Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph

Recapping the last week

-traveled to Charlotte to take part in the Friday night and the Sunday Morning

-Received a blessing at Charlotte, then again in the Bob Jones Vision Center, then again on Sunday Morning

-Came home to reports that last Sunday was a major outpouring right here at Bethel

-Wednesday night was electric

-move of God has to be Sovereign, and we have to be ready

2 Chronicles 16:9 NASB95

“For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”

We have to put our trust in the Lord, ESPECIALLY when things get crazy and the world looks like its lining up against us.

King Asa started out trusting in the Lord, but then took back control and began to lean on neighboring kings.

Asa died of a disease, and it is IMPLIED that he may not have had to die. 2 Chronicles says “even in the face of the deadly disease, Asa did not seek the Lord for help.

Jehoshaphat means Yahweh is Judge, and has judged.

Sermon:

Generations of blessing. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph

Today we are going to look at how a person becomes a people, how a family becomes a nation.

Abram was called by God. Abram means God is the Father.

Abraham means Father of many nations.

I believe that we are called first to exalt God as our Father here in our community, in our lives, in our church, in our homes, and then to reach the nations with the love of the father.

Abraham’s life was immensely successful. Kings needed his help. His wealth and household grew so large that he needed to send Lot and his family into a different area so they would all fit.

Abraham gets TWO commendations in the book of Hebrews Hall of Faith passage in chapter 11. First he believed God when he was called to leave the land of his forefathers, and go to a land God would show him. Secondly Abraham believed God would raise Isaac to life again in the resurrection and was willing to lay down his own son of promise in order to obey God.

Good news, the whole thing was a setup to reveal to Abraham and through him to us, that God would provide himself a sacrificial ram, and that we don’t have to “kill our kids” in the name of being faithful.

In a church with a multi-generational calling, the Abraham generation is the generation that received the blessing, and stewards it, sometimes for decades.

Abraham, for all his calling to have many decendants, only had one son that carried the blessing forward, that was Isaac.

Isaac Generation

Genesis 26:1–23 NASB95

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws.” So Isaac lived in Gerar. When the men of the place asked about his wife, he said, “She is my sister,” for he was afraid to say, “my wife,” thinking, “the men of the place might kill me on account of Rebekah, for she is beautiful.” It came about, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out through a window, and saw, and behold, Isaac was caressing his wife Rebekah. Then Abimelech called Isaac and said, “Behold, certainly she is your wife! How then did you say, ‘She is my sister’?” And Isaac said to him, “Because I said, ‘I might die on account of her.’ ” Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.” So Abimelech charged all the people, saying, “He who touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.” Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. And the Lord blessed him, and the man became rich, and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy; for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. Now all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped up by filling them with earth. Then Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are too powerful for us.” And Isaac departed from there and camped in the valley of Gerar, and settled there. Then Isaac dug again the wells of water which had been dug in the days of his father Abraham, for the Philistines had stopped them up after the death of Abraham; and he gave them the same names which his father had given them. But when Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found there a well of flowing water, the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with the herdsmen of Isaac, saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek, because they contended with him. Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Sitnah. He moved away from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it; so he named it Rehoboth, for he said, “At last the Lord has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land.” Then he went up from there to Beersheba.

Isaac was a faithful son, and his two major acheivements were “he married well, and he redug his Father’s wells.”

Isaac put in a lot of work carring for his family and livestock, redigging wells only for other people to receive the benefits…UNTIL he created an altar and made his digging coincide with worship.

The Isaac Generation of a multigenerational movement represents the season of laughter, success, and blessing, but also some frustration, repeating efforts, and finally seeing some breakthrough.

With all the blessing and calling and spiritual importance of the Isaac season in the life of a community, Isaac still only had one son of promise who carried the blessing of God to the next generation, Jacob.

Jacob Generation

Jacob’s life was a life of work. Jacob worked hard to receive the same things his previous generations received easier. Isaac found rebecca and she married him easily. Jacob had to put in seven years of work to receive it.

Isaac received wealth and an inheritance from Abraham, and grew into a mighty household that kings entreatied. Jacob worked to make Laban wealthy, all for love.

The Jacob Generation is where effort and adoration come together. It’s the generation where the pattern changes.

Big promises to Abraham, a covenant with God, and a blessing that will impact the world, but one son.

Isaac gets a reminder that he carries the same promise, but again, only one son that carries it.

Jacob has 12 sons who are all enfranchised in the blessing. Each of Jacob’s sons receives a part of the promised land to fill and rule. Judah receives the portion of the first born, even though it should have gone to Rueben. And Joseph is so honored that his two sons each get included as their own half tribes. There’s no tribe of Joseph!

Jacob was the generation that had heavenly encounters, that wrestled with God, saw Him and lived. Jacob’s life was a life of immense effort, and immense encounters.

Abraham and Isaac had favor with the neighboring kings and rulers. Jacob had favor with Esau at the end.

In the Jacob Generation a multigenerational community like Bethel would see the workload increase, and the encounters increase. More hands will be put to tasks, but the multiplication element of the blessing of the Lord increases as well.

Spolier alert, This is where Bethel is as a church right now.

Catch the Fire, John and Carol, represent the Abrahams of our church. They received the blessing and have stewarded it for 29 years. Art and Flora in a different way also fill this role as they were the ones, along with some of you, who planted Bethel, but from the beginning Art and Flora planted this church IN the stream of the Toronto blessing, redigging the wells and stewarding a promise that the river of God would be released.

David Ruis had a word in 1994 that “You believe this is my movement, that my movement has begun. It has YET to begin. This is the plant that I am planting, and it will grow and produce seeds that will spread over the whole earth…AND THEN my movement will begin. You think you have seen something, YOU HAVE SEEN NOTHING.”

Well, in the Jacob Generation of a movement, the seeds multiply and the previous patterns of linear growth become exponential growth, SUDDENLY.

Joseph

The fourth generation is the generation of the unmitigated favor of the Lord. Joseph has favor in Potiphar’s house, Favor in the Prison, and Favor with Pharoah. Joseph’s life could be marked by betrayal, hatred and jealousy. But he does not allow his heart to become bitter.

Joseph sees authority, wealth and favor across his life, and even sees incredible restoration with his family.

As he is established in Egypt he is the first generation to receive the blessing “anonymously”. God is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joseph and Judah don’t make the list as early fathers of the faith.

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived mostly in tents, while Joseph led Israel into the city.