You Won't Like Eating the Bitter Fruit of Deception

You can view short two-minutes video message takeaways here 

Well, that didn’t go as planned! Ever said it? Our best laid plans can backfire. And when our plan is to deceive another for personal gain, we’ll sooner or later eat the bitter fruits of our deception.

In Gen. 27, everybody is doing the wrong thing! What a sad and messy chapter in a long book. Our life can have some sad and messy chapters along the way too (From Gen 27).

1. The Displeasure (Gen. 36:34-35). Despising our godly heritage can feed bitterness that leads to poor decisions. It’s better to follow God from youth than end up in an uncomfortable yoke!

2. The Deception (27:1-29). We can assign many reasons for why we entertain deception: Help God, unbelief, lack of trust, fear, flawed spouse, compensate for earlier wrongs, vengeance…

• Deception can define your identity and cost you dearly. This mischief will lead to misery. Deception by you will ruin other’s perception of you. Jacob’s reputation is forever conniver.

• v. 21-24. Give some consideration to your intuition. It may be God trying to warn you.

• v. 27-29. The Abrahamic promise passes to Jacob. How we treat the Jewish people matters.

3. The Discovery (27:30-40). (32-33) Discovering we’ve been deceived can leave us trembling.
(34-35). Like Esau, we’ll cry bitterly if we let the hope of God’s blessings slip away.

4. The Deprivation (Gen 27:41-46). You won’t like the bitter fruits of deception. Esau’s life is deprived of blessings, Rebekah’s of peace, and Jacob flees for decades never to see mom again.

5. The Do This Instead. Here’s a few thoughts from this messy chapter that can help us:

1) Avoid unequal yoking (2 Cor. 6:14-18). Partnerships with those holding values and priorities contrary to God’s word, and prefer darkness, idols, gods).

2) Trust God’s plan. Your mischief will eventually lead to misery and may become your identity (Job 5:13). Life is more difficult when we ignore God’s warnings (Pro. 13:15).

3) Take the mask off. Jacob’s identity changed when he was honest about who he really was before God and about who God really is (32:24-30, Lk. 18:9-14, John 14:6-11, Heb. 11:6).

4) Live for God and in the blessed hope of the gospel today - before it’s too late (Tt 2:11-15). Payday for deception may come sooner than we think and harder than we hoped.

Look, every chapter of our life won’t go as planned. But we don’t have to make it harder with deception. You can end a messy chapter of life when you get honest about yourself before God.

Let’s Take the Message Home:

1.Where might you need to break or avoid partnerships with those holding values and priorities contrary to God’s word? What are you yoked to that is displeasing to God? Go ahead, let it go.

2.Where is deception defining your life? Identify reasons that drive you to deceive, and what God’s word says instead. Where do you sense being deceived? Pay attention to your intuition.

3.Write out who you are, really. Get honest before God and ask Jesus to exchange your identity for His. The hope of the gospel is a blessing you won’t want to let slip away. Are you saved?