TNT December 3 2020

Greater New Life Family Worship Center Thursday Night Teaching

December 3rd, 2020

2020 Theme: “Still Here” Thematic Text: 1 Corinthians 15:58 (KJV)

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

T.N.T TEACHING SERIES: THE MIGHTY ACTS OF GOD

Base Text: Psalm 150:1-6 (A PSALM OF PRAISE) (KJV)

150 Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. 2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. 3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. 4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. 5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. 6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord.

MIGHTY ACTS (According To: Christoph Barth OT Theology)

1. God Created Heaven and Earth

2. God Chose the Fathers of Israel

3. God Brought Israel Out of Egypt

4. God Led His People Through the Wilderness

5. God Revealed Himself at Sinai

6. God Granted Israel the Land of Caanan

7. God Raised Up Kings in Israel

8. God Chose Jerusalem

9. God Sent His Prophets

MIGHTY ACT #2 ‘GOD CHOSE THE FATHERS OF ISRAEL’ PART 4d: JACOB

LAST LESSON: Nov 19, 2020 IV. We Are ALL Human Genesis 27:30-46

30 Now it came about, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had hardly gone out from the presence of his father Isaac, that his brother Esau came in from his hunting. 31 Then he also made a delicious meal, and brought it to his father; and he said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that [m]you may bless me.” 32 His father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” And he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.” 33 Then Isaac [n]trembled violently, and said, “Who then was he who hunted game and brought it to me, so that I ate from all of it before you came, and blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.” 34 When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, “Bless me, me as well, my father!” 35 And he said, “Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing.” 36 Then Esau said, “[o]Is he not rightly named [p]Jacob, for he has betrayed me these two times? He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing.” And he said, “Have you not reserved a blessing for me?” 37 But Isaac replied to Esau, “Behold, I have made him your master, and I have given to him all his relatives [q]as servants; and with grain and new wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?” 38 Esau said to his father, “Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me as well, my father.” So Esau raised his voice and wept.

39 Then his father Isaac answered and said to him,

“Behold, [r]away from the [s]fertility of the earth shall be your dwelling,

And [t]away from the dew of heaven from above. 40 And by your sword you shall live, And you shall serve your brother; But it shall come about when you become restless,

That you will [u]break his yoke from your neck.”

41 So Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him; and Esau said [v]to himself, “The days of mourning for my father are near; then I will kill my brother Jacob.” 42 Now when the words of her elder son Esau were reported to Rebekah, she sent word and called her younger son Jacob, and said to him, “Behold your brother Esau is consoling himself concerning you by planning to kill you. 43 Now then, my son, obey my voice, and arise, [w]flee to Haran, to my brother Laban! 44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury [x]subsides, 45 until your brother’s anger [y]against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send word and get you from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

46 And Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am tired of [z]living because of the daughters of Heth; if Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth like these from the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me?” d V. A Father’s Punishment

Genesis 28 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

28 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, [a]saying to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May [b]God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a multitude of peoples. 4 May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your [c]descendants with you, so that you may possess the land where you live as a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

6 Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan-aram to take to himself a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, saying, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan,” 7 and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and had gone to Paddan-aram. 8 So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan displeased [d]his father Isaac; 9 and Esau went to Ishmael, and [e]married, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth.

10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he [f]happened upon a [g]particular place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and made it a support for his head, and lay down in that place. 12 And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 Then behold, the LORD was standing [h]above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your [i]descendants. 14 Your [j]descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will [k]spread out to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your [l]descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have [m]promised you.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “The LORD is certainly in this place, and I did not know it!” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

18 So Jacob got up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had placed as a support for his head, and set it up as a memorial stone, and poured oil on its top. 19 Then he named that place [n]Bethel; but [o]previously the name of the city had been Luz. 20 Jacob also made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I [p]take, and give me [q]food to eat and garments to wear, 21 and I return to my father’s house in [r]safety, then the LORD will be my God. 22 And this stone, which I have set up as a memorial stone, will be God’s house, and of everything that You give me I will assuredly give a tenth to You.”

a) Consequences, Consequences, Consequences

28 So Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, [a]saying to him, “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. 2 Arise, go to Paddan-aram, to

5 the house of Bethuel your mother’s father; and from there take to yourself a wife from the daughters of Laban, your mother’s brother. 3 May [b]God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a multitude of peoples. 4 May He also give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your [c]descendants with you, so that you may possess the land where you live as a stranger, which God gave to Abraham.” 5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan-aram to Laban, son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.

Discussion Question: What about Rebekah? Did she suffer any consequences? After all, she was the main orchestrator of the deception. Quick Review: What are Rebekah’s motives? The clearest clue the text itself provides is in 25:22-23: she had sought God, and God had told her that the younger would prevail. In contrast to Isaac, Rebekah acts on the basis of a word from God. 1

Genesis 27:43-45

43 Now then, my son, obey my voice, and arise, [w]flee to Haran, to my brother Laban! 44 Stay with him a few days, until your brother’s fury [x]subsides, 45 until your brother’s anger [y]against you subsides and he forgets what you did to him. Then I will send word and get you from there. Why should I lose you both in one day?”

Pastor’s Quick Commentary: It appears that Rebekah dies in between the time that she advises Jacob to flee to her brother, Laban’s, house, and the time we get to

1 Rebekah’s Deceit in Genesis 27, https://craigkeener.com/rebekahs-deceit-in-genesis-27/, Accessed Dec 2, 2020

Genesis 32, where Jacob meets up with Esau and assumes that Esau will kill him. What’s the lesson? When we take matters into our own hands and get outside of God’s timing, time is really, then, our enemy. We may not make it back to make amends. I’m struck, in studying this section of Genesis, that after the deception, Rebekah isn’t mentioned anymore until the mention of her in Genesis 49:31, which speaks to her burial location.

“Jacob lived with Laban for twenty years (Gen. 31:41), marrying Laban's two daughters and two maidservants. He returned to Canaan with his large family, servants, and possessions. As he did, Deborah (Rebecca's nurse) died and was buried .(Tree of Weepings" (Gen. 35:8" ,( לא ו ן כב ו ת ) at a place that Jacob calls Alon Bachuth According to the Midrash,[28] the plural form of the word "weeping" indicates a double sorrow, implying that Rebecca also died at this time.”2

b) There’s Something to be Said for Parental Pressure Genesis 28:6-9 (NASB)

2 Rebecca, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca#:~:text=Rebecca%20appears%20in%20the%20Hebrew,%2C%20also%20call ed%20Aram%2DNaharaim, Accessed Dec 2, 2020

Let’s Just Talk About Parental Pressure

“1. Lack of self-motivation

The irony of pushing children to succeed is that it creates a paradox where children associate hard work with parental pressure. They then don’t develop a work ethic of their own because they are not working for a goal of their own, they are working to please their parents.

This is detrimental to children as they age when parents are not there to push them. They lack sustainable motivation through further education and into their careers, reducing the chances of future successes.

Children under excessive parental pressure also become much more complaisant to their parents’ wishes. This replaces autonomous thinking and judgment, affecting their problem-solving capabilities and need for self-reliance.

Overall, too much parental pressure can remove the child’s ability to look inward to find strength and motivation. This will end up holding them back in their future endeavors.

2. Failure feels like the end of the world

Children who face unrelenting parental pressure begin to associate their identity strongly with their grades or the sport they play. If this becomes too entrenched in their personality, failing in academics or sport can cause their personality to fail also.

This leaves children who face too much pressure from parents twice as likely to suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

3. Too good to be true

The worst effect of too much parental pressure is those who appear to be completely happy and successful. These children are actually hiding behind a false front and a fake sense of self. Teens who are forced to succeed throughout school will fail to develop a real sense of who they are as a person.”3

Commentary: So, then, just based on what Esau saw and assumed from the actions of his father around which women his sons should marry, he acted. He wanted, after all, to please his father, obviously. He went off and married a woman from his ‘Uncle Ishmael’s’ tribe. Think about this for a moment. Ishamel….the illegitimate son of Hagar and Abraham, is now even more so linked to the promise of Abraham, in that a woman

3 Three Signs of Unhealthy Parental Pressure and How to Deal With It, https://www.learning-mind.com/unhealthy- parental-pressure/, Accessed Dec 2, 2020

9 from his side of the fence is now married to Esau, one of the twin sons of Isaac (God’s promise) and Rebekah. And this all happened because of parental pressure, in my view. As parents, we must repent for putting undue pressures on our children, forcing them into decisions that take them further outside of God’s Will for their lives. Now, that’s not to say that we’re to blame, either. At some point, our children own their decisions; however, as a wiser and older 50+ year old, African-American man, there are some things that I would do differently, if I had it to do over again. For those with young children, still, take it to heart. Be aware that pressure is not always good. To me, there’s a big difference between expectation and pressure. Holding children accountable to an expectation of putting their best efforts into learning in school is not a bad thing, and leads, usually, to success later in life. Pastor’s 2-cents, for what it’s worth.

c) God Doesn’t Forget About Us, Even in Our Mistakes (Grace)

Remember:

Genesis 25:21-23 (NASB)

21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was unable to have children; and the LORD [a]answered him, and his wife Rebekah conceived. 22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is so, why am I in this condition?” So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23 And the LORD said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people will be stronger than the other; And the older will serve the younger.”

Numbers 23:19 (NKJV)

19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Genesis 28:10-22 (NASB)

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (NKJV)

7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to [a]buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Good Way to Close This Section of Study……PRAISE GOD FOR GRACE! ‘JEHOVAH Chen’ – The Lord of All Grace

SEE YOU ALL NEXT WEEK!