Become a Blessing

Blessings in the Bible were an important thing to people. We had the blessing of little children, and certainly in Christ's time, people brought those children to Him. He didn't go out seeking them.

They wanted to hear a blessing from the little child, or from Jesus Christ, over their children. And it was important to them to hear that. And as we look through the Bible, we see the spoken blessing always had very much importance to people. Down through the Old Testament, we see blessings that are often given by God and people seeking those things in their lives. The spoken word is very important. In today's society, we've gotten away from those spoken blessings that have such weight. You can imagine the effect on a child when they hear a blessing from their parent.

During the times of childhood, to have a parent speak a blessing over them is an important thing. It gave them direction, maybe a sense of who they were and where they were going. Much like as we're adults, when we hear someone speak a blessing and not say it's a blessing over you, but just talk about where you're going and the strengths that you have and the things that you need to work on.

It's good to hear those things. It helps us to focus and helps us to become who God wants us to become. It's a privilege to be able to ask a blessing on a little child like that. This morning, I want to talk about the blessing. Just like we learn about ourselves from little children, and it was so important to God, we learn about what God has in mind for us as we go through the times where we talk about these blessings. Let's look at a few of the blessings in the Old Testament because they were frequent. As God would call people, He would speak a blessing over them.

If we go back to Genesis 14, we see many of them. I'm not going to hit all of them. A few of them here that we're probably familiar with. Abraham, of course, we know that God spoke a blessing over him. Of the people on earth, God called Abraham, told him to get out away from his country, leave his father, leave his mother, and go to a place that he said he wanted him to be.

And Abraham did it, and God spoke a blessing on him. Genesis 12 is where the important, the major blessing is. We'll go into that in a little bit. But here in chapter 14 and verse 18, Abraham has just come back from working with the kings that surround the area that he's in there. There's been an invasion, and he's been working with some of the kings, including the king of Sodom, and God blessed Abraham.

And he was able to go back, and he was able to bring back the people, bring back the goods that had been taken from them. And in verse 18, we have Melchizedek. We know who Melchizedek is. He's the king of Salem and Hebrews. It talks about who Melchizedek is. He had no beginning of days nor end of days. Then Melchizedek says in verse 18, King of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.

That had to have an effect on Abraham. Notice, in response, Abraham gave a tithe, gave a tithe of all. He was moved by what God had said about him, about this king that came out of nowhere and told him what a good job he had done, that he knew he had pleased God and Melchizedek was blessing him. You know, we know how important a spoken blessing was to Jacob and Esau, right?

Jacob and Esau, the sons of Isaac. So much so that they battled over that. Jacob conspired. Jacob lied. The mother got involved in it because that blessing was so important. It was rightfully Esau's because he was the firstborn, but the mother and Jacob wanted it so badly. They were willing to do a lot.

And what they did, we can't condone. But they wanted that blessing. It was so important to them. It was so important to them to have Jacob have that blessing. And you remember the story there. We don't have to recount it. Jacob got the blessing. He got the blessing by not a good way at all. But in Genesis 22, once the blessing was spoken, it couldn't be taken back. It couldn't be taken back.

It was something that, you know, I mean, today we might say, oh, we've got the wrong son. I shouldn't have blessed you. I should have brushed your older brother. But Isaac knew that this must have been of God. In chapter 22 and verse 17—now pick it up in verse 16. Oh, let's go to just make sure it's just chapter 28 here, I think. So, yep, chapter 28. Verse 1 says, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. This was after he learned that he'd been fooled and duped into rustling Jacob and said, if he saw.

Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and charged him and said to him, Don't take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padenarim, to the house of Bethuel, and find a wife from the daughters of Laman. And he repeats the blessing to him, May God Almighty bless you, may he make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may be an assembly of peoples, and give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your descendants with you, that you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.

Again, think of those words were said over you. Would that give you direction? Would those be something that you remembered the rest of your life? You know, Jacob was not what we would call the greatest kid at this time. He had just fooled his dad into giving him a blessing. But look where Jacob's life went. God set the direction on him.

May God give you the blessings that he promised to Abraham. And in the course of his life, Jacob became a different person. He became a different person. He was no longer the schemer that he was when he was there at home with his brother Esau and Isaac and Rebecca. He became a man that God looked at and said, you know, this is a man I can bless. He became a man who stood up for God, a man who lived his life according to God's ways.

You might never have thought that when you saw Jacob back at the time that he did this, you know, received the blessing in maybe an untoward way. But look what happened. Maybe he remembered those words all the day of his life and it gave him the direction of who he was to have words spoken over him that were so important. Well, if we go forward, forward to Deuteronomy 7, you see that God, you know, often spoke blessings over his people. Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, verses that we know well and verse that we'll read later where he gives this blessing to his people that he calls today.

But here in ancient Israel, the people that he called out of Egypt and brought out of Egypt, in Deuteronomy 7, verse 6, Moses tells him, You are a holy people to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. Those are mighty words to be said. Out of all the people on earth, Israel, God chose you. God chose you.

That should have had an effect on them. And at the time they were hearing those words it did. It didn't seem to have the staying power on them, but we know they didn't have the Holy Spirit, so they couldn't follow God. They had that carnal human nature that naturally resists God, and they weren't able to overcome it on their own. And verse 7 says, The Lord didn't set his love on you or choose you because you were more in number than any other people.

You were the least of all peoples. But because he loves you, and because he had made a promise, he chose you. And so we can look at ourselves today, and God's made a promise to us. He blesses us.

We'll read that in a little bit. Let's go over to Deuteronomy 11. We learn, we learn as we see the blessings of God, that with them comes some responsibility. Deuteronomy 11 and verse 26. So, Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse. It's up to you, Israel. I set before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today. Ah. Want the blessing of God? Obey Him. Abraham did.

Before God gave him the blessing in Genesis 12 that we'll talk about in a little bit, and the one in Genesis 14, Abraham did exactly what God asked him to do. Much like as parents, we will bless our children, and we will make life good for them always because we love them and we have mercy on them. But if they do something and obey us, we even more want to bless them. And he says in verse 27, the blessing, but in verse 28, if you don't, it says, it's your choice.

I set before you today a blessing and a curse, the blessing if you obey, verse 28, and the curse if you don't obey the commandments of the Lord your God. If you turn aside from the way which I command you today to go after other gods which you haven't known. We know you're thinking of a verse now, I'm sure, back in Deuteronomy 30. Let's go to Deuteronomy 30. A very memory verse for almost everyone in the church where God says, I set before you today life and death, blessing and cursing.

And then He gives the obvious thing, choose life. But let's read the verses surrounding. Chapter 30. Let's begin with verse 8.

In the leading verses here of chapter 30, God talks about if Israel departs, if they don't continue to obey Him, what will happen. And He says, this is what will happen, I'll curse you. Verse 8.

You'll learn your lesson, you'll come back to me, and I'll bless you again. Verse 10.

Those are New Testament words, aren't they? Right there in the Old Testament. God wanted from Israel the same thing He wants from us today.

It's not in heaven that you should say, who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. Nor is it beyond the sea that you should say, who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may simply do it. Simply do what God said. Easy words to hear, easy words to say, I will. Ancient Israel said, I will, but ancient Israel didn't do it the way God said, but he says, this is not complex. This is what? If you want what I have to offer, this is what you do. You don't have to have mystery. You don't have to have someone to decipher it. It's right there for you. And then in verse 15, see, I set before you today life and death, life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments, his statutes, his judgments, that you may live and multiply in the land which you go to possess. Verse 17, a warning, but if your heart turns away so that you don't hear, and you're drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. God's crystal clear with them. Crystal clear. And then the verse we all know, I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the eternal your God, that you may obey his voice, that you may cling to him. For he is your life, and the length of your days, and that you may dwell in the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.

God is our future. God is eternity. He's made promises to his people, and he says, if you want those promises, if you want to live for eternity, which he promises to his church today, and those who follow him, who obey him, who yield themselves wholly and totally to him, who become like him, then simply do what I say. I'm giving you the choice. Not everyone on earth today has that choice. You and I have that choice. God has called us, as it says in John 6, 44, no one can come to Christ except those that are called by God to him. Not everyone has the opportunity you and I have. Today, it's us that have it. For the rest of the world, it's another time. This isn't the only day of salvation, but for some, today is. And for those who hear the truth, today, God would speak this to us. And there's that blessing that he has for those who obey him and follow him, those who are his own special people. Ancient Israel in the Old Testament, spiritual Israel today. Over in Proverbs, Proverbs 10, just a short little verse. Just a short little verse that sums up how important the blessing of God is. And as we bless that young man, how important it is in his life going forward for God to watch over him and for his parents to hear the words that are spoken over him as well. In Proverbs 10, verse 22, it simply says, Now, that doesn't mean just physically. It doesn't mean that when we have the blessing of God, we're going to be millionaires and live in the finest house and drive the finest cars. But spiritually, I think we would all agree, we're very rich. We are blessed beyond all people that we know because of what God has given us, the truth he's given us, the purpose in our lives. The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and he adds no sorrow with it. He has no sorrow with it. And when we understand fully what God is doing in our lives, there can be hard times, there can be tough times, but there's no sorrow. There's no sorrow when we're following God. No regrets. Tough times, but when we understand what God is doing and what his blessing is, we begin to understand why he wove this into his truth and into families. Let's go back now to Genesis 12.

This is a blessing spoken over Abraham. That has affected really the entire world, and it continues to affect the entire world today. Abraham, out of all the people on earth, you know, obeyed God and did what God said when he came to understand God and who he was. He didn't withhold anything. He didn't withhold anything from him. Genesis 12, verse 1, The Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country, get away from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you. Now, we've said this before, but as a reminder, it wasn't like today where people just get up and move from one state to another. This was that people in those days stayed with their parents. It was kind of a responsibility. Stay with your parents. Stay at home. Help out with it. But God was saying, Abram, you do something different. You follow me. Remember, God is our Father, right? You follow into the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. Wonderful words. And God did do that. But notice the responsibility that he attaches to it in verse 2. I'm going to do all these things for you, Abraham. I'll make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. You shall be a blessing. I'll bless you, but you have a responsibility when I bless you. I'll bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, when Abram heard those words, I'm sure they were daunting words to him, exciting words to him to hear. God said, I'm going to make you great. I'm going to make you a great nation. But in Abram, you have to be a blessing too. I'm going to bless you. You need to be a blessing. In fact, in you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Do you see the responsibility God placed on Abram? And Abram knew what to do. It tells us in Genesis 26, he followed God implicitly. Everything God told him to do, he did. Even to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his only son, because God asked him to. His heart was right with God. He totally yielded to God and what his will was. And so, God honored the blessing. Abraham did what he had to do. We learned that God gives us blessings and blesses us that we may bless others. We learned something about God in that verse. He is a blessing to us. I don't think there's anyone that knows God, whether in this church or not, that wouldn't say God is a blessing. God has blessed this land. He has blessed us all individually. If we have the truth and we understand things that people that don't understand can't even comprehend. It's a tremendous blessing. He blesses us and he expects us to become like him. If he blesses us, we're to be a blessing to others. You know, we see that in the Bible. We're called into the light and we know Jesus Christ is the light that came into the world. And what does he tell us to be? Be a light to the world. Jesus Christ was a light to the world. You be a light to the world.

Jesus Christ died for our sins that we could be forgiven. And what does he tell us? I'll forgive your sins. You forgive others who sin against you. You'll receive forgiveness, but then I expect you to forgive others who sin against you. I'll do it to you. I'll teach you. Then you show that to others. I'm training you to become like me. Let's go to 1 John 4.

And you see it throughout the Bible as God trains us to be who he wants us to become. Here in 1 John 4, verse 17, But he who fears has not yet been made perfect in love.

Verse 19, We love him because he first loved us.

Jesus Christ, John 3 16, says, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so loved the world that Jesus Christ was willing to give up life for us. We would never know love. We would never know agape, except he first showed us his love and that he took away the death that we've all earned by the sins that we've committed, took it away, but he said, I've loved you and I've shown you what love is.

Now I expect you to love others. And he says to the church, By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love, one for another. He first loved us, and we have the responsibility to develop that love and become like him that others see that love in us as well.

In fact, love is the first listed of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but we can go right down the list. Those fruits of the Holy Spirit define what God is. He wants us to become like him. Let's go back to 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. Another example of this. It says in verse 1. I'm sorry, 2 Corinthians 1. 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation. We can look to God for comfort. We have the death of a loved one. God comforts us. In tribulation, we go to him. We find peace. We find the patience that we need to endure the trial, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

He comforts us. We learn how to comfort others. We emulate our Father. We become like Him. 1 John 3.2 says, we become like Him. That's what God has called us to. To have the same thing, and as a loving Father, He shows us these things that we may be a blessing to others. He first loved us. We love. He comforts. We learn to comfort. He's a light. We become a light. He forgives. We forgive. We appreciate the calling that God has given us. We see the blessings that He gives us and what He's doing as He does that. We understand what it means that He's doing in our lives. We're happy to hear His blessing.

We all want to hear at the time that Christ returns and we're resurrected, well done, thou good and faithful servant. But along the way, we're going to hear some words perhaps that aren't well done, thou good and faithful servant. But if we're really, really following God, if we understand that He's looking for us to be blessings to other people, that He is training us to become like Him, there has to be some correction along the way.

None of us are like that, naturally. The Holy Spirit will lead us in that regard. But when we look at it from that way, even correction becomes something that we're going to be able to do. That we can even ask God for. I want to be like you. I don't know how to do this. I know I mishandled this situation. And God will lovingly correct us, just like a parent lovingly corrects his child.

Not because he's mad at him. Not because he wants to take out his anger on him. But because he wants that child to grow up to be all that he can be. And what God has in mind for us is, I want you to be, come all that you can be. At the feast, and in a sermon here a few years ago, I used the term Paedia.

Remember that? Actually, Pah-he-day-ah is how you pronounce it. As I looked it up. And it was what the Greeks, if you recall, did that they would put their sons through these training programs because they wanted to become elite members of society. And train them in every aspect of life. That's what God is doing to us. And sometimes correction is exactly what it needs, what we need to have happen. And not get mad at it, but be thankful it comes because if we truly are looking to become like God, like Jesus Christ, it's a necessary part.

Now our carnal human nature will be like, I don't want to hear that. I'm good enough and whatever. I don't agree with that. But if we take the time and listen to what's going on and compare ourselves to God and realize the goal become like Him, it's a necessary part. And so when we look at Proverbs 10, 22, is there sorrow in that? Well, sorrow for a little bit, right? Because we may be, you know, we repent, we turn from our ways, we're sorry for what we've done. But we come to the point where we realize what God has in mind for us, and it's a tremendous, tremendous calling.

Let's go over to 1 Peter now. 1 Peter 2. And read the New Testament counterpart of what we read back in Deuteronomy. 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Now we'll read down to verse 15. We often read verse 9, but there's instructive verses that go beyond that verse. Verse 9. You, God speaking to you and me, right? Everyone, everyone that follows Him. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. He called you, you're a special people, He's training you. You know what? Your job is to go out and tell others, witness to others, preach the gospel to all nations. Who once were not a people, you and I weren't a people, if it wasn't for God's calling, we probably wouldn't even know most of the people in this room, if not everyone. Who once were not a people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And in verse 11, He calls attention to, where are our citizenship? Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles. You were called as a special people. You're not supposed to look like them anymore. You're not supposed to be like them anymore. You're supposed to be coming like Christ. Not adhering to the ways of the world, not, as it says in Romans 12, conforming to the ways of the world, but having your mind renewed by God. I beg you, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. I remember that person. I remember that he kept the Sabbath, even though we wanted to do all these things on Saturday, but he said, no, I have to keep the Sabbath. Even though, and he thought, and he knew it was for all 24 hours of the Sabbath, not just the two-hour period when I go to church, and all the other things that we do. That they remember, they knew God. They followed him. Look at the example they set. Therefore, he says, be good citizens. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. Obey the law of the land. Be good citizens. Just like Jesus Christ was. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. You are to be lights to the world. You are to be examples of my way of life. You're kind of the people that will show what the kingdom of God will be like by how you live. And when they see you, they may understand. Why do you do that? How do you do that? How can you stay calm in the midst of all the storms of life? What's because of who we are, because of the Holy Spirit that God gives us, because of our commitment to Him, and because we understand our calling and we understand the blessings that He gives us, is not just to benefit us. They do benefit us, greatly. But our job is to benefit others. And so He says here in 1 Peter 2, you have a responsibility that people outside of the church know who you are. If we turn back to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy, we have in there this chapter, it's not 2 Timothy, it must be 1 Timothy. Yep, 1 Timothy 3.

Now we have in here the qualifications for someone to be an elder and a deacon of the church, a position of responsibility. And you can read down through most of those. It's a picture of a man who is living God's way of life. But in verse 7, after he goes through all these things and whatever and says what those qualifications are, in verse 7 he says, Even people on the outside of the church should be talking good of him.

He should be doing all these things. You see him in church, you know what his family's like, you know how he's doing things. Even people from the outside should speak well of him. Which is exactly what Peter said in 1 Peter 2, right? He should have a good testimony on the people outside because we're living God's way of life.

People will like us, right? If we exhibit love, joy, peace, long suffering, goodness, meekness, kindness, gentleness, faith, self-control. If we're people who are obeying and are profitable to the people that we work for, the things that we do, they're going to like us. It says, I always like the verse that comes after the listening of the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

It says, Against such there is no law. Believe me, every employer, every neighbor, every teacher wishes that they could have a student, an employee, a neighbor that exhibits all of those traits. A good testimony from those that are outside. Now it's easy, really, when you look at it, to see what the testimony from outside is.

Now if we see a student, a student who is getting in trouble with the principal all the time, he shows up on TV, resisting authority, and they have to handcuff him and turn him away, is that a good testimony from outside? Now, you know, most everyone I know in the church, or the kids we've been associated with, have been good students. They good, good grades. They do the things that they're supposed to do. They follow the directives of the teacher. They're not the problems in school, but they set a good example. We could just see by the report card sometimes, right? As parents, you would know, well, my kid must be doing okay because look at the report card, and the little comments that come home on it, they're doing what they should do.

Once in a while, you'll have someone, a child, that you could look at and think, they're not setting the example. I see this comment, and sometimes you get a call from the teacher, but our job is to, just like we need to be corrected, they need to be corrected.

Your job is to be here and be a good student. This is what is important to you. We can see the same thing in an employer-employee relationship, right? If someone, you know, is always in trouble, always losing a job, always have something happening to them, chances are they don't have a good testimony on the outside. Something's wrong with our attitude toward employment. Good employees, good employees, employers want to keep.

They go to continual, continuing, you know, in the process of their career, promotions along the way. And you can kind of see that without asking any questions. We don't have to go out and interview employees. We don't have to do those things. We can kind of see by what's going on, they've got a good testimony on the outside. They don't have a whole lot of problems. Same thing with neighbors. No matter what side, no matter what age we are, whether we're very young or we're the, you know, the oldest people in the church, you know, there's testimony on the outside.

We all live next to people. We all have neighbors that are going up. Do they look at us as real pains? Or do they look at us as, you know what, they're kind of nice to live by. They're kind of peaceful. They don't cause problems. They don't encroach on my territory. And if I have to mention something to them, they take care of it.

Well, that's, you know, that's what it is. That's being a witness of God's way of life as we become like Jesus Christ. We'll be more and more like that, and people will notice. We become blessings over in Romans 12, or back in Romans 12. In verse 14, Paul says this, he says, Bless those who persecute you. Now, that's a tough thing to do, isn't it? If someone's persecuting us, it would be really difficult to say, and I'm going to pray for God's blessing on that person. Bless, he says, and don't curse. The natural thing would be to curse them. And I call God's wrath down on them, but he says, Bless them. Bless them.

In Matthew 5, 44, he says, Pray for your enemies. Pray for your enemies. That's a difficult thing to do. We can all give lip service to and say, Oh, yes, I would. I would. I would. But if we had a real enemy, if we had someone really persecuting us, then do we. Then are we able to do that? That's something that we have to learn. And as we talked about last week, prepare our minds to do, where God is taking us, what we need to do, how we go through life and learn these things little by little, over the course of life, here a little, there a little.

Don't learn it all at one time, but by the course of the rest of our lives, after God begins working with us. If everyone was living by God's way of life, can you imagine what the world would be like? Just think of all the little conflicts that you've had in your life with people and all the things that we see. We watch the news every day. Just think of all the things that just because people don't do what they should do. Now, sometimes we want to get a vision of the kingdom.

Just imagine. Just imagine if everyone was even trying, just trying to do some of these things. What a difference it would make in the world. What a wonderful world it would be if everyone was living God's way and even just trying to live God's way. You know, sometimes they say, even if one commandment, everyone in the world kept just one of the Ten Commandments, think of the difference it would make in the world.

And in the kingdom, they will be being taught to keep all of God's way. They will be being taught to live God's way. They'll have God's spirit because we know that that can't happen in the world today because there's a spirit in man that's just the natural enmity against God, as it says in Romans 8-7. We all have it. And until we had God's spirit, you know, the natural response to anything we're told is, I don't want to hear it, I'm going to do it my way, and if God says it, I want to do the opposite.

That's the world around us today. They may not even know consciously they're resisting God, but they are. And we would be the same if it wasn't for God's Holy Spirit that helps us to see, that helps us to see who we are and to yield to Him. But we still have to work on it. It doesn't come automatically, right? Because we still have those days where we, you know, we want to resist. We don't want to do what God says, and we have to remind ourselves, that's not who I am anymore. I can't do it. I need to yield. You know, in Luke 2, Luke 2 and verse 52, you know, God doesn't ask us, Christ doesn't ask us to do anything that He didn't do Himself.

We know His life. We know how difficult it was that He went through agony and dying for us and suffering for us. He did it all because He loved us. In Luke 2, verse 52, you know, as we talk about having a good report among those outside, it says, Jesus, Jesus, the young Jesus, the Jesus increased in wisdom. The same thing that God looks for in you and me. We should increase in wisdom. How do we receive wisdom?

Well, we study the Scriptures. We apply the Scriptures. We see the benefit in their lives. We obey God, as I often say, or you'll probably hear me continue to often say it, that we obey Him carefully, diligently, faithfully, and completely. Don't excuse ourselves from any of the commands of the Bible. He increased in wisdom and He increased in stature. People looked at Him and He commanded attention because of who He was, because of the way He lived His life. Even when they arrested Him and they so desperately wanted to find something that they could charge Him with, they could find nothing.

They could find nothing, so they had to invent something to put Him to death. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God. As He grew, God was more pleased with Him. Notice the last three words, or two words, and men. Men looked at Him, God looked at Him, and He was becoming what God wanted Him to be. Just as Jesus Christ was, He expects, and if we're following Him, we will grow in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and men.

He gives us blessings that we become a blessing. We see through the Bible as people matured, as they grew up, that they became blessings to people. I could ask for a show of hands if we were in a Bible study and say, give me some examples of people who became blessings as an example of the Bible. Someone would say, well, Jacob became a blessing to Laban, right? Here's Jacob, who was a usurper, he was a deceiver.

He tricked Esau, tricked Esau out of not only the birthright, but also the blessing, and tricked his father into giving him the blessing. But look what he grew up to be. Laban and Laban, you can mark down in Genesis 30, verse 29. Laban knew that he was blessed and became rich because Jacob worked for him. Jacob grew in wisdom, in stature, in favor, with God and with man. And he became a blessing to Laban, and Laban knew it. And often as we grow in wisdom and stature, and as we grow up from little children in the way to the mature, to mature Christians, we see that happen in our lives.

It's not wrong to ask God. In fact, it's a good thing to ask God to bless your employer. Bless your employer. If we're good employees, we want to see them succeed. It says it's more blessed to give than to receive. We want to do more. We don't want to do less, like sometimes it's the way of the world today. We want to give more to them. We want to see them do well, and we want to be a blessing to them. Someone would say, Joseph. There's Joseph, right? He was not the favorite brother among the 12 sons of Jacob. They sold him because the brother's kind of like, you know what, he's a tattletale, he gets us in trouble all the time.

Let's just get rid of him. Who would think Joseph would go to Egypt and mature into the young man that he did? Following God implicitly in the face of being the only one in that nation, resisting temptation with Potiphar's wife. What did Potiphar say? Potiphar knew that Joseph was a blessing to him as he was there, and he lived God's way. Potiphar gave him all the responsibility of the home.

All of it. He was a blessing to Potiphar. He didn't go there and hang his head and say, woe is me, it's not fair what happened in my life. You know, I have to be a slave, I'm going to do the bare minimum. He did everything because that's who he was, and he was a blessing to Potiphar. He became a blessing to Pharaoh as well, and a blessing to all of Egypt. He followed God. He grew in wisdom. He grew in stature with God and with men.

Let's look at Daniel. Daniel is another one who, you know, a young man, came with a purpose to understand who he was, loved God, was determined to love God with all of his heart and mind. You remember in Daniel 1 where he said, you know, I'm not going to defile myself with anything of Babylon, not even the food. He didn't even allow himself to be defiled by any of the falsities of Babylon, even through the rest of his life.

Well, he served his time, and then a new king came to be. Daniel was still there. He was no longer in the power that he was at some point. But then you had the story of the writing on the wall, the writing on the wall, and it took the people and the king of Babylon at that time by surprise. Let's look at Daniel 5 and verse 9.

You can imagine, too, if you're here and all of a sudden there was a handwriting on the wall over there, what was going on, that it would knock your socks off, as they say. King Belshazzar didn't know what to do. It says, King Belshazzar, Daniel 5 verse 9, was greatly troubled. His countenance was changed. His lords were astonished. The queen, because of the words of the king and his lords, came to the banquet halls. Like, what is going on? There was panic there. The queen spoke, saying, Oh, king, live forever.

Don't let your thoughts trouble you, nor let your countenance change. She remembered. She remembered someone from before who, in the face of trouble, knew God. He was able to interpret dreams. He was able. And he was known as a man of God who didn't worship the gods of Babylon, who was a witness in that society of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And someone to whom they would turn, even Nebuchadnezzar the king, knew him.

There's a man, she says in verse 11, in your kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy God. And in the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, were found in him. What a testimony from outside! She wasn't in the church. She didn't believe, but she goes, you know what? There's this man. There's this man out there that does those things.

And King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, your father the king, made him chief of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers, inasmuch as an excellent spirit. He was easy to get along with. He didn't have a troubled spirit. He wasn't a pain. Inasmuch as an excellent spirit, knowledge, understanding, interpreting dreams, solving riddles, and explaining enigmas were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar, now let Daniel be called.

And he will give the interpretation. You want to go? You want to find someone? I remember someone! Just like happened with Joseph, right? When the baker, when the baker or the butler, whoever survived those dreams, said, oh, you know what? There's a man in prison, the Spirit of God. He can interpret this for you, King.

Pharaoh, bring him here. He'll tell you what the meaning of this is. Verse 15. The king speaking is Daniel is, well, verse 14. Daniel was brought in, and it says, I've heard of you that the Spirit of God is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you. Now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me that they should read this writing and make known to me its interpretation, but they couldn't do it.

And I heard of you, verse 16. You can give interpretations and explain enigmas. Now if you can read the writing and make known to me its interpretation, I will clothe you with purple and have a chain of gold around your neck, and you will be the third ruler in the kingdom. Daniel was just waiting. He had no real authority in the kingdom at that time. They remembered. Daniel answered and said, Let your gifts be for yourself.

I'm not going to do this because I'm looking for riches for myself. I'm not going to look because I want adulation for myself. Let your gifts be for yourself and give your words to another. Yet I will read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation. And he did. And he did. Daniel, good testimony from outside, the same type of testimony we can have from outside if we live our lives the way God gives us. That's what God calls us to do with a reminder, I guess, that he gives us blessings, that we become blessings to other people.

And that we have a good testimony on the outside of the church because of what we do. It's our training. It's what God has called us to do. It's our pahidea. He's creating and he's looking to train and develop people who will be excellent members of his kingdom, who through the course of this life have learned the wisdom, the understanding, have applied it, have lived it, and have grown up spiritually mature to be like Christ, to be like God.

He teaches us and he wants us to teach others. If you contemplate this subject, if you go home and you think about it, I think you'll begin to more fully understand our calling, what God has done to us, and put things in a light as we go through the various things of life and what we do. You'll understand Hebrews 10, verses 24 and 25, maybe a little more fully. We often talk about Hebrews 10, 24, and 25 about don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. There's a reason, as we talk, there's a reason that God puts us in a body.

We learn from one another, things that we could never learn on our own. But He also says, exhort one another, encourage one another, come together, and learn from each other what you need to become. Because, you know, sometimes God uses people to tell us, you know, you're kind of falling short in this way. You don't look much like Christ in this situation. Now, if we really understand our calling, and if we really understand that God is wanting us to become like Him, we're not going to get mad.

We're not going to say, I don't like you anymore. I'm not going to talk to you anymore. It's like, oh, whoa! For someone to bring this up to me, I must need to do something because they see something where I'm not looking much like God. And sometimes God uses others, and not just Himself, and not just the Bible, to help us understand those things. So being with one another is an important thing. And sometimes taking correction from one another is an important thing in our lives. If we see that it's of God, and we don't do the natural thing of resisting.

Well, you can go home, and you can read the parable of Luke 19, verses 11-27. It's a parable of talents, but in that parable, God says, you've done well with ten. I'm going to make you ruler over ten cities.

And then to another one, I'm going to make you ruler over five cities. But to the one who did nothing, did nothing, just stayed the way He was, didn't grow in wisdom, didn't grow in structure, didn't become looking more and more like Jesus Christ. He said, then there's nothing for you. There's nothing for you.

In fact, the things that I've given you, I'm taking away because you didn't do anything with it. You didn't understand the calling. You didn't become more and more like Jesus Christ. You didn't keep that in your mind. You didn't realize, I gave you these blessings. I gave you this calling. I give you everything you need so that you could grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men, and that you would be a blessing to others.

God gives us many, many things, and I hope that we all remember as God works with us and God blesses us, our responsibilities, what He does for us, He expects us to learn and pass on to others and become the lights and become people in the world as well as in the church that emulate Him, that grow up like Him, and that become like Him. Turn with me back to number 6. Number 6. We're here on a day where we blessed the young man here, and we're thinking about blessings and all that they mean and all the responsibility that has on us and certainly children and parents, but all of us are children, and all of us are parents, and all of us have a responsibility, and God wants to put His blessing on us.

He does. He loves us, He's called us, Jesus Christ gave His life for us and for all of mankind. And it was so important to God, the blessing, that He instructed the priests back in Old Testament time to say a blessing over the children of Israel. So I want to end today and speak this blessing in God's name over everyone, everyone here. You can read along in number 6 and verse 23. God instructs Moses to instruct Aaron, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. This is the way the words I want you to speak over them, my people. Say to them, The Eternal bless you and keep you.

The Eternal make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Eternal lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. May God's blessing be upon you all.