'Til Shiloh Comes: Judah, Joseph & Jesus

Regardless of what word you would use, I would wager to say that all families, if you look hard enough into their past or their present, have some brokenness in it. Because all families are full of sinful people. Some of you, you look at other families, you're like, no, not that. I promise you, if you get around them and you look close enough, there will be things there that you go, oh, this is not a perfect family either. Here's the deal. We're more affected by our families than many of us would like to realize. In fact, statistics show there's nothing that has more effect on you than your family of origin. We're all affected by a past that we did not choose when it comes to our family, and we are all headed to a future that in many ways we cannot control. [00:01:52] (46 seconds)  #familiescarrybrokenness

But I want to preach a message. I came with a word on my heart for some people who have some broken pasts, who have some broken families, who have some brokenness in their own heart, and say, this is what our God does. He gets in the middle of unlikely groups of people and in the middle of brokenness, in the middle of hurt, in the middle of sin, he begins to paint blessing in new stories. [00:05:57] (25 seconds)  #godcreatesnewstories

We are all a family. We are all affected by our past, but we do not need to be directed by our past. Like, it's one thing to be affected by the brokenness you come from, but I believe by the power of God's word — and we're going to see this in this text — that you can be affected, but you need not be directed. You can leave here this morning directed by the blessing of God and not the brokenness around you. [00:06:30] (22 seconds)  #affectednotdirected

This is the fundamental question we all ask, is it not? What will happen to me? Is there a bigger question, a more existential question than that? What's going to befall me? What's going to happen to me? This is, in a way, the question we've been asking since we were born on planet Earth. [00:07:35] (17 seconds)  #existentialquestionoflife

If you are this morning and you say, my past disqualifies me from blessing from God, I want to say, you might be right. But it's not your past that gets you blessing, it's his grace that gets you blessing. If your past track record doesn't line up, he specializes in a lineage of blessing and a lineage of grace. This is what God does. [00:14:36] (27 seconds)  #lordofblessingreigns

Blessing is not on a beach somewhere, it's not on a battlefield somewhere. It's facing adversity. It's pushing ahead. It's going, I'm getting attacked. Some of us, we begin to believe the lie that the blessed life is the life with no attacks. No, you may just be more blessed when there's more arrows flying because God's making you fierce for the battle. [00:27:11] (19 seconds)  #characterovercircumstance

What does the word favor mean? Well, favor is the best way to describe it. It's the look of a father towards a son or a daughter. It's the smile of a dad. It's goodwill and care. It's delight and presence and security. [00:27:40] (19 seconds)  #blessingthroughlineage

Each one was given the blessing appropriate to him. Because I know if you look at my life, and I know if you look at the sins that I've committed, if I'm getting what's appropriate to me, it's not. It's not blessing, it's condemnation. And this is where I have good news for all the family this morning. It's through the lineage of Judah that you can access the blessing of Joseph. It has nothing to do with your track record, it has to do with the one who came through Judah's line, and it's through him that you can begin to access the blessing that Joseph lived in. [00:30:17] (40 seconds)  #blessingpastpresentfuture

Here's the good news of the Gospel, it's this, in Christ I don't get the appropriate blessing due to me, in Christ I get the appropriate blessing due to him. That is the good news of the Gospel. In Christ, if you receive his gift of salvation, we all become the favored one. We all become the favored son. We all become the favored daughters. In the Father's eyes, if you're in Jesus, you are Joseph. You're the favored son. You're the favored daughter. Because of the one who came through the lineage of Judah. [00:31:15] (31 seconds)  #blessingisrelationship