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Welcome. I'm glad you're here. You are in the right place. You know, we begin this next year and we can't help but look backwards and be grateful for all that God did. I'm so grateful for 25. I love what I get to do at Mariners Church. I get to extend the teaching ministry of Mariners and also at the same time get to coach and mentor pastors. And also I love, I'm so proud of our church this next year. All of the new services that we're beginning and the new congregations, it is inspiring and it's just a way that you can invite your friends to church that's close to you. So I love looking back at 25 and then I love looking forward to 26. And today what I wanna do is I wanna look at what God wants for you in this new year, what he wants to give to you so that you can do the things that you feel called to, can be the person that you're called to be and most importantly, that you can build the relationships that you want to build. You know, what's the most important role that a parent plays as you think about it, I mean, it changes clearly over the years. When you first are brand new parents, your role as you give birth to a children is just to keep them alive. You got to make sure they don't die. You're trying to lock all the cabinets and do everything. And then in the next season, when they're elementary school, you have to teach them certain lessons in life. You teach them to be kind and to share and to hold hands when they cross the street. Then during the teen years, you have to teach them unconditional love because they're convinced that you don't know anything. And so you've got to just love them through those years. And then as they move off to college, you believe in them as they choose their major and many choose a mate. And then if you're in my season, what is the most important thing that you do when you have grown parents? A lot of People mistakenly say, well, you mentor and coach them. But that's not what I get to do. My parent, my kids are all grown and they have kids. I have 11 grandkids. And you would think, I mean, if you looked at my kids, they are great. I did an amazing job. Lori and I, we're amazed at how well they turned out. I have four sons and then of course they married great gals. My sons are, you know, they're like this good, but my daughter in laws are this good. So you'd go, well, who raised those guys? Because they got some great gals and they'll sit around and Lori and I will be chasing around the 11 grandkids and they're talking about life and they're talking about raising kids. And you would think they'd go, well, we should ask mom and dad, because I mean, they raised us and look at how good they did. But they don't. They are not interested at all in our opinion. In fact, I found out that it's a felony to tell my kids anything about how they're raising kids. So I don't even go there. So it's not mentoring. So what is it at every stage that is the most important thing that parents do to their kids? What you're gonna see in this passage is the most important thing is for a parent to bless their children. If you're in my season of life, you're gonna see that we have this incredible opportunity to bless our kids and our grandkids. If you're a young parent, I think as we go through God's word, you're gonna understand that this is the most powerful role that you play to bless them. But if you're a single person without kids, and I think that you're going to see that this idea of a blessing is central to your life, you might understand why there's some brokenness and pain in your life and hopefully even see a way forward as we look at what God says. So in God's word today we're going to see what is God's blessing. We're going to see how it comes to us and then how it shapes our life. So first of all, what is God's blessing? Well, at the very beginning we see that God is a God who blesses. What does he do? Well, when he creates, he creates the universe. He goes, it's good. He celebrates it and then he creates the world and he celebrates and he celebrates that. And then he creates the seasons and he celebrates that. And then humanity and all of the time he keeps saying, it's good, it's good. Look at that. It's good. So celebrating it. And then the second part is his commitment to it. What he creates, he sustains, he protects and provides. So we see two features right away of God's blessing. It is the celebration and pronouncing that something's good. And then at the same time, it's a commitment to sustain and to protect something. Not only that, but we see that God blesses people. This is. We're gonna look at Jacob's life. This is God blessing Jacob, and I'm gonna read it to you. But God does it over a number of people, and you'll see the two ingredients in it. Look at what he says. I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham and the God of your father Isaac. The ground you're relying on belongs to you. And I'm giving it to you. And your descendants. Your descendants will be numerous as the dust of the earth. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you. See, there you see that sense of his calling and God celebrating who he is. And your descendants and your descendants. And what's more, I am with you. I will protect you wherever you go. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything that I promised. And so we see that God blesses people. He blesses creation, and then we learn to follow that model. In biblical times, parents would gather their families around at the end of their life, and you'd see a father blessing his children. He would delight in his child and celebrate who God had created them to be. And then the father would give his commitment to his child by essentially passing along and bestowing all of his wealth to the child. And so we become people that are blessing and God models it. And this idea of blessing is so important that God, when he was teaching his people how to have a relationship with him in the books of Leviticus, Numbers, in Deuteronomy, God said to Moses, every time my people gather, every time, I want them to be blessed with this blessing. Now listen to this blessing. This is what God wants to speak over every person every week. He's saying, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up the light of his countenance and give you peace. What you see in that blessing is that God is affirming, again, I delight in you. I'm affirming you. I'm celebrating you. And then you see God's commitment To use his power to make sure that every good thing happens in your life. Why is it so important that God wants us to hear this all the times when we gather? Because God's blessing is something that is foundational to our soul. It is something that we need. It's the bedrock for our life. And so that's what God's blessing is. Now then, how important is God's blessing? Well, the story of Jacob really shows us how important God's blessing is in our life. The story of Jacob is really, Jacob is born. He's one of twins. There's Jacob and Esau born to Isaac. And his story is told in Genesis 25. Now, Esau is the firstborn. And so in the biblical times, that meant that the oldest got the greatest blessing, the greatest monetary wealth. And what that meant was the oldest was to take care of the rest of the family. But God had given a special blessing and told the parents, Isaac and Rebecca, that the second son was a son where God had a special interest in him. And through him, the whole world would be blessed. And so they have two children. And so you can see any good parent, what they would do right away, they'd go, we have two wonderful kids. One, you know, both loved by God, both, you know, blessed by God. One has a unique blessing. And it would be easy for parents to love them both, right? Not hard. That's what parents should do. But we live in a broken world, and that is not what happens. And really, the problems that you see in the Middle east today come right down to this verse. Look at what it says in Genesis 25. Isaac loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. So what happens right away is you see that they choose favorites. And the problems with favorites just devastates and destroys. What you can see as you read the story of Jacob is that Isaac sets his heart towards Esau. And it's great that he loves Esau and he celebrates who Esau is. He's a hunter, he's sort of an athletic guy, and he loves Esau, but he loves Esau to the exclusion of loving Jacob. In fact, he withholds his love to Jacob. Somehow he believes in loving Jacob. You know, somehow it's going to hurt Esau, but he doesn't affirm God's call in Jacob's life, and he ignores God's plan. And so Jacob grows up angry and greedy, like any child would who didn't get their father's blessing. A child who doesn't get their parents blessing. And so at the end of his Life. It's time for Isaac to pass on the blessing. And so he says to Esau, he says, esau, you create my favorite meal. And you come in and I'm gonna bless you, and I'm gonna give you the majority blessing. And Rebekah, who's always favored Jacob because she's trying to make up for the lack of love that he's gotten from his father, that she hears that and she says to Jacob, look, what I want you to do is I want you to dress up in Esau's clothes. I want you to, you know, try to talk like him. I'll make his favorite meal. You go in and you take the blessing that's supposed to go to Esau. And when you read the story, you think, why is he going to do this? Why is he gonna lie? Why is he gonna deceive his father? Why is he gonna try to manipulate him? He knows that it's not gonna work. He knows Isaac's gonna find out. He knows Esau's gonna find out, and Esau's the more powerful guy. He's gonna set out to kill him. And so look at Genesis 27. You can even. 27. You can see what he thinks. But look, Jacob replied to Rebekah. That's his mother. My brother Esau is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth. What if my father touches me? He'll see that I'm trying to trick him. And then he'll curse me instead of blessing me. Why does he do it? Why does he do something that he knows will not work? Jacob is so empty and so needy for his father's blessing. He will do anything to hear just one time, even if he knows it's not true to hear just one time. His father say, I celebrate you. I love you. You're great. I love God's plan for your life. And I'm committed to your success. Everything that I have is yours. Jacob would do anything to hear it just one time. So Jacob tricks his father, and it all unravels right away. Isaac knows that he's been tricked, and he's disappointed. He's angry. Esau comes back, and he finds out that he's been deceived. And so Esau sets out to kill Jacob. And as a result, Jacob has to run, and he gets nothing. He doesn't get anything out of the inheritance. He never sees his father again. He never sees his mother again. And the whole thing blows up on him just because he desperately wanted his father's blessing. So why does this resonate with Us, I mean, when we hear that story, right away we go, I understand that pain. Because we know that we were created to be blessed by our parents, to be valued by them. That's their number one job, to tell that we are loved and that they are committed to us. And when it doesn't happen, either you've experienced that pain personally or you've seen it in another person's life where it creates a hole in their soul. And they just go through life clutching and deceiving and trying to grab ahold of something that they can't find. And it is just a pain to watch. So what do you do? What do you do? Is there any hope? Well, the world would say what you need to do is you need to look out, you need to look at other people and find your worth in other people. Which really is a way to say, so exploit the people in your life to try to get them to build you up, to give you something that you need, or to be exploited by others so that they can build themselves up. It doesn't work to look out to others. And so other people will say, look in. What matters is what you think about yourself. So you just use self talk. You say, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me. But you know, you're just talking to yourself and you know it doesn't work. And so that doesn't work either. So blessing doesn't come by looking towards others. Blessing doesn't come by looking inside of us. Ultimately, the only way that blessing comes is that we must look up. The only way that we can find our worth, the only way that we can find our true identity is when we are blessed by God. When God says to us, you are a person of great worth, you have value. I love you, I celebrate you and everything that I made you to be. And I am committed to you. And this blessing from God is the thing that builds confidence to our life. It is the best bedrock that we build a life on. It builds inner peace and it defines us, it settles us. And that's why God says, every time my people are gathered, I want you to bless them. I want them to hear my love for them and why. He says to parents, your number one job is to bless your children. So how do we get that blessing? How do we get the blessing when it doesn't happen in our life? The best part of this story is that it is in the story in Genesis and God tells us how we get it. So Jacob leaves home with nothing. He's broken, he's angry, he's lost, he is filled with anxiety and fear, and he's scheming, he's greedy because he never got what he wanted. And as you read the story of Jacob for the next 20 years, that's just the story of his life. He's manipulating, he's deceiving, conniving. He's trying to get from the world, you know, and from others what it is that he never got. So he gets married, he has a family, he actually becomes very wealthy, he's very successful, but it doesn't matter because he still has this hole in his soul. So he's scheming, he's manipulating, he's deceiving. And he is just a sad person filled with anxiety and brokenness because he's never got the blessing that he needs. Twenty years later, Esau finds out where Jacob is, and he's still mad at him. And so he comes and he's got 400 soldiers, and he's coming after Jacob to kill him. Jacob has no soldiers, so he doesn't know what to do. So Jacob has got a lot of wealth. He's a rancher, so his. His wealth is in his herds. And so he comes up with this plan. He decides to take a part of what he owns, and he's going to give it as a gift to his brother to try to reconcile and make amends. He's going to take all of what he has, his family and all of his possessions, and he splits it in half. And he sends half of his family one direction and half of the family the other direction. And he's thinking this. If Esau comes to him and kills him, then maybe, you know, and then he decides to kill his family. At least half of his family will get away. So he does that. And Jacob is all alone by himself in the wilderness, and he's just alone. And he kind of comes to this moment where he realizes what a fool he's been for 20 years. I mean, he's tried to deceive, he's tried to lie, he's tried to manipulate to get this blessing that he's searching so hard for. And he realizes he's just been a fool and he doesn't have anything for it. And so finally he cries out to God. I mean, he looks up, which is the only place that we can go, and he goes, God, I have no one else to look to. There's nothing in my life that is good. It's you and you alone. And if I can't get it from you? I can't get it from anyone. And so he cries out in the wilderness. And it reminds me of the song that Jelly Roll sings where he says, I only talk to God when I need a favor. I only pray when I ain't got a prayer. And he says, who the hell am I to expect a savior but God, I need a favor. And that is essentially the prayer that Jacob prays. He goes, God, I need a favor. I've come to the end of my life. My scheming, my deceiving, my trying to find this in myself. It just hasn't worked. And so he cries out to God in the wilderness. He looks up, and then a stranger comes into the wilderness and just walks into his life. And what theologians tell us is this is a theophany. This is Jesus before the incarnation. And so God comes and he meets with Jacob. And Jacob right away realizes this is a different kind of a person. And Jacob begins to talk to him and talks about the pain in his life and the brokenness and how he just feels empty. And so God listens for a period of time. And then he stands up and he says, okay, it's time for me to leave. And Jacob goes, no, you can't leave. I'm still got this in my life. I think you're the only one that can resolve this in my life. And he goes, no, I've got to leave. And he starts to leave, and Jacob grabs ahold of me. He goes, no, you can't leave. And he looks at him, he tries to shake him off, and literally, Jacob grabs him and wrestles him to the ground. And he, in tears, is saying, if you don't bless me, I will never be blessed. I have tried possessions, I have tried wealth. I've tried listening to the world. I've tried to find it in myself. I can't find what I need. God, if you don't bless me, I will never have the blessing I need. God, I bless me. Please bless me. And he just is wrestling with God. And here's how it's recorded in Genesis 32. Then the man said, let me go, for the dawn is breaking. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And so in the ellipsis, what happens is that God determines to bless him. And so this is God's blessing to Jacob. Your name. Look at what a blessing does. It changes your identity. Your name will no longer be Jacob. The man told him, from now on, you will be called Israel. And this is what Israel means, because you fought with God and men. And you have won. You're an overcomer, he says. Jacob named the place Peniel, which means face to face, the face of God. For he said, I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared. And so in this moment, he crawls out and he says, God bless me. And what happens when God blesses us in our lives? The very first thing is that you have a new identity. Jacob's old name literally means schemer or deceiver. And so now he has a new name, Israel. Your name's gonna be called Israel. You are an overcomer. You're one who prevails. You overcome and it changes his life. Immediately. Jacob goes out to meet Esau, and Esau can see the change in Jacob's life and they are reconciled because he's become a different person. So how does Jacob receive God's blessing? It's in a pineal moment. It's a moment where you come face to face with God. You cry out to God in honesty and say, I can't do it. I can't fix myself. I can't find it in myself. I can't find it in this world, I can't find it in others. God, you alone, you alone are the one who will determine my worth. You alone are the one who will say to me that I'm valuable, I'm worthy, and your celebration of me will define me. And then secondly, that your commitment to me will change my life. And that's how it comes to him. And literally, he won't let go. I mean, he just takes a hold of it and say, God, I won't let go. And that's how we get God's blessing. We come to a moment in our life where we take a hold of God and say, God, unless you bless me, I just won't live. And I can't look anywhere else. And we just won't let go. I mean, we were created, you know, our journey to God is both a moment and a journey. And we were created to live face to face with God. In the very beginning in Genesis, we had a face to face relationship with God. And God said, look it, you can choose to trust me or you can choose to go your own way, but there's huge responsibility and accountability. If you trust me, then you are connected to life and you will live. But if you don't trust me, you ultimately are separating yourself from the only source of life in all of eternity. And so we choose and we choose to not trust God. And as a result of it, we damage everything. We lose our face to face relationship with God. It destroys our relationship with each other. And it ultimately brings the pain and sadness in the world that we see today. The hatred, the wars, the oppression, the racism, the sexism, the disease hospitals, all of it because we chose to walk away from God. But God loved us too much to leave us that way. And so 2,000 years ago, God came in the person of Jesus to rescue us and to save us. And ultimately he goes to the cross. We see God paying the price for our salvation on the cross. He tells us he loves us, dies in our place, pays the price for our sin so that we can be forgiven. And when we believe and receive that, when we wrestle that truth into the very core of our soul where we say, you know what? I can't achieve it. It's not something I can work, I can't deserve God's love, I can't earn it. The only way is for God just to give it as a free gift. And we wrestle that truth into our life. That becomes our pineal moment. We have a face to face experience with God and when we do, it changes our identity. Look at what it says in John 1:12. But all who believe him, all believe him and accepted him. He gave the right to become children of God. That's an identity changing. First we become God's child and then one John says, see how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children and that is what we are. And so in that moment we become God's children. We have a new identity. When we are born into this world, we are spiritual orphans. We have nothing. We are forgotten and lost. And yet when we believe in Jesus, we are adopted into his family. We get a new name, we get our Father's name and we have a new identity and we are blessed. And this blessing changes our life and it changes it immediately. We become God's children, but it also becomes a journey. And that journey is the process by which we receive and accept this truth that we are loved by God, that He celebrates us and he protects us. And God's way for it to drive deeper into our soul comes as a total surprise. You know what? God's way for this to go into your soul is for you to bless others. Because when you pronounce a blessing, when a parent pronounces a blessing on a child and say, I love how God created you, I celebrate who you are and I'm committed to you, not only are you affirming God's call in that person's, life, but you are connecting with God's call in your life. And so God uses that moment to drive that truth to deeper into your own soul. So as parents, we have an opportunity to bless our children, but we have opportunities to bless our friends, our co workers, our spouse, because we speak the very words of God. And then I just want to show you one more thing. I want you to see David and how David blesses his son Solomon and what happens as a result of it. Look at what it says, the first thing in 1 Chronicles 22, he says, now, my son, may the Lord be with you and give you success building the temple of your God. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or lose heart. And then in 28, look at what he says. And now, and Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with the whole heart. The Lord has chosen you to build a temple as a sanctuary. Be strong and do the work. And so what you see in that, those are two different times that David is affirming Solomon. And here's what I want you to learn about blessing. First of all, when we bless our children, it has to be repeated. And if you just read the last part of First Chronicles, David does it over and over and over again. So you can't just say one and done. It is to be done over and over again. And the second Thinging is those two things, one of those affirmations and blessing David does for Solomon, just personally, it's one on one. And the other one is it's done in front of people. And so our blessings need to be done over and over. And our blessings need to be personal, personal, and they also personal and private, but they also need to be done publicly. And so what is David's blessing to Solomon? He affirms God's call in his life. You're gonna lead God's people and you're gonna build God's temple. That's not David's agenda for him. That's God's call on his life. And then the second thing is you look at David's commitment to pay the price for Solomon to achieve the goal. Look at this. It's amazing. He says, and now because of my devotion to the temple of my God, I'm giving all of my private treasures in gold and silver to help in the construction. This, in addition to the building materials I have already collected for his holy temple. Who will follow my example and give offerings to the Lord today? And then he goes on, he's basically asking all the other people to give, and especially his generation. Then he prays this prayer, which is the prayer of a generous person. But who am I and who are my people that we could give anything to you? Everything we have has come from you. And we give you only what you have first given to us. And so when we read this, you see David's commitment to his son Solomon to accomplish it. What's amazing, historians or theologians have kind of run the numbers. And David's personal commitment is anywhere between 5 and 10 billion dollars. That's B billion. And so it's a huge commitment. And what's interesting is David doesn't give that kind of money to his son because that's life ruining money. You give so much money to a kid that they never have to work. That will ruin their life. What David does is he gives the money to the calling that Solomon has so David can do it. He gives David, he gives Solomon the family business, gives him an opportunity, but he doesn't destroy him by giving him too much wealth. And so he gives it to the Temple. Why the Temple? Because the Temple was the place that was designed to be the center of God's people. So God was to be the center of the nation, of God's people. And it was at the very core. And so he wanted the people to live with God at the center. And secondly, the Temple was the place of relationship. People would fall, they would violate God's law, and so they could come to the temple and an innocent animal would die, so the guilty people would go free. And it was a picture that one day the perfect sin, sacrifice, would come, who would be Jesus. And Jesus would die innocent so that the guilty people could go free. And so he's committed that that's got to happen. And he wants the Temple to be built. So David gives this incredible wealth, all of his wealth to build the temple. And what I love about the story is he gives to something that he will never see built in his lifetime. David never saw the Temple built, but he gave it to the project so Solomon could be successful in it. And then he called his whole generation to be generous. And then he prays that prayer, who am I? Who are we that we can give to God? We're only giving what God gave to us. And as a result of their generosity, look at what it says in 1st Chronicles 29. This is what happens when a whole generation is blessed. And the Lord exalted Solomon in the sight of all Israel. And he gave Solomon greater royal splendor than any king in Israel before Him. Historians, Bible experts tell us that Solomon's generation was the greatest generation in Israel's history. It was the time where Israel was the greatest light to the world, that they showed what it meant for God to be at the very center of people's lives, what it meant to trust God, to follow God and to be blessed by God. So David blesses his son, and then he calls his generation to bless their sons. And as a result of that, that generation steps up and becomes everything that God wants them to be. So what's the lesson as we move into 2026? What does God want for you? First, you need to live embracing God's blessing. And then secondly, you've got to give God's blessing. So what does it mean to embrace God's blessing? Well, that's an objective and a subjective thing. What does it mean objectively? First of all, it means that it's more than a feeling, but that God's love has to be a truth that anchors your soul, that at the very core of your being. You're saying, God loves me, he celebrates me. I am his loved child, and it is what settles your soul. And that secondly, that he is totally committed to you. You look at the cross, he says, he died for me. He's gonna do whatever he needs so that I can be successful. So that in the storms of life, the difficult moments of life, the pains of life when you don't get what you need from your earthly parents, you can go, it's all right. Because God is giving me what I need. And that objective truth is the bedrock of my life. But it also is meant to be a subjective truth. You know, God says, I want my face to shine upon you. He wants you to experience God's smile. What does that mean? Well, when you smile at someone, it just inspires them. I have one of my grandchildren just loves to tell me stories. And when I sit down with him and I smile, it just inspires him to make the story bigger and bigger. And I smile at him and the story becomes just crazy big. And at the end, I go, did you make that up? And he just smiles and goes, yeah, but the smile is what gives him life. That's what God wants you to experience, is his smile. And then also that he would lift up the light of his countenance, which means that God would turn his attention towards you, that you would experience that God really kneels down low and listens to you when you cry out for help. God wants you to experience that. So what would it take for you to wrestle the truth of God's love into your heart. In 2026, what would it look like for you to live as God's love child? What lie would you have to let go of to live as God's love child? And then the second thing is that you've got to give God's blessing. Now you know the power of blessing. It is a life shaping truth. It's an identity shaping truth. And so we get to join God. And when we bless someone, not only are we speaking the very words of God into a person's soul, but even more so, we're driving that truth into our own soul and we're accepting and receiving God's love. And so we get to join God in blessing our children, blessing our spouse, blessing our co workers, blessing the people in our life, celebrating them and affirming who God made them to be and what God has called them to do. And then secondly, expressing our commitment to them, which is very costly. I understand it takes something out of us to say to someone, I'm committed to see your success. So who is God put in your life this year to bless? Who's God put in your life to bless this year to celebrate who God made them to be, to pronounce God's love on their life and for you to express their commitment. So God said, every time my people gather, I want them to be blessed with this blessing. So hold out your hands and receive the blessing that God wants you to have. Father, look at your children. They love you. Would you bless them and keep them? You cause your face to shine upon them and be gracious to them. Would you lift up the light of your countenance and give them peace? We ask in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.