Don't Leave Home Without It - Genesis 28 Series

Well in our story today we go to Genesis 28. It's a story about a man leaving home. He’s moving out. Which gives us some great applications for our lives. If you’re a young person today, you’re going to end up moving out of your house. So you’ll find some very specific applications in this passage for you today that you’re going to want to consider. Jacob is our guy. He’s going to move out and for him he’s going to come to a place where he makes his renewal with the Lord even more powerful than it was ever before. So moving out for him was this spiritual experience. We’ll certainly apply this to young people today.

But I want you to know the applications are broader than that as well. Because all of us make changes in our lives. Maybe you’re moving to a new job. This will apply to you today. Maybe you’re moving to a new location. This will apply to you. Maybe you’ve finished a project and you’re going to work on another project in your life. This will apply to you. Maybe it’s just every day when you get up you need to be thinking about what God is doing that is new and moving you forward. We’re going to learn that from Jacob’s life as he is moving out of his house.

One of the things about Jacob’s life as we’ve already seen in the last chapter in Genesis 27 is that he grew up in a dysfunctional family. Now I would say all of our families are to a certain extent dysfunctional because we are broken by sin. Some are a little more dysfunctional than others. But his was quite dysfunctional. We see that because each person in chapter 27 was doing the wrong thing.

You remember in the story that Isaac should have been blessing his younger son because that was the prophecy, but he wanted to bless his older son. He favored his older son. That was part of his problem. So he decided he would kind of circumvent what God wanted to do and bless his older son. While the son was going out to get some food to make that happen, Mom, instead of being able to have a conversation, a family meeting, have a conversation about this, she doesn’t know how to handle the conflict well. So she steps in and she starts to be manipulative and controlling. She solicits the help of her son who lacks the integrity to do what’s right. So he is the key player who tricks his father in order to get the blessing.

When Esau finds out, he’s hurt, of course, by this, but he doesn’t know how to deal with his pain. He doesn’t know how to deal with the disappointment he has in life. So he’s going to kill his brother. So everybody is doing the wrong thing in this story. Jacob now is leaving home under duress and he’s going out. That’s a challenge for him. One of the things we see about Jacob is he really lacks integrity. His name means heel-catcher – someone who trips other people so he can get ahead. He lacks the integrity that he needs inside of his heart.

I want to talk today about this black box. We all have one inside of us, this heart. We’ll call it a black box because things come into it and things come out of it. In fact all the things about you come into the black box. The things about your history, the experience you’ve had in the past, the teachings that you’ve had, the biological things that are going on in your body – all of that passes through the heart. And when it passes through the heart it’s processed. The way it’s processed is important because out the other side comes life. The way you respond to all of life’s challenges and your past and so on. So the heart is this very strategic place.

That’s why Proverbs says – Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. That is out of it comes all this other stuff. The wellspring of life. Jacob lacked this integrity inside of his heart at this stage of his life. He makes some mistakes and he’s leaving home under this pressure of having done some wrong things, having damaged some relationships in his house, and he’s now moving out. It’s a challenging place for him. You can feel the pain and you’ll see that a little bit in the passage as he’s just kind of experiencing what’s going on. It’s very important to have this integrity.

In fact I want to take you to another man who just finished a project and he is starting a new one. This is Solomon. So if you look at the scripture (I’ll take you back to Genesis 28 in a moment so keep your finger there), in 1 Kings 9:4-5 notice what it says. As God is speaking to Solomon who has finished this grand project and now is going on in his life, God says to him – As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart… Do you see the word integrity? Where does integrity take place? It takes place in this black box. Measure your integrity for a moment in the black box of your heart because that’s where things process. That’s where things happen. What is your integrity like? So He’s saying to him – Walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did.