Jacob's life illustrates the consequences of trivializing spiritual blessings, as seen when he and his mother, Rebekah, conspired to deceive Isaac and Esau for the patriarchal blessing. Esau's willingness to trade his birthright for a meal highlights a dangerous tendency to prioritize immediate gratification over eternal promises, a pattern that can be passed down through generations. The sermon emphasizes that valuing what God values, particularly people and the church, is crucial for receiving God's blessing. Ultimately, the message calls for a renewed commitment to spiritual disciplines, evangelism, and the local church as expressions of valuing God's priorities.
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I understand there's a rumor going around already that you guys are majoring in soap operas down here. By the time I get back to school, that rumor would have spread throughout all the assemblies. I'll probably have to go and talk Dan Smith and explain what really happened. Have you ever noticed how quickly news makes it around the assembly circuit? It's an amazing thing. This morning we were considering the birth rate and blessing conspiracy in chapter twenty-six, twenty-seven of Genesis. I'd invite your attention again to chapter twenty-seven.
Just by way of brief review, remember that family was so dysfunctional. Four members split down the middle. Father Isaac favorite son Esau, outdoorsman, existentialist, lived for the moment, had little concept of the future and the great promises that God had already made to Isaac long before he was about to die. He thought he was going to die and He had to have some good food to do that, and this led to a terrible, treacherous plot by his wife, Rebecca, in conspiracy with Jacob to receive the blessing of God.
Esau, like father, sold his birthright because he was hungry after the hunt. And Jacob, in his cleverness, legitimately bargained with him. Esau had little value on what God counted valuable. And for a mess of pottage, sold the birthright. Later was tricked out of his blessing as well. He trivialized the things of God. A principle I mentioned comes out of that, that we parents, we grandparents, can not only influence our children for good, but we can send them mixed signals and influence them for evil as well.
Esau was like his father Isaac. They had the same value system. appetite, the senses. Not the great God-informed data bank and the will that is alive to God to choose the best, but no, the incidental, the trivial, the pleasure for the moment. Listen to what was at stake. This is what Esau missed. This is what Jacob got. promise the blessing to Jacob surely verse twenty seven of twenty seven surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field trick which the Lord has blessed therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine let people serve you and nations bow down to you be master over your brethren and let your mother's sons bow down to you Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.
Chapter twenty-eight, as Jacob is sent away, may God, verse three, Almighty, bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you. That you may be an assembly of peoples and give you the blessings of Abraham to you and your descendants with you. That you may inherit the land in which you are a stranger. which God gave to Abraham. And when Isaac blessed Jacob, not knowing who he was the first time, knowing who he was the second time, Jacob became the patriarch along with Abraham and Isaac. And to him was confirmed the great Abrahamic covenant.
Blessing, I will bless you. This land, is your land. This land is your... I was breaking the song when I come on. I'm sorry. My wife will give me time out for that one. Forgive me. This is your land. I promised it to Abraham and to Isaac and now to you. What an exchange. For a big Mac. He missed that. Trivialization of the things of God. Where did that come from? It came from Isaac. Because Isaac does the same thing just a little bit later.
That's the kind of people they were. We can influence our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren for good, as most of you, if not all of you have. But if we have made trivial decisions along life, if we have concluded, if we teach to them that the soccer game is more important than the prayer, meaning we are teaching them the wrong thing. Well, when you were growing up, it wasn't even an American thing to play soccer, was it? I don't think it is yet, frankly. But I'm in the minority on that one. I am certain some of you groan when you see some of the...
standards that are in place in your immediate family down the line. Do any of you? Why are my sons and daughters counting those things important? Why is attendance at the soccer or the ice hockey up north or the pleasurable things of life far more important than things that really matter? and i see that happening all the time in church life as i teach ecclesiology to the class i i give them certain rules of thumb we'll talk about some of that a bit later but you dare not overlook regular habitual without excuse participation in the function of church life i'm in the middle of five generations of christians And there were certain spiritual habits established in our homes that never came into question.
You didn't even debate it. I'm not sure how late, I don't much care how late you stay out Saturday night. But come Lord's Supper, you're there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed with your eyes open, concentrating on what happens? It's a roll. You can't have rolls anymore. That's legalism. Yeah, well. There are hundreds of imperatives in the New Testament era of grace, one of which is forsake not the assembly of yourselves together. There are habits. And you're saying to me, don't tell me, I agree with you. Well, I am saying this to you. Don't give up the clan leadership you have in your family as the old mom and dad.
You know, in our society, Once they get married, you don't touch them. I didn't grow up in that kind of a family. I don't think you godly men and women ever should relinquish your spiritual leadership in the families, in your bigger families. And when the children get out of line, be there your sons and daughters or grandchildren, straighten them out. Interfere. Get on that case. Any of you like to do that? Or is that why you're retired down here? Get away from all that pressure. Mom, I and Dad lived with us until they died, and one Sunday afternoon I had been very, very busy on conference weekends, and it was in the summer, and the grass was growing long, and it needed some attention.
So I went over to the folks' apartment and said, lawn's out there, mess, isn't it, Dad? He said, it is. It's a disgrace to the Lord Jesus to live in a nice community like this, not take care of your lawn. You're being a bad testimony. I said, I was hoping you'd say that because I want to cut the lawn this Sunday afternoon. He said, not on the Lord's day, you're not. I said, yes, sir. I was about fifty-five. I thought I was in charge. We travel through our life in a four-generation unit. And if any of us mess up, great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, children, however you line it up, if any of us mess up, the sin is visited on all four generations.
And you are the folks who are the leaders of your clan at this point, the moms and dads who still should have the respect of your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And I'm encouraging you not to relinquish that. They need your exhortation. They need to learn how to draw some lines in the sand. You were not afraid to tell your children yes and no. Where are you? A lot of people are nowadays. They treat their children like pals. instead of moms and dads who have authority over them.
And we can still influence the family behind us for good. Don't give that up. My wife's been on the phone most of the time since we've been down here. One of these days, that thing's just going to grow on her ear as a permanent appendage. Do you ever have problems like that? And then you won't ever have to take it off. And what is she doing? She's giving motherly and grandmotherly advice to the scattered family. And you know what? They better listen. Hey, that's old school.
I realize that. But old school was better when the experience of adulthood, of mature Christianity, of what grandma and grandpa had to say filtered down all the way to the great-grandchildren. That's how the faith of your grandmother and of your mother gets passed on to another generation. It's not from being inactive. It's not from being passive. It's by continuing a role of leadership. Yes, we as grandparents, great-grandparents, parents, can still influence our children for good and evil. Isaac largely influenced Esau for evil.
They seem both of them in these moments of weakness to be existentialists. Live for the moment a mess of food and gives up good spiritual reasoning. in the whole process. The primary lesson, and this is where we were at the close of our meeting this morning, the primary lesson that I want us to gain from Jacob and from Rebecca is this, they valued what God valued. Now they went at it the wrong way, and there were probably better ways to go at it.
but recognizing their culture and the trickery that was always there and the poor male leadership that was being evidenced in that family. We can understand how they went about this in devious ways, but at the very heart of it is that they valued the inheritance and the blessing. Think of what Jacob got through trickery. He would become that leader of the clan. He would become the priestly functioning person until priesthood became established in another setting.
He would be that leader who would pray to God for his people. He would influence the whole body. These are good desires. And though they went out of the wrong way, Rebecca and Jacob valued what God counts valuable. God put his hand on Jacob right at the beginning. And he said, the elder shall serve the younger. And we see that in the blessing that Isaac gives to Jacob. He confirms that. And that whole process is being carried out. I think Rebecca and Jacob talked about those kind of things while the others were talking about the ten-point buck they just got.
And they were going to get God's good no matter how. And we'll see that as a motivating force with Jacob a little later as he comes closer to God and he goes through a change of who he is. It grows out of this, I want what God has out there for me. I count valuable what God counts valuable. This morning we left with that concept and I wanted to expand on that some this evening. What does God love? What does he count valuable? And our closing comment was this, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.
God values people. I hear Dan Smith say over and over again, the only thing God is going to save out of this earth, out of his creation, is people. It's the only thing. People are valuable in God's sight. We, each one of us, we are made in the image and likeness of God. I do not buy the concept that we are worthless. In relationship to God, we are very close. Psalm eight, Hebrews two talks about the high position of man, not the low position.
When I consider the heavens, the moon, stars, which thou hast ordained, when is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest them. But you have made him little less than God. You have crowned him with glory and honor. What a piece of work is man. What genius is reflected in the image and likeness of God. And God says, let us make man in our own image. So in the image of God, created He man, male and female, created He then. What a piece of work.
And He gives to that man, that woman, dominion over all the works of His hands. He is God-like. And He goes on to say something else. only recently came on this. After saying, all this is under your hand, everything I've made is under your control. Go and subdue it, bring it into dominion. He then says, Be fruitful and multiply. Have you ever considered What a young husband and wife, now married, together, produced by their union, a child who will live forever.
A child who, from the moment of conception onward, is half an eternity. Will forever be. For good if a believer eventually. For judgment if not as they grow. But in either case the man and the wife in a very God-like way have produced something that will last forever. Isn't that God-like? Nothing else is like that. Man is valuable.
Even fallen man, James says, look, that's why we don't curse man. He says of the Christians back in those days, brethren, we bless God with our mouth. And not too soon thereafter, curse the man who cuts us off in his car. This ought not to be because that man, that fallen man, that sinful man, maintains the similitude of God in his being. We are very God-like. The incarnation was not nearly as uncomfortable a fit as we think.
God, manifest in the flesh. We are very valuable, so valuable, that God so loved the world. That's the world of people that He gave His only begotten Son, to bring to them eternal life. And if I value what God counts valuable, one of my exercises should be the communication of the gospel to the unsaved. Some of us are evangelists by gift, and that is a natural thing for us to do.
All of us are to give reason for the hope that is in us as opportunity presents itself when we live our life, our Christian life, before those people that we know day by day. God loves my unsaved neighbor. Is that true? and on the means of communication to that person. Had a knock at the door the other week and a lady was making a collection for a tree to be planted at a neighbor's house in honor of his wife who died.
A rather young lady in her thirties. A couple children. And this neighbor is talking to me that she was really saved, she says to me. She had married a person of a different faith, and it was her project to convert him. And this neighbor woman, as she was talking my language about salvation and the need for this man to be saved, a person within my domain of responsibility and witnessing, I was convicted that all I'm doing is giving five dollars for a tree when I should have been supportive of this lady.
in trying to witness to her husband, I was too busy serving Jesus to come into contact with my neighbor who needed to hear about the saving work of Jesus Christ. That's a struggle. God loves the world. And we have a vision then for evangelization in the community in which we function, those A few contacts that you and I have, I understand that, but the few contacts that we have and the broader ones that many have in the normal functioning of life, we need to have interest in the worldwide ministry of the gospel.
We have historically been a very missionary-minded group of people. Those kinds of things are at threat presently in our movement. Do you know that? A lot of the churches we contact in focusing in on their own local contacts and their own responsibilities and their own staffing are forgetting about the missionaries out there. New pharaohs have come into place and they don't know those people who are out there. And I hear time after time about lines being put through people's names with whom the churches have had fellowship over the years.
Who are those people? I don't know them. We should get to know them. God loves the world, and it's not just my little local community involvement. There's the great Philippian church who... once and again ministered to Paul not for their own benefit but that he could take the gospel to other people. And he said even of the early church, only you minister many time and again for the preaching of the gospel. God so loved the world. Evangelization in personal, local, worldwide. If we count valuable what God counts valuable, one of those things is preach the word.
Be instant in season and out of season. Do the work of an evangelist. Because God loves to save people. He is the Savior God. What else does God love? What does He count valuable? I heard my wife quoting a verse of scripture to my daughter concerning Christ and the church. Christ, do you know it, loved the church and gave himself for it.
Could we just muse a little bit this evening? When this great organism that God has brought into existence, the church, the body of Christ. Jesus said, I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against him. Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Christ is the head of the church, and he directs it presently. I love the statement of the Lord Jesus to Paul on the Damascus Road, where Jesus is in heaven, the Lord, the head of the church is in heaven, free from sorrow and pain.
Yes, no. Saul, Saul, why? Do you know the rest of the verse? Why do you persecute me? What a mystery is the body of Christ, linked with the head of the Lord Jesus. What a provision is the church for us. Think about it for a moment. God has not left us to be lone rangers here on earth. He has linked each one of us. with a local manifestation of the body of Christ. To the church at Philippi or at Corinth or the Galatian churches or the church at Rome or Ephesus or the seven churches of Revelation.
It is not just enough to be related to God and salvation in His genius design in the body of Christ. He has placed us in local manifestations of that church. And He has committed us to the care of wise leadership, eldership within that body. They protect us. They rule over us. They are to be obeyed by us. They are to be supported by us. They are to be honored. And they protect us. And they see that we get the proper food spiritually.
And when we get out of line, which sometimes we do, in God's great provision in His body, in the body of Christ, they can even discipline us and correct us and say to us, you need to obey. Isn't that a wonderful thing? God has given us this arc of the church to protect us in the now corrupt generation in which we find ourselves. As he forms his church, he has a new way of uniting his people together, different from Israel, because he has made each one of us priests of God.
Ken Daughters and I are flying back from a conference in Seattle. Ken teaches at school with me, and we went into Minneapolis and then got on one of these very little airplanes with very young pilots. It gets a little scary. They look like they're about twelve. Have any of you been on those kind of planes? You have a question about the plane, and then you have a bigger question about the pilots. And it was a stormy day. And as Ken and I got into the plane and had about fifteen, twenty people on it, I said, hey, don't worry, we're both priests. Thank you, Father. I'm not that kind of priest. But I am a priest.
Any other priest here tonight? Another priest? We're a kingdom of priests. And in the church, we do priestly things. We offer up intercessory prayers. for one another. I so enjoyed being with the men, listening to these godly old guys pray to a god they know. You know. Priests interceding in prayer on behalf of other folk.
We're a kingdom of priests. and priests pray they intercede our Lord Jesus is our great high priest and he ever lives to make intercession for us and we pray together God has provided that in church life our prayer time in our assembly back home we have little cards that we pass in and every once in a while my my wife will say number ten grandchild has a cold would you put that down I don't know That's hard-hearted. Look, if we prayed for all the colds of all the grandchildren of all us represented, that's all we pray for.
They're the kind of burdens we can bear. She's sitting there shaking her head at me. We have an eternal debate on this. There are certain prayers that are just my prayers, me and God. There are certain prayer categories that are family kind of prayers. In Galatians it says, every man shall bear his own burden. Galatians chapter six. Then it goes on to say, bear one another's burdens. Two different words for burden. There are certain burdens that you and I are designed to handle all by ourselves. Ordinary struggles of life. And we don't have to elicit prayer from everyone because I have a three-minute headache.
Give me three minutes and that'll go. Lord, give me strength for three minutes. So, you know, But there are overwhelming burdens that we bear, aren't there? I can't handle it myself. It's the load limit sign on the elevator that's been exceeded. It's too many passengers in the boat. We're not designed to handle that much. But in the church, we function as priests praying for one another. Another function of priesthood, this genius design that God has for us. in the church is that we are priests in a living stone body to offer up sacrifices of praise to God.
We worship. We come together Sunday morning and the table is set with loaf and wine. If I'm ever elder for a day and I have one of my wishes, one of them will be that one Sunday a year we all come in priestly garb. Wouldn't that look neat, black suit, white collar? All of us come in and we'd say to one of us, Beth, you look like a priest. Well, yeah, we are. We come in that door to gather corporately as church.
God says, one of the things I like best and I've designed this for church life, I want you all to worship together. I want you to be priests of God. And each of us, First Corinthians fourteen, comes with a psalm, comes with a praise, comes with a word, and all things are done decently and in order. And we function as priests of God. And your thoughts of worship and thankfulness to the Lord Jesus raise my thoughts higher than they have ever been. Have you experienced that? Isn't it wonderful? Christ loves the church. He's told us how to govern it.
He's told us how to be priests. And then He looks at all of us and He says, oh, you're one in Christ. There's neither male nor female. June or Greek, bond or free, but one in Christ. You're the same. You have the same standing before God. But I'm going to make you all different too. And the Holy Spirit, according to his will, distributes gifts in the body of Christ that make you dependent on me and me dependent on you. We need one another. I don't have all the gifts any more than you have all the gifts.
but altogether we have the gifts. And we are gifted individuals and we are building up the body together and growing in the unity of Christ until we have grown up into the head. And only you can do what you can do. Only I can do what I can do according to the giftedness of God. And in this genius organism called the Church, God has made it that way. Jesus said, I'll build the church that way. I'll have priests so they can worship and pray. I'll have gifted individuals so that they have a need, so that they're unique, so that they can build one another up, so they can be mutually dependent on one another, and sense the wholeness of the body growing together.
Christ loves the church. He's practical about it, too. Not just all this ethereal stuff. Hey, I like that. Got any needs? Got any financial needs? What's the biblical parachute for us? Everybody likes parachutes. Well, piety has to begin at home first. and the parents take care of the children, and then later the adult children take care of the parents. And if they're widows or widowers, and there is no provision, guess what?
There's the church. We take care of our people. The Apostle Paul will say, look, here's the way it is. If there's a famine in Jerusalem, I want the whole church worldwide to take a collection that there might be inequality. Whoa. Say it again, that there might be inequality. Not that they be made rich and you poor, but that there be inequality. We care for the people of God. Isn't it a genius organism? Government? Priesthood? Gift?
financial needs met, striving together in prayer and in worship and in teaching and in the fellowship of the saints. And we see the power of God manifested in this church. I will build my church. You know what? I'm going to commit to that, don't you? Count on me for that local church. I'll be there for prayer and for worship and for teaching and for fellowship and will give and will be governed and I'll exercise my gift.
I am committed to the local church as strong as I am a member of the church universal because Christ loves the church and we should too. He counts that valuable. And we want to communicate to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren that church life, family life, go together. And we stand side by side in the functioning of church. It's one more lesson to learn from this. We'll save it for tomorrow morning.
Ultimately important. that we value what God values and we will receive the blessing of God. Let's pray together. Well, give us a vision for the world, our Father, that you have that we may see the world with the same compassion, desire that you do. Our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, head of the church, we pray that we may likewise love the church and give ourselves for it, both on a local level and worldwide.
We are thankful for the people of God and the genius that you have manifested in bringing us together into one body, having broken down the middle wall partition. Now, if Jew and Gentile made one new man in Christ, we praise you for this. Help us to manifest this in our daily life, in our commitment. Help us to influence those that we love.