Jacob No.1 The Brothers

The title for this evening is The Brothers, a reference to Jacob and Esau, and not our preachers this evening, Tim Saunders, Eric Harmer, and Nick Turnbull. Let's start by singing hymn number 13, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name. Genesis chapter 25, verses 19 to 34.

This is the account of Abraham's son, Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean, and from Paddam Aram, and sister of Laban, the Aramean. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren.

The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled with each other within her, and she said, Why is this happening to me? So he went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated.

One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come came out red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so named him Esau.

After this, his brother came out, and his hand grasping Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was a quiet man, staying among the tents.

Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once, when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country famished. He said to Jacob, Quick, let me have some of that red stew.

I'm famished. That is why he was also called Edom. Jacob replied, First sell me your birthright.

Look, I'm about to die, Esau, said Esau. What good is the birthright to me? But Jacob said, Swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread, some lentil stew. He ate and drank, then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of this word, as Tim comes to expound it. You've got three sermons tonight. Didn't know that, did you? But they'll all be brief.

I gather that we're about to be treated, if that's the right word, to a new soap from the land of Oz. Only this time it's going to be a real life soap about a real live Aussie family. A typical bad-mouthing, beer-swilling Aussie family.

Real 4X stuff, I gather it's going to be. I was reminded of the time when EastEnders first came on our screens, and there were a couple sitting in their lounge, and the wife said to her husband, Now they say this lot have sold 200,000 television sets. And the husband replied, Yeah, I can believe that.

After seeing them, I'm thinking about selling mine. Well back to Genesis. The reason for telling you about the Australian real life soap is because I suppose this story here in Genesis could be described as that.

Real life soap. And that's what we're going to be looking at over the next few Sundays, this summer of 1993. These stories in Genesis are very hard-hitting stories.

They deal with family rows, and corruption, and scandal, and sex, and rape, and romance, and tragedy, and many things which are actually very much part of real life for so many people today in the 1990s. It's bang up to date. But there's one difference between this real life soap and the sort of soap that you see on your television screens, and that's this.

That is that the living God is involved with the family that you see here. And that makes all the difference in the world. Because God is the one person who is left out of the trash that comes up as Eldorado, or better not name too many more for fear of offending some people.

But there's no God, and therefore everything is trivia in the end. But here we have something weighty. And because God is involved, this can be soap.

Moral soap to clean up your life, to clean up your attitudes, to clean up your family life. Because God wants to be involved right at the heart of your family, just as he was involved right at the heart of this family, the family of Abraham, Isaac, and particularly the character we're going to be looking at, Jacob. In Jacob's case, it took a lifetime for God to get him where he wanted him.

God is patient. It may take him a long time with you, but he wants to get the best out of you, and in some ways the least resistance that he encounters from you the better it is. But God in Jacob's life used all kinds of different experiences and events and encounters to change this man.

And here we go right back to the beginning of his life, and it's my task just in the next five minutes or so to have a look at his old dad, Isaac. Well, Isaac was 40 when he was married to Rebecca. He was the son, of course, Isaac, of Abraham and Sarah, and he had so much going for him because God had promised that through Isaac there would be this nation who he would bless, and this nation would be his own special people, and they would multiply and become a very numerous nation like the stars in the heavens or the sand on the shore.

So if the family line of God's chosen people ran through this man Isaac, then surely he was going to have to have lots of kids, but that's not quite the way it turned out. So in verse 21 of Genesis 25, we have a brief statement. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren.

But I wonder how much lay behind those few words. I can't believe that he turned to his wife one day and said, well, Becky, you know, we've been trying for 19 years now and nothing's happened, so now of course it wouldn't happen like that, would it? Behind those few words, I'm sure there were years of pleas and tears and questions, perhaps very angry ones to God. What are you doing, God? Where are you, God? You promised God.

Where is it, God? Screams, pain and yearnings. We all know miracle babies, but in some ways that only makes the problem harder for others, doesn't it? I don't know why God answers some of these prayers and not others. He's God.

You know, all the patriarchs, that's the name for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they all married beautiful women, but they all had terrible difficulty, these women, in conceiving. But then one month shortly after perhaps the most intense praying that Isaac did, Rebecca, it seems, was expecting. She couldn't be sure, but she soon was, because she had a very difficult pregnancy and her problems in some ways were only just beginning.

Twins, she was told. Somebody told me this week that he and his wife were expecting twins at the end of the month. I just about checked my reaction.

I had to stop and think. I said, oh, congratulations, that's wonderful. And it is, isn't it? Because children are a fantastic blessing from the Lord.

The Bible says that, and of course it's true. We should never moan and complain about our children, never. These twins were not going to be identical.

Esau was born first, came out looking like a raspberry, and then hot on his heels, literally, was his brother Jacob, looking very different, but already tugging away, grasping, and that was to be his character. As they grew, these two boys, they didn't get on. Well, they had nothing in common actually, and there was trouble in the marriage too.

Verse 28. We can't really spoil the story, but from Rebecca's point of view, well, she could talk to Jacob. He was around the house quite a lot.

She couldn't talk to Isaac, her husband. He was one of those uncommunicative types. So she chatted away to her son, loved him.

Isaac himself is painted as a rather pathetic, sensual, middle-aged man here. A weak man, led by the stomach. Verse 28.

Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Yep, the stomach was definitely the way to Isaac's heart. But more than that, well, Esau was a son any father could be proud of, wasn't he? Esau was a very fine sportsman, not like that wimp of a brother of his.

It's very easy to love children for the wrong reasons, isn't it? Their parents inflict terrible damage on children if they don't love them unconditionally. I was talking to a young woman not so long ago. She said the only compliment she'd ever had from her dad was when she grew up, got a job, and he said, you're wasted in that job, girl.

It was the only time she'd ever had a compliment from her dad. How terrible. Well, what follows now might sound like a short column from practical parenting, but it's vitally important.

It's important because God is the father of all. The Bible says that all fatherhood derives its title from God. And the Bible also says that with God, there's absolutely no favoritism.

He treats everybody by the same standards. So it's very important that if you're a father, if you're a parent, you should be like God, because that will be the best way for you and your children. And if there are any of the warning lights coming on that they were in Rebecca and Isaac's household, we better take notice of them, no matter how old our children are.

Perhaps you can talk to one of your children more easily than another or the others. Perhaps one is very good at sport. Perhaps one is a long-for son or a daughter.

Perhaps one of them takes after you. You know, Amy, she likes getting up on a soapbox, really, and telling people what they're doing wrong and telling people to put it right, just like a mother. But it's easy, isn't it? Perhaps either you like the one who isn't like you or the one who is like you, more likely, because we're so, what's the word, narcissistic, if you understand that, more likely to be the one who is like us.

But if you do find yourself hugging one child more, or more consistently annoyed with one child than another, if you always put one to bed and your partner always puts the other to bed, or you always take one out and your partner always takes the other out, then that might be a bit of a danger sign. Your unfavoured child is likely to be difficult, naughty if they're young, abusive if they're a bit older. That may be a way in which you can tell which is your unfavoured child, because it's the only way they've got of attracting your attention.

They can't get it by your praises, so they look for it in some other way. It's very easy for a vicious circle to be set up, isn't it? And if you're the parent, you're the one who's got to take responsibility for breaking it, not your kid. Yeah, we do need to recognise what's going on.

See, Isaac and Rebecca failed at two levels, it seems. Number one, they didn't talk to each other about it, and number two, they didn't talk to the Lord about it. And if there are these danger signs, then you need to talk, number one, to your partner, and number two, to the Lord, because parenting is the hardest job in the world, and we need all the help we can get, and prayer is the place to get it.

Now, just one last word about Isaac, especially if you were brought up in a comfortable Christian home, especially if your parents, like Isaac's parents, were rich in faith as well as in fortune. Can I say, don't end up like Isaac, please. It's easy to end up like Isaac.

All you do is you just live for comfort rather than for Christ. So you live for your holidays, you live for your nice surroundings, you live for good things to eat and drink, and if you do that often enough, you will end up like this pathetic old man. Oh, he's just sitting there thinking about his stomach.

Can I ask you, when was the last time you took a step of faith which involved a bit of risk, a bit of cost, even a small step of faith? When was the last time you deprived yourself of some little luxury, deprived yourself even a bit of food, and had a fast, and a bit of praying on that? Well, either way round, I bet you felt a lot better for it. You were certainly a lot better for Christ for it, and it's a way of not ending up like Isaac, but ending up like a saint. Now you've heard of tag team wrestling, well this is our equivalent to our tag team preaching.

When we actually sat down at the beginning of the week to decide who was taking who, obviously Isaac was going to be taken by Tim being the older and the wiser of the service. Eric decided to take Jacob because he was more cunning. And I'm not quite sure how I relate to Esau, he was a hairy man.

I just had a good shave before I came out. But nonetheless, we are going to look at Esau, we've looked at Isaac and the relationship he had with his sons. Esau was a man we've already established very much an outgoing person, a very busy person, someone who liked to be out in the open, always wanted to be out hunting.

He was the hairy hunter of the family. He wasn't satisfied with staying back at home and doing the simple things in life. He was very different, very opposite as we've already said to Jacob.

Anyway, we're going to pick up the story because Esau has obviously been out hunting, he's been out in the open, and he comes back pretty hungry. He says he comes back famished. Now no doubt he might have been out for maybe a day, maybe two days, maybe even longer hunting.

And I dare say he forgot to take his packed lunch. He forgot to take his flask and his rolls and his apple and banana and his chocolate biscuit. That's what I used to have for lunch anyway.

And he forgot to take that and he came back absolutely starving. No doubt he may have shot a few deer, shot a few rabbits with his arrows. He'd probably been working very hard and he comes to the tent where Jacob was cooking a big pot of stew.

Now I don't know if you've ever been hungry, but when you're hungry and you see a big pot of stew, you know that succulent meat, those vegetables, I mean can you smell it right now? Can you put yourself, can you put yourself where Esau was? I mean he's hungry and that's all that's on his mind. And he goes and he says to Jacob, he says, listen I'm hungry, can you let me have some of your stew? Jacob taking the opportunity here thinks, ah yes something I've always wanted. He says, well I'll tell you what, if you give me your birthright I'll give you some stew.

Now as if we're watching a video at the moment, we've seen the situation, we've seen Esau walk into the tent, the poor guy's starving hungry, there's Jacob, he's cooking a nice pot of stew and we're just going to freeze the frame just for a second, okay? Frozen frame, we're going to home in on Esau. What's Esau going to do? Here's his two options, he has his birthright which he's going to possibly barter away. What is the birthright? Well he was the first out of the womb, he had precedence over his brothers, over Jacob.

The second thing he had was the inheritance of his father, he would have a double share. And the third thing, and probably more importantly, he would have the blessing of God upon his life. That was what was in this side.

On this side was one single meal, one single bowl of stew that would probably take him no longer than 10 minutes to eat. What was he going to do? When I was at school I used to fancy a girl, her name was Trudy Hill, she was a corker, she was great. Everyone liked her, especially me, used to, past tense.

And I used to sit in class and I used to look at her, you know, boggled, like most of these people do when they're in school. And I used to go home and I used to dream of her and I used to have homework and that wasn't important because Trudy Hill was, well she was it. And I used to sit, I used to have a telephone number and I thought I'm going to call her up and ask her out.

And the one time I did pluck up enough courage she was out. I never did it again. But I used to sit at the telephone and I said I must call her, I must call her.

And the things that were important like my homework just seemed to go to the side, that wasn't important, you know, forget my future and everything that was with my O-levels and stuff. Trudy Hill was it. Well the story ended up I never dated her because I was too shy in those days.

But the fact was I was willing to take something small, put my mind, put all my attention into something small than what was really important. And that was where Esau was at. He was looking at the bowl, he was looking at what was most important at that particular moment and he was willing to give up all of this for just this.

And we say, boy wasn't Esau stupid. And we go, what an idiot, how ludicrous, why would he give up all that just for a sake of 10 minutes of a bowl of stew. And yet when we say things like that we almost look into the mirror because we do the same thing.

David, King David did the same thing. He went on top of his palace, he saw Bathsheba, he gave up the blessings of God for the sake of one night stand with a married woman. He gave into the flesh.

We so often unfortunately give into the things that are in front of us. We give into the seen and forget the unseen. We live for the temporary and forget the eternal things that really count.

How many times have we seen something we said, boy I'd really like that, but well if I take that I'm going to miss out on God's blessings. I'm going to miss out on the things that really count. God says I shouldn't really go for those sort of things.

Yet we forget it and we go for it. Maybe jobs, careers, we're offered a promotion. It's going to mean more time away from the family.

It's going to mean more time away from our fellowship. We won't be able to be involved as much as we used to be, but well we're going to get a bigger pay package and we're going to get a nice company car. What do we do then? Those are the scenes, those are the things that we see.

What about the night when all your friends are going out and you think, yeah, four hours out with my friends. They're going dancing, they're going drinking, you know, what should I do? And yet we're willing to do those things and forget the things that really count. It's so easy to go for the things that are in front of us.

That's why there's only 400 people sitting in this auditorium tonight and thousands of other people outside not caring at all, because I saw a load of cars out there this afternoon and a man with his jet ski. Boy was that impressive and that's probably all that counted to him. But do people go for the things eternal? We live for the moment, we do not live for the things eternal.

How do you stand on that? I know I'm guilty of it. Esau was guilty of it. He was willing to give up, as Hebrews chapter 12 verse 16 said, he was willing to give up the blessings of God, his birthright, for one single meal.

We say, well Nick, surely one night out or one mistake won't spoil my chances of the blessings of God. Well apparently scripture says it does. It only took one bowl of stew to ruin it for Esau and we can do the same thing.

It would be kind of an unhappy ending if I closed my Bible now, walked down and that was it. To say, well if you've done it, you've messed up, forget it, one single mistake, tough luck. Well I'm glad to say that my Bible says in 1 John 1 verse 9 that if we go back to God, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive it.

I was talking to the boys and girls this morning about little sins, medium sins and big sins and the fact that even our biggest sin can be forgiven by God. Thank God for that. Thank God that just like the prodigal son, we can go back to God when we mess up.

The story doesn't have to end by making a mistake. So that's just looking at Esau's life very briefly. We don't have much time to spend on it but are you living for the seen and not for the unseen? Are you living for the temporal things in life and not for the eternal? Because if we are, we're going to miss out on the blessings of God.

In some ways it's quite hard to bring the third section of a sermon. It's been sort of a mulling around on my mind quite a lot this week, thinking how can I bring in something that ties up what the other two have done and also fits in with what comes now. And it's interesting the way in which Jacob's character comes over as being so different from that of Esau's and despite Nick's comment, I can identify to some extent with Jacob.

I quite like some of the ways in which he works, the way in which he ends up. He has something going for him. You see at this passage we see here where he's actually taking the birthright from Esau, although we wouldn't approve of his methods, we have to say that what he wants is at one level a good thing.

Jacob is aware of what really matters. Unlike Esau who doesn't seem to really care much about the blessing of God on his life or the birthright that he has, Jacob sees that he has it and he wants it. And he's wanting it for himself.

Now it's selfish, yes, but he's desiring something that is at least worthwhile. He shows that even at this stage he has a real sense of what matters, a sense of what real values are. And we have to say that at this stage as well he's not actually doing anything deceitful.

Now a bit later on he begins to get a bit deceitful and then meets his match a bit further on still, but I won't take you through all of the future week's messages. But at this stage what he's doing isn't deceitful at all, it's a simple transaction. It's Esau's fault for being so willing to give up something as precious as his birthright.

And what for me really brings over how little Esau must have thought of his birthright is the fact that it's lentil stew. It's not even a decent stew. I mean it's lentils.

I mean Nick was talking about lumps of meat, well actually there are... It was just lentils. I mean I'd be fairly put out if I ever ended up with lentil stew. I'm just trying to think if I've been to anybody's house and that's what they gave me.

So what's Jacob's problem here? He's not using deceit and he is desiring something worthwhile, so why are we viewing him negatively? Why are we looking at Jacob and saying, no that's wrong. After all Esau willingly entered the transaction. You see we need to look at what's going on in Jacob's mind.

Jacob can see in Esau's life something that he wants. He wants the birthright, he wants the blessing of God, he wants the inheritance, he wants those things for himself. But he's not prepared to wait.

He's not prepared to see what God will do. He's not prepared to trust that God will have some plan and blessing for his life. Instead what he wants is to do it his own way.

Instead of trusting in the Lord, he trusts in his own schemes. And that's really the root of what is going wrong here and what goes wrong throughout Jacob's life, until the Lord really puts his hand upon him and sorts him out. Jacob was in a sense too clever for his own good, because he knew he could get what he wanted, certainly in collusion with his mother, he could get what he wanted by deceit, by impersonation.

He could actually achieve the things that he was desiring in his own strength. And that was his problem. It wasn't that he wanted God's blessing on his life, that's to be commanded.

It's the fact that he wasn't prepared to do it God's way. He wasn't prepared to wait and see what the Lord was going to do. He decided that he knew better and he was just that bit too good for his own sake.

You see, what he does with Esau, the way in which he deprives Esau, first of his birthright and then later on of his father's blessing, causes all sorts of friction in the family, problems between the brothers. And at the end of Jacob's life, we see him having to very much eat humble pie as he meets up with Esau again. And there's all these problems that are created because he wasn't prepared to wait.

And you know, the reason why I think he wasn't prepared to wait is that he couldn't see any way in which God was going to rectify this situation. After all, the birthright was something that was given to the eldest son and that's just the way it was. And so, because humanly looking at it, he couldn't see any way in which God was going to be able to change things, he thought, well, I better step in and do a few things myself.

And I think that's why I find it quite easy in some ways to identify with Jacob, not that I'm overtly into deceiving people, but that sense of frustration, that doesn't mean covertly either, that means not knowingly into deceiving people. You do have to be so careful around here, don't you? But you see, how often do I find myself looking at a situation and thinking, sorry Lord, I can't see how you're going to work there, I can't see how you could possibly turn this round to my advantage, so I'd better start setting the wheels in motion, I'd better start trying to think this out for you, Lord. We'd never put it consciously like that, we'd never put it that obviously, and yet that's subconsciously the way in which we begin to work.

Jacob couldn't see a way in which he was going to get God's blessing on his life, he was going to get the inheritance, unless he persuaded his brother to swap it for a bowl of lentil stew. He felt, if you'll excuse the pun, he had to cook something up himself, he couldn't rely on God. And I wonder if there's situations in your life at the moment, if there aren't they'll certainly come along, when you'll look at it with your limited human intelligence and understanding, and there seems to be no way out, there seems to be no way in which a solution can be reconciled in your favour.

And it may be something quite legitimate that you're wanting. What Jacob was wanting was in a sense a good thing, a legitimate thing. He was right to want it, as against Esau who despised it.

And it may be that you look at your life and think, Lord, I want this, and it's not something wrong, it's not even something greedy or selfish, it's something that I want in my life. But Lord, as I look at my life, I can't see how you're going to bring it about. So I better start doing a few things and seeing if I can get something moving along.

You see, what we should do is what Jacob should have done, and that is there are times to stop and to see what God is saying, what God is doing, and to trust that ultimately what he is working out will be better than anything you could scheme out or work out yourself. I don't know what would have happened if Jacob hadn't taken Esau's birth right, but I know one thing, God's purpose and plans would not have been frustrated. You see, sometimes we can slightly misread Scripture, we can look at situations and think that God relied on people sinning in order to bring about his purposes.

That's not what Scripture says. What Scripture says is that despite people sinning, God brings about his purposes. But that had they not fallen into particular sins, that doesn't mean that God's plan could not have been worked out.

It's just that how he would have done it is quite beyond our understanding. And so we need to be very careful that we don't begin to rush things ahead and to begin to do things in our own strength. Now, that doesn't mean, of course, that we simply sit back and do nothing.

It doesn't mean we simply sit at home and wait for the Lord to do something. We'll very soon starve or something if we don't do anything at all. That's not what God would want us to do.

But there are ways of seeking to make things happen. There's a way of doing it that's continually saying, Lord, I want to be sure this is of you. Lord, if you close this door, I will accept it, even though it's hard.

I want to be sure this is of you. That continual referring back to God, that willingness to accept that whatever he has planned is best. Or else you can do it Jacob's way and find yourself in that strange position that, again, we'd never consciously admit to but so often subconsciously comes up.

Well, I won't pray about that. God might not want me to have it. Now, we'd never admit to that.

But how many of us find that thought going through our mind? Well, I'd better not mention that to the Lord. I'll keep that to myself. Now, we all know when we express it in words like that, that it's nonsense.

God knows our every thought even before we actually think it. And yet when it actually comes to the crunch in our lives, we find ourselves beginning to do that. Desperately searching for whatever it is.

Desperately pushing on and pushing doors long after it's quite apparent to everyone else and those who pray with us and advise us that God has closed particular doors in our lives. And that comes at a time when we say, well, that's it, Lord. Unless you show me very drastically otherwise, I accept what you're saying.

It may be that then God will give us whatever it is we're seeking, or it may be that he'll never open that door. But that's only because he knows what is best for us. And that's what Jacob had really lost sight of here.

He'd lost sight of the fact that God knows what was best for him. He had to try and force God's hand. He had to try and do it his way.

And the result was he had to resort to deception, to lying. He nearly destroyed his family and caused all sorts of problems for the rest of his life. And we need to be careful we don't find ourselves slipping into that.

And instead we need to say, Lord, we're prepared to accept what you're doing. That doesn't mean sitting back and doing nothing. It means pushing doors.

But when we find the door is closed, we don't then take a sledgehammer to it. We try another until we see where the Lord is leading us. So it seems to me that as we look at those two brothers, there are the two dangers, the two things that we could slip into.

We could either dismiss God's blessing as unimportant and rush for the momentary pleasure, the immediate offer, the thing that's there before us, as Esau did. Or we could have the right idea, be wanting the right thing, but not being prepared to do it God's way. And you see, ultimately nothing will work that is not done God's way, because his blessing will not be upon it.

And something that God doesn't bless is simply not going to come together. So I think all of us need to go away and be looking at the example of these two brothers. Firstly, asking ourselves, which of the two are we? If you went through Scripture and asked yourself, who do you think you're like? Most of us would say, oh, Abraham or the Apostle Paul or Peter.

And we'd sort of see ourselves in some starring role biblically. But I wonder if realistically, when the cast was drawn up, we'd find ourselves in parts that much more accurately reflect what we're really like. And it may not be the parts that we would have thought of.

So we need to be honest when we come and look at people like this, descriptions of people given in Scripture. We need to be honest as we associate ourselves with one or the other. And in doing so, we need to then ask ourselves, what lessons are we going to learn from them? How are we going to accept God's direction in our lives? What are those particular things in our lives that are the equivalent of the birthright in Jacob's? And we need to let God be God as he directs us through our lives.

If we don't, we'll find ourselves further down the road having to resort to deception, to lying, and gradually we will dig ourselves deeper and deeper in in our own strength. And as we dig ourselves deeper in, so God will seem further away. And if we still refuse to come to him and let him sort it out, then ultimately we will drown in our own efforts and in our own struggles.

And we won't know what God would have done with our lives had we given it over to him in the first place. Shall we pray? Father, we ask most of all that by the power of your spirit you will reveal to each of us how much you love us. Lord, if we were certain of that, then we'd be able to trust you more for our futures than Jacob was in this passage.

Lord, he wasn't sure of your love for him. He wasn't sure that your will for his life was a good, perfect, and pleasing will. So, Lord, he did things in his own strength.

Father, assure us of your love. Assure us that you do have only the best in store for us. And, Lord, help us not to keep knocking at the door that you've closed and ignoring the many that you open.

Show us the better way, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen.

The ultimate foolishness, of course, is to try and do things in our own way in terms of salvation. The one area where we're guaranteed to fail is if we try and save ourselves through our good works, through our church attendance, or whatever. The Bible's very clear that in terms of direction in the Christian life, in terms of wanting things for ourselves, it's foolish to do it in our own strength.

It's positively suicidal to try and save ourselves. That's something that must be of God, and in his way, whether we like it or not. Because his way is the only way in which justice and love perfectly meet.

This closing hymn reminds us that as we become Christians and fix our choice on the Lord Jesus, we discover what real happiness is. Pursuing things in our own strength, even those things that we're quite entitled to, but God has said no to for us for the time being, won't produce happiness. Fixing our choice upon the Lord Jesus, number 499, oh happy day that fixed my choice.

Fixing our choice on him is the only thing that guarantees us that happiness. Let's stand and sing, and let's sing it as if for us it truly is a happy day, 499. Lord we praise you that it was indeed a happy day when we found forgiveness and life, eternal life, in Jesus our Lord.

We ask Father that we may live every day in that joy. Lord not in a shallow outward joy, but in that real happiness, contentment, that joy and peace that comes from knowing all that you have done in your way for us. Lord we praise you.

Pray that you'll be with us as we leave here tonight, that you'll keep us safe through this coming week. Lord may we know the power and the presence of your spirit, and we ask that each of us may this week be used of you in some way to advance your kingdom and to bring glory to your name. Amen.