It's great. What a wonderful morning. And we do give thanks to God and give him all the praise
and the glory for how he is at work in people's lives. Here's what I'd love you to do. I'd love
you to come to the book of Genesis. This is the very first book in the Bible. And we are
starting a new series this morning in this first book of the Bible, looking at this man
called Jacob. This is going to take us through the summer. And here's why this is exciting this
morning. It's exciting as we begin this because this story explains Delia's story.
As we get to know this man called Jacob. And this has been my prayer over this last number
of weeks as we've been thinking about this new summer series. My prayer is that it would
remind us of who the God of the Bible is and how he works, what he does, what he's in the
business of. Because what we fundamentally believe as Christians about the God of the
Bible is that he loves to speak hope into the most hopeless of situations. Now with that
in mind, let me tell you about my friend Trevor, right? He's one of my new best friends. He and
his wife Val, they live down in London. Trevor serves as the London director of the FIEC, the
Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, working to see churches planted all over our country
for the glory of Jesus. Alex and I met them, him and his wife, on a beach in Jersey. And we had lunch
with them. And he starts telling us about how he came to know Jesus. And a more messy and complicated
family situation you could not imagine. So his mum moves from Aberystwyth in Wales to the bustle and
grime of East End London. The year is 1918. Why that's significant is that she goes there to London
to try and make a living as a housemaid during the war. And she goes there at the age of 16.
So she leaves the little farming village where she's from. She moves to the East End of London.
And long story short, Trevor is the youngest of three. He has two older sisters.
And the three of them have three different biological fathers. His dad is now the stepdad of the family.
The family, one sister ends up in foster care when she was growing up. The other one
is at some point evacuated during the war. And so Trevor grows up in a home that is full of secrets,
that is packed with heartache, that's riddled with shame, and is full of mess. And a more complicated
family situation you could not imagine. But the one thing that Trevor loves in his life as a little
boy is he loves football. And he hears about the church down the roads who are running a summer
football camp. And quite frankly, if it's got the word football in it, he's there. And he goes,
and he hears about Jesus for the first time. And after a bit of time in the workplace,
he becomes a Christian. And God calls him after a little bit of time in the church to go to Bible
college. And after a while, he later becomes the pastor of the church when he first heard about
Jesus. And so over a burger and a chips, as we're thinking about his story, here's what he says.
He says, my life is testimony to the truth that God's grace is bigger and greater than our mess.
And that's the kind of God that we're dealing with as we come to the pages of the Bible. A God
whose grace is greater than our mess. And maybe this is where this is going to hit for many of us
today. You might be sitting here right now. And all you can think about is about mistakes that are
behind you. And all you're aware of right now is mess around you. And all you can think about and see
ahead of you are dead ends. And if truth be told, it feels like you are sinking in the bog.
And that line that you two sang way back in the day is so fixed in your mind. You've got
yourself stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it. It's often what shame and guilt feel like,
isn't it, in our lives. It feels like you're sitting on a bus and you're heading in the wrong
direction. And with every passing stop that goes by, it just gets easier to keep sitting. And it just
feels impossible to get up and press the button to stop.
And if that's you here this morning, you need this.
Let God, through his word, as we see this man, Jacob, and all the mess that surrounds his life.
I mean, the state of this family, as we travel with it over the weeks, this would be something
that today would leave Jerry McHale and Oprah scratching their heads thinking, how on earth do
we fix something like this? This is messy. But let this story about how God is at work in this family's
life, lead you to see what he has done for you, to save you from your mess, to lift us out of the
bog so that we can get off the bus and we can cross the road and we can get on the bus marked to grace,
which is heading in the other direction. This is what repentance means in the Bible,
to stop going your way, to turn and to start going God's way.
So here's what my thinking has been this week, as we turn to Genesis.
Why did Moses, the author here, why did, as he writes this, give us so many details?
Right? He could have saved himself a lot of time and just given us the biblical family tree,
could he not have? Genesis would have been a much shorter book if he had.
He wants us to see Jacob and his family, warts and all.
Yeah? And so we view this as the readers, not like we would watch a play. This is much more like
looking in a mirror. This is not for us to look back and laugh at their misfortune. No,
this is so we can see ourselves in their folly and see that Jesus is our only hope.
So we're going to read this together now in at verse 19 of chapter 25.
And as we do this, here's a little challenge for you.
Verse 19, chapter 25.
Here's the challenge. See how many mistakes you can spot.
Right?
See how much mess is in this picture. See if you can count them on your fingers.
It's like a game show, isn't it, as we read it through.
See how many mistakes you can spot.
Here's the story.
This is the account of the family line of Abraham's son Isaac.
Abraham became the father of Isaac and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca,
daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, from Paddan Aram and sister of Laban the Aramean.
Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless.
The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant.
Verse 22.
The babies jostled each other within her and she said,
why is this happening to me?
So she went to inquire of the Lord.
The Lord said to her,
two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be separated.
One people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger.
When the time came for her to give birth, they were twin boys in her womb.
The first to come out was red and his whole body was like a hairy garment.
So they named him Esau.
After this, his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel.
So he was named Jacob.
Isaac was 60 years old when Rebecca gave birth to them.
The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter,
a man of the open country,
while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.
Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau.
But Rebecca loved Jacob.
Once when Jacob was cooking some stew,
Esau came in from the open country famished.
He said to Jacob,
quick, let me have some of that red stew.
I'm famished.
That is why he was also called Edom.
Jacob replied,
first,
sell me your birthright.
Look, I'm about to die.
Esau said,
what good is the birthright to me?
But Jacob said,
swear to me first.
So he swore an oath to him,
selling his birthright to Jacob.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew.
He ate and drank and then got up and left.
So Esau despised his birthright.
And this is God's word to us this morning.
Now, if we were to channel our inner teacher
and mark the mistakes on this,
I think you would have one or two blue ticks
and you would have a whole lot of red.
Yeah?
But here's the big thing I think Moses is saying to this generation
as it comes to them and as it comes to us today,
even these mistakes,
even these wrongdoings
will not stop the grace of God.
So here's three of them today.
We'll rattle through these.
But here's three things I want us to know
won't stop the grace of God.
Here's the first one that won't stop it.
Life being full of questions.
So the question facing Isaac and Rebecca is,
why can't we have a child?
And I get that for many of us here today,
that is a pain that either we will know
or we know others will know.
That sense of sadness and disappointment,
the kind I've heard Christopher Ashe,
who's a former pastor down in Oxford,
describe it as like grieving without an object.
And I get that it's hard watching others rejoice
in the birth of babies.
And we'd love to walk and talk with you in that
and pray for you in that
as we seek to be a church that walks with one another
through the ups and the downs of life.
But the added pain for Isaac and Rebecca
is the fact that God had promised Isaac's father,
Abraham, that through their family line
would come one who was both the serpent crusher
of Genesis 3, who was going to defeat evil in the world,
and he was going to be the one who would bring blessing
to the nations.
And so they're looking at this thinking,
where is that child that God has promised us?
Has God failed at generation two of that promise?
And so this is really painful for them in this moment.
Do you not love that the Bible doesn't shy away
from that kind of pain
and those kind of questions?
So glad for that.
It's almost God's invitation to say to us,
you can come to me with these things.
Here's what I think we can learn from Isaac and Rebecca.
Where do they go with their pain and their questions?
They do not go away from God,
but they go to God in prayer.
Because the salvation story of the Bible
is that God does his best work
when human beings are all out of options.
And Isaac would know that his parents,
Abraham and Sarah,
they couldn't have a child either.
They went through the exact same thing.
Isaac is the miracle child in Genesis.
They know that they have a God big enough
to deal with their pain.
They know that they have a God with a track record
of coming through on his promises.
They know that they have a God who loves them enough
and invites them to come to him with their questions
and not to run away from him in the pain.
You know, I remember hearing a man called Paul Mallard
speak a number of years ago down south
and he was talking about how he and his wife, Edry,
how they process everything
when she was diagnosed
with a neurological degenerative disease.
And he writes about it in his book called
Invest Your Suffering.
And I just want to read you this one quote
and the whole quote's on the screen.
I just want you to read the last bit to you.
Here's what he writes.
And this is a book well worth checking out
if that's a question in your mind.
He says,
But one thing I've never doubted
is that in the darkest circumstances,
we were only ever in the hands of God.
that has been the ultimate source of comfort and hope.
And that's what we see here, isn't it?
In these times when we're up against it,
in these times where we feel stretched,
let's pray and help one another
and pray that our faith would be like an elastic band
that would bring us back into God and the gospel.
is God draws us to himself.
See, Isaac, verse 20, what is he doing?
He prayed to the Lord for his wife.
And even after she becomes pregnant,
Rebecca, do you see how she does the same?
Verse 22, she inquires of the Lord.
So even when life is full of questions,
this won't stop his grace.
And the other thing,
the second thing that won't stop it
is when families feel full of tensions.
Right?
Rebecca here, do you see how she gets the news
that she's having twins?
And not long after that has sunk in,
the Lord tells her, verse 20,
that these two boys are going to represent two nations
who are going to have two different attitudes to God.
And Esau comes out all red.
Love that.
Jacob comes out clinging to his heel.
Now you add those details together
and you begin to see that there's something going on here
with the birth of these two boys.
Now, two things I want us to notice here in the text.
Firstly, notice the description of the boys.
Do you see verse 27?
Esau's a hunter.
While Jacob was a quiet man living in tents.
Now, I take it Moses is showing us that there
to explain the verse that's come before.
So we're in no doubt who is the physically stronger,
who's the weaker.
But I take it as well,
he just wants it to show us
that these boys couldn't be any more different.
And yet, they're both boys.
I think it's so important for us to see
how the Bible views that.
Because we live in a culture where today
we'd be tempted to ask questions
as we look at their character, wouldn't we?
So Esau, when we see him, he's a man's man.
He's like Jack Grealish in Bear Grylls,
kind of rolled into one.
Classic lad.
Classic lad behavior.
But Jacob?
Not so sure.
And this is where we want to be very clear
and loving that we want to go baby in bathwater
as we seek to lovingly dialogue
and live distinctly in our culture right now.
The bathwater is that we want to rightly question
the helpfulness of cultural gender stereotypes.
And we want to repent of the times
that we've got that wrong as a church.
Right?
Not all boys need to love sport and wear blue.
Not all girls need to love Barbies and wear pink.
But the baby is just because
your character, you like or dislike certain things,
doesn't make you any less or any more
of a man or a woman by God's good design.
And so in love and desiring to foster
the kind of community where we can walk
with one another through these things
and can create a safe place for us to share honestly
our experiences and our struggles,
let me just say that our genders are both
wonderfully God-designed and assigned to us.
And that is why Moses here, we've got to see,
he makes no comment on that.
Right?
And if that's the defense, if you like,
that we have as Christian believers,
the Bible also gives us an offense.
To be a man, I'm just picking men
because we're dealing with boys here,
to be a man according to the Bible
is to be like Christ.
Christ.
And when you start defining it like that,
all of a sudden the words to describe
our characters should be words like
gentle and humble and sacrificial
and loving and serving
because it's into Christ's image
that we're being made.
Okay?
Talking about guys,
it's the same for our dear sisters as well.
Okay?
Guys have to get used to being the bride of Christ
so you can deal with the fact
that you're being made into Christ's image.
Okay?
That's what it is.
I've got a friend, Class.
I went around to see them recently.
Class was telling me about how he's going through
so many pairs of jeans as a parent.
Do you know why?
Because he spends all his time
on his knees.
Changing nappies.
Wiping away tears.
Sweeping up shreddies off the floor.
Tons of holes in his jeans.
Just taking that position of just serving his family.
Guys, I take it that we should be people
in life who've got tons of holes in our jeans.
Yeah?
As we seek after the Lord,
desire more of his character in our lives.
It's into his image that God is making us.
See the parents' behavior here too.
How they don't cover themselves in glory.
You know, watching Isaac and Rebecca here
made me think of that joke
that they always make on airplanes
at the safety demonstration.
Parents, fit your own masks first
before turning to fit that of your child.
If you've got more than one child,
you have to pick your favorite.
And we would be in no doubt here
as to who is Isaac and Rebecca's favorite child,
would we?
We'd be in no doubt as to that.
Isaac, Moses tells us,
Isaac loves, do you see it?
Isaac loves Esau.
Rebecca loved Jacob.
How that must have messed
with the minds of these boys
as they grew up.
Not to mention the tension
that it must have brought
on their marriage.
I told you this family was a mess.
We're only 10 verses in.
Again, Moses makes no comment
except to hold this up as a mirror
and say how unwise,
how foolish to pick your favorite.
And that's true.
But I think the challenge here,
particularly to parents,
is not just don't pick your favorite,
but that's true,
is what is going on in your heart
as a parent
that these guys even got to that place.
Yeah, what are they projecting
onto their kids?
Something of their own aspirations?
We don't know it.
But how do you end up
as a parent in this place?
That's the question I think
that we're meant to ask here.
Yeah, I love that,
that the Bible doesn't just deal
with the surface things.
The Bible, God calls us
to examine our hearts
for hidden motives.
What's going on in our hearts?
So parents,
what do we long for
for our kids?
Yeah?
If we had to make a list
of the things
that we want to be true
for them in the future
as they grow up,
what is number one
on that list?
If you were to ask them
this morning,
what is it that most excites mum?
What is it that brings
greatest joy to dad?
What would they say?
And I think this is where
I have been so encouraged
by Delia's story.
And I think this is what connects
the story of the life
of our dear friend Lynn
that we heard yesterday
and connects what Delia said
about her mum.
That there was no doubt
in our minds
what was the most important thing
in their lives
as they lived it out
in front of their kids.
Delia's story
is how God answered
that prayer
of the greatest desire
of her mum.
And can I just say,
if you want to think
about this a bit more,
here's a book giveaway
this morning.
Five of these books
written by a guy
called Kevin DeYoung.
I don't know why
they've got different covers,
they just do.
Same book.
It's just called
Amaze Them With God.
And it's his summons
as a parent of,
I think they've got
eight or nine kids,
to live out
an infectious affection
for Jesus
in front of your children.
If you want one of these,
we've got five of them,
just come and take it
after the service.
It's only 60 or so pages,
you'll get through it
in an afternoon.
But a brilliant summons
to parents
to live out a love
for Jesus
in front of our kids.
You see,
when families
are full of tensions,
Moses is saying,
still this won't stop
God's grace.
And thirdly,
when people make
foolish decisions,
this won't stop
God's grace.
This rivalry,
you see,
it develops
between these boys.
We get this scene.
Esau comes in
exhausted from the field.
He's clearly
a felt needs
kind of guy.
He's famished.
All he can think about
is his stomach.
And how timely
that Jacob's in the kitchen
having been cooking
up a stew.
But Jacob has been
cooking up more than that
in his mind.
Do you see that?
He's been cooking up
a plan.
You see,
there's folly
in Esau
doing anything
to get a quick feed,
even if it means
selling his birthright
as the firstborn son.
The privileges,
the greater share,
the responsibility
that goes with that.
But equally,
there's envy
a play
in Jacob's heart.
And again,
the invitation
is from our father
to say,
do you see this
in your heart?
Do you see envy?
Do you see jealousy?
Do you struggle
when others
get good news?
Do you rejoice
when others
get good news?
Do you struggle
to empathize
when others
get bad news?
What is going on
in our hearts today
as a church family?
And you have to say
when Jacob makes
his play here
and says,
sell me your birthright,
you've got to ask
where on earth
did that come from?
Right?
I don't think
we're meant to read this
and think that Jacob
is the opportunist
par excellence.
Just saw a chance
and went for it.
I think we're meant
to understand
that this has been
brewing in his heart
for years.
Years.
Just waiting
for that opportunity
to pounce
because if he can't
beat his brother
by bronze,
he can beat him
with brains.
Red pen
all over this.
Right?
And Esau
is all too willing
to take the hook,
take the bait
when Jacob plays it
in front of him.
Right?
The New Testament
is it picks up on this
in Hebrews chapter 12.
We talk about how
Esau despised
his birthright.
In other words,
it meant nothing to him.
It's like a used bus ticket
just out the window
that goes.
It meant nothing to him
being the firstborn.
Take it once,
nothing to do with God.
Not really cared
for anything other
than his felt needs.
And here's,
I think,
the challenge
as we look at this guy.
In this moment,
his wants
trump
God's word.
His desire
to fulfill
his pleasures
trumps
God's
promises.
And so,
you've got
two different brothers
with two different
longings
manifesting themselves
in two different ways
and yet you see
how we've got
exactly the same
heart problem.
And there is mess
everywhere in this family
and it is only
going to get
messier.
Do you identify
with that this morning?
So hard,
isn't it,
as we think about
the,
oh man,
the mistakes
that we have made
in the past,
all of us,
the words that we've said
that we can't take back,
the attitudes
that were going on
in our hearts
that we thought
were okay,
now we look back
and we shudder.
Oh man,
where would we be
if it weren't
for the grace of God?
But maybe that is you
precisely today.
All you can think about
is mistakes behind you.
All you're aware of
is mess around you.
All you're aware of
is dead ends
ahead of you.
But we need to understand
that the hope
for messy people
is not what's going on
on the ground.
This throws us
to think about
what's going on above.
What is God up to
in our mess?
If we believe
that he is bigger,
if his grace
is bigger than our mess,
then what is he up to?
Our only hope
is the God
who is in control
and who loves us
and who is above.
You see,
here's my friend Trevor
again as we begin
to wind this up.
Trevor's 70 now.
Trevor's writing
his story down
so that he can pass it
on to future generations.
And he sent me
a copy this week.
And he says,
looking back
on his life
and what life
has taught him
about God,
he says this.
He says,
I've come to understand
life like a tapestry.
You look at a tapestry
from underneath
and all you can see
is loose threads.
All you can see
is frays.
All you can see
is knots.
You can't see
any discernible pattern.
You can't understand
the logic.
But that same tapestry
viewed from above,
that picture's
wonderful.
And I think
this is what's going to,
and if all we do
with this series
over the summer
is get bogged down
in the character details,
and they are important,
we're going to miss
the whole purpose
of this book.
Because the whole point
is how God
is bringing
to pass
his promise
to bring forth
a saviour
from the line
of his people,
despite all the reasons
that should have
put him off.
This is the story
about God's
relentless grace
getting to people
like us
who desperately need it,
of God's
unrelenting mercy,
of his unfailing
purposes,
in blessing
the world
with Jesus.
Because years later,
the Bible
is going to introduce
us to another
firstborn son.
From the line
of Jacob,
born into
our mess,
a man who
wouldn't despise
his responsibilities,
a man who
would step
up to the
plate,
and a man
who would do
what Esau
didn't do,
and what you
and I
in and of
ourselves
can't do,
and that's put,
and love the fact
that God's word
trumps
our wants.
And he would
come and do
what Jacob
couldn't do,
and what you
and I
can't do
in and of
ourselves,
and have
that pure
heart of
worship to
his God.
Jesus took
responsibility for
my mess,
and your
mess.
As he died
for us on the
cross, he paid
the price for
our sin.
He's paid for
all of it.
He has paid
for all of it.
He has washed
us clean, and
because he's
done that,
he offers to
redeem us
out of our
mess and the
consequences that
our sin
deserves.
Standing above
all of this,
and really this is
what the developing
story here is all
about, is God's
delightful
determination,
and his
relentless mercy,
and in his
loving desire
to get
us
Jesus.
And I love
the words of
John Newton,
and with this
we close.
John Newton,
former slave
trader, worked
on the
ships, turned
minister, who
penned that
words of that
first song that
we sang called
Amazing Grace,
and he sits
down at the
end of his
life, and
what has life
taught him,
and he says
this,
although my
memory's
fading, I
remember two
things very
clearly, that
I am a
great sinner,
and Christ
is a great
savior.
And that's
what this
morning is
about, dear
friends.
It's about
who he is
today, and
his love for
us, and
his commitment
to us, and
like we said
at the start,
who he is, he
is the great
shepherd, and
the great
overseer of
our souls.
Let's pray,
will we?
And so
Father, we
thank you so
much this
morning, dear
God, for
who you are.
Thank you for
Jesus that he
stepped into
our mess.
He didn't
shout from
above, he
didn't tell us
to work harder,
no, he
entered our
world, and
he took
responsibility
for our
failures.
And as he
stands, having
defeated them
on the cross, and
as he stands in
that place of
victory, thank
you that we
have life in
him.
And so,
Father, at the
end of this
morning, we
would want to
just give you
all the praise
and the glory.
Lord, would
your spirit be
at work in
our lives?
Maybe we've
never thought
about this
stuff before.
May you
prompt us to
think about the
things of
Jesus.
Father, for
those who are
struggling, may
this word come
as a great
source of
comfort.
And Father, for
those of us who
need challenged,
Lord, may this
spur us on to
live our lives
to the praise of
his name.
And we pray
these things in
his worthy name.
Amen.