Join me on a journey through the ebbs and flows of raising a family, where we'll explore the divine purpose woven through every twist and turn. We'll share stories that remind you you're not alone, and discuss how God's grace, much like the story of Abram, is a constant source of strength and blessing, regardless of the season we're in.
Delving into the rich tapestry of Abraham's blessings, we uncover the true nature of being blessed by God. It's more than material wealth or success—it's about living a life that resonates with God's praise and sharing those blessings with those closest to us, our families. We'll discuss the ultimate fulfillment of these blessings through Jesus Christ, and how this eternal promise transcends the temporal, shifting our focus from the worldly to the spiritual.
Finally, we bring it all back home—literally. We examine Abraham's legacy not just as a patriarch, but as a beacon for how to lead a family in faith. Our conversation will lead us to a collective prayer, inviting salvation and divine favor upon our loved ones. So gather your family, tune in, and let's embrace 'The Blessing' together, as we seek to establish our homes as centers of faith and devotion, just as Abraham did all those years ago.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
Join me on a journey through the ebbs and flows of raising a family, where we'll explore the divine purpose woven through every twist and turn. We'll share stories that remind you you're not alone, and discuss how God's grace, much like the story of Abram, is a constant source of strength and blessing, regardless of the season we're in.
Delving into the rich tapestry of Abraham's blessings, we uncover the true nature of being blessed by God. It's more than material wealth or success—it's about living a life that resonates with God's praise and sharing those blessings with those closest to us, our families. We'll discuss the ultimate fulfillment of these blessings through Jesus Christ, and how this eternal promise transcends the temporal, shifting our focus from the worldly to the spiritual.
Finally, we bring it all back home—literally. We examine Abraham's legacy not just as a patriarch, but as a beacon for how to lead a family in faith. Our conversation will lead us to a collective prayer, inviting salvation and divine favor upon our loved ones. So gather your family, tune in, and let's embrace 'The Blessing' together, as we seek to establish our homes as centers of faith and devotion, just as Abraham did all those years ago.
Thanks for listening! Find us on Instagram or visit our Website.
So we are all, as we're going through, family matters. Everyone say family matters, family matters. We are all going through a season of our family. Everybody say season. If your family is going through a season, please raise your hand. Your family is going through a season right now, as you can see hands up all over the place. You are not alone. Every family is going through a season. My family is going through a season right now. My family's not able to be here this morning. Brooklyn, her stomach, was hurting her all the way since yesterday and she didn't throw up till this morning and she's had a fever, and so my wife had to stay home with Brooklyn and Cruz, and so my wife's got her hands full, she's got her womb full and she's full, she's full. So just pray for her. If you all are watching, I love y'all. And so we're all going through a season. Man, the season of these young kids is a crazy season.
Speaker 1:Right Valentine's morning, cruz decided to give us a present Valentine's morning, so I was just about to grab Brooklyn and take her off the school. She comes to school here and for our little preschool, and so right before I get her, I look into the kitchen and I don't see Cruz, but I do see his diaper, his perfectly good dried diaper. That is just lying on the ground all by itself, and I'm thinking where is my son? So I start looking around. He's real quiet that's how you know, they're up to no good right. And so I find him. He's underneath our kitchen countertop, underneath our island counter, and I go to grab him and as soon as I go down, I kind of back up because he was sitting in a puddle. He was sitting in a puddle that he had made, if you know what I'm saying, and he was just looking at me and just smiling. He was just splashing in his own little puddle, right. And so we're all going through a season.
Speaker 1:Everybody say season. Now, we all go through these seasons because God has a reason for every season that you go through as a family. You know your season right now. It may be right now, whatever you're going through, that you are the kid in your family, or maybe you're the teenager, or maybe you're the college student, maybe you're the young adult, maybe you're the single adult, maybe you are you just got married, maybe you're married and you want kids. Maybe you're married and you have kids. Maybe you're married and you have kids. You no longer want your kids. Whatever season that you might be in, maybe you're empty nesting, maybe you're grandparents, maybe you're great grandparents, maybe you are going through a season of what I prayed for earlier, that you're going through a very difficult season. Maybe you're going through a difficult season of death, maybe you're going through a difficult season of divorce. Whatever it is, I'd need you to hear me say that the word of God has a word for the season that you are going through. If you believe that, say amen. God has a word for every season that you're going through.
Speaker 1:And typically seasons all seasons have their highs and lows. I can remember being in a staff meeting here at First Baptist just back a few months ago. At the beginning of the staff meeting I announced to our staff they did not know. I announced to the staff that we were pregnant, we are having a baby girl do in May. And at the end of the same staff meeting, an hour later, in the right before the end, I get a call from my wife. I always answer my wife's calls whenever I can and she's on the phone telling me that she just learned that her brother had died in the same meeting. Seasons have highs, seasons have lows, seasons have joys, seasons have difficulties.
Speaker 1:If you are going through a season with your family, I need you to know two things. Number one you're not alone. Other people are going through seasons as well. But also I want you to know hear me that God wants to bless you in every season. He wants to bless you in every season. Hear me. But I think often you're gonna see here in just a minute that God is blessing you in your season. But because we may not understand what the blessing of God is, that it's far better than we understand that if you don't know what the blessing of God is, you might actually miss the very blessing that you are praying for. So here we go. The sermon title this morning is how your Family Can Be Blessed. How your Family Can Be Blessed. Here we go. Number one God blesses your family by grace. He blesses your family by grace. Everybody say grace. He blesses your family by grace.
Speaker 1:Genesis, chapter 12, you can open up in your Bible To Genesis, chapter 12, it'll also be on the screen. Genesis 12, one. It starts out like this it says now the Lord said to Abram Now, who is Abram? Maybe you've heard of Abraham. But who's Abram? Well, abram, abraham, same guy. God changed Abram's name to Abraham over in chapter 17. So this is the beginning that we see here in the story of Abram.
Speaker 1:God comes to Abram. Who is he? Did you know that Abram? It tells us in Joshua, chapter 24, and in Genesis, chapter 11, that Abram was actually born in an area of the world called the Ur of the Chaldeans. Ur of the Chaldeans was a very famous place for godless godless living. Joshua 24 tells us that Abraham and his father Tehran that they worshiped idols. This was probably a place that the knowledge of God had not even gotten to yet. In other words, abraham couldn't get to God. So God came to Abraham. Can I get an amen? Why? Because this is out of his grace.
Speaker 1:A lot of times we think that God came to people in the Bible because they were good people and God wants good people to do great things. That's not true. God comes to bad people like you and like me, and he saves us so he can use us to do great things. Amen. We're all bad when God comes to us, and Abraham had no knowledge of God when God came to him. So the Lord said to Abraham Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to a land that I will show you. The first word that the Lord told Abraham was to go. He told Abram to go. In other words, if we want God to bless our life, hear me, then we must do what God is calling us to do, because the blessing of God is the going with God, because God himself is the blessing.
Speaker 1:Often we want God to bless us with something that is outside of his will, something that might be outside of his character, something that might be outside of his nature, something that might be outside of his plan, but what God wants to do is he wants us to go with him. Or, as Jesus would tell people, he would just look at them and he would not say this. Jesus would not just say believe in me. Instead, jesus, there were times that he said believe in me, but Jesus would also say follow me. What is faith? Faith is when we are following Jesus. There might be a time in your life this might be the time of your life that God is physically calling you to go. Just five, six months ago is when God told my wife and I to go from Virginia into go to Georgia. God might be calling you physically to go not all of us but God is calling us spiritually hear me to go. That we're called to follow him. We're called to follow him and our families are called to follow him.
Speaker 1:Verse two in God said I will make of you a great nation, I will make of you a great nation. It's very interesting that God did not say to Abraham I will make of you a great person. He did not just say to Abraham I will make of you a great family. No, what God does, god sees so much further, perfectly out into the future. Hear me that God's blessing on our life and God's blessing on your family is so much greater. It is so much more than just you and so much more than just your immediate family. It's what God wants to do in you, it's what God wants to do through you, even past your death, even past your life, that God wants to bless your family for generations and generations and generations to come. In my house, as we're about to have our third child, that means in my house that, lord willing, in the future we're going to have four different families represented in our house.
Speaker 1:Right now, michelle and I, we need to think more deeply and further than God just blessing me, god just blessing her, god just blessing Michelle, god just blessing Cruz, god just blessing our baby girl to come, lord willing, that God wants to bless even all of us into the future, that he wants to make of us a great generation, all these generations to come. Which means because it's not just about us, it is not just about what we want, it is not just about what we think we need it means this that what we do with and in our family matters, because family matters. The way that we talk to each other, the attitude that we choose, the words that we use, the tone that we communicate with matters. The way that we pray together matters. The way that we talk about the Lord matters. The way that we respond to difficult and hard situations in front of our children matters. The way that we study God's word at home, both in front of them and with them, matters. What we put on our TV matters. The music we play in our vehicles matter. All these things matter why? Because family matters to God, because God loves family and he desperately wants to bless your family. But hear me, God will not bless your family or my family. On our terms. He can only bless his family on his terms. Why? Because his terms are best, his terms are right, his terms are true. Y'all sure are quiet. If you're following me, say amen, let's go.
Speaker 1:The second part of verse two says God says and I will, abraham, abraham, I will bless you and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. Abraham, I'm going to bless you and I'm going to make your name great so that you will be a blessing. Let's just break this down real quick, because I love studying the individual words of Scripture Most of all. The word bless means this. You won't believe it. I actually did not know that the Hebrew word bless meant this, because often I think, as I said earlier, we miss the blessing because we don't know what the blessing of God might look like.
Speaker 1:Did you know that the word bless means to live to the praise of God? To live to the praise of God. As Americans, we often think that the word bless means that we're healthy, wealthy and wise, that we have what everybody else has, or we have more than what everybody else has, or that we have everything that we want to have, or that we would have an easier time, or that life would be a lot more enjoyable, or there wouldn't be as many difficulties, there wouldn't be as much sadness, there wouldn't be as much despair. But God says when he's blessing us, we know that he's blessing us because then we're able to live to His praise, to His honor, to His glory. He says I'm going to bless your name and I'm going to make your name great. What is the word name? Name means this. Name means your reputation, your testimony. In other words, god is saying I'm going to make your reputation, I'm going to make your testimony, your influence, I'm going to make it to my praise.
Speaker 1:And then the word great means this it means large, loud and important. That's some of y'all in this room this morning and you think you're large, loud and important. Can I get an amen? Large, loud and important means this that God wants to bless you, that you would be a praise, a life of praise, to Him. He would bless your name, your witness, your reputation, your testimony, that before others, that it would influence them, it would be loud, it would be impactful, and that it would be important that they would see that God is greater to you than the world could ever be, because God, hear me. He loves to bless you and His blessing for you is greater than any blessing that you could ever bring upon yourself. God wants to bless you by His grace, hear me, so that you can be a blessing to your family. Can I ask you a question? Are you a blessing to your family? Do you love to bless your family? Because God says that he blesses, he loves to bless us so that we can be a blessing.
Speaker 1:You know what our sin does. Our sin likes to curse our family. Our sin likes to make our family about us, about our feelings, about our needs, about our wants, about our desires, and that's not a blessing to the family. A blessing to the family is when we're not sinning against our family, but we're there to serve our family. We're there to love our family. He wants to bless us, to be a blessing to our family. He wants to bless our family Hear me to be a blessing to other families. He wants to bless our family to just be a blessing to others, period. He says to Abraham, so that you will be a blessing. God doesn't bless you just for your life to be blessed. God has blessed you so that you could be a blessing to others. Can I get an amen? That's what he loves to do.
Speaker 1:Verse three says this he says, abraham, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in all the families of the earth, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. To be honest with you, we can't understand that passage of scripture without understanding what all scripture is ultimately talking about, and here's what I mean. So when we look at this and we say, okay, all the families of the earth are gonna be blessed in Abraham, and then everybody that curses Abraham are gonna be cursed, and in all these families of all the earth are gonna be blessed in Abraham, then why are we not talking about Abraham more? Because it's not ultimately about Abraham. This passage fits within the same theological filter as every other passage of scripture. In other words, in other words, abraham. The story of Abraham, of Abraham, is not about Abraham. The story of Abraham is ultimately about Jesus, and so the reason that God blessed Abraham is because God ultimately blesses Jesus and we find our blessing in him. Can I show you? Look at the screen.
Speaker 1:Second Corinthians, chapter one, verse 20, very quickly says this for all the promises of God find their yes in him. That is Jesus. That is why, through him, jesus, we utter our amen and amen to God for his glory. In other words, everything that God promised Abraham. Ultimately, all of those promises are meant for Jesus. If you're following me, say yeah. That's why we see in Ephesians 1-3, it says this blessed be the God and father of our Lord, jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Speaker 1:Has the realization come to you like it needs to come to me? Because of our sin, we get so off kilter spiritually that physical blessings are better. I'm sorry, spiritual blessings are better than physical blessings. Just to explain that for a second, spiritual blessings are better than physical blessings. Why? Because we want the physical blessings to make us feel a certain way. In other words, why do we want the new car? Why do we want the new house? Why do we want the new phone? Why do we want the boyfriend? Why do we want the girlfriend? Why do we want the husband? Why do we want the wife? Why do we want the kids? Why do we want the season of life? Why do we want the vacation? Why do we want the things? Why we want them because they can make us feel a certain way. We think but what if God says what if I don't want to use that thing or that person to make you feel that way? What if I just want to make you feel that way myself? See, the spiritual blessings outweigh the physical blessings. Look at it very quickly on the screen.
Speaker 1:Galatians 3, verse 16, says this. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. Singular the apostle Paul says, it does not say and to off springs. Plural, referring to many. But Paul says but the blessings only refer to one offspring and to your offspring, who is Christ. Jesus was in the family line of Abraham. Why? Because family matters to God.
Speaker 1:Now I've got three more points here. Got a little ways to go and you're not listening fast enough, okay, so I need you to listen a little faster. We've got to cover the rest of the sermon. We've only got a few more minutes. I want to give you three quick pictures of what it looks like of when your family is blessed by God. Are you ready? Check this out. Let me show you three quick pictures. This is number two. Point number two God blesses your family by the gospel. God blesses your family by the gospel.
Speaker 1:Look at what the word of God says in verse four, chapter 12. Verse four and Abraham went. In other words, abraham obeyed God, as the Lord had told Abraham to do. Abraham wasn't just a hearer of the word of God, abraham was a doer of the word of God. And so Abraham obeyed God, and it says this and Lot went with him. Abraham's nephew, abraham, was 75 years old when he departed from Herod, by the way, that is when God saved him 75, god saved him at 75. God called him to be the father of a great nation at 75, meaning, if you're not dead, god's not done, meaning that faith does not have an age on it. You know that God called a king Jehoash at the age of seven. God called Abraham at the age of 75. That God calls us at the beginning of our life where God calls us at the end of our life meant. The whole point is that God calls us that we're faithful to His call. Amen. He was 75 years old.
Speaker 1:Verse five and Abraham took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son, and they took all their possessions and that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Herod, and they all set out to go to the land of Canaan. This God called Abraham, but the whole family went. In other words, abraham was not just a spiritual follower, he was also a spiritual leader. He took his family with him. Abraham was saying I'm following God and I want you to come with me, as God's going to bless me. God is going to bless you and we need to tell our families that I'm following God and I want you with me because I believe that God's going to bless me, because I'm following Him and I want God to bless you.
Speaker 1:And when they came to the land of Canaan, abraham passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Morah. At the time of the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring we just read that in Galatians three to your offspring I will give this land. So Abraham built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. I love this.
Speaker 1:Abraham goes into the land that God had called him to go. It wasn't an empty land, it was an inhabited land. But Abraham goes in bold, courageous, faithful and in the midst of all the inhabitants. Abraham just plots down and he raises up an altar and he makes a sacrifice to God because he believed what God was calling him to do verse eight From there, abram moved to the hill country of the east of Bethel, in Pitch, just 10. And Bethel was on the west of AI was on the east and there again, abraham built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev, or in other words, wherever Abram went. He built an altar and he sacrificed and he worshiped to the Lord.
Speaker 1:Hear me, whenever we see that in Scripture, whenever they build an altar and they sacrifice and they worship the Lord, our mind must race to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, because the cross is the final fulfilling altar and Jesus is the final fulfilling sacrifice. In other words, we make our life all about the gospel. If you're struggling, if your family is struggling, if you're going through a season that looks dark, it looks hopeless, it looks endless, that I want to encourage you to refocus your mind and to refocus your heart and to refocus your life around the gospel of Jesus Christ, remembering that he has died. He has died because he has died, remembering that he has died for not only your sins, but also our faithlessness, which means he's died for our doubt, he's died for our hurts, he's died for our pain and he's risen from the dead that we might find our faith in our life and our salvation and our hope in him. Which means that we need to center our families, we need to shape our families around the gospel of Jesus Christ, which means how important it is that we continue to be a part of our church family and we invite our family to be a part of our church family or a church family, and we'd be a blessing to them. And maybe, if they won't come, you invite them but they won't come. Then you just get to talk about here's what, here's how God is changing your life through your church, but also through your relationship, your personal relationship with him, and we make our life just like Abraham. He, just wherever he goes, he makes it an altar of worship. Wherever we go, we just make it an altar of worship. Number three God blesses your family by your faith. God blesses your family by your faith.
Speaker 1:Look at Genesis, chapter 15. Verse one says this In these things, after these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision and he said Abram fear not. Now, why did he tell Abram to fear not? Because Abraham Abram was scared to death. Can you imagine the pressure that he must have felt that God was going to bless every family and all of these nations through him. Can you imagine the weight that must have been on his life?
Speaker 1:And he is thinking I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I didn't have a Christian dad. I didn't have a Christian mom. I didn't grow up in church. I didn't grow up in Sunday school. I don't know all these Bible stories, but yet God's gonna use me. He's scared to death. And God comes to him and he says Abram, I've got this. I'm the one that's gonna do this through you. I don't need you to fear. Here's what he says I am your shield. In other words, I'm going to protect you. He says I am your very great reward. Your reward will be very great. God is saying listen, you know what reward means. Hear me. It means worth that you don't find your worth in your family, in the success of your family, in the well-being of your family. You find your worth in God. God is what ultimately brings your worth and God is what is to bring their worth.
Speaker 1:Verse two. But Abraham said oh Lord, god, what will you give me, for I continue to be childless. And in the air of my house, his Eleazar of Damascus. And Abraham said behold, you have given me, god, no offspring. How am I gonna have a nation if I don't even have a child? And a member of my household will be my heir?
Speaker 1:Verse four and behold, the word of the Lord came to Abram and said this man is not gonna be your heir, for your very own son shall be your heir. Abraham is 75 years old. I have yet to be in a prayer meeting where someone Sarah is 65, where someone in their 60s or 70s said hey, can you pray for us, for a pregnant pastor, ship Winner, 60s, inter 70s, but we're having a baby. I have yet to have that happen. But Abram was saying God, this is impossible. And here's what's amazing. He said your very own son shall be your heir. Listen. And he brought Abram outside and he said look toward heaven and number the stars. If you are able to number all of the stars in the sky, then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed, abram believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Speaker 1:Hear me, if you feel like that, you are going through an impossible time in your life, in an impossible time of your family, it is absolutely. You're absolutely right. It is impossible without God. But only with God does God make impossibilities possibilities. Because why? Because only God can do miracles. God is gonna be faithful to the promise that he's given you. He's gonna be faithful to what he's promised you, but he loves to do it in such a way that you know that it's not you that did it, so you don't take the credit, but only he who could provide it, so that he gets all the glory. And so what do we do? We show people our faith when they think we're going through a faithless time. We show people our faith when we're going through a hopeless time. It's real easy to show people our faith when everything is great, but when people see our faith when things look hopeless, that's when they know that our faith has changed our life.
Speaker 1:Abraham looked and he believed, and the Bible says it was counter to him as righteousness. That word that he uses in the New Testament is justification. You know what your justification is? Your justification is your salvation. It's when you were declared righteous by God. Because we can't work our way to heaven. We can't obey, we can't do enough in order for God to save us. God has got to come to us and he's got to justify us. He's got to declare, he's got to make us righteous so that, so that through faith we are saved. For the people who say I'll believe in God when I see Him do this faith is believing God before he does it, not after. We need to believe God that he is going to fulfill, he's going to be faithful to His promises before he does it. That is real, true faith.
Speaker 1:In number four and I'm done. I need you to know that God blesses your family by His covenant. What is a covenant? A covenant is a promised agreement between two parties. Here's all I want to do In finishing this sermon. I just want to read you the scene and I just want you to go there with me and I want you to imagine it, what it would be like if you were there.
Speaker 1:In chapter 15, verse seven, it says in God said to Abram I am the Lord who brought you out from the ear of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. But Abram said oh Lord, god, how am I to know that I shall possess it. Doesn't that bring us comfort? That all throughout Abraham's life, all throughout Abraham's story, that he still has questions, that he still has doubts, that he still has fears, and God always entertained them, god always answered them, god was always patient with them Verse 9,. And God said to Abram bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle, dove and a young pigeon. Listen, abram brought all of these to God and Abram cut them in half and he laid each half over against the other. In other words, he laid the halves on each side so that there was a path down the middle. Abram didn't cut the birds in half and when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, abram drove them away.
Speaker 1:I believe that that was the work of Satan. Whenever we see God doing a miracle, god doing something important, satan is always trying to stir it up. My little girl is sick this morning and she's at home. Do you know when she gets sick? Every Saturday night she gets sick. I think that the devil knows that God's hand is on her life and the devil knows that he doesn't want her or my son, or my wife and church. Satan is always trying to start something. He's always trying to stir something up. Whenever you can tell, whenever your life is in chaos, it's because God wants to do something so important that the devil is trying to bring in turmoil. If you know what I'm talking about, say amen. That's what he's always trying to do.
Speaker 1:Verse 12,. And the sun was going down and a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold, a dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. Then the Lord said to Abram know for certain that your offspring will be so journers in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. Do you know what he's talking about? He's talking about Egypt. Egypt is hundreds of years later. God says I'm gonna make you a great nation and, by the way, they're gonna go and be enslaved in Egypt for 400 years. In other words, I'm gonna bless you, but that doesn't mean that everything's gonna be easy. God says I'm gonna bless you, but that doesn't mean that you are just gonna have a comfortable life. In fact, a pattern of Scripture is that suffering always comes before greater blessing. The more you suffer, hear me, and the more you're faithful in your suffering, the more blessing you will see out of your suffering when the Lord brings you from it. Verse 14,. He says but I will bring judgment on that nation, on Egypt, that they will serve, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. And Abram. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. In other words, hear me, god's blessing on Abram wasn't even about him, it was about the generations to come after him. Verse 17,. And we're done. And when the Son had gone, dark, had gone down, and it was dark, behold a smoking fire pot, which was the presence of the Lord, and a flaming torch. The presence of the Lord passed between the pieces. And on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying to your offspring, I will give this land. Let me just explain this very quickly.
Speaker 1:This was a very common way for two people to make a covenant, for two people to make an agreement together. There were some that were called a conditional covenant. A conditional covenant is when two people would get together. They would bring the animals, they would cut them in half, they would place them on each side and both people would walk through the path of the cut pieces of animals, saying if I break this covenant with you, may this happen to me. But this was not a conditional covenant, this was different. This was an unconditional covenant. Notice, abraham didn't walk through the animals, only God did.
Speaker 1:God is saying this covenant is up to me, it's not up to you. God is saying I'm gonna be faithful to you even when you're not faithful to me. This is out of my grace, this is by my gospel. All I'm asking you to do is to have faith. All I'm asking you to do is to respond. All I'm asking you to do is just go, just come with me, just follow me. Just remember that this is my heart, that your family matters to me, and I want to bless your family. And this ultimately points us to when God fulfills his covenant. And it was only him, the Son of God, that was on a cross, that we don't have to die for our sins, that Jesus hung on the cross. He was crucified for you and for me. He died for our sin. He was the one that authorized the covenant of God so that we can have relationship with him. Why? Because the greatest blessing in our life is salvation. The greatest blessing in your family is salvation.
Speaker 1:I was reading Brooklyn and her little children's Bible the other night. We're reading about the flood. The story took a turn. I wasn't expecting it when she started asking me questions, very morbid questions. She's kind of messed up. Kind of morbid questions about the flood. She said hey dad, what happened to all the people outside the boat?
Speaker 1:I said well, they didn't make it. Four-year-old question, four-year-old answer. She said well, what do you mean? They didn't make it. It's never good enough. It's always why you know what more?
Speaker 1:I said well, babe, again, she's going to sleep, I don't want to give her nightmares. They passed away, they died. Well, how did they die? Well, they drowned. They drowned in the water. Well, what's that? Like, I don't know, I've never done it, I don't know.
Speaker 1:And she said well, where did they go after they drowned? I was like oh gosh, well, there's heaven and there's hell. And they went to hell. She said what's hell? I was like there's heaven and there's hell. It's the other place than heaven, babe. And she's like well, what do you do there? And I said I don't know. I've never been. I really wanted to go to sleep, right, and so I'm trying to just be so careful.
Speaker 1:And she said, dad, am I going to heaven? And she just gave her life to Jesus a couple of weeks ago. I said, babe, you just gave your life to Jesus. You believe in Jesus. You're going to heaven when you die. And she said, dad, are you going to heaven? I said, baby girl, daddy believes in Jesus. When I die, I will be in heaven with him and with you. She said, does mommy believe in Jesus? I said, babe, your mommy believes in Jesus. She's going to go to heaven. She said, who else is there? I said, well, your grandma's there, my wife's mother. I said your uncle, chris is there, your wife's, my wife's brother and and. And she said, well, is Paul Paul going? I said Paul Paul believes in Jesus. He'll is granny, she'll go to heaven. She believes his grandpa. Yes, she said I know a lot of people in heaven, dad, I'm gonna get tired just talking to all of them. The one she told me, I'm just gonna get tired talking to him. And then she said she said, dad, is Cruz going to heaven? He's one. I said, babe, I hope so. If he gives his life to Jesus. She said, is my little baby sister going to go to heaven? I said, babe, I hope so, if she gives her life to Jesus, because it's never a given.
Speaker 1:Our family matters because salvation is not just a given for our children. So the way that we live matters, the way that we worship matters, the way that we pray matters, the way that we follow God matters, because all of these family matters are pointing us to the greatest blessing that God can ever give our family, which is salvation. And I pray to God that my children, all of my children, will be saved. I pray to God that all of your children will be saved. I pray to God that all of our families will be saved.
Speaker 1:I've got unsaved family members, just like you have unsaved family members, and so the way that we do family matters, can I ask us all to bow our heads and close our eyes, with every head bowed and every eye closed this morning. I just want to give you an opportunity right now just to maybe even raise your hand. I'll just to maybe even pray for family members by name God knows them and God knows your prayers that we can just pray for these family members by name and we can ask God to save them. We can beg God that he would bring them to salvation, faith and their life. And we can ask God, god, would you bless my family? You can beg God, god, would you bless my children? Would you bless my parents? Would you bless my grandparents? Would you bless my brothers and sisters? God, would you bless my family. God, may we be to your praise and to your honor and to your glory. God, would you bless us, would you make our name great and that our name brings your name glory. God, would you give us influence, father for you, and maybe this morning that you need to give your life over to God finally, fully and for real, not holding anything back.
Speaker 1:And maybe this morning, right here, right now, you just need to pray from your own heart and your own words. You just need to pray right here. God, I believe in you and God, I need you. And from your own heart and your own words, you can pray in God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I ask you to forgive me of my sin.
Speaker 1:God, I want to turn away from my sin and God, I pray that I will live my life for Jesus. I want to turn and follow after him. And you can pray from your own heart and your own words that God, I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, because the Bible says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord of your life Jesus be my Lord and believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So you can pray and you can ask him that, if that's you this morning, I pray that today is your day of salvation and we pray all these things in Jesus' name. And all God's people said can we put our hands together this morning? Can we put our hands together for anybody that just gave their life to Jesus, because there is no greater decision in all of life. And here's what I want to ask us to do. I want to ask us all to stand together right now. And if you have a next step card in front of you, if you need to grab one of those, fill it out after the service, you can take it to our next step station, but right now we're just going to sing. I'm going to be real honest.
Speaker 1:I threw Will a curveball two days ago while he was gone, and in Alabama he's been leading teenagers and worship all weekend at a conference and I said, will, we got to change it up, man. We've got to sing this song called the Blessing, this song called the Blessing. If you know this song, I want to encourage you to sing this song. I want to encourage you to sing it over your family. I want to just to encourage you this morning to sing this song over all of the families that are represented in this room. I want you to sing it as though this song is your prayer. I want you to sing it as the song is your worship, Believing that God wants to bless our families for his praise. So let's sing this song together over our families and over one another's family. Let's sing the Blessing.