Equipped 2026: "Sibling Rivalry and Sovereignty (Gen. 26-28)" by Allen Webster

If you opened your Bible and had in one hand the book of Genesis between your thumb and

first finger, and you had the rest of the Old Testament in your other hand, Exodus through

Malachi, which hand would hold the most years?

Now there are more books in the second hand, but you would hold more years in the hand

that held Genesis because 2,500 of the 4,000 years of Old Testament history are contained

in the book of Genesis.

Now in Genesis there are two sections.

You have chapters 1 through 11, the history of the human race, and then chapters 12 through

50, the history of the Hebrew race, where you deal with four characters, Abraham, Isaac,

Jacob, and Joseph.

When you look at an overview of the book of Genesis, you're looking at six characters.

These are the generations of, is a key phrase in the book of Genesis, and you have the generations

of Adam, chapters 1 through 5, Noah, 6 through 11, Abraham, 12 through 24, Isaac, 25, 26,

Jacob, 27 through 36, and Joseph, 37 through 50.

Now where we are in this class is between two of those sections.

We have the last chapter dealing with Abraham and with Isaac, and then we have the beginning

of the chapters dealing with Jacob.

So let's go into this section.

The approach we're going to take is to look at our three chapters that we were assigned

and cover those briefly, and then we're going to look at sibling rivalry and divine sovereignty

in chapter 27.

So we've started up at the airplane view, we're coming down now to the crop duster view,

we're going to look at the three chapters, and then we'll come down to the ground level

view and look at just one chapter.

So let's go into Genesis chapter 26, and I'll just summarize this.

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

I'll put on the screen more than I'll be able to say, so if you like to take notes, this

is a good opportunity to take notes, or you can also just snap a picture with your cell

phone because we'll go so fast you might not be able to cover much of the material.

But here we go, chapter 26, 27, 28.

In chapter 26 we're dealing with the only chapter that deals, the whole chapter deals

with the life of Isaac.

Now he was covered partially the last half of the previous chapter, but the first half

as we studied last hour with Chance, dealt with Abraham and his later life.

And now the next chapter, it will primarily focus on Jacob, although Isaac will be involved.

Now this chapter shows that Isaac is following in the footsteps of his father.

Abraham had traveled after a famine years before, about a hundred years before, to Gerar

and he stopped there and he had the same interaction with a different Abimelech.

Abimelech is not a name, it's a title.

So it's unlikely this is the same Abimelech that we found in Genesis 20 with Abraham,

but it's the same place.

And it could have been his son or his grandson, but either way, Isaac has an interaction that's

very similar to the one that Abraham had with Abimelech earlier.

And we find that because of the famine, he's traveling toward Egypt.

God says, don't go to Egypt.

So he stops and he makes his home in Gerar and there he becomes a very wealthy man.

God blesses him in fulfilling the promise to Abraham that was renewed to him in the

first part of this chapter.

Now we find that he's following in the steps of Abraham, not only physically because he's

in the same place, but spiritually because he faces the same temptation.

In the early part of the chapter, he tells the same lie that his father told on two occasions.

Abraham said that Sarah was his sister.

She was his sister, but they didn't live together as brother and sister, they lived together

as husband and wife.

So it was told with the intent to deceive, which is what a lie is.

Now the lie is worse with Isaac because his wife was his cousin.

And so it was even less true when he said that she was his sister.

And then he forgot after a while, we don't know how long, maybe months have passed.

And the King James Version says that he's sporting with Rebekah, sporting with.

That probably means some kind of PDA, public display of affection.

And the King sees that, maybe looking out the window, and he says, that's not what a

brother and a sister do.

And so he confronts him and said, you said she's your sister, but she isn't.

And he admits that he was afraid that he might be killed because his wife was beautiful and

someone might take her from him.

And so he lied.

But Abimelech shows much higher character than he thought he would.

And he reprimands him for lying in the first place.

And then he commands all his people, you don't touch this woman.

He protected Isaac and Rebekah.

And so he lives there for a while until they become jealous of him.

He has a hundredfold crop that comes in, normally 20 or 30% would be considered a good year.

And so he goes out and brings in more than everybody around him.

His flocks also grow.

And they began to fear him and they asked him to leave.

And so he is a peaceful patriarch.

That's what we call this chapter, the peaceful patriarch, because he loved peace more than

he loved possessions or prominence.

And so he just pulls up stakes and moves.

And he gets out to where his father had also been earlier and had digged a well and they

had filled it back up.

And so he re-dug it and called it by the name that his father had called it.

And some of those selfish people around says, that's our well.

And so he lets them have it, moves on to another location, does the same thing.

And somebody else says, we want this well.

And so he just moves on to a third place and digs a fresh well there and nobody bothers

him.

And so he names it Rehoboth, which means room.

And there he makes us home for a time.

And finally, he continues prospering and finally, Bimelech, and he brings his military

leader and a friend or advisor.

They come out and talk to Isaac and they say, we want to make a covenant with you.

You're powerful, you're strong, you're influential.

We were good to you.

I made a note where they say this and this is verse 29, that we've done nothing but good

to you.

And above that, they ran him off and stole two wells from him.

That's not only good, but they had protected him and not violated his wife.

So in that sense, they have been good to him and he's a peaceable man.

He agrees to a covenant with them.

And so they enter into this covenant that they'll be allies and not enemies.

And that brings us then down to the last part of the chapter where Esau, who was born, the

twins were born, as we saw last hour, when Isaac was 60 years old.

And now Esau is 40 years old.

So that would make Isaac 100 years old at the end of chapter 26.

And Esau is a disappointing son.

He marries two pagan women that are listed there, Judith and Basimath, and he was a grief

to his parents.

So that's how that chapter ends.

Now we move into chapter 27.

I'll just give a quick overview, go to 28, come back to 27.

But in 27, we have Isaac has the blessing stolen, or Esau has the blessing stolen by

Jacob by Isaac's deception, or he is deceived by Jacob.

In this chapter, we find that Isaac has decided to bypass the will of God that had been revealed

earlier when the two children were first born, actually still in the womb, the elder shall

serve the younger.

At that time, they did not know the names of the sons nor which one would be the oldest.

But of course, Esau came out first and Jacob had a hold of his heel and that was the birth

order, Esau first born, Jacob second born, and so Esau had all the privileges of being

the first born, but he did not appreciate them.

As we saw, he sold his birthright earlier for a mess of stew or pottage.

He said, I'm going to die here today anyway, just give me the food and you can have the

birthright.

But then he decides in this chapter, he really wants it back.

He wants that blessing and so when Isaac suggests to him that if you'll get me some

venison and make me that savory dish that I really like, I will bless you today.

But he did it on the down low.

He didn't tell Rebekah, he did not tell Jacob, he just told Esau, but Rebekah overheard it.

I don't know if she was eavesdropping or just happened to be close enough that she heard

this conversation.

Now this time, Isaac's eyes are no longer, they're dim, he's blind, he cannot even see

someone directly in front of him, and so it could be that she was nearby and he didn't

know it, or it could be that she was behind the door somewhere, but anyway, she overhears

that Isaac has determined to give the blessing to Esau instead of her favorite, who is Jacob.

Now she begins to very quickly concoct a scheme, she brings Jacob in, he's agreeable

to it, they deceive Isaac and he blesses Jacob.

He says that your brothers will serve you, you're going to have the best of the land,

and the spiritual blessings have been extended from Abraham down through me now to you in

connection to Genesis 12, 1-7, those four promises listed there that when God called

Abraham out of Ur and blessed him for being obedient to him.

Now that has passed down through Isaac in the first part of chapter 26, and now it's

passing down unwittingly, as far as Isaac is concerned, to the one God chose, who is

Jacob.

He intended to give it to Esau, but he's blind, Jacob lies and says he is Esau, he receives

the blessing, and then the firstborn was denied the blessing and served the younger just as

God had predicted and willed, and then Esau comes in about the same time that Isaac is

leaving having taken the blessing, and he's cooked the food, he's brought it in, and he

says in effect, here's your meal, dad, and Isaac says, who are you?

I'm Esau, and then Isaac trembles exceedingly because he understands what has happened.

Esau weeps, begs, but Isaac says there's nothing I can do about it, he's blessed and he will

be blessed, but don't you have a second blessing for me, and so he gave him, Esau, another

blessing, but it was almost like a blessing mixed with a curse, there was some of both

in it, because he had already given all the good stuff to Jacob, and there was very little

left to give to Esau, but he blesses him, and he does say that at times your descendants

will rule over his descendants, and we see that happens in the history that's revealed

after this, but not very often, normally the Jews were over the Edomites.

Now that's chapter 27, now chapter 28, the last of the chapters for this hour's assignment,

each chapter you'll notice has the key verse, the key thought, an outline, and the title

to it on the screen, so this one we call a ladder to heaven, because this is where Jacob

has to leave his father and mother, because Esau has vowed to kill him because of the

trickery, he said as soon as dad dies, I'm going to take care of him, and he received

comfort from that thought of revenge, but Rebecca, that news got back to her, and she

said, well, we've got to get him out of here, and so she goes to Isaac and says, I don't

think my heart could bear another son marrying the daughters of the land here, she didn't

say her real reason, she was very manipulative, but Isaac says he agrees with her, and so

he thinks on his own, decides to send Jacob over to her people, and he goes never to see

his mother again, as far as we know, it was only supposed to be a few days, but turned

into 20 years, because he worked for his wives seven years, and then another seven years,

and so, as far as the Bible records, Rebecca never saw Jacob again, and then in this chapter,

he saw this ladder to heaven, and he renewed, or made a vow, an oath to God that he would

give him 10% of everything that he gave him, based on the blessings that God had promised

to give him, and that's a great chapter, and you can preach a lot of lessons from chapter

28, but that's the overview, that's the first part of our study, let's move into the second

part of our study, which is coming down to ground level, and just looking at chapter

27, the middle chapter, because this is the chapter that deals with the sibling rivalry,

and the divine sovereignty, I don't know if you can, I'll make that as large as I can,

if you can see that, I'm not going to go through all that, but I want to talk about the chapter,

but if you want the keys to this chapter, they're in that red box there, I want to talk

about sibling rivalry with you for just a minute.

This is a dark thread that runs through Scripture, especially early Scripture, the book of Genesis,

instead of standing shoulder to shoulder against the world and challenges, too often brothers

stand nose to nose in conflict with each other, and that's what we find in the first family,

Adam and Eve had two sons, first Cain and Abel, as you well know from Genesis 4, Abel

offered the first leaves of the flock, and Cain offered from the ground, and Hebrews

11 says that Abel offered by faith, so that implies, Romans 10, 17, that God had told

them what he wanted, and Cain rejected that, did what he wanted, Abel accepted it, gave

God what God wanted, and that made Cain mad, he was jealous because his offering was rejected,

Abel's was accepted, and so sibling rivalry ended, in that case, in destruction.

You go a little further and you see Isaac and Ishmael, just prior to this, were also

sibling rivals, and the older son, Ishmael, mocked his younger brother, and that ended

up with a separation in the family, you come here to Jacob and Esau, sibling rivalry, later

in the book, you have this Jacob, who showed favoritism toward his son, Joseph and Joseph's

brothers hated him, sibling rivalry, and they attacked him, and put him in a well, stole

his coat, sold him into slavery, and first plotted his death, but ended up instead just

making a slave out of him, thought they were rid of him, a sibling rivalry, and then you

find it even later, in Israel's history, between the sons of David, Absalom, and Amnon,

so sibling rivalry is common in scripture, and it's common today, families that should

be the closest to each other, of anybody in the world, besides a spouse, sometimes they

don't speak for, they haven't spoken for years, two brothers, a brother, a sister, two sisters,

there's much to be said about that, and so we'll go into this context, and then we'll

make the application, and we will extend the application, not only to blood brothers, that

is genetically, or biologically, kin to one another, but to spiritual brothers, because

that also happens sometimes in the church, and the same principles are true in both areas,

but let's go into this in a little more detail, let's talk about four causes of sibling rivalry,

and you see all of these illustrated in the book of Genesis, these are still true today,

you could extend this list, but these are the four primary causes in scripture, first

one is favoritism, it says in Genesis 25, I believe this is verse 28, that Jacob was

Rebecca's favorite, and that Esau was Isaac's favorite, because he ate of his venison, seems

like Isaac is a man who loved his food, maybe a lust of the flesh there, but at any rate,

because there was this favoritism, sibling rivalry doesn't come out of favoritism so

much as it is fed by it, there's a natural rivalry between brothers or between sisters,

but in healthy relationships that rivalry grows, and they continue to love each other,

and support each other as they mature, but in unhealthy environments, like this one where

you have one being favored by the other, then there's this constant hoping to have a comeuppance

or an advantage over the other by playing one parent against another, you see that a

lot today with divorces, and two parents trying to win the favor of the child, it's the same

situation that you had even in a nuclear family where they were together.

Now the second one is worldliness, coming at life from different values, in this case

Esau is a profane person, Hebrews 12, 16, 17 says, he's worldly minded, he doesn't have

any appreciation for the spiritual, that's why he was willing to sell the birthright

at no cost, because he didn't care about that. Now when you think about Abraham and why Abraham

was chosen, I heard it mentioned I think by our brother over here in the second lesson

today, that he was chosen because God knew that he would command his children after him,

Genesis 18, 19. So you imagine that Esau got this blessing instead of Jacob, well he had

pagan wives, he did not have any appreciation for God, he would have inherited his grandfather's

blessing, Abraham, but he would not have appreciated it, nor would he have handed it off intact

because he wouldn't have trained his children to receive that blessing as Abraham had and

as Isaac had, at least to some degree, there's weakness here in Jacob at this point, but

there's hope for Jacob, he's going to get better, there's no hope for Esau, he's never

going to be any better. We'll come back to that in a moment, but let's talk about the

other two. On the screen there's selfishness, I want the blessings, I would rather you not

get them, selfishness, pride, ambition, those are personal failures, temptations that often

feed into sibling rivalry. And then the last one is envy. Envy plays a part in some of

these others also, but envy over personal appearance or over athletic abilities, scholastic

ability, envy because I see my brother or my sister as being better than me in some

ways and I want to tear them down, I want to better them. Now let's talk about the worldliness

just a little bit more. Here's a contrast between Jacob and Esau. You can't say a lot

of positive about Jacob this early in Genesis, but he's going to improve. You never find

anything good about Esau. Now you see these three contrasts, Jacob valued the spiritual

blessing, that was demonstrated when he bargained for it with his mess of pottage or food, he

wanted it, so that shows he had an appreciation for it. By contrast, Esau despised sacred

things and he gave it away. The middle line there is Jacob acted in manipulation, you

see this in this chapter, he listened to his mother, he had no qualms with lying to

his father, he just didn't want to get caught. He said, I'm a smooth man, my brother's a

hairy man, my father may peradventure feel of my skin and he'll know that I'm lying to

him and then he'll curse me instead of bless me. It's all pragmatic, he doesn't have appreciation

for doing what's right in the sight of God, just doesn't want to get caught in stealing

the blessing. Actually there are five lies that Jacob tells here beginning in verse 19

and to the side here you have his deceptions, he deceived the taste and the touch, all these

things of his father. But the five lies, Esau thy first born lie, he said I did according

to what you bade me lie, he said eat my venison, it was goat, he said the Lord God brought

it to me, he connected the God of truth to his lie. Maybe in his mind he was saying well

God wants me to have it, it would be okay to say it, it's never okay to lie, it's never

okay to do evil that good may come. And then the fifth lie is down in verse 24 when Isaac

is suspicious and he says how did you get this venison so quickly? And your voice sounds

more like Jacob than Esau, who are you? He says art thou my very son Esau and he said

I am, that's a lie. Martin Luther said here that if he had been Jacob he would have dropped

the dish and run out of the room. His father is really turning up the heat on him, he's

a cool customer, he just lies, lies, lies, lies and he pulls off the deception and his

father ends up as you know blessing him. Now we go back over and we see that Esau in contrast

to that manipulation or really reacting to it, he reacted in bitterness. Bitterness,

he hated him, wanted him dead, comforted himself by the fact that he would be able to kill

him as soon as his father wasn't around to stop him or to know about it. Then number

three, Jacob and this is the saving grace of Jacob, he slowly grew spiritually. He's

not a lot in chapter 27 but starting in chapter 28 you begin to see what God saw in him all

the way back with the ladder and the promise and then what you have in the subsequent chapters

with, he still is not a great example in some ways but he does have great faith in

God as that's demonstrated. And so by contrast Esau always lived secularly.

Alright now we're going to move into a discussion, let's talk about the application to today.

So there's a better way, there's a higher way than the way of Jacob. Everybody in this

chapter lost. There are four characters here, Isaac, Rebekah, Esau and Jacob, every one

of them lost. Nobody, nobody benefited. Now in one way yes Jacob got the blessing but

God was giving that to him anyway. He didn't have to do this. So Isaac has, he has to leave

everything he owns and goes to live in a new place. Rebekah never sees her favorite

son again. Esau lost the blessing that he had hoped to pull back or claw back that he

had sold earlier. Isaac is disappointed and embarrassed that he was going against the

will of God and then he was tricked and nobody in this chapter wins. There's a better way

and whenever hate moves our motivations we don't win today either. Families don't win

when they're divided. Churches don't win when they're divided. We're not happy when we're

at odds with people. Why don't we, why don't we pursue that path? Here's a better way.

And all of these lessons would have applied here but certainly apply to us. Let's just

go down the list of seven and you see where we're going with this. In Christ we are, we

are family by grace and brothers by blood. Every one of us in the body of Christ are

family and brother to brother, sister to sister, brother to sister, sister to brother. Alright,

this is a lesson all to itself of course but we won't have time to pursue it at all. Let

me just read these to you and I'll go to the next point. Pursue love instead of hate, 1

1 Peter 2:13

Peter 2 verse 13, 4. Cooperation instead of competition, Ecclesiastes 4, 9 to 12. Unity

instead of separation, Romans 12, 16. Honor instead of innuendo. Brag on people, don't

tear them down. Romans 12, 10. Edification instead of envy, Romans 14, 9. Reconciliation

instead of rivalry, Matthew 5, 24. Brotherhood instead of division, 1 Peter 2, 17. I'd like

to talk about that more but I also want to talk about divine sovereignty so we move into

our last point where God goes into the situation already knowing what He wants to come out

of it and He comes out of the situation even though all these shenanigans have gone on,

He comes out of it still right where He wanted to be. He has not been moved or changed or

thwarted in His plans by the sins of these four individuals. So when you think about

divine sovereignty, God has absolute authority, immense power, and total holiness. We live

in a world with shifting sands and uncertain tomorrows but there is one unshakable truth

upon which the Christian stands. God reigns. God has always reigned. God will always reign.

You can rest assured that nothing is changed by an election or a war or the sins of any

group of people that topples God off of His throne. He sits in majesty on His throne as

a sovereign king of the world. His throne has never been threatened. He remains changed

throughout time, undefeated by evil, and unmatched in glory. God rules. God reigns and He is

just as strong today as He was the day that He spoke and a world came into existence.

A world that He will one day burn up. So you have God ruling over His creation and then

ultimately rewarding the faithful. God is king of the world. Nothing is ever going to

change that. Now when you think about God ruling in the kingdoms of men, Daniel 4.25,

Jesus must reign until the last enemy hath been put down. I mean there are many verses

that talk about He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. You think that is a prophecy

about what they did to Jesus when they tried to get rid of Him and God, you are just working

my plan for me. I am going to raise Him from the dead and then that is what is going to

save the world. You are not going to defeat me. He just laughs at man who tries to oppose

Him. Now let's go into this context and then we will extend it to how it applies to us.

In this context, think about the biographical lessons that we learn from these four characters.

Number one, you have stubborn unbelief demonstrated by Isaac. Isaac knew what God said, that the

elder would serve the younger. But he is whispering to the elder, I am going to bless you. Have

you ever thought if he didn't ask for the food, he could have pulled that off? He could

have done it right there when Esau was with him. But he sent him away and that gave Rebekah

and Jacob time to perpetrate this deception. At any rate, stubborn rebellion to overturn

what God had already decreed, but that didn't overturn what God had already decreed. He

just wanted to. What about Rebekah and her faithless scheming? All she had to do was

wait for God to do what God said He would do. She could have gone to her husband and

said, wait, now let's talk about this. This isn't what God said and let's reconsider this.

Let's pray about this. But she didn't do that. She came up with a lie to deceive her own

husband. What about Jacob's short-sighted trickery? You know, he could never really

enjoy this blessing like he would have because he always had to think back to how he got

it. He had to lie to his own father. He had to cheat his brother. I mean, this could never

be the blessing it would have been if he had just let God do what God said He would do.

And Esau, of course, with his profane worldliness, all those things worked against the purpose

of God, but God brought about His purpose anyway. Now, here's a key thought in this

whole lesson. God does not need sin to accomplish His will. God does not endorse a sinner who

does what He needs, what eventually helps God's plan. He doesn't approve of it. He doesn't

need it, He doesn't use it, or He does not orchestrate it, and He does not approve of

it. And yet, somehow, God is able to go through this situation that's so messy and so sinful

and still be holy and come out on the other side having accomplished exactly what He wanted

to have accomplished. Now, that's divine sovereignty. Now, for sake of time, we're going to skip

this next section, but you can, it'll be on the screen at the same time if you want that

right outcome, wrong method. But let's talk about the justice of God. The more I study

the Scriptures, the more I am impressed with God's justice on an individual level. Now,

we talk about the justice of God in the Judgment Day. We talk about the justice of God in the

scheme of redemption. We talk about it with nations, but it's also true with individuals,

and that's a scary thought. You think about how many times sin becomes its own punishment.

You think about Saul of Tarsus. What did he do in his earlier life? What happened to him

in his Christian life? That's the other side of the same coin. You see, he had to suffer

many things because he had caused others to suffer many things. Be careful about the sins

of your youth because even if, and hopefully you do come back, but when you come back,

there are still the seeds that have been sown. There are consequences to those. And the justice

of God is a part of that. I said that sin becomes its own punishment. You think about

an alcoholic, for instance. He enjoyed the drinking to start with, but does there come

a day in his life when he says, I loathe this stuff because I'm addicted to it? Does he

say, I can't give it up? Could give it up, but very hard, and maybe would never. You

see, sin can become its own punishment. Same is true with other sins. All right, so justice

in this case, you know these stories in Genesis, so just think with me about these same four

individuals who perpetrated all this sinfulness against each other and what happened after

this in their own lives. So with Isaac, he blessed the wrong son after intending to change

God's will. He had to live with that. He trembled exceedingly when he found out that he had

done what he had done. What about Esau? He tried to renege on his earlier sale of his

birthright and he is weeping and angry and vengeful by the end of the chapter. What about

Jacob? Jacob was soon tricked into working seven more years for his wife after he had

just tricked his father. What about the second one? He who deceived his father was deceived

by his sons who came back and said, we don't know what happened to Joseph. And for 20 years

he grieved over his living son he thought was dead. And then he who disguised himself

to deceive was deceived by the coat dipped in blood in Genesis 37.

And then what about Rebecca? We said earlier that she also favored her son, tried to get

him in a place of advantage but then she lost a relationship with him. We've got four minutes

so let's move down and talk about the last of the practical applications here. There's

actually two. Let's see if we can get both of them or at least get one of them.

I'm trying to make it a little easier for you to see where we are on the screen with

this. I'm going to do the last one because we probably wouldn't have time to do both.

How to respond to God's solventry. So where am I in this picture? Every lesson should

show where I am. Give me homework to take with me and not just tell me what the Bible

says but tell me how I'll react to that. So here are your lessons. There are four of them,

four takeaways from God's solventry. Number one, because God is sovereign we can trust

him when life is uncertain. Is your life uncertain right now? Have you lost a job? Are you looking

for a mate? Do you have a wayward child or sickness in your extended family or some spiritual

challenge that you just don't know if you're going to be able to overcome it? We all have

those things in life that make it uncertain. But because God reigns in heaven I've got

an ally that can never be disappointed. God has the answer to every problem. God has the

power to every challenge. God is able to bless his children. Now it might not be what I want

it to be but it certainly can be me leaving this world and going to be with God in heaven

forever. God is sovereign. He can get me through the temptations, challenges and problems

of life. You could put John 16.33 there when Jesus was about to leave his disciples. Let

not your heart be troubled. I'm going to send the comforter to you. You will be guided.

You will be, God will take care of you. Number two, obey God without argument. We might not

understand why God requires something. We might not personally approve of it or like

it. It might be hard for us. But obey God without argument. He is always right. There's

never been a time when he's ever been wrong. And so I will eventually come to see why he

requires this of me or forbids this for me or of me if I will just be faithful. The blessings

will continue and the problems I will avoid. So obey him. Be a loyal subject, John 14.15.

Now number three, serve him with confidence even if it's unpopular. The only two times

that the majority of people have approved of what is right as far as I can see was Adam

and Eve in the garden before the sin and Noah and his family when they got off the boat.

That's the only two times in the history of humanity when the majority of people were

on the side of right. So if I'm on God's side, that's going to inevitably put me at odds

with the world. But have confidence in serving him that he will bless me even though the

world may not. That's 1 Corinthians 15.58. And then the last one, a minute and one second

left, the last point is worship God even when it's difficult. The other people in the room

with you worshiping will probably never know how hard it was for you to attend that Sunday.

Have you had that Sunday already? You stood in front of your closet. I still don't know

if I can go today. Maybe you wept. Maybe you cried. Maybe you were sad. Maybe you were

out. But somehow you found the strength to pull up and maybe you got there a minute after

it started and you came and you sat and you left a minute before it was over, but you

were there. And God won the day. Sometimes it's hard to worship. Sometimes there are

challenges that relate to, that may be physical like with Elijah in 1 Kings 19, physically

exhausted. Did that impact him spiritually? Of course it did. But God cared about him.

God brought him back to good health and he continued to be a faithful prophet. That may

be me one day, discouraged, beaten down, feeling lost, but worship God anyway. God deserves

worship. You will have about 3,000 Sundays to worship God if you obey the gospel at early

teen years, age of accountability generally comes. Give God 3,000 Sundays of genuine worship.

Sit around his table and may each one be more meaningful than the last. Sibling rivalry

versus divine solventry. There's a lot to be learned in Genesis 26, 27, 28. Thank you

for your attention.