[00:00:00] Welcome to Gracious Words. Gracious words is taken from the weekly women's Bible study, top by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel Host a Mesa, California. It's in our nature to desire good things and we want to be blessed.
[00:00:40] And although we have a good God that desires to bless us, those blessings will only come through God's ways in God's methods. And now here is part one of Cheryl's message titled The Blessing. I thank all of us and our deepest desires all long for a blessing.
[00:01:27] We all want someone, especially in authority to speak good things over our lives, don't we? I remember my dad telling the story he had gone. He and my mom had gone to a dinner that was being held in Orange County.
[00:01:42] That Billy Graham and Ruth were going to be at. And my mom and dad were all a Twitter. I mean they were just so excited. That was before it meant something on the internet. But they were also excited.
[00:01:55] They were both so excited to maybe get a glimpse of Billy Graham. They just, oh this is going to be so exciting. My mom wore her best dress. My God wore the suits without spots.
[00:02:06] And they were in line and walking in and ready to give their invitation, their official invitation. And my God heard a voice behind him saying, Well, is that Chuck smith in front of me? And he turned because the voice sounded familiar and there was Billy Graham.
[00:02:25] And there was Ruth. And he said, I have wanted to meet you. My dad said, you know, I'm a strong man but I almost fainted on the spot. And you must be gay. He even knew my mom's name. I mean it was one of the greatest honors.
[00:02:47] And then he said, I have prayed for you. And he began to bless my dad. You're my dad had gone there just to glimpse, just to see it a distance, just to be in the same room. And yet here it turned to a blessing.
[00:03:04] Don't we want someone to speak good things over our lives? Don't we want someone to promise us, especially from the scriptures? Good things for our future. Don't you love what someone comes up and says, all right, this verse has been burning in my heart.
[00:03:21] And I felt like the Lord told me, I'm so suggest to give it to you. You're like, yes, if they get a good one, or to tell us that our lives count, that they matter. And that God will use them for good.
[00:03:35] Don't we want someone to tell us that God has purposes for us? Good purposes? A blessing speaks God's favor. And God's prosperity, our God will make it happen in our lives. Does anyone really want a word of rejection and failure spoken of it?
[00:03:56] Do you really want that? Like, you know what? Nobody likes you. Nobody wants you here. Nobody even wants you on the earth. Okay? You know your life's never going to go any place. Your husband's a loser.
[00:04:10] You just might as well give up. Nobody wants a word like that. Nobody in their right mind wants a word like that. I don't know anyone who goes around going, could you just give me a really bad word for my life today?
[00:04:21] I really need it and just desperate for something mean to be said to me. I just doesn't happen. We want blessing. We want a blessing. I think it's our daily craving. I want a blessing too. I've just like, oh, God, please, just something good today.
[00:04:38] Just just give me a blessing today. Just let me know that you are with me. Even it's just like the dog gets excited that I'm home, just something of a blessing. You know, I have to say this. Barnabas is just the most amazing dog. Barnabas is my golden
[00:04:55] doodle and he's, you know, you can fight with me all that you want. He's the best. But we come home from church and it's just like, you're back. You came home. I got to find a toy. Let me find just the right toy and he goes around
[00:05:09] and he picks up a toy. He's like, no, that's not right. And he has to find just the right toy. And then it's in his mouth like, and he's outside. He's like, Libby and this can be yours. We'll share.
[00:05:20] And you know, and then he puts his big old paws. Just like, let me in on the door. Please, let me in. I love you so much. I've been waiting for you. And now you're here. I'm outside,
[00:05:32] Libby. And you let him in and then he's just like, you when he keeps body slamming you. And you know, I've been writing this, nobody makes me feel as loved as Barnabas.
[00:05:45] So obviously, I've been body slamming them lately. But there is just something to having that kind of a blessing. Somebody who really wants you loves you and it's just so excited and it's got one of
[00:06:00] those most special squaker toys for you. It just makes all the difference. In blessing, we often want specifics. We want to know, wait, how will I be blessed? You know, in what way or
[00:06:12] what direction is my life going to take? Or what can I expect or should I expect? But a spiritual blessing is even better because it includes the favor. God is with you. God is for you. And here are
[00:06:28] some of the promises that God has for you. It brings the divine power of God to make it happen. And it brings the assurance, it ratifies the word of God in the promises of God to us.
[00:06:45] Spiritual blessings from others are often given to us by a gift. So once as you know what, I was thinking about you, I want you to have this because I want you to know that God loves you.
[00:06:58] When I was a little girl, I told you this story before, but it means so much to me. It was my birthday and my parents had no money, no money at all. And there was this expensive
[00:07:08] toy star, which is now a massage place on 17th Street, because to me said, and I would walk past that toy store and it was just, I don't think my parents ever purchased anything for that toy store. It was just
[00:07:19] so expensive. But it was kind of the lust factory for me, the covet factory. I would just go through it and then anything you bought, they would wrap. It was magical. And I loved that toy store.
[00:07:32] And I saw this doll that was probably three feet high and I wanted it so badly for my birthday. I wanted that doll and this toy store was between safeway and Alphabeta. So we had to travel
[00:07:49] by it. And I would see that doll and I'd say, that's what I went for my birthday. And my mom didn't want to say honey. It's just not going to happen. We've got like three pennies that we're going
[00:08:00] to buy you, you know, three bubble gum balls for your birthday. You know, that's it. This is like a pastor's daughter's life. And they didn't tell them. But on my birthday, my parents don't have any money.
[00:08:12] They don't have any presents for me. My mom did make a cake. This older woman in our church named Ruth Smith, no relation. She comes by the house and she's got this package. She doesn't know
[00:08:26] it's my birthday. And she says, hey, you're going to think I'm a silly old lady and I am. But I was walking by that toy store. And I saw that three foot doll in the window and I thought, I'm buying that
[00:08:41] for myself. And I don't know what came over me but I went in and I bought that doll for myself. And I had them wrap it. And when I came out of the store, I thought, oh, Ruth, you're a silly old lady,
[00:08:54] who can you give this doll to? And then I thought of Sherry. And I just brought it over. Could you give this doll to Sherry? My mom's chair crying. Said Ruth, you're not going to believe this. This is
[00:09:06] Sherry because that's what they used to call me. Sherry's birthday and we don't have anything for and she had asked for that very doll in the window. Don't you love it? Don't you love it?
[00:09:20] I know, I have no idea what happened to that doll either. I was such a consumer child. Here today I haircut tomorrow. I used to make all my dolls have my dad's hairstyle. But I just, when someone gives you something, it's the Lord put this on my heart.
[00:09:41] And you just know that the Lord is mindful of you. Or there's time when someone says, you know what? You were just on my heart. I was praying for you so much yesterday.
[00:09:51] Or someone gives you a promise from God as we said before, or someone says, you know, I just want this, this, this to happen for you when they want good for our lives. I think any agram tests.
[00:10:06] Only prove our desire for a blessing. If our father or mother or friends or peers or boss or employees won't tell us that we are doing good or headed for good, perhaps the any agram test will.
[00:10:19] When I find out that I really deserve a blessing because I'm actually a really nice person, one of the draws for taking these tests is to find something positive about ourselves. Something that deserves blessing. It's not wrong to desire a blessing. I think it's in our very nature
[00:10:36] in the way God created us. The problem is that we are often seeking blessings from the wrong people, from the wrong things in the wrong ways. Often the desire for a blessing turns into this great need
[00:10:52] for approval. It just changes and so what we do is we pretend to be someone else or something else than what we really are in order to get the blessing. Oh yeah, I'm for that too. So now maybe you'll
[00:11:06] bless me or we deceive. We practice deception or we betray others. Anything to get a blessing when God wants to bless our lives. From the beginning, God sought to bless His creation. In Genesis 1, 22 and 28 we read then God bless them. In Genesis 2, 3 we read that God blessed
[00:11:31] the day. In Genesis 5, 2 he pours out a blessing on Noah because our God is a blessing God in numbers. Chapter 6 he told the priest, I want you to put my name on the people and I want you to bless them.
[00:11:48] I want them to know you're my representative that I am a blessing God. In Genesis 27 and 28 we note certain things about divine blessing. One the contents of divine blessing. Two the criteria
[00:12:07] for blessing or those whom who will receive the blessing of God. We learn about the craving for blessing, the crisis of blessing and finally there's certainty of God's blessing. So what is the
[00:12:23] content of God's blessing? What exactly was the blessing that Isaac was to pass down to one of his sons? What was this birthright that Jacob bartered for with Isaac? It was nothing less than the
[00:12:40] promises of God to Abraham and Abraham's descendants. It was a covenant of faith with God, the lineage of the Messiah and the sacred word of God contained in this blessing was the safeguarding
[00:12:57] of the history of God from creation to that present time. It contained a record of all God had done and said it was what we know as Genesis 1 through 28 through this very time. It was the covenant of
[00:13:20] faith or the exclusivity of worship to God alone. Obedience to God's word and God's directives, how God wanted mankind to live. It was also the seed that would bring the blessing, the Messiah, to the whole world and it was the promises of blessing that would come by God's
[00:13:51] favor. This blessing was given to Abraham. We read about it in Genesis 12 133, but it became even more defined as Abraham walked with God. It was the blessing that was passed down exclusively to Isaac
[00:14:06] in Genesis 1719, Genesis 26 to 35. This is the sacred trust that Isaac held and he was to pass down to one of his sons. Now we next learn about the criteria for blessing in Genesis 27 134.
[00:14:25] Now Isaac has a criteria by which he is going to bless one of his sons. It's not God's criteria. It's Isaac's criteria. Isaac is old and his time on the earth as he feels is not long.
[00:14:41] So he has a criteria of time when this blessing is to be given. His sons are already in their 40s and one of his sons is already married to two whites, so there's a time, a criteria of time.
[00:14:55] Secondly, there's a criteria of convention. It's a blessing according to tradition, a blessing according to culture rather than a blessing according to the choice of God. This is not God's mandate but a cultural mandate that the oldest should be the blessed. In
[00:15:19] ancient civilizations, as in monarchy still today, the blessing or the greater inheritance goes to the oldest child or firstborn. It is Charles who will receive the monarchy not Anne Philip or Andrew William, not Harriet especially not Harry now George, not Louis,
[00:15:43] who will receive the blessing. That's the cultural way to do it. We see with Adam that this is not a criteria that God followed. God honored Abel not came the firstborn. God blessed Seth. God
[00:16:00] chose Abraham not Nehor or Haran. God chose Isaac not Ishmael. God had specified a word to Rebecca that the elder would serve the younger Genesis 2523 and it's this birthright that Isa sold for a pot of stew, Genesis 2533. But the third criteria of Isaac,
[00:16:29] we've got time, we've got convention, is self gratification. Isaac preferred his eldest son, the hunter. Genesis 2528, Isaac loved the stew that East on May. And by blessing, East I he was ensuring for himself many pots of stew. It indulged his palate. But God's criteria is totally different
[00:17:01] than man's criteria. God blesses those who want and pursue his blessing. Those who are in different are hostile to God's blessing will never, ever know it. Genesis 265, God said that this blessing was on Abraham because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
[00:17:27] God blesses his creation. In other words, God blesses what he is allowed to lead God build and create. God blesses those who seek His criteria for blessing or seek His ways, seek to meet His requirements for blessing. East I did not meet the criteria for God's blessing.
[00:17:52] One he had sold his birthright for a bull a stew. The blessing was due to the one who had the birthright, the blessing was the ratification of the birthright. In most cultures it was the state, the material,
[00:18:07] a state of the father, his goods, what he had acquired. However, for Abraham and Isaac, the greater blessing was the covenant and promises of God. We see that East I despised or did
[00:18:22] not place value on his birthright. His appetite was more important to him than the promises of God. He was a hunter. He wanted what he could acquire for himself. According to Hebrews 12, 16,
[00:18:41] he did not obey the voice of God. He was a fornicator or an idolator, or one who put his own self-indulgence or pleasure above obedience to God. He married Kain and Light Women, not one, but two.
[00:19:00] On these Kain and Light Women were agreed to Rebecca and Isaac. They were idolatrous. They were of the practices in how the priorities of the Kain and Light, those without God. Those who served
[00:19:12] other gods. He didn't think of what he was bringing into the covenant family and he didn't care how would affect his parents. He was self-centered. He did not keep the commandments, the statutes, or loss. According to Hebrews 12, 16, he was a profane person or one without any
[00:19:34] appreciation or regard for spiritual principles or promises. Matthew 7, 6, Jesus talks about this attitude when he tells us his Christians do not give what is holy to the dogs. Nor cast pearls before swine unless they tremble them under their feet and turn and tear you into pieces.
[00:19:57] You cannot bless a pig. If you give up pig, something expensive like a string of pearls, they don't care. It's like Brian Sass. Barnabas cannot tell the difference between a dog bone, a milk bone, dog biscuit and filet mignon. That's wonderful as he is. He just
[00:20:26] swallows the filet mignon whole. We know we've given him pieces of it. He's just like, I was got cut anymore of anything. Any roadkill? Anything? You know, there's no appreciation for these types of treasures. Years ago, when I was 13 years
[00:20:50] old, I had this Bible that I absolutely loved. They don't make them anymore. It was a swayed cover and it was just the perfect size and how to snap. And just the right way, and I just loved this
[00:21:02] Bible. One of my favorite things to do as a young woman was to go to the chapel store and buy a Bible. I mean, it was so fun. And I remember buying this swayed Bible. It's just the right size.
[00:21:11] And we had gone out. We were on one of my dad's trips to Hawaii. I was with a group of people and there was a woman that we were just kind of all hanging out with. She had lived in Hawaii so she was
[00:21:21] kind of giving us a tour. We were on the island of Maui. And we were on the main street. And there was this kind of demon possessed guy, kind of, kind of weird blasphemous guy, that she was trying to
[00:21:34] share the Lord with. And he just kept cursing and he kept, you know, just doing all these terrible things. Why she was sharing the Lord with him. And I remember she says, I'm going to give you a
[00:21:47] Bible. He's like, I owe one a Bible. I'm going to give you a Bible anyway. And she turns out she goes, who has got a Bible? And she grabbed it out of my hands. My my perfectly beautiful, beige swayed Bible.
[00:22:00] And she handed it to him and says, I'm giving you this. I need to look the Bible and in our site he began to just rip it up. Just rip it apart. And remember she said, I'll buy you another one.
[00:22:12] And she never did. I'm just saying. Just saying that woman, if I ever see her, she still owes me a Bible. I think she's in her 90s but she still owes me a Bible. But I just remembered how he had no
[00:22:24] regard for something that was so precious to me. You might know it's for in there. It was just precious to me. I just know regard at all. That's how the profane personnel, they have no regard
[00:22:42] for spiritual things. You know what, Calvary, we would give brotherly hugs to one another. We still do sometimes. We just hug and it's so pure such a healthy touch. And I remember graduation
[00:22:56] at my public high school. This guy came up to me and I said, can you believe we graduated? And I went to hug him and he just was like, it was just sick. It was like, get the behind me
[00:23:07] Satan. And it was just, it was like, wow, I have been in the company of those that things are healthy. And I realized he doesn't have regard for purity and for innocence and for the beauty of
[00:23:22] holiness. There was no value to it. So, he said, I had no practical use for the birthright or the promises of God. They were no value to him, which meant that if they were given to him,
[00:23:35] he would not safeguard them. He would not pass them down. He would not walk within them because already his lifestyle and his choices showed that he would neglect. He could care less about
[00:23:52] them, and he had no regard for God's word promises in way. They would not be steamed. They would be thrown away. But Jacob had a craving for blessing, which brings us to a third point, craving for blessing. Genesis 27, 5 through 29. What links would you be willing to go to
[00:24:15] receive God's blessing? God blesses those who want and pursue his blessing. Those who are in different or hostile to God's blessing will never know it. God said that his blessing was on Abraham because Abraham obeyed his voice. Capt his commandments, his statutes and his laws.
[00:24:37] God desires to bless his creation but he can only bless what he has allowed to lead, guide, build and create. He saw it didn't meet the criteria for God's blessing. He despised his birthright
[00:24:50] and sold it for a bowl of stew. His appetite was more important to him than the promises of God. May we learn a lesson from the life of Eastoth so we can receive the promises and blessings of God.
[00:25:03] We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study. For more information about the Gracious Words Radio Program and the Teaching Ministry of Cheryl Broderson, please visit our website at GraciousWords.com. Coming up next time on the Gracious Words Program, we'll look further at Isaac's
[00:25:19] blessing as we continue our series, our great creator in the Book of Genesis with Cheryl Broderson. We do hope you make plans to join us. Again for more information, please visit our website at GraciousWords.com.
[00:25:33] We hope for you love and wonder, wonder, we will fall on our knees and surrender with surrender to this program is sponsored by Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
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