JACOB'S SONS # 1

Genesis 49:1-22 NET

Jacob's Prophecy concerning His Sons       Text: Genesis 49:1-2 Then Jacob summoned his sons and said, "Assemble yourselves that I may tell you what will befall you in the days to come. 2 Gather together and hear, O sons of Jacob and listen to Israel your father.   Reuben's problem 3 Reuben, you are my firstborn.  My might and the beginning of my strength,          Preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. 4 Uncontrolled as water, you shall not have preeminence, Because you went up to your father's bed, Then you defiled it—he went up to my couch.            Ephesians 4:11-15 N E T. And he himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,        12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, that is, to build up the body of Christ,             13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God—a mature person, attaining to the measure of Christ's full stature.             14 So we are no longer to be children, tossed back and forth by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching by the trickery of people who craftily carry out their deceitful schemes.          15 But practicing the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ, who is the head.     The Need to Move on to Maturity               Hebrews 5:11-14 On this topic we have much to say and it is difficult to explain, since you have become sluggish in hearing.           12 For though you should in fact be teachers by this time, you need someone to teach you the beginning elements of God's utterances. You have gone back to needing milk, not solid food.          13 For everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced in the message of righteousness, because he is an infant.         14 But solid food is for the mature, whose perceptions are trained by practice to discern both good and evil.

Matthew 13:3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "Behold, the sower went out to sow;  4and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.  5"Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil.  6"But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.  7"Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.  8"And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.          9"He who has ears, let him hear.   Hear the parable           18 Hear then the parable of the sower.          19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.         20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;      21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.      22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.          23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty."

 

Don't be a Reuben