Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Hello everyone.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is Pastor Benjamin.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: You're listening to the Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Pray together this prayer of illumination as we prepare to read God's Word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Join with me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God of mercy, the covenant promises in your eternal word do not change.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Holy Spirit, enable us to respond to your gracious promises with faithful and obedient hearts through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Amen.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Our scripture reading comes from Numbers chapter 22 and 23.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Please remain standing if you are able.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Balak, the son of Zipor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was in great dread of the people, because they were many.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Moab said to the elders of Midian, This horde will now lick us up, all that is around us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: So Balak, the son of Zapor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor, at Pethor, which is near the river, in the land of the people of Emma, to call him, saying, Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, they cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And this is verse 17.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him, and Balak said to him, What has the Lord spoken?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Balaam took up his discourse and said, Rise, Balak, and hear, give ear to me, O son of Zippor.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God is not man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Has he said, and will he not do it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Behold, I received a command to bless.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: The Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, What has God wrought?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Behold, a people.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: As a lioness it rises up, and as a lion it lifts itself.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: It does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: And Balak said to Balaam, Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: But Balaam answered Balak, Did I not tell you all that the Lord says, that I must do?
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: This is God's word.
Rev. Benjamin Kandt: Thanks be to God.
Kenneth Dyches: Good morning, new city.
Kenneth Dyches: Some of you notice that uh we are not talking about Balaam and his donkey today.
Kenneth Dyches: Fear not, it is in the children's worship guide.
Kenneth Dyches: So you can color along as you answer some questions if you want more information about that story.
Kenneth Dyches: No, what today we're talking about is blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: See, oftentimes when uh we say bless you to someone who sneezes, uh, we're not expecting that we will instantly heal them of whatever illness that they have, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Um, or uh if your southern grandmother uh says, bless your heart, we're not expecting that our hearts will become instantly sanctified and holy, are we?
Kenneth Dyches: No, oftentimes we don't fully understand what blessing means.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, when uh God's blessing is conferred in baptism, there's power there.
Kenneth Dyches: It's not just uh words that are nice, it's not just well-wishing.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, God's power and person and grace are over those people.
Kenneth Dyches: And so blessing has real power, as we will see in this passage and in our sermon today.
Kenneth Dyches: However, we often want to take blessing on our own terms, don't we?
Kenneth Dyches: Rather than receive blessing on God's terms.
Kenneth Dyches: And so why is that?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, we all have empty hearts that, absent of God's blessing, raise up alternatives and seek after those alternatives.
Kenneth Dyches: Those alternatives you can call idols.
Kenneth Dyches: Those are idols of our hearts that we go after.
Kenneth Dyches: That might be financial self-security, uh, where we're if we're financially stable, then you feel blessed.
Kenneth Dyches: It might be a comfortable and stress-free life, which looks like prayers that the Lord would keep everything calm and easy and stress-free.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe it's career and achievement.
Kenneth Dyches: You know, if if business is good, then then I feel blessed.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe it's relationships.
Kenneth Dyches: If I'm accepted by my friends or the opposite sex, if I marry the right person, then I will have the blessed life.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe it's image and self-branding, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Our social media curates our lives so that when people look at our feeds, they see a life that looks blessed, all of the highlights of our lives.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe it's self-health and spiritual autonomy or moral and religious performance, right?
Kenneth Dyches: If I do the right things, then the universe or God will give me good things in return.
Kenneth Dyches: Those are all things that our hearts, instead of going to God first, can go to in order to feel to fill the empty void in our hearts to find blessing on our own terms.
Kenneth Dyches: However, even though our hearts tend to do that day in and day out, there is good news, which is that God has already blessed his people.
Kenneth Dyches: We just need to kneel to receive it.
Kenneth Dyches: God has blessed his people, so we must kneel to receive it.
Kenneth Dyches: So my first point today is the definition of blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: What exactly is blessing?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, blessing holds real power.
Kenneth Dyches: And so if we look at Numbers chapter 22, verse 6, you can go ahead and if you have a Bible, you can open that, or a Bible app, you can go ahead and bust that out now.
Kenneth Dyches: Scroll and click your way to the right passage, is Numbers 22.
Kenneth Dyches: And so in verse 6, Balak says to Balaam, Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me.
Kenneth Dyches: Perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.
Kenneth Dyches: So Balach here, he truly believes that if uh Balaam is able to curse Israel, to revoke their blessing, then he will have real power to defeat them.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: So he's expecting this is more than well-wishing, this is an opportunity for him to defeat God's people.
Kenneth Dyches: Now that word Barak is a really, it's the Hebrew term for blessed in the Bible, uh, and it's a really important one.
Kenneth Dyches: Essentially, it means to bless and invoke with divine favor and abundant life, to bestow power for success, prosperity, and fertility.
Kenneth Dyches: So, blessing in scripture, the blessing over God's people is divine power for success according to God's terms, right?
Kenneth Dyches: And if we look at our passage, we see that Israel has God's blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: They have power, provision, and abundant life, and they have become an abundant people.
Kenneth Dyches: Go ahead and look at me at 22, verses 2 through 3.
Kenneth Dyches: Bloch, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.
Kenneth Dyches: And Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many, and they were overcome with fear of the people of Israel.
Kenneth Dyches: And then in verse 5, it even says that they covered the face of the earth and they are dwelling opposite me.
Kenneth Dyches: So this is a people who, in the verses just before this, it says that God gave over the enemy into their hands, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Because the tabernacle is with them.
Kenneth Dyches: The tabernacle is the throne of God, it's the footstool of his throne.
Kenneth Dyches: And so as the tabernacle goes with God's people, God's very presence and power goes with them against every enemy.
Kenneth Dyches: And so Israel has defeated uh the Amorites, who had actually already defeated the Moabites.
Kenneth Dyches: And so the Moabites are like, well, dude, what chance do we have versus these people?
Kenneth Dyches: In addition to that, they're an abundant people.
Kenneth Dyches: They've come out of Egypt, delivered by God.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and in Genesis chapter 2, verses 2 through 3, we see where this blessing has come from, why God chose this people.
Kenneth Dyches: And that reads, uh, God says to Abraham, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Kenneth Dyches: So here we see that Israel, they're a great people, they're defeating anyone they come across.
Kenneth Dyches: God is providing all that they need in the wilderness, he has delivered them from Egypt, and Balak is not ignorant of that.
Kenneth Dyches: He sees all of these things, and he knows that he cannot go against them on his own.
Kenneth Dyches: Israel has God's blessing, their power for success according to his will.
Kenneth Dyches: And that power is God's very presence.
Kenneth Dyches: In Numbers chapter 6, verses 23 through 27, it reads, The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel.
Kenneth Dyches: You shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
Kenneth Dyches: So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.
Kenneth Dyches: This is, of course, also the benediction that we speak over you at the end of the service every week.
Kenneth Dyches: And so notice a few things in this passage.
Kenneth Dyches: The name Yahweh is invoked.
Kenneth Dyches: The power for abundant life comes only from the life giver.
Kenneth Dyches: Second, his face and countenance are invoked.
Kenneth Dyches: God's personal presence is actually tied up in blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: And thirdly, his name is placed upon them.
Kenneth Dyches: God makes a claim over the people of Israel as his own when he blesses them.
Kenneth Dyches: And notice in our passage, if you look at chapter 23, verse 20, it reads, Behold, I received a command to bless.
Kenneth Dyches: He has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
Kenneth Dyches: God is the only source of blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: God is the life giver who created all things, and those who receive his blessing receive abundant life according to his purposes, power to succeed.
Kenneth Dyches: So why does blessing hold all of this power?
Kenneth Dyches: Why does God's blessing hold all of this power?
Kenneth Dyches: What is God's doing?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, it is in line with his character.
Kenneth Dyches: If we look at verse 19, Balaam says, God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind.
Kenneth Dyches: He has said, and will he not do it?
Kenneth Dyches: Or he has spoken and will he not fulfill it.
Kenneth Dyches: What Balaam is getting there at there uh is God's immutability, the idea that he does not change.
Kenneth Dyches: Now we change our minds all the time.
Kenneth Dyches: I don't know about you, but I uh resolve to work out every evening after my kids go to bed.
Kenneth Dyches: But lo and behold, uh I finally get my kids to bed, you know, after 30 minutes to an hour of trying to put them down, and that TV is very tempting.
Kenneth Dyches: And I turn it on and just see what's going on there.
Kenneth Dyches: I'll say, you know, maybe after I work out, I'll see what I'll watch.
Kenneth Dyches: And lo and behold, I'm watching Netflix for hours and I have not worked out at all.
Kenneth Dyches: And then it becomes a week and I have not worked out all week, right?
Kenneth Dyches: So you get it, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We change our minds.
Kenneth Dyches: Things, circumstances come up that move us in a different direction, not so with God.
Kenneth Dyches: When he resolves to do something, he accomplishes it.
Kenneth Dyches: He has given to Abraham a blessing that is, he is carrying out in Israel and God's people, and he will surely accomplish it.
Kenneth Dyches: And then that goes along with who he is.
Kenneth Dyches: Yahweh reveals himself to Moses and he says, Uh, My name is Yahweh Yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: This is the God who is offering to us his blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: He is good and merciful and gracious and pursues us in steadfast love, and he will certainly accomplish the blessing that he gives to us.
Kenneth Dyches: And so that power, that blessing is power for success, prosperity, and abundant life according to the one who has given you life.
Kenneth Dyches: But just to give you a brief illustration on what that looks like, oftentimes uh parenthood uh and parents with their children uh is an image in scripture to describe God's relationship with us.
Kenneth Dyches: So I'll tell you a little bit about my son Luca.
Kenneth Dyches: Luca uh just started karate recently.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh it's his first sport.
Kenneth Dyches: He was super stoked.
Kenneth Dyches: He walks in the first day and his lights just lit up.
Kenneth Dyches: His face lit up.
Kenneth Dyches: It looked like he was at um Disney World or something.
Kenneth Dyches: And he does his first lesson, he loves it.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh he comes in the next week, uh, he does a full lesson.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, he gets to break a board to earn his first belt.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh really excited.
Kenneth Dyches: You should have seen his face.
Kenneth Dyches: I delighted and his delight.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh lo and behold, fast forward two weeks, we've paid for the first three months because we're like, this kid loves this thing.
Kenneth Dyches: This is great, this is fantastic.
Kenneth Dyches: We're excited for him.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, I try to bring him into the dojo, and lo and behold, he does not want to go in.
Kenneth Dyches: And he doesn't want to get on the mat.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh, and he's cheerful.
Kenneth Dyches: He's worried.
Kenneth Dyches: Something has happened that has caused him to worry about uh coming onto the mat and maybe disappointing somebody or uh getting things wrong, not doing things right.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and so he doesn't want to do it.
Kenneth Dyches: And of course, as a parent, you're thinking, like, okay, I want to listen to you and love you well, but also I paid for the next three months.
Kenneth Dyches: So you kind of have to do it.
Kenneth Dyches: Um But you know, as gently as we could, we listened to him and encouraged him.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh I would pray for him as we went in.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and then uh the next couple times as I brought him in, they would let me do some of the moves with him on the mat.
Kenneth Dyches: And as I did that, he started to build up a courage.
Kenneth Dyches: He started to feel my presence and feel comforted by me.
Kenneth Dyches: He started to feel a power uh to succeed and to do well.
Kenneth Dyches: And lo and behold, in the next couple of lessons, now he's running around, he's doing it on his own, uh, and he knows that I am there and I am with him, even though I'm not right next to him.
Kenneth Dyches: In the same way, our hearts tend to be enveloped by fear and want to go to things uh opposite of what God wants for us.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet, when God, when we receive what God has for us, when we know He is with us, God's blessing gives us power to succeed in the same way that I bless Luca with my presence and give him power to succeed.
Kenneth Dyches: Yet, that being true, why does Baloch and why do we tend to still seek after blessing on our own terms?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, that leads me to my second point.
Kenneth Dyches: We've seen the definition of blessing, and now we'll look at counterfeit blessings.
Kenneth Dyches: So go ahead and look at Numbers 22, verses 1 through 4.
Kenneth Dyches: We see Balak seeking blessing on his own terms.
Kenneth Dyches: Then the people of Israel set out and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho, and Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was in great dread of the people because they were many.
Kenneth Dyches: Moab was overcome with fear of the people of Israel, and Moab said to the elders of Midian, This horde will now lick up all that is around us as the ox licks up the grass of the field.
Kenneth Dyches: So Balak, the son of Zapor, who was king of Moab at the time, did those things.
Kenneth Dyches: So what do we see?
Kenneth Dyches: We see fear, right?
Kenneth Dyches: The Moabites go to Bloch.
Kenneth Dyches: Block has seen all of these people, and fear is driving them, and it reveals their idol, right?
Kenneth Dyches: At this point, Israel actually, if you look into the details, they're miles from the border of Moab.
Kenneth Dyches: So at this point, they are not actively threatening Moab at all.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet they've seen what happens when Israel uh goes through a nation, uh, when God leads them uh in the direction of another nation, when a nation opposes them.
Kenneth Dyches: And so fear begins rising up that uh Israel will take from them their resources, that Israel will take from them their autonomy to rule themselves.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and so we see that their idol is self-autonomy, to do things in their own way, not to have to consider what God wants, uh but to go about it in their own way.
Kenneth Dyches: And that leads to sin, right?
Kenneth Dyches: So, what how do they respond?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, the king of Moab decides to go and recruit somebody who's known for blessing and cursing to go and curse Israel, to actively oppose God's people.
Kenneth Dyches: And so, even though the truth is right in front of him, right?
Kenneth Dyches: This people's come out of Egypt, they've defeated the Amorites, they're great in number.
Kenneth Dyches: He even, he and Balaam actually both use Yahweh's name, which means they know what God is over Israel.
Kenneth Dyches: They've heard of him.
Kenneth Dyches: God is making a name for himself by blessing Israel and deliver them, delivering them.
Kenneth Dyches: And so, nonetheless, he is coming against that God and this people.
Kenneth Dyches: And this is where we see his spiritual blindness.
Kenneth Dyches: We even see the fact that he he looks at the people of Israel and he says, They're gonna take everything from me.
Kenneth Dyches: They're like an ox, they're gonna lick it up.
Kenneth Dyches: But Balaam later will say, Well, this, they are like an ox, but God is their horns.
Kenneth Dyches: He is defending them.
Kenneth Dyches: And those who bless them will be blessed along with them, and those who curse them will be cursed against them.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet he still continues.
Kenneth Dyches: And this shows us the irrationality of our hearts towards our idols, right?
Kenneth Dyches: We like to think that we're rational beings, but when our empty hearts are deceived and go after wrong things, they tilt in the wrong direction direction and they just keep going.
Kenneth Dyches: Which is why Balak will continually try to curse Israel over our three chapters, even though Balaam keeps saying, I can only bless these people.
Kenneth Dyches: This is what God's given me.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet he continues in the wrong direction.
Kenneth Dyches: Eric Hofer, an American moral philosopher, says, You can never get enough of what you don't really need.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: Our hearts are always, as they go after our idols, uh, they can never quite get enough, and yet they keep going.
Kenneth Dyches: They keep going in the wrong direction.
Kenneth Dyches: Which is why Jim Carrey says, I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer.
Kenneth Dyches: Right?
Kenneth Dyches: He finally got exactly what he wanted, what his heart was going after, what he was filling the void with, and he realized I am still not satisfied.
Kenneth Dyches: This is still not the blessing that I was seeking.
Kenneth Dyches: So I wonder, what are you afraid of right now?
Kenneth Dyches: What idols lay behind that fear?
Kenneth Dyches: How are you responding in sin?
Kenneth Dyches: And how are you blind to the blessing that God is giving you, offering you in the midst of it?
Kenneth Dyches: How is your empty heart filling up and seeking something other than God?
Kenneth Dyches: A rational and perhaps subconscious, full tilt towards destruction.
Kenneth Dyches: So we see that Balak's heart is oriented that way.
Kenneth Dyches: All of our hearts, because of sin, are oriented in that direction.
Kenneth Dyches: And now we'll see what the opposite of blessing is.
Kenneth Dyches: So we've seen the definition of blessing, counterfeit blessings, and now the opposite of blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: Go ahead and look at chapter 23, verse 21.
Kenneth Dyches: The opposite of blessing is iniquity and the curse.
Kenneth Dyches: And we actually see the word for iniquity, one of the words for iniquity in chapter 23, verse 21, he says, Balaam says, He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob.
Kenneth Dyches: This is Balaam speaking of God beholding Israel, nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
Kenneth Dyches: The Lord their God is with them.
Kenneth Dyches: That word for misfortune is a word often used of the human condition of the human heart, and it carries a sense of emptiness.
Kenneth Dyches: The stress on emptiness that leads to idolatry and deception that leads to sin and wickedness.
Kenneth Dyches: See, back in Genesis chapter 2 and 3, deception, uh, the lies of the enemy led to Adam and Eve sinning against God, choosing a life apart from God, which was then the absence of the presence of God as they were banished from the garden and his receiving his curse instead.
Kenneth Dyches: Because as we saw earlier, God's very presence is his blessing towards us.
Kenneth Dyches: As he is with us and goes with us, we receive power for success and flourishing and abundant life.
Kenneth Dyches: But when their hearts were deceived by the lies of the enemy and they chose to fill them with the wrong things, they didn't receive the abundant blessing that God had for them.
Kenneth Dyches: Instead, they were receiving death, futility, and curse.
Kenneth Dyches: The opposite of blessing is curse.
Kenneth Dyches: And so the lies of Satan likewise deceive our own hearts into grasping onto idols instead of God.
Kenneth Dyches: And this leads us to curse as well.
Kenneth Dyches: Deceived hearts always end in curse.
Kenneth Dyches: Go ahead and look at Numbers 24, verse 9.
Kenneth Dyches: At the end, and the end of verse 9, it reads, Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you.
Kenneth Dyches: Balaam here is echoing God's blessing and promise to Abraham.
Kenneth Dyches: And after multiple attempts of Balak to curse Israel, Balak is now reaping curse instead.
Kenneth Dyches: And Balak will, in the next few verses, describe exactly how Israel uh will conquer the Moabites.
Kenneth Dyches: And so as our hearts continually move in the wrong direction away from God, eventually the blessings that we seek in our own power are going to fail us.
Kenneth Dyches: And when we when they do, we will be left not with blessing, but with curse.
Kenneth Dyches: Tim Keller says, when we turn good things into ultimate things, they become our curses.
Kenneth Dyches: Every idol starts with something good, whether it's work, family, or comfort.
Kenneth Dyches: But when the heart elevates it above God, it inevitably destroys the one who clings to it.
Kenneth Dyches: And yet the good news is that though our hearts are like that, this is not the end.
Kenneth Dyches: We can receive the blessing of God.
Kenneth Dyches: See, receiving the blessing, this is my fourth point, receiving the blessing requires surrender.
Kenneth Dyches: We open our hands when we receive the benediction, and God proclaims his blessing over us because we are saying we want not the things of our own heart that it tries to grasp for, but the things that you have for us.
Kenneth Dyches: The literal definition of blessing is to kneel down or make kneel, right?
Kenneth Dyches: Some scholars believe there's a connection because uh a blessing is giving from the greater to the lesser.
Kenneth Dyches: And so likewise, uh when we kneel, when we surrender, when we submit to what God desires for us rather than what our hearts want, when we repent and turn away from those things that I listed in the beginning and instead invite God to give us what he has for us, we receive his blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: However, you might be here today and be thinking, you know, I uh maybe a friend invited you, uh maybe you stopped in to check out uh the church for the first time, and so you're thinking to yourself, well, you know, I uh I receive blessing in many parts of my life.
Kenneth Dyches: You know, I I follow other religions.
Kenneth Dyches: I uh know lots of people who um bless me and and who uh love me and I receive the things that I need.
Kenneth Dyches: Uh and so maybe you're you're wondering, like, I don't I don't feel like I need to submit to to just the Christian God.
Kenneth Dyches: I don't need to submit to uh the the God of this church.
Kenneth Dyches: I don't really understand why there's an explicit call to that.
Kenneth Dyches: Um and so to that I would say uh this is an invitation.
Kenneth Dyches: I wonder uh how many of us are even right now experiencing the emptiness of our hearts, experiencing the things that we're going after not completely satisfying us, experiencing fear uh in our lives that things will be lost or taken from us, or maybe we have experienced loss and things or people taken from us.
Kenneth Dyches: And we understand the emptiness that we have in our hearts and the desire for something more.
Kenneth Dyches: Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
Kenneth Dyches: That is an invitation from God in Jesus Christ to come to God to receive his blessing because Jesus has earned it on our behalf.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe you're here today and you're like, I come to church every Sunday.
Kenneth Dyches: I'm part of communities and circles, and I do all of the good things.
Kenneth Dyches: I try to serve others, I try to love others, and so I am walking in God's blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: Maybe that's true.
Kenneth Dyches: But uh Paul tells us in Romans 3 that no one truly seeks after God.
Kenneth Dyches: Our hearts are oriented in the wrong direction.
Kenneth Dyches: And then in Romans 4, 5, uh 4 through 8, he says, And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.
Kenneth Dyches: Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Kenneth Dyches: Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.
Kenneth Dyches: See, it's repentance, it's acknowledging all of the things in our heart that we go to, laying them before the one who created us, the life giver, and saying, These are yours.
Kenneth Dyches: Would you help me to receive what you have for me in all of these things?
Kenneth Dyches: These things, when I go after them in my own power, are sin.
Kenneth Dyches: But when I believe in faith that you are giving me your blessing, I know that I am covered by the blood of Jesus.
Kenneth Dyches: I am forgiven, and I will receive and experience the blessing that you have for me.
Kenneth Dyches: That's why the author of John also in 1 John 1 8 says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Kenneth Dyches: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Kenneth Dyches: See, God's blessings come to us in Jesus Christ.
Kenneth Dyches: In Numbers uh chapter 23, in our passage, um, verse 20.
Kenneth Dyches: Rather in verse 21, we see at the end of 21, the Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.
Kenneth Dyches: The shout of a king.
Kenneth Dyches: What is he looking forward to and prophesying and seeing?
Kenneth Dyches: Well, in Revelation 19, we see the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is Jesus Christ, who returns again and defeats all his enemies, defeats the father of lies, defeats all the lies in our hearts that move us in the wrong direction.
Kenneth Dyches: That is the King of Kings who declares his victory over the world and over our hearts.
Kenneth Dyches: And then in Revelation 22, 4 through 5, it says, They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and the night will be no more.
Kenneth Dyches: We're seeing the fulfillment of the blessing given in numbers.
Kenneth Dyches: They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Kenneth Dyches: We will be with God forever.
Kenneth Dyches: We will see him face to face.
Kenneth Dyches: We will be satisfied in him.
Kenneth Dyches: We will receive fullness of joy.
Kenneth Dyches: That is what comes to us.
Kenneth Dyches: The blessing is going to be fulfilled because the God who gave it to us never changes, because he is good and because he is our King.
Kenneth Dyches: So as we kneel and we receive his blessing, we will see the fulfillment of it in part now, but soon and one day forever.
Kenneth Dyches: And then at the end of Revelation in chapter 22, verse 7, he says, And behold, I am coming soon.
Kenneth Dyches: Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.
Kenneth Dyches: So Jesus reigns.
Kenneth Dyches: We know that all things work for the good of those who submit to his reign.
Kenneth Dyches: For it was God that was able to speak of word of blessing through Balaam.
Kenneth Dyches: And so, how much more through the blood of Jesus Christ who has secured our salvation forever.
Kenneth Dyches: Go ahead and pray with me now.
Kenneth Dyches: Yahweh, you are our God.
Kenneth Dyches: You do not change.
Kenneth Dyches: You are the God of blessing.
Kenneth Dyches: You are good and righteous.
Kenneth Dyches: You have pursued us in steadfast love.
Kenneth Dyches: You desire that we not only receive your blessing, but you accomplish it in us, and you desire that we would experience it.
Kenneth Dyches: Lord, by your spirit, would you help us to discern our hearts?
Kenneth Dyches: Would you help us to see the ways we're striving after things, after blessings in our own power that are not in line with your will, that we put before your will.
Kenneth Dyches: Would you help us, oh Lord, to offer those up to you today so that we can receive the fullness for what of what you have for us in Jesus Christ?
Kenneth Dyches: Amen.