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Max Lucado – Jacob and the Danger of Taking Shortcuts Instead of Trusting God · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This guy spends a day on the golf course with
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: his friend who happens to be a doctor. Comes home
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: from playing golf and the wife says, well, how was
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the golf game? He said, well, I played with the doctor.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: How'd that go? And the guy said, well, what would
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: you think if every time you were about to putt,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: somebody stuck a golf club in your ribs? What would
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: you think if every time you're about to hit the ball,
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  Speaker 1: somebody screamed in your backswing? And what would you think
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: if every time you hit a ball in the fairway,
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  Speaker 1: somebody walks up and they step on top of it
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: and press your ball down into the grass? The wife said, well,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: I don't think I would like it. He said, the
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  Speaker 1: doctor didn't either. You didn't like that joke, did you?
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  Speaker 1: It's not the best. It's not the best. But it
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  Speaker 1: does remind us that some people are not the easiest
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  Speaker 1: to get along with. We're looking at the story of
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  Speaker 1: a Bible character by the name of Jacob, of Jacob.
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  Speaker 1: He's an Old Testament, what's called a patriarch, one of
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  Speaker 1: the Mount Rushmore figures in the Old Testament. And the
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  Speaker 1: reason we love the story of Jacob is not so
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  Speaker 1: much for his success, but because of his struggles. And
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  Speaker 1: every time a person reads the story of Jacob, they think, wow,
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  Speaker 1: if God could use somebody like that, he perhaps could
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  Speaker 1: use someone like me. So installment chapter two on the
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  Speaker 1: story of Jacob is entitled Jacob versus shortcuts. Let's pray
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  Speaker 1: and then we'll get to work. Gracious heavenly father. Also
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  Speaker 1: full of goodness. So full of mercy. Please look with
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  Speaker 1: grace upon this weary and wounded world. so ravaged by
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  Speaker 1: a pandemic, so divided by hostility. And look with kindness
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  Speaker 1: upon our own lives. Have mercy, Heavenly Father, upon those
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  Speaker 1: of us who call ourselves your children but often behave
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  Speaker 1: like we're not. And especially please forgive our speaker for
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  Speaker 1: his sins are many. And help us even through the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament story of Jacob to see today's story, the
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  Speaker 1: story of Jesus. And in the name of Jesus, we pray.
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  Speaker 1: And all who agreed said. Now, to understand my introduction,
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  Speaker 1: you're going to need to hearken back to the days
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  Speaker 1: before mobile phones. Yes, there was such an era. In
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  Speaker 1: times past, not quite so distant as the days of Noah,
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  Speaker 1: and not quite so recent as today's headlines, there was
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  Speaker 1: a segment of history known as the days of the landline.
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  Speaker 1: Please raise your hand if you can remember the days
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  Speaker 1: of the landline. Yeah, some of you are so old,
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  Speaker 1: somebody had to help you get your hand up. Difficult
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  Speaker 1: as it may be for millennials today, and Gen Zers
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  Speaker 1: to believe. Phones were not always mobile. They were not.
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  Speaker 1: They did not always fit into pockets. They did not
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  Speaker 1: always fit into purses. Phones were not wireless. Phones were
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  Speaker 1: not smart. There was a day in which phones were
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  Speaker 1: attached to cables that attached to walls that attached to
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  Speaker 1: telephone lines. It's true. Ask your parents. In those days,
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  Speaker 1: we walked to school each day in blinding snowstorms. With
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: no jackets to warm us, GPS to guide us, or
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  Speaker 1: apps to entertain us. Those were dark, dark days. We
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  Speaker 1: had no cell phones. And alas, in my case, I
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  Speaker 1: had to use the pay phone. It was 1973. Richard
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  Speaker 1: Nixon was president. Watergate was brewing. And I lived in
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  Speaker 1: a college dormitory that was, for all practical purposes, cut
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  Speaker 1: off from the outside world. We were only allowed to
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  Speaker 1: make local calls from that telephone, that landline in our
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  Speaker 1: college dorm room. So in order to speak to someone
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  Speaker 1: in another city, we had to use this antique tool
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  Speaker 1: called the payphone. Payphone. Underline the word pay Yes, we
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  Speaker 1: had to pay to use the phone. And this would
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  Speaker 1: not have been a problem except for the fact that
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I had a crush on a sweet young lady who
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  Speaker 1: lived six hours away. In order for me to talk
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  Speaker 1: to her, I had to pay money. I know you're
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  Speaker 1: looking at me, your eyes are widening to the size
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  Speaker 1: of quarters, and that's what I needed. Quarters, quarters, quarters.
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  Speaker 1: I had very little money. But I had an idea.
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  Speaker 1: And this idea is the reason that I share this story.
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  Speaker 1: I could charge the cost of that call to someone else. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: the phone company allowed it. But to whom did I
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  Speaker 1: charge the phone calls? To my parents?
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  Speaker 2: Oh, no.
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  Speaker 1: No. to the girl who lived six hours away. She
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  Speaker 1: was every bit as broke as I was. No, I
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  Speaker 1: charged the long distance calls to a vacuum cleaner store.
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  Speaker 1: I found them in a phone book. I thought they've
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  Speaker 1: got plenty of money. I don't know why I thought that.
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  Speaker 1: Did I know the store owner? No. No. Did I
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  Speaker 1: ask his permission? No. Did I think I was doing
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  Speaker 1: anything dishonest? I think that's the problem. I don't think
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  Speaker 1: I was thinking. I think my love-fogged, underdeveloped, barely pubescent,
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  Speaker 1: 18-year-old brain did not know how to process. and certainly
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  Speaker 1: did not know how to wait until I had saved
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  Speaker 1: enough money, I wanted to get on the phone. So
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  Speaker 1: I did. No, I don't know. I said to myself,
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  Speaker 1: I'm using a pay phone. How will anyone find out? Well,
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  Speaker 1: here's how. The store owner saw the charges and he
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  Speaker 1: called the phone company. The phone company saw the number
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  Speaker 1: that I dialed and called it. They asked the Sweet
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  Speaker 1: young thing on the other end of the line who
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  Speaker 1: answered if she knew anyone who might be making phone
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  Speaker 1: calls from a pay phone on the campus of Abilene
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  Speaker 1: Christian University. Her answer, why, yes, I do. Innocently, as
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  Speaker 1: far as she knew, I'd won the lottery. As quick
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  Speaker 1: as you can say, now that was dumb. The dorm
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  Speaker 1: director paid me a visit. I was sent home. to
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  Speaker 1: the office of the college dean. I wrote an apology
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  Speaker 1: to the store owner, a check to the phone company,
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  Speaker 1: and some 50 years later am using that story to
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  Speaker 1: illustrate the stupidity of shortcuts. That's what I took. I
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  Speaker 1: took a shortcut. Rather than take the honest, the respectable,
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  Speaker 1: albeit uphill, longer path, I took a wide, downhill, dishonest one.
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  Speaker 1: Now don't you look at me in that tone of voice.
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  Speaker 1: You did the same. You did too. And so did
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  Speaker 1: every other human being other than Jesus Christ who has
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  Speaker 1: ever taken a breath or taken a step On God's
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  Speaker 1: green earth. The scripture says this. All have sinned. Taken shortcuts.
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  Speaker 1: And fall short of the glory of God. Those are
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  Speaker 1: my parentheses. That phrase is not in the Bible. But
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  Speaker 1: work with me for just a moment. Isn't sin simply
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  Speaker 1: a shortcut? Isn't sin simply the unwillingness to trust God?
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  Speaker 1: The unwillingness to wait on God. Isn't sin simply the
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  Speaker 1: matter of taking things into my own hands. Thinking that
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  Speaker 1: I can get there faster than God can. And when
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  Speaker 1: we sin we take shortcuts. That's what happened in the
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  Speaker 1: Garden of Eden. God had promised Adam and Eve that
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  Speaker 1: he would take care of them. They had domain over
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  Speaker 1: the garden. And yet. Rather than wait on the father
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  Speaker 1: to fulfill his promises, they took matters into their own hands.
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  Speaker 1: And so they reached for the fruit. Max reached for
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  Speaker 1: the phone and you. You're thinking, do I have to
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  Speaker 1: answer that? Well, not out loud. But could we agree
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  Speaker 1: that all of us have chosen the quick and easy
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  Speaker 1: route on occasion? And that sin at its root is
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  Speaker 1: simply an unwillingness to trust, an unwillingness to wait, to
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  Speaker 1: follow God's plan. We take matters seriously. into our own hands.
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  Speaker 1: That's what Rebecca and Jacob did. Again, we're studying the
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  Speaker 1: life of Jacob. On the timeline, we're about 2,000 years
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  Speaker 1: before the birth of Christ. On the map, we're somewhere
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  Speaker 1: in southern Israel. And we're looking at Jacob. Jacob was
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  Speaker 1: the son of Isaac. Jacob was the grandson of Abraham.
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  Speaker 1: And so he's only a couple of generations removed from
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  Speaker 1: the promise that God made to Abraham that through the
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  Speaker 1: lineage of Abraham, all of the world would be blessed.
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  Speaker 1: And as we turn the page to Genesis chapter 27,
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  Speaker 1: Isaac is on his deathbed. At least he thinks he is.
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  Speaker 1: The truth is he was nowhere near death. He was
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  Speaker 1: 137 years old, but he lived to be 180. Still,
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  Speaker 1: here's what happened. When Isaac was old and his eyes
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  Speaker 1: were so weak that he could no longer see, he
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  Speaker 1: called for Esau, his older son, and said to him,
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  Speaker 1: my son. Here I am, he answered. Isaac said, I
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  Speaker 1: am now an old man and I don't know the
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  Speaker 1: day of my death. Now then, get your equipment, your
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  Speaker 1: quiver and bow, and go out to the open country
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  Speaker 1: to hunt some wild game for me. And prepare me
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  Speaker 1: the kind of tasty food I like. And bring it
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  Speaker 1: to me so that I may give you my blessing
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  Speaker 1: before I die. We discussed this blessing in detail last week.
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  Speaker 1: It's the birthright. It's the birthright. And materially speaking, it
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  Speaker 1: was a big deal. It was twice the inheritance. It
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  Speaker 1: was a position of head over the clan. And spiritually speaking,
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  Speaker 1: it was super significant as well. Because it.
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  Speaker 1: Designated the person through whom the bloodline of the Savior
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  Speaker 1: would pass. Typically, this blessing or this birthright would be
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  Speaker 1: given to the older, to the firstborn son, Esau. And
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  Speaker 1: so this would be no problem except for the fact
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  Speaker 1: that God in his sovereignty had announced that he had
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  Speaker 1: designated it and destined it for Jacob, the second son.
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  Speaker 1: And he told Rebekah this, the mother. He told her
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  Speaker 1: in a dream that the older will serve the younger.
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  Speaker 1: God destined Jacob to receive Isaac's blessing. So Rebekah knew this.
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  Speaker 1: Jacob knew this. Yet rather than wait to receive it
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  Speaker 1: honorably and publicly, Jacob and Rebekah took a shortcut. Rebekah
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  Speaker 1: spoke to her son Jacob. I just overheard your father
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  Speaker 1: talking with your brother Esau. He said, bring me some
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  Speaker 1: game and fix me a hearty meal so that I
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  Speaker 1: can eat and bless you with God's blessing before I die. Now,
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  Speaker 1: my son, listen to me. Do what I tell you.
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  Speaker 1: Go to the flock and get me two young goats.
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  Speaker 1: Pick the best. I'll prepare them into a hearty meal,
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  Speaker 1: the kind that your father loves. Then you'll take it
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  Speaker 1: to your father Esau. and he'll eat it and bless
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  Speaker 1: you before he dies. Jacob was nervous. When you read
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  Speaker 1: this text on your own, you'll see that he pushed
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  Speaker 1: back initially, saying something like, well, even a cataract-eyed old
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  Speaker 1: man can tell us apart. So Rebekah promised to take
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  Speaker 1: the blame. So Esau was hunting, and Rebekah and Jacob
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  Speaker 1: took time to cook a lamb and then cut a
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  Speaker 1: goatskin Jacob put the goat skin on over his shoulders
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  Speaker 1: and he entered his father's tent. Jacob said to him,
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  Speaker 1: I am Esau. No, he wasn't. He was Jacob, but
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  Speaker 1: he said to his father, I'm Esau, your first son.
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  Speaker 1: I have done what you told me. Now sit up
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  Speaker 1: and eat some meat of the animal that I have
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  Speaker 1: hunted for you and then bless me. Jacob wanted the blessing.
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca wanted Jacob to have the blessing. But what neither
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  Speaker 1: of the two were willing to do was wait on
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  Speaker 1: God to orchestrate the presentation of the blessing. So they
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  Speaker 1: tricked Isaac and Isaac fell for the trick. Then his
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  Speaker 1: father Isaac said to him, come here my son and
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  Speaker 1: kiss me. So he went to him and kissed him.
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  Speaker 1: When Isaac caught smell of his clothes, he blessed him
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  Speaker 1: and he said, oh the smell of my son It's
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  Speaker 1: like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.
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  Speaker 1: May God give you heaven's dew and earth's riches and
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  Speaker 1: abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve you
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  Speaker 1: and peoples bow down to you. Be Lord over your
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  Speaker 1: brothers and may the sons of your mother bow down
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  Speaker 1: to you. After Isaac finished blessing him and Jacob had
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  Speaker 1: scarcely left his father's presence, his brother Esau came in
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  Speaker 1: from Bethlehem. hunting. Esau entered the tent expecting to receive
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  Speaker 1: the endowment, but the blessing had been given. And when
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  Speaker 1: Esau heard his father's words, he burst out with a
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  Speaker 1: loud and bitter cry, bless me, bless me to my father.
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  Speaker 1: But Isaac said, your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing.
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  Speaker 1: Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me also.
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  Speaker 1: Bless me, my father. Now you and I see an
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  Speaker 1: immediate solution to this crisis, don't we? Grab deceitful Jacob
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  Speaker 1: by the nape of the neck and drag him back
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  Speaker 1: into the tent where Isaac can unbless him and rightly
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  Speaker 1: bless Esau. But as odd as it may sound to
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  Speaker 1: our Western ears, the culture of simply did not permit that.
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  Speaker 1: Once a blessing had been given, it could not be retracted.
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  Speaker 1: A blessing had a built-in binding element. It was irreversible.
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  Speaker 1: It was irrevocable. Isaac could still give Esau a secondary blessing,
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  Speaker 1: but Jacob had already cashed the check. As you might imagine,
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  Speaker 1: this did not help the relationship between Jacob and Esau.
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  Speaker 1: The relationship between the twins crashed like a lawn chair
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  Speaker 1: in a tornado. So Esau hated Jacob. And Jacob said
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  Speaker 1: in his heart, I will kill my brother Jacob. Rebekah
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  Speaker 1: overheard Esau's anger and gave Jacob the heads up and
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  Speaker 1: urged him to scoot while the scooting was good. And
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  Speaker 1: so Jacob did. Jacob skedaddled. Rebecca and Jacob got what
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  Speaker 1: they wanted. But at what a cost? At what a cost?
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  Speaker 1: We're only a story into Jacob's story and yet tally
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  Speaker 1: up the damage of Jacob's life thus far. He had
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  Speaker 1: the blessing, but look at this. His family was splintered.
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  Speaker 1: He was penniless. He had no home. He was running
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  Speaker 1: for his life. His brother wanted to kill him and
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  Speaker 1: his father had been humiliated by him. And as far
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  Speaker 1: as we know, he never saw his mother again. We'll
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  Speaker 1: press the pause button on the story. But next week
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  Speaker 1: when we pick this story up, you're going to see
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  Speaker 1: that Jacob was so broke, he had to use a
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  Speaker 1: rock for a pillow and but you're not going to
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  Speaker 1: want to miss that story. All because he took a shortcut.
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  Speaker 1: He could not wait. He could not wait. I wonder
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  Speaker 1: if we can imagine how this story might have gone
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  Speaker 1: otherwise had Rebecca been more patient. Had she upon receiving
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  Speaker 1: that message from the Lord that the older will serve
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  Speaker 1: the younger, what if she had gone to her husband
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  Speaker 1: and said, I don't understand what I heard from the
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  Speaker 1: Lord But it seems to me that Jacob is to
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  Speaker 1: receive the blessing. And suppose the two of them then
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  Speaker 1: had gathered their two sons and said, we don't know
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  Speaker 1: exactly why and we don't know exactly when, but we're
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  Speaker 1: going to trust the Lord in this and Jacob will
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  Speaker 1: receive the blessing. And Esau, you'll still be blessed. You'll
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  Speaker 1: still be blessed. But we're just going to be obedient.
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  Speaker 1: And at the right time, Jacob will receive the the
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  Speaker 1: blessing of the firstborn. And maybe today, thousands of years later,
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  Speaker 1: we would be reading the story of a peaceful family
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  Speaker 1: instead of a family that had endured an eruption from
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  Speaker 1: whence it would never truly recover. All because they took
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  Speaker 1: a shortcut. Now as we begin to wrap this lesson up,
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  Speaker 1: you know the question I'm going to ask, right? What
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  Speaker 1: shortcuts are you taking? Do you sense the Lord prompting
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  Speaker 1: you to remember some times in which you're not trusting
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  Speaker 1: but you're taking matters into your own hands you know
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  Speaker 1: we all take shortcuts we cut corners we cheat if
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  Speaker 1: not the owner of the vacuum cleaner store we cheat
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  Speaker 1: on our taxes we cheat on our spouse We deceive,
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  Speaker 1: not with goat skins and a lamb, but with lies
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  Speaker 1: or exaggerations or misstatements. We polish apples. We inflate facts.
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  Speaker 1: We drop names. We work the system. God wants me
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  Speaker 1: to have this job, we think, so we pad our resumes.
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  Speaker 1: God wants me to be happy, someone thinks. And I
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  Speaker 1: have found happiness in the arms of a woman who's
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  Speaker 1: not my wife. I know God wants me to tell
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  Speaker 1: the truth, we think, but in this case, the truth
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  Speaker 1: will get me into trouble. A little lie won't hurt.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder how many shortcuts have been justified with the
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  Speaker 1: best of intentions. At the sentencing for her role in
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: the 2019 college admissions bribery scandal, actress Lori Loughlin said,
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  Speaker 1: Or Aunt Becky, to all you Full House fans. She
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  Speaker 1: addressed the court. I made an awful decision. I went
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  Speaker 1: along with the plan to give my daughters an unfair
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  Speaker 1: advantage in the college admissions process. In doing so, I
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  Speaker 1: ignored my intuition. And I allowed myself, look at this,
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  Speaker 1: to be swayed from my moral compass. I thought I
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  Speaker 1: was acting out of love for my children, but in reality...
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  Speaker 1: It only undermined and diminished my daughter's abilities and accomplishments.
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  Speaker 1: For the sake of our kids, we parents will do
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  Speaker 1: almost anything. But in the end, a wrong shortcut, even
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  Speaker 1: for the right reasons, always causes somebody pain. So let's
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  Speaker 1: state it very clearly. There are no shortcuts with God. None. Zilch. Zero.
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  Speaker 1: He does not need your foot on his axillary. He
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  Speaker 1: does not need my help with his plans. If God
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  Speaker 1: wants Jacob to receive the blessing, Jacob's going to receive
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  Speaker 1: the blessing. Rebecca need not connive. Jacob need not deceive.
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  Speaker 1: If God wants Jacob to carry and wear the mantle,
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  Speaker 1: it's as good as done. All that Rebecca and Jacob
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  Speaker 1: needed to do was this. Just wait on the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Just wait on the Lord. What are you seeking? What
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  Speaker 1: are you wanting? What are you needing? A spouse? Well,
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  Speaker 1: wait on the Lord. A new job? Wait on the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Are you waiting on your husband to come home, your
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  Speaker 1: ship to come in, your career to look up, your
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  Speaker 1: business to take off? If so, here's what you need
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  Speaker 1: to do.
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  Speaker 2: Just wait.
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  Speaker 1: Be obedient. Take the narrow road. Take the uphill path.
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  Speaker 1: Be faithful. Be the one at work. Who does the work.
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  Speaker 1: Be the one at school. Who pays the price. Keep
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  Speaker 1: your nose clean. Keep your head up. Keep your knees bent.
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  Speaker 1: Keep your eyes toward heaven. Stay focused on your heavenly father.
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  Speaker 1: His timing is always right. His timing is always right.
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  Speaker 1: He's never been late. He's never been early. His plan
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  Speaker 1: is always the best and his plan never includes deception.
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  Speaker 1: His plan never includes manipulation. His strategy never destroys people.
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  Speaker 1: His strategy never requires compromise. He never badgers. He never belittles.
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  Speaker 1: He never bruises. He never batters people. And if you're
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  Speaker 1: doing so, then you're not in the center of God's will.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: You may think he is slow to act, but he's not.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Just trust him and wait. And pay for your own
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: phone calls. If you can't afford them, then don't make them.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Go back to your dorm room, sit down and study.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: That's what that 18-year-old version of yours truly needed to hear.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: In fact, as things turned out, true love was not
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: six hours away. True love was right there on the
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: campus the whole time. And Deanland was just a local
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: call 40 years ago. Heavenly Father, now receive our prayer
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: that you would direct us that we could receive your
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: word today. Let your Holy Spirit be strong and present.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: As we process this story. Through Jesus we pray. And
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: all God's people said.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: You don't have to be new.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: You don't have to stay close. As long as you're
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: somewhere out there. That's enough for me.
• 25:54
  Speaker 3: I don't need to hold you near me Don't need
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: promises to keep Just the thought that you are breathing
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: Somewhere in this world I see Even if I'm not
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: beside you Even if you never know There's a quiet
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: kind of comfort Just in knowing you still blow.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I don't need forever I just need you to exist.
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: You don't have to stay with me You don't.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: Have to feel the same Just as long as.
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: You're still out there.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: Calling softly through my days You don't have.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: To look my way You don't.
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: Have to be my home It's.
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: Enough to know you're living In a world I'm.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Not alone I won't chase you through the.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: Distance Won't disturb your chosen life I'll just keep you
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: in my silence.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Like a star that shines at night Through the dark
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: and through the blue.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I still think of you.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: You don't have.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: To be my home. It's enough to.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: Know you're living in a world. I'm not alone.
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: I don't need to be your light I don't need
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: to cross your mind All I.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Need is just the truth That you're somewhere.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: Still alive.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: You don't have.
• 28:26
  Speaker 4: To stay with me You don't have to feel the
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: same Just as long as you're still out there Calling
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: softly through my days You don't have to look my
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: way You don't have to be my home It's enough
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: to know you're living
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: In a world I'm not alone