Sunday Morning Service 10:30 AM. Living by Faith ~ Hebrews 11:17-40 ~ Pastor Ryan Nichols

If you brought a Bible with you, please open up to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11.

Today we come to part two in our series of living by faith. The writer to the Hebrews said, ultimately been building up to this point within the book because he'd been talking a lot about what it looks like to live by faith. Ultimately, he introduced not only the new covenant to us, but really he put our eyes back on Jesus throughout this entire book. Many Jewish believers were finding themselves in danger of falling away because life had become difficult, because persecution had begun to arise.

And so what they did is they found themselves wanting to go back to the law. And so the writer to the Hebrews is instructing them to encourage them to keep their eyes focused. And so all of it ultimately had been building up to what I would call a climax at the end of chapter 10 where he says, He then goes on in the 11th chapter to explain what that looks like. And the first thing that he did is he described faith for us.

And he did that in the first two verses as he said that faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for. In other words, faith believes its existence even though it can't see it right away. But not only is faith the assurance of things that are hoped for, faith is the assurance of things that are hoped for. And so he says, Faith is the confidence of things not seen.

And that confidence is given to us because we have confidence in a faithful God. And after he gave that description of what faith looks like and what it looks like to live by faith, he then began to tell us stories of faith. And ultimately, he's been walking us through not only the book of Genesis, but ultimately through a good portion of the Old Testament. And we'll cover a few more of those stories today.

Last week, he told us about Abel. Abel, whose sacrifice was accepted by God because it was a sacrifice not only of obedience, but it was a sacrifice of faith. He told us about Enoch. Enoch, who walked with God and was taken up to the Lord without death. And he had this testimony that he pleased God because he lived by faith. He told us about Noah, who built an ark

when it was a completely crazy thing for him to do. And yet he believed God. And so as he believed God, he constructed that ark. And that ark ultimately saved himself and his family. And then, of course, he told us about the very father of faith himself, Abraham. Abraham, who had to take bold steps of faith by leaving his homeland behind and going to a place that God would show him

and believed that God could provide a son who would ultimately produce a nation, even though physically it was impossible because his wife was unable to have kids. And so God miraculously provided this child. And so today, we pick up with a handful more of the stories of faith, the first of which is going to be a continuation of the story of Abraham. So starting in verse 17, it says this.

Now, by saying, By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was offering up his only begotten son. It was he to whom it was said, In Isaac your descendants shall be called. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. Now, remember, Abraham had this son who was of promise, right?

His name was Isaac. Isaac, whose name means laughter. And at this point in time, there's an amazing story that takes place in Genesis chapter 22. If you're a note taker, again, you might write Genesis 22 verses 1 through 18. I read, there it is. Genesis chapter 22 verses 1 through 18 because that's where this story is recorded. Abraham, at this point in time, is about 125 years old.

And his son, Isaac, is somewhere in the age range of about 25 to 28 years old. And God comes to Abraham. And God says, I want you to take your son, your only son, Isaac, and I want you to take him to the mountain of God, Mount Moriah, and I want you to sacrifice him there. Now, we all hear that and we go, Oh my gosh, what kind of a God would ask someone to do such a thing?

We have to understand, first of all, that this would violate the character and the commands of God. And also, it seems counterintuitive because this is the child through whom the entire nation was supposed to come from. Why would God want him to sacrifice him? Well, because God needed to see two things. Number one, he needed to see if Abraham would really believe the promise.

But number two, he needed to know that God truly was number one in his life, that there was nothing between Abraham and God. And so we read the commentary of the very next verse that says that Abraham arose early in the morning and he saddled his donkey and he grabbed two of his servants and his son, Isaac, and they departed and they went to Mount Moriah. It's a three-day journey. So if you will, in his mind, Isaac was dead for three days.

And as they come to the edge of the mountain, Abraham makes one of the greatest statements of faith you could have imagined because he's been given the command of what he's supposed to do and he is obeying the command and he comes to the edge of the mountain and he looks to the two servants that are with him and he says, You guys wait here. My son and I are going to go up on top of the mountain to worship the Lord and we will return to you. Now, what was he supposed to do on the mountain? He was supposed to sacrifice his son.

So if he was supposed to sacrifice his son on the mountain, how were he and his son going to return? Because he believed that God was able to raise the dead. And so as he's heading up on the mountain, his son sort of looks at him and says, Hey, Dad, just a quick question for you. So here's the thing. I see the wood of the sacrifice. That's good. I see that you've got fire for the sacrifice.

Also good. I don't see a sacrifice. Tell me the story here, Dad. Like he kind of gives him those eyes like, What's happening right now? And he says, And Abraham looks at him and makes another great statement of faith. He says, God will provide for himself a sacrifice. Now they head up this mountain together. And I want you to think about something. A lot of times we can think,

Oh, this is such an abusive thing for Abraham to do to his son. But bear in mind, his son is in his mid to late 20s at this point in time. And Abraham is 125 years old. I feel confident that at any point in time, Isaac could have done one of two things. Either one, he could have outrun his father. You know how I know that? Because I can't. You bump up with my teenage daughters and I'm only 46, not 125.

I feel confident Isaac could have outrun his father. Number two, I feel like Isaac could have overpowered his father at any point in time. But he did not. Why? Because Isaac was as much of a willing sacrifice as Abraham was a willing sacrifice, sir. And so they go up on top of this mountain. Interestingly enough, Isaac carrying the wood on his back. Are you picking up on the imagery that's given to us here?

Isaac, the only begotten son of Abraham. Isaac, the son who was the son of. Isaac, the one who was promised carrying the wood for the sacrifice on his back, going up the mountain to the place where his life would be sacrificed in obedience to the father. They go up on the mountain and just as Abraham is ready to strike the death blow, an angel grabs his hand and says, Stop.

Now I know that you will withhold nothing from me. Do not harm your son. And in that moment, they looked and over in the thicket, there was a ram. A ram caught and God provided for himself a sacrifice on the mountain. Now, it's kind of fascinating to think that Abraham was willing to do this, that he was in this place of belief, that he was in this place of faith.

How could he be in this place? Because I want you to notice what it says again. Verse 17, by faith, when he was tested, he offered up Isaac who he had received, who had received the promise. He was his only begotten son. Verse 18, to whom it had been. And said, in Isaac, your descendants shall be called. Why was Abraham willing to go through with this? Not only on an emotional aspect,

but because he knew that through Isaac, the entire nation would be formed because of what it says in the next verse. Because he considered that God is able to raise people, even from the dead, from which also he received him back as a type. You see what Abraham exercised here was the greatest, and the greatest of faith that he exercised is he believed that God was even able to raise the dead. That word considered is a very interesting word.

It's actually an arithmetic term that means to calculate or to consider. The idea is that he considered God's promise worthy of his confidence. He considered God's promise worthy of his confidence, and he was even willing to believe that if he had to go through with this, that God would raise his son. From the dead, but he knew that because it was a calculated measure of faith that he took because God had built his faith to this point in time.

You're probably thinking to yourself. I don't know that I can have that kind of faith. I don't know that I would be ready for that kind of test, but I want to remind you this was not the very first test that God gave to Abraham. As a matter of fact, this was one of the tests that was much farther down the road. By this point in time, Abraham had been walking by faith for 50 years of his life.

Abraham was called by faith. When he was 75 years old, he was blessed with his son when he was 100, and he did not have to make this sacrifice until he was 125. You see, every next step of faith that Abraham took built his faith for the next step that God had for him. The first step of faith that Abraham had to take was to leave behind his homeland, to leave behind his family, to leave behind everything that was familiar, everything that was comfortable, if you will, to leave the world behind in order to follow the calling of God.

The next step of faith was to take the next step of faith, to live in a land where he was surrounded by enemies and trust that God was able to not only provide for him, but to protect him in the land. The next step of faith was that he had to believe that God would give him this son. As a matter of fact, that step of faith, we're told, that when he believed, God accounted it to him for righteousness. And then this last step that he had to take was a step that had been built over 50 years of walking with God.

And brothers and sisters, that's what God wants to do. He wants to build your faith so that every new test of faith, though intense as it may be, continues to be a place where you learn to believe and to trust God. The first step of faith that we take as believers is very similar to the step that Abraham took. We have to leave the world behind so that we can follow Jesus.

That's why I love baptisms. Because in a baptism, as I go out into the water to receive the one that is to be baptized, the first thing that they have to do is they have to leave. They have to leave the shoreline. They have to leave all of the people that are standing, and they have to take a step of faith to walk out into that water. And as they take that step of faith to walk out into the water

so that they can be united with Christ in his death and then be identified with him in his resurrection, there is that first step of faith that is taken. It's called salvation. But after that, there are lots of steps of faith that we have to take in our lives. I've shared this before, but about a year or so ago, I shared a story of something that God had done in me.

And one of the people, that I was talking to, a sweet little teenage girl, she said, so is that your testimony? And I had to say, that's only one of them. Because I, just like you, have multiple testimonies of faith. I have multiple testimonies of what God has done in my life. Just like with the microphone thing. I can tell you lots of stories about when microphones didn't work for me,

starting from the beginning of my ministry up until now. And I'm sure that there will be lots more after that. And in the same way, there will be steps of faith that you take in your life, and you can say, this is what God did in everyone, and will be a little bit more intense than the one before. To where you take that final step of faith, where you say, Lord, I trust my full life with you when you go home to be with him.

You see, all of life is a step of faith. And Abraham, when he was tested, believed and considered God faithful that he was able to raise even the dead. And so he believed God, and he fulfilled the test that God had for him. And so we see this example of this next story of Abraham. Well, now we come to his son, Isaac. Look at verse 19, no, excuse me, verse 20.

By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come. So the next subject of faith that we talk about is a man by the name of Isaac. Again, Genesis chapter 24 through 27 are what record Isaac's story. It's kind of intermingled with Abraham's just a little bit, but that's where he's the main character. And interestingly enough, Isaac, though the man of faith,

struggled with his faith a little bit. He made a similar mistake to his father, Abraham. He got a little bit nervous that everybody was gonna really like his wife. And so he said, could you lie and tell them that you're my sister, even though that wasn't true at all. And so he had a little bit of a struggle with faith when it came to that. And he also had one major issue in his life.

You see, Isaac and his wife, Rebecca, had twins. Matter of fact, when Isaac met Rebecca and they first got married, she was unable to have kids. She found herself that she was in the very same place that Sarah was, she was barren. And so she came to Isaac and she said, I can't have any kids. And so Isaac prayed for her. And as he prayed for her, she was able to conceive and have children.

Only what she noticed is all of a sudden there's this huge, almost like war, going on inside of her stomach. Now listen, y'all that had them babies, I know there's a war going on in there no matter what, right? Like I've never actually had a baby myself, even though it's 2026. I still have not been able to do that, but I've been a part of the process and I've watched what happens.

And I know that those babies be waving and kicking and doing all kinds of things like that, but this was even more. And so she was nervous. And so she prayed, Lord, what's going on inside of me? And God said, we have two nations dwelling inside of you. They will both be great nations, but the older will serve the younger. And so these two boys are born. And it's interesting because kids at that point in time

were named according to either character traits or things like that. So Esau is born first, he's the oldest. And as he pops out, they're like, that's one hairy kid. Let's name them Esau, because Esau actually means red or hairy. Like how hairy do you have to be that the first thing they're like, that's one hairy dude. Let's name him hairy. Like that's just his name at that point in time.

So while he is coming out of the womb, there's this hand holding onto him. And they said, we'll name him Jacob because the name Jacob means to plant her. The name Jacob means he'll catch her. And nobody really knows what that means in our, apparently in Eastern culture, everybody's like, ooh, it's a planter. Whoa, okay, that's kind of a scary thing to name a kid.

We don't really know what that means. We're like Jacob. I know a ton of kids named Jacob, right? It means he'll catch her or supplant her. That means nothing to me. I've always appreciated Gail Irwin's interpretation of the name Jacob, dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. Because that's kind of who he was, right? Like Jacob was the ultimate con man. And we find that that's who he is in his life.

And so Isaac has these two kids. And the problem is that mom and dad sort of play favorites with him, right? Like Esau is the ultimate man's man. I mean, he's a hairy dude, right? Like he is the ultimate, like testosterone flows through him like no one has ever seen before. And he's the ultimate man's man. He wants to spend his time hunting and fishing and building things, right?

That's just who he is. He is ultimate man's man. And so Isaac's like, huh, that's my boy. He's my hunter and I like the way he cooks food. And so Esau was his favorite. Rebecca's favorite was Jacob. I think Jacob gets a bad rap. In the Bible, he's called a mild man. But really what that means is he was sort of a Renaissance guy. In other words, he was as manly as he was smart.

Like he enjoyed being around the home too and doing those sorts of things. And so everybody thinks, oh, Jacob was effeminate. That dude lived in the wilderness for most of his life, okay, taking care of animals. I don't think he was all that weak, but he was, he enjoyed the home, right? He would have had his own HGTV show today. And so that was Rebecca's favorite.

Well, it came time to bless the kids. Isaac's getting older and he says to himself, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna make sure that Esau gets the blessing. But what had God said? God said, the older shall serve the younger because the younger will be greater. But Isaac tried to manipulate things a little bit. And so he calls his son Esau and he says, listen, I'm getting old.

I'm not sure how long I'm gonna be here. I wanna make sure that the blessing, that the promise goes to you. So go out, hunt some game, fix it exactly like, you know, that I like and get the Blackstone grill out, grill that thing up with all the sweet spices and savers that I know you know how to do. And then I will bless you. Well, Rebecca overhears the whole thing

and knows what's going on. And she's going, oh man, Jacob is the one that's supposed to be blessed. And he's my favorite. I'm gonna work out a plan. Jacob, come talk to me. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to go grab one of the goats and bring them in. I will fix it exactly as your dad likes because his taste isn't nearly as discerning as he thinks that it is.

I will fix it exactly as he likes. You take it to him. He'll never know it's you. And he will give you the blessing instead of Esau. Only Jacob goes, we have one problem, mom. I am a smooth skin man and my brother is hairy. As soon as he touches my arm, he's gonna know the difference between the two. So she says, no problem. After we kill the goat, we'll put the goat skins on your arms

and he'll never know the difference. Sidebar, how hairy do you have to be that to disguise a non-hairy guy, you put goat skins on your arm? Like that's next level. I can't even imagine what that's like. Well, anyway, so he goes and does that, brings it back and his dad says, wow, you made it back really fast. He says, yeah, God bless me. And he says, wow, you sound a lot like Jacob,

but he extended his arm. He goes, but your arms feel like a goat. You must be Esau. And so he gives him the blessing. And as soon as he gives him the blessing, Jacob leaves and Esau comes in with freshly prepared game. And he says, dad, what have you done? You blessed my brother and not me. And of course, at that point in time, Jacob runs for his life. And we'll get to that in just a moment.

But Isaac, even in his failure, realized what he had done wrong. And he said, you're right. Jacob deserves the blessing. Jacob deserves the promise because that is who God said would have it. And so it says here in verse 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau regarding the things to come. Because even though he had this struggle of playing favorites with his sons,

he still had his eye on a promise that was yet, and he said, I'm gonna do it. And heants the promise to be fulfilled. Could he have panicked? In other words, is he keep playing away? And it starts hanging since the people don't believe it? Well, you have God in his time to move right out to south, to the Free Resurrection of Israel. When God sir, when he was getting ready to cages up kids,

he was moving, he was moving from side to side to side in a stable position. He was living the Bible. So in the end, Jacob isGrace, and in drawing him to God, when last we left Jacob, he had tricked his dad into giving him the blessing, right? And so Jacob runs for his life because his brother Esau says, as soon as dad dies, I'm going to kill Jacob. And of course, Esau owns a lot of weapons because he's a hunter and Jacob believes him. And so

he runs for his life. And something interesting happens on this run for his life. The first place that he stops for the night, he stops for the night in this place called Bethel. And while he's in Bethel, he lays down at night to sleep. And interestingly enough, I find this an interesting commentary. It says, and he laid his head on a rock as a pillow, right? I mean, dude, no wonder

he's going to have a weird dream, but he lays his head on a rock for a pillow. And he has this dream. God shows up in this dream and God tells him, Jacob, I am the God of your father, Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. And you are the one through whom the nation will, I will give you this land. I will bless the

nation through you. And so at that point in time, he sees this ladder extending into heaven. The angels of God are ascending and descending upon it, giving us that perfect picture of Jesus, who is our link to heaven. And he wakes up and he says, I'm going to make God a deal. If God brings me back, I will follow him and worship him with all of my heart. And so he sets up a memorial and he goes on with

his life. Well, he finds himself at his uncle Laban's house. And his uncle Laban is the ultimate match of a con man for him. And so the first thing that Jacob does is he meets his uncle, and he says, this beautiful girl named Rachel, right? And he sees Rachel. He's like, my favorite line of the story of Jacob and Rachel is that Jacob is at this well. Rachel brings her father's flocks to be

watered there. Jacob moves the stone himself, even though usually a crew of guys move the stone. He moves the stone himself, and he sees how beautiful he is. And it says he started weeping. Girls, I have a question for you. If some dude saw you moved a large rock out of your way and burst into tears, are you giving that guy a chance? Are you giving that guy a chance? Are you giving

that guy a second chance? I don't know that you are. I don't care how sensitive you want your man to be. At that point in time, that's a little weird. Well, anyway, so he sees this girl. She's beautiful, and he wants to marry her. And she's a part of the family he's supposed to marry into. And so his uncle Laban says, I'll make you a deal. You work for me for the next seven years,

and you can marry Rachel. And he says, deal. Interesting commentary. It says that those seven years were like a few days because of his great love for her. Well, he gets to the end of the seven years. He's like, all right, my time has come. I'm ready to marry my girl. And so perfect. So they put on this long wedding feast. And at that point in time, a bride wore a very heavy veil so that you really couldn't see her face very well, right?

And so Jacob and who he thought was Rachel go in to consummate the marriage. And he wakes up the next morning, and he goes, ah! And she goes, ah! And he goes, ah! Because it wasn't Rachel. He's like, what the hay, man? He comes out. He's like, leave it. What? What's the deal? This is not Rachel. He goes, oh, what? Did I forget to tell you? The younger can never be married before the older. So in order for you to marry Rachel,

we had to marry Leah off first. And we're told, I don't know how to say this nicely, so I'm just going to say it like it is. We're told that Leah had dull eyes. In other words, she was maybe not the best looking girl that anyone had ever seen, right? And so he was like, I don't know if we're ever getting this girl married off. I'm just telling you, I'm telling you the story, okay? And so he marries Leah on accident. Can you, I would feel

bad for Leah in this situation, right? She didn't choose this. This was chosen for her. And so he says, if you want to marry Rachel, you've got to work another seven years. So he works another seven years for free so that he can now marry Rachel. Well, throughout his time there, he kind of manipulates things, and he builds this huge flock because he and his father-in-law Laban are

manipulating each other and conning each other until God one day says, Jacob, it's time to go home. It's time to go back to the land of your fathers. So pack everything up and move. And so that's what he does. He goes back. The only problem is he knows when he goes back to the land of his fathers, he's going to have to face the man he fears the most, whose name is Esau. And so he

goes, he goes back and he makes all of this plan to where, to where hopefully he can face Esau without death. And he comes to the edge of the, of the land, and there's a river that's at the edge of the land. And so he says, I'm going to go back to the land of your fathers. And so he goes back and he makes all of this plan to where, to where hopefully he can face Esau without death.

He sends the rest of his family across the river into the promised land, and he stays on the other side. And while he's on the other side, he goes, you guys go over there. I'm going to hang out here for tonight. I'll join you in the morning. Well, while he is on the other side of the river, it says while he slept that night, the angel of the Lord showed up. And when we read the angel of the

Lord, we know that this is an old Testament appearance of Jesus. The angel of the Lord showed up and it simply says that they wrestled all night long. In other words, there was a power struggle between Jesus and Jacob the entire night. Now, again, I use this commentary every time I teach this little section of scripture. I was a wrestler and we used to have these practices called Iron

Man practices, and they're exactly what they sound like. And we would be wasted at the end of these Iron Man practices. And they were an hour long. I can't imagine the sort of stubborn will it takes to fight with Jesus an entire night. Or can I? Or can I? Can I imagine what that's like? Because I bet there's someone in here this morning that's not just been wrestling with Jesus all night. You've been wrestling with Jesus for years and you're

worn out by it. Matter of fact, you're wrestling with Jesus even in this moment, and you will not give up. And the one thing that Jesus wants you to do is exactly what he's about to do with Jacob. He just wants you to own up to who you are. He wants you to give up so that he can ultimately bless you. Well, they come to the end of the night. Dawn begins to break. In the end,

the angel of the Lord looks at him and says, you have to let me go. Daylight is coming. And Jacob says, I won't let you go until you bless me. And the angel of the Lord looks at him and says something fascinating. He says, what is your name? Now, why did he want to know his name? Is it because he didn't know what his name was? No, it's because his name was the description of his

character. And in order to go any farther into the promised land, he had to deal with his character so that he could be surrendered to the Lord. Because you cannot live a life of faith until you first live a life of surrender. And so he looked him square in the eye and says, my name is Jacob. I am a dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. I am a supplanter. I am a con man. I am a liar. I am everything that you don't want

me to be. And he said, not anymore. I'm going to change your name. Because no longer are you Jacob. Now you are Israel, governed by God. And in that moment, he touched his hip and he put his hip out of socket. And from that day forward, he walked with a limp. In his life. Why did he walk with a limp? Because physically it was a reminder of the surrender that

took place spiritually that night. And brothers and sisters, I need us to know something. If we're going to come to a place where we are truly surrendered to God in our lives so that we can live a life of faith in our lives, the first thing we have to do is we have to own up to who we really are. We have to own up to who I really am. Who I really am is lost in my sin. Who I really am is

someone who is in sin. Who I really am is lost in my sin. Who I really am is someone who is in sin. So much need of a savior that nobody would claim my life. Nobody would want me except the one who created me because I did enough of my life trying to screw up as best as I could. And once I own who I really am, once I claim my character and my nature, God says, but that's not who you are

anymore. I have a brand new name for you. You are now governed by me. You are now a child of God. That's who you are. And for so many of us, he's given us a limp. A wise man, not me, although I do like to say that. But he's given us a limp. And for so many of us, he's given us a limp. I do like to quote myself sometimes. A wise man once said, don't trust anyone that doesn't have a

limp. Don't trust anyone that doesn't walk with a limp. Sometimes that limp is physical in our lives, but more often than not, that limp is spiritual in our lives. One of my favorite authors of all time is a guy by the name of A.W. Tozer. And A.W. Tozer has a famous quote that says, those whom God would use greatly, he must first hurt deeply. And I had somebody challenge

me on that one time. They were like, why? Why does God have to hurt me deeply if he's going to use me greatly? I said, because until God hurts us deeply, we're never completely dependent upon him. It's kind of like the sheep that runs away, right? Do you know what the good shepherd, so we read about the good shepherd in Psalm 23. Do you know what the good shepherd does to a sheep that keeps wanting to run away? Sheep are the dumbest

animals in the world. Do we know that? Sheep are morons. That's why God calls us sheep. He says, we're the sheep. You are the morons of his pasture. Okay, that's just all there is to it. And so, if a sheep runs off, they'll do one of two things. They have no defensive weapons, so they'll get eaten by a wolf. They have bad vision, so they'll run off the side of a cliff. They have no self-control,

so they will eat till they blow up. They won't drink water unless it is perfectly still. They will not drink stagnant water because it's gross. They won't drink water that runs too fast because it scares them. A sheep on its own will die. And so, because the good shepherd loves the sheep, a sheep just keeps running off to protect it from further danger. This is what the shepherd does. The shepherd takes the sheep, and he will break one of its legs.

And then he will set the leg, and he will carry the sheep on his shoulders until the sheep is healed. And when the sheep is healed, the sheep now finds itself in the place where the shepherd is his favorite person, and he will always stick right by his side. Brothers and sisters, those whom God would use greatly, he first hurts deeply because it causes us to be 100% dependent upon him. And in the moment, it feels like restriction, but when you learn it, it feels like freedom. And this is what he does with Jacob. I tell you that story because it

leads us to what it says here. By faith, Jacob, as he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. We'll talk about Joseph in just a minute and explain the situation, but Joseph had two sons. Their names were Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh was the older, Ephraim was the younger. And so, right before Jacob, he was the oldest, and Ephraim was the youngest. And so, right before Jacob, he was the

oldest, and Ephraim was the youngest. And so, right before Jacob, he was the oldest, and Ephraim was the youngest. And so, right before Jacob, he was the oldest, and Ephraim was the youngest. And so, right Joseph brought his two sons to Jacob so that he would bless them. And he did what normally would have been done at that point in time. He put the oldest son in front of Jacob's right hand. That's

the hand of blessing. He took his youngest son and put him next to Jacob's left hand, because that's the hand of lesser blessing. And so, as they came to Jacob in that order, Jacob crossed his hands, and he put his right hand on the head of the younger and his left hand on the hand of the older. And Joseph said, Dad, you're screwing up. That's the hand of the younger. And so,

up. That's the wrong way. And he said, no, it's not. They're both going to be great, but the younger will be greater than the older. And then it says he worshiped leaning on his staff. Why did Jacob have to worship while leaning on his staff? Because he lived his life with a limp. And he had learned to worship while leaning on that staff. The life of Jacob. Well, next we come to the life of Joseph.

It says in verse 22, now by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning his bones. Again, for Joseph, you might write Genesis chapters 37 through 50. Joseph occupies an incredible amount of real estate in the book of Genesis, but his story is so fascinating because Joseph, of course, is one of those sons of Jacob, one of the 12 sons of Jacob. He was the second to the youngest, and he was Jacob's father.

Favorite. We're given this commentary about Joseph, that Joseph was given a coat of many colors, right? And everybody wants to know what that means. Like, what's special about the fact that he got this technicolor dream coat, right? Like, why was that a big deal? Let me put it to you in today's terms. In today's terms, we would say that Joseph was given a silk three-piece suit,

right? Now, why is that important? Have you ever seen a farmer out in a silk three-piece suit working? Me neither. You know why? Because that's not where guys in three-piece suits stand. Where do guys in three-piece suits stand? They stand in an office telling everybody else what to do. That's what he did for Joseph. He gave him the, it's called a long robe, the robe of the supervisor. And so he

takes the second to the youngest son, and he makes them the supervisor over all of the other sons, and they're like, you've got to be kidding me. This little moron is going to tell me what I'm supposed to do? I've been taking care of sheep longer than he's been alive, right? We've all heard this story before. I've been taking care of sheep longer than he's been alive, right? I've been

So that's the number one strike against him. The number two strike against him is that Joseph was a guy that had a lot of dreams, right? And in all of Joseph's dreams, he's the main character, right? And so he has this dream where all of the brothers, he's a sheaf of wheat, and all of the other brothers' sheaves of grain all bow down to him. And his brothers are like, let me get this

straight, guy with long robe. We're all going to bow down to you someday. He's like, I'm just telling you what the dream said. And then he has another dream where, the sun, moon, and 12 stars all bow down to him. And they're like, wait a minute. All of us and mom and dad are going to bow down to you? Don't shoot the reporter. Well, so they don't like him because he's their supervisor, and he has all of these dreams.

So one day, they're out taking care of sheep in the field. And his dad says, hey, Joseph, go supervise. So Joseph goes out to find him. And on his way, they're like, here comes the dreamer. Let's kill him. And they're like, let's not kill him. Let's throw him in a well and decide what to do. Well, as they throw him in that well, and they're sitting there thinking about what they're going to

do with this kid, a group of traders comes by that are on their way to Egypt. And they're like, let's make money off of him instead. And so they sell him for 20 pieces of silver. And they take his pretty little coat, and they cut it up, and they put blood all over it. They tell his dad that he's dead. And so Joseph gets sold into slavery. And the first place that he

shows up seems to work pretty well for him. He shows up at the house of this guy named Potiphar. Now, if you don't know who Potiphar is, Potiphar was the modern-day equivalent of the head of the secret service for Pharaoh. And he rises to this place. Only there's one problem in Potiphar's house, and her name is Potiphar's wife. Potiphar's wife was a cougar, right? And every day she'd see

Joseph, and she's like, mm, mm, mm, right? And all she could think is, man, that is one fine young Hebrew boy, right? And so, oh, man, I don't know. I'm sorry. So every day, every day, she's like propositioning Joseph. She's like, hey, Joseph. I can't say anything else right now. She propositions Joseph. It's going to turn right at PG-13 if we're not careful, and nobody needs

that. And so every day he stands strong. Nope, won't do it. Can't violate God. Can't go against my master. I got to be about my master's business. And then one day, it's just her and him in the house. And she goes, and she gets really aggressive with propositioning him, so much so that she grabs And can I say a word to every young man and old man in here? Joseph did what we have to do.

When he was faced with temptation, he didn't say, I'm going to stand in there and fight. He said, I'm going to run like you know what, so that I don't get caught in a sin that will ultimately destroy me. And so he runs away as fast as he can, and it would be great if the story ended so happy, but she grabs his robe, and he shimmies out of his robe, and she holds it. And then she starts crying out, he tried to rape me. So Potiphar comes home, and most believe that

Potiphar knew that she was the problem, not him, which is why Joseph got put in the king's prison and not to death. So Joseph gets put in the king's prison, and because God was with him, he ultimately worked himself up to being in charge of all of the other prisoners. And there were two young men that found themselves in that prison. One was the chief cupbearer for Pharaoh. The other was the

chief baker for Pharaoh, and they both had dreams. And they said, will you interpret our dreams for us? And Joseph said, no problem. So the chief cupbearer comes, and he tells the dream that ultimately is interpreted that he's going to get his job back. And the chief baker's like, great, that turned out pretty good for him. Let me tell you mine. And of course, the chief baker's dream

would end in his head being removed from his body. And when the chief cupbearer gets restored to his position, Joseph looks at him, and he says, hey, listen, when you get back to Pharaoh, could you tell my story? I'm falsely accused. I'm falsely in prison. Could you just let him know the kindness that I did for you so that hopefully I can escape from prison? And so he goes out, and Joseph goes,

great. This is going to be good. I'm going to be set free. And Joseph waits a week, and then two weeks, and then six months. And after a year and a half, he quit checking the mail, right? He quit checking to see if he called. He's like, he's not calling because the guy forgot about him for two years. And after two years, Pharaoh has this dream. And Pharaoh's like, I need someone to

interpret this dream. And the chief cupbearer's like, dude, that's on me. Oh, man, there's this guy. Shoot, he's going to hate me. Nope, this is going to be okay because I'm going to get him out of prison. I'm going to get him out of prison. I'm going to get him out of prison. I'm going to get him out of prison. Better late than never. Better late than never. I know this guy. Oh, man, I feel

bad. He's going to help you out. And so they bring Joseph out. They clean him up. Joseph interprets the dreams, gives Pharaoh a plan for what to do with the dreams. And Pharaoh says, you're the man, dude. I'm making you number two in the kingdom. The only one that's above you is me. So he cleans Joseph up, puts him in the palace. Everything is going great. Meanwhile, back in the promised land, Jacob and the 12 patriarchs,

11 now, find themselves in the middle of a famine, which is exactly how Joseph got put in his position. They find themselves in the middle of this famine, and Jacob looks at them and says, boys, stop staring at each other. There's grain in Egypt. Go get it. So they take money and everything, and they go down, and they don't realize that the guy they're going to buy the

grain from is Joseph. And Joseph treats him harshly and tells him, unless you bring your younger brother to me, you'll never see me again. Anyway, a whole series of things you should read Genesis 47 through 50. Finally, Joseph reveals himself, says, guys, I'm your brother. And they're like, oh, crap, right? You mean the guy that we sold into slavery? Hey, dad doesn't want you to kill us. Dad says, treat us nice. And Joseph goes,

listen, guys, here's the thing. You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good. I tell that story because that's faith. Joseph had to live his entire life by faith in the fact that the God that he served would take everything that he had gone through and ultimately, turn it for good, which is why at the end of his life, it's able to say, verse 22, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and he gave orders concerning his bones. You see, the entire nation of Israel, all 70 of them moved

down to Egypt. And while they were in Egypt, they grew into a great nation. But before they grew into a great nation, Joseph passed away, but he told them all, listen, God's going to visit you, and he's going to take you back to the promised land. So don't go. Don't bury me in Egypt because my heart's not in Egypt. When God does this, not if God does this, but when God does this, take my bones with you back to the promised land. Now, I think this is

kind of interesting because you know what Egypt is always a picture of in scripture? Egypt is always pictographic of the world. And what essentially Joseph says is he says, my heart doesn't belong in the world. My body does not belong here. My body belongs in the promised land. So I know that God is coming to take us back to the promised land. So take me back

to the promised land. Just like this place is not our home. Our hearts are not here. We are waiting for the exodus. We are waiting for God to take us home. And that's exactly what they did. If you truck forward hundreds of years, you find in the book of Joshua that after they came in and took the land, they buried the bones of Joseph in the promised land. Why? Because his heart was

set on a future promise. That leads us to the last one that we will cover this morning. It says, by faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents because they saw that he was a beautiful child and they were not afraid of the king's edict. And by faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasure.

Considering the reproach of Christ, greater riches and the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. By faith, when Moses was a baby, his parents hid him because they saw he was a beautiful child. The Amplified Bible translates that word beautiful as, I'm going to get it wrong if I don't look, divinely favored, divinely favored. So hundreds of years after Joseph was the man in Egypt, a new Pharaoh arose who didn't know that he was a man in Egypt. And he was a

man in Egypt because he didn't know Joseph and didn't respect God. And he saw that the children of Israel had grown into this army of millions of people. And so he was fearful. So what he did is he first of all enslaved them so that they could not rise up against him. But then he tried genocide to keep them from continuing to grow, specifically the male population. And so what all the midwives

were told is that if you see a Hebrew woman have a son, you need to kill the son. And so Moses' parents feared what was going to take place. And so they had faith in a God who was greater than that. And they saw that their child was divinely favored. And so the first thing they did is they hid him in the house for three months. You ever tried to keep a baby quiet, right? That's

not easy to do. They were like, well, we can't hide him anymore. And so all they could do, they couldn't stand the thought of seeing him die. So Moses' mother built this basket. She covered it on the inside with pitch, just like the ark. And she said, the only thing I know to do is put him in the basket, put him in the Nile River. And she said, I'm going to put him in the Nile River. And

pray for the best. And that's exactly what she did. She put this baby in a basket in the Nile River. And Miriam, Moses' sister, sort of hid in the bulrushes and kind of followed along with him in the basket. And downstream a little ways from where she did this, there was a woman and some of her maids bathing in the river. That woman was Pharaoh's daughter. And she found the basket and

she got the baby out. And her heart was immediately drawn to the baby. And so she kept the baby. She said, this is one of the Hebrew children. I'll raise him as my own. Well, Miriam is there. And she sees it. And she goes, hey, would you like for me to go get you one of the Hebrew women to be a wet nurse for the baby? And she says, that would be great. So Miriam goes and gets Moses' mom.

And Moses' mom gets to raise him. You know what Moses' mom taught him? She taught him the promises of God. She taught him the truth of the word. She taught him everything that he needed to know about how they were a promised nation. They were a gifted nation, that Egypt was not their home, which is why it says, by faith, Moses, verse 24, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He grew up and he reached a place at the age of 40, where he said, these Egyptians are not my people. The Hebrews that are enslaved, they're my people. Now, the first thing he did was go about it wrong. He tried by force to deliver them when he killed one of the guards. And then after he did that, he fled for his life. And he lived for 40 years in the wilderness, unlearning everything

that God wanted him to know about being a shepherd. And in that moment, at the end of those 40 years, at the age of 80, God shows up in a burning bush. And he tells Moses, I want you to go back to Egypt. And I want you to lead the people out. So Moses goes back to Egypt and he identifies himself with the children of Israel. Notice what it says, verse 25, choosing rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing

pleasures. Can I just say, this is a word that needs to be spoken to every believer in the Western culture right now. We have got to start being people who are willing to endure the ill treatment of the people of God rather than enjoying the passing pleasures of sin. For some reason, we have started believing in the Western culture that if you're a Christian, you should have everything that you want, that life should always be perfect. Life should always be smooth. As a matter of fact,

if you have enough faith, you should never be sick. If you have enough faith, you should always have the money that you need, all the food that you need. You should never face any difficulties. Can I just tell you, that is not what's presented for us in the hall of faith, is it? Instead, what it tells us is that we need to be willing to endure the ill treatment that goes along with

being the people of God rather than giving into the passing pleasures of sin. Because this is what we need to know about sin. It is a passing pleasure. It is only for this part of life. It does not carry into eternity. And all it does is leave you empty in life. It says he chose, to endure the ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,

considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Why? Because he was looking to the reward. It says, by faith, he left Egypt, verse 27, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is unseen. So the king didn't want to let the people go. So what Moses did is he started pronouncing judgment on them. Nine plagues that were given. And every time,

this is what he said, he said, nine plagues that were given. And every time, this is what he said, nine plagues that were given. And every time, this is what he said, nine plagues that were given. And every time, this is what happened. A plague would come. It would destroy part of the land or destroy part of the crops or destroy some of the livestock. And Pharaoh would go, whoa, that was really bad.

And Moses would go, yeah, let my people go. And so he'd go, okay, tomorrow, I'll let your people go. And the next day would come. He says, never mind. Go back to being slaves. Stop with this whole we're going to go stuff. And so God would bring another plague. And so finally, one last plague came. One last plague at the end of the night. The 10th plague is what did them in. And that's

what we read about in the next verse. It says, by faith, he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. One last plague that would do them in. God said, I promise you after this one, he's going to let you go. But what you need to know, Moses, is that you and all of the children of Israel are subject to this plague too. This is a big one. Every firstborn in the

convert Qu Lam. this plague for you to become a Jew no longer exploitation in sheist Don't procreate from your own native land when you wear make room for sorts and no one is lets you take a spotless classroom guilt spotless slam and you take the blood of that spotlessaram and you put it on the doorposts of your home on the mounts of your home death will pass over and you will be set free from the judgment of God so that's exactly what they did and it became a fecent that they kept for last 147 00 HDR. sacrificed as the ultimate passover lamb he was the spotless lamb of god that took away the sin of the world and when he was sacrificed we don't just apply it to the door of our home we apply it

to the door of our heart and now if the blood of jesus christ is applied to the door of your heart the judgment of god passes over and so they kept this passover and of course after that pharaoh's like get out of here i don't ever want to see you guys again and so everybody leaves and they're on their way out and everybody's rejoicing we've been set free from egypt everything is awesome and everything's going great until they reach one place it says that they were led to the edge of the red sea they come to this huge body of water and you can't go over it you can't go under it you can't go around it you just have to go through it right but what are they going to do there's

this body you got a million people with you right it's not like you're swimming that thing with a million people right it's not like you're swimming that thing with a million people right it's not a million people how are you going to get they can't even see the other side of it how are they going to get across well while they're at the edge of the sea trying to figure out how they're going to get across there's another problem that you can imagine how the report goes somebody goes hey moses we have one more problem one more problem it's bigger than this one um sort of compounds this one yeah see in the meantime pharaoh was like what have i done i just let all of my slave

labor go i need them back so he tells all of his army get your gear together we're going after the children of israel so in front of them is the entire red sea and behind them is the entire egyptian army and they're stuck in the middle what are they going to do and so moses cries out to the lord and god says you just need to believe the egyptians that you see before you today you will see again no more forever but here's what i need you to do i want you to take your staff and i want you to raise it up in the moment that you raise it up the waters will part and you will walk through on dry ground and that's exactly what moses did he holds up his staff and the waters i have lots of questions about this and i want to see it on dbr in the future

like the two main questions i have are number one was it muddy right like was it was was the ground wet when they went through it all it says dry ground i tend to think there was an asphalt path through there but that's just me number two could you see fish i just want to know if they could look to the side and go that's really weird there's fish swimming there those are the two questions i've always had no one's ever been able to answer them you're gonna have to get answered let me get there but they cross through on dry land only pharaoh is not content just to watch that happen so as the children of israel start to pass through the the egyptian army starts to cross

through too and when the last of the children of israel crosses through on dry land god says let her go moses drops his staff and the waters cover the egyptian army and the egyptian soldiers that they saw before them that day they never saw again forever because they passed through the red sea on dry land by faith brothers and sisters these are amazing stories of what god did in the lives of common people because they simply believed that what god says he is able to do i want to leave you with two points two thoughts that i want you to hold on to as we depart with this message this morning number one all of these heroes of the faith they all had an eternal perspective did you take note of that they all

had this perspective of the future you know abraham had this perspective of the future that god was able to raise the dead isaac as much as he struggled in his faith still had his heart set on the future which is why he blessed his sons even though he didn't always do it right he still had a heart that was set on the future jacob as much of a mess as he was his his eyes and his heart were always set on a future blessing joseph was always focused on the future that's why he could endure all of the things he went through in the moment moses always had his eyes set on the future he always had that perspective which is why he was able to endure the things that he was able to endure and brothers and sisters i

bring this up again because we have to have this eternal perspective we have to have this perspective in our life you have to keep your eyes focused on the finish line because if you don't keep your eyes focused on the finish line then the drudgery of the race will bring you down if you don't have eyes focused on the finish then it's easy to quit in the moment i've never actually run a marathon myself i've run a half marathon and the older i get the less chance that is but i've known some guys that have and when i was about 18 19 years old i talked to a guy that ran the boston marathon and you have to qualify for the boston marathon so it's it's kind of an intense race it's a pretty

grueling course from everything that i've understood and so i was asking him about his experience i was kind of a new runner at that point in time runner in the loosest translation of the term i was kind of new at it at that point in time so i was asking him about his experience he said you know it's kind of funny when you come home and you're away from boston where the marathon takes place anywhere else they ask you two things how fast did you run it did you win and he goes those are ridiculous questions he said in and around boston people that know the marathon they only ask you if you finished because that's what a marathon is a marathon is can you finish and he

said one of the biggest things that i learned is i had to keep my eyes focused on the finish line because otherwise in the middle of the race you want to quit because in the middle of the race all you can think about is how tired your legs are how bad your feet hurt and how hard what you're doing is and so what you have to do is keep your eyes focused on the finish and that's why i tell you in this race this marathon race of life that we are running right now this marathon race of faith that we are running right now it is so easy to think about how bad your legs hurt how bad your feet hurt and how hard the run is Keep your eyes focused on the finish, because this place is not our home. Number two. So number one, they all had an eternal perspective.

Number two, faith sees the future hope over the present difficulty. Faith sees the future hope over the present difficulty. And I chose that word hope there specifically because hope is such a powerful word. Not the hope of, I hope one day I get to do this. But hope in its truest sense, in its biblical sense, is defined as this. Hope is a confident expectation.

A confident expectation. And that's exactly what faith gives us. Faith gives us a confident expectation of the future so that we don't have to focus on the present difficulty. Because again, if you get your eyes focused on the wind and the waves, you will sink. But if you keep your eyes focused on the confident expectation, you will run strong and have everything.

God. God has called for you in your life. Amen. Let's all stand.

And if you'd bow with me.

Father, we come before you and I thank you that you have given us another opportunity to be in your word. That you've given us another opportunity to learn and to grow in you. And so, Lord, I lift up the hearts of every person that's in here this morning. And I pray that the truth of your word would sink deeply into who they are. Lord, that we would be those men and women of faith who would be able to live as you have called for us to live.

So draw us near to you. Lord, strengthen us, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

We come before you this morning, Lord, we're just thankful and grateful hearts, Lord. I'm thankful for your word this morning. Thank you for what you've done for us in our lives, Lord. Thank you for your son, Jesus. Lord, as we leave here today, I just pray that your Holy Spirit would go with us. That we continue to minister in our lives, Lord God. Change us and mold us into your image, Lord.

We love you. I love you guys. Have a wonderful week.