needs everything

Introduction

Please stand for the reading of God’s Word.

Genesis 27:30–46 NKJV Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”

And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?”
So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”

Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!” But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”

And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, “Indeed I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants; with grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son?”

And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother; And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

And the words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, “Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice: arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. And stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury turns away, until your brother’s anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him; then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day?”

And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?”

•     Welp, welcome to the final sermon in our series on Genesis 27 that I have titled “Faithless religion”.

•     Let me just give you a little refresher, because we had a guest preacher last week, and we have gone over a lot at this point…

•     So, at this point in History, God has Chosen the family of Abraham to be the primary family that will bring forth the Mesiah… through one of Abrahams descendents will come salvation to the world.

•     Abraham has passed that mantel down to his son Isaac, and now Isaac is dying and must pass that calling down to one of his sons.

•     Now Isaac has two sons, and he knows that ONE of them will be a patriarch to God’s people, a father to God’s people… The problem of course is that Abraham favors the wrong son.

•     When Isaacs sons were still in the womb, God prophesied that Jacob,  the younger son, would rule over Esau the older son… God made it clear that Jacob is the one to carry on the plan of God.

•     Yet Isaac wanted to bless the wrong one, Isaac wanted to go against the word of God and bless Esau instead.

•     And thus we get to the events of Genesis 27… where there is a ton of lies and deception and trickery.

•     There is selfishness, worldliness, and sin… but what I think is most shocking about Genesis 27 is not what IS in the chapter, but instead, what ISN’T in the chapter… there is sin, there is deceit, there is even a bunch of religion in this chapter… but what is missing in this chapter is faith.

•     The bible is a book of faith… it is PACKED FULL of stories, big and small, of faith… faith overcoming giants, faith overcoming wicked kings and armies, faith overcoming demons, faith overcoming sickness, faith overcoming doubt… from Genesis to Revelation we have stories of faith… but chapter 27 is not one of those places… in fact the only faith we see in this whole chapter is the repentance that Isaac shows when he finally decides that indeed Jacob shall be blessed… because fiath-filled repentance does indeed produce fruit… and there is good fruit in this chapter, in that the end of the story is that Jacob get’s the blessing that God said was his from the begining.

•     But for the most part this is just a chapter of faithless relgion… let me just define those terms for you real quick, these aren’t dictionary defenitions, these are just pastor Christians definitions so you know what I am talking about:

Faith: Taking God at His Word because He has already proven Himself true.
Faithless: Ignoring God’s proven Word and living by sight and feelings instead.
Religion: Intentional Interactions with God, His Kingdom, or His plan.
Faithless Religion: Interacting with God while ignoring His word.

•     Everyone in this chapter, everyone in chapter 27 practiced faithless religion. There is no victim here, except for God who is being sinned against left and right in this chapter… so don’t feel tempted to feel bad for ol’ Isaac, because he was being faithless, and so was Esau… well they all were…

Isaac – Trusted in the flesh and pursued his own desires over God’s word.
Rebekah – Rebelled against her husband and used sin to try to advance God’s plans.
Jacob – Aligns himself with sin and deceit.
Esau – Chooses the things of the world over the things of God.

•     So this morning we are going to spend a lot of time talking about sin and the consequences of sin.

•     Why? Because we are going to focus on Esau this morning and Esau spent a lot of his life sinning… and suffering from the consequences of sin.

•     We are going to talk about sin this morning because sin is real, it is active, it is everywhere, and frankly I want to serve in a church that is blessed, and prosperous and effective in accomplish things for God and His Kingdom.

•     I don’t want to serve in a church suffering from the consequences of sin… I want to serve in a church that is overflowing with the blessings and grace of God.

•     So when I preach about sin, church, don’t think of these sermons as condemnation… no there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus… and frankly I don’t care about who you have been and what you have done… because I understand forgiveness and grace… but I do care about who you are and who you will be… I want us all to be saints, I want us all to be holy… I want us all to practice faith filled religion… I want us all to reap a harvest of righteousness in Christ Jesus…

•     And should suffering come, fine… I will face it with Christ… And if suffering should come… let it at least not be caused by my own sin… let it come because the world hates me… let it come because the enemy wants to destroy me… but let suffering not come because of our own faithless living…

•     That brings me to the first point this morning: Faithless living is destructive.

Faithless Living is Destructive

Genesis 27:39–41 NKJV Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother; And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, That you shall break his yoke from your neck.”

So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

•     I want to start by showing you something very interesting in Esau’s blessing…  the beginning of it Isaac says “Your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above.

Genesis 27:39 NKJV Then Isaac his father answered and said to him: “Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth, And of the dew of heaven from above.”

•     That sounds like a pretty good blessing! But… wait… when we read the same verse in other English translations it reads like this:

Genesis 27:39 ESV Then Isaac his father answered and said to him:  “Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high.

•     One translation says “Your dwelling should be of the fatness of the earth” and the other says “Your dwelling should be AWAY from the fatness of the earth… why? Well, because this wasn’t written in English, it was written in Hebrew and in Hebrew there is this word “min” that can mean either “from” or “away from”… and you are expected to know from context… so different translations translate it differently.

•     I tend to think the ESV got this one right, though… because the result was that Esau hated his brother BECAUSE OF THE BLESSING and wanted to kill his brother.

Genesis 27:41 NKJV So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him, and Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

•     So Jacob get’s blessed with riches and prosperity… things will come easy to him.

•     But Esau’s blessing… well, he won’t be poor… but everything he get’s he is going to have to work very hard for… even go to war for… he is going to live by the sword and be subject to his brother.

•     In fact, Esau’s family will be known as the Edomites, and they will war with Israel throughout a lot of the Old Testament.

•     Eventually the Edomites will break free from serving Israel, as the blessing prophesies… but they are going to have a rough time of it for a while.

•     So in short, Esau get’s a crappy blessing… some would even call it a curse… why? Well let’s take a look at Esau’s life.

•     First Esau despised his birthright… remember that from Genesis 25 when he sold it?

Genesis 25:34 NKJV And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils; then he ate and drank, arose, and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.

•     Imagine despising the blessings of God… how faithless can you be? YOU ARE IN THE FAMILY OF THE PATRIARCHS… you are a part of God’s story… and you go “UGH! I hate all that religious stuff! I DON’T CARE! I JUST WANT TO HUNT ALL DAY!”

•     Or, if Esau lived in modern times: “Ugh! I don’t care about church! I just want to stay out drinking on Saturday… Ugh I hate fellowshipping with other Christians… I just want to play video games all day… I just want to binge Netflix all day… I just want WHATEVER… I don’t care about God or His blessings… I know Jesus died for me and I could at any point be a part of His family… but those Christians are ALL A BUNCH OF WIERDOS AND SQUARES AND IDIOTS… THEY ARE THE SCUM OF THE EARTH… I despise Christ”.

•     So Esau despised his birthright… what else do we know about his life? Well we know that he was a fornicator and a profane person…

Hebrews 12:16 NKJV lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.

•     He was a fornicator, that means sex outside of marriage… he slept with whoever he wanted to sleep with… sex whenever he wanted wherever he could get it…

•     And he was a profane man… he was crude… he would cuss and tell dirty jokes… he was gruff, and angry, and harsh… he was the opposite of holy, he was profane…

•     I don’t even have to modernize that… people act like Esau all the time, sleeping with who they want to sleep with… talking with filth and vile… but God hates that stuff…

Ephesians 5:3–5 NKJV But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

•     No fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God… Faithless living is DESTRUCTIVE! I want you to have inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God which means I WANT YOU to NOT be a fornicator… I want you not to be a profane person…

•     Finally, Esau did something really dumb… he married not one, but TWO women who where not among God’s people.

Genesis 26:34–35 NKJV When Esau was forty years old, he took as wives Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah.

•     We have talked about this one a lot… but I will say it again: God’s people marry God’s people!

•     So Esau despised the things of God, he was a fornicator, he was profane, and he married outside of God’s family… and the result of his faithless living… destruction… generations of war and destruction.

•     He WANTED a blessing… he wanted the things of God… he wanted GOOD THINGS from religion… but he was not willing to trust God, and live like God told Him to live… He wanted the blessings of religion without having to live by faith.

•     And I have seen MANY people come and go through this church who were just here to try to get a blessing… just here to try to get good things from God… yet the lived profane lives… lives full of sin, and debauchery… drugs, alcohol, lust, crime, gossip, greed, pride… we have seen it all come through these doors… and more often then not it leads to destruction.

Proverbs 14:12 NKJV There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.

•     You know there is a spiritual law, Pastor Crystal at Faith and Victory preach a sermon I will never forget about spiritual laws… they are just as real as the laws of physics… because the God who made the laws of gravity and thermodynamics also made spirtual laws… the most famous spiritual law “You reap what you sow”… in otherwords what you plant is what you harvest. If you plant corn you harvest corn… if you plant wheat you harvest wheat… and if you plant wickedness your harvest will be wickedness…

Galatians 6:7–8 NKJV Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

•     If you plant a harvest of faithless and destructive and corrupted living, then what you will harvest a faithless, destructive, and corrupted harvest.

•     You will NOT harvest blessings… because that is a faith filled harvest…

•     And that friends is why Jesus came… Jesus came because what we deserved was death… what we deserved was destruction… we deserved what Esau got… an eternity away from the fat of the land and the dew of heaven… an eternity away from God… what we DESERVE for our sins, because we have all sinned, is an eternity in hell…

•     But this is the one place in History where God says you don’t have to reap what you sow… because of Grace.

2 Peter 3:9 NKJV The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Acts 3:19 NKJV Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,

•     If we would just repent, if we would just turn to Christ… turn away from our sins… He will forgive us… we can start walking in blessings TODAY… if we would live a life of repentance and following Christ… but here is the kicker… your repentance MUST be faith filled… because point two this morning: Faithless Repentance is Fruitless.

•     And I am going to end with this point, we will just make it our conclusion this morning if someone wants to come and play…

Conclusion – Faithless Repentance is Fruitless

Genesis 27:38 NKJV And Esau said to his father, “Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me—me also, O my father!” And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.

•     What are you crying for, Esau… you are a grown man! You gonna be slobbering all over the place, what if your wives see you?!

•     You see Esau is repenting here… repenting with tears… but NOT because he thinks he did anything wrong… but because he thinks he is the victim…

Genesis 27:34–36 NKJV When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me—me also, O my father!” But he said, “Your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing.”

And Esau said, “Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now look, he has taken away my blessing!” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?”

•     His repentance is not a repentance of faith… it is a repentance of selfishness… of pure greed… of pride… it is shortsighted…  He just wants the money… he just wants the inheritance… he wants the blessings of God but he doesn’t actually want to live for God.

•     A faith filled repentance from Esau would look something like this “Dad, I am sorry… I should have never tried to get the blessing in the first place. I know that God said my brother would get it… Heck, I even traded my birthright for a bowl of stew… that was dumb. Father, I am glad you blessed Jacob, and I am happy my brother get’s this great honor. I want to start living for God like Jacob does… Dad would you pray for me… if you don’t have a blessing for me, that’s ok… I just… I just don’t want to fight with God anymore. I want to live for him.

•     CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED THEN? I think had Esau done that that he would have gotten a great blessing… he would not have hated his brother… they could have continued living side by side… Jacob would live in the land of blessing and abundance and because Esau wasn’t trying to kill him, then Esau could have lived in that land too… but that is not what happened was it? No, Esau sought a faithless repentance.

Hebrews 12:16–17 NKJV lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

•     Oh, how many times have I seen people come into this church on a Sunday morning with tears in their eyes… they come to the altar, they cry out to God… but they don’t actually repent… they don’t actually turn from their sins…

•     You see the word repent means “turn away”. It means “Do  a u-turn”. It means “Completely change the way you are living… completly change the things you are seeking”.

•     it does not mean “say a prayer with tears in your eyes at the altar of some church”… no it means “TURN FROM YOUR WICKED WAYS”.

•     You don’t get to come to church Sunday after Sunday at the altar and Saturday after Saturday at the bar… at some point you have to TURN from your wicked ways.

•     If your addicted, get help please… if you are in a sinful relationship… BREAK UP… Jesus took it as far to say “If your right eye is causing you to sin, pluck it out”.

•     Too many times have I seen false repentance. False sorry… wanting to avoid the consequence of sin… but not wanting to turn from that sin…

•     But church family… if you would believe the words of God… if you would trust in Christ… if you would turn from your sins and turn to Christ… THEN A MIRACLE HAPPENS… and though you planted a harvest of sin, but the blood of Christ you will reap a reward of righteousness…

2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

•     Saints.… faithless religion is worse than worthless, it will destroy you while you think you are doing well.

•     It will turn you away from God while you think you are chasing after him.

•     You will believe you are going to heaven, but one day you will die and Christ will say “I never knew you”. I don’t want that for anyone… would you have the faith this morning to truly repent?

Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God.

Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids
2808 Schaeffer DR SW,
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
www.CedarRapidsChurch.com