The Blessed Life...

Good morning we are continuing our sermon series entitled, the Journey, and we are looking at the spiritual formation of Jacob --- His name meant — heal grabber - supplanter and deceiver, but God transformed him from the inside out and change his name to Israel… prince with God... man of God...

Jacob is one of those characters in the Bible that I think we can all relate too…

He wants the blessing of God on his life… but keeps on tripping over obstacles and we find him stumbling forward into the grace of God…

Today we are going to looking at the meaning of the Blessed life…

What comes to mind when think of the blessed life?

Is it the good life.... where there are these levels of happiness…a happy marriage… family... health....financial security… is it contentment or less stress...

Maybe the good life is having your needs met.. You may remember as some point learning about Maslow’s Highearchy of needs

at the Bottom of the needs triangle…there is our Basic needs- Physiological needs….. food water, warmth, rest…Safety and security.. security…the next is .. Psychological needs.. We have the need for Belonging, relationships and intimacy… and then there are Esteem needs and sense of accomplishment.. The highest need is ... Self fulfillment needs.. Which means achieving ones full potential…Doing something that matches our skill or gift set.… giving a sense of worth and meaning... If our needs are met… maybe we can we say we are living the blessed life.…

Blessing in has a different definition .. it is about God’s favor and God’s grace…and accomplishes His purposes.

When God created the world He blessed it.

Genesis 1:22 ESV

22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

When God blessed something it doesn’t mean that He wished it to go well… He is not saying I hope that things turn out okay…It is more prophetic and fulfillment … When God blesses something, He empowers it to fulfill His purposes.

When, God promised Abraham a family that would outnumber the stars, God blessed and empower him for that life.

God says to "Abraham, I am going to make you and your seed into a new humanity, a new society of human beings who walk in my ways.... a community of justice.

God is behind the blessing... Every generation would pass on the Messianic seed until the one who was the Seed, who was the prophet, and who is the king of Kings would come to save fallen humanity..

T/S Why should we seek the Blessing? first of all because of..

1. Our Struggle with Brokenness

A pastor was addressing a group of men and held up a piece of paper with a black dot in the center of the page. He asked the men what they saw on the paper.

One person quickly replied, “I see a black mark.” “Right,” the preacher replied. “What else do you see?” Complete silence prevailed. “Don’t you see anything other than the dot?” he asked.

A chorus of no’s came from the audience. “I’m really surprised,”. “You have completely overlooked the most important thing of all—the sheet of paper.”

The point is that it easy to get distracted by the small dot… we can look at one part of our lives and forget the innumerable blessings ..

When you think about the blessings that were offered to Esau they were right in front of Him… Being the first born… Esau automatically had the Birth right of inheriting a double portion of all of his fathers wealth… God’s hand was upon Isaac and he prospered him in the land of the Philistines… He doubled his wealth… and became the envy of surrounding nations… Most of that would have gone to Esau..

Esau did not see the value of the birthright and the Blessing… we are told that he despised his birthright and sold it to Jacob for bowl of lentil soup..…

Esau had had a Blind Spots… Esau lived his life for himself.... .... If it didn’t benefit him he moved on to the next thing… He had no consideration for others… He refused to accept that God might have a plan and purpose for his life…

The result is that he drifted further and further from God… and he made one bad choice after the next…

A pilot once observed... that for every single degree you fly off course, you will miss your landing spot ...by 92 feet for every mile you fly.

That amounts to about one mile off target for every sixty miles flown. If you decided to start at the equator and fly around the earth, one degree off … you would land almost 500 miles off target.

The longer you travel off course, the further you will be away from the intended target. Most failures never just happen they come from a series of small, “one degree failures."

Esau makes one degree choices… one bad choice after the next..

We told that in Genesis 26:34 that he chose to marry two Hittite woman…

Genesis 26:34 ESV

34 When Esau was forty years old, he took Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite to be his wife, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite,

Why is this significant?

Often marriages with other nations were about alliances…Joining of tribes and also what happen is the adoption of the worship of foreign gods… So Esaus basically walks away from the God of Abraham and his father Isaac… and follows after false gods…

This would have been extremely difficult for Isaac and Rebecca to accept… Rebekah was extremely hurt by Esaus’ decision… Later on when Jacob has to flee for his life because Esau had threaten to kill him..…

She has this concern...

Genesis 27:46 ESV

46 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?”

We don’t have guess how she feels…Rebekah felt like she had failed as a parent., “She says she loathed her life because of Esau’s choices…

One of the hard lessons in life is to realize that everyone is on their own journey… Sometimes that means letting go…trusting God in the process.

Esau struggle was his own Brokenness.

We are told in Hebrews 12 :17 that After some time Esau came to his senses… But it was too late for the blessing.. Even though he sought it with tears of repentance.

However it wasn’t too late for God to restore and bring healing to relationships..…The wonderful thing is that there is going be restoration between Jacob and Esau… at the end of the story....

We are all on a journey…

And the truth is that you and I struggle with our own brokenness.. But thankfully,… God says that we are the perfect candidates to be fully excepted by him…

John Newton was the Ex Slave trader… wrote Amazing Grace… wrote...

“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am””

― John Newton

T/S Why should we seek the Blessing?

1. Our Struggle with Brokenness

2 Our Struggle with Self-Centeredness

In our narative...

Isaac getting on in age and he feels that the end is near... his eye sight is getting dim… and he believes that he is near death…but this not really the case… Martin Luther calculated Isaac’s age to be around 137 at this point; he lived to be 180.’

Isaac lived 43 more years… but he assumed that the time had come to give away the blessing … and so he calls for Esau... and he tells him… it’s time to get ready because he wants to Bless him…The blessing was the completion of the Birthright… The birthright came with the blessing..it is basically it was the graduation ceremony… lets read out text..

Genesis 27:1–4 (ESV)

1 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.”

2 He said, “Behold, I am old; I do not know the day of my death. 3 Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me,

4 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.”

Isaac tells Esau to get his bow and his arrows and go hunt for some game and once he killed something bring it back then prepare his favorite meal…When he gets back He is going to pray God’s blessing over him..

We know that something is off… because the birthright and blessing didn’t belong to Esau any more… it belonged to Jacob… everyone in the family knew this…

But Isaac is not accepting that..

The obstacle to blessing in Isaac’s life was always his Ego… his Self-centeredness.. One of his biggest problems in his life is that he never consults God.. He did things his own way and then asks questions later..

We often think about the problem of failure… But there is also the problems of that come with success…

Isaac became extremely wealthy and successful.. When he and his famine escaped the famine.. he lived in the land of the Philistines and God prospered him…He literally doubled his wealth…and became the envy of all surrounding nations...

The problem with success..… is that You feel that you don’t need anyone else… You are as self sufficient… Our Ego can get in the way of blessing… Jesus said is harder for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to go through the eye of Needle....(one of the gates in Jerusalem)… Jesus said it is harder not impossible… We live in wealthy nation and it is easy to depend material possessions rather than trust God...

It is interesting that in our text that Isaac… uses the pro noun “I” and “my” is used several times…

The wisdom of the world says… we need to take care of me.. everything goes through this grid… “What is in it for me?” “How can I best advance myself, promote myself, exalt myself?”

This often becomes a source of conflict in our relationships....

In marriage It is all the entitlements that causes conflict.… It’s my money… its my time… it my choice…It’s my job... “Selfisness impacts all of our relationships our family friends, church...

Stephen Arterburn, makes the observation that A person isn’t self-centered because they feel so great about themselves.

They’re self-centered because they feel so bad about themselves. There is something lacking in their life, and they want it to be filled. They essentially have a hole that needs to be filled up every day and nothing a spouse or any one can can do is ever going to fill that hole… God is the only one that can full that hole..

Isaac has this need… His whole life he has looked at and doted on Esau… He has envision him taking over the family business…

The problem is that Isaacs pushing his own agenda.. while ignoring all facts..

First of all...God has rejected Esau… Through Divine chose and Election .... God chose Jacob over Esau... From the time Rebecca was pregnant two nations were battling inside of her … And God told Rebekah that the older son would serve the younger…This was confirmed a their birth when Jacob was born latching onto Esau..

Those are facts...

Secondly, Esau had some character flaws which would had disqualified him. ... He rejected (despised) the Birthright… He rejected the call of God on his life...

On top of that He married foreign women took on their gods-- he had no consideration for the things of God or his parents....

Isaac still goes ahead with his plan to bless Esau...

Jesus calls us to a different standard.. Jesus said

Matthew 16:24 ESV

24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Serving others is the foundational part of the Christian life— it is not focusing on me, but focusing on others and how I can help others.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was such a great, wonderful example of this, and in his book he says,

“When God calls someone, he bids them to come and die.”Dietrich Bonhoeffer

T/S Why should we seek the Blessing?

1. Our Struggle with Brokenness

2 Our Struggle with Self-Centeredness

3. Our struggle to be in Control

As Isaac gives the instructions to Esau to prepare a meal and to come back so he can bless him.… Rebekah is in standing in the side wings and overhears the whole conversation.... the walls of tent were not that thick… and she gets the whole inside scoop..and she is not happy… She feels out of control… but she has a plan..

Genesis 27:5–7 (ESV)

5 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,

]6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, “I heard your father speak to your brother Esau,

7 ‘Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food, that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die.’

When Rebekah heard that Isaac has gone ahead and is planning to Bless Esau… .. She knows she has to act quickly and so comes up with her own plan to outwit Isaac... She calls Jacob and tells him what she has heard and then tells him to follow her Plan.....while Esau has gone hunting… Jacob is to dress up and pretend to be Esau .. they are going to give Jacob a make over.. he is going to get goats hair and tape it to his arms and neck....While all this is happening Rebekah is going to prepare Isaacs favorite meal..

It’s a bit of mess.. you have Isaacs Ego and Self-Centeredness and then your have Rebekah who is going to attempt to Manipulate and Control the situation… Some might look at this and say Rebekah is taking control of bad situation… She is showing some leadership...

but there is a huge difference between leading and manipulating… Leading is all about influencing and for all the right reasons… Manipulation is trying to get your way and have your needs met....it uses people to your own selfish end..

When we try to manipulate and Control it is a lack of Trust and Faith…

There is this story in the book of Mark … where Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit… This father brings his son to Jesus who is having these convulsions and throwing himself into the fire.. The man asks Jesus IF YOU CAN DO ANYTHING… PLEASE HELP… Jesus responds IF YOU CAN (?) ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE FOR THE ONE WHO BELIEVES.. .

Mark 9:24 ESV

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”

A few years ago we were coming back from San Diego and our plane was getting ready to land… and so we are approaching the run way … and we are all anticipating the wheel to touch down… and next minute the pilot hits the throttle and we going up at a 45 degree angle… There were some G forces there… We were out of control… thankfully the pilot avoiding another plane taking off on the same runway…

There are times when we feel out of control..but we have to know who is in control..Sometimes we need pray for the Gift of Faith…Lord I believe help me with my unbelief...

But instead of praying Rebekah choose to manipulate the situation..

At this point ...Jacob has his own concerns what if the plans back fire and instead of blessings he gets curses..

Rebekah says something quite chilling... that she will take full responsibility... and willing to bear the consequences of the curse if it comes down to that...

.We need to remember that..God Does not condone bad behavior..

— Even though our text doesn't explicitly say that God was displeased ---with all their deception… It does comes out in the narrative because...

.. both Jacob and Rebecca are going to experience negative impacts of their decisions...

when Jacob leaves will be the last that she her son... Jacob himself is going to suffer a series of deceptions…when he works for Laban he is going marry Leah instead of Rachael..

Jacob response is a really a picture of how so many of us try to get blessing. We feel that we have to dress up as somebody else clothes.... We have to become somebody else… we can’t be ourselves..

Unfortunately, Jacob being himself hadn’t worked, had it? He smaller than his brother. He was domestic. He was smooth.

He couldn’t get the blessing from the one he most wanted it from, his father. So he dressed up like somebody else. He became somebody else. He hid.

We dress up because we want the blessing of other people. We want other people to say, “Wow, you’re great. You’re special.” So we can’t be ourselves, and boy, it does not work

It must have been incredibly bitter for Jacob to get that close to finally getting your father to love you, but it’s not you because you’ve dressed up. You’ve put on the persona. You’re not really blessed.

Conclusion

Isaac checks several times whether he is talking with Esau... He then kisses Jacob.. smells his clothes... felt his hands.. Isaac even says — You have he voice of Jacob, but the hands of Esau..

He then gives Jacob the blessing...

The blessing — has three parts.. 1. Prosperity..God would bless him with the Dew of heaven...

2. Prominence with surrounding nations..Let people serve you and and nations bow down to you..

3. Protection.. May those who blesses you will be blessed and those who curses you be cursed...

What makes the blessing so powerful? The Blessing are intentional words that affirm, encourage, and empower a person to become all that they have been created for.... The blessing has to do with discerning - God’s purposes and to release and empower someone to be who the are…

We need to know the power of our words… Instead of speaking negative over our lives and family we should speak possitive words of blessing..

If you’ve ever been blessed, you’ll never forget it. If you’ve ever really had somebody make use of the spiritual power of a wise, discerning person God helps to look deep into who you are, to discern what God is doing, to affirm it and empower you to get there and encourage you, you don’t forget it

When Esau comes back from the hunt….... Isaac realizes that he has been tricked.. we told that he is shaken… Dr Donald Barnhouse points out that. ---

“Before a great work of grace, there must be a great earthquake.” Dr Donald Barnhouse

Sometimes there has to be a shaking before there can be a change…

When Isaac tremble, all his desires were shattered....God now could work with him..

...Esau sees what has happened .. but it is too lat.. he begs Isaac for a blessing… Keller calls this an anti-blessing… Esau’s destiny was not “dew” and “fatness” but to be “away” from such blessings. His descendants would live by the sword, from violence. And for a long time they would be subservient to Israel

Conclusion...

You may remember a book called, “The prayer of Jabez”— by Bruce Wilkerson… it became a best seller a number year ago...

The premise of the book is that God want us to have a break through into blessing.. Prayer JABEZ COMES FROM 1 Chronicles 4:9-10….

We told that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers... His mother struggled in child birth and like others in the ancient world she name him after her struggle... she called him Jabez... Sorrowful… So Jabez was born in sorrow and pain but…Jabez was a man of honor and he sought after God… and God reversed his story from one of pain TO blessing…1 Chronicles 4:10 (ESV)

10 Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

…

Jabez …Prayed… He enquired of the Lord… and he petitioned God.. To increase his influence - Enlarge his boarders.. To Increase His Presence - Gods hand would be with him… Lastly to Keep him from Pain…God would change his predicament and protect him from harm...

There is a contrast between the way that Jabez sort after the blessing and the approach of Jacob and Esau …..… Jacob tried to earn the blessing by trying to earn it through works… Esau on the other hand despised his birthright but… then he woke up and sort it in repentance… Those were two approaches to getting the blessing