
we're going to be having morning prayer from 730 to 830. 00:21:28.000 |
And those of you who kind of wrestle with prayer and your mind tends to wander, 00:21:33.000 |
it helps to have a designated time and designated place where you can pray. 00:21:39.000 |
We know that you can pray at home, you can pray in your cars, 00:21:41.000 |
but sometimes coming together and having a specific time where you've dedicated to prayer 00:21:48.000 |
So on Wednesday morning from 730 to 830 a.m., the doors will be open. 00:21:51.000 |
So if you want to come here, and if you're nearby, and maybe before you go to work, 00:21:55.000 |
or even if you're working from home, you just want to come here and take some time to pray, 00:21:59.000 |
it'll be open from 730 to 830 a.m. on every Wednesday. 00:22:04.000 |
There will be other prayer times that we will, again, roll out and let you know as time goes by. 00:22:11.000 |
Starting from not next Sunday, but from February 7th, our SEEDS department is going to be reopened, 00:22:18.000 |
and all our teachers who were volunteering for that are all health workers. 00:22:24.000 |
And they told me that, again, Sarah, who's in charge of that department, 00:22:28.000 |
told me that they've all gotten their vaccine, so they're all ready to come back. 00:22:33.000 |
And so A and B class, those are the four- and five-year-olds, are able to do that. 00:22:38.000 |
And starting from, again, not this Sunday, but the Sunday after, on February 7th, 00:22:43.000 |
you'll be able to drop off your kids at the beginning of the service there from that day. 00:22:47.000 |
Four or five years old, and obviously the other departments are still open. 00:22:52.000 |
All right, outside of that, the other announcements, you can look at it on the website or from your app. 00:22:58.000 |
We want to take some time to pray and give you an opportunity to get the offering, again, electronically, 00:23:03.000 |
or you can do it physically in the back if you choose to do so. 00:23:12.000 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the blessing that we have to be able to come to the throne of grace 00:23:17.000 |
with confidence to call you our Abba Father, that no matter how our week was this week, 00:23:23.000 |
that we would rest upon the righteousness of Christ, 00:23:28.000 |
that our confidence, Lord God, is not because of who we are and what we have done, 00:23:35.000 |
Help us, Lord God, to celebrate your grace and love for us this morning, 00:23:39.000 |
that even in our giving, Lord, help us to give with a cheerful heart. 00:23:42.000 |
May it be multiplied that more people may be able to hear the gospel and come to you. 00:23:48.000 |
So we ask for your grace, we ask for your blessing, we ask for the Holy Spirit to illumine our minds and our hearts 00:23:53.000 |
for the sake of your name. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:24:47.000 |
Let us stand together as we continue our worship. 00:28:14.640 |
♪ You shattered death and freed us from our sins ♪ 00:33:21.040 |
♪ And who else invites me to call Him Father ♪ 00:34:48.200 |
- All right, if you can turn your Bibles with me 00:34:58.540 |
So at this rate, we're gonna be in Hebrews for a while. 00:35:02.040 |
But as I said, these three verses, verse 20 to 22, 00:35:06.640 |
actually represents almost about 35 to 40 chapters. 00:35:11.640 |
And so the verse that we're looking at in verse 21 00:35:19.240 |
And so instead of just kind of doing a quick overview 00:35:22.440 |
and saying by faith he did this and moving on, 00:35:24.640 |
I think it'll be helpful for us to understand 00:35:42.640 |
blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, 00:35:55.940 |
May your word be handled in a way that honors you, 00:36:02.640 |
Give us eagerness, Lord God, to hear from you 00:36:06.640 |
and to apply and shape our hearts and our lives, Lord God, 00:36:31.540 |
because of all the restrictions at the hospital 00:36:56.340 |
And again, obviously I don't know his father, 00:37:12.740 |
but, you know, making sure that you guys prioritize, 00:37:15.740 |
you know, church, prioritize God, prioritize his word. 00:37:23.740 |
that he left behind to his family and children. 00:37:27.640 |
You know, we take anything that somebody says 00:37:31.840 |
because we know that it's not going to be frivolous, 00:37:39.240 |
This is the totality of the things that I know in life, 00:37:42.540 |
that this is something that I want you to have. 00:37:56.340 |
That's why we take the Great Commission very seriously, 00:38:01.540 |
at the end, he gave that commission to the church, 00:38:10.440 |
but the reason why we call that the Great Commission 00:38:17.540 |
And so since then, that's what drives the church. 00:38:45.240 |
"How you leave something is much more important 00:38:49.940 |
He said, "Much more important because how you leave 00:38:52.240 |
is what they will remember from that point on." 00:39:03.640 |
And typically, that's how human relationships are, you know? 00:39:25.740 |
at the end of his life, he's blessing his children 00:39:28.640 |
so that God's covenant blessing will be passed on. 00:39:37.240 |
What was most important to him is at the tail end, 00:39:41.040 |
and he wants to make sure that his children are blessed. 00:39:46.440 |
as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph," 00:40:04.240 |
He was trying to be recruited in order to put a curse 00:40:10.140 |
had a special blessing from God, and he refuses, 00:40:35.940 |
but I want to make sure that I die like him." 00:40:38.940 |
And so this phrase, again, this verse in verse 21, 00:40:46.040 |
that they were passing down from generation to generation. 00:40:55.240 |
Verse 21, "By faith, Jacob blessed Joseph's two sons." 00:41:01.040 |
Do you notice something interesting here, right? 00:41:15.340 |
the blessing really should go to his children, 00:41:30.040 |
but he says he blessed Joseph's two children. 00:41:46.040 |
and he's the one who should have gotten the double blessing. 00:41:53.140 |
"Because of his sin, he forfeited his birthright." 00:41:57.440 |
That he ended up sleeping with Jacob's concubine 00:42:03.140 |
and as a result of that, he lost his privilege. 00:42:21.140 |
the historical context behind which this takes place, 00:42:28.040 |
that is meant to give us a reminder and as example 00:42:39.740 |
that Joseph was told, 'Behold, your father is sick.' 00:42:42.340 |
So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, with him." 00:42:45.840 |
You notice the order of the names of Joseph's son, 00:42:50.840 |
Remember we said that whenever you see the order in something, 00:43:00.040 |
and that's why they're mentioned in that order. 00:43:03.040 |
But look with me in verse 5, chapter 48, verse 5. 00:43:06.340 |
"Now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt 00:43:20.340 |
So there's two things that we need to recognize. 00:43:24.540 |
"I'm going to treat them not as my grandchildren, 00:43:28.840 |
I'm going to bless them just as I will bless my other children, 00:43:33.740 |
So they're not going to get residuals from what you have. 00:43:37.040 |
I'm going to directly put my blessing upon them." 00:43:39.040 |
So that's the first thing that we need to recognize. 00:43:42.540 |
look at the order in which he mentions it, right? 00:44:05.440 |
"When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, 'Who are these?' 00:44:11.140 |
'They are my sons, whom God has given me here.' 00:44:14.140 |
So he said, 'Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.' 00:44:18.140 |
Now the eyes of Israel were so dim from age that he could not see." 00:44:29.040 |
and that whole drama of, you know, of Jacob scheming 00:44:35.440 |
because Isaac could not see and kind of tricking 00:44:42.640 |
I mean, his blindness may be genetic," right? 00:44:58.840 |
and behold, God has let me see your children as well.' 00:45:07.040 |
Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand, 00:45:15.840 |
toward Israel's right, and brought them close to him." 00:45:26.240 |
that his older son had the right-hand blessing 00:45:31.440 |
meant that he was going to get the double blessing 00:45:35.640 |
So he did it deliberately in order not to make the mistake, 00:45:39.240 |
right, not to make the same mistake that Isaac made, 00:45:44.840 |
My guess is Joseph probably heard the story, you know. 00:45:48.440 |
It was passed down how his father got the blessing. 00:45:50.640 |
He's like, "No, you know, obviously this runs in the family. 00:46:02.140 |
And so he brings them in that order, but in verse 14, 00:46:05.340 |
"But Israel stripped out his hand, right hand, 00:46:17.340 |
"Who was the younger and his left hand on Manasseh's head, 00:46:20.340 |
crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn. 00:46:25.340 |
'The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, 00:46:29.240 |
the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, 00:46:34.740 |
bless the lads, and may my name live on them, 00:46:38.340 |
and the names of my father Abraham and Isaac, 00:46:56.940 |
that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, 00:47:05.740 |
"It displeased him, and he grasped his father's hand 00:47:08.240 |
and removed it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. 00:47:12.440 |
So Joseph said to his father, 'Not so, my father, 00:47:26.440 |
they lived in contention and fighting all their life 00:47:39.340 |
And in order to say that, he said, "You did this wrong." 00:47:42.240 |
and he grabbed his father's hand to make it right. 00:47:45.440 |
And Jacob says, first, but his father refused and said, 00:48:07.740 |
He also will become a people, and he also will be great. 00:48:10.840 |
However, his younger brother shall be greater than he, 00:48:14.340 |
and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations. 00:48:21.940 |
saying, 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.' 00:48:38.240 |
You know, since we got switched, I'm going to switch you, too. 00:48:42.840 |
Clearly, Jacob knew something that God wanted him to do, 00:49:01.540 |
and part of the reason, it doesn't spell it out for us, 00:49:13.140 |
There's adulterers and murderers in that genealogy." 00:49:16.840 |
If we were to create a genealogy of our Lord and Savior, 00:49:21.540 |
that is not the genealogy that we would create, 00:49:25.040 |
because anybody looking from the outside is like, 00:49:27.040 |
"You worship a God who came from a prostitute, from a murderer?" 00:49:32.440 |
One of the clear things that we see in Scripture 00:49:35.140 |
is that God does not follow the natural pattern 00:49:40.440 |
and part of the reason why he does that is to make it clear 00:49:44.140 |
that his blessing does not come by man's effort. 00:49:50.440 |
It is God who is sovereign. He has his own plans. 00:49:53.640 |
He's not submitted to man's desires, but his will. 00:49:58.940 |
I think Joseph should have known from the very get-go 00:50:05.640 |
Ephraim's name means "double portion," right? 00:50:15.240 |
So I would think that Joseph, when he brought them, 00:50:17.840 |
he's like, "I hope they don't live up to their name." 00:50:22.240 |
Clearly, God had ordained this, that this is what he desired 00:50:25.440 |
in order so that his blessing would continue to go. 00:50:32.040 |
because if it was simply the blessing to pass 00:50:35.540 |
the double portion of his property and his name to his children, 00:50:42.440 |
Usually when the father or grandfather passes away, 00:50:45.840 |
you're waiting because they have a lifetime of accumulation of wealth 00:50:51.640 |
And usually the older has more money than the younger. 00:51:04.740 |
Remember, Jacob and his children barely survived through the famine 00:51:15.940 |
So Ephraim's two children were heirs of whatever Joseph had. 00:51:23.640 |
So humanly speaking, this blessing that's coming from Jacob 00:51:30.440 |
A double portion or triple portion or everything that you had 00:51:33.840 |
probably was just a drop in the bucket to the wealth that they had, 00:51:46.140 |
It was about the covenant blessing that was coming from God. 00:51:52.640 |
Far above any power that Pharaoh would have had 00:51:58.140 |
They're talking about the heir of what God has promised, God Almighty. 00:52:03.940 |
And Jacob understood that. Isaac understood that. 00:52:08.540 |
Now Joseph and his two children, Ephraim and Manasseh, 00:52:11.740 |
is standing in line to receive that blessing. 00:52:17.440 |
God, you could see God's sovereign hands when he says in verse 21, 00:52:21.540 |
"By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph." 00:52:33.440 |
He wasn't simply passing on material possession. 00:52:43.740 |
Why does Jacob get it? Why does Ephraim get it? 00:52:50.640 |
Jacob was, even though he was a schemer and he did all that he did, 00:52:55.440 |
Jacob's life was a constant reminder to us that God blesses those who desire it. 00:53:06.040 |
God gave it to him because he wanted it more than anything else. 00:53:13.040 |
And so God's blessing came down the line that, again, 00:53:20.740 |
And then here's an interesting thing that he says. 00:53:26.540 |
Now, in our, the way that we speak of worship, 00:53:29.940 |
you know, typically we say, "What time is your worship?" 00:53:32.440 |
Right? We have one at nine o'clock. We have one at eleven o'clock. 00:53:45.740 |
Right? And anything beyond that, you're frustrated. 00:53:51.240 |
Right? So when does it end? When does it begin? 00:53:56.840 |
Right? And that's the way we describe worship. 00:53:58.540 |
But the word for worship here, about 80 to 90% of the New Testament translation of the word worship 00:54:05.540 |
comes from this one particular word, proskuneo. 00:54:09.040 |
And the word proskuneo literally means to be prostrated, to bow down. 00:54:14.940 |
And the picture of this is clearly seen in the book of Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3 to 5, 00:54:22.340 |
when Isaiah is given a glimpse of God's glory in his throne. 00:54:26.840 |
And you have the three creatures who are circling around his throne, 00:54:30.840 |
day and night, declaring, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. 00:54:37.840 |
And they were praising God, and the foundations of the threshold trembled at the voice of him, 00:54:42.240 |
who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. 00:54:45.240 |
"Then I said," and this is Isaiah's response to seeing his glory, 00:54:50.740 |
"Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips, 00:54:57.740 |
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." 00:55:02.240 |
It doesn't describe that Isaiah bowed down and he was prostrated, 00:55:06.440 |
but you could tell by his words that's exactly what was going on. 00:55:10.240 |
Because he could not lift his eyes to see his glory, in fact, he was terrified. 00:55:14.940 |
Because something that was so magnificent, something that was all inspiring, 00:55:19.440 |
that he was in front of, and naturally he bowed down, said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined." 00:55:24.940 |
The word "proskoneo" literally means to be prostrated, to be bowed down, and leaned forward. 00:55:31.740 |
In fact, another meaning behind this is to lean forward to kiss. 00:55:36.040 |
To kiss the feet of somebody who is much bigger than you, much higher than you. 00:55:41.340 |
I think we see this spontaneous worship, again, in sports arenas, 00:55:47.540 |
or maybe you're watching something that's so awe-inspiring. 00:55:50.740 |
As an example, if somebody, let's say LeBron James or Kobe Bryant, whoever you're a fan of, 00:55:55.840 |
comes and he does a double, triple flip, back flip, behind the back, 00:56:01.540 |
and he does a reverse dunk with five guys guarding him. 00:56:06.040 |
As an example, I'm just trying to exaggerate for the purpose of the illustration. 00:56:10.240 |
And you see something magnificent, and what do you see? 00:56:12.940 |
A lot of times his other players or the fan that's watching this are so affected by what he did, 00:56:21.140 |
you see them getting up, what do they do? Raise their hand, what do they do? 00:56:29.240 |
That's what we see. This word "proskuneo" is a description of that. 00:56:34.840 |
It's a description of when you're confronted with something so bigger than you, beyond you, 00:56:41.240 |
that all you can do spontaneously, you burst out, it's like, "Oh my gosh, we're not worthy. We're not worthy." 00:56:49.940 |
Again, it is not wrong to say, you know, our gathering of worship at 9 o'clock and 11 o'clock, 00:56:55.740 |
but when we limit, when that's our whole idea of understanding, 00:56:59.840 |
it is a trivial understanding of what the Bible teaches about worship. 00:57:03.640 |
Worship is something when our eyes become open to His glory, 00:57:07.640 |
and we recognize there's something so much more tremendously above that you and I could possibly comprehend, 00:57:14.140 |
and we spontaneously respond in worship and adoration and awe and fear, all at the same time. 00:57:24.740 |
And that's how surrender happens. Surrender is not us trying so hard to make Jesus my Lord. 00:57:31.640 |
Surrendering happens as you recognize He knows better than you. 00:57:36.540 |
He's much bigger than you. He's much more important than you. 00:57:40.140 |
And so when you are confronted by that, you end up surrendering. 00:57:44.840 |
You recognize you know nothing. There's nothing that you have. 00:57:47.740 |
There's nothing that you can say. There's nothing that you understand that goes beyond what you have just seen. 00:57:56.240 |
That's the word that is described when He says after He blesses them, 00:58:05.140 |
Now, we have to understand when it says He worshiped God, right? 00:58:18.940 |
Humanly speaking, we're going to look at that and say, "Well, that guy shouldn't be getting the blessing. 00:58:25.040 |
However you look at the circumstance, he gets the blessing. 00:58:28.740 |
He comes out and remember the dream that he has, the Jacob's Ladder? 00:58:32.140 |
He sees the angels going back and forth and God speaks to him, "What is this?" 00:58:35.140 |
And then God reiterates the blessing given to him. 00:58:38.840 |
Genesis 28, 13 to 15, "And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, 00:58:42.740 |
'I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie. 00:58:48.540 |
I will give it to you and to your descendants. Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, 00:58:53.340 |
and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. 00:58:57.940 |
And in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 00:59:01.340 |
Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, 00:59:06.940 |
for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.'" 00:59:11.840 |
Now, even though he schemed, even though he manipulated, and even though he lied, 00:59:17.640 |
because he desired it more than anything else, God blesses him and he reiterates, "You have my blessing." 00:59:25.940 |
If I heard this, I would automatically think, "I'm going to just start any business." 00:59:36.440 |
I would automatically assume that I'm going to have 70,000 children. 00:59:42.740 |
That you're going to have triplets, because you've got to populate the world, right? 00:59:48.940 |
I would assume that you're going to be the owner of the largest piece of land. 00:59:53.040 |
It's just going to plop down, that you would expect that. 01:00:01.040 |
In fact, Jacob lives most of his life afraid of his older brother, Esau. 01:00:06.640 |
He's constantly running in fear, because his brother was so angry that he got ripped off. 01:00:12.940 |
And every opportunity he had, and that reason, like, after he gets the blessing, he has to go run. 01:00:19.740 |
Remember what happens after that, after the Jacob's Ladder? 01:00:28.840 |
He falls in love and he has to work to get her. 01:00:32.640 |
And that story is mentioned in Genesis 29, 17-20. 01:00:49.140 |
He falls in love with Rachel because she was beautiful of form and face. 01:01:01.040 |
Why does the author mention that she has poor sight? 01:01:05.040 |
Most commentators believe it's a euphemism to say, "There wasn't much to look at." 01:01:18.740 |
This is the circumstance behind what happened, right? 01:01:22.240 |
So again, next time you go on a date and you come back and your friends ask, "How was she?" 01:01:26.940 |
Instead of saying she has a great personality, just say, "Her eyes were weak." 01:01:33.740 |
And hopefully they read the Bible, they know what you mean, right? 01:01:40.140 |
But he falls in love with Rachel because she was beautiful. 01:01:43.640 |
Now Jacob loved Rachel, so he said, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter, 01:01:49.740 |
And Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than to give her to another man. 01:01:56.440 |
So Jacob served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him but a few days because 01:02:09.640 |
If at the end of seven years I can labor and live like an indentured servant, if I can 01:02:21.200 |
And then on his marriage day, Laban, her father, tricks him and sends in Leah because he's 01:02:28.580 |
probably concerned because her eyesight was not good. 01:02:32.900 |
That maybe this is the best chance for him to get his daughter married off. 01:02:40.140 |
So he tricks him and has him lay with Leah instead. 01:02:45.880 |
And when morning comes, he said, "Well, you took Leah." 01:02:54.920 |
And just simply says, "It is not done in our land to have the younger marry before the 01:03:06.960 |
It was like every year, every day, it's like one more day, one more month. 01:03:12.160 |
You know, can you imagine on the seventh day, the last day, boom, I did it. 01:03:21.400 |
Not for Rachel because of the bad-eyed girl, right? 01:03:27.440 |
Can you imagine what the next seven years was like for him? 01:03:31.560 |
If seven years went by fast, the next seven years probably was like torture. 01:03:37.280 |
Bitterness and anger every single day, another day because I got tricked. 01:03:43.060 |
This is after God blessed him and said, "You're going to multiply. 01:03:47.480 |
Everybody else is going to be blessed because of you." 01:03:49.800 |
And now he's 14 years in labor because he got tricked. 01:03:53.200 |
And then after the 14 years are done, he's ready to go. 01:04:01.400 |
So for 20 years, he's living as an indentured servant after he received the promise of God. 01:04:08.520 |
Well, after the 20 years, you would think that it would be done, but you know what happens, 01:04:15.000 |
After 20 years, there's another disaster that happens. 01:04:19.360 |
One of his daughters gets raped and his other sons get angry. 01:04:26.040 |
And that family, they're much more powerful and richer than he is. 01:04:29.320 |
And so again, he has to pack up all his bags and he has to leave and run away to Bethel. 01:04:38.600 |
And he says, "Oh, the suffering is behind me. 01:04:45.080 |
And because Joseph has a dream that God had ordained that blessing was going to come through 01:04:53.600 |
His brothers get angry and they get jealous and they beat him and then they end up selling 01:05:00.760 |
So he loses his loved child most of his life. 01:05:15.600 |
Now, you would think at the end of his life, he's like, "Well, I'm going to bless you." 01:05:19.800 |
He's like, "I don't know if you want this blessing." 01:05:23.240 |
Because after I got this blessing, you know what happened to me? 01:05:25.480 |
I don't know if I want to pass on this blessing. 01:05:37.520 |
What was it that he knew that caused him to be prostrated? 01:05:43.440 |
By this time, what Jacob knew, that the blessing was far beyond land. 01:05:53.360 |
It was about the sovereign God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and now Jacob. 01:05:59.160 |
The promise that he made was going to be passed down. 01:06:04.040 |
In fact, the time that has passed between the initial promise to Abraham to the passing 01:06:10.120 |
of the baton to Joseph's children, 200 years have passed. 01:06:15.360 |
No land, no nation, and they're not the superpower. 01:06:20.200 |
How many years pass, more pass, before they even enter their first step into the promised 01:06:30.000 |
So after he blesses, if Jacob's life was hard, after he blesses Abraham and Manasseh, 01:06:49.200 |
I would scheme to get the other brother to be blessed. 01:06:53.960 |
I would make sure that he gets it, even if I was the older brother. 01:07:00.160 |
Hebrews chapter 11, 39 to 40 says this, "And all these, having gained approval through 01:07:06.200 |
their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better 01:07:13.000 |
for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect." 01:07:18.280 |
At some point in their journey, they realize it wasn't about the physical promised land. 01:07:30.300 |
It was about God's plan of redemption for mankind. 01:07:34.400 |
And so his blessing that he's passing on to them is that God of the universe who blessed 01:07:42.040 |
You know what's interesting is that he proscene, okay, that's why he worshiped, because they 01:07:50.800 |
They saw a blessing much far beyond this physical world, that even in the greatest tragedy, 01:08:01.160 |
And when he recognized that, he was bowing down and worshiping. 01:08:03.760 |
You know what's interesting is after he worships, it ends with leaning on the top of his staff. 01:08:13.040 |
And again, this is why inductive Bible study is so important, because when you just read 01:08:16.960 |
it through, you're going to say, "Oh, he was blessed and he had a staff." 01:08:21.320 |
And I don't know why that's there, but it's there. 01:08:24.720 |
And I was wrestling with this all week, right? 01:08:26.400 |
And I was trying to look at commentaries and listen to sermons and going back and forth. 01:08:32.200 |
And so, you know, some people will say that, you know, the staff in the Bible oftentimes 01:08:39.240 |
So in Psalm 23, verse 4, it says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of 01:08:46.720 |
So a shepherd would hold his staff basically as a weapon. 01:08:51.400 |
So if the wolves come in, he would use that to protect and sometimes guide, right? 01:08:55.880 |
Guide the sheep to go to discipline and get them to the right place. 01:09:04.360 |
Why would he worship and then he leaned on his staff? 01:09:11.400 |
Think about what that staff meant particularly to Jacob, right? 01:09:17.360 |
Think about what that staff meant specifically to Jacob. 01:09:26.340 |
For Jacob, it wasn't just because he was a shepherd and in the middle of shepherding, 01:09:30.040 |
he had to have that staff to protect his animals. 01:09:35.960 |
That staff was his actual crutch because after all that scheming, at the end, he was about 01:09:44.000 |
to meet his brother Esau and he knew that Esau wanted to kill him. 01:09:48.160 |
And so he encounters the angel of God and he wrestled, remember that? 01:09:56.680 |
He said, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me, until you make things okay." 01:10:10.240 |
God could have just like get away from me and then that would have been it, right? 01:10:22.120 |
God dislocates his hip joint to remind him that this is the day that you wrestled with 01:10:31.920 |
And so when they took his hip joint out, he had a limp all his life. 01:10:41.280 |
And so God did that deliberately to remind him. 01:10:45.340 |
And the nation of Israel isn't called Abraham, isn't called Isaac, it's called Israel. 01:10:53.960 |
In fact, this event was so significant in Genesis chapter 32, verse 32, it says, "Therefore 01:10:59.920 |
to this day, the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket 01:11:04.840 |
of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh in the sinew of the hip." 01:11:13.960 |
All the things that he experienced, all the scheming and his business savvy and all of 01:11:19.880 |
that he did, God made him limp all his life to remind him, right? 01:11:27.600 |
That the blessing came to you because you contended with God. 01:11:32.620 |
Because you sought after me, you wrestled and you said, "I'm not going to let you go." 01:11:36.560 |
And then he named the whole nation, all the descendants after that. 01:11:40.600 |
So that every time they say, "Why are we called Israel? 01:11:49.640 |
He's the one who started, he's the father of faith. 01:11:55.880 |
Isaac's the one who was going to be offered." 01:12:08.200 |
So that they would tell their children, it's because your grandfather, great, great, great 01:12:17.460 |
He wanted the blessing from God more than anything else in his life. 01:12:23.200 |
And so that staff that he was leaning on is a reminder of all that journey. 01:12:29.960 |
Because every time he took a step, it was a reminder that the greatest thing that he 01:12:41.440 |
That's a consistent lesson that we see all throughout scripture. 01:12:45.680 |
Whenever something goes wrong, we want to fix it. 01:12:47.360 |
If we do this and organize this, we have the right people, we have the right finances, 01:12:51.120 |
right program, right teaching, right discipleship. 01:12:53.800 |
If we do all of this, we can get it right and make a church and do all of this. 01:12:59.560 |
And at the end, when it works, what do we do? 01:13:06.360 |
And all of that, if you're not careful, is man scheming. 01:13:10.800 |
That somehow if we're smart enough, if we're good enough, if we have experience enough, 01:13:14.840 |
if I know enough, if I'm talented enough, that somehow the blessing of God is going 01:13:22.800 |
Remember what Jesus said to his disciples before he left? 01:13:25.760 |
You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me. 01:13:38.600 |
Because you cannot bear fruit until you depend on me. 01:13:47.920 |
That sometimes even Bible study is our scheming. 01:13:51.480 |
If we know more, if we study more, if I exposit more, if I remember more, that somehow I'm 01:14:06.660 |
When we recognize with all the scheming that I had, he could not shake his brother. 01:14:12.280 |
All the effort, all the money that he had could not quench his brother's anger toward 01:14:18.320 |
And he knew that the only hope that he had is if God would protect him. 01:14:32.300 |
Education of mankind is not something that you and I do because we're clever. 01:14:37.960 |
That if you get the right gifted person who is rightly trained and give them the right 01:14:42.240 |
education, read the right books, connect them with the right people, people will be saved. 01:14:50.660 |
The human arrogance of thinking that God is looking for smart people to do his work. 01:15:01.320 |
So, the greatest, greatest place where God is always taking his people is for us to surrender. 01:15:14.160 |
And when I come before God and contend with God and surrender to God, begging God, asking 01:15:43.920 |
So in this short verse reveals to us his whole life, how a schemer became a worshiper of 01:16:08.360 |
Again, as we invite our worship team to come, let's take a few minutes to pray before God. 01:16:21.480 |
When's the last time you can honestly say that I wrestled with God? 01:16:29.200 |
Is it just something that we just kind of prayer or something that we just kind of sprinkle 01:16:36.840 |
And even though we say glory to God, but in the back of our minds, we're taking most of 01:16:45.160 |
Let's take some time to really come before God. 01:16:47.080 |
And there might be tons of things that we don't understand. 01:16:52.560 |
But I say that I don't understand Lord, but I believe in you. 01:16:57.360 |
So again, this morning to commit to contend with God, that again, that the faith of Jacob 01:22:04.760 |
♪ My guilt and cross laid on your shoulders ♪ 01:22:34.760 |
♪ You love, you love, brave and ever conquering ♪ 01:23:32.760 |
"Oh God, you are my God, I shall seek you earnestly. 01:23:36.760 |
"My soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you. 01:23:39.760 |
"In a dry and weary land where there is no water, 01:23:47.760 |
"Because your loving kindness is better than life, 01:23:56.760 |
"My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, 01:24:00.760 |
"and my mouth offers praises with joyful lips." 01:24:24.760 |
to be near you, even in a dry and weary land. 01:24:30.760 |
so that we may be satisfied in you and you alone. 01:24:33.760 |
Open our eyes, Lord God, that we may see your glory. 01:24:40.760 |
that even in that small faith that we would surrender to you. 01:24:46.760 |
help us, Lord God, to be the aroma of Christ. 01:26:14.760 |
All right, again, if we can ask this side to go out that door