"The Family of God Part 2" By Jesse Rairdon January 24th,
2016
Remain standing, please, as
Brother Bob comes to led us in prayer. Bob: Jesus, I’m so
thankful for what You’ve done for us so far today, Jesus. And, God, all the songs sung about a born
again experience, Jesus. And, God, now
is the time, Jesus, when we’re going to hear Your Word from Your servant,
Jesus. God, I pray that You, Father,
would anoint him, and bless him, and move upon him, God, and let Your Spirit
just flow through his life, God. And,
God, us for hearing You today, God. God, I pray, Father, that we listen to that
Spirit of Jesus. God, You always talk to
Your church. You always minister to Your
church, God. God, I ask this, in Your
name I pray. Amen. Remain standing, please, as we
read the Scripture for today, the theme for this month: John 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again. Please be seated. Thank you.
Something Pastor Ulysse shared with us, and taught us, we should
reverence the reading of God’s Word, especially the theme Scripture, you know. The Family of God. This month is the month we’re talking about
being born again. And, Parrish and Andy
had asked me to share the second part of this message, “The Family of
God.” The first part, I had shared, we
talked about God is our Father, and we are family. So, if you weren’t here, I’m going to just
kind of go over a few of those points we made, back a few weeks ago. Our Heavenly Father calls us; all of us are
called by God. You cannot be born again
unless you are called by God. God calls
us. You can try to persuade someone all
you want, but if God isn’t calling them, they aren’t going to be born again,
amen? Our Heavenly Father leads us. He doesn’t just call us, and leave us out
there to just kind of wander around, he leads us and guides us. Our Heavenly Father corrects us, because He
loves us. We need correction, all of us;
I need correction. We are family. Another point we made was, we didn’t choose
this family. God chose every one of us
to be in His family. Whether someone
comes or goes, they are still family, because they are born into the
family. We are tied by the blood of
Jesus; we’re born into this family. We
are all wanted and needed in this family.
When one of us is hurt, we all hurt.
When one of us rejoice, we all rejoice; we are family. God decides who does what in the family, we
don’t get to pick and choose what our gifts and talents and anointings are; Go
decides those, amen? It’s not about me
or you, it’s about us, and how to please the Father in the family of God. So, that brings us to the Family
Inheritance. The family
inheritance. A couple of main points I’m
going to talk about today: 1. The
birthright and the blessing 2. Don’t
cut yourself out of your inheritance 1. The Birthright and the Blessing. Jacob and Esau: we’re going to talk about them a lot
today. Probably two of the most famous
twins in the Bible. If you truly study
this story of the two brothers you can find them mentioned throughout the Scriptures,
the New and the Old Testaments, and the Prophets, so, we’re going to go over
some of those Scriptures today. This is a story of intrigue and
deception, of love and hate….bitter rivals and yet brothers. Some people tell me the bible is boring; well,
you haven’t read stories like this. You
haven’t dug into the Bible. Turn off
that television, or hellavision, as some people call it, and open up your
Bibles, and start reading more, amen? Me
and my wife have started reading more, together, too. We’re doing a Bible in a year program,
besides my personal studies, and, I tell you what, we have discussions at the
end of the day about what we read that day.
God is opening our lives to the Scriptures; New and Old Testament. You’ve got to read both; you’ve got to
understand both of them. So, I encourage
you to do that as a family, maybe turn off that TV a few nights a week, maybe
every night. Maybe you don’t need as
much as you think you do. Maybe just
throw it away, right? I tell you what,
there’s been times in my life when I’ve said, “I’m not going to watch TV this
whole week,” and I’ve been blessed, and have benefitted from that. Amen?
So, it’s not merely entertainment, the Bible is, but for our learning
and our lessons. So, the first Scripture we’re
going to go to today is: Genesis 25:19-34 And these
are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son: Abraham begat Isaac: And Isaac was forty years old when he took
Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to
Laban the Syrian. And Isaac intreated
the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of
him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And
the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I
thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner
of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be
stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were
fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an
hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.
And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's
heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was threescore years old when
she bare them. And the boys grew: and
Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field; and Jacob was a plain man,
dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau,
because he did eat of his venison: but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the
field, and he was faint: And Esau said
to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint:
therefore was his name called Edom. And
Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall
this birthright do to me? And Jacob
said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright
unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread
and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his
way: thus Esau despised his birthright. Now, if you understand the Jewish
history, the Israelites history, birthright was very significant. Same with us, being born again, it’s very
significant. The firstborn got pretty
much everything, and everybody else got what was left over. That was the right of the firstborn. Esau was the firstborn. Even though they were twins, and Jacob was
holding onto his heel as he was coming out, Esau was the firstborn. A couple of thigs to point out: God knew ahead of time what was going to
happen. God knows, because it’s not
about your works, it’s about who God calls and who God ordains. Amen?
Even from the womb. The inheritance, the family name, everything should
have fallen to him. In one moment, one
wrong decision, he gave up that which was rightfully His. And the point, as I was meditating
and praying about this that really spoke out to me: Don’t let a temporary situation become a
permanent loss. Let that saying sink
down into your ears. Don’t let a
temporary situation become a permanent loss.
Two very successful businessmen
were jogging; one was the mentor, and one was his understudy. They passed by a
man who was on the bench drinking, and he said, “I’m just one decision away
from where I was delivered from, that man and the bottle. No, I won’t lose all my money, and my
business, and my family overnight, but it just takes one decision to start on
the path to lose everything that I’ve gained.” I have to think about this too…. I’m one decision away. If I keep entertaining a co=worker, and it
becomes flirtatious, and it becomes something else. That’s where sin is born, and it begins to
develop if you don’t stop it. One
decision, one moment of indiscretion, I could lose everything. I could take everything that I have in my
saving, and try to gamble it, for the love of money, and hope that I might win
it all and become rich. One decision
away. One decision away. We’re all tempted with things like
these. Every day were tempted with
them. We have to make a decision that
what we have already, what God has given to us, our birthright, is more
important. Esau didn’t make the right
decision. He could have said, “Now, wait
a minute. Let me just knock you out, and
get forgiveness later, and just take some of this pottage.” I’m not even tempted to do so, but we can see
the result, what happened in the story, so we can say, “I would have done this
or that.” “Maybe I’m going to go kill a
deer, if I’m so good at hunting.” Esau in a moment—sometimes we just
have to walk away from those situations, when those temptations come upon
us. We have to bring those thoughts
under captivity, and say, “God, I’ve got this birthright. It’s not worth losing it all.” Let’s talk about the blessing that
belong to Esau. Not only did he have a
birthright, he had a blessing; there’s a difference. There’s a difference. If you study the Old Testament, too, you’ll
find that there’s a difference between the inheritance, the birthright, and the
blessing side of it. So, Esau also had a
blessing coming to him. Time doesn’t
allow me to read this whole chapter, here, but the synopsis is this: Isaac, Abraham’s son was getting
ready to die, and he desired Esau to bring him some savory meat, the kind he
liked, and bless him. “Go make me one of
those steaks, the kind that I really like, then I’ll bless you before I
die.” Rebecca heard this and devised a
plot for Jacob to take the blessing from Esau.
Now, remember, Rebekah loved Jacob, yet, Isaac loved Esau. Kind of a little division in the family; a
little rivalry. Jacob was reluctant at
first, but after the persistence of his mother proceeded to trick Isaac and
take his brothers blessing, also. We
pick it up in: Genesis 27:18-29 And he
came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art
thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have
done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my
venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it
that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the LORD thy
God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I
may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went
near unto Isaac his father; and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's
voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because
his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands: so he blessed him. And he
said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near
to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he
brought it near to him, and he did eat: and he brought him wine, and he drank. And
his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came
near, and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him,
and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the LORD
hath blessed: Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of
the earth, and plenty of corn and wine: Let people serve thee, and nations bow
down to thee: be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to
thee: cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth
thee. So here is Jacob taking the
blessing of Esau. But God prophesied
already that it belonged to him. And,
just like Jacob said, he was saying, “God had brought it to me,” the venison to
him, God brought the blessing to him, because Esau already gave up the
birthright. So, now he’s going to lose
the blessing. Let’s pick it up in verse
thirty-four: Genesis 27:34-40
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and
exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my
father. And he said, Thy brother came
with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob?
for he hath supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and,
behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. [He was wrong in this, though;
he gave up his birthright] And he said,
Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?
And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord,
and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine
have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son? And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but
one blessing, my father? bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted
up his voice, and wept. And Isaac his
father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness
of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; And by thy sword shalt
thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou
shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. So he did still receive a
blessing, but it was not quite the blessing and inheritance that should have
been his. And we read later in
Scripture, Jacob became Israel, and, we read there that he (Esau) became
Edom. The hill, the mountain, Edom. We’re going to read a little bit further here
in Malachi, we’ll talk a little bit further about how God really saw this turn
out. Understand the severity of God in
this. Understand that God is serious
when it comes to His righteousness, His judgment. Malachi 1:1-4 The burden of the
word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye
say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD:
yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage
waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but
we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts,
They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border
of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever. Amen. So, instead of receiving the inheritance that
the kingdom of Israel received forever, they received indignation from the
Lord, forever, because he despised his birthright. Let’s go to the New Testament and
see what it says. Talking about the
birthright and the blessing. Hebrews 12:14-17 Follow
peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of
bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; Lest there be
any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the
blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he
sought it carefully with tears. You see Esau first gave up the
birthright, then he lost the blessing, because he would have inherited the
blessing along with the birthright. You
can’t give up the birthright and expect the blessings of God. It comes together. You’ve got to have the birthright to receive
the blessing. Many people re out there,
and the want the blessings of God, but they don’t want to have the
birthright. And, many people out there
have the birthright, but they don’t want to go further to get the blessings of
God. We want to see how Jesus mentions
the birthright and the blessing in this passage: Mark 16:15-20 And he said unto
them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He
that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall
be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall
they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. So then after the Lord had spoken unto them,
he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where,
the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. So many times, in ministering, you
can preach baptism, baptism, and rightfully so—you’ve got to get the
birthright—but we forget the signs that follow.
We don’t really put enough time in the blessing part of it. Maybe you’re here today and you haven’t really
sought out what’s the blessing for you.
Maybe it’s just because your lack of—you don’t want to leave your
comfort zone, you don’t want to totally give your life to God, to give Him
total control of everything. That’s the
experience of speaking in tongues, when you totally let God just totally take
control and let Him speak through you.
Many have sought that out and got that.
God has so much more for you, so much more for you. If we hold back—God has it for us, if we hold
back, it’s our own fault. He has the
blessings, and He was with them, as they preached and taught, the blessings
followed them, the signs followed them. Are
the signs following us today? What’s
stopping us from getting those blessings from God? Let’s go a little bit further. 2. Don’t Cut Yourself Out Of Your Inheritance. Galatians 5:16-21 This I say
then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For
the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and
these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that
ye would. But if ye be led of the
Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. I like that little phrase in
there, ‘and such like.’ Just in case it
wasn’t on this list… This is that little
phrase that HR puts on your job listing:
‘and all other areas assigned,’ when you get hired. We put this in there, and you singed
this. We’ve got to put this in the
Bible, ‘and such like.’ So, God deals
with you about something, and it’s keeping you from the blessings of God,
you’ve got to get it right with God. I
have to get it right with God. I’m not
any better than anybody else; I have to do the same thing. I have to be right with God to get my
blessings. God will withhold it from me
just as much, and He has when I’ve been in error, when I’ve been in sin. Some of you are thinking, “Oh, you’re such a
sinner.” God bless your pea-picking
heart. God bless you. It’s like the preacher that was saying, “There’s
sin in the camp. There’s sin in the
camp, and we’ve got to get rid of all the sin in the camp. Anybody that’s ever committed adultery, step
outside. Anybody that’s ever lied,
stolen, or cheated, step outside. Anybody
that’s ever gossiped or received gossip, step outside. Anybody that’s ever fallen short of the glory
of God, step outside. And, for all the
rest of you perfect people, if you want to talk to me, I’ll be outside.” None of us are perfect, but all of us need to
get back to where we can receive the blessings of God, because we are born
again, and we’ve got to stop cutting ourselves off with sin. Amen?
It’s specific here, you can’t live with someone before you’re married
and think it’s all right, just because you love them. You can’t go out and do the things you want just
because you think it’s okay, and other people think it’s okay, and the world
thinks it’s okay; it’s not okay. If it’s
not okay with God, you’re cutting yourself off from the blessings of God. I’m cutting myself off from the blessings of
God. Amen. Sorry you just drank from a firehose. The promise given to Abraham has
been passed to us. He changed his name
from Abram to Abraham, and He said, “I will make you a father of many nations. And He made a covenant with him at that
time. If you don’t understand what covenants
are, you really need to get in and search the Scriptures and stud about the
covenants of God, too, because it’s important to understand those covenants to
receive the inheritance of God, amen? That
covenant was the covenant of circumcision.
Our covenant is the circumcision of the heart, baptism. Amen? We can’t have the blessing if we
choose to give up the birthright. Romans 11:17-22 And if some
of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed
in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive
tree; Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the
root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that
I might be graffed in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou
standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: For if God spared not the
natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore the
goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee,
goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut
off. Petty cut-and-dried, isn’t
it? Cut off doesn’t mean, “Oh, you can just
continue to do what you want to do. You’ll
just be okay, just kind of coast into Heaven.”
There’s that once saved, always saved doctrine out there; I never really
believed that. Not since I got baptized,
anyway, it doesn’t really convict me, otherwise. It says you can be cut off. If He can cut off the Children of Israel, He
can cut us off. Don’t boast against the
branch, too, the original vine, because God isn’t done with them—and this comes
from Scripture—He’s not done with them, either.
There is an election, according to grace, after that the fullness of the
Gentiles is come; if you study the Scriptures, in Romans it talks about that. Know that there’s a time for them, too. But, let’s get back to us,
here. What are we doing to keep our
inheritance, that we don’t be cut off? How
do we keep our inheritance? If My people,
which are called by My name… I didn’t
have this in my notes, sorry. There’s a
lot of things I didn’t have in my notes.
I’ve been adding a lot of stuff.
God can do what He wants with the message. He can take away, He can put in what He wants,
He can shut my mouth and tell me to go sit down if He wants. He’s in control. The day that I think He’s not, is the day that
I go wrong. 2 Chronicles 7:14-16 If my people, [talking
about us, the ones with the birthright]
which are called by My name, [the name of Jesus, right?] shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek
My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and
will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. [So there’s a way back to
God.] Now Mine eyes shall be open, and Mine
ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this
house, that My name may be there for ever: and Mine eyes and Mine heart shall
be there perpetually. Or continually; perpetually. I’m getting ready to close here, in a
few. So, we see, something is separating
us from God. Remember, we talked about,
in the first message, that God is our Father.
He wants to hear us; He wants to listen to us, but there’s a
separation. There’s something that’s
stopping that. Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the
LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that
it cannot hear: But your iniquities have
separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you,
that he will not hear. My sins. Let me make it personal. My sins have separated me from my God. Our sins.
All of our sins have separated us, but My people, which are called by My
name, will humble themselves, and seek My face, seek the blessings, get back to
understanding the importance of the inheritance. Don’t lose the track of what you’ve been set
back on. Get back in place. While you’re hearing the sound of my voice,
you have a chance. Your heart shouldn’t
be hardened to where you can’t get back on track with God, unless you’re reprobates. God forbid that any of us be reprobates. That’s a whole ‘nother study; we’ll get back
to that later. Let’s go to our last Scripture, the
one I started the series on, as Andy gets ready to close us in a few
moments. Sorry, I went a little over
what I normally would, but I thought this was important not to cut anything out
of the message today. My wife will tell
you, sometimes I get up in the middle of the night to go add something to the
message. “Where you going?” “I just got something;
I’ve got to go write it down. I can’t
let it go.” Sometimes that’s when God
really gets my attention. It’s sad, but
sometimes that’s the best I can really hear is really early in the morning or
late at night, when there’s no other distractions, and God just speaks to me
clearly, “Write this down. Share this.” Galatians 3:26-29 For ye are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ have put on Christ. [You got the inheritance. You got the family name.] There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are
all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Give the Lord a praise.
|
|
|
|
