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The episodes are the weekly sermons from 922 Ministries (St. Peter and The CORE) of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Blessed
Week 2 - The CORE
Pastor Michael Ewart
Again, today is part two of a three-part series called #blessed. We're exploring what it means to be truly blessed by God. And we are unpacking, that three-part blessing, that was first spoken, 3,500 years ago. God spoke to the high priest, Aaron, and said, this is how you will place my name on my people. This is how you will bless them. And that's a blessing that we speak at the end of all of our worship Services here at The CORE.
And when you hear something, a lot of times, it can start to get easy to tune out. You stop. Stop paying attention to what it actually means. And so, we are pausing for three weeks to really unpack it, to really think about it. So that when we hear that blessing, at the end of the service, it will truly fill us with joy. But can you think about that for a minute? 3500 years, the words that you hear at the end of our worship service that blessing that you that has been spoken over God's people year after year, week after week spoken over, God's people to bless them and to put God's name upon them. Last week. Pastor Mike helped us launch this series. If you hadn't or didn't have a chance to listen to that message, make sure you go back to our YouTube channel and listen to it. Some great things that we learned. There may be just a quick review that it is a three-part blessing though. The Lord, the Lord and the word Lord. Lord in all capital letters maybe here because it is the name. Yahweh. It is the name that God gave himself. The Great I Am, the great guy, God independent, the God of all power and might and majesty and yet, the God who has chosen to love us with a love that doesn't depend on us. That isn't drawn out of him because of us. But a love that comes out of his own heart that he pours, out to us, in spite of what we deserve, that is the Lord, and his name pronounced over us three different times. Which doesn't that remind you of the Trinity? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit? And in fact, as you look at the three parts of the blessing, if you do see how the first seems to be indicating, it's the Father blessing, and then the Son blessing, and then the Holy Spirit blessing and it's repeated three times. Here's a little pro tip for when you read your Bible, when you see something repeated in the Bible, it's because God wants you to remember it. He does that for emphasis. Repetition is the mother of learning. The more times you hear something, the more it sinks into your mind a few times.
Now should you remember that repeating is helpful, right? So God does that he knows how our human brains were. So he repeats it. So we remember it, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord though. And our Pastor Mike told us last week, how now they're the first line has three words in the Hebrew language, which is what it was written. Originally written. In three words, second line, five words, second line or third line, seven words 357, it's growing. And if you count the number of letters in Hebrew in each of those three lines. It's 15 letters, then 20 letters, then 25 letters the Hebrew, writers were masterful poets and you see the Poetry in this blessing to convey the news to you that you are blessed. You are blessed. You are blessed. By the Lord, the Lord, the Lord. It's an amazing blessing. And today, we're going to zero in on that second part of the blessing. The Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you. So we're going to unpack. What does God mean? When he says that part of the blessing, how are we to receive that? Now, as I studied this, I don't know if I've ever preached a sermon on such few Bible words and yet there's so much packed in here so much important for us to understand. In fact, as I studied this I discovered three questions, that one line of blessing answers for us three critical questions.
And what I want to do is first of all, just tell you what those three questions are then we're going to backtrack and unpack each one of those questions and find how the blessing answers that question for us. So let me just give you those three questions. You can quick fill in those blanks as you as you look down. Your bulletin sheet there. Now, the first one is this a critical question that if you don't answer you're going to be filled with fear and anxiety and perhaps. Perhaps even depression, you need to have the answer to the question who is there and am I known Who is there? And am I known by that one? Who is there? Now, this might sound a little bit odd at first, but psychologists have discovered that one of human beings deepest needs. One of your deepest needs is to be known. And valued by important others. Okay, so think about that. Who are your important to others? We all have different ones but for you to be known, Known, and valued by them is one of your biggest needs. The biggest other is God. Is he there? Does he know me, we need if we need to find the answer to that question. Here's the second question. What is God's disposition toward me? If he's there if I'm known. But what does he think about me? Well, how is he inclined toward me or against me? What is God's disposition toward me? Third, important question. We want to answer today. Was this one line of blessing. What does God do to me? Okay, kind of have a feeling about what I deserve from God. But what does that God actually do to me? Maybe it's nothing, maybe it's something, maybe it's good, maybe, it's bad. We need to know the answer to that question. What does God do to me? Will answer that one as well. Okay, so all of this answer to that one phrase, the Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious. To you. Let's back up and talk about that first question.
Who is there? And am I known? Who is there and a mine own? So, again psychologists say that this is our deepest need that. We be that we are known and valued by important to others in, you know, that to be true, don't you? I think this is one of the greatest blessings of marriage by the way, that there is this person who wasn't forced at least, I hope not but, but was decided who chose you? And this person is a Daily part of your life. Somebody that knows you and values you and they're important to you. What a blessing. And some of you, I know you've gone through divorces, and I would suggest that the hardest part of a divorce. Is that somebody that important somebody in your life now? Decided they're not really interested in, knowing you as much anymore, they don't value you like, they thought that you thought they did. That's hard, isn't it? That's why divorce. Is one of the hardest things that somebody will go through. It's not true. By the way, don't let that define you if you are divorced, that is not yours.
You are loved by God, but that's one of the challenges of divorce or at work, and studies show that. Did, you know, that the best motivator for employees is not bonuses and raises, you might disagree with me right now. But studies show this is true that the most powerful motivator for employees, the ones that are most satisfied in their employment in their work, are the ones who know that they are known and valued by their peers and their superiors. That if you are acknowledged at work if you are known by your boss, if you are told that you are doing a great job that you what you do. With an extraordinarily valuable contribution to the company and its Mission and What It Wants What It hopes to accomplish and you are valuable to that, you will have great job satisfaction. And a lot of you sitting here today, do not have that. Somebody close to me in my own life does not have that and it's hard to work in a job like that, isn't it? Where you are not known or valued by those who are important in the workforce. So when it comes to our relationship with God, more than anything else, we need, We need to know that. We are known by him. We need to know that we are valued by him so I want to share with you a song and then we'll turn back to the blessing. But in Psalm 139, verses 1 and 2. It says this you have searched me, Lord. And you know me you have searched me Lord and you know me You know, when I sit and when I Rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. So here's your answer to your first question. Who is there and am I known? Yes, the Lord is there all capital letters and you are known. The Lord knows me. The Lord knows you. It's easy for us to think, I'm one of what, over 8 billion on the planet. This universe is so vast and big and wide. There is so much going on, is God even there? Does God even know me? The answer is resounding, Yes. The Lord makes his face shine on you because he knows you personally, the Lord knows your name. In fact, Jesus said in the New Testament that the Lord knows the number of hairs on your head. For some of us that's getting to be easier, easier count. But God knows, you know when they fell. He knows when new ones are growing. God knows if he knows that he knows every area of your life, doesn't he? The Lord knows you. That's good news. That's the answer to your first critical question. The second critical question. I want to spend most of our time on today and then we'll finish up with that third one. But that second critical question is, well, what is God's disposition toward me? All right, so, so he knows me. What does he think about me? Does he does, he even like me? Did this? He is he angry with me. What does God's disposition toward me? And in the blessing we hear that phrase, the Lord, make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you.
We hear some similar words. In Psalm 27, where we read this, my heart says, if you seek his face your face Lord I will seek do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in Anger. You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me. God my savior. The psalmist, seeks the Lord's face because he wants to know the Lord's disposition toward him. So let's fill in the blank and then I want to spend some time unpacking this a bit more. But if you want to know, God's disposition know this, the LORD all caps, the Lord, Yahweh, Jehovah, God, the Lord smiles on you,
The Lord smiles. Disposition toward you is good and positive. Why does it talk about his face? That matters? Why is he able to smile? I want to tell you, I need to share that with you but somebody's face. Why do we pay attention to somebody's face? It's because their face tells us their disposition toward us, doesn't it? They tell us something about their personality and it tells us something about their disposition toward us personally, you know, that from your own life It is, don't you? If your boss, for example, sends you an email and says come into my office at 1:00 p.m., we need to talk and that's the only context, you get the moment you enter her office. What are you going to be looking at, but her face. Is she having a furrowed brow not making eye contact? Looking toward the floor? You might think, “I'm about to get laid off.” Or maybe you enter in and she's looking you in the eye and she's not happy, she's angry like “oh, I blew it on something and how that project I didn't have a good feeling about it now, I know. Yeah, I messed up big. Here it comes.”
Are you walking to her office? You see a drink big grim smile. She makes a little joke. Advises, you to sit down and tell now you're a tease. Oh boy, here comes the raise, here comes, the promotion will also be known that. I valued the face reveals it, right? It reveals that person's disposition to disposition toward you or imagine a dad, takes his 16 year old daughter and says, when you get home, we need to talk. Text doesn't convey emotion, very well. She has no idea. What's got dealt with Dad wants to talk about and when she gets home, what is she doing? She's immediately looking at Dad's face. Where's he at? Is he angry? What did I forget to do? How did I disappoint him? Is he is, he smiling? Is he happy? I bet he saw the report card because I know I did good. This time, he's pleased with me. He's happy. We look at the face. Nice to know somebody's disposition toward us. And so also we look at God's face to get to know what is he thinking about me. What is his disposition toward me? Now. There is good reason for us to have some concerns and there are reasons. We might doubt that God's disposition toward us as favorable. Rewind, 3500 years, the ancient Israelites. When God first gave this blessing certainly would have had those doubts.
So, to put you into the scene, when God gave this blessing for the first time, God gave it to Israel in the wilderness. What are they doing? In the wilderness? They had been slaves in Egypt for like 400 years. God sent Moses to set them free. There were those ten plagues, the Egyptians finally said, get out they left, God must have had a great disposition toward them, he freed them from slavery and they March out and Pharaoh's Army starts pursuing and they get up against the Red Sea on this side and Pharaohs Army on that side and they lose Faith. They lose hope they complain against God. Why did you bring us out here to die? We could have died back in Egypt. They thought maybe God was angry and then the Red Sea parts and they cross over on dry land. God loves us. Good disposition. Then, the Water Runs Out. They start to Grumble and complain about God because there's no water and well, God provides the water comes, and then there's no food and they Grumble and complain about that. Then God sends quail and God says Mana sends man and God provides all that they need. And they know that God's disposition is good old. And then the water runs out again, by the way. And then they start to Grumble again and God provides more water. And there's this back and forth, but the worst of it is when they get to Mount Sinai, Moses goes up on this mountain which is covered in Smoke and lightning and thunder and they're terrified of God. What is his disposition?
I was there left down behind at the base of the mountain and in there. They're kind of afraid but it takes forever. Moses is up there close to a month and a half hasn’t even coming back. They start to get Restless, they fashioned a calf made out of gold, they put it on a stand. Everybody starts to worship the calf and say this is the god that brought us out of Egypt and there's dancing and there's revelry and there's drunkenness and this great big party. And God wasn't happy. And on that day, three thousand of them were put to death. God's disposition toward them was not good. They thought this is the context when God gave them this blessing and I wish I could say it. Turns around from there, it doesn't there, grumbling and complaining, eventually lead leads to God, sentencing them to 40 Years of wandering in the wilderness until a generation passed away. But what is God's disposition to them? Revealed in the blessing. The Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you. Then they know we need that same Assurance, don't we fast-forward? 35 Hundred Years back to today and what is it that challenges you, what is it that makes you think that maybe God's face isn't shining and isn't smiling? What does it make that makes you think that maybe God's little red-faced with the vein popping out on his neck when he looks at you? Think about your life, what is it? When you think about, you think about how you spend your time,
Regrets. Any guilt feelings time? You've wasted maybe binging Netflix hours of wasted time or or computer games hour after hour. That could have been used helping others, providing being generous serving getting to know your God better. Is in the back of your mind. You're thinking. What is God's face looking at me right now? What does it look like? I can't be smiling candy. Where are think about what's in that you struggle with, you know, you know, the one I'm talking about You weren't going to do it that anymore. You decided you've had enough. You hit bottom, it's not going to happen again because you know how bad that is. Then you did it again. You're in debt. They did that keeps mounting it's not decreasing, you're not going to spend money any more than what you do. You went out and bought that thing. You didn't need it. It just gave you a temporary rush like buying something does for a few minutes till you feel guilty again.
Smiling at me.
Or those porn sites, you promised yourself. You are never going to go to it again.
Did you did you can't believe it because you had decided you were going to do that anymore? And you went to the porn sites again. You feel really guilty about that. Surely God's not smiling at you, right?
So what is it? What is it with you? What is that? That's in that you keep going back to Done with the gambling. And you went back to gambling again.
You know what it is for you, you know, this in that you struggle with the most and when you commit that sin and when you think back on it, it's hard to imagine that this position this position of God toward you. Could be favorable that God would be smiling at his face. Would be beaming. No, not me. And then, there are the things that can happen to you in life that convince you God can't be smiling on me. Now, the struggles and the challenges and the suffering that you might have to go through in this world convinces you that God smiling face is not there.
All right, maybe you get that diagnosis.
How could God be favoring me when I'm dealing with this? Yesterday, I had a full schedule, I do a wedding in the afternoon and preparations for today. And yesterday morning, I woke up with a migraine which I get like three or four times a year and had to be yesterday morning so much that I was going to deal with so much on my plate and I was out for the count, most of the morning with this migraine and I'll be honest with you in that moment, the Lord certainly has provided. But in that moment that I feel God smiling face that I sense it beaming on me.
Honestly, not really, finances are tight. The transmission goes out on the car, $3500 repair, are you feeling God's smiling face in the moment? So, this is a real question, right? But when life is hard, when we've messed up, is God smiling upon us. The answer is the Lord. Make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord is smiling at you. To which you might say. Yeah. But how is that even possible, Pastor. You don't know what I've done? You don't know what I've been through. And I'll tell you his face is still smiling so you can imagine in your mind's eye, can you just picture? What does the smiling beaming face of God look like hard for me to do too? God is a spirit. He had I've never seen his face. What does it look like for it? That it for it to be smiling or shining? I'm not sure. Now, let me ask you a second question. Can you imagine this mining? Smiley smiling shining face of Jesus That's a little bit easier, isn't it? Did you did you know that? Jesus is true. God and truly human. He truly did walk this Earth. 2,000 years ago, he had a face and word. The Bible describes on many occasions. What his face looked like. Will not the physical description of it but but but the attitude of his face. What his face was projecting to those around him. When he saw people who were sickened by a man who was born, blind, Jesus had compassion.
His Kind face was showing and he healed when Jesus called his disciples. Can you imagine his gentle inviting face come? Follow me, he would say, can you imagine Jesus as he set out for Jerusalem that final time? Knowing what would happen at the end of his journey there with his jaw squared with determination on his face as he was going to the cross the face. Of Jesus. Jesus was arrested. He was a he was abused. Can you imagine his face as it was being struck again? And again slapped spat upon Crown of Thorns blood running down. Can you imagine the face of Jesus as he hung on the cross? As he cried out in Victory? It is finished in that face dropping down and all life draining from it. What you do, imagine that face because that face of Jesus. Means that the father's face toward you.
11:21 AM
Looks like this. Because because Jesus Took the father's wrath. Jesus suffered that Agony Jesus took your punishment Jesus face look pretty ugly. So that the father's face could look pleasantly at you, but don't let that image of Jesus lifeless face on the cross for your last image of Jesus face because when Jesus rose from the grave on the third day, he came back to life and when he burst out of that grave, I believe his face was literally shining the bruises, the blood, all gone Jesus is healthy, he is good, he is, he's got a glorified body. His face is shining and beaming and smiling because all of the sins of all Of the world. It's forgiving and you are right with God in Christ Jesus. God Smiles upon you because of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's The Shining face of God that is on you. And you know, the disposition of God because of Jesus. And that leads us to our final question. This one won't take nearly as long as we kind of unpacked. Most of it in that second question, but the third question is, okay, then what does God do to me?
Now, we can guess. But isn't that a good question that we need to know that? Not only is God favorably but disposed toward me. But now, how does he treat me? What does he do? In relation to me is a very good question. So for let me give you example. I am favorably, disposed toward doctors and nurses, and people in the medical profession, they have studied hard, they have worked hard, they are helping people at some of the hardest times in their life. They are selfless. They serve their filled with compassion. I am very favorably, disposed towards doctors and nurses. Now, ask me what I've done for them. And the truth is for the vast majority of them on the planet. Absolutely nothing. So we might ask the question. Okay, if God is favorably disposed toward me, does that really make a difference? Does he do something toward me for me to me? And is it good? Or is it bad? We might want to know. Look at Psalm 80 verse 19. Restore us. Lord God Almighty, make your face shine on us. That we may be saved.
Make your face shine on us. For what reason that we may be saved rescued restored. Something happening. Right? There's action. So the Lord make his face shine on you, and be gracious to you. That he would have mercy on you that is Mercy and Grace and kindness would show itself in actions toward you. That's what gracious means. And that's exactly what God does. So if you wanna fill in that blank, the Lord, the Lord is kind to me. So love can sometimes be an emotion. It can sometimes be a feeling but kindness is not an emotion or a feeling it's doing and the blessing reassures us that God doesn't just feel positive toward us. He does something for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, he saves us forgives, our sin makes us right with him. Then we've got Romans 8:32. One of the most comforting passages of scripture that says this, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us. All he God, who gave up Jesus on a cross like that his son for you if he did that.
How will he not also along with him? Graciously, give us all things.
Your heavenly father. The Lord knows you. He sees you. He forgives you. He loves you. He does kind things for you now and forever. That's his promise. So, here's the big takeaway for today. If you want to jot this down the blessing. Especially the second line of it. It assures me. I am known. And loved. By God. I am known by God. He sees me. I am loved. My God.
He forgives me. You have his favorable disposition, his face shines upon you. He smiles on you and he does great things for you all through the Lord Jesus Christ. So at my old church, I was in church in Omaha Nebraska. Before I came here, six and a half years ago, almost seven years now. And after every worship service, there there is this elderly woman named Marcy who is now with the Lord who always had a positive word to say, I always loved reading Marcy after the service on Sunday, because she always said, “That was a great sermon. Pastor, thank you so much for that message from God's that was so encouraging to me today. They, that was Sokka. She always had a great word for me. So I love seeing Marcy. After one service, Marcy, came up to me and she said, pastor, do you know what, my favorite part of the worship services? And immediately, think there comes the sermon, he loves my servants. I wonder what she liked about it today. She says the blessing. So, okay, Marcy. Why do you like the blessing? Is it because it means the service is over and you get to go to brunch. She said, no, no pastor the blessing is my favorite part of the service because the last thing I hear before I go out of the church is the Lord's name. It is placed upon me. I go with his peace. I know I have his favor. I know that he is going to show me kindness, I go out into the world and I won’t leave God here at church. God is with me and on me and his name is upon me. And that makes it my favorite part of the service. Marcy. I think it's my favorite part too. And I hope it's yours as well.