WEBVTT 00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:08.240 Before we begin, let's take a moment to rally some of the people that may be watching on Facebook. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:10.640 Go ahead and text some of your family and friends. 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:13.599 Tell them that church is live, church is online. 00:00:14.240 --> 00:00:18.399 It's so great when we get as many people as possible watching at the same time. 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:24.559 For all those who are watching at home and continue to watch at home, thank you for leading from your living room. 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:27.120 We know that you are engaging in worship. 00:00:27.199 --> 00:00:36.799 We know that you're engaging in prayer and participating with the word and saying your amen and saying your preach it from your from your coach if need be. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.200 We want everyone to be engaged. 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:44.399 This is a part of our series, continuing the Be the Blessing series. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:49.280 And my name is Brody Kalman, and I'm the lead pastor here at KCC. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:55.600 We want to just thank you for joining us in this incredibly unique season that the church is in. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:01.600 We're talking about living with an open hand and loving with an open heart. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:09.920 And today we're talking about making a difference by sharing the blessing, what it means to share the blessing. 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:33.120 If you're having difficulty identifying with that word blessing, just think about it as sharing what you've been given, sharing the things that you've been given, sharing the experience, sharing the impartation, the things that you've been uh that have been placed in your heart, the lessons you've learned, the experiences you've shared, and being able to share that with others. 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:50.640 On behalf of our pastoral team, we want to say thank you to all of those who have participated with our Be the Blessing campaign over the last number of weeks as we've raised money for our missionaries in Kenya and Mexico and Israel. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:56.400 We want to say thank you for all the toys and the gifts that have brought been brought into the office. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:14.800 We've been able to package them up and are delivering them through our Heritage Christian School to the hospital and families from different churches in our community and partnering with the Boys and Girls Club to look for the needy in our community and helping support some of those families. 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:15.680 Thank you. 00:02:15.759 --> 00:02:20.080 There's so much to be done at this time of the year, and you're doing a big part. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:27.199 Today, this message is about a blessing, and I've entitled it The Blessing. 00:02:27.520 --> 00:02:34.639 And it's actually a blessing that God gives the words to in the scripture. 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:45.520 And that he gives this blessing so that it can be shared with his people. 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:51.919 So it's a blessing that God gives to us to share with others. 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:54.879 He gives this blessing first to the priests. 00:02:55.120 --> 00:03:12.080 He speaks of the priests, and this is Aaron and his sons in the Old Testament, and he says to them that this blessing that you share, you'll, when you share it, you'll actually put God's name upon the people who hear it when you do it. 00:03:12.560 --> 00:03:17.680 God's name will actually be imprinted on the people with this blessing. 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:28.560 And because God spoke this blessing to Aaron first as a priest, it's often called the Aaronic, Aaronic blessing or the priestly blessing. 00:03:28.719 --> 00:03:35.039 Um, but God gave it to him to be able to pass it through him to share with others. 00:03:35.280 --> 00:03:46.639 If you're born again, you are the people of God, and I want to share this peep, this blessing with you, so that you would have it in your tool belt to be able to share it with your family. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:57.280 In our home, for the last number of years, since the kids have been, my kids have been little, this is the blessing I pray over them before they go to bed at night. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:01.680 And they may lay in bed and I speak this blessing over them. 00:04:02.719 --> 00:04:06.400 This is an incredibly important portion of scripture. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.919 It's important to me, it's important to my experience. 00:04:10.240 --> 00:04:15.919 And when it's spoken, this blessing actually has a supernatural effect. 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:30.480 And so I'm praying that as you hear this blessing and I unpackage it for you, you in turn can experience the supernatural uh transference into your own home. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:55.439 Traditionally, as I mentioned, it was spoken by the priests over people and their families, and their hands would be held up, and traditionally, this is how it was done, the split fingers and the hands uh would be connected like this, and they would uh the hands would be formed in a symbol, a Jewish symbol for the word shh. 00:04:55.759 --> 00:05:06.399 It's like got the shh sound, and that shh sound comes from where we get the word al-shaddai, which means God is almighty. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:14.399 And oftentimes after the Sabbath meal in a Jewish home, children would be anxious to go out and play with their friends. 00:05:14.639 --> 00:05:31.279 The parent would come outside and would hold his hand up with the sun at his back, he would hold his hand out, and a shadow would fall, and the kids would come underneath the shadow of his hand, and he would begin to proclaim this blessing over them. 00:05:31.439 --> 00:05:43.680 And in uh transference, there was this imprinting that would happen on the child's life as God's name became imprinted on the children. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:49.439 It's a word of value, it's a word of honor. 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:56.399 So the scripture comes in New Numbers chapter 6, verses 22 to 27. 00:05:56.480 --> 00:06:07.120 And before I share it with you, I'm gonna break down each piece as uh and bring relevance to the to each portion of this blessing. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.759 And so it starts off by saying, the Lord bless you. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:15.120 And this word is often an abstract term. 00:06:15.199 --> 00:06:24.879 I know in our culture when we hear bless you, it's usually after a sneeze or after someone's coughed, and we respond to them with this blessing, bless you. 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:32.399 But oftentimes when you are blessing someone, you are honoring that individual. 00:06:33.360 --> 00:06:36.000 It's uh a term of honor. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:45.439 But when we examine this particular word deeper, it actually means to kneel, to kneel, to go down on one knee. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:54.879 And when we read this blessing, the Lord is posturing himself in front of you to offer you something of value. 00:06:55.040 --> 00:07:04.399 Now I can't do it particularly on video here, but can you imagine the posture of God as he kneels before you? 00:07:05.120 --> 00:07:09.519 This is his form, this is his posture to bless. 00:07:10.959 --> 00:07:18.560 And so we could say it this way: the Lord kneels before you, offering you something of value. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:28.399 And you know, you might find this difficult, as I do at times, to uh have a perspective of God kneeling before you. 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:33.519 All-powerful, all-knowing, all-present God kneeling before you. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:36.560 But it's a shift in our perspective that we need. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:56.079 In our culture, God is often viewed as this judge, a governor, this uh ruler that is looking over people not with a posture that's offering them something of value, but with more of a staff or a lightning bolt that you would see. 00:07:56.319 --> 00:08:01.360 But I see this as not uh a hierarchical relationship. 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:16.800 I see this as a familial relationship, where I have a relationship with a father God who's bending down on his knee to offer me a blessing, to offer me something of value. 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:22.319 Now, if we were to bring it into my home, I have a child. 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:31.279 In my child, I wouldn't just stand above them and brood above them and say, I bless you, I offer you something of value. 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:33.759 No, I would get down to their level. 00:08:34.080 --> 00:08:42.480 I would bend down to one knee, look at them eye to eye, approach them from that position, and offer them something of value. 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:45.039 Ask them the questions, what is your need? 00:08:45.120 --> 00:08:46.480 What is your desire? 00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:53.919 What's in your heart so that I can actually meet those needs, meet that desire, meet what's in their heart. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:09:00.000 This relational response is the first response God wants for us. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:02.879 He says, I am here to bless you. 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:10.000 The Lord blesses you, the Lord kneels before you, offering you something of value. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:12.960 Next, it says, the Lord keep you. 00:09:13.360 --> 00:09:16.240 This word keep is a strange word. 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:28.240 We wouldn't say, I keep you, or I keep, but this word it was actually very relevant to the nomadic people in Israel and the Jewish people at that day. 00:09:28.480 --> 00:09:30.559 As oftentimes they were shepherds. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:49.120 And these shepherds would go on long journeys taking their herd or the flock of sheep from point to point around the geography of the land there, finding streams of water and green pastures, etc., where they could eat and and rest. 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.960 But oftentimes there were predators in those areas. 00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:59.039 And so the shepherds would provide what was called a keep or some kind of acrell. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:07.279 And they would put thorns and all kinds of debris up against and create a wall. 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:28.639 And I have a picture of this here for you to visualize a wall around the sheep, and they would take turns watching the wall, making sure that there were no gaps in the wall to make sure that every sheep that was inside of that wall were secure and safe, safe from any type of predators. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:40.879 The shepherds kept this corral, they watched over it, and what God is saying here is he's saying, When I keep you, I'm going to provide a hedge of protection around you. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:44.960 And this hedge of protection is there to keep you safe. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:49.840 It's there to guard over you and that he's going to stand on guard over you. 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:51.679 Now, David understood this. 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:56.080 King David, in Psalm 91, he mentions it a number of times. 00:10:56.320 --> 00:11:08.320 He says, God, you're my refuge, you're my fortress, you're the one who covers me with the feathers of your wings, like a like a hen covers the chicks. 00:11:08.480 --> 00:11:11.679 It surrounds the chicks with her wings. 00:11:11.840 --> 00:11:12.960 That's what God does. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:15.120 He creates a hedge of protection. 00:11:15.279 --> 00:11:23.519 The Bible actually says he commands his angels to encircle around you, to guard over you. 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:38.639 This keep, this boma, as the people in Africa provide a bomb to secure themselves from the lions or the predators in the desert there, they create this bomb. 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:47.120 The Lord is saying, I've got you, I'm covering you, I'm surrounding you, I've got a hedge of protection around you to keep you safe. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:50.799 Nothing is going to get in and and and harm you. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:12:04.879 The Lord also says as the as the message goes, the Lord bless you, the Lord keep you, and the Lord make his face to shine upon you. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:08.639 And that's such an odd, odd mystery. 00:12:08.799 --> 00:12:11.759 The Lord makes his face to shine on you. 00:12:11.919 --> 00:12:13.200 What does that mean? 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:20.879 Now there's a great picture by Norman Rockwell, and this picture is called the Girl of Many Faces. 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:24.480 I've got another picture of this here for you to visualize. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:37.360 I just love this picture as it showcases the many faces in this in this in this one depiction of one character. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:42.399 When I look at this picture, I see all the different expressions. 00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:49.120 And the word face in this context of this blessing is plural. 00:12:49.360 --> 00:13:05.039 It means that God's many faces, God's many expressions, God's many views towards you are going to shine into your life, are bringing light into your life. 00:13:05.279 --> 00:13:11.519 Now, many of us can consider God's face and we think, oh man, I don't want God to look at me. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:18.000 But the fact is, when God looks upon you, he brings light into your life. 00:13:18.320 --> 00:13:23.919 He causes his face to shine on you, to bring light into your life. 00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:27.759 Now we all know that light creates order. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:47.039 I was in the bush with my dad, and we were out exploring out in the bush and doing our thing as as uh we like to do in the fall and winter months, and it came late as uh it gets dark early, and I found myself out in the bush and it was dark. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:50.480 And it came to a point where I thought, you know what, I'm gonna stop. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:14:00.720 I reached into my pack, I pulled out my my flashlight, and uh I turned on those lumens, and those lumens lit up the bush. 00:14:00.799 --> 00:14:05.519 And I'll tell you, at that point of time, everything came into order. 00:14:05.679 --> 00:14:15.600 I knew where to step, I knew where the pitfalls were, I knew where I would trip up, I knew my direction, I could follow my tracks in and out of the bush, I knew I'd be safe. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:28.080 When God's face shines on you, his many expressions are saying to you, I'm I'm gonna lead you out, I'm gonna bring order to your life, and it's gonna be okay. 00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:30.559 I don't want to walk in the darkness. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:34.320 I don't want to walk in a place where I don't have light. 00:14:34.480 --> 00:14:44.080 And when God's face, his expression is shining towards you, he's bringing light and order into your life, into your future. 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:49.519 The scripture also says that the Lord is gracious towards you. 00:14:49.759 --> 00:14:52.480 The Lord be gracious towards you. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:15:15.600 Most people define grace as this unmerited favor of God towards you, and this gracious expression to us means that God is willing and that God is able and capable to give you grace, to heal, to lift up, to strengthen, to rescue you. 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:21.919 He's there to help you find refuge, to find a shelter and a place of safety. 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:24.480 God's grace is there for you. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:31.679 Now there are seasons in our life, I'm sure, that you can empathize where it seems like we come to the end of our rope. 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:36.559 And we're at the end of the rope, and we feel like there's nowhere else we can go. 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:41.600 And that, the Bible says, is where God's grace becomes sufficient for you. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:45.840 God's grace is made mighty in your time of weakness. 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:52.960 That's where God can show up and where you have nothing left to offer, God comes in and offers you his help. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:57.200 When you have no strength, God comes in and becomes your strength. 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:01.919 When you have nothing to resource, God becomes your resource. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:08.399 And we look at this opportunity and we say, God is gracious to us. 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.519 His grace is there for us. 00:16:11.840 --> 00:16:17.919 It's a wonderful gift and it's so liberal, this grace towards us. 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:24.559 Lastly, this blessing says that the Lord grants you peace. 00:16:24.879 --> 00:16:26.399 He'll give you peace. 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:33.759 This word grant literally means to lay out and arrange a table for you. 00:16:34.080 --> 00:16:38.159 I think about this like a Christmas table or a Christmas setting. 00:16:38.320 --> 00:16:43.679 And I think of an elaborate Christmas setting where everything is laid out for you. 00:16:43.919 --> 00:16:53.360 You, your seat, the tabletop, the cutlery, the dishes, the glasses, the food, everything is laid out. 00:16:53.679 --> 00:16:59.679 God grants you, He lays out for you, He prepares for you peace. 00:17:00.159 --> 00:17:04.960 Peace is not just the absence of war or the absence of conflict. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:07.440 Peace is restitution. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:14.400 When there's peace that's been made, it means that there's restitution that's that's uh been made available. 00:17:14.559 --> 00:17:18.319 That means things that were stolen are returned. 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:19.839 Peace has been made. 00:17:20.079 --> 00:17:24.079 Things that have been borrowed have been returned with interest. 00:17:24.799 --> 00:17:29.359 These things, the restitution has been made for you in your life. 00:17:29.599 --> 00:17:36.480 And so when we come before God and He says, I'm going to lay out for you peace. 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:39.200 I'm gonna find restitution. 00:17:39.359 --> 00:17:43.359 What the enemy has stolen, the enemy will return. 00:17:43.680 --> 00:17:47.279 God will make sure that you get everything back. 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:56.240 And sometimes we look at our lives and we say, There are areas in our life where we're shameful of or where we don't want to go back to those moments. 00:17:56.319 --> 00:17:57.839 We think they're a loss. 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:05.519 And God's saying, If if you allow me, I'll redeem those times. 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:12.000 I'll take opportun times where you thought were lost and I'll use them as a blessing. 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:20.799 I'll take opportunities where you thought, or times where you thought were were uh were um rejection. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:24.640 I'm gonna help you find that acceptance. 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:33.759 God has us has us in a perfect place in that he's laid out a table for us and he's brought peace into our lives. 00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:36.720 This word peace is a very Jewish word. 00:18:36.880 --> 00:18:39.119 It means the shalom of God. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:44.559 The shalom of God, and we are no longer in a state of deficiency. 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:49.119 In other words, we have no more lack, no more need. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:51.759 We are in perfect peace. 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:55.839 We are non, we are not deficient in any way. 00:18:56.000 --> 00:18:58.400 We can live with complete wholeness. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:06.079 So this blessing, if you receive it today, is for you. 00:19:06.559 --> 00:19:36.240 And if you receive it as not coming from Pastor Brody, but coming from the Lord to you, I'd like to just share it over you and your family today as we conclude the series on the blessing, before we go on to our series, our message next week on Christmas, and it's just a wonderful message, but I want to conclude this message and this series blessing you, blessing you with the words of God towards you. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:53.200 So if you just prepare your heart, just prepare yourself to receive today, prepare yourself to receive this imprint of God's name on you, his identity, his inheritance, his blessing into your life. 00:19:53.599 --> 00:19:58.000 I'll say it the way it's written in the scripture here in Numbers chapter 6. 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:03.039 He says this the Lord bless you and keep you. 00:20:04.160 --> 00:20:11.359 The Lord make his face to shine upon you and on your life, and may he be gracious to you. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:19.200 The Lord turn his face towards you, and may the Lord give you peace. 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:20.960 Amen. 00:20:21.839 --> 00:20:38.880 If you were to say this in the translation that we viewed it today, I would say it this way: May the Lord kneel before you, presenting you gifts of incredible value, and guard you with a hedge of protection. 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:53.200 May the Lord illuminate and bring light and wholeness towards you from his being, bringing order and giving you sustenance and comfort. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:21:04.559 May the Lord give you his wholeness and may he look upon you and set in place all that you need to be whole and complete. 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:23.519 So this is the message towards you, and may you read this over your family, may you read this over your children when you pray it over each other, this blessing of God towards you, and may His name be imprinted on your life and in your heart. 00:21:23.759 --> 00:21:35.359 If you're listening today and you've never received Jesus, and you would love to have this same imprint and know this Jesus, then today I want to introduce you to him. 00:21:36.480 --> 00:21:39.519 The process is just very simple. 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:42.640 I make an invitation and you say yes. 00:21:43.039 --> 00:21:45.920 This invitation is to know Jesus. 00:21:46.079 --> 00:21:52.000 And we approach him with an open heart and we say, Lord, I I want to know you. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:56.640 I want to know this blessing in my life. 00:21:56.880 --> 00:22:22.880 And you accept it, and you accept it in your heart, and you acknowledge that you're in need, and that perhaps you've even done things wrong, you've rejected him and set him on the sidelines, and you're saying, I welcome you into my life to come and be the ruler of my heart and to bring order into my life and accept accept him today. 00:22:23.119 --> 00:22:31.279 So I'm gonna have a scripture on the bottom here, and I'm gonna invite you to pray this prayer along with me, and I'll read it along with you today. 00:22:31.599 --> 00:22:37.200 It goes like this Lord Jesus, thank you for coming to earth. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:56.000 I believe you died and you rose again so that I could be forgiven and have friendship with you, and right now I ask that you forgive me from all my sin, all that is separated you from me, and I let the past go. 00:22:56.640 --> 00:23:00.480 I ask you to come into my life to be my savior. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:04.720 I receive you today as my savior and my Lord. 00:23:05.119 --> 00:23:07.920 Make me the person you created me to be. 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:09.440 Thank you. 00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:10.799 God bless you.