GENESIS 27:41-45 LIVE WITHOUT SCHEMING2015 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Genesis 27:41-45 Live Without Scheming

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2015. Warren Wiersbe says that faith is living without scheming.

Faith is living without scheming. And I thought that quote was especially appropriate as we consider Jacob and Esau this morning. And so I've titled the message here in Genesis 27, Live Without Scheming, that we would learn from the example, really the bad example here of Jacob and Esau, and learn to live our lives without these kinds of

Now, as we consider the struggle that took place between Jacob and Esau,

we can see that schemes are abundant. There's all kinds of schemes happening from Isaac, from Rebecca, from Jacob, from Esau. They're all scheming. They're all involved in these plots and these plans. And it teaches us some very good lessons about the consequences of these kinds of schemes. Now, as we talk about scheming this morning, I want to make sure we're on the same page. And so I'll define it for you.

Scheming is the activity or practice of making secret or underhanded plans.

The idea of making secrets or underhanded plans. And so there's this sneakiness, there's this underhandedness. It's not just secret as if you're, you know, preparing or planning a surprise party. That could be a secret and it's a plan, but that doesn't make it wrong. But it's the idea of being underhanded. It's something that's done wrong secretly and it's done in secret because it is wrong.

And this is something that you and I, well, our hearts are somewhat prone to. And we will deal with the temptation and desire to scheme, I think, for the rest of our lives. And it starts even when we're very young.

You know, I'm sure you've seen this perhaps, you know, in your life where there's a kid who's about to get in trouble. And so the kid says, oh, mommy, I love you in order to, you know, alleviate the punishment that's about to happen. Patty Sedota was sharing with me about a week ago.

that Daniel knew how he could just make this face and make her laugh, and then she wouldn't be able to punish him anymore because she was laughing too hard. And so there could be some scheming going on where it's like, I know this is wrong, but if I do get caught, then I know how to say I love you. I know how to make the face to not get in trouble if I get caught. And so there's these

schemes that begin very early in our hearts. We learn how to manipulate. We learn how to work around these things.

And even as adults, we continue to scheme. We scheme in order to get things that we want or to get ahead in the workplace. Sometimes we scheme in order to pay someone back for some wrong that they've done or to get them something that we think that they deserve. Sometimes we come up with schemes and plots to get out of our responsibilities and

And sometimes we scheme and plot and plan to under inflate the balls so that we win the football game, right? There's that scandal that's going on right now and the investigation that's happening. And this is something that will continue in our society, but also in our own hearts. And so it's really appropriate for us today to consider the example of Jacob and Esau. And I would encourage you to ask God, even right now as we're just beginning this, to

that you would ask God to reveal and to uncover if there's any kind of schemes that are happening in your heart that he wants to address. In the book of James, in James chapter 4, James talks about this a little bit. He says in verse 1 and 2, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?

James kind of cuts to the issue here and he kind of shows us what's really going on with these schemes, with these wars and battles that we have with one another. He says, they come from your desires for pleasure. And this is the reality of scheming. It's rooted in selfishness.

It's something that I want. It's some way that I want. It's something that I want to do. And so I'm scheming, I'm plotting, I'm planning to accomplish what I want.

And James goes on to say, you lust, you desire, you crave, and you do not have. You murder and covet, and you cannot obtain. You fight and war, and he says, yet you do not have because you do not ask. And he says, you ask, in the next verse, which I don't have on the screen, but he says, you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss. So he says, you're struggling, you're scheming, you're fighting to try to get what you want, and you do not have.

but you don't have it, you don't obtain it, even though you're trying really hard and you're fighting and warring, you still don't get it, but you don't get it because you don't ask. And even when you do ask, it's still rooted in selfishness

And so the Lord doesn't answer that prayer because you're just focused on your own selfishness. And so you're not only scheming with the people around you, but you're scheming against God. How can I manipulate God to give me what I want? And that's a dangerous place for our hearts to be. There's some really serious consequences that result from this kind of scheming. And we'll see that in our passage this morning.

But before we get into the verses that we read earlier, I want to bring you up to speed with what's been happening in this account and get us caught up so that we can jump into these verses and understand what is happening. It all began with Isaac and Rebekah who were husband and wife. And Rebekah, you can read about this later on in Genesis chapter 25, Rebekah became pregnant with twins. Right?

She didn't know it was twins at first, and she began to be concerned when there was a lot of activity that was happening within her womb. And so as she's pregnant and there's all this commotion going on within her, she actually went and inquired of the Lord because something must be wrong. And so she was very concerned about it.

And it tells us in Genesis chapter 25 verse 23 that God speaks to her and says, the reason why you're feeling this way is because you're having twins. And these two twins, these two boys in your womb are wrestling each other. That's why we have the arm wrestling going on there. And you'll notice the one's hairier than the other. So this side's Esau, that side's Jacob. And he says, this is a struggle that's happening already within your womb. And

And then when they are born, he says, these two are going to become two nations and there is going to continue to be this struggle. And the older one is going to serve the younger one. And that was something that was not normal for their culture and for their traditions. And so there was going to be this struggle. And even now they're struggling. And that's what Rebecca was feeling.

Well, when Jacob and Esau are born, they're twins, they're born at the same time. And as they're born, this struggle continues and is really amplified because as they grow up,

Each parent chose one of the sons as their favorite. They had a favorite son, if you can imagine that. I'm sure it'd be difficult for you to imagine, right? Our family likes to joke, you know, I'm the favorite son because I'm the only son, and my sister's the favorite daughter because she's the only daughter. But if it's more than that, well, you know, having these favorites can cause problems. And so Isaac...

It tells us in Genesis chapter 25, loves Esau. And then Rebecca loves Jacob. And so they each have their favorite. And so this struggle that's been going on is now amplified as mom and dad take sides, essentially. And so now they're continuing to be at odds with one another. Well, as they grow up, mom and dad get old and Isaac, the dad, is old.

Pretty convinced that he's about to enter into eternity. He's grown very old. He's about 137 years old as we get to Genesis chapter 27 in this passage. Now, Isaac being 137 years old, he believed he did not have much time left. And so it was time for him, he believed, to pass on the blessing of

so that the inheritance would be carried on according to his wishes. Now, Isaac is 137 years old. He's blind. He thinks he's near death. And his two boys, Jacob and Esau, a lot of times as I read this account, I'm constantly picturing teenagers. But Jacob and Esau

are 77 years old here in Genesis chapter 27. Later on in the book of Genesis, as you see their years, you can do the math backwards and figure out they're 77 years old here. I don't even know. I don't think anybody is that old in here this morning. And so, you know, these are some full-aged adults, okay? And they're dealing with these things as we're reading about. And so, you know,

And so Isaac decides, I'm about to die. It's time for me to pass on this blessing.

And you could think of the blessing similar to what we would consider like the reading of a will. Now, we do that after a person has died because, you know, that's the appropriate time for the will to be read. They didn't have those things in place in those days. And so the father of the family, as he was about to pass on, he would then pass on and declare his wishes with his children.

And so normally the inheritance and the blessing would be passed to the firstborn.

And the firstborn would then normally receive a double portion of the inheritance. So if there was three kids, all the goods would be divided into four parts. And the firstborn would get two of them. And then the other two kids would get the other two parts. So they'd get a double share. But they'd also get control of all the assets. And so they would be in charge of dispersing the inheritance to the other children.

But in addition to that, the firstborn would receive the authority to lead the family. And so the father would pass on this authority. And now the eldest was in charge of making decisions for the family and leading and protecting the family. And so normally this would go to the firstborn.

And that's what Isaac is preparing for. He believed he's about to die. And so he tells Esau, Esau, it's time for me to give you the blessing, to pass on the inheritance, to shift the authority to you.

And so as Isaac is believing this is the time, he tells Esau to go hunting and to find some game, the way that he, you know, to shoot it, to bring it back and prepare it the way that he likes it. Essentially, he says, bring me my favorite meal. And then as you bring me my favorite meal, then I will bless you and give you this inheritance. Now, as Isaac is having this discussion with Esau, Rebekah is listening in.

And she overhears all of this instruction. And so she goes to Jacob and says, listen, Jacob, your dad's about to bless Esau. And so we can't allow that to happen. We need to intervene here. So go get a goat, bring it in. I'll prepare it. I know how dad likes to eat it. I know what he likes it to taste as. And so I'll prepare it as if it was something that Esau prepared. And then Jacob, you can go in and pretend to be Esau

Now remember, Isaac was blind at this time. And so Isaac wouldn't have been able to see that it was Jacob, but he would be able to feel that it was Jacob and he would be able to smell that it was Jacob. And so they added on to this plan,

And so they took the skin of the goat and they placed it on his hands on the back of his neck because Esau was a very hairy man. And so in this way, he would feel like Esau. And then they also put Esau's clothes on Jacob so that he would smell like Esau. And so Jacob does what his mom says and he puts on the clothes, they put on the goat skin, they prepare the meal and he takes it in to Isaac. And Isaac says,

says, it kind of sounds like you're Jacob. And he says, no, no, I'm Esau. And he felt him and he smelt him and he realized, well, he believed it was Esau. And so he blesses Jacob instead of Esau. And here in Genesis chapter 27, verse 28 and 29, he says, let the people serve you, let nations bow down to you, cursed be everyone who curses you and blessed be those who bless you. And so he gives him this blessing. He passes the torch down

thinking it's Esau, but he does so to Jacob. Now, Jacob leaves the room, and it tells us that moments later, Esau walks in. If you were watching this as a sitcom, you know, this would be where the laugh track would be played. You know, Jacob escapes out, and Esau comes in that very moment, and, you know, it'd be kind of comical, but this is not, you know, just a story for comedy value. This is actual events. Esau comes in,

And he says, okay, I've prepared the meal. And dad says, what? Well, who did I just bless? And who was I just talking with? Who just served me food? And they realized that it was Jacob. And so Esau is upset now because he's lost the blessing. It was given to Jacob instead of him.

And so Jacob returns back to Rebekah, and you can imagine them kind of like, you know, rejoicing. Like, hey, we did it. We pulled it off. We tricked dad. We got the blessing. Everything worked out. But as we go on in these next few verses here, verses 41 through 45, I think we see that it really didn't work out. They didn't pull it off. They thought they did, but they

The consequences of their schemes are pretty severe and worth consideration for us this morning. And so there's three things I'd like for us to consider here in verses 41 through 45. The first thing found in verse 41 is that schemes sabotage your relationships.

As I encourage you to live without scheming, you need to know one of the reasons why we would say that this is important is because when we scheme, we sabotage the relationships around us. Look with me at verse 41. It says, So Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart,

And so we see that Esau hates Jacob. Now, their relationship was a struggle from the beginning, but their bad relationship went worse.

It became worse as a result of this. They had always struggled before, but now Esau has a new hatred for Jacob because he stole the blessing from him. And so with this new hatred, Esau begins to scheme himself. And he says, you know, the days of mourning for my father are at hand. Now, as Isaac was expecting to die pretty soon, and that's why he gave the blessing to

Esau was expecting his father to die likewise, that it was going to be any day now. It was going to be pretty soon. Dad's going to pass into eternity, and then I'll kill my brother Jacob. Esau, in his scheming, in his planning, he's thinking, I don't want to do it right now because dad's right at the end of his life, and I don't want him to end his life in sorrow.

over what I'm about to do. So I'll wait till he's dead. I'll let that time of mourning pass out of respect for dad. But as soon as that's up, I'm going to take him out. Now, Isaac ended up living for another 43 years after this. But of course, Esau didn't know that at the time. And so he's thinking it's just going to be a little bit longer. I only got to put up with this guy for a

this relationship with Esau, his brother. And as we consider this idea of living without scheming this morning, I would encourage you to consider this as you allow God to search your heart, that you would, well, make sure that you don't sabotage your relationships by scheming, by doing sneaky, secret, underhanded things.

It will cause your good relationships to turn bad. And it will cause bad relationships to even get worse. And this applies to whatever kind of relationship you want to consider. You have relationships with your co-workers, with your employer. You have relationships with the people around you at the workplace. And as you, well, if you are involved in sneaky, underhanded things...

it will sabotage those relationships. It will impede your ability to witness to the people around you. It will destroy the friendships that you could have had. Also, you could consider your friends or your family around you. And if you're involved in scheming and plotting and planning and these kinds of things, well, it will destroy those relationships as well. You're setting it up for an explosion, for a blow up.

And it may not happen right away, depending on when the schemes are revealed, but it will be revealed. Those things will come out. And so it's a sabotage for those relationships. I would ask you to especially consider, for those of you who are married, your relationship with your spouse. And it's something that happens a lot of times in marriages where there is schemes that are at work,

in the husband and in the wife. And these schemes make things worse. And oftentimes it's in a marriage that's struggling where these schemes are going on. And so the marriage is already struggling and then these things make it worse. So maybe you're struggling over your spending. That's a big one oftentimes for married couples.

You're wrestling over, well, how are we going to stick to our budget? How are we going to pay the bills? How are we going to make rent? And a lot of times it's one who wants to save and one who wants to spend, right? And so the spender comes up with a scheme to still spend without the other knowing about it, right? You ever heard about something like that? Or is that just like completely like you never heard of such a thing, right? No, no. We've all heard of these things. I knew a lady once who

Long time ago, so I'm not pointing fingers. I'm not trying to call anybody out here, okay? She's not here. She doesn't attend here. But she used to buy clothes or other things, and then she would hide them for a couple months. And then after a couple months, she'd bring it out, and then her husband would say, hey, did you spend money? Did you... Is that new? And she would be able to say, oh, no, no, it's not new. I've had it for a while. Because she's been hiding it for two months. Pretty clever, right? So she's thinking...

Right. It makes sense. I got away with it. I'm not lying. I've had it for a while. And so she would have like this cue, you know, the closet, the hidden closet. And so, you know, she just continued to pull out stuff and think that she's getting away with it. But these kinds of schemes that we do sabotage our relationships, right?

It's not good. It destroys these relationships, especially, you know, for those relationships that are already struggling. These things make it worse, right?

Sometimes there are those who, well, let's say you want to go out and have a good time. It doesn't have to necessarily be you want to go do something wrong, but you want to go have a good time. You want to go do something with your friends, go catch a movie or something. But you know it's going to be an issue. You know there's other commitments. You have other responsibilities. Your spouse isn't going to be excited about that. And so sometimes we scheme. And we think, well, if I get her angry...

and she doesn't want me around, then I'll get to go do what I want to do. Or if I get him this way, you know, and there's this manipulation, it's this scheming of how can I get them to respond? And yeah, they're going to be upset, but they'll get over it, and then I'll get to do what I want to do. And again, it's rooted in this selfishness.

It's the desire for pleasure for ourselves that we're focused on, and we manipulate, and we scheme, and we plot, and we plan, and we work out these things for ourselves. But what we're doing in the process is sabotaging our relationships. And we'll see in just a few verses, we think, you know, hey, he'll get over it, she'll get over it, you know, they'll cool off after a couple days. But sometimes that couple days turns into 20 years.

And so we need to watch out for those kinds of schemes in our relationships. I think if you would consider the entertainment that is normal for our society, I think for the most part, I could say schemes are the basic premise of the entertainment, right? The family shows, it's all the different family members scheming and plotting to get what they want most of the time.

manipulating person, getting them in some attitude, getting them in some condition so that then they'll go do this and then I can get what I want. Or sometimes they team up, scheme together to do whatever. But it's kind of the basic premise. And in some ways, again, as I talked about if this was a TV show with Jacob and Esau, it would be kind of funny. Like, wow, it's amazing. Jacob walks out and Esau walks in and ha, ha, ha, isn't that funny? And

In a similar way, that's how much of the entertainment is today. But although it may get some laughs, it's a terrible model to follow. This is a great way to destroy the relationships in your life. That's what scheming does. And I should also point out that schemes destroy our relationships, whether we get caught in them or not. They still affect our relationship.

even if we don't get caught. And so this is something to ask God about. Lord, is there some schemes in my heart? Is there some plotting, some manipulation that I'm doing with my co-workers, with my family, with my spouse, where I'm underhanded, sneaky, behind the scenes, working out these things for my own pleasure? This is something that God would say,

Don't do it. It's bad for you. It's going to cause you great harm. Well, another thing that we can see as we go on in verses 42 and 43 is that schemes squander your resources. Schemes squander your resources. Verse 42 and 43 say this, and the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah.

So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, Surely your brother Esau comforts himself concerning you by intending to kill you. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice. Arise, flee to my brother Laban in Haran. So Rebekah hears about Esau's plans. Esau's comforting himself. He's plotting, he's planning things.

And evidently, he's doing it out loud. And so someone hears, they tell Rebekah, here's Esau's plans. He's comforting himself. He's hurt. He's really hurt by this because you stole his blessing. He's really upset. He doesn't want to disrespect dad. So he's waiting. But his plans are to kill you. And as Rebekah tells this to Jacob, she gives him some instruction. Okay, here's what you need to do. Obey my voice, she says. Arise.

and flee. That word flee, it means, well, just that. It means to run away, to be driven away, or to be chased, to be put to flight, to hurry off. It's not the idea of, okay, Jacob, I've put in a call to you hall, and we have an appointment for next Tuesday. We're going to load up all your stuff, and I'm going to send you off. You're going to move away.

That's not what's happening here. She's saying, you need to drop everything and run. It reminded me of a situation that happened maybe about a year ago where I was at a store and I was at the register. And I've shared with you guys before about how sometimes, you know, in the drive-thru or in those kinds of situations, I panic, right? Well, it's one of those times.

And so I'm at the register. There's people behind me and I'm trying to get this good deal on whatever it was I was buying. I don't even remember, but I was buying this. I had some coupons. There was some other things that were involved. And so I was like working out this deal and I had got some good coaching on it ahead of time. And so I was expecting a certain amount to be the total. And when they bring up the total, it's not that amount. And I'm looking at the people behind me, you know, you know, when people pull out coupons ahead of you, you're like, Oh no, here we go.

So I'm looking at them. I'm like feeling the pressure and I'm like trying to do math in my head. And you guys remember last week I was trying to figure out Cisco's age. I'm not good with math in my head when the, you know, spotlight's on me. It's like I panic. And so I'm like trying to figure out this math and I'm like, I don't want to pay too much for this. And so in the moment of panic...

I just grab the coupons and I walk away. I was like, abort, forget it. I don't need it. And as I'm like walking out the door, the cashier's yelling at me like, you don't want to buy this anymore? I'm like, no, forget it. I'm done. Like, I couldn't figure it out. I didn't want, couldn't figure out the math. And so I just aborted and walked away, left all the stuff behind. That's what Jacob had to do. That's what

Rebecca is telling him, just abort, walk away. You're not going to take anything with you. Now, remember, Jacob has just been given the blessing, which means he has the right to the inheritance, to the goods and property of his dad. But he actually ends up with none of it. He walks away with nothing as a result of this scheme. And so as hard as they worked to, you know, work out this situation where he would get the blessing,

He goes to Haran with nothing to show for it. And he never gets it. He comes back later on, but he never gets, Esau gets the inheritance of the material goods because, well, Jacob is gone for the next 20 years. Schemes squander your resources. All the blessings, the material goods that he inherited, he had to leave behind to flee for his life.

And again, that's a good example for us of the consequences of scheming. And this will happen in our lives as well. It will, well, it will squander the things that we have and the things that God has blessed us with. I was thinking back to a time when I was a young man, early 20s. I was, well, I really wanted to go to Magic Mountain. There was a weekend trip to Magic Mountain that a group of us were doing, and I really wanted to go.

but I didn't have any money. And my credit cards were already all maxed out. And I'd already gotten into trouble for bouncing checks that I had written to myself in order to get cash out. So I was stuck. I didn't have any money, no credit cards, checks were not an option. And so I went to one of those cash advance places where you can get an advance on your paycheck that's coming up. And I went and I got a cash advance.

And then I went to Magic Mountain. And I had a great time. No problems. I got to eat whatever I wanted to eat, go on all the rides I wanted to go on. I got to have a good time. But later on, all of that began to catch up with me. And the whole paycheck advance thing, just quick side note, if I could be a fatherly figure, if you're ever thinking about doing that, never do that, okay? It's not worth it. It'll cost you greatly. It...

It cost me greatly. And then all the other stuff too. I mean, there was a whole lot of things that were going on. But the consequences of my scheming. I wanted to go. I didn't have the money. So I schemed away to kind of be sneaky and underhanded and get there anyways. And it cost me greatly. Now, a lot of times, the consequences are not immediate. For Jacob, we see he walks away with nothing. He

It was immediate for him. He didn't get those things that he had inherited. Sometimes, though, the consequences catch up with us later on. And so there are those times where we think, well, I've gotten away with it. It's not a big deal. Look, I mean, it worked. But the Lord would want you to know, we don't get away with anything. Paul tells us in Galatians 6, verse 7, do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Don't be deceived about this. Don't be confused about it. Don't trick yourself into thinking that you can get away with something. He says, God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, you will reap. And so if you sow schemes, secret, sneaky, underhanded plots and plans...

you're going to reap the consequences for that. And those schemes will cost you. It will squander your resources and destroy your relationships. You could consider the temptation that Satan brought to Jesus. Remember that time he took Jesus to the tall mountain, overlooking the whole world? And as he showed him the whole world, Satan said to Jesus, you know, all this could be yours right now.

All you have to do is bow down and worship me. And you can have it all. Now, Jesus came to save the world. And Satan is giving him an easy way out. You don't have to go to the cross. You don't have to suffer the crucifixion. You don't have to go through all that. That's going to be very difficult. Let me give you an easier way. It's a scheme. You can have it all right now. Now, if Jesus had accepted that offer...

He didn't, and praise God for that. But if he had, he would have gained everything and lost it in the same moment. He would have gained the world, but he would have lost the world for eternity. Because what Jesus came to accomplish was to bring salvation to the world for eternity. And there was only one way to do that, and it was for him to die upon the cross for our sins.

But in this scheme, it's like, okay, you can get what you want. That's what you came for. That's what you want. That's what you desire. You can get that. Here's an easier way, different than what the Father has established as the way. And that's an important point. There may be things that God has for you, but we sometimes try to get those things the easy way. It's schemes, it's plots, it's plans, and it's going to cost us.

That's why Jesus said in Mark chapter 8 verse 36, for what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? What profit is it for you if you scheme and you plot and you plan and you get everything and you're the richest person alive, but then you spend eternity in hell? What profit is that?

That's the issue, or one of the issues with schemes. It's looking at the immediate. I can get what I want right now without thinking about the consequences and without thinking about eternity. Schemes squander your resources, both here in this life and in eternity. And so I would ask you and I would encourage you to live without scheming. Put away those things. Stop following the example of this family.

Well, the final point we see in verse 44 and 45, and here we see that schemes steal your time. Schemes steal your time. Verse 44 says...

This is Rebecca talking to Jacob still. She says, So she tells Jacob, flee, drop everything, abort, and run away, and stay there forever.

till I call you back. It'll just be a few days. Here, Rebecca is doing some damage control. She's the one who initiated this scheme, overhearing the conversation with Isaac and Esau, putting it into motion, instructing Jacob what to do. And now she continues to scheme to try to keep the consequences from unfolding, to keep the results from happening. And so she says, go stay there a few days.

Now, what she thought would be a few days turns into 20 years that Jacob is there in Haran with Rebecca's brother. He returns to the promised land 20 years later. He's married. He has 12 sons and a daughter. He's blessed. And yet those 20 years were 20 years full of difficult, painful lessons that he had to learn.

as a result of these schemes that were happening. And so he returns 20 years later instead of a few days later. He lost a good amount of time as he went up there to Haran. But not just the time that he was away. Notice Rebecca says, I'll send for you and bring you back after your brother's forgotten about what you've done. She says, why should I be bereaved also of you both in one day? Why should I lose you both?

If he kills you and then he's a murderer, so I'm going to lose both you and him. So let's do it this way. But she's planning to bring Jacob back as soon as possible. But here's what's interesting about that. Rebecca is not spoken of again in the Bible as far as the events unfolding. She's spoken of in the sense of, you know, she's mentioned as the brother of Laban when Jacob arrives there.

or the sister of Laban, rather. But she's not part of any of the accounts after this. This is the last account that she's a part of, except for the next chapter when she finally talks to Isaac and sends Jacob away. This is it. We don't hear of her again. We don't have a record of her death. But as we look at this, it seems likely that Rebekah died while Jacob was gone.

In fact, Jewish tradition says that Rebekah did die while Jacob was gone and that Esau buried her at night because of his shame as a son. He was, you know, a shameful son in that way. And so he buried her at night because of that shame. We don't know that. The Bible doesn't say that. But it does seem likely that she died while Jacob was gone. And that's important to consider because remember,

Each parent had their favorite child. And Rebecca's favorite was Jacob. Rebecca and Jacob were close. They were best friends, let's say, as well as mother and son. But as a result of this scheme, they lost all future time together. They lost that relationship. They lost that time together. They lost those moments together. And even more than that, they lost the last moments together.

So Jacob did not get to be there for his mom's final days. He didn't get to be alongside of her. He didn't get to say goodbye. He didn't get to be there for that. And then she also missed out on having Jacob there with her in those final days to be comfort to her, to be strength for her. They missed out. They lost out on this time together. And some of this is crucial time together.

This is the result of schemes. It steals away time and relationships and whatever it is that God may want to do. And so this is why I would encourage you this morning to live without scheming. Now, as we're scheming and plotting and planning, we may calculate, okay, yeah, this is going to happen. It'll be a couple of days before things come back to normal.

Right? They'll cool off. He'll cool off. She'll cool off. They'll get over it. We'll work it out. You know, it might be rough for a couple days, but then after that, things will turn back to normal. But sometimes what we calculate as a few days can easily turn into 20 years. It steals away our time when we're sneaky and underhanded and scheming.

So live without scheming. Now, as we've been talking about this, mainly I've been looking at these examples from Jacob and Esau and talking about the cost and the consequences that impact this life. There's much more that we could factor in here to this whole idea of scheming. And there's eternal consequences that we could consider as well. But I think in these three things from their example, these are enough.

for us to stop and take notice and give God an opportunity to uncover and reveal and deal with any schemes that might be going on in our hearts. These things are serious enough for us to say, I need to stop that, to turn and repent of those things and to follow the Lord in the way that he's called us to.

But sometimes we don't turn from our schemes because we are convinced we have a really good reason. The end result is going to be good. So I'm going to do this plot. I'm going to do this scheme. I'm going to work in this way. And so that I can, well, accomplish something good from it. I'm sure that Rebecca and Jacob felt this way.

Because Rebecca had received a word from the Lord when she was pregnant with these two twins. Back in Genesis 25, 23, God told her that the older would serve the younger. He told her that. And so when Isaac's about to bless Esau, I can imagine Rebecca thinking, that's not what God said was going to happen. Jacob's the one who's supposed to be blessed. So let's make that happen.

to fulfill because that's what God told me was going to take place. She probably thought she was doing something good. And we are good at convincing ourselves that as well. And maybe you have something that God's told you about and said, hey, I want to do this for you. I want this to be part of your life. But how we get there is really important. It matters how we get there, how we achieve it, and how it takes place. When we try to do things ourselves with our ways,

being scheming and sneaky and underhanded and things that are not right in order to try to get to something that is right or something that is good, that's not the way that God works. That's not the way that God would have it. And what we end up doing is we miss out on what it is we're striving for. And instead, what we receive is hurt and heartache and sorrow and pain and lost relationships and lost resources and lost years.

Schemes are a good way to destroy your life. And so learn from the example of Esau and Jacob and Rebekah and Isaac. They're all scheming. They're all plotting. They're all planning. And let me remind you again of what Warren Wiersbe says. Faith is living without scheming. Faith. This is what we must do instead of scheming. We must trust God.

We must trust God. It's God who is overseeing, and he's able to handle these things. He's able to take care of these things, but he's also able to see all the things that we try to do underhandedly. Last week, I was in court for about three and a half days, not for anything wrong I had done, but for jury duty.

And that three and a half days was the jury selection process. Now, if you've ever been part of a jury, you know it normally doesn't take three and a half days just to pick the jury. But this was a difficult case. It was going to be a very long case. And so they started out with 200 of us as prospective jurors. And then they began the narrowing down process. And it took three and a half days. It was...

Very boring to sit there. And so they'd bring people into the jury box and interview them. And we'd have to sit there and pay attention as they asked them the questions. And then they'd eliminate some of them. And then they'd bring in a new set. And they'd ask them the very same questions over and over again and eliminate them and bring in the next and bring in the next and bring in the next and just eliminating, eliminating, eliminating. When it got to the end, when the final jury was selected, I was among the group of-- it was about 12 or 13 of us.

who had not been interviewed. We hadn't been put in the jury box, but everybody else had been interviewed, had been asked the same five questions, and we sat through all those five questions. It was a pretty hideous process, but there was something I found pretty interesting about that process. Because as part of the interview process, the questions were, well, can you serve on this case? And you know how it is. Everybody wants to get off of jury duty, right? And

And so during one of the breaks, I overheard a conversation between a couple of the guys who were talking about the different things that they had found as they had Googled about how to get off of jury duty. And of course, you know, that's not very surprising. But it was interesting to watch them then try those things that they read about to get off jury duty. And what I thought was interesting was the judge.

Of course, the judge expects people to try to get off jury duty, right? He knows this is happening. That's not a surprise. And so what he was doing was holding people accountable for their words. And it was amazing because he would say, well, you know, can you be a fair judge in this matter? And they would say, well, no, I can't. And then he would say, well, why not? And then they would come up with some explanation.

And then he would break down that explanation and ask them to explain it further and ask them to explain it further. And he would challenge it and challenge it and challenge it until finally at the end, he would ask them, can you be a fair judge in this matter, a fair juror in this matter? And they would say, yeah. He broke down. They were hoping, you know, just throughout the thing, well, you know, I had a bad experience once or, you know, I'm a racist or whatever. And then, you know, I get off of it.

But the judge saw right through that. And he held them accountable for what they said. Well, I can't because I have these child care issues. Well, what about this family member? What about that family member? What about this solution? What about that? And he would challenge. And so many times they would come back and be like, OK, yeah, I can. I can work it out. And holding people accountable to their words. Listen, if a judge, a human judge in our courts can do that,

you know that God is able to do that and much more. He's able to see right to our hearts. He's able to see the motives and intentions. And if we're scheming and plotting and planning, we can put on a great show. We can convince everybody around us, I'm doing this for the good of whoever. I'm doing this for other people's benefit. But if that's not really where our hearts are at, God sees right through that and he will hold us accountable for our schemes.

Don't be deceived. God is not mott. And the way to not live by scheming is to live by faith. Let me remind you of what I shared a few moments ago at the beginning. In James chapter 4, verse 1 and 2, we talked about James saying, where is it that fights and wars come from among you?

Hey, don't they come from your desires for pleasure? Don't they come from your longings? And so you fight and you battle. This is the issue. Your heart is the issue. It's rooted in selfishness. Well, then James goes on to give us the solution in James chapter 4, verses 7 through 10. He says, therefore, so here's what to do about your condition. First of all, submit to God.

Instead of scheming, instead of plotting and planning and doing these underhanded things to get your way or to get what you want, submit to God. That is, surrender to him. Give him full authority in your life. Let him have the final say on everything and be obedient to what God says in his word. Be obedient to his instruction and remember that he is most interested in your heart.

Remember, Jesus said, hey, you've heard it said, don't murder. But I say to you, if you've hated your brother in your heart, you're guilty of murder. It's your heart that God's concerned about. So don't try to submit to God by just the letter of the law, like, hey, I didn't kill anybody. But where's your heart at? Submit to God. It starts with the gospel, of course. Submit to God as far as what he has declared about your sinful condition. Agree with God about that.

confess that sinfulness to God and receive Jesus Christ, the one that he's provided as the solution to your sinfulness. Submit to God because he said this is the only way to have everlasting life. Don't try to scheme your own. Don't try to con God or try to make up something on your own, but submit to God and his plans and what he has declared. Believe in Jesus Christ and turn from your sin to follow him.

Secondly, James goes on in verse 8 to say, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And so if you want to live without scheming, first you submit to God. Give him full authority in your life. And then you draw near to God. It's tempting when our schemes are uncovered to run from God. Yes, you are scheming. Yes, you are conniving. Yeah, you've got a wicked heart just like the rest of us. Don't run away. God's not surprised.

He knew that was there. And that's why he provided salvation. And that's why he provided these reminders for us and this message this morning to tell us, don't run, but draw near to God and he will draw near to you. That's his promise. And so instead of scheming and trying to do things your way to get what you want, let God have the final authority in your life. Submit to him, make him your

the one that you're scheming after. You want to plot and plan and connive and well, do that to get to God. Put all that energy, all those desires, those cravings that you have and pursue God with that passion. Instead of pursuing the things that you desire for your own pleasures, pursue that relationship with God. Get to know him. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

And then finally, humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Humble yourself. Our schemes not only are rooted in selfishness, but also are rooted in pride because, well, we're so proud, we're so arrogant that we think we can get what we want and not have to pay for it. We can get what we want. We're the most important. It's what I want that matters. It's pride.

And we need to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. Lay ourselves open before the Lord and say, this is who I really am. I really am conniving and scheming. I really do have these manipulative tendencies and desires and I'm fighting and warring and coveting and lusting, but it's for these selfish pleasures that I have. Humble yourself. Lay yourself bare before the Lord. And then notice the promise. He will lift you up.

You see, there are good things that God has for you. And he does want to give you blessings and he does want to work in your life, but he doesn't want you to obtain those things by scheming, by pretending like nothing's wrong, by pretending like there is no problem. He wants you to obtain those things by coming to him, submitting to his authority, getting to know him and being real with God, humbling yourself and saying, this is who I really am.

And God is able to take your weakness and your brokenness and your submission and do amazing things in your life with it. And so if you want to destroy your life, by all means, scheme and plot and plan and follow the example of Jacob and Esau and Isaac and Rebekah. But if you want to have a blessed life, submit to God, draw near to him, and humble yourself before him. Amen.

Amen. I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up and close us in a song. And as they come on up, let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and the challenge to our hearts. And God, I do pray that you would expose, if there is any schemes or plots or plans, Lord, it's almost not really a question of if, but Lord, I pray that you would just lay open those things that are there in our hearts, God, that you would help us to see those things and

And Lord, that you would help us as we identify them to turn from them and to repent of them. Lord, that we would submit to you and what you say. Lord, that you would be the full and final authority of our lives.

And Lord, I pray that you would help us to put knowing you and drawing near to you as the highest priority of our hearts and lives. Lord, that we would seek after you, that we would want to hear your voice. And Lord, that you would lead us and guide us. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to humble ourselves in your sight, Lord.

that we would be open, that we would be genuine and honest, and Lord, that we would allow you to deal with our wickedness, Lord, with our schemes, with our conniving at all of our issues, Lord. And so I pray that you would help us to surrender ourselves completely to you, and Lord, that we would stop trying to get these things on our own. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.