Finding Jesus in the Twelve Tribes: Grace for Dysfunctional Families

All right. Even pastor misses his cues sometimes. So that was not their fault. That was my fault. Hey, so let let's get into God's word quickly today. I got to work hard because I've got way more information than I have time. We're in the book of Genesis. Everyone shout Genesis. Genesis. It's the first of the 66 books in the Bible. The word means beginning and it begins the Bible. We have a God of new beginnings. H how many of you need God to do something new today? You need God to begin something new in your life. I've got good news for you. Our God can do something new at any time. He does the improbable. He does the impossible. I love what the angel Gabriel told Mary. Nothing is impossible with God. That was true then and it's true now. And so we see in the book of

Genesis with with Abraham, God made him a promise. In Genesis chapter 13, a great nation is going to come out of you. You you will bless people and people will bless you and whoever blesses you, I'm going to bless. Whoever curses you, I'm going to curse. God makes a great promise in Genesis 15. He takes Abraham out to the the dark night of the sky and says, "Look at all those stars. That's how many kids you're going to have." I mean this is like absolutely incomprehensible. Yet God is faithful. He always fulfills his promises. Abraham would end up having a son named Isaac. This is so important that we see God keeps his promises. It rarely happens on our time. It happens on his time. And we will see God work in our lives as well. And just like the Lord blessed Abraham, he can

bless your life as well. But you've got to do what Abraham did. When you go to the book of Romans chapter 4, the writer Paul is writing to the Christians and he compares our lives with that of Abraham. And what he says is that we can have the same faith that Abraham had because we have the exact same God. Listen to what he says in Romans chapter 4 starting with verse 21. He's talking about Abraham. Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. It doesn't mean that what God promised was easy to understand or he had it figured out, but Abraham believed it. If God said it, I'm going to believe it. That is why it says in verse 22, his faith was counted to him as righteousness.

But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us. Everyone say us. To us who believe. Say believe. believe in him who raised from the dead, Jesus our Lord. So Abraham was counted as righteous, not because of all the good things he did, not because he was religious, but because he believed God. And what Paul says in Romans here is that when you believe God, you're counted as righteous as well. Not because of anything you can do, not because you're born into the right family, but because you believe in Jesus, he exchanges your sin for his righteousness. You're counted as righteous. The key to righteousness is believe. If you want to be blessed by God, if you want to receive the

blessings of Abraham, if you want to receive righteousness, it hinges on one thing. Believe. You've got to believe God. You've got to take him at his word that God's able to do what you could never do on your own. And so we see with Abraham, Abraham has a son named Isaac. God fulfills his promise. Out of Isaac, Isaac ends up having twins named Esau and Jacob. Now, out of those two twins would come two nations. Out of Esau would come Edom and out of Jacob would come Israel. But then out of Jacob comes not two but 12. We see quickly generationally the multiplication of what God's able to do. We have the God of increase. We have the God of blessing

that what God says he will do. And when he does it, he will surprise you. What a great God we have. He wants to bless you today. He wants to multiply in you the promise that he's put in your heart. God has a promise. And if you believe him, his promises are yours today. Despite where you've been, despite the mistakes that you've made, God wants to do something great in your life. But you've got to believe him and take him at his word. When you read the Bible, it's a fascinating story. If you read the Bible through the lens of man, all you will see is messed up people. You'll wonder why God would even give us a book like this. And there are many people, very intelligent people that rip apart this book because they read it through the

lens of man. But when you read this through the lens of God, you will see this book is actually God's story, not our story. And what you will discover quickly is since this book is all about Jesus, we have a faithful God. We have a God that's gracious. We have a God that's loving. We have a God that's kind. We have a God that shows us his purpose, his promise, and his plan. And that's why we get into this book to see that what God did in the days of old, he's still doing today because he's eternal. And today I want to focus our time looking at those 12 sons of Jacob. Everyone shout 12. 12. 12 is a very important number in the Bible. We see a lot of symbolism in the Bible. In fact, the number 12 is often

the number of perfection. It represents God's power and authority. For God is perfect in power. That's important to remember because there's times that you might doubt God's power. You might doubt his authority, but he never stops being perfect in power and authority. It was the number 12 that God decided out of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel would come the 12 tribes of Israel. This is an important number 12. Jesus when he decided to choose disciples, these students that would follow him, how many did he choose? Shout it out. 12. That's right. He chose 12. Now, he did not choose 12 from the tribes of Israel, but they represent Israel. God was doing a new thing. That's what he's constantly doing. He didn't choose those from the tribes of Israel. Rather, he

chose those from Galilee, the least of these, those that you would never expect to change the world. He says, "That's who I'm going to use." Even in Jesus teaching, we see the significance of the number 12. In Luke chapter 8, we're told that Jesus was was told of a young girl who was sick and he decided to go over to to heal her. But on the way over, there was a huge crowd that was pushing up against Jesus. And amongst that crowd was a woman. Now in the Bible, a woman either represents the church or Israel. We see that the church and Israel are precious in God's eyes. This particular woman had suffered for a long time. She had an issue of bleeding and she she used all of her money on doctors to try to get well. But nothing worked. If

you've been suffering for a long time, you're not alone. That's why we turn to the scriptures. Now, this woman suffered for guess how long. Shout it out. 12 years. 12 years. I mean, this is this is the picture of of of perfection. She she had suffered for so long and she decided if I just get to Jesus then everything will change and she pushed through the crowd which she broke every single law you could break in this day. She could have been killed for doing what she did but she didn't care. If I just get to Jesus everything will change. And she touched the hem of his garment and in just one moment she was healed. She was changed. Jesus knew this and he turned to this woman who had suffered for how long again? 12 years.

And he said, "Woman, daughter, your faith has saved you. It wasn't your deeds that you did. It wasn't that you were born into the right family. You believed in me. And if you believe in Jesus, you get blessing. You get healings. You get miracle. You get Jesus when you believe in him. It's your faith." And if we would awaken and see the symbolisms and scriptures, the church needs to be healed today. We need to believe in Jesus. Well, remember that young girl who was sick during that story? This young girl died and and everyone came to Jesus and said, "You don't even need to go see that young girl. She's dead." I'll tell you today, there are many people that look at the next generation and say, "They're dead. They're not going to amount to anything. They're no good. They're focusing on the wrong things." And I'll

tell you this, Jesus said, "This child's not dead with me." He goes into this girl and guess how old by the way this young girl was? Shout it out. 12 years old. Jesus goes over and he grabs her hand says, "Little girl, get up." That's the power of Jesus because he's the resurrection and the life. If the church would get healed, we're going to see the young generation who looks like they're dead come alive in Jesus Christ. But we've got to believe in Jesus. I hope you'll see the significance of 12. When you get to the book of Revelation, which is the last of the 66 books in the Bible, the book of Revelation is all about Jesus. You see 12 over and over. There's 12 stars, 12 gates, 12 tribes, 12 foundations, 12 pearls, 12 kinds of fruits. This book is

written in an apocalyptic language that we would understand the perfection and the authority of Jesus Christ. That we'd understand what God's able to do. that when God has a plan, he's got a purpose and he will always fulfill it. God wants us to understand 12. Now, I set that up because Jacob has 12 sons. These 12 sons are far from perfect for this family was highly dysfunctional. I'm going to mention that several different times today. And I need you to see this because Jacob's family was so dysfunctional that he did not have these 12 boys with the same woman. He had them with four different women.

And this family was so dysfunctional that they would pass on generational issues to to the next family. And I'm here to tell you that your family is dysfunctional as well. No matter how well you look on Instagram or to the rest of the world, I I I know your family's dysfunctional because according to the Bible, God's story, every single family from Adam and Eve, they have issues. They have issues because we're born in sin. So the scriptures tell us why we're dysfunctional. But if you just read the dysfunction without looking through the lens of God, all you'll see are the issues. So you start pointing the finger and say, "Well, this family has problems, so I'm not going to read this book." Or, "This family had problems." Or or Jacob, who's known as Israel has this problem. Look, if you're looking for a problem, you're going to find it.

But I'm here to tell you the solution is Jesus Christ. For this, this book is not about us. It's all about God. We need a solution to our dysfunction. Now, what we'll see in the story is there are different levels of dysfunction. I tell you at Journey, we're one big family, but we like to put the fun in dysfunction. So, we we try to acknowledge it and we try to work towards it. We try to we try to say those things. In fact, often here, I'll I try to take serious things and even try to infuse some humor and I'll tell you there's always someone that gets upset with that. I'll make fun of religion or Baptists or Catholics or something and I can't believe you did that. It's like I'm just trying to have fun because at the end of the day, that all comes from Jesus. He's the one that came up with this idea and he likes to have fun, too. But let's dive into this story. We're going to find ourselves in Genesis 25. Then we're

going to flip around. We're going to look at these 12 sons. I wish I had time to cover all 12 in detail, but I need you to study the scriptures on your own. I I need God to grow in you who he is. So So keep keep reading God's word. You can go through Genesis with your family. Genesis 25. I want to start with verse 22. And I'm going to read halfway through verse 22. Now the sons of Jacob were how many? 12 the sons of Leah. So that's one of his wives was Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Leah had six kids. The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. Now Benjamin was the last born of Jacob's kids. So these are not in chronological order of the 12, but they are in chronological order of the birth mother.

So we've got Leah, we've got Rachel. Now verse 25, the sons of Bilha, Rachel's servant was Dan and Naphali. Verse 26, the sons of Zilpa, Leah's servant, were Gad and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Pamon. Could you imagine having 12 boys? And that's a lot of money and food. That's a lot of cell phones in this house. I we we just see a complication with with 12 boys. And these 12 boys would be significant in in the the future trajectory that what we live for right now does not just live and die with us. What you live for carries on.

And so we're going to see with these 12. Jacob's going to bless his kids, but what we're going to see is he's not going to do it in a traditional way. Traditionally in in the birth order, you would bless the eldest son. And in the blessing, there comes really three images that come out of this. There's the kingly blessing, which is a blessing of honor and authority. There's the priestly blessing, that is the spiritual blessing, that you're going to lead spiritually. You're going to lead the household and others to the Lord. And then there's the double blessing or the double portion, that is you get a greater inheritance simply because you were born first. So, so if you're the oldest boy, you get a great big blessing. This this was the cultural norm. But how many know that God does not do things normal?

I mean, we would love for him to do things normal because when we pray in our minds, we imagine God's going to do it the way we think he's going to do it, but our God is far from normal. And we're going to see that in this blessing with Jacob. And the the blessing with Jacob is found in Genesis chapter 49. But before you get to the blessing of Jacob, in in chapter 48, Jacob is reunited with his son Joseph, whom he thought was dead. Joseph had two boys. And in Genesis chapter 48, Jose Jacob blesses Joseph's two sons and says, "Your sons are not my grandsons. It's like they're my sons. They're going to get the privilege of being my sons even though they're my grandsons." And he blesses them tremendously.

Jacob had a favor for Joseph. And we're going to look at Joseph more carefully the next couple of weeks. But it's important to that you see leading up to this the reunion that's happening with with Joseph and his two sons and the blessing from Jacob. He's at the end of his life and like his father Isaac, his eyesight has gone uh poor. And in Genesis 49:1, then Jacob called his sons. So he calls how many of them are there again? the 12 sons and said, "Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in days to come." This is a prophetic picture of the future. When you're blessed, you're rarely blessed in the moment with what you want. Meaning, a prophetic picture of blessing is God's going to do something to come. You shall, you will. This will be true. This

is a picture of things that are still to come. And the ESVA reads in days to come. Another translation says in the last days, this is an imagery of Jesus. See, in the last days throughout scripture, it's often an image of judgment. It's an image of destruction. So, Jacob calls them for the blessing and says, "You will be blessed, but but it's ultimately going to come in the days to come." That's that's God's future deliverance. It's what God's going to do. Now, we could look back and see that it's not just for these boys. It's for many generations thereafter. In verse two, Jacob says, "Assemble and listen, oh sons of Jacob." Now, here he refers to himself as Jacob, which is his birth name, which means deceiver. It's a heel grabber. He's trying to get something that's not his. And his advice

to his sons is assemble. It's what we're doing right now. It's what the name church actually means. The original word for church is eklesia. It means the assembly, the gathering. Get together. And what does he tell them to do when you gather together? Listen. It's what we ought to do with the Lord when we gather together. We're here to listen to hear from God. It doesn't matter how you were born because look what Jacob says. Listen to Israel, your father. Who I was is not who I am because who I am is who God says I am. So, you need to listen carefully to this prophetic blessing that's about to come. God has a message for you. Now, blessings are so important because what Jacob does in blessing his kids, God

wants to do with you. There's something so much greater here. Jacob was a blesser. We see that in chapter 48. We see that in chapter 49. Do you know who's an even greater blesser? Our God. He loves to bless. Jesus in the famous sermon on the mount. He starts off the whole sermon says, "Blessed are blessed are blessed are." You think Jesus wants you to be blessed? He tells you how to be blessed. Blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. I mean Jesus just he tells you he wants you to be blessed.

But blessing is not going to come by living life your own way, doing things your way or listening to any teaching. You got to hear the teaching of Jesus. Jesus said this, "If you hear my words and obey them, you will be blessed." The blessing comes from the blessing giver. Paul says in his writings to the churches, the apostle Paul says, "Those who have faith are blessed." He says, "Those who have Jesus have every spiritual blessing." James says that if you would just be steadfast in in trials, if you would just endure, you will be blessed. So, so many of us think that it we can't be blessed in the suffering. And James says, "No, no, no. Get through the suffering and you will be blessed. You will be better." Peter says something similar when he actually says that if we

just go through these trials, if we would get through what God wants us to go through, if you are persecuted for righteousness sake, that doesn't forfeit your blessing. You will be blessed. So just because you're going through difficult days does not mean that you forfeit God's blessing. You're to continue to endure and do what God wants you to do because he wants you to be blessed. After the resurrection of Jesus, so many saw Jesus. Yet, there was one man named Thomas that didn't see Jesus. And he's like, "I won't believe it unless I see it." Some of us say that today. I need you to do something, God, I can see so I can believe in you. But that's not what faith is. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's a conviction of what you can't see. Your faith is the evidence of what you can't see yet. One day you'll see it, and there'll be no need for faith. But faith is the substance of things not seen.

Well, Jesus shows up on the scene and he says, "Hey, Thomas. Hey, touch my hole in my hand. This was for you, bro." And Thomas is like, "Oh, Lord." He knew that Jesus was resurrected. He got to see it. And Jesus response to Thomas was, he said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me?" Is that really what it takes? You have to see to believe? And then Jesus said this, "Blessed are those who have not seen and and yet have believed." That's most of us in this room today. You've not seen it, but you believe it. And you've witnessed God's faithfulness, although you can't see it. Some of you are skeptics here today, and you you've been challenging God. You've been saying, "I I can't see it enough." Well, I'm telling you today, you have the opportunity to believe in Jesus, a God that you can't see right now. And one

day you will be united with him. You are blessed when you believe. When you believe that God can do for you what you could never do on your own, you will be blessed. And if you want to be blessed today, I'm telling you, it's yours. But you must believe this blessing I'm referring to is not because of a birth order. It's not because of the family you're born into. It's not because of a church you attend. It's because of the blessing giver himself, Jesus Christ. So now Jacob dives in. He's going to start with the eldest in Genesis 49:3. Reuben, Reuben steps forward of the 12. He says, "You are my firstborn, my might, and the first fruit of my strength, preeminent in dignity, and preeminent in power."

And let's just stop right there. This sounds really good this far. You're the oldest. You should get the most. You should get the biggest blessing. You're preeminent in power, meaning you should have the supreme power. You should be leading this family. This is who you should be. But because Reuben decided to do things his way, his dad doesn't stop there and continue the blessing. Instead, he continues in verse four and says, "Unstable as water. You shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it." He went up to my couch. So, Reuben could have had the blessing, the kingly blessing, the priestly blessing. He could have had the the double portion of of favor from his father.

But he says, "Because of what you did." Now, what did he do? Look at verse four. Because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it. This is just a short story that's found in Genesis 35. It's actually a tragic story. We read in Genesis 35 that Rachel is giving birth to Jacob's last son, Benjamin. And during the child birth, Rachel dies. Now, Rachel is Jacob's favorite wife, and this was only her second child. and she dies in childbirth. So Jacob, now Israel, Israel journeys on and he's grieving. And while he's on this journey of grief, we read in chapter 35:22, "While Israel, that's Jacob, lived in that land, Reuben, his oldest, went and

lay with Bilha, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it." Now, there are a lot of things dysfunctional in the Bible. This takes dysfunctional to a deeper level. Here his father is grieving and Reuben takes the concubine and he he sleeps with her. Now what is a concubine in this case? It's a maid servant to a wife with sexual favors and pleasures to the husband. Now let's just be really clear that's dysfunctional. But we've also got to be really clear today. If you just look around, there are a lot of dysfunctional things we do in our day as well. God never condones concubines. He never supports it. In fact, anywhere you read about this in the scriptures of men having concubines, all you see is it

adds great layers of complexity with consequences. So, less we look back in the days of old and say, "Oh, they had it figured out or this is the way it should go or this is what's wrong with the Bible." No, the Bible is honest and it's real and it's like a mirror that causes us to evaluate in our hearts what's honest and real that I've got to see that's wrong in my heart as well. And Reuben does the unthinkable. I mean, it's just gross when you really think about it and he goes and he sleeps with this concubine and Israel hears about it and he's pretty upset. And as a result, his dad says, "You have forfeited your blessing. You you've missed the blessing." And if you look down the lineage of Reuben, you see that the tribe of Reuben

constantly falls short of God's blessings. The the tribe of Reuben, they they don't get land in the promised land. They get the land just outside the Jordan. They stop just short of the promise. out of the tribe of Reuben. You you never see great leaders like judges or prophets or princes or or kings come out of the tribe of Reuben. You you hear of Dayan and and you hear of uh Airaum. Aam and Dayan were not known for anything good. They were actually rebels against Moses. So that's what they're known for. They're not known for for blessings. They're not known for leadership. They're not known for their their faith and belief in God, but but because of Reuben's decision, he not only forfeits blessing in his life, but to the

generations to come. The Bible says what you do right now determines what will happen later. So sin in your life can actually go to the third and fourth generation. So you think you're just making decisions for you. No, it's actually for your great-grandb. Some of you are going through misery in your life right now. That's because of your parents and your grandparents and your great-grandparents. It doesn't need to continue that way. And Jesus Christ, you can stop that right now. And Jesus Christ, he changes heritage. He He changes lineage. He changes directory. What the book of Hebrews says is he's the author. So when you surrender your life to him, he rewrites your story. Your story is not the family you were born into. But I need you to see Reuben made a decision that had some serious consequences.

That's what sin does. The consequence of sin is much more serious. He calls them unstable like water. Water is not what you want to build your life on. There is no foundation with water. When winds and storm comes, it moves. And he says, you're unstable like water. You you live by what you can see. You follow your passions. You do what you want to do. And when you do that, you have no foundation. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 7, if you hear his words and you do them, it's like building your foundation on a rock. It's like building your life on a rock. When when the winds come and the rain comes, you're not going to fall. But if you just do what you want to do, if you

just follow your passions, you're like the water. you're shifting and shaping and and you're doing what you want to do. And it's not going to just impact you, it's going to impact others as well. Paul says something similar that we should be mature in our faith. In in Ephesians 4:14, he says, "So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every winds of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes." Here's what he says. If your faith is like water, you will believe things that aren't true. You will believe what the government says or what educational systems say or just what some guy from the pulpit says. You won't test it by the power of the Holy Spirit to give you an anointing to have knowledge to understand what is the truth. You need a foundation that's

secure, not tossed to and fro like the water. Some of you your whole lives, you've had made horrible mistakes because you've been tossed to and fro, unstable like the water. It does not need to stay that way. In the name of Jesus Christ, you can start building your life on the rock. You can be stable in your faith that's going to get you through the hardest times, through the most difficult times. And here's how great our God is. He can restore that which the locusts have eaten. So if it looks like there's a whole mess behind you, I'm telling you what's ahead of you is better. That's why we like to say at journey, the best is yet to come. Quit looking at your past. Start seeing that God's going to do a new thing. He wants to do something great in you. Well, I've got to tell you, Reuben's not the only one with issues in this family. Next, Jacob calls

up in verse 5, Simeon and Levi. He calls them up as a pair of brothers. Weapons of violence are their swords. He goes on, and I wish I had time to continue, but I just want you to see this because Jesus said this to Peter. If you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Meaning, if you take matters into your own hands, you're going to get your end result. If you take vengeance, if you think that life depends on you and you're not depending on God, you are missing the sovereignty, the power, the authority of God. And so, he calls forth Simeon and Levi, who if we go back to Genesis chapter 34, there's a tragic story where Jacob's daughter Dina, she gets raped and the brothers find out about the rape and they say, "We need to

get vengeance." And so they come up with a plan and and the guy that raped Dina says, 'I want to marry I want to marry her. That's why I did what I did. Because rapists will come up with an excuse why they do. They're not taking ownership for the evil. And he says, "I want to marry her." And so they come up with this scheme. They say, "Okay, here's what's going to happen." You could read this for yourself in Genesis 34. Everyone in your tribe, not just your family, everyone needs to get circumcised so that you're like us. Because God set apart his people, Abraham's people, by being circumcised so they don't live like the world. He had a plan and a purpose. So he said, "All y'all need to get circumcised." And after they got circumcised, because they followed through with it, Simeon and Levi come in with their swords when these guys can't get up and fight for themselves and they slaughter every single man in that tribe. Every single one of them. Every one of them. And they

plunder and they take all the possessions for themselves. And they take the wives and the children. And they were getting vengeance because evil was done. And now Jacob calls forth Simeon and Levi and say, "You too have forfeited the blessing." And through history, if you look at the tribe of Simeon, they're almost non-existent. There are some people that when they they die, you just don't hear much about it afterwards in the the years, the generations to come. Simeon, his tribe essentially gets gets swallowed up by by the tribe of Judah because they're so small and they're so insignificant. The tribe of Levi become the Levites, which are the priests, and they don't get an inheritance of the land. God says, "You don't get a portion of this land. I'm going to be your inheritance.

You're not going to get a piece of this." And so we once again see that the way we live our lives is going to determine not just what happens in your lifetime but in your life line. God wants to do something. So let me just show you a list so that we better understand what's taking place. This is from a Bible commentary. So I want you to see this. We we start over here. We've got Abraham. The promised child comes named Isaac. Are you seeing this? Out of Isaac's going to come Jacob. out of Jacob are going to come these 12 sons. And we've dealt with Reuben. We've dealt with Simeon. We've dealt with Levi. And now we're going to get to Judah. Everyone say Judah. Judah is such an important part of the history of Israel. Let let's continue in this story because now Judah's actually going to get the blessing that Reuben

could have received, that Simeon could have received, that Levi could have received. Now it goes to Judah. Look at verse eight. Genesis 49:8. Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies, and your father's sons shall bow down before you. Wow. Don't miss this, Judah. No enemy's got you. You've got victory. You've got victory over enemy any any enemy. You you you got this. In fact, your brothers are going to bow down to you. Now, the name Judah actually means praise. Now, follow with me here. Leah, if you were here last week, Leah, her name means cow

or literally translated weary cow. Her whole life, she had been essentially told who she is. Some of you have believed a lie in your life. You're ugly. You're fat. You're not smart. You're no good. You'll amount to no good. You you you've been told something. your shame. You are who who what you've done. You are what you look like. Well, she ends up marrying Jacob. And Jacob's like, "Oh, no. I didn't want to marry you. I wanted your sister Rachel." So, you can imagine the trauma that she's been through. And she she bears forth Reuben, which is a blessing from God. She gets a boy and no one celebrates because Rachel didn't have a kid. She has another kid,

Simeon. Still no celebration. She has another kid, Levi. Man, why do you keep having kids? By the time she comes to Judah, we see a shift in Leah's heart. Come on. She decides to name this kid praise. There's going to come a point in your life that you've got to determine, like Jacob did at some point on his journey, I'm not going to let go of God until I'm blessed. I'm going to praise God. I'm not My life isn't dependent on what someone else says about me. My life isn't dependent on what what I believe. My life is dependent on the blessings of God. So when I have this fourth child, I'm going to name him praise. I hope you'll see at some point in your story, the only thing stopping you from worshiping God is you.

Is not your circumstances. It's not your parents. It's not your spouse. This be between you and the Lord. And when you praise, something happens. You have victory over your enemies. All of a sudden, you start to realize your position. You have authority. Not because of who you are, but because of who he is. That's why you praise him. That's why we sing so many songs here. That's why we we take this serious. We want to we want to praise. And Judah is a picture of praise. This is this is a picture in the scriptures of what God's going to do through his people. And I'll tell you, Judah ends up being a great tribe. They get the greater territory. They get more land. They they have bigger armies.

Judah would be what people look back on and remember with Israel. Judah in the book of Judges, right from the beginning, it says in Judges 1:1, after the death of Joshua, the great leader of Israel, the people of Israel, inquired to the Lord, "What's going to happen now? Who shall go up for us first against the Canaanites to fight against them?" And the Lord said, "I know who." Judah shall go up and behold, I have given the land into his hand. Now, when it says his hand, it's not talking about Judah, the person. He died long time ago. We're talking about the tribe. We're talking about the lineage. We're talking about the blessing of God many generations later. Picture of what blessing can be. When you read about the tribe of Judah, more godly kings came from this tribe than any other tribe.

Now, they had evil kings come out of this as well. But when you look later, Israel gets split into two kingdoms. There's the northern kingdom, Israel, and hardly any good kings came out of that. And 10 tribes settled in the northern kingdom. Two tribes settled in the southern kingdom, Judah. And all the great leaders came out of the tribe of Judah. Look what Jacob says in verse verse verse 9. Judah is a lion's cub. From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as a lioness who dares rouse him. A lion represents strength. A lion represents leadership. A lion represents sovereignty. And lo and behold, what would Jesus be called? A lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah would be a prophetic picture of Jesus.

Judah would be a picture of God's blessing upon his people, supreme, sovereign, full of strength. And so we see over and over what God would do from the tribe of Judah. Remember those 12 spies and 10 came back and they were totally worried about what would happen if they took the land God promised. They said, "We can't do it. We're grasshoppers. They're giants. There's no way we're going to do it." There were two that stepped up and the first one stepped forward. He says, "No, we're going to do it. That's a land God promised." His name was Caleb. Caleb was a leader. Caleb was a warrior. Caleb was one that believed God. If God said it, I believe it. And you know what tribe Caleb came from? Come on. Judah.

You want to know what tribe David came from? Shout it out. Judah. You want to know if you track the lineage of Jesus what tribe he came from? Judah. We say God has a plan and his blessing and his favor is here. He didn't seem like a lion when he was led to the slaughter. Jesus that is. He was quiet like a a lamb that was going to the slaughter because he gave up his own life. And the imagery here as we start to read in the significance of this blessing. Look at verse 10. The scepter, this is talking about the kingly leadership, shall not depart from Judah. And so we see in the generations and the centuries and the millennia that follows, that God's going to fulfill his promise, nor the ruler's staff from

between his feet until tribute comes to him. And to him shall be the obedience of the people. When you believe God, you obey God. You take him at his word. If there's a king, you want to be a part of his kingdom, you do what the king says. Jesus is the king of all kings. And Jacob, Israel is passing down a blessing through Judah. And it's a perfect picture of the family that we get to be a part of. The blessing that we get to receive in Jesus. Look at this in verse 11. Binding his foul to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine. By the way, you typically don't tie a donkey to a grape vine. They're stubborn. and they're going to take off and that vine's not going to hold it because it's not it's not attached to a stump. They're able to take off. But but as we read this story, we say he was

washed. He washed his garments and wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes. His eyes are darker than the wine and his teeth wider than milk. Do you remember which animal Jesus rode into Jerusalem when he was about to be crucified? A donkey's colt. This is a picture and it's a perfect picture because Jesus left for us the significance of what he's done for us on the very night he was betrayed. He took two elements of a meal. He took the bread and he took the wine. Wine is a symbol in scripture of the Holy Spirit. And the reason wine is a symbol of the Holy Spirit is wine represents joy. It represents celebration. Now the enemy loves to take that which God creates and use it for evil. That's why people get drunk on wine today. There's spirits, meaning alcohol, and there's the Holy Spirit. And if you

abuse anything that God creates, it will no longer be good. And and here we have this imagery of being washed in wine. This is the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Because when you have the blessing of God, everything changes. Without the blessing of God, you get the wrath of God. Do you remember Moses when he cast the first plague on Pharaoh in Egypt? Do you remember what it was? turning water into not wine, blood. It was a picture of judgment. It was a picture of death. Apart from the blessing of God, that which is good and you need water turns to death. For the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Apart from believing in Jesus Christ, it leads to death. And we've all sinned and fall short of the

glory of God. But Jesus, his very first miracle in the book of John, the very first miracle is turning water into wine. Not blood, but why? Because Jesus is the blessing giver. Jesus gives joy. It's through Jesus you get the power of the Holy Spirit, the person of God. And so we see in this blessing looking forward to who Jesus is. God gives us these images so that we would have a better understanding. So that you would look back on your faith and say, "God is faithful. He always keeps his promise. God gave you this understanding so that you wouldn't have a faith that's like water that's going back and forth. That you would see God's grace working through history, through every lineage, through every family." Now, here's what's so interesting about

this story is Judah was so far from perfect. If I was to compare him to Levi and Simeon and even Reuben, I think Judah is the most messed up of all the brothers. That's just my opinion. Because when we read about the life of Judah, we we see that this is this is a guy that does what he wants to do. But aren't you glad that God's grace is not dependent on what I think, but is based on the one that gives grace? Judah's story discussed me in this way. Judah had two sons and they were wicked sons. The oldest of the sons married a woman named Tamar and and because he died and so Judah says to Tamar, "You need to marry my next son." And that son was wicked as well after he

married tomorrow and he died. Well, Judah had a third son who was too young to be married. And so he didn't want Tamar to marry that boy anyways because the track record wasn't great. And so he says, "Listen, how about I'll give you my son in marriage when he grows up." Well, years went by and it didn't happen. So Tamara decided to get her father-in-law back. So she dressed up like a prostitute one day. She covered her head. She looked like a prostitute. And on a business trip, Judah sees what he thinks is a prostitute. He sleeps with her and he doesn't have payment. And so so she says, "What are you going to pay me?" He says, "I'll give you a goat." And she says, "Then you got to give me something." and he gave his staff and he gave his signate which is his essentially his signature and then he said I'm going to bring back a goat to you. Well the next day when his servant came to bring the goat she was gone because she wasn't a prostitute.

She gets pregnant and three months later word gets back to Judah and says hey remember your daughter-in-law Tamar. Yeah she's pregnant and he says that girl let's burn her at the stake. Go get her and burn her. this is Judah. And she says, "Okay, well, you should probably burn the person that got me pregnant. Here's who did it." And she brings forth the staff and the signant. And you read the scriptures. Here's the shift with Judah. We see a shift. When you find out your sin, you've got to determine, do you understand how serious it is? Judah says, "Do not kill her. She is way more righteous than I am." Most men would have played the man card, the cultural card. He could have still had her killed. He could have done many

different things. But instead, he pronounced, "I am not righteous because of the things that I've done." When you understand how serious your sin is, you will quit judging people. I love this story because it actually ends really well. Judah disgusted me. But what God does out of our disgusting sin is absolutely amazing. She's not pregnant with one child. She's pregnant with twins. These are twins that should be celebrated because when she has these twins, they're named Perez. What's the other one's name? Perez and Zara. Perez means breakthrough. It's it's a breakthrough, a breach. It's the first child that came out. And then Zara means dawn. It means in the darkest moment, the sun rises.

Now, sunrises are absolutely beautiful. This is once again an image of what God can do in the filth of our sin. Someone molested you. Someone sexually abused you. Someone did something to you. You made mistakes. You had sex and you regret it. Maybe you've had an abortion. Maybe you've done things you regret. I'm here to tell you, God is still able to bring forth breakthrough. He's able to break bring forth a dawn because this whole story is actually about Jesus Christ. When he rose from the grave, which is why we celebrate so much Easter, he is the breakthrough. He is the morning dawn. He is the light that's going to shine in the darkness. This is who our God is. He brings forth blessings despise what we've been through. When it looks like Jesus was defeated, he was just doing what he does best. He's the ultimate underdog. So, I'm here to say today that wherever

you've been, whatever you've been through, Jesus is the solution you need. Jesus is the blessing you need. When you believe in Jesus, it changes everything. Come on. When it looks like it's over, God is just getting started. It looked like death had won. The whole world gave up on Jesus, but God was just getting started. And I believe he's doing that with you as well. That's why you read the book of Genesis. Abraham looked like he was way too old to have kids, but God was just getting started. Isaac looked like he was going to die, but God provided a different sacrifice. Jacob, he had messed up over and over, but God said, "I'm going to bless you. I'm going to give you a new name. I'm going to give you a new identity. And even to

Judah, you're not going to be defined by what you've done. If you repent, your righteousness, although are like filthy rags, God exchanges it and gives you his righteousness. And so we see with these 12 kids known as the 12 tribes of Israel. Something happens when you sin. There's a serious consequence. But something happens when you repent. Something happens when you surrender your life to the Lord. Something happens when you trust God. You're going to see this with Joseph. Even when people intend it for evil, God can use it for good. That's why we study the Bible to get to know God greater. I want to close with just the genealogy of Jesus so that you could see God uses messed up people just like you. Don't stay in the mess. Don't stay in the sin. Don't stay in the identity that someone else has given you. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, this is the first book of the New Testament.

It's all about Jesus. Here, here's the genealog. Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac, the father of Jacob, and Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers. I love how the writer says this. Judah was the fourth, but Judah represents the 12. And Judah, the father of who? Perez and Zarah. There's a redemption in this story. Notice it wasn't the three boys that he would bear. It would come out of Tamar of Perez and Zarabi. Tamar and Perez the father of Hezron and Hezron the father of Ram. And Ram the father of Aminadab and Aminadab the father Non. And Nishon

the father of Salman. And Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab. Y'all remember Rahab? She's known as a prostitute, a harlot. Yet she believed. And when you believed, God changes the trajectory of your life. And Boaz, the father of Oed by Ruth, and Oed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. Now, this is just 14 generations. There would be many, many, many more generations before you get to Jesus. But we start to see even in the book of Genesis that God will use you when you surrender your life to him. When you give your life to Jesus, the promises of

God are yours. The blessings of Abraham are yours. The blessings of Jacob are yours. Jesus has described this in 2 Corinthians 1:20. For all the promises of God find their yes in Jesus. That's why it's through him we utter our amen to the glory of God for his glory. Today I wonder, have you surrendered your life to Jesus? This is so serious. It's a matter of life and death. It doesn't just impact your life. It impacts the generations to come. Doesn't matter who you are. Your life could could leave a mark. You may not see it now in this moment, but you can know for certain that by believing in Jesus, your life is forever changed. I want to speak to that person today that's uncertain.

If you're not sure what would happen if you die today, you're the one that needs to surrender your life to Jesus. No one else can do it for you. A pastor can't do it for you. A parent can't do it. A spouse can't. This is between you and the Lord Jesus. Do you believe in him today? Because if you do, you're not only forgiven of your sins, you are forever changed. God gives you the power of his Holy Spirit. He's going to get you through whatever you're going through, and he'll bless you while he does it. He changes everything. He gives you his power. You have his authority. The devil's been trying to stop you your entire life, but from this day forward, you have authority over the devil in Jesus mighty name. He's going to teach you more about who he is. He's going to reveal who he is. And now your hope is in heaven. So you start living like it right now. You're not upset when things don't go your way.

When people are against you, you let God fight your battles. You don't have to take out your sword and do it. You don't live by the sword. You live by the word of God. So if that's you today, I want to ask you to do that just that right now. I want this to be intimate. Would you just close your eyes right where you are? You know, you don't need to close your eyes to pray. This is just between you and the Lord. If that's you and you're saying, "I'm going to say yes to Jesus." Would you just raise up your hand? And I want to see who that is today. Make a bold move. Praise God. Yes. Anyone else? You say yes. Praise God. So proud of you. Yes. Praise God. Praise God. Amen. Praise God. Someone else here today, you're saying yes to Jesus. Just raise your hand nice and high so I could see you. Amen. Praise God. So proud of you. So good. You are never too young to surrender your life to Jesus. Amen. The Lord loves you so much.

I'm going to pray with you and I'm just going to ask anyone who's ever believed in Jesus. We're going to pray this prayer together just in unity. It's not the words that save you. It's not the prayer that saves you. It's Jesus. You could pray something even deeper in your heart. You can get real specific with God. He He loves you to get real. Let's just pray out loud together. Lord Jesus, I trust in you. I trust in you. Forgive me of my sins. I repent today. I trust in you. Turn my life around. May I be like you. I receive the Holy Spirit. I receive the Holy Spirit. I receive hope in you. In Jesus name. Amen. And amen. And amen. Come on, let's praise God today.

Hey, so good. I got to tell you, if you made that decision today, it is the most important decision you can make. You will forever remember it. And your life has changed. Now, you keep following Jesus. We're going to sing one last song. But I've got to tell you, if you need prayer today, would you please receive it? We've got a prayer team that takes serious your prayers. And you can come forward right after the service on either side of the platform and you could receive prayer. Or if you're watching online, you could also ask for prayer. We we we literally believe God can do anything. Nothing is impossible. So whether it's health, relational, financial, receive prayer today. In fact, I would just ask prayer teams if you get in your place right now during this song that if you want to make your way during this song, you would go receive prayer today or if you would ask for prayer right where you are today.

Ask for it. Ask for it and God's going to give it to you. Would you stand to your feet as we just remember who God is, what he's done? We can look back and say, "What he's done, he's going to do it again." We have a great God. He's just getting started. [Music]