1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,240 PCP Blessings:Hey, this is Pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA Church in Houston, Texas. 2 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:21,000 PCP Blessings:Thank you for listening to the message today. 3 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:24,000 PCP Blessings:I hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with. 4 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:24,600 PCP Blessings:God bless you. 5 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:34,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 6 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 7 00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,600 PCP Blessings:She called y'all out with that one. 8 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:48,600 PCP Blessings:Stay standing real quick as you turn open up your Bibles to Exodus chapter 33. 9 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:49,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 10 00:00:49,600 --> 00:00:50,600 PCP Blessings:Praise God. 11 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:55,600 PCP Blessings:Anybody excited for what God is going to do through this children's ministry? 12 00:00:55,600 --> 00:01:00,600 PCP Blessings:We have seen just blessings over blessings in every one of our ministries, 13 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:04,600 PCP Blessings:and we know that God is going to continue to do His work. 14 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:07,600 PCP Blessings:He's not done with us. 15 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:10,600 PCP Blessings:And praise the Lord for His word this morning. 16 00:01:10,600 --> 00:01:15,600 PCP Blessings:Pastor Danny spoke a word that was very much, I'm not even surprised anymore, 17 00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:20,600 PCP Blessings:but very much in line with this word that God has for you this morning. 18 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:27,600 PCP Blessings:And if you have your Bibles, Exodus 33, 1 through 3, give me one second. 19 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:28,600 PCP Blessings:Hold on. 20 00:01:28,600 --> 00:01:35,600 PCP Blessings:Let's put this on real quick. 21 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:39,600 PCP Blessings:Lord, be with the Astros tonight, Father God. 22 00:01:39,600 --> 00:01:48,600 PCP Blessings:Give us favor, Lord, and open up our hearts and our minds, my God, to receive your word this morning, Father. 23 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,600 PCP Blessings:In Jesus' name we pray, amen. 24 00:01:51,600 --> 00:01:52,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 25 00:01:52,600 --> 00:01:53,600 PCP Blessings:Come on. 26 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:56,600 PCP Blessings:Exodus 33, 1 through 3, you there? 27 00:01:56,600 --> 00:01:57,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 28 00:01:57,600 --> 00:02:03,600 PCP Blessings:It says, in the Lord said to Moses, depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, 29 00:02:03,600 --> 00:02:08,600 PCP Blessings:to which I swore to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob saying to your offspring, I will give it, 30 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:14,600 PCP Blessings:and I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites and the Amorites and the Hittites and the Parasites 31 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:16,600 PCP Blessings:and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 32 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:24,600 PCP Blessings:Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I will not go among you, lest I consume you on the way, 33 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:27,600 PCP Blessings:for you are a stiff-necked people. 34 00:02:27,600 --> 00:02:29,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 35 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:35,600 PCP Blessings:And the energy in the room just, you may be seated this morning. 36 00:02:35,600 --> 00:02:36,600 PCP Blessings:Praise God. 37 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,600 PCP Blessings:Anybody happy to be in the house of God? 38 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:39,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 39 00:02:40,600 --> 00:02:43,600 PCP Blessings:I want to give God thanks just for another year of life for my wife. 40 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:47,600 PCP Blessings:She turned 35 this Friday. 41 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:51,600 PCP Blessings:Looking finer every year. 42 00:02:51,600 --> 00:02:52,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 43 00:02:52,600 --> 00:02:57,600 PCP Blessings:And yesterday we went to Six Flags for Leila. 44 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,600 PCP Blessings:She'll be turning eight this Wednesday. 45 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:03,600 PCP Blessings:So it's an expensive month for us. 46 00:03:03,600 --> 00:03:07,600 PCP Blessings:So if y'all want to bless us, you can. 47 00:03:07,600 --> 00:03:15,600 PCP Blessings:But the Lord has tugged on my heart this week to speak on the subject of blessings. 48 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:18,600 PCP Blessings:How many of us don't desire to be blessed by God? 49 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:19,600 PCP Blessings:Amen. 50 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:26,600 PCP Blessings:And you know, it's not just a spiritual or a hopeful thing to say that the Lord wants to bless his people. 51 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:29,600 PCP Blessings:It's a biblical and a theological truth. 52 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:32,600 PCP Blessings:God wants you to be blessed. 53 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:34,600 PCP Blessings:He wants you to be blessed. 54 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:42,600 PCP Blessings:Now, before you go buying like lottery tickets, we need to understand what that means to be blessed. 55 00:03:42,600 --> 00:03:48,600 PCP Blessings:Because we have an Americanized view of blessings. 56 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:54,600 PCP Blessings:If a preacher were to come up here and say the Lord is getting ready to pour blessings over this church, 57 00:03:54,600 --> 00:04:02,600 PCP Blessings:our minds immediately go to resources and money and people and influence and expansion. 58 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:09,600 PCP Blessings:In fact, I got a word this morning from a sister that said, God is about to bless you with money. 59 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:13,600 PCP Blessings:I'm like, all right, I'll be ready. 60 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:17,600 PCP Blessings:But that's kind of what we think about when we think of blessings. 61 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:19,600 PCP Blessings:When you pray, Lord bless my family. 62 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:21,600 PCP Blessings:What exactly are you praying for? 63 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:25,600 PCP Blessings:What does it look like to have a blessed life? 64 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:32,600 PCP Blessings:Jesus opens up Matthew 5, his sermon on the mountain with what's known as the Beatitudes. 65 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:35,600 PCP Blessings:And the Beatitudes are blessings. 66 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:39,600 PCP Blessings:And so Jesus opens up with the sermon with the series of blessings. 67 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,600 PCP Blessings:Now, he doesn't define the word blessing because blessing can be a lot of things, 68 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:46,600 PCP Blessings:but he does define what a blessed life looks like. 69 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:50,600 PCP Blessings:And it's very different than what we would imagine. 70 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:52,600 PCP Blessings:So verse 3, he says, 71 00:04:52,600 --> 00:04:57,600 PCP Blessings:The kingdom of heaven is the blessing. 72 00:04:57,600 --> 00:04:58,600 PCP Blessings:He says, 73 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:00,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. 74 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:02,600 PCP Blessings:Comfort is the blessing. 75 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:03,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are the meek. 76 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:04,600 PCP Blessings:They shall inherit the earth. 77 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:06,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 78 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:07,600 PCP Blessings:They will be satisfied. 79 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:11,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. 80 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:13,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. 81 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:14,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are the peacemakers. 82 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:16,600 PCP Blessings:They shall be called sons of God. 83 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:19,600 PCP Blessings:Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake. 84 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:22,600 PCP Blessings:For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 85 00:05:22,600 --> 00:05:26,600 PCP Blessings:So nowhere in here does he say blessed are the wealthy, 86 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,600 PCP Blessings:for they will have an abundance of resources. 87 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:34,600 PCP Blessings:He doesn't say blessed are the people with power and the people with influence, 88 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:36,600 PCP Blessings:for they shall rule the earth. 89 00:05:36,600 --> 00:05:38,600 PCP Blessings:He doesn't say blessed are the big churches, 90 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:41,600 PCP Blessings:or blessed are the influencers and the famous. 91 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,600 PCP Blessings:I'm not saying that those don't constitute blessings. 92 00:05:44,600 --> 00:05:48,600 PCP Blessings:The Bible says that Job was blessed with wealth, 93 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:51,600 PCP Blessings:and Solomon was blessed with great wealth. 94 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:53,600 PCP Blessings:And it also doesn't mean that if you're broke, 95 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:55,600 PCP Blessings:you're automatically blessed. 96 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:58,600 PCP Blessings:You might just be broke because you can't manage a budget, right? 97 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,600 PCP Blessings:And God actually does have more for you. 98 00:06:00,600 --> 00:06:04,600 PCP Blessings:But what I want you to walk out of here with today is the understanding 99 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:07,600 PCP Blessings:that a blessing isn't defined by you and me. 100 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:09,600 PCP Blessings:It's defined by God. 101 00:06:09,600 --> 00:06:13,600 PCP Blessings:I can give you an idea of what I would like my life to look like. 102 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:16,600 PCP Blessings:But even if I had everything I ever wanted, 103 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,600 PCP Blessings:if God wanted none of it for me, 104 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:20,600 PCP Blessings:I can't say that I'm blessed. 105 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:25,600 PCP Blessings:And I believe that there's people in the room today. 106 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:27,600 PCP Blessings:I know it. 107 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:29,600 PCP Blessings:People wondering where their blessing is, 108 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:31,600 PCP Blessings:because when God said, 109 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,600 PCP Blessings:you were gonna be blessed, he didn't say with what. 110 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:39,600 PCP Blessings:Man, you know, the Lord has given me word before to speak to people. 111 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:43,600 PCP Blessings:He would say, tell this person that I'm about to bless them. 112 00:06:43,600 --> 00:06:47,600 PCP Blessings:And that is one of the things that I'm like, God, I don't know. 113 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:49,600 PCP Blessings:That's super vague, you know? 114 00:06:49,600 --> 00:06:51,600 PCP Blessings:Like if you want to make somebody cry in the presence of God, 115 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:52,600 PCP Blessings:just whisper in their ear, 116 00:06:52,600 --> 00:06:54,600 PCP Blessings:the Lord is about to bless you, right? 117 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:56,600 PCP Blessings:And they will fall to their knees and I'll receive it, Lord. 118 00:06:56,600 --> 00:07:00,600 PCP Blessings:And I'm like, God, I don't want to sound false profite 119 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,600 PCP Blessings:or prosperity, gospel-y. 120 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:06,600 PCP Blessings:Those aren't words, but like, he would tell, 121 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,600 PCP Blessings:I would really feel that tug on my heart, 122 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:12,600 PCP Blessings:go tell this person that I'm about to do something in their life. 123 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:15,600 PCP Blessings:And I'm like, God, give me more information. 124 00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:20,600 PCP Blessings:What is, what, what are you gonna do in their life? 125 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:22,600 PCP Blessings:And I realize that when we hear those words, 126 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:25,600 PCP Blessings:the Lord is about to bless you. 127 00:07:25,600 --> 00:07:28,600 PCP Blessings:We automatically interpret it, the word blessing, 128 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:31,600 PCP Blessings:in the way that we hope it to me. 129 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:36,600 PCP Blessings:But I think that if we open up our hearts more to what God wants to do, 130 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:38,600 PCP Blessings:instead of what we want him to do, 131 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:42,600 PCP Blessings:we will be more in tune with the blessings when they begin to manifest, 132 00:07:42,600 --> 00:07:44,600 PCP Blessings:we'll begin to see what they are. 133 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:48,600 PCP Blessings:There are people in this congregation who God wants to bless with more of his spirit. 134 00:07:48,600 --> 00:07:51,600 PCP Blessings:God wants to give you more of himself in you. 135 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:54,600 PCP Blessings:He wants to produce fruit in you, right? 136 00:07:54,600 --> 00:07:57,600 PCP Blessings:And so, and so that blessing that God wants to bless you with, 137 00:07:57,600 --> 00:08:00,600 PCP Blessings:it might come in the form of faith. 138 00:08:00,600 --> 00:08:04,600 PCP Blessings:And so you're saying, well, God, why am I in this season of testing? 139 00:08:04,600 --> 00:08:07,600 PCP Blessings:Where is this blessing of which you spoke? 140 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:09,600 PCP Blessings:And God is saying, you're living in it. 141 00:08:09,600 --> 00:08:11,600 PCP Blessings:You're being stressed right now. 142 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:14,600 PCP Blessings:You don't see it, but you are learning how to trust me 143 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:16,600 PCP Blessings:in ways that you never did before. 144 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:19,600 PCP Blessings:You are calling to me when before you would call to everybody else. 145 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:23,600 PCP Blessings:You are learning how to be still in my presence and withstand the storms. 146 00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:26,600 PCP Blessings:That is the blessing that I have for you. 147 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,600 PCP Blessings:Well, why the cancer, God, when you said that blessings were coming, 148 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:32,600 PCP Blessings:what if the cancer is the thing that produced the blessing? 149 00:08:32,600 --> 00:08:36,600 PCP Blessings:We went to eat with Haiti and Herbert last week. 150 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:41,600 PCP Blessings:I don't think Haiti's teaching the kids, but she was talking about her testimony of her cancer, 151 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:44,600 PCP Blessings:how last year she didn't understand why she was going through, 152 00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:47,600 PCP Blessings:what she was going through, probably the hardest year of her life. 153 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:52,600 PCP Blessings:But now she's able to look back and realize, man, I am now offering hope to people 154 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:54,600 PCP Blessings:who are going through the same thing. 155 00:08:54,600 --> 00:09:02,600 PCP Blessings:I don't know what your blessing is, but I know that God truly desires blessings for his people. 156 00:09:02,600 --> 00:09:07,600 PCP Blessings:And so if I had a biblical definition for the word blessing, 157 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:10,600 PCP Blessings:I would say that it's the favor of God over your life. 158 00:09:10,600 --> 00:09:12,600 PCP Blessings:That's what a blessing is. 159 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:14,600 PCP Blessings:It is the favor of God over your life. 160 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,600 PCP Blessings:If I am favored by God, I will be blessed by God. 161 00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:21,600 PCP Blessings:And if I am not favored by God, I will not be blessed. 162 00:09:21,600 --> 00:09:25,600 PCP Blessings:In theology, there's this concept called common grace. 163 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:29,600 PCP Blessings:And common grace is the grace that God has bestowed to all his people, 164 00:09:29,600 --> 00:09:31,600 PCP Blessings:all creation, regardless of their salvation. 165 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:35,600 PCP Blessings:We are all blessed with oxygen to breathe. 166 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:38,600 PCP Blessings:We are all blessed with the warmth of the sun and the coldness of the night. 167 00:09:38,600 --> 00:09:42,600 PCP Blessings:Jesus sums it up by saying, God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good 168 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:46,600 PCP Blessings:and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 169 00:09:46,600 --> 00:09:52,600 PCP Blessings:Now I can't speak for you, but that's not the type of blessing I'm satisfied with. 170 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:54,600 PCP Blessings:I'm grateful for it. 171 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,600 PCP Blessings:Thank you, Lord, for the sun. 172 00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:57,600 PCP Blessings:Thank you, Lord, for the rain. 173 00:09:57,600 --> 00:09:59,600 PCP Blessings:But I want the favor. 174 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,600 PCP Blessings:I want the favor of God with me over my life. 175 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,600 PCP Blessings:I want the presence of God in my decision making. 176 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:12,600 PCP Blessings:Everywhere I go, listen, I want to know that God is not only walking behind me 177 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:14,600 PCP Blessings:to protect me from my stupidity. 178 00:10:14,600 --> 00:10:19,600 PCP Blessings:I want to know that he is walking in front of me because he's leading me there. 179 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:25,600 PCP Blessings:If God isn't with me, it's because he doesn't want it for me. 180 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:34,600 PCP Blessings:I remember 12 years ago, almost to the date, I sent a message to my father-in-law. 181 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:38,600 PCP Blessings:Out of nowhere, I don't think I had ever texted him before in my life. 182 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:44,600 PCP Blessings:And I sent him this text message saying, hey, I like to talk to you about something, quote-unquote, something. 183 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:46,600 PCP Blessings:And so he probably already knew what it was about. 184 00:10:46,600 --> 00:10:49,600 PCP Blessings:I said, I'd like to stop by your house and talk to you. 185 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,600 PCP Blessings:And so I coordinated with Melissa's sisters at the time, which she wasn't going to be there. 186 00:10:53,600 --> 00:10:59,600 PCP Blessings:And I went and I sat down in front of my now father-in-law, mother-in-law. 187 00:10:59,600 --> 00:11:01,600 PCP Blessings:And I didn't beat around the bush. 188 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:02,600 PCP Blessings:I just went there. 189 00:11:02,600 --> 00:11:06,600 PCP Blessings:I was like, I'm here to hopefully get your blessing to marry your daughter. 190 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:10,600 PCP Blessings:And thankfully, he said, it's about time. 191 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:12,600 PCP Blessings:I've been together forever. 192 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:13,600 PCP Blessings:And so I shook his hand. 193 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:17,600 PCP Blessings:I was out of there in 10 minutes. 194 00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:18,600 PCP Blessings:All right, all right. 195 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:21,600 PCP Blessings:I'm short and sweet. 196 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:22,600 PCP Blessings:Just like my waiting ceremony. 197 00:11:22,600 --> 00:11:23,600 PCP Blessings:Short and sweet. 198 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,600 PCP Blessings:I'm trying to be there all day. 199 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:27,600 PCP Blessings:But I wanted his blessing. 200 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:29,600 PCP Blessings:Like, that was a true, like that was a desire of mine. 201 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:39,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted, I wanted to walk out of there seeing a sense of joy on his face because his daughter was about to hit the jackpot, right? 202 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:44,600 PCP Blessings:But I wanted his blessing not only out of respect for him. 203 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:45,600 PCP Blessings:That was a part of it. 204 00:11:45,600 --> 00:11:47,600 PCP Blessings:But I wanted it also for my peace. 205 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:54,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted to know going into this marriage that he was for it, that he was going to support us. 206 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:58,600 PCP Blessings:You know, had he said, well, you can do whatever you want, your adults, but I don't approve of it. 207 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:00,600 PCP Blessings:I would have walked out of there defeated. 208 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:03,600 PCP Blessings:I don't, I didn't want him just to say, sure, do what you want. 209 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:04,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted his support. 210 00:12:04,600 --> 00:12:07,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted him to embrace me as a part of his family. 211 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:09,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted him to be able to trust me that I was going to take care of his daughter. 212 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:11,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted him to be happy for his daughter. 213 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:13,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted him to pay for a little bit of the wedding. 214 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,600 PCP Blessings:That's support. 215 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:19,600 PCP Blessings:That's the blessing. 216 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:25,600 PCP Blessings:I wanted, I wanted to have the favor of my father-in-law over any other guy that Melissa could have married. 217 00:12:25,600 --> 00:12:28,600 PCP Blessings:I didn't want an, ah, you'll do. 218 00:12:28,600 --> 00:12:31,600 PCP Blessings:I guess I wanted his favor. 219 00:12:31,600 --> 00:12:39,600 PCP Blessings:Now, a lot of times we go through life having the approval of God, but not having the favor of God. 220 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:43,600 PCP Blessings:And we have mistaken approval for blessing. 221 00:12:43,600 --> 00:12:45,600 PCP Blessings:Well, I'm blessed because I got the car loan. 222 00:12:45,600 --> 00:12:47,600 PCP Blessings:I'm blessed because I got the house. 223 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:54,600 PCP Blessings:I'm blessed because I got the job, but just because God approved of it, approved it, doesn't mean that he blessed it. 224 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,600 PCP Blessings:Doesn't mean that he's with you in it. 225 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:02,600 PCP Blessings:And we get this confused a lot because we think that a yes is a yes from God. 226 00:13:02,600 --> 00:13:03,600 PCP Blessings:God is sovereign. 227 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,600 PCP Blessings:God will allow you to walk off a cliff if he wants you. 228 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:08,600 PCP Blessings:But who are we to say that was God? 229 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:10,600 PCP Blessings:Thank you for my blessing. 230 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:15,600 PCP Blessings:We call the approval of God often the blessings of God. 231 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:20,600 PCP Blessings:And we have to look, you know, we, we, we have a lot of people who look at their lives, right? 232 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:25,600 PCP Blessings:And, and you look at their lives and it looks like you've, you've got a pretty good life. 233 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:26,600 PCP Blessings:It looks like the marriage is good. 234 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:28,600 PCP Blessings:It looks like the money is good. 235 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,600 PCP Blessings:It looks like, you know, they've got it all together and maybe all of the above is true. 236 00:13:31,600 --> 00:13:35,600 PCP Blessings:But then they wonder where the presence of God has gone from them. 237 00:13:35,600 --> 00:13:37,600 PCP Blessings:I got all these things together. 238 00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:38,600 PCP Blessings:I got all my ducks in a row. 239 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:39,600 PCP Blessings:But where's my anointing? 240 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:41,600 PCP Blessings:Where is the rena word of God? 241 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:42,600 PCP Blessings:Why can't I hear from God? 242 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:43,600 PCP Blessings:Where is the joy? 243 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:44,600 PCP Blessings:Where is my freedom? 244 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:45,600 PCP Blessings:Where is my peace? 245 00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:49,600 PCP Blessings:Why am I still angry in the midst of having all these things? 246 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:56,600 PCP Blessings:It could be because you have mistaken God's blessings for the things that he's just allowed you to have. 247 00:13:56,600 --> 00:14:02,600 PCP Blessings:And as people of God, any people of God here this morning? 248 00:14:02,600 --> 00:14:03,600 PCP Blessings:Who am I talking to? 249 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:04,600 PCP Blessings:Okay. 250 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:08,600 PCP Blessings:Look, as people of God, we shouldn't be satisfied with just the approval of God. 251 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:12,600 PCP Blessings:We should desire the favor, the favor of God. 252 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:17,600 PCP Blessings:Jesus said, Lord Father, if you will take this cup from me, I don't want this. 253 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:18,600 PCP Blessings:I don't want to have to do this. 254 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,600 PCP Blessings:But then he says, but hold on, let your will be done, not my will. 255 00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:30,600 PCP Blessings:Because even though I want the thing that I'm asking for, what I want even more than the thing that I'm asking for is your favor over my life. 256 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:32,600 PCP Blessings:I want your plan to be done in my life. 257 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:34,600 PCP Blessings:I don't want to lead my own life. 258 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:35,600 PCP Blessings:I want you to lead it. 259 00:14:37,600 --> 00:14:40,600 PCP Blessings:Church, God's presence. 260 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:42,600 PCP Blessings:I want you to hear this. 261 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:43,600 PCP Blessings:This is like my whole sermon. 262 00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:44,600 PCP Blessings:These five words. 263 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:47,600 PCP Blessings:God's presence is the blessing. 264 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:54,600 PCP Blessings:God's presence is the blessing. 265 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,600 PCP Blessings:That is the whole message behind this passage. 266 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:00,600 PCP Blessings:God said to Abraham, I will bless you and I will bless your descendants. 267 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:03,600 PCP Blessings:And through you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. 268 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:06,600 PCP Blessings:Now on the surface, God was talking about land. 269 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:13,600 PCP Blessings:He was talking about making the people of Israel into a nation and giving them a land flowing with milk and honey, a place that they could call home. 270 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:18,600 PCP Blessings:But really what God was doing was establishing his people who would be called holy. 271 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:20,600 PCP Blessings:We talked about this last week. 272 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:25,600 PCP Blessings:God was making Israel into his treasured possession. 273 00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:28,600 PCP Blessings:Segula is the Hebrew word for treasured possession. 274 00:15:28,600 --> 00:15:30,600 PCP Blessings:And it literally means mine. 275 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:35,600 PCP Blessings:God was calling a people to be mine. 276 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:40,600 PCP Blessings:And so Deuteronomy says, for you are a people holy to the Lord. 277 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:45,600 PCP Blessings:The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples of the earth. 278 00:15:45,600 --> 00:15:48,600 PCP Blessings:Israel was called to be set apart. 279 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:50,600 PCP Blessings:They were called to be holy. 280 00:15:50,600 --> 00:15:54,600 PCP Blessings:If they remained faithful to them, to God, God would bless them. 281 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:56,600 PCP Blessings:And if not, God would what? 282 00:15:56,600 --> 00:15:57,600 PCP Blessings:Curse them. 283 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:08,600 PCP Blessings:If you read scripture, especially the Old Testament, every time Israel entered a season of curses, it would begin with God stepping back. 284 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,600 PCP Blessings:I got your attention right this morning. 285 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,600 PCP Blessings:I got your attention this morning. 286 00:16:14,600 --> 00:16:19,600 PCP Blessings:I need you to get this word this morning. 287 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,600 PCP Blessings:Because God is desiring people of the presence. 288 00:16:22,600 --> 00:16:27,600 PCP Blessings:God is desiring a church that truly desires him. 289 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:33,600 PCP Blessings:And in Israel, they got this, they got it wrong so many times. 290 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:38,600 PCP Blessings:Because they were missing the whole point of who they were called to be. 291 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:43,600 PCP Blessings:In their minds, they were the people of God, but they didn't act like the people of God. 292 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:48,600 PCP Blessings:In their minds, they were the people of God, but they wanted to do things their way, not God's way. 293 00:16:48,600 --> 00:16:56,600 PCP Blessings:And so anytime God would bless, or anytime God would curse them, it would begin with God stepping back. 294 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:58,600 PCP Blessings:And it wasn't just God taking things away from them. 295 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,600 PCP Blessings:He was removing himself from them. 296 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:07,600 PCP Blessings:Because if you are going to do something out of the will of God, God is not going to go ahead of you. 297 00:17:07,600 --> 00:17:11,600 PCP Blessings:He might pull you out when you realize that you made a mistake and you repented. 298 00:17:11,600 --> 00:17:17,600 PCP Blessings:And then out of those mistakes, he can make something beautiful because that is just the power and the glory of God. 299 00:17:17,600 --> 00:17:18,600 PCP Blessings:That's what he does. 300 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,600 PCP Blessings:But God will not walk ahead of you to a place that is outside of his will. 301 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:28,600 PCP Blessings:The Hebrew word for presence is panim. 302 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:30,600 PCP Blessings:Somebody say panim. 303 00:17:30,600 --> 00:17:39,600 PCP Blessings:And panim has a range of meanings in the English, but they all seem to refer to the front. 304 00:17:39,600 --> 00:17:46,600 PCP Blessings:So some English words that are used for panim are front, before, face, and head. 305 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:51,600 PCP Blessings:So to have the presence of God with you isn't just to have him around. 306 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:54,600 PCP Blessings:It's to have him with you and before you. 307 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:57,600 PCP Blessings:It's having him take the lead. 308 00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:02,600 PCP Blessings:See when the Israelites brought the Ark of the Covenant into the battle with the Philistines, they reasoned. 309 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:06,600 PCP Blessings:Well, if we have the Ark with us, surely we're going to win. 310 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:08,600 PCP Blessings:Because the Ark represented the presence of God. 311 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:13,600 PCP Blessings:So let's just bring the Ark of the Covenant into the battlefield and we're going to win. 312 00:18:13,600 --> 00:18:14,600 PCP Blessings:And did they win? 313 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:15,600 PCP Blessings:No. 314 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:17,600 PCP Blessings:Why? 315 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,600 PCP Blessings:Why didn't God not allow them to be with you? 316 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,600 PCP Blessings:Why didn't God allow them to be victorious? 317 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:27,600 PCP Blessings:Because even though the Ark was present, God was not with Israel. 318 00:18:27,600 --> 00:18:33,600 PCP Blessings:God was present, but his favor was not with Israel. 319 00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:38,600 PCP Blessings:And so you're walking into a place where God already said, don't go there. 320 00:18:38,600 --> 00:18:41,600 PCP Blessings:I don't know who I'm speaking to this morning. 321 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,600 PCP Blessings:God said, don't do it. 322 00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:44,600 PCP Blessings:Don't say that. 323 00:18:44,600 --> 00:18:46,600 PCP Blessings:Don't enter that relationship. 324 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:48,600 PCP Blessings:Don't go there. 325 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:52,600 PCP Blessings:And you're like, well, if I just put on my worship music, God will be with me. 326 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,600 PCP Blessings:I'll just blast it really loud. 327 00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,600 PCP Blessings:Well, I'll just say a prayer. 328 00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:58,600 PCP Blessings:And maybe he'll be with me. 329 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,600 PCP Blessings:You have to understand that God may be around to clean up your mess. 330 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:08,600 PCP Blessings:But if God's favor is absent from where you are going, with who you are dating, with what you are doing, 331 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:10,600 PCP Blessings:He will not go before you. 332 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:16,600 PCP Blessings:He will not stand in front of you to protect you when the hand of the enemy comes your way. 333 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:23,600 PCP Blessings:Because when God is for you, He stands in front of you, and no weapon formed against me shall prosper. 334 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:25,600 PCP Blessings:Because God is right there in front of me. 335 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:30,600 PCP Blessings:And even though I'm in the valley, even though I'm on the mountaintop, it doesn't matter because God is with me. 336 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,600 PCP Blessings:But when I'm going to a place where God didn't even sanction, He's going to step aside. 337 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:45,600 PCP Blessings:And how foolish of us, how foolish of us to think that we're always going to have 338 00:19:46,600 --> 00:19:53,600 PCP Blessings:the favor and the protection of God when we are deliberately going into direction where He said not to go. 339 00:19:53,600 --> 00:20:02,600 PCP Blessings:And be careful because if the presence of God isn't with you, the blessings of God will definitely not follow you. 340 00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:07,600 PCP Blessings:We don't talk about hell a lot. 341 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:09,600 PCP Blessings:But what is hell? 342 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:12,600 PCP Blessings:It's a total absence of God. 343 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:16,600 PCP Blessings:Nothing of God's presence will exist in hell. 344 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:20,600 PCP Blessings:It is a total removal of His presence. 345 00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:26,600 PCP Blessings:And with it comes unending pain and anguish and agony and suffering, and there's no hope. 346 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:36,600 PCP Blessings:So if the curses of God begin with God being absent, then the blessings of God begin with God being present. 347 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:39,600 PCP Blessings:You want the Lord's favor in your marriage. 348 00:20:40,600 --> 00:20:44,600 PCP Blessings:It begins with Him being present in your marriage. 349 00:20:44,600 --> 00:20:47,600 PCP Blessings:Like in your marriage. 350 00:20:47,600 --> 00:20:52,600 PCP Blessings:He has to go before you. He has to go ahead of you. He has to lead you. 351 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:57,600 PCP Blessings:You want the Lord to bless your business. God needs to be in your business. 352 00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:03,600 PCP Blessings:You want God over your ministry, over your church, over your project, over your family. 353 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:09,600 PCP Blessings:God needs to be present in every aspect of life in which you wish to have the blessings of God. 354 00:21:10,600 --> 00:21:18,600 PCP Blessings:At the end of my life, in Melissa's life, everything that we have, and I hope to have something, is going to go to our children. 355 00:21:18,600 --> 00:21:24,600 PCP Blessings:Everything. Every asset, every piece of real estate. Everything is going to go to our daughters because they are our children. 356 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:29,600 PCP Blessings:It doesn't mean that I don't love your children. They're my children. I'm going to give them my blessing. 357 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:33,600 PCP Blessings:And so God wants to bless His children. 358 00:21:33,600 --> 00:21:38,600 PCP Blessings:That's what He wants to do. That's why He called Israel. 359 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:47,600 PCP Blessings:He wants to bless His children, but when we begin to exclude God's presence, and we turn our backs to God in certain aspects of our lives, 360 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:50,600 PCP Blessings:well then God stops seeing us as His. 361 00:21:50,600 --> 00:21:55,600 PCP Blessings:And God will not take ownership of something that has not been consecrated for Him. 362 00:21:55,600 --> 00:22:02,600 PCP Blessings:I want you to notice something interesting in the text. God tells Moses, 363 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:09,600 PCP Blessings:depart and go up from here you and the people whom you have brought from the light of Egypt. 364 00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:11,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to read that again. 365 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:17,600 PCP Blessings:Depart, go up from here you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt. 366 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,600 PCP Blessings:Do you notice something different there? 367 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:26,600 PCP Blessings:Up until now, it has been my people whom I have brought out of Egypt. 368 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:33,600 PCP Blessings:God said to Moses, go and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. 369 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:41,600 PCP Blessings:I am with my people. I will bless my people. They are my people. They are my treasured possession. 370 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:47,600 PCP Blessings:I brought them out of Egypt. I parted the Red Sea. I led them through the wilderness. 371 00:22:47,600 --> 00:22:50,600 PCP Blessings:I am theirs and they are mine. 372 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:56,600 PCP Blessings:But now it's taking your people who you brought out of Egypt. 373 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:04,600 PCP Blessings:So, Israel had just broken covenant with God. That's the context of this. 374 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:11,600 PCP Blessings:All this takes place after the Golden Calf incident where God, where the people were making Aaron 375 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,600 PCP Blessings:carve this golden image so that they could worship it. 376 00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:22,600 PCP Blessings:And before that, they had made a covenant. They had made a promise with God to be holy and to be His. 377 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:24,600 PCP Blessings:And they broke it. 378 00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:31,600 PCP Blessings:And so because they broke it, God was no longer going to claim them as His people because they turned away from Him. 379 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:37,600 PCP Blessings:But you know, God is still faithful in His promises. He wasn't going to forget about the faithful. 380 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:41,600 PCP Blessings:God wasn't about to forget about the promise that He made to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. 381 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:46,600 PCP Blessings:And so He says, take your people, Moses, and go into the land that I swore I would give them. 382 00:23:46,600 --> 00:23:48,600 PCP Blessings:It will still flow with milk and honey. 383 00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,600 PCP Blessings:All the enemies are still going to be driven out because God is faithful that way. 384 00:23:53,600 --> 00:23:57,600 PCP Blessings:But the presence will no longer be there with you. 385 00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:04,600 PCP Blessings:God can no longer walk with these people because they rejected Him. 386 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:11,600 PCP Blessings:Now, I know most of us haven't rejected God. I'm speaking to a room full of Christians, right? 387 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,600 PCP Blessings:Most of us are walking with God. 388 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,600 PCP Blessings:So what's the point of this sermon? 389 00:24:17,600 --> 00:24:21,600 PCP Blessings:I was talking to somebody this week and they said, 390 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:28,600 PCP Blessings:Pastor, I've asked God into my life, but there's so many areas where I'm still not seeing the hand of God. 391 00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:32,600 PCP Blessings:Like there's so many areas that are still flawed. 392 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:37,600 PCP Blessings:And I asked this person, I said, is God in every room? 393 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:40,600 PCP Blessings:What do you mean? 394 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,600 PCP Blessings:I said, if you think about your life like a house, 395 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:48,600 PCP Blessings:can you say that God inhabits every room in the house? 396 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:52,600 PCP Blessings:That that's what spiritual maturity looks like. 397 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:58,600 PCP Blessings:It's saying, Holy Spirit, come into my life and then giving Him access to every single room. 398 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:06,600 PCP Blessings:When you invite a person into your house, do you expect them to go in every room? 399 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:19,600 PCP Blessings:When you invite somebody into your house, you're friendly to them, you serve them, maybe you sit down for a meal, 400 00:25:19,600 --> 00:25:26,600 PCP Blessings:you invite them to sit at your table and you clean all the visible areas of the house. 401 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:32,600 PCP Blessings:You clean where they're expected to go, the living room, the family room, the dining room, the game room. 402 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:40,600 PCP Blessings:And all the junk that was in the game room gets thrown in the bedroom or the closet 403 00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:43,600 PCP Blessings:because you don't expect them to go there. 404 00:25:43,600 --> 00:25:50,600 PCP Blessings:And so when we invite God into our lives, we have those rooms where we're like, well, God is not going to go there. 405 00:25:50,600 --> 00:25:53,600 PCP Blessings:I'm not going to give Him access to that. 406 00:25:53,600 --> 00:25:56,600 PCP Blessings:I'll give Him access to my heart, but not my mind. 407 00:25:56,600 --> 00:25:58,600 PCP Blessings:I'll give Him access to my mind, but not my words. 408 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:03,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to give Him access to my time, but not the things that I listen to, not the things that I watch. 409 00:26:03,600 --> 00:26:05,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to give Him access to some things. 410 00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,600 PCP Blessings:And so I asked this person, is God in every room or just in some? 411 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:14,600 PCP Blessings:Because I think that that is the problem that we have as Christians. 412 00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:17,600 PCP Blessings:We don't give God access to everything. 413 00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:22,600 PCP Blessings:And that's the question I want to ask this morning. 414 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,600 PCP Blessings:It's not have you rejected God in your life. 415 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:29,600 PCP Blessings:The question is, have you allowed Him everywhere? 416 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:39,600 PCP Blessings:Because if the closet is a mess, it's still going to remain a mess as long as God is absent. 417 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:45,600 PCP Blessings:Some of you have addictions that you just haven't given to God yet, and that's why you still have them. 418 00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:53,600 PCP Blessings:And you're saved, and you're here, and you love God, but you haven't broken certain chains because you haven't given Him the chains to break. 419 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:58,600 PCP Blessings:God is a chain breaker, but He has to have the access to it. 420 00:26:58,600 --> 00:27:06,600 PCP Blessings:And so some people have come to the altar, and they prayed for everyone and everything except that one thing that they're not willing to let go of. 421 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:10,600 PCP Blessings:You haven't given God access to everything. 422 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:12,600 PCP Blessings:God, my pride, remove it. 423 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:17,600 PCP Blessings:God, my anxiety, my relationship that I know you don't approve of. 424 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:22,600 PCP Blessings:It's like we have all these elephants in the room, and we pray, but we avoid the thing that we should be praying for. 425 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:28,600 PCP Blessings:Is God in every room of your life? 426 00:27:28,600 --> 00:27:30,600 PCP Blessings:That's the question that I have for you, church. 427 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:37,600 PCP Blessings:I want you to know something that is probably missed when we read about the golden calf. 428 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,600 PCP Blessings:That's in 32, chapter 32 of Exodus. 429 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:47,600 PCP Blessings:In ancient Israel, in the ancient Near East, it was very common. 430 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,600 PCP Blessings:Let me just get your attention. I'm going to bore you with a little bit of historic details. 431 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:55,600 PCP Blessings:In the ancient Near East, it was really common for God to be reduced to carved images. 432 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:57,600 PCP Blessings:Very common. 433 00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:06,600 PCP Blessings:It wasn't that the pagans believed that the images were gods, but they believed that the image represented their gods. 434 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:10,600 PCP Blessings:Israel was fully immersed in this culture. 435 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:16,600 PCP Blessings:When they carved the image of the golden calf in their minds, they weren't rejecting Yahweh. 436 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,600 PCP Blessings:They were embracing Yahweh in the form of a statue. 437 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:24,600 PCP Blessings:Why do they even feel the need to do this? 438 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:32,600 PCP Blessings:Because Moses, the prophet, the man of God, who represented Yahweh to Israel and Israel to Yahweh, he wasn't around. 439 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,600 PCP Blessings:He was up on the mountain somewhere. 440 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:38,600 PCP Blessings:Goofing off. What is he even doing up there? How long is he going to be up there? 441 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:45,600 PCP Blessings:Eventually, they think, well, the only way that we're going to have access to God, because it used to be through Moses, but we don't know what happened to him. 442 00:28:45,600 --> 00:28:48,600 PCP Blessings:Now, it's going to have to be in the form of a carved image. 443 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:52,600 PCP Blessings:Aaron, give us a carved image that we can touch and we can see and we can worship. 444 00:28:53,600 --> 00:28:59,600 PCP Blessings:And so what the Israelites did was they failed to trust. 445 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:09,600 PCP Blessings:We're going to reduce Yahweh to an image that we can see and that we can speak to and that we can touch and we have access to directly. 446 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,600 PCP Blessings:They made themselves God over Yahweh is what they did. 447 00:29:14,600 --> 00:29:23,600 PCP Blessings:And so anytime you think that you can rationalize or justify what you're doing by taking God with you, God is not a thing to be taken. 448 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:28,600 PCP Blessings:Oh, man, we do it so many times. 449 00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:33,600 PCP Blessings:When it's something that we want, when it's something that we want, what do we say? 450 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:35,600 PCP Blessings:I think the Lord is calling me to this. 451 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:40,600 PCP Blessings:You want to plan a church just because you're mad at your pastor? 452 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:43,600 PCP Blessings:I think the Lord is calling me to this. 453 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:48,600 PCP Blessings:You entered a relationship that you probably should have entered. 454 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:52,600 PCP Blessings:I think the Lord is wanting me to take a break. 455 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:58,600 PCP Blessings:You plan to do something that is against all the Godly counsel. 456 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:02,600 PCP Blessings:And you're like, nah, I already prayed about it. 457 00:30:02,600 --> 00:30:06,600 PCP Blessings:That's what we do. 458 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:08,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to take God with me. 459 00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:11,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to reduce him into something that I want. 460 00:30:11,600 --> 00:30:15,600 PCP Blessings:Church, that's not the presence of God. 461 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:20,600 PCP Blessings:God's presence, church, is the blessing. 462 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,600 PCP Blessings:You want to be blessed by God. 463 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,600 PCP Blessings:God has to bless it first. 464 00:30:28,600 --> 00:30:37,600 PCP Blessings:You want the job to produce the blessing God has to bless you with the job. 465 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:43,600 PCP Blessings:So recently I started asking myself, man, where have I rejected God? 466 00:30:43,600 --> 00:30:48,600 PCP Blessings:Because, man, honest to God, I never, ever, ever want to be outside of the will of God. 467 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,600 PCP Blessings:I know that I'm going to stumble. 468 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:52,600 PCP Blessings:I know that I'm going to make mistakes. 469 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:57,600 PCP Blessings:But I never want to embrace an aspect of my life where God is just not there. 470 00:30:57,600 --> 00:31:04,600 PCP Blessings:Every decision, every business decision, every ministry decision, every family decision. 471 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:07,600 PCP Blessings:God, are you in this or is this me? 472 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:11,600 PCP Blessings:Sometimes I take a long time to make decisions. 473 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:16,600 PCP Blessings:Big decisions because I want to hear from God, Lord, are you in this? 474 00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:23,600 PCP Blessings:I don't want to make, it's so easy to make a move out of emotion and say, God, God had me do it. 475 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:29,600 PCP Blessings:Church, if God isn't in it, remove it. 476 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,600 PCP Blessings:That's my challenge to you. 477 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:38,600 PCP Blessings:If God isn't in that relationship, if he's not in that project, if he's not in that financial burden that you're about to take on, remove it. 478 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:47,600 PCP Blessings:Because when we begin to, when we take too long, we begin to be too comfortable without God's presence. 479 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,600 PCP Blessings:That's when we begin to contaminate every other area of life. 480 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:54,600 PCP Blessings:See, Moses, Moses was a man of God. 481 00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:56,600 PCP Blessings:The presence of God was with Moses. 482 00:31:56,600 --> 00:31:59,600 PCP Blessings:Very much so. 483 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:05,600 PCP Blessings:And so for Moses to hear the words, my presence will not go. 484 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:10,600 PCP Blessings:That ought to be the scariest, most heartbreaking thing that you've ever heard in his life. 485 00:32:10,600 --> 00:32:15,600 PCP Blessings:Imagine saying, imagine God saying to you, my presence will not go with your children at school. 486 00:32:15,600 --> 00:32:21,600 PCP Blessings:Imagine God saying, I will not be with you in that operating room. 487 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:28,600 PCP Blessings:I will not be with you in your financial decisions because you haven't even considered me in them anyways. 488 00:32:28,600 --> 00:32:31,600 PCP Blessings:How heartbreaking would it be to hear those words from God? 489 00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:37,600 PCP Blessings:But we don't realize that if we've rejected God in any of these areas, he's already not there. 490 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:51,600 PCP Blessings:When we reject Godly counsel, when we reject, when we don't let God work through our pride, when we put idols in front of God in the form of ambitions and our own desires, we are rejecting God. 491 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,600 PCP Blessings:And we don't even realize it and we want to be called blessed. 492 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:57,600 PCP Blessings:God wants to bless you. 493 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:00,600 PCP Blessings:But he defines the blessing. 494 00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:01,600 PCP Blessings:He defines the blessing. 495 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:04,600 PCP Blessings:He defines the blessing. 496 00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:06,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to have the worship team come up. 497 00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:08,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to get ready to close. 498 00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:22,600 PCP Blessings:As I was wrapping up the sermon, God said, tell the people, I want my people to be people of the presence. 499 00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:29,600 PCP Blessings:I want my people to desire my presence. 500 00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:38,600 PCP Blessings:Not just my approval, my leadership, my favor, my blessings. 501 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:47,600 PCP Blessings:When people desire the presence of God, if you haven't paid attention yet, I need you to pay attention now. 502 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:52,600 PCP Blessings:When people desire the presence of God, that's when God listens. 503 00:33:54,600 --> 00:33:55,600 PCP Blessings:That's when God listens. 504 00:33:55,600 --> 00:34:00,600 PCP Blessings:Because when you are for God, God knows that he can be for you. 505 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:10,600 PCP Blessings:Where there is a man, where there is a woman of God who knows God intimately, God's going to listen. 506 00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:16,600 PCP Blessings:And God heard the prayers of my grandma. 507 00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:20,600 PCP Blessings:God heard the prayers of my grandparents, of my parents. 508 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:24,600 PCP Blessings:Because they were people of the presence. 509 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:29,600 PCP Blessings:And I love this dialogue between Moses and God. 510 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:33,600 PCP Blessings:God had just told Moses to go without his presence. 511 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:38,600 PCP Blessings:And Moses being a man who is favored by God, he makes an appeal to God. 512 00:34:38,600 --> 00:34:41,600 PCP Blessings:See, this is what the favor allows you to do. 513 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,600 PCP Blessings:It allows you to appeal. 514 00:34:46,600 --> 00:34:52,600 PCP Blessings:If I have no favor with God, who am I to even ask for God to reconsider? 515 00:34:52,600 --> 00:35:00,600 PCP Blessings:Who am I even to go before him and ask for anything but as a child of God, holy and anointed and appointed in favor? 516 00:35:00,600 --> 00:35:03,600 PCP Blessings:I've got a little bit of pull with my Father in heaven. 517 00:35:03,600 --> 00:35:07,600 PCP Blessings:My prayer means something. 518 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:13,600 PCP Blessings:James says that the prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective. 519 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:19,600 PCP Blessings:The prayers of the righteous are going to be heard. 520 00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:21,600 PCP Blessings:They mean something. 521 00:35:21,600 --> 00:35:26,600 PCP Blessings:When you're a righteous person, your prayers have credibility. 522 00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:28,600 PCP Blessings:And God listens. 523 00:35:28,600 --> 00:35:37,600 PCP Blessings:And so Moses said to the Lord, see you say to me bring up this people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. 524 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:43,600 PCP Blessings:Yet you have said I know you by name and you have also found favor in my sight. 525 00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:51,600 PCP Blessings:Now therefore, if I have favor in your sight, please show me now your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. 526 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:58,600 PCP Blessings:So he's saying, God, if I truly have this favor in your sight, tell me what my next move is going to be. 527 00:35:58,600 --> 00:36:00,600 PCP Blessings:Tell me what to do. 528 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:07,600 PCP Blessings:If I am the man of God, if you know me intimately, if you have called me by name, 529 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:14,600 PCP Blessings:if you have anointed me and appointed me and I am yours and we have this relationship where I speak to you face to face, 530 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,600 PCP Blessings:if I have that type of favor with you. 531 00:36:16,600 --> 00:36:21,600 PCP Blessings:He says also consider this nation. 532 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:25,600 PCP Blessings:I wish I had it up here. 533 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:29,600 PCP Blessings:I think it's verse 13. 534 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:35,600 PCP Blessings:He says, but also consider too that this nation is your people. 535 00:36:35,600 --> 00:36:40,600 PCP Blessings:They're not just my people, God. These are your people. 536 00:36:40,600 --> 00:36:43,600 PCP Blessings:These are your people. 537 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:50,600 PCP Blessings:We need people of God to say, Lord, consider my children as your children. 538 00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:54,600 PCP Blessings:Consider this ministry your ministry. 539 00:36:54,600 --> 00:36:57,600 PCP Blessings:Consider this business. This business is your business. 540 00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:00,600 PCP Blessings:If you're not in it, I don't want any part of it. 541 00:37:01,600 --> 00:37:05,600 PCP Blessings:Moses said, if your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 542 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:09,600 PCP Blessings:I will not lead a people who you are not leading. 543 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:15,600 PCP Blessings:I don't care about the milk. I don't care about the honey. I don't care about the riches. 544 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:20,600 PCP Blessings:I don't care about the money flowing or the abundance of money in the bank. 545 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,600 PCP Blessings:I don't care about having favor with the people without your presence. 546 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,600 PCP Blessings:I've got nothing without your presence. 547 00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:33,600 PCP Blessings:There is no blessing without your favor. What am I even doing here? 548 00:37:33,600 --> 00:37:39,600 PCP Blessings:God listens to the people of the presence when they pray. 549 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:46,600 PCP Blessings:Because God plays it. Listen, God says, I will give you the desires of your heart. 550 00:37:46,600 --> 00:37:54,600 PCP Blessings:He's talking to a righteous man. He ain't talking to someone off the street who doesn't ever consider God's blessings or favor in their life. 551 00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:59,600 PCP Blessings:God is talking to somebody who has a desire after God's own heart. 552 00:37:59,600 --> 00:38:07,600 PCP Blessings:If God knows you intimately, that's when God begins to speak and put desires, his desires into your heart. 553 00:38:07,600 --> 00:38:13,600 PCP Blessings:Because he knows that he can trust you with his desires that he's placing in your heart. 554 00:38:13,600 --> 00:38:19,600 PCP Blessings:But you have to be people of the presence. You have to be people who know God intimately. 555 00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:26,600 PCP Blessings:And see, it was because of the righteousness of Abraham that I get an overflow of the blessings. 556 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:34,600 PCP Blessings:It was because of the appeal that the man of God, Moses, made to God that the Israelites eventually enter the Promised Land. 557 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:37,600 PCP Blessings:And God remained faithful to them. He remained their God. 558 00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:42,600 PCP Blessings:Because of the holy perfection of Jesus, we have the blessing of salvation. 559 00:38:42,600 --> 00:38:46,600 PCP Blessings:Because I have parents who are people of the presence. 560 00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:51,600 PCP Blessings:I continue to receive the blessings and the favor of God when I walk in his ways. 561 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:56,600 PCP Blessings:You want to bless life church. It only happens in the presence of God. 562 00:38:56,600 --> 00:39:03,600 PCP Blessings:I hope that today you walk out with that. 563 00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:09,600 PCP Blessings:Because God wants to bless you. He wants to bless your kids. 564 00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:13,600 PCP Blessings:He wants to bless your family for generations to come. 565 00:39:14,600 --> 00:39:21,600 PCP Blessings:But it only comes with this presence. His presence is the blessing. 566 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:28,600 PCP Blessings:I'm going to close with this. I'm going to ask you to stand. 567 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:46,600 PCP Blessings:God gave a word to Moses to speak to Aaron. Aaron was a high priest. 568 00:39:46,600 --> 00:39:54,600 PCP Blessings:And so Aaron and his descendants would be known as what? Levites. 569 00:39:54,600 --> 00:40:03,600 PCP Blessings:The Levites were those who, they were called to the priesthood. 570 00:40:05,600 --> 00:40:08,600 PCP Blessings:Levites were priests and priests were to be consecrated. 571 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,600 PCP Blessings:They were to act on behalf of the Israelites. 572 00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:15,600 PCP Blessings:They would make sacrifices on behalf of God's people. 573 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:18,600 PCP Blessings:They would work in the temple. 574 00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:22,600 PCP Blessings:They were to have no inheritance of land like those given to the rest of the tribes of Israel. 575 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:26,600 PCP Blessings:Because they were to remain in the temple all the days of their life. 576 00:40:26,600 --> 00:40:31,600 PCP Blessings:That was their duty. Deuteronomy says the Lord was their inheritance. 577 00:40:31,600 --> 00:40:35,600 PCP Blessings:They were called to be the people of the presence. 578 00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:39,600 PCP Blessings:And so Moses gives his word to Aaron. It's found in number 622. 579 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:44,600 PCP Blessings:He says the Lord said to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his son saying, 580 00:40:44,600 --> 00:40:48,600 PCP Blessings:thus you shall bless the people of Israel and you shall say to them, 581 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:53,600 PCP Blessings:the Lord bless you and keep you. 582 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:57,600 PCP Blessings:The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. 583 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:02,600 PCP Blessings:The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. 584 00:41:02,600 --> 00:41:09,600 PCP Blessings:So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel and I will bless them. 585 00:41:09,600 --> 00:41:13,600 PCP Blessings:The presence of God is the blessing. 586 00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:15,600 PCP Blessings:Don't get it twisted church. 587 00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:18,600 PCP Blessings:The presence of God is the blessing. 588 00:41:18,600 --> 00:41:21,600 PCP Blessings:Without the presence there is no blessing. 589 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:24,600 PCP Blessings:Without the presence there is no favor. 590 00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:29,600 PCP Blessings:Without the presence of God there is no life. 591 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:36,600 PCP Blessings:And this morning I just, I can't make you do anything. 592 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:43,600 PCP Blessings:But I'm going to ask that together we ask the presence of God to inhabit every single room in our lives. 593 00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:46,600 PCP Blessings:Every single space my God. 594 00:41:46,600 --> 00:41:52,600 PCP Blessings:So that it's not just me that gets the blessing my God but it flows over to my children 595 00:41:52,600 --> 00:41:54,600 PCP Blessings:and their children, my God. 596 00:41:54,600 --> 00:42:00,600 PCP Blessings:And my extended family, my God, through the blessings that you have poured into my life, Father God, 597 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:02,600 PCP Blessings:because of your presence. 598 00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:06,600 PCP Blessings:God make us men and women of the presence this morning as we seek you. 599 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,600 PCP Blessings:I pray that we would find you, my God. 600 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:12,600 PCP Blessings:When we call upon your name, I pray that you would hear us, Father God. 601 00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:19,600 PCP Blessings:I pray, Father God, that the prayers of the righteous people in this place would move your heart, Father. 602 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,600 PCP Blessings:Oh Jesus' name, I'm going to ask that you come to me. 603 00:42:24,600 --> 00:42:28,600 PCP Blessings:Thanks for listening. If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, 604 00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:32,600 PCP Blessings:visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org. 605 00:42:32,600 --> 00:42:40,600 PCP Blessings:If you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe or share it with your friends on social media and tag us at mynumachurch. 606 00:42:40,600 --> 00:42:42,600 PCP Blessings:Thanks again and God bless.