The Sovereignty of God

The scripture reading today is going to be found in Genesis 25

Genesis 25:19–28

verses 19 to 28, and then Genesis 27 verses 1 to 45.

Genesis 27:1–45

If you have the Bible under your seat, that'll be starting in

Page 18. So starting in Genesis 25 verses

Genesis 25:19

19. These are the generations of

Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham fathered Isaac and Isaac

was 40 years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethel,

the army of Padamaran, the sister of Laban, the are man to

be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for

his wife, because she was barren.

And the Lord granted his prayer. And Rebecca his wife conceived.

The children struggled together within her.

And she said, If it is, if it is this thus, why is this happening

to me? So she went to inquire of the

Lord. And the Lord said to her, Two

nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you

shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than

the other. The older shall serve the

younger. When her days to give birth were

completed, behold, there were twins in her womb.

The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak.

So they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out

with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called

Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she

wore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was

a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet

man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate

of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.

When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not

see, he called Esau his older son, and said to him, My son,

and he answered, Here I am. He said, Behold, I am old, I do

not know the day of my death. Now then, take your weapons,

your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt

game for me, and prepare for me delicious food such as I love,

and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you

before I die. Now Rebecca was listening when

Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field

to hunt for game and bring it, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, I

heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, so that I may

eat it and bless you before the Lord, before I die.

Now therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you.

Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats, so that I may

prepare for them delicious food for your father, such as he

loves, and you shall bring it to your father to eat, so that he

may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebecca his

mother, Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a

smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me I

and I shall seem to be mocking him, and bring curse upon

myself, and not a blessing. His mother said to him, Let your

curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice, and go bring them

to me. So he went and took them and

brought them to his mother. And his mother prepared

delicious food such as his father loved.

Then Rebecca took the best garments of Esau, her older son,

which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob,

her younger son. And the skins of the young goats

she put on his hands and and on the smooth part of his neck.

And she put the delicious food and the bread which she had

prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.

So he went into his father and said, My father.

And he said, Here I am. Who are you, my son?

Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your first form I have

done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game,

so that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, How

is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?

He answered, Because the Lord your God granted me success.

Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near, that I might feel

you, my son, to know whether you really are my son Esau or not.

So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, who felt him, and said,

The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau,

and he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy

like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him.

He said, Are you really my son Esau?

He answered, I am. Then he said, Bring it to me

near, Bring it near to me, that I may eat in my son's game and

bless you. So he brought it near to him,

and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank.

Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near and kiss me, my

son. So he came near and kissed him.

And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him,

and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field

that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of

heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain

and wine. Let people serve you, and

nations bow down to you. Be Lord over your brothers, and

may your mother's sons bow down to you.

Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who

blesses you. As soon as Isaac had finished

blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the

presence of Isaac's father, Esau, his brother came in from

his hunting. He also prepared delicious food

and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, Let

my father arise and eat up the sun's game, that you may bless

me. His father Isaac said to him,

Who are you? He answered, I'm your son, your

first born, Esau. Then Isaac trembled very

violently and said, Who was it then that haunted game, and

brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came.

And I've blessed him. Yes, he shall be blessed.

As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with

an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father,

Bless me, even me also my father.

But he said, Your brother came deceitfully, and he has taken

away your blessing. Esau said, Has he not rightly

named Jacob? For he has cheated me these two

times. He took away my birthright, and

behold, now he has taken away my blessing.

Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me?

Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him Lord

over you and all his brothers. I have given to him for

servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him.

What then can I do for you, my son?

Esau said to his father, Have you but one blessing, my father?

Bless me even also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and

wept. Then Isaac his father answered

and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth

shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high

by your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your

brother. But when you grow restless, you

shall break his yoke from your neck.

Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his

father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, The

days of mourning from my father are approaching.

Then I will kill my brother Jacob.

But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebecca.

So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him,

Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by

planning to kill you now. Therefore, my son, obey my

voice. Arise, flee to Laban, my brother

and Heron, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury

turns away. Until your brother's anger turns

away from you and he forgets what you have done to him.

Then I will send and bring you from there.

Why should I be bereft of you both in one day?

This is the word of the Lord. Well, good morning.

My name is John. I'm one of the pastors here at

Port City. So glad to be with you.

I'm so glad you're here today. We're going to finish up a

season in a series called Saints and Scoundrels.

Saints and Scoundrels, we're walking through the life of the

patriarchs. And in this season, which is the

second season technically, we have looked at the life of Isaac

and no surprise, the Promised Child that was longed for and

given. After much impatience and a lot

of mess, he's here. He's arrived.

OK, yet the Promised Child is not quite a St.

In fact, he can be a bit of a scoundrel as well.

He plays favorites influenced by his own, you know, family like

dynamic with Ishmael I'm sure. And he's guided by his

self-serving appetites with disregard for others.

Is he the worst? Nah, the worst is still to come,

but he's not great. But this season ends with really

a most dramatic yet providential ending.

Today, what our hero Antiheri does, Antihero does.

He's feels and thinks is something that we all can relate

to. We all can relate to this.

See, Isaac wants his way. Isaac wants control of his life

and the lives of his kids. He wants things his way.

Can you relate to that? Absolutely.

Have you ever felt thought wanted your way?

Of course you have. Of course this is what we

wanted. Ever since we were kids, this is

what we wanted. We are convinced that our way

would be the best way. And sometimes it's not even that

actually. It's just we wanted our way.

It doesn't matter if it's the best way or not.

Just do it my way. See, this is at the heart of

Isaac. Isaac's just like us.

He wants things in his life to go his way.

You may be here and ask what was wrong with that?

Well nothing if everything you want all the time is always

good. But is it?

Is it? Sometimes we want what's best

for us and not others. Even when we try to consider

others in the equation. We don't even have enough

foresight or information to help in in in many ways or to always

be good. The world is plagued by

different people vying for their own way and clashing into others

lives who want the same thing. And the same is true in this

story. But the harsh truth is that we

want control. And the reality is, is that we

just can't have it. We just can't have it.

But we are tempted to think if we just have enough power, if we

just have enough influence or enough charisma, we can take

over the business, we can run the city, we can take over the

Galaxy, as every villain in Star Wars would say.

Well, maybe not the Galaxy, but to the full extent of our

desires at very least. And that's basically what Isaac

wanted, but it slipped through his fingers.

It will slip through yours and mine as well.

We can't ever have enough power or influence to always get our

way, though many have tried and will continue to do so.

But why? Why can't we have that?

Because there is a particular God in heaven and this is his

world. So let's look at what we learned

about this God and what what that means for us and our

control within our lives. We'll take things in three turns

today. We'll look at the events of this

text. We're going to look at the

implications of the text or the events and then why this is

great news. OK, so events, implications and

good news. So first let's look at the

events. The first thing we see is that

yet again, barrenness is an issue.

Rebecca cannot get pregnant. We've seen this before, but

Isaac went to the Lord. It says in 25 verse 20 or

chapter 25, verse 21. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for

his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer,

and Rebecca, his wife conceived. See, Isaac's impulse is to go to

the Lord. This is a good thing.

He probably grew up hearing about his miraculous birth, so

much so he knew that the Lord could do something.

So he prayed for his wife. And the Lord granted his prayer.

Now side note, husbands, we must pray for our wives.

We must. If we are not praying for them,

who is? Who is?

We must be the biggest intercessors for our spouses,

just like Isaac did right here. We must but notice a detail

here. The Lord granted his prayer.

The Lord heard him. The Lord cared about Rebecca's

Baroness and he was listening. He was listening, but he also,

he had the power to do something.

See, the God of the Bible hears those that cry out to him and

has the power to do something. Isaac has nowhere else to go.

He doesn't have the power to change things.

He doesn't, but he appeals to the one who does.

The Lord hears and answers prayers.

He does. The next thing we see, next

problem, in other words, is that the pregnancy doesn't seem

normal. Doesn't seem normal.

Something's wrong. So she goes back to the Lord.

Lord, what's happening? I imagine she felt like her

hopes of a child would come to an end.

She must have been scared. She went to the Lord for

answers, but the Lord gives her this really shocking answer.

The Lord shares a prophecy about her 2 twin, her twin boys, and

it's not clear in the text, not completely, but it it seems like

she may not have actually realized she had twins.

How could she? Now Isaac would have been

invested in the Lord's answers, so he would have learned what

the Lord said, which is this is what he said.

He's looked back at what in chapter 25 says the two nations

are two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from

within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than

the other. The older shall serve the

younger. So here we learn one thing.

The Lord knows the details of those unborn and what their

lives will be. He even shares with Rebecca what

will be, which is an interesting detail.

He gives her insight into the future to see.

The God of the Bible knows the future.

He knows the future. All right, so now let's look at

the kids themselves. See, Esau means red and he's

hairy. He's a skill.

He's a skilled hunter, a man of the field.

It says he is strong. Jacob, His name means takes by

the heel. He cheats.

He is. He's smooth skinned, not hairy.

He is a quiet man and stayed in the tent.

And this was kind of the Texas subtle way of saying he was the

weaker brother. He's the weaker brother.

But the last detail we learned about these two kids is Isaac

loved Esau because he liked the food from his hunting and

Rebecca loved Jacob probably because he was in the tent with

her all the time. It doesn't say that

specifically, but then if we look at the events further, we

have a big moment in their lives.

See, Rebecca catches wind that Isaac's about to bless Esau.

So Rebecca crafts a plan to fool her husband and have Jacob dress

up as Esau, even and even with his fake hairiness, and she

prepares a meal. Now, Isaac cannot see very well

at this point. He's he's in his, he's older.

So this caricature of his son Esau will prove to be quite

effective against him. Now, what's interesting is that

all of this happens with full knowledge of the prophecy the

Lord gave. See, Rebecca remembers what the

Lord said, Isaac remembers what the Lord said, and Jacob no

doubt knows what the Lord said. It is no.

Yet Isaac still sets out to bless Esau.

Isaac is ignoring the prophecy. In other words, he plans to

bless his son no matter what. And Rebecca, however, wants her

favorite son to be blessed. She wants the prophecy fulfilled

and she sets out to make it happen.

Rebecca instigates the whole thing, but Jacob goes along with

it and contributes as well. But notice after the deception

is successful, who Isaac blames. Do you notice that Jacob?

He doesn't have a clue about his wife's involvement, nor does he

contribute anything to her. Only Jacob.

See, Jacob is left holding the bag.

Now, the last thing from the events.

What was the big deal about this blessing?

I bless food. If you sneeze, I've got you.

But what? What?

What? It makes this a different kind

of blessing. What's it?

What's different about this? Well, this isn't just simple a

simple blessing, OK? This is more like a final will

and testament. It's binding.

See, Isaac is granting his son everything he has.

It's the passing on of the family wealth and lineage.

And another question after being deceived is why couldn't Isaac

just recant and bless Esau? Why couldn't he just been like

everything I just said except for that one, you know, why

couldn't he do that? This is where things culturally

get different for us. You see, this is a binding

blessing and couldn't be taken back because words matter.

Now, regardless of culture, words always matter.

But in this day, words were contracts, words held immense

weight. Your word was your bond.

Isaac wasn't going to revoke what he had done, although he

was presented with the option. See, Esau begs his dad, if you

remember, for a blessing, but only gets the opposite of

Jacob's blessing. So, but what did Isaac actually

bless him with? Let's look at what he said in

verse 28. He says May God give you of the

dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain

and wine. So basically May God give you

all the blessings of heaven and earth and may you be materially

prosperous. OK, Verse 29, he says let people

serve you and nations bow down to you.

May you be basically may you be politically powerful is what

that means. The next he says be Lord over

your brothers and and may your mother's sons bow down to you.

May you rule over all the family.

In other words, cursed be everyone who curses you, and

blessed be everyone who blesses you.

See, this is reminiscent of God's promise to Abraham

actually has the same language, and it infers the continuation

of God's promise to be continued through Jacob.

OK, so the blessing is pretty extensive and makes Jacob the

heir apparent. Basically, it's done.

See, Esau's out and Jacob will be the one the promise continues

through. This makes Isaac furious.

He didn't get his way and there is nothing he can do about it.

This makes Isaac so mad he was shaking.

Picture this to be so angry that you were trembling, shaking.

That was just just being furious.

His hopes for his his favorite son just vanished.

He desired and what he desired, his desire and his will were

swallowed up in a moment. His plans were thwarted.

He had been duped. He lost control of everything.

It slipped right through his fingers.

Let Now let's look at the implications of what happened.

That's what happened. The events aren't super

complicated, but the implications are pretty

astounding. There's one big, massive

implication, and then there's two questions that arise in its

wake. The implication is this, that

God is sovereign. The God, the God revealed in the

Bible, has absolute authority and control over everything that

he has made, which is everything in existence.

Everything in Genesis points to this reality, whether it be the

creation story, the flood, the confusion of languages, the call

of Abraham, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the

promised child. All things are his and are under

are under His dominion. Saying God is sovereign

basically means He is in control of all things and nothing

happens outside of His control. Nothing.

What we learned in this text though is that God sees and

knows the future because He is sovereign over history.

See. He peels back the curtain for

Rebecca and gives her a glimpse of what will be through the

prophecy. However, he doesn't just see the

future, though. He is sovereign over history.

See, all of history is a canvas on which God paints.

See, the big picture is something only He sees clearly.

You and I, we only see the immediate context.

We see the here and now. It's kind of like those, you

know, those paintings that if you're too close to them, you

can't really, like, understand them because they're so big.

You have to like step back and then everything seems to make

sense and you're like, oh, that's what it is, right?

Or it's kind of like those, those movie trilogies where if

you only watch the second movie, you only watch the second movie.

Nothing's resolved. So basically Star Wars becomes

this series where the evil empire just takes over, right?

The Lord of the Rings becomes a story about evil overcoming

Middle Earth, just being run over.

If you don't see the last movie, you don't see how everything

works out and all of history is going somewhere because there's

a sovereign God that directs all things to it's end and there is

a story unfolding and it's God's story to write.

See, in Genesis we are learning the origins of the people of

Israel. They are a chosen people that

will bring about the seed of the woman who will crush the head of

the serpent. We saw that early in Genesis.

It's from the line of Jacob that will come, the Savior of the

world that is Jesus. See, the story is written.

Jesus comes back and makes all things new.

The story of Esau and Jacob is a scene from that movie.

It's from that movie. But God isn't just sovereign

over the big picture of history. OK, not just the big picture.

The God of the Bible is sovereign over human

interactions, the details of all of life.

See, we see in this text that the Lord grants Isaac's prayer

for a baby without granting the prayer.

There are no twins. There is no baby.

See, the small details of their life are under his control.

See, the desire of Isaac was to bless Esau, but the promise was

going to continue through Jacob. So even though Isaac wanted

Esau, Jacob was going to be the one who received the blessing.

What happens in life will always move towards God's ultimate end,

regardless if we wanted to or not.

If things were left up to Isaac, then Esau becomes the air of

promise. But that's not the story God was

writing, and therefore that's not what happened.

See, there are moments throughout the Bible where

different things could have ended the line of Jacob.

We're seemingly thwarted the salvation of God.

In fact, the murder of Jesus looked to be just that.

But it turns out that Jesus murder on the cross was actually

the means of salvation. But nobody saw that coming.

The leaders literally thought in Jesus day.

They thought that they were stamping out the problem.

The disciples thought it was over.

It's only in hindsight we can say and see and say what God was

doing. To say that God only has control

over the big picture and not the details is to miss the way the

big picture plays out. Without the small details you

don't have the big picture. You may know this, but every

electronic screen that you look at is made-up of small little

units called pixels. OK, a pixel basically combines

red, green, and blue light. That is to create any color

needed for any kind of image. The information in an image

tells each pixel what to display.

You are going to be blue. You are going to be this color,

right? It's going to be all those

things. Without each little pixel, you

never get the picture. If you had a dead pixel, and

we've seen this from time to time, it that's why you have

that little black speck on your screen, the pixel's dead.

It doesn't work. But even if you're missing some

pixels, you will get this pic, get the picture, but you need

all the pixels to get the picture.

That makes sense. The same is true with the

details of life. It's hard to know which pieces

are critical because in some way they all are.

If this happens, it then that means this happens.

And then if that happened, then this happens.

They all fit together. Or it's kind of like chess God,

like good chess players, so I'm told.

I'm not one sees a good chess player.

He sees several moves ahead. In fact, the greatest chess

players see the whole game in their head.

A great chess player has to anticipate every move and the

response to that move. They have to think ahead and

calculate what to do next. Well, God is kind of like a

chess master with infinite more variables.

OK, In fact, it takes an infinite mind to know and

orchestrate all things to their intended end.

But this is part of the greatness of God.

He can do that. So the big implication is that

God is sovereign. But this creates 2 big questions

for you and I. And the first question is this.

What about wickedness? What about weakness?

If God is sovereign, what about wickedness?

The options are usually 2 extremes.

Since wickedness exists, then God must either not be powerful

enough to stop it, or God must not be entirely good and doesn't

want to stop it. So what's it going to be?

Is God all powerful and sovereign, or is he good?

The Bible teaches that He is both sovereign and good.

So we are back to the question then, what about evil and

wickedness? The short of it is this, that

God permits evil in this world, in His world.

See, the sovereign Lord of creation permits evil things to

exist in His creation. But why would He do that?

Well, first thing we need to know is that wickedness is the

result of sin. But sin is not a created thing.

God didn't make sin. Here's what I mean.

Sin is a distortion or a twisting of a created thing.

So God didn't create sin. God created things, and among

them are rebellious creatures such as you and I ourselves.

And our rebellion brings wickedness and evil to the

world. Wickedness comes from human

rebellion against God, what the Bible calls sin.

But there are also dark spiritual forces at work, fallen

angels that have also rebelled against God, and they too

contribute to the wickedness of the world, probably more than

our modern minds would admit. Now, in the context of a

rebellious world, God permits wickedness for a time, but it's

not always clear why. See, genuinely wicked things

happen in the world all the time, but it's not because God

wants them to happen or that he is indifferent to them

happening. The Lord has his reasons for

permitting evil. Now let me give you 1 clear

example. 1 clear example. The Lord used human wickedness

to bring about salvation. See God took the wickedness of

humanity and unleashed it all on Jesus the Son as judgement for

the sins of the world. Think about that for a minute.

God took human and angelic rebellion that He permitted and

He used it in the wrath absorbing death of Jesus.

See, human rebellion was the instrument used to conquer sin

and the punishment for sin, which is death.

He permitted those things so they could be undone.

He used rebellion to defeat itself.

He has his reasons. It's amazing.

Another thing to consider though, in God's permitting of

evil, the reality is that it's only for a time.

It's only for a time. No one is getting away with

anything. Nothing.

The accusation that God is not good in permitting evil misses

the fact that he doesn't permit evil indefinitely.

Justice will be served. No one is getting away with

anything. When Jesus comes back, He will

judge the living and the dead. He will.

Everyone will give an account to the risen Christ.

They will. Either the punishment for your

rebellion falls on Jesus in your place, or it falls on you for

all eternity. God does not ignore wickedness.

He judges it. So at some level, the permitting

of evil is a mystery. We cannot know what the Lord is

up to in permitting evil. We can only trust that He has

His reasons. However, it doesn't mean He is

not in control of things. We can appeal to the Lord to

restrain evil and ask Him to change things, and He often

does. But when He doesn't, we have to

trust that He is up to something and we just don't see the big

picture. But know this, know this, Hear

me. Your suffering as a result of

this wickedness is not wasted. It's not because there is a

sovereign God. He can squeeze good out of evil.

He can. Nothing is wasted.

Nothing is pointless. But that is only possible.

It's only possible if God is sovereign.

It's the only way it's possible. In studying this Passage day, I

learned that over the years, many have tried to excuse what

Rebecca and Jacob did. Writers and thinkers would try

to spin it and basically just justify their actions, but in

light of the fact that God permits evil, we must not do

that. We should not do that.

What Rebecca and Jacob did was wicked.

It was wicked. The ends do not justify the

means. Let's say it again.

The ends do not justify the means.

You might be here thinking people keep telling me that I

need to live a biblical life. If this is biblical, I'm good.

I'm with you on that. See, I assure you the deception

of Rebecca and Jacob is not commendable, nor should it be

repeated. This wasn't good and and honest

and honesty about the wickedness of the characters in the Bible

is a must. We got to be honest.

Their wickedness isn't a thing to be glossed over.

The Lord used them and brought about His plans to spite them,

not because of their deception. The Bible is filled with

characters who are broken people, and it's a beautiful

thing that God takes these broken people and He carries out

His purposes of redemption. Why try to hide their wicked,

their wickedness? God is bigger than our

wickedness. Now the second question that the

sovereignty of God raises is this.

What about human freedom? What about human freedom?

When we start talking about the sovereignty of God, we start to

wonder if God is sovereign. Does it matter what I do?

Do my choices mean anything? Are all things predetermined?

These are complicated questions. The short answer to these

questions is yes and no. Yes and no.

The Bible teaches that God is absolutely sovereign and

humanity is responsible for their lives.

So God is sovereign, humanity is responsible.

We are not robots that don't make decisions.

We are not the masters of our fate.

We are not the masters of our own fates or captains of our own

souls. What's what?

Here's what I mean by that. See, in our culture, in our

world, there's an idea that to be free is to have what's called

autonomous freedom. Autonomous freedom.

This is an absolute freedom that can do whatever one wants, go

everyone wants, and nothing can prevent it.

It's the idea that you are free from all external influence or

control, completely free of those things.

And the reality is that is not entirely true.

For humanity to have that kind of freedom would give us,

philosophically speaking, God like status.

Yet nothing in the Bible seems to indicate that humans are

autonomously free. We have limits to what is

possible, but that doesn't negate choice.

OK, let's go back to our chess example for example again.

See, each chess piece has a particular move it can make.

OK, take the knight for example. That's the horse.

In case you're not familiar, the knight can move anywhere in the

shape of an L SO1 space, then three spaces out.

As long as it in that shape it can move to that space.

Now I had to look this up all right but the knight can

actually touch every square on the board, but it has to do it

so do so in the L shape. Now will a knight touch every

square in a game? Nope it but it's possible all

the other pieces are are similar in examples.

Now humans were more complicated than chess pieces.

OK, we have more than one move we can make, but there are a

series of options at our disposal.

Just for argument's sake, let's just say each person has 100

different moves that they can make at any one time.

OK, we live in the confines of those options.

That's what humans can do. Now, the options are limited

because you didn't decide which decade or century you were to be

born in. You didn't pick your parents,

ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or nationality.

All these things. External factors come into play

to shape who we are and what we do with our lives.

It doesn't mean we don't make real choices, though we do.

It's just that freedom is defined by on God's terms and

not ours. OK, we have real dreams and

aspirations. We make real decisions and

choices. We can blow up our lives by

making bad decisions. We can be prosperous through

stewardship and hard work. We can live mundane and quiet

lives if so we so choose. Except.

Except when It's just not the out of part of the story God is

writing. Let's take our text as an

example. Isaac and Rebecca.

They both have plans for their day going into this.

Isaac is going to to bless Esau. Rebecca is going to trick her

husband into blessing Jacob. What governs which way this

goes? Right?

The prophecy already tells us that the older will serve the

younger. Jacob is the line through which

the promise will continue. Isaac made a choice and it was

not successful. Rebecca made a choice and it was

successful. The one governing all of it is

the Lord. But there are consequences to

what happens. Jacob ends up fleeing for his

life. In the story Now, was the wicked

deception of Rebecca the will of God?

Was the wicked deception of Rebecca the will of God?

Was it the plan? That's the money question, isn't

it? See, the chosenness of Jacob and

the continuation of the promise through Jacob was the will of

God. Rebecca's trickery of Isaac was

not, was not. How do I know?

Because God is not a liar and he does not advocate lying.

In fact the whole deception is serpent like.

If you remember back in the garden for some today.

You need to, you need to repent of your controlling and

manipulative ways. You are not pretending.

You are pretending to be God and seeking to orchestrate things

just like Rebecca was. God is not honored in those

things. OK, one commentator pointed out

and he made, I thought he made a really great point.

She could have just left the blessing up to the Lord if he

wanted. He could have just kept Isaac

from blessing Esau just like he did with Balaam when Balaam was

trying to curse Israel. He wouldn't let him see.

Rebecca didn't have to try and make it happen.

She took it upon herself to do so.

And often times when we when we look at events and think could

that have gone differently? The question we should ask first

is not could have gone differently.

The question is, should it have gone differently?

If the answer is yes, then it probably could have gone

differently, but it didn't. See, there are choices, but God

rules and reigns over those choices even further.

The Lord is like that scene from Star Wars episode 1.

I don't know if y'all remember this movie, but you remember

when Qui Gon Jinn, he's basically playing a game of

chance to free Anakin Skywalker and Wado rolls this dice, this

cube, and Qui Gon waves his hand using the force and the thing

just like rolls to the color that he needs.

That's what we're dealing with here.

OK, You may have decided to roll a dice for it, right?

But the Lord determines the outcome.

There's no such thing as chance. It is the it's not real.

See, Isaac may have decided to go against the promise, but he

cannot. For a sovereign God, he can't.

Rebecca may have thought she needed deception to fulfill the

promise, but she did not. OK, with that being said, God is

sovereign and the last thing here is that, and that is really

great news, but let me tell you why.

If you understand the doctrine that God is sovereign, it

changes how you relate to everything it does.

For example, it changes how we relate to worship itself.

If God is an absolute sovereign, then you have a God big enough

to worship. OK, All of creation is under his

control. The color of the sky, the

billions of stars, the 10,000 birds that Tanner's going to

look for, You know, the complexity of, of organic life

and the creativity of human culture, all of it is under his

control. That should make that should

really make our hearts sing. This is the God of the Bible and

there is no other. This God is worthy of our

worship with song, dance, work or anything.

All things are to be done as worship of Him because he is

worthy of it, but he's got to be big enough to worship.

Second thing, a God we have a God we can pray to.

If God is sovereign, then prayer matters.

If God is not sovereign, don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. If He doesn't have the any power

to do anything anyways, why bother?

Why mess with it? He but He is sovereign and when

we pray, we are asking the hand that moves the world to move on

our behalf. And the crazy thing is, is that

He does. He hears us and sometimes acts.

See, Isaac prayed to the Lord about Rebecca, and he heard and

granted his prayer, and the hand that moves the world moved to

make a baby possible. But he is a sovereign God, OK?

He is a sovereign God. Just because you ask him for

something doesn't mean he's going to give it to you.

See, God is not a genie to grant you your every wish.

God is a good dad and he doesn't give you everything you want.

And many times we ask God for something and he says no, like a

good God should. See, we asked for things that

could be really bad for us. We may not realize it would be

bad for us. But consider this.

If God did prosper something he gave, he let something succeed

that you've been working on so hard for, right?

But what it? But what if he did it right now,

though that you're not just working on it, you're working on

it now. But what if he did it right now?

Are you the kind of person, character wise, that could

handle it? Would success turn you into a

monster? Would success make your ego

swell so much that you were impossible to deal with?

Would you swell with so much pride that you decide that you

no longer need God, or anything else for that matter?

That sounds an awful lot like judgement.

Not not a gift, but many times we ask God for something that

will do just that to us, or we or we ask God to move.

Because we are tired of dealing with something.

I've been there, man. Lord, we have learned what we

wanted, wanted from this. To learn that we need to learn,

you know, like make it end. We're done.

We've learned it. But we have to stop.

Say have you, have we? You don't get to determine that.

The sovereign Lord of all knows our hearts.

It's over when he says it's over.

His timing is perfect. We have to trust that He is a

good God, but He's not a genie. Next, if God is sovereign, then

you and I can be saved from our sins.

We can be saved from our sins. There is no salvation for us if

God is not sovereign. We need a sovereign God to

wisely step in and do what we could not do because of our

rebellion against God. We do not have it within our own

power or choice to remove our wickedness.

We do not. It's like a stain that just

cannot be removed. Bleaching a stain stick ain't

going to do it right. We need someone to do it for us.

And John one tells us it says this.

And in verse 11, he says he came to his own and his own people

did not receive him, meaning salvation is not from a heritage

a a a biological one. But to all who did receive him,

who believed in his name, he gave the right to become

children of God, meaning he granted it.

It tells you about how this comes about, He says, who were

born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will

of man, but of God. See, a sovereign God is the one

who saves from first to last. Salvation is work of is the work

of God. The repentance and faith in

Jesus is granted by God. Human choice cannot thwart A

sovereign God. This means it wasn't you who

saved you and it was God. It also means it's not you and

your obedience that will keep you, it's God who will keep you.

There is a rest that comes from this.

We don't have to worry if God loves us or wants us.

He's the one who saved us. He's the one who brought us

near. We don't have to question it,

but only if He's sovereign. Next, if God is sovereign, then

when we come to big life decisions, this changes things

for us. It really does.

We have genuine choices to make. We can genuinely get it right or

we can get it wrong. There is such a thing as living

wisely or foolishly in God's world.

But it's not all up to us. Here's what we can do.

See, we can ask the Lord for wisdom, direction, and outright.

What do you want me to do, right?

Here's the thing, though, about the Lord.

If He wants to speak up and make it plain to you, He will.

He will. You don't have to look for

signs. It's not spelled out in your

Cheerios. There is not some secret code in

the Bible to break. There is not some weird feeling

that you were guaranteed to get about something.

Now. God is sovereign, so if He wants

to make the something plain to you in whatever way He sees fit,

He will. He can.

But most of the time you will pray to the Lord for help and he

will speak through 4 normative ways, normal, 4 normal ways.

OK, one, the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will give you

the confidence and insurance to do something.

I can't tell you exactly what that is.

You just have a confidence and assurance like I'm going to do

it. Why?

I know I can do it. The Spirit will do it.

Second, the Bible, the Bible clearly expresses that God wants

us to do some things it's it has his revealed will some some

things God has made very plain. Just pick up the book and read

it. It's right there.

Third, community, the people of God will speak in and give

perspective, wisdom and insight to you.

The community won't always get it right, but they're going to

speak in because they also have the spirit.

OK, 4th circumstances. The sovereign Lord orchestrates

all things. If there's an opportunity, take

it and see what the Lord does. Just take it.

So those are our four things, the Holy Spirit, the Bible,

community, and circumstances. But let me give you 2 biblical

examples on how all of this works out.

I think this will make it come together.

First, take an example of Caleb. Caleb was one of the 12 spies

who actually came back with a good report.

But at the age of 85, after the conquest of of the land, Caleb

goes to Joshua and reminds him of what Moses told them after

spying out the land and the land that they were on, that it would

become Caleb's inheritance. So after the conquest, Caleb

recognizes, hey look, I remember being here, this is the land,

this is it. And Joshua followed through and

granted him the land, but the Anakim still live there.

That is giants. So Caleb at 8585 moves into Kira

Arba to conquer. And here's what he says.

Joshua 14, he said, verse 12, he says So now give me this Hill

Country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on

that day how the Anakim were there with great fortified

cities. It may be that the Lord will be

with me, and I shall drive out, drive them out just as the Lord

said. Now notice Caleb doesn't know

what will happen, he doesn't know what happened, he doesn't

know what the Lord will do, but he runs off the face giants

based on general promise from the Lord through Moses.

Now spoiler, he does defeat them and brings peace to that area,

renames it Hebron. But he didn't know.

Maybe the Lord will do it. Storm the hill, right?

Let me give you another one. It's when it's the decision to

replace Judas. If you remember, Judas Iscariot

betrayed Jesus and ended up taking his own life.

So the apostles decided that they were going to replace him

with one among them. Now it had to be someone who was

there from the beginning. But here's here's what they did.

This is straight out Acts one verse 23.

He said, and they put forward 2 Joseph called Barsabbas, who was

also called justice and Matthias and they prayed and said, you

Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two

you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and

apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go his own

place. And they cast lots for the for

them and the lot fell on Matthias and he was out.

He was numbered with the 11 apostles.

So they prayed and then they cast lots and they accepted

that, that that was the Lord's answer.

That's what they did. Now let me point something out

to you about that. The whole account of Acts subtly

points out that they got it wrong.

They got it wrong. How do I know that?

Jesus chose every apostle in the beginning, So what made them

think he wouldn't pick Judas's replacement?

I didn't think that what follows is actually Jesus picking a

replacement in Acts. If you go back and read it and

his name was Saul, but now it's Paul.

See, they got. Did they get it wrong?

Yeah. Did it ultimately mess up what

God was going to do? No.

What does this mean? Chill out.

It means chill out. Pray and ask the Lord through

His Spirit to guide, read the Bible, consult with the

community of faith, and then do something.

And then do something. Your aim, your aim, and my aim

is to avoid foolishness and disobedience.

Everything else is fair game under the gaze of a sovereign

God. Everything else, All right, Last

thing. This means everyday life can be

a lot less stressful for you. It can.

God is sovereign, so you don't need to fret.

God is sovereign, so you don't need to give up trying to.

You need to give up trying to control and manipulate

everything towards your own end. You just need to give that up.

My mom used to tell me this as a kid and the Lord just kind of

brought it to remembrance. She used to tell me this.

If it made it to you, it had to go through him first.

If it made it to you, it had to go through him first.

See, God is sovereign. It's not all up to to you and I.

So chill out, do your best and forget the rest.

Stop trying to control everything because you are not

in control. And thank God, thank God.

But on the flip side of that, God is sovereign, but we are

still responsible. Some of us need to hear that.

We need to just do something. You may be tempted to just say

let go and let God, but God is not going to tell you everything

to do. God has a plan and it involves

you and I stepping into the game.

We must move forward in obedience.

We are not. We are responsible to walk in

obedience to the Lord. God is sovereign, but He's not

going to tell you every little detail about what you need to

do. He's not.

He created us in his image and made us in such a way that

creative responsibility is required.

He has good works for us to do, but we have to do them.

It's kind of like this. It's kind of like animal

herding. My family watches the show

Secrets of the Zoo. You should surely check that

out. And they often hurt animals

where they need them to go. And the animals go every which

way. And sometimes they make detours.

They'll stop here and for days. But ultimately they are going in

a certain direction. OK, the same is true with us and

the Lord. We must walk forward, but the

Lord is taking us. We may run into a fence or a

hole, but the Lord is directing us somewhere.

It will feel like we are aim running aimlessly right and and

don't know where to go. But the Lord is guiding us.

We may not know it yet, but we are headed that way.

Well, where is that way? Wherever the Lord wants to take

us. You may be paralyzed here today

by the fear of messing up your kids, your life, or something

else. You need to hear that.

That is not how a sovereign God wants you to live.

It's not. He's got things under control.

You can trust Him. Don't over spirit.

Spiritualize everything. The whole world is the Lord's.

He does stuff through mess all the time.

Just look at our passage today. It was a complete mess.

But God still brings about the Savior of the world through the

mess He does. But don't over spiritualize

everything. He does stuff through ordinary

things all the time. It doesn't have to be

spontaneous or extraordinary for the Lord to be guiding or

moving. It just doesn't.

It's his world. He controls the ordinary just as

much as the extraordinary, to relegate him to only certain

kinds of acts. And this is the sovereignty

part. It's his world.

You're not. Our aim is to avoid foolishness

and disobedience. Everything else is fair game

under the gaze of a sovereign God.

This is really good news for us. Really good news.

So we want control and we just can't have it.

The sovereign God, the sovereignty of God is an

opportunity for us to realize that we don't need control, we

need him. Let's take all that energy that

we give to trying to control things and getting our way and

live accountable to the sovereign God of of heaven and

earth in humility. Let's see our lives as a part of

his story and not him and ours. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you that you are sovereign.

Thank you for holding all things together and causing them to be.

Father, thank you for your goodness.

Thank you that you're so good. Father, we, we trust you with

our very lives. Father, I ask that for those who

wrestle with this truth, would you just help them and show them

the beauty and wonder of your very character and nature.

Father, we love you. It's for your beautiful name.

Amen.