Blessings, Promises and Bones

Okay, now we've come to the interactive part of today's sermon. I would like to ask every one of you here—don't leave yet— every individual in this room who has been blessed, or was blessed as a child in the Church of God to stand up. Every one of you here, who had hands laid upon you as a child. Stand there for a second. Okay, let's look around. Quite a few. Older individuals and such. Okay, go ahead and sit down. I submit to you that what we do in God's Church works. The blessing that we call upon at these times works. As I mentioned in my opening comments, this is a tradition that is more than just what we do in our own time in the Church. It goes way, way back. The idea of a blessing upon people. I could turn to many different examples in the Scriptures, but there's one that I want to take us through this afternoon. To help us understand this promise that God honors. This blessing that God honors. For those of you that like titles for sermons, and so that our sound crew doesn't have to ask me today what the title is. The title is, Blessings, Promises, and Bones. God honors what we do. This is not a light thing that we are involved in when we lay hands of blessing upon our children. We are passing on a very, very long heritage. A very long heritage.

Let's turn back to the book of Genesis 48. I want to take us through this story that we know of in so many different ways.

It's the blessing that Jacob placed upon the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. Quite often we look at this particular story in terms of the great prophetic impact that it has for the United States and Great Britain.

We tell that story in our booklet by that name, and that is indeed a very important part of the story. That's not what I want to emphasize here today in one sense, although we may talk just for a minute about it. It does play into it. To look at this and to understand what was taking place, it's a representative blessing for every other blessing that we might find.

Abraham would have blessed Isaac, and Isaac blessed Jacob. We read those stories earlier in the book of Genesis. Numbers 6, we read where the priests were to utter a general blessing upon the people of Israel. In Numbers 6, we read Christ's example of blessing children. There is this example in many different ways of hands being laid on people and a blessing being passed on throughout the Scriptures.

We look at this particular story in Genesis 48, and I think it is representative of all of them. It gives us enough to chew on and to think about in terms of this blessing and God standing behind what is taking place. Let's begin in chapter 48 and verse 1.

This, remember, is after Jacob with his other sons have come into Egypt during the time of the great famine. Joseph is the number two man behind Pharaoh after having instituted a nationwide recovery plan to spare not only Egypt but other nations from the famine that was prophesied. Jacob, in his old age, has come down with his other sons and their families. There is a time of reacquainting. We can see here where Joseph brings his two sons. Verse 1, it says, It came to pass after these things that Joseph was told, Indeed, your father is sick. And he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. These were the two sons born to Joseph upon his marriage in Egypt. The two that we are at least obviously is too oldest. Perhaps there were more. Likely there were more. We're not told about them in this particular story. Jacob was told, Look, your son Joseph is coming to you. And Israel strengthened himself and sat up on the bed. So he was quite sick coming to the end of his life. And Joseph is approaching probably quite a large band of people. Joseph didn't travel anywhere without a whole lot of black GMC trucks behind him. And maybe they called their camels Air Force One and Air Force Two. Air Camel One and Air Camel Two back in those days. So you have to imagine that this was quite an operation whenever Joseph traveled. And this was more than just Joseph and his two sons. It was quite a parade that was coming to where Jacob was at this time. And so Jacob said to Joseph in verse 3, God Almighty appeared to me at was in the land of Canaan and blessed me. His blessing was from God. And then he said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. And I will make of you a multitude of people and give this land to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession. The land spoken of was the land of Canaan, not the land in which of Egypt where they were, but the land of Canaan. And now Jacob was recognizing that something quite unique had developed in his family as a result of Joseph's sale into Egypt and the years that had passed and Joseph's rise in influence in what had actually taken place where all of these food stores were set aside. And not only the Egyptians were saved, but Jacob and his family were saved as well from starvation. He said, Now your two sons, verse 5, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. As Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. Reuben and Simeon were two of Joseph's brothers. And he is saying essentially to Joseph, Your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, my grandchildren, they are being elevated to a status like his two sons, which for an inheritance purpose is quite necessary. So Jacob was essentially making a unilateral legal decision here for the passing on of the family blessings and what would be divvied up on his death. But most importantly, the blessings, the larger physical and spiritual benefit of the blessings that had been given to him from his father Isaac and from Abraham and ultimately from God. Verse 6, he says, Your offspring whom you beget after them shall be yours. We call by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. So Ephraim and Manasseh are elevated to the role of sons of Jacob. That's why in the subsequent book of Joshua and the Old Testament, you read about Ephraim and Manasseh as full-blown tribes of Israel. They represent Joseph. You don't read about the tribe of Joseph. You read about Ephraim and Manasseh, and they become quite prominent in the story. Joshua was of the tribe of Ephraim. So they take on this very important status within the land. The other children of Joseph, their inheritance flowed through Joseph, but these two came to the rank that they had their blessing from Jacob.

Then in verse 7, he makes a wistful reminiscence. He said, As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel, who was Joseph's mother, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan on the way. You go back earlier in the book, and you will read of Rachel dying. She died giving birth to Benjamin, the youngest of the sons.

Rachel had two children, Joseph and Benjamin. That's why Joseph was so attached to Benjamin in the story with his brothers here. He wanted him to be brought back. He became kind of a pseudo-pawn in this little cat-mouse game that Joseph played with his brothers. Benjamin was his full brother through Rachel. Rachel was the one Jacob loved. That's why Joseph was a favored son and created that particular line of problems. We all know the story of Rachel in terms of the Rachel and Leah episode back at that time in the earlier years of Jacob's life. That's why he recalls here with a longing that Rachel died. He recalls this.

From a human standpoint, you have to put yourself into Jacob's thoughts and recognize what he felt for Rachel. Leah was a wife and he loved her, but he had a special love for Rachel. Why? Why would that? It was his first. It was his truest. Maybe it was because it was his truest and that's why it was first. He got tricked in that situation. He had children by the two handmaids, which created just this fabulous story. I don't say fabulous in a good sense, but it makes for this rich story of the book of Genesis, of all this big family that Jacob had and all the troubles that came about.

Rachel was the one that he truly, truly loved. How many years had been spent with that love divided and those problems? I heard a quote. I won't tell you where I heard the quote. I don't know if I should tell you the quote. Let me think about this for a minute here.

I'll go ahead and tell you and you can take it for what it's worth, but there is an element of truth to it. It comes from Willie Nelson. That's why I had to wait just a minute here to make sure. Willie Nelson was supposed to, I'm sure he said it, that in a bar late at night, when the music gets really wistful and the whiskey gets mellow, in a bar late at night, looking out there from his point of view as a singer, everybody out there is not with their first one.

Everyone out there is not with their first one. You can take that for what it is. It's a sad truth, a sad commentary in a lot of people's lives. That's true. Rachel was Jacob's first one, but because of just bad choices and human nature, his love and affection for Rachel kind of got divided and delayed. I say that because when he says what he does here in his last days to his son Joseph, and he recalls her death and what that meant to him, there is a deep, deep well of reflection and feeling and emotion that comes in verse 7.

Sometimes we just read over these little things in the Bible, and it's important to just pause and remember the whole story behind it, and then put that into a modern context of life, of real people. Jacob was a real person. He wasn't thinking all along, you know, I'm a patriarch. Jacob just didn't wake up every day saying, boy, people are going to be talking about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they think, me and I, I'm a great patriarch. I don't think he thought that way.

I think he thought, how am I going to feed these boys, and how am I going to keep them going here? And what's going to happen when I'm gone? Who's going to take care of the family business? I think he thought about a lot of things that you and I think about with life, and that's sometimes where you need to kind of put yourself when you look at these characters to understand the reality of what is taking place. It's not just some biblical thing.

So, he said at this particular point, he's not in his mind creating some big scene here that he's saying, boy, people are going to read about this for generations to come, so I better get this right. He's doing something very human for his time, and as a father with his beloved son and two grandchildren, two grandsons, that he's probably seeing for the first time.

Certainly, he doesn't know them too well. And he recalls the love of his life, Rachel. Anyway, going on, we'll come back to Rachel in a minute. Israel saw Joseph's sons, and he said, who are these? Which leads you to think, the first time that he saw them. Joseph said, they're my sons whom God has given me in this place. And he said, please bring them to me, and I will bless them.

Bring them here. It was just a natural thing. I want to give them something. I want to give them something to remember me by. Did you ever have a grandparent or a favored aunt or uncle that gave you something to remember them by? You know, when my grandmother died, her 12 children, my dad being one of them, all gathered in the living room of her little trailer.

She didn't have much. Her one son had bought the trailer for her to live in across the road from his house. She had a sewing basket, quilts, and o'clock. All the things of a lady that had raised 12 children on virtually nothing. There was all sentimental value. All 12 of them gathered around, divvied up what few trinkets she had. The girls knew what they wanted. I don't even remember what my dad got. I couldn't even tell you. Everybody got something just to remember their mother by.

Jacob is wanting to give something, and he's giving the most valuable thing that he could give at this point, in the form of a blessing, and even he didn't know what it would move into. Verse 10 says, The eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see. Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them.

Israel said to Joseph, I had not thought to see your face, but in fact God has also shown me your offspring. So he got more than he even dared dream for, to see not only Joseph again, but his grandchildren. So Joseph brought them from beside his knees, and he bowed down with his face to the earth. Not a small thing for the number two potentate in the whole land of Egypt, to bow down with his face to the earth. We don't have those types of customs today. We don't bow down to anybody in America, do we? And we don't certainly put our face to the ground. We think people think we're Muslims today, if we did that. But this is what Joseph did. He bowed down before his father and put his face to the earth. Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near. Manasseh was the oldest, and Manasseh was going to the right hand, which would be the primary blessing, and Ephraim being the youngest was going there. But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, and who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head guiding his hands knowingly for Manasseh was the firstborn. So he did a switch, and he blessed Joseph, and he said. And this is the blessing, a very brief prayer. God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil. You would have to be referring to the angel that he wrestled with, which was the one, the Word, who became Jesus.

Bless the lads. Bless them. Let my name be upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. So he took hold of his father's hand and removed it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head, the right hand of Joseph, to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, not so. My father, this one is the firstborn, meaning Manasseh, put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know my son, I know. 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. And so we from this understand that Ephraim's descendants through the people of Great Britain and the Commonwealth nations of our modern world fulfilled this particular part of the promise, become a company of nations, a multitude of nations, and the descendants of Manasseh becoming a great people. And we here today are the recipients in this land of the United States of this particular moment when this blessing was placed upon Manasseh in this way, as well as upon Ephraim because the two nations have worked in concert for 250 or more years to bring the world and the peoples of these nations and the world to the point where we are today. And so from that point, and that whole story is another part of prophecy and understanding of God's promises that helps us to understand the context of an individual child that we bless. And I ask all of you to stand up who have been blessed in God's church when you were young here, to make a point that when right choices are made, when people reach out and take that blessing and take that promise and bring it into their life, God stands behind it. God stands behind a lot of things even in spite of our choices because He doesn't automatically just remove us and remove His blessing if we sin or if we stray for a period of time. That's important that we all realize as well. The blessings that God placed upon the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh that have come down to our time today is a complex story, a simple story, but it's an important story in terms of understanding our modern world. And why America is the exceptional land that it is today, not because of our innate greatness as a people and our ingenuity and we've built our wealth. We inherited our wealth. It was thrown into our lap. It was said of the British Empire that the English created their empire in a fit of madness by accident. When you look at the story of how they went to India, how they went to Hong Kong, how they went to South Africa, and all of the other lands that became a part of the empire, it's a story and one of the most improbable stories of history. It was not by design. It came about by accident in many historical stories and flukes and literally fell into their hands. As again, one historian said, in a fit of madness, it happened. America came to this land. This was a part of the colonies, one of the original, what America was, dominated by England. We split off in a rebellion and grew to become what we are. In the last 75 years or so, we surpassed Ephraim, or Great Britain, our older brother, in terms of power, wealth, might, and influence in the world. We still stand today as the indispensable nation.

We're crippled. We've had some stunning blows in the last few years, and we're still dealing with things. It's a bit winsome, even at this moment, to look at our land and to recognize the hit that we have taken in this current financial crisis. I understand that despite what happened a year ago, and what is rolling out now, we're still king of the hill. I was telling the people up in Canada, commenting on this, when I took out my green ATM card at the ATM outlets in St.

John's, Newfoundland, I put this little green card for my local bank, Visa ATM debit card, put it in to get some Canadian money. Guess what happened? It worked. It worked. Yours does, too. We're all glad for that. The system still works. I don't know how much longer it will be before some changes take place, even during the feast.

The dollar came under some very, very severe strains. There is a consortium of nations that want to take the dollar and relegate it to a second-class currency. No longer the reserve currency of the world. For most of us, we don't even think about that. But what that would mean is higher prices. When you go to Italy for the Feast of Tabernacles, if you can go to Italy for the Feast of Tabernacles, you will pay quite a bit more for that opportunity. If you have it, it will cost you more. Our dollar, our mighty dollar, will no longer be the unit by which oil and gas is priced around the world.

There are nations that are wanting to do that now because they are tired of financing my lifestyle and your lifestyle and the debt of this country. They are tired of that. They want their share. This promise that God gave to Ephraim and Manasseh, the promises and blessings of Joseph, have held true down to our time, in spite of our nation as it is, which is a lesson for every one of us to understand when we bring this blessing down into our level. God honors what we just did with these two children, what was done with you when you were young.

God honors that. That blessing carries with it a promise, just as it carried with it a promise for Ephraim and Manasseh, and we are the recipients of it. When we make wise choices, and even when we don't make good choices, our mom and dad don't make good choices.

Our grandfather and grandmother in the church don't make good choices. There can be times when we will suffer because of someone's sins. God doesn't remove His grace. He doesn't remove the underpinnings of that blessing and that promise. That doesn't mean we wouldn't suffer certain consequences, but it's still there, and we can come back to it. That's what we have to understand. In this story, we find a blessing being passed down. In verse 20 it says, He blessed them that day, saying that by you Israel will bless, saying, May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.

And thus He set Ephraim before Manasseh. A blessing became a part of the Israelite and later into the Judaic tradition that they repeated this. You may remember this line from the Broadway play, Federal on the Roof. They actually utter this blessing, I believe, in that play. May God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh, repeating what is said here in verse 20. May you have the abundance, may you have a blessing, may you have a lifestyle, may you have that as Ephraim and Manasseh had it in the line of this.

It goes on, it says, Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and my bow. So, Jacob said to Joseph, I'm going to die, but God will be with you and will bring you back to the land of your fathers.

Now, literally this happened. When Jacob died, when Jacob died, Joseph took him home back to the land of Canaan and Tiberium. Joseph had duties back in Egypt and he had to go back. You'll read that here in the book of Genesis. But when Joseph died, at the end of the book here in chapter 50 of Genesis, verse 22, it says, Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house, and lived to the age of 110.

He saw he from his children to the third generation. Verse 24, Joseph said to his brothers, I'm dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land in which he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and to Jacob. He took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here.

So Joseph died, being 110, and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. And so you read in the book of Exodus when Israel left during the time of Moses, they carried out the body of Joseph. And you'll find in the subsequent story that they buried that body in the land of Shechem, in the inheritance given to Ephraim. So this was carried out, and literally Joseph did return back to the land of his fathers, as his father Jacob said. Now, he was dead and he was mummified, but his bones were carried back to the land and buried somewhere, then lost to history. Maybe that mummy is still there, I was thinking when I read through this. Maybe somewhere today, that mummy is still in some underground cavern. Maybe it'll be found, maybe it won't. Maybe it subsequently was looted as some of those mummies were, and it just decayed and went back into the elements. I don't know. But it's an interesting story to realize that the children of Israel carried those bones out at the time of the Exodus. He was buried back in the land and Joseph went home. The blessing and the promise carried on, and even down to the literal carrying of his bones back. Remember the reference to Rachel here in Genesis 48? Turn over to Jeremiah 31.

There's a reference here in the midst of a lament of the land beginning in verse 15 of Jeremiah 31. Thus says the Lord, A voice was heard in Rama. This was a location in Israel.

Lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more. This is a reference to Israel being divided, the tribes being taken captive, the northern tribes, and now Judah about to go. So all the children of Jacob, and Rachel here is being portrayed as the number one mother of Israel, weeping for her children. All of the tribes, all of the descendants of Jacob, she's weeping for her children. She cannot be comforted, as a grieving mother cannot be comforted when losing a child.

All you have to do is imagine it. Remember, if you've ever laid eyes upon a grieving mother who cannot be comforted, and I have. It's a sad situation, and you get a picture of this. Because they are no more. They were not in the land. They had been scattered. There's a statue that depicts this near Jerusalem today, actually near the spot where Rachel was buried, just south of Jerusalem on the way toward Bethlehem.

As Genesis 48 shows. We had lunch at this place two years ago when we were at the feast in Israel. It's a place called Kibbutz Rachel. I remember we had lunch, and I walked out. I didn't realize exactly where we were and what was going on. I saw this statue back. There was a garden area. Back in the corner was this large granite statue of a woman holding a child in her arms and another child grasping at her robe.

She had this faraway look and a tear coming out of her eye. I went up and looked at it and it told the story. It was a depiction of this verse here in verse 15 of Rachel weeping for her children because they are no more and cannot be comforted. It was quite a dramatic statue. I'd never seen it before here at this Kibbutz in Israel depicting this very scene. As sad as this is, you have to read on. Thus says the Lord, refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears. For your work will be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back.

They shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope in your future, says the Lord, that your children shall come back to their own border. In other words, the children of Rachel, Israel, the tribes, will come back and they will be gathered. That is a promise and that is a hope. And it's spoken right here by the prophet Jeremiah. Now, you connect this into the story of Joseph and Jacob and Rachel and what we read back in Genesis 48. It's a promise that is as much a part of the promise of blessing that Jacob puts upon Ephraim and Manasseh as I think we put upon our children when we bless them and ask God's blessing upon them in the ceremony that we did today.

And a part of the blessing we want for them to continue in the heritage of their family. How many of us, with children that we have raised in the church, with children that still sit here in our midst as parents, how many of us want our children to follow in our footsteps of faith? To, as we say, stay in the church. Remain in the faith. I don't think any of you would not want that. There are many of us who have children who are no longer sitting next to us. I'm one of those.

And there are some of you that wonder, what will happen to my children? Where will they be in two years, five years, ten years? I've been there. I've wondered the same thing. There are some of you that wonder, will my children, now grown and adult, with their families, will they ever return to their borders? Will this promise apply to them? Well, brethren, I think we can all take this promise, this promise here of Jeremiah 31, and say yes, they will. And pray that as a hope. And claim that promise, and pray it, and continue it with hope.

Because it's part of the Word of God. I do. I don't give up on anybody. I don't give up on anyone. Sometimes I want to. But then I have to read scriptures like this and others, and say that, realize that God doesn't. And God's promises, which come with a blessing, go on for a long, long time. It's one of the things, as I said, we should learn from the promises to Ephraim and Manasseh.

It ain't over till the fat lady sings. To quote that other famous philosopher, Yogi Berra. It just isn't. Yogi's grammar may not be the best, but his wisdom is pretty good. It ain't over till it's over. That's what we must understand. That is the hope that we have. We bless children, and we pass on quite a bit. Throughout the scriptures, we read that in terms of blessings, a name is part of that blessing, a reputation, an actual inheritance, heritage, grace, peace, favor.

An example, these are all parts of the blessings that we can read about in the Bible, whether it's the number six blessing of the priests, this blessing to Joseph's sons, what Christ must have asked when he took children into his arm and blessed them. It's all those things and more that are passed on.

A name is a very important thing to God. A name speaks to the character of a person. We bless children, and we ask a measure of God's grace upon them. That's not a light action that we take.

God wants to answer that prayer that we made here today on behalf of these children, and every child prior. He wants to answer that prayer, and He will. He will. We should take what is said of Toradea from Manasseh and let them grow, and apply that to our children, and seek a blessing of abundance upon them.

This blessing means something to God. It brings about a sanctification that is very, very real. When we honor it as parents, when our children grow to the point where they can honor it themselves, it can bring a blessing. A real blessing.

Those are the things that we need to teach, and we need to talk about. As parents, as grandparents, as other adults in the church, we need to teach our children about the special role that they have.

Teach them that they can pray to the true God, and have a true Father. That that God cares and answers our prayers and our promises. That this God carries our children to adulthood.

It carries them to the point where they can make a choice about baptism as spiritual children.

In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul makes one of his little comments that is full of a great deal of meaning.

He says about our children because of even one parent holding to the faith that they are sanctified.

1 Corinthians 7, verse 14, It says, For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.

Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy. Because of one, they are holy.

Holiness, being holy, is another very real concept.

We don't like to talk about it, or we get a bit too syrupy about it and we miss the point.

We don't want to talk about it because nobody is holy today.

Quite frankly, our culture is such an unholy culture, and it makes such unnecessary inroads even into our own families, that holiness becomes a distant concept.

But this is what the Scripture says.

Our children are holy, which means they are set apart. They are sanctified.

They can know the true God, have a true Father, and pray to that God, if they will.

Those are things that you need to tell your children.

Those are things that you as a teenager need to hear.

And you as parents, with a young child, with a teenage child, you need to tell your child that they are holy, that they are different.

That if they choose, they too can be holy.

Today, the choice has never been whiter. And as I said, the lines get blurred because we let it come into our families and into the church, to where we can't even discern between unclean and clean, holy and unholy.

But you need to teach that. You need to tell them Scriptures like this, and the things we witness here today, and then that blessing.

You as a parent need to tell them.

And you as parents need to stop putting so much dependence upon the church to do it for you.

There is no summer camp that is going to teach your children.

There is no Bible lesson written by anyone that is going to teach your children.

There is no winter family weekend that is going to teach your children.

You are going to teach your children if it is going to work.

That is what the Scripture says in Deuteronomy 6.

It says, teach your children when you rise up, when you sit down, when you come in, when you go out.

It doesn't say let the summer camp do it.

It doesn't say let the winter family weekend do it.

It doesn't say let the Sabbath school teacher do it. It says you do it. And so you need to do it.

You need to tell your child that they are holy, that they are different, and why.

And teach them from this Scripture and many others. It is not my job.

I say that not to take any responsibility away from me as a minister, camp director, pastor, or whatever.

If I have learned one thing in 36-plus years trying to do this job, emphasis on trying, don't agree too quickly.

I don't change anybody's mind.

Any child I have seen grow to adulthood and stay in the faith is in large part because of what their parents did, what was done between the walls of the home.

I have run myself, some of you have as well, to put on camps, to put on weekends, to do this, and to do that.

Some of which has been good, some of which has just been chasing the wind.

And I look back on it. I wonder, what were we thinking with why are you cheerleading? Sorry if any of you were cheerleaders.

But I have to...what was I thinking with why are you cheerleading?

One of the most bizarre distractions I've ever seen.

And I don't mean to offend anybody because some of you are probably cheerleaders. But it caused more problems and was just...it was not...from my experience, it didn't direct us to the core of what we wanted to accomplish with the program in any way.

But forgive me if I step on anybody's toes. I probably will have to apologize for that afterwards.

But that's okay. Probably a lot of other things I'll have to apologize for, too.

I don't apologize for summer camp. I don't apologize for camp you can do. I don't apologize for any Bible study or whatever. I just say, let's put it all in context. You teach your children. Because when it's all said and done, it's what they remember from mom and dad.

And the blessing of a good parent, of a faithful parent, who loved them enough to teach them the difference between clean and unclean.

And I'm not talking about frog legs and catfish.

But from what comes in through all the media, from school, from church, to be able for a parent to say, this is hogwash.

And as for me and my house, we're not going to do this.

You teach your children. That's what the Scripture says.

Train them, teach them, and remind them of all that they are and all that is in their future.

Put your children into the story, the story of your life.

On the Day of Atonement, I talked in my sermon about the book of life and how that book of life is being written right now for each one of us.

By the story of our life and the faith.

As God works with His truth, with His Spirit upon those of us who are converted, we're writing ourselves into that book of life right now.

Put your children into your story, the story of your life, that they can come to know and understand your story.

If you, as a parent, as an adult, if we need to come to understand our story better, make that a priority because God is writing us into His book of life by our story right now.

It's the story of all time. It's the most fantastic, fabulous, important story of all time.

It's a story we need to understand. It's the most important story to pass on to our child.

When we lay hands upon our children, in blessing we are passing on a heritage to them.

Identify that. Teach that. Pass it on.

Claim that promise that comes with that blessing.

That is what's so important that we can write ourselves into that story, put our children into that, and help them to understand the heritage that is being passed on.

That, in the end, is the most important story we can be a part of.