The Paradox of Blessings and Faithfulness

Good afternoon, everyone. That was beautiful. I got to actually tell them as I was walking here. So it's beautiful to hear that acapella sound. Thank you for that introduction. Where's Mr. Weber? He's over there. There you are. Thank you for that introduction. This is a special place for me to be. As he said, this is kind of where it all began. I was born in Pasadena. We've been in Northern California for about 20 years, but there's a lot of very special memories here. In this congregation, especially too, my college buddies, my high school buddies, my teachers, my mentors, former pastors in East PM, in the auditorium. And this weekend, before services, I took a family up to Mountain View Cemetery where my father's buried. I went to his grave, went to Mr. Armstrong's grave. And as we often joke, the place is going to be hopping in the first resurrection up there. There's a lot of people we know buried up there. And went over to the former Ambassador campus and saw what's going on there. And we certainly feel that history here, don't we? As we meet here, I think I took an SAT here at this particular Glendale Seventh-day Adventist Academy years ago. And here we are. So I'm currently in Finance and Accounting. I work for Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. I've been in Finance and Accounting for the last 20 years, but as Mr. Weber said, I'm in the midst of a life transition to come back. I actually went to Council with you before. I graduated from Ambassador. I went to work for the World White Church of God. And I counseled with you, and you were like, I don't know. You should keep working. We had no idea what was going to happen, I guess. But now, after 25 years, planning to come back to work for the Church. And currently, I do provide the service of Assistant Pastor up in Oakland right now, supporting Mr. Tuck.

If you want to turn to Psalm 1, I'm going to tell a little story as you turn there. It's Psalm 1 and verse 1. If you grew up in the Church, this is the hymn that you knew that we all sang, blessed and happy is the man. But as you turn over there, I want to share a little story that my wife shared with me of a conversation she had with a very close friend. Somebody not in this state, nobody would know here. And this person had been through a lot of difficulties in her life and had been in the Church for many years. And she shared with my wife some of these difficulties, and she talked about how she had gone to Church, she had done what she thought she needed to do, what was important to do, what God wanted her to do.

And she said to my wife, the minister would give these messages about, if you do these certain things, you will be blessed. And in her discouragement, she said to my wife, I don't know if that's true. I did everything by the book.

And it really struck me just how difficult that was at that moment, as she was trying to reconcile things that she read in Scripture, things that she thought she was doing with things that she saw in her life. And let's read Psalm 1, because there's really probably no more definitive place in Scripture in my mind where we see a direct connection between our way of life and the blessings that come from that way of life.

So here it is. This is a beautiful... Who would not want to be in Psalm 1, 1-3? And this is why we sang it for so many years in that old purple hymnal that we sang, and it's in our current hymn.

And I too have heard sermons where, you know, if you do A, B, C, you'll receive X, Y, Z, right? It's somewhat formulaic, and maybe I've even given one of those messages myself. And yet, as we proceed through life, we realize life is not a formula. It's not so formulaic. So how do we think about those things?

In mainstream Protestant circles, there's a certain way of thinking. It's somewhat controversial. It's called name it and claim it.

Anybody heard the name it and claim it, some of you? Yeah. They sometimes call it blab it and grab it. But that's actually a little derogatory. Now, it's a very controversial way of thinking because it says that, you know, God is good to bless us. Therefore, we just name what we desire, and God in His grace and mercy will give it to us.

So we name it and we claim it. And it flows right into that whole health-wealth kind of gospel of, you know, I'm going to come to church because that's going to get me a job, or I'm going to have a better life, and so forth. And yet, that's just been even discredited within mainstream Protestant circles, right? You know, God has not held hostage to what we might decide we want, right? God in His mercy is going to give us what we need, not necessarily what we think we need.

So if we think about Psalm 1, I'd like you to turn over to Hebrews 11. Think about Psalm 1, what we just read. And let's look at the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11. And let's think about Psalm 1 in regard to the people we read about here in Hebrews 11. And we'll just start with a few, but I think we can see a pattern that's going to begin to emerge.

Hebrews 11, verse 4, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous. And what happened to Abel? He was murdered. Okay. Wow. So that's not a blessing. How about Enoch? By faith, Enoch was translated so that he did not see death. Well, it's an interesting study around what happened to Enoch, but, you know, Enoch lived to be 300-ish, much less than those of his generation.

So his life was shortened. How about Noah? By faith, Noah, being divinely warned of these things, not yet seen, moved with godly fear. He was a godly man. And what was his reward? Well, he worked 120 years building a boat, being ridiculed day and night. He witnessed the end of an age and the destruction of everything around him. I'm sure, you know, I'm sure he knew people in that age as well. And he had to see death on a scale that none of us could imagine. Abraham, verse 8, Obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would afterwards receive as inheritance.

Abraham lived in a tent and he wandered. How about down in verse 23 for Moses? By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents because they saw he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's command. And it talks about in verse 24, when he became of age, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. You talked about patterns of evidence. We showed patterns of evidence up in San Jose and Oakland as well.

And, you know, if you see the kind of wealth and opulence and technology, right? I mean, the Egyptians, you know, they used algebra very, very effectively, right? I mean, you know, some of the embalming techniques of the Egyptians are studied today, right? Remarkable technology. And there was a movie that came out called Gods and Kings, right? Exodus, Gods and Kings, done by Ridley Scott. Not only did Moses give up being a prince of Egypt, he might have been considered a god. And what did he receive in exchange? Well, he was a shepherd in the blistering sun, wandering after...

That was the first 40 years, right? And in those final 40 years, he wandered in a desert with a bunch of people that really, you know, complained and challenged his authority. And at every turn, you know, we're looking to, you know, go back, right? Ungrateful for what had happened. And I could quote more examples, but, you know, if you just look at the face of it, there's almost a paradox here of faithfulness and blessings. Here we have faithful men who were murdered, who wandered in the desert, who wandered in the wilderness, who lived in tents.

How do we reconcile Psalm 1 with, as it were, the facts on the ground of Hebrews 11? So if you're titling this message, you might title it the paradox of blessings and faithfulness, but put a question mark at the end of that. Because it's not a statement, it's a question. A paradox, if you recall, can be defined as a statement that, despite, you know, sound or apparently sound reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that is senseless or contradictory or logically unacceptable in some way.

The paradox that I've observed is that men and women of great faith that I read about in the Bible, that men and women who truly accomplished great things often didn't seem to be blessed at all, at least not in terms that we would consider today. Jesus Christ, the ultimate example, perfect in all His ways, was brutally killed, cut down in the prime of life, and all but one of His disciples killed for their beliefs. Now, what does it say in 1 Peter 2, verse 21?

You can put that in your notes. I'm going to just read it briefly. 1 Peter 2, verse 21. For to this you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His steps. We're going to suffer, too. Again, how do we reconcile 1 Peter 2, 21 and Hebrews 11 with Psalm 1, verses 1 through 3?

That is, if we reason from Psalm 1, verses 1 through 3 that the godly person will be blessed, why does Abraham live in a tent and not a chateau? Why does Enoch live to be 300 and not 900? And instead of floating down the Nile in a barge, why does Moses wander in the wilderness dealing with a bunch of grumpy people? Today I want to discuss three aspects of this topic to hopefully begin to understand how this might or might not be a paradox. The first one is, what does it mean to be blessed?

What does it mean to be blessed? We're going to talk about that. And I think I've heard some discussions here. I think this is a fairly sophisticated congregation. So some of these things you might have seen or heard. The second one is, are blessings and adversity mutually exclusive? Are blessings and adversity mutually exclusive? And lastly, what does it mean to reap what you sow? What does it mean to reap what you sow? These three points we're going to cover in the sermon today.

Let's start out by defining what it means to be blessed. Go back to Psalm 1. Go back to Psalm 1. And let's read that a little bit more. He shall be, in verse 3, like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit and its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. Did you hear or see dollar signs in there somewhere?

Cha-ching, right? The billionaires. I don't know. Is there economics in there? Let's go to verse 6. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

What does it mean to prosper? How do you define prosper? Well, you know, it's interesting that he concludes here in Psalm 1 with, The Lord knows the way of the righteous. You know, knowing the way. That is, you know, God has a relationship with us. He knows our way. He knows, okay, this is where Tim Peberth is in his life right now. And this is what's going to be coming up for him. And, you know, I think I'm going to, you know, if he comes and asks me for a little bit of help, I'm going to guide him a little bit through this turbulent time or this difficult time in his life. You know, it's almost like if you knew somebody, what if you were friends with the President of the United States, or with a high government official? You know, those people, they know people, right? What if you could go to somebody and say, hey, I'm having some difficulty right now, I'm looking for a job, I've got these skills, you know, how would you advise me? And he would say, you know, you'd be able to sit down and talk for a little while, and the person would say, here, here's a name and email of three people, go talk to those people. And you're like, wow, that's great, you know, go talk to them. Well, you know, what if you knew a Nobel Laureate, and you could hang out, and you could talk about your favorite subject with them, and you know, you wanted to understand more about that area or that field, or whatever it is, we've got somebody we can go to because he knows our way, because we talked to him. Is that a blessing? Again, you know, sometimes we can read economics into Psalm 1, and I think there is an economic aspect, but sometimes we may limit Psalm 1 to just economics, and really miss the larger point here of planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth its fruit. That is, there's a certain sort of life stage that we each go through, and depending on that life stage, we receive what we need for that life stage. And it always seems that whatever stage of life we're in, by the time we figure it out, we always get to another stage of life, and then those rules don't work anymore, right? And we've got to figure that out, and so God is there to help us.

Let's go to Matthew 19, verse 23, because this was actually something the disciples asked about. And, you know, sometimes we may think, well, it's kind of crass, right, to say, well, you know, God, I would really love to have a house that had a backyard, right? You know, in this area, it's so expensive, right? You know, God, I would love to have a dog that would play in the backyard. I'd love to be able to not have to commute an hour and a half to work. You know, there's nothing wrong with these. These are real life things that we may want. You know, God, I would really love to not have this pain in my arm, or I'd love to not have this pain in my... I mean, these are things that we ask for, right? And we're looking for God's direction in that. Look at Matthew 19, because we'll actually see that the disciples talked about this. Verse 23, then Jesus said to His disciples, Assuredly I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Okay, we're talking about wealth. He had just talked to the rich young ruler, so the disciples had seen this rich young ruler. So this was the guy that, you know, he had the Ferrari, he had the nice house, he came from money, right? You know, this kind of thing. And so they're looking at that, and Jesus gives the saying, and He says, Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And when His disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? And He says, But Jesus looked at them and said to them, With men this is impossible, with God all things are possible. Now, we tend to stop right there, and then we get into a theological discussion about, you know, whether camels went through the gates of Jerusalem and, you know, these various things. But keep going, because there's an interesting thing that Peter says in verse 27.

Then Peter answered and said, See, we have left all and followed you. Therefore, what shall we have? I mean, it's a little bit crass, right? I mean, it's, you know, okay, so, hey, what are we going to get? We're looking like we're going to get blessed, right? I mean, you know, we're following you. So I think there's an interesting subtext to this. You know, again, we tend to think about these things in theological terms, and in sort of, you know, let's look up the Greek and so forth. This was a fisherman, right? This was not a rich man. And, you know, he's hanging out with, you know, this incredible, you know, rabbi, who, you know, they're going to understand is the Son of God. And he's asking this question.

He's encouraging the 12 tribes of Israel. That's a remarkable blessing. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold and inherit everlasting life.

Okay, there is lands. That's an economic concept. Family. There's a lot in here. There is an element, a comprehensive element that is blessing, that describes a blessing. And we'll read a parallel account. But in verse 30, but many who are first will be last, and the last shall be first. And this is a phraseology that Christ often used, which is kind of widely described as a way of describing that whatever the order is today, it'll really be turned on its head in the kingdom of God. So don't pay any attention right now to this. This world is not really where it's all at right now. You'll receive something in the regeneration, and it's going to be beyond your wildest dreams. And whatever you've left in this life, you will receive a hundredfold. Again, maybe you might be thinking of the parallel passage, which we'll look at in a moment. So let's turn over just a couple pages to Matthew 5 as we keep this in mind. Let's again understand this word, blessed.

Matthew 5, in verse 3 through 12, let's read this together because now we see Jesus Christ Himself describing blessings. Verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn. You know, mourning is really not fun. If you've mourned, I went to my father's grave. I mourned for him. He died at 46. And the day I actually calculated the day he lived 46 years and 9 months. And I remember when I turned 46 years and 9 months and I realized every day after that's just a gift. I mourned. Mourning is not fun. You do not feel blessed when you mourn. For they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted. For righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. There's a real mix of things in here, isn't there? Mourning and persecution.

Now, the Greek word for blessed, I think some of you have studied before, is the word marcarios. It's Strong's word 3107, if you want to look that up. And it is defined as happy or blessed or to be envied.

The Help's word study goes to add this to the word marcarios. Become large or long, or properly when God extends his benefits or advantages.

It describes a believer in an enviable or fortunate position, receiving God's provisions or favor, which literally extend or make long.

This happens when receiving or obeying God in faith. And so there's a connection here that is through. There's a blessing. But again, marcarios. Now, this word marcarios has an interesting background. Brian Strophagean, in his exegetical notes in crossmarks, describes three meanings of marcarios in the ancient world.

Three meanings of marcarios. The marcarios were the gods.

That is, the blessed ones were the gods. They lived in some other world where the concerns of humans weren't really an issue. So to be blessed, to be marcarios, you had to be a god.

The second Greek usage of marcarios referred to the dead.

Similar to the gods, the dead had reached another world, and so they were beyond the cares of this world. So if you were marcarios, you were a god, small g again in the Greek world, or you were dead.

And the third usage of marcarios were the elite. That is, the upper class of society, or the wealthy, because their riches took them away from the cares of this world. So you were a god, you were dead, or you were rich.

Now, Jesus turns this word completely on its head by using it in the context of mourning and persecution.

Jesus describes a completely different kind of marcarios, not detached or otherworldly, but not being unconcerned or disconnected, but actually confronting very specific issues, hungering and thirsting for righteousness in a world that is lacking it. Mourning, because that's how life is. Life is hard, and yet being comforted, being poor in spirit, and yet inheriting these amazing things. Being persecuted and yet being blessed because of it, and following in the footsteps of their ancestors who had gone before them, the prophets.

It's looking adversity in the face and being happy. That's hard, but that's what it is to be blessed, and it doesn't happen by itself, as we'll see. Recently, my wife and I like to go to In-N-Out Burger.

We get the protein-style double-double because we're trying to go easy on the weight.

It's not a good idea, but we still do it. We like to take our dog, and you sit outside, and we enjoy our meal. Our dog, of course, wants to have a little bit of ours. We were going to have some lunch, and we were walking through the parking lot. As we were walking through the parking lot, we saw an accident. This little Audi was backing up in this big Ford. I think it was like a 250. This is a pretty big Ford truck that was driving by. This little Audi backed right into this truck. It was clearly the Audi's fault, and this poor woman gets out of the Audi.

You can tell she's just rattled, and she just couldn't believe it happened. Again, a little Audi. As you can imagine, most of the damage was on the Audi, not on the truck.

The man got out of the truck, and he just began to rant, swear, scream, and cuss. You know what it's like outside an inn and outburger, right? There are tons of people. There is this huge scene being made in this parking lot, as this man just demolishes this woman for daring to back into him. The woman just felt awful because she did it. You could tell, and she was apologizing, and he was not having any of it. This woman had destroyed his life. It was a terrible scene.

As I was watching and I'm full, people were coming up and defending her, like, hey, back off, man. It's a little fender bender. As I was observing this, I just thought, how ugly does this man look? How embarrassing for him to just have these people look at this man. Does he realize what he looks like right now? Sometimes I wonder, that man didn't feel very blessed that day, obviously.

Somebody backed into him. If you're driving down the parking lot and somebody backs out of a parking lot, you're minding your own business. You're not going to feel very blessed that day. But I thought, what an opportunity this would have been for this man to be gracious. This woman felt bad. They were going to exchange numbers. It was a nice Audi. She clearly was insured.

It would have been fine. And yet he missed that opportunity because he probably felt wronged in some way. And I think about a friendship might have been formed or whatever might have happened, but I think sometimes when I'm not feeling blessed, when I'm having difficulty, you sort of have this indignation. I don't deserve this. This is not what I signed up for. This is not where I'm supposed to be right now. And we sort of get full of ourselves. And I just saw that happening. This man had been wronged in some way, and he was going to make sure that that woman knew it. That was just completely wrong.

And yet Paul said in Philippians 4 verse 10, In whatever state I am, I have learned to be content. And again, this is difficult stuff because sometimes when we're going through some sort of difficulty, we may not feel very content. And we may want to lash out at that person that did something to us.

And we read about those who will revile you. When you're reviled, you want to say, What did I do to you? What possible thing did I cause you to revile me? And yet that's what they did to Jesus, and that's what they're going to do to us. And yet we're supposed to be in a content or a blessed state when that happens, in a happy state.

There's something I've noticed about certain people who live a very long time and are still doing well, not debilitated. I've often found these people to be happy, if you've noticed that. There's a man in Santa Rosa, his name is Mr. Hoops, he's in his 90s now. So when I met him 20 years ago, he was a little older, and I'd say, How are you doing today, Mr. Hoops? And he would say, he'd always say this, If I was feeling any better, it would be illegal.

And I was saying, my mind went all sorts of places with that, right? Do you take drugs? What's going on? But that's how he was. He was just this buoyant person. And I've noticed that. There's a certain, you know, something about that. And there's another gentleman in Oakland, and he's in his late 80s, and every time I see him, he smiles and shakes his hand.

But then I talk to him, and he talks about, you know, Well, you know, my son died here, and then my grandson died, and I lost this, and there was cancer. And I'm thinking, wow, you've had a tough life! And yet, he just has this, you know, and some of us are born that way, and maybe he was born that way, but you know, there's a certain comfort, there's a certain joy that comes, I think, is expressed by the Holy Spirit.

This is what we see. Love, joy, peace. And I think that comes out, and that's that state. And so we see, you know, this in certain people, if you know those people that way. You know, sometimes when we think about blessings, we go to Deuteronomy 28. I'm not for the sake of time here. I understand there's a 90-minute service. I hope I'm not going to do okay on that here.

I don't know when we started, but... We'll go to Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28 is the chapter that describes the blessings and the curses, right? And in Deuteronomy 28, there's a very clear set of things. If you do this, you'll be blessed, right? But if you do this, then the curses will come. But sometimes we confuse sort of national, macroeconomic blessings and curses from individual blessings, right?

We live in one of the most blessed countries on the face of the earth. But that doesn't mean everybody's got a job. That doesn't mean everybody's in good health. In fact, our health standards here are actually quite below other countries.

But we're still a blessed country. So sometimes we confuse that, like, Oh, well, if I do these things, then I'll be blessed. Or because we do these things in this country, we should be blessed. Why is that? No. God has an individual set of blessings that He is ready to pour out on us. But just because we live in this country doesn't mean that we're going to be receiving sort of those macroeconomic blessings. God has something in mind for each of us. I think Jesus' words in Matthew provide a much deeper and more individually meaningful understanding of what it means to be blessed.

And a definition that is consistent with His teaching in other areas, and I think consistent with David in the Psalms, right? David would say, Why do the wicked prosper? David noticed that. Why is that?

So, what are blessings? They're Markarios. They're being happy. They're being elongated. But it doesn't necessarily mean that we will not have difficulties. And so my second point is, are blessings and adversity mutually exclusive? Let's turn it over to Job 1. Look at Job 1. And Job is a great example of a gentleman who was very blessed in many, many ways. He was blessed economically. He was blessed with a family. He was blessed with land. He was blessed with all sorts of abundance. Job 1, verse 1, There was a man in the land of Oz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. You know, I went over to a little corner of the Ambassador Campus, and I saw they're selling $2 million townhouses over there. A little three-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath, 3,000 square foot townhouses. You know, Job could have probably bought the corner there. I think there's 16 of them, you know, 32 mill? I mean, Job was a very wealthy man.

But if you look at Job, we know what happened in verses 6 through 22. We see that Job lost everything, right? In verse 13, there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And a messenger came to Job and said the oxen were plowing, the donkeys feeding, and they were raided. And they took them away. Indeed, they killed the servant with the edge of the sword. And I alone have escaped. I mean, these were raiders. This was, you know, this was literally somebody would come into the congregation and say, your home has been broken into and your family has been murdered. And so his family was killed. And then he began to lose many of the things that he had. And so all that happened in verse 22. And then ultimately, he begins to have health difficulties. And so in chapter 2, verse 8, it says, And he took for himself a pot-shirt with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. So he had these boils. And so he had health issues. And he lost his family. And he lost all these things. And his wife says to him in verse 9, Do you still hold to your integrity? Curse God and die.

But he said to her, You speak as one of the foolish women speaks, shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity? So good and adversity both come from God for a reason and for a purpose. If you look over in Job 5, verse 17, I think we see a richer definition of being blessed. 5, verse 17, Behold, happy, happy. Now that's a Hebrew word, not a Greek word, but that's an interesting choice of words as we understand Markarios being happy. Happy is the man whom God corrects. Therefore, do not despise the chasing of the Almighty. For he, and that's a capital, so this is God, he bruises, but he binds up. He wounds, but his hands make whole.

He shall deliver you in six troubles. Yes, in seven, no evil shall touch you. In famine, he shall redeem you from death. In war, from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes.

You shall laugh at destruction and famine, and you shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth. For you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field, and shall be at peace with you. You shall know that your tent is in peace. You shall visit your habitation and find nothing amiss. And you shall also know that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth.

You shall come to the grave at a full age, as a sheath of grain ripens in its season. Behold, this we have searched out. It is true. Hear it and know for yourself. What an amazing description of a blessed life, filled with famine and war and scourging of the tongue.

This is adversity, and yet it is a blessing. These are not mutually exclusive things, and God Himself will wound but bind up. He'll bruise but not break. This describes a relationship that Job had with God and that we can have with our Maker, where we can go to God and say, God, why is this happening? What is going on? What does this mean? And when we're going through those trials, we won't know what it means. We have to accept that. We won't know what it means. We don't have enough context. We don't have the time. But as the years go by, we can look back and see, hmm, interesting. And I can see that, and I can recount so many stories in my life of why did that happen? I remember talking with a business colleague because I had decided to not take a job. My boss had wanted me to take this job, and she said, if you need to be in Sweden tomorrow, you need to be in Sweden tomorrow. And if we don't know how long you're going to be there, that's what it is. But this is the opportunity for you. I went to my wife and I said, I can't be gone, and I can daze notice and then be gone for three or four weeks for my family. And you know, that was pretty much the end of my career at that company. After that, I was just sideways. Many, many years later, I had lunch with a colleague, and I described a little bit about my choice, and he said, Oh, that was so good you didn't take that job. That was a nowhere job. You would have been branded in a certain way. People would have just laughed at you. I had no idea. But I did it because I felt it was the right thing to do because I wanted to make sure I was with my family. We don't have context to what our individual circumstances are when we go through them. Look over in Mark 10, verse 28. This is that parallel passage that I described earlier.

Because Mark adds... I just think the Gospels are amazing because you read something, and then you read it in another account. And that person picked up one little extra nuance to that of what they remembered. Mark 10, verse 28. This is the same situation that we read about in Matthew. The rich young ruler comes. Peter says, Hey, what about us?

Jesus says, This is what you're going to receive. But Mark adds something else here when he describes this. In verse 28, then Peter began to say to him, See what we have left all and followed you. And Jesus answered and said, Sure, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time. So now, it's not just in the regeneration, but it's now in this time with persecutions. Now, in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come, eternal life. There it is. A hundredfold with persecutions. These are not mutually exclusive things. We can be persecuted, we can be suffering, we can be going through trials, and we can be blessed at the same time. Wrap your brain around that for a moment. That's hard. But that's what we're told. That's what we see in Job. That's what we read about in Hebrews 11. That's what we read about in Psalm 1. This is what it means to be blessed. I think Jesus Christ makes it pretty clear that blessings and adversity will come side by side. And if we're expecting a life of ease because we came to church every week and we're striving to understand God's will in our life, it doesn't mean that we're not going to be disappointed with where we are sometimes. It's that perspective. Look over in Genesis 47. We were looking in Genesis 50 and we were talking about Joseph. We really appreciate Dr. Hoover talking about that in the sermonette. Look in Genesis 47 and verse 8. Let's look at Joseph's father in a very interesting text. Genesis 47 and verse 8.

Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old are you? I would just love to have been there because you don't know. You have to kind of wonder what the text would say, but you can almost imagine Pharaoh looks at this man and goes, Ooh, how old are you? If somebody walks up to you and says that, you think, wow, do I look that bad? But Jacob responds and says to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they did not attain the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. Ooh, that doesn't sound very nice.

I mean, you wonder what Jacob had in mind when he said that. You know, he's pretty much saying, you know, my dad, he lived a long time, and he was in much better shape when he was my age, and my grandfather, even longer than that. You know, my life has been hard. That's what I see Jacob saying. My life has been tough, and, you know, I didn't live like my parents lived. Now, we may feel that way about our lives, right? We may feel sometimes like we sort of needed to be in a certain place, right? Like, oh, by the time I'm twenty-five, I'm going to be here, or by the time I'm thirty, I'm going to be there, or I'm going to have two kids, or I'm going to have this. And it's almost, I get a little bit of that out of this passage. Like, you know, at a hundred and thirty, I figured I'd be doing better. But, you know, my days have been tough, and not like my parents. And I also get a sense that, you know, he's measuring his life by the standards of his parents, or by the standards of other people, and almost in a sense that he himself had this sense that maybe he wasn't blessed. These are real people. These are real stories. Again, look at it for yourself. You know, examine this for yourself. But I see a lot of hurt. I see a lot of pain in this Scripture. We, too, can set some sort of internal benchmark of what it means to be blessed. And if we don't achieve that benchmark, then we're dissatisfied.

Let's go to point number three. What does it mean to reap what you sow? And we'll stay here in Genesis 47, because, you know, Jacob, he pulled some shenanigans, right? He played it a little loose on things, where, you know, he made some deals and did some things that weren't so great. He had been a wealthy man, and he had lived for many years. But he also thought his son Joseph was dead. So he had to live with that. The other point is that he was called the supplanter, and he really did live up to his reputation. We won't turn there, but in Genesis 25, we know that he stole the right of the firstborn from his brother Esau. In Genesis 27, he tricked Isaac into blessing him. He did a lot of things that weren't so great. And so, you know, to some degree, Jacob reaped what he sowed. You know, perhaps if he hadn't been a little bit so strong in some of his dealings, maybe he would have not made as many enemies. Maybe he would have lived a little bit better. But he was certainly an ambitious individual. And so he may have reaped what he sowed. Look in Galatians 6 verse 7, just to make sure that we understand this is not a... This is certainly a concept understood by the world. The world calls it cause and consequences. Armstrong used to talk about cause and effect. This is a fundamental principle that's understood universally. Galatians 6 verses... I'll get over here to verse 7. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. So there is cause and consequences. And in the context of this verse, he's discussing how our actions have consequences. And the principles is often, as I said, cause and effect. So in the case of Jacob, David, even Abraham, great men of faith, they did things in their lives that led to great pain and suffering. David made some really, really bad decisions. And he suffered for his bad decisions. He was not blessed because he made some bad decisions in his life. Abraham made a really bad decision to allow his wife to suggest that he sleep with Hagar. That was a really bad decision. Jacob made some bad decisions. So these actions brought adversity onto themselves. And it wasn't God's doing. And sometimes our own actions bring adversity onto ourselves.

For example, it's well understood that if someone does not graduate from high school, their earnings power is going to be degraded for the rest of their lives. Teenage pregnancy. A huge disadvantage to living out a, quote-unquote, normal life. Because instead of being in school, you're taking care of the child. Or if you're in school, somebody else is taking care of that child.

And there's difficulties all the way around in terms of raising that child. And the family has to deal with that. If we want to be successful in something, there are fundamental principles that lead to success. Franklin Covey wrote about this in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. And then he wrote another book called The Eighth Habit. Herbert Armstrong wrote a book called The Seven Laws of Success. A very powerful book.

And if you haven't read it, you should find a copy. I think The Living Church of God has that. I think they published it. Maybe The Philadelphia Church of God published it. Very good, very good book. And he writes about education and perseverance, resourcefulness, and other factors that lead to success. The book of Proverbs is filled with admonitions and instructions on principles of success. Let's look over at Proverbs 22, verse 29. Proverbs 22 and verse 29. We'll read just a few of these. Do you see a man who excels in his work? He shall stand before kings. He shall not stand before unknown men. If you want to be successful, you're going to have to work. You're going to have to excel in your work. You're going to have to be good in what you do. Look at Proverbs 24, verse 6. For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety. It's a fundamental principle. We need mentors. We need coaches. We need teachers. We need people who have been there and done that and can give us advice as we go through.

That's what wise counsel means and brings. Look in Proverbs 4, verse 7. Sometimes you think, oh, you know, I just have such a difficulty finding a job. Well, have you gone to get counseling about that? There are all sorts of sets of organizations. Have you had a professional look at your resume? Are you getting job training? Oh, okay. And this is obvious stuff, but sometimes we just sort of look at these problems. A lot of times we're emotionally sort of paralyzed in those things, but there are certain principles. And so if we're struggling for wisdom, well, we should go to the book of Proverbs, and it has it there. Look at Proverbs 4, verse 7. Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And in all you're getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she will promote you. She will bring you honor when you embrace her. She will place you on your head, an ornament of grace, a crown of glory. She will deliver to you. You know, in Oakland, in San Jose, we ran a program called Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. It's a seven...actually, I think it was nine weeks. Yeah, nine-week program. And we really encourage people to sign up for this, right? Understand financial management. And what Financial Peace University does is, at the beginning of the class, they have everybody write down how much credit card debt they have, what their savings is, you know, these types of things. And at the seventh week, you answer that again. Similar questions. How much you have saved, and so forth. And I'm just going to share just a couple statistics. This is remarkable for me. In Oakland, we had 13 people take the program. And after nine weeks, that program had collectively... that group of people, those 13 people, had collectively paid off non-mortgage debt of $28,000.

Just because you focused on it, and you had some training. And they had saved $15,400. That group of people cut up 19 credit cards. In San Jose, we had nine people take the program, and that group had paid off $19,636 of debt. And they had saved $56,000 and cut up 14 credit cards. That's a program. Dave Ramsey's trained millions of people in how to budget, how to save, how to get out of debt. So, you reap what you sow. And we are running that program again. We also ran the Growing Kids God's Way program. And that was a big commitment. That was 16 weeks. And you know what? I learned a ton in that program about parenting. Because we tend to parent the way we were parented. Now you're actually getting some instruction in how to parent. Imagine that. And it's amazing the things that I learned. Hopefully my son did okay. He came up and gave a... By the way, I'm Sophie's dad, if you have to remember. Sophie's dad gave the sermon today. These are just a few examples of specific actions that we can take. But by contrast, there are activities that cause pain. Let's go to James 1, verse 14.

James 1, verse 14. There are things that we can do that lead to troubles.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. You know what that is? That's a lack of control.

And self-control is one of the fruits of the spirit. And a lack of self-control leads you to be enticed and drawn away. And what happens when that happens? Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren, but every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. So when we give in to sin, when we give in to temptation, we're going to start down a road that's going to lead to trouble. And sometimes we're going to bring things on ourselves.

So is there a paradox of blessings and faithfulness?

I don't think there is. I just think sometimes we've got some misconceptions about what it means to be blessed.

It's hard to say that you're blessed when you're mourning. It's hard to say you're blessed when you have health issues. It's hard to say you're blessed when you don't have a job. It's hard to say you're blessed when people are trying to get you at work because they don't like you and they're trying to stab you in the back. None of us feel blessed when we're in those situations. But that doesn't mean we aren't blessed.

Blessing is a much more complex, a much richer set of meanings than we can imagine. And I hope as we look in Job, as we look in Hebrews, as we look in Matthew, as we look in Mark, as we look in the Scriptures, we can begin to see those differences. And we can begin to appreciate that blessed and happy is the man and woman of Psalm 1.

What that means? Yes, it can be economic. Yes, it can be health. But it doesn't have to be. It can be just as simple as us having the faith and trust to know that God knows who we are, where we're going, and is faithful to guide us there because He knows our ways. I hope this has been helpful as you think about blessings in your life and what you're going through, and that it isn't just about formulas, and that sometimes we might feel discouraged as well to say, hey, I'm going by the book. Well, the book says a lot of interesting things that isn't just formulaic that way.