Aug 7 Sermon Re-upload

is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes [Applause] yeah shabbat shalom welcome to grafton all right we got a lot of announcements here though so stick with me uh first thing though is all the kids need to sit with their parents during the service here so kids get with your parents get sitting down so that we're going to start it off with that also kids tonight we're going to have the sprouts class that's ages 3 to 10 directly after service so in addition to that we're also going to have a sign language song teaching for sukkot so any kids that are age 5 to 18 you're going to go back at the same time with the sprouts kids and they're going to do that so that will be ann strokes is she in here so um anyway after service and strokes will be in here you can find her all the kids go back to the back after that so we got um first one is women's fellowship and that's thursday august 12th from 5 30 to 7 30 at higher grounds coffee shop and then we also have a lost and found table back there in the back i guess everything that's on there has to go tonight so if you are missing anything or you might just want to go by and check it there's a table on the back just check it see if there's anything that might be yours there goes john brunsting right now he's guilty all right and then we got let's see um if you have any um pictures or videos of anything to do with like the grafted family some pictures anything like that ian wants them so you can send it to ian at graftedmemoriesgmail.com um sukkot what's that anybody oh it's a coat registration there you go everybody um go ahead and register for code if you haven't already done so so we can get everybody all the numbers in everything planned everything going for that uh we also have worship dance class at 4 30 and i think that's every week so if you're uh interested in doing the dance class that we do every week here um there's also um if your kid is 10 and under they can come back to that dance class for five weeks if they go back there for five weeks then they can come out here and join the main circle mainly because of safety reasons we don't want to have a lot of kids being the adults they're trying to worship there's a lot of kids down here so that's just a kind of a safety concern for everybody um i think that's all we got the liturgy too so if you guys could stand with the liturgy for me remember the sabbath day to keep it holy six days you shall labor and do all your work but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god in it you shall do no work for in six days the lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that is in them and rested the seventh day therefore the lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it therefore the children of israel shall keep the sabbath to observe the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant it is the sign between me and the children of israel forever for in six days the lord made the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed blessed are you lord our god king eternal who distinguishes between the holy and the profane between light and darkness between israel and the nations between the seventh day and the sixth day of work blessed are you lord who distinguishes between the holy and the profane amen what is the great commandment hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength this is the first and great commandment and the second is like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself on these two commandments the law and the prophets for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome great peace to those who love your life and nothing causes them to stumble blessed are you lord our god king eternal who closed from among the nations and gave to us your tour of truth and said life everlasting in our midst blessed are you lord giver of the torah blessed are you lord our god the god of our fathers the god of abraham god of isaac and the god of jacob the great mighty and awesome god the most high god who bestows lovingkindness the creator of all who recalls the good deeds of the fathers and brings a redeemer to their children's children for his name's sake o king helper savior and shield blessed are you o lord the shield of abraham yeshua said i am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given by which we must be saved blessed are you lord our god king eternal who has given us the way of salvation through messiah yeshua blessed be he amen join us for worship foreign shabbat shalom i missed you all last week it's lovely to see all of your faces now it will be lovely to hear all of your voices as we praise the king amen [Music] drink all the water [Music] [Music] come to the [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] live is [Applause] is [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] the power of hell forever god [Applause] [Music] praise god praise god from whom our blessings flow praise him praise him for the wonders of his love praise god [Music] [Applause] [Music] his love [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] now it is [Music] bring all your failures bring your addiction come lay them down at the foot of the cross yeshua [Music] is amen [Music] [Music] i raised in the presence of my enemies [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] [Music] i'm gonna sing [Music] you're gonna hear my praises [Music] [Music] i will watch the darkness [Music] i raise a [Music] and i'm gonna sing in the middle of [Music] [Music] is [Music] sing a little louder louder than the unbelief louder sing a little louder [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my enemies sing a little louder [Applause] [Music] [Music] i'm gonna hear my praises is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] is a hallelujah a raise a hallelujah a raise a hallelujah [Music] i raise a hallelujah [Music] [Music] israel [Music] [Music] israel [Music] is [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] heaven and earth will shake at the sound of your name the lord our god the lord is what heaven and [Music] our earth oh the lord is what heaven and earth [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] heart y'all pray for me [Music] [Music] i was [Music] is [Music] is [Music] god that is [Music] you are here [Music] you are here [Music] i worship you [Music] we make [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] even when i don't [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you never stop working is [Music] we make a miracle worker promise keep light in the darkness my god that is who you are [Music] okay i can tell i'm already crying so you know okay so i'm going to tell you about a little bit about my life um so most of y'all don't know this about me but i started smoking at the age of 11. i'm 32 now that's 21 years of my life that's a long addiction i have quit or i've quit all other addictions but this one was never an addiction that i wanted to face in all honesty i enjoyed smoking it was my five minutes of peace it was the only consistent thing i had ever or i had through all the stress of everyday life pain of the past present and future heartaches it was also there for me through the happy times like birthdays barbecues and get-togethers even bonding moments with friends over those late-night deep talks it had become a very big pillar in who i am as a person i of course knew that it was not good for my health and that i should stop if i wanted to have a long life but in my life i had gave up so much that this was not going to be the one thing that i gave up [Music] till one day [Music] i came to my very first worship practice [Music] one thing i love more than smoking is singing when i sing i pour my heart out so i came to practice and amanda started talking about addictions as she was speaking i was thinking about addictions like drugs alcohol and stuff like that things i do not do anymore never did i think jalisa you are addicted to smoking when she asks does anyone need prepare for addiction suddenly my hand was up i know it's weird but even i was shocked i nonchalantly said i was addicted to smoking that's where my whole life changed i started a journey that would change my life forever it was i was so scared i remember my heart racing at the thought of never smoking again i really felt like i was putting a part of me to rest i was losing who i was [Music] but one thing i never had before now was my own walk with god he set my heart at ease when those thoughts have i can't do this and you will just fail like you always do would come to mind i would stop myself and pray and god would settle my heart he also gave me the courage to get on shantics i was scared to take those because of all the bad side effects i heard about before i started taking them i prayed that he would protect me and he did not one bad side effect so this pro through this process he taught me that fear and anxiety was not of him i had to forgive things that i thought i had forgiven but never did he taught me that i must fully trust in him and let go of the control that i loved so much which finally brought me to this place of peace he always gave me an amazing support he also gave me an amazing support system and testimonies from other people my wonderful husband and kids that would cheer me on even if i would smoke one too many that day that would remind me that i that i could do this that it was going to be hard but they were with me 100 of the way and that they would never leave me so aaron tegan and angeli thank you for believing in me [Music] to the worship team you guys would encourage me and hold me accountable every time you see me you would celebrate many goals i met with me that helped me keep going i could see the excitement on bear's face whenever i would tell him every shabbat that i was still not smoking thank you all for that very intense prayer you all prayed over me that night i will never forget that you all with god started this new life in my new life i'm walking in and of course my number one supporter that i couldn't have done this without yahweh my father for the love and care i've felt this whole time it is a love i have never really felt in my life before he gave me the strength because i knew i couldn't do it or couldn't have done it all on my own so today i stand here to tell you i am 47 days smoking i just never [Applause] [Music] we're overcomers by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony amen [Music] [Music] break every chain break everything [Music] break everything [Music] there is power in the name issue [Music] break every day [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so freely given such [Music] me [Music] [Music] is [Music] to break everything [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] just the men there's an army [Music] there's an army [Music] [Applause] [Music] there's an army rising [Music] i'll hear the chances [Music] [Applause] break every chain break every trick break and reach [Music] break and reach [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] make every change [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes there is power in the name yeshua there is [Music] to break every chain break every chain break every chain to bring everything [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes you are [Music] [Music] and yours is the kingdom yours [Music] is a glory forever [Music] is [Applause] [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] yes [Music] yes [Music] and yours is the [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] [Music] [Music] there is [Music] break every chain break every chain worthy is the lamb who was slain holy holy is he [Music] sing a new song to him who sits on heaven's first [Music] almighty [Music] with all creation i [Music] you are my everything and i will adore you [Music] um [Music] my [Music] is [Music] with all creations i will adore you [Music] filled with wonders [Music] mystery yes [Music] is [Music] with all creationists [Music] you are my everything and i will adore you [Music] is the lord god almighty who was in his and is to come with all creation i see praise to the king of kings you are my everything and i will adore you [Music] [Music] worthy [Music] holy holy is he [Music] sing a new song to him who sits on heaven's mercy sees [Music] holy holy holy is the lord god who almighty and is and is to come [Music] with all creation i sing praise to the king of kings you are my everything and i will adore you [Music] [Music] so [Music] do [Music] blessed are you our lord our god king of the universe who is faithful and just father thank you for breaking every chain thank you alba for being a waymaker thank you father for being ill elroy the god who sees us thank you god for being yahweh sharma the god who is always there for i'm a very present help in the time of trouble thank you father for being our elohim thank you for being el elyon thank you for being el shaddai god for you are enough you will provide and you will take care of us fear not when we are in the valley god you are there when we're on the mountaintop god you're there father we thank you for being faithful and just when man fails us we can hold on to your promises for your promises are yes and amen father when man fails us you said i will not fail i am that i am i am that i will be i will become whatever you need at that present time because i'm yahweh sharma i am there father thank you for being faithful to us thank you for your son yeshua our salvation father thank you for being our all in all and father as we lay our burdens and our problems and our our chains at your feet father we know that you're able to break every one of them father we thank you for your deliverance power father we thank you for taking what was filthy in us and making it new thank you for watching us and purging us with hyssop and making us white as snow father father thank you for covering us in your blood thank you for your forever atoning blood father thank you we bow before you father we lay at your feet and we cry holy holy holy is the lord god almighty may your name be blessed in praise forever father god we come here humbly on your shabbat lord we just want to draw near to you every day father god we just cry out to you we ask that we die a little to our flesh more and more every day lord we just want to give it all to you we want to have relation your creator we uh we pray that this worship was a beautiful incense i'm thankful for every person on this stage they're a good example lord father god just forgive us and where we felt thee and just be with us he asked these things and yeshua's name i mean like this have all the kids come up we'll say blessing i can't see who said that but she locked shabbat shalom oh there is he said no i see you kevin oh can we have the kids together there's the microphone i found it can we have the kids come up so we can say a blessing over them or if you want to act like a kid you can sit down and we'll say a blessing over you too all right father i thank you for the stay i thank you for all the children that we have in our congregation i thank you for all the people that are here i thank you for a place that we have to uh to come and gather and worship you and to uh and to fellowship and and to learn more about you father i pray that you'd be with us i pray that you'd guide us i pray that you would uh forgive us where we fall short um allow us to see where uh where we need to repent father if there is any place i pray father that we would uh we would just strive to be more like you every day i pray that we would be able to teach our children um to repent first and come to you with everything that they have i just pray that we would be uh good examples and teach our children to go out and be blessings to others i pray that we would show them how to share the testimony not only your testimony but their testimony of how you bless them father i i thank you for for all that you've done i thank you for for who you are and i praise your high and holy name when you show his name i pray so oh man it's too tall that's way too tall i don't know how to do it can you guys hear me okay i don't know if i'm gonna be able to do this up here that works better he said i had to talk first um here let's step out here a little bit so i want to give another update about eben real quick i know it hasn't been too long since the last update but i do want to give another one because joy there's always things to rejoice in and we have good news and i want to share it so for those who don't know eben had a rough birth he his umbilical cord broke when he was just before he was born he lost an unknown amount of blood and wasn't breathing we had to be transferred to the hospital and had a 12-day nicu stay while we were there it was very rough experience for us we had a lot of doctors speaking basically kind of death over our child um just a lot of hard answers we were we had seizures uh he had seizures he went through a hypothermic therapy treatment he had mri ultrasounds that showed severe brain damage they basically told us shortly before we left to expect that he probably would have cerebral palsy he probably wouldn't be able to sit or eat or hear or a lot of things but god and since then we've had nothing but great progress from him so this week we had our first meeting with a cranial sacral therapist we're trying to work on his skull plates and we have been since he's been born they're still overlapped a bit and we're trying to avoid surgery and when i went in for our first appointment with them i told him why we were here for the school plates and that i'm trying to avoid surgery and my therapist was just like this boy does not need surgery get that out of your mind and on top of that we were going to chiropractor once a week which is kind of a lot to do every week i'm trying to make sure i take both boys by myself going in every week and she said you know on top of all that we're going to work on doing some physical therapy we're going to you're going to pay the same price for the craniosacral therapy and the physical therapy together and on top of that we're going to get him sitting he's like she's like he can sit he's going to be able to sit he's going to be able to crawl he's going to start chasing his brother around she's like this boy has got a future god is bringing the right team for us right now just like he did from the very beginning we had the right nurse staff every day we had him in the nicu and he's brought the right team the whole entire time since the very beginning he is faithful to finish the good work that he has started and i have no doubt that one of these days very soon we're going to be chasing this little boy around and no one will even know there was any any hard beginning in his life so i just wanted to praise that we have a great team now i think i'm feeling very hopeful with her her news that she says i can get those school plates moving we're gonna get him sitting we're gonna get him walking and running and he's got got a very bright future ahead of him so i wanted to share that and thank you [Music] yeah i i had her share because she went to the appointment so i didn't get to hear everything that the doctor therapist i don't know what you call it was saying um but and on top of that we were going once a week to the chiropractor and she said i don't even need to see you very often i'm going to have you come in once every two weeks that's going to be amazing she's that confident that she can get his head moving and him working once every two weeks for the next few weeks i'm down with that yes yes so you want to talk so we just want to share that news with you guys we want to say first of all praise the father for all the work that he's done in eben because it's only by him that any of this is possible we thank you guys for your prayers and we ask that you stop praying for new babies because we're expecting another one that's all we got [Applause] you want to say the final word hmm well that's kind of tough to follow but uh praise god i mean um even in the midst of trial and testing praise god he's so good every yeah all the time he's just so good um this week's torah portion is re and starting at deuteronomy 11 26 it says see i'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse the blessing if you listen to the mitzvot of adonai your god that i am commanding you today but the curse if you do not listen to the mitzvot of adonai your god but turn from the way i am commanding you today to go after other gods you have not known now when adonai your god brings you into the land you're going in to possess you are to set the blessing on mount gerizim and the curse on mount ebal now there's a word in here that always catches my attention and it's it's the way whenever we see that that should obviously uh make us think of yeshua you know paul states that you know we're we're these strange people we're the followers of the way hadaric and we know that yeshua is the way so every time that we see where god is saying this is the way i think he's telling us hey pay attention this is yeshua this is the pattern i want you to follow after and the timing of this when he's saying this this is after they've been rescued from slavery it's after salvation it's after the crossing it's after the miracles and and it's going to be when they go into the land of their inheritance that he says i want you to put the curses over here and the blessings over here and you're going to walk in between them there's the way now back when they first came out and and god said you know spoke to them and said will you be obedient and and all the people said in one voice yes we will obey we'll do all that you said father and i would suggest to you that that's that's very easy you know in the crowd and in the moment yeah we're gonna do it all but then there's this daily walk there's the daily choices that we make and god wants us if you can't hear his his heart as father in this saying just follow the way because i want to bless you i want to provide for you and i will give you some things to do even in the promised land even in your rest even in my protection i want you to do these things follow the way stay on the path you see what he mentions here is this turning away to follow other gods it's like repentance in reverse it's like turning away from his love turning away from his blessings and i don't know what's in us that would make us want to do that but every day even in the struggle even in the trial even walking around the mountain over and over again we have to choose to follow him and to be obedient to stay in the way to stay in the right path again it's easy to stand up in the crowd and yeah we're gonna do it but every day all the choices you make all the decisions everything that comes at you will you follow the way will you stay and be obedient even if you don't understand just follow the way just follow the way if you pray with me please our father our king father as strange as it may sound i thank you for going to the hospital this week because i got to pray for people maybe that i didn't wouldn't normally have thought about and in those nights when i can't sleep um because i just feel pretty lousy father i got to i got to pray and i got to kind of re-center and put my focus back on you so father i thank you for that time and i thank you that you were there father thank you for my wife who was very diligent to take care of me i thank you for this family that you've given me that prayed father i think that we're in this season of testing help us father with your spirit so that we can walk the way that we can choose every day and in every every instant and every moment to follow you to follow your commandments to follow and chase after your spirit for no other reason that we love you when we trust you father i know that there are a lot of people struggling i especially want to mention aaron and brandy father i just ask that you would be with them that you would get them home safely father that even in this struggle they would find the way to pray and to praise that they would bless people around them father help us all to be that kind of people that no matter the struggle we can lift our eyes to you we can pray to you we can praise you and we can bless people help us to follow the way father father we pray all these things in your great son's name yeshua hamashiach amen thank you [Applause] [Music] i'm gonna preach left-handed tonight you didn't know i was able to switch like that did you ambidextrous it takes a lot of skill to preach left-handed okay this is kind of weird having it on this side though the cord's not long enough to wrap around the pole on the other side just had to move it all right uh who remembers where we left off in the gospels close huh no what that was months ago come on i was in luke 18 for three months actually we're still there no yeah we are we're still in luke 18. so last time we looked at matthew 19 which is parallel with what mark 10 and today we're back so we have three parallel passages matthew 19 13-15 luke 18 15-17 and mark 10 13-16 they're they're all parallel passages and i'm actually going to focus on mark 10 tonight because mark 10 has just a tiny bit more than matthew and luke do and so i want to look at that one because it says something that the other two don't and i think it's kind of significant gives us just a little bit more information so turn to mark chapter 10 tonight would you buy your heads with me heavenly father we praise you lord we love you and we thank you for this opportunity to come and to worship lord i pray that our worship was pleasing and exalting to you lord i thank you for these friends for this family that we have to fellowship together i thought i thank you for the love that we have for one another holy spirit we invite you to come to minister lord speak to our hearts speak to our minds transform our lives with your word we praise you we love you in the name of yeshua amen all right mark chapter 10 it really is weird having this on the left side i don't think i am ambidextrous i think i need it on the right side i feel really awkward all right mark chapter 10 starting verse 13 then they brought little children to him that he might touch them but the disciples rebuked those who brought them but when jesus saw it he was greatly displeased and said to them let let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for of such is the kingdom of god as surely i say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of god as a little child will by no means enter it and he took them up in his arms laid hands on them and blessed them so uh i want to do something real quick can we get all the kids back here in the front again everybody who is like pre-teen and under like come come up here and sit in the front if you're 12 and under this is basically the age group that that's being discussed here is when it talks about the the little children being brought to yeshua it's these guys the basically 12 and under and so parents were bringing these kids these ages bring him to yeshua and asking him to lay hands on them and to pray for them and to bless them and every week we do that right we have all the kids come up here we pray over them we pray blessings on them and that's basically what they were asking yeshua to do all right guys you can go back and sit with your parents now and that was a long trip so every week we have these kids come up here and sit on the floor right and we pray for them we bless them why do we do that what is the significance of that now it says that yeshua took them in his arms and he laid his hands on them and he blessed them and we don't know for certain what he said we can kind of speculate and guess as to what he may have said when he blessed them maybe he used the traditional blessing over children and how many of you guys are familiar with that one may you be as ephraim and manasseh right it's comes from genesis 48 20. and so it says so he blessed them that day saying but you israel will bless saying may god make you as ephraim and manasseh and thus he set ephraim before manasseh and this verse here has been taken as you know this this is the blessing over the children may you be as ephraim and manasseh and that's kind of a traditional blessing over the children if you you know if you're familiar with with the traditional jewish blessings there's there's blessings for everything right you have you know blessings for bread blessings for wine blessings for washing your hands blessings for getting up out of bed blessings before you go to bed blessings for putting on your to lead everything you do there's a blessing right and the traditional blessing over the kids is may you be as ephraim ephraim and manasseh and i was wondering about you know why why ephraim and manasseh you know you think about them they're not really that significant in the lineage of the patriarchs you know you think about you start with with adam and you know he's the first man and then you have noah the whole earth was saved because of noah's righteousness you get to abraham and he's given promises and you know he's promised children and land and all kinds of stuff and he's the the father of of god's people basically he's this you know this ancient patriarch and then we've got the god of he's you know god is referred to as the god of abraham isaac and jacob so i mean he's the god of abraham and so there's significance in that why don't when we play pray may you be like abraham we're told to pray may you be like ephraim in manasseh and i i kind of looked into this and was looking at what what are some of the reasons for why why this specific blessing and i found something interesting and this is this is not secret information this is pretty common information um that ephraim and manasseh were the first brothers in the bible who didn't have some kind of rivalry and so you look back and you've got cain and abel cain killed his brother with a stone right isaac and ishmael you know there's there's squabbling happening between them and ishmael ends up going a separate way i mean it really was more between the the mothers but it was about you know the inheritance and things like that and the legitimate era of abraham um jacob and esau right you've got these two twins fighting over the birthright fighting over the blessing you know angry at each other most of their lives jacob has to go hide for years and then when he comes back he's terrified his brother's going to kill him anyway even if after it's been years um joseph and his 12 brothers right they sell them into slavery in egypt tell their dad he got eaten by wild animals and then you get to fry him in manasseh and there's nothing no no rivalry no arguments no squabbling no fighting no contention and what's interesting you think about jacob and esau esau was angry the jacob got the blessing right jacob kind of tricked his dad into getting the the blessing of the firstborn and esau was mad about that and he saw kind of held it against him most of his life well you look at ephraim and manasseh and and when they're blessed the you know he crossed his hands right and the and the younger son got the first born blessing just like jacob did but you don't hear manassas saying wait a minute don't give him my blessing nothing like that joseph spoke up he was like no no dad you got the wrong hand i know you're getting old you know you put your hand on the wrong kid's head and he says no i know what i'm doing i'm doing this on purpose but the kids ephraim and ms aren't squabbling about it and i thought that was interesting and you know you think about well iframe and manasseh well they were raised in egypt they were raised in a pagan society and somehow they were part of became part of israel and became their own tribes in israel their mom was egyptian so they're half egyptian it's really interesting that god chose these brothers as the ones to say israel bless your children may you be as ephraim and manasseh it's kind of curious isn't it but that's the traditional blessing over the children may you be is ephraim and manasseh and so when yeshua is laying hands on these kids i wonder if that's what he was blessing them how he was blessing them but you know it makes sense when you think about ephraim and manasseh being brothers who dwell together in peace and harmony and in without contention psalm 133 says behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity now there's a song that has those words in there how many of you guys know that song bear you wanna you wanna lead that out your hand was up first oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] those of you who don't know that song it's the hebrew for this verse basically right is blessed are those or how how blessed it is for brothers to walk together in unity or something along those lines is loose translation i'm not exactly sure but that's pretty close those of you who know you're uh you're either shaking your head in agreement or you're shaking nodding your head saying man what is what is he saying but it's basically is that that verse is that song how blessed it is for brothers to dwell together in unity and you think about this ephraim and manasseh blessing is these brothers who don't squabble they don't fight they don't fuss they don't quarrel they're not contentious they dwell together in unity and you bless your children each week with may you be as ephraim and manasseh and this as a parent i think you understand there's significance in that right how many parents want their kids to dwell together in unity and not squabble right so i mean that's that's a pretty significant blessing to pray over your kids right well then we think about as as a congregation you know we're all considered brothers and sisters right and children of god and how blessed is it that we would walk together in unity without quarrels without squabbling without rivalry without jealousy without hatred and that we would love one another what was yeshua said a lot of things about that didn't he you know how do we know who was his disciples because their love for one another right a new commandment i give you that you love one another as i have loved you so this is this is not new new information it's just packaged a little differently but you think about how how significant it is for brothers to not hate each other now you look throughout the history of israel look throughout the old testament and how many times sibling rivalry and brothers fought things happened and it caused all kinds of problems and chaos look at your own life if you if you have a brother i remember me and my brother fought all the time uh you know now that we're grown-ups we don't but when we were young we fought all the time i remember uh he's he well he reminds me of the time when i threw a hairbrush at his head and you know so i remind him of some of the things he did as well it's usually you know him throwing a temper tantrum uh but yeah we we fought all the time that's what brothers do right brothers fight sisters do too yeah but you look at blessings in the bible and you think about what what is a blessing you see that word used all the time and i mean it starts even in genesis 1 you know god blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply god bless the sabbath day and hallowed it genesis 1 and 2 the very first very first part of the bible opens up god's blessing stuff blessing people and we keep going and you know god blesses all kinds of people and people are blessing god and people are blessing each other praying for blessings he look throughout the bible and count how many times it talks about blessing being blessed blessing others receiving blessings it's it's everywhere but what exactly does it mean to bless and i think there's a lot of i think we have a limited understanding of what that word might mean and i know we use it a lot of times you know somebody sneezes and we say oh bless you right but i think just because you use something a lot of times doesn't necessarily mean you really understand what you're saying you may have a little bit of understanding you kind of get it a little bit but you don't fully grasp it we had a recently kayson asked amanda what does ironic mean and she said well i know what it means but i don't really know how to define it for you so she said let me give you some examples and so she gave him examples of what ironic meant and he was like okay i think i understand but to put it into words to actually define it without turning a dictionary open right you think well what i know what it means but what how do i describe this to my kid it's like you know it's like rain on your wedding day right that's what she said to him i was like you're quoting our kid a song from the 90s come on and so but i think it's the same way with this word bless we we understand blessing we understand what it means to bless somebody but do we really understand what it means to bless and you think about the bible says several times it says that we are to bless god and if you think about that it's like well how in the world can i bless god i ask god to bless me and i ask god to bless you but how do i bless him what do i have that i can give to him to bless him and i think part of that failure to understand what does it mean to bless god is because we don't quite grasp what a blessing is and so i want to look at that a little bit and this is this is a side trail because remember we're looking at the the part where yeshua says let the little children come to me he laid hands on and bless him i'm going to side trail for just a little bit and we're going to talk about blessing and then we're going to get back into the passage in mark 10. so hang on all right this may be a long side trail but we're going to side trail for a little bit so we see you know god bless adam and eve said briefly from multiply he blessed the sabbath day god bless noah and his family he blessed abraham isaac and jacob he blessed ishmael right you think about well of course he blessed abraham isaac and jacob they're the chosen people you know the god of abraham isaac and jacob he blessed ishmael also what is ishmael ishmael was the the son of the slave woman right and if history and genealogy is correct they're today we call them muslims right they're the descendants of ishmael it's according to what the quran says right that they were the sons of they were the sinners of ishmael so they traced themselves back to abraham through ishmael well god blessed ishmael and said you're going to be many people a multitude of nations right you're gonna be a great nation blessed him but yet ishmael has caused so many problems for israel they're brothers again this sibling squabbling rivalry contention what's going on between ishmael and israel israel and isaac right so he blessed ishmael god even said all the nations will be blessed because of abraham so not just that abraham would be blessed but that all of the nations of the world would be blessed because of him right what does that even mean all the nations will be blessed because of abraham through abraham through his seed and there's i mean that's that's a whole sermon in itself i'm sure god blessed the land of israel and gave it to uh to abraham and his descendants he blessed the land and he blessed abraham with the land you think about all the different things that get blessed right here just in genesis okay adam and eve get blessed be fruitful and multiply to have children expand on the on the earth right he blessed a day god blessed the sabbath day seventh day and he hallowed it set it apart as holy so he blessed people he blessed a day he blessed land he he blessed abraham and sarah's child who they didn't even have yet right he said your seed will be blessed and all the nations will bless through your seed and abraham's like i'm almost 100 years old and so is my wife what kid what seed are you talking about right she was well beyond child bearing age and god said i'm going to bless your child that you don't even have yet that you haven't even conceived yet that you don't even know is possible to conceive yet i'm going to bless it anyway so there's some interesting things the bible is showing us about blessing right god bless numerous women in the bible right and especially barren women women who couldn't have children for one reason or another like sarah who was well beyond her years but there's other women as well who just were not able to conceive as much as they tried and then god would bless them and open their womb we see numerous examples of this throughout the scriptures and then you know we get to the new testament we see mary right the mother of yeshua and the angel comes during and he says blessed are you mary for what is conceived in you is the son of god and so god blesses numerous women with children and like i mentioned before we are commanded and told to bless the lord and we see lots of examples of this one example is uh something that probably some of you have are familiar with is the barku how many of you guys have heard the barku okay so a few of you you might recognize that if i if i say the first line if i do i want you to say the second line okay [Music] yeah so you guys are familiar with that baruch [Music] what does that mean bless the lord who is to be blessed bless the lord who is to be blessed forever and ever this is the the call to worship it's a call to prayer called the worship and this is said at the beginning of synagogue services all over the world traditionally for years i don't know how many years it's been a tradition possibly thousands of years traditionally said in synagogues at the opening of service to call to worship bless the lord bless the lord who is to be blessed and so as you come to worship you are you're coming to bless him right and i mentioned earlier that you know there's blessings for everything right there's blessings for food blessings for drink blessings for getting up out of bed i think there's even one for like putting your shoes on i'm not even sure but there's a lot they take every opportunity they can to bless the lord and you think about that and you know we i think sometimes we think it's kind of silly oh well you know bless the lord for my shoes right but it's not silly they're taking every opportunity they can find to bless god finding reasons to praise him and you think about what is what does a typical blessing look like okay baruch [Music] whatever right blessed are you lord our god king of the universe who has whatever you know whatever their blessing for who has given us food to eat who has given us something to drink who has woken us up in the morning who is you know whatever the the blessing is for it's blessed are you lord our god king eternal what are they saying so let's let's think about uh how many of you guys on shabbat you do uh homozy with your family you you say the hamotzi where's your hands okay so what is that [Music] we give thanks to god for bread our voices rise in song together as our joyful prayer is said silicates are who has given us bread from the earth all right how many of you when you drink wine or or similar drink you will bless the lord for the wine blessed are you lord our god king of the universe who has given us wine the fruit of the vine who has given us the fruit of the vine almost every opportunity the traditional jewish blessings are to to give god praise for everything to bless the lord for everything in every situation of your life and you know there's commandment that says when you come into the land and you eat of the eat of the the crops it says after you've eaten and have your fill bless the lord for the land that he's given you and so there's numerous times in the bible where it says that we are to bless the lord and when you look at i don't know if i don't know if i can say american christianity or just christianity or maybe it's just the christianity i was raised in but you think about when we go to eat we say lord bless this food and it seems so backwards from what you see in the bible because the bible says bless the lord for the food i didn't say bless the food he says bless the lord for the food bless you lord for giving us this food but we we get it all backwards and we say lord bless this food to our body and in a minute this is going to be really funny okay because what does it mean to bless so in genesis 1 he it says god blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply increase in number on the earth when god blesses you with children what's he doing he's increasing your family he's adding to your family he's growing your family he's multiplying your family he's increasing your family that is a blessing when we bless god we are blessing his name we're saying may your name be made great may your name be increased may your name be multiplied because of what you have done in my life that's what it means to bless god you're saying may your name o lord be multiplied in the earth because of your goodness because of what you have done may your name be increased and made great because of your provisions in our life because of you've given us bread from the earth because you've given us the fruit of the vine because you've given us another new day all these different things that are being your blessing the lord blessed are you lord because you have given us your commandments all these different things that they bless god for it's may your name be increased and multiplied on the earth that's what it means to bless is to increase and so when you say lord bless this food to my body now do you see why it's funny increase right bless this food to my body increase is i thought it was funny increase my waistline with this food is kind of what you're saying there isn't it but it says that we're supposed to bless god so to bless means to increase or to make abundant and so it could be increase the longevity of my life with good health increase my family with by adding to my children increase provisions in my life there's all kinds of different things that people pray for blessings in their life for right genesis 1 22 god bless them saying be fruitful and multiply fill the waters of the seas and let the birds multiply on the earth so he's blessing the birds right telling the birds multiply on the earth let the birds multiply there this was a blessing let the birds multiply on the earth god is blessing them with increase by saying be fruitful and multiply that is the blessing be fruitful and multiply so [Music] when we bless god we are saying lord may your name be increased may your name be multiplied on the earth have you ever thought about do you do that do you bless his name do you bless him you know lord may your name be made great because you did this in my life because you've provided for my family because you have given us children because you have given me a home or a job because you have healed me or my loved one right there's so many different things that we can bless god for and we're saying may your name be multiplied may your name be increased because of this that's what it means to bless his name have you ever thought about that isn't that cool it really as as i was looking at this it really kind of it gave me a fresh perspective on blessing and i thought you know there's maybe there's more significance to some of these blessings than i i thought you know you think about traditional blessings and a lot of times we're just like oh that's just that's just tradition i don't know why they do it why are you blessing god before you wash your hands then they kind of seem silly no they're taking every opportunity they possibly can to say praise praise the lord for what he has done in my life and as i was thinking about that i thought man that is that is really cool and it it kind of challenged me and and i'm like i need to i need a bit better about taking opportunities to bless the name of the lord for the little things in life you know it's easy to bless god for the big things you know like babies who have miraculous recoveries uh you know yeah bless the lord praise the lord we have multiple babies in here today who have gone through that and it's like wow that's amazing but do we do we do that and say you know bless the lord because we had food to eat today and that's something we kind of take for granted here in america i know in some countries where food's short where they have shortages they are very grateful and thankful when they have opportunity here in america we you know i think we just take it kind of take it for granted most of us eat anytime we want and pretty much whatever we want right you go to some countries and they they may not eat for days and what they do eat may not be very appealing to you or me right and maybe dry crusty moldy you know gross stuff and they're eating it and they're thankful for it and you know we're like well you know i had a donut the other day that was a day old i was like man this donut is not that great it's kind of stale right you know there's people who are eating stuff that's weeks old that's really stale and moldy and gross how how much are we thankful for how much do we bless the lord for in our life just something i've been thinking about this week bless the lord may your name be increased on the earth because of what you're doing in my life or because what you have done or because what you have said may your name be increased and made great and multiplied on the earth what was what was yeshua's prayer that he taught his disciples our father in heaven hallowed be your name right holy is your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is heaven may your will be done on earth as is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil right it produces the kingdom of power and glory forever amen this prayer is about exalting the name of the lord right hallowed be your name holy is your name your name is lifted up and high and exalted this is a blessing to his name may your will be done on earth your kingdom come on earth praying for his kingdom to be multiplied on the earth to expand and multiply into that his reign and rule would encompass the earth is that not our desire is that all people would come under his authority and under his reign and rule and follow him and serve him and be part of his kingdom i mean that's that should be our desire if it's not wouldn't the world be a much better place if everybody in the world just did what god said lived under his reign we see a lot of things in the bible about god blessing us when that happens what is he doing he's increasing something in our life so he blesses the produce he's increasing the food right he's increasing provision he blesses our health he's increasing our life right if you if you have health problems and he heals you blesses your health he's increased your life he's extended your life he blesses woman's womb he's increasing the size of their family when rebecca left her family to marry isaac listen to what her family said to her in genesis 24 16 they blessed rebecca and said to her sister may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them they bless their sister may you have thousands of children thousands of descendants and may their enemies say may your descendants possess the gates of their enemies possess the gates of those who hate them i think that's an interesting phrase as well because of something yeshua said you guys familiar with a phrase he said about gates the gates of hades will not prevail against against you right peter says you're the christ the son of the living god and he says bless you simon said peter flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father is in heaven and on this rock i will build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it and you think about what is what is a gate for a gate either keep somebody in or keep somebody out right you know you you we you have a fence around your yard and if you put a gate on it you can shut that gate and keep people from coming in or if you have a dog in your yard you can shut that gate and keep the dog from leaving the yard you know things like that right it's a passageway that's what a gate is it lets things in lets things out you can close it it keeps things in or keeps things out so he says the gates of hades will not prevail against the church against ecclesia what is he saying this is if you don't if you're not aware of this this is a this is a statement about the resurrection because what is hades hades is the place where the dead go the gates of hades keep people there and he says the gates of hades are not going to prevail against you why because of the resurrection it says that may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them this is this is an interesting blessing knowing that yeshua comes in the lineage of rebecca right he possesses the gates that's why the gates can't prevail in that cool so but this is speaking about increase you remember it says the gates of hades is the key he received the key to hades he has the he has possession of the key he has the ability to open the door um but anyway throughout the bible fathers would bless their children we see this numerous times and it's actually the major dispute between jacob and esau i mentioned that earlier right we know jacob he kind of conned esau out of his birthright already traded him soup for his birthright right a bowl of beans bowl of soup both stew whatever it was depending on your translation he had some kind of food that he made esau was hungry and he said i'll trade you this stew for your birthright and he saw say well what good is my birthright to me if i die of starvation just give me the food i'll give you my birthright whatever so esau counted his birthright as nothing he didn't think it was very important he tossed it out for a bowl of soup bowl of beans and but yet when jacob comes in and gets his blessing that's when he really gets upset that's when he throws a fit is because jacob got the blessing and you think about the difference between these two birthright is the possessions inheritance you know he gets the the greater portion of the land he gets the greater portion of the animals he gets the greater portion of the wealth that's the birthright what is the blessing i mean if you look at what in in the physical realm you're just like well that's just words that his dad spoke over him to wish him well in life right why did esau get so upset about the blessing but not the birthright because they had a different understanding of blessing than we do they saw value in the blessing they saw significance in the blessing that we i think have neglected to see we see later when god wrestled with jacob right jacob is wrestling with god and he injures his hip but jacob says i'm not going to let go of you until you bless me that blessing was important to jacob not only did he fight and cheat and do whatever he could to get his blessing from his father he fought and wrestled with god to receive a blessing from god and when we're talking about blessings we're not talking about oh god make me rich i know that's what the prosperity preachers are saying but that's not what that's not what this is talking about jacob is wrestling with god and saying bless me and what does god do he says i will indeed bless you and i'm going to make you the father of nations and i'm going to change your name you're no longer jacob you're israel and he blesses him with 12 tribes actually more because ephraim and manasseh end up being tribes as well they own lots of land that you know they go in to israel and god basically drives out all these other peoples right canaanites and amorites and hittites and hivites and perizzites and parasites and i don't know what all all those different peoples that get driven out right and they possess this land that he promised to abraham this this is the blessing abraham isaac and jacob when he was about to die jacob blessed ephraim and manasseh so we're coming back to where we started right this blessing over ephraim and manasseh and i want to read just kind of read this context for those who maybe aren't familiar with it or just as a as a reminder give you a little bit of context what we're looking at here and joseph took both of them ephraim with his right hand towards israel's left hand and manasseh with his left hand towards israel's right hand and brought them near to him okay so joseph brings a frying massa to jacob and he with ephraim uh with his right hand towards israel's left hand so ephraim is on the left side and manasseh on the right side and israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on a frame's head who's the younger and his left hand on manassas head guiding his hands knowingly for manasseh was the firstborn and he blessed joseph isn't that interesting he's joseph's bringing ephraim in manasseh to get blessed and it says that jacob blessed joseph and said god before whom my fathers abraham isaac and isaac walked the god who has fed me all of my life to this day the angel who has redeemed me from all evil blessed the lads let my name be named upon them in the name of my father my fathers abraham and isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth okay let my name in the name of my fathers abraham and isaac so abraham isaac and jacob the god of abraham isaac and jacob this is how god is known throughout scriptures the god of abraham isaac and jacob he says let let my name and the name of abraham and isaac my fathers be put on them that they would be long to the inheritance and the descendants of abraham right and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth he's taken the blessing that god had given to jacob right the same blessing god gave abraham isaac and jacob jacob is now bestowing on ephraim and manasseh you see that may you be named may the name of abraham isaac and jacob be upon these lads may them may they multiply and increase in the earth and possess the land this is the blessing of abraham this is the blessing of isaac this is the blessing of jacob and jacob is bestowing it on ephraim in manasseh and it says that we're to bless our kids may you be as ephraim and manasseh to receive this blessing of abraham have you ever thought about that and it says that he blessed joseph when he blessed ephraim and manasseh why is that because he's blessing joseph's children to bless your children is as a blessing on the father because every father wants their children to be successful and blessed and do well in life every father wants their kids to to go the right way to know god and to follow him you know when i when i pray for my kids my prayer is lord i pray that my kids would love you all of their life that they would follow you all of their life that's my prayer for my kids that they would love god and follow him i pray lord bless them with good health and long life right that they would love god and serve him and have a long life that's that's my prayer for my kids and i'm sure many of you have similar prayers but so he's laying his hands on the fryer in manassa and it says let them grow into the multitude in the midst of the earth now when joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of ephraim and it displeased him so he took hold of his father's hand and removed it from a friend's head to manassas head and joseph said to his father not so my father for this one is the firstborn put your hand put your right hand on his head but his father refused and said i know my son i know he is also he also shall become a people and he also shall be great but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations so he blessed them that day saying by you israel will bless saying may god make you as ephraim and manasseh and thus he said ephraim before manasseh and there's a lot of speculation as to why he would bless the younger instead of the older i i think obviously there's some prophetic significance there i think that what he's he's doing there's prophetic and that god was speaking through him prophetically about ephraim being greater than manasseh but i also wonder if maybe there's some other things going on too you think about well who who was jacob jacob was the younger brother of esau and so he's passing his he was the younger brother he received the firstborn blessing and he's passing that on to ephraim the younger brother he also says that he's blessing joseph well who was joseph joseph was the youngest of his brothers he was sold into slavery and now jacob's got his youngest son back right he's got another son now at this point after joseph was gone he had another son benjamin right but at the time when joseph disappeared he joseph was the youngest son and now he's got his son back and says he's blessing his his son that he lost his youngest younger son joseph i think it's symbolically saying you know he wants to bless the younger through ephraim right so i think there's a lot going on here that that could be understood and read into it i think there's definitely the prophetic significance of a frying but i think that there's also some things going on there as well with the the younger son getting a blessing and that jacob was intentional about that like i said we don't know for certain his motives it's just guessing but jacob blessed all 12 tribes as well before he died and each of those were kind of interesting if you want to read through them sometime i'm not going to read them today but there's some interesting blessings and you some of them you look at him you're like that's a blessing i'm not sure i get how that's a blessing it's kind of curious we move on and and we see moses and aaron also blessed the people of israel several times and god instructs aaron specifically how to bless israel right number 623 it says speak to aaron in a sense saying this is the way you shall bless the children of israel this is how you're supposed to bless the children of israel say to them the lord bless you and keep you the lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace so they shall put my name on the children of israel and i will bless them and so aaron and his sons are supposed to to bless the people of israel with those words and it says in in doing so they're placing the name of god on the people and god will be faithful to bless them because they are doing what god has commanded aaron to do and if you guys are familiar with what we do here if you this isn't your first time here you know that at the end of the service we're gonna bless you with that blessing and that's why because we want to bless you we want to put god's name on you we want him to bless you and you remember balaam it wasn't that long ago that we were even looking at that in the torah balaam came to curse israel right and he said that god won't allow him to curse israel that god will only allow him to bless israel and so three times he tried to curse israel and all three times he ended up blessing israel in that curious and i want to read just a little bit from numbers 24. numbers 24 verse 5 says how lovely are your tents o jacob your dwellings o israel like valleys that stretch out like gardens by the riverside like aloes planted by the lord like cedars beside the waters he shall pour water from his buckets and his seed shall be in many waters his king shall be higher than agag and his kingdom shall be exalted god brings him out of egypt he has strength like a wild ox he shall consume the nations his enemies he shall break their bones and pierce them with arrows he bows down he lies down as a lion and as a lion who shall rouse him blessed is he who blesses you and cursed is he who curses you that's that's what balaam said about israel and this is not only is this a blessing of israel but this is actually has some prophetic significance in connection to yeshua his king shall be higher than egg and his kingdom shall be exalted god brings him out of egypt right what yeshua came out of egypt right when he was a kid he's called the king of kings and lord of lords he's exalted king king most high he's also called the lion right it says he bows down he lies down as a lion and as a lion who shall rouse him he's called the lion of the tribe of judah right and what happens he died and who could rouse him who could wake him and then he resurrected he rose from the dead have you ever thought about that is a prophecy of his death and resurrection but this this passage right here is actually the first line of this passage how lovely or utensil jacob is how many of you guys are familiar with the blessing that quotes that it's called the motovu right and it's basically it's made up of segments of several different psalms but it starts with this line and so the blessing is how lovely are your tents of jacob your encampments of israel as for me through your abundant grace i enter your house to worship with all in your sacred place oh lord i love the house where you dwell and the place where your glory tabernacles i shall prostrate myself and bow i shall kneel before the lord my maker to you eternal one goes my prayer may this be a time of your favor in your abundant love o god answer me with the truth of your salvation and what's interesting is this blessing like i said is pulled from the psalms all these are just different verses that have been pieced together from the psalms and it starts with this how lovely is your tense of jacob and this is all about again praising the lord and and there's prophetic significance that ties it to yeshua and you think about what is what does john say that that he tabernacled with us and that he came in an earthly tent the bible says in it right that he was the the temple of the holy spirit there's lots of wording talking about his physical body as a tent how lovely are your tents so jacob so i think there's some significance there as well but blessings are all over the bible and hopefully this brief little synopsis and side trail about blessings helps give you a little bit better understanding of blessing like i said you know sometimes we know a word we're familiar with the word but we just don't quite fully grasp what that word means and i hope that this has helped you to better understand what blessing means when you're looking at blessing in the bible so i know that was kind of a lengthy side note and i warned you at the beginning that that was going to be a lengthy side note so we're going to go back to mark 10 now and look at what happened with yeshua and the children now this is going to be shorter so the side note was really long the what we're going to do now is a little shorter so only 23 pages left just kidding i think some of you are worried that i'm not kidding turn back to mark 10 verse 13. says then they brought the little children to him that he might touch them but the disciples rebuked those who brought them and so people are bringing their children to yeshua that he would lay hands on them and bless them right that's that's the context of what we're seeing here and the disciples didn't see value in this act you understand that's what's going on people are bringing their children to yeshua for him to lay hands on them and bless them this is something that happened this was a common thing they would take their children to a rabbi and have the rabbi bless their children and the disciples were saying don't bother him he's got better stuff to do than to pray for your kids he's got better things to do than to bless your children don't bother him he's too busy for that that's basically what was going on and yeshua rebuked his disciples and he said but when jesus saw it he was greatly displeased and said to them let the little children come to me and do not forbid them for of such is the kingdom of god assuredly i say to you whoever does not receive the kingdom of god as a little child will by no means enter it and this is one of those statements that you hear a lot right you have to enter the kingdom of heaven like a child no one can come into the kingdom of heaven except like a child you must have faith like a child enter the kingdom what is he talking about yeshua rebuked his disciples and said don't hinder the children from coming the children were coming to receive a blessing right parents were bringing their children to have him lay hands on them and bless them he rebuked his disciples and then he turned it into a teaching moment about the kingdom do not hinder the children from coming because this is how you enter the kingdom and so he's saying we need to receive the kingdom of god like a child we receive the kingdom of god the way a child receives a blessing from his father does that make sense these children were coming to yeshua to receive a blessing he was going to lay hands on them and bless them and he says don't hinder them let them come because this is how you enter the kingdom you have to enter the kingdom like these children okay so what were these children doing you think about how does a child receive a blessing from their father what what what does your kid need to do to get you to bless them just be your kid right do they need to well you you gotta work really hard clean your room do the dishes take out the trash feed the dog water the garden pull the weeds mow the yard clean out the gutters all that before breakfast and then i'll bless you right you don't you don't do that right even if like your kid has had a rough day and has been a brat and has been defiant and they didn't do what you asked them to do bedtime rolls around and you're like lord bless my kid right i mean that's as a parent that's the way you are right you still you love your kid and you want the best for them even when they're crummy right even when you really irritated with them you still want the best for them you still pray for the best for them they don't have to earn your blessing right that's what yeshua's saying that's what the bible says we don't earn salvation salvation is a gift from god grace is a girl from god it's not what you do to get the blessing you don't have to earn it you don't have to deserve it what did you have to do though you have to be his child right you enter like a child does your kid need to beg you and plead with you blue father daddy please please please please please please bless me no they don't do they half the time when you're blessing them they're like are we done yet are you done yet how long are you going to pray dad and maybe you guys don't pray as long but my kids like it though they they actually do they'll be like dad will you pray for us but they don't they don't have to beg and plead and cry oh please please please please bless us i'm their dad i want to bless them it's the way our heavenly father is too he wants to bless his children right we come to him as a child and he wants to bless us what did yeshua say he said you earthly fathers give good gifts to your children how much more will your heavenly father give gifts to those who love him right how much more will he give the holy spirit to those who love him how much more will he bless those who love him i think sometimes we have this this mindset that we uh maybe it's not a mindset we don't we have a hard time how about that we have a hard time coming to god the way our children come to us at least i do you know my my kids they just come and dad can i have can i have this dad can we do this dad can we go here dad can they come asking dad and they come knowing that dad loves them and they come knowing that if that's dad there's a good chance the dad's probably going to say yeah most of the time now they go to mom they may not get it yeah just teasing just teasing actually dad says no more than mom probably in my house but and when we come to god are we coming to him in the same way coming to him as a child knowing that he loves him knowing he wants to bless him knowing that he wants to do good to us is that how we approach him but what must a child do to receive a father's blessing simply be his child that's all you have to do to receive a blessing is just be the child to receive god's blessing you need to be a child of god so i guess the question we need to ask is how do we become children of god isn't it and i want to read something that john wrote john chapter 1 the very beginning of his gospel he tells us how to become children of god the very first chapter of john's gospel now listen to what he says i'm gonna read uh one through five and then i'm gonna skip down to verse 10 and 10-14 so in the beginning was the word the word was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning with god all things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made in him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it skip down to verse 10 he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him he came to his own and his own did not receive him but as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of god to those who believe in his name so who is this talking about to those who received him he gave the right to become children of god who who do they have to receive the word of god in the beginning was the word the word is with god the word was god and as many as received him they gave he gave them the right to become children of god to those who believe in his name and we go down a little further it says who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man but of god he just said a whole lot right there who were born not of blood bloodlines genealogies dna right nor of the will of the flesh right people trying to conceive and have children and trying to force things to happen in their own flesh trying to do god's will to force things to happen their way not according to the spirit right doing in the flesh it says it didn't happen by blood not by the will of flesh nor by the will of man but of god okay so this is how we're born of god is not by dna not by genetics not by genealogies not by the flesh not by the will of man it's because of god and what he's doing in our life that's how we become children of god and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth okay so now we find out who he's talking about he says we have to believe in the word of god and then he tells us that the word became flesh and tabernacled among us and dwelt among us right he's talking about yeshua and you guys already told me that a minute ago but i wanted to take you the roundabout way to get there every time i ask you a question you say yeshua so i just figure you're cheating anyway you were weren't you but the bible says we must receive him yeshua the word of god the word made flesh we must receive him to be called children of god that's how we become children of god the bible says right there in john 1 we receive him the word of god who became flesh and dwelt among us paul explains that we know that we are children of god because the spirit of god lives in us this is in romans chapter 8. sorry verse 11 but if the spirit of him who raised jesus from the dead dwells in you he who raised christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if the spirit if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live for as many as are led by the spirit of god these are sons of god so being led by the spirit of god having the spirit of god in you dwelling in you leading you guiding those are the people who are children of god he says for you to not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear but you receive the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out abba father the spirit of himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of god so you see it's the spirit of god that confirms within you that you are a child of god and if children than errors and heirs heirs of god and joiners with christ if indeed we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together one of the things that i'm continually troubled by in the messianic movement messianic hebrew roots movement is the emphasis that so many people put on physical lineage okay there's so many people you run across in this movement who say why you know i'm one of the tribes of i'm from this tribe i'm i've got jewish dna or you know i did a 23andme and i found out that i'm a levite or you know whatever it might be right you you're always hearing people talk about their lineage and their their dna and their their genealogy that's not what gets you in the kingdom that's not how you get there what do we we just read in john 1 right it says not by blood it's not by blood that you become children of god has nothing to do with that what he says i can raise up children of abraham from these stones has nothing to do with your dna has nothing to do with your genealogy it doesn't have anything to do with who your daddy was or who your mommy was you can trace your linea you may be a pedigree you may be able to trace your lineage all the way back to moses or to abraham or to noah you may you maybe will trace it all the way back but if you don't have the faith of abraham you're not a son of abraham that's what the new testament is saying and so when people make a big deal about dna and genealogy and where they you know where they come from it's like you're you're focusing in the wrong spot here buddy that's not what's going to get you in the kingdom but they they seem to think that there's importance and significance in having a genetic connection to abraham like well if i'm genetically related to abraham then i really truly do belong and so now it makes sense for me because i'm actually genetically part of israel so it makes sense for me to keep the commandments right and that's kind of the route people end up taking but listen to what paul says he says i tell you the truth i'm not lying my conscience also bearing me witness in the holy spirit that i have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart for i could wish that i myself were accursed from christ from my brethren my countrymen according to the flesh so he's talking about the other jewish believers who were part of israel part of the physical lineage of abraham he says that he is sorrowful and in grief about them okay my countrymen according to flesh who are israelites to whom pertain the adoption the glory the covenants the giving of the law the service of god and the promises of whom are the fathers and from whom according to the flesh christ came who is over all the eternally blessed god amen you catch that phrase christ the eternally blessed god i i want to make sure you caught that but paul says it right there but it is not but it is not that the word of god has taken no effect for they are not all israel who are of israel okay still he's talking about the jewish people he's talking about israelites talking about physical descendants of abraham living in the land of israel and he says they are not all israel who are of israel and he's grieving about them okay and he says nor are they all children because they are the seed of abraham he's admitting they come directly from the lineage of abraham but they're not the seed of abraham okay they are not all israel who are of israel for they are not all children because they are the seed of abraham but in isaac your seed shall be called that is those who are the children of the flesh these are not the children of god but the children of the promise are counted as the seed okay he's making a distinction here he's saying that there are people who are physically linked to abraham they are descendants of abraham they have all the dna all the genetics the pedigrees everything they're i what did paul say he said i'm i'm a pharisee i'm a pharisee among pharisees i'm circumcised on the eighth day born of the tribe of benjamin right keep the law righteousness according to the law perfect and yet i count that all to be rubbish to be garbage next to knowing yeshua as my lord and savior that's his confession that's his testimony he's saying my pedigree my training my dna my genealogy my scholarship my education everything that i thought was important it means nothing in comparison to knowing yeshua as my savior and but here he says he's grieving over the jews who have rejected yeshua basically he's grieving over these people who are genetically descendants of abraham they should be heirs they should be part of the promise they should be part of the covenant and they think they are but they rejected yeshua and paul says he's grieving for them and so when people in the messianic hebrews movement who who know who have received by faith the promises of abraham why are they trying to somehow figure out how they can receive that promise genetically through ancestry.com i don't understand it makes no sense you've already received it by faith because of the faith of abraham what does it matter what ancestry.com or 23andme or whatever other dna site that's probably just trying to track you somehow for some other nefarious reason might be saying to you i'm not wearing a tin hat though but i bet there's a conspiracy about that somewhere i bet there is so each person has the opportunity to receive yeshua for himself this is this is the significant thing of being a child of god being a child of god has nothing to do with your dna being a child of god has nothing to do with your family history being a child of god has nothing to do with who your parents were what they did okay because what happens when you become a child of god you are no longer connected to your physical ancestry your dna your genetics you've been adopted you've been brought into the family of god so it doesn't matter who your daddy was your if your dad was a criminal if your dad was a murderer if your dad was a horrible person who hated god he was an atheist he did everything he could to try to sabotage god's people he could have been the worst of the worst you can still become a child a child of god your dad may have been a satan worshiper you can still become a child of god your dad has nothing to do with your faith in god your faith in yeshua has nothing to do with your dad he he can't help you or hinder you in in you coming to christ and he can encourage you if your dad is a godly man who loves love loves god and follows him he can encourage you and pray for you and try to point you in that direction but just because your dad is a follower of god doesn't mean that you are you're not adopted into god's family because your dad prayed a prayer for you you're adopted in god's family because you have faith because you believe because you put your trust in yeshua right so your dna your genetics your family history none of that affects you one way or the other as far as you coming into the kingdom you coming into the household of god it's not going to benefit you and it's not going to hinder you because it's it's about you coming into relationship and knowing who the king of kings is knowing the word of god made flesh knowing and receiving him following him so each person has the opportunity to receive yeshua and the gift of salvation for himself and that that's part of the good news that's part of why it's good news because it's not just for an exclusive group of people you have to be born in the right family in order to receive the messiah that's not good news oh man i'm just out of luck i was born in the wrong family the good news is it doesn't matter what family you're born to you can still receive the messiah this was part of the blessing of abraham right we talked about this earlier that all nations would be blessed through abraham that through his seed all nations will be blessed well if you look in the new testament what does it say it says that yeshua is the seed of abraham paul talks about this he says is not two seeds plural but to seed singular he says that that seed that god prophesied about abraham was fulfilled in yeshua not isaac so it's not the physical descendant of abraham that that fulfillment came through it's the yeshua is where that fulfillment came through that all the nations would be blessed comes through yeshua not isaac you see that says that we we become children by faith we become children of by faith and by having the faith of abraham we are counted righteous just like abraham was it's not because of dna not because of bloodlines not because genealogy is because of faith now with that in mind listen to psalm 96 sing to the lord bless his name proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day psalm 96 this is written i think it was written by king david if i'm not mistaken it was written a long time ago right sing to the lord bless his name proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day declare his glory among the nations his wonders among the peoples for the lord is great and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all gods proclaim the good news of his salvation proclaim the gospel of his yeshua isn't that interesting so gospel is good news right salvation is yeshua proclaim the gospel of yeshua right there in psalm 96 sing to the lord bless his name but so you think about this blessing we receive as children of god we've done nothing to earn it we have no genetic reason that we should be favored we have no righteousness of our own that we should be favored we've done nothing worthwhile to earn it we have done nothing to deserve it and yet he gives us his favor he gives us his grace he gives us his love he gives us his salvation we all just sit in a pew and go that's great right we've been blessed above all peoples of the earth we should we should rejoice and celebrate all the time right lord i know i'm worthless bless your name because you love me anyway lord i know i've done nothing to deserve your salvation but bless your name because you saved me anyway that's that's the attitude we should have in our life sing to the lord bless his name proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day that is that's what our life should look like sing to the lord bless his name and proclaim the gospel of his salvation the gospel of yeshua from day to day that should be just like a constant theme in our life because of the wonderful things he's done in our life but i think so many times we we kind of forget or lose the excitement about that you know when it's new we're like yeah i'm saved i got to go tell everybody i got to tell them what god did in my life or i'm healed i gotta go tell everybody when it's fresh and new we have that excitement right but you know if you've been a christian for 40 years do you still have that excitement you know you're like yeah i got saved 36 years ago been a christian ever since it's all right i guess do you still have the same excitement you did when you got saved do you still get excited when you talk about him and bless his name and expand multiply his name in the earth when you talk to people you proclaim the good news letting people know hey you know what you're a pretty crummy guy but god loves you anyway all right you're pretty kermit guy you've done nothing to deserve salvation but you have an opportunity can i tell you about it that'll get somebody's attention wouldn't it man you are the biggest loser i've ever met the worst of the worst of the worst and let me tell you about how god still loves you and god wants to save you i don't know if that's the best approach but it'd be an interesting try maybe you shouldn't try that it might not work very well we received grace and favor that we didn't deserve we receive love even when we are unlovable we found blessing in the arms of yeshua who says let them come and do not hinder them that's what the gospel is right let them come to receive the blessings and do not hinder them that's the heart of the gospel let the little children come john first john 3 1 says behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of god therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him i want to skip down to verse 10 but before i do i want to remind you of the blessing of a friend in vanessa what we talked about earlier i'm wrapping this all up so hang in there i'm almost done if you're asleep if your neighbors asleep bump them real quick and wake them up because we're getting to the end okay ephraim and manasseh two brothers who dwell together in unity right okay so now listen to first john 3 10 10-15 in this the children of god and the children of the devil are manifest whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is he who does not love his brother nor is he who does not love his brother this is how the children of god and the children of the devil are manifest whoever does not practice righteousness is not of god nor is he who does not love his brother this brotherly love thing is linked to us being children of god this is the blessing of afraid of manasseh right brotherly love brothers who dwell together in uni brothers who love one another this is the message you heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as cain who was the wicked one and murdered his brother and why did he murder him because his works were evil and his brothers were righteous do not marvel my brethren if the world hates you we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren this is a confirmation that you have been adopted into the family is your love for the brothers your love for one another and that interesting we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren he who does not love his brother abides in death whoever hates his brother is a murderer and you know that no murder has eternal life abiding in him and so you know as we we look around at this pretty amazing group of people you know i think it's something that i've had a hard time seeing in other congregations i've been a part of over the years is is the kind of love that you guys have and i think it's pretty amazing um i've been a part of a lot of churches and a lot of congregations where you know they say love you they say you're my brother but you don't really experience it you don't really feel loved and i just i just want to say man that's one thing i love about you guys is that i actually feel loved and i know other people here do too and i think that's pretty cool and i think that's confirmation that you are children of god according to what john says here but he explains that the children of a god are made manifest because of their love for one another and he says the children of the devil are also made manifest but not by their love but by their hate and he talks about cain cain killing his brother the first brothers in the bible one murdered the other and he says that cain was evil that he's basically saint cain is that he's a child of the devil because he murdered his brother because he hated his brother yeshua said that we would be known by our love for one another and he said that we must receive the kingdom of god like a child so as a child comes to his father to receive a blessing we come to our father to receive the kingdom he says so mark 10 16 he took them in his arms and he laid his hands on them and he blessed them and so i guess the the thought i want to leave you with tonight this is i'm wrapping it up this is the end so if you're not awake please wake up just for this if you missed it all just listen to this part okay he said you sure said to come like a child receive his blessing like a child come to him as a child of god come to him like a child receive his blessing that he has to give to you so that he will make you a child of god and give you access to the kingdom okay i i think that's the message that i i feel like i needed to draw out of this brief little section of scripture right mark 10 through 16. such a minor little tiny piece of scripture bringing kids have yeshua lay hands on them bless them and but yeshua teaches us about the kingdom and this blessing that they're receiving he is linking to receiving the kingdom and so when you think about it this is this is a gospel presentation yeshua is presenting the gospel of the kingdom every every time he has an opportunity to talk about the kingdom that's what he does and so he takes this opportunity here these kids are coming to get blessed and he says okay this is like the kingdom you have to come like this child bring your nothing right you guys familiar with that song shane and shane bring your nothing have you guys any of everybody have you heard that song go listen to that song sometime it's a really cool song but it's uh about the idea that you know i'm gonna bring nothing that's all i have i have nothing to bring but i'm gonna bring it you think about how god created everything he took nothing and he created stuff from it it took nothing and he made heaven and earth and he breathed life into it and so when you say man i have nothing to give god well that's great because he can do a whole lot with that right all right did you buy your heads lord we praise you lord we love you lord we we bless your name lord i pray that we would find opportunities in our life to magnify your name to glorify your name to increase your name to bless your name help us to find opportunities to do that throughout our day throughout the week lord that we would proclaim the good news of your salvation to everyone we will bless your name among the nations and lord if there is anyone here who has not come to you as a child and received your blessing but i pray that they would do so but i pray that you would bless each person here that you bless each person watching online lord we want your blessing in our life we don't we don't seek riches we don't seek worldly things we want your blessing we want your kingdom we want your favor but we come to you as children we come to you with nothing to give we come to you not deserving anything from you we come to you as unrighteous sinful dirt lord we ask that you would breathe life into us bless us use us to multiply and grow your kingdom lord that you would bless us so that your name would be magnified and glorified in the earth we praise you lord we love you in the name of yeshua amen i just remembered something i was going to uh tell a joke before i started teaching tonight i didn't get a chance to tell the joke because i forgot about it i just remembered the joke do you guys want to hear it it's a really good one i told it to amanda earlier and she said that was terrible so i know it's a good one okay do you know that the pilgrims had a special kind of music that they really enjoyed plymouth rock it's a good one wasn't it okay all right we just stand how many of you guys want to receive a blessing from the lord in your life [Music] [Music] ish [Music] [Music] [Music] shalom may the lord bless you and keep you may lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you may the lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace you are dismissed and children where is

Channel: The Grafted Church

Views: 250

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: church online, sermon, Bible Teaching, Lex Meyer, Grafted Church, yeshua, messianic, hebrew roots, sabbath, torah, live sabbath service, sabbath church, Bible teaching, torah thoughts, Corey Haynes, Greg Stuart

Id: 4cdJDTB-1A0

Length: 175min 58sec (10558 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021