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Good morning.
If you have your bible, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join us
in Genesis, chapter 27.
As you turn there, we had announcements I want to expound.
Take a couple moments, to explain, maybe in a little bit
more depth, about a couple of things that are going on in
our kids ministry, but that also speak
to, the culture of who we are as a church, the
direction that we feel that, God is leading
us. Last year, we took a break,
an intentional, move and vision from
what we had been doing with our kids, for our
summer. we've called it a lot of different things over the course
of even my tenure. So if you think of, like, a traditional,
like, kids vbs type structure of
an event, and we moved last year to
do something called kids camp and had a wonderful,
time, a wonderful response from our kids, wonderful,
times of worship, of bible study, of activities
together. and last year, we talked about that. We were made
for worship, and so this year we're going to
continue on. So if your kids were a part of that
very similar structure, set up
activities, but different activities that we're going to be doing, during
that time, same category, but different ones that they're going to do.
but this year, we're going to do what's called made for mission.
And we're specifically going to look at the book of
acts with our kids over the
course of that week. And so we're excited about that. It is
July 15 through 18th, and I want to kind of
explain some things that are the same and the things
that are different. All right. Now, kids camp is for all of
our, kids who have completed kindergarten to
fifth grade. So we're including all of those. We break them
out, into age appropriate groups for their
activities and for their small group times. But all
gathered, together for worship, it will run from
six to 830. and so with that, parents, if you're
thinking, man, that's hard to turn around and get them a meal and do
all those things, that will be with a full meal
that evening that we'll have for them. All right? So you can
bring them here, maybe a little hungry, maybe
not a lot hungry. Like, that's probably not the day to fast,
with your second grader, before you drop them off with us.
but we'll have a full meal for them each
night, and they'll also have a t shirt, all
right. That they're going to have. Now, registration does open
today, and it runs through June
16. And we're doing all the online registration that's
really helping us and helping so many of you. But again,
we want to reemphasize. If you're like,
my 1999 flip phone is
sufficient. Right. We're gonna walk along with you
and help you get registered. Okay? Like,
we'll do that and want to help you with that.
But here's how things are a little bit different from May
5 to May 25. We're calling this early
bird registration of $25 per kid.
And then here's what we want to, kind of emphasize and
stress, okay, where some things we can
say, we'll take as many people as we can. And we
love to do that because of the planning of what we have
to do for kids camp and the buying of supplies
and the ordering of things ahead of time, because our
activities get really involved. And for some of our
activity leaders, there's weeks of planning that are going
into this, which is why registration starts so
soon and ends almost a full month
before we begin. So our early bird
registration from May 5 to May 25, it is
$5 off, but we're also doing that in house. Okay?
So if you worship, and you're a part of Willow Ridge
church during those three weeks, that's going to be the
opportunity for you to get your kids registered and then
be a part of that. But then from May 25, 26th, to
June 16, all right, the cost goes
back up. But that is, at that point in time is when
we open it up to the public for you to invite your friends
and your neighbors and all of those sorts of things. We want
to include as many people as possible, but we need to do
so in a way that helps us plan and
prepare for the week that we're gonna have. All right,
now, there is a cost for this. All
right. now, if I were to tell you, that we're gonna feed your
kid for a week, for $25.
I don't know about you, but the bradberries are saving some money that
week, right. and so, the cost definitely
does not cover, but it helps give some ownership for
registration with that. but if the cost is
an issue for any one of you, or anyone that
you know, please make us aware, all right? We do not want
that to be a reason, why people, don't come in and
are not apart.
All right. also, for our volunteers, if you
would like to volunteer for that, here's what we need.
We need you to also register. Okay. All
of our volunteers must be registered ahead of
time and through this process. And that's if
you're an adult and you want to volunteer. But that's
also if you're a 6th grader through a
12th grader that would like to volunteer,
our volunteers are not charged, but that's what
we need, to happen. All right. Our fifth graders
this year, we're going to ask that they be a part of the week if
they want to be a part as a participant in the camp. And I think
they'll be blessed, as a result of that. But if you're a 6th
grader and older, we need you to register for that.
There's background security. There's all sorts of things that
we need to go through to make sure we're not only efficient,
in doing what we need to do, but also that we're providing
the safest, experiences possible for, all of
our kids that are coming in a part of that. All right? And
so, if you're an adult
or you're a 6th grader through 12th grader and, like, you show up that week
for, like, a one night and you just want to help out because there's something
that's going on every other week, so you just pop in that night,
like, what can I do? the answer will be, here's what you can do.
We want you to pray, but we can't have you serve because
you haven't been able to do the things that we're requiring beforehand. All right?
So, we don't need. We're not trying to draw a harsh
line, but we are trying to draw a line, and we want as many
people involved as possible and a part of this
week, but managing it that way. So I'm looking forward to
this. I'm looking forward to having our
kids camp. Last year was just a wonderful time of worship.
Bible study, man. We've got some wonderful
teachers in our congregation, and to sit
back last year and to listen to them work through
in the life of David and to teach was a wonderful
blessing. And so I know that our kids are going to want to be
here and be a part of that as well. So we'd love to have
them register and sign up. Also. There's
some, there's. There's another thing that we're doing,
this summer, and I know it says it's
spring, but let's be honest, spring is like
two weeks in South Carolina summers here. All
right, so we're starting, this summer. We're trying something
different. All right. this summer. And it really speaks to the
very end. I'm going to share the heart, behind
why we're doing what we're doing with this.
we're calling them simple Sundays, and it's going to
run from May 26, to July
8. And here's what that's going to look like at our
church. And I want to say this. If you've got questions about
this, specifically, if you got questions about anything, come
see us after church. But if you've got questions
about this, we want to answer those and
eliminate any confusion that's there. but
for simple Sundays, from May 26, to July
28, here's what that looks like for us. On Sunday
mornings, we will have normal discipleship time
at 09:00 a.m. Just like we do for our kids, for
our teens, for our adults. Pastor, Dave talked about what we're going
to be offering for our adults, and we're going to continue to move
forward during our discipleship hour with what we're doing with our
kids, what we're doing with our teens. We're gonna have our normal
fellowship time from 950. And I wanna encourage you, if you
have not been here early, if you haven't been getting here early, like,
you're just missing out. You're just missing out. It was about
three months ago, and I like to kind of just have a moment where I stand
over on the side and just kind of look and observe. And I
had one of our church members, she came up to me
and I was just kind of looking out over everything, over everybody.
People that I didn't know know each other, talking, laughing, drinking
coffee, having juice together, kids laughing and have a good
time. Teenagers congregating and hanging out and
talking about their week. And she looked at me and she said, this is
a beautiful picture because this is a picture of the church.
It's a picture of the body of the fellowship. Right? And
that's why we have that. We don't have that because we
think, like, orange juice and a moon pie is going to get you through the service.
All right? we have this because it's just a
wonderful time for us to spend time together
as a family. All right? So discipleship doesn't change.
Fellowship time doesn't change. but here is what
that's going to look like. Here's what's changing. How we're,
doing our worship time together is going to
change. So I'm going to kind of describe twofold,
largely for our elementary kids, how this changes. All
right? So, from May 26 to July
28, kids who have completed
five k to second grade will join
with their families, just like they did today for the beginning
of worship, and then they will be
dismissed just like they were today. They'll
be dismissed after that first worship time that we have
together to head to the back, where they'll be taken over
to building two in room 200. And this is an
exciting part about something that we're doing a little bit differently this
summer. When they leave to go over to room
200, they're going to go in for continue
in worship and discipleship and time together,
and they will be led by our
high school youth, by our
youth leaders and a member
of Willow Ridge church staff. All right, so they're not just
being released with the high schoolers. Y'all go figure this out. Have fun. Right?
That's not it. But some of our kids that are pouring into
and growing as leaders, they're gonna take the charge in the
room. And I'm excited about that, to see teenagers for a
block of time walk alongside these students. But
then in the room as well, are gonna be some of these youth leaders
and also different Willow Ridge staff members. And
so here's what that's strategically doing for us. Right? We believe
that we are one church. Church, that has
different sections, but we are one church, and we believe that what
is happening in the life of a five year old is just as important.
What's happening in the life of a 15 year old, a 55 year
old and 85 year old. And what it helps us do in
this moment is connect the body together to
remind them that we are one in the importance of
that. And so I'm so excited, as Joel van
Ham has shared this with the kids or our teenagers, and they've
latched onto that. And there's that piece. But then the
other part, right? So we got five k to second grade will be
dismissed. But from May 22 to July 28, kids
who have completed the third grade through the fifth
grade will join their families for the
entire worship service during that time. Okay, so we
will keep them in here. Now, here's some things that we're gonna
do within the context of our service, to kind of walk
alongside them with that.
All right? We've been building in things like Easter, Christmas,
Christmas Eve, like, we build in our
times together where they have this, and we'll try to
reflect our service like we do with those.
The message time. I've been talking to the guy who
preaches, and he's
promised me that he's going to shorten it,
all right? He's promised
that he's going to. All right. so
he's going to keep his word. And if he doesn't,
then I'll have lots of conversations with lots of
parents on Monday where I'll apologize for him
with what he's done. All right? But we'll also. We'll
start a new series. We'll take a break in Genesis, and,
we're gonna be working alongside. Dawn and I were able to sit
down and we're working through the parables of Jesus
together. So all of the kids, all of us,
everybody will be working through this new series
as we do that together. Just as Berger did this
morning, he's gonna incorporate worship music,
both done in kids worship and in adult worship,
so that we have some overlap. That's so our kids
can sing the songs that they know, that we can sing the songs that
we know. And maybe each one of us learn some new
songs, with that. And then also,
Don will be working on each week for a
sermon tool that'll, let's just say, help our kids
maybe stay focused, during the summertime. All right.
I was sharing this with one of the leaders of our church, and he said,
do you think I could have a copy of that sermon tool? And I'll say, if
you want a copy of it, just let dawn know ahead of time so that she has
some extra copies for you, but a piece for them,
not to distract them during the message,
but a tool to help them
engage, with what is going on and what is
happening. The only exception, for kind of
breaking in the norm, for those will be Father's day, June
16, and July 7 is kind of a day
that we've determined, and during that, we'll
have our preschool, through fifth grade in here with us
for the entirety of the service. All right, now, if
you're a parent in here, all right, it wasn't that long
ago, that we were parents
with kids that age, Aaron and I. and I know,
like, this can kind of be a.
But it's important. It's
important. And here's
why it's important.
Why do we do this? Why did
we. And we've even joked around in staff
like, we're calling it simple Sundays, but it's just not simple.
It's not simple for us as a staff. It won't be simple for you
as a family. So why do this? I
think three reasons. Number one, church was
not intended to be a place for family isolation.
It's not. This is not a place
where you just drop off and the
family isolate and never connect. The
relationship with Jesus was always to be the
center in the drawing together of the family. So
you don't want families to isolate. Second, family
worship is needed, and it's essential.
It's essential. our kids
need to see us worship,
right? They need to watch
and see what that looks like. They need
to understand that what's happening in another room
and the commonality of the things that are there.
They need to be challenged
to be a part and to engage in
that. And I would argue for
us, we need to be challenged
as well, to welcome
into the midst a kid who
can't quite sit still the whole time,
to a kid who makes a little bit of noise,
to a kid who spills their orange juice during the middle of a
prayer. Right? We need to be
inconvenienced a little bit. And I think
God's going to use this and bless this.
The last thing, and this is kind of maybe a summation
of all of this, is we are one church and our kids are part of
this church, right? This isn't a. You turn
18 and now you're apart. We are one church and our
kids are a part of this. And what
this does is this communicates that, all right?
This isn't a plan to do
this beyond this summer. This is something,
as we prayed about and as we looked at what God would have
for us, that we believe that this was an avenue that God
was taking us down. And we look forward to the
lessons that we're going to learn and how we're going to
grow as a result of having these kids in here. So
I encourage you, as this time
approaches, to be praying for our time
together, as we do this. All right.
With that said, I'm going to get started in Genesis,
chapter 27. This is
a very long passage, and I'm going to just
hit a few points, with this, but trying
to be faithful, to the passage
scripture as well. I want to ask you a question,
for you to think about what
happens when God has a
plan, but you have an
agenda. As I read
through Genesis 27
this past week in my office, that's the
thought that kind of came over and over in
my mind, what happens when I
know that God has a plan?
And even specifically that God has, in his
kindness and his mercy, has allowed me to
know, to be a part the plan, to have this
plan revealed to me, to see this plan
from scripture, but that in the midst
of God's plan and God's
purpose, as I wrestle with that process
of sanctification of what's in me, as
there's the part of me that is praising and
celebrating Jesus, but still that selfish
part of the old me that from time to time wants to
raise its ugly head up, that in the midst of
that plan of God, of what I'm trying to
do is maneuver and
manipulate and deceive and to
get my agenda worked out through the plan of
God. And I think that's
what we see in
Genesis 27. Now, this
week, I didn't think this is where we
would go. In fact, when
I read Genesis 27, it took me
back to the technology of the 1980s.
If you grew up in a church in the 1980s,
specifically my generation, this is what I remember. So
some of you remember before that. Some of you remember after
that. But we didn't have screens
in kids ministry. We didn't have
tvs. We had
felt boards. Remember the felt
boards? And our teachers
would play out the Bible
story by taking these cutouts
and placing them on the felt board.
And then you had some kids
that, when they would turn around, like, you'd reposition the characters. You know what I mean?
Like you weren't paying attention. And look, what I did, right,
was that kid. And as I read
this, this story,
it took me back to Calvary
Baptist Church in South
Augusta, near Regency Mall,
sitting in the second story in the
classroom that had the record player that I
constantly got in trouble with because I tried to scratch on
it, and it didn't work.
It just tore the record players up.
It took me back to that, and I began to rest,
like, in that,
lord, like, what do you
have? Because you see so much
of oftentimes, how we read the
Bible is we want to figure
out who's the good
guy. I know who the bad
guy is, but who's the good
guy? And sometimes we see
that. Sometimes as we read through,
we see, here's the good guy. This is how God's
working. This is what God's doing. Here's the bad guy. The bad guy's trying to
stop what God's doing. The bad guy's trying to stop how God's
working. But sometimes we get stories
like this, and it's
like,
I don't see a lot of good guys.
And so I think what we're going to see when we
see this, it's the
truth that maybe doesn't warm
our heart in the beginning, but I hope it does by the
end that we're
all just bad.
But in spite of that, God is good,
and that God's working and moving to
save for himself a people,
in spite of what we want to
do and how we want to get in the way of that.
So let's read. We're going to read all the way
through all of chapter 27,
starting in verse one. Get a sip of water
first.
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.
And 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. Paul's really quick. Like, what he's talking about with this blessing,
like this is carrying, like, some birthright
implications. And if you've been journeying with us, you
know about that, and we'll talk about that some here, as
in the message, verse five.
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, 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 that I may prepare
from 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 Rebekah, his mother, behold,
my brother Esau is a hairy man, and
I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father
will fill me, and I shall seem to be
mocking him and bring a curse upon myself
and not a blessing. And his mother said
to him, let your curse be on
me, my son. only obey my
voice and go and 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 goat. She put on his
hands and 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 to his father and said, my
father. And he said, here I am. Who are you,
my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am
Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you
told me. Now sit up and eat of my game.
That your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to
his son, how is it that you have found, it
so quickly, my son? And he
answered, because the Lord, your God, granted
me success. Then Isaac said to
Jacob, please come near. That I may fuel
you, my son, to know whether you are
really 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 near
to me. That I may eat of 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 the dew of heaven. And 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. His father Esau,
his brother, came 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 of his son's game. That you may bless
me. His father, Isaac said to him, who are
you? He answered, I am your son. Your
firstborn, Esau. Then Isaac
trembled very violently. And
said. Who was it that then that
hunted game and brought it to me? And I
ate it before you came and have 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 has taken
away your blessing. And Esau
said, it is not
rightly named. Is he not rightly
named, Jacob? For he has cheated me
these two times. He took away my
birthright. And behold, he now has
taken away my blessing. Then he said, have
you not reserved the blessing from me? And
Isaac answered and said to Esau, behold,
I have made him lord over you and all of 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? And
Esau said to his father, have you but
one blessing, my father, bless me.
Even me 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.
Huh? 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 for my father are approaching. Then I
will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of
Esau, her older son, were told to
Rebekah. 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,
Frida Laban, my brother in Haran. And
stay with him for 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 benefit of you both one
day? Then Rebekah said to Isaac,
I loathe my life because of the hittite
women. If Jacob marries one of the hittite women
like these, one of the women of the land,
what good will my life be to me?
Makes you feel a little bit better
about your family gatherings, don't they? Right?
What we see from here is
a group of people who have heard
from God and who know God's
plan, but that within
that, they're driving home
their own agenda. And I think that you and
I, we can look at this and we
can see this, and rightfully so.
we're gonna barely be able to crack into the dysfunction of
a lot of the things that we see that are happening here.
But there are some comparisons.
They believe God and what God has said God is
going to do, but they're believing God through
their narrative. And what does it look
like in our life when we believe the word of God?
We believe that it is true, but then
through our own selfish,
sinful narrative, this
is what we seek to pursue it as and to
see it through. But this has kind of been the
dynamic of their family. This
is the lineage of Abraham,
who had the promise of God that God,
even in his own age, was going to give him a son,
and he was going to give him a son through his wife,
Sarah. And so what did Abraham do? Abraham
believed God, but he saw and he believed
God through his own narrative. And so he didn't
wait for the plan of God to happen and trust fully in the plan of
God. Instead, he says, I believe in the plan of God, but
I'm going to steer the ship and how we're going to get there.
So what did Abraham end up with? He ended up with
Ishmael from his servant,
from his wife's servant,
and the son of sin.
And then he ends up with Isaac,
the son of promise. What we saw
often and early in his life
was that he believed God, believed the
promises of God, but is going to fulfill the. The promises of
God in his own time, in his own
expectations, as he takes matters into his own
hands. I think. We think sometimes that the
people who do that are the spiritually weak
people. They're not the people who get it. They're not
the people who love the Lord. They're not the people who come to church. They're not the
people who go on mission trips. They're not the people who read their
bibles. They're not the people who trust the God.
But that's not what we see in scripture.
Abraham left
everything, everything,
his family, his country, his
land, all that was there in order to
be obedient to God, a high level of
obedience in his first act of faith.
But yet we still see this balance
with him in
Isaac. This is what we see
in Isaac following. God meets and
marries Rebecca. After their
marriage, they have two sons. They have twins.
Firstborn is Esau, firstborn,
therefore the oldest and the right of the
inheritance, the right of the birthright, the right of the
blessing. This is who it would come to.
And then Jacob is born. Jacob the heel
grabber, the second born, and therefore the
youngest. And we talked about this a few weeks ago,
a couple months ago, actually, where Rebecca is having this
difficult pregnancy. So, in Genesis 25
23 23, I, want you to see her conversation with
the Lord. It says, the children struggled
together within her. And she
said, if it is thus, why is this happening to
me? Like God, if this is your plan? So she went to
inquire to the Lord, and the Lord said to her,
two nations are in your womb, and two
peoples from in your womb shall be divided.
One shall be stronger than the other.
The older shall serve the younger.
God breaks the social norms.
God says, what should be
Esau's birthright,
what should be Esau's blessing
is actually going to be Jacob's.
And this is how I'm going to work, and this is what I'm going to
do.
This is what we see. Isaac believed
God. One son will be blessed over the
other. Isaac tries to control the narrative. I'll decide which
one that is.
So my question for you is this, what do you
do? What do you do when it comes to God's will for
your life? What do you do when it comes to God's will for
your life? Is it an Abraham moment
where I'll leave it all, I'll leave every part
that's there? Or is it the moments of what
we have, of what we see, what we can experience? I'll believe you
and obey you only as far as I'm comfortable with
and lacking what I can hold on to. Right.
So we see this situation that
happens and then creates, and we see what begins to
happen when we drive our agenda over
the will of God. And what we see is agendas create
deception. Agendas create
deception. Right? Isaac called Esau to him.
And this is very interesting when you see this interaction that is
happening in there. Number one, we don't even really know
how old, Isaac is. And he continues,
most theologians believe that he continues to live for a pretty extended
amount of time beyond, this day. But he calls
Esau to him because he's like, I don't know when I'm going to die. And so
here's what I want to do. And he calls him away
from rebekah, and he calls him away from
Jacob. Right. This would not be the norm
when you're talking about a blessing. Right.
So what we see here from the very
beginning, and this is why I say it's kind of really hard to find
the good guy in the story, is because from the very
moment, Isaac's like, your mom's not gonna like
this, and neither is your brother. So
here's what we're gonna do. Here's what I'm gonna give
you. Here's how I'm gonna bring
deception into this. He sought to do something in
private that he would never do in public, and he sought to
do this to deceive those around him. When you
and I, when we live for our agenda,
as much as we want to shadow it by saying we're
doing this for the will of God, we're not doing it for the will of God. We're doing
it for the will for ourself. We might want to make it look
pretty by saying, I just want to follow God and
do what he has me to do. But
really, we're masking this with what we want to do for
ourselves. And Jacob seeks to deceive,
seeks to lie. I'm sorry, Isaac. Seeks to deceive,
seeks to lie. We see that God is the God of truth.
God is the God of truth. And when deception becomes what we
practice, we break from the God of truth. The Bible tells us that Satan is
the father of lies. When we look all the way back to
Genesis three and we see the fall in the garden,
how does the fall come apart? How does it begin to happen?
How does it begin to build? Very
simply, Satan comes in
and doesn't come out and give, like, a flat out lie. he takes the
truth of what's there, and he twists it and he manipulates it,
and he deceives in that moment.
I love this. The Bible is very clear about the people of God and who we're to
be. The Bible says, let our yes be yes. Let our no be no
be people of truth. The second thing that we see in
here is that deception creates manipulation.
Deception creates manipulation. Like mama Bear, Rebecca,
she hears what's going on, right? She's hiding out. She's sneaking
around the corner. She's listening, right? And she hears
what's going on. What does that imply, right? Family. Not build on
trust. So what does she do as soon
as Esau goes away? She doesn't confront. She
doesn't confront, right? I have to be honest with
you. that's not how Aaron Bradbury would have handled this
situation. You know,
she'd be like, bo, yes,
ma'am. We're going to have a conversation. You
know, she doesn't confront. What does she do? She
conspires. She doesn't confront. She
conspires. And in her conspiracy, what she does is she
begins to manipulate, right?
And in doing that, she embraces the sin
of the moment. And then takes it and begins to build
on it. What does she do? She fights sin with
sin. She doesn't fight sin with the pursuit of
holiness. She doesn't come in and say, whoa, whoa, let's wait
a minute. What has God told us? How
has God been faithful? What is God doing? You see,
right here in this moment, spiritually speaking, the adult doesn't walk in
the room. The adult doesn't come in there and say, no, no, no,
no. this is going wrong. This is going bad. This is
going here. We got to stop. We got to set this. We got
to move forward. Here's what we're going to do. And when
manipulation and
deceit build in, what it
creates in this moment is the culture of lies,
manipulation, and the agenda. What they do is they create
a culture of lies. So one brother
dressing up like another brother, like, I still
can't get the picture over. Like, that's a hairy
dude, right? For, like, let's
get the skin of the animal and put it on you.
But dressing up after dressing up after dressing
up. But what we see in here is the lies of
what's being created create the callousness of the
hearts, that of what's there.
And lies create callousness, while
truth brings healing.
It isn't easy to always be a
person of truth. It isn't
easy to always be the person that
confronts the sin. It isn't easy to be
the person that stands on the
solid ground of the gospel. But it is
gravely damaging to your
soul and to the culture of your family to
embrace the lies. So you saw
returns. The entire
scheme is brought to light.
The dysfunction in that moment that is there
begins to build and build and build and build and build, and it
explodes. Isaac's
exposed. Rebecca's exposed.
Esau's exposed. Jacob's
exposed. The ramification of one
brother promising that he's going to kill another brother,
one brother who's going to run and fight against
anything, any standard that his
family would have set before conflict and
strife is going to fill. Page after page, verse after
verse, chapter after chapter,
we see a dad. We
see a dad who I believe loves the
Lord, wants to
follow God and
realizes, I got in the
way. I want you to look back at verse 33 of
chapter 27. This is when he
realizes what's happened.
It says, then Isaac trembled very violently
and said, who was it then that hunted
game and brought it to me?
And I ate it all before you came. And I've
blessed him. Yes, and he shall be
blessed. He knew the
answer. To that question, he
knew. He knew what had happened. He
knew that he had been deceived. He knew that his
plan had been foiled. He knew that all of
this had gone wrong. And it says
that he trembled
violently. In this moment we talked about
earlier, there's not a good guy to
find in here. But so many times the
stories that we find in scripture are not about the good
guys getting better, but it's about the bad guys who need a good
God. And here's what
we see in here. We see the grace
of God's lessons. I think
this is what verse 33 is teaching
us. Theologians have asked themselves
this question, and it's a question I want to pose to you this
morning. Why did Isaac Tremble?
Why did he tremble? Well, there's two
thoughts that I think we can learn
on both of these, of what God can
teach us in these moments when
the exposure of our sin happens.
Number one is this. The thought was that
Isaac was angry. I've been
deceived. My wife and my son,
they plotted against me. Who
are they? How dare they do
this to me?
And they, theologians think he trembled out of anger.
And I think, here's the warning of God's grace.
Not on the screen, but if you want to write this down, Galatians, chapter
six, verse seven. Paul tells
us, hey,
be careful what you sow.
You sow sin, you're gonna reap
sin. If you sow
righteousness, holiness,
that's what you reap too. Maybe he
was angry. Maybe he was angry in that
moment. And you and I, on this side
of this story can look at it as a warning.
A warning of what happens when people
who call themselves the people of God
begin to allow the evil of sin
to be sown into the
culture of our family.
And then why are we surprised
when the harvest is ready and it's
more of what we've sown?
Or we sow the goodness of God
in the love of God, in the holiness of
God, and the righteousness of God.
Second, that theologians think,
and I'm an optimist,
so this is what I believe,
that in this moment,
you ever been caught and, like, you know,
you're caught and you can't do nothing about
it? I will describe that like my
teenage years, right? You're just. You're
caught and you get that
feeling that's there.
I think what happened is this.
Isaac knew he was caught, and
he knew that he wasn't caught by his wife
or by his son, but he knew that he was
caught by God. He knew that in that
moment and what he's experiencing
in that is the conviction of
his sin because he was caught.
And God's saying to him, hey, bud,
I told you what I was going to do.
And you tried to take it in your own hand and
do it your way. But guess what?
It's still playing out the way that I said that it
would. Because I'm God and you're
not, and you're not. And
his sin's exposed in that moment. And the
beautiful piece of conviction is there.
That's why it's the grace of God's lessons
that in these moments, God didn't
take that old man and wipe him off the earth, that
God used that moment to work his
heart, to prune back the dead that was
there to eliminate the sin.
And in God's grace, he did what his
wife didn't do. He confronted, he
addressed. And we see the pieces of what's
there. Either scenario,
we see God's plan holds
true. God's grace is given to his
people, and the purpose of God continues
on. In just a moment, the band's gonna come up
on stage and we're gonna sing one last song
together. And then we're gonna take the Lord's supper together.
And I'll be honest with you, I think today's passage of scripture
is a wonderful reminder
that God doesn't just simply come
to save a group of people who
deserve a salvation. God doesn't
come to save a group of people who always get it
right. God doesn't save a group of
people who know what he
wants and always lives
to fulfill everything that God has for them.
God comes to save a group of people
who are lost, who are broken, who are
hurting. The Bible tells us that we are dead in
our trespasses and sins. And Christ
came, and he lived on this earth,
and he lived a perfect life. And he
died on the cross, died for your
sins and mine,
and was buried in a tomb.
And three days later, rose again.
The Bible tells us that on the days leading up to
Christ's crucifixion that he's
with his disciples and he
tells them about that he's going to leave them,
but it's okay because he's going to go and he's gonna prepare
a place for them. And one
of the disciples says, how do
we go? How do we get to be where you're going?
How do we go to that place that you've prepared for
us? And Jesus doesn't
say, well, buddy, you better straighten some things
out. Jesus doesn't say, well,
it's too late, because you've already done too much wrong.
Jesus says, I'm, The
way, the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the father
except through me. And so today, if you're a
follower of Jesus Christ, we're gonna
acknowledge the sufficiency
of his work on the cross and the
power of the resurrection, as we've
been cleaned by the blood of the lamb
and his body paid the price that we deserved.
And if you're here today and you're not a follower of Jesus
Christ, let me just say this.
Here's what it means. It doesn't mean getting it,
all right. It means trusting the one who
did and putting your faith, your
hope, your trust in him. And
as you journey on this road,
there's going to be bumps in it. There's going to be times of
deception, times of deceit, times where the sinfulness of your life
seems to. To take over. But God is faithful
and good in that,
to hold you in the palm of his
hand. Would you pray with me?
God, I thank you so much for this day, in this
time that we could be here. God, as we
prepare to take the Lord's supper together, as we
prepare to continue on in worship, Lord, I pray that you would
speak to our hearts,
Lord, that you would reveal those hidden
areas that we try to hide, those
parts of us, Lord, that we're wanting to hide
in the shadows and sneak behind
and try to give this false impression of
who we are and God.
Instead, just reveal to us the deceit that's
there, the lies that are there, and that, God, you are good
and faithful to forgive. God,
I pray if there's anyone here who doesn't know Christ as
their lord and savior, God, I pray that today
would be the day that they put their faith, their hope, their trust in
him, or that it would not be
any other means, that they would think that they
might earn a salvation, but it is only
found through Christ in Christ
alone. Listen. Jesus name we
pray. Amen.
Thanks again for listening, and be sure to check back next
week for another episode. In the meantime, you can
visit us, uh@willowridgechurch.org, or by
searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter.