Join Barbara Carmack on a journey to uncover the profound lessons from the biblical story of Jacob and Esau, a tale rich with themes of faith, trust in God, and the fulfillment of divine promises. Through engaging narrative and personal reflection, this episode delves into how Jacob’s experience mirrors the spiritual journeys many of us find ourselves on, encouraging listeners to reject worldly patterns and embrace a deeper connection with God.
00:26:13 Encouragement for a Deeper Relationship with God
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Welcome to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. This is Jimmy Lakey, and I’m delighted that you are joining us for this half hour. You can reach Call to Freedom at Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237, or by going to the website at www.freedomstreet.org. If you want to leave a message or order a Word Power Daily Reading Bible Guide or a Freedom Street Express newsletter, you can call us toll free at 1-877-917-7256 and leave your name and address, including your zip code. If you want to talk to Barbara right now, she is expecting your call. You may call that same toll-free number, 1-877-917-7256 to speak to her. And now, let’s join Barbara in the studio.
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Welcome to Calda Freedom. Oh, another day, sunny day. We look forward to those sunny days in Colorado because if you get more than two or three cloudy days in Colorado, that’s unusual. Usually after one or two extreme days like we had this weekend, the sun comes out. Oh, it’s out today and it’s beautiful. So I’m so grateful. Remember all God’s mercy. That mercy covers our sin, folks. and His blessing all year through, and calmly rest within His arms as He takes care of you. Because He said in Exodus 33, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. He said that to His marvelous prophet Moses, and He says that to each and every one of you today. Absolutely. I don’t think if you’re out of Denver or out of the state of Colorado, you don’t remember the devastating fire that happened just a few weeks ago within the month of January. And the arsonist, they actually arrested a man, an arsonist. But because Colorado is a blue state, you don’t hear that he was a legal alien. I didn’t hear that. I heard the news that they had arrested a man and he had a long record. And they didn’t say much of anything else. But I believe, folks, he’s an illegal alien. If you Google and go into it deeper, you’ll find it. We have to beware of the half-truths that we hear from the media in Colorado. So I hope you understand that. We’re looking for the truth, the whole truth. And in Colorado, you won’t hear that from the media or from the government in Colorado. So I’m glad that you have a spirit of discernment with you today and a spirit of truth that will help you and guide you through the maze of all the corruption. It is. It is corruption. I also heard an anchor today saying, when someone asked, are you going to watch the Super Bowl? He says, I’m not watching any more football anymore.
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It gets to that point when you were looking forward to a victory and, oh, it’s defeat. And I’m not watching any more football. And I love football, but I agree with him. I’m not watching any more football this year. Praise the Lord. Oh, isn’t God good?
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I’m glad we don’t have to depend on all this worldly stuff to keep us happy because we can be happy in Jesus. We take joy in Jesus. Oh, you are blessed to dispense for in him you live and move and have your being. You can go to FreedomStreet.org and download the word power for everything. Every day, every hour, excuse me, Bible guide. And that’ll lead you through the Bible all year long. Three chapters in the old and one chapter in the new through the Bible chronologically. And I started this in 1970 in the late 70s. And it is a wonderful way to learn about God and trust in him, your creator. And you can also find teaching, all kinds of teaching. Chris put all the teaching series in there. So you can just go and wander around and explore. Now, some of you have requested the CDs that you can hold in your hand. And I’m looking into that. My old Microboard G4 CD. is not compatible with the new program that Chris put in. So, oh, I can’t use this anymore. I was sad about that at first, and then I said, okay, Lord, you always have an answer. And so I’m looking into imprinting those CDs. with another method so hope you are understanding that i know there are several of you that want the actual cds and so i’m praying about it i’m asking god to help me find a system or whatever that i can imprint those cds before sending them out to you i can get them burned but they won’t have the graphics they had on before. So after 20 years, I have to look at a new thing. And I know some of you have discovered that, boy, that thing that was so good all your life, now you can’t use it anymore. So we got to ask God to get us another plan. And he always has that plan. He always has that answer. Also, on freedomstreet.org, you can donate to Call to Freedom. And I hope you do that. Hit that donate button. And if you’re enjoying Call to Freedom, we need those resources and the generating of the finances in order to pay this bill for radio. It’s not free. And I know you know that. So thank you for listening. and joining in and being a part, a power partner for Call to Freedom. Darren started this many years ago, and it’s been such a blessing. And so I’m so grateful to all that has happened in these last 30 years. Our scripture for this week is from Matthew 28, 19 through 20. And here’s the message translation. Matthew 28. Jesus is going to see his father. Jesus has done everything his father asked him to do on this earth. And now he’s looking forward to seeing his father. And Jesus, undeterred, went right ahead and gave his charge. And he told his disciples, God authorized and commanded me to commission you. Go out and train everyone you meet far and near in this way of life. marking them by baptism in the threefold name, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. And what was the greatest commandment? To love. Yes, Jesus said that love is better than anything else that he could have ever taught his disciples. To love, to have peace, to have joy. Oh, he’s so wonderful. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age, he says. I will be with you. Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. And in the Passion Translation, Matthew 28, verse 20 says, Then Jesus came close to them and said, All authority of the universe has been given to me. And so he says that because he wants you to know you have been given that authority. And now wherever you go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them to faithfully follow all that I have commanded you. And never forget, never forget, friends, and I’m saying this to you, I am with you every day, even to the completion of this age. Yesterday, I introduced Jacob and Esau to you, two brothers that were always fighting. It always seemed that they were fighting, being in strife. and arguing about everything. And maybe that’s what God is telling some of us to do with irreverent and angry relatives. Separate yourself. Don’t get so involved with them because it only leads you down the path of destruction. It really does. We learned that God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not Esau, Jacob. This was God’s plan from the beginning. The God of Abraham is God of the promises fulfilled. The God of Isaac is the God of inheritance and miracles and the God of Jacob who will become Israel. He is the prince with God. God gives us the promise, but the promise requires a miracle to perform it. That’s right. This miracle promise releases true transformation for Jacob. And within the heart of every man who seeks God and every woman, we are all born with with God in our hearts, with a hunger for God in our hearts. I explained yesterday that deceiver means one who causes to believe what is not true, to catch in the act of deception, to practice deceit, which is a sin, lying, and to do fraud. It’s an Ugly word. And it causes me to think about angry. It’s an angry word and an ugly word. And I choose not to label Jacob as a deceiver or defrauder, as many teachers do. Every time I hear a teacher saying he was a deceiver and I say, no. He was in the plan of God as a supplanter. So Jacob was given his name because God had put in his heart that as the second born, he would rule over his older brother. I have learned that when you want to serve God, you can’t go against his plan for you. You can’t. And many of us, it’s taken us years to realize, okay, God. Ah, I’m yours. I give up. I yield to you. Remember that old song? I surrender all to you. God is at work in you both to will to make you pliable and flexible like that palm tree that Psalm 1 talks about and to work for his good pleasure. Jacob’s name means supplanter. And supplanter means to gain an outcome. Supplanter comes from catch the heel. He caught the heel of Esau. He wasn’t sinning. He was just following his brother and he caught his heel. Means to gain an outcome through strategy. That’s That’s exact planning. So he was a supplanter. And in this case, this plan was originated with God. So I’m calling Jacob a supplanter of the birthright, which Esau didn’t care about it at all. Esau just walked away after eating his bowl of lentil, and he just walked away. He just didn’t care at all about his birthright. Well, I’m starting today in Genesis 28, verse 6. And why I find this story so good is It happened thousands of years ago, and yet I can actually feel involved in some of the behavioral patterns that are going into these guys and into their families long, long ago. And it helps me to realize what I need to work on. So here in Genesis 28, verse 6, Esau had learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him away to Paddan Amaram to find a wife there. And that was the Aramean district. And they were relatives from Ishmael. And that, while blessing him, Isaac had instructed him, don’t marry a Canaanite woman. And they were surrounded by Canaanites. And furthermore, Esau found out that Jacob had obeyed his parents and fled to Paddam Aram. And Esau, knowing that his father Isaac disapproved of Canaanite women, what did he do? What did he do? He went to the daughter of Ishmael, Abram’s son, and the sister of Nabioth, and chose a woman named Mahalath to be his wife. Esau was a man who carried a grudge and was very spiteful towards his parents. Arrogant. He didn’t obey them. Have you known, well, maybe in your own family, when you’ve seen among siblings, among your children that you’ve had, there was one so strong-willed, everything you told them to do, no, no, no. And this was Esau. He was very spiteful towards his parents. I believe that’s why God says to Malachi, in the first chapter there. Esau, I have hated. Not that he hated him because Esau was created in God’s image, but the attitude he had when he came out of the womb and he began living his life on this earth was against God. And Jacob, he says, I have loved. Here are some verses that describes what happens to a child who is disrespectful. This happened in the Old Testament. I’m kind of grateful and thankful that it doesn’t happen still today, although I believe as God does his will in people’s lives, when he sees a rebellious child, who may have come to know the Lord Jesus years before, and he’s just getting further and further away from God, God takes him home. Yes, he does, before anything worse happens to him. And in Exodus 21, verse 15, it says, whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death. That was the penalty. Exodus 20, verse 12, honor your father and your mother that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. That’s a promise. When you honor your father and your mother, Your days will be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Deuteronomy 21, 18 gives a fuller description of what happens to a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother. And though they discipline him, That’s where all the business takes place, at the gate. Yep. shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear and fear. Remember, those days were without the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am so grateful. Oh, Lord Jesus, I am so grateful that you came and that you are there for us every day. Proverbs 30, verse 17. The eyes that mock a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures. Whoa, that’s serious, serious damage. And Ephesians 6, 1 through 3, I had to find a New Testament. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise. Remember, we read that in Exodus, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. And 2 Timothy tells us that in these last days, and boy, we know they’re the last days, there will be difficulties. People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable. They can’t be satisfied. And it’s like… What did Esau do? He just walked away. He didn’t even try to finagle his birthright away from Jacob. He didn’t care. I couldn’t care less. So we see that Jacob left Beersheba and journeyed toward Haran. And this is from Genesis 28. He encountered a certain place at sunset and camped there for the night. He took a stone from there and made it his pillow. Wow, we talk about pillows not being comfortable. Oh, I’ve got my pillow. And lay down to sleep. He had a dream of a stairway securely fixed on the earth and reaching into heaven. And there were messengers, angels of God ascending and descending on the stairway. And Yahweh stood before him and said to him, I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. You are lying on the very ground that I will give to you and your descendants. See, God was pleased with Jacob. He wanted to bless him. They will become as numerous as the specks of dust on the earth, and they will extend their territory in all directions through you and your descendants. I will bless the whole world. Never forget, I am always with you and will protect you wherever you go. And he did. He protected Jacob. Then one day I will bring you back to this land, for I will neither leave you nor fail to fulfill every word that I have promised to you. Those are the promises that Jesus gave to you, friend, in Matthew 28, verse 20. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the earth. And one of these days we know the earth is going to be destroyed, but Jesus will be with you as you go and enter into heaven’s gate. When Jacob awoke from his dream, he was overcome with awe and said, Yahweh is here. He is in this place and I didn’t realize it. Terrified and overwhelmed, he said, Oh, how awesome is this place? I’ve stumbled right into the house of God. This place is a portal, the very gate of heaven. And that’s what he called that place, Bethel, the house of God, because he had seen the face of God. Early in the morning, Jacob took the stone he had under his head, set it up as a pillar and anointed it by pouring oil over the top of it. I guess his mom gave him some supplies to take with him. Then Jacob committed himself to God, saying, If you will always be with me and protect me on this long journey, and if you give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, God has done that for us. He has. And if I return safely to my father’s house, then Yahweh, you will be my God. And he was in the beginning stages of getting to know God. He relied, like I said yesterday, on his father and his mother’s religion, on their spiritual attitudes and behaviors. But now he was away from them and he had to establish his own belief system. He says in verse 22 of Genesis 28, see, I have set up this sacred stone pillar and it will be your house. God, I promise to set aside a tenth of all that you give me as my gift to you. At that time, Jacob promised God that he would give 10% tithe of whatever God blessed him with. And after he met Rachel, whom he immediately fell in love with, he went to work for Laban, his uncle, for Rachel’s hand in marriage. He worked for seven years for Rachel’s hand, but Laban tricked him. And on his wedding night, I guess they had sex in the dark. I can’t imagine. He didn’t know it was Leah and it was Rachel the next morning. I mean, it was Leah and the next morning he woke up and it was Leah and he had worked for Rachel. So Laban said, all right, the custom is that you marry the firstborn. But if you work for seven more years, I will have a great celebration and you can marry Rachel. Rachel right away. And so he did. He worked another seven years, which was 14 years for his uncle. The truth was that as Jacob worked for Laban, he was cheated from legitimate salary for working for his uncle. Over and over again, he was cheated. And when he left with his two wives and handmaidens and a bunch of children, all 12, all, let’s Let’s see, 11. Yeah, 11 tribes in its infancy. These were young children. Jacob confronted his uncle Laban with these words. For 20 years I’ve been with you, caring for your flocks. In all that time, your sheep and goats never miscarried. In all those years, I never used a single ram of yours for food. If any were attacked and killed by wild animals, I never showed you the carcass and asked you to reduce the count of your flock. No, I took the loss myself. You made me pay for every stolen animal, whether it was taken in broad daylight or in the dark of night. I worked for you through the scorching heat of the day and through the cold and sleepless nights. Now remember, when you’re a shepherd, well, I don’t know if you remember. I never have been. But I remember living across the road in Pierce from a herd of sheep, a flock, not flock, And there would be a shepherd all the time in those acres. So it meant that the shepherd would have to be there 24-7. And he said, yes, for 20 years I slaved in your house. I worked for 14 years earning your two daughters and then six more years for your flock. You changed my wages 10 times. In fact, if the God of my father had not been on my side, the God of Abraham and the fearsome God of Isaac, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen your abuse and my hard work. Remember, God sees that, friend. He sees your hard work. That is why he appeared to you last night and he rebuked you, which I didn’t read that today because for time. But if you’ll read Genesis 28 through 31. Oh, great, great chapters. So Jacob spent 20 years under the discipline and blessing of God. See, he’s learning about God. He’s learning to love God more and more and to trust him and rely on him. Things were not easy. And he got into it with a lay on. And Rachel, over the competition between them and the children that they had, I mean, over and over again, they were competing against each other. But Jacob learned to be honest and trust in God for the blessings of flocks and herds and children. See, Jacob got to know how God operates. And it’s when we start out on our own born-again experience. We are new at almost everything, everything, everything to do with the spiritual walk. So we’ve got to learn that from God individually. You can’t rely on your mom and dad. God is going to speak to you, to your very heart, individually. And it’s really wonderful to know that even though we’re not perfect, I don’t mean to say that I’m perfect. I’ve only really begun. But I’m looking for that glorious day. And here’s John and me, that I may know him.
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I don’t mean to say that I’m perfect. I’ve only really begun. But I’m working towards that glorious day when I will fully become all that Jesus saved me for and wants me to achieve. The one who sets me free. That I may know him.
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The Lamb of Calvary. So whatever comes, I will live.
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Ever looking to Jesus my Savior Forgetting all hatred and strife Looking forward to what’s ahead His glorious victory That I may know Him The One who set me free
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That I may know Him, the Lamb of Calvary. In His fellowship of sufferings, the real way to be free. That I may know the family into which I’m born. The power of His resurrection.
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That I may know Him, the Lamb of Calvary.
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In His fellowship of suffering, the real way to be.
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into his life, Lord. And know the power of his resurrection, Lord. And know the power of his resurrection,
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Oh, God wants you to know him, wants you to know him in a deeper way than you know him right now. Yes, you can. He wants to go with you through the mess, through the mistakes. It’s like a phrase I heard from Denzel Washington. When you pray for rain, you got to deal with the mud. And it’s true. And God is willing to go through the mud with you. He was willing to do it with Jacob. He is willing to do it with you. He’s willing to do it with me. And to be there when the times and the seasons aren’t as pleasant as you would like. He is there. He says, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the earth. God bless you and keep you and take joy.
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Thank you for listening to Call to Freedom with Barbara Carmack. You may get in touch with Barbara at Call to Freedom, Box 370367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may leave your message at 1-877-917-7256. Call to Freedom is a listener-supported radio ministry. Barbara and her power partners invite you to come on board with us and become a network of hands holding up Call to Freedom ministry. Power partners support Call to Freedom with prayer and monthly financial support. You will be blessed supernaturally. We invite you to visit Call to Freedom’s website, www.freedomstreet.org, where you can hear Barbara’s daily radio broadcast 24 hours a day or order materials. You may share your praise reports and heart cries by mailing them to Call to Freedom, Box 370-367, Denver, Colorado, 80237. Or you may email us at barbracarmack at freedomstreet.org. Until next time, remember, Jesus loves you, Barbara loves you, and take joy.
