Transcript
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All right, if you got a Bible, go to Genesis 45.
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Whoo.
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We've been in the series of Jacob now for seven weeks, and we've been reflecting on what God did in Jacob's life, what his journey was like, what it means to you and me. And I want to welcome our online campus, our Victory north campus, Victory Manford campus watching right now. Can we give them a big hand, all those that are being a part of our church out there? We got a lot of missionaries watching this morning, too. But Genesis 45, we've been looking at how Jacob's life was marked with pain and disappointment and frustration, how he started off at a young age as a kid who felt like he was overlooked by his father. The Bible tells us that Jacob's father, Isaac, loved Esau, the brother of Jacob, more than he loved Jacob. So that right off the bat, just stirred up these feelings of, I'm not enough. If my dad likes my brother more than me, there's something that he has that I don't have. And so Jacob was constantly trying to get his dad's approval, trying to constantly win his dad's affirmation, trying to grab his brother's blessing. One time, he sold. He convinced his brother to sell his birthright for a bowl of soup. And so Jacob, oftentimes, throughout his early years, was always trying to take something that wasn't his. And we talked about how when he was 90, in his late 90s, he wrestled with God on this road as he's headed back to meet his brother Esau, who he hadn't seen for 22 years. And he was afraid Esau was going to kill him. He was afraid his past was going to catch up with him. He had tricked Esau. Many years prior to this, he had stolen Esau's blessing. He pretended to be Esau, dressed up like Esau, even put hairy, you know, skin on his arms because his brother was really hairy. And his mom had told him, you got to look like your brother if you're going to get your dad's blessing. And so Jacob finally on his way to meet his brother to see what his future is going to hold. He's thinking he's going to die by the hand of his brother Esau. God gets a hold of Jacob. The Bible says that God wrestles with Jacob, and Jacob didn't know it was God, but Jacob knew he was wrestling with something that was supernatural, and he knew it had something to do with heaven, something to do with his future. And in this wrestling match, God touches Jacob's hip. And he ends up basically getting to this place where he has a limp. And for the rest of his life he has to lean on his staff. He has to constantly lean on his staff. And it was a sign, not that God was against Jacob, not that God was trying to hurt Jacob, but that God was trying to lead Jacob from being a self reliant, successful schemer, deceiver man who would trick his way into a blessing to to being a man who leaned on the grace of God, the mercy of God. Some of y' all forgot how to lean on the grace of God. How many all need some grace in your life. How many y' all can't do it on your own. Some of y', all, you came in this morning, you were already limping on the way in the church from some stuff you've walked through. You're in good company. If you got a limp, you're in good company because Jacob had a limp. And the limp was not a sign of weakness. The limp was a sign of dependence on God. Jacob had finally learned to stop trying to fight for his own way by himself and his own strength and lean on the mercy of God, the grace of God. In that place, God changed Jacob's name to Israel. And when Jacob's name changed to Israel, you would think for the rest of the Bible that he would be referred to as Israel. But he's not. He's oftentimes interchanged with the name Jacob still and Israel. Some scriptures, he's called Jacob. In other scriptures, he's called Israel. Even after his name is changed, the Bible oftentimes still calls him by his old name. And so we were studying this whole series. Why was Jacob oftentimes called Jacob and Israel? And it's because God reminds you and me that even after we are saved, there is still a fleshly side that's still connected to us. Paul said it in Romans, chapter seven. Even though I've been saved, I'm justified. I'm set free from sin. I've been redeemed by the curse. There is still a fleshly side of me that craves to do what is not right against God, that wants to hold on to worry, that wants to hold on to pride, that wants to fight against humility, fight against surrender. And so even though Jacob is redeemed and he's now the prince of God, Israel meant, you know, one who struggled with God and overcame, now a prince, a chosen one. Somebody say, I'm chosen. Jacob was chosen, but he was still, in some cases, he was still broken he was still dealing with fleshly things. Things like not wanting to trust that God still had something great for him. Especially in this moment in Genesis 45, we're going to pick up in Jacob's life, he had lost his son Joseph. In his mind, Joseph has been dead for 22 years. When Joseph was dead in Jacob's mind, Jacob told his sons, I'm going to grieve till the day I die. I'm going to physically be here, but I'm going to be mentally and emotionally checked out. You'll see me at the dinner table, but I'm going to be a shell of who I used to be. I mean, you're not. I won't even be half the man I used to be. I'm going to be so emotionally broken for the rest of my life. Because Joseph meant everything to Jacob. Jacob was still dealing with the idolatry of children. You know, we can have idols. There's idols that are very carnal and secular, and then there's idols that are even conservative. Like, family is a good thing. God created family, but God never created family to sit on the throne of your heart. God never created like. God loves marriage. Marriage is a symbol of what our relationship with Jesus is going to be. The wedding, the marriage, supper of the lamb. But marriage was never meant to sit on the. Like your spouse was never meant to be your God, and neither were your children. And Jacob was still dealing. You don't know what an idol is until it's taken from you and how you respond. Can you still have joy even if your child is gone? Can you still trust in Jesus? Can you still have hope even after you've lost your spouse? By this point in Genesis 45, Jacob has lost Rachel. That was the wife he loved the most. He's lost Leah, and he's lost Joseph. And in his mind, he's heartbroken. He's leaning on his staff, but he's dealing with so much pain and disappointment. And he's got this weight on the inside. You know, we were driving down the highway this last week as we were getting ready to go on missions, and. And I kept seeing these signs. Weigh stations, weigh stations. They have these weigh stations off the side of the road for semi trucks to be weighed to determine if they have the right amount of weight. Because too much weight is dangerous. God never designed us to carry too much weight. Jesus says, cast your cares on me. If you're heavy burdened, if you've got a lot of cares, if you've got a lot of worry, if you got a lot of stress. Jesus says, come to me if you're tired and weary. This. This is a message to unburden yourself from some of the weight you've been carrying. Some of you are carrying too much weight. And I'm not talking about the weight you picked up on spring break, because I did too. We need to lose some of that weight, too. But I'm talking about some of the heavy weight Jacob was carrying heaviness. He was carrying heaviness. And my question for some of you that walked into church today, what are you carrying that God didn't ask you to carry? What are you carrying? What are you holding onto? It's not just too much weight that's dangerous. It's even too little weight that's dangerous. There is a weight that God wants us to walk in. It's a spiritual weight. It's not a heavy weight. It's not a heavy burden. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. But it is a weight. It's a weight of what you care for in your family, for your future, for your future children, for your spouse, for the ministry, even the weight of this church. At times, I try to carry more weight than I'm supposed to. And friends in my life, like Daniel or Jeff Guder, they'll come up to me. They'll be like, Paul, that's not your weight to carry. That's God's weight to carry. Tell the person next to you, that's not your weight to carry. That's God's weight to carry. But Jacob didn't just have a heavy weight of losing Joseph. He was also waiting on some promises from God to be fulfilled. And so he was holding his staff. He was carrying his staff. Jacob had learned to. To develop a staff of his own in the Old Testament. The staff was like a journal. And what they would do, the patriarchs of our faith, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and later on Joseph and Jude, all these different leaders in the Bible, all these different mighty men and fathers of nations, they would journal what God did in their life, and they would start at the bottom and they would kind of get a knife, and they would carve like a ring around the bottom of the staff, and then they would carve another ring and another ring, another ring, depending on how many encounters they had with God. And you could just imagine in Jacob's life, we've been in his. In his life now for seven weeks. I mean, Jacob's staff was somewhere up to here. I mean, he had the carving of when he wrestled with God. He had the carving of when God showed up in his life, even after he was tricked by Laban, his father in law. He had the carving of when God gave him a dream of a ladder, a stairway to heaven, and angels ascending and descending to heaven. Jacob had all of these dreams, all of these moments where God had ministered to him. At this point, he's been reconciled with his brother Esau. So he has the reconciliation with his brother, but there was still room to go. And wherever he had stopped writing down, I think he stopped writing down some of the things God did for him the day that he found out Joseph died. To his mind. And this, this to me represents the space that was left for God to still do something in Jacob's life. But it was the space that Jacob had not believed there was anything left to fill in there. It was like he wanted it, but he didn't think it could happen. He was still heartbroken. And this is where we pick up Genesis 45, verse 24. Are you guys there? So it says in verse 24. So Joseph, by the way, spoiler alert, Joseph didn't die. How many? All were here last week for the longest sermon title that I've ever preached. Just your basic riches to rags, to slavery, to seduction, to prison, to the palace to riches story. And so Joseph, who Jacob thought was dead for 22 years, turned out to be alive. And not just alive, but promoted to a position of prime minister in Egypt. And he was now in a position to bless his betrayers, to bless the people who hurt him, to bless the people that broke his heart, to bless the very people that tried to destroy him. It was his brothers. And he told them, he said, listen, I want you to go and tell dad that I'm still alive. I want you to go and tell dad. And by the way, he says, don't quarrel about all these things along the way. That's a good reminder for some families today. Don't quarrel on the way home. Don't quarrel in the minivan after church. Don't quarrel with your brothers and sisters and your mom. Like Joseph was like, I know my family, my family, always getting in fights. How many all can relate to this scripture. Sometimes you're like, yes, Joseph, tell the kids, tell the siblings, get along with each other. Just get. Just turn to the person next to you and say, can we get along with each other? Come on. So Joseph tells him, he says, listen, don't quarrel along the way. And in verse 25, as they left Egypt and returned to their father Jacob, in the Land of Canaan. So Jacob's sitting there. It's a famine. He's expecting food to come back. That's all he's expecting. He's expecting. He's at the end of his life. He's 130 years old. That's a long time to live. 130 years old. He's sitting there, looking off in the distance, waiting for his sons to come back home with food. And they come back and they tell their father Joseph is still alive. The son you thought was dead. The moment where you stopped believing that God had anything great left for the end of your life. Come on. It's about to get good. It's about to get good. Come on. They were telling. They were telling their dad, Dad, I know you thought it was all over. I know you thought hope was lost. I want to title this message, God's got my back. God's got my back. God's got. Tell that person next to you, God's got your back. So they say, Joseph is still alive. And he's the governor of all the land of Egypt. Jacob was stunned. One translation says his heart stopped beating. He was so shocked in this moment, he couldn't believe it. He was still dealing with doubt. He was so overwhelmed. He said, no, you've tricked me. In the past. These were the same sons that showed him a coat dipped in goat's blood, trying to convince their dad Joseph was dead. In his mind, he's like, I'm not trusting my family. My family lies. It had run in his family, by the way. His sons weren't the first ones to lie in the family. Jacob had lied before, and before Jacob, Isaac had lied. You forgot about Isaac lying about his wife Rebecca. Because Isaac was afraid that people were going to take his wife because she was so beautiful. So he lied and said, that's my sister. But Isaac wasn't the first one to lie in the family. Abraham lied. Lying had run. Abraham did the same thing when Sarah and him were in a certain town. And he wasn't sure if the people were gonna try to take his wife. Cause she was beautiful. So he lied about Sarah. So he. In this moment, Jacob's like, lying runs in my face. They're lying to me again. The manipulation, the deception, the hurt. He couldn't believe his sons in this moment. And I wouldn't blame him. I wouldn't blame him there, but this is the part I really love here. But when they repeated to Jacob everything Joseph had told them, they start telling them about Joseph. They say, listen, listen, dad, this is what Joseph told us. I love this part right here. And when he saw the wagons, when he saw the wagons, the wagons were evidence. There was something about the wagons. The wagons represented that Joseph was not only alive, but Joseph had a purpose. Joseph had a plan. Joseph had provision waiting for them. When Joseph, when. When Jacob saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, somebody say God's going to carry me? When Jacob saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, his. His spirit was revived. Today I want to talk to you about how to get your hope back. Not, not just that God has your back, but that God wants to get you your hope back. God wants to revive your spirit again. Some of you have been heartbroken by the news of a loved one, by the news of a situation, by the loss of a job, by stuff you see on the news, by stuff you see on social media. Some of you have been dealing with just heavy stuff. But I love in this moment, when he saw the wagons, when he saw the wagon, there was something about those wagons that Jacob goes, oh, now I trust my boys. The wagon. Because in this moment, Jacob's thinking, even if my son is alive and he's working in Egypt, how am I ever going to see him? I can't even walk that far. I'm 130 years old. I've been leaning on a staff for the last few years. How am I supposed to even get to my son Joseph, when I can't even walk? Because God's going to carry you. When you can't walk, God's going to carry you. Jacob had a revelation that there is a future hope that awaits me. My eyes are set on whatever God has in store for me. And when I can't get there by myself, the same God who helped me with my limp in my past is going to help me get to my son in my future. Come on. He's going to carry me. I need your help this morning. I'm tired this morning. But he's going to carry me. Somebody say he's going to carry me. The wagons represented the grace of God. Joseph didn't have to send the wagons, but he did because he knew my dad can't get to me without those wagons. Those wagons were going to carry the weight. Those wagons were meant to unburden Jacob of all the weight he had been carrying. By the way, in the next chapter, you're going to find out Jacob's not just traveling by himself. He's traveling with 100 plus people. He's got his kids, his Grandkids, his servants, his camels, his donkeys. I mean, Jacob is bringing everything with him down to Egypt. This is a big trip. This is a big situation. Jacob was like the owner of a company, right? And he. I mean, his company was huge. His family was huge. He had a lot of people to transition in this moment. He wasn't sure how it was going to happen. But God had a plan. God always has a plan. God always has your back. When God chooses you, he has your back. And I love what happens next. It says, it must be true. My son Joseph is alive. I must go and see him before I die. So Jacob's thinking, I got one more ring left in here. I got at least a couple more. I got a couple more journal entries of what God's going to do in my future. I believe that God is not finished with me yet. My best days are not behind me. When I was sitting with my grand gran right before she passed, I was in her house right before she moved to Texarkana. Little did she know, she had three weeks left to live. And she had worked in Tulsa for over 30 plus years. Actually, she had worked in Tulsa all the days that I've been alive. She moved here when I was born. And so her son Jack, my uncle, came to me and said, you know, mom needs to move home to Texarkana to spend her final days with me down there so I can take care of her. And she's got to say goodbye to victory into Tulsa, where she had worked here all these years. So I was sitting with Gran Gran in her house as she's saying goodbye to us. And she knew her time was running out. She knew she was getting to the end, but she could still see. And she still had these beautiful blue eyes full of hope. I want to go out at the end of my life with a little bit of hope still left in my eyeballs. I don't want to be just dead on the inside. I like looking at many of y' all in the room that have walked through many years of hurts and pains and disappointments. And you still got joy, you still got hope, you still got a glimmer of expectancy. My best days are not behind me. Friends, if heaven is your future, your best days are right in front of you. No matter what. No matter what. We go from glory to glory, not from glory to defeat. So Jacob still had this hope. It must be true. His spirit was revived. He got his joy back. He got his life back. He got his hope back. And then in Genesis 46, verse 1. So Jacob set out for Egypt with all of his possessions. And when he came to Beersheba, there was something about Beersheba that stood out. This was the place that he had met God before. This was the place that his father Isaac had made a sacrifice to God. This was the place that even Abraham had made a sacrifice to God. This was a massive generational spot. This was a spot where Jacob remembered, this is where I encountered God. And so he stopped there. He wasn't in a rush to get to his son. He could have said, let's keep going. Let's keep going. Let's keep going. But Jacob understood the power of worship.