Hey this is pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA church in Houston texas thank you for listening to the message today i hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with god bless you All the time.

Amen.

We're going to get into the word this morning.

I do want to ask, I do want to ask just for a moment of your time, a little bit longer of a moment.

I'm going to tell you right now.

This word might be a little bit longer than usual, but God was speaking, and I think he wants to say something to his people this morning.

I do want to begin with this announcement before I forget.

On February 3rd, the men are going to be having an eight-week course.

It's called Dad E Academy, and it's eight weeks.

If anybody was here for our last men's conference that we had, that we hosted, one of the pastors, Pastor Otto Kelly, he leads this ministry, and they're going to be with us.

And so I'm so encouraged that we have a men's ministry that is vibrant and we have multiple things for our men.

We have multiple opportunities to serve and we're pouring into them.

We are taking back that notion that that church is for women only.

It's not for women only.

It's also for the men, the priests of their home.

So if you are interested, you can sign up.

You can see Pastor Larry and he's going to take sign ups that begins on February 3rd. 3rd.

Amen.

So if you're a man, Monday nights, we're going to start that.

Amen.

Turn with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 14.

Amen.

And we're going to read most of this chapter, chapter 14.

It's a very underrated chapter.

And I'm going to read it out of the NLT version.

Actually, it's probably going to be more of the JRC version because I'm going to summarize a little bit more. so you can follow along in your own bibles but you might get lost because i'm going to skip a little bit i'm going to try to leave out some of the names that take about 30 seconds each to pronounce that don't add anything to this message um so if you're there say amen and i have it here on the screen amen here it says about the time about this time war broke out in the region, and King Amraphel of Babylonian, King Ariok of Elessar, King Kidul-Ammur of Elam, and King Tidal of Goim, fought against King Bera of Sodom, King Berisha of Gomorrah, King Shinab, and King Shemeber of Bela.

This second group of kings joined forces in the Siddam Valley.

For 12 years they had been subject to King Kadoli-Omer, but in the 13th year they rebelled against him.

One year later, Kedoleomer, that's a hard one, sorry And his allies arrived and defeated the Rephites, the Zuzites, the Ammites, the Horites, and El Peron At the edge of the wilderness Then they turned back and came to En Mishfat And conquered all the territory of the Amalekites and also the Amorites Then the rebel kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, Zeboim, and Bela Prepared for battle in the valley of the Dead Sea They fought against King Cato Leomer and his allies, four kings against five.

As it happened, the valley of the Dead Sea was filled with tar pits.

And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into the pits while the rest escaped into the mountains.

The victorious invaders then plundered Sodom and Gomorrah and headed for home, taking with them all the spoils of war and the food supplies.

They also captured Lot.

This is where it gets interesting, all right?

They also captured Lot, Abram's nephew, who lived in Sodom and carried off everything he owned.

But one of Lot's men escaped and reported everything to Abram, the Hebrew, who was living near the oak grove belonging to Mamre the Amorite.

Mamre and his relatives were Abram's allies.

When Abraham heard that his nephew Lot had been captured, he mobilized 318 trained men who had been born into his household.

Then he pursued Kedolomer, his army, until he caught up with them at Dan.

There he divided his men and attacked during the night.

Kedolomer's army fled, but Abram chased them off as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.

Abram recovered all the goods that had been taken, and he brought back his nephew Lot with his possessions, and all the women and all the other captives.

After Abram's return from his victory over Kedolomer and all his allies, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the valley of Chavez.

And Melchizedek, somebody say Melchizedek.

The king, that's funny that Melchizedek is actually the easiest name to say in this passage.

Melchizedek, the king of Salem, and a priest of God most high brought Abraham some bread and wine.

Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing.

Blessed be Abram by God most high, creator of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God most high who has defeated your enemies for you.

Then Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods that he had recovered.

Amen.

Did you get that?

Sometimes you read the Bible and it feels like you don't even know how to read, man.

You feel like a dummy.

But I hope you got all of that.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this word that you've spoken over your servant, Lord.

I pray that today as I have received it, your people would receive it.

Holy Spirit, be on my lips.

My God, let nothing be of me but everything of you.

My God, I pray that you transform, you convict.

My God, you do what you need to do through this word.

In Jesus' mighty name, amen.

Amen.

You can be seated.

That's a lot.

I know we just read a lot.

And we're going to go a little bit deeper today than maybe we're used to going.

But it's an important word.

And the title of the message today is The Blessing.

The Blessing.

When we read through Genesis, when we read through the story of Abraham, we see a very common theme that the narrator of Genesis wants us to pick up on, and that is the theme of blessing.

The word blessing or the word bless occurs more times in Genesis than in any other book of the Old Testament, possibly even the New Testament, but I know for sure more than any other book of the Old Testament.

So it's interesting because this is the book.

In this same book of Genesis that talks about blessing, we also hear about the very first curse of man as a result of sin.

We hear of the serpent being cursed to the ground because of his tempting of man.

We hear Adam and Eve being cursed out of the Garden of Eden because they were no longer holy.

They were no longer pure.

And so as far as I'm concerned, the whole Bible should be concerned with a curse because that's what we as humans deserve.

But God in his infinite love, he chose he chose to make a way back to a blessing.

Right.

And sometimes people, they criticize the Old Testament God because they say, well, he's so, you know, he's so harsh and wrathful and he has little patience.

But when you zoom out and you understand the actual context of scripture and what God was trying to do, that picture tells a very different story.

The whole message of scripture beginning in the Old Testament can be summarized by God's redemptive plan to reverse the curse of man's sin through the blessing of Jesus.

That's what the Bible is about.

When people ask me, what's the Bible about?

I tell them, what's about a lot of things?

But more than anything, it's about redemption.

God so loved the world that he gave us the blessing of Jesus so that no man, no woman should have to see death.

And so Galatians 3.13 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

So I haven't even started preaching yet, but I just, I feel like I need to tell somebody because you might be having a bad day.

Maybe you had a bad week.

You're blessed.

See you now.

You're blessed, man. just the other day, look, just the other day I was complaining to myself.

You ever just complain to yourself?

You know, I was complaining to myself, complaining to God, just having one of those days of why does this have to be like this and I got so much to do and I don't have time for anything and then the Holy Spirit convict me right there in my truck as I was driving.

I said, God, forgive me because I'm being a baby.

Forgive me because I know that I'm blessed.

I'm a child of God.

I'm anointed by God.

I'm free.

I've got a future.

There is not a curse over your life.

This is one thing that annoys me so much about Christians.

Christians say I'm cursed.

You ain't cursed, man.

You're not.

Don't catch me hearing that, man, from you.

You're not cursed.

If you're a Christian, if you are a child of God, you are not cursed.

And too many Christians go through life thinking that they're cursed. why I struggle with alcohol because my dad did.

I'm an addict because my family was an addict.

I'm poor because my parents were poor.

Don't confuse chains and mindsets with a curse.

Because you might have some chains that you got to work on, but there's good news.

Jesus is the breaker of chains and he could break chains like this right here in this moment at these altars.

There might be some mindsets that you need to change, but the Bible says that we can be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

So you're not cursed.

If you're a child of God, you're blessed and you're highly favored.

Tell the person next to you, I'm blessed.

You got to believe it.

Sometimes you just got to, sometimes you just got to have a little moment.

You complain and then you're like, you know what?

I'm being silly.

I'm blessed.

Whenever you read the book of Matthew, you probably skip the genealogy of Jesus, right because there's a bunch of names that you can't pronounce and you might as well be reading Hebrew right so you so you skip it but Matthew 1 verse 1 it says the book of genealogy of Jesus son of David son of Abraham Matthew goes 2,000 years back into time to talk about Abraham how Jesus came from the seed of Abraham.

Abraham is a man with a promise over his life.

This is a man who God promised would be a father to many nations because through him, both Jews and Gentiles would come under the family of God.

That is a blessing.

Like more than generational wealth, which we all chase, more than generational power or generational health, Like the man or woman of God who is most blessed is the one whose family walks in the Lord.

Most blessed.

You could be broke.

You could have nothing to your name.

But you have a family who serves the Lord.

You're blessed.

Because you can't enjoy the wealth after you're gone.

But when I die and I go to heaven, I'm going to be greeted by great-grandparents.

I'm going to be greeted by grandparents and ancestors that I've never met. what a joy it going to be for me to get to heaven and get to meet my great great great great grandbabies who continued in the faithfulness who one day I be able to say hey I prayed for you long before I even knew you Because I do I pray for generations of my family who I will never have the opportunity of meeting, that they will stay faithful to the Lord and that for me and my house, not just my immediate family of four, but me and my house will serve the Lord for generations to come.

That is a blessing.

And that's the blessing that Abraham has promised.

It's beautiful, beautiful blessing.

So in Genesis chapter 12, we see this theme of blessing take the stage.

And we're introduced to Abraham for the first time.

And this is where God promises Abraham.

He says, now the Lord said to him, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

And verse three is key.

It says, I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.

And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Father Abraham.

Remember that song?

Y'all remember that song?

He's not my heavenly father.

Don't confuse me.

Like, that's a song, okay?

Father Abraham had many sons, right?

We are all descendants of Abraham because we are children of the promise.

I want to talk real quick about where the blessing of God might be in your life.

Where is the blessing in a relationship to you?

And maybe you're asking the same thing.

Where the heck is my blessing?

But when I say blessing, when we talk about blessings, I know that they can be very vague.

But I want to define the blessings of God because we define the blessings differently than God does. right?

I preached this message right before Christmas, the burden of the blessing.

Blessings don't always look like blessings.

They look like burdens.

And so we, especially us in one of the most prosperous nations in the world, we define blessings by what we have.

So we say, man, God blessed us this year.

What we really mean is we made a lot of money this year.

That's what we really mean.

We say, God bless me with a nice car.

What you really mean is you went out and bought the car.

Don't get me wrong.

Like every good thing that comes from the Lord is from the Lord.

But sometimes we don't know what good is.

Right?

The fruit that Adam and Eve bit into, it looked good, but it wasn't from God.

It might have looked like a blessing.

It might have looked nourishing.

It might have looked healthy.

And it might have looked pleasing to the taste. but God doesn't define blessings like we do.

A blessing from God is determined by his favor over your life.

I'm not getting any amens this morning.

You want me to define it differently for you?

You want me to say a blessing from God?

Has God given you a million dollars?

Am I going to get all the amens that?

No, no.

A blessing for God is if God is with you, if God has chosen you, if God has anointed you, if God is with me and I've got no one else and I've got nothing else, I'm still blessed.

Moses knew this.

Moses said, God, if your presence doesn't go with me, I don't need the promised land.

I don't care what's over there.

I don't care if it takes me out of the wilderness.

I don't care if there's milk and honey and abundance of water.

I don't care what's there.

If you don't go with me, I don't have the blessing.

So I just, I need to make that point that if God is with you, if he is for you, if he has chosen you, if he's anointed you, that's the blessing that we all as children of God need to be after.

And I wanted to make that point because I don't want you to get out here today and have the wrong idea.

Like the blessing that I'm referring to in this message is the blessing of God's favor, anointing and presence in your life.

That's the blessing.

So we're a blessed church, not because we got people, not because we got money in the bank.

We're blessed because the presence of God is in this place.

He meets us here Sunday after Sunday.

He's in this community.

He's with us.

He's creating plans.

He's casting vision.

That is an abundance of the Holy Spirit in the life of PNEUMA Church.

That's how we define blessing.

And there's four points I want to make today.

And my hope is that you would be able to identify with one of them, hopefully not the first one and hopefully not the second one, But if so, just know that God is calling you out and he wants to bless you with everything that he wishes to give you this morning.

So the story tells us about two groups of kings.

All right.

There's nine kings total who went to war with one another.

There's there's four kings against five kings.

And these kings were not good men.

The Bible doesn't say anything good about them.

It just tells us what happened.

Five rebel kings who had been subject to paying taxes to King Keto Leomer.

That's such a hard name.

But they get together and they say, you know what?

We're tired of paying taxes.

How many are tired of paying taxes?

Amen.

Amen.

I don't know if there's anything we can do about it right now.

But these five kings get together and they say, you know what?

I don't want to pay taxes anymore.

Let's go and fight for our freedom.

So these two groups of men, they go and they battle.

And the rebel kings are defeated and they're chased off.

And so if you remember Lot, Lot was the nephew of Abraham.

He went with Abraham when God said, go, right?

And both Abraham and Lot were very wealthy men during their journey.

They had to part ways because they were having some issues with their herdsmen not getting along.

There was just a bunch of drama there.

And so Lot goes to Sodom. and so when these kings get together and fight the the the five king i'm sorry the four kings destroy sodom and they take lot and his family and so at this point in the story i mean abraham and lot they have nothing to do with these nine kings they've got nothing to do with it but as soon as abraham hears that his nephew has been captured that there's a problem abraham calls his guys from the hood 318 and they go after these these four kings and they defeat them and they run them off and they take back everything that they had plundered from sodom and they take back a lot who's got an uncle like that all right original gangster man and so these these four kings these four kings the four rebel kings i'm sorry i'm sorry no not the rebel kings i'm sorry I'm confusing everybody.

The four kings that had been attacked, that took everything, that took the spoils of Sodom and took Lot with them.

These four kings, they found themselves outside of the blessing of God.

That's point number one.

There's a blessing of God and some people find themselves outside of that blessing. and as long as there is a blessing over your life or in your life just know that there's always going to be somebody there's always going to be somebody or or or something that wants to take you that blessing from you someone or something that is standing on the outside looking at your blessing they want that blessing there's going to be people who hate on your anointing there's going to be people who undermine your anointing that God had placed in you there's going to be people who are jealous of your testimony.

There's going to be people who want you to stumble.

There's going to be people who want to try to manipulate you.

And I'm not even talking about people in the world.

There's people in the church like this who just don't get it.

They don't understand the blessing that you choose to walk in.

They don't understand the calling that God has placed in your life.

They don't understand that level of anointing, that level of holiness over your life. and so they're going to hate on it.

And then there's going to be enemy forces.

There's going to be devils.

There's going to be demons who try to take you out just like Satan tried to take out Jesus.

There's going to be people who don't have this divine vision, people who don't have the discernment.

These are the people who don't talk to God enough to know where the blessing is coming from.

I hope that I never miss the blessing because I'm standing outside of God's promises. and so these four kings i want i want you to know that they didn't know what they were getting into when they go and take lot and and lot's family they had no idea what they were about to do not because abraham was a thug not because he had 318 trained men ready to go but because this was a man with god's favor over his life they had no idea that this was the man to whom god said whoever dishonors you, I will curse.

So they weren't messing with Lot.

They weren't even messing with Abraham.

They were messing with God's promise.

Are you getting this?

I'm not trying to sound spiritual.

Like this is real stuff.

When you have a calling, when you have an anointing, when you have a promise over your life, what you have is a blessing.

And when people try to mess with that blessing, when they try to get in your way, when they try to make you fall, when they try to talk against you, when they try to discourage you, they're not messing with you.

They're messing with the blessing that God has placed in you.

That's how you got to carry yourself walking in the blessing of God.

That anything that comes against you, they're coming against God.

Because I am protected.

See, I used to worry all the time about what people thought about me, man.

I don't care anymore.

I used to, man, I used to, I used to like go out of my way to, if I knew you didn't like me, oh, you're going to like me, right?

And I don't do that anymore.

Why?

Because I don't have the time and I don't have the energy to spend worrying about people who want nothing to do with the blessing anyways.

I walk in the confidence now of who I am and who God has called me.

I see clearly in front of me, even though sometimes I don't know what's in front of me, I know where I'm going because I know that God is with me.

I know it's the Holy Spirit leading me.

And so whatever comes my way, you take it up with the Lord.

Because there's people who are outside of the blessing, they're just not going to get it.

And I'm going to pray for you because I want you to be a part of the blessing, but I can't spend my time worrying so much about what you think.

I hope you never find yourself outside the blessing of God.

Because you don't have the spiritual eyes to discern what's from the Spirit.

I don't know who I'm talking to.

I can't, I don't know.

But maybe you come to church sometimes and you're like, why do they worship like that?

Why are they always saying God is good?

And all the time.

Why are they doing that?

Some weirdos in there.

God's not been good to me.

I'm over here.

I barely got here today because I barely had gas and my rent's due and I don't got the money.

Like, how are these people saying God?

You don't get it yet.

You don't get it yet.

Because you might not have experienced the goodness of God, not in the way that you might want to experience the goodness of God, but you haven't experienced the comfort of his presence.

Knowing that everything else could be falling apart in my life, but as long as God is with me, I've got everything I need.

I pray, I pray that you don't find yourself outside the blessing Number two then there were those who were around the blessing When Abraham took back the plunder from Sodom and defeated those kings it was the five rebel kings who got the overflow of Abraham's victory.

So if we keep reading, Abraham gives everything back to the king of Sodom.

He gives everything back.

The guy who lost, right?

He takes everything back.

He said, hey, you can have it.

All the spoil, all the people, all the treasure.

He didn't want to keep anything.

And the thing is, Abraham, as victor, he had the right to keep everything.

He could have.

But instead he said, I don't want it.

You can have it back.

What the king of Sodom had was an illusion of a blessing.

Have you ever been so blessed, like, beyond comprehension?

Like, where you have to question it?

I'm like, God, I've been acting a fool.

I've not been serving you.

I've not been obedient to your voice.

How is it that you're opening up doors for me?

How is it that people see me as holy and anointed?

Because I know what I did last night.

How is it that I'm so blessed?

You've probably never asked that question because when we're blessed beyond measure, we don't ask questions.

We just take the blessing.

We say praise a lot. but I think I think there are a lot of people who are only blessed because they're around somebody else's blessing and I'll tell you it's a better place a better place to be than outside the blessing but but maybe it's artificial maybe it's got nothing to do with you with what you're doing God blesses you because of the prayers of a mighty prayer warrior who are praying on your behalf That's why you're blessed.

That's why you got that healing.

Or maybe the reason doors are opening for you is because God is opening bigger doors for the person sitting next to you.

Maybe there is so much blessing over one person's life that the blessings just can't help but find their way to you.

That's the type of blessing I want, right?

Where it starts to overflow.

Where it starts to flow into other people.

Where the goodness of God in my life becomes the goodness of God in your life.

That's what I want.

That's essentially what we have with Jesus.

The word says because of one man's obedience, the many were made righteous.

Because God blessed the sacrifice of the perfect Jesus, all I got to do is find myself around his presence, and I'm good.

You remember the Canaanite woman?

You remember the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus on behalf of her demon-possessed daughter?

And she says, hey, can you heal my daughter?

What does Jesus say?

No, I didn't come for you.

I only came for the last sheep of Israel.

I didn't come for you He said it's not right to take From the children To give to the dogs But this girl man she knew what's up man What did she say?

She says yes Yes but even the dogs Can eat the crumbs from the floor Even a dog can get a little bit Of the blessing I'll be honest with you man Sometimes it pays to be around the right people It pays to be around the right anointing It pays to go to the right church that has the right vision, that preaches the correct gospel, that has the right discipleship program.

And like I said, it's better to be around it than outside of it, but God wants you in it.

When you come to church, you surround yourself.

I'm talking to somebody this morning.

You come to church, what do you do?

You are surrounded by the blessings that God wants to impart on his body.

You're around it.

I don't know who's in it.

Sometimes we kind of know.

Right, Claudia?

caught in this morning and said some of y'all just standing around sometimes sometimes we come to church and we're a part of the blessings of god but we're not we're not in it and you might get to witness it you might get to catch some of it you you get to hear god's word you experience god's presence you get to witness the healing and the deliverance and the salvation and the baptism and the discipleship of other people but maybe nothing ever changes with you because you think that being around it is the same thing as being in it.

What happens when you're no longer around the people who are blessed by God?

What happens?

What happens when you grow up and you leave mom and dad's house, mom and dad who were prayer warriors, mom and dad who made sure they kept you in church, mom and dad who made sure to instruct you in the ways of the Lord?

What happens when you didn't have something real and you're no longer around those people?

being around the blessing of God is not the same thing as being in it don't confuse it don't think that just because you're here just because you come to church that you are experiencing the real goodness of God maybe you have no idea what you're missing God wants you in it you can probably guess which one this third point is you have those outside the blessing you have those around the blessing and you have those in the blessing how many of you are in the blessing?

come on you're in it you're mature enough to know that even though it doesn't look like you're in it you're still in it those who are in the blessings of God it takes some real maturity to be in the blessings of God can I just speak Are you listening this morning?

I know this is a longer sermon than usual, but I need you to get this.

Because to be in the blessing of God, it requires so much maturity.

Because it's not always going to look like a blessing.

Living in the blessing of God.

And I hope you remember what I mean by blessing of God.

It requires so much grown up in the faith.

When you're around the blessing.

See, when you're around the blessing, I think you're still trying to figure it out.

You're still trying to figure out the secret that makes everything go easier.

You think that the blessing is a solution.

That's why people who are outside of the blessing, they say, you know what?

I'm going to go to church.

We need to start going to church because our family is falling apart.

And our kids are cussing at us.

And we barely get along.

We need to start going to church because right now we're outside the blessing.

Maybe we need to go around the blessing.

So you come to church thinking that being in church is going to solve something.

That's what I'm saying.

Being around the blessing is a little immature.

And that's okay.

You got to grow up.

But when you are in the blessing, you know that the blessing isn't really a solution to a problem that you've got going on.

When you're around the blessing, you come in, you're waiting for the manna to fall.

So you're waiting for that answer.

But that's not what happens all the time.

Abraham was in the blessing, not even knowing where he was going.

In the blessing.

And God said, where you are going, Abraham, no one's going to know your name.

What are you talking about?

You said my name was going to be great.

Nobody's going to know your name first, though.

You're going to be a nobody before you're somebody.

In fact, you're not even going to get to see. and now I'm going into a different sermon but you're not even going to get to see the greatness of your name.

You're just going to live in the nobody of your name.

That's what you're going to live in.

And he went anyway.

The father of nations while in his 90s and not having a single child.

That's why I say to be in the blessings means to be mature because God will speak promise into your life and then not say a single word again about it for years.

God's going to say go and he's not going to tell you where.

He's going to say go and you're like what?

It takes patience to be in the blessing of God.

It takes faith to be in the blessing of God.

It takes perseverance to be in God's anointing.

Abraham was a man who lived in the blessing while not always seeming to be blessed but he knew he was already in it. being in the presence i'm sorry being in the blessing of god means recognizing that god's presence is enough please hear me you still with me it's it's knowing that being in the promised land without god's presence is worse than being in the wilderness with god's presence so it doesn't matter where you are today if god is with you again, you're blessed, my friend.

You're blessed.

Because it means that there's movement happening in your life.

Something is happening in your life.

God is ordering your steps.

It means that God is using you even though you're in the wilderness.

And you're broke, and you're broken, can't pay bills, and you're going through a divorce, and you just lost a loved one.

You are still more blessed than the person who has everything but does not have Jesus.

What does the end of Psalm 23 say?

It says, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

Surely even when it doesn't look like it.

Surely when it doesn't feel like it.

Surely when I'm looking behind me and I don't even see it, surely the blessings of God are following me.

I'm gonna have the band come up.

So we talked about, you're still with me right we talked about being outside the blessing of God we talked about being around the blessing of God and we talked about being in the blessing of God church God wants us all in the blessing of God that's why Jesus died for us to make it possible for us to all be partakers in the kingdom of God but there's one more point that I want to make to you that we should all strive for as believers so this passage mentions this man named Melchizedek and Melchizedek is this mystery man who has intrigued Bible scholars forever.

No one really knows who this man was.

Some say that he was a pre-incarnate Jesus.

Others say that he was just another pagan king, even though he honors God most high.

We don't, we don't really know.

We don't really know.

All we know for sure is that this was a priest king, which was common in the ancient world, but it wasn't really common in Israel.

Usually priests in Israel were not kings and kings were not priests.

We also know that he was the king of Salem, which later became Jerusalem.

And then finally, we know that this was not one of the five rebel kings.

This was not a king who fought in any of the war at all.

This guy just shows up.

He just shows up out of nowhere, and as quickly as he appears, he disappears.

But here's what is extremely significant in this theme of blessing that Genesis is so heavily focused on.

Verse 19 says again, Melchizedek blessed Abraham with the blessing.

Blessed be Abraham by God most high, creator of heaven and the earth, and blessed be God most high who has defeated your enemies for you.

Then Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the goods that he had recovered.

So we see the four kings who were completely out of the blessings of God.

We have the five kings who were around the blessing of God.

We have Abraham who was abundantly in the blessing of God.

And then we have this man named mechizedek who was the blessing that's the last point this man chose this man chose to bless the one who was already so blessed by god you know what that called church if you haven paid attention to anything I want you to I want you to pay attention to this because I know we just talked about being in the blessing of God and that's great and everything but the moment we start talking about being the blessing nobody wants to listen anymore listen you know what this is called that that Melchizedek bless the one who was already blessed by God.

What is that called?

It's called sowing into the kingdom.

When you bless the people of God, you are blessing God.

When you give to the cause of Christ, whether it be through money, whether it be through your time, whether it be through serving other people, what are you doing?

You're blessing God.

And when you dishonor the people of God, you dishonor God. when you withhold the blessing, when you withhold the prayer, when you withhold the tithe, you withhold blessing the kingdom.

And I feel like I feel like I see a lot more of this these days among Christians, man, not in this church, but in the church in general.

I see a lot more hate than I do love, man, among Christians.

I see a lot more destructive talk than I do edification talk I see so much more jealousy among ministers than support among ministers I see a lot more pride than I see humility it's not enough, listen, it's not enough just to be in the blessing of God God wants us blessing others into their blessing we don't always do that I don't know why we don't always do that but maybe we think, well, the church doesn't need my tithe.

They're already blessed.

They're good.

The church doesn't need my time.

They've got so many volunteers.

Everybody's volunteering all the time.

They don't need me.

Maybe you think, well, he doesn't need my support.

He'll be fine.

She doesn't need my prayer.

She did me wrong 30 years ago. maybe we think I'm not going to that event they didn't come to my event I ain't going to support their ministry they didn't support my ministry why do we do that why do we withhold the blessing you're already blessed God doesn't want you to be content just in it he didn't call you just to be in it he called us to multiply he called us to make disciples he called us to have compassion he called us to love he called us to pray he called us to build one another up he didn't call you to hoard your blessing this man because he travels hundreds of miles we don't we don't really read that in the story we think it all happened at the same time no no he traveled hundreds of miles to meet this man, Abraham.

This man, he's never met.

Never met him before.

They're not friends.

There's nothing in it for Melchizedek.

He's not trying to cozy up next to Abraham to elevate his ministry because he's already a priest king.

He's got nothing else to gain.

But he hears what this man, Abraham, did and in the name of God Almighty, he says, I just got to bless you. church hear me today hear me there is a blessing waiting for you when you celebrate the blessing of others there is a blessing in the honoring there's a blessing in the sowing and about a thousand years later long after Melchizedek we hear about David conquering the city of Jerusalem believed to have in the city of Salem.

So God makes covenant with David that his throne would be forever.

And then after another thousand years, we hear of this man named Jesus, both priest and king in his own right, who comes after the order of Melchizedek.

I wish we had time to go into all of this because there's so much here.

But long after Melchizedek, this man is compared to Jesus.

And Abraham perceives something different about this man who came to meet him.

So he says, I just got to, I got to give you my tithe.

Today's not about tithes.

Okay.

I'm not, there's not a secret message here about tithing.

You're already like, I'm about to head out.

It's not about that.

Abraham perceives this to be a man of God and says, man, this man blessed me.

He came out here.

He didn't have to.

I'm going to bless him.

The one who was blessed by God, Abraham, the one who walked in that blessing now he becomes a blessing from God the word of God is trying to tell us something church God says I will bless those who bless you and I will make you a blessing we're always trying to look for the blessing we're always trying to look for where is the blessing I want to be in it we're never asking how can I be a blessing that is never a question that we ask There's never a sermon that we preach.

It's always about being in the blessings of God, being under Jehovah Jireh, being under the healing of God.

But what about being a blessing for other people?

That's the message that doesn't get a lot of amens because it's not about me.

Hey, guess what?

It's not about you.

It's about Jesus.

It's about what he did for you.

And it's about sharing what he did for you with other people.

It's about being a blessing.

God is looking for you.

To fill that need in the kingdom.

I don't know what it is.

God is looking for you to give that word to somebody who is in need.

God is looking for you to pray for that person on the corner.

Who you know is going through some difficult times right now.

God is looking for you to sow the seed.

He's looking for you to give the word.

And I'll close here.

The example of Abraham is not just that he was a man of faith.

Although he was a man of faith.

And that is what he is commended for. he was also a man of blessing.

But along the way, he had people supporting him.

Along the way, he had people giving to him.

He had people encouraging him, I imagine.

He had people listening to him.

He had people to bless him. and Galatians 3.8 says, in the same way, Abraham believed God and counted God, and God counted him as righteousness because of his faith.

The real children of Abraham then are those who put their faith in God.

What's more, the scriptures looked forward to this time.

That's what he's saying.

He said back in Genesis, the scriptures look forward to this time, to today, to you and me. when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith.

God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, all nations will be blessed through you.

So all who put their faith in Christ Jesus share that same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.

Church, we who walk in the blessings of God have a duty.

We have an obligation to be a blessing to other people.

I think it's time that we stop asking that question.

Lord, where's my blessing?

Because if you're a child of God, let me tell you, you're already in it.

You're already in it.

You're already there.

You have the gospel.

You have the presence.

You've got the comfort.

You've got the peace.

Now it's time for the people of God to be blessings to other people.

Be the blessing.

That's the message today.

Be the blessing.

Can you stand with me?

Right there where you are, would you close your eyes and bow your head?

And I want to make a call specific to this message.

I don't know which one you identify with.

Maybe you're here this morning and you are completely outside of the blessing of God. you don't have the eyes to see, you don't have that discernment, you don't understand it, but you say that you want to be a part of it, you want to be in it.

If that's you this morning, if that's you and you can know it, I'm going to ask you to take a bold step this morning.

Prayer team, can I have you with me?

I'm going to ask you to take a bold step of faith.

Usually we do this by just having, you know, you raise your hands and all that stuff.

But if you are outside of the blessing of God right now, I want you to come forward and I want you to give your life to Jesus and be a part of this blessing that he has reserved for you.

If that's you this morning, you are invited.

There is no judgment here.

There is only grace.

There is only mercy.

There is only love.

And there is only celebration.

Because when you come to the feet of Jesus, all of the saints rejoice.

If that's you this morning, come forward.

Come forward.

Don't be ashamed.

Don't be ashamed. now there's the others maybe you're around the blessing maybe you've been coming to church for a long time and you know the word and you can quote scripture and you go to the you take all the bible notes but you don't have that real raw relationship with God you've been searching for blessings in other manners but you haven't really been seeking the face of God almighty in your life if that's you this morning I want to call you forward this morning because God is about to reveal himself to you in a brand new way that is going to overflow you with an abundance of peace and joy and comfort.

If that's you this morning, I want you to come.

You're tired of just being around it.

I want to be in it.

Thank you, Jesus.

And now I'm going to ask those that are in the blessing, in the blessing.

I want you to find a way up here because I want the prayer this morning to be Lord, show me how I can be a blessing show me what I need to do for my family show me what I need to say show me what I need to be show me what type of support system I need to be for my spouse for my children I don't want to just be in it I want to be it I want to multiply it I want to see it for generations to come Teach me, Holy Spirit, how to be a blessing from my family.

If that's you this morning, come.

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like some more information on PNEUMA Church, visit us on our website at mypneumachurch.org.

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Thanks again and God bless.

Thank you.