Good morning. Good seeing everybody. Let me turn into Genesis 46. I got an email from Brother Rick
Warder this morning. He's coming back from Colorado.
They took the week off to go visit family and their children
up there. And he got real sick on the way back. Sick enough
he wasn't able to have services this morning. So he had sent
out the link, the Zoom link, to John's services there at rescue. And John couldn't have services
Friday. He was so sick. And so I hope,
I was pleased to have him able to preach this morning. They
may all be tuning in to us. I don't know. I pray so. I wanted
to send you greetings from Australia. I was in contact with them brother
down there and they wanted to make sure that I told you that
they loved you and they prayed for you and send their greetings. And then we got some honor roll
students in this room. The youngest one has done well,
and the principal at the school knows him and knows us. And the
older ones have done well, and people at the high school know
them and know us. I know another lady that's got
straight A's through graduate school. That's a good lot in the community,
isn't it? It's good. It's a good example. I'm thankful
for that. Commitment. Work as unto the Lord. I want
to read you an article. I don't do this often. I know
it's common practice in a lot of places, but I want to read
you an article. Bless me, my brother Mahan. I hope it's an
encouragement to you. He says, we see so little true
commitment, so much indifference, and so few dedicated people in
today's religious world that we may be prone to accept this
attitude as normal. But that is not so. David wrote
in Psalm 147, 18, he said, he sent out his word and melted
them. God melted them. He said, and
Paul wrote in Romans 8, 6, he says, to be carnally minded is
death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. There's going to be life there
and there's going to be peace there. Not indifference. If God is pleased
to move in love and grace upon a person, one at a time, the
very life of Christ is formed in them, and unbelief is driven
out by God-given faith. That's why I wrote that article,
What Needs Help? If God gave us faith in Christ,
that don't need polished up or spoofed up or anything. We want
more of it. But the desire of a child of
God is to have that unbelief that's mine driven out. Unbelief
is driven out by God giving faith. Indifference departs at the revelation
of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Ignorance, it vanishes
as Christ is revealed in his work of redemption as just and
justifier. We stop being ignorant of everything.
We've learned who he is. Self-pride disappears before
his grace and mercy. We stop being so puffed up and
thinking, well, we did. And I, I, I. And we look to him. Self-righteousness has not the
slightest claim in the light of his perfect obedience. What
do we do better than he did for us? Nothing. We know better than
that. Self-love takes an awful beating
in the light of his love for us. He writes, no, it would be
impossible for a true child of his great invincible grace to
be indifferent or uncommitted after the melting of his word
and the revelation of his love. It's impossible. Impossible. I think of the charge those two
angels send in the Sodom and Gomorrah. Bring out four people. That's two each. What an amazing
mission the Lord sent them on. What a privilege it is. I titled
this message here in Genesis 46. This is about one that got
melted. A seven verse journey. We have
this long journey that Jacob and all his household, 70 of
them is going to take with a bunch of things with them. A long way,
but it's recorded as only seven verses. It says in Genesis 46,
verse one, and Israel took his journey with all that he had
and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices unto the God of his
father, Isaac. It says there, Israel. Israel
took his journey. The Lord's about to call him
Jacob. He has two names. He's Israel,
and he's Jacob, and that never stops on this earth. While we're
in this flesh, we're in this flesh. And there's two people
inside of God's people, inside of his true Israel. There's an
old man and a new man. And every true believer enters
into that. They get it. I can't explain
it to somebody that's only got one nature, and they'll argue
with you about it. But if you've got two, you'll
believe there's two. You won't believe that until you have two
of them. But there's two natures, and every true Jacob knows this. And every Israel is a Jacob. Everybody's sinner. But those
that they revealed that they are a Jacob, that's Israel. And
Israel, all of them are true Jacobs. They are. But he took
his journey with all that he had. He was old, too, at this
time. He was about 130 years old. He
was going to go on this very long journey to go see the sun. I can't do that. No, you can't. Jacob said, that's too far. Yeah,
it is too far. You can't do it. Well, how's
he going to get there? Look back just a little bit. This is all
one paragraph from chapter 45, verse 25, down through verse
seven, what we'll look at today. But there in Genesis 45, 25,
they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan
unto Jacob, their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet
alive, and he's the governor over all the land of Egypt. And
Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. Then they
told him all the words of Joseph. They didn't tell him some of
it. They didn't just bring dessert twice a year. They told him everything. That's their charge, wasn't it?
All the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them, and when
he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him. How's
he going to get that whole way to Joseph? Joseph provided wagons
to bring him. That's generous, isn't it? Would you disrespect those wagons?
Would you go put graffiti on them or make fun of them? No,
if you was him, sit before you get in a wagon. Get in wagons,
boys. Girls, let's go. Joseph said,
sent to carry him the spirit of Jacob, their father revived.
And Israel said, it's enough. It's enough. We remember Joseph's
picture of Christ in all this, right? We're not learning about
family history between Jacob and Joseph. Joseph, my son is
yet alive. I will go and see him before
I die. How? You're going to be carrying those
wagons, ain't you? He didn't have to know the way. He didn't
have to drive. He didn't have to navigate. He
just rode. He just sat still and waited on his Lord to bring
him. at six miles an hour, or whatever that is. Something was
happening, right? We weren't just meditating underneath
a tree somewhere, humming. From Beersheba, I looked to Cairo.
I didn't know where in Egypt they was, but that's a 12-hour
bus ride right now on paved roads, doing the speed limit. This was
a long journey. This was a hard journey. And
let me tell you something. It was worth it. The journey
through God's providence to bring his child by his wagons to himself,
it's hard. It's hard to, I'm getting ahead
of myself, to sell off everything you've got and go to where God
put you. And go forsake everything you have and go be where the
gospel is. That's hard, but Christ is worth it. And the people can
fight me tooth and toenail saying I'll not say that, I'm going
to. So, he is. He is. All that's recorded is seven
verses. That don't give us much detail, does it? I just thought
of women and childbirth. Sometimes that labor take days.
There's a whole lot you can talk about. You can spend a week talking
about them two days. But when that life comes, that's,
yeah, it was 42 hours of labor. That pain and that, it's worth
it. Verse 1, chapter 46, and Israel
took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba
and offered sacrifices unto God of his father Isaac. He took
all that he had. Joseph gave them instruction
a couple times the trip before this one. In Genesis 42, verse
20, he says, Also regard not your stuff, for the good of all
the land of Egypt is yours, and the children of Israel did so.
Don't, don't regard your stuff. Don't worry about it. What would
Jacob have? Everything that Joseph had provided,
didn't he? What do we have? All that Christ
has provided. Everything we need. Everything. And it's his, not ours. Everything
I have is his. I got these glasses. This is
the Lord's glasses. I got eyes to look through his glasses.
That's his eyes. I'm not my own. I'm bought with a price. But
Jacob brought everything he had. He took all that he had. What's
that mean? All his might. He's going to
take some stuff from Canaan. That's a good illustration for
us, too. But with everything in him, the whole of him, he
put his shoulder to it. He didn't put his lip service
to it. He did it. That's what Paul went through
all that instruction. He said, here's how you love
and do this and do that. He said, now do it. Don't just sit around
and talk about what love is. Love! Don't talk about meeting
with God's saints, meet with them. Don't talk about what you
used to do, do. I thought also those wagons that
came, that's my thoughts. I'm gonna finish yellow. I had
Penske on the side of them. Maybe there's orange, said U-Haul.
If it didn't fit in the wagon, leave it. Sell it, burn it, give
it away. You live that? If it don't fit
in that truck, it ain't coming. We're going where the Lord's
going to put us. We're going to go see Christ. We're going
to go have a nation built to watch his nation be added to. We're going to go see the sun.
What's that worth? A recliner, a precious couch. Oh, he's worth it all. And Jacob
came to Beersheba. Do you remember what Beersheba
was? The name of that's a well of an oath. They drew water out
of it, but it was called the well of an oath, or Sheba. Christ is the water of life,
isn't he? And he's the well. He's what the water comes from.
And he's the aquifer underneath. But he met a lot of his people
at wells, didn't he? Isaac was a well digger. And there was
that Samaritan woman at a well. And there was some other people
at wells. And all these sons of Jacob, a lot of them met their
wives at wells, didn't they? Lord met with him, he met with
his people. Well, do you get that? The place where that water
comes forth is where he meets with his people. There's a berhamul, there's a
well in Hamul, did you know that? Thirsty people come to it, thirsty
people drink, often, as often as that caps off that well. where the Lord provided these
unseen waters. That's where Jacob went to, where the Lord had been
before and where he had promised to be. And he offered sacrifices
unto God. He offered praise to God. He
went to Beersheba, and he offered praise to God. That's what we
read over in Hebrews 13. It says, for here we have no
continuing city, but we seek one to come. We have no place
to live right now. I live here. I'm going to try
to get along as good as I can, and in school, try to do the
best grades you can. But we're looking to a city whose
maker is God, isn't it? By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually." What's that? What's
that sacrifice of praise? That is, he says in Hebrews 13,
15, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. Thanking
God. Thanking Him. What is sacrifice? Of our lips. Thank Him. That's
a good thing. Thank him, but to do good and
communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices, God is
well pleased. We'll touch on that next hour,
what God's pleased in. People say, well, God's happy
with that. You better know before you say that, somebody might
believe you. God's pleased with Thanksgiving. That's what it
says here. Some other things too, but he's
pleased with Thanksgiving. Jacob was thanking God. That's
a good thing to do before we set out on a journey. What journey? Any journey. Thank Him, not instruct
Him. Thank Him. What journey could
that also be? Come unto this well. We pray
for people throughout the world in this generalities and that
the blessings from heaven pour out in a bucket load on top of
their hearts and their heads and this nonsense that goes on. No,
God be with us this morning. He promised to be here with us.
Give me ears to hear. Prepare my heart. Get me there
early so I can sit down and my heart rate can lower down and
I can stop talking to everybody about all the things that happened
this week and I can start asking God to open my ears up so maybe he'll
bless me and grow me in grace. Go to him and thank him. You
blessed me before, Lord. I'm gonna thank you now. I trust
you'll do it today. Bless my heart. Bless that preacher
that's preaching to me. Pray for that one you gave me
as an Ascension gift, whoever's listening. You folks here pray
for me. I have a message for you. It's self-serving and that's
good. It gives me a message for you. It's a good thing to go
to the Lord and thank him before we even start out on something.
We have a lot to be thankful for. I have never read in this
Bible about traveling mercies. I ain't read about it. I've read
about thanking the Lord. I've read about wanting to be
where Christ is. I read about wanting his will
to be done. He's sick. Thank him. Well, I pray that
this cancer is cured. I pray this cancer accomplishes
what God sent it to accomplish, and I see Christ at the end of
it. That's a good thing. Lord, your will be done. Glorify
your name. That's sacrifice of the lips of Thanksgiving, isn't
it? At least that's what God's worship. But grandma and grandpa,
that's the traditions of men taught to you by your fathers.
Turn from that and turn to Christ. How are we going to know that?
God's going to send somebody to tell you. That's what he says. I'll just tell you what he said.
This will be good. Let's turn over there. The sacrifice
of Thanksgiving, that's remembering his word and then thanking him
for it. Psalm 91. Let's turn over to
Psalm 91. Well, how am I gonna get from
point A to point B, pastor? I'll show you. Thank God first. Psalm 91 verse 11. If you got
you a highlighter, I'll tell you which word I got highlighted
in mine. Psalm 91 11. Speaking of the
Lord, for he shall. That say he might if you do your
end of it. If I tell him what bucket to
get the mercies out of, no, he shall give his angels charge
over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. Now I want you to remember
his word before you go on a journey, or you go to church, you go to
the grocery store. For God's people, he shall give his angels
charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. What's your
response to that? I'll tell you what mine is, thank
you. Thank you, Lord. You have been good to us. You
are good to us. You shall be good to us. Underline
that, highlight it. Turn over a little bit more,
Psalm 121. Psalm 121. And this is talking about going to where
Christ is. This song continues as a medley into Psalm 122. It
says, I was glad when they said to me, let's go to the house
of the Lord. Psalm 121, verse 7. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. Why has this evil come upon me?
It might be around you, but it ain't gonna do nothing to you.
The Lord shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve thy
soul. He's gonna preserve my soul?
Thank you very much. That's something to be very thankful
over, isn't it? And if he'll do that, if he'll
send his son to preserve our souls, to give us one and keep
it forever, if he'll do that, look at verse eight. The Lord
shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in. Whether you're
coming or going, that's what we call it nowadays. That boy
was confused, coming and going. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in. You coming and going. When? When
I ask him, when I command him, when I petition him, no. From
this time forth, even forevermore. All the time. What's our response
to that? Thank you. Teach us to pray, Lord. Step one, thank
you. Sacrifice of the lips. I wish
God would teach us something. I wish he'd grow us and make
us strong in his faith and be examples to other believers.
I pray he'd do that for me. I pray he'd do that for you.
He has, and I thank him, and I want him to grow me more. Back
in our text, what happened when Jacob went to worship God and
he thanked him and he asked him for guidance? You know what happened?
God spoke to him. God spoke to him. Here in Genesis
46, we'll look at verse 1 again. And Israel took his journey with
all that he had, and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices
unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in
the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said,
here am I. He calls him Jacob twice. Didn't it say Israel went down?
Yes. Did God call him Jacob? Yes. Who named him Israel? God
did, and God called him Jacob, and he called him Jacob twice.
Thoroughly, didn't he? And Jacob did not say, hold on
now, I've outgrew that name. I'm Israel now, you said so.
I'm gonna quote your words, but you don't call me that no more.
No, he didn't. He said, here am I. Go right. That's a good place to start,
isn't it? We're worms, he's all. We're grass, behold your God.
That's God speaking to him, isn't it? And he said, I am God, verse
three. The God of my father, fear not. I wish the Lord would make some
sinners. They're going to have needs and they're going to be
scared to death when they see what they are before Christ Holy
God. Then he'll speak to them. Fear
not. Fear not. I thought of this too. If we
have no comfort, The Lord's worked in us, but we don't have any
comfort. And the Lord's worked from us, but we don't hear his
word. We don't feel him guiding us. And he's hit his face. It seems like his mercies are
clean gone forever. It's most common in us that we're
not by Christ the well. That we're not humbled and knowing
that we're just sorry sons of Jacob and that God's God. We've
got the wrong mind in us. We've got the wrong experience.
We're relying on faith, our faith. We're relying on experiences.
We're relying on understanding or knowledge or puffed upness
or something, and not being close to where Christ is and bowing
to his feet and being by him, waiting on a word from him. I
don't like the Lord speaking with me. Well, go to his feet. Go to his feet. When we come
because of Christ, We come to that throne of grace because
He's the means, He's the way, His life because of His faith.
The Lord speaks a word of comfort to our hearts. What's He say?
Fear not. You're going to have to be scared
before you get told fear not. You get that? To be saved from
your sins, to be saved from something. Lord's gonna let us get scared
before he says, fear not. But he'll speak that to them.
Verse three, and he said, I am God, the God of thy father. Fear
not to go down into Egypt, for I will there make of thee a great
nation. You go down to where Joseph is. Get you down. Lord says that over and over
and over again. Go down. You're gonna get humbled. All
the way down to where? Where Joseph is. All the way
down to where Christ is. Turn to Philippians 2. Philippians
2. I hope we see too that God changes
not. Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Philippians 2 verse 4. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this
mind be in you. That's the whole of me. That's
not just, well, you think about this little tiny thing. Oh, this
is the thought corner. Something to ponder on. Let this be the totality of you
is what this word means. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, fought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men." Okay. Lord humbled himself. He
was made in likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. I have an old brother, Bill Clark,
and who knows what he was living through that week. And it's a
right thing. And I understand that as a child of God, somebody
said, what should we be doing? He said, believe. He's probably
wore out traveling all them countries. He said, believe Christ and do
what you want. trusting the Lord, knowing we want to serve him,
honor him, not bring reproach on this gospel, not be mean to
everybody around us. Another faithful pastor friend
of mine said this too. He said he's heard that and he
said, but why don't you believe Christ and then do what he says? The Lord tells me how to raise
children. He doesn't say that if I do that, God's going to
save them all and they're all going to be doctors and have
wonderful grandbabies in my house. No, but he tells me how to raise
them. That's what I'm going to do. Put them under the sound
of the gospel. Command your house. Make them. As long as you're underneath
my roof, you're going to be here at this well. Every time I'm
here, if I can, you're humanly possible. So it's going to happen.
He was obedient even unto death, even the death of the cross.
What motivation do we need? Christ died for us. He was forsaken
because he was for us. What a thought, for it all. For me, while I was yet in my
sins. Back to Genesis 46. Verse four. I will go, this is still the
Lord speaking to Jacob, I will go down with thee into Egypt
and I will surely bring thee up again. He said, I will, I
will. He said, fear not, I will. That's, that's a lot, isn't it?
And in a lot of places, I want to remember his words. I want
to remember the I wills of the Lord. I know I got an article
there in Bullets 2, but we don't preach from songs, from hymns. We don't get our doctrine from
songs, but what we believe will drive what we write to sing,
won't it? But a fellow of old wrote this, how firm a foundation
you sent to the Lord is laid for your faith in his excellent
word. Laid in his word right here is
for our faith. It's here for us to believe.
You get that? He had a good handle on this.
What more can he say than to you he has said? I want more
comfort. Why? Because I don't believe
what's written right there. That's the truth. I want more assurance. Read his
word. See what he will do. Underscore his shalls. Go read
those 10 commandments and underline them shalls. It's going to happen.
For his people, it's going to happen. You ain't going to have
no other gods with you. You ain't never going to steal
nothing. You ain't never going to kill nobody because you're going to be in
him. You get that? Look on his that. He said, what more to you?
He can say than what he said. Who's he talking to? To you,
who for refuge to Jesus hath fled. I'm in a storm and I have
to have him. and we run to him and we follow
him in it. The next verse in that hymn is
just basically quoting Isaiah 41. Fear thou not. Fear not. For I am with thee. Be not dismayed,
for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. I will keep you by Christ. That's
what he's saying. I'm with you. I'm for you. I
will not leave you nor forsake you. Now, get down to Egypt. I'm going to make a nation out
of you. He says, you go serve me. That's a command and the
means to accomplish that command. And I will also surely bring
thee up again. Both in this life, I'm going
to lift you up. We gather by this will, we're gonna get lifted
up, Lord willing, Wednesday and twice on Sundays, ain't we? And
then throughout the week, as we dwell on these things, go
back and listen to old messages. You know what, I was kinda sleepy
to that one. I need to listen to this again. For my pastor,
I'm gonna sit down and get the sermon notes and go through it,
and I'm gonna get a good handle on this. We get lifted up again
in this life, but the Lord says, you go serve me, my will's gonna
be done. And then when this race is run,
when this fight has been accomplished, It's over, I'm gonna bring you
home. I'm gonna bring you up again in the resurrection. Master told us, he said, for
whosoever exalteth himself will be abased, but he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. This may be a trial for Jacob. That's a long journey. It's only
seven verses, but it's long and probably hard. What's gonna be
the end state of this trial for Jacob? If you're in heavy woes,
before we go feeling sorry for ourselves, I have the biggest
balloons and water slides and everything else at my pity parties.
I thought the biggest pity party there is for me. But if the Lord
sent me a hard, heavy trial, what's the end state? Verse four. I will go down with thee to Egypt,
and I will also surely bring thee up again, and Joseph, remember
who that is, shall put his hand upon thine eyes. Why'd he say
that? So he could fulfill the scriptures
a few millennia later, a few hundred years later, a thousand
years later. Look over Matthew 20. There's a lot of places we
could look at for this, but one came to mind. I imagine that
Jacob was eager to see Joseph, wasn't he? He'd heard this thing.
He said, it's enough. He went and thanked the Lord,
but he hadn't seen him yet. Matthew 20 verse 29. And as they departed from Jericho,
a great multitude followed him. And behold, two blind men sitting
by the wayside. And when they heard, what's that
verb? Heard means somebody told them.
Who, unnamed, and I'm thankful for that. But when they heard
that Jesus passed by, they cried out, saying, have mercy on us,
oh Lord, our son of David. And the multitude rebuked them,
because they should hold their peace. I don't wanna rebuke nobody. I don't wanna be a stumbling
stone for somebody coming to Christ. I don't. But thankfully, I can't undo
what the Lord wills. But they cried the more. saying,
have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. And Jesus stood
still and called them and said, what will that I shall do unto
you? And they said unto him, Lord,
that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion on them
and he touched their eyes. He put his hand on their eyes
and immediately their eyes received sight and they followed him.
What was the first thing they saw whenever God opened their
eyes? Christ. The first time we really have
our true eyes, the Lord gave us eyes to see Him in this, right?
When we shed this body of death and we're brought up again, and
this life's over, immediately it's to be with Him. What's the
first face we're gonna see? Not somebody at some pearly gates,
that's hogwash, that's religion. I'm gonna see my Redeemer, I'm
gonna see Him face to face, right then. Why in the world would
I be afraid to die? Why would I be mad that Lord
took somebody that was a believer away from me? That's wonderful,
good, I'm gonna miss him. That's just me being sorry for
myself. All that hard journey, all that
trial, and that's the little trials we have, the big trials
that we have. If you're his, he's gonna show you Christ in
this. We're nothing, we need him, he's everything. Some aspect
of that diamond, it's gonna be him. I don't want to shirk the blessings
that's inside those trials, do you? And it's my prayer that
the Lord would command people to get down, that he would humble
them and Christ would touch them in their eyes after they've heard
and he'd open them. And the first thing they saw
and the only thing they saw was him. And then there's a verb
you follow. Stick with it. He's a faithful shepherd. He
keeps his sheep. He won't lose one. He makes them
follow him. Well, if I can't walk, he'll
send wagons to put you in to bring. You see? See that? Back of my text and we'll close.
Genesis 46. Verse four. I will go down with thee into
Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again, and Joseph
shall put his hand upon thine eyes.' And Jacob rose up from
Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father,
and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh
had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle and
their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came
to Egypt. Jacob, and all his seed with
him, his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his
sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him to Egypt. Why'd he bring all that stuff
from Canaan and Egypt? Everything I have, it's Christ's, right?
Bring it to him. I structured this right, I pray
so, but I did this on purpose. If your car's broke down, go
to the Lord. If your family's broke down,
go to the Lord. If your body's broke down, go
to the Lord. If your spirit's brought down low, go to the Lord. Because that's where we dwell
a lot of the times, right? Now, I want you to remember,
what's the sacrifice of our lips? Thank you. Thank you. When your
car's running good or it's broke, thank you. When the family's
blessed or broken, thank you. When my back's feeling real good
or it's hurting, thank you. Take it to him. My spirit's lifted
or my spirit's brought down. Thank him. Go to him. Go to the
Lord. That's a good thing. That's a
long journey. That's a hard journey. Don't quit till we go home. Keep
lots of bumps in that road. Let's pray together. Father,
thank you for this word you've given us. There's times we feel
like we're on a long, long, hard road, Lord, make us thankful.
Give us a joyful, cheerful spirit, melt our hearts, drive out our
unbelief and make us remember your words and what you will
do and what you shall do. Thank you for your word, Lord.
Thank you for the faith you've given us to believe it. Thank
you for Christ. It's because of him. Amen. All
right, brother.