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There are some subjects you can bring up in church and everybody is immediately comfortable. Faith. Prayer. Grace. God's love. Those are subjects we like to talk about. But there are some subjects that make us a little more uncomfortable. Like how we talk to our spouse. How we talk to our children. How…

Jacob’s Burial So we read the first and the last, the request of Yaaqov to be buried in Canaan. We read the narrative fulfillment of it happening and then Yoseph and the brothers coming back. And so in the middle is the actual funeral procession. 1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over…

Introduction Last week, we began looking at one of the most challenging passages in the book of James. James asked the question: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith, but does not have works?” And then James gave us a rather uncomfortable answer. Faith that never…

Jacob’s Last Request Remember the Macro Design of Genesis 45:25-50 We are now in the third section On the outer ends, we have the parallel deaths of a father and a son, Yaaqov and Yoseph. Yaaqov asks for a burial in Canaan. And after his death, the narrative focuses on the elaborate funeral procession.…

Jacob’s Poem of Blessing Concludes 13 Zebulun will live by the seashore and will be a harbor for ships, and his territory will be next to Sidon. 14 Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between the saddlebags. 15 He saw that his resting place was good and that the land was pleasant, so he leaned his…

Introduction One of the greatest fears in medicine is a condition that looks healthy on the outside but is actually life-threatening on the inside. A person can appear fine while a silent disease is destroying them. James says something like that: There is a kind of faith that looks real. It sounds Christian.…

Yehudah. 8 Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons will bow down to you. 9 Judah is a young lion— my son, you return from the kill. He crouches; he lies down like a lion or a lioness—who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart…

Introduction Every culture has an invisible ranking system. We may pretend we don't, but we do. I often call it our Bias nature We rank people by education. By income. By success. By appearance. By influence. By political agreement. By race. By social media followers. By whether they can help us. Sometimes…

Introduction Most people own at least one Bible. Many own several. We have study Bibles, phone apps, podcasts, YouTube sermons, commentaries, Bible studies, conferences, and endless Christian content. Yet America has never had more access to Scripture while looking less like Christ. James asks a very…