Genesis 26-28

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we'll go morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: How you guys doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Good to be here with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Kyle, if you haven't met before, I'm one of the pastors here at the church, and we are so glad that you're here with us this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do notice a little bit of a hiccup in my step, yesterday I was coaching my son's football team and this thing happened two nights ago called rain.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's been a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I unintentionally did some yoga trying not to go down, so just if you seem to grab the hammy, that's why.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, guys, let's be here today as man, just cannot tell you how moving it is just to be able to sing songs that are so heavy, but so hopeful.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so wherever some of those landed with you today, just know that the Lord is near.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he's speaking to you, not just through the teaching of his word, but also through the arts and through hopefully just the way that we're all being hospitable toward one another and just helping each other feel like a family here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So anyways, as we as we continue on this morning I know some of you're like

[SPEAKER_00]: what we're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 26 when a good and get there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lastly, we had a great kind of live workshop that Adam did in the serning God's will and I think there's going to be some moments I bring into that a little bit this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if you want to go ahead and get to Genesis 26, that's where we'll be going.

[SPEAKER_00]: And for those of you who are TV watching folks, perhaps you've noticed in the last two decades, there's been certain sorts of television genres that have kind of become a thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of them being reality TV shows, although some of us question how real some of it is, is there a bit of scripting and things going on behind the scenes that we don't really know about, and especially family reality TV shows, which depending on which one you follow, sometimes it don't always end so good

[SPEAKER_00]: We see some real fault that happens as a result.

[SPEAKER_00]: But before there was duct dynasty with beard, guns, camos, and duct calls, drawn to 11 million views.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before there was Johnny K plus 8, drawn to 10 million views, did you know?

[SPEAKER_00]: In 1973, yes, teenagers, the 1900s, when your parents wrote dinosaurs, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Me too, I would talk to the 80s.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in 1973, there was a show called an American family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And get this, this is about a family in Santa Barbara and their last name were the louts.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that is just like maybe the best name for a family reality TV show.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe if they were covering your family, but yeah, that would be our earliest as well, the louts.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's kind of wild.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was only 11 episodes, but it drew in over 10 million viewers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And most attributed the interest to the show,

[SPEAKER_00]: Being connected to just the realness of it, it was unscripted, it covered the highs, it covered the lows, everything that the Stanley went through, and there was something that just kind of set with people, and they wanted to watch.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some credit this is being the genesis.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some credit folks quote this is being the genesis of this genre of television where people are like, hey, maybe there's a beginning that we should follow up on a bit later.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so many, many credits, some of the now draw people have toward this sort of TV show back to the show from the 70s.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason I bring that up is because as we go through Genesis 26 through Genesis 28,

[SPEAKER_00]: I would compare it to like watching a really, really tough episode of a family reality series.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's times where we're gonna be reading, if you were watching this, there'd be times you might just wanna turn it off, you're like, I can't watch it more than this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, some of you might be like, you know, the dumpster fires kind of entertaining though, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Makes us now feel so bad or others, you're like, oh, that is my family.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but there's, there's really parts of it, you're like, I just, I don't know if I want to hear anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is just, this is, wow, go to wild.

[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, when you go through it, it's one of those things I just want to say as we go through it, some of you might even wrestle with the question, and I want to let you know this is totally fair and imbalanced.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of you might be like, where is God in this?

[SPEAKER_00]: How is he gonna work in and through and to spite these people that just, they just wanted their way, they won't have any other way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because one of the many tragedies of these chapters is that oftentimes, I think the people in the events knew they were opposing God to some extent, I think they definitely did.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think at times they were so fixated

[SPEAKER_00]: that they thought the people they were fighting was their family, when really the person they were fighting was their Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that if we think about our own lives, our own families, and some of our own social situations, where maybe we just have something that we want to have happen really bad and we're convinced that God's in the midst of it, and maybe He just needs our help for it to all come to fruition.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should maybe just slow our roll a little bit, and hopefully as for what we go through today in these chapters, there'll be some good takeaways for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I promise I'll try to land the plain as,

[SPEAKER_00]: as best I can.

[SPEAKER_00]: So to cut out the bag before we jump into Genesis 26, today the main point I'm going to talk to you I'm going to say at the beginning, I'm going to say at the end, is that God really is sovereign in the midst of our trials and our chaos to accomplish His will.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes the trials that we face and the chaos that we deal with, probably more specifically the chaos,

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes it can be because of things that are going on outside of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something we have no control over, we live in a broken world with broken people, people do broken things, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's reality.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's also the chaos that we sometimes deal with.

[SPEAKER_00]: This got nothing to do with anyone around you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's got everything to do with you.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's got everything to do with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not about your mistakes or my mistakes.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about our choices.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a difference between the two.

[SPEAKER_00]: mistakes is I've backed out of your driveway and accidentally hit your mailboxes.

[SPEAKER_00]: I had misjudged the debt perception.

[SPEAKER_00]: Choices are something that we know and that we do and that we're aware of.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, if someone hit your mailbox, it wasn't me because I don't probably know where you live.

[SPEAKER_00]: But there's a difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the application of this will get to a promise by the end is like, man, we really just got to learn to go with what God says.

[SPEAKER_00]: Really got to learn to do that, because if we don't, well, why ends up happening is you may actually wind up fighting him and not even realize it, because you just want to win the argument, you just want to prove your point, you just want to wield this thing to happen, and that may have started off as a godly thing, but over time, it's become a using, and that's why it's gotten so messy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think this is going to be a really powerful morning for us this morning as we go through all this, but it is a lot of tech, so if you go ahead and go with me to Genesis 26,

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to read through a few sections at a time and then summarize a few other parts.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 26 verse 1, a severe famine now struck the land as had happened before in Abraham's time.

Genesis 26:1

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac moved to Gerard, where Abhimalec King of the Philistines lived.

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, do not go down to Egypt, but do as I tell you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Live here as a foreigner in this land and I will be with you and bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hereby confirm that I will give all these lands to you and your descendants just as I solemnly promised Abraham your father.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will cause your descendants and I'm sorry, I will cause your descendants to become as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give them all these lands.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I would do this because Abraham listened to me and obeyed all my requirements, commands, decrees, and instructions.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac stayed in your art.

[SPEAKER_00]: When the man who lived there, her art, asked Isaac about his wife, Rebecca, he said, she is my sister.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sound of the mirror?

[SPEAKER_00]: Talk about there in a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was afraid to say she is my wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: He thought they will kill me to get to her because she is so beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: But sometime later, Abbey Melek, King of the Philistines, looked at his window and saw Isaac caressing Rebecca.

[SPEAKER_00]: Immediately, Abbey Melek called for Isaac and explained, she is obviously your wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why did you say she is my sister?

[SPEAKER_00]: because I was afraid someone would kill me to get hurt from me as a good boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: How could you do this to us, Abbey Maelik, slamed?

[SPEAKER_00]: One of my people might as easily had taken your wife and slept with her and would have made us guilty of great sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Abbey Maelik issued a public proclamation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone who touches this man or his wife will be put to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so first off, for all you Bible nerds in the room

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to do some fun reflective study, go and read this chapter and then go read Genesis 12, Genesis 18 and Genesis 20.

[SPEAKER_00]: What you're going to see is echoes of Abraham's story all over the place.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to go it and all of it, but we don't have time this morning.

[SPEAKER_00]: But let me summarize it in these ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: What we're going to see when it comes to these echoes of the Abraham story is that there's some good, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: There's some good.

[SPEAKER_00]: God says that his promises, that he gave to Abraham, he's extending them on to Isaac.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just kind of assume that Abraham has shared with Isaac all of the ways in which he had led him as a sejourner through famine, just like Abraham had been through, we've got a little map up here to kind of show this, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he calls him for the land that he's in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He takes him to somewhere else.

[SPEAKER_00]: We assumed Abraham is maybe told in Isaac, hey, listen, God led me out from the land I was in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He led me through famine before.

[SPEAKER_00]: He led me to be a Sejerner son.

[SPEAKER_00]: He might do the same with you one day.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll guess what, that's exactly what's happening in verses one through six of Genesis 26.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's good.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac kind of gets it, and he leaves the land of the air, Lahiri, and teenagers, I know all you see on the first word is beer, but that's not what it's talking about.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, but that he leaves that land, he goes to Karar, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's famine in the land, he's going to be a sejourner, but then, oh, we go from the good to the not so good, with a bed.

[SPEAKER_00]: As he comes into the land,

[SPEAKER_00]: The people might be noticing that his wife is beautiful.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's part of me that thinks, man, did Abraham and him ever talk about this?

[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like he should have the answers to the test.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, listen, I know you're my freak out because you're wife is so beautiful and she's so lovely and you think, oh, they're gonna kill me, but hey, listen, son, this is what this happened to me twice, don't do this, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Your mom didn't talk to me for like a month, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was real weird, don't do this.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Isaac falls into the same exact trap.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure what the word caressing is supposed to imply, but it was obvious to something that really knocked Isaac out to Abhimailic.

[SPEAKER_00]: And a bunch of irony in symmetry, it's the same thing that happened to Abraham because a Philistine dignitary calls Abraham out on his mess and he's like, hey, listen, this is obviously not your sister.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing here, man?

[SPEAKER_00]: Wait, what are you trying to bring upon us?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so here you have this dignitary who doesn't even know the Lord, calling out Isaac on his ethical and moral responsibilities to his wife.

[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: He winds up doing for Isaac what Isaac should have done for Rebecca.

[SPEAKER_00]: Traject.

[SPEAKER_00]: OK, so that's not so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to take a slight pause for a minute to say this, because sometimes he reads stories like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we wonder, and we ask things, like, if you're a parent in the room, are my kids just destined to kind of do the same stupid stuff that I did?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that just like the way this works?

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe some of your parents in the room, you wonder that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as a result, some of you maybe, to really make sure your kids never even think

[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, my kid gets close to the fourth cousin of sin in that area.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm serving up to volume.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm turning up the intensity.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am making sure they are almost terrified, even think about that.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm being hyperbolic here.

[SPEAKER_00]: But as a dad, I can relate.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a lot of dumb choices.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are some things in some of my family of origin.

[SPEAKER_00]: I repeated that I just am like, what are you doing, man?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is that my parents' fault?

[SPEAKER_00]: No.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was my choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I will say this.

[SPEAKER_00]: The environment your kids are growing up in, they're watching, they're listening, they're learning, and they're evaluating.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are watching, listening, learning, and evaluating the way that we talk to people that differ from us, religiously, politically, ideologically.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are watching and listening to the way that we exercise discernment about how we handle stress, relaxation, and when does that turn into self-medication or addiction?

[SPEAKER_00]: They are watching, listening and observing the ways that we forgive people, that we encourage, that we ask for forgiveness, or we release grudges, or we hold on to them, even though we say, we're not holding on to them, we hold on to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: They also watch the way that we serve our spouse, our family, our church, our neighbors.

[SPEAKER_00]: They observed the way we either wisely constructively critique.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or perhaps the way there's not much grace in it and it's just spiteful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kids, teenagers in the room, or if you're an older kid, your parents are still around.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not right for us to expect perfection.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's just not fair.

[SPEAKER_00]: Parents are not perfect parents, kids are not perfect kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're the youngest, I know that's shocking to you that you're not perfect, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: But none of us are.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think in families, not probably some move on after this, I think what is wise, what I would encourage is like, no, your kids are not destined to do the same things that you did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And also, you're trying to terrify them from the third cousin of sin from it, is not guaranteed to have the results that you want to either.

[SPEAKER_00]: They may just grow up later in reason all that do it anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I think what is helpful is when we ask God to lead us to have wise, appropriate, discerning conversations about the things of our past or present or future.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we ask God to give us a humble spirit about it, where we talk about how we have ongoing repentance in some areas, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not things of always necessary of the same actions, but just our motives in it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I understand there is a probably a line where maybe not is helpful for a parent to always go, especially the thing on the age of your kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: But this is just a reminder for all of us in the room and then by the way, dig mirror right here with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: We need to really ask God about how to help us have those conversations and have them well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And isn't an amazing that we have a church family that can help us with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: and to talk about some of the things that we're glad that we did, some of the things we might have done different, or hey, don't ever do that, it did not go out, it did not go well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, in Genesis 26, there's the good, there's the bad, and then if we keep reading on, there's growing, it doesn't, it doesn't, it's not a bad note, so let's go ahead and jump back in.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac's still in the same region.

[SPEAKER_00]: In a verse 12, it says this, it says, when Isaac planted his crops that year, he harvested 100 times more grain than he planted for the Lord blessed him, just like God said he would.

[SPEAKER_00]: He became a very rich man in his wealth, continue to grow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He acquired so many flocks of sheep and goats and herds of cattle and servants that the Philistines became jealous of him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the Philistines filled up all of Isaac's wealth with dirt.

[SPEAKER_00]: These were the wells that had been dug by his servants of his father Abraham.

[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, Abhimalec ordered Isaac to leave the country.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go somewhere else, he said, for you have become too powerful for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac moved away to the Gerard Valley where he set up their tents and settled down.

[SPEAKER_00]: He reopened the wells as father at Doug, which the Philistines had filled in after Abraham's death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac also restored the names of the names Abraham and given them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac's servants also dug in the Gerard Valley and discovered a well of fresh water, but then the shepherds from Gerard came in and claimed the spring.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our water they said, and they argued over it with Isaac's heardsmen.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac named the well, Essic, which means arguments.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac's men then dug another well, but again, there is a dispute over it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac named it, Sittna, which means hostility.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abandoning that one, Isaac moved on and dug another well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is this the fucking game of lack of a mole?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, here's a spot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Great, guys, fuck.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, guy, go the next one.

[SPEAKER_00]: On and on he goes, third one.

[SPEAKER_00]: 30 times a turn.

[SPEAKER_00]: This time, there was no dispute over it.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac named a place, Rahel Bough, which means open space.

[SPEAKER_00]: For he said, at Lee, I'm sorry, at last, the Lord has created enough space for us to prosper in this land.

[SPEAKER_00]: From there, Isaac moved to Bershiba, where the Lord appeared to him on the night of his arrival.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am the God of your Father Abraham, He said, do not be afraid for I am with you and will bless you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will multiply your descendants and they will become a great nation.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will do this because of my promise to Abraham, my servant.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Isaac built an altar there and worship the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: He set up his camp at that place in his servants, Doug, another well.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I think there's some signs of growth here that just happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, did you notice it?

[SPEAKER_00]: He asked to go to three different spots, three.

[SPEAKER_00]: And before he finally finds one where there's not a conflict.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the reason I think that this shows growth is this, when adversity came, when a threat to his security came, he didn't lie, he didn't manipulate.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what did you do?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, all right, I guess this isn't the place that God has for us to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll go with the next place.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the Philistines, they're like that one neighbor that you got to have extra grace for it, because maybe they think that you just need to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm telling you, you're getting two, you're getting two, whatever for us, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And they just keep causing trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does Isaac keep doing?

[SPEAKER_00]: He just keeps going to the next place.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the time he gets to the third one,

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no conflict.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you notice what Isaac did?

[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't commit himself for having Britain stay in with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He thanked the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, he named it in view of what God had provided.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did you notice what he offered it?

[SPEAKER_00]: He built an altar and he worshiped the Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: So cool, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, so yet again, one of those encouragements to pass on the legacy of faith to your kids, have conversations with your kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't know how to do it, or you don't know what to say, then talk to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've got a great staff to can help you and we've got a treasure trod of people here that no one loved God and afraid of kids to have afraid of kids in the faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so in 26, there's the good,

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there's the growing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So this story arc of Genesis 26 is looking pretty good.

[SPEAKER_00]: So as we flip over to Genesis 27, it's important to realize a couple things.

[SPEAKER_00]: One, 40 years has gone by since this point in time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in two, if you remember back to the previous chapters, within this family, there's things that have happened and there's things that the Lord has said.

[SPEAKER_00]: that have, and then there's the way that people respond to that, which has created some issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: First and foremost, let's just talk about some of the family dynamics.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac's favorite is Issa.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rebecca's favorite is Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: What could possibly go wrong?

[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got that dynamic going.

[SPEAKER_00]: You've also got the tension of, in Genesis 25, 23, where before the boys are even born,

[SPEAKER_00]: God tells Rebecca, she feels this tussling.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, to put it modern day terms, she maybe feels like there's an octagon or you have C-Fight going on in her womb.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's like, what in the world is going on, Lord?

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Lord tells her that the younger will serve over the older, which would have seemed totally, and that there's two nations within her and that there's gonna be, it's gonna be discolored, there's gonna be conflict.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she's like, well, I feel the conflict, but oh, wow, we're talking about weight on the ruger, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Did she know what that mint entirely know, but what was very clear was that the younger was going to serve over the older and culturally, even within now, that's not the way this normally works, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Family headship goes to the oldest one, not the younger one, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so then decades after that happens, we're not sure where and then there are adult lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have the whole birthright and red soup issue that happens.

[SPEAKER_00]: What happens?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's saw years later.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the Huntsman.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the best pro-shop guy with the cool gun safe, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever you want to call like he's got the sweet compound bow.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's got, you want to have Vincent Man.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has Vincent all the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: This guy never has to go the grocery store for me, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's, he's about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's, he's been out hunting all day.

[SPEAKER_00]: He comes into the tent, smells that food, man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Any guys ever get hangromatic.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's when you're hungry, dramatic, and it kind of makes you angry all at the same time.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he just smells and it's like, Jacob, you gotta give me something, eat, give me some of that red soup.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob's like, Ha, sure, sell me your birthright, which would have been the legal status for him is now having double portion, being the family head, all kinds of things to go to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's also about the future flourishing and the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: And apparently, and he saw his mind, the only thing that mattered to him is what he could see, what he could sense, and what was going to bring him the most instant relief.

[SPEAKER_00]: Folks, he always got to be careful with what we think sort of bring us the most instant relief from a situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, he saw cells his birthright to his brother Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: And was Jacob being shady, hundred, a person.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's working his angle.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw as impulsive, he just once, what he wants now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what we also read is if you go through the back end of 26 is that in the meantime, between 26 and 27, he saw as also practiced very, very poor judgment, not just in the whole birthright debacle, but also in the fact that he is now acquired, not one, but two wives.

[SPEAKER_00]: which is not in the way of his father or mother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Also, he's taken Hittite wives who practice all sorts of defiable things that were not supposed to be within Abrams lineage.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll find out later that Isaac and Rebecca almost had Sarah there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac and Rebecca actually sent Jacob to go get a wife from Padama where labor is to keep within their family lineage.

[SPEAKER_00]: So like, he's always doing all kinds of stuff that's caused an issues within the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: Him and Jacob have this tustling that's been happening since the womb.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob was a little bit of a shyster and kind of revealed that one of the idols of East-Saw's heart, which is just, he wants what's available fast now and to be ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: So all these things are going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now as we drop into chapter 27, we're just, I've had someone just feels like the wicks about to get lit here.

[SPEAKER_00]: So here we go.

[SPEAKER_00]: So one day, when Isaac was old and turning blind, he called for East saw his older son and said, my son, yes father, East saw her applied.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am now, I am an old man now, Isaac said, and I don't know when I may die.

[SPEAKER_00]: Take your bow and a quiver full of arrows and go out to the open country and hunt some wild game for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Prepare my favorite dish and bring it here for me to eat.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then, I will pronounce the blessing that belongs to you my firstborn son before I die.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Rebecca overheard what Isaac said to his son, he saw.

[SPEAKER_00]: So when he saw a left-hunt for wild game, she said to her son, Jacob, listen, I overheard your father said he saw, bring me some wild game and prepare me a delicious meal.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then I will bless you in the presence of the Lord before I die.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now my son listens to me.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Rebecca talking to Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go out to the flocks and bring me to fine young goats.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll use them to prepare your father's favorite dish.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then take the food to your father so he can eat it and bless you before he dies.

[SPEAKER_00]: But look, Jacob replied to Rebecca.

[SPEAKER_00]: My brother, Esau is a hairy man, and my skin is smooth.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does a father touches me?

[SPEAKER_00]: He'll see that I am trying to trick him and he'll curse me instead of blessing me.

[SPEAKER_00]: But his mother replied, then let the curse fall on me, my son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just do what I tell you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go out and get the goats for me.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jacob went out and got the young goats for his mother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Rebecca took them or prepared a delicious meal just the way Isaac liked it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she took Esau's favorite clothes, which were in the house and gave them to her, I'm sorry, gave them to her younger son, Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: She covered his arms with smooth part of his neck and with the skin of their young goats.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then she gave Jacob the delicious meal, including freshly baked bread.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hungry now.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jacob took the food to his father.

[SPEAKER_00]: My father, he said, yes, my son, Isaac replied, who are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw or Jacob?

[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob replied, it's he saw your first word in son.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've done as you told me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the wild game.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now sit up and eat it so that you can give me your blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac asked,

[SPEAKER_00]: How did you find it so quickly, my son?

[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord put, the Lord your God, put in my path, Jacob replied, then Isaac said to Jacob, come closer so I can touch you and make sure that you are really e-sau.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jacob went closer to his father and Isaac touched him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The voices, Jacob's, but the hands are e-sau, Isaac said, but he did not recognize Jacob because Jacob hands felt so hairy.

[SPEAKER_00]: just like he saws.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Isaac prepared to bless Jacob, but are you really my son, Esau?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I am Jacob replied.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Isaac said, now my son, bring me the wild game, let me eat it and then I will give you my blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jacob took the food to his father and Isaac ate it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He also drank the wine, the Jacob served him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Isaac said to Jacob, please come a little closer and kiss me, my son.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jacob went over and kissed him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he saw his clothes, the Jacob was wearing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was finally convinced, and he blessed his son.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, ha, the smell of my son is like the smell of the outdoors, which is the Lord is blessed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I want to make sure, really listen to the weight and gravity of this blessing, because I'm going to come back to this in a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: From the do of heaven and the riches of the earth, may God always bless, I'm sorry, may God always give you a abundant harvest and grave of grain and bound to full new wine.

[SPEAKER_00]: May many nations become your servants, and may they bow down to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: May you be the master of your brothers and may your mother's sons bow down to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: All who curse you will be cursed, and all who bless you will be blessed.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we just read a lot there.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what your reaction or feeling was as we got through certain parts of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Mine was, ugh.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the layers of this optically, relationally are just a mess, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Me as best we know, Isaac is somewhere around 137 years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: He thinks he's about to die,

[SPEAKER_00]: Most people think that's because he knows Ishmael had actually decided at one thirty seven, so maybe he thinks he's just around the corner.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's going blind.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of a sad scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: He actually winds up living another 180 years, but I guess he didn't see that one coming.

[SPEAKER_00]: But so, you know, it's his base.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's at the end of his life.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's vulnerable.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's weak.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jacob and East saw if you have in your mind that they're just these little middle school guys sitting by dad's dad.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, they're depending on if you look at Jewish scours, or Jewish scours, or a form scour, no matter who you look at, you're gonna see the age range that they believe Jacob and I stars between maybe 63 and 70 years old.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you do some like reverse engineering from Genesis 49.

[SPEAKER_00]: So,

[SPEAKER_00]: Rebecca's maybe around 110.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's my point with all that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody in the scene that we just read about is fully aware of what they're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: They know what's going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not human's mistake.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is human's choosing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that they're all choosing from some thing in their heart, that they think that they can get or that they want.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they feel that they've got to connect

[SPEAKER_00]: and it is absolutely tragic to read about.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what Isaac is doing here is a my opinion, not a good thing at all, because does he know in this moment that Jacob has gotten East ought to sell his birthright tomb?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we really know, but what Isaac does know is this, he was him and Rebecca were told

[SPEAKER_00]: The headship was going to go to the youngest, not to the oldest.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trouble is, who was Isaac's favorite, the youngest, or the oldest?

[SPEAKER_00]: The oldest.

[SPEAKER_00]: This isn't fitting his narrative.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I got to admit, like if you're thinking, OK, who's going to take up for the family?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're a family that's sejourning through a land.

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably better be the outdoorsman, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: The guy that can provide the guy that when people walk up to the scene and they're like, oh, okay, I'm kind of idea in this guy as a person I need to not mess with, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, me, I don't know why he's thinking that way, but like this is his favorite.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably not the guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, I'm sorry, it's not the sun who's really, really good in the kitchen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that his favorite?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, that's my guess.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's look at it through E-Saw's angle.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows he sold his birthright, but maybe when Isaac is saying that like, hey, come and receive the spiritual blessing for me, he knows he's about to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe E-Saw thinks, hey, wait a minute.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, whatever about the birthright.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm going to receive the covenantal blessing that's going to go through me.

[SPEAKER_00]: All these promises that I've heard my dad and my mom talk about and what God is going to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hello?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll grab my bow.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be back in no time.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that's maybe what he saw it's thinking.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Rebecca's an interesting person in all of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: What did she think?

[SPEAKER_00]: She knows what God had said in Genesis 25, 23.

[SPEAKER_00]: She's got her favorite too.

[SPEAKER_00]: She'd probably rather be Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: But is she in some way, shape or form after she overhears Isaac and E-Saw's conversation?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is she thinking, oh, I wonder if God had thought about this though, did God know that my husband might be trying to work his own angle?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I know how E-Saw is.

[SPEAKER_00]: If there's something that he feels like he wants, he doesn't use any discretion.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just goes.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's just a hammer trying to find a nail.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I should do something.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what your dad just said.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where he saw is, this is what we're gonna do.

[SPEAKER_00]: Does she think that she's helping God?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I think that's very charitable.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is why I loved Adam's workshop so much last week that was based on God's word.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think that we should ever violate the moral or ethical will of God because we think God needs help.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead, we should trust that he's sovereign.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe I'll be

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe I'll see Rebecca one day and she'll be like, yeah, you thought poorly of me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but it just seems like she's trying to work her angle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac and E.S.

[SPEAKER_00]: are working theirs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then when it comes to Jacob, it's like, hey, listen, show yourself to be a man and tell mommy, no, like this is, this is kind of a sad scene.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then I think about man, how hard must that have been for him in a way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Like, hey, son, go pretend that you're your brother, who you know as your dad's favorite.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wow, like going to see them, you know we can't see on the part where the part for me that gets really heavy is, I mean, Granite, he's already got the goat skin on which is its own set of, wow, that would be an interesting thing to have Adam put into, you know, AI graphics, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: What would that even look like?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, maybe he will.

[SPEAKER_00]: But like to think about what it would have been like for him to think that he's got to be deceptive in the skies who he is,

[SPEAKER_00]: And this thing that was, this covenant of blessing that was supposed to go through him anyways is dad's trying to subvert.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then if you can stomach getting through that, all of a sudden your dad after three different times says, is it, is it really you he saw?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it really you?

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, come a little closer.

[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm Jacob, my heart is about to explode.

[SPEAKER_00]: At the deception, I am going to do this and then he asks me to kiss him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like on the head or something, I mean, row, that is heavy, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they're all working their angles.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in my opinion, it's very obvious that what Isaac is giving is not just like a hey, I love you before he thinks he's gonna die.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is about covenantal headship.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is about family headship.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you see the echoes of the promises that God gave to Abraham all over the place in 28 through 29, especially in the way that it is.

[SPEAKER_00]: All who curse, you will be cursed, and all who bless you will be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Last, let's just as 12, no doubt about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, wow, okay, all that just happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Should we continue?

[SPEAKER_00]: As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and almost before Jacob had left his father, Eastaw returned from his home.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's offered paired a delicious meal and brought it to his father and then said, sit up my father and eat my wild game so that you can give me your blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Isaac asked him, who are you?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good plot.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's your son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your first born son, he saw.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac began to tremble uncontrollably and said, then who just served me the wild game?

[SPEAKER_00]: I have already eaten it and I blessed him just before you came in and yes, that blessing must stand.

[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, it can't be revoked.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he saw her, his father's words, he let out a loud and bitter cry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my father, what about me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Bless me too, he begged.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Isaac said, your brother was here and he tricked me.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has taken away your blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw, explain, no wonder his name is Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: For now he has cheated me twice.

[SPEAKER_00]: First, he took my rights as the firstborn.

[SPEAKER_00]: No, dude, you sold that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Corrections and now he has stolen my blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, haven't you saved even one blessing for me?

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac said to Issa, I have made Jacob your master and have declared all that his brothers will be his servants.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have guaranteed him an abundance of grain of wine.

[SPEAKER_00]: What is left for me to give you my son?

[SPEAKER_00]: Issa pleaded, but do you have only one blessing?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my father, please bless me too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Esau broke down and wept, and finally his father Isaac said to him, you will live away from the richness of the earth in a way from the dew of heaven above.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will live by your sword and you will serve your brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: But when you decide to break free, you will shake his yolk from your neck.

[SPEAKER_00]: From that time on, Esau hated Jacob, because their father had given Jacob the blessing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Esau began to scheme.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will soon be mourning my father's death.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then I will kill my brother Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Rebecca heard about Esauce plans, so she sent for Jacob and told him, listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw us consoling himself by applying to kill you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So listen carefully, my son.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get ready to flee to my brother, Laban, and Hiram.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stay there with him until your brother cools off.

[SPEAKER_00]: When he calms down and forgets what you have done, is that possible?

[SPEAKER_00]: I will send you.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will send for you to come back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why shall I lose both of you in a day and one day?

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Rebecca said to Isaac, I am sick and tired of these local, hit-type women.

[SPEAKER_00]: I would rather die than see Jacob marry one of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a lot, let me highlight a few things.

[SPEAKER_00]: One, this tragic, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac is uncontrollably shaking.

[SPEAKER_00]: He saw his yelling, his grieving, his begging.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's tragic to think about the fact that, you know, for

[SPEAKER_00]: He's not even willing to live in a reality about what he's done in the past.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's still blaming his brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: This brother do a shady thing, you.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that he go along with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that he have to, nope.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was his choice.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was what he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: Blaming other people for your mistakes or choices, using not a wise practice.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in a way, it's another element of it that's kind of tragic is that

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Isaac, I don't think he's uncontrollably weeping because all of a sudden he realizes that he was wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's like, oh, wait a minute, my plan didn't work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I could be wrong there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But in verse 37, he's really clear with East always like, listen, once this blessing has been given, it can't be taken back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And your place is under your brother's headship now.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the family head.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the covenantal head.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where you live in the grand scheme of things now.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he saw just won't have it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He still wants something for himself when really he could have just lived under his brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: But God knew what was in East Oshrot.

[SPEAKER_00]: We see it right here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that is why another Bible is there from the time.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is why I would say he receives like almost an anti-blessing in verses 39 through 40.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you compare the blessing that Esau gets versus a Jacob gets, they mirror each other in opposites.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you think about what was this like for Isaac?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's humbling, realizing that he can't outskim what God had set in the motion already.

[SPEAKER_00]: For Esau, it's yet again a reminder,

[SPEAKER_00]: that sometimes it just has its heart sit on the wrong things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's kind of continuing to get him into trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: You think about this for Rebecca?

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, you want to talk about a mom's nightmare.

[SPEAKER_00]: She thinks in her mind she can just send Jacob away for a little bit and in her words, like, oh, your brother will forget about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything will cool off, everything will be fine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you can come back.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know if you're ever getting past that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if you jump into 28 versus one through nine, what you see is that Jacob is then sent off to Labans to go seek a wife, Adam and T. Charon the next week.

[SPEAKER_00]: As far as we know in Scripture, as far as we know, Rebecca never sees Jacob again.

[SPEAKER_00]: At least if she does, it's not detailed.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the whole common of, I don't want to lose both of you in one day.

[SPEAKER_00]: and her relationship with ESO and Isaac is probably forever different.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she already doesn't like his wife, so.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to go back to a question that kind of started with earlier.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where's gotten all this?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we know the prophecy, the declaration about how the younger would rule over the older.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's name is mentioned five times in chapter 27, but never any point is anybody being truthful about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Jacob says that the Lord brought him the wild game, which it was, and it was from the family farm with the goats.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every time Isaac mentions the Lord's name, it's because he thinks he's talking east of, but he's not, he's talking to Jacob.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I am aware, where is God in all of this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he is working in despite and through broken and wicked people to accomplish his ultimate will and goal, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, to back off of this particular moment and to go to the chapters of Paul, I've got a little image, I'm going to put up on the screen.

[SPEAKER_00]: That just kind of talks about all the ways in which God has this good and perfect will of who is going to establish his covenant through.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he is in the background the whole time, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: There are times where he speaks and there's

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he was, he was sovereign when he was providing for Isaac through famine and through sejourning.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was sovereign when he protected Rebecca when Isaac failed to.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was sovereign when he was allowing Isaac to go through the Naghev Valley and no longer be a deceiver and a liar, but to just trust in the Lord's provision until eventually he found a space where he could establish and be prospered.

[SPEAKER_00]: He trusts, God has sovereign in the fact that he's dealing with the people that are opposing Isaac as Isaac is going through this whole journey.

[SPEAKER_00]: And God has sovereign of preserving his plan to spite family's scheming and all of the chaos that ensued there.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's sovereign.

[SPEAKER_00]: Was it right for Rebecca to do what she did, no?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was it right for Jacob to go along with?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think so.

[SPEAKER_00]: was it right for Isaac or East, I'll do it that I don't think so, but God is in the business of dealing with them working through broken people, isn't it?

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the ways in which he works that are sometimes mysterious to us are known to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the way he works.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, as a closing takeaway, I just want to come back to my main point, just to remind you that God is suffering

[SPEAKER_00]: in the midst of your trials and chaos.

[SPEAKER_00]: So acknowledge him and let him lead you through it, or else, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: You're gonna wind up fighting him and not realizing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I say, just go with what God says.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go with what God says, because in the end, you might wind up fighting God and not even realize that that's actually what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so as I was thinking about two specific applications for this morning, the first thing I just wanna say is this,

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're here today, and you're like, okay, Kyle, what does my takeaway in all of this?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not even a believer.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does my takeaway?

[SPEAKER_00]: That was a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was so, so, so much.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't play the game and thinking that you can save yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Ask questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: Per seue answers.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a great place to do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But don't continue to play the game to think that you can save yourself with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's some other way.

[SPEAKER_00]: You may not realize it, but you're fighting God in that.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the good, but the good news is God loves people that fight against him and he was willing to die for us when we were still yet enemies.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, if you're here today and you're like, well, how does God sovereignty work on my salvation?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let me tell you something, man, there were some wicked people with wicked schemes that thought that they could squash out what God was doing to bring redemption into the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, when Jesus was crucified

[SPEAKER_00]: They thought that was the period and the Jesus ministry and what he was doing, but it was really just a comma for what he was about to do next to be the exclamation point for him to prove that he was everything that he had said he was and that he could do everything that he said he could do.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Apostle Paul who, man, you wanna talk about a guy who thought he had it right and then Jesus was the difference in his life and changed everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is what he says on the other side of salvation

[SPEAKER_00]: I passed on to you of what was most important and what has been passed along to me that Christ died for our sins, comma.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could people thought that was trouncing Jesus out now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as a scripture said, he was buried and he was raised from the dead on the third day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as a scripture said, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're here today and you don't yet know Jesus,

[SPEAKER_00]: Man, this is a great place for you to ask questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today I just want to encourage you to take that next step towards Surrender Him as your Lord and Savior.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a believer in your hair today, I just want to challenge you with this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trust in the Lord's sovereignty and not in your schemes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trust in the Lord's provision for you and not in thinking that you have to do it yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Trust in the, and especially in the midst, I want to say this, especially to our younger people in the audience, the way that you're attacked is the question who you actually are, what is your actual worth?

[SPEAKER_00]: In the moments where you feel that and you feel like you need to say face, or you need to save yourself, or you need to try to save the situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Instead ask God, say God help me see you because right now I'm just thinking I've got to save the day and I can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: but you can.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it doesn't look like it right now, God help me to see you, help me to trust in your sovereignty so that I can be the person that you've called me to be today right now with my friends, in my workplace, in my family, or wherever it is that I am.

[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, that's it for today, let me pray for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, we thank you for the ways in which you are so infinitely powerful and wise,

[SPEAKER_00]: and able to work around through and to spite us to accomplish what you have set out to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a part of you that is just totally different than us and we are so thankful for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, wherever this statement needs the land for us today that we need to trust in your sovereignty through our chaos and through our trials because we don't want to fight you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, RPG just help it to land wherever and he's the land today, because in a room full of this many people, it's going to hit us all different.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when we see and sense your presence today, as we sing out these last few songs and seek to go live this out faithfully this week, we pray these things in Jesus' name.