(Genesis) Genesis 47:10-14

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh. And I think, frankly, that he's arrived here. Here's an opportunity for him to boast, and he certainly doesn't take advantage of it.

And somebody else might have said, well, now I want to impress Pharaoh, who I am. Pharaoh's a great ruler, but I want him to know I was a pretty big man up yonder in the land of Canaan, but not Jacob. He says, my days have been evil, I've been a sinner, nothing to brag about, save by the grace of God.

I get a little weary about, oh, today you hear so much boasting on the part of many Christians, even in our fundamental circles, how we attempt to applaud certain men for what they've done. We talk about how great they are. Well, if we all told the truth, what we'd say is we're just a bunch of sinners, and we haven't anything to brag about except we have a wonderful Savior who's been gracious and patient with us down through the years.

And friends, that's all we have to boast of. That's all that any of us here today have to boast of, to have a Savior slain for us. And we can't say we're superior to our fathers.

I remember years ago, a friend of mine, he's a seminary professor, he was telling me, because I think every boy, and I guess girl, goes through this period of life in your teens, you're sort of ashamed of your parents. They're just not hip, you know, they're not up to it. And so this fellow was telling me, he says, you know, when I went away to college, why? He said, I'll be honest with you, I was just ashamed of my dad.

And his dad was a preacher, by the way, and he was coming to the college to speak. And he said, I pretended I was sick, couldn't even go time he spoke in the school, because he said, I just didn't want to be known as his son, and I was ashamed of him. Then he said, you know, I spent four years in college and then went into the business world for a couple of years.

And he said, I want to tell you, I had a rough time. And during that time, he said, I changed my thinking about my dad. He said, I had thought for a while, the old man, he's just not capable of making a living for us.

And he seemed to do pretty well. Certainly, he was an outstanding Bible teacher, but I thought he was pretty stupid. But he said, you know, after I'd been out in the business world and faced up to a few things, he said, I came home.

And he said, my, how my dad had improved. No one had ever learned as much as he'd learned in those brief years I was away from home. He certainly had grown.

And he said, frankly, I had come to the conclusion that he's a lot smarter man than I thought he was. Well, that's the thing many of us would say, but not Jacob. Jacob takes this humble place, and he's a different man.

He's a changed man.