The Melchizedek Blessing

actually make them better. There's a verse that says that you actually restore that which you didn't steal. And in the old covenant when somebody stole they had to restore it and add to it. It's the father I know that when you restore things you actually make them better.

You just don't bring them back to even. The father right now, whoever that was, that needs to be made famous in their place of shame. I just declare that over them right now. That God is going to elevate you, God is going to use you, God is going to take you and place you in a position to actually speak to people that at one time ridiculed you.

He's going to use you to reach the people that actually spoke negatively about you. We received that in Jesus name. Amen. So good to be back.

So Kristen and I were out of the country last Sunday and before that of course we had the one fast and then I don't know, I feel like I've been to church in a month. I saw Alison the other day work and she said, where have you been? I don't know. I feel like I've been around but I just haven't been here.

Anybody know what this weekend is? I'm going to have to get a mic. What's this weekend? No, it's my anniversary.

Now, Kristen stand up. I know she only looks about 25 but guess how many years we've been married? Anybody want to guess? 27?

Close. Here, let me switch to the one. 562. That's a little too much.

We've been married now 30 years tomorrow. It's been a wonderful 30 years with Kristen. Life's not perfect, right? Why did she laugh at that?

You know, the 30th, anybody know what the 30th anniversary is? Oh, okay. Of course she knows it's pearls. No, it's pearl singular.

It's the, yeah, it's not diamonds. No, it's a pearl. But you know, marriage is like that. You know, there are difficult times to go through.

But when you stay consistent, when you stay faithful, the thing that starts out like that piece of sand in that oyster, God redeems that too. God turns out it's something super beautiful. I'm so fortunate and blessed to have Kristen as my wife. I would never choose anyone else and we're going to have many more years together.

I did see a funny joke this morning. That woman asked for her husband. She said, hey, he said, what do you want for your anniversary? She said, I want something shiny that goes zero to 200 in less than 5 seconds.

So he bought her a scale. They're still not talking to this day. Yeah. Yeah.

Man, do, okay, don't ever buy your wife a scale for Christmas or birthday. Don't buy her a gym membership. Like all those things just don't even go. It's a little advice after 30 years.

Don't go there. Don't go there. Well, good to be back. I want to pick up on a message I preached a few weeks ago.

I was, I preached a message about Melchizedek. It was at the beginning of August. And I want to kind of continue that a little bit and start in Hebrews 6 and 7 and transition back to Genesis chapter 14. And I believe there's something God wants to do in our midst today and reveal to us and actually use this to take us to a new level of maturity as a church.

I'm excited for what God's laid on my heart today. So let's just pray. Father God, thank you so much for laughter. Love to laugh.

Love to be able to just be joyful when your presence. We welcome you here, Holy Spirit. We're grateful to be here. Father God, I ask through your spirit that you would teach us through your word and that you would just continue to conform us to your image.

Make us more like you in Jesus' name. Amen. So today I want to talk about, I don't really like the title of my message. I just couldn't come up with one honestly.

So this sounded pretty good in the Melchizedek blessing. But we're going to look at where Melchizedek runs into Abraham or Abraham at the time and blesses him. And really the message today is more about how Abraham responded to a given situation. And so I have three points to the message today.

I may only preach to him, I'm not sure. But first of all, how he responded to Melchizedek was that he tithed. And then secondly, how he responded to Barra, King of Sodom, was he testified. And finally, how he responded to the word of the Lord was he trusted.

So he tithed, he testified, and he trusted. And we may only do the first two. So we'll see how it goes. I will be sensitive to your time today.

And hey, do I say I'm glad to be here. I'm glad you guys are here. Awesome. Love you guys.

So what guest do we have here today? Any guest today, first time? Anybody? Okay, welcome.

Welcome. Good to see you. God bless you. Glad to have you here.

All right. So if you have your Bibles, we're going to start in Hebrews, chapter six, verses 19 and 20. We'll read the first three verses of Hebrews seven. And then we're going to flip back to Genesis 14.

So if you want to just flag those two places in your Bible, Hebrews seven, and also Genesis 14. It says this, it says, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, this isn't the first time that Melchizedek is mentioned in Hebrews, but this is kind of where we've been lately. Remember Melchizedek, a very mysterious figure, it takes, he appears in Genesis 14.

You don't hear about him for another thousand years after that, till David declares in Psalm 110, he says that order priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and God's not going to change his mind about it. And then we hear nothing again until the writer of Hebrews talks about him, actually over about three or four chapters. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of teaching that we could do here, and I've kind of honed in a one or two things today. So verse seven says, verse seven one says, for this Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God.

So the first thing we find out about Melchizedek is he is this, he is a priest, and he is a king, a very unique combination. Normally the duties of king and priest are separated. Of course, who do we have, also we know that is and was and still is a king and a priest? Jesus, right?

Jesus is king, Jesus is priest. And also in 1 Peter 2 9, it says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. So that because Jesus is king and priest, we as, as his being in Christ, we're also called a royal priesthood. We are also kings and priests as well.

And it says, this Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God who met Abram returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem meaning king of peace. So the, what we don't find out in the Old Testament, we find out here in Hebrew seven is this. He says, first of all, first thing is that his name and the interpretation of it or the translation of it, Melchizedek means king of righteousness. So it's made up of two words, malak and sadak.

Malak means king, sadak means righteousness. So it says, first of all, by translation, his name means king of righteousness. And then after that, he's also king of Salem. Salem was originally what became Jerusalem, and Salem is where we get the word shalom.

Have we heard of shalom? It means what? Peace. And so, so first of all, king of righteousness, second of all, king of shalom.

Shalom means not just like peace, like we think of it, like peace in a time of war. Shalom means nothing missing. It means everything's complete, everything's as it should be. There's no broken pieces.

So it's complete soundness, wholeness. And he says, he's the king of righteousness first, the king of peace second. So a few weeks ago, when I preached this message, we talked about that peace only comes as a result of righteousness. And apart from righteousness, you never actually know true peace.

Today, we're going to go a little different direction. And then verse three says this, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God remains a priest continually. So in the Old Testament, when you were a priest, you were a priest for life. And when you died, another priest would take your place.

So when Melchizedek, who comes in the Old Testament, there's no genealogy, which means it doesn't say he was the son of so and so, who was the son of so and so, who was the son of so and so, there's no genealogy. So that, like Jesus, it says because he has no genealogy, he's got no mother, father, that he never died, and therefore he remains a priest forever. So since Jesus never dies, Jesus is alive, he's seated at the right hand of the father, therefore his priesthood is an eternal priesthood. And so a lot of people say, well, Melchizedek, you know, who was he, some people believe that he was a type in shadow, like he was a legitimate person that was a type pointed to Christ.

Other people believe that he was a Christophany, which means that he was an appearance of Jesus before that Jesus actually came as a baby. I tend to believe that, that it was an Ochizadek appearing to Abraham was actually an appearance of Christ in the Old Testament. You can believe whatever you want to believe. It won't change the story.

So it says that he remains a priest continually. So what I want you to come back to a little bit later as we get into the message, but remember, it said that first his name first translated means what King of righteousness. I want to see who was listening. I saw a couple people listening over here.

First by translation King of righteousness and then King of peace, King of Salem, King of peace. So that the translation of his name came first and the location of his kingdom came second. So we're going to come back to that and apply that to another individual in this story. All right.

So we're going to pick up in Genesis chapter 14 verse 18, which is where Melchizedek enters. But just to give you a little history on this story, so there is, there's five kings, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah. You know, a lot of times we hear those two cities mentioned together in the Old Testament, but there's Sodom Gomorrah, three other kingdoms, and they actually rebel and they rebel against the kings that they're under the rule of. And so these other four kings in the beginning of Genesis 14, these other four kings attack them and go after these five kings and they flee and they overtake them and they actually took the entire city of Sodom and they took Gomorrah and the king of Sodom and the king of the king of the more is that they fled to the hills and they left.

And then when these kings came in, they took all the goods of Sodom, they took the people, they took all the stuff, they took their wives, and they even took Abraham's nephew Lot. Now if you remember in Genesis 13, remember Lot and Abraham were together and said their substance grew so great that they had to depart and they split. And Lot took, and he went to Sodom, that's how he ended up there, and Abraham went the other direction. And so somebody escaped that had been taken captive, he comes back to Abraham and says, hey, your nephew Lot's been taken captive.

And so Abraham, he had amassed a pretty good amount of wealth by this time. He had said he took 318 trained soldiers that had been born in his house. So he didn't ground the farm, he actually raised up trained soldiers in his house. He took 318 men, now the gods of this are not real good.

318, and he went after four kingdoms. He went after four kings and their warriors, along with all the stuff that they took captive. And it's said that he pursued them all the way to Damascus and Dan, he like doesn't end around, and he splits his team up and they go in, they capture them, and he brings back all the goods. And so when he's coming back, he's got all the goods of Sodom, he's got all the people, he's got Lot, he's got all the women, he brings them all back.

And so he's carrying with him what we would call the spoils of war. Right? So what's the saying to the victor, the spoils, right? So by right, by right, he won this victory, and now he's got all the stuff and he's walking back, and the Melchizedek just kind of comes on the scene out of nowhere.

Now there's another person we're going to go back to here in a minute, but for right now we're going to go right here. It says Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine, and he was the priest of who? I want you to notice this, most High God is going to appear three times in the next three verses. It says Melchizedek brought out bread and wine.

So we talked a few weeks ago, bread and wine, actually the first usage of both of these in the same verse, point to what? Jesus, but what do we take to remember his death? Communion, right? So here comes Melchizedek, a type of Christ, or actually a pre-appearance of Christ bringing bread and wine to Abram, a type of the body and the blood of Jesus.

And it says he brings forth bread and wine, and then in verse 19 it says this, next slide, it says, and he blessed him and said, blessed be Abram of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand, and he gave him ties of all. So did you notice it said that he was the priest of the most High God? It said that he blessed Abram, it says blessed be Abram of God most high, and then he said blessed be who? God most high.

Do you think there's an important something to learn there? So this is the word, anybody ever heard the term in Hebrew, El-El-Yon? So if you haven't heard it, that's the term. So it's a name of God, El-El-Yon, it means God most high, or God highest.

El-Yon means highest. And so a couple things, it says, first of all, that he says that you're blessed of God most high, who is what? The possessor of heaven and earth. Now imagine if you're going to get blessed, wouldn't it be great to get blessed by the guy that owns everything?

Like I don't want to get blessed by some bum on the street. Let's be honest. Like so, here comes Melchizedek, who represents God most high, and he says you're now blessed of God most high. Deuteronomy 10, 14 says this, it says, indeed, the heavens are yours, the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth and all that's in it.

So God most high is the possessor of, the creator of, the owner of everything. And when Melchizedek blesses Abraham, he releases a blessing from the one who possesses everything. Now if you want to be blessed, don't you want to be blessed by that guy? You do.

Because here's the thing, if I'm blessed and in covenant with the one that possesses everything, there's nothing that I'll ever need in life that he doesn't have. Like he's God at all. I don't need to stress about it. I don't need to worry about it because I'm in connection with the one who is God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

See, a lot of times we go and I apologize. Anybody ever hear of the term higher power? Now how come you've heard that but you haven't heard God most high? Right?

We're more familiar with higher power than we are God most high. See, you'll go to a meeting sometime and they'll say we need to figure out what your higher power is. So maybe this is your power, maybe this is your higher power but whatever your higher power is is actually beneath the highest of the high. And so when you settle for a higher power, you're actually reducing yourself to less than God actually intended for your life.

See, God wants you to be in covenant in connection with God most high, possessor of heaven and earth. And the next thing he says, who delivered your enemies into your hand, next slide. It says bless be God most high, who delivered your enemies into your hand. That word delivered is the same word that's the word shield.

You've heard a lot of times in the Psalms, David will say, the Lord is my shield and my buckler. He actually protects me. He actually covers me. He actually surrounds me.

He provides for me but he also protects me. Psalm 8411 says this. It says the Lord God is a son and a what? Not up there.

That's why you don't know. Psalm 8411, next slide. The Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory.

No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Can you say amen to that? See, here's the thing. He's blessed by God most high.

So God owns everything. That's who I'm in covenant with. And then it says that he is a son. He provides everything.

He's the source of everything and a shield. He protects me from the bad. It says that he gives grace. Grace always precedes glory.

He gives grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh, well, there you go. You can't walk uprightly all the time, right?

Or can you? The other word uprightly is the same word that's used to describe a lamb in the Old Testament. What did the lamb have to be without in order to be sacrificed in the order in the Old Testament? Without blemish.

That's the same word without blemish. You actually have to walk without blemish. Is that possible? Not of your own.

But guess who came as a perfect lamb of God without spot or blemish? Guess what Paul says in Ephesians 5, it says that he is putting together a glorious church that he will present to himself without spot or blemish. That when you're in Christ Jesus, you're actually made perfect. You're made clean.

You're made righteous. And that when you're in him, you're without spot or blemish. And so yes, you can walk that way. No good.

So here it is. You're in covenant with God who blessed you, possess her at the heaven and earth, and that he withholds no good things to those that are walk uprightly in him. Now why would you go anywhere else? I wanted to say this.

I used to hear Bernie Maxay, who you with. But then I found that was a little John's song. I thought it may not be the best. But who you with, right?

Are you with God most high? Are you with the higher power? Are you in to strengthen your own hand? Who you with?

So get this. It says, think about this. The blessing always follows the body and blood of Jesus. So when Melchizedek came out, what did he bring?

Red wine. And then what did he do? Blessed. It says that he, Melchizedek, blessed him, Abram, and he, Abram gave him Melchizedek ties of all.

See, this is where a lot of people get it wrong today. So what do we do? What do we do? What do we do?

Here's how you know if you're operating under the old covenant or not. What do I have to do to get blessed? Maybe I asked that question. What do I need to do to get blessed?

If you're asking yourself that question, I thank you for the one honest person. If you're asking yourself that question, you're under an old covenant mindset. See, Melchizedek didn't show up and say, okay, Abraham, you got the spoils handed over. You know the rules.

Give me a tenth. He didn't even mention it. What did he do? It said he brought forth bread and wine and he blessed him.

No mention of anything. See, under the old covenant, what did you have to do? I had to be obedient to get blessed, right? Obedience came first, blessing came second.

Or if disobedience came first, what came second? Cursing. And so it was completely dependent on me. I did right.

I got blessed. I did wrong. I was cursed. In this, this is grace.

This was 430 years before the law. Income, Melchizedek, who is a pre-figure of Jesus Christ who brings forth bread and wine and releases a blessing from God most high with no qualifications. He said you're blessed. He didn't say you got to give me 10 to get blessed.

He said you're blessed. He didn't say you got to do anything. He just said you're blessed. But what did Abraham do?

Go back. Abraham responded with what? A tithe because he had to, because he wanted to. See, there's a difference.

There's a difference in doing it to get God to do something or doing it because God has already done something. See, under the law you do it to get God to move, under grace you do it because he's already moved 2,000 years ago. And you give out a response to what he's already done. So I'll get people ask me, well, it's under the new covenant.

Do we got a tithe? Anybody ever ask that question? Do I got a tithe? This is grace.

Do I got a tithe? Remember, this is 430 years before the law. You don't have to. You get to.

You don't have to because there's nothing in under grace that says you have to do this. Now let me give you a little, however. You want to, however, when Jesus came, you guys remember the sermon on the Mount? Do you remember in chapter 5 he's saying this?

You have heard it said of old dot, dot, dot, dot. But I say, so all that discourse follows this, it says I didn't come to destroy the law, but I came to do what? Fulfill it and the man that fulfilled it was who? And guess what?

When he fulfilled it, you know what he did? He raised the bar. He didn't actually make it easier. He made it harder.

See, grace is a higher standard than the law. It's actually an impossible standard to keep apart from the power of the Holy Spirit in your life and the fact that Jesus has already done it. And so when he says this, he says, you've heard it said of old that you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you what?

If you even look at a woman to lust after your heart, you've already committed adultery. You've heard it said of old that you shall not commit murder. But I say to you, don't even be angry at your brother. You've heard it said of old that an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth.

But I say what? Turn the other cheek. Do they sound like easier standards or harder standards? You've heard it said of old love your neighbor.

But I say to you, love your enemies. Okay, so you know, you see what Jesus did? He fulfilled the lower standard and God knows Ty raised the bar higher. So he actually chucked the law and grace actually raises the standard.

And so here's my question. If tithing was a standard under the law, what would be the standard under grace? Give it all. What's all his anyway, right?

So I'm not here to tell you I'm not here to tie you to a number. But I want to tell you that ties means 10 means 10%. Coincidentally, guess what number King Melchizedek was in this story. He was a 10th king.

I think that was a coincidence. Probably not. No such thing as coincidence. I don't know.

I'm not going to. We won't address that one today. I don't know. Is it a coincidence I wore blue today?

Yeah, I did it on purpose because he always tells me we're blue. So here's a question. The question is not do I have the tithe. What comes first?

The blessing of the tithe. So the question I have to ask is am I blessed? What's Paul saying in Ephesians 1, 3 says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is going to bless me? Is that the past tense?

President, that's the past tense. Bless would be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Guess where my blessing is? It's with the highest of the high.

I am blessed by God most high not because of anything Fred did but because of everything that Jesus did. And so if I'm already blessed, guess what I get to do? I get to respond with something. Out of love.

I get to respond out of faith. I get to respond out of trust. Not because I have to but because I get to. Now Melchizedek wasn't the only person on the scene.

There was somebody else there. Do you remember I said remember what his name means? Melchizedek means what? First by translation, king of righteousness and then king of peace.

Okay, so is the translation of his name first and then the location of his kingdom second. So it says it says verse 17. Remember we picked up on 18. So verse 17 says this, the king of Sodom, not put in parentheses or there, Barrow.

So just so you know what his name is. You have to go back to Genesis chapter 14 verse 2 to know that his name is Barrow. And the king of Sodom, Barrow, went out to meet him at the Valley of Shave. I want to say Shave.

Shave. That is the king's valley after his return from the defeat of, I always butcher this one. It's Cader Oley-Mare, but let's just call him Cheddar. Is there a bit of that?

Like I like Cheddar better. Okay. I like cheese. It says after his return from the defeated Cheddar and the kings who were with him.

Now, okay, see the gap? Verse 17 down to 21 because Melchizedek was verses 18 to 20. It says now the king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. We have two volunteers.

Oh, look at this. We've got Melissa and Nate. I don't know my glasses on. All right.

Sweet. What's up? I'm good. I got here somewhere.

All right. You want to be the king of Sodom or the king of whatever. All right. You're the king of Sodom.

All right. You ready? All right. See, you're everybody say hi, Barrow.

This is Barrow. And this is Melchizedek. All right. So we already know that Melchizedek is name means what?

King of righteousness and secondly then king of peace, king of sale. All right. So while, so verse 17, here comes the king of Sodom and comes up. And then all of a sudden in verse 18, the king of Melchizedek comes up and we have this conversation and now the conversation goes back to the king of Sodom.

Now, if we apply the same technique of translation that the writer of Hebrew is applied to Melchizedek, so by translation his name means king of righteousness. Do you know what barrow means? Son of evil. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. All right. And he's he's the king of Salem, which is the king of peace.

And she he is the king of Sodom. And you know what Sodom means? Burning. It actually means scorched or burnt.

So we have the king of righteousness from who is the king of peace. And here we have the son of evil who is the king of burning. Are you getting the prophetic picture here? All right.

Nothing against you, Melissa. Yeah, volunteer. I gave you the first option. All right.

So we have king of righteousness from the kingdom of peace. We have the king who is the son of evil from the kingdom of burning. And guess where they meet the valley of Shave. Shave.

That's the only time that words used in the Bible. It comes from a word that's used a whole bunch that is Shiva. So Shave means a level plane. So we're meeting at the valley of the level plane.

But the word Shiva means agreements or equality or to become like something. So here's another way that word is used. The word Shiva. Proverbs chapter 25 verse 17.

This is a great anniversary verse. It says like the continual dripping of rain and a nagging wife are alike. Like the continual dropping of rain. Let me say this again.

Actually some translations say endless. Like the continual dripping of rain and a nagging wife they are the same. But my wouldn't know. Right.

So I don't know. I've only got one wife. Now Solomon had like a thousand. So the guy knew what he was talking about.

Right. I mean he had like 300 lives and 700 talking about him. He knew he had experience. So I'll just leave it up to him.

His Bible. Look up. Proverbs 25 17. All right.

See, there's a thing in marriage called the art of the safe. I'm beginning to perfect it. All right. So all right.

So think about this. Here comes King Melchizedek. I'll be Abraham. And here comes King of Sodom.

And we're meeting in the valley of agreement. You see what is going on? And what does Melchizedek? When Melchizedek meets me, I've got all the stuff.

Right. And Melchizedek said he brings he brings something to the table. He brings bread and wine. And he says, blessed be Abraham of God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand. He doesn't ask anything from me. He just blesses me. Now in response to that, Abraham gives right now.

Chizedek gave. Melchizedek brought Melchizedek, blessed and Abraham did what? Gave in the valley of agreement. The son of evil, Bera from the kingdom of burning takes a different approach.

Give me. Here you go. Give me. Give me.

Give me. Give me. He says, give me the persons and take the goods for yourself. See, the enemy never minds if you have some stuff as long as he gets the souls.

He's looking for people. And so what he's doing, he says, hey, give me. And by the way, take for yourself as opposed to here. Let me give you some bread and wine.

And by the way, you're blessed. The one that you align yourself with and come into agreement with is the one that you become like. So you wonder why we have so many takers in the church? Because I've come to the valley of agreement with the wrong king.

I don't know if I clap about it. Let's clap about this one. Do you want to know why we're going to have so many givers in the church? It's because we come into agreement with the giver of all givers.

So you become like the one that you align yourself with in the valley of agreement. Abraham made the right choice. All right, guys, that's good. Let's give him a hand.

See, what did he do? Look at the next verse. It says, so Abraham has a choice, right? It says, Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I've raised my hand.

I've made an oath. I've decided to come into agreement with who? God most high, possessor of heaven and earth. See, I don't need the deal that you're trying to offer me because I'm already in covenant with the one that owns everything.

Like there's nothing you can give me that's ever going to make a dent in what I've got there. And so I've raised my hand to the Lord God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap and I will not take anything that is yours. Melchizedek blessed Abram and Abram gave. Sodom said, give me and take.

And Abram said, I've raised my hand to God most high, possessor of heaven and earth and I will take nothing that you have. I've disconnected myself with that system. What did Kim say earlier? There's no president, no Congress, no nothing that can overrule what I have in Jesus.

Like he's got all authority, he's got all this stuff. He's got everything. And that's who we come into covenant with. So Abram ties to Melchizedek but he testified to Sodom.

So here's where I find a lot of the church though and I'm not passing guilt or shame. Not what we're about here. But we are about letting the Holy Spirit make us more like Jesus. Abraham, when he gave what did he use?

He had to use this, yeah it's not a trick question. He had to use his hand. When he testified, he said, I raised my hand. He also used his mouth.

So here's where I find a lot of the body of church. They're still stuck in the valley of agreement saying, I'm blessed to be a blessing. Oh by the way but I'm a taker on the side. So you got your mouth saying one thing and your hand doing something else.

And what God wants, he wants your mouth and your hand to be in alignment. That when you're saying, see here's the thing, you cannot blast somebody unless you're already blessed. You can't give what you don't have. So here's what happens.

It's a lie in the enemy to keep you under an old covenant mindset where you're trying to get blessed because as long as you're trying to get blessed, you're not blessed and therefore you can't be a blessing. Why do you think Jesus said when you go preach the gospel of the kingdom, the kingdom has come near. He says, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, Matthew 10, 8, freely you have received, freely give. You can't give what you don't have.

So if you're continually trying to get God to bless you, you're never going to be a blesser. You've got to start from the position that I'm blessed because God's Word says I'm blessed, I'm blessed because of what Jesus my high priest has already done and therefore I don't need to try to get it done for me because all the excess in my life is just meant to help somebody else. And that's where God wants you to live. And Abraham will say, except for what the young man have eaten in the portion of the man who went with me, the international manry, let them have their portion.

Did you notice the timing of the temptation directly after what? Success. Here comes Abraham from the victory. Here comes Abraham who's the most popular guy in the room.

Here comes Abraham that's got all the accolades. See, a lot of times we're cognizant of the fact that the enemy will attack when we're at our weakest. But we forget that he also attacks when we're at our strongest and at our best. See, when things are going right, that's the time to make sure you've got your armor on.

As much as when they're going back. See, everybody knows when things are going bad to put it on. Right? That's a, you'd be a moron.

But if you didn't know that, but what happens when, oh, what happens when we win the battle? Oh, let me take the armor off. See, the enemy comes in at the high point. That's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, he says, when you think you stand, take heed, lest you fall.

When you think you stand, when things are going good, when things are going right, when you've got momentum in your life, when you're winning, when you're overcoming the enemy, don't get prideful. Pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Don't get prideful. It was never you.

It's never going to be you. It's only Jesus, El Elion, who delivered your enemies into your hand. 1st 13 says this, it says, there is therefore no temptation that has taken you, that is such as common to men. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be on what you're able, but will, with the temptation, everybody say, make a way to escape.

See, sometimes your way of escape is like Joseph when he ran out of the house. Right? Like sometimes you're being seduced and you just got a high tail out of there. Sometimes your way of escape is to say, uh, I've raised my hand and you prophetically declare what you've done.

I've raised my hand to El Elion, God knows the type of zestor of heaven and earth, and I will not take anything. Like if it doesn't come from God, I don't need it. So here's what happens when you make, let's call it a deal with the devil. He doesn't care if you're successful.

He doesn't care if you got a little change in your pot. He doesn't care because here's what he knows. There's going to be a time when he can come back and use that as leverage against you. See the best time to say no right now because when you say yes today, it's easier to say yes tomorrow.

Then when he comes and he makes an offer that looks good, here's something I thought about this week. Look next slide. No, maybe I missed it. I don't know.

Sometimes the offer that the enemy makes appears to be God meeting a promise in your life. Let's think about like, okay, I won the battle. I deserve the spoils. He's offering me the spoils.

It's mine for the taking. You could justify your way right into something. Oh, God's actually transferring the wealth of the unrighteous like you have to have wisdom that only comes from him because it can seem like God's meeting your need when in actuality it's the enemy trying to get a foothold in your life. And without wisdom that's supernatural, you're not going to discern between the two.

See, Abraham had discerned that came from the Holy Spirit because he says, I won't take a shoe latch it, not even a thread. The last you say I made Abraham rich. He discerned there was an ulterior motive. And sometimes we mistake the blessing of God for the foothold of the enemy.

And we go making a deal that God never intended you to make because he's got something better over here. Let's just go ahead and finish this out. After these things. Now, if you have a new living translation that says this after some time, anybody have an after some time, like a period of cooling off, you take it to the devil, you have a victory, you get healed, you lead somebody to the Lord, you get a rate, whatever it is.

You do something big for God. But then after some time logic starts to kick in. And it says, after some time goes by, the Lord came to Abraham in a vision and said, what? Do not be afraid.

First time this is used in the Bible. So if God tells Abraham to not be afraid, guess what he was. Here's the man that had just defeated five kings. Here's the man that had just been blessed by God most high.

Here's the man that had just disconnected with the world system and all that it had to offer and made a bold declaration of faith. And after some time went by, he gets scared. Do you ever do something bold? You step out and God tells you to do something, whether it's to give something or ghost and all of a sudden you're like, why don't I do that?

Well, that was stupid. I need that money. I need my car back. That was just dumb.

And that's what happens to Abraham. His mind starts running away with him. And he starts rationalizing what he did and probably thinking, I should have taken the money and run. And God comes to him and says, hey, do not be afraid.

And God reminds him of something. He said, I am your shield. See, sometimes three years go by, we get all Facebook and we get back on. And we need God to remind us who we are.

And we need God to remind us who he is. Because as we start allowing rational and irrational thoughts invade our mind, we start thinking thoughts that don't line up with God's word. And we need God to step in and say, hey, don't be afraid. I'm still your God.

I'm still your shield. I always will and I always will be. I am your shield in your exceeding great reward. I'm in.

There's nothing you need that doesn't come from me. And Abraham said, but God said, he doesn't get it perfect. Here's the thing, the father of our faith who records his faith in Romans 4 as without error, he didn't get it right in the real record. But under grace, it doesn't get recorded.

But here's what really happened. He said, God, what will you give me seeing I go childless in the air of my house as Elie Azer of Damascus? He turned his focus to what he could see. He said, what can you give me seeing I go childless forgetting that he's in covenant with the one that owns everything.

The next slide says this, then Abraham said, look, you've given me no offspring indeed one born in my house as an heir. Behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. The final slide. And he brought him outside and said, look toward the heaven, count the stars if you're able.

And he said, so should your descendants be an Abraham to leave God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Abraham responded to him with the tithe. He responded to Bara, the king of Sodom, by testifying who God was and he responded to God's word reminding him of who God was that he trusted and believed him. God will do the same for you.

Here's what I want to do today. Here's what I want to close. I believe God, like I said earlier, I really started to say that we have a lot of blessing, mouth Christians, but we don't have any hand believers. And I want everybody's mouth and I want everybody's hand doing the same thing.

And I want you to connect with Melchizedek. Here's what I'm going to ask you to do. We're going to do this and you don't want to do it. And if you think it's weird, I don't care, you can just sit there.

But sometimes I believe God honors prophetic declarations and prophetic actions. So I want to declare something today and I want to do something today. Here's what we want to do. I'm going to ask you to do this.

We're going to release, first of all, what I want to do is I need you to realize that you're blessed because you are. But I also want to release something into the atmosphere through a prophetic action of putting something back to our high priest Melchizedek. Here's what I want to ask you. I don't care if it's a penny.

I don't care if it's a dime. I don't care what it is. The amount is insignificant. And even if you don't have any money at all, I've got to change the bucket right here.

So I'll give you a penny or a dime or a quarter that you can put in. But nonetheless, I want you to put it in because God is going to honor when you actually walk out what his word says, there's an honor that's going to come into your life because of it. I really believe that. I believe he wants to do something special.

I believe God wants to do something special when you're finances today. So if you are struggling in your finances, if you need help getting them in order, if you want to walk more into be a blessing to be able to bless other people, which we all should want to do, I want you to do this because I believe it's what God has for us today. So I'm going to ask you if you want that, if you want to attach to the giver and be a giver, I just want you to stand up and we're going to pray. And if you don't want to stand up, it's not a big deal, don't stand up.

But we want to do this. I want to pray for you. And then I want, where's that bucket at? Here's the bucket.

Look, here's the bucket. I'm going to put some coins up here. So I don't care, like I said, it can be a penny and you can even take one out of the jar and put one in there, but it's the action that we're talking about. All right, let's pray.

Father, we thank you today that we are blessed. I want you to say that I am blessed. I am blessed because of Jesus Christ. I have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in high places.

That because of what Jesus my high priest did, I am blessed. I receive that. I receive that in Jesus' name. And now as a prophetic action, I raise my hand to God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a thread of anything that doesn't come from him.

And because I've been blessed, I now release back to my high priest as a prophetic action of my faith, of my trust, of my love, from a hymn, what he's already given me in Jesus' name, in Jesus' name.