Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] She finds your place in Genesis 49.
[00:00:09] I'm not. I don't. I don't mean to put words in Casey's mouth in a sense of correction, but I know one thing he meant to mention about those families who are considering being part of the other gathering in our church growth plan is there are other families who are still praying through the process who haven't yet gotten discernment on exactly what they should do. And I just. I say that so we can be praying for each other, not as a corrective to Casey. I just know he would. He would have wanted that mentioned. Amen.
[00:00:44] You know, if something doesn't break a cycle, it's just going to keep being the way it is. One of the definitions of insanity that I genuinely appreciate is if you know the definition of sanity being doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get a different result, that. That's insanity, you know? You know, sometimes it sort of manifests in a simple and funny way. Like you. You go to the doctor and you say, every time I do this, it hurts. He said, well, stop doing that. You know, sometimes you need that thing fixed, and sometimes you need it fixed, and you don't know you need it fixed.
[00:01:22] Sometimes that's where pain is a real blessing. Say, man, something's not right. Emotional pain.
[00:01:29] And I'm not picking on anybody. This is my opening illustration, no matter who. I got to say, but, like, some of y'all probably are upset that Duke lost last night.
[00:01:41] Really, My team season was over sometime around December, so I had a lot of time to work with my feelings. But I remember one time I was watching my team play football, and I literally threw a shoe at the tv.
[00:01:57] And, I mean, I was angry. And it was at that moment I said, man, something. Something has to shift in me. I. I care about this way, way, way, way, way, way too much. This thing is in my spirit in a way that a thing like this shouldn't even be in your spirit.
[00:02:13] So sometimes we need pain to tell us something's wrong. And it isn't always physical. Sometimes it's emotional pain. Sometimes it's spiritual pain. And the reason I say this is because tonight, tonight a word's gonna come down from God through Jacob about his sons. And some of his sons are gonna hear some tough stuff, and they're gonna stay in that tough place until something.
[00:02:42] Something shifts, something changes. And I relate to this. I relate to this. I lived the picture of insanity for many years. I kept doing all these things to try to find peace in My heart. And none of those things were ever going to be the agents of peace. None of them are going to be the tools of peace. And that's just crazy. You know, like, just to be transparent, at one point I. I was ministering to all my pain, all of my pain through drugs and alcohol.
[00:03:12] And it worked every night.
[00:03:16] It worked every night, but it would disappear every morning. And then usually I had something to add to it with what I'd done while I was drunk, you know, or maybe not what I'd done, but the futility I felt. And that's the definition of insanity. And I lived like that for years. Years.
[00:03:34] So I think the people of God need to know that sometimes pain is a blessing.
[00:03:40] Pain is a gift from God. And we're going to hear some, some words of destiny come down to some of these guys. And then if you follow through the course of the Bible, these, these tribes, these people groups, they simply, many of them didn't break out of the molds they were in. And some did. And then of course, there were individuals who broke out of that. So the shaping of destiny in the view of God, it can be reshaped. Amen. It can be reordered. And I can tell you that in a very personal way, I know for sure I would have been justly judged and rightly sent to hell. But now my whole of eternity has been shifted in Christ.
[00:04:25] So if in the course of tonight you hear some things about these tribes, these families, and you know, you might say, man, the shoe is fitting, I'm wearing it. Right? We should start by saying that in the goodness of God, in the goodness of God, he is a chain breaker. He is a curse curer, he is a deliverer. And where the person hears a word from the Lord to come out, to be rescued, the power of God meets them at the word of God. The second thing I want to say by way of introduction is you reap what you sow.
[00:05:06] Now, I work with young people and sometimes when they start talking about karma, I want to throat punch them because they're usually speaking about it two ways. Wrong. One, it's a pagan principle. And if you have any sort of Christian worldview, dispense from your language this pagan language. Just get rid of it. Secondly, karma's about your next life in that pagan religion. Karma is about your next life. Whatever you do here, you're going to reap or be cursed in your next life. We don't believe in that next light stuff, right? Amen. We call that hogwash. You know why we call it that. That's what it is.
[00:05:48] But a lot of people talk about it like somebody's getting karma. No, there is a Christian principle that covers this. You know what it is, right? You reap what you sow. There are, as we like to say, consequences and repercussions. And in. In God's economy, the actions of individuals often affect the lives of their descendants. And if God doesn't rescue us from the cycles of our ancestry, we are often doomed to. To repeat it, because that's where we learn life from.
[00:06:26] Sometimes this stuff is very easy to see.
[00:06:30] Families can pass off things like a overworldly concern with sports.
[00:06:38] Amen.
[00:06:40] Sometimes families can pass on worry, generation to generation.
[00:06:46] Sometimes families can pass off ideologies such as making what should be necessary and required simply that which is optional. And if you want me to spell that out, making the things of the Lord optional rather than required.
[00:07:03] And that creates strongholds in families that cross generations. I could go on and on. In my case, aggressiveness, drunkenness, waste, bad stewardship, foul language. There is a litany of things that were the norm, being passed from me by my father, taught to me unintentionally. I was discipled in the ways of the world because intentionally I wasn't discipled in the ways of the Lord. The default position is as a learner. And we often learn from the generations around us. So tonight, Jacob's going to drop a hard word on some of these boys.
[00:07:44] But the good news is our God is a God who not only meets us in our struggles, he is willing to deliver us from our foolishness. Genesis, chapter 49, beginning at verse number one. Then Jacob called his sons and said, gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come. Important distinction. What shall happen. If you haven't read your bulletin yet, Joe really spells out that distinction. What shall happen to you in days to come? Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel. Your father, Reuben, you are my firstborn, my mind and the first fruits of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power, power unstable as water. You shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch.
[00:08:39] Simeon and Levi are brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. Let my soul come not into their counsel, O my glory. Be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce and Their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down before you. Stop sub sermon real quick. Do you see a shift here? We got to get more into this in a little bit. Do you see a shift? Who have they been bowing down to?
[00:09:22] Joseph. Remember, Joseph had two dreams about this. Do you see a shift? Now? The brothers are not.
[00:09:29] They've been delivered physically. But out of Judah will come the Eternal Deliverer. And your brother shall bow down at you. Judah. That's a cool shift.
[00:09:39] Judah is a lion's club cub. Verse nine says not a club. That's a different thing. The lion's club helps people with vision. Judah is a lion's cub.
[00:09:49] From the prey. My son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion. And as a lioness who dares rob, rouse him. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
[00:10:11] Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. He has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than wine and his teeth whiter than milk. You gotta love an Old Testament compliment.
[00:10:29] Hey girl, you look so good that your teeth is whiter than milk. Praise the Lord. Verse 13. Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea. He shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. Issachar is a strong donkey.
[00:10:46] Just great Old Testament compliments, Casey. You're just a strong donkey, bro.
[00:10:54] Crouching between the sheepfolds, he saw that a resting place was good and that the land was pleasant. So he bowed his. He bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor. Dan shalt judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path that bites the horse's heels so that his rider falls backwards. I wait for your salvation, O Lord. Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid in their heels. Asher's food shall be rich, and he shall yield royal delicacies. Naphtali is a doe let loose that bears beautiful thorns. Joseph is a fruitful bough. A fruitful bough. By a spring, his branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
[00:11:57] By the God of your Father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of your Father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents. Up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. I like that one. I kind of want to be in the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning devouring the prey, and at evening dividing the spoil. And then verse 28. All these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed him. Blessing each with the blessing. Read it together suitable to him. Let's pray, Father.
[00:12:48] In a modern ear, this seems like a weird word. To the ancient ear, it was something to receive and consider.
[00:13:00] May we hear this with ancient ears, for surely you have a word of revelation to us through this word of revelation to them in Jesus I pray. Amen and amen. Let's go very quickly through this passage through Jacob, speaking to and about his son. God reveals the future. This is really important, brothers and sisters. God does not predict the future.
[00:13:28] Amen.
[00:13:30] God reveals the future. He sees it all now.
[00:13:34] I'm not. I genuinely. My father in law loves, loves, loves Duke. I love my father in law. I'm not trying to beat on anybody. David John Blair. I'm not right. I predicted all the way Duke would win this thing. Yep. Tim's wrong on one bracket. I had Florida. I still might be right, but I doubt it.
[00:13:55] I totally believe Duke. We're not talking about the failed predictions of men, the faulty predictions of men, the false predictions of men. This is a revelation.
[00:14:08] This is an oracle. And Joseph. Excuse. Excuse me. Jacob calls his sons together and says, boys, listen to me.
[00:14:18] On his deathbed, he has a word from the Lord.
[00:14:23] It's very much like Noah spoke in Genesis 9:25 through 27, when he, if you'll remember, he cursed Ham and he blessed Shem and Japheth. It's very much like that. Secondly, let's see this. Choices have consequences. Let the church say Amen.
[00:14:44] And Reuben's choices cost him preeminence among his brothers. This starts out with praise for Reuben. Reuben, you were my firstborn. You were my strength. You showed the whole world that God is With me.
[00:15:00] And if you'll allow me to put it in some of my typical McGee's meal language.
[00:15:06] But you messed up.
[00:15:08] You messed up so bad. You messed up at a fundamental level in your first turn in relations with men. You didn't honor your father. Now, don't you? If you can, I'll mention this any old time. Matthew Acrey encouraged me the other day. I made a small mention of this and he texted me two pictures right away. If you think about the ten Commandments, the first four are an initiation into that vertical relationship. The last five are an initiation into your horizontal relationships. The silly example I'll give is like, if you murder your friend, it's probably going to affect your relationship, right?
[00:15:52] What's in the middle of that Commandment number five, Honor your father and mother. It is your parents who are called. It is your parents who are responsible to be the example and to initiate the vertical relationship for you. Somebody say amen. And if like me, you didn't get that, break the chain and give that. Let me say that again. If like me, you didn't get that, break the chain and give that. And it is your parents.
[00:16:25] It is your parents who are supposed to be initiating you to God. Honoring neighbor, helping behavior on the horizontal plane. Sometimes we don't understand how bad what Reuben did. Reuben is not relating to God or the world properly because of this gross violation against his own father. And so what does God say to Reuben? You know, Reuben, I had birth wise positioned you to be preeminent. You have behavior wise received consequences.
[00:17:02] Wow. Now I want to dispense of the notion that Reuben has lost his salvation. You don't know why I dispense of that. Because he's being promised a place in the promised land. He's in the covenant people of God, but he has lost a place of preeminence. Brothers and sisters, it's not popular preaching, but it's biblical preaching. There are consequences and repercussions.
[00:17:27] There are so many things that would disqualify a preacher, for example. So many things. Not that I'm saying we have any preeminence in worth, but God does give us a preeminence in role. We are to rightly divide the word of truth. And if we prove that we in our character, in our behavior, do not respect the things of God, do not respect the people of God, do not handle rightly the word of God. If we do not carry our character and live out behavior that is acceptable and good in the sight of God, we become disqualified from this preeminent ministry.
[00:18:11] What would the apostle James say to us? Not many of you should. What, become teachers. Why?
[00:18:18] What's James say? You will be judged with a stricter judgment. This is just an illustration, Reuben, by birthright you were preeminent by behavior. There's consequences and repercussions.
[00:18:33] Thirdly, through Simeon and Levi, we see how anarchy and violence are incompatible with spiritual leadership.
[00:18:42] Now, I'm going to use a phrase here as an illustration that might be new to you, but I. I'm an unapologetic Anglophile. What's that mean? I'm interested in things that have to do with England and Scotland and stuff like that. Why? Because that's where my ancestry comes from. I find it interesting. I think if all of my family had come from France, I would still be an Anglophile.
[00:19:05] That's a whole nother story. And I don't blame the person who might be, you know, an Asianophile, someone who's a cinephile, someone who's interested in the Chinese heritage. So I'm an Anglophile. You got that? I'm an Anglophile.
[00:19:23] Unapologetically, I'm an Anglophile. So I know an inordinate amount about the kings and queens of England. My nerd level on this would make you throw up.
[00:19:38] And it's amazing, if you ever studied the English kings and queens, how some of them lost their position.
[00:19:48] What's interesting is none of them lost their positions by violence directly, except one, and that was Charles I, who was upset by Oliver Cromwell. And they wound up beheading their king. And their prime charge against him was he was violent against his own people.
[00:20:08] Isn't that crazy? There's all kinds of intrigue. Probably some murderers, some. All these crazy stories in English history.
[00:20:17] We know from the American system that we've had presidents who have lost their position because they were assassinated. But we only so far has had one who is. Who has resigned from his position because it was quite likely he was going to be thrown from his position.
[00:20:41] And ironically, I have all of my own reasons why. That's my favorite president, Richard Nixon.
[00:20:47] Not because he was bad, just because he was interesting. I'm a history nerd, guys. You say, preacher, what are you getting at?
[00:20:54] God through Jacob says to Simeon and Reuben, boys, in the pecking order, y'all were two and three.
[00:21:02] But your rebellious spirit, that took things into your own hands and with your hands, your violent actions, guess what?
[00:21:10] You're incompatible with spiritual leadership amongst the people of God. And it's going to cost you he says to them, you know, weapons of violence are swords. He says, listen, I don't even want my soul to be advised by you kind of people. You know, that's a major put down. That's sort of a wild thing to say. I was encouraging one of my friends this week. They had, they had been in a meeting with some people and those people were mean to them. And, and, you know, so, you know, I just wanted to cut somebody. And I was feeling all fierce with my friend and, and I just told him, I said, listen, listen, you would never ask for advice from these people, so don't accept their criticism in your spirit.
[00:22:01] And that's, that's a sub sermon. Y'all don't accept the weight of criticism from people. You would never ask for the gold of advice from.
[00:22:10] You know, Jacob is throwing major shade. He says, I don't even want y'all boys giving me no advice.
[00:22:16] That's how bad these qualities are. And brothers and sisters, if you want to talk about something right here, if you have rebellion against God, that manifests in violence toward people, violence in attitude, violence in action, it is a critical component of, that we should repent of if any of us have this issue. So Simeon and Levi are not compatible spiritual leadership, then we get to Judah and I'm going to go ahead and spoiler alert. Verses 8 through 12 are the most important part of today's passage through Judah, who is far from perfect, yet the first to be praiseworthy among the sons we see taking responsibility is critical to leadership. Now, I won't go back and put the words up on the screen. Let me just call into mind two episodes. You remember that episode with Judah and Tamar?
[00:23:11] You don't, I can tell you. I see. Michaela does. Mikayla, thank you. Because I'm still grossed out by it.
[00:23:17] Judah was practicing this, this, this foolishness in his. In his reserve, in the way he was treating his daughter in law. Not, not giving her fulfillment of marriage through younger sons. And, and she, she dresses up as a lady of the evening and becomes the seed bed is filled by her father in law, Judah. Okay, okay, okay. In Tim's book. No.
[00:23:49] But somehow Tamar had received the wisdom of God that she had been placed in a position of importance and that her position, personal fruitfulness, was critical to the, to the. To the plan God had for the people. Did I say that sufficiently?
[00:24:08] Thank you. And so what was Judah's word about? Tamar said, she's more righteous than I am. In other words, in that moment, he's owning that he's been wrong.
[00:24:20] Then later on, when they're confronting Joseph, it's Judah, he says, we've been wrong, man. We've been wrong. I want you to see that this is a critical component.
[00:24:30] God is so quick to show mercy. God is so quick to show compassion. God is so quick to spread grace abroad.
[00:24:39] But it doesn't come to the willful, to the rebellious, to the disrespectful, to the defiler. It comes to that one who will take responsibility before the living God. Let the church say Amen. And there's this important word in these verses. And literally we could do a sermon per verse for, for each verse because of how important each implication is. But let me sum them up like this.
[00:25:05] The Messiah is being promised through Judah's line. This is that promise to Abraham.
[00:25:13] You know Jacob's Granddaddy in Genesis 12 when he says, all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you. And it's like saying, hey, Reuben, you're not in first place anymore. Simeon, you're not moving from second to first.
[00:25:29] You're not even staying in second.
[00:25:32] Levi, you're. You're not going from third to first. You're, you're not even staying in third. It is Judah who has given the blessing of the promise. Now those words to Tamar ring out across eternity. She is more righteous than I am.
[00:25:49] Judah, the fourth son will be the Son through whom the scepter of eternity will be passed. It is Judah's line, who will give the world the Messiah. This is such a beautiful truth. And it says, his rule will continue.
[00:26:10] The scepter will never part from his hand. Isn't that that beautiful?
[00:26:16] This language gets used directly about Jesus, the fulfillment of this in the New Testament. It gets used in Isaiah, in Zechariah, in Ezekiel, over and over again. They saw this promise to Judah. It was meant by God and fulfilled by Jesus. This is a beautiful, beautiful promise. This is a beautiful, beautiful revelation. This prophecy God holds to it.
[00:26:48] Judah's line doesn't remain perfect. Amen. They sure don't. They are some jacked up jokers at some points.
[00:26:56] But God holds true to his promise. Fifthly and quickly, through his many other sons, God uses Jacob to give prophecies concerning his people. Now I want to walk through all these, go to life together this week. Do what? Walk through these. Grab your study Bible, look these up, trace out some of the implications. But you saw it in verses 13 through 21. And then in 27, he speaks to each son and to each son he has something to say that is a. It's not a prediction. God's not guessing. It is a revelation. It is a prophecy. It is in some ways a promise. And each one of these is very interesting. I man, I am fighting the urge to speak on all of them, but I stopped fighting the urge to look at my watch, and I probably shouldn't.
[00:27:51] And then you can start tracing these through the Old Testament into the New Testament. God was faithful. What God revealed here, God remained true to. And there's something important here for us to see. Not only through his many sons, God uses Jacob to give prophecies concerning his people. Guess what he also does? He speaks to all God's people. All God's people.
[00:28:19] And I want you to hold on to this, because when it comes back to this, I am intentionally planting a seed in your mind for the end of the message. But do go study these. Let me sample two just to show you how I find them interesting. He speaks to dan in verses 16 through 18. He calls Dan a serpent. By the way, they supplied, for example, just one example of the tribe of Dan. They supplied one of the most famous judges, Samson.
[00:28:48] What he is saying to them is, the tribe of Dan, the people of Dan would often be used to judge the people. And that's not to pronounce judgment in the sense that they had the power to say, off to jail, off to hell.
[00:29:04] It's judgment in the sense to say, this ain't right. And God sent me to tell you it ain't right and to do something to help you get out of this. That's what those judges did. Dan. Dan would often be a troublesome tribe. And I don't think there's any other more appropriate thing to call them than a serpent. Let me tell you how I know this.
[00:29:27] So I don't know if y'all have heard of it. There's this thing called testosterone. Y'all ever heard of that? All guys are naturally equipped with it. It means without any provocation, we have the capacity to behave like idiots.
[00:29:44] Back in the 80s, when we were over at Car Lake, some of us around here call it Bugs Island. We're out by Grassy Creek. I was. I was walking from the water onto the shore, and there was a moccasin. And I caught it and started playing with it.
[00:30:02] And I got bit.
[00:30:05] And I didn't take three or four. Oh, I got bit. And then I threw it on the ground and stomped it to death because I was mad, you know, because just, you know, whenever you play with creation, consequences and repercussions.
[00:30:18] I took about three steps and I became violently ill. Now let me put that in context. I haven't become violently ill but five or six times in my entire life that that snake's poison went to work on me big time.
[00:30:33] It was hilarious. They took me to a hospital. Hospital's like, what happened? Got bit by amoxin. How do we know it's amoxin? Because I was holding it.
[00:30:42] They wanted proof that it was a moccasin. I was like, well, it's in the mud. I stomped it to death on the banks of the lake. They said, can somebody go back and get it? I said, you people are idiots. I know what bit me. I know what I need.
[00:30:56] I was becoming dehydrated and usually they want a blood test or approve, but they believed me and they gave me something called an anti venin, which trips me out. It's not anti venom, it's anti venin. Do you know what you make anti venin from? Anybody know from venom?
[00:31:22] As a matter of fact, my 10 year old side hustle when I lived in Granbury, Texas was selling rattlesnakes. I caught and sold rattlesnakes. They made stuff out of the skins, they ate the meat, they sold the venom.
[00:31:35] It was better than picking up aluminum cans, I can tell you that.
[00:31:39] It's a true story.
[00:31:41] And so what I had to get was the old saying, the hair of the dog had bit me. Well, later on in the wilderness, the people of God, they ain't listening real good.
[00:31:55] So God sends a bunch of poisonous snakes to them and they are getting bitten and they're dying. And what does he do? He says, I'll tell you what I want you to do.
[00:32:05] I want you to get a snake made out of bronze. I want you to fix it to a pole, and if you want to be healed, I want you to look upon the image of that which bit you.
[00:32:21] It's so appropriate that this metaphor is here. Sometimes Dan was helpful, sometimes Dan was hurtful. And this is the nature of people.
[00:32:39] What do we need? We need to look upon that one who became sin so that he could pay for sin. Dan is calling him a viper is a cool illustration. I use so much time that I'm not going to do a second one. I really want to talk about Benjamin being a ravenous wolf. It is so cool. I want to talk about. Oh man, all these are so cool, but we're not going to do it. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:33:07] You say afterward the the Post show. Okay, yeah, I'm just saying what God is revealing through Jacob, you can carry it out through the Scriptures. And if you love studying the Bible, it will delight you to trace these things out. God was it Joe. God wasn't predicting, he was prophesying.
[00:33:29] Thus saith the Lord, Jacob, tell your boys consequences and repercussions. And this is what's coming in your life.
[00:33:40] And I want us to hold onto that thought. We're coming back to it all God's people. Okay, hold on to that thought.
[00:33:47] Jacob reveals that ultimately it is those who overcome in the Messiah who will receive the greatest blessing. Very quickly. Look back at verse 22, if you would. It says, joseph is a fruitful bow. A fruitful bow. By spring, on and on it goes, commending Joseph, pronouncing blessing on Joseph. Joseph is a fruitful bow. What a beautiful image. Joseph's life has been blessed. His work has been a blessing. And his descendants will be blessed through him. Now, as you know, we saw last week that his sons. He actually becomes two tribes. He becomes two tribes. What a great honor is given to Joseph.
[00:34:38] And I'm here to tell you. I'm here to tell you, brothers and sisters, Jacob reveals to us that people who keep looking to God are the people who will be the most blessed. And that is true of us today. You will never, ever in the English language, find two more beautiful words put side by side than these two. You ready? In Christ.
[00:35:01] In Christ.
[00:35:04] As a matter of fact, if we were to pause and go back to that word from Noah in Genesis 9 and be safe, we're not going to go back. Okay? Amen. We're not going to go back. And when, when, When God. Has Noah pronounced blessing on Shem? Amen. You with me? He had pronounced a cursing on a curse on Ham. He pronounces a blessing on Shem. He doesn't say, shem, you're blessed. You know what he says?
[00:35:35] He says, bless the Lord. Bless the God of Shem. God is blessed. And Shem will be blessed because God will bless Shem. You know what? Joseph isn't blessed because he's necessarily a great dude. Now it's easy to see he's better than most his brothers. Amen.
[00:35:58] And sometimes stuff like that, you know, it's hard to believe.
[00:36:02] It is. I won a Best Legs contest in ninth grade. You know, sometimes things are hard to believe.
[00:36:10] In Joseph's case, it's no problem. His brothers are pretty grimy. They're pretty terrible dudes, right? Except Benjamin.
[00:36:20] But the blessing of God doesn't come Ever because of man's goodness in and of man. Man has a goodness and good comes to man and their blessedness comes because God. God is good.
[00:36:41] Jacob reveals that ultimately, like Joseph, we won't overcome because we have the power to overcome. We'll overcome because the overcomer's power is upon us.
[00:36:53] That's a big difference.
[00:36:58] You know, we sing stuff like this all the time. We should really pay attention to what we sing. We should really.
[00:37:05] I love to sing those words. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. You ever thought about that line? That means no matter how good the deal sounds, it ain't as good as the deal God gives I. But it's old fashioned way say I dare not trust the sweetest frame. But wholly lean on Jesus name on Christ the solid rock I stand all, all. What is it, y'all?
[00:37:40] Whoo.
[00:37:42] You know, Joseph doesn't sink because Joseph has eternal flotation devices in his spirit. He doesn't sink because God holds him up.
[00:37:54] I mean, you just look at all the fixes he got into he could not get himself out of.
[00:38:02] Brothers and sisters, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. Where is your hope today?
[00:38:09] I thank God. I thank God for Joseph's example, and I thank God for Judah's promise. I thank God that when he spoke to Abraham, he meant it. I thank God when he passed it on to Isaac, he meant it. I thank God that amid all of his deception and tomfoolery that God held on to Jacob. I thank God that he in this family created a garden so that even when they were so foolish, they themselves would kill the garden. God would bring up a new shoot from an old stump and give us a Messiah.
[00:38:44] Now, do y'all remember I told y'all to hang on something. We was coming back to it and closed. Remember what it was? All God's people and all God's people are forever unforgotten.
[00:39:01] So I'm gonna. I'm. You know, it's one of the perils of being a preacher's kid. But you know, Rachel, you might want to put your AirPods in.
[00:39:10] Unfortunately, sometimes my children are like me.
[00:39:17] Unfortunately, most of the time they're like their mother. And they're growing into the image of Jesus. Praise God. Amen.
[00:39:24] But sometimes they're like their father. Well, I don't always know what to do at social events.
[00:39:31] I am an oversized round peg in a shrinking square hole everywhere I go.
[00:39:40] And I don't know how to behave. Well, the other night, Rachel comes home from some event she'd been at and we were all. We happened to be in the living room. She comes in and says, how was it? Rachel does this number right here and Care just goes. Kare goes. Care goes, you're just like your father. Like, Rachel gets good grades. She never says, you're just like your father.
[00:40:05] Now it made me laugh because in this case, she was just like me.
[00:40:11] But it's something I want to see you be able to break, to be able to navigate those moments without them breaking. And I know you will. Amen. I do. But I sort of Katie and Care started, you know, chastising Rachel and I was like, I know exactly how you feel.
[00:40:38] Some of our mess is fun, isn't it? Right?
[00:40:42] Right.
[00:40:43] I was walking across Walmart parking lot one time and I know this is gonna mess up the recording, y'all, but if you see me, most of the time I walk like this.
[00:40:53] And a guy who I did not know come up to me and said, you're one of Billy Bose's boys.
[00:41:00] He said, I knew your daddy ever since we were young. He always walked with his hands in his pocket.
[00:41:06] And he said. And I said, is that what gave it away? And he kind of gave me up and down. He says, no, it was other things. Like what? He was all saying, you're fat like your dad. You know, some of that stuff is fun. Like I walk with my hands in my pocket. Right.
[00:41:24] Where did I get. Is that a genetic disposition? Did I just learn it from my dad? Did when I was real little. Want to be like him and develop that? I don't know. Some of that stuff is fun, some of this stuff ain't fun.
[00:41:40] Am I right or wrong?
[00:41:48] But what I find so encouraging is there's this little hint in verse 28. Well, it's not little, it's big.
[00:41:54] What's the first word of verse 28? Who's got your Bible open? Look at it. Read it out loud. First word.
[00:41:59] All These are the 12 tribes of Israel.
[00:42:04] All these of Israel. In other words, none of them are left out of God's good promise.
[00:42:15] None of them are left out of God's promise land.
[00:42:20] See, our salvation is not about our ability to achieve perfection.
[00:42:28] Although God would call us to pursue perfection.
[00:42:33] All of these signs had hang ups and predilections and strongholds and things that needed to be learned and repented of. And they needed God's help. But in covenant relationship with the living God, they weren't excluded by their badness. They were included because. Because of his goodness.
[00:42:55] Oh, my goodness. Is it an excuse to behave any old sort of way? No. The apostle Paul would say, no way, man. Do not take the grace of God in vain. That the church say, amen.
[00:43:09] But is it a comfort to know that our failure doesn't have to cost us eternally.
[00:43:18] It very often cost us temporally. Amen.
[00:43:24] I. I lost my minivan back in December, and I. I literally hated it. I hate it. Like, I have been mourning over my minivan. Like, it was just the coolest van. And it would go so fast and it would carry people and stuff and. And it had that little fin on the back that made it feel faster.
[00:43:48] And the problem is, you know, I haven't been able to find a value for value replacement. And so I cry every night and I post longing love songs to my van on Instagram.
[00:44:09] Sometimes loss is silly.
[00:44:14] Sometimes it is.
[00:44:17] Sometimes it's serious.
[00:44:19] But in the covenant, people of God, loss is not eternal.
[00:44:28] All of God's people. I want you all to see that all of God's people had some sort of blessing because all of God's people were walking with God.
[00:44:38] And they were walking with God, not because they were great folks. They were walking with God because he's a gracious God. That's my story today. And if you know the Lord, it's your story. Amen. The family of God and the families of God would all be there in the promised land. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. That's what verse 28 is telling us. The family of God and all the families of God would be in the promised land. Whoa.
[00:45:04] You know what? That also gives us an indication of the church of God. And all the churches in God will be in the promise.
[00:45:19] The people of God and all the persons of God will all be in his presence.
[00:45:26] And hallelujah. It's not because we're great, because God is gracious.
[00:45:37] I've made some pretty ugly confessions. I've proved my nerdiness over and over again. I fought back the urge to divide every son's story because I wanted us to see the Son's story in Christ Jesus. We. We become people of promise. Not because we haven't made mistakes, not because we won't make mistakes, but because the debt has been canceled on the cross.
[00:46:09] The enemies have been disarmed by the conqueror. The fellowship has been restored in the Christian. Do you know him today? Now, the Bible would say that you have to believe something in your heart and confess it from Your mouth.
[00:46:30] And somebody might say, well, how do I get that belief in my heart?
[00:46:35] The apostle Paul said preachers put it there.
[00:46:39] Romans, chapter 10. He says, the word is there in your mouth. He goes on to say, you know how it gets there. How would they know without a preacher, without a herald, without a prophetic speaker saying, your destiny doesn't have to be bound in your sin. You can be delivered by a savior.
[00:47:03] Repent of trusting any other thing, even the sweetest frame and holy will. Trust in Jesus name. And if you're a Christian sitting in this place tonight, if you haven't sinned today, you better go to sleep on your way home, because the likelihood that we can even make it through an hour of the day in perfection is pretty unlikely. Amen. Amen.
[00:47:31] We always need to be in over our head in grace. Always. We always need to be celebrating the mercy of God. You know why? We come to church on Sunday, and the church is always coming to church on Sunday. We celebrate the resurrection every single week. Not only is sin paid for, but death is defeated.
[00:47:54] Our destiny isn't even wrapped up in the natural conclusion of our body.
[00:48:00] He makes us alive and carries the treasure in an earthen vessel. And he actually makes the treasure the guarantor of the vessel.
[00:48:09] Wow.
[00:48:12] Do you know him today?
[00:48:14] And if you do, are you a worshiper?
[00:48:19] Does this truth make your heart look upward?
[00:48:26] What song are we gonna sing? Somebody? Clay, you know, what song are we gonna sing? John, do you know?
[00:48:37] Were you zoned out or something? What are we laughing at? I don't know.
[00:48:42] We're singing something.
[00:48:45] Is this the one we say with your breath? Okay, okay, perfect. I didn't come up with this.
[00:48:55] Do you know, Christian, you can actually start a wonderful response to these truths by singing Sing. Because God is worthy of worship. Sing. Because your neighbor needs to be encouraged.
[00:49:13] Right? This is a great first response. You know what you also may need to do? You may need to get on your knees and offer God gratitude. Thanks.
[00:49:21] There's so many ways to respond, but you Christians need to be awash in the reality that there's this tension that, you know, there's consequences and repercussions. But God is greater than all my sin, and we just need to revel in that. God's grace is greater. And if he's promised you something, no matter how long we struggle in our flesh, we will be delivered in Christ Jesus. We can celebrate that today. Well, do you know him today? Has the Holy Ghost used Genesis for 49 to put the word of faith in your heart and is it bubbling up to your mouth? Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. He's raised from the dead. Believe that his works count for you.
[00:50:15] Believe it, and then his works will count for you.
[00:50:20] Let's pray, Father. God, there's not a verse in scripture that isn't meant to drive us to your feet.
[00:50:34] And we see this family that has struggled with their choices, struggled in their behavior, struggled with their value, struggled in every imaginable way.
[00:50:46] They have striven and contested with you and with their neighbors. Jacob has connived and deceived these boys.
[00:50:56] Some of them have worked things I would consider horrible.
[00:51:02] Yet we can rejoice that they are in your hand. Not because they're great guys, but because you're a gracious God. And isn't that my story today?
[00:51:17] Isn't that the story of the church?
[00:51:21] Father, I pray you encourage the people of God in your goodness tonight.
[00:51:27] Not that we have more or stronger confidence in ourselves, but that our confidence in you has been renewed and strengthened.
[00:51:37] And might we be awash in your grace that leads us to worship.
[00:51:42] Lord, if there be a soul that you've put the word of salvation on their lips, caused them to cry out to you and God, they will be saved. They will be redeemed. They will be adopted. They will be delivered. They will escape judgment. They will get a place at the feast table. Give life in Jesus, I pray. Amen and amen. Let's stand together and sing. Great. Are you Lord?