Esau, Jacob & The Birthright

[MUSIC] 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 Patan or Am, and sister of Leibon, 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. The babies jostled each other within her. This is the word of the Lord. >> Thanks be to God. Do you have any standing for one more moment? [BLANK_AUDIO] Do you our hearts are open? Nothing hears hidden. You are one desire. You alone are holy, only you are worthy, God, that you're far fall down. To you our hearts are open. You are one desire. And you alone are holy, only you are worthy, God, that you're far fall down. >> So maybe we'd be good hears of the word and faithful doers. Maybe love Jesus deeply. Maybe trust what Jesus says. And now we follow Jesus well. You may be seated. >> I'm with you. I'll move you back. I was named a Marvel connoisseur last week, so in my event. Just take it in. This is a big week for those who enjoy a little bit of the MCU. Spider-Man is coming out this week. Some moopers, great. And then the Doom's Day, Avengers, Doom Day trailer finally dropped. It's just a whole, no woops for that quote. It's a whole thing. So let's just start there. In 2012, the Avengers assembled for the first time on the big screen, making here this $1.5 billion. Now at the center of it all is a villain trying to enslave the earth. But because by the end of the story are heroes triumph, it's easy to miss the antagonist's story, the tragedy of Loki. See, before he was the villain, Loki was a little brother. He grows up in the palace second to his brother for the strongest warrior. Loki's the clever one, not the strong one, the clever one, the smooth talker, the trickster. His whole childhood, he watches his father look at his brother in a way they will never look at him. See, everyone knows that Thor is going to get the throne and the family responsibility to see all the realms flourish. Loki, he's the second son in the house with one blessing to give. He's that mix of desire, wounding, and fear that leads him to scheme, grasp, deceive, and betray. So if the birthright won't go to him, he'll take it. If there's not a throne for him on Asgard, he'll take a throne of earth. So by the time he's destroying civilization, he's not really just fighting the Avengers. See, he's still trying to win a struggle that's starting in his home. Now there's this moment in Loki's story, if you pay attention to it, where the tragedy of his life comes to the surface. He yells at his brother, "I never wanted the throne. I only ever wanted to be your equal." So the villain of the biggest superhero movie ever is just a little brother who wanted his father's blessing and a place in the family calling. And that story, it's not unfamiliar. Parents with favorites, generational dysfunction, grasping, lying, tricks, and assidling rivalry for a blessing and a birthright. This is Genesis 25, a new generation with the same family role to bring flourishing to the world. And y'all, it does not start well. Verse 22, "Turn with their inner bibles with me." The babies jaw-sold each other within her. Now the Hebrew here, it's aggressive. It can be translated crushed or oppressed. This is another sibling rivalry. There's a war going on in the womb of this mother and it's painful. Verse 23, "Y'all, they 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." So when the time came for her to give birth, there 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. Yay, twins. The first when it comes out reddish and hairy, they name him based on what they saw. Verse 26, "After this, his brother came out with his hands grasping Esau's heel so they named him Jacob." So the second twin is on his brother's heel. Maybe you've heard that statement or that phrase used in running before a track. He's on his brother's heel. He's born grabbing, trying to come out on top so they name him "Y'all'koff." Or as we say in English, Jacob. See in Hebrew though, there's this double meaning with his name. Some scholars they note that 'Y'a'koff is the shorthand for 'Y'a'koff 'l', the combination of 'l', 'God' and 'Y'a'koff which means to protect. So his name may actually be a prayer. God protect this one, or it could be a declaration. God will protect him. From there, the author, Genesis steps in and names the little word play and assigns it meaning. 'Y'a'koff actually rhymes with and you can hear it, 'Akev' in Hebrew. A Hebrew word that means 'heel' 'Y'a'koff 'Akev.' So Jacob's actions at birth give his name a new meaning. He's supposed to be the protected one but he comes out as a heel grabber which should sound like Genesis 3. The snake will strike the heel of the seed of the woman. So from the jump, this child who's supposed to be a partner with God and protected by God comes out a little bit behaving like a snake. His story is marked the whole way through by that tension. He simultaneously, the protected one and the grasper, verse 27. The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man from the open country. While Jacob was 'tome' content to stay at his home among the tents. See that first time you read it in English, it probably sounds like he used more of a home buddy. He just wants to sit in his couch, watch a little Disney plus, check out a Marvel show, do his thing. But translations, actually, if you read Bible to Bible, this is one of those phrases that gets translated a lot of different ways. Quiet, content, mild, back home with the tents. What's going on here? Why the discrepancy? Because it would definitely make my Bible reading time in the morning way easier that the translators all agree. Well, scripture actually uses this word to describe a lot of things in people. It describes Noah who is called blameless. It describes King of the Millic of the Philistines as innocent. It later describes sacred objects or things in the sacrificial system as flawless. This word, it's about something that's marked as complete or whole or integrated or with integrity. But Jacob seems like the opposite. He's snake-like, a grass fur. And as we'll see later, a smooth receiver. So calling Jacob "tome," it's more like an ironic wink to the reader. Let's just see how "tome" he really is. Verse 28. Isaac who had a taste for wild game loved Esau. But Rebecca loved Jacob. So each parent, they begin to gravitate toward a different child. Isaac favors Esau and notice why. It's for what Esau, his son, produces, what he can get from his son, what he receives out of relationship with his child. Isaac's being driven by his appetite and his desire. For Rebecca, she favors the other son Jacob and the scripture does not tell us why. They're rooting for different kids though. Verse 29. "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 really red stuff. I'm famished." Now notice Esau is exhausted and he asks for the red stuff. He names what he wants by what it looks like. He doesn't even ask his brother, "What are you cooking there?" What's in the pot? He just wants to go after this because of how it looks. We're beginning to see a generational pattern now of being driven by desire. It's in Isaac a moment ago. It's in Esau and now it's in Jacob. Verse 31. "Jagob replied, "First, sell me your birthright." He bites at the opportunity to get what he's grasped for since day one, the birthright. Now in their world, the first born, it inherited, they inherited, a double share of everything, which is a really tough fill to swallow when you're not just brothers but your twins. Beaten by my moments, barely in your control. But the birthright, it's more than just like all the money that the parents had. The first born, they became the new head of the family. They carry the family name, and then they become responsible for the clan's future and the clan's flourishing. So Jacob doesn't just want like material wealth. He wants the role and the responsibility of being the family patriarch. He actually wants, interestingly, the thing that God wants to give him even though he doesn't know it yet. But he's working to control and protect that outcome. Verse 32. Look, I'm about to die, Esau said. Threy, a little drunken boy. Look good as this birthright to me. But Jacob said, swear to me first, so he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Esau, he barely cares about the birthright, and Jacob is consumed by it. Verse 34. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. Now, don't trip. Like Jacob is actually, he is tripping here. He's being shady, he's being deceitful, he's doing a whole mess of things, but notice the story's emphasis. It's not that Jacob bought the birthright. It's that Esau sold it, pay attention to the verbs. Verse 34. He ate and drank and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. Now, I used to think that that meant that because of what happened, Esau hated his birthright, but the narrator is actually telling us Esau's posture before he sold it. He despised it. It's the same word used by Goliath when he despised or looked down on David. It's the same word that was used to describe David's posture towards God when he sins with his sexuality in that story with Nathan. Esau treats his birthright like something he doesn't value. He treats it like a bull soup. His values, they're out of order. He values the desires in front of him more than the good that may be ahead of him. And what is that? That is Genesis 3 again, trading blessing for appetite, which don't we all have a version of? See, if the temptation to live for our strongest appetites instead of our deepest desires. Then oddly, kind of weird, but you turn the page, you go to the next chapter, 26, and the story shifts from Jacob, chapter 26. Now, there was a famine in the land besides the previous famine in Abraham's time. And Isaac went to a bimolek, king of the Philistines in Jarrar. So they're facing a whole other kind of beariness. It's not a person, but a place that can no longer sustain life. The groceries, they're gone, the economy's crumbling. Jobs are nowhere to be found. So Isaac did what his father did in the time of famine. Isaac heads up toward Egypt. Verse 2, "Yahui appeared to Isaac and said, 'Don't go down to Egypt, live in the land where I tell you to live.' So God appears mid-Jerney and instructs him to not do the self-proven, self-protecting strategy that his father did. For Isaac to survive in this famine, he is going to have to trust that God will provide for him and protect him." Verse 3, "Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants, I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your Father Abraham. I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed." See, God speaks over Isaac the whole Abrahamic blessing. You know the Father Abraham had many sons and many sons had, "Yeah, don't be shy, and I am in silver. So let's just raise the. " No, right on. So we're just moving on. None of that. See, Isaac, he gets a lifetime of promises that were given to the Father. They're now given to the Son. There's promised land, descendants like the stars. All nations bless through your offspring. Here's the question, why is Isaac getting this? Why is he getting this? Verse 5, "Because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees, and my instructions." He's getting this because his dad obeyed. The Hebrew, it actually says that Abraham kept Mitzvah and Torah before the Torah was ever given at Sinai, which tells us that the Torah or God's Word and instruction, it's not just about nailing down all the rules. No, it's about listening to and following God's voice. See, if you notice the Bible, it's not actually the best rulebook. If you're gonna, is that bad to say, is preacher? Like, it's not the best rulebook if you're trying to get a bunch of rules. There's a lot of stuff missing. A lot of stuff of our normal lives is not a part of it. Like, AI, for example. What do I do with that? Like, there's so, and that's a silly one, but there's so many things in normal life that aren't in here. Why? Because the Bible is ultimately a rulebook, trying to tell you exactly what to do so you get everything right. The whole point of it is becoming the sort of people who can attune to and listen to God's voice. The sort of people who don't need to know exactly what every scripture is for every moment, because we become this sort of people whose heart is turned towards God, and we can hear him all throughout the little moments and decisions of our life and of our day. That is what Torah is all about. Listening to and following God's not the thing that's just written, but God's voice. See, now remember, Abraham does not do this consistently. He wrestles with trust. Sometimes he deceives and grasps the other moments, like under the stars one night. Or on a mountain where it costs him everything. He has these moments where he listens and trusts and God for some reason is stoked about it. He's like, yes, that's my boy. He's got it. So God in this moment has Isaac remember that his story is a byproduct of his dad's obedience and he invites Isaac to then like his dad in these moments listen to his voice too. Verse six. So Isaac stayed in Ghar. Verse seven. When the men of that place asked of him about his wife, he said, she is my sister because he was afraid to say she's my wife. He thought the men of this place might kill me on account of Rebecca because she is. So beautiful. You can chuckle at that because you're like, wow, apparently these guys think very highly of their wives. Like, nah, y'all didn't even know my wife. So beautiful. He's that annoying pastor, you know. We've all heard that sermon. Yeah, okay, got it. Just millennials, you know, youth group of stuff. See, but this should sound familiar because it happened twice with his dad and now we're on round three. So the sun plays out the same self-protecting patterns as his dad from the same fear as his dad, but the same strategy as his dad. It's a generational pattern of fear and deception, which is it, which is really tempting to read your scripture and read the Bible and kind of feel above, but what about our own family patterns? You know, the small lies or avoidances that make a moment go easier kind of smooth it out. Ensuring that the full you isn't seen or at risk. What about withholding vulnerability or even apologies from those closest to us? Always being right or satisfying the immediate cravings instead of doing the hard thing or the good thing. What about the way your family navigated relationships or money or family or kids or career or substance? What generational patterns are you joining or what new patterns and problems are you creating by swinging the pendulum? See, this family is driven by two of the most sabotaging voices that there are. Desire and fear. Let's take them one at a time. Desire in it of itself is not a bad thing. Like, God made us desiring creatures, wanting creatures. That is not bad. Even Jacob in some ways, he desires a good thing, but his problem isn't just desiring it, it's grasping it. And he saw his brother, his problem isn't just the appetite, it's an unsteered appetite, a misdirected appetite. See, desire, it has a persuasive voice. It says, you need this. You deserve this now. The problem is believing that voice, trusting it and acting on it, and that begins to warp the human soul. And notice, this is not just the sun. Remember verse 28, "Eyes' experimenting was bent by his desire." He favored the kid who did something for him. See, desire unsteered, it doesn't just cost you or impact you, it impacts the way we love those closest to it. Augustine called this sort of desire, disordered love. The pastor, Tim Keller, he said that it's not just wanting bad things, it's also wanting things, even good things, too badly. See, he would go on to explain examples. He says, "Here's how you know if your desires are running amok, if things are out of order." See, if God is number one in your life and you get criticized, or you get feedback from someone, or someone gives you even some advice, it hurts, but if your reputation is number one and you get criticized at devastates. See, if God is your number one and you have a career reversal, it hurts, but if your career is number one, you're devastated. If God is your number one and you miss out on experience or romance or stuff, it hurts that if your desire is number one, any unmet desire becomes a crisis because you have made desire, God. See, you have valued things in the right order. Their disordered loves. Then there's fear. See, fear itself isn't bad. It's meant to help us rightly assess what doesn't lead to life and then act on it. The problem is that fear becomes a tyrant. Anyone experience that? See, it's not just giving information after a certain point fear begins to give instruction on how to navigate your whole life. Protect yourself, secure it, take control, or as one writer put it, the root of sin is the desire for control and the root of control is fear. Just sit in that for a second. The root of sin, it's the desire for control and the root of control is fear. See, that's the wrestling match of Jacob's entire life and his entire family. Under every controlling move this family makes there is a fear and it's whispering. Abraham grasping with Hagar, this family, or yeah, Abraham grasping with Hagar, afraid the promises won't come or Isaac lying in the drawer, afraid he'll die, Jacob scheming at the stew, afraid he'll be left out, see fear speaks and they begin to obey its voice. Now I have heard a lot of sermons on fear in my life but truthfully it wasn't until recently that I actually resonated with them. I've heard a lot of sermons on fear and they always seem distant, abstract. It's not in like a "oh, you know, just like, you know those people, you know." But it's just fear didn't really seem a thing that like I had been struggling with. It wasn't really at the surface to me. I didn't struggle with those sermons until I did. So I remember like a few years ago playing my wife, Inc. and I, we are having to make some financial decisions that felt really hard. Truthfully they weren't either, it shouldn't even been this hard but I'm sitting on the couch like shaking and crying. It's like uncontrollably because I learned a story in my family that at some point like I need to use money in a way to make sure we're protected and safe and this is what we have and this is how we do it and here's the budget and here's how we stay in it and I'm weeping uncontrollably, almost shaking, sobbing in my wife's lap because even though I didn't notice there was this undercurrent, not just a wisdom of fear, I was driving my decisions. I didn't realize that fear was such a big problem until a couple years ago I received deliverance prayer which was one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life. I'm in this prayer and afterwards all of a sudden we're doing this prayer and renouncing these kind of things and I realized there may have been a generational curse around fear in my family and like that just blew my whole framework in categories so let me just drop that there and leave it alone but so we renounce this thing and like all of a sudden I start noticing that and I had all these memories come back that since I was a really little boy I'd always had this like really intense fear of the dark that never went away and I could remember even as an adult being in my home or being in a dorm or being walking around at night and just like I'm just like oh it's dark like there was a fear like I was being chased and it paralyzed me since I was a kid but it became so normal that I didn't even realize it just became the undercurrent voice of my life there was this fear that like through even some deliverance prayer we began to spot and notice and it actually began to like go away and dissipate more and more and more. Then ironically I'm writing this teaching last week I'm going around a walk around my neighborhood thinking about it and thinking about this section on fear and I realized it's starting to get dark and I start kind of like just feeling those things I'm hearing the bushes creak around the all this or stuff and it was like all of that fear that I'd wrestled with my whole life that I never even noticed was back to the surface ironically as I'm writing a moment in a sermon all about fear. See desire and fear they whisper like crinkle they make those sounds and the bushes and they both want us to listen both they take us away from conversation with God because both are ultimately about trust and y'all this is not just an individual problem in me or in you as individuals remember what was happening to Rebecca nations in her room oppressing each other see what happens in a single human heart it gets scaled up in society so what do we get when nations listen to the voice of desire well we get a world where clothes and technology are made to be outdated and buried in landfills where sexuality gets seduced out of covenant design and streamed as content where medicine gets stockpile for some while it's unreachable for others who need it and are dying and that's a society that's obeying its desires what happens when a people listen to the voice of fear when we get a world where mountains of food get thrown away every day while people starve or a nation spend more on war than on feeding our children or on educating them where the stranger becomes suspect and the neighbor becomes a threat and at its darkness where people become problems to eliminate that's a society obeying the voice of fear have desire fear ever led to human flourishing no not really see the uncomfortable part of all of that is that those systems and those nations and even us as a people were made of million decisions and ordinary choices by you and I each day obeying desire and fear in ways that feel completely reasonable in the moment let's take a moment and just pause before we go any further say this every time because I mean it the most important voice today is not anyone with the microphone the most important voice today is Jesus and his spirit living within you and so I want us to just take a moment to pause to pay attention what may God already be saying to me so find yourself or put yourself in a posture that helps you social scientists will tell you that like this isn't normally one posture listening which do that is like no I don't feel weird about it but just often like I find myself when I open my arms or I close my eyes or open my hands or I sit up straight it often helps me be attentive do whatever you want to do let's just take one moment holy spirit what are you saying to me where have I felt fear recently where am I trying to self-protect what am I grasping for how am I my desires be disordered what possible good thing am I afraid of right now what bad thing am I afraid of holy spirit what are you saying to me and if something comes to mind I encourage you to write it down go back to it this week if you feel distracted or drawing a blank maybe initiate the conversation with God here's what I want to talk about which take like 20 more seconds holy spirit what are you saying to me five four three two and one verse eight when Isaac had been there a long time a bimolec king of the Philistines looked down from a window and saw Isaac caressing his wife Rebecca I was getting steamy see the Hebrew it actually uses a pun on Isaac's name which remember means laughter so a bimolec sees Isaac Isaac in his wife and quickly goes wait that's not your sister or it shouldn't be to which everyone should say amen verse nine so a bimolec he summoned Isaac and said she is really your wife why did you say she is my sister Isaac answered him because I thought I might lose my life on account of her then a bimolec said what is this to you that you have done to us one of the men might have well slept with your wife and you would have brought guilt on all of us now notice that unlike his mom's two horrible experiences earlier in Genesis nobody ever took Isaac's wife see his fear wasn't telling him the truth but he still listened to it and lived out generational fear and pattern then after this whole awkward unnecessary situation verse 12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundred full now how does that happen y'all like where you plant one seed and get a hundred crops like that math does not math how does that happen verse 12 and hear me because Yahweh blessed him I'll say it again because Yahweh blessed him because Yahweh blessed him and when does God bless him right after he creates this whole mess verse 13 Isaac became rich and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy he had so many flocks and herds and servants at the Philistines that envied him and y'all that is annoying right like shouldn't things be going poorly for him he's lying on self-protecting and controlling why is God blessing him or actually better yet why does God blessing any of them why is he blessing and working with anyone in this family people who fear and grasp and manipulate and control and don't value things rightly. Why does God keep blessing these people? See, I think that is exactly the question the author wants us asking. See, that's why this story sits in this kind of odd place after Jacob's birth, after the grasping, after the birth, right? It's placed here because before Jacob's story gets going, we need to understand something. God is blessing this family, and it is not because of their consistency. You hear me? You hear me? Non-missive. You hear me? See, God is blessing this family, and it's not because of their consistency. They are inconsistent at trust and at honesty, Abraham takes Isaac lies, Jacob grasps, he saw despises, they make a whole mess of things. So this is not a reward for good behavior or obedience or faith, God blesses them because God promises to bless them. See, that's the sort of God he is. He's a God who keeps his word. So this is not first a story about their consistency. It's about God's. It's about God's loyal love, about his faithfulness, about his character. It is first and foremost about God. The God we just sang about, that God is so good. It's about him, the one who's continuously faithful and kind, and going to show up and deliver on his word. It's first about him. See, so this moment isn't really meant to be overly moralized or promised picked like whatever I saw, I'm going to reap 100 full. Or every famine is really a blessing waiting to happen. Or no matter how I live, God doesn't really care. He'll bless me. Or if I just obey God, then things will go well for me and my family. Oh, that is not the story. See, this is God keeping his word to Abraham and to all of humanity. That he's going to bring about flourishing for everyone through a covenant partner. Y'all, God chose who he chose and it's not because of their faithfulness. God, Elex, and partners with this family, even amidst their snake-like moments, which is good news for all of us, right? Like amidst my snake-like moments and your snake-like moments and the mess that we create, even as a society in the world, God builds the story, not around our consistency or our goodness or our faithfulness. Y'all, the human story rests on God's faithfulness. Amen. See, the open question left and the invitation is simply this, Jacob's response. To see God's faithfulness so we can rightly see Jacob's story and then we can rightly respond with our own. See, his story isn't asking, will God bless him or will God be a good partner to Jacob? The question is, will Jacob become a good partner with God? Will Jacob listen to God's voice obey him and trust and represent him well in the world? Will this become a people who God's blessing doesn't just go to, but it actually can be a vehicle to go through. This is about them learning to partner with God in situations like yours and mine where they're tested by desire and fear and grasping and control. Y'all, God can use these moments in that story and in our story to form His people out of all family patterns and into good partners in the world, they have to listen and they have to trust. Which makes me wonder, how do we do that? Because Isaac did have a moment where he did it, where he was able to, do you remember it? He was able to face his wife's bareness, a situation completely out of his control to do anything. And for this moment, he broke a generational pattern. What did he do? Did you notice it? Joy read it earlier in the scripture. It was the beginning of our scripture reading. Chapter 25, verse 21, "His wife was childless, so Isaac prayed to the Lord." Isaac prayed. See, remember, Rebecca is barren and this family has been in this situation before. Do you remember when Abraham took in that scenario, he took Hegar, by Isaac facing the same impossibility. He pleads with God. He moves from control through prayer. See, it's the same word that's later used of Moses who's interseeding on behalf of his nation. This is pleading and supplication. It's intense prayer. It's desperate prayer. It's the kind of prayer that says, God, I need you to show up. Have you ever prayed those prayers before? We're like, God, I need you to show up in my body, in my friend's body like you did for Rebecca. God, I need you to show up in the middle of famine like you did, Isaac. God, I need you to show up in a nation and a time in a world like you did for Moses. God, I need you to help. I know you can, but I need you to help. See, that sort of prayer that goes, God, I am going to keep on asking and keep on seeking and keep on knocking, because I know that you hear me. Paul Miller put it in this one line. He says, prayer is bringing your helplessness to Jesus. See, that's what Isaac begins to do in this moment. He took the thing that he could not control and he embodied his trust through prayer. But notice, prayer wasn't just Isaac's response. It was Rebecca's too. So when Isaac's answered prayer turns into a war in her body, verse 22, she went to inquire of the Lord. See, where Isaac petitions, Rebecca begins to ask questions. Her words in the Hebrew, they're very raw. Lord, why is this happening to me? Why is this happening? The first time this word is used in scripture, the first recorded inquiry to God is a confused, helpless, why? Why? Because that's prayer too. Not just petitioning God only, but also holding all of our pain, all of our question, all of our griefs, all of our fears to God, telling God what is actually on our mind. This couple somehow, they modeled two sides of the same coin. That is prayer, asking God to act and asking God questions, because prayer is how we hold all of our lives before God. It's how we hold it before God instead of grasping. See, it's how we learn to stop self-protecting. It's how we reorder our desires and stop living from our fears. See, the big picture of prayer is that God wants to actually spread, eat, and blessing, and flourishing to the whole world. And prayer is somehow in his wisdom, and sometimes what feels like craziness. It's how the size to partner in the world to see flourishing happen. See, prayer is how we talk to the King about our shared work in his world. So family, we pray. We pray. We don't hold anything back from God, not because we're really good at convincing God, because God is faithful to act, amen? See, he's faithful to act. And sure, we do not always get what we want, but God is always faithful. So y'all, hold all of your life, all of your desires, all of your hopes, all of your fears, all of your griefs, all of the small things, the big, everything, hold it before God, your family, your question, your nation, the very world. Has Paul instructed us in every situation by prayer and petition, present your requests to God. And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds. See, this is the oldest lesson in the book. Ask God for anything and talk with God about everything. Prayer is simply our response to God's faithfulness. Now Isaac, he is not perfect or consistent at this. Sometimes he trusts and prays others. He lies and falls into family patterns. Honestly, same. Some seasons I find myself like really going strong in prayer. And like, yeah, like we're awesome. This is going great. We're crushing it. Another season's prayer is the last thing I want to do. Sometimes it feels boring or my fears, it's that my prayers are being ineffective. Nothing's happening. Sometimes I just have no time to give up on prayer in moments. Like, okay, just whatever he knows. So like, let me take care of it. Even ironically, a year ago, I taught on Genesis, and I taught about Cain and Abel, and taught kind of the same thing that Cain chose to not hold all of his emotions before God. And yet a year later, I can trace the course and find all these little moments, but I didn't actually hold my honest thing before the Lord. So my question is, why did Isaac pray when in the same scenario, his father grasped? Well, the text doesn't tell us, but here's my theory. I suspect that Isaac remembered his story. See, Isaac's life, as we've shared week after week, it is a testimony to the God who does the impossible. It's a testimony to the God who hears. Do you remember he settled at Bir la Horeue? He's the well of the living one who sees me. Oh, and he remembered God, who found Heygar, and he remembered the God who cared for his brother, Ishmael. He could never forget Mount Mariah, where God provided a way of escape for him through very death when there was no other way. He saw his wife every day remembering that their marriage was a result of the prayers of those who went ahead of him. And then again, and again, conversation after conversation, he would hear his name, Isaac laughter. It's an inescapable reminder of God's promise that was laughable at the moment, and yet God did be impossible. See, Isaac's very life is a reoccurring answer to God's question, is there anything too hard for the Lord? That's his story. And if you and I would say humble enough and attentive enough, we'll begin to notice that it's our story too. See, I can tell you about times that God has answered my prayer. At my best, I remember them. Like when I was moving to Portland to be a part of this community, and this is maybe John for Bach, that's whatever, but it felt like a significant pay cut. And I was like, oh God, like, would you help? And I remember sitting after my first month of living in Portland, and sitting in my apartment by myself on North-West 23rd. I'm sitting there doing my budget and looking at the numbers and God met me to the hauler. I chew the freaking hauler. I think of my marriage where my wife, she literally was on the other side of the planet and we joke like, actually we joke in the series, but God literally had to drag her into this marriage. If we would have met in this church, we would have been like, oh, she's cute, but we would never have dated. And that's true, you're gonna ask her later. Genuinely, my marriage is a result of God and prayers have gone before me. I can tell you story of my life, but I can tell you stories of those in this room who are answers to prayer. Like God's showing up time after time and I at my best and struggling and fighting and clawing to fuel my life of prayer by remembering the ways God has shown up for me and for you and for us throughout the story. And I wonder if in his moment of his wife's fairness, Isaac remembered the story too. God at that will, God on that mountain, God in his marriage. I wonder if he remembered and it fueled him to pray, I need that, don't you? Don't you? I need that fuel in my prayer. The thing is y'all, we have it. See, God promised Isaac that through his offspring all nations will be blessed. Generations later, a member of that same family, Peter, he stood up and he preached that God kept his promise. The offspring came, Jesus the Messiah, the son of Abraham. And now you and I are the result of God coming and keeping his word. See, every brother in this story, they grasped. But Jesus was equal with God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped. No, he let everything go. He made himself nothing and homer themself and became obedient even to death on a cross. And therefore God has highly exalted him. And given him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue confess in heaven and on earth and under the earth that Jesus Christ, he is Lord. He is King, he is Messiah, he's the true ruler, he's the true protector, he's the true character here. He is the Lord of the earth. See, that is our story. So we remember this story. Remember Jesus who is our brother and what he did for me and for you. And that is the God we pray to. See that offspring came, Jesus the Messiah. So we remember him. We remember Jesus who stood at a well and promised living water that quenches every desire and never runs dry. We remember Jesus who liked Isaac was brought upon a mountain and died to offer away through fear of death. And actually not just the fear of death, but of death itself. So you remember Jesus the bridegroom and the marriage that's coming when all creation is finally under his protection and care. So when you or I, we struggle with desire or fear, when we struggle to trust God, when you struggle to pray. Remember Jesus in your story and our story and thus story, then call out to him. The snake crushing, ever living faithfulness of God. Call on him, not because you are consistent, but because he is. Thanks for joining the Bridgetown family as we engage in this teaching series. To learn more about the life of our church and how you can get involved, visit Bridgetown.church/Welcome. If you're interested in contributing financially to Bridgetown Church and to our ministry, you can do that at Bridgetown.church/giving. Wherever you're joining us from, we hope this resource blesses you and encourages you to be with Jesus, become like Jesus, and do what Jesus did.