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[ Silence ] [ Music ] Out of the hard ways and by ways of love, We all weary and sad.

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Carrying us, O child, our compass is wide, Weighing the sorrow in care. ♪ Make me a blessing ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪

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♪ Out of the blood of every Jesus' child ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪ ♪ Savior, I pray ♪ ♪ Make me a message ♪

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♪ To someone today ♪ ♪ Shall I sing story of Christ and His blood ♪ ♪ Tell of His powers, of His beauty ♪ ♪ That the first thing in life is good ♪

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♪ Through every moment you live ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪ ♪ Out of my life ♪

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♪ May Jesus shine ♪ Take me up last day, O Savior, I pray. Take me up last day to San Juan today. He has forgiven sin and good deed,

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♪ Love is the master of beauty ♪ ♪ There is no difference I have for beauty ♪ ♪ Love is your masterpiece, true ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪

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♪ Make me a blessing ♪ ♪ Love, love, love ♪ ♪ May Jesus shine ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪

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♪ O Savior, I pray ♪ ♪ Make me a blessing ♪ ♪ For someone to live ♪ - Amen.

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Speak to our hearts, O God, in the strong and perfect name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Esau said to his father Isaac, "Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" Is there a blessing for me?

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This is the question that the son asked his father. This is the question most people ask. Is there a blessing for me? Is there a special favor I am to receive?

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We all want to be blessed. We stand in need of blessings. We need to have special attention, special consideration, special help. Yes, we need to have something special going for us.

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Jacob and Esau were twin brothers. They were rivals for the same blessing. Sibling rivalry is not uncommon. Since the earliest time,

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special attention has been showered upon the firstborn. According to custom, during the patriarchal period, the firstborn son was to receive a double portion of the family inheritance. He was the means of perpetuating the family name.

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This was called the birthright, this special favor. And according to custom this belonged to Esau. That was his right by birth. It was his just because he happened to be born a few seconds or a few minutes before

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Jacob. This was a coveted position for the firstborn to inherit property and name. Now Esau is to get two-thirds of the family estate, while Jacob is to get only one-third. What we get in life depends on how we use our opportunities, how well we use our advantages.

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we get in life is determined by how we use the knowledge we acquire. It is determined by our judgment. It is determined by the way of life to which we are committed. We get a glimpse into the character of Esau and Jacob in the bargain which was made for the birthright.

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Jacob is cooking a pot of soup. The aroma is so tempting that as Esau comes in from the field he's famished with hunger and he says to Jacob, "Man, I'm starved to death. Oh how I wish I had some of that soup." And Jacob says to him, "You can have it if you will agree to sell me your birthright." Yes that's the deal soup for

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birthright. And so it was the deal was made one moment Esau has advantage of Jacob and the next moment Jacob uses his chicanery to take advantage of Esau. This rivalry was a way of life in the family. He saw the firstborn, a hunter, was the favorite child of his father. Jacob the younger, he's the favorite

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child of his mother, Rebecca. He's mama's baby boy. So the rivalry between the elder and the younger who will receive special favor. Jacob takes the matter into his own hands. He directs the course that his life is to go. He directs the birthright in the way that he ends up being the recipient. Every person has a

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birthright. Our Declaration of Independence reads, "All men are created equal and are endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, those of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Well those words say all men, but we are certainly making it known and expressing it that the word here men

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includes women, everyone, men and women. The right to be free, the right to work for a decent wage, the right to be happy. This is our birthright. Yet this blessing is stolen from many of the members of the human family. Many ask, "Is there a blessing for me?" This question is asked by the homeless. This question is asked

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by the jobless, is there a blessing for me? This question was asked time and time again in South Africa and it's still being asked today because even after the change, many people who expected to have a decent house

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with running water and all of those accommodations still haven't received it while they've been building at a rapid pace, it hasn't been fast enough. And people are still asking, is there a blessing for me?

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Time and time again, freedom is sold for a bowl of soup. And later, the meaning of the transaction is realized, and the question is asked over and over again, Is there a blessing for me?

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Esau sells his birthright in a mad rush to satisfy his appetite, yes. That's what he does. He sells his birthright in a mad rush

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to satisfy his appetite. He surrenders his inheritance for such a small price. He gives Jacob the right to the honor of continuing the family name,

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the right to succeed his father. Well, it was absurd to sell so much for so little. Well, there's some people who say, easy come, easy go.

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And some engage in getting the blessings intended for others for themselves. But that's the birthright. Jacob outwits, he outmaneuvers his brother Esau.

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Well, let's consider the blessing. Now, the blessing was something very special. It was something that the head of the family would give before his death.

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He would summon his children and pronounce upon them this special blessing. One of the most touching scenes in all of Scripture is, in the Old Testament, is that scene where

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Jacob is blessing his 12 sons. He's about to leave. Now, here before him is the father who has decided that his days won't be very long on the earth.

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His eyes are already very dim, His body is weak and so he has decided that he's going to give the blessing. And Jacob was a young man who drove a very hard bargain. He's already gotten the birthright.

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But here he participates in a scheme to get the final blessing from his father. So this is sort of the last will and testament. It's a blessing above all others. It's a special gift from the dying to the living.

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he prepares for that and he calls his son Esau and he says before I give you the blessing son I want you to prepare a special meal for me. You know how you get the venison and how you prepare it for your dad and how you've done in the past.

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That's what I want before I give you the blessing. I want to have that special meal. And Esau goes out. But what he doesn't know is that his mother has

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overheard the conversation. And he goes out. And in the meantime, the mother has informed his twin brother, Jacob,

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your father's planning to give your older brother the special blessing. But I'll tell you what you do. You go out and we'll take one of the, from the flock, we'll take a goat and prepare it while he's gone and you can go in and you can get the blessing.

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And that's exactly what he does. And he comes in, Isaac can't see very well, he's almost blind. "Who's there?" "Well, this is your son, this is your son Esau."

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"Esau?" "Yeah, this is Esau." "Well, how did you come back so quickly with the meal and have everything prepared?" He said, "Well, you see, the Lord was with me.

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The Lord was with me." He said, "Well, well, come closer. Let me feel you here." He said, "Well, the hands are the hands of Esau." But the voice is the voice of Jacob. He doesn't understand what has happened, but he goes on anyway and he pronounces the blessing, that special blessing and he says to him God will give you the dew of heaven and

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the fatness of the earth. Well not only you you will be made the ruler over your brother. And then Jacob leaves and in comes Esau. Father here I am I've got the meal all prepared. He said what? Who are you? He said I'm your son, I'm your son, I'm your son. He said, "Oh, don't you, you know, I went out to get the meal and all of that." He said, "Yes."

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He said, "But I've given the blessing to your brother. I thought your brother was you. He has received the blessing that I intended for you." And he saw Christ with people's shitty voice, "Is there a blessing for me? Father, don't you have a blessing that is reserved for me?" That's the question he asks. Somehow we all want

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an answer to that question. "Is there a blessing for me?" Is there some blessing that's arranged for me that no one else can get by trickery or chicanery or treachery. Is there a blessing for me? Well the answer is there is. There's always blessing. That God is in the blessing business and we used to sing

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sometimes here in the choir. I'm blessed, we're blessed, we're blessed, we're blessed. God is in the blessing business and you see God has it so arranged that the blessings he has for you, I can't get your blessings. He's got some blessings for me, he's got some blessings for every individual. He blesses here, he

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blesses there, he blesses everywhere. God has some special blessings for every one of us. So while the bitter cry goes up, "Is there a blessing to me?" Answer is yes, there is a blessing for the lonely heart. There is a blessing for the destitute and forsaken. There is a blessing for every persecuted pilgrim. There is a

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blessing for all. So God blesses and his blessings come to us in the midst of the crises of life. God blesses. He blesses. He just keeps on, as the song says, He just keeps on blessing me. In spite of what we do, in spite of how unfaithful we may be, that somehow God just keeps on blessing us and that's good news. In a world of

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bad news, he keeps on blessing. And there is no condition in which God is not able to bless us. I see that thief on the cross. There were two of them, one on each side of Jesus. Both of them had engaged in ridicule against the master, but one of them cries out. In the last hours, in other words, his cry reflects the

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question, "Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember me. Do you have a blessing for me? I'm here dying because I've been condemned being a person who was unfaithful to the government I'm accused of treason and I'm about I'm about to get out of this world but I want to know before I go is there a

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blessing for me and Jesus Jesus in other words he says to death hold on here hold on here there's someone crying out in a dying hour for a blessing and he says to that dying thief. Today shall thou be with me in paradise. There is a blessing even in every cross we bear there is a blessing. Thanks be to God that there is

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a blessing. My good friend, Dr. Douglas always, he said Marvin always remember that when you go and they tell you they don't have room in these places, these hotels, that they always save room back there. There's always some room that they save.

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I've had the experience of going to the convention and getting there, and you have a reservation for six o'clock. About before six o'clock, you're supposed to check in, How else, if you haven't put up some money,

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your reservation isn't good. It's good until six o'clock, if you haven't put that money there. And I've been in the hotel and the line has been so long

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that I couldn't get there. I was in the hotel, in the line, but they couldn't get to me until after six o'clock. And when I got there, so we're very sorry.

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We've given your room to someone else. And that's quite a crushing blow. You know, you were there, but you just couldn't get to the clerk in time.

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And they had rooms, and you thought you had one waiting on you, but when you get there, they say, "We don't have one for you." But oh my God.

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How wonderful it is to know that there are some blessings that I've already received, and there's some blessings that are still on reserve that God has for you and me. Thanks be to God that there are some blessings

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and that God remains in the blessing business. And as we come now to sing the hymn of invitation, we invite you to accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life

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Because he has blessings in his hands. And he's prepared no matter what may happen, he's prepared to bless you all along life's way. What a friend.

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You know the church is open? Except Jesus Christ, as Lord of your life, we invite you to come. It's an outstretched hand, an open door that he sets before us.

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We invite you to come. [MUSIC] ♪ Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, how sick and rich to bear ♪

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♪ What a privilege to carry ♪ ♪ And the angels are in bed ♪ ♪ Oh, what peace they often provide ♪ ♪ Oh, what painless pain they bear ♪

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♪ Thank we them ♪ ♪ All these are real ♪ ♪ How can we ♪ ♪ Can we ♪

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♪ Give in to our ignorance ♪ ♪ And with trials and temptation ♪ ♪ He can cover anywhere ♪ ♪ He should cover me ♪

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♪ The town of Eden's farthest ♪ ♪ Tends it to a golden thread ♪ ♪ One day my love will soar ♪ ♪ And so take heart ♪

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♪ Over all our sorrows ♪ ♪ Share ♪ ♪ Give us ♪ ♪ God our every need ♪

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♪ Bring me there ♪ ♪ Take me to the holy grave ♪ ♪ Oh, where is that heavenly grave ♪ ♪ And can he bring ♪

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♪ A ♪ ♪ A plumlet ♪ ♪ Don't hold a pen ♪ ♪ Let us ♪

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♪ Let us ♪ ♪ Feel our ♪ ♪ Red ♪ [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC] ♪ Thank you ♪ ♪ Give thanks to the Lord in prayer ♪ ♪ Give up him ♪

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♪ Take up healing ♪ [MUSIC] (dramatic music) [ Music ]