Dr. Marcus Cosby - When The Bad Man Gets Blessed

things he has done there's a word from the lord tonight if you have your bible i invite your attention to the old testament book of genesis the old testament book of genesis at chapter 28. the old testament book of genesis at chapter 28 we'll begin our reading at verse 1. the old testament book of genesis chapter 28 and we'll begin our reading at verse 1. if you found that passive scripture say amen if you haven't said wait for me okey-dokey for those who are unfamiliar with where genesis is come talk to me after church we need we need to have a conversation yes i hope this is your first time in church amen i hope this is your first time hope that's your first time chapter 28 beginning with verse one i'm reading the night from the new international version of the holy word of god and this is what it says so isaac called for jacob and blessed him that's enough amen praise god for his holy word you may be seated in the presence of our good and gracious god so isaac called for jacob and blessed him for the time that his house would share together tonight i want to talk from the subject when the bad man gets blessed when the bad man gets blessed perhaps that maybe some of you in this place who like me have at some point become acquainted with a little word that is used in schools most times in high school or in schools of higher education it's a little term just a one-word term that was made up at some point in time to express a sentiment of feeling to express exasperation and exhaustion it's the word senioritis have you ever heard of senioritis senioritis is what happens when you're in your last year of school maybe even the last few months of school and you just get tired of being in school senioritis happens to high school seniors college seniors it happens to those who are doing graduate work and are right there at the end of the road they can see the finish line and they just get weary it's like i don't feel like going to class anymore i don't want to read another paper i don't want to write it other people don't want to read another book don't want to take another examination and certainly don't want to study for it that's senioritis when you sleep through class when you know you should be in class that's senioritis when you just had it up to here with the whole school scene i've come tonight to make a confession to all of you who are listening to me tonight and i know that confession is good for the soul and bad for the reputation but i need to reconfess tonight that i marcus d cosby have fallen prey to senioritis it was my last year my last semester at fisk university in nashville tennessee and i decided i was just tired of school i had coasted through school i'd done pretty well i was pretty smart student didn't have much problem with school at all but by the time i got to that last year i was just done i'd already been accepted to graduate school so i was just coasting i was just trying to get to the end of the line just trying to make it to graduation the invitations had already been sent out for my graduation and my graduation parties i was excited and so i just figured i'd coast on through my last few weeks of school i stopped going to class i started sleeping through class don't be laughing at me because some of y'all sleep through church but i'm just saying i was sleeping through class i decided i was just sick and tired of being in school and i was just going to coast i had done pretty well here before i was a senior i knew where i was headed to graduate school i was doing all right and i came upon this class called logic logic was required for all religion majors i was originally an english major and so i had to take logic logic it was one of those classes that had a lot of if then statements if this is true then that is true if this is false then that is false and of course with any cut with any uh school course you understand that it gets progressively more difficult as the semester continues well i had done so well up to midterm that i thought i was all right everything was fine i stopped going to class stop reading the course work stopped doing everything i knew i was supposed to do and got to the final examination i looked at that piece of paper dr ozzy earl smith jr and i knew absolutely on that piece of paper i do not tell you anything that is not true i am not stretching the truth this is not hyperbolic conversation i'm telling you the absolute truth i knew nothing that was on that well okay i knew one thing there was a line on the top of it said name i knew i knew what was supposed to go on that line but after that name line i was done i knew absolutely nothing that was on that page i felt so badly i didn't know what in the world to do all i could do was turn in my paper to my to my instructor and and beg for his forgiveness and i gave him the paper and he called me into his office he says marcus cosby what in the world was going on why in the world don't you know anything that's on this page i said doc i just can't tell you why i just got tired i had senioritis i thought i could just coast i thought it was logic i'm a logical kind of guy i figured i'd be able to understand some of the things and just coast through the end of the semester and i had absolutely nothing correct nothing written on that piece of paper to which my professor said listen i want you to do something for me you have too much potential for you to get to this point in your life and crash and burn like this so this is what i want you to do for the next four days i want you in my office at 8 00 a.m and i'm going to teach you everything you failed to learn over the past half of this semester i want you in this office and i'm going to walk you through every single lesson that you failed to learn now brothers and sisters if i never knew what grace and mercy was before them i knew what grace and mercy was after that that brother walked me through every single thing i was supposed to learn everything i should have learned here to for and i passed that class i passed it with flying not with flying colors i passed it with a c but that saw me right on out and so i was all right and i was grateful for that logic instructor who gave me the opportunity to get out of that class now my brothers and sisters i tell you that because i understood that when i was in that class i was not being the good student i knew i was supposed to be i was being a very very bad student not reading the coursework not doing the coursework not studying for the examination i was being a very bad student and some kind of way in the midst of the badness of my temperament god saw fit to turn my situation and bless me in the midst of it all and i got a funny feeling and a sneaky suspicion that i'm looking at some saints on a tuesday night who can testify that you didn't always dot every eye and cross every t you didn't always do everything you were supposed to do when you were supposed to do it but some kind of way god blessed you in spite of you god looked beyond your faults and saw your need and the only reason you're sitting in covenant tonight is because even though you've been bad in a whole lot of situations god blessed you anyway oh yes that's the story of every one of us who's sitting in here whether you're applauding and saying amen or not the truth of the matter is every last one of us has been bad in some situations seen saga and setting of our lives every one of us sitting in here looking you can look all sanctimonious as much as you want you can act like you never messed up you act like you've never done anything that was egregious in the sight of god but last time i checked your bible all have sinned i know i'm from texas where they say y'all but that ain't what the text says the bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of god but some kind of way god chooses to bless us even in spite of us and that my friends is the story of the brother who is before us tonight in this text his name is jacob jacob is a bad man by all accounts as a matter of fact he was the twin brother of a man by the name of esau esau was in his mother's womb with his twin brother jacob and the bible says that they were jostling in their mother's womb this is chapter 25 of genesis they are jostling in their mother's womb she had been barren isaac her husband had prayed that the lord would open her womb he did exactly that and they began to jostle two twins in the wound twins in the womb jostling and god says to rebecca the there are two boys in your womb jostling and the older is going to serve the younger if the older is going to be subservient to the younger two nations in your womb they would be the and they would be the israelites jostling in the womb of this mother and the bible says that when she began to con to bring forth those children from her womb the first one from her womb was esau esau was the first one from her womb but when esau began to move from her womb jacob grabbed his brother's heel and began to try to pull him back and the book says when he grabbed the heel that's when his name was called jacob now you must understand to israelites to the hebrew nation you always name someone in accordance with their nature yes your name is synonymous with your nature what we call you kind of indicates your character that's why his name is jacob because jacob means heel grabber jacob means supplanter jacob means deceiver jacob means trickster jacob is a bad man he started out bad and he never got much better along the course of the first part of his life jacob is a bad man and the text reveals that this boy named jacob had some deceptive practices in his life and in spite of his trickster habits in spite of his of his willingness to do the wrong thing instead of the right thing he still gets blessed now this messes up some of your theology doesn't it because some of y'all been told if you always do the right thing if you always say the right thing if you always act like you're the right kind of person you'll always get the blessing and those who don't do it the right way don't say the right thing don't go to the right places will not get the blessing but that's not what happens in the text the bible says that this trickster this supplanter this hustler this deceiver gets blessed and i've lost about 200 amens already because y'all don't like it when the hustler gets blessed y'all don't like it when the trickster gets blessed but let's see if we can understand from the scriptures what happens to this brother named jacob and see if we might even see ourselves in the text and begin to give god glory because he does not only bless the perfect and pristine he blessed those with predicaments and peril and problems just the same [Applause] here it is here it is i see in the text at least three things i lift them from your consideration and i'll be out of your way in just a minute here's the bible what the bible says about jacob that jacob gets blessed watch this it's going to blow your mind jacob gets blessed by deceptive deceptive practices he gets blessed by deceitful hold on deceit jacob gets blessed by deceitful practices how in the world is this brother gonna get blessed like this not only does it get blessed if you look at chapter 25 you'll find out that jacob is such a trickster that he begins to trick his brother esau out of what is known as the birthright let the church say birthright he tricks him out of his birthright the bible says at the end of chapter 25 that esau had been in the field hunting that's what he did he was a hunter by by trade he had been out in the field hunting and after he had finished hunting for a while he came in from the field and he was famished he was exhausted he was on his last leg and jacob his brother is in the kitchen hanging out he always hung out around the house and he was in the kitchen hanging out and he asked his brother will you please give me some of that stew that you're making in the pot and the bible says that he said the only race though jacob said the only way i'm going to give you some of the stew is if you give me your birthright now church family you got to understand what a birthright means because a birthright is what is described as that which gives honor to the eldest son in the house the birthright is given to the eldest son it is all about honor the israelites just like africans are very considerate of honor they place honor at the top of their list of considerations with regards to characteristics of good individuals and so esau would get the honor of being the patriarch of the family once his father passed off the scene and so he was the one because he was the elder son who was supposed to get a sec a two parts two parts half of his father's inheritance he would become the political leader he'd become the leader of the family and esau decided he was gonna give up all of that for his birthright yeah that's what i said he gave up all of that for a quick fix he gave up all of that for instant gratification he deliberately disregards who he is and who he is to become so he can get a quick fix now to be sure oh jacob deliberately disregards the honored tradition of the family jacob gets blessed here's the first point by deliberate disregard he deliberately disregards the honored tradition of the family but don't just get mad at jacob look at esau too cause esau is giving up everything that speaks honor in the family tradition because he wants a quick fix instant gratification if i was to talk about what we talked about last night i would tell you he wanted the right now and wasn't interested in the night yet and so he was going to give up everything he chose stew over stability [Applause] and how many of us before you get too mad at each song have made some poor choices because we wanted instant gratification oh you don't have to say hey man just winking a man at me and i know i'm talking to you is there anybody in here who can look back over your life and say i made some poor decisions sometimes it was occupation sometime it was family sometime it was just trying to get over this hump and i made some bad business choices i did some things i shouldn't have done in my family life i did some things i shouldn't have done at school because i wanted a quick fix and he gives up the honor of the family because he wanted a quick fix and by deliberate disregard jacob gets the blessing that doesn't seem to make sense to me he gets blessed by deliberately disregarding the family tradition he gets blessed by deliberately going past honor and some of us have made the same kinds of poor choices and have disregarded the honor of our own name trying to get a quick fix but keep on reading the story of jacob because not only does jacob get blessed by deliberate disregard but jacob my friend likewise gets blessed by deceitful deliberate and deceitful actions against his father if you keep on reading the text you'll find out in chapter 27 that this brother named jacob decides he's going to dupe his father into believing he is somebody that he's not [Applause] he's now engaged in deceitful dealings uh you see if we didn't watch watch text check says that that his daddy who is isaac is on his deathbed isaac is on his deathbed his eyes had grown dim so dim had his eyes grown that he is now blind and isaac is laying on his death bed knowing he's at the end of his life he calls his older boy esau in the bible says that that isaac loved esau and rebecca the mama loved jacob but he called esau in said come here boy i want to bless you before i die he moves now from birthright to blessing please don't miss this story he says come in because the blessing of the father was most important before daddy died so he brought him in he said listen son i know that you're out there hunting that wild game go get me some of that wild game that you love to hunt make me a nice last supper i'm gonna eat this last food and i'm gonna go ahead and bless you and then i'm gonna die i don't know how long i got left to live i'm to bless you and then i'm going to die esau goes out to the field to do what his daddy said and when he goes out to the field rebecca who the bible says was listening in she overheard the conversation you know overheard is just a nice term for being nosy she was being nosy listening to her her husband's conversation with esau and when she overheard it she told jacob come here son come here uh your dad is about to bless your big brother this is what i want you to do i want you to get the blessing so instead of him doing what daddy said i want you go get two goats out in the field bring him in to me right quick i'm gonna make up a good meal for your dad for your daddy and you take it into him i'm gonna cover you with goat's hair because the bible says that esau was hairy and and jacob was not i'm gonna cover you with goat's hair and i'm gonna make sure that your father thinks that you are your older brother so that you can get the blessing that he is now trying to give to esau now wait a minute church family am i reading this correctly that mama is teaching her son how to be deceptive in his dealings hold on don't you move from this too fast because it seems to suggest that although jacob has some issues he learned his issues from his mama jacob got some issues but he got the stuff out right and i knew i wasn't going to get a whole bunch of amens right here but i said i'm going to tell myself amen preach cause amen amen you preaching on a tuesday evening in this house because the truth is while some of us are fussing at our children some of their foolishness they learn from their mama and dad [Applause] i'm hooping i'm hoping that's me i'm closing now yeah some of the stuff they learned from their mama and daddy come on come on be honest in the house tonight you in the house phone rings you don't want to talk to the person on the phone tell your child answer the phone tell them i ain't here but you standing right there tell everybody here my momma said she ain't here [Applause] and then when the teacher calls and say little johnny or joanne is acting up in class no not my child my child would never be dishonest my child would never you just taught your child to be deceptive in his or her dealings [Music] and could it be that we have passed down negative character traits trying to cover our mistakes the bible says that rebecca the mama taught her boy to lie to his own daddy when on bro made that pot up for his for her for his daddy he took it on in today and the bible says that when he took it in the room daddy started touching on him he thought if he's ahead oh he saw his clothes he has now deceived the father and the bible says that as a consequence of the deception jacob got the blessing the blessing intended for esau jacob now has it and when esau heard about it the bible says he was angry no angry is not a strong enough word he was incensed he was enraged and the bible said he was so enraged that he wanted to kill his brother he made up in his mind i'm going to kill him just when you thought your family was the only one that was dysfunctional just when you thought you were the only one with a crazy brother and a crazy cousin just when you thought your mama was the only one out of her mind and your daddy didn't know nothing look in genesis chapter 25 26 27-28 family drama anybody ever have family drama i didn't know if you're gonna raise your hands i know you're sitting next to your family you bold in here tonight i appreciate that [Applause] the bible says that this man jacob has now duked his brother out of birthright and blessing and esau has had it up to him i'm not taking this anymore he said i'm gonna kill him and rebecca over her you know she always overhearing stuff but her nose himself and rebecca called jacob and said listen hey boy i don't know why your brother's so mad at you but you need to get out of here you need to get out of here and get out of here fast go down to your uncle laban's house go to my brother's house and he's gonna hide you in the house go down to my brother's house he's gonna hide you in the house stay there for a few years put a pen right there and fast forward when you fast forward he gets down to that house and he finds a woman he's just so in love with she is fine and divine and the bible says he wants to marry her and her daddy says you got to work seven years before you can marry my daughter i like that a brother who makes a man work before he gives his daughter in marriage oh bless his name okay i'm sorry that was just for me that was just for me and so the text says text says and he made him had made him work before he got a hand in marriage and then when he got to the wedding day got the veil over her face they at the altar and the bible says when they lifted the veil he saw the other sister who was cross-eyed and looking crazy and the bible helps us to understand you reap what you sow you can be deceptive all you want to but somewhere along the line what you started in somebody else's life will come right back to you in yours you better watch how you treat people you better watch how you treat people better watch how you treat people had to work another seven years for the woman he wanted that had nothing to do with the sermon i just wanted y'all to know that and so let me go back to where i was trying to go [Applause] i was he's on the run he gets down to laban's house when he gets down to laban's house the book says that he's there and before he gets there rather before he gets to labor's house he's so busy running he gets tired sometimes running away from your mistakes makes you tired sometimes running away from the foolishness that you started and caused makes you tired the bible says he lay down when he lie down there in this undisclosed place when he when he when he fell asleep all by himself god started talking now now this is blessing me because god hasn't said much throughout this whole story we've heard from esau we've heard from isaac we've heard from jacob and we've heard from rebecca but now god has something to say and god oftentimes has to get you by yourself [Applause] all alone so he can talk to you and have your full and undivided attention i don't know who i'm talking to tonight but somebody in here has been running from some stuff and god brought you into covenant church tonight to let you know the run is over sit down i got something to say the bible says that not only has jacob been blessed by deliberate disregard not only has been been blessed by deceitful dealings but now jacob is about to be blessed by divine decree god says it was nice for you to get blessed by your brother esau nice for you to get blessed by your daddy isaac but now i got a blessing for you he's sleeping in repose he's lying down and while he's sleeping god starts talking to him and he says i got things for you i got plans for you where you are is not where you're going what you've been dealing with is not the only thing i have for you i got something on the other side of this that's going to bless your entire life and when god spoke to him in chapter 28 at verses 13 through 15 he says i'm the lord your god i'm the one who provided for you and i am with you and i will bless you and i'll make sure that everything you touch will be blessed hold on a minute somebody's still angry because this is the bad man and god says i'm about to hook you up too this doesn't seem to make sense but could it be that god sees more in us than we can even see in ourselves could it be that god because god has made an investment in us does not only look at the activities of our past he looks at our potential and because he understands that we are not just the sum total of our past but we are also what is our potential he says i will not give up on you because i've got too much invested in you and i'm talking to a brother tonight who thinks that because you made so many mistakes that god is done with you has discarded you has nothing left to do i'm talking to a sister tonight who says i've made too many mistakes i've gone the wrong way too many times and god came tonight into this church and sent me to remind you that if you're his child he never takes his hands off you hallelujah to the lamb of god oh bless his holy name he still has his hands on you he still has great things in store for you the best is still yet to come [Applause] he says i'm gonna bless you son and that's why you can never give up on any person in your family that's why you can never give up on that person who made those egregious errors can never give up on those persons who did the wrong thing repeatedly because god is still able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think i'm done i'm really done i'm almost about to sit down in my chair but i got to tell you this little story about about the bad man getting blessed i am the son of rogers and bobby collins i'm the third son third child of rogers and bobby cosby my big sister now sleeps a long sleep she's with the lord upstairs there she's blessing the lord every day and she she waits on me to join her my big brother lives in minneapolis minnesota andre bernard cosby andre bernard cosby like i like my sister grew up on the south side of chicago and my brother grew up in a god-fearing home my mama right there she taught us the right ways of god as a matter of fact she had a placard on the wall in the house said as for me and my house we will serve the lord you knew where you were living when you were living in my mama's house you ain't you ain't got the option of not going to church when you're living in my mama's house and so she had that on the wall but my brother decided made up in his mind to make some bad decisions he engaged in thug life he was a drug abuser landed in jail on more than one occasion stayed there for an extended period of time by all accounts and standards my big brother andre bernard cosby was the bad man and he was good at it [Applause] he did everything he was big and bad enough to do my big brother was the bad man lord released him from jail and when he got released from jail some point in that experience he got so hooked on jesus that anytime you are in his presence whether you want to talk about jesus or not jesus will be the center of the conversation oh yes oh yes oh yes [Applause] if the scale is from 1 to 10 my brother is always on 14.5 is on a scale that is way above all of our other scales and my brother loves to talk about jesus i called him a few weeks ago i said not how long have you been clean and sober he said i've been cleaning us over for 17 years and i'm so grateful for being clean and sober that every day of my life i'm trying to talk to anybody i know to let them know that if god delivered me he can deliver you too that if god turned my life around he can turn your life around too and my brother is the classic example of god taking a drug abuser and making him a deacon yes sir he is deacon andre bernard cosby and maybe i'm talking to somebody at covenant united church of christ as i go to my seat tonight and you can testify you have some bad moments in your own life you've done some things you wish you had not done said some things you wish you had not said gone some places you wish you had not gone but aren't you glad god did not take his hands off you and when he gets you to the place where you're all by yourself and you can't do nothing on your own he will begin to talk to you and let you know you are still on his mind you are still his child you are still the apple of his eye and somebody ought to testify if anybody is in christ that person's a new creature all things are passed away behold all things are become new can i get one witness in here who can testify things i used to do i don't do no more places i used to go i don't go okay oh yeah that's not your testimony all right here's the remix things i used to do i don't do as much places i used to go i don't go as much somebody ought to testify he's still working on me he's still molding me he's still fixing me so please be patient with me cause god is not through with me yet [Applause] listen to me child of god listen to me god does not relegate his blessings to only the folks who sit on your pew god does not relegate god does not think like we think you think you earned your blessing god says i choose to place my blessings wherever i choose to place them because i don't just see your past i see your potential and sometimes the bad man gets blessed but if you come back tomorrow i'll tell you about what happens when the bad man becomes a blessing [Applause]

Channel: The Theology Network

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Keywords: dr marcus cosby, wheeler ave baptist church, Freddy haynes, Marcus cosby, Frederick Haynes III, Reginald sharpe, fellowship chicago, clay evans, dewey smith, cogic praise break, shout, Charles jenkins, jamal bryant, new birth cathedral, td jakes, potters house dallas, dorinda clark cole, gardner c taylor, Jeremiah wright, Samuel dewitt proctor, new birth cathdral, theology, James cone, Raphael warnock, Ebenezer baptist church, howard john wesley, Martin Luther king jr

Id: AUTgQ92iHcQ

Length: 33min 58sec (2038 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 01 2022