Speaker 1: So Father, we just thank you that you're preparing the
Speaker 1: way right now for our summit, our conference, our solemn assembly,
Speaker 1: our gathering together.
Speaker 2: We just bless you for it.
Speaker 1: We know that it's going to be awesome that you've
Speaker 1: called us to it, and we give you the praise
Speaker 1: for it in Jesus' name. And everybody said, the title
Speaker 1: of my message today is selling out your Inheritance, and
Speaker 1: I'm starting out of I got this lozenge in my
Speaker 1: mouth and it's too powerful.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: We filled that one with eucalyptus or something. It's a
Speaker 1: whole eucalyptus tree in one lozenge. Genesis twenty five, Selling
Speaker 1: Out Your Inheritance gis twenty five.
Speaker 2: This is a little bit.
Speaker 1: Of the story of how Jacob came to be. And
Speaker 1: so it's the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Those
Speaker 1: are the biblical patriarchs of Israel and of Faith and
Speaker 1: of the Christian faith, and so Verse twenty five. Chapter
Speaker 1: twenty five talks about Isaac and the birth of Jacob.
Speaker 1: And so you know that Jacob became Israel. So God
Speaker 1: changed his name and he became the father of what's
Speaker 1: known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel right. So I
Speaker 1: want to pick it up at verse nineteen though, and
Speaker 1: I want to pick up this story, and it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of the story of how Jacob got his
Speaker 1: birthright or how he came into the position of the
Speaker 1: lead of the inheritance. So this is part of the story.
Speaker 1: I want to just dive into this because I want
Speaker 1: you to see what happened, and I want you to see.
Speaker 2: How powerful this is.
Speaker 1: So this is the account of the family line of
Speaker 1: Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and
Speaker 1: Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebeccah, daughter
Speaker 1: of Bethel Weal, the Aramaean Aram and sister of laban
Speaker 1: are Aramian. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of
Speaker 1: his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his
Speaker 1: prayer and his wife, Rebecca, became pregnant. The babies jostled
Speaker 1: each other within her, and she said, why is this
Speaker 1: happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord,
Speaker 1: and the Lord said to her, two nations are in
Speaker 1: your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated.
Speaker 1: One people will be stronger than the other. The older
Speaker 1: will serve the younger. When the time came for her
Speaker 1: to give Bertha the twin boys in her womb, the
Speaker 1: first come out was red, and his whole body was
Speaker 1: like a heavy garment, so they named him Esau. After this,
Speaker 1: his brother came out his hand grasping Esau's heel, so
Speaker 1: he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when
Speaker 1: Rebecca gave birth to them. The boys grew up, and
Speaker 1: Esau became a skillful haunter, a man of the open country,
Speaker 1: while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. Isaac,
Speaker 1: who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but
Speaker 1: Rebecca loved Jacob. Now I wonder if that love for
Speaker 1: Jacob was somewhat related to the words she received concerning
Speaker 1: Jacob and what would happen with Jacob. Because she wasn't
Speaker 1: maybe favoring so much the firstborn as she normally would
Speaker 1: have in this culture, she recognized something was going to
Speaker 1: happen with Jacob. Once, when Jacob was cooking, some stew
Speaker 1: saw came in from the country, famished, and he said
Speaker 1: to Jacob, quick, let me have some of that red
Speaker 1: stew unfamished, and Jacob replied, first, sell me your birthright. Look,
Speaker 1: he said, I'm about to die. What good is the
Speaker 1: birthright to me? But Jacob said, swear to me first.
Speaker 1: So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright
Speaker 1: to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some
Speaker 1: little stew. He ate and drank and got up and left,
Speaker 1: and so Esau despised his birthright. So this is, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a great metaphoric story. It's a real story. It's
Speaker 1: a true story. It's a sad story for Esau. In
Speaker 1: many ways. It was part of the tapestry of Jacob
Speaker 1: and part of the tapestry of how he became the
Speaker 1: air of the promise. It's part of the story. But
Speaker 1: it's a sad story for Esau. And there's a metaphor
Speaker 1: within the story, like a biblical metaphor, as there is
Speaker 1: all the way through many of these passages and Genesis,
Speaker 1: there's a biblical metaphor in the story. And so we
Speaker 1: can find some things that happen here that transpire in
Speaker 1: Genesis with these real life people, though, that give us
Speaker 1: a metaphoric or a parable reality that we can glean
Speaker 1: from and grow from. He sold his birthright for a
Speaker 1: bowl of soup. How many of you think he should
Speaker 1: have done it? No, what's the birthright?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: The birthright represented so many things. It represented his inheritance.
Speaker 1: Puritance of the firstborn was to be a double portion
Speaker 1: of any of the others that would be coming into
Speaker 1: the family, so they would receive a double portion. Now,
Speaker 1: I know, when mom and dad wolf pass away, all
Speaker 1: the kids will be lining up for an equal portion, right,
Speaker 1: But in those days, the firstborn would receive the double portion.
Speaker 1: So it meant double portion, It meant leadership in the family.
Speaker 1: The first born became the leader of the family. It
Speaker 1: meant judicial authority. This is interesting. So authority was granted.
Speaker 1: The firstborn inherited the father's judicial authority over the family line,
Speaker 1: and it meant priesthood. The firstborn became the family priest.
Speaker 1: So all of this Esaw was willing to give up
Speaker 1: over a bowl of soup, over a bull of soup.
Speaker 1: And what I find that is just super interesting about
Speaker 1: the story. Super crazy about this story is that what
Speaker 1: he was trading away and what he traded away for
Speaker 1: it wasn't like a bull of soup is something that
Speaker 1: he could have easily had a bull of soup wasn't
Speaker 1: wrong for him to have a bull of soup, wasn't
Speaker 1: illegal for.
Speaker 2: Him to have.
Speaker 1: You know where my mind goes, is that are we
Speaker 1: trading away our inheritance or God's word over our lives,
Speaker 1: or God's will for us, or God's God's calling of
Speaker 1: us for something that is not even sin? Like it's
Speaker 1: one thing like David Nearly traded the kingdom and his
Speaker 1: calling for his relationship with Bethsheba. Right, and we know
Speaker 1: that that there was a judgment that came to David,
Speaker 1: and we know that the first son of the two
Speaker 1: of them died, and so we know that it harmed
Speaker 1: the kingdom, that that that whole. But we would we
Speaker 1: would look at that and we would say, yeah, but
Speaker 1: that was sin. That was definitely sin. How many of
Speaker 1: you would say that was sin? So you know, we
Speaker 1: would look at that, we would say, well, that was
Speaker 1: that was really a sin issue. And and so you
Speaker 1: know this this this is different, but yeah, it's different,
Speaker 1: but it's different in a very interesting way because in
Speaker 1: this case, Esau was willing to sell his birthright or
Speaker 1: really the will of God over him or the word
Speaker 1: of God over him, or his rightful place in family
Speaker 1: and in literally the leading the lineage of the future
Speaker 1: for something that wasn't sin, for something that wasn't sin.
Speaker 1: And so I'm kind of pondering that because I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: you know, is that the case with us when I'm
Speaker 1: watching and I know the Lord's dealing with me on
Speaker 1: this as well. But when I'm watching the failures or
Speaker 1: the public failures or the brought to light failures of
Speaker 1: be It, there was new things out about Todd Bentley
Speaker 1: this week, and I got people reaching out to me
Speaker 1: about Todd Bentley this week, and these new things that
Speaker 1: we're going to be shared. And then there's the recent
Speaker 1: issues with Chris Reid. There's the recent issues with Rick Joiner,
Speaker 1: there's the recent issues with Mike h. Bickle, there's the
Speaker 1: recent issues with So it's just name after name, it's
Speaker 1: name after name. It's almost like week after week there's
Speaker 1: something new coming out, and I see that stuff happening.
Speaker 1: Number One, I feel like this is what the Holy
Speaker 1: Spirit's saying, is that that's a microcosm of what's happening
Speaker 1: in the entire body. There's disobedience everywhere. If it's in
Speaker 1: our leadership, shame on us for scolding our leaders, like
Speaker 1: we're something great if it's in the leaders of our
Speaker 1: networks and our and our if it's if it's globally like.
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, and so please, please please.
Speaker 1: I mean, when I see this stuff, because I know
Speaker 1: the frailty of my flesh and you don't know it,
Speaker 1: but I know it. When I see this stuff, I
Speaker 1: am I'm like humbled. I'm brought to a contrite position.
Speaker 1: I find myself being super empathetic and cautious and careful
Speaker 1: and getting on my knees and not posting something new
Speaker 1: on Facebook book or railing against them, because if not
Speaker 1: for the grace and the mercy of God, there go I,
Speaker 1: there go I in some dimension. But again, those are
Speaker 1: sin dimensions. And yet I think the Lord is wanting
Speaker 1: to highlight the things that have a sin dimension, so
Speaker 1: that we would pay attention to the things that don't
Speaker 1: have a sin dimension, because I think that we are
Speaker 1: forfeiting the blessing of the Word of God over us,
Speaker 1: or the call of God over us, or the Word
Speaker 1: of God over twenty twenty five, or maybe we thwarted
Speaker 1: the word of God or wild with inheritance potential. It's
Speaker 1: the Word of God that is filled with authority, potential,
Speaker 1: judicial authority, potential. The Word of God is filled with
Speaker 1: these things. And we get instruction, and we choose a.
Speaker 2: Bowl of soup instead. I do. Now.
Speaker 1: We choose the bowl of soup because we're hungry. We
Speaker 1: choose the bowl of soup because the bowl of soup
Speaker 1: is natural, it's normal, it's dinner time.
Speaker 2: This is what I do. I eat soup.
Speaker 1: God, what in the world are you doing with me?
Speaker 1: I'm a soup eater. I eat soup. It's soup time.
Speaker 1: Can I not have my soup? And this is where,
Speaker 1: this is where even what we do is we even
Speaker 1: compare ourselves among ourselves. We compare ourselves among ourselves to
Speaker 1: justify our soup eating. You thought what I'm saying? So
Speaker 1: in other words, well, you know, they don't have to
Speaker 1: pray all the time. Why do I have to? You know,
Speaker 1: they don't have to do this. They don't seem to
Speaker 1: do that. They aren't called to this. Well, they get
Speaker 1: to watch this. How come I don't get to watch this? Well,
Speaker 1: they have that kind of a thing. They have this,
Speaker 1: they have that. And so we compare ourselves among ourselves.
Speaker 1: But Romans fourteen four says, quit paying attention to one another.
Speaker 1: You're only gonna give account unto me. What do you
Speaker 1: have to do with another man's servant? Quit examining others
Speaker 1: and justifying your own choices, and it all comes really,
Speaker 1: it all comes down to obedience. We called him Lord,
Speaker 1: but I don't know that we really mean it. This
Speaker 1: is what he's saying to me, and he's saying to me, Dwaine,
Speaker 1: I need you to really mean that I'm Lord, not
Speaker 1: just mean that I'm Savior. We all want savior? Do
Speaker 1: we want Lord? And again, what I want you to
Speaker 1: focus on today, because this is how the Lord's dealing
Speaker 1: with us. He wants us focused on things that are
Speaker 1: legal to do. Because what happens is we know the
Speaker 1: things that are illegal to do, that's the Lord's territory,
Speaker 1: and we may allow him to chasten us or rebuke
Speaker 1: us over those things.
Speaker 2: But the things that.
Speaker 1: Are legal to do, whoa whoa, whoa, whoa whoa, That's
Speaker 1: where I'm Lord, And so we'll present, we'll present, will
Speaker 1: present all sorts of stuff to him. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna lie to you or hanging with girls that do.
Speaker 2: I mean, we're.
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna present that stuff to him. Right,
Speaker 1: we're gonna you know, I got the ten Commandments down
Speaker 1: I know about okay, Lord, all right, okay, none of
Speaker 1: that behavior, none of that activity.
Speaker 2: Got that down.
Speaker 1: And of course the Lord's dealing with that at this
Speaker 1: time as well, because he's preparing us. The spirit of
Speaker 1: Elijah is ministering to our hearts so that we prepare
Speaker 1: the way of the Lord. So I've got that down.
Speaker 1: I'm going to bring that to the cross, okay, Lord, Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, you're hurting me, houch.
Speaker 2: That helps? Okay, thank you. Lord.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Okay, I know, I know I shouldn't
Speaker 1: do that. That violates your commandments, and that is my
Speaker 1: sinful nature. I'll bring that to the cross. But Lord,
Speaker 1: don't be talking to me about.
Speaker 2: That out her stuff.
Speaker 1: But the Bible says, and I looked up a couple
Speaker 1: verses during worship because they were popping in my brain.
Speaker 2: Is this okay? Okay?
Speaker 1: Like Isaiah thirty twenty one. Isaiah twenty one says, and
Speaker 1: your ears will hear a word behind you, this is
Speaker 1: the way, walk in it, and your ears will hear.
Speaker 1: Now it's not your physical ears. He's not talking about
Speaker 1: your physical ears. Isaiah thirty twenty one. He's talking about
Speaker 1: your spiritual ears. Will hear the voice of the Lord
Speaker 1: as you're moving on a path that pleases him and
Speaker 1: a path that's unfolding before you that's of him, and
Speaker 1: you'll just kind of have this witness this is the
Speaker 1: way walk in it.
Speaker 2: There's another one.
Speaker 1: That I pulled up, and it's just such a great
Speaker 1: one and it says that he can direct this when
Speaker 1: our heart is tender, and what he really wants his
Speaker 1: tender hearts. And what happens is the more we kind
Speaker 1: of disobey, then the more we row a little bit
Speaker 1: of a colllessness over our heart so that we're not
Speaker 1: hearing the voice of the Lord or perceiving his ability
Speaker 1: to direct us. Husbands, you ever been directed with a
Speaker 1: foot under the table?
Speaker 2: Husbands?
Speaker 1: Have you ever been directed with her eyes like you're
Speaker 1: doing something dumb and she gives you that look?
Speaker 2: Right? Okay?
Speaker 1: Children? Children, you were all children once? Were you ever
Speaker 1: directed by mom or Dad's eyes like they give you
Speaker 1: the eye right?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: So this is you know, the Bible says this. The
Speaker 1: Bible says that our hearts need to be so tender
Speaker 1: to him. This is Psalm thirty two eight. I will
Speaker 1: instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.
Speaker 1: I will counsel you with my loving eye. I will
Speaker 1: counsel you with my loving eye. The Lord wants our
Speaker 1: hearts so tender. But he doesn't want just our sin
Speaker 1: presented to him, or our flesh, or our carnality, or
Speaker 1: our carnal desires or anything. He doesn't that's not the
Speaker 1: limit of lordship. He wants everything presented to him, and
Speaker 1: anything less means that as he sends his word, because
Speaker 1: woven into his word is an inheritance. Woven into his
Speaker 1: word is authority. Woven into his word is priestly empowerment.
Speaker 1: Woven into his words is all of this stuff. There's
Speaker 1: like a birthright of something special. Woven into all of
Speaker 1: his words. The word of his calling over your life,
Speaker 1: the word of his calling with your wife, a loas somebody,
Speaker 1: the word of his calling over your ChIL woven into
Speaker 1: every word over your life is an inheritance, a birthright
Speaker 1: of blessing and a double portion. And so he's calling
Speaker 1: us to no longer.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you a little bit about and I did
Speaker 1: have some stuff in here on Daniel Uh.
Speaker 2: But because this is.
Speaker 1: The Daniel fath. But I want to talk to you
Speaker 1: about I want to talk to you about Baalim. You
Speaker 1: ever heard of Bailim? Numbers twenty two, number twenty two.
Speaker 1: It says that Israel came up to the place where
Speaker 1: Moab was and the Moabites got afraid, right, they got
Speaker 1: super nervous, They got afraid. Let's read it. Chapter twenty two.
Speaker 1: Israelites traveled the plains of Moab and camped along the
Speaker 1: Jordan across from Jericho. Now, Beyloch son of Zippor saw
Speaker 1: all that Israel had done to the Emirates, and Moab
Speaker 1: was terrified because there were so many people. Indeed, Moab
Speaker 1: was filled with dread because of the Israelites. The Moabides
Speaker 1: said to the elders of Midian, this horde is going
Speaker 1: to lick up everything around us as an ox looks
Speaker 1: up the grass of the field. So Beyloch son of Zippora,
Speaker 1: who was king of Moab at the time, sent messengers
Speaker 1: to summon Baalim, son of Bior, who was at Pethor
Speaker 1: near the Euphrates River in his native land. Baylock said,
Speaker 1: the people's come out from Egypt. They cover the face
Speaker 1: of the land. They've settled next to me. Now, come
Speaker 1: and put a curse on these people, because they're too
Speaker 1: powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to
Speaker 1: defeat them and drive them out of the land. For
Speaker 1: I know whoever you bless is blessed, in whoever you
Speaker 1: curse is cursed. So the elders of Moab and Midian left,
Speaker 1: taking with them a fee for divination. Everybody say a fee,
Speaker 1: So they took some profit for the prophet, and when
Speaker 1: they came to Baylim, they told him what Bylock had said.
Speaker 1: Now I want you to see this story. Baalim is
Speaker 1: a prophet of God. He's a prophet of God, and
Speaker 1: the fame of him is throughout the region. And so
Speaker 1: Bylock is like super nervous. He's scared. He sees this
Speaker 1: great throng across and he knows that any moment they're
Speaker 1: going to attack him like they did the others before,
Speaker 1: and that he's going to be wiped out. So he
Speaker 1: sends for a prophet to come and curse these people
Speaker 1: that have come. But these are God's people. He's the prophet,
Speaker 1: and there's about to be some prophet. There's a fee
Speaker 1: for the divination. And this is kind of the bowl
Speaker 1: of the Soup thing is that God's trying to show
Speaker 1: us throughout scripture that regardless of the payoff, regardless of
Speaker 1: the enjoyment, regardless of the pleasure, even if it's legal
Speaker 1: to do, regardless of that which is available, we're always
Speaker 1: to choose the word of the Lord. We're always to
Speaker 1: choose to follow God. And here in this case, he
Speaker 1: illustrates this that if we don't, then there may come chastening.
Speaker 1: And I personally have this funny feeling that hundreds, if
Speaker 1: not thousands of Christians in the Body of Christ are
Speaker 1: under chastening from the Lord, and they don't even realize it.
Speaker 1: They haven't discerned it. We are not discerning the chastening
Speaker 1: of the Lord. We have hardened our hearts to the
Speaker 1: chastening of the Lord. We've literally put a boundary around
Speaker 1: everything legal and we've said this is mine, God, don't
Speaker 1: mess with it. It's legal to eat, it's legal to sleep,
Speaker 1: it's legal to watch television. It's legal to go where
Speaker 1: I want to go. It's legal to shop, it's legal
Speaker 1: to buy. Everything legal is mine. I'm the Lord of
Speaker 1: this territory. I don't even need to ask the Lord
Speaker 1: about it, because he gave me lordship over it. And
Speaker 1: then this is a very similar situation. It says that
Speaker 1: instead of telling them that he wasn't available to prophesy
Speaker 1: against the people of God, the very people associated with
Speaker 1: the God from whom he received prophetic utterance, instead of
Speaker 1: telling them that he told him, just stay the night,
Speaker 1: spend the night here, and I will report back to
Speaker 1: you in the answer with the Lord that the Lord
Speaker 1: gives me. And so the Moabide officials spent the night,
Speaker 1: and this is a picture of us kind of wrestling
Speaker 1: with the leading of the Lord. We kind of wrestle
Speaker 1: with it, We kind of struggle with it, we kind
Speaker 1: of argue with it. We're kind of like, well, I
Speaker 1: don't know if I really show out, I don't know.
Speaker 1: We're kind of struggling with it. And then we're kind
Speaker 1: of struggling with well, you know, if I don't do it,
Speaker 1: you know, am I you know? Is this legal for
Speaker 1: me to do? Is it not legal for me to do?
Speaker 1: Is it really sin for me to I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's really sin, I don't know. And
Speaker 1: so we see this whole wrestling thing going on with
Speaker 1: Balam and with this calling. There would have been no
Speaker 1: wrestling if there wouldn't have been a fee for divination.
Speaker 1: The reason there was a struggle is because of the
Speaker 1: reward available for going with them and cursing God's people.
Speaker 2: So he struggled.
Speaker 1: He struggled to the point where he finally even went
Speaker 1: with them. Right, So Balem got up in the morning
Speaker 1: verse twenty one, saddled up his donkey, went with them
Speaker 1: a bite of visuals. But God was angry with them.
Speaker 1: Now this is interesting. He hasn't even cursed the people yet,
Speaker 1: he hasn't followed through, He hasn't done anything. But God
Speaker 1: knows your heart. God knows that he's wishing he could
Speaker 1: do this.
Speaker 2: Did you know?
Speaker 1: God knows when you're wishing you could do something. God
Speaker 1: knows when you're not totally sold out on his word.
Speaker 1: God knows when you are holding back on his word.
Speaker 1: God knows when you're when you're wrestling with his word
Speaker 1: and you're wishing you could disobey his word.
Speaker 2: God knows that.
Speaker 1: And I'm here to tell you today it doesn't make
Speaker 1: God happy. And I don't know if you have room
Speaker 1: in your theology for a little bit of unhappiness out
Speaker 1: of God? Do you have room in your theology for
Speaker 1: a little bit of unhappiness out of God?
Speaker 2: Because you know, for years.
Speaker 1: We have developed, you know, the God is Love theology,
Speaker 1: and we've filled our churches with the God is Love theology,
Speaker 1: which is fabulous and wonderful. And I love that we
Speaker 1: have developed our churches into a God is Love theology churches.
Speaker 1: It's wonderful. It's not just here, it's all over the
Speaker 1: planet that there's been a shift toward God is Love.
Speaker 1: But have we developed this theology so deep that we
Speaker 1: can no longer allow him to rebuke us? If God
Speaker 1: rebuked you, would you recognize it? The way chastening starts
Speaker 1: if we could draw a graph, could if we could
Speaker 1: draw a graph on the whiteboard today, the way chastening
Speaker 1: starts is the same way chastening starts at your house.
Speaker 1: You know, first you say a honey, come back to
Speaker 1: the table and finish your dinner. H and then say
Speaker 1: thank you for the good dinner before you run off and.
Speaker 2: Play mightn't well rah.
Speaker 1: No, honey, come back to the table, get back and
Speaker 1: finish your dinner.
Speaker 2: I don't like green beans I know.
Speaker 1: They're not your favorite, honey, but these are good for you.
Speaker 1: Anything green is good, and so just sit down there
Speaker 1: and just finish your green beans. So it starts with
Speaker 1: a rebuke, right, it just starts with a vocal rebuke.
Speaker 1: But what happens is is that if it's not sin
Speaker 1: that the Holy spirit's leading us or convicting us away from,
Speaker 1: if he's not convicting us away from sin, then a
Speaker 1: lot of times we just rationalize it, we just argue
Speaker 1: with it. We just like, oh, you know, and we
Speaker 1: have all these mental gymnastics that are going on until
Speaker 1: we're able to quench his voice. When we're able to
Speaker 1: quench his voice, then what happens is that it escalates
Speaker 1: a little bit and he moves from speaking to afflicting. Now,
Speaker 1: my backside was afflicted many many times, thousands of times,
Speaker 1: my backside was afflicted because I didn't heed well the
Speaker 1: vocal rebuke. But he says in Hebrews twelve that this
Speaker 1: is him loving us. So when we have a God
Speaker 1: that loves us, and we've developed the theology of God
Speaker 1: loving us, but we don't allow him to rebuke us
Speaker 1: or chasten us, then we have a false love. We
Speaker 1: don't have a true father. We have a permissive father,
Speaker 1: we have a harmful father. We don't have a father
Speaker 1: that really cares about Because a true father cares about you,
Speaker 1: not only fulfilling the word that he gave you, but
Speaker 1: receiving the inheritance and the authority, the blessing of the word.
Speaker 1: And so this is, you know, this is how the
Speaker 1: chastening starts. In Hebrews chapter twelve. It starts with a rebuke.
Speaker 1: And here's the end of you know, this is the
Speaker 1: great story of the story of Bayleem, number twenty two.
Speaker 1: A lot of you are familiar with it. It says
Speaker 1: that he went off, but God was angry, and so
Speaker 1: Byalam was riding on his donkey and two servants are
Speaker 1: with him. And then the donkey saw the Angel of
Speaker 1: the Lord standing by the side of the road with
Speaker 1: a drawn sword, and so the donkey turns off the
Speaker 1: road and goes into a field. And so then Balem
Speaker 1: beats the donkey to get back onto the road, and
Speaker 1: so then they're going through a vineyard and then there's
Speaker 1: walls on both sides. The Angel of the Lord stands
Speaker 1: in front of the donkey, and God was opening the
Speaker 1: eyes of the donkeys. The donkey could see the Angel
Speaker 1: of the Lord, and so the donkey's like trying to
Speaker 1: avoid the sword of the Angel of the Lord and
Speaker 1: wax Balem's foot into the side of the wall. Right,
Speaker 1: are you seeing this? And so he beats the donkey again,
Speaker 1: and then the Lord opens the donkey's mouth, you know,
Speaker 1: and the donkey's talking to him like, haven't I been
Speaker 1: your donkey?
Speaker 2: Aren't I a good donkey? Have I failed you?
Speaker 1: Have I ever purposely crushed your foot before? No? You
Speaker 1: you actually haven't. You know, it doesn't occur to him.
Speaker 1: I'm talking to my donkey. And then it says, suddenly
Speaker 1: his eyes were open and he saw the Angel of
Speaker 1: the Lord, and then he realized he was being rescued
Speaker 1: from his own folly. So he got off the donkey
Speaker 1: and he bowed before the Angel of the Lord. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been rescued from that kind of chastening so many times.
Speaker 1: I've been rescued so many times that from severe chastening
Speaker 1: because I paid attention to the rebuke and I repented.
Speaker 1: And God is calling us to this place. God's calling
Speaker 1: us to this higher place. And this is really the
Speaker 1: life of Daniel Daniel could have been so frustrated that
Speaker 1: he had been stolen away and made a slave. He
Speaker 1: could have been so frustrated about so many things. He
Speaker 1: could have been so mad and angry. But he was
Speaker 1: looking for God's purpose. He was looking for God's purpose
Speaker 1: and he and then I can imagine how excited he
Speaker 1: was when he was chosen to be one of the
Speaker 1: selected ones in this new kingdom. That would have been
Speaker 1: exciting because he was redeemed out of whatever slavery. All
Speaker 1: of his brothers and sisters were in and brought into
Speaker 1: the palace, and then they bring him in and set
Speaker 1: before him all this choice food.
Speaker 2: He's a young man. You ever seen young men eat?
Speaker 1: They set him in front of all this choice food,
Speaker 1: and the Lord says, that's not for you, And he's like,
Speaker 1: what do you mean that's not for me. It's for everybody.
Speaker 1: It's for everybody. They said, it's for me. They said
Speaker 1: it's for me. Authority. I'm supposed to be under authority.
Speaker 1: Authority said it's for me, And the Lord said it's no,
Speaker 1: it's not for you. You're going to eat vegetables.
Speaker 2: I rebuke you, you.
Speaker 1: Foul demon, not a demon. This is the Lord talking
Speaker 1: to you. Stand with me this morning church, heads bowed,
Speaker 1: eyes closed, all across the auditorium. I want to do
Speaker 1: ask the prayer team to come to prayer team if
Speaker 1: you would come, and I do want this to be
Speaker 1: a solemn time where you're just thinking before the Lord
Speaker 1: in pray, and maybe even just come and offer something
Speaker 1: to the Lord on your own.
Speaker 2: If you.
Speaker 1: Desire prayer as we close, that's beautiful and appropriate as
Speaker 1: well someone to pray with you, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2: But just right now, with heads bowed, eyes closed, I.
Speaker 1: Want you thinking right now about the chastening of the Lord.
Speaker 1: It says in Hebrews chapter twelve starts with a rebuke.
Speaker 1: It starts with the rebuke, would you allow the Lord
Speaker 1: to rebuke you? A rebuke is something simple like that's
Speaker 1: not for you. A rebuke is something simple like turn
Speaker 1: to the left. I didn't say the right. I said
Speaker 1: to the left. It's a corrective word. It starts with
Speaker 1: a corrective word. And many times it's over something that
Speaker 1: we think everybody else gets to do. But you see,
Speaker 1: you're not everybody else.
Speaker 2: God has a.
Speaker 1: Special calling on your life. God has a special word
Speaker 1: for you, a special calling on your life. A special
Speaker 1: inheritance for you. God has something different for you. Do
Speaker 1: not look at others, look only to the Lord. What
Speaker 1: is the Lord calling you to do? What is the
Speaker 1: Lord saying to you? What is his word over your life?
Speaker 1: Whatever that word is, that's what you run with with
Speaker 1: all of your heart. And you never let a bowl
Speaker 1: of soup take that from you. You never let anything
Speaker 1: temporal steal that from you. So I'm asking you today,
Speaker 1: would you repent just where you are, head bowed, eyes closed?
Speaker 1: Would you repent even as we close in worship? Would
Speaker 1: you come forward maybe and just kneel before the Lord?
Speaker 1: Is there something in your life, something you've been choosing,
Speaker 1: something you've allowed, something that you didn't even count it
Speaker 1: as sin? Nobody counts it as sin. But for you
Speaker 1: it's sin because it's idolatry. It's idolatry. To disobey God.
Speaker 1: It's always idolatry. To lift up your choice against God's
Speaker 1: that's always idolatry. It's idolatry. To lift up your choice
Speaker 1: against God's that's idolatry. And if it's idolatry, then for
Speaker 1: you it is sin. And God is calling you to
Speaker 1: leave it alone, and to leave and to just follow him,
Speaker 1: Just follow him, just follow it, and then trust that
Speaker 1: in doing so, you've entered into birthright obedience. You've entered
Speaker 1: into birthright obedience. There will be an inheritance for you
Speaker 1: that's better than a bullet soup. There will be authority,
Speaker 1: priestly power, there will be everything else that goes with it.
Speaker 1: We're gonna worship as we go. I'm gonna ask you
Speaker 1: to respond. Stay as long as you need to, don't
Speaker 1: let anybody around you, leaving or staying, influence you. And
Speaker 1: if you need to come forward, do so. As we worship,
Speaker 1: and as we leave. Today we declare the word of
Speaker 1: the Lord made precious again to your heart, the word
Speaker 1: of the Lord made precious again, the calling of the Lord,
Speaker 1: the desire of the Lord made pressure again to your heart,
Speaker 1: and supreme above everything else,