All right, for our scripture
reading, let's turn now to Genesis chapter 47. Genesis chapter 47. Our text this evening, just a few
verses, which begin in verse seven. Genesis chapter 47. And Joseph brought in Jacob,
his father, and set him before Pharaoh, And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob,
How old art thou? And Jacob said unto Pharaoh,
The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years.
Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and
have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my
fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed
Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh. We'll end our reading
there. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, just,
and merciful Heavenly Father, for we come into your courts
this evening with thanksgiving. Oh, how thankful we are that
you are God alone, ruling and reigning in your universe, bringing
to pass your eternal will and purpose. Every event that goes
on in this creation is done by your will and your purpose to
accomplish your goodwill for your glory and the salvation
of your people. Father, how thankful we are that
you are the one who's in control. And Father, how thankful we are
that in your sovereign power, you've seen fit to be merciful
to sinners through the obedience and the sacrifice of your son.
Oh, how thankful we are. And Father, we've met here together
this evening with a desire to hear word from thee, to be able
to worship thee in spirit and in truth. Father, I pray that
you'd be pleased this evening to send your spirit upon us and
enable us to worship. Enable us to forget about the
affairs of this life. And Father, set our affection
on things above. Enable us to hear the gospel, the good news
of Christ our Savior. Father, what human being can
possibly be sufficient for this? Father, I'm not sufficient to
be able to preach your gospel, your word to your people. Father,
I beg you to enable me by your spirit. And your people are not
able of ourselves to be able to hear and to worship. Father,
I pray you'd send your spirit upon us and enable us to do that
this evening. Enable us to behold the glory
of Christ our Savior and leave here rejoicing in him. Father,
while we pray for ourselves, we pray for your people wherever
they might meet together tonight to worship. Father, bless your
word. Cause it to go forth in power
in this dark, dark day in which we live. Father, use your word
preached to show us your glory, we pray. And Father, we pray for those
that you brought into the time of trouble and trial. There are
many, those who are heartbroken, those who are recovering from
surgeries in deep waters and difficult places. Father, we
are thankful to know these things are not an accident, but they're
your eternal purpose and will being carried out for your people.
Father, I pray you comfort the hearts of your people. Be with
your people in this time. deliver as soon as it could be
thy will. Now again, Father, we beg of thee that you'd give
us a word from thee this evening. Let us worship. First, in Christ's
name, for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen. Now, I've titled the message this
evening, Jacob Blessed Pharaoh. I want us to get this scene in
our mind's eye, what happened on this evening. And this is
Pharaoh's throne room. I mean, this is the seat of power
in the whole world. And Joseph brings his father,
Jacob, in to meet Pharaoh. And Jacob comes in the room,
and the first thing he does when he comes in the room is Jacob
blesses Pharaoh. You see that in verse seven?
And Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and set him before
Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And then Jacob and Pharaoh have
a short conversation, at least, What is recorded for us is a
short conversation. There may have been more, but
what is recorded is a short conversation. And then Jacob leaves. And as
he leaves, he blesses Pharaoh again. Verse 10, and Jacob blessed
Pharaoh. It went out from before Pharaoh.
Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Now that got my attention. Now
I know what scripture has to say about that. Without all contradiction,
the less is blessed of the better. That's true, isn't it? So the
natural man would look at Pharaoh, and he'd look at Jacob, and say,
well, Pharaoh is the one who should be blessing Jacob. I mean,
this sounds all backwards, doesn't it? Pharaoh is the most powerful
man in the world, almost certainly the richest man in the world.
Jacob is only living in Egypt based upon the kindness of Pharaoh.
You'd think Pharaoh would be the one to have to bless Jacob,
wouldn't you? Jacob is a broken down old man. His life has been
full of hardships and heartache, full of them. The only thing
Pharaoh is known is a life of privilege and ease, all he's
ever known. Jacob, 130 years old, has never
owned any land. He's been just a stranger on
the land, wherever he's been. Very soon, Pharaoh is gonna own
all the land of Egypt. He's gonna own the deed to it
all, not just rule over it, he's gonna own the deed to it all.
We would think Pharaoh's got to be the one blessing Jacob
here, wouldn't we? But that's not what happened. Now think of this from Jacob's
perspective. Jacob comes in this room, the throne room, and he
blesses Pharaoh because to Jacob, it seemed like the obvious thing
to do. Jacob wasn't being cocky. He wasn't being condescending.
He was actually acting in kindness, that the better would bless the
lesser. It was a kindness. It was just obvious to him, this
is what he should do. And I'll illustrate that with
this example. I have been blessed to have been
around some men that I consider to be great men. Now, I know
they were only men, but they were great men, and I really,
really appreciated them. Now, I'll pick out one of them
to illustrate my point. Jan's grandfather, his name was
Grayson Conley. Grayson Conley was a giant of
a man. We were talking about him the
other night, and Jonathan said, he came in the room, I mean,
he just had a presence. He wasn't throwing his weight
around. He just had a presence about him. He was a hardworking
man. And he considered it his responsibility
to look out for his family. It didn't matter how well his
children ended up doing in life. He always still considered it
his responsibility to take care of his family, to take care of
his neighbors. Anybody in the community that
he found out needed help, he'd go help them. I mean, that's
the way this man lived his life. Now, when I came on the scene,
Grandpa was an older man. But when I was with him, there's
just an obvious pecking order. It was obvious. He's the teacher. I'm the student. We go out for
a cup of coffee or go out for lunch. He's picking up the check. Ain't no sense arguing with him.
He's picking up the check. And there wasn't an arrogance
about it. This, to him, is just the natural
order of things. I take care of you, you don't
take care of me. It was just a natural order of
things, and everybody knew it. Everybody, because this is the
way the man carried himself. That's the way Jacob saw this
situation with Pharaoh, when he came in to meet Pharaoh. He
wasn't being cocky, he was being kind. And he blessed Pharaoh. You see, Jacob really was the
better, wasn't he? By God's grace, he was. Jacob
knew God. Pharaoh didn't know God. As far
as we know, Pharaoh did not know God. The Lord had been pleased
to reveal himself to Jacob. The Lord had come to Jacob and
given him the promises of his grace. The Lord had promised
Jacob that the Messiah would come through him. Jacob knew
that. When it came time to bless his
sons, he knew exactly who that Messiah was coming through. It
was coming through Judah. There was no doubt about that. Jacob
knew that. The Lord revealed that to him.
Jacob was what he was by the grace of God. He was the better,
and he blessed Pharaoh. Now, I see that as a picture
of the Lord blessing his people. The Lord is the better, isn't
he? And we're the lesser, and he blesses his people. kindness
and pity for thee. Now, it occurred to me to wonder,
I wonder what blessing Pharaoh gave Jacob, or Jacob gave Pharaoh. I wonder, I mean, I know what
blessing he gave his sons, that's recorded for us. It's not recorded
here what Jacob said to Pharaoh, but I wonder what it is, what
blessing it is that Jacob gave to Pharaoh. I can tell you I'm
pretty sure about this. I think I'm on solid ground on
this to say that the blessing was not physical. It was a material
blessing. Pharaoh already had more of this
earth's goods that he could ever use up. And Jacob already knew
how fleeting those things were. Look at verse eight. If Pharaoh
said unto Jacob, how old art thou? Now, most people think
that Jacob is the oldest person that Pharaoh had ever seen. And
he was showing respect to Jacob because of Jacob's age. I know
Jacob is related to Joseph. That's what got him in the throne
room, right? He's related to Joseph, but Jacob got a whole
lot of respect because of his age. You know, people did not
sit in Pharaoh's presence, but Jacob did. They brought a chair
in for Jacob and he sat in Pharaoh's presence. And I'm sure his blessing
is not a physical blessing because of his answer to that question.
How old are you? In verse nine, Jacob said unto Pharaoh, the
days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have
the days of the years of my life been, and I've not attained unto
the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days
of their pilgrimage. Now Jacob in his answer teaches
us three things. First, Jacob teaches us this,
life is short. Life is short, the years. of
our lives, they're measured in days. They're not measured in
years. They're not measured in decades.
A man 130 years old not even measured his life in centuries.
Days. Days. That's how long this thing
is. Jacob says, you know, if you think 130 is old, you should
see my dad and my granddad. They lived 175 and 180. And they
would say their lives passed so quickly. You know, no matter
how long, how many days it is that we live, on our deathbed,
you know what we're going to say? This passed so quickly. It passed so quickly. We're going
to say with David, my life's been that long. A hand breath. That's how long David said, it's
just been that long. We'll say with Joe, my life has
been faster than a Weaver shuttle. Just, and it was gone. It's over. No matter how many
material blessings the Lord gives you in this life, you're just
gonna be using them for a short time. And you're gonna leave
them to somebody else, and they're gonna use them for just a very
short time. But spiritual blessings, those are eternal. Those can
never be lost. And that's what Jacob wanted
for Pharaoh, I'm just sure of it. Second, Jacob taught us this. Life is hard. Don't expect it
to be anything else. Don't expect it to be anything
but hard. Jacob says those few short days that I've lived, they've
been full of evil. They've been evil days. Job said
the same thing. Man that's born of woman is a
few days. And those few days are full of
trouble. They're full of trouble. Now for the believer, I can't
necessarily speak for unbelievers. I know unbelievers have lives
that are full of trouble too. And maybe an unbeliever will
have a life that's just, man, they never have any trouble.
David says, it looks like that to me. There are no bands in
their death. Everything goes great for them. But for the believer,
our life is gonna be one trouble after another. One trial after
another. You know, when we're young, believers
is young in the faith, there's going to be a storm, and then
there's some blue sky. And then there's another storm,
and then there's some more blue sky. Well, as life goes on, you
know, it's going to be one storm and a little bit of blue sky,
and one storm and a sliver of blue sky, just one storm right
after another, after another, after another. That's how the
believer is going to live this life. He's going to be tried
that way. That's what the Lord promised us, isn't it? In this
world, you shall have tribulations, so don't be surprised when the
Lord sends them to you. But you know, to the believer,
those trials, those heartaches, those days of evil, even those
things are a blessing to the believer. It doesn't seem like
it when we're going through it, but afterward, we realize that
was a blessing. Because you know what those trials
teach us to do? They teach us to number our days. They teach
us to remember this life is just a few days. These trials teach
us to number our days so that we'll apply our hearts to wisdom.
That's what David said. These trials teach me, seek after
Christ. The time is short. Seek after
Christ. Trials teach us to depend on
Christ. Depend on the Lord to provide,
depend upon the Lord to deliver, depend on Him for everything.
Don't depend on the arm of the flesh for anything. You can't
depend on it, it's too weak. Depend on the Lord, trust Him. Now, if the Lord teaches you
that, if the Lord sends you something, teaches you trust Him, if the
Lord teaches you something that makes you seek Him, makes you
look after Him, it teaches you, I know I can trust the Lord. I know it because he's proven
himself faithful to me. If the Lord teaches you that,
brother, you're blessed. I mean, you're blessed. You are
blessed so much more than if the Lord never sent you a trial
in the first place. You're blessed because you've been taught to
look to Christ. So I'm just sure, based on what
Jacob said here, he's not asking that Pharaoh have a life that
doesn't have ever any trouble or trials in it, because that
wouldn't be best, would it? So it's not a material blessing.
And the third thing Jacob teaches us here, this life, it's a pilgrimage. You know, I thought about that.
We refer to believers as a pilgrim, don't we? But you know, every
human being is on a pilgrimage. Every last one of us is going
somewhere. We're going somewhere for eternity. And since we're
just passing through this place, I'm telling you, we'd be wise
not to put too much stock in it. We're just passing through. This world is like a hotel room. You know, when you get a hotel
room, you're just staying there for a night, aren't you? I mean,
if you are going on vacation, you stay there for seven days,
that's a lot. It's just a very short time, just a day. Even
if it's a week, it's such a short time, and then you're not gonna
be there anymore. Now, when I travel, I have to
tell you this. I like a nice hotel room. I do, because I want
to be comfortable. I mean, comfort is, the older
I get, I might used to sleep on the floor and just, you know,
nothing but, now every little thing causes me pain and it's,
I mean, comfort's high on the list, you know. When Jay and
I are first married, First of all, we could never afford to
stay in a hotel room. I mean, I don't care where we
were going. Aaron, we had to drive all the way through. I
mean, no staying in a hotel. But if we did, you know where
we stayed? Motel 6. Motel 6. And this is what I learned. That's not very comfortable.
Now, I'm not disparaging Motel 6. They leave the light on for
you. I mean, you know, fine folks.
But you know what I mean. You can find a more comfortable
place to stay, can't you? And now, thankfully, You know, we
traveled. Jan and I were able to get a
nicer room, you know, than what we used to get. But you know
what? We don't stay there any longer
than we did in Motel 6. It's just a night. And I don't
care what hotel we stayed in. One thing I never did was rearrange
the furniture. Never. I never painted the walls. I
never bought new sheets or a new shower curtain. I never put new
paintings on the wall. I didn't say, well, you know,
this painting looked better over here. I never did any of that. There's
no use. We're just staying a day. Just
one night. And that's how the believer should
look at this world. Really, be a good citizen. You
know what I'm saying. Be a good worker. Be a good employee. Be a good neighbor. By all means,
be a great husband. Be a great wife. Be a great parent. But don't get too caught up in
the goings-on of this world. The governance of this world. We're just pilgrims passing through.
We don't belong here. We don't stay here. Now, take
care of what the Lord's giving you. Whatever it is that the
Lord has given you, you take care of it. You take care of
your home, you take care of your family, whatever it is the Lord
has given you, you take care of it. Just like when you go
to a hotel room, man, you don't tear the place up and then leave.
I mean, you know, you're just staying there for a day, but
it's not yours. You don't tear it up. Take care
of what God's given you. But just realize this, it's temporary. It's temporary. Here we're gearing up for another
presidential election. Vote your conscience and forget
about it. Who really cares? Honestly, who really cares? Let the potsherds of this earth
strive with the potsherds of this earth. Our concern is where
we're going internally, not what we're passing through temporarily.
And I can show you that, look at Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11. Verse 13. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,
and they were persuaded of them. They embraced them, they held
on to them, and they confessed that they're strangers and pilgrims
in the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they'd
been mindful of that country from which they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. If you wanted
to have an opportunity to hang on to stuff of this world, you
got the opportunity. But now, these that died in faith,
they desire a better country. They desire something better
than this world. That is in heavenly. Wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God For he hath prepared
for them a city. If you trust Christ, Almighty
God has prepared for you a city. And that's where you're going.
Let's not get our eye off the ball. You reckon? So the best
that Jacob could have wanted for Pharaoh, it's a nice motel
room. That's all, you know, that's
the best you can get. Because Pharaoh, just like all
the rest of us, are pilgrims passing through this land. And
that's why I say I'm just sure Jacob's blessing wasn't physical.
It was spiritual. Jacob gave a spiritual blessing
to Pharaoh. Because that's the only blessing
Jacob knew about. That's the only one he knew about.
Jacob knew about the spiritual blessing he'd been given in Christ.
Jacob knew about that because he had experienced God's grace.
He knew it by experience. And you know that, that same
blessing is the blessing that the Lord's given all of us. If
you trust Christ now, you got the same blessing that Jacob
had. You think you have the very same blessing that Jacob had.
And that's what we want for others, isn't it? Now, like I say, I
don't have any idea about any details at all. Jacob's blessing
for Pharaoh But I do know quite a few details of the Lord's blessing
for his people and that's why I want us to look at is Before
we quit look over to Ephesians chapter 1 This is how the Lord
the better Blesses his people Ephesians 1 First the Lord's blessing for
his people It's a rich blessing Rich blessing. Verse three. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. The blessing that the Lord gives
his people is not just some things. Gary, it's everything. It's everything. The Lord blesses his people with
every blessing that there is. He's rich in mercy. He's rich
in grace. He's prepared for them a city.
And when you get there, you're gonna have everything you need
to be a bona fide citizen of that city. He's given you everything. Second, the Lord's blessing of
his people is the blessing of election. Verse four, according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
There can't be anything more plain in all the Word of God
than this. The Father elected a people to save. He chose the
people that he would save and he passed everybody else by.
The Father chose specifically by name who it was he would save
out of Adam's fallen race. Now here's the good news if you're
a sinner. Those people that God chose, they didn't have to be
good enough for God to choose them. God didn't have to look
down through the telescope of time and say, well, this one's
better than this one, so I'll choose this one. You don't have to be
good enough for God to choose you. The father chose a people,
even though there was no good in them whatsoever. The father
chose them in Christ. He chose those people and accepted
those people on the merits of Christ, not on their merit. You
don't have to have any merit of your own for God to choose
you. He chose a people who don't deserve it. Now those people
are blessed. Can you think of a greater blessing
than the Father choosing to save you? Listen to what David said,
Psalm 64, or 65, verse four. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causes to approach unto thee that he may dwell in
thy courts. That man that God has chosen
is blessed. Blessed beyond human words. Third,
the Lord's blessing of his people is the blessing of holiness.
Verse four says at the end of the verse that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love. See, the father didn't
choose the people because they were holy. The father chose a
sinful people that he'd make holy. He's gonna make them holy. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God would come and he would make those people righteous.
They weren't righteous. They couldn't make themselves
righteous. Christ came to make them righteous by his obedience
for them as their representative. And Christ would make his people
righteous by his sacrifice. He would be made sin for them
that they might be made righteous. made the righteousness of God
in him. And Christ would put that sin
away by the sacrifice of himself. His blood would wash it away,
and they're righteous. The sin's gone. If you have no
sin, that means you're righteous. And then the Holy Spirit would
come, and he'd make those people holy. He'd make them holy by
causing them to be born again with a new holy nature, a nature
that would never sin. They're righteous and they're
holy, because that's the way God made them. You don't have to
be holy in order for God to save you. He makes His people holy. Now that God, the holy God who
is in need of nothing, He's the better, we're the lesser. The
fact that He would make a guilty sinner holy, that's a miracle
both of God's power that He could make a guilty sinner holy and
a miracle of His grace that He would make a sinner righteous
and holy. Now, whoever it is that Almighty
God made holy, they're blessed. They're blessed because without
this holiness, no man shall see the Lord. You know what that
tells me? Everybody that God made holy
is going to see the Lord. They're going to see him face
to face. I don't know what's going to
happen between here and there, but if God made you holy, I know
how it's going to end up. You're gonna see him. You're
gonna see him. Now that's a blessing. Fourth, the Lord's blessing of
his people is the blessing of adoption. Verse five, it says,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. The father chose a people to
redeem and by his will, He chose a people to make his children. They didn't have to be good enough
to become a child of God. They didn't have to be good enough
that God would choose them to make them part of his family.
The father in his will, it's all up to him. That's up to his
will. He could have chosen any son of Adam to adopt into his
family, any son of Adam. You know, the illustration, I've
used it before, but I can't think of one better. You think of children
in an orphanage. I don't know, do they even have
orphanages anymore? But I know how they used to be.
There's all these kids in this orphanage, you know, just barely
taken care of. And here comes a fine car driving
up the driveway. And a man gets out in a black
three-piece suit red tie, I mean, oh, his hair is just back just
right. I mean, oh, he's something. And
this woman gets out. Oh, she's beautiful. Just a beautiful
woman, a beautiful dress. And they hold hands and they
walk up that orphanage. All those kids start lining up.
These folks are looking to adopt a child. There's some rotten teenager
over here. He'd been, this isn't his first rodeo. He'd been through
this dog and pony show before. He's not bothering to get up.
He's not bothered to go up and try to present himself to them,
because this is what he knows. They're going to pick a baby.
Everybody loves a baby. Baby's cuter teenager every day
of the week, aren't they? Or maybe some little toddler
that's so cute, you know, they'll want to adopt him. But this teenager,
this sullen teenager knows that there's no hope for me. And that
handsome couple looks at every child in that orphanage and chooses
that sullen teenager to take home to be their son. Isn't that something? You multiply
that by billions and billions, and that's the shock that a holy
God would choose somebody like you and me to adopt in his family.
God could have chosen anybody, anybody, and by his will, according
to the good pleasure of his will, that's what it says, he chose
to save sinners. and to adopt them and make them
his children. There's a song line I used to
hear sung when I was a boy. The line says, I'm not worthy
to be here, but thank God I belong. Thank God I belong. Now that's
a blessing. God makes his people belong because
he made them his children. If you're a child of God, What else you want, huh? Then fifth, the Lord's blessing
to his people is the blessing of acceptance. Verse six says,
to the praise of the glory of his grace. That's why God did
it all, to glorify his grace. Wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. Now, we already saw this, God
chose a people, not because anything had to do with him, just because
he would, according to the good pleasure of his will. He chose
them, He saw them in Christ. Now just think, if God saved
you, He chose you in Christ. Okay, I see that. But now He
tells you, you've got to act right in order to keep your salvation.
You can come to me in prayer, but now I'm only going to hear
you if you act right. If you're doing it good enough,
then I'll hear you, otherwise I won't. The only way you can
be accepted and keep this acceptance is if you keep acting right.
Well, that'd be a burden, wouldn't it? It'd be a burden we couldn't
carry. Can you carry that? I mean, I
know I can't. If that was true, that you've
got to keep acting good enough for God to accept you and hear
your prayers, we'd have no good news for sinners, would we? But to hear your acceptance with
the Father has always been and will always be based upon the
merits of Christ. Oh, that's good news. That's a blessing because the
son's always accepted. The son is perfect. He's always
accepted. To know that I'm accepted on
the merits of Christ, on the merits of God's son, that's a
blessing, isn't it? It takes all the pressure off
instead of putting the pressure on. Here's a pretty good hint
for you. Any message you hear puts the
pressure on you is not the gospel. The gospel always takes the pressure
off because it's based on the merits of Christ, not based upon
my merits. Then last, the blessing of the
Lord for his people. It's the blessing of redemption.
Verse seven, in whom we have redemption through his blood.
The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Now, this matter of redemption is mighty important. You see,
our sin has placed a price on our head. It's a price that God's
justice demands be paid. This has got to be paid in full. There's got to be death for sin. Well, our problem is we can't
pay that price. So God's justice demands that we spend eternity
in hell. And we're so worthless. Talk about the better blessing
the lesser. We're so much lesser. We're so
worthless. An eternity of suffering in hell
wouldn't pay for one of our sins. That's how worthless we are.
God's justice has a hold on us and that justice must be satisfied. Now I know the Father chose the
people. He chose them. He elected them unto salvation.
I know that. But before, like I said, if Scripture
makes anything obvious, it's that, right? The Father elected
a people into salvation. But those people cannot go into
God's presence until the price has been paid to satisfy God's
justice. Our sin debt is a debt that's
owed to God. We owe it to Him. He's the creditor. He's the one we've sinned against.
And we can't pay the price. Do you know what God did for
his elect? He paid the redemption price for them. The debt's owed
to him, and he's the one that paid it. Now you find me, anybody
else that's ever done that. The debt's owed to him, and he's
the one that paid it. He didn't just mark it off as
bad debt, he paid it. And he paid it with the blood
of his darling son, his only begotten son. Christ has redeemed
his people from the curse of the law being made a curse for
them. Christ paid the debt that was
owed to him so that his people could go free. Now that's a blessing,
isn't it? It's a blessing of grace, not
worse. Not our worse. Now if the Lord's
given you every spiritual blessing, everything we've mentioned here
and so many more we don't have time to talk about, If Lord's
given you every spiritual blessing, He's given you all this, you've
got it all. You've got it all. Because we're in this vile, vile
flesh, because we've still got this vile, awful, rotten sin
nature, I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes, but we need
to ignore our feelings and pay attention to what the word of
God says. The Lord says he's blessed his people with all spiritual
blessings. If Lord's given you this, he
blessed you with the blessing, the blessing of his son. Everything
else you can think of that you would desire physically, materially,
pales in comparison. I mean, you can't even begin
to compare that to the Son of God, if He's given you His Son. Now, when the Lord comes to bless
you, what do you want to hear? What do you want? What do you
desire that the Lord would give you? When I look at those things,
I really don't care if I have a nicer hotel room for the night.
I'm looking for that city, aren't you? I'm looking for that city. And if the Lord has blessed you
like that, I'm telling you, your heart is thrilled to think how
God has blessed you for Christ's sake, not your sake, for Christ's
sake. Now, I'm just sure, don't you
reckon, That's what Jacob wanted for old Pharaoh. I know this,
that's what old Frank wants from the Lord. I pray he'd give it
to us. That's what I want for you. That's
what we want for others that we know. Our loved ones, but
others, that's the blessing we want for them, isn't it? That
the Lord reveal himself to thee and bless them that way. That's
what we want. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this Blessing of the Lord the blessing that you've been
pleased to give your people in your son our Lord Jesus Christ
Father I pray you bless us bless each heart with this Great blessing
reveal your son to us and father cause us to cling to him cause
us to let go All the the things of this life Hold them loosely
let them go just treat them with the significance that that they're
due, and let us embrace and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
how we thank you that you'd save sinners. How we thank you that
you continue to bless your children, despite our weak faith and our
stumbling and bumblings, that it's always for Christ's sake. Father, we're so thankful. And
Father, bless your word, we pray. Bless it to your glory. and to
the good and edification and comfort of your people. Father,
it's in Christ's name, for his sake and his glory we pray, amen. All right, Isaac.