[0:00] to ask you to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 49, if you would. It's been a while since we've had a lot of blessing services, but they're about to crank up as a whole bunch of our people end up getting back to the mission field. But, okay, I'm getting texts and I don't have time to read your texts, guys. So I want you to know a little bit about blessing services and I want to talk to the walls just a minute. Go with me to Genesis 49, 22. And if you got your Bible, follow along.
[0:41] Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a wall, a bow. It's a branch that runs across full of fruit whose branches run over the wall. The archers, the adversaries, have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. But his bow abode in strength and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
[1:20] Even by the God of thy father who shall help thee and by the almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep, the light thunder, blessings of the breast and of the womb. The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph, on the crown of him that was separate from his brethren. Father, as I take a few minutes and bring the message that for tonight, I would just ask that you would challenge all of us, work in all of our lives and teach us all and grow us that we would be fruitful boughs, that we would bear fruit and reach out and do more and go further than anyone ever imagined. And I'll give you praise for what you do in our lives in Jesus name. Amen. Take your Bible if you would now and look at Genesis 49.1.
[2:27] What is a blessing and why do we do this? I've told you before, but I'll remind you again tonight. As I read the Bible, I always saw it and I always thought it was interesting.
[2:38] It's a crazy thing that goes on in the story we're about to read. I'm going to show you the verses. Jacob is about to die and basically he's laying there on his deathbed and it's kind of a weird way to die. It's really kind of the way I'd like to die actually. So he's laying there on the bed and he says, get my boys and tell me to get in here. I'm about to die and I need to talk to all of them.
[3:04] So they all line up and he starts talking to them and he lays it on them and says, this is what it's going to happen in your life. And this is what your future is. And this is what's going to happen to you. And some of the things are good and some of the things aren't so good. And he finishes up. And when he gets finished, he's been sitting on the side of his bed, evidently with his feet off the bed. He evidently lays down, stretches out, pulls the cover up and dies. That's a weird way to go.
[3:34] Amen. I've been with a couple of people that died. Most of them, I wasn't there exactly the moment it happened, but that's basically, read the Bible with me. Genesis 49.1. The Bible says, and Joseph called unto his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. I'm going to tell you your future. I'm going to tell you where you're going. I'm going to tell you what's happening. Gather yourselves together and hear you sons of Jacob and hearken unto Israel, your father. Jacob knew his children. He knew their past. That kind of gave him an idea of where they were going, where they were going. You know, you can kind of look at your own life and trace where you bend. And when you start seeing how it goes, you can pretty well project where you're headed. You know what I mean? If you like walking on a crooked path, you're probably going to keep on going crooked. If you're going north, you're probably going to keep going north. In other words, so Jacob says, sit down boys. I'm going to tell you some things. And some of them aren't very nice, but Joseph receives a great blessing. Look down if you would, chapter 49 and verse 28, chapter 49 and verse 28. And all these are the 12 tribes of Israel.
[4:52] Israel. His sons become the leader of what will be the nation of Israel. And this is that their father spake unto them. We just finished it. If you were reading the Bible and bless them. Underline the word, he blessed them. That's what it was called. I will pause here to tell you that when I lived in Arequipa, Peru years ago, when the people were extremely poor and I'm not certain they still do things this way. It was a very common thing to go to somebody's house for their birthday or an anniversary, but especially birthdays. And when it's your birthday, in those days, your family prepared a meal for everybody to come over and eat. And no one took a gift. I didn't see any gifts ever. Now they may have taken one and given it in the back room when nobody's watching, but I never saw one and I didn't take one because the guys didn't tell me to. But when they were in the house and they, maybe sometimes they only had a cake and sometimes they had food and, and when they, at the end of it, then they would have this time of blessing. And so what would happen is, uh, they might be sitting there and somebody kind of takes over and they say, anybody want to say a word? And somebody'd stand up and say, I just want to tell dad or mom or brother or sister how much I love them. They tell a antidote about them. They tell a story about them. They bring people up to speed on what was happening in their life and, uh, uh, something sweet. And they would always say the nicest things you've ever heard. And I would always sit there thinking, I'd rather have those nice words as a gift to think that people would be that sweet to you and say those nice things to you. Because a lot of times you might love somebody, but you don't ever say it very much. It's kind of taboo to say it. You know,
[6:38] I was riding down the road with my dad and the truck he owned there, maybe seven, eight, 10 years before he died. My dad had been a pretty hard man. He's getting old. So he's getting soft.
[6:50] We're riding down the road one day. And he told me, he said, you know, son, I, I really appreciate what you are and done and all this stuff. And he was trying to say love and he couldn't quite get it out, but he was working at it. And then he ended up saying, you know, I really, I love you.
[7:05] And tears came down his eyes, down his cheeks. And, and then he looked at me, he said, don't ever tell anybody I ever said that. And certainly don't tell them I just, something got in my eye.
[7:18] Don't you tell anybody about that. It's kind of the way we are too, though. Maybe you say, well, I was in the old timers and it's how they are, but you're not very expressive of what you think about each other. I was just at my Sunday, I preached to an enormous congregation.
[7:35] In Wrigley, Tennessee, there were 12 there counting me and Betty. There were 10 of them. And that evening at the end of the service, they had more people come back percentage wise than we do. 70% showed up. There were seven people that night, nine counting us. And seven people were there. But you're the sweetest place I think I've ever been. Of course, I know I was all primed for it and sitting there, but they all know each other. They all go to church together all the time. And I didn't hear a one of them leave with us and, Hey, I love you. I'll see you next service. I was like, man, that's sweet. I don't know if I don't know if I ever been to church for everybody, but there was so few of them, but they still said, I love you. That's what's going on here. Dad's taken the time to talk to his kids.
[8:28] I heard the story of Sam Jones, who was a Methodist evangelist, but he was a drunkard. He wasn't saved yet. And his dad was dying. He called him into his deathbed, just like this here.
[8:40] And he told him, he said, you know, he talked to all of his kids before he died. And then he said, you know what worries me about you, son? You're going to die and go to hell. And it broke his son's heart. He went and got saved and became an evangelist and preached all across America. So he's blessing them. Everyone, according to his blessing, he blessed them. Now go to verse 33. When he finished, he blessed, he dies. He dies. He lifts his feet and dies. Look at it. Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons and he gathered up his feet into the bed and yielded up the ghost that was gathered unto his people. He just, sitting on the side of the bed, feet on the ground, turns around, puts his feet in the bed, lays back. Hasta luego. Ciao. I'm out of here. And he was gone. Now I would like to stop right here and say, you couldn't die that peaceably if you didn't know Jesus and you didn't know who you were. And some of you just might be in the room and you're not sure of what would happen when you die.
[9:45] And the way you can be sure of what would happen is to have a personal relationship with the creator, God, who made it all from the very beginning. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
[9:57] And that creator has been sinned against by every one of us. And we, our sin separated us from God. And God wants you to be saved. And so God came in human flesh, sent his son to die on the cross and pay your sin debt. You can be saved tonight. You can trust Christ. But tonight as a church, I want us to bless Adam and Ashley. We simply want to pray over them, believe in them and express our love to them. I really, I know it's a little awkward sometimes. And I know sometimes as a church, you might just get a tad tired of it because you're like, everybody leaves. The truth is they're going out to do what God called them to do. We knew that when they got here, we love them. And I think we ought to be expressive of it. I hate the fact that when somebody dies, everybody's sweet.
[10:55] It's like, I sure loved him. He didn't know it. Here's some flowers. Can't smell them, but I brought them. It'd just be nice to do it up front. We want to ask God to do great things in their lives that will bring great glory to his name. Where'd Adam go? Are they in here? Well, you would hide. I mean, it's your night and you hide. That's good. Now look at verse 22, Adam. I'd like to say some things to you. And this is what I'd like to ask all of us to pray about tonight.
[11:27] Let's ask God to make them fruitful. Let's ask God to make them fruitful. Look, if you would, in verse 22, Jacob says to his boy, Joseph, you are a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a whale.
[11:44] That's interesting. He's right there where the water is. We'll get to that in a minute. He's a fruitful bow, a fruitful bow by a whale and his branches run over the wall. I want to pray God makes Adam fruitful. I want him to be so fruitful that his limbs, his ministry and his reach goes past where it should. You know, your neighbor's got this beautiful apple tree produces the best apples in the country.
[12:17] And one lamb just happens to run 12 feet into your yard. You don't complain because you get to pick apples. Amen. Thank you for planting that tree. I want us to ask God to make him fruitful. Adam, I'd like to say to you, well, you can go confidently. You can go confidently because in Philippians 1 6, it says being confident of this very thing that he, which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. You know, the same God has saved you. So God's going to take you to Taiwan. He's the same. God took you through child evangelism. The same God has got you through deputation. The same God is going to get you on an airplane and get you to Taiwan. And he's a good God. Many people don't know him. They don't know how good he is because they've never admitted they were a sinner. They've never come to a place in their life when they knew they needed God.
[13:13] They have no personal relationship with him, but most of us in this room do. We know he's good and he's going to take care of you. And here's how long he's going to do it until the day of Jesus Christ. He'll come get you and take you home or he'll come rapture you out. But God's going to do a work. Go confidently that he's going to give you fruit. I personally wouldn't go unless I believe God. I hope you do. I believe you do. Fruitfulness depends on being by that whale.
[13:47] That whale is kind of described in Psalm chapter one and verse three, where it says, he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in his season.
[14:01] His leaf also shall not wither whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. And so, you know, you got to stay real close to the book, stay real close to the Lord Jesus. You can't forget your devotional life in the letter I wrote your wife. I told her, I said, I really don't know you very well.
[14:21] I appreciate her, appreciate you. But I said, stay close to the Lord. Stay close to the Lord, both of you. If you want God to use you, you're going to need God working in and through you.
[14:33] And so stay in the book, stay in a close relationship to the Lord. I want to ask God to give you fruitfulness that crosses the boundaries. But in Genesis 49, 13, 49, 23, excuse me, Jacob tells his son, Joseph, you better be prepared for adversity. Now he sees that he's going to have the victory over the adversity. But look at what it says. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. And you guys can not expect to be in a war without being attacked.
[15:09] The owner of the air and most of the souls and everything going on in Taiwan is old Lucifer himself.
[15:22] It's in the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light sending you out to take the gospel there. So you cannot expect not to be attacked. There are going to be culture days that are going to kill you.
[15:38] There are going to be language days that are going to kill you. There are going to be days when you're doing real well and your wife's not doing so well and you're going to want to kill her and she's going to want to kill you. We were riding home from language school one day and everybody in the school had flunked the test but me. And I made the worst grade I made the whole time. It was like an 89.
[15:58] And that was pretty bad for me. And we're in the car and Betty said that test was just ridiculous and she was just going off on Miss Webb. I said you're right. She said oh shut up. And then she punched me.
[16:10] And she said you have no right to say anything. And I was wanting to punch her back but it's never okay. It's okay for her to punch me. I don't know. I still hadn't understood that but it seemed like it's okay for her to beat on me.
[16:23] I'm an abused husband. You're going to be in a war Adam. Your wife's going to be in a war. Family devotions.
[16:34] Time in the scripture. When you're not getting fed spiritually and I hope you're going to a Chinese church and so you're not going to get fed spiritually. Not because the preacher's not preaching but somehow there's going to be a communication loss between the pulpit and wherever you're sitting.
[16:51] And it ain't the fault of the pulpit. It's yours. So let's walk with God. Remember who you're in a war with. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12 we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
[17:05] And you'd be surprised how many times the missionaries get mad at other missionaries. They take it out on the other missionaries because if I can't get the language it must be their fault.
[17:19] They take it out on the people. They take it out on the home church. They take it out on everybody. But you need to remember you're not fighting against people. You're not fighting against them but against principalities and powers and rulers.
[17:34] You were commanded in Ephesians 6.11 to put on the whole armor and I am firmly convinced that many of you don't understand or believe how powerful and real Satan is.
[17:45] But this is New Testament and the scripture said I need you to stand. And to stand you're going to have to put on armor. And so you know when you get up you don't put your armor on before you go to bed.
[17:56] You don't sleep in your armor. You get up in the morning. You put on that helmet and that breastplate. You put on those shoes. You put on all that armor. So look at verse 11.
[18:07] That you may be able to stand. because he's tricky and wicked and sneaky and will attack you in ways you would never expect or understand.
[18:23] Sometimes at least in Peru that's traffic. Lord help me Jesus. You know what I like about America? We got roads. Y'all think there's road rage here? They've never heard of the word here.
[18:35] I mean everybody cuts off everybody every day in Peru. I see regular fist fights going on. When I was there you just drive by and two of them fight and you know somebody cuts them off. Driving on.
[18:47] I wanted to kill people too. Sometimes I'd be right down the road. We had a TV station channel 33 and we'd be right down the road and a guy would cut me off and I'd get mad and I'd stomp it.
[18:58] I'd be trying to get around and cut him off. I just wanted to pay him back. Amen. And Betty would go channel 33 channel 33 channel 33 they're watching you on TV. And I'd say I wish I wasn't preaching on TV.
[19:12] Lift the shield of faith chapter 6 and verse 16 the shield of faith where you can quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Look if you went at Genesis chapter 49 and verse 24.
[19:26] I want you to get stronger in adversity. Stronger. His bow abode in strength and the hands of his arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.
[19:43] For those of you in my Sunday school class on Sunday morning that's one of your verses goes to Daniel chapter 2 a stone cut out without hands just telling you you could be preparing on that one. That stone the stone of Israel that's going to be Jesus the shepherd.
[19:58] But you know what this is going to be a testing and approving time for you. But God's the one that's going to make you strong. You know you're not going to be able to you can't win people to Christ you can't build a church you can't work with people none of us can.
[20:14] It's a pretty hard job to be the guy that's leading the folks and all the junk that goes on but it's God that does it. You can't boast until you take your armor off 1 Kings chapter 20 verse 11 go on the mission field leaving tonight all you're doing is suiting up no right to brag while I finish your reputation what's that mean?
[20:43] You just got off the bus at boot camp that's all that means the fixin' cut your hair curse you out and the Bible says in 1 Kings 20 let him that girdeth on his harness boast himself let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that puteth that off that's one king get smart with another king he said I wouldn't be bragging when I was putting on my armor I'd be bragging after the battle's over and I took my armor off you've got to prove your ministry now and you'll prove it by how you handle adversity success loneliness and all the attacks of the devil I can't explain to you how lonely it is how lonely it is in a sea of people even when you know the language even when you've learned some culture you just kind of feel alone it ain't home no matter how much you try to make it home so stand put on your armor and stick don't go to be a tourist and don't go to come home know that he often attacks by allowing blessings to lull you in to a false security so God just allow to let the language come real quick and easy for you and then you'll get lazy on your Bible reading and your prayer and the devil will be there to body slam you you've got to watch and pray in other words pray with one eye open in other words never live expecting that everything's okay talk is over training pre-filled is over the battle awaits
[22:20] God will make you strong it's up to him you must run for strength not your friends not yourself not your wife you do it in the Lord and for the Lord last thing verse 5 or 45 29 my point was 5 I need a verse even verse 25 even by the God of thy father who shall help thee and by the almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above blessings of the deep that lies under blessings of the breast and of the womb if you got your Bible open you know it's a Jewish blessing wanting to have a bunch of kids and everything to go good blessing above blessings below I just like the word bless blessings blessing blessing look at that what God wants you to have God will help you he will never leave you nor forsake you he has given you the power of the Holy Spirit he will bless you this is the time you grow closer to the Lord than ever in your life there'll be no church to run to there'll be no services where you feel all the blessings so find a quiet place an alone place
[23:33] God did not call you prepare you and send you to not bless you go expecting God's blessings I love you I appreciate you and some folks will say some nice things to you in a minute I hope you'll have some letters to read on another day I'll remind you you know it's not about us at all it's not about me not about the church not about you and your wife it's about Jesus being honored glorified and magnified Father in heaven I pray that you would work in Adam and Ashley's life I pray that you would bless in a big way I pray that you'd let them see souls saved I let the language come and the culture come and I'll give you praise thank you for all you do in Jesus name Amen now before we go to the next song and all that can I just say this to you there were quite a few people visiting you need to answer a question in your own heart and mind in the Bible when there's a blessing there's a curse you need to know that there's a blessing and there's a curse the blessing is if you obey God the curse is if you disobey God
[24:47] God's not wanting to curse anybody God wants everybody to be saved you don't want anybody to go to hell but if you don't come to a place in your life when you understand that you have sinned against the Holy God this is like my third time to tell you this in this message but you must know that there is a creator God makes him the judge of the universe and your sin separates you from God and unless something's done you will pay for your sin the Bible says for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God's eternal life the wages of sin and what you earned but God wants to offer you a free gift if you just trust him somebody invited you today and you got a chance to talk to him and just find out I know for sure you go to heaven and I hope you'll do that before you leave tonight