Navigating the Path to Blessing
The Journey • Sermon • Submitted
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This morning we are starting a news series entitled..
The Journey...
Have you noticed that when you put directions into your phone or GPS it gives you different options .. Either you travel the shortest route/distance.. or the fastest / quickest time..
There are things that can influence our decision of what route to take… things like — the amount of traffic or road construction… but ultimately we are looking for the quickest route…
We as humans like to take the path of least resistance… When it comes to the Spiritual life.. and the Path of Blessing... the opposite is true… It is not necessary the shortest path... or distance —but rather it is about the entire journey…
Over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at the spiritual formation and transformation of Jacob… Jacob is a key character in God’s Redemption story…
Genesis is the book of beginnings - We have the story of creation and the fall of man....and we also see God’s gracious dealings with mankind…. and how God immediately sets into place a plan of reconciliation…
There are two significant Covenants in Genesis… the first is the Adamic Covenant…
God Promises to deal justly with the the entrance of Evil into the world…even though man was bruised by sin... God himself through...the seed of the woman would ultimately crush the head Satan… and restore what was taken…
And then there is the Abrahamic Covenant.
God called Abraham on a journey to leave his home of in Ur and follow him into the promised land. From Abraham a great nation would be formed that would be a blessing to the world… God says.
It is the Abrahamic blessing that drives the book of Genesis
God’s promises did not come without obstacles… the Patriarchs all struggled, everyone of them failed and made mistakes…When it comes to Jacob — We learn more from his failures than his successes..
To be honest this is encouraging.. because..
Jacob reminds us that.. we are part of God’s redemption story.. we all fail and make mistakes but God has made a way… a pathway of blessing… a process to be transformed made into his likeness…
Isaiah the prophet looked forward to a day that God would do new things.. about God doing a new thing…
Thankfully God works in us in our spiritual formation… The way that we navigate the path of blessing is holding on to his promise..
It has been calculated that there are over 3000 promises that are given in Scripture.. Some of them are clearly outlined for us in his word…
We have the blessing of being invited to participated in his divine nature…some of these promises are unconditional… other are conditional
There are other promises that are Personal... … these are promises that and he confirms through our hearts and validation of others. For example it may be what God has revealed to you about your calling or your career, a ministry, a family, a revival, or even for healing from pain.. God gives us promises in his word to hold on too.
We learn from the Patriarchs God’s promises have to be accompanied by great faith. The Bible says that Abraham four times believed God and it was put to his credit as righteousness...
The story of Jacob begins with Isaac and Rebecca anticipating what God had promised… but there is a major roadblock.. … Rebecca is barren… They have this great promise of being parents of an entire nation ... and yet they can’t even produce one child..
T/s What we learn is how to manage this tension of living under the Covering of God’s Blessing..
First…We have to be..
1. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Will.
1. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Will.
I am sure that most of us are familiar with apples Siri and googles Alexa app… Artificial Intelligence is now part of our world...
We now can just talk to an AI and get information, make purchases, set reminders.. I was reading that…
Jeff Goldblum who acted in the movie Jurassic Park and Independence Day....
in an interview on the Today Show in Australia — said that Apple's late cofounder Steve Jobs once offered him the opportunity to do some voiceover work… Which he turned down…The reason was that he did didn’t know it was Steve Jobs… Think about that… what a missed opportunity...He could have been the voice of Siri… but instead the job went to a Georgia actress named Susan Bennett...
When we talk about Knowing the will of God — WE talking about knowing the voice of God…So that when God speaks to us through his word we Recognize that God is saying something to us…
Here is the thing is that if we don’t listen to hear from God… WE can’t know his will and navigate the path of blessing...
Isaac and Rebecca hit a Road block but instead quitting … they are commited to seeking the Will of God..
19 These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham’s son: Abraham fathered Isaac,
20 and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife.
21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
One of the most challenging things about the knowing God’s will is timing…
Isaac is 40 years old when he takes Rebecca to be his wife…and he is 60 years old when they they fall pregnant…They had to wait 20 years to see fulfilment of promise of a child… The fact that ...
Rebekah was barren, would have been very hard on them for many reasons
First of all there would have been.
Spiritual pressure
Both Isaac and Rebecca knew that God was going to make a great nation ...the promise was God was going to form a nation through their offspring that would be as large as the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea
(no pressure)...
You can imagine them thinking, well... “If we are going to fulfill God’s plan of forming a great nation, we have to start popping out kids!”
The extend of the Promise would have put pressure on them…
In addition to this there were cultural expectations.
2. Cultural pressure
In the Eastern culture…
Woman in that culture were expected to birth children -- to carry on the family name... it was the way that a workforce was developed.. and it is how you prepared for your retirement..
To not have children culturally meant that you were a failure… . It was believed that the gift of children or the withholding of them indicated God’s blessing or curse…
Then there was Pressure from family..
3. family Pressure
When Rebecca left her home her parents prayed that she would be the mother of thousands...
60 And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!”
So the family had lofty expectations.. made the barrenness more difficult.
One of the challenges in seeking God’s will is timing..
Remember Joseph...he had a vision of his family bowing down before him, but soon after, he was sold into slavery and later went to prison… only years later did God exalt Joseph to the the trusted leader over Egypt..… The same thing happened with Moses… Moses grew up in the house of Pharoah.. saw all the hardships of his people.. He ended up acting prematurely and killing an..Egyptian… Moses made the mistake of thinking that the people were ready to follow him… However timing was not right…. 40 years later God meets him on the backside of the desert and says now is the time for you to lead..
A.W. Tozer once said that..
The faith of Christ offers no buttons to push for quick service. — A.W. Tozer
God often does deep work in our hearts during seasons of waiting…first of all..
A. Waiting teaches us how weak we are… There is humility in our weakness… knowing that in our flesh we cannot bring about his promises...
b. Dependance.
In season God teaches us to depend on him more…The bible tells us that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. God often allows storms or trials to create the fertile ground in us, so he can use us more. When Paul understood this about his “thorn in the flesh,” he began to boast in his weaknesses, for when he was weak, then he was strong
c. Contentment.
In times of difficulty we can say that God is enough.. we can be content with the giver even though we never experience the gift.. Some promises that God gives us will be taken up by later generations, as we see with Abraham’s posterity
When you think about the Path that Isaac and Rebecca took, They could have allowed their insecurities and worries to set them back.. Isaac could have looked at his half brother Ishmael who seemed to be prospering.. God had blessed Ishmael and expanded his family… What a challenge that would have been....
Isaac instead of getting disgruntled, discouraged and confused.. we told that Isaac .... prayed on behalf of his wife Rebekah… The Path way to Blessing is Prayer..
The Bible encourages all kinds of prayers... there are prayers of supplication… intercession… prayers of thanksgiving, praise and adoration… At the heart of prayer is this confidence that God hears and answers prayer... Jesus told his disciples that when they prayed they should do so with faith and believing..
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Prayer says I trust your with the future… Here is the thing...
T/s What learn from Isaac and Rebecca is how to manage the tension of living under the Covering of God’s Blessing..
First…We have to be..
1. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Will.
2. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Purpose.
2. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Purpose.
What is the difference between the will of God and the purpose of God? These two words are closely related and we tend to use them interchangeably..
The Will has to with God’s the Big Plan..sovereignty of God…
Purpose on the hand has to do with how God will is being played out.... or going to be fulfilled…
For example ..Before Rebekah conceived she could understand that God had a will (the plan)…through the forming of a nation.. After She gave birth to the twins she could see how God purposes were going to be fulfilled.... through two nations...
Can you imagine the day that Rebecca discovered she was pregnant… There must have been this overwhelming sense of relief and joy… all those tears that she had cried… she no longer carried the shame of bareness… 20 years of praying and holding onto Gods promise.. and the joy of seeing God’s promises being realized…
But here is the thing… The answer to prayer is only the beginning…
One of the mistakes we often make when pursuing God’s promises is that we believe the answers or blessings will come without problems… but the answer to Isaac and Rebeccas prayers came with added challenges… We told...
22 The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.
Can you imagine Rebecca attended Lamas classes..or some moms group.. and the other woman start sharing about how they precious it is to feel their children moving.. and kicking… Well Rebeccas reality..was a little different... It was clear to Rebekah that something was wrong.
Rebecca felt like their was as scrimmage being held in her belly... as the babies were literally wrestling inside of her…
The Hebrew word for “struggled” means “to crush or oppress.”
It got so bad that Rebecca said..“If it is going to be like this, I’m not sure I want to be pregnant anymore...
The promise didn’t come in the way she expected
Rebecca goes to prayer asks God.. -- Why is this happening to me?
Have you ever prayed like that?
This really was a faith Response… Unlike Abraham and Sarah…who came up with their own plan to fulfill the Lords will... Rebecca seeks to know God’s purposes.. God answers here request..
23 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.”
God reveals that there were twins inside her ...that would become two warring nations… they would be opposed to each other… and that…and the older would serve the younger...
Now that would have surprised Rebecca… because it was not normal..
… That's not how life is supposed to work… everything is upside down.
Typically, the oldest son in would become the patriarch… the younger would serve the purposes of the older brother..
..
You can imagine that Rebekah… being taken back… She probably thought, Oh, that's really going to complicate things!
What do we do when we don’t understand God’s purposes?
The scripture encourages us to seek God’s purposes.. James wrote..
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
The reason we can trust God’s purposes is because he knows the beginnings and the end…
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
It is amazing how everything in the Bible is connected… In the book of Romans…Paul is dealing with the issue of Israel rejecting Gospel… Paul makes this case… for the sovereignty of God... Paul uses the example of God choosing Jacob over Esau…
Logically...
Esau was the first born would be God’s choice for carrying on the Messianic line..… But we are told that God in his sovereignty rejected Esau and chose Jacob.. In fact Malachi tells us that God hated Esau and loved Jacob....
God in choosing Jacob.. changed the order of nature or human expectations.
In other words the Abrahamic blessing is not for Physical Israel… but spiritual Israel… those who both made up of Jews and Gentiles.....
Thomas Griffith in his book on Genesis says that "“The order of nature is not necessarily the order of grace".
God chooses the weak in order to glorify his name. He works through them in such a way that everyone knows that the work could have only been done through God.
When God himself seems to complicate the life ...what should you do?
1. What can can do is exactly what Isaac and Rebekah did—pray, inquire of the Lord.
2..We can Review God's promises with God in the room. Tell him again and again that you're putting your full weight on those promises—
3. We can Remind God that you don't have a backup plan, and you refuse to take matters into your own hands. And then you wait and trust God.
T/s What about living under the Covering of God’s Blessing..
First…We have to be..
1. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Will.
2. Be Committed to Seeking After God’s Purpose.
3. Be Committed to Submitting to the Process.
3. Be Committed to Submitting to the Process.
The story of Jacob is a story of Grace… When you look at the character of Jacob… He was basically a scoundrel and deceiver…His life is marked by a struggle… from the time he is born he is holding onto the foot of Esau… as he grew up… he was always thinking of ways to get a head of his brother Esau…One day He takes advantage of Esau.. when he comes back from a hunting trip famished… willing to give anything for a bowl of food… Jacob takes advantage of the opportunity.… He then steals Esau birth right and when He deceives Isaac into giving him the blessing…
God in his Sovereign Wisdom.. chose Jacob..
Jacob reminds us that Grace has nothing to do with our own works or merit…Grace is unmerited favor….. God’s choice in election was all grace…
In Grace God says to us … I am willing to work with all your baggage all your flows..
Bob Goff says,,,
Grace means we don't need to airbrush our lives to make them look perfect when they're not
. - Bob Goff
When you compare Jacob and Esau you couldn’t find two different children..
27 When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents.
Esau could be described as a man’s man. He was tall, good-looking, skillful. He became a man of the outdoors and spent his time hunting game.
Jacob on the other hand was a home dweller.. Jacob was a quite man.. solid level headed .. Derek Kidner calls this "level headed quality... made Jacob at his best, toughly dependable... and his worst, formidably cool opponent."
Both Esau and Jacob were named at Birth.. Esau -- was hairy... rugged... Jacob was named for holding onto the foot of Jacob... supplanter... deceiver...
It is important to understand name in the ancient world...
Names were one way understanding and expressing the essence of who that person was... to know someones name was to know that persons character and nature...
One of the ways that we see how God transforms people in the Bible is through their name changes..
Abram name was changed to Abraham.. Sara to Sarah... Names spoke to a persons character and destiny .
.. When ever their is a name change in the Bible there is change of destiny..
Simons name was changed to Peter... Saul was changed to Paul... Jacob name is going to be changed to Israel
When Jesus ascended — We told that his name was exalted..
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
He was exalted and given the name above every other name...
We need to understand the process of Grace… God was working in both the parents and children…
... Even though Isaac and Rebekah were godly praying parents... they were not perfect and neither was there home... They made some mistakes... they had favorites...
28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
. This is a dysfunctional home.. when Jacob and Rebekah played favorites, it not only provoked the sinful natures in their children but also threatened God’s promise. God’s promise was that through Jacob a great nation would come. However, the enmity and trickery between the brothers, incited by the parents, would later cause Esau to seek to kill Jacob
.Isaac and Rebekah, though they loved their children, only caused discord between them and were a hindrance to God’s plans.
It is again only God’s Grace.. at work… that saved this family...
Conclusion
Maybe you find yourself today in a place of where you don’t understand God’s will or purposes.. …
Maybe things at work are not what they should be? Maybe you look at your family and wonder what happened?
Maybe you feel that God is distant from you…We can take comfort that God plan is much bigger than we could imagine..
God’s plans and purposes are good...
1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.
3 Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.
Proverbs 16:1 is not intended to minimize the importance of planning, but to emphasize God’s sovereignty over our words. Humans are free to carefully arrange their thoughts like soldiers in battle (see the use of a related word in Genesis 14:8), but the ability to answer appropriately (reply of the tongue [Prov. 16:1]) comes from God.
2. Lord of our ways (16:2)
We are adept at justifying our failures (the inclusiveness of all [16:2] would be humorous if it were not so true), but God is not fooled. He weighs our motives on the scales of His perfect knowledge and discerns exactly why we do what we do. We must watch the motives for our behavior and let Him be Lord of our ways. Understanding this proverb—as it speaks both to our tendency to self-justification and to God’s perfect insight—will also curtail a critical spirit in us.
As suggested in Proverbs 16:1, God has no problem when we plan; 16:3 even promises success. For this to happen, however, you must commit to the Lord whatever you do (16:3). Commit is, literally, “roll,” and is found with this meaning in Genesis 29:3 where a stone is rolled across the mouth of a well. Used metaphorically, the verb can be translated “remove” (see Joshua 5:9) or, as here, “entrust to God” (see Psalm 37:5). We may not think of “rolling” our actions on God (although we speak of “casting our care on God”), but this may be just the word picture to get us to entrust the totality of our lives to Him
Commit all your ways to him
Proverbs 16:1