Participants:
Series Code: TDYFW
Program Code: TDYFW210023S
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00:02 I want to spend my life
00:07 Mending broken people 00:12 I want to spend my life 00:19 Removing pain 00:24 Lord, let my words 00:30 Heal a heart that hurts 00:34 I want to spend my life 00:40 Mending broken people 00:46 I want to spend my life 00:51 Mending broken people 01:10 Hello, friends and welcome to 3ABN Today. 01:12 It's Friday night and it's time for... 01:14 Family worship. 01:15 Yes. 01:17 And thank you for taking the time to join us. 01:18 I'm John Lomacang 01:19 and my co-pilot with me is my wife. 01:21 What is your name honey? 01:23 I think you know who I am, Angela Lomacang. 01:26 I'm glad to be here also. 01:27 What are we talking about tonight? 01:29 Blessings. 01:30 What kind of blessings? 01:32 Family blessings. 01:33 Family blessing, 01:34 And family worship, family blessings. 01:37 This is a great time to talk about blessings. 01:39 I know that those of you that are watching 01:41 have been blessed periodically, 01:43 but I would say more than they can even imagine 01:46 because God's blessings 01:48 are not always realized by humanity. 01:50 Have we been blessed? 01:51 Tremendously. 01:52 That's right. And we're gonna share some of those. 01:54 Yes. All the blessings. 01:56 Not all. There's so many, we can't. 01:58 There's no way. 01:59 You remember the song, count your blessings. 02:01 Name them one by one. 02:03 And it will surprise you What the Lord has done. 02:05 That's right. 02:06 So, you wanna stay right here 02:07 as we talk about this topic tonight, 02:09 gather your family together. 02:10 If you're by yourself, 02:12 you are part of the family of God. 02:13 So you also can participate. 02:15 You may wanna have your Bibles. 02:16 You may wanna hit the record button 02:17 to share this with somebody else, 02:19 but, honey, why don't you introduce 02:20 who's with us tonight? 02:21 Well, we have Dee Hildebrand. 02:24 I'm happy to be here. 02:25 God has blessed me immensely. 02:27 Yes, but a wonderful topic. 02:30 Isn't it? About blessings. Yeah. 02:32 Have you been blessed, Dee? 02:33 Oh, daily. 02:34 And so, I try to remember 02:36 to count those blessings every day 02:39 and think about what God is doing for me, 02:41 'cause Satan is very busy too. 02:43 So, I wanna focus on what God is doing, 02:45 not what Satan's doing. 02:46 That's right. Amen. 02:48 We also have guest family here, 02:52 Pastor Steve and Tamara Conway from Detroit. 02:56 Yes. Yes. 02:57 Welcome. 02:58 Thank you. Thank you so much. 03:00 It's good to be here. Yeah. 03:01 And what is your ministry? 03:03 Tell us a little about yourselves? 03:04 Well, we have four children. 03:09 That's our first ministry. 03:10 Four children. 03:12 And speaking of family blessing, 03:14 the Lord has blessed us richly with four wonderful children. 03:19 And we do marriage and family ministries 03:23 along with the pastoral ministry. 03:25 Oh, oh. 03:26 And you do some other stuff too. 03:27 I do, you know, women's outreach 03:29 and things of that nature 03:30 and different classes and things. 03:33 So, yeah. 03:34 And you're pastor in the church. 03:36 Yes. Yeah. 03:37 And the name of your church? 03:38 It's the Detroit Northwest Seventh-day Adventist Church 03:41 In the city of Detroit. 03:43 Yes. 03:44 Detroit. 03:45 What did they call the city was at Motown. 03:47 Motown, yeah. 03:48 Right. 03:49 A lot of historical musicians have come from there. 03:53 And there is a lot of present day musicians 03:55 who still hail from the city of Detroit. 03:57 Yeah. 03:59 It's a challenging city. 04:00 Yeah. Oh, yeah. 04:01 Now, are you close to the Canadian border? 04:03 Yes, we are. 04:05 The Ambassador Bridge is right there. 04:07 And then there's a tunnel 04:08 that you can access Canada by as well. 04:11 Yeah. Wow. 04:12 But you're originally from Ohio? 04:14 Yes. Both of you? 04:15 Yes. Both of us. 04:17 Born and raised. Cleveland, Ohio. 04:18 Okay. 04:19 And I learned a little secret about you pastor. 04:21 You and Jill went to Hartland together. 04:24 Yes, we did. 04:25 Jill Morikone. 04:27 Yes. 04:28 That's right. 04:29 Great memories. 04:31 Yeah, I know. 04:32 Well, we're really glad to have you here with us, both of you. 04:34 And you look like 04:35 a on-time couple, four children. 04:37 I'm glad you mentioned that 04:39 because your family is your first line of ministry. 04:41 I've always said the most successful evangelists 04:43 in the Bible is Noah. 04:45 Because when the flood came, family was on board. 04:48 And we're gonna talk about tonight, 04:49 how to make sure that your family gets on board 04:54 and you could save the entire world. 04:56 But if your family is not with it 04:59 that could be a sad thing. 05:00 But we're gonna talk about tonight, 05:01 some family blessings, 05:03 but we usually have prayer, 05:04 but I'm gonna ask you tonight, 05:06 Pastor Steve, pray for us before we go into the word. 05:08 Yes. All right. 05:09 Let's pray together. 05:10 Father God, we thank You for this wonderful Sabbath. 05:14 An opportunity to take our minds off 05:16 of all of the stresses and worries of this week 05:20 and of our lives, Lord, 05:22 and to focus on just how good you have been to us. 05:26 As we discuss this topic of blessings, 05:28 we ask that You would indeed bless us 05:31 with Your presence, Lord, 05:32 and enlighten us in Jesus' name. 05:35 Amen. 05:36 Amen. Amen. 05:37 Doesn't he have a pastor's voice? 05:39 He does like a preacher's voice. 05:43 And she's the preacher's wife. 05:44 That's what you do. 05:46 Well. There you go. 05:48 And then we have Dee as our referee. 05:52 Dee is always exciting to have one too. 05:55 She's kind of one of our regulars 05:56 because we know that Dee has never 05:58 at a loss for a thought. 05:59 And we thank you for sharing. 06:01 Hopefully, it's not a loss for God's thought. 06:03 I hope it's not. 06:05 Well, let's start with something interesting 06:06 because a lot of times people talk about blessings. 06:09 I wanna separate blessings from things 06:11 that happen incidentally. 06:12 What makes a blessing a blessing? 06:15 Hmm. 06:16 How do you separate a blessing 06:17 from something that happens incidentally? 06:20 Well, a blessing comes from God always. 06:24 And you could be blessed in so many ways. 06:27 We don't believe in luck, do we? 06:29 No. 06:30 You know, I don't know what you mean by incidental. 06:34 I don't think of life being incidental. 06:38 I look at all the things that happen 06:41 either God's hand is in it. 06:44 And it's a blessing because He's looking after me 06:46 or Satan's attacking with the bad stuff. 06:49 I do credit everything bad to Satan 06:52 and everything good to God, whether it's... 06:56 He blesses in such little ways, He's so involved in our lives. 07:00 So even the blessing of something wearing longer 07:05 or being able to be used longer. 07:07 I've never forgotten. 07:09 I had, when I was the church treasurer, 07:11 the first computer they gave me was some old thing 07:14 that 3ABN couldn't use anymore. 07:17 They didn't even know it was gonna work. 07:19 And it, a couple of times I had trouble with it 07:20 and I started praying 07:22 and I would not turn that computer on 07:25 without praying first. 07:26 And when they actually got me a new one, 07:28 somebody said, I don't know how this thing was working. 07:31 It was God. It was God. 07:33 So to me, that's a blessing 07:34 that makes a difference in your life, 07:36 made a difference to the church. 07:37 It just, it was one of those little things 07:39 that he cared about. 07:41 That's right. He blessed it. 07:42 That's right. 07:44 It's interesting, I would probably agree 07:45 when you talked about the word incident, right? 07:47 Incidental. 07:49 My mind automatically went to the thought 07:51 that all things work together 07:53 for the good of them that loved the Lord, 07:54 to them that are called according to His purpose. 07:56 So anything God has the ability 07:59 to make even the worst of circumstances, right? 08:02 Turn into blessings, which is such an amazing thing. 08:05 'Cause I know I've been a recipient of that 08:06 as well in my life. 08:07 That's right. Yeah. 08:09 That applies even to little things. 08:10 Yeah. Pastor? 08:12 Yeah. 08:13 Now, just as she mentioned that my mind jumped to Joseph, 08:16 you know what he said in the Book of Genesis, 08:18 you meant it for evil. 08:20 Since that, Dee, you mentioned how, 08:22 you know, the enemy is at work and God is at work. 08:26 So when I think about blessings, God's ability, 08:29 what comes across my mind is God's ability to take things 08:34 that are small things that are big and even things 08:39 that are intentionally meant to harm us 08:42 and turn them around for our good. 08:45 And so I think intentionality is on God's part 08:49 when it comes to blessing. 08:51 Absolutely. 08:52 So nothing happens incidentally, 08:53 when it comes to the Christian, 08:55 that's why Angie said, 08:56 my wife Angela said, we don't talk about luck. 08:59 So, many times when we hear people say luck. 09:01 People say that to us. 09:02 Oh, good luck. 09:04 Even on our sermon, good luck. 09:06 We've heard that. 09:07 It's like luck? It's God. 09:09 So we always stop them we know... 09:11 We always stop them, it's not luck. 09:12 That there's no grace when people say, 09:14 good luck on your sermon. 09:15 I said, "No, this is not a roll of the dice, 09:17 it's God's plan." 09:18 You did something. Oh, good luck. 09:19 You're about to do, good luck. No. 09:21 I don't use that word anymore. 09:23 I don't say, oh, I was lucky. I don't neither. 09:25 I do not use that word anymore. 09:27 I was blessed. Yes. 09:28 Amen. Yeah. 09:30 Because you go back to the Bible, 09:31 you find that in creating the world, 09:33 and I know that our audience knows this. 09:35 When God created the world, He blessed two major things. 09:40 And one of them we know is a Sabbath 09:43 or what's the other one? 09:44 Marriage. That's right. 09:46 Praise God. 09:47 And it wasn't incidental. Oh, no. 09:50 I know Adam knows that. 09:52 Oh, yeah. 09:53 He was very happy, very happy with that. 09:56 Well, yeah. That's right. 09:58 Matter of fact, let's look at Genesis 5:2, 09:59 and look at that how Genesis 5:2, 10:03 we could look at that. 10:04 And, honey, I'll begin with you 10:06 since you right on my right hand. 10:08 Here we go. 10:10 Genesis 5:2, 10:11 "He, that's God, created them 10:13 male and female 10:16 and blessed them 10:17 and called them mankind 10:20 in the day they were created." 10:24 So, fitting into, 10:27 we do family seminars and marriage seminars, 10:29 and that's so much a part of ministry. 10:31 It's hard to be a pastor, 10:33 not having to deal with that issue. 10:34 It's good to be a certified counselor 10:36 in that area. 10:37 But we know that the Sabbath and the family 10:41 are two perpetual blessings, 10:44 but Satan determines 10:45 to make the Sabbath and the family 10:47 a perpetual curse. 10:48 How have you seen that happen? 10:50 Yeah. 10:52 Go ahead. 10:53 No, you know with the world that we live in today, 10:56 which has been a problem since forever, right? 10:58 He knows which we're talking about the enemy 11:00 that the family is such a powerful influence, 11:03 not just in the home. 11:05 Now one of the things that I 11:07 really am a firm believer about is that a society, 11:10 a church, a community, yay, the world is only as strong 11:14 as the families that are in it. 11:16 And so it makes all the sense in the world 11:19 that he would attack the family unit 11:21 in so many ways. 11:22 And he knows that the power 11:24 of having a strong family influence, 11:27 which starts with the mother and the father, 11:29 you know, and I think that that is truly a real statement. 11:33 And so it makes all the sense in the world to me 11:36 that that's where he wants to start. 11:37 Yeah. 11:39 And I think you talked about the Sabbath and marriage, 11:42 and when I think of the Sabbath, 11:45 at least Adam and Eve, Garden of Eden. 11:49 I'm thinking about God's desire 11:51 to spend time with His children, right? 11:55 And that concept is something that should have 11:59 rolled down through the ages. 12:01 Obviously, as we mentioned, 12:02 the enemy has attacked both of those. 12:05 And especially we see it now 12:07 with the, you know, just the breakup of the family 12:12 and a Sabbath provides such a wonderful opportunity 12:15 for families to refocus and to come together, 12:20 especially with the presence of God 12:21 on the Sabbath. 12:23 I mean, this is for us, 12:24 it has been such a refresher for our children. 12:27 It's just an enormous reset. 12:30 There's excitement, you know, on Friday evenings like this, 12:34 when the family comes together, 12:36 because my children know that they have my attention. 12:40 Not they have my attention during the week 12:43 as long as they're doing what they're supposed to do, 12:44 but, no, they have my attention during the week. 12:47 But on the Sabbath, they have my attention, 12:51 like at no other time, right? 12:53 My wife has my attention like at no other time. 12:57 So nothing on Friday evening is gonna come in 13:00 and is gonna distract or take away from that. 13:03 And so, I like to think what would have happened? 13:06 What would humanity be like? 13:08 What would the family be like 13:10 if all families had honored 13:13 what God had established in the Sabbath? 13:15 I like to think that the world would be a lot different 13:17 than it is right now. 13:19 Oh, yeah. It definitely will. 13:20 And one of the, you know, you could talk about this. 13:24 It was Sabbath worship that was instrumental 13:27 in our relationship. 13:29 Yeah. 13:30 When we dated, I used to invite you over for Sabbath worship 13:33 on Friday night 13:35 when he was not in the Lord. 13:38 And I say, come over for Sabbath, 13:40 come to my house for family worship. 13:42 We used to call it family worship 13:44 every Friday night. 13:45 And here, my little sweetheart would come over. 13:48 And my mom would say 13:51 with her strong Jamaican accent, 13:53 John, would you read the scripture? 13:56 And he would go the-the-that the Lord said be-be-behold. 14:00 I said, he can't read. 14:03 He was so nervous to read. 14:06 Yeah. 14:08 He was clubbing all the time and not asking him to read. 14:11 And before you know it, every Sabbath, every Friday, 14:14 come on, you gotta come over to my house for worship. 14:17 And my mother, again, John, will you read the scripture 14:21 and here he comes and this time, 14:25 and God said, behold, 14:27 I was like, wow, 14:28 because we started studying together, haven't we? 14:32 That's right. 14:33 That was the foundation of our relationship 14:35 because she had five Jamaican brothers, 14:38 has the brothers on steroids. 14:40 Have mercy, Lord. 14:41 You know, they watched her. 14:43 She's the youngest of all. 14:45 You're the baby, oh. 14:46 And so it's like, you're not coming to date 14:47 my 16 year old sister, 14:49 you're not coming for dating. 14:50 You can come for family worship, 14:52 but not for dating. 14:54 But eventually 14:56 I gave family worship on Friday night that led to... 15:00 It was a turn. 15:01 It was a wonderful turn 15:03 to see how God has worked in your life. 15:05 And I praise Him because it was, and you were willing, 15:08 you have to be willing and you were willing. 15:10 And you had a strong family. 15:12 Yes. 15:14 Because I know John's background a little bit. 15:16 He had a foot in each world for quite a while. 15:18 Absolutely. 15:20 But because your family was strong in the Lord, 15:24 and his attraction to you was strong, 15:27 which I think is God. 15:28 I think God puts that in your heart. 15:30 And so they hung on to you on this one foot 15:34 until they could get that other foot out 15:36 where it belonged to with the other. 15:38 It was that strong family unit that allowed that to happen. 15:44 Yeah. 15:46 I think that's what we're talking about blessings. 15:48 And that's obviously, you know, it's a blessing, 15:51 but I think it's a tremendous testimony. 15:55 I believe to what God's intention is 15:58 for all of humanity to experience, right? 16:01 There's something that, it was, of course your wife 16:05 that was drawing you, 16:06 but really, it was God, 16:08 it was God in her and in that setting. 16:11 'Cause I mean, you got to think the contrast, 16:13 the club, family worship. 16:15 It's a huge contrast, right? 16:16 Yeah. 16:18 But something kept bringing you back. 16:20 And ultimately we know behind the scenes, 16:22 it was God that was drawing you. 16:23 And I think that's God's intent to draw human beings. 16:27 We've loved opening our home up. 16:30 In fact, we started, 16:32 our first home was in a boys' dorm. 16:34 Our door was literally, 16:36 and our home was literally open. 16:38 And so that's been a part of what we've done. 16:41 And one of the things that God has taught us over the years is 16:46 that, that witness and that testimony 16:48 of what it's like to come into a family setting, 16:51 a family atmosphere is it has a profound impact 16:55 on people's lives. 16:56 It does. 16:57 And it lasts for their lifetime. 16:59 Oh, yes. 17:00 The impact that happens to a young child. 17:03 If they see that family unit of how it's supposed to be 17:09 something that they see the way it's supposed to be, 17:12 as opposed to maybe what their home is. 17:16 But if you only see an un-Christian home, 17:20 it's really hard to know what your Christian home 17:23 should look like. 17:25 And that's why it's very important 17:27 for older families 17:28 that are strong in the Lord 17:30 to mentor younger families to help them move. 17:34 Because you were talking about how things are today. 17:37 Our families are so splintered. 17:39 I mean even Christian homes, Adventist homes. 17:40 Yeah, it's true. 17:42 Even Christian. 17:43 Like you said on Sabbath, 17:45 the family knows they're together. 17:47 They have you, you can reset. 17:49 They have mom, they have dad. 17:51 And if that anchors them for the week, 17:54 because they're out there doing all these other things. 17:57 So think of these families 17:58 who never reset, never re-anchor, 18:02 never have a chance to talk to mom or to talk to dad 18:06 or to have any kind of relationship. 18:08 That's why the families are so broken 18:10 is because there is no relationship 18:13 within the family, 18:15 because we don't create a time. 18:18 God created a time. 18:19 Remember that saying, 18:21 a family that prays together stays together. 18:22 Yeah. 18:24 And it's a lot of things nowadays the families 18:25 need to do because sometimes families pray together. 18:27 But kids in this digital society, 18:30 they're glad to be by themselves 18:31 because they got their phone, their devices. 18:33 And I wanna say to those families 18:35 who have children 18:36 that are maybe incarcerated by their devices 18:39 to let them out of jail. 18:40 And like, we saw a Christian movie not too, 18:42 maybe a couple of years ago. 18:44 And family went on vacation up in the mountains. 18:45 And as soon as they walked into the lodge, the kids said, 18:48 "What's the password to the internet." 18:50 There is no internet. 18:51 He said, "What are we going to do?" 18:54 Well, he said, 18:56 "Maybe we should start by talking to each other." 18:57 Yes. 18:58 Have dinner, families don't eat together anymore. 19:01 They don't have a relationship. 19:03 They don't have a relationship. 19:04 But we have to understand God's positioning 19:05 because God positions the Christian family 19:07 to be a recipient of blessings. 19:09 Look at Proverbs 10:6. 19:11 And any one of you. Dee. 19:13 Dee, go and read that Proverbs 10:6. 19:14 Proverbs 10:6 says... 19:16 Because God positions us to have blessings, 19:17 it's just we have to understand that 19:19 and this passage is a contrast 19:21 between those who are guided by God 19:23 and those who are not guided by God. 19:25 Proverbs 10:6. 19:27 So, Proverbs 10:6. 19:29 Yeah. It's got to be somewhere. 19:31 Yeah, I see that right here. 19:33 "Blessings are on the head of the righteous. 19:38 The violence covers the mouth of the wicked. 19:40 Blessings are on the head of the righteous, 19:43 but violence covers the mouth of the wicked." 19:46 The contrast of our society today. 19:49 That's the contrast. It's not a gray area. 19:51 There's no third category in this. 19:53 So the Lord is not saying to the righteous family 19:57 while I hope things work out for you. 19:59 No way. 20:00 And he said, wait a minute. Say that again. 20:02 Good luck. 20:03 The righteous family doesn't deal with luck 20:07 because God has made provision for the righteous family 20:10 to benefit from everything that He has created. 20:13 And so when we become a part of a family, 20:17 just imagine, say, what does your dad own? 20:20 Like the kid, what does your dad own? 20:21 Go outside. 20:23 Everything you see outside, my dad owns. 20:24 So, I was there looking around and said, 20:26 oh, no, I don't mean that. 20:27 Look up everything our dad owns. 20:30 And so that's the beautiful thing about 20:32 that God has positioned us to be in blessings, 20:35 like look at Ephesians 1:3 and maybe I'll have Tammy, 20:39 Tamara, read that for us, 20:40 Ephesians 1:3, the positioning God, 20:43 this interpersonal relationship that we have with God comes 20:46 because He's not hoping things work out for us. 20:49 He's setting us up to be people that are blessed. 20:52 Yes. Amen. 20:53 It says in Ephesians 1:3, 20:55 "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 20:58 who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing 21:02 in the heavenly places in Christ." 21:05 How many spiritual blessings? 21:06 Every. 21:08 Every. 21:09 Now, how many investors could say, 21:13 every investment you make is gonna work. 21:18 I don't know many who would do that? 21:19 Nobody. 21:21 No. 21:23 What are you thinking, Pastor Steve? 21:24 No, no. That's a serious thing. 21:27 Every spiritual blessing? 21:29 Every. 21:30 Wow. 21:32 I guess the reason why I'm thinking about that is, 21:35 the Bible says that we have all spiritual, 21:38 every spiritual blessing. 21:40 And yet, I guess if I were to ask people, 21:44 if they actually were experiencing 21:47 every spiritual blessing, 21:51 maybe we would get a little bit of a different response. 21:53 Yeah. 21:54 So you mentioned earlier, I think that every, 22:00 every blessing we're not always aware of, 22:03 maybe it was you or your wife that mentioned that. 22:06 We received blessings 22:07 and we're not necessarily aware of them. 22:09 And I think this is one of those things, 22:12 God has provided rich blessings 22:14 that cover every spiritual area in our lives. 22:18 And yet here we are 22:21 not living in those, not walking in those. 22:24 And it reminds me of something. 22:26 My wife and I were talking about in terms of, 22:30 you know, in Genesis 6-9, 22:33 when the earth was flooded and God came down 22:36 and He said to Noah in Genesis Chapter 9, 22:40 that He was gonna set a rainbow in the clouds. 22:42 And it would be a reminder 22:44 that he was never going to destroy the earth 22:45 by flood again. 22:47 Now, that's a blessing 22:48 that every member of the human family 22:52 has access to. 22:53 That's right. Right? 22:54 But we are not aware of it. 22:57 We're not thankful for it. 22:59 We're not mindful of it. 23:02 And so I don't think that we get, 23:04 of course, we're not swept away by raging waves, 23:07 but we don't get from it 23:09 what God intended for us to have from it, 23:12 because we're just missing it. 23:15 You know, I think that the thoughts 23:18 and the intent of a person are so strong, right? 23:21 We live in a world where mental health 23:22 is a really big issue, right? 23:24 It is a huge, 23:26 and it's always been a huge issue, 23:27 but I think that as calamities and things, 23:29 pandemics happen, 23:30 it's coming to the forefront. 23:32 And my mind can't help 23:33 but to go back as we're talking about that 23:35 to the previous verse that we just read 23:37 when it talked about 23:38 the blessings of the head of the righteous, right, 23:40 are in the head of the righteous, 23:42 but the violence covers the mouth. 23:43 The Bible talks about the mind 23:45 and how much of a part it plays in our blessings. 23:49 You know, as a man thinks in his heart so is he, right? 23:54 And out of the abundance of the heart, 23:56 which we all know is the mind, the mouth speaks. 23:59 And so it makes all the sense in the world, 24:00 as we're talking about 24:02 blessed be the God of the Father, 24:04 our Lord Jesus Christ, 24:05 who has blessed us in everything. 24:07 But it's hard for us to understand or see that 24:10 when we still haven't dealt with the lingering of the pain 24:14 and the hurt and the evil that resides in our hearts, 24:16 you know, and how, no matter what, 24:20 unless we surrender those to God, 24:22 those things can't be turned around into blessings. 24:25 They will come out as curses, right? 24:27 The things that we say to people, 24:28 the things that we think, you know. 24:30 So I think it's so important to know that we all, 24:34 it is true when it says that every spiritual blessing, 24:36 I can see how, 24:37 when you're connected to Christ, 24:38 He can take those evil thoughts. 24:40 He can take the pain 24:41 and He can literally turn them around 24:44 to where you wanna speak evil, curses, 24:47 and you can't even do it 24:49 because Jesus won't allow you to, right? 24:50 'Cause nothing, none of that resides in His character. 24:53 It can be very difficult when we're in pain, 24:58 because we all walk through the valleys. 25:00 Absolutely. That's right. 25:02 And Satan is attacking us. 25:03 So, if you are focused on the circumstances, 25:06 if you are focused on the pain, 25:09 when my husband had cancer 25:11 and we were going through that and ultimately his death, 25:15 we were not always focused on that. 25:19 And because we did lift up our eyes 25:21 and we did turn to the Lord in that, 25:24 not that it was, 25:25 it didn't still didn't make it easier, 25:27 don't misunderstand me. 25:28 The pain was still there, 25:30 but we were able to recognize certain blessings. 25:35 And we were able to ask for His help and His guidance 25:39 and His strength and so many things. 25:41 And we saw those prayers answered in certain ways. 25:45 Now some people might say, well, your husband passed away. 25:47 What? 25:49 But there was blessings within that whole journey. 25:53 And the journey was different 25:58 than it would have been 25:59 if we had not focused on some of God's blessings. 26:05 When you look up and say, Lord, let me see the blessings 26:09 while I'm down here 26:11 in the valley of death maybe. 26:15 Look up and try to recognize some of those blessings. 26:19 Amen. 26:21 And what are you thinking, honey? 26:22 Just last night we spoke to someone from India. 26:26 Yeah. We... 26:27 We did a video. 26:28 Did a video call with somebody. 26:30 They kept saying, I gotta talk to you. 26:31 I have to talk to you, this woman. 26:34 And she was in the valley, 26:35 her whole life was falling apart. 26:37 Family turned against her, husband turned against her, 26:38 her child turned against her, society turned against her. 26:42 She's still in the COVID environment. 26:44 She's Adventist, they were all Catholic. 26:46 They're all Catholic, being pressured on all sides. 26:49 And I said to her, 26:51 she was just hysterical primarily. 26:53 Oh, she was crying. She was... 26:55 And I've learned in situations like that. 26:56 Sometimes you have to let people vent 26:58 before you just stopped them. 26:59 You know, we don't try to stop an avalanche, 27:01 let it come down and just deal with the results of it. 27:04 And so, I had to let her vent and she's crying. 27:05 Oh, hysterical. 27:07 And after when all that, 27:09 I said part of the problem is 27:12 you're looking at the left hand, 27:14 but God said, I will uphold you with my righteous right arm. 27:17 I said, let's look at the left hand. 27:18 And I began to find the points. 27:20 And after a long time, it was, she still went back, 27:23 she's, she had gone back to that focal point. 27:26 I said, see, the problem is what you're focusing on, 27:28 what you're focusing on. 27:30 I kept calling to her and she finally caught it. 27:33 And then she went from this hysterical person. 27:36 Her whole countenance changed. 27:37 Amen. 27:39 She was 'cause before she would just, 27:40 oh, then you can... 27:42 I started repeating promises to her of God's Word. 27:44 A smile came on her face. 27:46 Powerful promises in the Bible. 27:49 And she started saying, 27:50 "Yes, yes. 27:53 That's who God is. 27:54 That's who God is." 27:56 I said, "God sometimes has to heat them." 27:58 Now check this out. 28:00 Sometimes God has to heat the furnace seven times harder 28:03 before we testify, how we will trust Him. 28:05 Amen. 28:06 They didn't testify about that trust in God 28:08 until the furnace was heated seven times hotter. 28:10 We know what you could do, 28:12 but you can't do what God won't allow you to do. 28:14 And so I said to her, it's your focus. 28:16 Are you looking at Nebuchadnezzar? 28:18 Are you looking at everybody that's kneeling down? 28:20 Or are you looking at the furnace 28:21 or has your relationship with God been established 28:24 before this moment? 28:25 So God is revealed in difficult moments, 28:27 but I think that this next text, 28:29 I want you to read, 28:30 Pastor Steve, is in Genesis 32:26. 28:33 Had I just have you read it or was it Tamara? 28:34 Tamara just read. 28:35 Okay, Genesis 32:26. 28:37 I wanna emphasize something that some of us do. 28:39 You see, I believe that the Lord 28:42 does not prevent blessings, 28:45 but He doesn't stop temptations. 28:47 He doesn't halt the trials. 28:51 He doesn't prevent the blessings, 28:52 but there is something that each one of us does 28:55 that sometimes could, 28:58 you know, it's like leaving the airport 29:00 and the plane just arrived. 29:02 And we say, I waited too long. 29:03 Plane just arrived. 29:05 You left too quickly. 29:06 This text is gonna bring something out 29:08 as to why some people don't receive that blessings. 29:11 Not that God doesn't wanna give them, 29:12 but look at the text, 29:13 Genesis 32:26. 29:15 And He said, let me go for the day breaks. 29:18 And He said, I will not let thee go, 29:22 except thou bless me." 29:24 Who is speaking here? 29:25 I love it. I love it. 29:26 Who is speaking? Jacob. Yes. 29:28 So, what do we see here? 29:29 Some people let go too quickly. 29:33 Yes. 29:34 The blessing has been delivered FedEx. 29:36 That's the lie, but God sent through raven. 29:38 That's the first FedEx package delivered. 29:40 God sent a raven, but the raven had to fly. 29:43 Everything is a time factor. 29:44 Sometimes you gotta wait on the Lord. 29:46 He says that, wait on the Lord 29:48 and He will renew your strength. 29:51 So you get it. 29:52 He said, wait, I say on the Lord. 29:55 Some people don't hold on long enough. 29:58 They don't endure the difficulty 29:59 like this lady last night, by the time we were done, 30:03 we saw a completely different person. 30:05 And you gave her scriptures. 30:07 You emailed a ton of scriptures 30:09 after it's over an hour speaking with her. 30:11 You sent her, 30:12 I'm gonna send you God's promises, you said. 30:15 And I spoke to her today on that, she says, 30:17 thank you so much for that. 30:19 I wanna tell you about my sermon title 30:21 on the heels of that, but I just give a hint. 30:23 Go ahead. 30:24 You know, it was so powerful that my sermon coming up 30:27 and I'm gonna say it when because of the timing, 30:29 but I'm working on a sermon 30:30 called Declaration of Independence. 30:32 And we know what that means just in a historical sense. 30:35 But just from this phone call. 30:38 Just from that phone call, it's amazing how God works. 30:41 Declaration of Independence, declaring myself independent 30:43 of all the attacks at the end. 30:45 I'm declaring my independence from all your attacks, 30:47 'cause I'm dependent on the Lord. 30:49 I no longer have to rely on you for God to bless me. 30:52 I'm declaring my independence of the trials. 30:54 My independence from worrying. 30:56 My independence from doubting God. 30:58 I'm declaring my independence. 31:00 And when you look at the passages 31:02 that this is built on, 31:03 it's gonna say, I'm glad I read the Bible 31:06 'cause a lot of people don't know the blessings 31:08 because they don't read about the blessings. 31:10 And how are you gonna recall a blessing 31:12 that you don't even know about? 31:15 How are you going to cash a check 31:16 that you never received? 31:17 Come on, now. 31:19 Go on, give an appeal. 31:20 God is saying... Give me an appeal. 31:21 Come on, now. 31:23 So God is saying, 31:24 I'm sending you a check that won't bounce. 31:27 It's called a blessing, 31:28 but you gotta get up and cash it. 31:30 And so many people are saying, I'm not getting up. 31:32 I just want you to fix me in this situation. 31:34 Well, there are things that God won't do. 31:37 There are things that God won't do 31:39 that He relies on us to do. 31:40 You know, as you were talking 31:42 about the experience that you had 31:43 with this precious sister in India, 31:46 it drew my mind to verses 9 through 12 31:50 in Genesis Chapter 32. 31:52 And it actually parallels 31:55 what you guys were talking about in verse 9. 31:58 "Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, 32:00 and God of my father Isaac, 32:02 the Lord which said unto me, 32:07 return unto thy country, 32:08 and to thy kindred, 32:09 and I will deal well with thee." 32:11 I'll skip down to verse 12, 32:13 "And thou said, I will surely do thee good, 32:18 and make thy seed as the sand of the sea." 32:20 And you were sharing how you, 32:22 you gave scriptural promises 32:25 reminded of the things that God said, 32:28 and it was able to help her 32:29 to come out of the challenge that she was in. 32:32 And I think the secret to, 32:34 I will not let you go until you bless me, 32:37 is remembering who it is you have hold of, 32:40 and the things He said, 32:41 because Jacob is holding on 32:43 and he's saying, wait a minute, 32:45 I wouldn't even be here 32:46 unless you said that I should be here. 32:48 And by the way, not only did you tell me to come here, 32:51 but you said that you would do me good. 32:53 In other words, you said you would bless me. 32:55 Oh, God loves it. 32:56 God really loves it. 32:58 I want what you said that I was gonna get. 32:59 I want what you have for me. 33:01 And I refuse to let go until you give it to me, right? 33:04 So it's a powerful situate. 33:06 You mentioned forgetting about the things 33:10 that God has said that He would do. 33:12 We cannot afford to forget 33:15 what God has promised 33:16 because it's, as we remind God 33:19 of what He's promised to do for us, 33:21 that He comes through in supernatural ways for us. 33:24 That's right. He does. 33:26 'Cause these are spiritual blessings, 33:28 not physical blessings necessarily, 33:31 but spiritual blessings. 33:33 And that's how we survive. 33:35 It's the peace within the storm. 33:37 We always let, the storm is always around us, 33:40 but the blessing comes. 33:42 We cheat ourselves out of the blessing of peace 33:44 because we let go of Him, we don't hang on. 33:48 There's a fact that you cannot deny it 33:50 because it takes my mind back to when I was a kid, 33:52 I used to watch WWF with my brothers. 33:53 I'm the youngest too. 33:55 Okay. World Wrestling Federation. 33:57 And they used to body slam you. 33:58 And they used to body slam me. 33:59 Bless their hearts, they've been delivered. 34:01 But you know, nonetheless, I remember thinking to myself, 34:05 it is in the wrestling that your character is built. 34:08 It is in the wrestling that your muscle is developed. 34:11 And that is why it's a necessity for our lives. 34:15 I know that when I'm not wrestling, 34:16 I can get comfortable 34:17 and I'm gonna just be honest, 34:19 but it is in the wrestling that I am running to God, 34:22 I need His help. 34:23 Lord tag team, take him. 34:25 I can't handle this. 34:26 He goes like, I got you. 34:28 All right. You know? 34:29 So the wrestling is a necessity for the building 34:30 of our character. 34:32 It's where the physical and the spiritual 34:33 are exactly the same. 34:34 Yeah. 34:36 I guarantee you, if you stop exercising for two weeks, 34:38 you just, you lose everything 34:40 that you gained over the past two years. 34:42 It's amazing. 34:43 So the spiritual actually, 34:46 I think the spiritual reflects the spiritual. 34:48 Amen. Amen. 34:50 Yeah. 34:51 And so, and the other thing I wanna point out, 34:53 which as you're listening to the program tonight, 34:55 I also wanna talk about the duration 34:56 of God's blessings 34:57 because God is eternal. 34:59 Yes, forever. 35:01 What about the duration of His blessings? 35:03 We think about God, but we don't think 35:05 about the duration of His blessings. 35:07 Can I put it another way? 35:08 God's blessings don't have an expiration. 35:10 Amen. 35:11 But we don't think about that. 35:13 We think, okay, now how long is this show gonna last? 35:17 Everything man does has a beginning and an end, 35:20 but the Lord says I am the alpha and the omega. 35:24 I am the beginning and the end. 35:27 And He sits in eternity. 35:29 And His existing is from the going forth, 35:32 these from everlasting. 35:34 So God's blessings are the same way. 35:36 You're talking about 1 Chronicles? 35:38 Yeah. Okay. 35:40 Angie, I'm gonna have Angie read that 35:41 because look at the duration of God's blessings, 35:43 and we're gonna come to you next, Dee. 35:45 1 Chronicle 17:27. 35:47 "Now you have been pleased 35:49 to bless the house of your servant, 35:51 that it may continue before you forever, 35:54 for you have blessed it, O Lord, 35:58 and it shall be blessed," how long? 36:00 "Forever." 36:02 This is huge 36:03 because the house that is built on God, 36:07 that blessing is generational, 36:10 because curse is a generational. 36:11 Absolutely. 36:12 Yes, yes. Curses of law. 36:14 The sins of the father, to the children, 36:16 the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. 36:19 I want your family members to understand 36:20 that you are in the position to bless your children 36:23 generationally. 36:25 If you establish the blessing, it goes on generationally. 36:28 How many times... Now, you could do this. 36:30 How many of us look back and say, 36:31 you know, if it weren't for grandma to hang on 36:34 and you know that, if it wasn't for your mother's sister 36:37 to come to America first, okay, 36:41 your mother wouldn't come to America. 36:44 Oh, no. You get it, see it? 36:45 Yeah. Okay. 36:47 After my father died in England, my... 36:50 But before he died, 36:51 'cause the prejudice was so high in America, 36:53 he said, I will not step foot in America. 36:56 Over my dead body, 36:58 I will not allow my children to come to America. 37:02 And we were gonna stay in, I was born in England. 37:04 We were going to stay in England. 37:06 I would have been in England. 37:07 I would have married an Englishman probably. 37:13 But, you know, unfortunately my father died. 37:18 My mother was left with eight children. 37:20 All eight of us. 37:22 What are we gonna do? 37:23 My mother's sister came to England. 37:26 She was in America, in New York at the time 37:28 in Brooklyn and came to Brooklyn. 37:31 And we came little at a time. 37:33 We couldn't so many of us. 37:35 So, we came to Brooklyn 37:37 and we went to Bethel Church in Brooklyn. 37:39 Who went to Bethel Church? You did. 37:41 As a little boy. 37:43 We grew up there together, 37:44 didn't even know each other for years. 37:46 It's such a big church. 37:47 Yeah, it had like 1,200 members. 37:48 And see how the Lord works, the blessings. 37:50 I mean... And you know what? 37:52 I look at that and say, okay. 37:53 My mom and dad abandoned me as a baby at three months old. 37:56 Her dad died when she was three years old. 37:58 And the Lord says, I don't see anybody in America 38:01 that I want to marry this man. 38:03 I don't see anybody in America that I want to be his wife. 38:07 I'm gonna bring his wife over from England. 38:09 And so, her father is sad as it is, 38:14 it's on the heels of his demise, 38:17 that a blessing came out of it. 38:19 But he died in the Lord. 38:20 He died in the Lord, 38:21 but he said, I'd never come to America. 38:23 But God said, I got to get her to America somehow. 38:26 I need to lay to rest in my promises 38:28 and God didn't kill him. 38:29 I'm making that clear, 38:30 but God allowed him to be laid to rest 38:32 so that my life could be where it is today. 38:34 Our lives. 38:35 Our lives to be with, thank you, honey. 38:36 Our lives to be where it is today. 38:38 What I'm communicating here is generational. 38:41 Curses are generational and blessings are generational. 38:44 How are curses generational? 38:46 I can... 38:48 So, when you're a little kid growing up, 38:49 you only see what's happening there. 38:51 But when you get older, all of a sudden, if you start, 38:53 I've talked to my cousins and stuff 38:55 and we can look back and say, 38:57 oh, this happened to grandpa. 39:02 And then this happened to his father back here. 39:06 I can go back three or four generations 39:08 and see pain. 39:10 However, my cousins and I all kind of said, 39:16 this is where it stops. 39:18 We want a change. 39:20 We want a change. 39:21 It stops here. 39:23 So, we can start a blessed generation. 39:26 You can start a blessed generation. 39:29 You can look, I look, you know, we all say, 39:31 I'm never gonna be like my mother. 39:32 I'm not going to be like my father 39:33 when we see the things that we don't like in them. 39:35 Right. 39:36 And I always said, 39:39 oh, I'm not gonna be like my mother, 39:40 but I don't know, a few years ago, 39:42 I was like, oh my goodness. 39:46 That's where I learned that was at my mother's knee. 39:51 And you need to change that. 39:52 You can't change something until you recognize 39:55 that you need to change it and what it is, 39:58 but you can change your family for generations 40:02 by letting God change you, 40:05 change your family right now here and today. 40:08 So, you can take the curses off of the past 40:10 and put blessings on the future. 40:12 Your choice was God. 40:14 I like that. 40:15 That's right. You have to decide. 40:16 I mean, we train animals, we train dogs, we train birds, 40:18 we train people, you know, children to be right, 40:21 train the child the way they should go. 40:23 But so many people leave their behavior to happenstance. 40:26 I was saying to my wife, and I know we talk about this, 40:28 and this has been part of my permeating preaching lately. 40:31 If you don't train yourself to be righteous, 40:32 you won't be righteous. 40:34 Righteousness doesn't happen. 40:36 And a tree doesn't grow and produce fruit 40:38 in a vineyard, less it's trained. 40:40 That vineyard is like that because somebody 40:41 set it that way. 40:43 Yeah. 40:44 And if we leave our lives to allow thorns and thistles 40:46 to choke the Word of God in us, 40:48 we'll never be able to be trained. 40:50 And so we have to train ourselves. 40:52 But what I wanna point out now is something has to happen 40:56 for that blessing to go to your offspring. 41:00 So, Tamara, I'm going to come to you next. 41:02 Isaiah 44:3. 41:03 Actually, I'm happy to read this. 41:05 Isaiah 44, something has to happen to you 41:08 for the blessing to go down to your offspring. 41:10 And it says this, it says if you are willing... 41:12 Well, no, no, Isaiah 44:3. 41:14 I'm sorry. Yes. 41:15 I'm sorry, 41:16 "I will pour water on him who is thirsty 41:18 and floods on the dry ground. 41:19 And I will pour my Spirit on your descendants 41:22 and my blessings on your offspring." 41:25 Okay. So now, what happened? 41:27 Listen, first of all, I am a testament to the fact 41:30 that this is true. 41:32 And I appreciate I'm a person 41:33 who enjoys talking to people, right? 41:36 But I am also a person who loves transparency. 41:39 And I know that there are people 41:40 who will be watching this, 41:41 who sometimes look at the people on the panel, 41:43 they have heard our stories. 41:44 But sometimes they feel abstract. 41:46 And I'm gonna tell you that everybody here 41:47 understands exactly 41:49 what it means to go through some rough times 41:51 and to look at life and say, 41:53 it's impossible that God can bring anything good 41:55 out of that. 41:57 My father was probably a fourth or fifth generation alcoholic, 42:00 right? 42:01 And for all intents and purposes, 42:04 I should be one. 42:05 And the family that we, you know, that I was born into 42:09 was a dysfunctional family, you know? 42:11 And I remember my father telling me, 42:13 I remember my father telling me 42:15 that what drove him to get help. 42:16 Remember you talked about making a decision. 42:18 What drove him to get help was him thinking 42:20 about his only child, his daughter, 42:23 and what was going to happen. 42:25 And he said, he knew the Lord told him 42:27 you need to get help. 42:28 And the reason why I felt like 42:30 I wanted to share that was because 42:32 I have the genetic makeup to be an addict. 42:35 I know that it's there, 42:37 but because of the one decision 42:38 and my father didn't make this decision 42:40 when he was perfect, 42:41 let's be clear. 42:43 He made the decision in a moment of desperateness 42:45 and pain and anxiety 42:47 and suffering from an addiction. 42:49 And he made one step. 42:50 And when he made one step, by the grace of God, 42:53 his employer made the next step. 42:54 I'm gonna pay for you to go and get alcohol, 42:57 you know, to get treatment. 42:59 And when he made that decision, 43:00 he moved forward. 43:02 And as a result of him doing that, 43:03 he had an opportunity 43:05 to show me something different, right? 43:06 And so for years, 43:08 we had this generational curse in our family, 43:10 but all it takes is one person to make the decision, 43:12 to jump off the train of dysfunction. 43:15 And here I am married and having children 43:18 and having family worship and doing all these things 43:20 that I was never raised to do. 43:22 Wow. 43:23 But what happened? 43:24 When I was a Sabbath school teacher 43:26 with the young kids, 43:27 my life was very much happenstance. 43:29 It just, wherever the wind blew me, you know. 43:33 So I would say to my kids, you need to, 43:35 and parents say to your children, 43:38 think, and when they're 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 43:41 I was with the teenagers. 43:42 I would say to them, 43:44 who do you wanna be when you grow up? 43:47 How do you wanna act? 43:49 How do you wanna be known? 43:50 What do you want out of your life? 43:53 Think about it now. 43:54 And if you say, 43:56 I want to do this and this and this, 43:58 and you want to be good. 43:59 If you're not practicing it right now, 44:01 if you're not thinking about it in a deliberate way, 44:05 you're not going to, it's not gonna happen. 44:09 Like I used to have girlfriends say, oh, in high school, 44:12 when I get married, I'm gonna marry somebody rich, 44:15 but they're dating a bamp. 44:16 Come on now. 44:17 Y'all gonna listen to this. 44:22 You're gonna marry somebody that you're dating. 44:24 So don't date anybody 44:26 that you wouldn't wanna end up married to. 44:28 So you'd better look at them careful 44:30 before you start dating. 44:33 You can't decide you wanna have a family and a home 44:37 and you're not developing yourself 44:39 to be a mother or father or a wife or a husband. 44:44 Think about when you're young. 44:45 Okay. I want you to look at that... 44:47 To you too, with the smoking that was in your family. 44:50 My mother did two to three pack of cigarettes a day. 44:52 My dad was... 44:53 Your grandmother too. 44:55 My grandmother... 44:56 She shown your mother how to... 44:58 My father was a night stalker. 44:59 He was a jazz musician. 45:00 He would play at night, slept during the daytime. 45:02 He drank and when I met him, he said, 45:04 you can smoke marijuana, 45:06 but don't mess with the heavy stuff. 45:07 I never did that. 45:08 I mean, I tried the cigarette once 45:10 and almost choked to death. 45:11 I figured I don't have a chimney, 45:13 that's not made for me, 45:14 but I wanna show you something 45:15 because what happened to your dad? 45:17 I wanna bring this out. 45:18 You thought of it as desperation. 45:19 I wanna change your focus. 45:21 It wasn't desperation. 45:22 Look at that text one more time and tell me what it was. 45:25 Isaiah 44:3. 45:27 "For I will pour out water on him 45:28 who is thirsty. 45:30 He was thirsty. 45:32 He thirsted for freedom. 45:33 Yes. 45:34 Amen. Amen. 45:36 Can you do a seminar on thirsty? 45:37 Come on now. 45:39 I am suggesting to people today 45:42 that they are so used to being drought. 45:47 They don't even know what it's like 45:48 to get that thirst quenched. 45:51 And the Lord, if you look at God, 45:53 God is an oasis God. 45:56 He'll bring a spring up out of nowhere, 45:58 but you have to get thirsty. 46:00 And for those people that are comfortable 46:02 with the humdrum life, for those Christians 46:04 that are comfortable with a humdrum existence, 46:07 barely come to church, 46:08 don't want to study their Sabbath school lesson. 46:10 Don't wanna be participating in any type of church activity, 46:13 they're dry. 46:14 And they wonder, why am I just not enjoying church? 46:17 Why can't the sermon end quick enough for me? 46:20 'Cause they're not thirsty. 46:21 And this is saying, but look what happened. 46:22 Look at the reciprocal of it. 46:24 Look at it again. Read it for us one more time. 46:25 Yes. 46:27 "For I will pour water upon him who is thirsty 46:29 and floods on the dry ground. 46:31 And I will pour my spirit on your descendants." 46:35 Yes. 46:37 And what about that? 46:38 But not only that, my blessings on your offspring 46:42 so, it's generational, 46:44 but if a family member gets thirsty, it breaks. 46:49 So you got, I got thirsty. 46:51 We're a ministry. 46:53 Your dad was thirsty. 46:54 Honey, we're a ministry 'cause we got thirsty. 46:55 Amen. 46:57 Sitting at my desk in an accounting office, 46:58 my wife working at the front desk. 46:59 She said, why are you, what's wrong with you? 47:01 I said, this is not, this is, 47:03 this cannot be all that there is to life. 47:06 I wanna be in the ministry. 47:07 We got thirsty and refused to stop praying 47:09 until God poured water on our dry ground. 47:13 And I'm suggesting there's one more thing though. 47:15 There's another thing 47:16 I'm gonna go to, this is powerful. 47:18 So those of you that are watching, 47:19 I got to ask you, are you thirsty? 47:20 Are you just satisfied 47:22 with the dry Christian existence? 47:24 So much of Christianity today 47:26 can happen without the Holy Spirit in their lives. 47:28 Yes, it's so true. 47:30 No Holy Spirit. 'Cause they're dry. 47:32 But, Pastor, now go to Genesis 12:3. 47:34 Now, let's look at the reciprocal part 47:35 of blessings 47:37 because if somebody, 47:38 if you get thirsty, 47:39 God is gonna start blessing your family 47:41 and then bless your family's family. 47:43 But look at the reciprocal part of this, 47:45 then all of a sudden, the doors open up 47:47 and it continues 47:48 from one generation to the next. 47:50 Look at the blessing, Genesis 12:3. 47:53 "And I will bless them that bless thee 47:55 and curse them that curse at thee. 47:58 And in thee shall families of the earth be blessed." 48:01 Now, I want you to get this. 48:03 We know this, the Lord is talking to Jacob, 48:07 but He didn't record this just for Jacob. 48:10 Abraham. 48:11 I'm sorry. He didn't record this just for Abraham. 48:13 Okay. 48:15 Because Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, his sons, 48:20 the seed came through them, 48:21 the line of the tribe of Judah, Christ. 48:23 But I believe, and this is my approach to this text. 48:27 I believe that this is true about all of us, 48:31 because I know that there are people, 48:33 remember, honey, when somebody called us 48:34 and said they want to bless us. 48:36 And you said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 48:37 What did they say? 48:38 Don't rob me of my blessing. 48:41 We were just... 48:43 Okay. 48:44 You know in ministry. 48:46 Can you identify with it? 48:47 Oh, I'm gonna identify with people wanting to bless. 48:49 And my wife's saying no. 48:50 Yeah, I can identify with it. 48:52 Why is it that way, right? 48:54 Yeah. It's amazing. 48:55 But I agree with you wholeheartedly that, 48:58 you know, obviously the Bible says and my kids, 49:02 my youngest children 49:04 are not yet convinced of the truth of this passage. 49:07 They're getting it. 49:08 It is more blessed to give than to receive. 49:11 I remember we first read that to them 49:12 and they were like, 49:15 I don't know about that 49:16 and they just looked at us with suspicion 49:19 and they still are wrestling, 49:20 whether, the youngest ones anyway. 49:21 But I love this passage of scripture in Genesis 12 49:25 because I think it just, 49:27 it resonates with God's desire to bless. 49:32 He says, look, I'm so eager to bless 49:35 that when you're in relationship with Me, 49:37 I'm going to bless you. 49:39 But the people who bless you, I'm gonna bless them too. 49:43 Yes. 49:44 Like that's how eager God is to bless us. 49:47 In fact, my wife and I were talking about this passage 49:50 and it plays itself out in the scriptures 49:52 because, and it shows you anyway so much stuff. 49:56 But it, when again, I keep going back to Joseph, 50:00 but when Joseph was in Potiphar's house. 50:03 Oh, yes. 50:04 Potiphar and his household were blessed 50:07 because Joseph was there. 50:09 Joseph went, didn't his brother went to prison, 50:12 and the prison was blessed 'cause he was there. 50:15 And then, of course, ultimately 50:17 he goes and interprets Pharaoh's dreams. 50:19 And he's the prime minister. 50:21 And the whole nation is blessed because of him. 50:25 And the crazy thing is later on, 50:27 Egypt takes a little bit of a different stance 50:29 in the Book of Exodus, 50:31 towards the people of God. 50:32 And guess what happens? 50:34 They lose the blessing. That's right. 50:36 And so, I'm thinking to myself, like, 50:40 man, my neighbors, God can bless my neighbors, 50:44 you know, who bless me and God can bless, 50:48 you know, my physician who blesses me 50:50 and God can bless my mechanic who blesses me. 50:54 And it's just pregnant 50:56 with this idea of God's eagerness 50:58 to bless the entirety of the human race. 51:01 Amen. That's beautiful. 51:03 And it's like the Jews of old, 51:04 God chose them to be a blessing to mankind, but... 51:09 Were they forfeited it? 51:10 Oh, man. 51:11 Yeah. 51:13 It dropped off. 51:14 It dropped off. 51:16 In this reciprocal what were you gonna say, hun? 51:17 No that was it. 51:18 God chose them to be blessed. 51:20 When your children experience 51:21 that when they bless someone else, 51:23 that they themselves are blessed 51:26 at a different time or place or a different way. 51:28 Then all of a sudden you see this cycle of God's blessings 51:34 flowing in and out of not only your lives, 51:37 but everybody else's lives that you touch. 51:39 It's funny. 51:41 We make it a point every year to have a basket 51:42 in our home, right? 51:44 And at the end of the year, 51:45 we have papers that we put in throughout the year 51:47 about how God has blessed. 51:49 And then at the end of the year, 51:50 we take it out and we read it to the kids. 51:52 And it's so important because 51:53 I want them to know now that the God 51:55 that we are teaching them about, right? 51:57 That they one day will have to choose 51:58 on their own to follow. 52:00 They will remember the blessings. 52:01 And they will count their blessings. 52:02 Yes, and name them one by one. 52:04 I love that. 52:05 How you write that in because, 52:07 we should establish Ebenezers in our lives 52:12 because it's so easy 52:13 if something happened so beautiful. 52:14 We have Ebenezer, that little plastic bag. 52:16 Oh, man. I tell you, tell them about that real quick? 52:18 How could I say it? 52:19 Okay. 52:21 You tell it. 52:22 Intersections in our lives 52:24 where we could have walked away from ministry. 52:26 Back in 1995, 52:28 we found ourselves in Yosemite Valley, 52:31 praying in a $29 cabin. 52:34 And all we had, we didn't have a toothbrush, 52:35 didn't have a brush, 52:36 didn't have a change of clothes. 52:38 We just got on our knees and prayed. 52:39 And all we had to eat 52:41 was some crackers inside of a silver bag. 52:47 You know, the line where it's clink, clink. 52:51 We kept that bag. 52:52 Have it to this day, my Ebenezer. 52:55 Because it was at that moment when all we had was that bag. 52:59 God opened that bag and turned everything 53:02 that was gonna be a curse in our lives, into a blessing. 53:05 Every time we touch that bag or see that bag, 53:07 it takes us back to our Ebenezer, 53:11 but God, now, I'm giving you the latter part of this. 53:13 When God is blessing us, 53:16 God is not just a guy who likes to give blessings. 53:20 There's something else we got to do. 53:21 Okay. 53:23 Now let's go to Psalm 34:1. 53:25 That's Dee. 53:26 Dee, Psalm 34:1. 53:28 That's on number 11. 53:29 Look at Psalm 34:1. 53:30 This is something that God also requires of us. 53:34 Okay. Read it for us. 53:35 Psalms 34:1, 53:39 "I will bless the Lord at all times. 53:42 His praise shall continually be in my mouth." 53:46 Amen. Amen. 53:48 Not only that He did gel for our blessing, 53:50 but why do you think God doesn't want to be blessed? 53:53 How do we do that? 53:55 We praise Him with our voice. 53:58 We praise Him with our hearts. 54:00 We remind people of the goodness of God 54:03 because I've discovered something. 54:04 And I'm learning this really in a progressive way. 54:08 It's not just the rebuking of sin 54:11 that turns a person's heart. 54:13 But what is it that leads a person to repentance. 54:17 Come on, Pastor. The goodness of God. 54:20 If you can tell people, 54:21 that's what we did last night to that lady. 54:24 We say, ma'am I know where you are. 54:26 We know who you are, we've been there. 54:28 And the people could identify, 54:30 like Dee said, we live in the valley. 54:32 If you say to people, I know 54:33 what it's like to be in the valley. 54:34 You're not the only one that has somebody 54:36 that you lost. 54:37 You're not the only one that's family turned against. 54:38 And we want to say to you that are watching us. 54:40 This topic is important because God wants to bless the family. 54:45 God wants to bless the husband and wife that's watching, 54:47 the children that are watching, 54:49 the aunt that may be the new mother 54:51 or the uncle that may be the father 54:53 because the parents are no longer there. 54:55 Or maybe the adoptive parent, 54:57 because the kids don't know where they came from. 55:00 But God can begin the blessing with you. 55:01 Let's start winding this up and start sharing. 55:04 What's on your heart, pastor, about the blessings of God? 55:07 Yeah. 55:08 I was, as you read from Psalm 34, 55:11 I went to the 103rd psalm. 55:13 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, 55:17 bless His holy name! 55:19 Bless the Lord, O my soul, 55:21 and forget not all His benefits: 55:24 He forgives your iniquities. 55:26 He heals all your diseases. 55:28 He redeems your life from destruction." 55:31 And He, I like the Revised Standard Version. 55:34 "He surrounds you with His steadfast love." 55:39 And that's one of the reasons I'm excited that this, 55:43 I was literally sitting up humming this, 55:45 the steadfast love 55:49 of the Lord 55:51 never cease. 55:55 When we consider the steadfast love of the Lord, 55:59 His unlimited mercy, 56:00 I'm gonna take one of your examples. 56:03 You know, normally you have the little print 56:06 and it says best if used by. 56:08 Yeah. 56:10 There is no best if used by 56:12 when it comes to the steadfast love 56:13 and the mercies of God, 56:15 the blessings of God. 56:16 They're best if use whenever you need them. 56:19 That's right. 56:20 And you should have used them 10 years ago, but you didn't. 56:22 But they're still good today. 56:24 Amen. 56:25 Wow. 56:26 Well, I tell you, and so, 56:28 honey, as we wind up in this last minute here, 56:30 we're just telling you about 56:31 God wants to bless you, one. 56:34 God wants you to bless your children. 56:37 It can be a blessing to society and to the world. 56:40 Thirdly, God wants you to bless Him. 56:43 Let the blessing of God be reciprocal in your life. 56:46 I know that each one of us, we could take more hours. 56:49 We didn't have much time. 56:51 if we did a sermon series on just our blessings, honey, 56:54 how amazing it would be. 56:55 And then God blesses us sometimes 56:57 when we don't know He's blessing us. 56:59 Fifteen seconds, somebody? Dee? 57:02 I just praise the Lord 57:03 for He has filled my life with blessings 57:06 that I didn't expect or even deserve. 57:08 And I certainly didn't deserve them. 57:10 Amen. 57:11 Psalm 104 is my favorite chapter. 57:14 And it just says, 57:15 "Bless the Lord, O my soul! 57:17 O Lord my God, You are very great: 57:20 You are clothed with honor and majesty." 57:23 And we wanna say it together. 57:25 Happy Sabbath. 57:27 Thank you for joining us and until we see you again, 57:29 may the Lord richly bless you. 57:31 Happy Sabbath. |
Revised 2021-08-02