Good morning everyone, it is so good to be here this morning with you all. Right now we get to send out the kiddos to their class where you have the opportunity to learn about God in a way that makes sense to you. Then, remember, you gotta pay attention real good so that you can come find me after service and tell me something you learned today. Then of course we also want to welcome those of you joining us online, etc.

We are still in the Isaac series where we are looking at what it means to apply these stories from ancient times to our lives today in 2024. Last week we talked about how Isaac’s blindness was a metaphor for our own spiritual blindness. We discussed the causes and consequences of spiritual blindness and then we discussed how to overcome that blindness that you are experiencing. Just as a quick recap, I said that to overcome that blindness there were 3 steps. First was to seek God through prayer and Bible study. Second was to humble yourself before God. Third was to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you to the truth. If you are curious about that and you weren’t here last week then let me encourage you to go and listen to the podcast on Apple, Google, or Spotify to catch up. If you are curious about that and would like to discuss things a bit more, then reach out to me and let’s have a conversation.

You know one of the causes of spiritual blindness that I talked about last week was disobedience to God’s Word. The reality is that we all face that cause more frequently than we would like to admit. Some people do that in a way that is very public and garners alot of publicity. One example is a man who was made famous back in 2008-2009. Bernie Madoff. See Madoff ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. He schemed and stole from investors a collective nearly $65 billion. Yeah that’s alot of money. he started off innocently by investing his in-laws money and lost it. Then he took out a personal loan to pay off that loss, and never did that again. After that he would just get new clients to invest with him whenever someone else wanted to cash out their investments. Essentially he was taking money from people to pay off other people and putting money in foreign bank accounts and really shuffling around funds to be able to make everyone happy. In 2009, Bernie Madoff was arrested and later sentenced to 150 years in prison for his crimes. Ultimately he died in prison being called a “financial serial killer”. Beyond the legal consequences, his deception shattered the trust of investors and tarnished the reputation of the financial industry, highlighting the devastating impact that deceit can have on individuals, families, and society as a whole.

Deception is a tactic used by individuals worldwide in order to manipulate various situations and gain advantage over others. Many times people will live with a purpose that is selfish and ultimately in order to achieve that purpose they must be deceptive. Scripture warns us against that type of deception. We see story after story where there are consequences to that behavior. Today we are going to look at a story that in many ways appears to work, meaning that the intended deception will occur. However in the process I think we will learn about the dangers of living a deceptive life ultimately.

Join me today as we look at

Rebekah’s Deception

In order to see what all is going on, let’s go ahead and open our Bibles and read

Genesis 27:5–17 ESV

Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah 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, so 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 feel me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a 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 Rebekah 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 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.

Now, we are going to break this passage down a little this morning. My hope is that we will be encouraged not to live a life a deception, but to rely on the promises of God instead of the promises of man. First of all this morning we see

The Deceptive Plan

kJacob’s mother Rebekah came up with a plan to deceive her husband Isaac into giving Jacob the blessing that was meant for Esau. Now, I should ask you, did God need Rebekah’s help here? No, not at all…God had already planned to use Isaac in his story of redemption despite what he knew Rebekah was going to do. Now, of course we could then ask the question, what’s the harm? I mean, if God redeemed this deception in his plan, does that mean that ultimately it is good? Well, Paul in the New Testament was asked that exact question, look at what he said in

Romans 6:1–2 (ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

You see, when Paul was teaching about God’s grace he was asked the same question and the answer is “by no means!” Why would we ever feel that the more deceptive I am, the more glory God gets. That is simply a selfish perspective that says my focus is on me and what I truly want, not on what God is doing. Here is the truth…Deception comes from a desire for power, control, or personal gain. None of those has a focus on God, do they? Now, I will be completely honest with you here. I have been confused by this passage when I was younger. Not just this passage, but passage we will look at later that shows the deception of Isaac later on. You see, I thought I could be deceptive at work because I was following Isaac’s example. Don’t ever allow that thought process enter into your head, becuase God did not bless the deception, he chose to use Isaac despite his deception. Can you image just for a moment what could have been had Isaac not chosen to follow his mothers deception? We could have seen God’s glory through their lives, and possibly Isaac could have moved through his life without being deceptive, and without being deceived himself. We will talk about that later, but for now I want you to begin to consider the far reaching possibilities if Isaac had not chosen to live a life of deception, including broken relationships and a reputation as a deceiver. We will look at some of the consequences today, but I want you to consider what you know about Isaac’s story, even leading to Joseph and what all Joseph went through in his story. All of that stemmed from Isaac’s choice to follow the deceptive plan on his mother Rebekah.

So, what are

The Consequences of Deception

What I find interesting in this story is that Jacob actually hesitates to carry out this plan. Why is that? well, Jacob knew the results if his father were to find out about his deception. Jacob knew that Isaac could, and likely would not bless him, but instead of curse him. What you should know is that this form of curse is often paired with the term for blessing and it is used in the way of communicating that God can turn a curse into a blessing. However, this is used in a way to say a blessing would turn into a curse, and this is not a normal usage, causing the original reader to take note of the intensity of this consequence. You see, Deception leads to broken trust and strained relationships. Many of you know that all to well. Many of you here today are experiencing that very strain in your life. Maybe it’s a strain in your family relationships of your spouse and your children, or a strain in your working relationships with your boss and coworkers. No matter what that strain is, you are experiencing the pain of your own deception. Here’s the deal folks…Jacob faced consequences to his deceitful actions, and you will face the consequences of your own deception. As Christians, your goal should be to run away from deceit because the consequences are long lasting. Look at this passage in

Proverbs 20:17 (ESV)

Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.

Deceit will get you what you want in that moment…but the long lasting effects are far more destructive than the short term pleasure. So the reality is that we all internally know this…many of you here may also struggle with the idea of wanting to come clean, but struggling with how to come clean. For example, telling your boss that you stole can lead to a loss of your job. So how do you step forward and seek a life of humble honesty? Really, the answer you’re looking for is,

How to Overcome Deception

This has to be the hardest question for anyone to wrestle with. Of course before we can really even answer that question we have to ask the question, why are we deceptive? The answer to that question is the same as anything else…why do you do what you do? Because you want what you want…thats right. So then, how do you overcome a deceptive lifestyle where you are focused on what you want, and not what God wants? Well the first thing you have to do is

Repent of Past Deception

Yeah, you need to take a look at what you have going on and turn from self back to God. That’s not always easy, but it is important. If you want to move forward with a life of humble submission to the Lord then you have to trust in God’s promises and not on your own deceit. See, Rebekah knew that God had chosen Jacob, he told her that. However, she still felt the need to do things her way instead of waiting on God. Is that something that you have done yourself? Listen when I say that you need to repent of your past deception, that means that you repent to God and to those you have deceived. That means that you humbly go to that person, just like you humbly go to God and you confess, turning from that deceit and turning to God in truth. When you repent of past deception you will need to work to rebuild the trust of those you have deceived, and that may not be an easy task.

That’s not all we need to do though…We also need to

Seek Honesty and Integrity

Seek this in every aspect of life. That means at home, men, seek to be honest and upright with your wife. Women seek to be honest and upright with your husband. Parents, seek to be honest and upright with your kids. Listen, here’s the deal…when you choose honesty it truly makes everything easier. When you choose honesty you don’t have to remember any lies, you don’t have to remember who you said what to, and you don’t have to worry about the inevitability of the consequences that will come from your own deception. Deceit may give you what you want temporarily, however, honestly and integrity are essential qualities that build trust while maintaining healthy relationships. This is the behavior that is pleasing to God…

Now listen, honesty and integrity are the desired outcomes, however, that is not the end of the road. You can be an honest person on your own without any focus on Scripture or a relationship with God. There are atheist that claim to be honest. So why do you deceive and why are you honest? Where is your focus? What is it that you are wanting out of a particular situation? What is it that you are scared of? Ultimately…where is your focus? Are you focused on God, or on self. See, the most important step in overcoming deception is managing your focus. Maybe this morning you need to…

Refocus on what God wants

This should a relatively easy thing to know, but it is an incredibly difficult thing to do many times. It’s difficult becuase we aren’t used to thinking about what God wants. We are used to thinking about what we want. I mean from a very young age we start to think about the things that we want and not the things that others want, especially not what our parents want. Anyone who has been a parent of a young child can describe the selfishness of young children. See, kids have learned what they have to do to get what they want. That is just a natural activity of a sinful person. We have to then be taught to think about others, and care for others. That is why parents are constantly correcting their young child to think more about others. Well, the same is true for us as adults…God is constantly correcting us to think more about him and less about us. So, take this as your reminder to put God at the top of your priorities this week.

Of course when you are able to refocus on God, then you have greater strength to avoid the temptation to be deceptive. In order to resist that temptation, you must turn to God for guidance and strength to resist. This doesn’t mean that you will be 100% of the time perfect because the reality is that there are times that you will turn your gaze from God to yourself. Then you will need to again refocus on God. For many of you that may be a daily battle to turn from the temptation of self. To be clear though…every single person in this room is guilty of this exact sinful response. If you claim that you are not, then you are deceiving yourself.

Now, I think we need to briefly talk about another group of people here this morning. You see, if there are many of you who have deceived, then that means there are many who have been deceived. The question is,

How do I move forward if I have been deceived?

This is incredibly important because everyone in this room has at one point been deceived. So how do we move forward from that hurt and strain that was put on a relationship? Well the first thing you have to do is acknowledge that trust has been broken, and it may take some time to fully trust again. However, and this is where you might get mad at me…How you respond to deception shows your own heart. Someone deceived you, and that is hurtful and wrong. However, returning evil for evil is not what we see as a Biblical example. As a matter of fact, look at this passage with me in

Ephesians 4:32 (ESV)

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Yeah, this is where it gets hard…see, this passage tells us that we are called to forgive each other, just like God forgave us in Christ. Here’s what that means…Jesus Christ died on the cross for that deceit. If you are in any way treating the person that deceived you as if they owe you something, then you are saying that Jesus’ death is not good enough for you. You are then placing yourself above God. Is that person repentant? If so, then forgive them in the same way that God has forgiven you for your deceit. Listen, it is true that it may take time to rebuild trust that was broken with that deceit, but you should be seeking to rebuild that trust, not holding it against whoever deceived you as if they owe you something.

Practically speaking, there are times that you should guard your heart from the effects of further deception. We read in Proverbs 4 that we should avoid wickedness. So there is a place for setting boundaries that will not allow someone to continue malicious deception. However, this should not be done from place of hurt or anger, but from a place of prayerful wisdom, taking into account Christ’s desire for reconciliation.

As we close and prepare for the band to come up and close us with music, I want to ask you if you are holding any deceit in your heart this morning. I want to ask if you are holding any anger towards those that have deceived you. If you would answer yes to either, or both of those questions, then let me ask you to refocus on what God wants on not on what you want this morning. If you are here and you have previously struggled to keep your focus on God and not on yourself, let me just encourage you that you are not alone. Every person in this room struggles keeping our focus on God in the midst of our day to day struggles…all you can do is trust one day and one step at a time. So this morning make a commitment to live a life of honesty and integrity…and if someone has deceived you, make a commitment to forgive and seek to reconcile with those that are repentant…in other words, make a commitment to be a person that focuses on God more than you focus on yourself. If you’re unsure how to do that, please don’t leave here without reaching out and asking for help. Listen, if God can forgive a sinner like me…I guarantee God can forgive you to!

Let’s pray: pray for God to heal the heart of those that are broken due to deceit…pray that God breaks the heart of those who have deceived…pray that God shows us all where the open door is to a healed relationship with him this morning.