In this sermon, the speaker discusses the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and their relationship with God. Despite not seeing the fulfillment of God's promises in their lifetime, they all came to the conviction that these promises were true and the greatest truths in the world. The speaker emphasizes the importance of living out these truths in our daily lives and being a witness to those around us. The sermon also acknowledges that these biblical figures were flawed and their spiritual lives were not always consistent, but they ultimately recognized the significance of their faith.

We're just gonna look at three verses this morning and three of God's great patriarchs. Hebrews 11 verse 20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and he saw concerning the things to come By faith Jacob when he was dying blessed both the sons of Joseph and he worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff By faith that Joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandments concerning his bones Well, we're gonna look at three here this morning these wonderful characters and what they learned in faith, but let's pray Lord We do thank you and praise you again for your word this morning And we ask that as we read these and maybe we would wonder what would this have to do with us? Lord, we pray that you would take it and apply it to our lives today wherever we may be Some word some truth Lord that would just strengthen and encourage our faith our fellowship our walk with you We ask it's even today in Jesus name, amen Well as we've been going through Hebrews here, of course in chapter 11 now I think there's about our fourth study just in this chapter alone But in this wonderful study on Hebrews for Hall of Faith or Hall of Fame Depending on how you want to look at it that both are quite appropriate But we look here at three of the great Patriarchs this morning as we look at Isaac we look at Jacob and we look at Joseph and as we look at these three There's some interesting parallels essentially in what is taken out of each one of their lives now Each one of them are tremendous studies in many ways all by themselves But there's three specific things about them that are mentioned here So it doesn't so much merit a study of their whole life You might say as to the aspect of faith that it is talking about here, but there is one specific area Essentially that it speaks with about each one of them when it says by faith Isaac He blessed Jacob and he saw concerning things to come by faith Jacob when he was dying by faith verse 22 Joseph when he died but all three of these at the time whether it was when Isaac blessed Jacob or When it makes reference there of Jacob and of Joseph each one of them It's talking about them at a specific point in time in their life And that is the time of when they were dying When they're at the end of their lives and they're essentially looking back and it's essentially here talking about You know these three men not so much about all the other aspects of life I wish there's some great lessons and we will look at those a little bit but only skimming across them bringing us to the ultimate Aspect that we want to look at this morning, but it's talking about the power of faith at the end of life When somebody is facing death when they're facing eternity What is it that is really truly important to them now these men that live particularly two of them and not lived lives that were great Lives at many times and during their lives not always tremendously men of faith They trusted God in a rather imperfect way. Joseph was a very remarkable Character in the Bible one of the most wonderful in the sense of his walk in his life When all three of them though are ultimately looked in block together The same analysis is true regardless in many ways of how somebody may have lived out their life And that is as far as God's concerned. Where do I end up? Where ultimately in my heart of my life in my faith and my trust regardless of whether I how I walked it at different times All the way through my life. Where am I when it comes to the end? What does it all brought me to? For this the focus essentially of these passages here these three verses that we're looking at the end of their lives Facing death in all of the three of them had a tremendously Confident faith they'd come to a place though Their lives are very different and they all walked different lives, but they came to a place where their value system Here was one that each one of them. They are now looking at their children They're looking at their descendants. They're looking at those following them Even though many times in their life they looked here and they look there and there there was other issues other relationships other you know desires other you know Successes that they looked at I want to achieve this and I want to do this and I want to do that But when they're coming down to the end of their life They find themselves really coming to realizing what I think we all know is important and ought to be preeminent within our lives But oftentimes isn't Oftentimes we're distracted at different times in our life and we must do this. We must do this We must achieve this and we've got this trial or this pressure or we've got to resolve this issue and we can take all sorts Of different ways by which we live But when we come down so often to the end and we look at every all the other Successes or failures we find ourselves so often coming to the place and realizing my children the descendants They're following me the effect that I want to have and leave on other people's lives The inheritance essentially that I really want to be able to pass on to them. They care deeply for their children They wanted their children and know the call of God upon their lives the future that God had for them And I think that that's pretty much the same thing that happens to all of us there you all through life We all have this far more than just a sneaking suspicion that this is true, don't we? I'm sure there's not one of us doesn't know this is how I ought to be living all the time This is the message that God always wants to have written upon us But how easily we're distracted how easily other things seem to be important But then ultimately one day we come to the realization what is happening in a sense of where are my children going? What do they have do they know who God is do they want to serve him? Do they want to follow him and even though he may have stumbled through lives at times ourselves in many ways We now come to the same ultimate analysis. I believe of life everyone does I believe as a Christian particularly and Here is somebody that when you look at a couple of these who follows as they kind of went through it their spiritual life was Kind of hit and miss in many ways. Sometimes we think of a patriarch, you know somebody there and The children of Israel they all ought to be these wonderful perfect human beings They weren't very flawed in many ways very very human Very very much just like you just like me but as it comes to the ultimate analysis of their life These were men that one of the remarkable things about the three of them that we're looking at is All of them had come to a place like their father Abraham who we looked at last week They came to the same analysis that the God had given them some promises and These promises were the greatest thing within their life though None of them and Abraham had never seen it Isaac had never seen it Jacob had never seen it Joseph had never seen it But yet at the same time all of them same ultimately came to the same conviction They're true and they're the greatest truths in the world. They find themselves looking now at their children something that they had never seen The greatest of all issues of life. They wanted those Promises now to be passed on to their children and that those their children would value them With all of their hearts and all of their lives And as I said, they're all different men and they arrived at the same conclusion through very different pathways You might say different human experiences, but they all came to the same Conclusion you see God had given to Abraham some great promises He had promised to them that they would possess a land ultimately that was to be given to them the land of Canaan None of them had it All of them were also passed on just as Abraham was given the same promise again that that through them there was going to be The formation of this great nation this great people God's people None of them saw it Yet all of them came to the realization. We believe this is true and it's the greatest inheritance I have to give my children even though for many years of their lives. They didn't communicate that they all came to the same analysis And then there was also the third promise God gave Abraham and that is that through these people would come the great blessing into the world and Ultimately again this is the third thing that each one of them came while they were looking at you know, Maybe in their 20s and 30s and 40s and halfway through their life and towards the end of their lives Oftentimes in all the wrong places for real blessing they came to the place of realizing the great blessings that God has us through him and through faith and God wants whether to give us land or make us a people or to use us in our message of who God is in our lives Blessing to the rest of the world Those were the promises given to Abraham and all of them came to the same conclusion the same analysis Yet the end of their lives we believe this we believe this is absolutely true That's why it says in Hebrews 11 13 all of these died in faith not having received the promises but having Seen them and having that welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles in the earth All of them came to the place though at different times They sure lived in the earth and they could Enjoy the earth and they could be even diverted by the world around them in a sense in the final analysis They all came to the place. They said we don't fit here. This is not our home We tried to make it our home to some degree We tried to fit in we were deceived by it manipulated by at times but each one of them came to the place of Realizing we have promises of another world and that's all there is and as they looked at their children said this is the inheritance This is what it is that I have to pass on to you. Isn't that what we all learn? We all know it But the issue is is where are we so often in our lives? Are we kind of you know much like them or this sneaky suspicion that we have this is true We all know it's true. That's why we're here. I'm sure but yet at the same time. How do we live our life through the week? What's the message that is being given in a sense to those around us? To those that we work with to our family our loved ones our children. What are they seeing? So here let's look at the little bit of these men and see some of the lessons of their life They had first 20 it says by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and he saw Even regarding these things to come Well here as we look at he saw it Isaac. Pardon me the first one mentioned here today He's quite a character in a sense when when you look at him It's it's quite amazing in the sense watching his life. It's something many of us would look at and say well I you know, I don't identify with it well, maybe if we look take a look a little closer look we might realize we do and in one sense Isaac actually lived longer than any of the other patriarchs and But he seemed in one sense to waste a lot of his life he was a man that though again lived longer, but when you would really look at the We know more of Isaac struggles oftentimes than we do of his victories We know some of his failures and his defeats better But when we get the first glimpse really of Isaac one of the very first things that we see about Isaac is a young man Somewhere in property there in late adolescence, maybe even up into his early 20s. We don't know for sure It's not clear. But at the very first real introduction we have to him. He's actually being led off by his father up to Mount Mariah up to Calvary where ultimately, you know a couple thousand years later Jesus Christ was to be offered up to be sacrificed there in here though Abraham Isaac's father is now taking his son Isaac here's Isaac me take it off by his father and the Lord had told the Isaac or Abraham take now thine son thine only son whom thou lovest and offer him as a burnt offering unto me in a place that I will show thee thereof and Here his father is now taking him Isaac is now going off with his father being let off to be sacrificed and there when Abraham and Isaac and the men all arrived at the base of the mountain were there and he's now Abraham's gonna head up with Isaac They go on up and you know the story while they're on the way Isaac looks over at his father his father had told the servants the lad and I we are going up to worship together And here they are on the way up and Abraham looks over or Isaac looks at his father It's his father says yes, my son and he says we have the fire. We have the wood Where is the sacrifice? He knew of course you've got to have a sacrifice You can't worship God without a sacrifice. She said we're gonna worship. We have the fire that's being brought We have the wood that's being brought. That's all, you know repaired for this. Where is the sacrifice? Abraham, you know looks over at Isaac and he says well God will provide one I don't know whether Isaac started picking up on it then or not You know, but the the next thing you know, he gets up there and and his dad sits down with him He says now son. Remember that question you asked me, you know on the way up here about the sacrifice. Yes father Where is it? Well, that's we need to talk a little about that because Isaac You're in beg your pardon dad father You know, what do you mean? I'm it God told me to come and offer you as a sacrifice now, you know weeds through history most the time We always look at Abraham in his great faith We look at Abraham there and on how that he came and offered up Isaac but realizing here that Isaac He was fully mature enough to know what's going on. He knew life and death He wasn't some little child that was ignorant and unaware of what was going on it all of this whole process here Isaac He now actually has a very great part I don't know whether Isaac is always gonna be through history and kind of bummed out a little bit here You look at my father's great faith and sacrificing me. Hello. I Was the one being sacrificed, you know, don't I get a little don't I get a couple points in this, you know something there? And here what about it and when you realize this young man though on one hand Obviously like many children of this age kind of moving on in their father's faith looking into his father's eyes Seeing his father's love and trust Mimicking it responding to it Turns there and buys into it and he lets his father bind his hands and his feet and lay him up there Probably well strong enough with this aged father that he could overcome him and he was not forced into this He wasn't yelling and screaming and kicking and fighting on this He submitted to this and here was somebody at a very young age had this wonderful spiritual experience. He offered his life to God Gave himself over so wonderfully and what a wonderful, you know experience there to have I'd say It's a rather astounding thing to have somebody happen in their youth The next time he comes on and this is in Genesis 24 5 or 5 6 and 7 there when it's really going on But then after his father Abraham had died and now Isaac now coming into his own now beginning to make some of his own decisions We see him and there's a famine in the land like there was in his father's time when Abraham had gone down to Egypt well now Isaac moves his family down to Gerar While he was there the Lord appears unto him and he gives him this very wonderful and remarkable promise and vision Genesis 26 3 and 4 it says sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you For you and your descendants. I will give all these lands. I will establish the oath which I swore into your father Abraham I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven I will give your descendants all these lands and by your descendants the nations of the earth will be blessed the same Blessings that God had given to Abraham now, he takes Isaac out as a young man Isaac follow me the same promises. You will be a great nation. You will have this land And here Isaac though as he goes on and that's quite wonderful Then Isaac actually even is having a problem having a child even like his father But then even he prays and God gives them a child And God does these most wonderful things early on kind of as God reveals himself to him And you would think that these early experiences and within their life within Isaac's life would just cause him what a foundation What a great thing to where now here is somebody ought to be ready to now go live and live for the Lord and yet One of the very first real trials that kind of comes on in his life First sign kind of a danger while he's down there to grow out of the Philistines, you know around there. They look in there Abraham I mean probably Isaac a very beautiful wife. He has the same problem that his father Abraham had Who also picked a beautiful wife and the men look around and you know, the Philistines look at Rebecca. She's a beautiful woman and They're Isaac thinking. Oh, no They think she's beautiful. They'll kill me to get her and so there he then lies about her as well This is a it's don't marry a beautiful woman, you know, I don't want to get into but I mean that I know this trial I did that and and I don't know how many times I've lied and told people she's my sister to save my own skin But anyway, here is something to where he finds himself They're out of fear where there he is doing in such a thing like this and under pressure Now giving way rather than trusting God rather than depending here. God has been with him. He's shown himself He's revealed himself early on and then from this point on for years and years you find Isaac now his boys Miraculously given to him a wonderful thing Esau and Jacob the oldest one Esau first one that's born out masculine Strong hairy outgoing. He's an outdoorsman. He ends up to be a hunter the next one that's born Jacob Actually as he's coming out there to these two twins, you know born but not twins at all The second one literally is he's literally coming out holding on to the heel of the the firstborn and they call him a heel catcher or a cheat and He's this skinny little kid. He's weak. He's not an outdoorsman. He's not a hunter. He's not strong He's not masculine in their eyes. He looks over and he sees Esau. I like him Bible says he loved his venison He was a hunter and he went out any this masculine tough this, you know, man's man This is my boy that he's kind of easy proud of in one sense and he looks over here at this little squirrely little kid You know, they got cheated in the womb, you know sort of a thing there. I'm sorry You let him eat everything. He took it, you know, and you'd somehow another is you're here even while Though he's these two boys are in the womb and there's then there's this struggling There's this fighting going on within the womb and there is Rebecca. She seeks the Lord what's going on and the Lord tells her There's two nations within you But the older will serve the younger the blessing ultimately of life is to go to the one that God has chosen This is the one whose God's hands upon and yet there is they come out and here is the one that humanly Physically naturally in a worldly way. This is the one though. He had no regard for God in his whole life seemingly He was a man there though The birthright ought to have been his being the oldest in the firstborn he despised the Bible said the birthright He didn't care about it the younger one Jacob He had a heart for the things of God kind of but at the same time he saw his father Isaac looked at him He says oh, this is my boy The next thing, you know while a you know, his time is going on and these boys are growing up at the same time Isaac goes out and God blesses what he does. They begin digging wells and the wells are phenomenal wells bringing out a great source able to feed huge flocks in his wealth and by Bible says grows a hundredfold and The man becomes extremely wealthy and the Philistines all around become so jealous of him. They start filling up his wells with dirt so to kind of Reduce the guy and snuff the guy out and the pressures of life come and so finally he just goes on and the Lord tells Him to go to bear Sheba back in part of the land of promise He says get on with your life get to where you want to be and finally God literally has to use pressure Has to you know start whittling down his wealth putting him through some trials to where he begins to start to think again about the things of God And we so often we look at people like this, you know, and we wonder You know about them, but the interesting thing is is you know when you watch their lives How is it that a man can have such great spiritual experiences as youth and a young teenager? And he's right there early on and yet there he hits a certain age He heads out he gets married settles down and for the many many years of his life Spiritually in where he ought to be Not doing what he ought to do He's a materialism comes in there the capacity to have wealth of which he a hundredfold He did phenomenal He's there building it up building it up put more in the checkbook more in his IRA more over here hiding it They're building up this getting more lands Wow Is this exciting or what And yet as time goes on Then ultimately he sees the tension even in his own family He's even forgotten so much of God's plan and promise that one son that God has a call that's way beyond any Well, you'll ever dig any wealth you'll ever have any size of the flocks you'll ever accomplish There is an eternal plan in life living and walking and serving God God has a plan there of which your children your children's children's are all being a part of this whole plan And what are you passing on to him? And he's basically giving them nothing Meantime they're arguing and fighting not getting along And then even when it came down to it initially there now when Isaac is now even getting older He's thinking he's getting ready to die the time to pass the blessing on to the sons that come In comes Esau and he loves Esau's venison. He loves that this guy the way he caught stuff and barbecued it It was the best stuff he'd ever had You know and he says hey I'm about ready to die who knows when it is time to go on with the blessing go out hunting young man Bring me some back cook it up for me, and I'll bless you Esau said okay Esau goes out hunting for it But then Rebecca and Jacob who also knew Rebecca saying wait a minute Esau. What are you Isaac? What are you doing? You can't you know you did this is not God's plan the older is to serve the younger the younger He's the one with the heart and the things of God. What are you doing in here Esau or Isaac there? He looks at I don't care He was even prepared to ultimately almost go the wrong way And then God literally had to allow Rebecca in a wrong way to do the right thing Rebecca and Jacob wanted the right the blessing to go in the right way, but they didn't practice it by faith Even themselves it's tragic to see even when now the whole family is now fighting over the will almost and how it's to be passed On on how God hadn't even had shake him up all the more until finally at the end Isaac comes back full circle, and he looks there, and he realizes there with his children There when even he was deceived by Rebecca and Jacob into actually giving the blessing the rightful blessing to Jacob he ought to have but in a wrong way as They were manipulated and she you know Rebecca gets Jacob all fixed up and put skin on him the animal skin So she would Isaac and his blindness would think when he would touch Oh, I did he said it sounds to him So you sound like Jacob But you've got the skin of Esau and you smell like he saw put on Esau's outfit while he saws out hunting sneaks him in And then he gets the blessing And he finally ultimately does the right thing in the wrong way and then it isn't until Esau comes in the afterwards now He finds out he had been deceived. He blessed the right person But he had planned on blessing the wrong one and Then he finds himself there going ahead and giving a lesser blessing to the other and now all of life comes back into focus finally for him and he realizes God and his mercy and his grace has had a work to do and There as he looks at his own sons and he passes on to them He came to the realization lies if almost to say I don't know what I've been doing all these years I don't know what happened to me. Hi. You have such a wonderful thing early on. I wonder how many of us Honestly me, you know I can identify better with with Isaac than we want to admit How many of us may be at some camp when you were in junior high your high school or some as a child? You saw the faith of another Somebody there of a what it was to offer of your heart in your life and there you went forward It's something as a youth you entirely like Isaac you gave your life you offered it up. Okay God I'm yours and you meant it there were tears. Maybe that went down your face You gave your life over God accepted your love. He took you you became his child and you've always known it And then off you went and God promised you you follow me and I'll give you your blessing I'll put my hand upon you and you sell God. I love you I'm gonna follow you and the next thing, you know a famine comes and you start taking your life a Few of the early trials come on on business or careers or in your marriage and the next thing, you know You had to resolve it in your own way In years go by Well, you're just filling in time maybe becoming quite wealthy a hundredfold every well you dig seems to come out Everything you do but it in but the day comes where you realize I've been distracted I'm like you saw I'm like Isaac but here the wonderful thing the wonderful thing with Isaac is As though a theory is a patriarch in the and ultimately now as he comes the end of his life He looks there and he like his father Abraham. He'd never seen it The land there then the promises had never been fulfilled, but it all comes back home It all returns to him and he realizes God It's true The only thing I really have to pass on to my children and The only thing I have to pass on to another generation the only thing that is important about who I am is the fact is that you are and that you have loved me and that you have cared for me and you have been with me and you have brought me through even in my times of distance or Rebellion or lack of faith or trust You have never forgotten me and you love me That'd be you know, what a we're an amazing comfort, you know in one sense if you're maybe some, you know we can identify with that but to realize still there the wonderful thing is is That God still looks at you and he says you can bless your children. You can turn to your children, even though you may say, you know Here's the route I took I've come to the realization like Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph many of all The only real thing I had to pass on to you that can't be taken away it's God's love God's commitment God's promises for you When you look at Jacob and you and you watch this man's faith Given to us here in verse 21. It says by faith Jacob when he was dying Blessed both of the sons of Joseph and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff here when you look at Jacob he's quite a character because in a sense in many ways he was like his father Isaac in many ways his man. He was kind of all over the map spiritually here He was somebody that yes, he grew up He realized no doubt his mother Rebecca had put in God has a call for you He has a promise on you when you were in the womb God spoke to me about who you are Which one of your mother's that you know, you know, maybe well dad's off doing something or whatever else Isn't the one so often there that's talking to the child and saying, you know Hey, this is who God is and this is when you were in my womb The Lord told me this showed me this and no doubt Rebecca She passed this on knowing God's call and God's plan, but yet realizing here, you know, the dad is kind of He's spaced out right now. You're not checking in. He's not helping the process here You know and there is she kind of maybe takes it in her own hands like women can maybe do sometimes I know none of this isn't applied anybody here. I'm sure but yeah, you all know women that can be controlling, you know I mean everybody does I'm just grateful. We don't have any of them in part of this body But here's something you might share with them. It's not the best thing to sometimes do but here is Rebecca She tries to take control in here You know now Jacob he grows up and even realizing she's even watched his own mother kind of manipulate Manipulate for right things but in a wrong way not resting not trusting. I personally am absolutely convinced Without question, we'll never know how it would have been passed on to Jacob Had you know Rebecca not intervene and told that Jacob here dress up like this act like this prepare some medicine go on in there Give it to your father will trick him All I do know is God promised it was going to Jacob and it would have gone to him We'll never know how it would have happened Because Rebecca intervened and she manipulated the whole situation But here, you know, she was a spiritual manipulator, which interestingly enough Jacob was great at himself He learned I know either from his mom or their own nature. Anyway, the art of spiritual manipulation How you manipulate God here? He he goes and he deceives his brother deceives his father goes on in gets the blessing through deception You know Jacob does and then there when Esau comes back and find out that he had been tricked and lost him Jacob night now Esau decides I'm killing him. He took my blessing Well, he I he gave it away to him earlier, but he really didn't mean it now all of a sudden but he did and So now Esau decides I mean he's gonna kill his brother Jacob And so his mother says you better get out of here go over and stay with uncle Aban Go, you know and you know for a while till things cool off How many of us have sent somebody somewhere till something cools off in the home, you know and something but here find some territory Some way to let things cool off. And so he's going off He's on his way to Laban's the house and you know to stay with him and while he's out there one night He just lays out there put lays his head upon a rock, you know, they're snoozing away and next You know, he has this dream and here in this dream in his vision. There's this you know whole Ladder up and down and there's angels ascending and descending and God speaks to him and he says I'm gonna bless you and I'm gonna do These wonderful things for you Jacob wakes up and he's so man. I Have slept at the gate to heaven and I didn't even know it he just thought he just cruising along just went down went to sleep and it just happened to coincidentally be The gateway to heaven is if he knew I have no right to be at the year. We're having not me. I'm a rebel I'm a manipulator. I just Coincidentally slept here It wasn't a coincidence God was even looking at him while he was in rebellion while he was Manipulating while he was playing his little games while he was perfecting his own craft his own art of manipulation and deception God looks at him. You don't have to Manipulate or deceive to get my blessings. I'll give them to you You don't have to use your cunning little, you know trickery in games. I love you I will give it to you by faith, you know, and he wakes up He doesn't buy into it of that part of it at all. Essentially just thinks he looks there and he says, all right God, I'll make you deal You suggested to me that you're gonna give all this and you're gonna bless me and do these wonderful things Okay. Well, here's how it's gonna be. I'm gonna go on with my life and do my thing for a while but if you Keep your part of the bargain and if you bless me and you make me wealthy and you give me all this and that and Everything else in the whole world that you've just listed off this rather amazing list of stuff He said I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna tithe. I'll give a portion of it back to you How about that God is if God has sitting there in heaven say wow, what a deal man Really I give you a whole bunch and you give me a little back. Oh You got me, you know, it's in here. This guy is such a manipulator. He's even with God playing games How many of us have done the same thing? How many of us today? I'm most think Lord. I'll tell you what One of my boys when they're growing up. He used to always say I want to be rich want to be rich I want to be rich And I am the three sons and one of them I said well the other two I don't think that's the direction they're heading so It's okay. Then one of them becomes rich because I want somebody to take care of me when I'm old So yes, it's okay for you to get rich No, I I would kiddingly say that to him But he used to always but he had this thing and one of the things I'll tell you no matter what's ever gone on in His life wherever he's been whatever he's done. He is always more than tithed Always I Mean this amazing thing is is God has blessed him He makes an enormous amount of money for somebody his age is more I hardly know anybody the way this kid makes money I want to borrow some from him and but one of the thing is God has blessed him. He gives and gives and gives Unbelievably and one of the things that both of his uncles who he's got two very wealthy uncles and both of them once told him He said we learned to tithe and to give to God and he says how much? You know and you know and I'll give a little more because great investment program, you know sort of a thing And I've watched him through the years and in one sense There's this beautiful area just trusting and realizing I want to give to God what he has while he still is kind of growing up Dealing with his own schedule someone but the thing is is in life How often we can be going through and we're playing games. I wonder today how many of us just like Jacob Lord what's the key to getting to you? How do I get you to do the things I want to have done? Well, how much how much do I give that it just kind of hits the formula that the buttons are all pushed and it all kind of happens And I get blessed In here and even Jacob. He went through that whole scheme working on the whole thing. Then he God says, okay We'll do we'll remember this conversation. We'll pick it up later He gets over to his uncle Laban who God puts with him in an amazing way Who's even a bigger cheat than he is a greater manipulator is if Jacob you thought you're good a little bit the art of deception Wait, you'll meet meet your uncle Abe because you guys are going to have a great time together And here he gets there and he finds there to where is he starts working for his uncle Laban and he looks over and his Uncle Abe has got a beautiful daughter and he says I want to marry her and he says oh you can do that You got to work for for seven years This is okay. The seven years went by like they were nothing So excited to get married and there they get married and no doubt have this big wedding feast that would go on for days before They finally have this actual ceremony and evidently Laban gets, you know Jacob drunk enough or out of it enough to where by the time the ceremony happens He actually slips in the older daughter the one he didn't want Particularly the one that wasn't quite as attractive to him as the other one and the next morning He wakes up and he looks over and he sees Leah not Rachel the one that he wanted Leah. What are you doing here? Well, we're married. No, no, no. No. Yes. No. Yes You married me. I did. Yes, we're married. No, he goes to live and he's just leaving What's going on here? I made a deal for the other one. Oh Sorry, did I forgot to tell you we have a tradition here We always marry off the ugly one first and then the other one goes, you know the in so Here he says but that's okay. If you still want her you can have her in another seven years Really 14 years Later, I I don't know if she still look the same or not, but that's not the issue here But the thing is is that he finally gets her but is he but a Laban spends years and Jacob Manipulating one another and their men and their animals and all the things, you know enough of the story But here God is just wearing him down wearing him down but decades go on in his life Well something here that he knew as a child when God told him God loves you and he has a call on your life He has promises for you and he knew him and he but he played games with him for years He manipulated them even at times there in his life He found there that one time he wanted God's blessing so much He wrestled all night with the Lord and then finally there when morning come and God just said I'm tired of even wrestling with you Wrestling with you and wrestling with you and wrestling with you for years and years and years You're still manipulating Leaving and then he stops and something breaks within his heart and he says wait a minute God I won't let you go. Let's not bless me and there he changed his name from Jacob to Israel governed by God All right, we've gone on for years and years and years and played these little games I've loved you always have been faithful to you always I've made promises and you Manipulated him and played games with them like you have everybody else You've you know, one of the things that I think happens to many of us in life. I Wonder how many of us today? You know that here Jacob. He thought he was wrestling with his brother thought he was wrestling with his father Thought he was wrestling with his mother thought he was wrestling with his uncle thought he was labor You know wrestling with his labors with the servants wrestling with the flocks How many times men are wrestling wrestling wrestling wrestling? There's always somebody out there Until finally one day they wake up and realize I've never been wrestling with anybody but God It's always was God. There may be some of you here today. Your dad has been dead for 20 years. You're still mad at him You're still wrestling with him You're there's other things could go back in your life and it's your brother or it's this or it's that You know I've been fighting and struggling and wrestling with until finally one day somebody wakes up and realize God I've been wrestling with him I've been wrestling with you all my life They were just the one around at the time that I perfected my art my craft my ability to manipulate and control but here finally Jacob becomes Israel Governed by God the place that God in his amazing grace and mercy God You know, you know God is never tires of this by the way I would just think if I was Jacob and because I identify I'm more with Jacob than I want to admit It's easy for me to think of like Jacob in one sense But I realized in a sense there, you know, they think God you must be so sick and tired of us God looks I'm not sick and tired. I've wrestled a lot better than you But my great objective is I believe God wants to ultimately bring every one of us to a place in life However, the journey is however long it takes whatever wrestling's whatever struggles whether it's with the world whether it's with the Philistines Whether it's digging wells, whether it's with Materialism out there whether it's diverted by pleasure or something else God wants to he'll wrestle with us all the way through life to bring us to a place where one day we lean upon our Staff and we say of truth. I have found that the ultimate and only thing there is in life is who God is His love and his power his promises. I have nothing to pass on to my children whatsoever Regardless, there aren't enough wells in the world that can compare to the one well of his love there isn't enough water that is refreshing and all the world than the water of his Refreshing love being poured out over you and being brought into communion with him This was who you know, God looks there in each one of them, though Maybe you we couldn't look and say it took years Took all sorts of struggling all sorts of wrestling, but it was worth every year of it to God Because he looks there and regardless of the journey and the way each one of them was to go He brought them all to the place Whereas they looked at their children and they looked at life. The analysis was the same There's only one well to draw from there is only one hope There is only one reason for which we exist is the promises and the plan of God and even though none of them embraced None of them had it Every one of them possessed it by faith Every one of them said this is what I have to give to you The world would say it's nothing and yet I would say it is everything and if I have given you the whole world But I haven't given you this. What have I given my children? You look at Joseph Lastly by faith Joseph when he was dying verse 22 made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel He gave orders concerning his bones But here you look at Joseph a young man who on one hand He loved God in a wonderful way as a young man a dreamer the 11th of 12 sons But here Joseph he finds himself There in his faith. He had these dreams and these visions which you know So well his own brothers turned against him out of jealousy Sell him off as a slave down to the Midianites They take him down to Egypt and there he becomes a slave in the house of Potiphar Potiphar's wife takes liking to him in Order to keep himself pure and keeping avoiding her as she they're literally trying to get him They commit immorality with her there One day as he finally has to run from her to protect himself in a sense from then to remain pure She turns against him Potiphar ends up having him thrown in prison He sits in prison for years and years Interprets a couple dreams for a butcher and a baker their Butler and ends up for the Pharaoh and then is those Interpretations of dreams finally come out two years later after this When Pharaoh himself has a dream he interprets the dream. He's all the time though through all of his trials all of his struggles Here was one of them. He didn't have any wells. He didn't have any wealth He didn't have any accomplishments. All he had was he was a slave and he was a prisoner In his life went very very tough for him He never even got to be in the land. The others were he at least in the land. They didn't possess it He sold out of the land when he's a little kid and he grows up down in Egypt spends virtually his entire life from then On never returned and yet he was somebody that ultimately God took him Joseph Brought him up to where he ended up Interpreting Pharaoh's dream of the famine in the land There's some of seven years of plenty seven years of famine where the whole world is gonna go through a famine Ultimately as the years go by it all happens They store up through the seven good years then the seven bad years happen and then his own family many You know years later his brothers are brought down and now this young man who'd lived his life Seemingly by faith and that everybody else would say look at him and say what is your faith done for you, buddy? What is your faith ever done for you? You had faith in God and your brother sold you you had faith in God and this woman turns you over you have faith in God and you sit in prison You have faith in God and you even interpret dreams for other people and help their lives and they still forget you and you spend Another two years rotting what in the world do you look at you? You've got nothing. You've got no home You've got no family. You've got their children. You've got nothing What are you doing? You know how many times I wonder again how many of us maybe sometimes that have lived faithfully before the Lord Do love him and sometimes you sit there and others would look at you and say, oh look at your faith Wow What's it done for you lately and you'd look at it and say well The one thing it said about Joseph is the Lord was with him It's all it says the Lord was with him But the wonderful thing is is that that ultimately ended up to be greater riches than his father and his grandfather ever knew To be there without all of the distractions all the wells all the things all the quote-unquote successes that you could seemingly have Here a man alone with God and he was richer than his father and his grandfather ever was Though he had never seen the land since he was a kid and sold Though he was never to go back into it He then after he ultimately saved his family by his faith He then there looks at him and he says there's no you want to know what I want. I want you I'm gonna stay here until I die and finish out my course here But I want you to take my bones and bury them in the land I'll never inherit the land The land will inherit me you bury me there and you know Sometimes as you're going through here you some of you may be sitting here and lonely today going through your life struggling But I'll tell you even then Whatever it is If it's by faith that you have come to the analysis in life that you realize there is only one reason to live his promises and his plan and Whenever and however and whatever that ever comes about it is worth it and I will live for it With all of my heart. Let it take me where it takes. Let me be alone Let me be sold by my family. Let me be thrown in prison. Let this whatever happens who cares? All I want to know is he is with me the greatest of all riches. Do you know that? And ultimately here as we close today Maybe just to ask yourself you like come to the ultimate thing where God wants. He doesn't care the route you get there, obviously Here these three patriarchs in very different routes all the same conclusion They could look at their children and so often, you know, we have what we call these days What a deathbed confessions one of the things that seems to be the law has always weighed very heavily what they call a deathbed Confession it's the suggestion there that ultimately people they may lie and say all sorts of things all the way through their life but when a guy is dying if ever he's going to tell the truth, it'll be now and You look at these the deathbed confessions I know my Redeemer lives and they look at their children and they say this is where the wealth is It's in his promises You don't have to get to death to make a deathbed confession You can do it right now very much alive Say why wait they come around and maybe some of us it's right now It's in wells and it's in flocks and it's in our own. We're still perfecting our art of you know Manipulation and our skill, you know what, you know working out what we want and how we think it ought to be in Controlling our life or we can just sit back and say God you rule I Trust you and your plan and your promises impeccably Amen Let's pray dear father. I thank you for your word And I thank you for your love and Lord. I'm sure that as we gather there's we're all in different categories. We're all different How we come through things doesn't seem to make a lot to you How we ultimately arrive you look at us it seems in life and you say you do whatever it is you want to do You go about it and I love you and I'm going to do all I can I'll wrestle with you all the way through your life I'll let you think of anything you think is strong and I will be there to prove myself stronger I'm willing to be measured against any and every value system and Lord You seem to be so gracious and so patient that you will literally sometimes wait through so much of our life to where finally one day we would lean upon our staff and We would say the promises of God or yay and amen the hope of God the the truths of God the plan of God the inheritance that there is in Christ is all that there is Lord, I pray that today you would help us while we live in a world that many of us we go out and we just seem It's a dog-eat-dog world It's survival of the fittest. It's the skill of manipulation Lord help us to live in a place in a way that we realize that isn't true. I Believe my God is powerful. He's wonderful. He's stronger than any and every other thing He will control for his glory. Whatever he wants Lord I pray that we would be able to look at our children our descendants all those around and our trust our Realization of your power and your glory and your majesty Lord that would be the prevailing thing that we would have is that we would look at them and That we would be able to confess That we are strangers and pilgrims in this land. Oh, maybe we tried to fit. Maybe we worked at it Maybe we were drawn in maybe we were deceived by it for time. Maybe even decades But then ultimately Lord you brought us around to where we realized that's not true The Lord is God in heaven above and earth below Lord teach us to rest in you Whatever the issues may be going on in any of our lives today Lord there were we maybe as men want to go out and capture the world or as women and wives We need to try to try to manipulate something to make it happen But Lord that we can just rest in you and in your love And stand back and see the salvation of the Lord So we just give it to you We asked Lord that you would work within our lives and bring us now Lord Bring us now to that place of full trust in you father. We ask it in Jesus name Amen