Jacob: The Deceiver God Used

KEY PASSAGE: Genesis 32:24–32 (NASB)| Supporting Text: Hebrews 11:21 (NASB 1995)

And so, Father God, we thank You today for a wonderful time and experience of praise and worship. We also thank You for the worship team that inspires us every Sunday with songs that bring You glory and honor and usher us into Your holy presence. We pray that You bless each of them and take their gift to the next level for Your glory. Amen.

Tithe and Offering

It is time for us to give to God our tithe and offering. Thank you again for supporting the` church with your faithful giving because it helps us pay our bills, keep us out of debt, and minister throughout this community. That happens because we have many faithful givers of the Lord’s work with tithes and offerings. So, thank you for your faithfulness, and may God bless you. Please follow the instructions on the screen to give to God. Our ushers will pass the offering plates as we continue with worship.

Welcome

Welcome to our Sunday Worship Service, everyone. To our online viewers, we welcome you as well. We are glad to have you with us today and hope your time with us will be enriched as we come together in worship.

Announcement

We will start with Bible Study. Bible Study is every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m., and we are close to finishing the Book of Luke. So, please join us as we study God’s Word to help us grow in knowledge and wisdom. Weekly Prayer is on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. To all the leaders of this church, our next church leadership meeting is this Saturday, June 15th at 12:00 p.m. here at the church. Women’s Breakfast is on Saturday, June 15th, at 10:00 a.m. at the church. And to all the men, our next Men’s Breakfast is Saturday, June 29th, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. I will call on David from the Media Department to update us on the new church app.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

LORD, you are holy and righteous. You are loving and forgiving. I pray that You help us to trust in You no matter what happens so we can experience Your sweet presence. We praise you for choosing us in Christ Jesus and bringing us into Your faith family. I pray that You bless the tithe and the offering as we honor You with our gifts and substance. May our giving to be used to advance the Kingdom of God. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O LORD, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen.

Declaration of Faith in God

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

We are living in a generation that, instead of improving the culture, is quickly reducing it to a lesser place. We have a generation that lives for the moment—if you allow me to use a biblical phrase—a cursed generation. A generation of imprisonment, a generation with little identity, and a generation that lives just for the moment. The last two verses of the Old Testament in the Book of Malachi say that the land is cursed when fathers are nowhere to be found. So, the Bible directly correlates the cursing of the culture or the land with the absenteeism of the father. God said He would not return to bless the land until the fathers were restored to the children.

It seems unusual that the Old Testament Scriptures should end with the word “curse.” After giving you some bad news, let me share some good news with you. When we get close to the end of the New Testament in Revelation 22, verse 3, we read these words, “And there shall be no more curse.” That is the good news.

When God created Adam, He gave him the authority to name things. Let’s look at Genesis 2:19: “God brought all the animals before Adam to see what he would name them, and whatever Adam named them, that is what they became.” In other words, God gave Adam the right and authority to pronounce a blessing on that which came under his authority by naming it. When a man fully realizes what God gave him, you can tell that kind of man because he names everything he can get his hands on. Because he wants to pronounce a blessing. Adam, the first man, went from naming animals to naming people. He called his wife Eve.

So, when God orchestrated the culture, he placed men in a unique position to receive divine authority and favor. The word that the Bible uses to refer to that transfer is a blessing. When that transfer does not occur, divine favor and authority are transferred from the man to his family and culture. The Bible has another word for that: it is called the curse.

Curse in the Bible refers to the pain of not experiencing your divinely ordained purpose. Curse happens by transfer. The curse happened with Adam, and it was to be passed down through the generations. The devil wants to short-circuit the blessing by getting men not to pass it on and trade it with the curse. That is what the devil did in the Garden of Eden, and there was the loss of God’s favor.

This thing about blessing and cursing is no small thing; men, the great weight on our shoulders is that we are the primary ones to transfer the blessing. Let me explain something. You are not blessed just because you have a new car. You are not blessed because you have a new house or wardrobe. Those are nice things, but when the Bible talks about blessing, it is talking about something a lot deeper than that. It is talking about the transfer of divine favor. God’s blessing always involved an inheritance. Let me repeat that one more time - God’s blessing always involved an inheritance. Whenever the Bible talks about passing on the blessing, it is referring to the passing of the inheritance.

Today, our generation is undergoing a curse because the blessing is not being passed down. The curse is being passed down. It is being passed down by a culture that disregards women. By a culture that abuses people. By a culture of violence. By a culture of rebellion. By a culture that lacks discipline. It is being passed down as a curse. What you and I are seeing today is not a lost generation. What we are seeing today is the product of a lost generation. We are witnessing the transfer of a curse rather than a blessing.

SERMON EXPOSITION

And so today, as we continue our sermon series titled “IT IS NOT TOO LATE: God Uses Broken People,” Today, I want to talk to you, primarily men, but it will apply to all of us in various ways about one man who aspired to turn a curse into a blessing. In the Bible in the Old Testament, when the Bible talks about passing on the blessing, naming, and revealing the future, it would talk about God’s covenantal relationship with His people, and God would say, “… I am the God of Abraham, Isaac,and Jacob.” You will see this phrase in about a dozen places in the Bible. These three names would always be patched together. Because that covered grandfather, father, and grandson. I want to talk to you about Jacob, the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham.

I am going to start our message for today, where I am going to end. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 21 says, “When Jacob was old by faith while leaning on the top of his staff.” You and I today would say while leaning on his walker. “Jacob blessed the two sons of Joseph.” Abraham passed on the promises and blessings to Isaac. Isaac passed on the same promises and blessings to Jacob. Things even got much better because we are told that Jacob shared them with his twelve sons in Genesis chapters 48-49. You see, Jacob was a pilgrim in Egypt, and when he was dying, he leaned on his pilgrim staff and blessed the two sons of Joseph. Let me say that again. It says, “By faith when Jacob was old leaning on his staff …” Jacob was too old to walk here by himself; he had to lean on something. It says, “… he blessed Joseph, his son, or blessed the sons of Joseph …” Which were his two grandsons.

According to the Bible, Jacob failed many times, but he was a man of faith. And so, if you are today, I want to remind you that you will fail many times, and that is OK. Jacob was not perfect, but he was devoted to God and trusted His Word. And what God is seeking today from you and me is devotion to Him (and Him only) and to trust His Word. Jacob did not have a complete Bible like we do today, but his faith in God was strong and unwavering. In spite of Jacob’s failures and testing, he believed in God.

Now, let’s rewind because that is the end of the story about Jacob blessing the two sons of Joseph. If you rewind and go to the beginning of the story, you will discover that Isaac had two sons. One name was Esau, and the other son was Jacob. I want to zero in on the name or word Jacob. There is an adage that goes, “Cheaters never prosper.” Jacob is one person in the Bible who God took through a process of challenge, change, and growth. The word Jacob, the name Jacob, means trickster. Jacob was a trickster, a shyster, a duper. He would manipulate things to make them work out in his favor. Like most people, Jacob used human approach and wisdom to serve his own purpose. However, there was one thing Jacob wanted more than anything else: the blessing because he knew what the blessing was and what it meant.

The problem was that the older son (the firstborn) received the biggest part of the blessing in the Jewish culture. The Bible says the older son got a double portion of the blessing. And so, Jacob wanted that blessing. Jacob (remember the meaning of his name - trickster) connived and schemed to trick his father, Isaac, into blessing him while making Isaac think that he was blessing the first son, Esau. We don’t have time to read the full story and explain it to you. You can go back and read it yourself in Genesis 27, but to quickly summarize it, here is what happened.

While Isaac was old and couldn’t see, Jacob dressed up like his brother Esau, talked like Esau, acted like Esau, and walked in and said to his father, Isaac, it is time to bless me. Isaac said who, which son are you? Jacob responded, “I am Esau, your oldest son.” So, according to the story, Isaac blessed Jacob, thinking it was Esau, but unbeknownst to him, he had blessed the younger son, Jacob. Esau sold to Jacob his birthright for some Quaker Oat. Some porridge, alight. He said, look, you are hungry; I can cook. Will you trade me for your porridge, your birthright? When Esau traded the birthright, Jacob went in and got the blessing.

When Isaac blessed Jacob, he said, “May God give you of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth,” according to Genesis 27:28. And then in verse 29, he talks about authority, blessing, and cursing. He said, “May peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you.” Remember (church), I said that the blessing always involves authority. And then he said to Jacob, “Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.”

In other words, I am going to take care of your future. You want to know what a blessing it is when God goes ahead of you to take care of the stuff so that when you arrive, it is ready for you. That is a blessing from God. When God goes ahead of you despite what you have to go through, God connects everything and you will begin to make sense of it.

Now, there is a big problem: Watch this now. Jacob has a blessing that his character is not ready for. Jacob had a blessing, but his personality was not ready. Jacob wanted the right thing but wasn’t yet the right person for the blessing. His character was flawed (there was a lot of inconsistency with Jacob’s character), and his name was Jacob. He is a shyster and a trickster, but he still wants the right thing; that is the blessing of God. Maybe you are here today and came to church because you want the right thing, but your life is not right with God. Your mind is in the wrong place. You see, many times, God wants to bless you and me, but our character is not right, and our hearts are not in the right place. We need to make a horizontal and vertical change in our character and actions so God can bless us.

Your daddy messed you up; maybe your momma messed you up. I don’t know who messed you up. But somewhere along the line, somebody or something messed you up. Maybe you hung out with the wrong crowd. Perhaps the wrong stuff has gotten all up in your head, and while you look good, you are making the right noise, you are still messed up. Stuff is not right, but you want the blessing of God. You came to church today for God to bless you. You want what God has for you, but circumstances, situations, or people have messed you up.

Let me explain to you how the blessing works. God will give you the blessing. If you are here today, whether you are a man or woman, and have accepted Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior, you have inherited the blessing. If you have accepted Jesus Christ, even if you didn’t have an earthly daddy, and you have a heavenly Father who can bless you so you can experience heaven on earth.

God calls Himself your Father (your Daddy) in Luke chapter 11 verses 2 and 13, and God’s blessing comes with the new covenant with the name Jesus written on it. This includes every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. So, I have some good news for everyone here today who is a Christian. You have been pronounced by God to be blessed. But it is possible to be blessed and not yet have run into your blessing. I like to use the people of Israel as an illustration because it took them 40 years of detours before they reached the Promised Land. So, it is possible to be blessed and experience some detours along the way. Detours are roadblocks. Detours can prevent you from receiving your blessing. Detours are delays that hold you back from reaching your destiny and purpose in life.

God blessed Israel, and He delivered them from Egypt, but it took them 40 years to arrive at the blessing, which was the land of Canaan. Why did it take them 40 years from being blessed to being able to get the inheritance of the blessing? Because they needed some development and growth in the wilderness. In other words, God won’t share His blessing with you until your character is ready to receive His blessing. Just because God has declared His blessing to you doesn’t make you a receiver of the blessing.

God will not send you an Amazon delivery of His blessing until you are a recipient of the kind of person God wants to handle His blessing. Many people today want to see God’s goodness, blessings, and power manifest. We wonder why things are not happening (and stuff keeps breaking in our lives), and God is saying that you are not fully developed and ready to receive the blessing. You are not ready for what I have claimed to do for you, promised to do for you, and want to do for you. God is not going to bless you because you are full of you.

In chapter 32, verse 24 of Genesis, we are told, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” Jacob is by himself at night, and some stranger wrestles with him.

Some stranger comes out of nowhere late at night, grabs hold of Jacob, and starts fighting him. Something comes out of nowhere, and he starts messing with Jacob and controlling him. And then, in verse 25, it says a man came. “And when he saw he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh so that the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.” Jacob is in a fight for his life.

Now, if you read the first part of chapter 32, Jacob is running for his life from Esau. Esau said I am going to kill you for stealing my blessing. Jacob is running for his life, and while running for his life at night, a man shows up, grabs him, and will not let him go. Jacob and this stranger are engaged in a wrestling match.

Let me explain something: when God is trying to address our character (watch this), God will put us in situations that bring fear, frustration, defeat, and isolation. Remember, Jacob was alone. But wait a minute. I thought Jacob was blessed. That is what chapter 27 says. That is what chapter 28 says. It said Jacob was blessed, but he is a blessed man on the run because he is a messed-up blessed man. So, you can be blessed and still be messed up. So, you can be blessed and still be on the run.

And before God can unleash the blessing and reverse the curse in your life. Here is what God will do. God has to deal with you first. Because Jacob has defined manhood the wrong way, a lot of folks today, too, have defined manhood and womanhood the wrong way. Jacob thinks that to be a man, one must be able to fool and trick people. I don’t know how many folks you have cheated and duped, but tricking people is ungodly. Jacob thinks that to be a man, one must walk a certain way, talk a certain way, and have a certain image. Jacob was wrong about what it means to be a man. Jacob’s interpretation of manhood was wrong.

Here is Jacob at night, fighting for his life. We are told that the fight lasted until daybreak, so this battle is in the dark. While fighting, the man he was fighting against saw that Jacob wouldn’t give up. (Say, don’t give up). Jacob wasn’t going to throw in the towel. The man touched the hip of Jacob, and the Bible says, watch this; it got dislocated. Jacob’s hip was disconnected. It was out of joint, and that is a painful situation. All right. You are already fighting for your life, and you are tired, and then you have been dislocated.

What is all this about? Let me explain. It is about the thing that every man or woman who wants a blessing has to go through, and that is brokenness. What is brokenness? Brokenness is where God strips you of your self-sufficiency. Brokenness is when you can’t make it happen on your own. Brokenness is when all your manhood and womanhood are not enough to save you. Brokenness is when God shows you the sins in your life. God shows you your character—the person inside of you. God shows you your failures and your mistakes, and He shows you that you are not enough for you. God says I will not bless you until I address this issue you are dealing with.

Most men don’t receive their blessings because they don’t think they need God. Yes, they are polite and pay homage (respect) to God. But the biblical definition of a man is a male who has learned to function under the authority of God. That is a kingdom man with a kingdom perspective. Sometimes, God has to dislocate things so we can see that we are not all that. And God often has to create pain and situations to reduce and humble us before He can bless us. God will keep breaking stuff in our lives because He wants our attention.

Jacob was a blessing on paper. The Bible is full of blessings on paper. There are 8,000 (+) plus blessings promised in the Bible of God’s blessing to His people, which is good on paper. It is good when you read them in the Bible. But there comes a time when paper blessing doesn’t work. When you don’t want a blessing on paper, you want to see God lift that thing off the paper and bring it into your life. You want to experience heaven on earth. But God won’t bring the blessing into your life unless your character has been made ready to receive God’s blessing. So, God’s problem is getting you to wrestle with Him.

Illustration

Have you ever been on an airplane experiencing turbulence? Turbulence can be so traumatizing that it can cause some folks to fear flying. (You see), Life is full of turbulence, but God is so good that He can hit the turbulence in your life, take a mess you are dealing with right now, and make a miracle of it. God can take, turn, twist, and use it to still get you home in your old age. I want you to know that it is not too late.

Conclusion

Remember I told you that we were going to end where we began? So, let’s look at the New Testament as we conclude this message. In the New Testament, in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 21, it says, “By faith Jacob in his old age while leaning on his walker, his staff, blessed his grandsons the two sons of Joseph.” We don’t have time to go into it, but the writer refers to chapter 48 of Genesis because chapter 48 talks about Jacob blessing his two sons. Guess what you find in chapter 48 when Jacob is getting ready to die, and his blessing is about to happen. Jacob’s blessing is passing on. Blessing always involves a legacy. Blessing involves inheritance. Blessing always consists of the transfer of divine favor.

Biblical blessing always has a legacy that outruns you. God restored Jacob’s family to him. Jacob had some wild (crazy) sons. One of his sons was a rapist. But God turned the curse around. And God restored his broken family so that Joseph could say, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.” God turned that thing around into a blessing. Now, I am about to close, but there is a powerful statement in Genesis chapter 49, verse 31, that many folks read but don't pay attention to. Where and how is Jesus, the Son of God is connected to Jacob’s family?

It says, “There they buried Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried Isaac and his wife Rebekah, and there I buried Leah.” (Pay attention) Interpretation: Please bury me next to Leah. Jacob finally gave honor to his first wife, Leah, asking to be buried with her rather than with Rachel, his beloved wife. Those who know Jacob’s story know that Jacob didn’t like Leah. Jacob didn’t want to hang out with Leah. Jacob had to work seven (7) additional years to marry Rachel. He loved Rachel, but he said, bury me next to Leah. Jacob didn’t appreciate Leah because he was operating by a human dynamic and wisdom.

But when Jacob fully understood what God was doing. When Jacob saw God’s plan for humanity (the world), he said bury me next to Leah, not Rachel. Why did he say bury me next to Leah? Here is why. God used Leah to give birth to Judah, who became the ancestor (father) of King David, who became the father of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, according to Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. Now, you see how Jesus, the Son of God, is connected to Jacob’s family.

It was Leah who was going to lead the Messianic line. But because Jacob didn’t have a divine understanding, he didn’t like Leah; he wanted to hang out with Rachel. But now that he understands God’s perspective, he says I am old, but let me make this thing right with God.

Faith Appeal, Call to Action, and Altar Call

Now, let me close by telling you about the legacy piece. Remember, a blessing always involves the future. Blessing involves your sons—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is passed down to your children. It involves tomorrow and the next generation. Our tomorrow and the next generation are in danger of the culture today because fathers are not pronouncing a blessing upon their children. You have a generation of men around here looking for a father because they are looking for a blessing.

The blessing is from one generation to the next generation. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and he passed on the blessings of God to the next generation so that there would be a divine club, if you will, of people with the same value system. To impact the world for God. God is looking for a generation of Christians who can pass on the blessing and the Christian faith to the next generation to impact the world for God with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to close by reminding you to remember Jacob’s old age because the Bible says by faith, while on a walker, Jacob blessed his two sons (grandsons).

In other words, Jacob started as a trickster (a cheater, if you will). But guess what – Jacob’s name ends up in the hall of faith (in the heroes of faith). Our sermon series is called “It is not too late.” Right now, when you come before God with your sins and circumstances, God will turn that around, and He can reduce your character and dislocate your convenience. God is ready to bless you in a biblical way.

But you must first accept His Son, Jesus Christ. If you are here today and you are a sinner and you need a Savior, I will ask that you come and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. The gift of eternal life is free. For those who are already Christians, I urge you to reaffirm your commitment to Jesus Christ. I invite you to recommit to Jesus and make Him the center of your life again.

Heavenly Father, we pray for each one here today. As we pray with them, we pray that You will give them the experience of a lifetime, that yesterday is yesterday, and even if folks remember where they were, new stories of faith will come as they take the steps to walk with Jesus. And we give You the glory and honor in the name of Jesus.

Let’s pray and close this service.

Benediction

Father God, we thank You for a wonderful time of praise, worship, fellowship, and the Word of God today. For a while, some of us could look upon many of Jacob’s decisions with contempt and even wonder why a holy God would favor and bless such a man. But it equally reassures us to realize that the God who extended grace to Jacob and blessed him also extends grace and blessing to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. And right now, within our hearts is a desire to discover, see, and experience God. I pray that we will desire more of You, seek You, and experience You. I pray for a lifetime experience with Jesus Christ for each one here today. And so, we thank You for all this and give You all the glory and honor in name of Jesus. Amen. God bless you.

We will see you next week at 10:30 a.m.