God Wants To Bless You - Pt. 2 - Derek Grier
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LearningTranscript
00:00 (whooshing)
00:02 So what we see is Abraham came
00:05 from an idol-worshipping family.
00:08 He didn't start with a spiritual silver spoon in his mouth.
00:13 So when Israel came into the promised land,
00:17 as humans, they had this temptation
00:20 over time to start looking down on other nations.
00:25 But Joshua, very aware, and he's about to go on to glory,
00:29 he's like, "Slow your roll.
00:30 "I wanna remind you of the time
00:33 "before you had your teeth fixed."
00:36 (audience laughing)
00:39 "I wanna warn you of that period
00:42 "before you got your degree,
00:43 "before you got your certificate,
00:45 "before you owned that business,
00:48 "before you got that job,
00:50 "before you could walk into a room with red-bottomed shoes.
00:54 "I'm paying attention."
00:55 (audience laughing)
00:57 (upbeat music)
01:00 Today we're gonna continue our series,
01:09 God Wants to Bless You.
01:11 (audience cheering)
01:12 Those of you who are with us for the first time,
01:16 I'm gonna lay a foundation, as always,
01:19 and then we're gonna get to our focus.
01:21 So open your Bibles or your phone or whatever,
01:24 just follow the screens.
01:25 We're gonna be in Joshua 24 in verse one.
01:28 And normally we go backwards before we go forward,
01:31 so that's what we're gonna do, verse one.
01:33 Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem.
01:40 This was the place that God told Abraham
01:47 that he would give the promised land to his offspring.
01:54 And this was also the place that Abraham built
01:59 his first altar in the land.
02:01 So Joshua called for the elders of Israel,
02:06 for their heads, for their judges, their officers,
02:11 there's organization in God's camp.
02:14 God did it that way back then and he does it now.
02:17 And they presented themselves before the Lord.
02:24 Now this was Joshua's last speech before his death.
02:29 And it was an opportunity for God's people
02:34 to renew their covenant with their Lord.
02:39 But they would only do that after Joshua
02:42 reminded them for about eight verses
02:45 where they came from and where the Lord
02:47 had brought them through.
02:48 He reminded them of how God helped them
02:52 defeat the Amorites, the Hivites, the Hittites,
02:56 the Moabites, the Perizzites, Canaanites,
02:59 Gergesites, and Jebusites.
03:02 How many have ever faced some ites in your life?
03:04 Yeah, the I feel lonely ites.
03:09 The Lord help me not kill my children or my spouse ites.
03:13 The doctor said I'll never get better ites.
03:18 The I can't pay my bills ites.
03:21 The I don't, Lord don't make me lose my mind up in here ites.
03:26 Y'all listen to the radio too.
03:32 And Joshua said to all the people,
03:39 thus says the Lord God of Israel.
03:42 Now we don't usually think of Joshua as a prophet,
03:45 but he was.
03:46 And one of the most important things
03:49 that any really leader can do is hear from God.
03:54 But in this next verse, I want you to notice
03:58 how the Holy Spirit moved Joshua to tell Abraham's story.
04:03 And in effect, God was saying to his people,
04:09 no matter where life takes you,
04:11 never forget where you came from.
04:13 So Joshua said, thus saith the Lord God
04:19 of Israel, your fathers, including Terah,
04:23 the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor,
04:26 dwelt on the other side of the river in the old times.
04:31 He reminded them that life had not always been
04:37 as it had become.
04:40 Yes, they had made it to the suburbs,
04:44 three bedrooms, two baths, two cars, better schools.
04:50 But he cautioned them to remember
04:55 that they too came from the other side of the tracks.
04:58 You see, I can't speak for you,
05:00 but I certainly can for me.
05:03 Almost everything God has had for me in my life
05:07 lived on the other side of some fear.
05:10 And the only way I could get to it
05:13 was through pressing through some stuff.
05:17 Anyone in this room other than me
05:19 have to press through some stuff?
05:21 Yeah, in their life.
05:23 But watch the next clause.
05:25 And they served other gods.
05:30 So what we see is Abraham came
05:35 from an idol-worshiping family.
05:38 He didn't start with a spiritual silver spoon in his mouth.
05:45 So when Israel came into the promised land,
05:48 as humans they had this temptation
05:50 over time to start looking down on other nations.
05:55 But Joshua, very aware, and he's about to go on to glory,
05:59 he's like, "Slow your roll.
06:00 "I want to remind you of the time
06:03 "before you had your teeth fixed."
06:06 I want to warn you of that period
06:12 before you got your degree,
06:13 before you got your certificate,
06:15 before you owned that business,
06:18 before you got that job,
06:20 before you could walk into a room with red-bottomed shoes.
06:24 I'm paying attention.
06:25 Deuteronomy 7 and 7 tells us more.
06:29 It said, "The Lord did not set His love on you,
06:33 "nor choose you, because you were more in number
06:38 "than any other people."
06:40 It wasn't 'cause you were more.
06:42 "For you were the least of all people."
06:46 So the Lord didn't set His affection on Israel
06:51 because it was strong and mighty.
06:53 The fact is, they really had nothing going for them.
06:58 You see, God's not looking for the strongest,
07:00 He's not looking for the best-looking, tallest,
07:02 the most powerful, the bravest.
07:04 He's just looking for the surrendered.
07:06 Joshua 24 and 23.
07:11 "Then I took your father from the other side
07:16 "of the Euphrates River."
07:22 How many of us, like Abraham, came from the other side?
07:25 And how many, like Abraham, still deal
07:29 with some other side-like tendencies?
07:32 Yeah.
07:33 You see, you could take the boy out of the country,
07:37 but you can't take the country out of the boy.
07:41 You see, Abraham was God's man,
07:42 but he lied twice to Sarah, or about Sarah being his wife,
07:47 resulting in other men actually attempting to take her.
07:51 Then both he and Sarah, who by the way,
07:54 she was also from the other side,
07:56 they got tired of waiting on God.
07:58 How many of you get tired sometimes?
07:59 Yeah.
08:00 And this great man of faith decided
08:04 that he should sleep with another woman.
08:10 Talk about entanglements, entanglements, entanglements.
08:13 You see, everybody has a past.
08:19 Everybody has an ex.
08:24 Everybody has some things in their life that they regret.
08:30 But give O Abe a few chapters.
08:35 By Genesis 22, his devotion and his passion
08:39 to God was unequaled.
08:41 You see, you can't judge people by the chapter
08:45 of their story you happen to walk in on,
08:49 because God may not be finished with them just yet.
08:52 And this was the case with Abraham,
08:57 and it very well may be the case with you.
09:02 Thus says the Lord, I took your father Abram, or Abraham,
09:06 from the other side of the river.
09:10 God will meet you wherever you are
09:12 to take you wherever you need to go.
09:15 That's the type of God he is.
09:17 Then it says, and led him throughout the land of Canaan.
09:23 God almost never leads people in a straight line,
09:28 because the journey is not just about getting
09:32 to the destination, but building the character
09:35 you will need to stay there when you get there.
09:38 (audience applauding)
09:42 And he continues as he tells this story,
09:44 and multiplied Abraham's descendants,
09:49 and gave him, watch this, Isaac.
09:53 Abraham's situation was so frail,
09:57 he couldn't even have a baby without a miracle.
10:01 So God had to give him Isaac.
10:05 What I want you to see here is as great as Abraham became,
10:11 he started at the bottom, and like anyone else,
10:15 he made mistakes along the way.
10:17 I think some nights he'd wake up and he'd look at Sarah
10:21 and he'd say, I may not be where I want to be,
10:25 but at least I'm not where I--
10:27 - Used to be. - Used to be.
10:30 But out of all the people of the earth
10:33 that God could have chosen, he chose this man
10:39 to be both Israel's and our father.
10:44 Romans 4 and 11 digs in, we're gonna do this really quick.
10:48 And Abraham received the sign of circumcision,
10:52 something first though happened on the inside
10:54 before anything showed up on the outside.
10:56 A seal of righteousness, of faith,
10:58 which he had while still circumcised.
11:01 That he might be the what?
11:03 Father, father, father.
11:05 The Greek word for father used here is pater,
11:09 or pater, however you wanna say it.
11:11 And it's a little complicated,
11:12 and I'm not gonna get all deep here,
11:14 and the English is usually good enough,
11:15 but this has helped me.
11:18 This word pater was borrowed in the Latin.
11:22 And then out of that word came the English word patern.
11:27 So whenever I see the word father in the Bible,
11:32 I remember this word pater,
11:37 and I think of the word patern.
11:39 And this definition has guided me as a dad over the years.
11:45 Because it helped me understand
11:47 that one of my chief roles as a father
11:51 is to watch my children's patterns,
11:53 so watch behavior because it's going somewhere.
11:57 But secondly, to display healthy patterns of my own.
12:02 Why?
12:03 Because kids don't do what you say,
12:06 they do as they see, or they do as you do.
12:08 So that he, Abraham, might be the father,
12:17 watch this, or pattern, watch this,
12:20 of all, that's you and me, those who believe.
12:24 Though they may be uncircumcised, Gentile.
12:28 That righteousness might be imputed to them,
12:30 real rich, but let's move on.
12:32 My big point here from this scripture
12:35 is Abraham was not only a pattern to the Jewish people,
12:40 but he was a pattern for you and for me, the Gentiles.
12:44 Genesis 12, verse one, and I think you're ready,
12:48 and we can dig in.
12:49 Now the Lord had said to Abram,
12:53 we have enough background now to know that
12:56 Abraham was as flawed as the rest of us, or most of us.
13:00 But the difference between him and many of us
13:03 in this room and live streaming
13:05 is that when God spoke to his heart, he listened.
13:08 And whenever you hear God's word,
13:11 you have two choices, two options.
13:15 Make progress, or make excuses.
13:19 And I've learned in my life,
13:20 if you become too good at making excuses,
13:23 you're never gonna make any progress.
13:25 Yeah, you, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
13:28 That hurt a little bit, but it'll help.
13:32 So the Lord said, Abram, get out of your country.
13:38 Now all God asks of us typically,
13:42 at least at the outset today,
13:44 is for us to ask him for mercy,
13:48 trust in what Christ accomplished at the cross,
13:50 and a day like today, perhaps come forward,
13:53 out of your seat, pray a prayer,
13:54 pray it from your heart, trust and believe.
13:57 But what I want you to understand is
13:59 Abraham didn't just leave his seat,
14:04 but Abraham was asked to leave the great Mesopotamia,
14:09 the birthplace of civilization.
14:11 Abraham was asked to leave the place
14:15 where they discovered the wheel.
14:18 He had to leave the land where they discovered irrigation.
14:22 Started walled cities, the first nation states
14:26 came out of this area in which Abraham lived.
14:29 Abraham, you know, people try to act like, you know,
14:32 the ancients were ignorant,
14:33 and they weren't very sophisticated,
14:35 but Abraham was no country bumpkin.
14:37 He was exposed to the most prosperous,
14:39 the most sophisticated culture of his particular time.
14:44 Abraham experienced city life.
14:47 He knew literature, mathematics, astronomy,
14:52 and for Abraham, on the other side of the river,
14:56 life was good.
14:58 But God said, "Get out of the country,"
15:02 and then he adds, "from your family."
15:05 Not only leave your country,
15:07 but I want you to leave the people you know best.
15:10 Leave the people that you're most connected to,
15:14 most comfortable with, those who love you the most.
15:18 And then it's like, if you didn't understand it,
15:19 let me say it another way.
15:21 And from your father's house,
15:23 not only your immediate family,
15:25 but also your cousins, your aunties, your uncles.
15:29 You see, at times, God has to even get you away
15:33 from good people who happen to have bad influence.
15:37 You see, one of the costliest mistakes you can make
15:41 in life is to pay attention to the wrong people.
15:45 (congregation laughing)
15:47 He said, "Listen, I got to do something new with you,
15:49 "and you can't take the old with you.
15:51 "So leave all that and go to a land that I will show you."
15:59 So the pattern that God begins with Abraham
16:06 is the same pattern he wants you and I to follow today.
16:12 And basically what he was saying is,
16:13 "Abraham, if you go, I will show."
16:17 And God said to Abraham, "Son, I will make you."
16:21 And this is important.
16:23 God doesn't want to just give you.
16:26 He wants to make you into something.
16:29 Last week, we ended our message.
16:31 We were talking about when the disciples
16:34 caught that great catch of fish
16:36 that boats were sinking and all the rest,
16:37 and Jesus used as an illustration,
16:40 and the market was flooded,
16:42 and everybody had fish in the community,
16:44 and of course, Peter sold that,
16:47 and he was set, his family was set
16:49 for him to go into ministry.
16:50 We talked about that.
16:51 But Jesus, after he did that natural thing,
16:55 he said, "Listen, let's use the natural
16:59 "to explain what I really want to do."
17:01 Meaning the natural blessings in your life
17:06 are just instruments and tools
17:09 pointing to something else.
17:10 So he said, "I want to make you,"
17:14 he said, "Follow me, and I will what make you."
17:17 He gave them fish, but the real blessing
17:21 is I want to make you.
17:22 You okay, you're fine.
17:25 Fish and make.
17:26 So he said, "I will what make you
17:34 "into a what great nation."
17:38 So God doesn't want to just give you,
17:39 he wants to what make you.
17:42 God's vision for your life is not just
17:44 to keep you or make you average.
17:46 Most of us are doing that pretty good on our own.
17:49 God wants to make you and everyone connected to you great.
17:54 You see, greatness doesn't just come
17:59 from the opportunities we get in life,
18:01 but the small habits that make those opportunities
18:04 possible.
18:05 He said, "Abraham, I will make you a great nation."
18:11 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
18:13 the God of Jacob never wants to bless us in isolation.
18:18 He wants to bless you in a way that impacts your children,
18:22 your children's children, your Abraham, your Isaac,
18:24 your Jacob, if he said it today, it might be,
18:27 "Well, I want to bless you, Johnny,
18:29 "but I also want to bless your daughter, Sally,
18:32 "and then I want to bless your grandchild."
18:33 Yeah, but God wants to bless everything
18:36 that comes out of us, you understand what I'm saying?
18:38 But that blessing comes after the molding and the making.
18:43 He said, "I will bless you."
18:45 This is key.
18:46 It wasn't, Abraham, the reason I said all that,
18:49 I said it today, it wasn't his intellectual
18:51 or his moral abilities that made him great.
18:54 Though all that grew in time,
18:56 what really made Abraham great was the blessing
18:59 of God on his life.
19:02 You can take everything I have,
19:05 but if I don't lose my blessing,
19:07 I will get everything back stronger and better.
19:10 (audience applauding)
19:14 And that's why you got to guard against being bitter
19:18 and not forgiving people, let us stuff go.
19:21 Because you know what, as bad as what you did is
19:24 and all that, I am not gonna let what you did
19:29 take the blessing and favor of God off my life.
19:32 (audience applauding)
19:35 And you got to hold on to that blessing.
19:39 And you sometimes got to fight the good fight
19:42 to keep your heart sweet in the midst
19:45 of the things we face.
19:47 I will bless you and make your name great.
19:52 And what he's saying is if you bring honor to my name,
19:55 I'll bring honor to your name.
19:57 And he's the same yesterday, today, and forever.
20:01 He's the same God, what he did for Abraham,
20:03 he'll do for you.
20:05 God wants to make each of us such a good steward
20:10 of the blessings that he has placed in our lives
20:14 that people will hear about it.
20:16 We'll start getting a reputation.
20:19 And then people will come for advice.
20:21 And they look at you and say, I know your husband,
20:24 how'd you keep that marriage together?
20:26 (audience laughing)
20:29 Yeah, yeah, I remembered your children back when.
20:35 How'd you raise them to be such upstanding
20:38 citizens and people?
20:39 I know what life is like.
20:42 How did you live single for the last 30 years
20:46 and still keep it holy?
20:47 Not a lot of clapping there, right?
20:50 (audience applauding)
20:55 We're all in process.
20:58 But we do have a goal.
20:59 But why does he do that?
21:02 So when they come to us and say, how'd you do?
21:06 It's like, well, let me point you to the book of Proverbs.
21:09 Let me tell you what God promised me in Ephesians.
21:13 It has been the wisdom and the power of God
21:16 that put me in the position I'm in today.
21:18 (audience applauding)
21:22 And you shall be a blessing.
21:26 God doesn't just want us to be recipients of blessing,
21:34 but channels of blessing.
21:37 My pastor, Dr. Miles Monroe, used to always say,
21:43 if you don't know the purpose of a thing,
21:45 you will abuse it.
21:46 And for that reason, when some people get blessed,
21:50 all I can do is shake my head.
21:52 (audience laughing)
21:53 Because I know what they're about to do.
21:56 You see, a good man may receive a blessing,
21:59 but a great man or woman becomes a blessing.
22:03 (audience applauding)
22:05 And God wants to make you a blessing.
22:08 (audience applauding)
22:11 And then he continues.
22:13 He said, I will bless those who bless you.
22:16 He's saying, Abe, if you would just trust me and obey me,
22:21 I'll make the people in your life want to bless you.
22:24 I'll make the people in your life want to be on your team.
22:27 People are going to love you just because of the results
22:30 that they're getting for being rightly connected with you,
22:33 but God didn't stop there.
22:35 And then he continues on.
22:36 He said, and I will curse him.
22:39 Oh, is that what it said?
22:41 Oh yeah, okay, that's the Bible, okay.
22:43 (audience laughing)
22:45 And I will curse him who curses you.
22:50 So God will not only bless you,
22:53 but he will protect you in the place of blessing.
22:57 How many of y'all remember Sealy speaking to mister
23:04 in the color purple?
23:05 Until you do right by me,
23:09 everything you think about is going to crumble.
23:11 Knife in her hand and everything.
23:20 I'm reading this from the Old Testament,
23:23 but the New Testament calls it sowing and reaping.
23:25 In India, this principle's called karma.
23:29 In the Middle East, it's kismet.
23:33 Grandma called it comeuppance.
23:35 Y'all have the same grandma.
23:37 And on the block, we would say while rocking,
23:41 what comes around goes around.
23:45 Play if you want to.
23:49 But watch this.
23:51 And he said, Abraham,
23:52 and in you, God wants to do something in you, even you.
23:59 All the families of the earth shall be blessed.
24:07 You see, Israel came out of Abraham and Sarah's womb.
24:16 And through that union, God gave us the prophets.
24:21 God gave us the scriptures.
24:24 But the biggest thing God gave us is through that line
24:29 would come the Messiah.
24:31 And in you, Abraham, all the families,
24:37 not just the Jewish family,
24:40 not just the Arabic family,
24:45 but all the family, the Johnson family,
24:49 the Smith family, every family,
24:52 all the families, the Greer family,
24:56 of the earth shall be blessed.
25:01 You see, I wanna just flip your theology a little bit.
25:05 A lot of y'all act like God wants to take something from you
25:08 so you run in from him.
25:09 But Jesus didn't come to condemn the world.
25:16 We were already condemned.
25:17 We were doing bad all by ourselves.
25:20 He came to save the world and to bless the world.
25:27 When you run from God, you're running from your blessing.
25:30 You hear what I'm saying?
25:31 You're running from your purpose, your destiny,
25:35 and the best thing that God could ever plan for you.
25:39 He didn't come to condemn the world,
25:42 but let me read it one more time.
25:45 And in you, speaking of Jesus, and in Christ,
25:49 all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
25:54 And what God was saying is even before Jesus
26:00 appeared out of the womb of Mary
26:01 and the Word became flesh and all that,
26:05 he's saying there's room at the cross for everyone.
26:08 I don't care what you look like,
26:09 don't care where you came from.
26:12 Jesus says, "Come."
26:15 Because God wants to do in you what only God can do.
26:19 Thank God for what education can do.
26:22 Thank God what a makeover, a facial,
26:26 and maybe even a raise can do.
26:29 But can't nobody do me like Jesus.
26:43 I want you to be part of something really big,
26:46 a vision that addresses both spiritual and practical needs,
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26:57 you become part of an organization known for its integrity,
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27:33 (upbeat music)
27:35 (upbeat music)
27:38 (upbeat music)
27:41 (whooshing)