Supremely Blessed

Well, you know, I'm sure part of the sermon at what was read was Mark 10.16, when it talked about the blessing of little children and infants and small children were brought to Christ, and he took them up in his arms and he blessed them. You know, it's a beautiful ceremony in church to see that happen, and for parents to bring their small children and to ask God's blessing on them. Sometimes I think we use the word blessing, and certainly in the world, blessing is one of those overused words that can kind of lose its meaning when we talk about it, because we hear about it all the time. Sometimes I, you know, call even businesses and they'll say, have a blessed day, and I think, wow, it's, you know, this is a word that is used in the Bible that has significance to it, and you know, we have the little children blessing ceremony, it has significance to it, and God, you know, built blessing into our lives. There is meaning to it, and there's a lot of talk about blessings in the Bible. You know, one of the notable verses that we talk about where Christ, you know, or in God through inspiration to Moses talks in Deuteronomy 30 verse 19, he says, I said before you this day, life and death, blessing and cursing. So we know the life and death, we choose life, we've talked about that a little bit. He's also said blessing and cursing, they go hand in hand. Life and blessing, if you choose life, you're choosing blessing, if you choose death, you're choosing cursing. No one wants to live in a cursed atmosphere, but they want to live in a blessed atmosphere. And certainly having God's blessing is something that we would all want to have. You know, blessing when we talk about it, if you when you look at the Hebrew word and the Greek word that is translated blessed, it carries a lot of significance with it. It invokes God's presence in someone's life. It gives meaning to that life. It has a future aspect to it as far as when you speak these words over a person and you touch them, that there's a future for them.

And it's something that makes the person who is blessed feel very special and very warm and very hopefully motivated to go on and live the life that they should be following. For the person giving the blessing, in many cases it's God that we talk about, he wants to give that blessing. He wants to give that for his children. Blessing is something that God built in from the very first chapter in Genesis to the very last chapter in Revelation, define God's blessing. Mentioned that every every part of the Bible. So today I want to look at the concept of blessing. What does it mean? How do we choose a life where God would be willing to bless us? And what does it mean in the Old Testament? And what does it mean in the New Testament? Because while they're similar, there are differences. And in New Testament times, the blessing of God is very important just as it was in the Old Testament times to the people during that time. So let's start in Genesis 1, the very first chapter of the Bible and see that right here at the outset, before man was even created, God blessed. God blessed part of the creation that he was bringing upon the earth. After he created the lights of the sky, the firmaments of the heaven, you know, he created the birds in the air and the fish of the sea. And in Genesis 1 and verse 22, it says this, it says, God blessed them these birds, these things that he had created, he blessed them, he put his blessing on them, saying, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. I put my blessing on you.

You're special. I want you to multiply. I want you to grow. I want you to be evident in this earth.

A few verses down in verse 28, when God created man, he blessed man too. God blessed them, the male and female that he created in verse 27. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. I put my blessing on you. I give you my favor.

I give you this earth, and I will bless it for your benefits. That was for all of mankind. Adam and Eve at that time, but he intended the blessing for all of mankind. In chapter 2, on the seventh day, he created the Sabbath, not just for one group of people or one race of people, but for all of mankind. And in Genesis 2, verse 2, it says, on the seventh day, God ended his work, which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. And then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it he rested from all his work, which God created and made. Put some good. Put a blessing on this Sabbath day, this day that we're observing. There was supposed to be good come out of it for mankind as we dedicate ourselves to him, as we dedicate our lives to him, or this time period to him. He will make it holy, and he will bless us by keeping this day that he blessed. So he blessed the Sabbath day. So we see God giving a blessing to the living things on earth, to mankind, and even to this day that we're on.

And he continued, he wanted to continue to do that, but mankind, Adam and Eve, rejected God.

They decided that they didn't want life and blessing. They chose death and cursing. And so, when they sinned, death came upon them, and God put a curse on the earth. They chose the opposite of what God would want all of mankind to do, including us. But we see the blessing going forward. It didn't disappear. Over in chapter 9, we find God blessing Noah, a man of all the men on the face of the earth, followed God, obeyed him, and dedicated his life to him. In chapter 9 of Genesis and verse 1, it says, So God blessed Noah and his sons, and he said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. He blessed him. Now, this is the time after the flood was complete. The waters had receded. Now Noah is going out to the ark, and God blessed him and said, Now mankind, you will be the ancestors of the rest of mankind here. They will come from you. I bless you. A couple chapters back, we find out what kind of man Noah was, unique on the face of the earth at that time. In chapter 6 and in verse 8, we find a word that we're familiar with in New Testament times that we'll talk about another time. It says in verse 8, Noah found grace in the eyes of the eternal. He found favor in God's eyes. There's a reason he found favor in God's eyes. This, it says in verse 9, is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man. He was a just man. He followed God. He obeyed God. He walked with God, it says as we go on in the verse. He was perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.

The same thing that God has called us to. To walk with him, to be in concert with him, to be in agreement with him. Only one way to do that. That's to obey him, to yield to him, to submit to him, to give our lives to him. Noah did that. In all the cases throughout the entire time that Noah was on earth, he obeyed God. For a hundred some years, he built that ark that God had told him to do. You know, Noah did it exactly the way that God had told him to do it.

He didn't take any shortcuts. Didn't think he knew better. Didn't think, this is antiquated, there's a better way to do it here. And this year, before the flood, these years before the flood came, he simply did it. And in verse, I think at the end of the verse there, it says, everything that God had him do, he just did it. He did it the way God said. You know, today God calls us to build our temples, led by his Holy Spirit. But he gives us the same instructions for our lives that he gave Noah in building the ark. He told us how to build our temple.

You know, build it with gold, build it with gold and precious jewels. Don't build it on flammable items that'll burn up as soon as it's tested. Develop strength. Use my spirit to develop the things and the character that I want you to develop. And so we build the temple, and Noah was judicious. Noah was diligent, and Noah was faithful that he built that ark right until the time of the end. Even though people were jeering at him, even though people were mocking him, even though there were people saying, come on Noah, where's the rain? When's it all going to end? The same thing that we might hear. Oh really, Christ is going to return again? When is he going to return again? People have been saying that for millennia. But Noah just kept going. And then one day the rains came and God delivered him. Because Noah was a just man, God blessed him. God blessed him. And he blessed him with more than just the things of material. He blessed him with his life.

He saved him and shielded him from the time that was going to come. You can keep your finger there in Genesis, but let's go back to Proverbs. Proverbs 28. I'm sorry, Psalm. Let's do Psalm 5 first. Psalm 5.

Psalm 5. This is the Psalm of David. Verse 11. David writes this. He says, But let all those rejoice, who put their trust in you. Noah put his trust in God.

It didn't put his trust in the things of the world, the people of the world, the words of the world, the wisdom of the world. He put his trust in God, even though no one else on earth was doing it at that time. Let all those rejoice, who put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy, because you defend them. You watch out for them. No one else may be defending them, but you defend them.

Let those also who love your name be joyful in you, for you, O eternal, will bless the righteous.

You'll bless those who follow God, who show him they love him by the actions they take and the things that they do and choose to do every day in their lives.

You, O Lord, will bless the righteous with favor you will surround him, as with a shield.

Oh, God did put a shield around Noah. Noah obeyed God. Noah trusted in God, and God delivered him right through that flood, and then gave him a good life and blessed him and his sons richly after they came off of the Ark, as the world was rebuilt largely through their progeny.

God will defend. God will bless those who are righteous with him, and we learned that part of God's blessing depends on are we willing to live a life where God is pleased to bless his people. He wants to do it, but he gives his blessing to those who follow him. Well, Noah certainly did. The rest of mankind didn't follow. We know the story as we go through Genesis, but then we come to one of the major blessings in the Bible that we're all aware of in Genesis 12, the man Abraham, who was 75 years old at this time, and God told him to get away from his country.

Do something different than the rest of the world is doing, Abraham. You go ahead and you leave your father, you leave your land. You go to a place where I tell you to go. Kind of unheard of in that day and age, but Abraham, to his credit, did it. Genesis 12 verse 1. Get out of your country, from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. So we see God getting a little more specific with Abraham. I will make your name great. You know, a lot of people want great names, but it really doesn't count for much if we go and try to do it ourselves. It's if God gives us a name that's great, then we've done it the right way. Abraham was doing it the right way. I'll make your name great, and you'll be a blessing. I'm going to bless you, but you know what? Others, others who come in contact with you, they're going to be blessed too. Others are going to see how you live your life, and because they're affiliated with you, because they work for you, or they work with you, or they're your family members, they're going to see my blessing on you.

You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse who, Kim, who curses you. And in you, all families of the earth will be blessed. I'm going to put this on you. I'm going to give you this blessing. I'm going to give you, in the Old Testament, much of it is material, things and physical things. We'll see that that changes as we get into the Old Testament, or the New Testament. But even in the Old Testament, we see where God has more in mind than just the physical life that people have and the physical blessings they have. He's got something more in mind that they may not be fully aware of or have been fully aware of at that time. As we read through the ensuing chapters of Genesis here, we find God getting more and more defined with Abraham. I'm going to make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. I'm going to give you land. I'm going to give you possession. And we know that Abraham became a very wealthy man. His name did become great. When people heard the name Abraham, they had respect for him. They knew who he was. He was a man that people reckoned with, but they also saw him as a man who was fair. He was different than the people around him. But he followed God. He gave himself to God. He lived his way of life even though he was the only one. His tribe, his people were the only ones on earth living that way at that time, but he did it anyway. And God blessed him.

Blessed him richly. And people who saw Abraham knew that he was blessed. We turn over to chapter 22.

In Genesis, we see God even expanding Abraham's territories and telling him more things that he will give him. Genesis 22 and verse 16. It says in verse 15, the angel of the eternal came a second time to Abraham. Verse 16 said, By myself I have sworn, says the eternal, because you have done this thing. That's be willing to even offer his son Isaac, who he waited decades for. Being willing to even give that up for God. But I, verse 16, I meant God says, The Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. You'll have land, Abraham. You've done this. You haven't withheld anything from me. You've given me literally everything. And I will bless you. Your name will be great. You'll possess land. Your descendants will continue to increase. You're going to have the physical, material things on earth. You will be a wealthy man. You will even possess the gate of your enemies. And we won't go to Genesis 48 and 49, but we see and remember the moving blessings that were there as Israel. Jacob passed the blessing on to Joseph's sons and said similar things to them. Blessings of rain on the earth. Blessings of possessing the great lands on the earth that God promised to a people, to a people that would obey him, that would walk with him, that would be who he wanted them to be, and that would yield to him totally, not holding anything back for self, but giving themselves to him. So we see that happening in the Bible. We see that where God's will is to bless, and when people will do what God says when they show him they love him, he sends out these blessings to them. To live under God's blessing is a great thing.

We in this room, we live under God's blessing. I don't know how much we appreciate it.

It's deeper than just material things. It's deeper than just our income or whatever it is that we may have. We'll get into that in a little bit. But for Abraham, God worked with him, and we see that he was a man who was obedient, obedient totally to God. Let's go back to Galatians for a minute.

We know that Abraham obeyed God. That was certainly one of his traits. In Galatians 3, it repeats something that we read in Genesis 15 verse 6 as well. Pick it up in verse 5.

Therefore, in Galatians 3 verse 5, therefore he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Was it just because Abraham did what God wanted? Was it just because he did these works?

No. Abraham believed God. And because he believed God, he totally trusted in him. He had faith in him.

He believed whatever God said, and he was willing to do anything that God said because he believed and he had faith in him. Because of that faith, God blessed him. And that's what he would say to you and me today. It's fine to do the things, and we need to do the things of God, but we have to believe him. Because of our faith, because of our belief in what he says, the promises that he's made, the future that he's painted for us, those things that we have before us, if we believe him, then we have our blessings. Or then we will live in a life that he will bless. If we believe him, we will also obey him. Just as it says in Acts 5, 32, the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God. To obey God, we have to believe in him and have faith. We don't have faith. We'll take him for granted. We'll minimize what we think he wants us to do. We'll slack off. We'll just kind of go through the motions and think everything is okay. If we really believe like Abraham did, like Noah did, like other men that we can go into the Bible and see, he will put his blessing on us. Doesn't mean everything is going to be totally perfect in our lives and that we're not going to have any trials. Certainly Abraham did. Certainly Noah did. But we must have faith if we're going to live a life where God blesses and we live under his blessing. Let's go back to Proverbs 28. Proverbs 28.

28 verse 20.

28 verse 20. A faithful man will abound with blessings. 29 verse 20. A faithful man will abound with blessings.

21 verse 20. But he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished.

Well, there he kind of ties together material wealth with blessings. But a faithful man will abound with blessings. But those who want to do things the quick way, want to do things their own way, I'll find a shortcut to wealth. I'll find a shortcut to position. I'll do things my way to get what I want. They won't go unpunished. Do it God's way. That's what we learned throughout the Bible. You want to live under God's blessing? Do it his way. If you don't want to do it his way, don't expect that he's going to bless and that we'll endure, that the blessings that he gives us will endure to us. Well, we could go through the rest of the Old Testament and talk about God's blessing, but let's go back and look at the story a little bit of Jacob and Esau. Because as man was on earth and as Abraham's family was on earth, the blessing became very important.

It was something to be sought after. They wanted the blessing. They wanted God's blessing on them. And in Isaac's family, the blessing was on him. Jacob and Esau, the two twin boys, they knew how important that blessing was and it became a contentious item in that family. Rebecca and her son Jacob wanted that blessing for Jacob. It rightfully belonged to Esau. Isaac knew how important that blessing was. Rebecca knew how important that blessing was. Jacob knew how important that blessing was. Esau for some reason just kind of like, it's okay, it's okay, whether I have it or not didn't really make any difference to him. And Jacob and Rebecca conspired, as you remember the story, to get that blessing for Jacob and to steal it from Esau. They were successful.

They were successful. And Isaac did give the blessing to Jacob. And when Isaac found out about it, he wasn't a happy, happy guy. Just like we fathers wouldn't be very happy if we found out our sons had deceived us into something and we gave an answer or gave a permission to do something and then found out it was a totally different story. We've probably all been in that situation somewhere along the line. Isaac wasn't happy. Esau certainly wasn't happy when he realized, well, I've been cheated out of this. Didn't really count that important to it, but you know, now that it's gone, I really want it. Jacob was scared for his life. He'd had death threats against him.

But Isaac, when he realized what had happened, you know, a lot of us as fathers would have said, you know, forget it. I'm taking that blessing back. I'm taking that permission back. I'm taking that thing I gave you back because you tricked me, you fooled me. Isaac didn't do that.

Isaac, somewhere along the line, must have known this was God's will because if it was God's will for Esau to have that blessing, it would have gone to Esau. But God saw that it belonged, or he wanted it to go to Jacob. Let's look at chapter 28 of Genesis and verse 1. Hereafter, after Isaac, and we'll all find out what's going on, Isaac comes back and he talks to Jacob. It says, Isaac called Jacob and blessed him, even after this. Okay, Jacob, you fooled me. And he charged him and said to him, you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. I want you to marry someone who is going to teach your children and be united with you and your beliefs. You don't forget the God of Abraham. You don't forget the God who has blessed you. You don't forget the God who has brought you and given you life and given you all these things that he has given you. Don't forget him and make sure your wife is in concert with you on that. And you work together so that the children you have are taught of God and that you rear him in that way and that they know God too.

Don't you take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, Isaac told him, arise, go to Canaan, heir him to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. And then he repeats the blessing, not in the same words that he does in chapter 27, but now he's consciously giving it to Jacob. May God Almighty bless you and 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. Isaac or Jacob, go.

You have my blessing. You didn't get it the right way, but I accept it and I give it to you.

And that had to be a meaningful thing for Jacob, to know that his father was willing to give him that blessing anyway and charge him with what he should do the rest of his life. Now here's Jacob, a man who had deceived Isaac, deceived his brother, in concert had tried to steal something that was of God. But over the course of the rest of his life, as Jacob went forward, he became a different person. No longer the deceiver that he was at this time, no longer the man who was going to take matters into his own hands.

Now he went and he was going to work for Laban. Now he was going to live his life in the way that he was raised to live it. And apparently did it very well. He apparently did follow God, because as we find Jacob's life, we find that God blessed him. God blessed him.

God wouldn't have blessed him if he had become just another one of the people in Laban's household that didn't obey God. But Jacob did the things that God wanted him to do. Let's go to chapter 30. Chapter 30 verse 27. After Jacob has been there for a while, after he has two wives, he's got 12 sons, he looks around and he sees, you know, I've been here and I've served Laban. I've fulfilled my responsibilities to him.

It's time for me to do something for my family and not be a servant all my life. In verse 27, we find Laban realizing Jacob had really had really fulfilled part of the blessing that God had given. And Laban realized he was the benefactor of that blessing as well. Chapter 30 verse 27. Laban said to him, Please stay, Jacob, if I have found favor in your eyes, for I have learned by experience that the eternal has blessed me for your sake. In you, others will be a blessed. I will bless you, God told Abraham.

You be a blessing to others. And so God would say the same thing to us. We should be a blessing to others. We should ask God, you know, for our employers and those who bless us, prosper them, make things go well. When people see you and you work for them, you should know God is going to bless them as well. If they bless you, I'll bless them. If they curse you, I'll curse them. Laban knew, as he watched Jacob, I'm blessed because you're here. It's because of what you do, because of your character, because of how you have lived your life, that I become a wealthy man here at this time.

Verse 29, you know, he asks him to stay and tells him, name is price, basically. And Jacob said to him, You know how I've served you and how your livestock has been with me. For what you had before I came was little, and it has increased to a great amount. The eternal has blessed you since my coming, and now when shall I also provide for my own house? Jacob saw it was going on as well.

He wasn't mad about it. He wasn't upset about it. He knew that God had blessed him, but he's saying, you know, I've got to go do something for my family as well. And so, between Laban and Jacob, they came up with a game plan on how long Jacob would stay, and they put it in God's hands.

It wasn't a matter of coming up with a contract and saying, I'm going to take this, I'm going to take that. God blessed Jacob, and Jacob eventually left. And he was going back to meet Esau because he needed to reconcile with Esau. We need to reconcile with people we've done wrong to in our lives. And he was on his way back, and Jacob was a little worried about this confrontation, if you will, or this meeting with Esau. And it's something unexpected along the way happened.

Let's go over to chapter 32. Chapter 32, and we get it in verse 20...32. Okay? Chapter 32 and verse 24. As I get closer to Esau, Jacob is divvying up the family. He doesn't want Esau to wipe them all out, so he sends some this way, some another way.

And chapter 32 verse 24, it says, then Jacob was left alone. He was all there by himself, and a man, notice it's capitalized, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day.

Now when he, capital he, the man with a capital M, saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him. So here's Jacob wrestling with someone who he's encountered. He knows it's not just another man that he's wrestling with. He knows he's wrestling with something, and he's determined in this wrestling match. And he's convinced, or he's determined and made his mind up, I will prevail in this. I'm not going to let go of this man. I'm not going to let go no matter how much the pain. And he even loses his, he even has his hip moved out of socket. Now I don't know if you've had any joint ever come out of socket. It's a very painful thing. Jacob worked through the pain. He wasn't going to let go. He knew what he was doing, and he was not going to give up no matter what the pain. I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to hang on. I'm not going to let go of this opportunity that I have. And as we look at the words, as we look at the story of Jacob here, as he's wrestling with this man, we can find ourselves in the same situation. God has called us. God has given us something tremendous to live our lives for. And there are trials and there are times in our lives that we simply cannot, we simply cannot let go. We have to fight and keep fighting until the very end. We cannot allow ourselves to backslide. We can't allow ourselves to give up. We can't allow ourselves to say, it's too hard. It's too hard. I didn't count on the pain. We have to keep going. We have to keep fighting through the pain. We have to keep holding on to God, just like Jacob did as he's wrestling here with him. In verse 26, he, capital H, said, let me go for the day breaks. But Jacob said, I will not let you go until and unless you bless me.

I want the blessing that I know you have to give. I want it so much I will work through anything. I will work through any amount of pain, but I'm not letting go until you bless me. He had a blessing from his father. He wanted a blessing from this man. Much as we should want the blessing from God and be willing to work through anything for it, anything that comes our way.

I will not let go unless you bless me. So he, capital H, said to Jacob, what's your name? And he told him. And he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed. You've overcome, Jacob. You're a different man now than you were back at the time when you had to leave your father's house and go off to Laban's house. You're a different man now. You have shown me. You have faith. You believe. You want what God has to offer. You want to live his life, and you will do whatever it takes, no matter what the pain, and no matter what comes your way. And he named him. No longer supplanter Jacob, but now prevailer with God. He overcame. And Jacob, Jacob, who wanted that blessing from God, we should want the blessing from God. We should understand what it is and what God has called us to, and be willing to do whatever he takes in faith, believing him, trusting in him. Let's turn over to Psalm, Psalm 3.

You know, Jacob, at this time, he had wealth. He had kids. He had really everything the world might say, but he still wanted the blessing from God. He wanted that approval from him, and he was willing to struggle through his life to find that blessing. Psalm 3 and verse 8, salvation belongs to the eternal. Salvation belongs to the eternal. Jacob knew that. We should know that. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. You know, as you go through the Psalms, you see this word, bless. Greek 21, 27, and strong concordance show up 398 times, not in just Psalms, but throughout the Old Testament. Let me give you a few verses I'm not going to read to you today that you can look at later. Psalm 29 and verse 11, it's written that God blesses his people with peace.

With peace. And maybe we underestimate peace in our lives. Psalm 119 verses 1 through 6, God blesses his people who walk in obedience with him. Psalm 128 verses 1 through 4, God blesses people who fear him. You know, blessing is a foundational aspect of the Bible, fearing God is a foundational aspect of our lives. If we don't fear God, we don't fear God, we may want to go back. We may want to go back and study the verses pertaining to that.

Let's do turn to Proverbs 20. Proverbs 20.

Proverbs 20 and verse 7. It says, the righteous man, we know what a righteous man is. He's one who walks with God, he's one who obeys God, yields to him. The righteous man walks in his integrity. That's his character, that's his reputation, that's what he does. Integrity marks him. The righteous man walks in his integrity, his children are blessed after him. Now what father doesn't want a blessing for his children? You want your children to be blessed, you want them to live a good life, you want them to have the blessing of God, teach them. Teach them of God's ways, teach them to follow him. Don't give them an example of lackadaisicalness or apathy or anything other than, I am committed to God and this is the only way to life. This is the only way you should live. It opens the door to everything. Your life will be rich physically, your life will be rich spiritually, you will be a satisfied person. A man who walks in integrity, a man who walks with God, brings a blessing upon his children. And so you can even see in the church as our children grow up, many of them do very well as their parents have followed God and have shown them the way.

Well, blessing in the Bible is an important thing. People sought it, certainly the people of God sought it. Blessings today in the world are important.

I've said it before, but how many people sit in psychiatrists offices, psychologists offices, because they've never gotten the approval or the blessing from their fathers?

Having a blessing from your father, knowing that he accepts you, approves you, has, thinks good things of you, wants the best for you, would speak good things over you, is trying to equip you for a good future. Who wouldn't want that? But sadly, so many people don't get that. And so many people suffer through the rest of their lives just waiting and looking for someone who will give them that blessing. Because for some reason, father or mother or whoever simply wanted to withhold it.

God doesn't want to withhold his blessing from his people. And as Israel came out of Egypt, as they were there, having been in slavery for hundreds of years, God spoke a blessing over them.

We find that back here in number six. Because he knew how important it was, and he was going to be their father. He was going to be the one who would look out for them and provide for them and give them the good things of life. And in number six, in verse 22, through Moses, God speaks to Israel and gives them that comfort, gives them that vision of the future, gives them that approval and his will that everything would be will with them. Number six, verse 22, the eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.

Say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

It's a beautiful blessing if we sit and look at those words, if we contemplate them, what God was telling those people that had come out of Egypt. Now his people, his people, he would be their father, he would be the one looking out for them, and he would be the one providing and giving them peace and giving them shelter and defending them. Verse 27, So they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. I will look after them. I want to give them the blessing.

And so through New Testament times, when Israel would obey, God did bless them. And you can see, you can see during the times when Israel was obeying God, they became a very wealthy nation.

They were riding the high heels of earth, but then when they would turn and do their own things and look at the world around them and start doing things their own way, God withdrew that blessing, and they would go into captivity eventually. Moses spoke that blessing. Later on, Joshua spoke that blessing to Israel after they entered into the land, the Promised Land, after they made their mistake at A.I. when one of the people took some of the some of the articles from Jericho. And this time they thoroughly defeated, they thoroughly wiped out A.I. And then Joshua blessed Israel for what they had done. They had done what God had said to do. They did it totally, and they did it his way. And God blessed them. And Joshua spoke that blessing over them. But it's not just the blessing in the Old Testament we want to talk about. We know how that's there. In the New Testament, we find the word blessing blessed and blessed a lot as well. We talked about Mark 10-16, where Jesus Christ took the little children up in his hand, and he blessed them.

And that's the same, the parallel word in the Old Testament that we've been reading about, where it's God's blessing on them. And Jesus Christ, when he asked that blessing, he would invoke a prayer on them. He would ask for God to deliver, to protect that child, for God to instruct that child, pray for the parents that they would be raised in the way that God would have them raised, and that that child would grow up to accept God and to yield to God, and not be prone to his own ways. You know, in Luke, when Jesus Christ was blessing the bread, when he was feeding the 5,000, or not the bread, but the fishes and the loaves, that's the same word that we read in Genesis that we've been reading, and it's throughout the Old Testament. It's there. It's blessing. Invoking God's blessing. Calling on him to make useful and make good. That is what is there. Over in Luke 24, it could be turning there, just before Christ is, or as Christ is, being ascended into heaven after his resurrection, the word blessed shows up three times here at the end of Luke 24. It's the same word that's translated blessed in the Old Testament.

In Luke 24, verse 50, Christ, as he's now walked with the disciples since his resurrection, taught them the things, did the things that we talked about several weeks ago, and we talked about what did Christ do those 40 days after he was resurrected. As he was about to be ascended, it says in verse 50 of Luke 24, he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and he blessed them. He was about to leave them, but he was going to leave a blessing with those apostles. And it came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven, and they worshipped him. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, because people that live with the blessing of God do have great joy no matter what befalls them, and they were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. And that blessing God, because we can bless God too, praising him, worshiping him, talking of him, living our lives the way that he wants, bringing glory to his name. That's how we can bless God's name. We can say it, but we need to do something as well. Well, that word, blessing, that we've read about and talked about these few times, that's something that shows up in the New Testament, if I remember correctly, something like 48 times. But there's another word that's translated blessed and blessing in the New Testament that's different than the blessing in the Old Testament. It's a Greek word.

Greek word is actually a very pretty Greek word. Let's see if I can pronounce it right now.

Makarios. M-A-K-A-R-I-O-S. Makarios. And it's the word, as I was talking about, the word blessed, that may have come to your mind in some of the scriptures that were there.

Makarios is one of those words that when the translators came across it in the transcripts, they didn't know how to translate it. I say there was no word in the English language that really matched what makarios meant. It's kind of like the word agape. When they came across that, it's like there is no English word that means agape. I mean, we don't know what to say, so they just kind of called it love and mixed it with the other loves that are in the Bible.

It's kind of like pruates with meekness. They just kind of called it something else. They didn't know what to do. So when they came across makarios, it's like, well, it's kind of like a blessing, so we're just going to use the word blessed, mix it in with the other words blessed. And so we lose some of the meaning of what the Bible says and what the difference between a blessing in the Old Testament and the blessing in the New Testament is when we read it. Let's go back and let's look at a few verses here of where makarios is in the Old in the New Testament. But as you do that, you know, the Greeks, when they would use that word, often they would speak of their gods, little g, their gods, little g-o-d-s, and they would say these are the ones who are makarios. They're the ones who have blessings that supersede anything mankind can have. They have it all. They don't have to worry about the everyday things that mankind has to worry about. They're like elite. They're above it all. They are the ones who are supremely blessed, if you will. And sometimes they would talk about the elite of society. They're very wealthy. They're the ones who seem to have no cares at all. They are blessed more than the normal everyday man. And so they would use the word makarios, but there's nothing in the English language that would equal makarios. So they would use the word blessed. But makarios literally means supremely blessed. Supremely blessed. More than just blessed. Sometimes in the New Testament it's translated as happy, which is kind of a misnomer because happy is good. We all want to be happy, but makarios isn't just happy. Makarios is something above, something that we strive for, something that we look to, something that we want God to give us. We find it first in the New Testament in Matthew 5. As Jesus Christ is speaking on the Sermon on the Mount, he opens his sermon by giving the Beatitudes. And he uses the word blessed. Or in the English he uses the word blessed. It isn't the word he used. He used makarios, a word that would have caught the attention of the people listening to him that day because it's not simply Greek, whatever it is, 21, 27, or 1288. I think 1288 is the Hebrew. But it's Greek 3107. This means more than blessed. We'll just say supremely blessed or makarios. Verse 3. And notice the difference between what blessing in the New Testament is and in the Old. Supremely blessed, verse 3, are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not just material goods, not just the things that are going to in order their benefit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They're supremely blessed. This is the height of everything you can have. God wants to give that blessing. That makarios, theirs is the kingdom of heaven if they are poor in spirit, if they're humble, if they're lowly, as you heard in the sermon at, if they're yielded to him, if they're willing to be taught, if they'll do the things of God. Verse 4. Supremely blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Supremely blessed are they. They'll be comforted. There's nothing like having God comfort us, his spirit of comfort, that he gives us. Blessed are those supremely blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Verse 5. Supremely blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. They'll do more than possess the gates of their enemies, they will inherit the earth. That's a blessing that's superior to anything that the family of Abraham was blessed with in the Old Testament. Verse 6. Supremely blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who they desire it so much that it becomes them. They seek it. They look to it. They want it to be them. Just as when they're hungry, they look for food, they hunger and thirst for righteousness, they're supremely blessed, they'll be filled.

They'll be satisfied. Kind of like Jacob was satisfied when he got the blessing of God after he wrestled with him all night. Verse 7. Supremely blessed are the merciful. They'll obtain mercy.

Can't put a price tag on mercy. Verse 8. Supremely blessed are the pure in heart, those who through their lives, who have given themselves to God, whose mission is to purify themselves because they have that hope in God, that faith in God, that what he says he will do, he will do. Pure in heart consistently, weeding out the weaknesses, the faults, the wrong attitudes, etc. Bless, supremely blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Verse 9. Supremely blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Verse 10. Supremely blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

Those who have to endure some trials, those who have to endure some jeering, those who have to endure some unpleasant times in life, like Noah did, like Abraham did, like Jacob did, but who wrestle through it and hang on to it all and never lose sight of what God has called us to. Supremely blessed are those, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not a kingdom that will pass away, not a kingdom that's just on this earth, but the kingdom of heaven that will last forever and ever and ever. I don't know what better way to impress what macarios means than to go through some of the scriptures, the Old of the New Testament. I'm not going to go through all of them, but let's look at a few of them here because the verses where we find macarios are instructive in their own way as well. Let's look at a few here. Let's turn over to Matthew 13, in addition to the ones we just read. Matthew 13 and verse 16.

But supremely blessed, but macarios, are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

Do we recognize what a supreme blessing it is that we understand the Bible? That we understand what God has called us to? Do we understand why we're here on earth? Why all of mankind is here on earth? Does it give us comfort? Does it give us peace? Does it establish us? It should.

Supremely blessed are your eyes, for they see, your ears, for they hear.

Many other people wish they knew, but we knew, see what we see, we're supremely blessed.

In the Olivet Prophecy in Matthew 24, Matthew 24, verse 46.

Verse 46, as Christ is talking about the days leading up to His return, and He warns us, stay on the path. Keep your focus. Don't become prey to the laxity of the world, the lawlessness that surrounds you. In verse 46, He says, blessed, we could say, Macarios, supremely blessed is that servant whom His Master, when He comes, will find so doing, who endures to the end that when He's there, He is still clinging to God. He is still there wrestling with self, looking to overcome self, still working with God, that when He comes, He will be supremely blessed.

Luke 11.

Luke 11.

Verse 28.

After a woman comes forth to Christ and says, blessed, a different word, blessed, is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you, because she knew He was a blessing to all of them. But Christ responded to her in verse 28, and He said, more than that, supremely blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it, who hear it and keep it. Judiciously, carefully, as it says in Deuteronomy, diligently, as it says throughout the Bible, supremely blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. John 13.

John 13. John 13. We have the Passover that Jesus Christ was with, the last one while He was alive with His disciples. And this is leading the introductory verses of chapter 13 here. He's washing their feet and setting an example for them of humility, of submission, of being willing to serve one another. And when He's complete with that, and after He has the discourse back and forth with Peter, who says when He realizes what Christ is doing, bathe all of me. In verse 17, He gives a simple command. He says, if you know these things, supremely blessed are you if you do them.

Now the old King James, I think, says, happy. It's one of the words where it says, happy. Happy are you if you do them? You're happy if you do them, but you're supremely blessed is what the word is. You're macarios if you do them. If you do them. Not if you just know them, but if you do what is told, you. Acts 20. Acts 20. Verse 35. Another well-known verse that you've probably heard many times. In verse 35, Paul is speaking. He says, I've shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said. It is, and he even accentuates, macarios. It is more macarios. It's even more supremely blessed to give than to receive. You see someone in need. You see someone who needs service.

You're even more supremely blessed. You're even more macarios to give than to receive.

Just as Jesus Christ said in Matthew 25 when he was separating the sheep from the goats.

What have you done for others when you saw them in need?

Romans 4. Romans 4, verse 7.

Romans 4, verse 7. In verse 6, we see the word blessedness. It's a different word than macarios.

But in verse 7, it says, supremely blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. That's all of us. Supremely blessed are we that we can accept Jesus Christ's sacrifice, that we can have our sins forgiven, that we have the access to God's throne, that we have the opportunity to live his way of life, that he has given us the opportunity to be in his kingdom, to be part of his first fruits now. Supremely blessed. Here he repeats in verse 8, supremely blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin, who lives by his spirit, who lets his spirit, God's spirit, lead him, guide him, change him, transform his way of thinking, let him become who God wants him to become.

James, Book of James chapter 1.

James 1 verse 12. Verse 12. Supremely blessed, Macarios is the man who endures temptation.

Just like Jacob kept working on it, who didn't let, didn't stop wrestling against it. Macarios is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Quite a blessing. That's quite a Macarios, isn't it? That's a supreme blessing, the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. And God tells us how to love him. If we drop down to verse 22, we find the word again a few times. Be doers of the word and not hearers only. Very easy to comfort ourselves in saying, I know that. Yeah, I know that. It's quite another thing to do it. To do it and to do the things that God said, just like Noah diligently did it, just like Abraham diligently obeyed God, just like Jacob diligently obeyed God. Doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. It's a tough thing to do. We can all do it. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. So when we look into it, God will show us, this is how I see you. This is the way in my word you should see yourself. But then he kind of looks at it, shrugs his shoulder, walks away, just keeps on doing the same thing. God says, that guy, that man's not going to be supremely blessed. When you see yourself, and God let's you see yourself the way it is you are, change. Become like him. Be willing to sacrifice.

He observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one will be supremely blessed in what he does. God is looking for action.

He's not looking for us to be able to get 100% on the quiz and answer everything back.

He's looking for us to see ourselves when he opens our eyes to see it as he sees us, and then follow him and become the way he wants us to become. I said we find blessing from the beginning to the end. Let's go over to the book of Revelation. Revelation 1. We find it right here at the beginning of the book of Revelation, verse 3.

Of course, this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. John recorded it. Verse 3 says this, supremely blessed, Macarios supremely blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it for the time is near.

Supremely blessed. Read it. Keep it. Do it where the time is near. Revelation 16.

Verse 15.

Jesus Christ. John recording this. It's Jesus Christ's words. Verse 15. He says, Behold, I am coming as a thief.

A thief. For, O people who aren't ready for me, behold, I am coming as a thief supremely blessed is he who watches and keeps his carmence, lest he walk naked and they see his shame, who keep doing the works of righteousness, who keep their faith in God, who keep yielding to him, who keep growing right until the end, who keep following him right until the end, who keep walking with him right until the end, who keep purifying themselves right until the end, and not allow others to see their shame and nakedness. Supremely blessed is that man.

Revelation 19. Speaking of the bride of Christ. Revelation 19 verse 9.

Then he said to me, you can see in verses 7 and 8 talking about the marriage supper of the Lamb, he said to me, right, supremely blessed, Macarios, are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You think it's a supreme blessing to come and actually become the bride of Christ, to really understand and appreciate the fact that God has called us to that?

Who are we that he should call us to that? What a supreme blessing!

More than just material wealth, more than just a nice house, more than just a bunch of kids.

All kids are blessings, don't get me wrong. But being a part of the marriage supper of the Lamb, that is a supreme blessing that God has called us all to.

Chapter 20 verse 6. Supremely blessed, Macarios, and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.

It's a special calling. It's a special blessing that isn't available to all the world. It's a special blessing to God's people now. Those who he calls. Those who say, I will hear, I will do, I will yield, I will obey, I will believe no matter what comes up, no matter what comes in my way, I will believe and I will remain loyal to you until the very end. I will wrestle with myself, I will wrestle with the world, I will wrestle against anything because I will not let go of what you've given me. No matter what the pain, no matter what the disappointment, no matter what comes up my way, I will wrestle and I will claim that blessing that you promised me by doing what you say and allowing you to perfect me. And then in the very last chapter of the Bible, we read about it first in Genesis 1. It's here in Revelation 22 as well.

In verse 12, Christ says, Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work, not according to what he knows, but according to his work, what he has done with what I have given him. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Verse 14, supremely blessed, Macarios are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city. Supremely blessed are they.

You know, salvation is a free gift of God. Eternal life is a gift of God. None of us deserve it. It's a gift from him. But supremely blessed are we if we count that gift so important that we do the things that please God, that we don't take it for granted, but that we actually go about and show him that we love him and yield ourselves to him. That we, as we heard in the first message today, that we become humble people, teachable as little children, growing up in the knowledge and the stature of Christ, letting him mature us. Along the way, perfecting ourselves as God gives us the spirit and the power to do that and makes us aware of the weaknesses in ourselves.

Not clinging to self, but clinging to God. Those are the people he will supremely bless.

In the Old Testament, he gave often the blessings to the children of Israel, his blessing to them.

They didn't pay attention to it. They often let it go. In the New Testament, he gives us a blessing If you will, and I want to close with that. For those of you who are at the last service in Jekyll Island, I read this then, but I think it's a fitting way to close today on this day, where we're talking about blessings and the blessing that God would have on all of us. Hebrews 13 and verse 20.

Now may the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, may he make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Amen.