Both Esau and Jacob reveal to us what it means to confess our need for deliverance. These twins were anything but identical. Who would have thought that two boys, conceived in the same moment, sharing the same womb and growing up with the same set of parents could lead such drastically different lives. Esau was a brawny man with no spiritual brains. Jacob was a conniving schemer who desired to appropriate God’s treasures with man’s methods. In this message, both men get exactly what they want while neither of them could foresee what was coming to them around the corner.
Two Troubling Appetites
Genesis 25:27-34
March 23, 2014 • Jeff Lyle
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Jacob 180
The 179th Degree
July 27, 2014 • Jeff Lyle
100 out of 100 people living in this generation are going to die. The younger you are, the harder it is for you to mentally process this fact. You will die someday. Your heart will stop, your brain will cease to fire neurotransmitters across the synapses, your respiratory system will shut down and someone you do not know who has been educated in the medical field will official pronounce that your story on earth has come to its end. Encouraged yet? Death is not something we like to speak casually of and this message which concludes our study of the life of Jacob is no exception. The man whom God had destined for a 180° turnaround moves through that final 179th degree as his amazing life comes to a close. How would Jacob die? The taker became a giver. The one who stole a blessing leaves one and the same man who lived for his own glory now points us toward the glory of Another. He may have lived poorly at times but Jacob’s final moments reveals to us how to die marvelously.
From Drought to Downpour
July 20, 2014 • Jeff Lyle
Jacob’s long season of sadness and loss became a time of unexpected rejoicing and renewal, his drought turned into a downpour. When we last left Jacob he was standing in the shards of shattered dreams. He believed his favorite son to have been wrenched away from him through a heartbreaking death. What Jacob did not know - for 22 years! – was that Joseph was alive and had risen to prominence in another land. This message traces the astounding pathway that reunited a grieving father with a long-lost son.
Apparent Death of a Dream
July 13, 2014 • Jeff Lyle
By watching Jacob, we can learn how best to respond when we also experience the apparent death of our dreams. Jacob's long journey brought him back to the land of God’s promise. Now things could finally settle down. Too bad that Jacob’s sons decided to stir things up again. This scene in Jacob’s life is one of anguish as his favorite son, Joseph, is suddenly wrenched away from him. Jacob had been living in a season of great delight but had unknowingly been sowing seeds of hostility in his oldest sons. When they acted out in wrath on this particular day, Jacob’s life fell apart again. How would the aged patriarch respond to his renewed grief?