Well, this morning we continue our study in the book of Genesis, first book of the Bible if you're visiting with us. This is a series that we're working through. And this morning we come to Genesis chapter 27, Genesis 27, the middle of the chapter as we began last time, Isaac's blessing of Jacob and all that encompassed and surrounded that this morning we are picking up halfway through that again in verse 30 all the way to 28 verse 9 and then next week we have Jacob's dream so again Genesis 27 beginning at verse 30 this is the word of the Lord as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau's brother came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father. And he said to his father, let my father arise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me. His father, Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came and I blessed him. Yes. And he shall be blessed. As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, even me also. Oh, my father. But he said, your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. Esau said, is he not rightly named Jacob? For he's cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, now he's taken away my blessing. Then he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, behold, I have made him Lord over you and all his brothers I have given to him for servants and with grain and wine I've sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son. Esau said to his father, have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, oh my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father, answered and said to him, behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother, but when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching, then I will kill my brother Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, lead Laban, my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day? Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe. my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise and go to Paddan Aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as a wife from there, one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you that you may become a company of peoples. May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. Thus Isaac sent Jacob away and he went to Paddan Aran to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother. Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, he directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram. So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took as his wife beside the wives that he had Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaioth. Nebaioth, may the Lord bless the hearing of his word. There are Christians even here today who are facing various trials and various afflictions, and those are very real. They are very difficult to go through. There may not be, for those facing them, any apparent reason as to why they're facing them. I mean, they're hit with a trial, they're hit with a hardship, and they struggle like Job. They don't fully understand why this thing is happening. And one of the ways that we all learn to deal with trial and deal with hardship in life, deal with even suffering in life, is to kind of say that everything happens for a reason. We say that, that that's one of the ways that we get through it. We say everything happens for a reason, and we love to quote the verse that God will take it and will work it all together for good to those who are the call according to his purpose. It's a good way to handle it. It's true. We adopt an acceptance of our hardship and struggles in life, that God must have sovereignly ordained it for me. God brought it and has a great purpose in it. All of it will work for good and we can somewhat get through it that way. There are certainly genuine trials, genuine afflictions like that and people suffer and it's real and you don't understand. But then there's another reason that people suffer hardship and trial. Another very common reason, I saw a sign the other day that somebody posted in Oregon, they were passing by a convenience store or something, and it said right on the sign, everything happens for a reason, but sometimes that reason is because you're stupid and make bad decisions. One of the things that we don't realize enough is that the hardships that we often do face in life are a result of our own bad decisions. And sometimes the decisions and the hardships that we're in, we've created because we have not submitted to what is very plainly the will of God. And we should never use His sovereignty. We should never begin to justify what's happening when we have directly defied God's will, use His sovereignty as a means to justify going forward in that. never, or to continue in that. It's a deceptive way to view life. It's a deceptive, a dishonest way to view life. God indeed has promised that everything will work out for good. It's remarkable, even in the bad choices that we make. But the way that he often works out that are bad choices for good is to draw out repentance. The way that God often works it all out for good is the painful path of repentance to put you back on the correct path. And why do I raise that today? Because that's Genesis 27 and 28. This is what we see happening in the life of Isaac and his family. The entire mess of this chapter, and it's a bad one, we remember last week, this is the holy family and everything has really gone awry. It is not a good situation. And we see all of this, we study all of this and we come to one conclusion in this chapter, especially from last time. The conclusion that we draw is everyone's boxing with God on his will. Everyone. There is not one in this chapter who is not boxing with God, who has not put up the gloves and said, I'll take you on. Every single one of them challenging that will. And one of the great mercies of God, when we speak of grace and God's workings in our lives. One of the great works of God is not only to accomplish his will even through messes like this and our disobedience, but that he is also committed to all of his children to bring them to a place of repentance and faith. He's working that. He's committed to that. He cares about that. He's going to do that. You can be assured of it. And what this chapter is showing us here is that what we have here are now the consequences of the choices made by each one there are earthly consequences to things that we do and though we can be forgiven though Christ can can cover that it doesn't take away earthly consequences to actions and that's exactly what now we see this play out as it's moving now us to see what the stupid choices that we make in life what can happen and how God works through that. It's remarkable because the Lord remains unmovable here. The Lord remains steadfast in his love. He remains committed to fulfill his gospel promise. He remains through all the way from beginning to the end. He will not leave his sheep and he will bring them right where he wants them to a place of submission. And that's why I titled the message this morning, The Potter's Power Over the Clay. I want you to think about what that actually looks like in your lives. I want you to think about how that often shows itself in your lives so that you would ask today, what am I holding on to? What am I holding on to that is against the revealed will of God? And you need to know if you are his child, he's going to deal with it. He loves you that much. You kind of understand this morning that prayer, not my will, but your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I hope that by the time the sermon's done this morning, you say, you know, I understand why every day I get out of bed, I need to say that. That is the goal here. Let me reorient you to the scene for a minute. We picked up halfway. Nobody looks good. God said from the beginning to Rebecca that the older shall serve the younger. In other words, Jacob's my choice. Remember, God chose Jacob. And Jacob was the choice for the Abrahamic blessing. He was the son of promise. He was the one through whom ultimately the seed who is Jesus Christ would come. But this family had not listened to that. This family had played favorites, and Isaac last week, remember, secretly met with Esau in this great plan to bless him, his great plan to bless him as Esau could bring in the savory food, and he could enjoy a great meal from his favorite son. Well, there was Rebekah standing outside the tent door, and she hears all of this, remember? Rebekah hears all of this, and she goes immediately to Jacob, and she says, you're not going to believe. They're planning to give him the blessing. Here's what I command you. Here's what you are to do. I'll cook the food. We're going to cover you in Esau's garments. We're going to cover it all the way over. Somebody said to me last week, he must have been really hairy. We are going to cover you so that when your father feels you, he's going to feel Esau. Well, Jacob pulls off the greatest scam in the scriptures i mean this is this is remarkable this is a remarkable display of craft in sin you know he goes in and he deceives dying dad to give him the blessing dragging the holy name of god that that's what struck me the most last time when isaac asked him where'd you get it the lord god your god gave it to me and he drags that name right through the mud, dragging God's holy name, saying, God contributed to my sin to get this done. The question is, is after that initial scene, what was the aftermath like of this? What then happened after this? What state did this whole scheme leave the family in? Well, that's verse 30. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, Esau's brother came in from hunting. The text tells us that Esau had really worked hard. He went out and prepared this delicious food just as Isaac liked, and he was ready. He was ready to come get the blessing. He prepared the delicious food, and he brought it to his father, and he said, let my father arise and eat of his son's game that you may bless me. Now this is an awful scene. I wonder if we can feel this. We're a bit disconnected from the act of blessing, but you realize when this is done, everything was given to Jacob. There's no correcting this. I want you to feel the despair that came upon Isaac. Who are you? I'm your son. your firstborn esau i i attempted to raise this last time i want to really focus in on what the text says here this is a big moment in isaac's life it says that isaac trembled violently his body went into some kind of convulsion it's a good translation trembled violently an internal earthquake as one pastor said why why is the text offsetting it to this degree well isaac's in absolute shock he is in absolute shock what came over him well let me tell you what happened to isaac he went toe-to-toe with god over the promise and God's expressed will was made known to Isaac but Esau had been an idol in Isaac's life what an amazing thing that your child could become an idol in your life esau had become an idol isaac sided with him and it was so painful esau plainly had what made it so painful is that esau had plainly rejected the promises this was not as if isaac didn't looked at esau and thought well maybe he's he's accepted it he knew the end of chapter 26 told us that esau made a conscious choice to reject the faith of father abraham he married the pagan women he took two of them it was direct defiance he knew the stance of father abraham he knew that when abraham sent his servant to get a wife for isaac that that servant was not to take the hit of the canaanite women well what happens here isaac was still willing to do it and what we have here in this direct defiance is now, the whole plot has been turned on Isaac's head. The whole plot. He had tried to do the whole thing in secrecy. You know, I can't help but think about Paul in Romans 9 when he's explaining the doctrine of election, and he's helping people understand election. And he knew throughout history, people would struggle with this, people would not like this people would reject this it just goes it's it's a doctrine that's well beyond us a doctrine that we can't fully grasp we just have to submit to it but but he said something really powerful and i can't help but think in romans chapter 9 that he had isaac on his mind when he said this when he said this indeed oh man who are you to reply against god will the thing who formed it will the thing formed say to him who formed it why have you made me this way does not the potter have power over the clay never stopped and let that sink in does not the potter have complete power over your lives how near is God to us how great is that power how in control is the Lord really really really really in the course of your lives how really in control is the Lord is he really that involved with you is he really with you Isaac convulsed on his bed that day for one reason in his great attempt to overturn the will of god to do it in secret to pull the shades shut what happened to him everything was turned on his head and think about it think about how it happened in his great scheme against god to do it in secret he schemed by the very son whom god said the blessing would come through did you see what happened scheming and scheming the scheming was met with the scheme and it was overturned and right then and there he realized I had no power whatsoever to stop what God's doing. My greatest attempts, all my energy, all my effort, all these 100 years of holding on to Esau, look at what just happened. No control over my own life. God's will was performed. Have you ever wondered why James says, in all of your doings, you're going to go and you're going to go to such and such a city and you're going to do this and you're going to do that. James says, your life is such a mist. You know what you should say. If it's the Lord's will, I'm going there and I'm doing this. If it's the Lord's will, not my will, but your will, be done. The Lord Jesus taught us to pray on earth as it is in heaven. And you start to think about what is it in life that I'm holding on to, that I'm doing, that is defying that. When we have exercised all of our power against it and we have tried to keep it in secret and we've pulled the shades closed, God's going to come along at some point and overturn it if you're his child. If you're his child. Defeating your will to accomplish Romans 12, what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God? I understand there's a secret will that God doesn't run around whispering in people's ears, but he has spoken clearly. He's spoken clearly to you on how you are to live. He's spoken clearly on saying in this Bible, boys and girls, that you have everything that you need for what? For life and godliness. Everything that you need for your living and godliness, knowing how you are to go forward. Even when you don't know the secret will, still to pray to him and trust him, he's promised to direct your paths. What we have then here is a kind of test case. When someone wants to put up the dukes and fight against God and box with him over the will. What does it look like when we want to do that? You know, I kind of want to know because I'm sure I've done it a lot in life. I know I have. What does the path look like when I'm boxing with God on his will? What do I do? And here we see that there's a kind of thing, a chain of events that go on. And notice here that it always starts in secret. It starts in secret. You're doing it against the revealed will of God. Sin starts in secrecy, and then you begin to exercise that will, and you begin to do that in defiance against the revealed will, and God sees it all. God sees it. He says, listen, it's all naked and open to me. You can't pull the curtain shut. I see it. But if you're a child, he loves you, you see. And those whom he loves, what does he do? He chastens. He loves you like a son. He cares for you like a son. You are his son. He chastens. How does he chasten? Well, I remember hearing one time somebody say, well, if you don't want to confess your sins, he'll do it for you. He'll drag it right on out in the open. So it's got to be dealt with. Be sure, says the scriptures, your sin will find you out. And then the consequences follow. And that's painful. That's why, you know, when you tell the young prodigal don't run, when parents tell the young prodigal don't run, we know what that's going to do. We know what it's going to produce. If you're going to be chastened, it's going to be a hard path back home. God never lets it remain, sin remain undealt with. It's really an amazing thing because in this particular case, if we were to walk through each figure here, Isaac's idol comes down. But look at each character. Isaac tries to scheme and give the blessing to his son. In return, he's schemed by the son that God chose. Rebecca, she tries to retain the blessing her way with lying and deceit. And what happens? did you notice that? She then comes up with her own plot and says, when your brother anger turns away, I will send and bring you back. She had it all mapped out. She had it all mapped out. I'll go get you and we will live in blessedness. You know what's the sad thing about this whole thing? Once Jacob leaves, she never sees him again. She dies. Here's one for you. Jacob. Jacob just pulled off the greatest heist in scripture. This is a master schemer. In the next chapter, he meets his match. Uncle Laban man spits him up and chews him out. Uncle Laban, everyone has an Uncle Laban. And how bad was this thing? How bad was this scheme? In another tent, Jacob's tent, he wakes up in the morning to the wrong woman. Imagine that one. Stunning stuff. Jacob ends up repenting to Esau. You don't want to box with God. And there's a powerful message here. Don't be surprised if the very things that we pursue against the revealed will of God is going to be pursued by somebody else against you. It's remarkable. Now, why is God doing this? Why is God doing this? He's showing the kind of response that He's after from you. That's the beauty of this passage. I love this passage. It actually is a very encouraging passage because it shows you the kind of repentance that he's after. It shows you what he's producing in you. The contrast is now made between Isaac and Esau's repentance. And the scriptures really draw this out. In fact, I want you to think about something that Paul said to the church in Corinth that will help us through this. Listen to what Paul said to the Corinthians. Rejoice. I rejoice not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. You felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation, notice this, without regret. Whereas worldly grief produces death. so there's two paths when sin's exposed there's a distinction in how people respond there's a kind of grieving that leads to repenting so that that leads in and turn to salvation and there's no regrets in that path you're so happy that god did that for you but then there's a kind of worldly sorrow over sin that produces death and i believe that's shown to you here true sorrow leads to this repentance unto salvation and there's no turning back. Notice that's Isaac here. What do you see in Isaac? In verse 33, he trembles and he says, where's this one who did this? And then he says in verse 35, we know he knows who this is. He says, Jacob did this. Jacob came in with the seat and took it all away. So what does Isaac do? Listen, if a son schemed his father this bad, stole the inheritance that belongs to the family, the other son, what would be the natural response of a father? Fury, anger. It's not even his favorite son who took it, right? What do you see in Isaac? Isaac says something important in verse 33. I have blessed him. Indeed, he shall be blessed. And I believe what you see follow here in the life of Isaac is he's done fighting against God. Why do I say that? He doesn't continue to try to give the Abrahamic blessing to Esau, does he? He doesn't at all continue to try to give the Abrahamic blessing to Esau. He gives it to Jacob and he says, it's your son. It's yours. Did you see that blessing in chapter 28? God Almighty bless you. May he give the blessing of Abraham to you. Submission. Absolute submission. And I believe that's why Hebrews looks at Isaac and says, by faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. You say, what does that mean? Well, he's telling you from that point of trembling forward, Isaac submitted to the will of God and you see it in how he blessed them. In other words, he believed what the Lord said. And the scriptures highlight there was faith there and turning. Now, what an encouragement. This is not a discouraging message. This is an encouraging message. What does that look like for us today? What does this look like in life? Well, I knew a man years ago who was a very prominent man in the community. And everyone looked to this man. Everyone really looked to this man. He was a leader. He was a capable leader. And Christianity was kind of nominal, not nominal. For years, he had been an hiding alcoholic. And this had really mastered him to the point where it was getting worse and worse and worse. And finally, it all broke out. And, you know, the exposure of that was painful. The exposure was really painful. He had to go through rehab. And here was this great man on the pinnacle of success and now he's over in the rehab. And then, you know, you have the Pharisees commenting and everyone throwing darts at him. But I wondered, I wondered, I said, what kind of fruit will I see from this? What will I see? It was a remarkable testimony, so much so that I'm able to tell you about it today, of how much humility, how much clinging to Christ came out of that man. And that man today is one of the most tender, compassionate men that I've ever met. What was produced there through that was godly sorrow that leads to salvation. And you see it not just in fixing behavior. That's not ultimately where it lies. You saw it and you see it here in clinging to the promise. You see it in clinging to Christ. Because when your sin's exposed, you're not going to run around thinking that if I just clean up life, that's the answer. You need a Savior. And that's essentially the kind of godly repentance that leads to salvation. You're more and more turning to the Son of God. You're more and more looking to Christ. You're finding your delight in Him. Pride's done. You know because you've been emptied out. You can't do it. Now there's a different way it could have gone with that man. And that's the path of Esau. Esau has always discouraged me. esau is one of the greatest discouragements to me in scripture i really don't like studying esau it's painful and when you have a figure like this that everyone just the name it just grieves us when you think about esau the lord has a purpose in that the lord wanted us to look carefully at this figure and all of you today to say i don't want to be that what does the lord want us to understand verse 34. As soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, even me also, oh my father. And as soon as Isaac says Jacob stole the birthright, Esau responds, is he not rightly named Jacob, meaning schemer? He's cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright and behold, now he's taken away my blessing. Then he said, have you not reserved a blessing for me? Esau begs for the blessings. And in verse 38, we read, he lifts up his voice and weeps. You know, I think it's easy to feel sorry for him. I think it's easy to feel sorry for him, but that is not how scriptures tell us what they tell us to do. Listen to what Hebrews says about Esau. It gives us great insight into his life. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. When you read that, it almost sounds like, man, he really wanted to repent, but it didn't happen. He really wanted it, but he couldn't get it. That's not what scripture's saying. It says that Esau was sexually immoral and, notice this, unholy. When he sold that birthright at the beginning, he told everyone right up front, I have no interest at all in the faith of Father Abraham. And so from the beginning, there was no interest in the things of God. He turned right away from there, from Abraham and Isaac. And what was the fruit of that? The fruit of it in his life was he's going out marrying pagans. And he counted God's promises of no value. It would be like somebody who says, I just, I hate the church. I don't need that. And he lived for the moment. He's the guy that, you know, let us eat, drink, and be merry. All about the senses. All about filling up right now. All about filling up with this life. Sex, alcohol, drugs, whatever. He chose that. Living for that. Well, now all of a sudden he realizes what he's lost. And he's pronouncing, here is Isaac pronouncing blessings on Jacob. Boy, if you realize you've lost lands and blessing and all your future inheritance, it's a big moment. You can have a what have I done kind of moment. and with ungodly sorrow the new testament i mean that's what the new testament says if you look at verse 8 what did he do in chapter 28 he saw that the canaanite women did not please isaac so esau goes to who ishmael so what's he doing he's trying to repent he's trying to repent he's going to ishmael and he adds mahalath the daughter of ishmael abraham's son he's thinking that'll get it back that'll please dad ishmael was not the promised son you ever seen people who say i'm going to turn around my life i realize what i've been doing i'm going to turn around my life i'm going to stop what i'm doing and their new path is worse than the first and soon they're in whatever they were in now this new path is just worse here's the big thing verse 41 now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him and Esau said the days of mourning of my father are approaching that I will kill my brother Rebecca says those what Rebecca says of Esau Esau the word is really a fascinating choice Esau comforts himself this way he's going to kill you he comforts himself by the hatred of his brother that's what consoled him bitterness had so filled him that instead he sought comfort in that i'll just put an end to jacob and get it all back my way now what a message you see one path of repentance led to faith and submission to the will the other path of repentance led to what ungodly sorrow for the sin regret of what they lost and what was the characteristic that fills somebody when their sins exposed when it's not genuine repentance bitterness fills them anger you ever seen bitter people angry people and it manifests itself in hatred for the neighbor see the patterns it's a hard passage in many respects today i know it's hard and you see how destructive sin is and i hope that that's what you see now my question is this is where's the mercy of the lord well the entire section should make us ask this question what if god said all right you guys want your own free will, go for it. I'm going to let it all take its own course. I know I'm the potter, but I'm going to relinquish that power and I'm going to give it to you, the clay, to take your own course in life. Have you ever thought where this all would go today? It would go this way. Isaac would have died rejecting the Lord and the promise. He would have rejected the faith of father Abraham choosing the wrong son. Rebecca would have never been buried by Esau in the tomb. jacob would have been murdered and the line of god's choosing would have been put to an end real quick real quick and in the end of history when we went through the whole of history if god state it what would have happened is in jerusalem in the days of herod the king who's a direct descendant of esau there would have been no salvation jacob's killed god's line's done i saw a sign the other day i'm into signs i guess if you could lose your salvation you would aren't you immediately grateful for a god who cares that's where i'm closing this this morning aren't you overwhelmingly grateful for a god who doesn't let your will prevail can you imagine where you would be today in all the instances which you've hidden sins, and pursued, and tampered with your life, and done things against the revealed will of God, and pursued your own path, if the Lord said, go for it, you're on your own, you wouldn't be here. God shows us the wicked, that that does happen in the wicked. Romans 1 tells us that, that at some point, God continues to plea with people, repent, repent, repent, and at some point when the wicked continue to harden their heart, we don't know in God's counsel, he says, that's it. go get what you want. But you understand why election has to be so. I know we live in a day where people really struggle with it still. And election is the most loving, merciful teaching that could ever come out of scriptures because why does God pull back the curtain so that we can look into these lives of people? It's because he's saying, it's your life. And he wants you to see what grace has done for you. He doesn't want you to give up on your children, does he? here's what moves me. Even on his deathbed, he still committed the Lord to bring Isaac to a place of repentance. Still, late in life. But most of all, and we could say to add to that, he wants to warn those who reject him when we look at Esau. But most of all, he wants us to see that the power is his to take down rebels and bring them to salvation. Who is the only person you didn't hear from today in this narrative? Jacob, just a hardened man. The chief schemer of them all, he's going to run away from the promised land now in terrible advice from mom. Next time, guess what's going to happen? In the next section, God goes after this rebel running and he drops a ladder to him. And he says, I'm never leaving you. That's grace. I will be with you, Jacob, wheresoever you go, and guess what I'm going to do? I know you're running, I'm going to bring you back. Because you're the child of promise. This is the one through whom the blessing comes, and nothing can change that. And today we sit here seeing how faithful God was to his will, for his son came in the fullness of time. In the fullness of Jacob's line, he came, and Esau's son Herod couldn't touch Jesus. And Jesus won the great victory, And he has come and announced that he's the one taking down sinners, seeking and saving. I have come to seek and to save that which was lost. And that gives us the greatest hope in the world. His power is greater than your greatest sins to reject him. Let us marvel then at his working in our lives to root out sin. He loves you enough to root out sin and to bring you back that you might know and believe what Jesus said and I close with this. This is the will of my Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life and I will raise Him up on the last day. Amen. Oh Lord our God, we bow down today before You. Asking for forgiveness that we have often tried to exercise our own wills over yours. And Lord, we don't even see it. We confess that we don't even see it. And so we pray with a sincere and full heart this morning, not our wills, but your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we ask, oh Lord, praying that, that you would work within us to will and to do for your good pleasure as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Thank you for being a God who cares. Thank you for loving us relentlessly. And Lord, I pray if there be any profane person like Esau here today who's not repented, that they would repent. Your mercies are so wonderful that they would come to the Lord Jesus Christ and believe the promises. Let us today praise the name of the Lord together for your marvelous workings in our lives that you indeed never leave us nor forsake us. and that we can say the God of Jacob is our refuge and our strength. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.