Faith - Hebrews 11:21

well, you know, there's a franchise I'd like to buy. It's called Papa Murphy's Pizza.

I don't know if they have those in Virginia or not, but they have it in Kentucky. And he was like,

you know, I've been thinking about buying one and, uh, would, I think you'd be the guy that could run it for me.

And at the time I'm thinking, where's this coming from? I'm working in college administration. This is, I don't run a business, anything like that. And, uh, And he, I basically say, I would never work in a restaurant. That's just not me. And he said,

well, I promise you that if you ever change your mind, I'm going to buy one of those things and you can run it for me.

And I said, okay. Well, I am absolutely 100% confident that if I went back to Kentucky right now, central Kentucky, and I went to John, and I said, John, I'm ready. Buy that place. I am confident that he would not buy that place. Sometimes there are promises made, and we know they won't be fulfilled. And other times there are promises made, and we joyfully receive them. So this little verse today, it's packed with lots of history, really, it's short, but we have to remember it in the context of Hebrews chapter 11, when the preacher says,

now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.

So Jacob, as you recall, he gets a large chunk of Genesis. And through a lot of his life, he's very devious. He's very deceptive. He apparently steals Esau's birthright by tricking his father. He works for his father-in-law and dupes him out of entire flocks of sheep. And of course, there were redeeming qualities about Jacob too. He seemed to be hardworking. He seemed to be determined. But perhaps if we looked at the life of Jacob, As a movie, I don't know that if we got two-thirds of the way through the movie that we would feel very endeared towards him, that we would feel very confident or loving towards this man who spent a lot of his life deceiving other people, trying to take matters into his own hands. He tried to take matters into his own hands so much so that he had a heavenly encounter and wrestled with God for a whole night and demanded a blessing. He wouldn't let go until you give a blessing. Demanding a blessing. Give me this blessing. And what he came away from in that encounter was a permanent limp as his hip was injured. Then eventually we come to Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 21,

by faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

And so we take this verse and we transport it back to Genesis chapters 47 and 48. And Jacob has reached the end of his life. He's in Egypt at this point. He's not even in his own land, the land that was promised to Abraham and the land that was promised to him. He's 147. And it says that he's bowing in worship over the head of his staff. And one has to wonder, you know, did he need this staff from that moment that he demanded the blessing and his hip was injured? Did he use this for the rest of his life? And now as he leans on his staff at the foot of his bed, he is dying. and close to death. And he doesn't demand a blessing from God, but rather he in faith bestows a blessing upon Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. He's in no position to wrestle. He's in no position to fight. He's in no position to make a demand. He's feeble and he's frail. He can't make demands. And in this moment that he blesses the sons of Joseph, he brings them into the promises made to him by God in Genesis chapter 35, where the Lord reaffirms to Jacob that I will make you a great people, that I will give you a land to possess, just as he did to Abraham and Isaac before him. And so as Jacob and his offspring are in a foreign land, and they're at the mercy of the Egyptians, and he's a refugee in crisis. It would seem that the promises of God to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they're gone. They're void. They're null. There's no hope for these things. They couldn't be farther off. Because, you know, to fly to Egypt today would take a day, right? But to be so far from his land in Egypt then, that can seem insurmountable. And who knows what these Egyptians will do to his lineage, to his heritage, to his people, right? So many uncertainties. But what at 147 years old did Jacob bless Joseph's sons with? Well, that they would be partakers of that land, that they would be partakers in that promise to be fruitful and multiply, and that they would one day possess a land far off that no one currently sees, and that seemingly is not their own. And brothers and sisters, so when I read this verse here, I look and I say, that's faith, right? That he can still in that moment, Pray that prayer and still in that moment, pull those boys into that blessing. This man had a very big faith and he had a very big faith in a very big God. And so as we also see in Hebrews chapter 11, therefore God is not ashamed to call him, right? Part of his own, right? God is not ashamed to be his God. So as we stand here today, brothers and sisters, in this garb, Keith commented on my sweatshirt that I was wearing as I shared with you guys tonight. As we stand in the things we wear today, as we stand in this old fellowship hall with the paneled ceilings and the kitchen that was once sinking into the floors, right? Sinking into the foundations. We cannot forget, or we often do forget that one day, just as Jacob was confident, we will one day be transformed, right? We can sometimes forget that the promises of God will one day come to pass as Jacob was confident that they would. We know by faith that the promises of God will come to pass. That whether we're in a strange land, as we are as believers, or as Jacob was in Egypt, the promises of God still stand. And so brothers and sisters, we are like Jacob, aren't we? And in a world that feels more than ever frayed by pandemic and politics, we can forget the promises still stand. And we can feel as feeble as this man did, as he was at the end of his deathbed, pronouncing blessings upon Joseph's sons. But brothers and sisters, it hit me afresh just a few weeks ago that God is still in the act today of preparing a land for us, right? That there are still promises yet to be realized for us as believers today. that he will one day perfect his creation, and that once more, by faith, you and I have a chance to partake in the promises of God. And this isn't just some abstract principle, this is a solid fact, brothers and sisters. And I ask you today, can you see it? Can you feel that reality, that the promises of God are still to come true for us today? Jacob knew it would come to pass, and so I ask you, do you expectantly live that that truth will be. And as Charles Spurgeon said, do we take the truth of this verse here? And do we boldly proclaim the blessings of God to those people outside of our doors? As Jacob stood at the end of his death bed and he blessed these two young men, he stood at the precipice of eternity. It was moments away. It wasn't years off. It wasn't even a week off. It wasn't 20 years away. He was right at the precipice where eternity would soon be realized for him. And brothers and sisters, in the light of eternity, you and I stand on that same precipice. We are that close to eternity. We are that close to realizing transformed bodies, new creation, right? Promises revealed, promises kept. Christ dying on the cross and bringing back his kingdom, right? We're right there. We're right there today. So one, I see a great example of faith by Jacob here. that in spite of uncertainty, he knew it would still come to pass. And then I see one more thing. I see a great example of the sovereignty of God in this verse, because let's think on one more thing. The blessing of Ephraim and Manasseh is really a reminder to us that God is sovereign. As Keith mentioned on Sunday, these people would eventually become the Samaritans that we know of that were maligned and rejected by the rest of the Jewish people. But it was from Ephraim that the Northern Kingdom was found. It was from Ephraim that Joshua led the people into the Promised Land, right? It was from Ephraim that Once the Northern Kingdom fell, Hosea was still preaching and prophesying and he addressed his prophesying to the people of Ephraim because there was still a remnant of Ephraim left over after the fall of the Northern Kingdom for which he could talk to. And so these two grandsons of Jacob were seemingly outside of the promises for so long. And if you remember, Joseph, he was despised by his brothers. He was left in a pit to die, eventually sold to slavery. There could not have been anyone that seemed more far from the blessings of this promise than Joseph and his offspring. And yet, through the sovereignty of God, these people get roped back into the promise. And interestingly enough, Joseph isn't one of the 12 tribes of Israel, right? It's Ephraim and Manasseh, his two sons. So it's almost as if Joseph's descendants got a double portion of that blessing, right? A double portion of that promise. Two grandsons for one son. And I'm reminded in this story then, brothers and sisters, that all of the other sons of Jacob could not thwart the sovereign plans of God. And that gives me great hope for us today that we cannot personally thwart the sovereign plans of God. We can't knock it off track. We can't move God's intentions one smidgen because he's always got a plan and he's always in control, right? So this small verse, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 21, it's a big reminder to us today, brothers and sisters, that there are still absolute promises and guarantees yet to be fulfilled. As Jesus said in John chapter 14, verse three,

and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. That there I am, you may be also.

So church today, as we just finish contemplating on this verse, maybe encourage each other with that, right? That Christ is still coming to prepare a land for us, a place for us, and that we can partake in that. And because of that, we need to do, as Mark said several weeks ago,

keep our death right out in front of us.

knowing that these promises may come sooner or later for all of us, but we must spur each other on towards faithfulness. And then I just would leave, close this with a warning for anyone here. I don't always want to presume that everyone here are believers, right? I know that we are often in fellowship together. But the reality is that unless you act in faith and you live in faith towards God, These promises are not for you. You still stand on the precipice of eternity, but you may stand on the precipice of eternity in separation from God. And so every day, the Lord calls, and he calls you to trust in Jesus, and he calls you to believe. And so it's a grace that you're here today, whether you're a young kid or you're an older adult, it is the grace of God that you are here to hear the gospel. So that as you stand on the precipice of eternity, you can act in faith just as Jacob did. Let's pray. Father, thank you for Jacob. Thank you for, just the vast amount of lessons that we learned from his life as he lived a life of oftentimes disobedience, Lord, but also knowing that when it came to the end, that he was confident in your promises to him, that you would be faithful, that you would fulfill your word, and that you would bring all of your promises to fruition. It's in your son's name that we pray, amen.