God's Family - The Family Trade

Pastor Stephen explores the spiritual significance of family by examining the biblical narrative of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Esau. He emphasizes that God established family to provide companionship and a shared divine assignment, moving from earthly ancestry to a covenant relationship with the Heavenly Father. A central focus is placed on the "family trade," contrasting Esau’s shortsightedness in selling his birthright for temporary satisfaction with Jacob’s pursuit of a lasting inheritance. Listeners are warned not to forfeit their spiritual blessings or lose focus due to the distractions and fleeting pleasures of the modern world. Ultimately, he invites individuals to claim their inheritance through Jesus Christ, urging them to value their eternal position over immediate, worldly desires.

Transcript

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We're a family together. Do you believe that this morning? We're a family. Why did God put us together? Because we need each other. We need each other to lift up one another, to encourage one another. Isn't it nice to know that you're part of a family? Isn't it nice to know you're part of the family? To know that you do not need to go life alone. Some people, unfortunately, they choose to do life all by themselves, but they don't have to. Not only that, but you weren't meant to go alone. From the very beginning, God saw man's loneliness and he did something about it. He created family, companionship for humanity, men and women accomplishing their assignment as we saw in the first family. When we start at the very beginning, we see that family has a purpose. Can you say family has a purpose? Family has a future. Family has a way in which we were meant to operate. Unfortunately, it took humanity a little bit longer to figure out. So God, and we see through scripture, he restructures family. He repurposes family. He even reinstructs family to get the idea of how family is going to work properly the way that God intended it to. We see from Cain and Abel, Noah and the Tower of Babel, we need God-centered families operating today. Do I have any God-centered families here in the house this morning? God-centered families, it's so important. Families who realize what our purpose is as a family. We realize that there's instructions given and it's time to actually put them to good use and accomplish our assignment together. With man destined for destruction, God sets a new foundation, a restructure, repurposed, reinstructive family. And we see where God calls Abraham out of his own family and says, Abraham, I am your covering now. I am your father from whom all blessings and whom all inheritance will come from. Amen. God calls Abraham. Abraham becomes a family man. He starts making decisions with God as his heavenly father. God promises him land and descendants as many as the stars in the heavens. A covenant is made between God and Abraham, where he must set himself apart from the world and be different than everybody else. Abram is learning what life is like when God is truly the source of your stability, the source of your sustenance, the source of your promotion. Amen. God promises Abraham and Sarah a son named Isaac, even in their old age. Isaac is born and everything is right in the world. If you forgot all of this, you can go back onto the podcast and listen to it, or you can watch it online on our YouTube channel. But you're gonna see everything is going perfect in the world with Isaac, their baby. But yet God puts Abraham and Sarah through the family test, and we talked about that. Would Abraham be obedient? Would his faith bring him to even do the unthinkable? Abraham is told to sacrifice his son, and because of his faith in God, Abraham is obedient and brings Isaac to the altar. Isaac asks, Where is the lamb? Abraham replies, God will provide. Can you say, God will provide? And not just the ram caught in the thickets was provided for Isaac, but we know that through the seed of Abraham, as promising God's word, we see through the seed of Abraham that God was sent his only son, Jesus, to be the once and for all sacrifice. So God is still providing today, and he will provide for you until he calls you home into eternity. Last time we spoke, we talked about a family inheritance. A family inheritance that has been passed on from Abraham to Isaac, an inheritance that is part of the covenant made with Abraham, an inheritance to Isaac that was secured by the obedience of his father. And when Abraham is looking for a wife for his son, he tells his servant, Don't take my son Isaac back to the land that we came from, back to the place that we were called out from by our heavenly father. No, no, no, our heavenly father is now the source of everything that we need. Our heavenly father is now where our inheritance comes from. Abraham says to his servant, Don't take my son Isaac back to that place of idolatry, the place before our identity was found in God. God gives Isaac a wife named Rebecca, who would choose to go up to the land of Abraham and Isaac and join in on God's family. Now I stop there, we've recounted how far we've gotten, and I'm gonna talk to you this morning about something that we find in God's family, because you're gonna find when you step into God's family, so much belongs to you, so much is promised to you in your inheritance. But the problem is, is sometimes we're so easy to lose sight of what God has provided for us. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. We see God at this point is revealing what family was intended to look like. A family operating under God, enjoying the benefits of a relationship with God, with the creator of humanity, and with all created things. We look at Isaac after Abraham passed, and we notice the family wealth sourced by God is now handed off to Isaac. We can turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 26, starting in verse 12. Now Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundred times as much, and the Lord blessed him. And the man became rich and continued to grow richer until he became very wealthy, for he had possessions of flocks and herds and a great household, so that the Philistines envied him. It's important to see you see a family just a couple generations setting out on their own, trusting in God, and now you've gotten only a couple generations later, where now you see Isaac is being envied by the Philistines because he has so much wealth, because he's trusted in God for everything. He's been obedient to God in everything. Now, if we turn back one chapter, we find Isaac and Rebekah bringing forth two sons, Jacob and Esau. And maybe you've read these stories, maybe you read the story in the book of Genesis, but you're gonna see that the decisions of these twins would be would be would carry God's family plan forward. In Genesis chapter 25, you can turn to verse 21, it says, And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children. And the Lord answered him, and his wife Rebecca conceived. But the children struggled together within her, and she said, If it is so, why am I in this condition? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two people will be separated, two peoples will be separated from your body, and one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. When her days leading to the delivery were at end, behold, there were twins in her womb. Two babies, but we see two babies, two nations coming from Isaac, the son of Abraham. And as we'll see, the prophecy given by the Lord would come to fruition through human choices and ultimately free will. God doesn't create robots, but God gives us free will, and we see it's the free will of these twins that actually sets forth God's plan. One people will be stronger, the older will serve the younger. Genesis 25, we pick up in verse 25. Now the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment. Ooh, that's a little scary. And they named him Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his brother came out with his hand holding to Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob. And Isaac was 60 years old when she gave birth to them. When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field, but Jacob was a civilized man living in tents. Twins with two completely different identities. One was a hunter, one was a civilized man, both shared a grandfather. Abraham, both shared their father, Isaac. To whom would the blessings of Abraham and Isaac go to? Many of you might come. How many have brothers and sisters? And you know how it works. Everything goes to the older, right? The responsibility goes to the older. If there's no money, it's just the responsibility at that point. Some of us have been there. In this case, to whom would the family inheritance be handed down to? Naturally, it would go to the oldest, but now you got twins. But Esau would have had the first right to the blessing of the father and the grandfather. He would be in line because he was the first out of the womb. He would be in line to inherit the patriotic role in the family. He would inherit God's promises, God's promised blessings to Abraham, which included the promised land, descendants, and through his seed, all the nations will be blessed. Imagine all the blessings of his grandfather Abraham will be put in his authority. All the promises to be unfolded through his descendants. Can I ask you this this morning? Imagine being the expected beneficiary of such things. Imagine being the expected beneficiary of all the things of Isaac and all the things of Abraham. Can I ask you this? How would that make you feel if you were the beneficiary of such things? Imagine going into battles, knowing that you have the victory because the Lord is on your side. Can you imagine being the beneficiary of such things? Imagine knowing that God is fighting for you, providing even more than enough for you. Your grandparents are telling stories of God's impossible provision upon their lives. Your parents are telling you stories about how other nations are trembling in fear because God is undoubtedly on your side. How would that make you feel? If you knew there were five hundred thousand dollars guaranteed for you in the future, how would you walk around? I ask you that. How would you walk around if you knew that you were getting$500,000 or a million dollars or five million dollars? How would you feel if you knew there was$10 million guaranteed for your future? I ask you this, how would you sleep at night? Ah, like a baby. If you knew that your future was paid for and that every battle has your victory on it, what would your face look like when you wake up in the morning? I ask you this because you realize that you already have the victory through Jesus Christ. You have more than you could ever imagine. In your inheritance, it's God's family. Yet we walk around in the doom and gloom and the stress of all the things that are around us. How would it make you feel if you knew that you were the beneficiary of such blessings, of such promises? I tell you, you get sweet sleep at night. You'd have a smile on your face every day because you know that God is in control. All of this and more is guaranteed to Esau, yet Esau had other things on his brain. He had other things on his brain. Pay attention this morning. But Jacob, his brother, would not let the opportunity pass him by. In verse 28 of Genesis 25, now Isaac loved Esau because he had the taste for game. But Rebekah loved Jacob. When Jacob had cooked a stew one day, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, please let me have just a mouthful of that red stuff there. For I am exhausted. Therefore he was called Edom by name. But Jacob said, First sell me your birthright. Jacob says, First sell me your birthright. Does that sound like a fair trade to you? Could you imagine your future peace? Your future inheritance for a bowl of soup. Your perfect sleep, your security, your natural glow. Traded in for a few minutes of happiness, a few minutes of satisfaction. If you think about it, people do this all the time. God has blessed, God has promised, God has proven. Yet for moments of pleasure, people have given it all away. For a lack of self-control, for a lack of emotional constraint. We've seen it. Maybe you know somebody who gave it all away. In verse 32 of the same chapter, Esau said, Look, I'm about to die, so of what use then is the birthright to me? Could you imagine? And Jacob said, First swear to me. So he swore an oath to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. It must have been a good stew. And he ate and he drank and he got up and he went on his way. And watch this, this is important. So Esau despised his birthright. He despised it. Do you know what despised means? Despised, it means disrespect. He disrespected his birthright. There was no care, there was no thought. Esau was hungry. Esau was tired, and he saw that red stuff there. And everything else became less important. Even his rightful birthright that belonged to him. This disrespect. This disrespect initiates the family trade that would take place and sets the course of what would happen next. Although the birthright was traded for soup, there's still a father's blessing to be given. At that time, the blessing would be even more valuable than the birthright. A father's blessing. A blessing was given to him and now to be transferred to his offspring. If you read the story, you see Jacob, the younger son, and Rebecca his mom, they devised a plan. Instead of Esau, Jacob would deceive his father into giving him his brother's blessing. With a good meal and some animal skin. If you know the story, you'll know what I'm talking about. You can go back and read it though. With a good meal and some animal skin attached to his neck, attached to his arms. Jacob received Isaac's blessing or Esau's blessing from his father. Genesis 27, verse 28 and 29. It says, this is Isaac is now giving this to Jacob, although it was meant for Esau. It says, Now may God give you of the dew of heaven. Listen how beautiful this is. And may God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth, and an abundance of grain and new wine. May people serve you and nations bow down to you, be master of your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be to those who curse you, and blessed be to those who bless you. This is an echo from the promise that was given to Abraham from God Himself. And shortly after Jacob is blessed by his father Isaac, Esau comes to his father, and he finds that his blessing has been stolen from him. When Isaac realizes he has been tricked, he says this in verse 35, and he said, Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. Then Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has betrayed me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Father, is there not another blessing that you can give to me? First, his birthright is traded for soup, and now his blessing is stolen. Esau had missed out. What is left for me, Dad? What is left for Esau? In verse 38, Esau said this to his father, Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me as well, my father. So Esau raised his voice and he wept, and then his father, Isaac, answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling. And away from the dew, and away from the dew of heaven from above, and by your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. But it shall come about you when you become restless that you will break his yoke from your neck. Two different blessings Isaac gave to them. Which one would you want? The blessing that was given to Jacob or the blessing that was given to Esau. And you want to feel bad for Esau. You want to look and say, oh, he missed out. He missed out on what was rightfully his. He was deceived. But through the story of the twin brothers, Jacob and Esau, you see they not only looked noticeably different, one was red and hairy, and one was a civilized person, but they were both concerned about two different things. And that's what I want to drive home this morning. Jacob and Esau were both concerned about different things. Jacob was focused on the future, while Esau was focused on the here and the now. I'll say that again. Jacob was focused on the future. Esau was focused on the here and the now, the temporary and the temporary satisfaction of today. Do you see that? He despised his birthright. Esau disrespected his birthright and was easily tricked out of his blessings. It says this in Hebrews about Esau in chapter 12 of Hebrews, verse 15. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even after her afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears. What would it have been like? If Esau didn't treat his birthright with such disrespect, what would have been Esau's future if he had not treated his birthright with such contempt, with such disrespect, if he had not been so distracted by his present circumstance, if he had kept the promises of God as something of value, as something of importance as his brother Jacob had done. If you remember earlier, Abraham was so focused on Isaac's future, he wouldn't even allow him to go back to his homeland. And just a generation later, people are already losing focus and missing out on their inheritance. What am I trying to tell you this morning? What can we see through this story? So quickly, even within the new the new construct of God's family, people are losing focus. People are losing focus, and watch what they're doing. They're forfeiting the blessings of God upon their lives. They're forfeiting the blessings of God, something that people still do today, all for what? A temporary satisfaction. A temporary satisfaction. And in the end, it's so sad to read, it's so sad to watch, and in the end, they're left empty, and they're left with a longing of what should have been. That should have been mine. But it's not mine. Because while it was in my possession, I disrespected it. It was of no value to me until it's all gone, until it's all taken away. A longing for what was, or longing of what it should have been mine. When Jesus Christ comes on the scene, the birthright and the blessings of God's family, the birthright and the blessings of God's family, what belonged to Abraham, what belonged to Isaac, when Jesus comes along, it's no longer limited to one, but was offered to whoever believeth in God's only begotten Son. So what I say to you this morning, there's a blessing, there's a birthright that has been made available for you and me. Can I ask you this? Are you gonna lose sight like Esau? Are you gonna get so caught up in the things of today that you just don't care? It's just not important, it's just not valuable enough. The blessing, the inheritance that belongs to you, that's been made available for you. Will you lose it? Will you lose focus like Esau? Will you trade it all for emotional, temporary satisfaction? Or will you treasure it? How about this? Will you chase after it like Jacob? Jacob deceived. But do you see what's going on? Jacob saw it as value. I gotta have that. I need the blessing of God upon my life. I need the inheritance. He chased after it so that the inheritance couldn't just be given to one or to a certain group of people, but to everyone who believes in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The first question I want to ask you this morning is what does your relationship with the Lord look like? Have you never met Jesus? Have you never given your life over to Christ? Why is that important? Because Jesus is your advocate. Jesus stands in the gap for you. You are a simple person. But through the blood of Jesus Christ, that perfect Lamb, your sins have been forgiven. And now Jesus stands as an advocate for you to the things of God. As an advocate to you before the Heavenly Father and says, I got them, I've covered them in my blood. But you got to give your life to Jesus Christ first. So I ask you this morning, if you've never given your life to Jesus, we're going to say the sinner's prayer today. And the sinner's prayer isn't anything magical, it's just you saying that you've surrendered your life to the Lord. And I'm going to ask, as we say the sinner's prayer, maybe you've wandered away, maybe you've maybe you've lost focus. Maybe you feel so distant. God's never left you. But yet somehow you've left him in the background. So I'm going to ask, if you want to rededicate your life to the Lord, we're going to do that today too. As we say the sinner's prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you for being mindful of us, God. You didn't have to, you don't have to. You choose to out of your love for each and every one of us. Because you created us and you love us. And we're thankful. God, if there's anyone here today that has not stepped into their rightful place as a son and daughter of God by giving their lives over to Jesus, as allowing Jesus to be their covering, Jesus to be their advocate. Jesus to stand in the gap of what was broken. God, if there's somebody here today who has given their life to you, but they feel like they've just wandered so far, they've gotten lost, they've gotten confused, and they want to rededicate their lives to you. As we as a family, can we say this together? Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross for me, to wash my sin clean, to be my advocate. Forgive me of my sin. I give my life to you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. And as we close this morning, I want to ask, I want to ask this, that a new excitement would stir in us for the things of God. There are so many distractions in the world that are constantly trying to pull you away from the future that has been prepared for you. Pull you away from the future that has been purchased for you. Let us not be so easily duped. Let us not be so easily confused, manipulated, and taken advantage of. That inheritance, it's mine. It's mine. And I thank you for it. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.