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[0:00] We welcome you to the media ministry of Bethel Community Church, knowing Jesus, making Jesus known. Morning.

[0:15] It's good to see some new faces here. Good to see some old faces. Dad. Dad. So today we're going to be looking at Genesis 27, primarily.

[0:33] But we also have 28, 32, and also 33. So what I'm thinking of doing is just going over Genesis 27, and that will kind of be our main meat of the passage.

[0:49] And then we'll do, I'll just summarize, 28, 32, and 33. So why don't we just start out in a word of prayer.

[1:00] Lord God, we thank you so much for this opportunity to come together, to fellowship, to sing praises to you, to worship you. Lord, we thank you for this time when we can just dig into your word and learn from it and just hear what you have to say.

[1:19] Lord, I pray that you speak through me and that all glory would be to you. It's in your name we pray. Amen. So we're going to have three points to this message.

[1:30] Our first point in chapter 27 will be Isaac and his plan. Our second point will be Rebecca and God's plan.

[1:42] So you put that in parentheses there. Okay? So Rebecca and God's plan. And then lastly, our last point is going to be Jacob and his mom's plan.

[1:53] Okay? Jacob and his mom's plan. So let me just summarize a couple of these chapters that we're going to be looking at. So in chapter 27, Jacob is after Esau's blessing from Isaac.

[2:09] And ultimately, Jacob steals Esau's blessing. Well, not steals. Isaac blesses him, right? And he uses deception. And Esau is furious because, remember, back in 24, 25, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew.

[2:30] And so now Esau's furious. And, you know, he goes to his father. He's like, is there any blessing you can give me? And so he resolves that he's going to kill Jacob.

[2:41] So Esau wants to kill Jacob. Now, this is very detrimental to Rebecca because she doesn't want to lose both of her sons in one day. So she tells Jacob, hey, I've got a brother, Laban.

[2:54] He lives in Haran. I need you to go out there and just stay with him maybe a few days, you know, maybe a couple weeks. Let Esau calm down. You know, he's really mad at you. And then you can go ahead and come back.

[3:05] But it ends up that she or that Jacob stays with Laban for 20 years out there. So that's chapter 27. And then we dive into chapter 28 where Jacob is on his way to Laban's house.

[3:21] And then he experiences, as we all know, this divine revelation from God that confirms the blessing that Isaac gave to Jacob. And so he has this dream, right?

[3:32] And Jacob has these visual signs of the connection between God and earth or God and humankind. And it's the first time where we see, you know, humanity and God kind of have this, they kind of intermingle here.

[3:52] And God repeats the promise that, you know, he'll have offspring, that he'll have land, and that he'll have personal blessing. So that kind of summarizes chapter 28. There's more in there with Rachel and Laban and stuff like that.

[4:05] But we won't get into it just for the sake of time. And then we jump forward to chapter 32. Jacob's been working for Laban. Laban's been super unfair to Jacob.

[4:16] You know, he changes his wages 10 times. He's unfair to his daughters. He cheats Jacob out of service for him, right? He works for seven years for Rachel.

[4:27] And then Laban just ends up giving him Leah. And then he works another seven years to get Rachel finally. And so in chapter 22, God tells Jacob that it's time to go back to his father's land, right?

[4:42] But Jacob is kind of scared of this because the guy who tried to kill him 20 years ago is still there, Esau. And so Jacob goes back to his father's land.

[4:53] He divides his company in half, right? So if one group dies, that's fine. At least this group stays alive. He wants to, you know, procure his name. But then Jacob, this is where we see Jacob's really fervent prayer to God.

[5:08] And he prays for deliverance. And he reminds God of God's promise to him. And he, and God grants him this promise.

[5:19] And it turns out that in chapter 33, that when Esau is approaching with these 400 guys, and they're coming up on Jacob, you know, Jacob runs up and bows before Esau.

[5:33] But then Esau ends up, you know, not being angry with Jacob. And they end up basically hugging it out. So this is also, back in 32, this is also where Jacob wrestles with God.

[5:46] And he's renamed Israel, which is very important. So that's kind of a summary. I know it's a lot. I would encourage you to read it for yourselves. It's a really good passage.

[5:57] And there's a lot to learn from it. I wish I could kind of dive into each section of it. But we're just going to look at chapter 27. So why don't we turn there to Genesis 27.

[6:12] You know, this is kind of an interesting passage because it's all about deceit and deception and family rivalries. But it's kind of cool to see that, like, besides this sin, we see that God is still in control and that, you know, that God's people, Israel, still come out of it as a result of all this sin.

[6:36] So let's go ahead and read verse 1 through 4 of Genesis chapter 27. Verse 1 through 5.

[7:11] And so in this short passage, we see Isaac and his plan. God made Rebekah a promise back in chapter 25.

[7:22] I'll read that for you. It's 25-23. It says, And the nations are in your womb. Two peoples from within you shall be divided. One shall be stronger than the other.

[7:34] And the older shall serve the younger. So the older one was Esau. He came out first. And then Jacob. And so God said, Esau is supposed to serve Jacob.

[7:44] And I think Isaac, right, he was blind, but he could still hear. I would assume that Rebekah told him that, hey, Esau is going to have to serve Jacob. That's what God told me. We should probably obey that, right?

[7:56] And so in this passage, we see that Isaac blatantly ignores God. And he says, you know what?

[8:06] I know this, but let me go ahead and give my blessing to my eldest son. And I've read this passage a lot, but I never really thought, why would he want to give?

[8:19] What's the difference? Why does it matter? I mean, it's just a blessing, right? You know, he's not blatantly putting Esau in charge over Jacob, is he?

[8:30] If you look at 27, verse 28, you can see that he actually wanted to put Esau in front of Jacob. If you look at, or just look at 27, 29.

[8:42] Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you, and be Lord over your brothers. So we do see that. So that's the blessing that Jacob ultimately got, but it was intended for Esau.

[8:58] So he blatantly ignores God and puts his own way instead of God's. So why would he want to give? You know, what's the difference? What's the difference between Esau and Jacob?

[9:08] Why would you want to give Esau this blessing and not Jacob? Is it really that big of a deal to give Esau a blessing? Well, here's what I think.

[9:19] I think that, first off, Esau was the firstborn. And being the firstborn back then was a super big deal. But also, we can kind of devise that Esau was like a man's man, right?

[9:35] He was the firstborn. He's the pride of the family. We'll see later. He's scruffy. He's a very hairy guy. He's literally as hairy as a goat, right?

[9:45] He's a woodsman who hunted well with the bow. He used other weapons. And even though he married Hittites, he was married and he was established with children.

[9:58] You know, I bet in Isaac's mind we would think, yeah, I mean, Esau's going places, right? You know, Jacob's not married. You know, he's hanging out in the kitchen making stew for his brother.

[10:09] You know, Esau's out there hunting with a bow. You know, he's a man's man. And if I was in Isaac's position, just financially and logically, to procure my name and my land, I think it would be appropriate to give Esau the blessing, right?

[10:25] And so I don't think it's too far-fetched for Isaac to want to give Esau the blessing. You know, Isaac, if you notice here that Isaac says, I want you to go out and get me game.

[10:40] I want you to go hunt me something and get me stew so I can eat it one last time before I give you the blessing. But as we see later that they had, you know, lambs and sheep.

[10:52] They probably had camels, maybe cows. I don't know. He could have gone out to the field, gotten a lamb or a cow or something like that. But I think Isaac asked Esau, he asked Esau to go out and to hunt because Isaac wanted to praise his son one last time, right?

[11:12] He wanted to, you know, he wanted to say, look what my son has done. Look, he brought, he went, he hunted, you know, he got me this game. He skinned it. He prepared it for me.

[11:23] Look how good of his son he is. Look how eligible he is for my blessing. You know, he was kind of a man after, you know, a man after Isaac's heart. He was someone who, you know, Isaac probably taught how to hunt, right?

[11:38] He probably, you know, went out there when he was a kid and while Jacob was back with his mom cooking or whatever. And, you know, he sees Esau. The main point is he sees, Isaac sees Esau as a success.

[11:50] And he sees he wants to give him this blessing because, you know, he's kind of a daddy's boy. And he wants, you know, he wants to bless him. But in doing so, we see that Isaac ultimately puts his will before God's will.

[12:07] And it's kind of interesting. You know, let's remember Isaac. And my dad spoke on this a couple weeks ago. Isaac was this man who was obedient.

[12:22] He was a servant of God. When Isaac went up to Mount Moriah with his dad, my dad mentioned he was 20, you know, 25, maybe 30 years old.

[12:33] So he was a grown man willingly going up and laying on this altar, you know, willing to sacrifice him for the sake of, for the obedience of God.

[12:45] And it's the same Isaac, right? He's now contradicting the Lord's way. And so I just want to point out here that the same Isaac who's obedient to even death on an altar for the sake of God is the same one who's blatantly ignorant to God's way.

[13:07] And so for us today, we should never be too confident in ourselves, right? We should put our full confidence in God. There's a really good passage, and you don't have to turn there.

[13:18] I'll just read it for you. It's Jeremiah 17, 6 through 7. He is like a shrub in the desert, and he shall not see any good come.

[13:29] He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. Okay, this is good here. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust is in the Lord.

[13:46] He is like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes. For its leaves remain green, and it's not anxious of the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

[14:00] So we never should get too confident in ourselves and never look back on our past successes and think that that's going to just automatically guide our future successes.

[14:13] We still have to have confidence in Christ, still have to have confidence in God, and constantly go to him and lean on him. And it's kind of a bummer because Isaac is willing to tarnish not only God's name, right, and his word, but he's also willing to tarnish the future people of Israel, which he probably didn't realize at this time.

[14:34] But if you look at 26, 34, it says, When Esau was 40 years old, he took Judith, the daughter of Biri, the Hittite, to be his wife, and Basemath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite.

[14:51] And they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah. So by Esau taking these Hittites, if Isaac were to give Esau this blessing, then he would have tarnished the people of Israel, right?

[15:04] They wouldn't have been Israelites. They would have been partial Hittites. If you look at Genesis 24, 3, it specifically mentioned that I may make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughter of the Canaanites among whom I dwell.

[15:23] So we as believers must be careful not to push our own sinful desires onto God, lest we miss out on the blessings of God.

[15:39] Psalms 37, let me see. Psalms 37, 5 says, Commit your ways to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act.

[15:53] You know, if Isaac would have just committed his ways, we wouldn't have all this whole chapter of sin and deceit and people having to deceive each other. We must be careful not to push our sinful desires onto God.

[16:09] It's easy to think that we're doing right, especially as a believer, because we think that we have this natural passage that we can go through to, you know, have, Oh, I'm a Christian, so if I do this, it's right with God.

[16:27] Well, did you actually, is it actually right with God, or are you just saying that? So we have to not push our sinful desires onto God. You know, there's a, I have a minor example of this. When I was 16, I went to Turkey Hill, right, and I, we all were putting, you could like put in these little slips, these requests for what you wanted to be on that week, and I had been counseling, and I was like, all right, I want to be on staff, okay?

[16:53] And all of us put it in there, all of my friends put it in there, and we all wanted to be on staff. And so I got on staff, I got to be the head of gym, okay?

[17:04] I've never been on gym before. I'm 16 years old, they put me as the head, I don't know why they did that. And I'm not going to name names, but my crew, the people who were under me, were not good at all.

[17:14] They were not hard workers. And then all my other friends, they got put on counseling. And so, you know, I was kind of a loner in this. I was working late, I, you know, I had to sweep the whole floor, and my crew members wouldn't show up.

[17:30] It was so frustrating, and I'd have to set up the field all by myself, which is a flipping huge field. Like, it's, I'm not even joking, it's like, like I was walking the field back and forth for hours, setting it up by myself.

[17:42] But it tested my patience, and I grew in my faith. And, you know, if I would have been on it with my friends, yes, that would have been fun. But I don't think I would have grown as much, you know.

[17:53] So what I desired, you know, my sinful desires, that wasn't what God intended. And ultimately, I grew in my faith. And the director at the end of the week, you know, he said, I really appreciate you, I appreciate what you did.

[18:06] And so it ended up being for God's glory, and I was thankful for that. But it's just, it's just funny how we think that things are so right. Like, we're like, yeah, this is fine.

[18:17] And then, you know, God has something different for us. So let's not push our own sinful desires onto God. I think it's easier to do than we might think. All right, let's look here at verse 5 through 13 in Genesis 27.

[18:36] Now, Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebecca said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

[18:52] Bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it. And bless you before the Lord before I die. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father such as he loves.

[19:09] And you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man and I'm smooth.

[19:21] Perhaps my father will feel me and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. And his mother said, let your curse be on me, my son.

[19:31] Only obey my voice and go, bring them to me. So in this passage, we see Rebecca and God's plan. Right. Because she knew God's plan and she knew the promise to herself that the older shall or the yeah, the older shall serve the younger.

[19:49] But she uses her own intentions to get what God wants. Right. She used sinful, manipulative actions. So, you know, like Isaac, she knew the promise.

[20:01] But instead of ignoring it like Isaac did, she took matters into her own hands instead of relying on God. She, you know, her intentions ultimately, you know, she desired God's choice.

[20:18] You know, the elder shall serve the younger. She wanted that, but she wanted it for selfish purposes. You know, as much as she said on the surface, yeah, like this is God's plan. This is what, you know, he wants for us.

[20:30] Rebecca wanted it her own way. And it came by deceiving and plotting against her own husband. There's a quote here by Stephen Cole. He's a pastor down in Flagstaff, Arizona.

[20:41] I thought this was really good. He kind of gives it a like a live action picture. It's kind of cool. He said, of course, Rebecca could have rationalized. Oh, what could I do? If I had acted as I did, God's promise wouldn't have been fulfilled.

[20:55] The whole messianic program was at stake. You can't just sit back and trust God at a time like that. You have to take decisive action. Besides, it worked. God's blessing through Abraham and Isaac came to Jacob just as God ordained.

[21:09] But this promotes the thinking that sin and deception was the only alternative. And I don't pretend to know what the proper course of action was to take for that.

[21:23] That's for God to know. But I do know one thing. And I know that one thing that her first action could have been to take her request to God. You know, the first thing she does is she turns around and she tells Jacob what they're going to do to gain this.

[21:37] Instead of turning to her knees and praying to God and inquiring of God the proper way to achieve his promise. And I think this can relate to us. I feel like so often, especially myself, you know, I'm guilty of this.

[21:50] I can hyper-focus on serving God instead of abiding with God. You know, I have a youth group on Wednesday and I have this men's Bible study on Mondays.

[22:01] You know, sometimes I do worship on Sunday or, you know, I have this conference I'm doing on the weekends. But it's vital that before that we have to seek God. You have to seek God first.

[22:12] First, Psalm 63, verse 1 through 4. Why don't we go ahead and turn there? It's just a really good passage. Excuse me.

[22:25] Psalm 63, verse 1. It says this. Oh, God, you are my God. Oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you.

[22:37] My flesh faints for you. As in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary. Beholding your power and glory.

[22:48] Because your steadfast love is better than my life. My lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands.

[23:00] You know, in seeking God first, our will will align. God's will. No, our will will align with God's will. You know, and if we don't seek God, then ultimately our serving, you know, it's our loss.

[23:15] Right? Because we're doing all this serving, but it's for no gain. It's in vain. And our actions have consequences. Rebecca's actions had consequences.

[23:27] Right? We see, we read that verse back in 26 that Esau and his wives made life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca. Right?

[23:38] And so Rebecca has to send Jacob off and she says, you know, it will only be a couple weeks, a couple months, a couple days, whatever. But ultimately, Jacob stays with Laban for 20 years and Rebecca dies and she never gets to see her favorite son again.

[23:53] Right? And so our sin has consequences. And she had to live the rest of her life out with these Hittite wives that made her bitter. So our sins have consequences.

[24:04] You know, even so, though, God still brings good out of evil. Right? And God's people, you know, Israel, ultimately came into existence through this.

[24:17] And, you know, God is, God shows his sovereignty through this. He shows sovereignty over man. But Rebecca, by not submitting to God, missed out on the blessing of being obedient to God.

[24:31] It's important that we live lives of seeking God first and acting second. Psalm 34. You don't have to turn there.

[24:43] Four through nine. It's just simple. It says, I sought the Lord. He answered me. He delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed.

[24:55] This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

[25:06] Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. So let us live a life that is seeking God first and acting second.

[25:18] And then we get to our third point here, and that's Jacob and his mom's plan. So verse 11 through 14, which we already kind of read, so I'll go ahead and just read verse 14.

[25:33] It says this. So he, Jacob, went and took them and brought them to his mother. These are the lambs. And his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved.

[25:44] And then verse 18, so he went into his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am. Who are you? Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn.

[25:56] I have done as you told me. Now sit up and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have been found so quickly, my son?

[26:08] He answered me, because the Lord your God has granted me success. And down to verse 24. He said, are you really my son Esau? He answered, I am.

[26:19] Then he said, bring it near that I may eat of my son's game and bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. I don't know if there's any spot.

[26:31] I don't know if this is a fact or not. But I don't know if there's any spot in the Bible that has more lies in like five or six verses. Like, goodness, just lie after lie after lie. You know, and if you look in verse 11, let me go back.

[26:46] Okay, so this is his mom. But Jacob, so she says, hey, let's go get the lamb. And then it says, but Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

[26:58] So we see that Jacob didn't even care about the sin. He only cared about getting caught, right? He didn't care about his sin. He only cared about being caught.

[27:09] And we have to recognize that this blew my mind. Jacob was not a young man. I was reading up a couple commentaries. Many people believe that Jacob at this point was 77 years old, okay?

[27:24] And there's a few different. Some say he's 40. Others will say he's like 77, 80 years old. But either way, you know, I always envisioned this teenager, you know, willingly submitting to his mom, like, hey, go get this lamb and put skins on you.

[27:38] And, you know, willingly submitting to his mother's plan. But he had full, I mean, he's a full-grown man. He had full autonomy to say no, right?

[27:49] He had a full conscience to say, yeah, that's not right. Why would I do that? Well, he didn't care about the sin, right? He just cared about getting caught for the sin. And he had the ability to decipher right from wrong, you know, and he definitely had a chance not to sin.

[28:05] But he blindly played into his mother's plan. And this is important here that there are always opportunities to turn away from sin. Look how many opportunities Jacob had here to turn away from sin.

[28:17] All right. Look at verse 14. So he went and took them and brought them to his mother. And his mother prepared delicious food such as his father loved. How long does it take to field dress a deer if you're really good?

[28:32] Five, ten minutes? And then, I don't know. Is that right? Okay. I don't know. That seems right. And then, okay, so he goes and gets this lamb. You know, he has to dress it, take all the organs out.

[28:43] He has to skin it because he uses the skin of the goats on himself. So he has to skin it. And then he has to give it to his mom, who then has to make dinner. And so this whole time, you can think of just, like, Jacob out there skinning this thing, like, man, should I actually do this?

[28:57] Like, this sin, you know? He's got, like, an hour to think about what he's doing. And, like, have you ever been called when you were a kid, like, called down, like, hey, dinner's ready? And then you get down. It's, like, in 30 minutes.

[29:08] We set the table. Yeah. That happened a lot. So, you know, I mean, you know, he calls Jacob, and then he's, like, all right, prepare this food. You know, he's got time.

[29:20] And I can just envision Jacob, like, taking this goat skin and putting it on him and being, like, man, should I actually do this? You know? And he's covering the smooth of his neck and the smooth of his arms and the back of his palms.

[29:35] And then his mother later on takes his brother's clothes out of the closet or whatever they had and puts it on his, you know, he puts it on. It's, like, man, it smells like my brother. Should I really do this, you know? And then, first, I love this verse.

[29:48] In 1 Corinthians 10, 13, the last part, it just says that, well, it's talking about temptation. It says that no temptation has seized you. And then it says, but God has prepared a way out so that you can stand up under it.

[30:01] You know? So he had these opportunities for, he had four opportunities for hours to say no to sin. But then here in verse 18, he said, he went to his father, and then he said, my father.

[30:19] And he said, you know, he's just trembling, standing before his dad. You know, he can't see him. And he said, here I am. And he says, who are you? And then here it is. Jacob said to his father, I am Esau.

[30:29] Right? And so there's the sin. There's the liar. But then it gets really bad in verse 20. I don't know if you caught this, but it says, Isaac said to his son, ooh, how is it that you got the game so quickly, my son?

[30:43] And he answered, because the Lord your God granted me success. So now, not only is Jacob sinning on his own behalf, but now he's dragging God into this sin with him.

[30:55] And that's just, you know, that's terrible. You know, if I think what God would say, if he just spoke openly, right? He remained silent in this time. But if he spoke openly, he'd be like, no, I didn't.

[31:07] I didn't do anything. You know, your brother's hunting. You just got, I didn't put a deer in your lap. I just, you know, he drags God's name through the mud for his own benefit.

[31:19] What about today, though? You know, we see people using trickery and deceit for selfish gain, saying, oh, look how God blessed us. You know, that's using God's name in vain.

[31:29] Using God's name in vain is just using it in a way that is not glorifying or using it in a way that is not how it was properly intending it. Right? You'll see people say, oh, look how God blessed us.

[31:42] You know, when Jesus cleanses the temple in John 2, they're using God's name for financial gain. Right?

[31:52] People are bringing these clean animals, and the Pharisees are inspecting them. And they're like, oh, there's a spot there. Throw it out. Give me 50 bucks for a new one. You know, and they're getting money that way.

[32:03] And Jesus is angry at that. Right? It's a big sin to take God's name in vain. You know? But, and also, it's not the first time. Back in Genesis, you know, in the Garden of Eden, Adam brings God into it.

[32:17] Right? God asks, oh, like, why did you sin? And it says, well, this woman you created made me sin. Right? This person, you did this. I didn't do this. And he brings God into it.

[32:28] And so we see that here, that Jacob, unfortunately, drags God into this. You know? We see this today. You know, give this much money and be blessed.

[32:39] You know? Be blessed in the name of God if you give this much money. But that's not what God intends, to give money, like, give 100 bucks and be blessed this much, or give 1,000, be blessed even more.

[32:51] That's not what God intends. It's important, you know, as 2 Timothy mentions, that we be careful of those who want to tickle our ears. Right? Ones who want to, who want stuff to sound good, and they use God's name to draw people in like that.

[33:09] It's really a bummer. So, just as an encouragement for us, stick to God's word. Stick to God's word. It's the firm foundation. It's important to always challenge, you know, the teacher or the preacher or whatever.

[33:24] You know, challenge it to the scripture, right? I don't know if my dad remembers this, but he told me that I should read the passage before I come on Sunday.

[33:34] Just read over it. And then you can kind of get an idea of what's going on. But that's a really good idea, because then we can contradict or, you know, kind of compare what the teacher said to what God's perfect word says.

[33:47] Because we know that people are flawed, but we know that God's word is not. So, anyway, I'm running out of time. If the musicians want to come up, they can. And I'll just finish off here by saying, ultimately, Jacob receives this blessing, okay?

[34:03] God's promise is fulfilled through Jacob, right? And we see from Shem to Abraham to Jacob to Judah, and then ultimately to the tribe of Judah, and then to David, and ultimately to Christ.

[34:19] God's plan has always been to redeem his people. And he uses sinners, and that can be encouraging to us, that he uses sinners for his ultimate plan. You know, praise the Lord that he uses sinners like us, liars, like Jacob, deceivers, you know, for his plan and his purposes.

[34:38] And praise God that there's a perfect man, you know, a man who came to earth with no lie, you know, with no sin or deceit in his mouth.

[34:49] You know, out of the line of Abraham, Jesus, the one who redeemed us. And he redeemed us, why? Well, so that we can have the blessing, so that we can have the ultimate inheritance.

[35:01] We read this week in our men's Bible study, Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, 19. This is really good.

[35:13] I'll end with this. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

[35:30] Built, oh, sorry. In whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God, the Holy Spirit.

[35:41] In the Holy Spirit. We're fellow citizens now, right? We have an inheritance. And we can put our hope and we can put our trust in that. And despite our sin, God's plan ultimately comes to fruition.

[35:56] And we can praise him for that. And we can know that Jesus, when he came, finished the work on the cross. And we can have our hope in that. So let's close in a word of prayer. Lord God, we thank you so much for just this example of, you know, sinners.

[36:13] People who are not unlike me or any of these people here. People who are just sinners and just people. But Lord, you use them for your purpose.

[36:24] Lord, I thank you for your scriptures, for your word and how they are perfect. God, and that ultimately you used these sins. And you use people, sinners, to fulfill your purpose.

[36:37] And I just pray that we put our hope and our trust in you and our day-to-day, Lord, that we would just keep our eyes fixed on you and know that that's where our inheritance lies.

[36:48] And it's with nothing else. It's your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.