And many will remember H.G. Spafford wrote that when he had learned that his daughters had died, he had sent them either to New York or London, one of the trips back and forth on a steamship, and the ship went down and his wife had telegraphed him saying she's the only one left alive, the daughters had died. So he boards the next ship to join her. I forget which way they were going, but he asked the sea captain to the ship's captain to stop at the place where the other ship went down and to give him time just to kind of be a reflective thought. It was there he wrote that song. It is well with my soul. Absolutely amazing. Take your Bibles right now. Open them up. Book of Hebrews chapter number 11. Hebrews chapter number 11. Remember, the series of messages that we are in through Hebrews chapter 11, the great chapter on faith, is entitled Listen to Me. It is God saying to these men and women of the Old Testament, listen to me. Sometimes they did. Good things happen. Sometimes they didn't. Bad things happen. The message is still true for us. God says to us today, no, not in any kind of an audible voice. He says it through the word of God, listen to me, listen to me. Sometimes those listen to me's can sound like a stern father. You need to listen to me. Other times, the words listen to me sound a little bit different, but either way you look at it, God is saying to us, I know more than you do. I know the beginning from the end. Doing it my way is better. It would behoove you, therefore, to listen to me. Remember that definition I give you for faith so often. Faith is believing the word of God and acting on it, no matter how I feel, because God promises a good result. Let's try that again. Faith is believing the word of God and acting on it, no matter how I feel, because God promises a good result. Boiled down, it's God saying listen to me. And faith is listening to him. Go to verse number 20 of Hebrews chapter number 11, as we begin this morning's message, just talking about a couple of the guys, a couple of the men mentioned here. Verse number 20, by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both of the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. Our Father, I pray that you would bless us. I pray that you would work in our hearts. Help us, Lord, to understand the importance of listening to you. Guide us, focus our attention on you today. In Jesus' name, amen. When listening, to the names of the founding fathers of our faith. They're often called the patriarchs of the nation of Israel. The names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be mentioned with the emphasis placed on God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not on the men themselves. And this is especially true of Isaac and Jacob. All three, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are mentioned in this great chapter on faith. They all listened to God in spite of their shortcomings. Now remember, they were human beings. They weren't some kind of superman who lived for God all the time. They were human beings with frailties, with pimples, with bumps and bruises, and sometimes they did some dumb things. Overall though, they listened to God. They all had received Abraham's promise of a son. Remember, God told Abraham, you're gonna receive a son, a seed, and a savior. And even the land of Canaan to go with it. They all died, all three of them died, not seeing the fulfillment of the promise, yet they all died trusting in God for its fulfillment. Abraham received the first promise of a son, a seed, and a savior. Isaac inherited that promise for he was the promised son. Jacob inherited the promise from his father Isaac and was the progenitor of the seed that God promised. For he had 12 sons and God changed Jacob's name to Israel and his seed are called the children of Israel. Okay, that's why. So we got the promise of the Son, the seed, and the Savior going forward. So let's take a look at the great expectations of Israel and Jacob to see where great expectations should always be placed. Number one, the promised seed. promised seed. Look at verse number 20 again of Hebrews chapter number 11. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Now God had made it clear that Isaac was the son of promise. Now again we said that Abraham had some shortcomings. He did. Okay, he messed up a few times. He did some dumb things along the way. He's received that promise that he'd receive a son, a seed and a savior as an old man. But he didn't have the son until he was a really old man. About halfway in that journey, Abraham looked at Sarah and Sarah looked at Abraham and said, it ain't gonna happen, is it? Sarah said to Abraham, why don't you take Hagar, my handmaiden, and let her be your wife? Abraham said, no, that's not a good idea. And Sarah said, yeah, maybe it is a good idea. Go ahead and do that. She ends up having a baby named Ishmael. He's wondering, is Ishmael the son that you promised me? And God said, no. Ishmael will be the father of a great nation, will be the father of a great people, but he is not the seed or the son that I have promised to you. You're gonna have one with Sarah. And Abraham said, okay. Along the way, it's still not working. Still nothing's happening. Still they're getting old. Abraham had a servant. His servant was named Eleazar. Eleazar was a good man. Eleazar was a faithful man. Eleazar was what we would call the steward of the house of Abraham. He was a servant, but he was in charge of everything. Okay, he was trusted. Trusted so much that Abraham sent Eleazar when it was time to find a wife. for Isaac, okay? It was Eleazar sent to do the job. And one day he said, well, can Eleazar be my son? Can I just transfer everything to him? I understand it can't be Ishmael. I don't have another one, maybe Eleazar. And God said, no, you will have a son. And God made it clear that Isaac, would be the son of promise. Through Isaac, all of the promises of God that he made to Abraham would be met. Thus, Isaac was the son of promise. And you would think that with this kind of pressure on him, he would have lived a life under the veil of Great expectations. You would think that, wow, this is the son of promise. Born to Abraham when he's 99 years old. Wow, this kid must be gonna do great things through his life. What is he going to do? How will he behave with all this pressure on him? What great things will God do with this one? Well, the answer is simple. He lived his own life. When he listened, really listened to God, he exhibited great faith and good things happened. When he chose to go his own way or in the way of his father, He repeated one of his father's big mistakes, say you're my sister routine. Things went badly. He was not a great man of faith. In the end, to which the book of Hebrews alludes, he had two sons, Jacob and Esau. And he blessed the younger of the twins, Jacob, not Esau, for God's plan would overrule the selfishness of man's scheming, even though Isaac failed to live up to the great expectations that were upon him. But you know something? God didn't fail. God knew what he was doing. And God said through Jacob, will all this take place? God, God's plan would go forward. What about a whole lot better for Isaac? Had he simply listened to God every single time? But he didn't. He sometimes schemed. You remember I said a number of weeks ago that the opposite of faith is not doubt. Everybody has doubts every now and then. The opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is scheming. Instead of trusting God, we try to work our will around this and do what God wants and we work. That's scheming. And we're in big trouble when we do that. Abraham did it with Sarah and Hagar and made a mess of things. To this day, it's still a mess of things, if you understand that whole story. OK, Isaac. Schemed. Instead of trusting in God. But you know who was faithful the entire time? God was. Amen. Isaac, the Bible doesn't tell us anything he really did that was great with his life. Anything he did that was absolutely, honestly amazing, like his father had done. And yet he is mentioned in this great chapter on faith. That means there were times he absolutely, positively listened to God. Now, I do not have to follow you around all week to know that you were not perfect this week. How come I didn't get any amens there? Every now and then, I'll preach a sermon and say, you know, pastor, who told you? Who told me what? Oh, well, that's just what I needed to hear this week. Well, that's the Holy Spirit then, he's working. Because I don't follow you around. but I know that you are human. And as humans, we are doomed to not be perfect. We are condemned to not be perfect. We are not built to be perfect because we are sinners, amen? And while we're sinners saved by grace and God took away our sin from us and forgave us, he didn't perfect us in that moment and make us perfectly sinless. We still do stupid things. Amen? We still do dumb things. Now, please don't get me wrong and think that's okay. Because it's not. Don't do stupid, sinful things. I'll bet you never thought you'd hear that in church. I'm just kidding. Don't do stupid, sinful things, amen? Don't. But the good news is, if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to forgive us, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We can go to God and get forgiven, stand up, brush ourselves off, and move forward trying our best to live for God every single day. Amen. That's the story of Isaac. And that should be our story too. Amen. You do your best every single day to believe the word of God and act on it, no matter how you're feeling that day, because God promises good result when you do. Amen. And every now and then, you're gonna mess up. You're gonna do something stupid. You're gonna do something selfish. You're gonna do something sinful. Immediately, listen to the Holy Spirit of God, confess it, and get right with God. He'll clean you up. Don't go into that thinking, I can get right later. That's the dumbest thing you can do. But understand, God wants you to live by faith. And you can, no matter what is going on in your life today. You can live a life of faith. God says, through Isaac, listen to me. Listen to me. Stop your scheming. Try and do things on your own in your own way. Stop living your own life. Give it to me. Listen to me. Obey me and things will go better for you every single turn. Amen. You can trust me, God says. And that's what he says to you. Abraham had a son, Isaac. He's just normal. He's just average. But he's included in this because he trusted God to guide the future with his sons Esau and Jacob. And he blessed Jacob as God had commanded him to do and the seed and the savior would come through Jacob. Number two, the protected son. The protected son. Verse number 21, by faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both of the sons of Joseph and worship, leaning on the top of his staff. Abraham and Isaac, Isaac had Jacob. Remember I told you that Eleazar Went and found him a wife, brought her back, and Isaac and Rebekah would finally have children. They would have twin boys. They would name them Esau and Jacob. Esau was the firstborn, Jacob was the younger of the two, but God in his providence Because God is faithful no matter what we do. God will always keep his promises no matter what we do. God is always good to fulfill what he said he was gonna do even when we do dumb, stupid, sinful things. God said the younger shall rule the older. Genesis 25, 23. Now Jacob as his very name implies, was a schemer. That's what the word Jacob means. Schemer, supplanter, deceiver, trickster. He stole his brother's birthright, okay, which meant that the Abrahamic promise, it was meant to him, he stole his brother's Blessing that was given to him by his father when they became adults. He tricked for both of those things. He stole both of those things from Esau, his brother. Yet, God's great plan was not thwarted. The son came in Isaac. The seed and the savior would come through Jacob. Amen. They would come through him as well. Great expectations were laid on him also. Don't place your great expectations on any human being. Period. It doesn't matter who they are. It doesn't matter what they have done. It doesn't matter what kind of potential they might have. Don't place those great expectations on humans. Place those expectations on God because He alone does all things well. He alone will do everything right in your life. So He says, listen to me. Listen to me. Back in the 70s, I don't know if it's still a thing or not, back in the 70s, when I was a teenager, they had something they called a Hesper, Hesper, necklace thing, it was a necklace that had a Bible verse in it that was broken in two parts. And the boyfriend took one part and the girlfriend took another part. And when you put the two things, two little hearts together with saying on it, it said, God watch between me and thee while we are apart one from another. Ain't that cute? OK, the problem was. Esau hated Jacob for this. For what he did. Esau absolutely detested his brother and probably wanted to kill him. It was that bad. Well, God won't allow Esau to kill Jacob because through Jacob the seed will come, through Jacob the Savior will come, so God doesn't allow that to happen. They get together one day and they kind of have a peace accord between the two of them and Esau says the words, The Lord watch between me and thee while we are apart one from another. And while that saying is cutesy and it was about two brothers who hated each other and one wanted to kill the other one. Okay, so it's always good to see the context of your Bible verse, amen? That was them. Through all of this, you know who your great expectation should be on? God. because he was still fulfilling his promise to Abraham. There's gonna be a son, Isaac. There's gonna be a seed, Jacob, whose name will be changed to Israel, who will have the seed, the children of Israel. God is always faithful. Here in Hebrews chapter 11, We're talking about the faith that Isaac had to say, I'll bless the younger one just like God said Jacob, and the faith that Jacob had to say that God's gonna take care of everything through you boys. It will take place. In Genesis chapter number 48, Jacob blesses his sons. He prophesies their future as a tribe. And along with them, he goes ahead and blesses the two sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph would end up having an extra portion. Okay, two tribes with his two sons, the 12 tribes less, The tribe of Levi, who would be the priestly tribe, who would have cities in all of the tribes, they would have their own tribe. But Jacob blesses them and that sets all of that up. Go back to Genesis chapter number 48. Genesis chapter 48, verse number 15. And he blessed Joseph and said, Before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into multitude in the midst of the earth. Okay, he's blessing these boys. One of the first words out of his mouth, God. God. He's admitting here, God, I've not always been all that I needed to be. I need you to watch over these two boys, bless these two boys, bless their families, because I know they're gonna have great seed, great numbers in them. You will take care of them. Now go to chapter number 49. Verse number 10. Genesis chapter 49 verse number 10. The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Do you know what this is? This is a direct prophecy for Jesus Christ to be born through the tribe of Judah. This is absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing. By faith, Jacob trusts God to do what he said he would do. He would give his son. That was Isaac. The seed comes through Jacob, and the Savior will come through Judah. I often, and I do this in Sunday school quite a bit, I often describe the Old Testament as this giant funnel, okay? Think of this, an hourglass type of thing. A giant funnel, it comes down, it meets here, and then it goes back out again. The Old Testament is the top of that funnel. It comes down and meets here, doesn't exactly meet, but you know, it allows the sand to run through. This is what God is doing in the Old Testament. He says in the Old Testament, Eve, The Messiah will come, the Savior will come, the one that will save you and save the entire world will come through the seed of a woman. Abraham, it's gonna come through your seed. Isaac, your seed. Jacob, your seed. Judah, your seed. David, your seed. The city of Bethlehem. And God narrows this entire thing down until it meets in Jesus Christ. He's the only one who could fulfill all the prophecies of the Old Testament. That's what the entire book is about, the Old Testament. God winnowing this big, giant opening from the seed of the woman down to Jesus Christ. And though people do good things at times, and listen to God, and live by faith, and good things happen in their lives, and God blesses them, and God takes care of them, good things happen when they listen to God. dumb things, selfish things, stupid things, sinful things. You know who overruled it all and still had his plan come to pass? God did. God did. And while at times they seemed to mess up, God Never did. Amen. So don't put your expectations in some kind of human being. Because human beings are like that. We're fickle. Can I get an amen? Sometimes we do really good things by faith. We trust God. We move forward and God blesses us. And sometimes we need to get hit in the back of the head with a two by four. Because we can be dumb sometimes, and we mess things up. But you know who's always faithful? God. God is always faithful. You can have great expectations, but they always ought to be placed on God. Expect great things from Him. always. He knows what he is doing. Amen. And we call that, theologically, providence. Providence. I find it amazing that they actually used That term, providence, our founding fathers of our country used that term as a name for God. And if you read many of our founding documents, if you study history at all, look at our founding documents, you'll find they'll say providence quite a bit. And they do not mean fate. They mean the hand of God working every step of the way. And they understood that the founding of the United States of America, it was God who had moved to make sure it happened. And they trusted in God. To say that they put up some kind of a wall between the church and the state is to lie completely. They did not. You go down to Washington, D.C. and you visit all the monuments down there and they're all filled with sayings of whom? God. There's Bible verses written everywhere. And when these men spoke, what'd they often quote? Bible verses. And they used the word providence. Now, please understand that while God worked all of these things out in his providence, oh, by the way, that funnel comes down to Jesus Christ, it is Jesus Christ, and then it opens back up again like an hourglass, because the New Testament is all about how we're supposed to live for him now that we've trusted him as Savior. Amen. What we should be doing. That's the whole Bible right there, okay? It's not fate. It's not Calvinism, hyper-Calvinism. It is not God makes things happen. It's God overruling in all these things. I've given you this illustration before. I will close with this today. Suppose we had two cowboys. Okay, the one cowboy gets on his horse and he rides this horse perfectly. The horse doesn't waver, the horse doesn't get out of his control, the horse doesn't buck him at all, he rides this horse perfectly, he is never messed up, his hat never falls off, everything good happened, it was just perfect. Finally, the horse stops moving, the cowboy gets off, he puts another quarter in, and he gets back on the horse. Okay, he's riding a mechanical horse that doesn't do anything. Another cowboy gets on a stallion that's been broken and made fit for use. When I say broken, you know what I'm talking about. His will has been broken to the master and he now rides that horse. That horse still has a will, that horse still has strength, that horse still has power. And he rides it wherever he wishes to go. Dumb question. Which is the better cowboy? The one on the real horse. The God of the fatalists, the God of the hyper-Calvinists is less powerful than my God. They like to say God controls everything. He doesn't. And you know why he doesn't? Because you can't really love God if you've got no choice. Period. You can't love God. So God gave man of free will. God gave man choice. God gave man the most powerful thing in the universe, free will. And you can choose. You can make decisions. And while you have the power of choice, you cannot choose your consequences. So some of the choices you make come bad consequences. But you know something? That's the horse God is riding. One that every now and then makes bad decisions. One that more often than not does really dumb things. But God overrules and brings his plan together anyway. While men like Isaac and Jacob don't totally live up to the great expectations they were placed on them, they did by faith trust God and put their faith in him in the future. God's plan will happen. You can do the same thing. You do the same thing. Trust God. Believe the word of God and obey it. No matter how you feel about it. Because God promises good results. He's always right. Amen. And don't put expectations on anybody. But God. Who says. Listen to me. Listen. To me. I will not steer you wrong. Listen to me. And we need to make sure we make that decision every single day. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for all that you've done. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for salvation. Thank you, Lord, for your word, for the men and the women in it who did listen to you. And Lord, we regale the great things that they did while they were listening to you and by faith did wonderful things. Lord, then there were others. who did some stupid things. Lord, we see their consequences. Lord, through it all, we see your faithfulness, your power. We see the providence of God. Lord, I pray that you'd help us to understand you're always right. It doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what's going on around me. I need to trust you. I need to listen to you. So Lord, help us to remember that and live it out, not just think about it, but to live it out every moment of every day. Guide and direct right now as we make these decisions, I pray that you'd help us to turn to you, to say, yes, Lord, here I am, I'm listening, I will obey. Work in each one of our hearts, draw us to you, we'll thank you and we'll praise you for it, in Christ's name we ask it, amen.