If you have your Bible today, and I hope that you do, I want you to join me in Hebrews chapter number eleven. Hebrews chapter number eleven. We have been in a series for a while now, entitled "The Hall of Faith." You'll see it here up on the screen, and this is a series all the way through Hebrews chapter eleven. We are slowly taking each and every character mentioned in Hebrews eleven, and we're just looking at their life to see what what we can learn about faith and how we can grow deeper in. Our faith in in God, and so this chapter has often been referred to as the as the Hall of Faith, and in it lies so many different people who demonstrated great faith in God.
And faith is simply trusting God to work in unseen ways, even when we don't understand what is happening. And each person in the story has been challenged to trust God. In in the circumstance that they're in, even when the way seems a little crazy, even when you know the way seems like a mountain in front of them, even when it doesn't make sense, even though they're flawed and even though they are sinful and even though they fail and doubt and everything in between, God is still mentioning them here in His Word in Hebrews eleven as people of faith.
So far in our series, we've seen Abel. By faith, offered up an excellent sacrifice. Enoch, by faith, pleased and walked with God. Noah, by faith, built an ark. Abraham, by faith, left and and then again was mentioned later.
By faith, offered up up Isaac. Sarah. By faith believed and trusted in the promise of God. Isaac by faith trusted in the sovereignty of of God. And today, the next character that we find here in Hebrews eleven that we're going to be looking at is is Jacob.
Is Jacob. And if you follow Hebrews eleven verse twenty one, here's what the Bible says: By faith Jacob. When he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his, of his staff.
Now, a couple of things about about Jacob before we get into this specific story, the name Jacob literally means in Hebrew heel grabber or supplanter. In fact, if you remember when Jacob was born, he kind of grabbed the heel of Esau as they were born. He was the son of Isaac and Rebecca. He was the grandson of Abraham. He was the youngest twin.
Esau was the oldest. Jacob was favored by his mother, while Isaac favored Esau. Jacob was deceptive. He tricked his brother Esau into giving him his birthright, and then he later tricked his father to bless him instead of Esau. After that, we know that Jacob fled his home because Esau threatened to kill him after he stole the blessing.
And so there he fled, and and he ended up meeting a girl that he wanted to marry. Rachel had to work fourteen years to marry her, and then later he would father the twelve tribes of Israel. We know that at Peniel he he wrestled with God through the night. And then here in Hebrews eleven, out of all of the stories that could have been mentioned about Jacob's story of faith, we see here in Hebrews chapter eleven that the story that the writer of the book of Hebrews chose to mention was the story about about Jacob blessing the sons of of Joseph.
So the story is from Genesis 48. We're not going to have time to read it all. There's 22 verses in Genesis chapter number 48. And in fact, if you back up even a chapter before that, you would find in chapter 47 that that Jacob is on his deathbed. He is dying.
He is a hundred and forty-seven years old, and he is on his his deathbed. And word gets to his son Joseph, and so Joseph comes to visit him. One last time with his with his two sons, and something insane, if you could say it that way, happens when his father chose to bless his two his two sons. And I am gonna I am gonna try to illustrate this for you best we best we can. And so, Tony, can I use you for just a second up here?
All right, so Tony. Please, can I use you? And so, Tony, you're gonna regret.
So you can come all the way up here, Tony. You're gonna regret sitting on the front row today. And but this is Jacob. You're not 147 years old, are you?
Okay, you feel like it. And so, this is gonna be Jacob. And so, Jacob, I don't have a bed here for you, but just picture, right? He is. He's on his deathbed, and and so his son's going to come visit him once once again.
And so what we're going to do is we're going to use Mickey. Can I use you for just a second? And he's going to come up here, and you're going to play the part of Joseph for just a moment. And and so Mickey's going to play Joseph.
So Joseph, you come right over here, and and what happens? And I'm going to give you kind of the summary of. What happens in Genesis chapter forty-eight, so that you understand why this is such a miraculous story of faith, and why this is the story that the writer of the book of Hebrews chose to mention. And so Joseph comes to visit his father when his father is about to die, and and he brings his two sons with him.
Now Joseph, at that time, many believed that he was somewhere in his fifties at that time, and so his two sons were almost twenty years old. But I'm going to use two kids that look like they're twenty. Eli, can you come up here and trip linebacker? Trip, you guys come up here. You guys are going to be the two sons of Joseph.
All right, for just a moment, these guys are not twenty, but they kind of look twenty, don't they? And so here we go. And so Joseph, I want you to stand right over here, kind of create some distance between between Jacob. And so he brings his two sons. All right, Trip, who is going to be Manasseh?
Everybody say, "Hey, Manasseh!" Just a moment. He is the oldest. His younger brother Ephraim is here. I say, "Hey, to Ephraim." All right, and they come with their father Joseph to visit their grandfather here, and and they are going to. Jacob says that he wants his grandsons to be blessed as if they were his very sons, and and so he's going to give them the the act of blessing.
And blessing meant everything in that heritage and in that in that tradition. And so the blessing was about their future. The blessing was about inheritance. But deeper than that, the blessing was all the way down to a spiritual blessing that would come from this. And so he decides to bless him.
And so Joseph decides, I'm going to set this thing up perfectly, because whoever I put at the right hand of of Jacob. Is going to be blessed because any time that you were blessing somebody in that culture and that heritage, you would always bless them at your right hand. And so, what Joseph did was he took the oldest; he took Manasseh, and he put him right here.
Okay, and he took his youngest Ephraim, and he put it right here. And if you follow the story in Genesis chapter forty-eight, he did this intentionally so that Jacob, however he put him, that his right hand would be on the oldest, because in that culture, the oldest was always the one that that would be blessed.
So it made perfect sense. I mean. This was the way it should be, like, like a lot of times the one that got blessed it wasn't because they just really like did anything, but but in this case he deserved it because he was the oldest, so it made the most sense, and so so he put it here, and so he's got that, and then he's got his you know his left hand Ephraim. I'm sorry, Ephraim, man, it's just not your day right now, but here's what I will tell you. If you follow the story in Genesis 48, something wild happens.
It says in Genesis 48 that Joseph set him up just like this, intentionally, so that his right hand was on the oldest, Manasseh. But it says in the verse that when Jacob went to bless his sons, he guided his hands. Scriptural word guided his hands wittingly. Here's what that means: deliberately, intentionally. This was God's will, and here's what He did.
He took his right hand of blessing, and he put it right there.
Now, this didn't make any sense, but the Bible says it was intentional. And it didn't make any sense so much to the point that Joseph is watching this. This is a moment, and Joseph is confused. Joseph's like, Dad, I know you're old because the Scripture says that because you're old, he can't see well. He's probably losing his mind.
Some of you guys that are old, you know what I'm talking about, right? And so Joseph's confused, and Joseph's like, "No, Dad, this isn't the way." And you know what's interesting? Jacob actually says in Genesis forty eight, he says, "I know, I know, but this is the way God wants it to be done." And he begins to bless Ephraim. The youngest, which is so ironic, because if you follow Jacob's life, Jacob has done you know so many things to connive his way into getting the blessing. He he was the youngest, and so he kind of connived his way and he tricked his way into getting the blessing, into getting getting the birthright and all this stuff.
And yet here, God specifically was teaching him a lesson that I am going to bless. Ephraim, it made no sense. Ephraim wasn't deserving. Ephraim did not deserve this. This is not traditionally what would happen.
This made no sense. But God had a plan. Can we give all of them a hand, real quick? You guys can have a seat. Tony, I know you're 147 years old.
Do you need some help getting back to your seat? Here's what I'll tell you. There's a couple of things about faith that we learn from this story. There's a couple of things, and and really, what's happening is Jacob is is giving a legacy, his legacy of faith is being handed down, and and you see this, and I think when you get older, you begin to really think about legacy a little bit more, right? When you're young, you you can't see, you know, past your college years for that matter, right?
And then when you start having children and you start thinking about it, you start really noticing like the legacy I leave for my family is super important, and we all want to leave a good legacy. Every single one of you want that, and here Jacob, in the midst of his sin, I mean, Jacob had had had had a rough life. I mean, there was a lot of things in his life that that didn't seem to go right. He had made some mistakes. He was flawed.
He had made some bad decisions through his life that we have recorded in God's word that we preach about and we talk about and stuff. But yet here he finally surrendered. At the very end of his life, he finally surrendered because it made sense for him to bless Manasseh. That's what would have made sense, but he surrendered to exactly what God wanted him to do, and he passed on his legacy of faith. There's two things about this story that I want you to see.
First, a legacy of faith it walks with a posture of worship. It has a posture of worship. What's interesting here in Hebrews eleven, verse twenty one, it says that here Jacob worshipped. This was a spiritual blessing that that he worshipped. He actually worshipped on the the side of his staff, is what it says.
Now, most believe that the reason why he had to lean up on a staff, it could have just been old age. But if you remember when he wrestled with the Lord, he he had a problem with his hip the rest of his life, and and so many believe that was a result of it. In Genesis chapter forty-seven, at the very end, I think it's the last verse of chapter forty-seven, it actually describes this same picture a little bit different. That he was he bowed at the head of his bed. Regardless of whether you want to take that word or if you want to take, you know that he leaned up on his staff.
Regardless, here is the point: at the end of Jacob's life, there was a posture of worship.
Now, think about his his circumstances. He, you know, his eyesight had faded. His body was weak. His time was short. And what do you find him doing?
Is worshiping. Listen, when you think about worship, worship must be rooted in God's faithfulness, not our circumstances. Right? Like, if you only worship. When your circumstances are favorable, then, then you you're going to be up and down, right, with your worship.
But we're called to to worship regardless. To worship our way through life—that's what all of us are called. And when you think about leaving a legacy, mom, dad, grandparents, this is really good for you to lean in a little bit today, because it it starts with the posture of worship that you have—not just at church, by the way, but in your home. Do your children, do your grandchildren, see this in you? But when you think about worship from Jacob's perspective, you have to realize it has to be rooted in in God's faithfulness, not our circumstances.
And here's why: because if you look at Jacob's circumstances in his life, Jacob was forced to leave his home. He was deceived by Laban. I know we haven't seen that story in this series through Hebrews, but he was deceived by Laban. Right, he endured a lot of conflict with his dysfunctional family. He dealt with the loss of his son.
I mean, think Joseph. He thought Joseph was dead for a long period of time, and he dealt with the trauma that that was. He lived through famine, and the list goes on and on about his circumstances and how they were not very favorable.
So, if Jacob's worship was rooted. In how well his circumstances were working out, it wouldn't be much worship. There wouldn't be much room for him to worship it if it was rooted in his circumstances. But instead, his worship is rooted in God and His faithfulness. In God and His faithfulness, that's what our choir is saying about here today.
I mean, if you follow the story in Genesis 48, what we just acted out for you, here's what Genesis 48 verse 15 says. It says, "And he blessed Joseph, and he said, 'God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long until this day.'" Now, here's what I'll tell you. Before he blessed Ephraim, he blessed Joseph there in chapter 48, and he blessed Joseph. And during the blessing, he chose to give God praise for for leading him and for providing for him and for feeding him all of his all of his life. In fact, if you look up that word "fed me," it's talking about shepherding me.
In other words, he was given God praise at the end of his life, and and you know, at the end of your life, you start thinking about you know the last in Jacob's case, a hundred and forty seven years. And you start putting things into perspective as you get older, and you start looking back at your life, and you see moments and stuff. And here's the point: is is if you've walked with God for any length of time, it does not mean that that every circumstance in your life was favorable. It doesn't mean that every situation was a mountaintop experience. It doesn't mean that everything was just a bed of roses for you.
No, when you look back at your life, you can see like, wow, there was some really tough moments. There were some valleys that I went through. There were some moments of weakness. There were some moments that challenged me. But all in all, here's what Jacob found at the end of his life: that it was God who shepherded me.
It was God that provided for me. It was God that remained faithful. That remained faithful. If you're thankful for the faithfulness of God, can you say Amen this morning? God is faithful.
And worship has to be rooted in who God is and His faithfulness, not your circumstances that change day after day. I'm thankful we just had prayer for Melvin and and Nancy, and I'm thankful as I've talked with them and visited with them some this week. It's amazing how people of faith handle difficult moments so much different than those without faith. We we had almost a worship session the other day in the hospital. You say, "How in the world can you do that?" The situation looks less than desirable.
It's taken a family through this really rough last couple of weeks, and yet we're praising God. How? It's because when your worship is rooted in who He is, it always outweighs what your circumstances could ever do to you, and that's what you see. But not only that, worship can also happen when we're weak. For some of you, you think, "Man, I can only worship Him I'm strong." I can only worship, you know, when circumstances look good and I'm on the mountain top and stuff.
But what we see here from Genesis 48 is that Jacob's body was frail. He couldn't sit up on his bed. He had to lean up on his staff, and yet he still worshipped, no matter that. Second Corinthians in the New Testament, verse 4:16 says this. Basically, he says that our outward man.
May perish, but our inward can be renewed day after day, or day by day. Here's what what he's saying is that in our weakness we are made strong. And so, listen, you as you go through difficulty, your health may change. You can still be strong in the Lord in the midst of that. Your circumstances may change.
He can still make you strong. Your abilities may even change, and he can make you strong. Your eyesight may dim, but he can give you a deeper perspective from heaven on how you view things around you. Your circumstances can change, but your confidence in him shouldn't. You see, Jacob worship.
No matter that yes, he was weak, still worshiping. Yes, his circumstances didn't seem very good, still worshiping. And that's the posture. That's a legacy of faith. When you're willing to worship, even when circumstances don't look good, and you're willing to worship even though you're weak.
But not only that. Second, and this is really a big. Pitcher idea here: a legacy of faith, also trust in the will of God. This made no sense for Ephraim to be blessed. Jacob had spent his entire life trying to be worthy of the blessing of God.
He wanted control. I mean, he came out of the womb grabbing the heel of his brother. He tricked Esau into getting his birthright, and then he later tricked Isaac into blessing him. And now, fast forward. To the end of his life, you see something totally different.
He is there worshiping and fully surrendered to the plan of God. He's not trying to control it. He's not trying to control his circumstances anymore. He's finally what God was trying to teach him his entire life. He's finally in this moment, in this place, he is fully surrendered.
He is fully surrendered to the will of God, recognizing that God had a purpose and God had a plan, and his legacy of faith was trusting in God's perfect plan, even if it was very unconventional or not traditionally the the way that things are supposed to be. He was fully surrendered to the plan of God. My question is: Are you fully surrendered to the plan of God? Are you still trying to control your life? Are you still trying to control your circumstances?
Are you trying to control and and take the will of your life on your own, or you fully surrender to Him, bowing before Him, God? Not my will, but Yours be done. That's the legacy of faith that that we need to we need to learn from this. Jacob was fully surrendered, but ultimately. I think that this story has a has a deeper meaning, and it it points us to a to a blessing that that I believe is far greater.
Because here's what I'll tell you is that years after this, many years after this, you could you could think about God, the Father, wanting to bless you know the world, if you would. And and you can really take this story, and you can lean something that this story is pointing to a grander story in Scripture. And I say this from cover to cover. There's there's story after story that we look at, and you can usually always find Jesus on every page, and you can find the story of Jesus in in every single single page. And so so think about think about it this way: God the Father wanted to bless.
The world, and so he he comes to bless. And on his right hand, on his right hand is Jesus, the Son of God, holy, righteous, the only one that deserved it was Jesus. And on the right hand of the blessing of the Father stood Jesus, the one who deserved it. On the other hand. Served or stood the guilty, right?
The unrighteous, the sinful, you and me, the fallen state of humanity, the fallen race of Adam stood on this side. Those that were guilty, and where we are, God the Father wanted to bless. His children, and wanted to bless all of humanity. And on the left hand stood a sinful people, and on the right hand stood Jesus, the Son of God. Only one deserved it, and the others didn't.
But in an act of grace, the most unimaginable thing happened. You almost see God deciding that His blessing, the right hand of blessing, is going to be crossed over, if you would, to to us, to sinful humanity, and the hand of cursing would be onto the one that it made sense to bless at the very beginning, Jesus. And so, what happens here is that what you learn in this story, I think, it points to something far greater that you can see. The gospel, even in this, is that God the Father chose to bless us, and the curse that we deserve—the curse of all of humanity—was placed on on the one that didn't deserve it to begin with. Listen, that is grace.
That is grace. That's not fairness. That made no sense. That didn't make any sense whatsoever. But in an act of unimaginable grace, God intentionally, God wittingly, God deliberately took His right hand of blessing and He put it over you and over me, the ones who did not deserve it, and He gave the curse that you deserved to.
The one who didn't deserve the curse. Second Corinthians five twenty one. For he hath made him, Jesus, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in. Him, you see, the blessing went to the undeserving, and the curse fell upon the deserving son. That is grace.
In fact, Paul he talks about that very thing in Galatians chapter three, Galatians three verse thirteen and fourteen. Here is what the scripture says: Christ Jesus hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise or the blessing of the Spirit through faith. You see, what we learn here is that this story it points us to something far greater. You say, "What can I learn from this?" Yes, a legacy of faith is trusting in the faithfulness of God.
Yes, a legacy of faith is trusting in the will of the plan and the agenda of God. And yes, that is all true. But don't miss the gospel. Don't miss Jesus on the pages of Genesis chapter forty-eight and here in Hebrews chapter number eleven. That God the Father.
Blessed you through the blood of Jesus, and ended up giving the curse that you deserved to Jesus, the Son of God, the only one deserving, so that you and I could be a product of the blessing that He bestowed all the way in the Book of Genesis. That He said, Abraham, through you, through the promised son Isaac, you. Are going to see the entire world. That's you and me. The entire world is going to be blessed as a result.
You see, Jesus receives what we deserve, so that we could receive what only Jesus reserves. You see, that's the gospel. And so, for you today, I know many of you are Christians. You trust in the gospel. You you've believed the gospel.
That's your hope. But in a room this size, there might be one or two of you that you've never trusted in Jesus as your savior. You maybe you are trying to do what Jacob did for most of his life. You are trying to control the situation. You're trying to fix the situation.
You're trying to you're trying to control it to the point of your works. It's up to you to earn God's favor. It's up to you to to figure that out, and that's how you're living your life. You're like, if I just give more, if I just attend more, if I just read more, if I just you know all this stuff, if I just am nice to the poor, and and I do all these things. Those things are important.
But let me tell you this: on your very best day. The Bible says you fall short of the blessing in the kingdom of God.
So what God did was He loved you enough to send His one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. And Jesus came to take the curse that you deserved on Himself, so that you could receive the blessing that was meant to go to the Son. If you've never trusted in that, listen. That's your very first step today. That's your next step right now in this moment.
You need to say, "Hey, God, I'm I'm I'm stopping trying to control my life. I'm stopping trying to work my way to you. I am fully surrendering to you, and I want to give my life to you." And the good news is, is when he does, you get the blessing of the Spirit of God. God and the third person of the Trinity comes to entwirl your life. God with us.
