Life & Times of Jacob Pt2!

So all of that to say, Lord, help me to present this in a reasonable fashion. And my prayer is that you will hear far more than the words that I can speak, that God would open the eyes of your understanding and give you enlightenment so that what I would share with you today would linger longer in your heart and in your spirit, and that you would consider it in some depth. So a couple of weeks ago, I was ranting and raving about our old friend, Jacob of old, and I’m on his trail, his path again, yet today. I’m finding so much, so much. I’m not giving you old bread from yesterday’s man of collection. I really am digging and I’m discovering things that I never noticed before. And so I trust as I share with you my little clearer understanding that it will bless your heart and strengthen you. So in Genesis, or from my friends who were living in Quebec this morning in the book of Genesis, chapter 25, I’m not making fun of you. Some of my best friends are down there. 

Genesis 25, beginning to read in verse 19. This is the genealogy of Isaac. I pause there right now in telling you, I know that if you’re anything like me, when you get to those chapters, especially in the earlier parts of the Scriptures, and you get to the genealogies, there was a time when I’d say, well, I want to read three chapters today, and I actually liked it when I got to the genealogies because I just flipped the page over and say, that’s page two, because I used to think as a young preacher, why? Why is all this here? So and so big out, so and so. And I couldn’t even pronounce a name, let alone put it together in some kind of a reasonable, oh, I understand. Okay, now I get that. But now in my old gray years, well, in my old not so gray years, this is good. Their gray is receding. But now I’m coming to understand that the genealogies are absolutely essential. And then when we talk about the birthright, the birthright back there, Abraham,Isaac, Jacob, that’s the genealogy, and it was so definitely important.

Maybe not to any other culture, and maybe not to any other people, but we need to remember that God called Abraham out, and he said, I’m going to bless you and your seed. I’m going to bless your seat. I’m going to bless your children. So it matters that you can follow the lineage of his family and your lineage will start at Abraham, and it comes right down to, and the Lord visited Mary, and it goes on, onto you a child is born, onto you a son is given. That’s the genealogy progressing. And the unique thing is that with Jesus coming on the scene, the Lord dubs him the firstborn.

And so when we read that Esau was the first born that in fact Ishmael was the firstborn, the firstborn has gravity and it has importance because the firstborn indicates there’s more to come. The terminology firstborn signifies a very special day when the first son or the first daughter of a patriarch, of a person of notable character, when that person, when a new baby is born. This is the first and it’s a promise, much is to come. So there’s glory in that firstborn person and it’s important to study and look at that person, but then to also realize that this is the beginning of something wonderful and grand.

 And so the genealogies matter. And it’s good to even study the genealogy of Ishmael. You’ll discover that when you follow his genealogies and it matters, he ran off and he married an Egyptian. And why? Because Hagar was Egyptian. So she took him home to Egypt and he married into the Arabs and today we have some problems that result from that which we won’t go into unless I get arrested for saying so. They can call us anything they want, but we’re not allowed to even blink. All right. Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because Rebecca was barren and the Lord granted his plea and Rebecca, his wife, conceived.

But the children, it was more than one, struggled and wrestled with each other within her. And she now having experienced a miracle, you know, some many, many years went by 20 plus years and no child. Suddenly she’s going to have a child. No, she’s going to have a couple of children. But this is good, Rebecca. This is the blessing of the Lord. But there’s a civil war going on inside here. And so she says, she says, if this is good, how come I’m suffering like I am?

And it’s very important for us to pause there and recognize there’s something happening that’s continuing in Gaza as we speak this morning. Hello. They struggled together within her and she said, if everything is well, how come I’m experiencing this? So she went to the Lord and she inquired and the Lord replied, two nations are in your womb. Wait a minute. So and so begot. So and so Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all of a sudden, oh, there’s going to be two. You’re giving birth to a second nation within you. And that second nation is going to be contentious and the contention begins already within. It has been suggested by some Hebrew. I love studying this stuff. It’s been suggested by some Hebrew scholars that what was going on inside is they were fighting for which one was going to be born first. That’s what the tussle was about. Me first, no, me first. Sounds like a couple of kids waiting for, you know, the handing of the sweet.

I get my for no, I get my first and the fight breaks out in the sandbox. So these fellows are wrestling and fighting over it. And is it interesting that when the first one is born, the next one is right there and he’s hanging on to his heel. Hang on there. No, no, no. And in fact, Jacob, the very name means he is holding on to his heel because you see, Jacob was going to be the lineage person, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of, no, no, you said Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. This was the plan of God.

And I hurry right now to tell you the conclusion. It’s early in the message and I’m ready to conclude right now. And all the people say, yes. 

The conclusion of my message this morning that comes across so strongly to me is that no matter what happens in his life, no matter how many errors he makes, no matter how many lies he told, that was in his genes. Abraham lied. Isaac lied. Jacob lied. It was in the family. Congratulations.

But in spite of the lies told, instead, in spite of the stupidity, in spite of everybody trying to help God, there’s a message in here this morning, stop trying to help God, let him be sovereign and let him pull it together. You know, when he writes the book, his final chapter is always a great chapter. Keep your little fingers away from the pen. Two nations are in your womb. Two peoples shall be separated. That means they’re fighting now and they’ll always fight. Two people will be separated from your body. So when they come out, there’s two nations coming out. And here’s what’s interesting. The lineage, you know, my first born, always the first born is privileged. The first born always gets the privilege. The first born turns out to be the leader. The second born has to be subservient. He has to salute and say, well, whatever you say, boss. And so the Lord speaks to her and says, the older will serve the younger. So we need to remember that when we watch this saga unfold. Isaac has his favorite.

His name is Esau. And why? I already suggested to you a couple of weeks ago that maybe the reason why he favored Esau was because Esau was a man’s man. Esau never learned how to cook. He never learned how to bake bread. He never even knew how to take a jello powder and do an instant jello. He couldn’t do anything. He wasn’t interested. He had his bowl and arrow and he loved to be out there hunting and he was rugged and he was tough and he made his daddy proud.

And then there was little Jacob who was his mom and mommy’s boy, all how she stroked his head and she loved him. And she taught him how to bake chocolate chip cookies. Anybody bring some chocolate chip cookies, leave them on the front pew, I can taste them now. So you see Jacob was a mama’s boy and she loved him. But there was another thing that was undergirding that whole flow. And that is she had received a promise and she didn’t get it from her husband. She got it directly from the Lord.

And the Lord said, there were two nations within you, but the one that comes out second, he’s the one that I will favor. And so she knew that she knew that she knew that little Jacob was going to have the birthright. Now they did not understand us. You and I always have to remember this. And I know you know it, but I have to remind you. We know Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, da, da, da, da, da, da, Jesus. And then we come along as well, right? They didn’t know that. They only knew that God said to Abraham, I have chosen you.

Of all the people in the world, why did God choose him? Because God gets to do the choosing. We can’t find one reason why God chose Abraham. We don’t know that he had a thing for God. We don’t. In fact, there are some scholars who suggest to you that Abraham was probably the son of a priest of a pagan God and that Abraham might have been in training to actually become a priest and to follow in that line. But God plucked him up and said, I choose you. It’s wonderful to know that you are chosen.

God’s chosen people. And so the Lord had chosen him and said, I’m going to turn you into a great, great nation. Everybody, your name is going to be on everyone’s lips. And I’m going to throw you. I’m going to bless the nations of the world. The world’s going to be blessed because of you. That’s all they knew. They did not have a concept of the cross. They didn’t know a way in the manger, no crib for his bed. They didn’t know any of that. And that’s what faith is all about. When God says, I have a plan, our responsibility is to bring it on. 

Bring it on. So this was the challenge was that she, Rebecca knew little Jacob was a man. It was going to be a man of promise. He was going to become a man of God. Doesn’t matter how spiritual he gets, he’s going to become known as a man of God. Abraham. Isaac, Jacob. In case I forget later, I just want to throw this in. The blessing, the blessing, the birthright, the whole plan, being a part of that lineage, being remembered as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all these great patriarchs. How did they receive this blessing? The word says that Abraham received the blessing and God counted his faith as righteousness and therefore God blessed him, right? So Abraham got the blessing by faith. How did Isaac get the blessing? He got it by inheritance.

How did Jacob get the blessing? He wasn’t in line for the inheritance because he was the second born. So he got the blessing by trickery. And God still honored his word and things continued on. Every one of us falls in potholes. Every one of us goes astray at times. Not one of us this morning would want our whole life up here on the screen for us to observe all the stupidity and all the mistakes and all of the, what nobody wants to be seen. But God sees it all and in spite of all of this, he’s on your side and doesn’t lose sight of that.

He’s on your side. How many people have I met that have said, my life is ruined. I made this mistake and made this error and I’ve got to live with that. And they were challenged with forgiving themselves. They just couldn’t get past. They fell into this pit. And then there, and I’ve had to try and it’s, I, it’s troublesome to try and counsel this person and pull them out of there. But then there are other people who will go through such difficulty with their, with their family, with their siblings, with their mother, with their father, with everything coming apart of the seams, everything falling apart, falling apart. And, it’s very difficult for people to see through the end. I, I, I hurriedly didn’t plan on this, but I hurriedly want to suggest to you that we, we take knowledge of this fact that a very, very special friend of mine and many of you would have known the person, Elfkowel, Elf and Irene. And they’re well known for so many reasons in the past, so many. And I could go on and on and on about what kind of a man of God Elf was.

He was incredible. When he was on his deathbed he said, Irene, call the doctor. I’m in desperate pain. That’s, so he had chosen to live out his last hours in his own apartment. So his wife was there, his daughter was there and he would need help with pain, pain, pain. He was in desperate pain. He needed an injection. Irene, call the doctor. I’m in trouble here. And so she called the doctor. And when the doctor came in, Elfkowel and his struggle, as he’s dying, he’s on his deathbed in his struggle, he was still in tune with the Lord. And as the doctor came in, he said, doctor, before you put that in my veins. So Alf Cowel is to live with pain for a few more minutes. He said, before you do that, there’s something I’ve got to tell you. Now the man sitting now on the side of the bed is a Hindu. He’s a devoted man to the Hindu religion. But as the man sat down on the side of the bed, Alf in his pain and in his trouble, he said, I’ve got to tell you about Jesus. And before that doctor put that injection into Alf, that doctor knelt at the side of Alf Cowel and Alf led him to the Lord in prayer.

And within a few days, that doctor showed up at the door. And Irene looks opens the door and she sees the doctor and she says, oh, doctor, there must be some mistake. I didn’t call you. He said, no, this is not an official call. I want to see that man of God again. And one of the last things that Alf ever did was he laid his hands upon this man who had given his heart to Christ. Now the interesting thing is that Alf Cowel totally anticipated that the doctor would come back.

And he said to his daughter who had moved in for a little bit, she lived in California, he said, you’re going to get a Bible and have it embossed, have his name put on it so that when God brings him back, we have a Bible for him. So here’s the doctor at the door uninvited and said, I have to come in. And when he came in, he knelt down at the side of the man of God’s bed. And he said, I want you to pray for me again. I love what’s happening in my heart and in my soul. And so Alf got to bless him and said, Irene, open the top drawer of that dresser. And a Bible came on and he said, I knew that you’d be back. Here’s your Bible. But in spite of all of that, he had a son. Alf Cowel had a son whose name was Paul. And he’d been raised the right way. He was like a Jacob. He was Mama’s boy. He was Daddy’s boy. He was the son Rose said, but you see Alfred, but Paul is gone now, but he’s gone to be with the Lord. But Paul had a bit of a rebellious streak in him.

He moved to the other side of the world probably to get out of his mother and dad’s sight. He was trying to, he was running from his papa’s prayers. You can run, baby, but you can’t hide. And so there he was on the other side of the world. And Elf’s last prayer, his last request to me was, David, I’m not going to last in another couple of days, but keep your eye on Paul for me. Because I’m claiming him for the kingdom. He said, if I don’t see it now, I’ve got to see him and have been, David, help me, help me.

I want to believe God. Do you know that at that funeral I had a privilege in having and participating just a little measure. Paul was there and he spoke to me a few days later. And he said, when you sing, it is well with my soul. My soul was crushed. And Paul gave his heart and his life to the Lord. The bottom light is, don’t give up. Don’t give up because the record is here. Mistakes are made. Rebellion unfolds. People disappoint us. People crush us. People hurt us. But my word does not return unto me, void. And God has a blessing for you. That wayward son, that troubled daughter, that, that, that, sister that’s disappointed you, whatever, whatever, God has a plan. 

What do I know? There could be somebody listening in on the internet right now. And you’re that wayward person. You are that wayward person that, in fact, Heavenly Father, I pause right now. He needs Jesus, a praying mother, a praying father, those children that have not followed you, that sibling, that brother, that mom of that dad has no idea. The tears that have flowed. As people have claimed the Word of God and they water, they water the seed with their tears and they call out to God. Lord Jesus, I pray that someone who’s wonderfully influential, gracious, kind, not condescending, that somebody like that will come by the way of the one who needs Jesus, bring it about. I pray that another name would be written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life. And this congregation joins in this prayer by saying, Amen. So two people are in your womb.

One of them is going to turn out to be a rebel. So when her days were fulfilled to give birth, indeed there were twins, the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over. I’d give anything to be a hairy garment now. So they called him Esau. And afterward his brother came out. This is almost like a cartoon. Give me a break. Afterward, Jacob’s coming out and his hand is hanging on to his brother’s heel. Are you serious? But I don’t doubt it.

It’s in the book. You see, there was a war going on. We find that silly, if not humorous, but it was indicative of a war, not flesh and blood. We sang a song this morning. We were not against flesh and blood. What’s happening in the Middle East has got nothing to do with flesh and blood. It’s got to do with a spiritual temperament that’ll never give up. Afterward, his brother came out too holding Esau’s heel.

So his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 when she bore them. So the boys grew and Esau was a hunter, a man of the field. Jacob was mild. That means he put a lot of lanolin on the palms of his hands every morning. He dwelt in the tents. Esau was happy to dwell out underneath the stars, wrap himself in the blanket of a moose he killed. That’s going to make a couple of people in this side of the world are waiting for hunting tickets. They’re going to find out in the next 48 hours if he gets a ticket to kill something. I can’t imagine somebody going to the mailbox every day. Do I get to kill him? Do I get to kill him? I’ve never had a ticket, but a few times I’ve been like this. So the boys grew up. Esau was skillful. Jacob was mild. He dwelt in the tents.

But here we go. Isaac, Abraham, Isaac, Abraham got it by faith. Isaac bought it by inheritance. The faith principle is already getting watered down in the second generation. Hello? Abraham got it by faith, but Isaac is not as strong. But God blesses him anyway. The boys grew and Esau was skillful. A man of the field, Jacob was mild.

Isaac loved Esau because he ate of the wild venison. Now, Rebecca, she favored Jacob. We now have the royal family. This is like watching what’s going on in Britain. This princess is mad at that princess. This son is. . . This is the grandson of the queen. He hates this grandson. He’s written a book about that guy. Then those guys are upset. It’s just a soap opera. You have one right here. This is God’s royal family. Mom and Dad would sit and talk to the boys and say, you’re royalty boys. Never lose sight of this. God spoke to Grandpa Abraham. And God spoke to Daddy Isaac. He’s sitting right here. God spoke into his heart.

Now, boys, God is going to use you. He’s going to use you in a mighty way. But in her mind, in her heart, she’s thinking, yeah, right. Well, there’s going to be a problem coming because God told me so. The boys are going to be separated. But she was doing her very best to not cause that separation, although she was favoring Jacob. That is a recipe for. . . I want to take your mind back just for a moment to the first family, the first royal family, Adam and Eve. And there were two boys, Cain and Abel. Cain was the firstborn. Something about the firstborn. It’s in Scripture. There was a law given to Moses. The firstborn will always be honored. There’ll be two things coming to the firstborn. One is called the birthright. The birthright to be known in the genealogy according to

God’s plan that Abraham’s seed was going to be a blessing. And eventually his family, he isn’t going to like this. Too bad it’s in the book. Abraham’s seed is going to rule the world. Take that, Mr. Trudeau, W. E. F. and whoever you are, the children of Abraham are going to win in the end and they’re going to rule the world. It’s in the book.

So these boys, Abel and Cain, Cain is the firstborn and he is not unlike Esau. He’s rough and ready. And he’s out there in the fields and he’s working hard. And somehow or other it’s been imposed upon these two boys. You have to offer God a lamb. But he loves his grain. He loves his grapes. He loves all of these wonderful things. And so he goes against the teaching of his parents.

You have to offer a lamb and he brought bushels of Mac apples and presented them to the Lord. This guy was rebellious. But the other son, it says, he brought the best parts of the innards of lambs. It wasn’t just one. It was multiple. I checked that out recently. It’s plural. He didn’t just offer a lamb. He offered special parts of lambs and he presented them to the Lord.

And what came about from that was that God honored Abel because he brought the appropriate offering. And immediately there was contention between Cain and Abel. It ends up where Cain, who was the firstborn and should have been in the lineage, he should have experienced the up and coming birthright of a royal family chosen by God. 

He kills his brother. He messes up the whole thing. It’s incredible. Immediately you’ve got rivalry between these two, between these siblings. So now you have two boys, sons of Isaac.

And the rivalry is thick. You can cut it with a knife. It’s an incredible picture. And so two things were being offered. There’s the birthright, which comes simply because of the moment you’re born. The birthright has got everything to do with the genealogy. But then following the birthright comes a second thing called the blessing. So you recall that Jacob, he was a trickster. He wasn’t perfect.

Esau came in from the field and we can’t picture this unless you’re 79. Like I am. I come in from making the lease for 10 minutes and I think I’m going to die. And so Esau comes in from hunting and he has a neat enough food for a while. And he comes in and he says, I’m starving. I’m dying. Well, somebody’s in the kitchen with Diana and his name is Jacob. He said, I’ve got some Irish stew. And Esau says, I’m dying to give it to me.

And Jacob says, well, let’s barter here. The poor guy feels like he’s going to die. Come on, don’t play games with me. No, no, no, come on now. You think you’re going to die. What have you got that I want? Come on, come on, come on. Oh, you’re getting closer. Yeah, yeah. Yes, I want the birthright.

And Esau says, you got it. He says, swear to me, you’re giving the birthright. Yes. He got the birthright from that day on. He was going to be the honored name Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, ta-da. And God was going to speak to him. He was going to be the anointed leader of what I’m calling here the royal family. And Esau did not care. He gave it up for a bowl of Campbell’s vegetable soup.

And he didn’t care. He didn’t care that you are trading God’s favor on you for a moment of personal gratification. I just heard again of some preachers there, U. S. And you’re going to hear about them and you’re going to be astounded and your jaw is going to drop and you’re not him, not him, yes, him. People are trading off the blessing. They’re trading off the abundance of the anointing for a few minutes of pleasure and it’s costing them dearly and it’s bringing reproach upon the church and upon the message itself.

So some things never change. Hello? You’d be glad to know that the hands on that clock are moving very fast and for us as ranting is going to be closing soon. Did I hear in amen? So then there was going to be the blessing of the blessing which had to do with a double portion in terms of inheritance. The first born gets twice as much as however many siblings there are in the family. In this case there was Esau and there was Jacob. So Jacob by trickery he got the birthright but he wants more. And Rebecca, this gentle little simple, pure little hmm, she’s like Eve in the garden. I felt this little pinch in my conscience earlier and said, no, David, don’t you make the ladies feel uncomfortable? Don’t you make such a horrendous statement about Eve? But she was the one who said, taste it. She just, just tastes it. And then later the Lord says to Adam, what have you done? He says, you know that woman you gave me? He was so excited when she came. He looked at her. She didn’t have the, she didn’t have the skin of an alligator. She didn’t have the trunk on her like a hippo. She was gorgeous. And he looked at her and he said, wow, she’s bone to my bone, flesh of my flesh. And now when the chips are down he says to her. Rebecca has a little bit in her. She gets Jacob to the side. Your daddy is dying.

And now is the time to strike. Now here’s what you’re going to do. She comes up with a plan. She says, here’s what we’re going to do. This is the woman that had a promise given to her, I’m going to bless one of your sons. I’m choosing Jacob. He’s going to be the one that I’m going to bless abundantly. But she’s going to help the Lord. Daddy’s going to die.

We don’t want to take a chance. We don’t want to take a chance that God went to bed and his alarm is set till tomorrow morning. We don’t want to take a chance. How many times have I, not you? You’re innocent of this. I can tell just to look at you. I can see the halos. You need fresh batteries, but I can see the halo. But how many times have I tried to help God? And it was like walking in a barn and bare feet and going behind the cows. Not a good idea. Hello. When you stop out of line and you try to help God, it’s not a you get on your face, bunkie. We can trick your dad. He’s old and he’s stupid. Now here’s what we’re going to do. And you know the story. And here’s what I want to point out for you this morning because this blesses is my heart.

This, and this has got to bless your heart. I never considered this before. This never occurred to me. How come God let this happen? Because He has a plan and sometimes in our stupidity we help fulfill the plan. What God just said, sir, and watch me go along. I’m heading for a train wreck and He says, go ahead Dave. It’s okay. I have another plan. Your guts are going to be spilled all over the ground. But that’s okay. I have a surgeon ready to put you back to you. Go ahead, stupid. Do it. God has a plan. Thank God He has a plan. Earlier this morning, well, it wasn’t so early this morning. Well, it was early this morning. The middle of the night it occurred to me. Tell them the story about thus and so. When you believe that you stepped out of the will of God, and I’m struggling with this because you don’t want to hear all my dumb stuff. But I will tell you this. It’s a very complicated story, but I got voted in as the pastor of a different church. So I went from a church that was packed to capacity to another church that was quite large and it had more room too, yeah, it had 15 Sunday school buses and a daycare of 150 children. Was I seeing stars? Was I getting carried away? I prayed about it and asked the Lord. I didn’t get any stop signs. I didn’t get any merge signs.

I just, and then all of a sudden the congregation got excited and voted me in. The day I arrived with my books in the trunk of my car, I had to leave my wife behind in another city because we couldn’t sell the house. So I arrived at this new church. I was not impressed with David. I was not impressed. I was hurting. I walked in the front door and the secretary came to greet me. I didn’t want to talk to anybody.

This should have been a high day for me, but I was broken. I was hurting. I felt I’ve stepped out of the will of God. I walked into the pastor’s office and I never revealed this to a living soul. It was almost, watch this. You’re not going to believe it. I’m telling you the truth. It was almost two months before I sat in the pastor’s chair and behind that desk. People would come to visit me for counseling, dig into a drawkin.

We got to talk about the budget and whatever, whatever, whatever. And they never found me sitting behind that. Nobody saw me sitting behind that desk because I didn’t want it. I didn’t like it. But I made a decision. I helped God. Dear Lord, And how do you get out of a mess? You made a decision. You made a left hand turn and you’re on a one-way street. I shouldn’t have used that one. I don’t know how to get out of a one-way street. I won’t go on. You don’t want to hear the rest of that one. It doesn’t get prettier. But Jacob shows up as a trickster, helped by mommy. She should have known better. This cost her immeasurably. Did Jacob get blessed? He did.

And within hours, he had to leave home. And she never saw him again. He got the blessing and he became a fugitive. This brought heartache and brokenness. If you’re sitting there watching the movie, it would have come to the end. And it was the end of episode three. Don’t you hate it when they leave you with this hanging little tab? Like somebody watched, I was with them. They watched the chosen. And it was this season now. 

And when you get to the end of that episode of this season, I don’t know a part of it, it ends in a way. 

And when we’re sitting in a theater, there were a bunch of us Christians. Of course we were Christians. 

When it came to the end, you’re sitting there, I couldn’t believe it when the cameras turned off and the lights went out. I went, no. No, I did it quietly. I looked over at somebody else who’s sitting here this morning and he said, oh, no, it came in that way. It was bad, bad. Leroy Brown, it was bad. Don’t you hate it when the movie ends right there? And it says tune in next week, but in between times, join with Madge and put your fingers in the palmolive. if it’ll make your fingernails pretty. And you’re saying, no, no, I want to see the rest of it. And so, so, here’s what to know. This story’s not over.

You’re still alive and you’re in a good place today. You’re here under the sound of the gospel. It’s not over for you yet. And don’t you dare give up because here is a glorious thing. Jacobi trickery, aided by his godly mother who had had a word directly from God. I will take care of Jacob. Jacob, come with me. Go on in, son. Go on in. I gave him a good dosage of wine. He’s feeling really happy now. You don’t doubt you read it. They gave him some pretty strong stuff. And what does Isaac do? Oh, I dare to do this. He pulled a Joe Biden. Come closer. Yeah, that’s my son, all right. So here’s the unique thing.

And this blesses my heart. This blesses my heart that in spite of error and in spite of stupid things and in spite of train wrecks, in spite of all. Isaac says, this is profound. This is a divine moment. He’s expecting to prophesy and he did it. Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field. Is he poetic? This is Hebrew poetry. Yes, he’s poetic. What’s got the smell of the field got to do anything?

Read on. The smell of my son is like the smell of a field. You know what he liked? This man liked the smell of the field better than the smell of a pot roast. That’s why he loved Esau. He loved the smell of the meadow. The smell of a field, what’s the Lord has blessed? Here it comes, you see. He believes he’s blessing Esau, but he’s actually blessing Jacob.

And at this moment I see him stretching out his hand and he touches him. Do you know what the word ordain means? To touch. That’s what the word ordain means, to touch. And as many as he touched it says in the gospels, as many as he touched, he was ordaining divine healing. That’s why it says if any are sick among you, let him call for you, and they will lay hands on their sick. They will touch. And all of the other churches say, oh, don’t touch me. Don’t touch me. I’m sterile. They don’t touch. They don’t treat one another with a holy curse. They walk in like it’s a funeral. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Can we lay hands on? Oh, don’t touch me. But he’s reaching out to touch because this is an ordination moment. What’s this? 

This is a moment when history is going to unfold like a glorious moment in the book of Revelation. Everything is happening. This is a benchmark moment. And it’s happening in the moment of trickery. God ignores the trickery and says, I got this. Therefore, God, may he give you of the dew of heaven, the dew of heaven. Doesn’t rely on clouds. Doesn’t rely on the early rain or the latter rain. The dew comes. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you and nations bow down to you. That’s yet to happen. Be master over your brethren and let your mothers as sons bow down to you. Curse it be everyone who curses you and blesses those who bless you. No matter what happens, train wrecks, appointments, brokenness. God still has a prophetic word and it’s going to bless you. There’s always possibility. No, all is lost.

That’s all over now. I’m finished. No, you’re not. No, you’re not. God overlooks our stupidity, overlooks all. He knows that we’re dust. He knows we’re such a mess and he anticipates it all. The old song, when he was on the cross, I, 2,000 years later, he’s on the cross. I was on his mind. I never told that church. 

No, I never told a church. The place was packed. It was so much excitement. 

Oh, look at all the people. Look at all the people. They had no idea what was in these people. Here is Carolyn sitting over here. She was a prostitute and still turning tricks by times, but she’d ask God for forgiveness. There was Art over here. He’s a drug dealer. I went to see his wife. She wasn’t saved yet and she says, you think he’s a saint? He opens up the freezer. It was a chest Caesar. She says it’s full of drugs. There’s an old fool in there. He was a dealer. Oh, yeah. And there was Bill. I went to see him one night and he’s smoking the gigantic cigar. He’s all wet. The only clothes he had on was…. are the kids are gone? Good. He was wearing ladies panties and a bra. Good evening pastor. I wonder if you’d just kind of pray with me for a while. You okay, Al? He says, I remember that guy. Here’s the bottom line. I was pastoring a zoo.

These people, so many of them were like animals. I could go on. I could make you sick this morning. I could paint some word pictures. It would take you a month of hot showers to get rid of the memory. I’m stuck with all of that. I have memories that I hate, but in spite of it all, I have a promise from God and the Lord says, I will build my church. And Cheryl, you are that church. He will build you up. He will strengthen you. He will bless your children. He will bless the things of your hands. And the do of heaven will come in the midst of drought and blight. So rise and bless him and believe that God is in control. Hello? Let’s stand. I exalt thee. I exalt thee. I exalt thee. Oh. Lord.