Living & Dying with Biblical Confidence

Sermon Transcript

When I was in college I realized that my eyesight was starting to go.  Month after month it just got worse and worse and it was more blurry.  So finally I got in a cab and I went to the Chicago College of Optometry, the only place I could afford.  So I told the student doctor, my eyesight is blurry, but only far away, I cant see things far away, its fuzzy and its getting worse.  He said, well can you see things clearly up close?  I said, yeah, up close its fine, but far away its all blurry.  He said well, that’s okay, all the stuff that’s far away, its just far away, see?  All that really matters is the stuff that’s close to you.  So, no problem.  Is that what he said?  No.  Little ambitious student doctor boy couldn’t wait to throw some glasses on me.  He said, oh your eyes are myopic and they need to be fixed, and we have just the fix, sit down, and off he went.  Myopia, just unacceptable, going to fix that.  Its interesting how physically biologically, we’re not going to be tolerant of myopia, we’re not going to be satisfied with it.  But spiritually it seems that we’re okay with it, it’s not to bad.  We never say it, but really in our hearts and in our minds, when it comes to our lives it seems like if its far away, well, you know, its far away.  But if its close, then it matters, see?  So our eyesight gets really focused on what’s going on right here.  We talk a lot about the me and mine and the here and the now.  As a matter of fact, churches seem to cater to this all the time, you listen to what people are preaching and its all about the here and the now, and the me and the mine and how can we fix tomorrow and today for you.  And yet, you open up the Bible, and you see that God wants us to have a bigger view.  He doesn’t want us to be myopic spiritually.  As a matter of fact, God is really clear in the scriptures that he’s never going to really use you in the body of Christ; you’ll never maximize your efficiency and your work for the kingdom unless you have real clear, unobstructed biblical eyesight.  You’ve got to spiritually be able to see beyond the me and the mine and the here and now.  You’d better have a broad view and a long view, and if you don’t have that, God’s saying you have a problem.  When God sees myopic, spiritual eyesight, he says, we’ve got to fix this.  He knows the fix, but we’re not real keen on fixing it, we don’t want it fixed.  We’ve got to realize that it’s critically important to have a broad and a long perspective.  And thankfully in Hebrews chapter 11, you might make this marriage in your mind real quick, you can see that if its ambitious faith, its clearly going to be something that’s required for a broad and a long view.  Because it doesn’t take any faith to be concerned with the here and now, and the me and the mine.  But it does take some faith to concern our self with things that aren’t going to happen in this lifetime, and things that aren’t going to happen in my county and my state, and my country.  It really requires faith.  And in verse number 20, we see examples, that though there’s no verbal imperatives for us, there’s certainly an instructive example.  An example that seems to get even more challenging with each passing verse.  Beginning in verse 20.  last week we looked at Abraham’s life, Sarah’s life, and we just introduced a little bit about Isaac, and cooperated with that amazing scene on Mount Moriah.  But now it says, much later in Isaac’s life, as a matter of fact, if you look at the Genesis account, its at the end of Isaac’s life.  By faith, Isaac, he blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.  And if you know a little bit about your Old Testament, you know those are his two sons.  So his sons, he’s going to bless, and he’s thinking about their future.  Now this is a future he wont live in, because he’s about to die, that’s the context back there in the late 20’s of Genesis.  Genesis 28 and 29.  It’s this sense of, well, you know what, I’m not going to be here, but I’m concerned about your life in the next generation.  Next verse, verse 21; by faith Jacob, that was Isaac’s son, when he was dying, he blessed each of Joseph’s sons.  Now who was Joseph in relation to Jacob?  His son.  Now he’s not blessing his sons, he’s blessing his grandsons.  You see the concentric circle getting a little wider here?  Oh yeah, you’ve got Isaac blessing his two sons, but then you’ve got Jacob blessing his grandsons.  And this is not, oh, I hope you really prosper and have a really fun life.  The concern was a spiritual one, as look at this in verse 21, he worshiped leaning on the top of his staff.  He was concerned about God and God’s agenda.  And he looked at his grandsons, and he was concerned with their life, a step removed from him.  And he’s concerned how that goes with them.  It’s still familial though, its still family.  Look at verse 22, it gets even more broad, longer.  It says, by faith, Joseph, when his end was near, he spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  Not just his biological progeny, he was concerned with the spiritual descendants of Abraham, the whole community, his view was broad.  And then it says, he was concerned not only about them leaving Egypt, but he gave instructions about his bones, he even wanted his remains to be a monument to God’s faithfulness in bringing Israel out of Egypt into the promised land.  He was thinking, I won’t experience it, I won’t be there, but I’m concerned about those future generations, that God would fulfill his plan for them.  Wow.  That’s some pretty broad thinking, big statements, he’s concerned about life that he wasn’t going to be the spectator, the direct spectator, he’s got a long view, broad view.  Now, before we look at this a little more closely, perhaps it would be helpful to get all these names sorted out.  And I often talk about Sunday school graduates, and maybe you missed that, maybe you didn’t grow up in the church, you didn’t go to Sunday school, and we need to kind of sort out these names.  And you know I’m kind of akin to charts, I like those, so here’s a little chart for you, not very complicated, pretty easy, lets fill this out so we get all these names straight.  Were talking about fathers and sons and grandsons and all this, we need to know who these guys are.  These are called the patriarchs, the fathers, the spiritual fathers of the faith in the book of Genesis.  And there’s four if not five generations, it becomes specifically important.  The first box is easy, this is Abraham, we talked about him last week.  Now Abraham wasn’t alone in this, he had a wife.  The covenant came to Abraham and his wife Sarah was going to bear a child.  Abram and Sarai, that was their names, God changed their names, they were going to be the parents of this great nation, and it was going to start with a late in life birth that was so odd that it was funny.  So odd that they were going to name this child Laughter, so they had a child, but they didn’t call him Laughter because it wasn’t translated, its transliterated for us, and that word we know him by the name Isaac.  So late in life, Abraham is 75 years old, gets the promise of God, 25 years later they have a son named Isaac.  Now Isaac’s growing up and Abraham is ready to die, he’s concerned that he doesn’t take a wife from the Canaanites, where they were living as aliens and strangers in tents.  So he sends Eleazar, his servant, back to Mesopotamia to find him a wife, very important that he has a wife from his extended family.  So off Eleazar goes and he meets this beautiful girl with a jar, drawing water, and you know the story, he goes through the whole thing to find his wife and sure enough, she’s responsive and her name is Rebekah.  So Rebekah and Isaac, they meet up, they get married, and they have twins, right?  Now twins, and its interesting, what we’re interested in is the child of promise, the one through whom the birthright would come.  Now we know this guy because he’s a little bit slimy, he’s a Momma’s boy, there’s not much about him we like when we meet him.  His brother is more of a man’s man, he’s the hairy red-headed guy who’s out in the field hunting and all of that.  But when he’s born, you remember this guy was grabbing the heel of his little twin brother as his little brother, his hairy little read-headed brother,  pops out first, and he’s called the ‘heel grabber’.  Because in many ways, that’s what he is, tripping people up, he was a bit of a deceiver.  But that guy’s name ‘heel grabber’, what’s that name?  Jacob.  Jake, tripping people, heel grabber, he was a bit of a slimy guy, right?  Deceiving his parents and swindling Esau out of his birthright for that, the Hebrew word is chili, because you really wouldn’t trade your birthright for stew, maybe chili, with cheese and onions, but anyway.  So he gets the birthright, and he gets the blessing because his scheming mother, as they were in the kitchen, they schemed to get the birthright while Esau, the man’s man, is out hunting dinner for his dad.  Let’s think of Jacob, he gets a wife, when he’s growing up, he finds this gal, she’s a bit of a tomboy, but she’s beautiful, and she’s a shepherdess, she’s out in the fields watching these sheep, he really is enamored with this gal, and he goes to her dad, Laban, and says, I’d like to marry your daughter.  And Laban says, you’ve got to work for me first for seven years, and then the deceiver gets deceived, what happens to him?  Laban tricks him seven years into it and doesn’t give him the daughter, Rachel, instead he sneaks in with a lot of veils on apparently, he sneaks in the older daughter, Leah.  Remember her?  And so that becomes wife number one, but his heart was really given to wife number two, who he finally has to work seven more years for, although,  he lets him marry her in the seven year period.  And so, working for father-in-law for fourteen years, that’s depressing for anybody.  Bottom line is, he gets his wife and her name is Rachel, beautiful Rachel.  So we’ve got Abraham and Sarah, we’ve got Isaac and Rebekah, we’ve got Jacob and we’ve got Rachel.  Okay, you tracking with this so far?  Now Rachel and Jacob, they’ve got a big family, this is Brady Bunch times three, right?  Lot of kids, its crazy, its nuts, but they have a favored child, a child that’s so favored, dad loves him, very much the favored kid.  Much like his dad, Esau, you’ve got Jacob’s son, and he loves him so much, so he gives him a fancy jacket, a colorful blazer, but the brother’s don’t like it.  Not only was Dad favoring him, but God was favoring him with these dreams about how he would ascend and all his brothers would bow down to him and so the brothers are jealous and envious, and so they go out to destroy him.  And you know the story, what’s his name?  Joseph.  Joseph with the fun blazer.  Now he gets thrown in a hole, and they say, no, let’s sell him.  They sell him, he ends up in Egypt, right?  Now in Egypt, he picks up a wife, which is a daughter of a priest.  Now if you’ve been hitting 1000 so far, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Rachel, Joseph, this is the bonus question for twenty points, right?  Joseph’s wife, Asenath.  Asenath, strange name, I mean Sesame Street, which one doesn’t belong?  She doesn’t belong because she’s not from Mesopotamia, she’s an Egyptian, the daughter of a priest, the priest of On.  This is weird, but sure enough, God in his providence, pulls in this wife and between them they have two sons that become very important in the biblical picture.  Their two sons names are important.  And the reason is, because if you think about Jacob, who had another name by the way, the other name God gave Jacob was Israel, wrestles with God.  Israel has children, the children of Israel.  Now Jacob remember had ten older brothers, okay, this is a bonus question around dinner tonight.  Who were the ten older brothers?  It started with the oldest, his name was Reuben, and then there was Simeon, and then there was Levi, and there was Judah, then there was Dan, then there was Naphtali, there was Gad, there was Asher, there was Issachar and Zebulun, right?  That’s for twenty points right there.  All ten of those guys, older brothers.  And then Joseph comes along, and Joseph has a little brother by Rachel and Jacob, his name is Benjamin.  We know the oldest, Ruben and the youngest, Benjamin.  Now you say, oh there’s the twelve sons of Israel, nice and neat, well not really.  Here’s what happened.  Joseph and Asenath have two sons that when Jacob, in the passage that we’re referring to here in Hebrews 11, blesses, he doesn’t bless the sons, he blesses the two grandsons, and says, I favor you so much, your portion will be doubled in the promised land, which is what happened, and you will have two shares, and they will come by your sons.  Do you remember their names?  Menasah and Ephraim represents all the northern tribes of Israel.  Educated group we have here at Compass Bible Church.  So, you got it?  Well, wait a minute, that doesn’t add up.  If you’ve got Reuben and you’ve got Simeon…… , that’s too many, fourteen.  Remember Joseph is replaced by Menasah and Ephreum, double portion.  So Joseph doesn’t count, that’s still thirteen, I thought there were twelve tribes?  Well there are twelve allotments and twelve territories, but one of the brothers didn’t get an allotment, or his descendents didn’t in the Promised Land, and that was the tribe of Levi.  And Levi didn’t get an allotment because they were the priests; they were the priestly tribe and God would be their allotment, God would be their inheritance.  Now don’t get it wrong, it wasn’t like they had no place to live, there were 48 cities allotted to the Levites in the Promised Land, they had plenty of places to live.  And much like Paul said about New Testament ministers, you own nothing, but you own everything, because if a Levite wanted a vacation home, everybody was going to throw them the keys, you had access to the kingdom, but they didn’t own it.  They weren’t owners of property.  But they had what they needed and they were favored amongst the tribes of Israel.  So twelve territories, twelve initial sons, two replace Joseph, Levi didn’t get an allotment, that’s why it all adds up to twelve.  You should memorize it at some point, because when you get to the Kingdom, all twelve names will be inscribed on the walls of the New Jerusalem, but that’s another sermon.  Did that help sort it out a little bit?  If you’re a Sunday school grad, that was a refresher course, if you weren’t, you’ll have to listen to the tape slowly, but you can sort it all out, and you can understand what’s going on here.  Now our story talks about Isaac.  Last week we talked about Abraham, and then there is Jacob and Joseph and Ephraim and Manasseh show up in verse number 21, although they’re not named.  You might want to put in the margin, Joseph’s sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.  Now you’ve got some letters off to the left here, because we need to sort this question out.  The Passage is about blessing.  Look at verse 20; by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.  Look at verse 21: by faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, his grandsons.  Now that word gets thrown around a lot, even today in Christian circles, we talk about bless, and blessing.  Well in this passage, we see a use of it that’s not the way we normally talk about it.  So we need to sort it out.  There are three distinct ways we use the word bless, and they all have a different definition.  We get them, in this case, that’s not always so in the church, we get this from the scriptures, because there are three distinct ways the word bless, barak is used, the Hebrew word, barak, in scripture in three directions of blessing.  The first one is from the bottom up, we speak vertically up to God, and the Bible says, we can bless God.  And I jotted down one reference for you, Genesis chapter 9 verse 26, where Noah blessed the Lord.  Then, there’s the other direction, coming down the other way.  And that is that God, we often say in scripture and today, blesses us.  At the beginning of the service pastor Dale came out and asked for God to bless us today.  You get a new baby, and you say that’s a blessing from God.  You get a new job, or new house, or God gives us a new church, we’re blessed by God, God is blessing us.  We can bless God this way, God blesses us this way, and then, this is the passage that we’re dealing with today, we’re not talking about either one of those.  This seems to be more of a horizontal direction.  Our passage today is about people blessing one another.  Because look at it, verse 20; by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau.  That’s one person blessing another.  And by faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons.  Now, to keep these distinct in your mind, lets give them a brief phrased definition.  When we bless God, what are we doing?  What is happening when I say, I bless you, Lord, what does that mean?  What we mean is we are crediting God with good.  If you think through that, all that is, is worship.  That’s another word for worship.  To credit God with good, that is the essence of worship.  And it usually happens when we’re being thankful.  God does something good, we bless him.  When Noah had good come to his life, he blessed the Lord.  What does that mean?  God, you have done good, you are good, we are crediting God with some good.  Now when God blesses us, is he crediting us with good?  Is he telling us we’re great, is that what a blessing is?  No, totally different.  When God does good to us, that’s called grace.  Every good and perfect gift, James 1 says, comes down from above.  It is a blessing of God.  And so we say, God, you gave us something good, you blessed us today, you’ve done something good.  It’s the concept of being positive.  Now what’s this horizontal usage then?  What are we talking about when one person blesses another?  That one seems a bit odd.  What you need to recognize is that when someone is blessing someone else in scripture, and so it should be for us if ever we dare to do it, which I hope at the end of the sermon you’ll say yes, I need to be doing this, is not a two way deal.  It is a three party action.  Because what we’re really doing in a blessing is this; we are asking God to do good to others.  I don’t have power to do good to the next generation, particularly when I’m dead, I cant bless you.  I cant specifically, what I’m doing is I’m asking God, I’m beseeching God with a lot of optimistic faith.  I’m asking him to do good to you.  That’s why, if you look carefully, and we’ll see examples from Isaac’s life and Jacob’s life, when we see them blessing someone it usually starts with this… and he blessed his sons saying, may God…  Do you see where that’s a prayer?  May God do this to you.  Now it seems very focused toward you, but really it’s the assumption, I’m asking God to do this for you.  I want God to bless you, and that is a three way conversation.  Someone sneezes, we say God bless you, which is a whole other sermon, don’t get me started on that.  But the point is, we should be asking God to bless someone, and not just when they sneeze.  We should be saying I want God to do something good in your life.  Which in that case, I don’t know, what’s the specific request?  That you stop sneezing all over me?  Which one are we doing when someone asks you today at lunch, would you give the blessing?  Which one are we doing, A, B, or C?  A.  Which means that when someone is praying, you don’t want to bless the food, that’s not the way to ask.  You don’t say, would you bless the food, right?  Because the food has no hope, the food is done, its gone, the food is going to be processed and digested and there’s no future for the food.  So don’t bless the food, don’t say, God I hope you bless this food, I hope it has a wonderful future as it travels through my digestive tract, right?  No, what we’re doing is saying, God, I bless you for giving us something good.  That’s why if it’s a good meal, God I want to bless you for this.  And in scripture sometimes we mess that up because in the New Testament, the object is not clearly defined in some passages.  For instance, it’ll say, and here’s our hint, that he lifted his eyes up to heaven and he gave a blessing or he blessed, literally in Greek, blessed.  And what we have to fill in is that he’s clearly blessing God, he’s lifting his eyes up to heaven, we’re lifting up this bread and blessing God, blessing God, thank you for this food, that’s what you’re doing when you’re thanking God for food.  So you’re not letter C before a meal, you’re letter A before a meal.  And when we’re praying for someone with an optimism, a prayerful reliance on God, it’s letter C.  Letter B is something that God does, I can only engage in A and C, and you need to know which is which, when you’re going to use the word bless.  Did we sort some of that out?  We haven’t even gotten to the passage yet, that’s all introduction, worksheet is getting small.  Now, let’s look at our passage, hopefully that helps.  Hebrews chapter 11, now I know who these guys are, and I know which kind of blessing we’re talking about, is it A, B, or C, in this passage?  Its letter C.  It’s the C kind of passage, it involves God.  It involves a reliance on God, but its directed at someone.   By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.  Even though Esau wasn’t a recipient of the birthright, or the primary blessing of the firstborn, even though he was the first born, he was asking for God to do good there.  Verse 21; Jacob did the same when he was dying with his grandson.  Joseph was speaking positively about the positive reality of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones that they might be a memorial in the Promised Land and a trophy of God’s exodus and all that… good, great.  So we go from sons to grandsons, you see expansion of our picture.  When it comes to blessing, this is what I hope to accomplish is that we would all be blessing by the time this is done.  And what I want to make sure that we recognize is that it’s a very broad and long based kind of thing.  It’s a long view a broad view.  Therefore, if we’re going to do this right, we’ve got to (Number 1 on the outline), we’ve got to have a bigger picture of God’s plan.  We’ve got to begin to see that God’s plan and therefore my prayers need to be more than just my life, the here and now and me and mine.  And I would think that if you really analyzed your praying, most of your prayers are all about you, and the here and now.  Even if it relates to your kids were ultimately thinking here and now and in the next few years.  These prayers are about beyond the span of my lifetime, and if you start to catch this, you might find out it’s a more profound reorientation than you ever thought.  Because if you really start to pray the way these guys did in verses 20, 21, and 22, you might find out its kind of a 180 degree reversal of what Christianity is today.  A lot of people are invoking blessings on their family and on their children, wanting God to bless them in the here and now because in their minds its all about their kids life, or their life and God coming in and being a part of that.  That is not the biblical view, that may be modern Christianity for a lot of people, but its not the biblical view.  The biblical view is because its broad and its long is that I am asking that I might participate in the work that God is doing, and that’s different.  A lot of people want God to be a part of their thing.  Blessing biblically is about us being a part of God’s thing.  And in their reference point from Hebrews 11: 21-22, it’s the Abrahamic covenant.  They wanted their sons to fulfill and be in keeping with and a part of God’s work in the Abrahamic covenant.  May my kids be blessed by being a part of what God is doing in the future.  That’s different; it’s radically different if you ponder it for a while.  That’s a big deal.  Now I’m asking for God to give me a big picture, I want my life, the future generations and people around the globe to be a part of God’s thing.  Now you say okay, they could look at Abraham’s covenant, which ultimately led to fulfilling the promise of land in Canaan, in a specific place, setting up camps, starting a theocracy and having a kingdom there.  That’s not what we’re doing, we’re not a part of that.  So what’s our reference point?  Well, if we’re going to preach this with any application to the modern age, we’ve got to find out what is it that we’re praying that we and our progeny would be a part of?  What do we want our spiritual descendants and people around the globe to be a part of?  It’s not occupying land in the Middle East and setting up a theocracy, what is it?  Turn with me to Matthew chapter 16.  If you want a reference point that is the parallel concept of the new covenant, we’ve got to look beyond God’s plan for Israel in the Old Testament and we’ve got to say, what is he doing in the new covenant?  There’s a new thing going that Paul said was a mystery in the past that was hidden, but is now revealed and God is working this thing out as the Old Testament foresaw in something called the times of the gentiles.  When the Jewish and gentile people would come together in one new organization.  Paul called it one new man, one new thing.  And this new thing would be there and it would have this course of action that would come to culmination at the return of Christ.  This thing is called the Church.  And Jesus, you might want to put in the margin in verse number 18, it’s the first time Jesus uses the word, it’s the first reference in all of the New Testament.  Matthew chapter 16 verse 18, are you with me?  Now don’t stumble over this, this is not setting up some kind of vicar of Christ, this is not the papacy here, this is about Peter, he’s going to serve a critical role as the quarterback and first senior pastor of the church in Jerusalem and he’s just confessed the primary theological understanding of Christ and who he is; and upon all of that he’s going to, I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, which I think did include Peter in some way, but it was not the papacy, I will build my, here’s the first reference, circle it and put it in the margin, first biblical reference to this, here it comes, the Church, my Church, and the gates of hades will not overcome it.  Does that sound like a movement?  Gates never are a threat unless you’re moving, right?  So the issue is there is some kind of thing that he is starting that is going to start here, after the gospels are over, in the Book of Acts it will be established, and it will be moving into history like a freight train.  And the gates of hell will not prevail against it, okay?  Our goal as followers of Yahweh, as disciples of Christ, is not to find out way to the middle east and establish a theocracy.  Our goal is to get on board with the freight train called the Church and see it accomplish its mission.   And its mission, according to scripture, is to be the pillar and foundation of truth, as Paul put it in 1 Timothy 3, and to take this message of the gospel from here to the end of the world, which is a bit inverted and a bit ego-centric, I recognize because it started in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and we happen to be at the end of the earth.  But its to infiltrate the world with the message of the truth about forgiveness of sins, to preach the gospel and the whole world to see every seat on God’s spiritual locomotive, called the Church, filled.  And when the last seat is full, what do we often say around here?  When the last seat is full, our work is done and we get to go home.  But the goal is to fill all the seats.  Not the seats of this church, necessarily, but the more fill with this church of repentant people, the more the locomotive of the Church is filled, and people from every tongue, tribe and nation get on board, and we then, get to see the coming of Christ and the foundation and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, we get to see that.  But the goal of this thing called the Church is to go and infiltrate, to hold up the truth of the gospel and to penetrate the world, okay?  That’s our calling.  When we look back, we’re looking back at what Jesus established when he set up the Church, see?  For them it was, I want my kids to be on board with the establishment of the Abrahamic covenant and the Palestinian covenant and the Mosaic covenant, that they might dwell in the land, and they might have it from Dan to Beersheba, and they would have this place and occupy it and a theocracy would be set up, that’s not our plan.  God said to us in the times of the gentiles, you got a message, you got an organization, you got outposts in everyplace in the world, you’re infiltrating society, you’re holding up the truth, you’re getting more people under the umbrella of the lordship of Christ, seated in the seats of the locomotive called the Church, and when every seat is full, the kingdom will come, and Christ will return, and we’ll see him with our eyes, he’ll come down.  Now if that doesn’t happen in our generation, right?  Which every generation hopes it comes in theirs, then we sure hope that my kids get involved in that, we sure hope that our kids kids get involved in that.  We need to see our future eyes of faith praying with the kind of ambitious optimism that these guys had, that our spiritual descendants will get on board with that big picture.  Now to do that, you’ve got to think in three ways, a bit complicated today I realize, but three ways to think.  If I’m going to do this, I, like these men, need to root my concepts of the future and my blessings for my kids and my kids kids and their kids kids, I need to root it in the past.  So what I want to do to broaden your view and lengthen your view is to get you thinking about Gods work, lets put it this way, at least 100 plus years ago.  And we can do this in segments, let’s think in our minds all the way back to the early quarterbacks of the Church.  I mean let’s think about the fact that we stand in the long line of Peter and the apostles who stood on the temple mount, proclaiming a message to all those people.  Then we can look into scripture of the early churches, and we can say the churches in Galatia, or the church at Ephesus, or the church in Colossi, we in Orange County in Aliso Viejo, we stand in that long line of work that God was doing, that he started in the Bible, and he’s moving it forward.  And the next segment I suppose you could look at is church history, and I try to get you to think and read about church history more often, don’t I do that, I beg you guys to do that?  I always put books on the back of the worksheet every week, have you noticed those?  There’s two sides to the worksheet, have you noticed that?  On the back at the bottom, I put a little time into that, it would be good to see that it’s there, there’s books.  This week, just take the last three, just look at the last three, pick one of those that you haven’t read, pick one of those that looks interesting, buy it, put it by your bedside, every night, just spend 5 or 10 minutes just reading and thumbing through it.  All of those I put there are easy readers.  Ruth Tucker’s, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, you want to talk about the progress of the locomotive called the Church, what a great easy read, this is a biographical history of what God has been doing in the world from the beginning in Jerusalem, what a great easy reading book that is.  Or how about Mark Water’s book, if you want to talk about people that will inspire us, to make sure that we don’t complain about splinters and skinned knees and Orange County Christianity, lets look at the guys that gave their lives, who burned at the stake for standing up for the gospel, for spreading the message of Christ, how about we read a little bit about the Christian martyrs in the church?  Or how about the last one, this is a real easy reader, and Woodbridge wrote a lot of these kinds of books, edited a lot of them about people that stood out in their day who represented the message of the gospel, which is what you’re calling is.  It’s not to survive, its to get on the locomotive of the Church, and help it make progress in our generation.  And today’s message is about seeing that this work needs to be done beyond our lifetime and outside of our county.  Let’s start getting excited about it, lets start praying for that with a kind of ambitious optimism.  That’s what’s going on in this text.  And how about nationally?  Want to talk about 100 plus years ago.  I mean think about our spiritual forefathers that went before us in this country, right?  I mean we’re not in Burma or North Korea, or the Sudan, I mean you know that right?  We are in the United States of America, where our spiritual forefathers came here, not only to free themselves from some kind of taxation, they came to come and establish a place where the preaching of the gospel could be done uninhibited from ecclesiastical concerns, to separate the concept of some kind of tyranny of some kind of political ecclesiastical you know conglomerate.  To be able to stand up in pulpits across the country and be able to say this is the truth of the gospel, to spread the gospel unfettered.  I mean that’s what going on.  Our spiritual forefathers, they fought wars for this principle.  I know we’ve lost that in our Country, we don’t understand it, we’re so busy debating were they real Christians, and were they deists and all that, at least read their concern was to open up the doors that we are not seeing open in other countries.  Praise God for our spiritual forefathers that opened the doors for us here.  Let’s at least realize we are in a long train of people that have gone before us to try and do the things that this passage in Matthew chapter 16 would hope that we would get excited about.  To see the Church busting through a few more of the gates of hell.   Okay, so you’ve got to think back, you know the next one where we’re going from there right?  Just invert that.  Not only do we need to think about Gods work 100 plus years ago, we need to start thinking about, which these guys were doing, 100 plus years from now.  For them, if you look at the last one, Joseph was thinking about the exodus, that was a long ways off.  I mean they weren’t there, right there at the exodus, that was years away.  There’s a lot that God was going to do.  And for us, we need to start thinking, okay, maybe Christ will come back, but if he doesn’t, then we need to start thinking about where its going to go, what  is the Church going to be like?  Are you just worried about our generation?  We’re a vapor, we’re here today and gone tomorrow.  And we’re going to leave this church and all the other churches in this world to the next generation  and their going to leave it to the next generation, and they’re going to leave the steering wheel to the next generation.  Are we concerned about that?  Do you pray about that?  What will Compass Bible Church look like 150 years from now?  I mean let’s think about that.  Let’s start, at least tonight before we go to bed, praying a little bit, with a positive, ambitious optimism, God, may it be this, may it be that, may it be this, I want to pray a blessing on that generation and say, God, please bless them, please make them all that they should be in their quest to continue on this thing that we have a very small part in call the Church of Jesus Christ.  Great passage, I can’t miss this one, you’ve got to turn to Ephesians chapter 3.  When we think about the long 100 year plan, and we’re not good at that, as Americans, we have 5 year plans, 10 year plans maybe, and if we’re really ambitious, we’ve got maybe the 15 year plan.  But what’s the 100 plus year plan?  Do we have a sense of that, do we pray about that?  Look at Ephesians chapter 3; our grandkids church, our great grandkids church.  Ephesians 3:20; at the end of this doctrinal section, Paul breaks out in this great benediction, this doxology, this great word of praise, he says this in verse 20; Now to him who is able to do immeasurably, oh I know this verse, yeah, I’ve prayed this verse before, my backs against the wall, I’ve got a problem, I’ve got a client, I’ve got an issue, I’ve got a relation, yeah I pray, I know this verse, oh he can do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine according to his power that works within us.  Period.  We stop there.  Do you recognize that the context for this continues on?  Look at verse 21; the goal, its not a period, it’s a comma, the goal is to him be glory in the what? Church.  And in Christ Jesus, now bracket these next three words, throughout all what?  Generations.  Now do you think Paul was looking over his shoulder for the return of Christ?  Absolutely.  It did not prevent him from praying for the continuation of the glory and the growth and the power of the Church throughout all generations.  To Him be glory in the ChurchHiH throughout all generations, forever and ever.  Do you pray like that?  Don’t just think it’s about, God, you going to do great things for me this week?  God, I want you to do great things for me this month.  This passage, really the context is, God, you can do immeasurably more than we can ask or think through the power that works in us, because we’re a part of this thing too, we’re moving this locomotive forward by the grace of God, and we really want to see glory, the glory of that in the Church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations.  Let’s get a broader view, lets get a longer and more realistic view of the future.  These kinds of blessings that we’re talking about this morning, its not just a good idea, its essential, its biblical, it’s the biblical pattern.  Okay, we talk about a long view, we also need to think about, as Jacob and Joseph were thinking about, a broad view as well.  Can we think beyond the borders of our County?  I mean we have a hard time thinking beyond the borders of our little world that we live in here, within 10 or 12 blocks or whatever, but we need to be thinking broadly.  So, letter C if you will, we need to think God’s work 100 plus miles away.  Do we think that way?  Do we think that really the kinds of things that we’re up against are things that everybody on this locomotive that’s penetrating every culture and every country of the world, they have the same kinds of issues and concerns that we do.  I think about what we’re going through, Friday night our youth pastor’s got together, put together this great program, 100 plus kids in here just for the junior high grad night alone, and I’m thinking, that’s great, fantastic, but do you recognize that all over the world there are people with the same concern, and what is that?  Lets get these teens when they’re young, lets get them connected to the Church, lets give them an understanding of the word of God, lets bring them to the point of repentance, we want to make them Christians who stand up strong in this world, that’s the concern of our church.  At least for our teens, our youth pastors, that’s the passion they breathe every day.  You know that’s a passion all over the planet?  That’s a passion for every real Christian in every real church.  In the underground church in China, that’s the concern.  That’s a concern in Beijing, that’s a concern in Moscow, that’s a concern in Hong Kong, in Jakarta, in San Paulo, that’s the concern all over the world of every genuine Christian.  And Paul is trying to get the people to have a broader view.  Example, Colossians 1:6; all over the world the gospel is bearing fruit and it is growing, just as it’s been doing among you.  You think that way?  Paul is trying to think, its not just you guys, it not just you Orange County Western cultured Christians, God is doing his work everywhere.  And we need to be thinking and praying with ambitious, optimistic faith about God doing his work all over the place.  I know we’ve started small and some small concentric circles, and we will be announcing a new church plant project out in Temecula, where we’re going to see God do some things, we’ve already got a core team come together, maybe God wants you to be a part of that, at least be praying about that.  In January we’re going to Cuba.  You know there’s a house church movement in Cuba and though, you know you could say, well the policies there and the church cant be thriving… the Church is thriving in Cuba, we’re going to go back there, and try and encourage the saints and train them up and help them with exegetical tools, and teaching tools, great, maybe you’ll be a part of that in January with us.  I mean the things we’re going to unleash next year, you’ll see, we need to be thinking beyond the borders of our church.  If you have a passion for that, maybe there’s some ways that you can start thinking that way.  On the back, I’ve provided just a couple of examples.  Patrick Johnstone’s book, on the back, Operation World, I mean, I’ve got multiple copies of that, various venues in my life, its not just about the 2 steps of me, just about everywhere, in that little book, when I’m watching the news and I hear something going on, pull that book off the shelf, and I say, okay God, what’s going on in that country in the Church?  I want the Church to be glorious, I want the Church to excel, I want to pray for the Church right now in that country.  That should be a part of our lives.  If you’ve got kids in your house, teach them now to be thinking broadly.  I put one book on there by Spraggett, Daphne Spraggett and Jill Johnstone, Windows on the World, that little prayer atlas, just go on Amazon and order it, or a bookstore and buy it, get that, and set it by your dinner table, and at dinner, pull it out and say, kids, we’ve got to pray for this country.  Pray a little bit more broadly that God does his work, that the locomotive of the Church keeps doing its thing.  That’s the kind of broad minded ambitious, optimistic blessings of prayers if you will, that were being prayed by people that we should respond to.  And all the pains and struggles we go through when we’re at our best spiritually, caring for the souls of people, spending for their progress in Christ, you’ve just got to know what Paul said in 1 Peter 5:9; you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of sufferings that you are.  You’ve got to think that way, we’ve got a fraternity of people that care about the same things we do.  There are a lot of false churches, I recognize that, yeah, but the real Church of Jesus, we need to recognize that we are brothers and sisters with them, and they stand everywhere around the world, and they will be until the return of Christ, moving this thing on.  Let’s pray for those folks, let’s care about that.  Get a bigger picture of Gods plan.  Well, okay, we’ll start to pray; you know this word blessing is a little bit different than praying, isn’t it?  I mean it has the same elements, I’m asking God to do something for you, but blessing, it kind of carries a different weight.  It does, because if you read biblical blessing, its not just about, well God, protect them, God oh help them, God keep them from harm, that’s not what a blessing is.  A blessing is an incredibly ambitious, it is, let’s put it this way, number 2 on your outline, incredibly optimistic.  You and I need to be a bit more optimistic or the pray is just a prayer, its not a blessing.  When I’m praying for my great grandson’s church, and I pray the kinds of prayers that I find in the book of Genesis, it’s a little different than saying, oh God, I just pray they’ll survive, please just, I hope they’ll still trust in your Word, that’s not a blessing.  I mean that’s a defensive prayer.  You recognize this about blessings, they’re always ambitious, optimistic, they’re prayers on the offense, they’re all about moving this thing forward, they’re all about, God, just make them thrive.  Stop praying for your grandkids to survive, okay?  Start praying that they would thrive.  Back in your minds to Ephesians 3; to him who can do immeasurably more than you can ask or think.  What s the point?  What you’re praying for your great grandkids, think about this, its not ambitious enough.  That’s what its saying.  God can do so much more than you think.  What can God do with the next generation of the church?  He can do some amazing things.  Can you pray that way?  Well if you’re just praying that they’ll survive, that’s a nice prayer, and its good, keep praying I guess, but lets bless that next generation every now and then.  Let’s start blessing the Church around the world with some more optimistic kinds of prayers.  Think about Acts chapter 5, I love that passage, remember Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin, these Jews are trying to figure out what to do with this early Church that kept growing.. by chapter 5 we’ve gone from a little upper room group of people with shaky knees to 5,000 people on the temple courts.  This locomotive was moving.  And Gamaliel says, well, you know what, if its of God, we’ll never be able to stop it.  If we start fighting it, we will be fighting God himself.  He said, if it’s not of God, it will die.  Do you hear that?  Are you a part of that same movement that they were?  Yeah, absolutely.  And here’s what you need to see, Christian, pre millennial Christian, Christian who believes in the rapture, you need to realize that you need to have that kind of optimism about the growth of the church.  I realize there will be tears, I get it, there will be false teachers, I understand that, there will be false prophets, I get it.  But do you recognize that the Church of Jesus Christ will prevail and finish its task until the coming of the Lord.  It will prevail, you need to realize that, so lets stop being so pessimistic.  I understand that our eschatology, if you are a pre-millennialist like me, you believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, people peg us as pessimistic.  Oh you’re the doom and gloom Christians, you believe the world is going to hell in a hand basket, I get you, you’re all just separatists.  You know what?  I’m not going to deny my eschatology, the world will move from bad to worse, that’s what the Bible says, but the Church will be triumphant, and that means it will do its job, and we will fill every seat on this invisible locomotive called the Church, and when the last seat is full, the trumpet will sound, Christ will descend and the dead in Christ will rise first, and we will go meet him in the air.  And then he’ll get back to this program called Israel, okay?  And you and I need to say, this is an optimism that most of us lack.  We look at the news, oh its getting worse Ethel, oh look at it, its terrible, what will the world be like when our grandkids are grown up, oh its awful.  You know what?  Its awful, but when you start praying that way, and I know a lot of you are tempted to say, I don’t know how they can survive if the world keeps getting worse, and everybody’s tattooed and pierced and its bad and the music, and its awful, what are we going to do?  Remember this, 2 Peter chapter 2, okay, when you think that, just jot this reference down, and memorize this, specifically verse number 9, but read the context.  The punch line is verse 9, the context is this; if God can pluck Lot, okay, who he calls righteous there, and I’m thinking well, he wasn’t all that righteous, but if he can pluck righteous Lot out of Sodom and Gomorrah, and punish that town and deliver Lot, then don’t you think he can rescue people?  Now here how its put, here’s the punch line, don’t you know that the Lord knows how to rescue the Godly from trials and holy unrighteous for the day of judgment?  Don’t you think he knows how to do that?  Well it’s going to be like Sodom and Gomorrah, perfect, no problem!  The culture can go from bad to worse, the Church will be triumphant and there will be a true Church that will continue in every generation.  Do not neglect, it will be strong, it will grow, and you and I need to have that kind of optimism about our grandkids church.  I just hope they still believe in the bible?  No, no, I hope they change their culture, I hope they infect people, I hope that people are drawn because of their confidence in sovereign God in the universe to where their churches are filled and they’re excited to finish the task that God has called us to.  In 1899 when D.L. Moody was near the end of his life, and his ministry at least, here was his telegraph to his son about the birth of his granddaughter.  Here’s what he telegraph’s to his son, he says, I’m thankful for the good news (the birth of his granddaughter) may she become famous in the Kingdom of Heaven.  That is the prayer of her grandfather.  Do you think Moody had ambitious faith?  A lot of us would say, oh its 1900’s, I sure hope she survives, I sure hope she’s still trusting God when she grows up.  No, Moody says, I hope she’s famous in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Do you pray that for your grandkids?  I don’t want them to survive, I’d like them to thrive, I’d like them to be there moving this thing called the Church, penetrating a lost culture.  Are we going to usher in the Kingdom, are we going to, we’re not post-millennial, okay?  We recognize the world is going to go from bad to worse, but the Church will remain strong, the gates of hell will not prevail against it.  Okay, be more optimistic please?  If you’re not optimistic, its not a blessing, its just a prayer.  And probably for most of us, it’s just a defensive prayer.  Let’s pray some offensive prayers and be optimistic about the future of the Church and the churches around the world.  Because you know the church in China, the church in Cuba, they do that for us, you realize that, right?  Because they are a lot stronger than we are in so many ways.  But we need to pray for them too, definitely.  Thirdly, lets just start asking, lets just start boldly asking.  That’s all theory so far but I’m saying, well we need to start praying, how do we do that, what does it look like?  Oh, bless you children; do I just say that today before they go to bed?  What am I doing?  What am I supposed to be doing?  Bless you my son.  What?  Glad you asked.  We’ve got to look at some content.  Let’s go back to Isaac and Jacob’s blessing.  Isaac blessing is found in Genesis chapter 27, let’s go there.  Lets try and build something, this is three parts, obviously you see that on your worksheet, three different things we can ask for as it relates to the future movement of the Church and the Church around the world.  Let’s try and summarize some things that they asked for about the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant.  What do we want in terms of fulfillment of the new covenant?  Genesis 27; Isaac is blessing Jacob, look at verse number 28, here’s the gist of it, here’s the center of it, here’s the core of it; may God, remember I said that’s how blessings are, they always involve God, I’m looking to God to do something good to Jacob in this case.  May God give you of heaven’s due and earth’s richness, an abundance of grain and new wine, may nation’s serve you and people’s bow down to you, be lord over your brothers, and my the sons of your mother bow down to you, may those who curse you be cursed, and those who bless you, be blessed.  Wow, that’s big, that would seem to fit well in some prosperity preacher’s messages, right?  This is not selfish prosperity gospel.  This is about the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham.  They’re aliens and strangers, they’re living in tents, God has promised that those people would establish themselves in that land, they would be rich and plentiful and that they would rise up as leaders.  And all that he’s doing, all that Isaac is asking for is the fulfillment of God’s promise.  What has God said about the Church?  God has said that he wants the Church to be glorious.  That he wants the church to be strong.  And I want to pray for the strength of the Church.  To put it in poetic words, verse 28, I want to pray for heaven’s due and earth’s richness, an abundance of grain and new wine, I want those who curse the Church to be cursed and those who bless the Church to be blessed, that’s what I want for my great grandchildren’s church, that’s what I want.  I want it to be a strong church.  And if you’re thinking that sounds too prosperity driven for me, the jot this down in the margin, 2 Corinthians 3: 7-11.  Here’s what it says; if the old covenant was glorious, and it seemed to be, right?  God did something there, boom, its big, lightening flashed, they were going to build a worship center how did they do it?  Well, lets just put up.. no costs too much, don’t buy expensive paint, can we fudge on the sound system a little bit?  What did they do in the Old Testament when they build a worship center?  They were naming the columns, right?  People were throwing in their gold earrings and melting them so they could guild the whole thing with gold.  Oh man, that wouldn’t look good.  Listen, here’s the point, if there was a need, then it was met, why?  Because it was strong.  The movement of the theocracy in Israel and even the monarchy, when Solomon sat on the throne, the people of God, it was a glorious thing, and people came and bowed down to them.  And if you blessed Israel, you were blessed.  And if you cursed Israel, you were cursed, see?  And if the Bible says that the old covenant came with glory, what about the new covenant?  Here’s some words from 2 Corinthians 3; if the ministry of the old one was glory, will not the ministry of the spirit be more glorious?  If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness.  For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison to the surpassing glory and that what is fading away, that came with glory, how much greater is the glory that lasts?  I know glory is a big word, a bit of a bible word, but recognize this, it should be a strong and glorious Church.  I ought to have what it needs.  I don’t want the junior high pastor coming to me and saying, well, I’d like to do something great and really fantastic to draw these kids in and connect them with God.  Well you know, I don’t know can you do it on twenty dollars?  You know?  I want to be able to say, what do you need?  Absolutely.  The church is going to have what it needs, see?  And this needs to be what we think.  I want the church to have heaven’s due and earth’s richness, okay?  And again, oh he’s trying to pass the bag again, he wants a raise.  That’s not what this is about.  Because the whole point of this sermon is about what?  My great grandchildren’s church.  Its about the Church in Jakarta, its about the Church in Brazil, its about a broad and a long view.  And I love it too because look at in your mind James chapter 4, you don’t have because you don’t ask and you ask and you don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives that you might spend it on your pleasures or yourself, okay?  Now here’s the thing this is great, when I’m blessing generations that I’m not going to live in, when I’m blessing churches I’ll never attend, can it qualify for that second part?  Can God say, well, you’re just selfish, you just want to spend it on your pleasures, yeah, another selfish prayer from Mike.  Is that what God says? No.  Why?  Because I’m not even going to be here, I’m not going to go to that church in Brazil, I’m not going to be a part of my great grandchildren’s church.  But if I pray for that I know I wont trip up on that second one so all I need to do is start asking, right?  You don’t have because you don’t ask.  In this case, my great grandchildren’s church may not have because I didn’t ask.  Do you recognize the power of your prayer?  Do you see with optimism, with ambitious faith, you could start praying for churches in other parts of the world and you could start praying for churches 150 years from now and you could make a difference.  Do you recognize that?  I’m absolutely convinced my grandfather had so much to do with Compass Bible Church, and he’d never even heard of it, never saw it, he died before he saw it.  But he prayed for me, he prayed for my brother, he plucked two kids onto a stage that had no right to be around a microphone, right?  And we’re both this morning preaching in churches, trying to make a difference in the Kingdom… why?  Because a grandfather who never lived to see it was praying faithfully, I’m convinced of it, for something great to happen in the Church through his progeny, through his spiritual descendants.  Do you pray that for your grandkids, do you pray like that for your great grandkids?  Do you pray like that for churches you will never attend?  Let’s pray more ambitiously, let’s start asking for the Church to be strong.  And I would love for my descendants, my biological and spiritual, I’d love for them to be a part of it, wouldn’t you?  Start praying that way.  Start asking.  Look at Genesis 28, praying now for Jacob’s descendants, look what he says verse 3; may God almighty bless you and make you fruitful, I know it’s a blessing from one person to another, but he’s asking God, almighty God bless you.  Genesis 28:3; may God almighty bless you and make you fruitful and (underline these words), increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.  Oh, he just wants to be a big thing.. no, no, no… Verse 4, its all based upon the Abrahamic covenant, may he give you and your descendants the blessing given to Abraham so that you may take possession of the land where you now live as an alien, the land that God gave to Abraham.  He wanted them to grow, why?  So that they could fulfill the promise of God, okay?  What’s the promise of God for us?  The Bible says that one day, Revelation 7, there will be a multitude standing before the throne which no man can count.  People from every tongue, tribe and nation, that’s God’s plan for us.  So when you pray for increased numbers in the Church in Bogotá, when you pray for increased numbers in the Church in your grandchild’s church, do you recognize what you’re praying for?  You’re praying for the very thing God promised he wanted to do in the world.  Therefore, let’s make it real specific.  Letter B, you need to pray for numerical growth, okay.  Oh, I don’t like big churches.. too bad, right?  Too bad.  You are going to have to, if our grandparents prayed for health of the Church in our generation, you’re going to have to put up with that.  Because here’s the thing, that’s the goal of the Church, to take the message of the gospel to more and more people, to have more people bow their knee to the Lordship of Christ, so we can fill up every seat on this invisible locomotive and go home!  That’s the point.  And God says he’s going to use us to do it and you know what?  If we don’t finish the job, may our kids finish the job, and if they don’t finish the job, may their kids finish the job.  Let’s keep praying for numerical growth.  That’s God’s plan, Revelation 7 verse 9 and following.  Lets turn to the end of this, Jacob, Genesis 48, and I just want to bring this up because we kind of slammed Jacob earlier, momma’s boy, but he’s all grown up now, and here’s the thing, he’s wrestled with God, he’s seen a lot of things happen.  God has taken Jacob and changed him, he’s a different kind of person.  By Genesis 48, when he gives the blessing to Manasseh and Ephraim, his grandkids, he’s a whole different kind of person.  And as a matter of fact, you’ll see a heart here in Jacob that may surprise you if you think about the schemer, earlier in his life, this guy has become a godly man.  Look at verse 15, here is Jacob blessing his son in this case, and ultimately he’s going to bless Manasseh and Ephraim in this passage, but verse 15 says; then he blessed Joseph ( this is Jacob now) and he said, may the God (that’s how blessing’s start, they always involve God) may the God before whom my fathers’ Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been (oh this is interesting) my shepherd (first reference here, does that sound pretty godly?  What did David say?  The Lord is my shepherd… this is spiritual here, this guy like wants to walk with God) may the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day and the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys, may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac and may they increase greatly on the earth.  Wow that’s a spiritual prayer.  That’s the kind of prayer that a godly person prays leaning on his cane, praying and worshipping God and praying for the blessing that is a spiritually minded blessing.  Because here’s the thing, I don’t want somehow the Church to be strong financially or strong in influence and big and filled up and lots of people there if its not, Letter C, spiritually mature.  I want the future Church and the Church around the world to be walking with the Shepherd, don’t you?  That’s the point.  I want them to be godly.  I want them to be able to say, I know the living God, I talk to him, I read his word, we commune with one another, they’ve got to be spiritually mature.  It isn’t just about doing something flashy in the name of God, its not about filling the seats, we could hire gals in short skirts to dance on the stage and fill the seats, you understand that right?  It’s not about that, its about being spiritually mature.  It’s about a church that knows the God that created them.  Some people say, well this is so Old Testament, blessing, blessing… you know, it is in the New Testament.  Lets close with this 2 Timothy 4;  and if you say that you don’t see much blessing in the New Testament, do you know that the whole book of 2 Timothy is a blessing, basically?  Here is Paul saying to Timothy, at the end of his life, as a matter of fact when you get to chapter 4 look at verse 6, he’s done, the time of my departure has come, poured out like a drink offering.  I’ve done my thing, I’ve run the race, I’ve fought the fight, but he’s giving the baton of leadership to a church that’s far away.  In this case it’s in Ephesus, and to a young guy named Timothy, and he’s saying Timothy, here is my blessing for you.  May God do this, may God do that, may God accomplish this; may you be strong, chapter 2, right?  Now you want to talk about spiritual maturity, look at chapter 4 verse 1, I love this…what a great New Testament biblical blessing on the next generation.  He says, oh in the presence of God, (that’s the elements the three party thing), and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing in his Kingdom, (that’s the long view here), I give you this charge, (okay, here comes the blessing), preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season, correct, rebuke, encourage with great patience and careful instruction for the time will come, (okay, I think he’s pre-millennial here), the time will come when men won’t put up with sound doctrine, instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  Never heard of that, no that’s going on.. isn’t it?  He says, even if that happens, man, even if they have their ears turned away from the truth, verse 4, and they turn aside to myths (here it is, I love this) verse 5; but you, Timothy, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist (that means a church planter, that’s what he’s doing) discharge all the duties of your ministry.  Make the Word central, preach it, don’t tell people what they want to hear, tell them what they need to hear, preach the Word of God.  Now that’s the kind of church you want your great grandkids going to right?  Isn’t it?  You don’t want them going to some fluff church, with dancing bears on the stage, do you?  No, you want a godly church that is led by godly people, and may I be so ambitious to say, even your great grandkids leading in that church, so that it is doing the thing that Paul had commissioned to his next generation, and that is preach that word, stay faithful to the Word of God, do the right thing, don’t quivocate, discharge your ministry.  I want this thing to be godly, mature, spiritually mature.  This message, I know, it’s counter-cultural for the church today.  Because basically, what I am saying is I want you to spend time tonight and this week, hopefully to flavor the rest of your Christian life, praying for things that you will never reap the benefit of directly.  That’s what I’m asking you to do.  Pray for the churches you’ll never go to, pray for the people that you’ll never meet, pray for the ministry of your progeny that you’ll never see, your spiritual descendants.  Lets start praying for that, and as you do, you’ll recognize, wow, my eyesight has gotten really long, really broad.  You do recognize don’t you, that the essence of sin is increasing myopic perspective, myopia.  Its increasing myopia because sin at its core is when I’m interested in no one but myself, right?  Is that not sin?  Isn’t that Lucifer’s problem, before the world was created, here he was, well, caring about nobody but himself.  There’s nothing more godly than what I’m asking you to do today.  Broaden your perspective, lengthen your view on things.  May God look down from heaven and see Compass Bible Church filled with people who are not myopic, who have great spiritual eyesight.  That’s the goal.  Certainly, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, by the end of their lives, they had it, may we have it too.