MAY 3 2026 | Genesis: Behind the Curtain S5E6 | Deceived By What You Perceived

Sea Change Church · Genesis: Behind the Curtain · "Deceived By What You Perceived" Pastor Joshua Pigg · May 3, 2026
Genesis 27:1–13
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Let's see. There we go. Oh, yes. Well, good morning, church. I'm Pastor Joshua. I'm the campus pastor here at our church, and I'm so excited for what God is doing here and just all different things that are going on. But before we get started, we're going to read the Word, and what I want everyone to do, if you do it with me, is stand for the reading of the Word, and we're going to go right through it real quick, okay?

I truly believe in just giving honor to God's Word, and we're going to read through it. I have my Bible, but I think I left it in my office, but it's okay. I got it right here still. All right, so we're reading from Genesis 27, verses 1 through 13, and it reads, When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his oldest son, and said to him, My son. And he answered, Here I am. He said, Behold, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.

Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. Now, Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son Esau. So when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother Esau.

Bring me game, prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord before I die. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare for from them delicious food for your father such as he loved. And you shall bring it to your father to eat, and he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, Behold, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man.

Perhaps my father will fill me, and I shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, Let your curse be on me, my son. Only obey my voice and go bring them to me. Thanks be for the reading of the Word of God. Now, that is a lot. Yes. I love Genesis 27 because it's more of a family drama. And growing up, my mom would watch all the little soul poppers and everything like that.

So I'm like, man, this is a good soul popper right now happening in the Word of God because it's actually a spiritual turning point. And this is the covenant family line. You got Abraham, you got Isaac, and now you got this next generation that God has already spoken exactly what was going to happen, that the older would serve the younger. So God has already given the Word and the outcome for what was going to take place.

And now we get to Isaac, who thinks that's a good idea to bless someone when you're very old and you can't see. He's physically blind, about to make a major decision, not based on what God said, but based off what he feels. And then we have Rebecca. She hears the plan, but she knows God's promise. She knows exactly what God has spoken about. The older would serve the younger. And then she creates in her own, you know, her own self a plan to actually give the blessing to Jacob.

And Jacob's just a kid, right, just a kid, just obeying his mom. He goes along with this deception, not because it's right, but because he doesn't want to miss out on the blessing. And then we have Esau. Oh, Esau. Oh, Esau. And his background is so funny because he, we learn from him that he doesn't even value the eternal things of being the first bunny, the firstborn, the blessing that's supposed to come from that. He goes to sell his birthright.

So the big observation that we see here, right, is that Isaac is led by his senses. We have Rebecca who was led by control. We have, okay, we have Jacob who was led by fear. And then we also have Esau who was led by his appetite. And everyone is being deceived by what they perceive, by their own perception. You see, when you trust what you perceive more than God, what God has revealed, it leads to deception. It's not on.

Is it on? There we go. Okay. Good. All right. But when we trust in what we perceive more than what God has revealed, it's typically going to lead you to a place to where you are easily deceived. And I love this story. I came across this, that in 1948, a major newspaper company had printed out this headline. It said that Dewey defeats Truman. And this is the headline right here, right? Now, this is so funny because Dewey didn't actually win.

Truman actually won. But this company was so, this newspaper company was so, like they knew exactly what was going to happen. They went ahead and printed this out before it actually happened. And I love this picture because I put myself there, to be honest with you. And what I see in the headlines is that Joshua defeats Alita. And Alita is holding up this picture. It's like, it never happens. It never happens. So, man, just understand this.

Hey, look, if you're married, hey, don't do it. Okay? Let her win. But there's a confidence that's associated with it. But it's also a deception. You see, I know one thing is for certain is that we are so easily deceived in today's world. That we're so confident. What we believe in that, man, this is the right thing to do. I should be doing this. And there's a huge deception there. So, my main point I want us to all understand and take away from what I'm going to talk about today is this.

Is don't be deceived by what you perceive. Don't be deceived by what you perceive. And you see, perception, it shapes how we interpret God's truth in today's reality. Sometimes our senses, right, what we hear, what we see, what we feel has the ability to form our understanding in the world that is surrounded around us. But there's also a deception to that because sometimes our feeling and our physical senses can actually distort exactly what God has revealed in his word.

And when we rely so heavily on our human perspective, we risk missing out on divine truth. And when we go to verse 1 right now, right, let's go to verse 1 real quick. Let's read that if you have your Bibles. It says this in verse 1. It says, When Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau, his oldest son, and said to him, My son. And he answered, Here I am. Now, scholars say that the word was given to Rebecca.

But in that time, that culture, that Rebecca would actually take the word that God had given her and also give it to Isaac. So the story reveals that how Isaac is now in a place of trusting his physical senses. And he's telling his son, Hey, look, go get the venison to get this food and bring it to me. Like, I don't know how good this food was that it required him to bring it to his father to then receive a blessing.

Now, I don't know if he had a Michelin star or what was going on there. But, man, like, Esau must know how to cook, and that's the type of part I always want to go to. When you know how to cook, I want to be there. So I can understand, I can relate to Isaac a little bit, just a little bit. But what's so interesting about Isaac is that he tries to tie something that's spiritual to something that's physical, his appetite.

And when you read verse 4 right here, it says, And prepare for me a delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. You see, the requirement that he had placed on Esau to receive the blessing was, Hey, you got to go do something in order for you to get this. And thank God that Jesus is not like that at all whatsoever. For he became sin so that we can have newness of life.

He is the good father that we all should be looking towards in order to receive our blessing. But how often do we go to the world? You see, I love this story because though Esau is physically blind, it also messes with his spiritual eyes as well. So now he's more spiritually vulnerable in this particular situation, making decisions based off of what he feels. What he has touched on. He touches the skin of Jacob that has put fur on his body so that his father could think it's Esau.

And then he starts to justify these things all because of what he feels. Though he said, I hear the voice of Jacob, but I feel the body of Esau. You see, spiritual vulnerability is a lot of times where we most are at risk of deception. Because we start to trust in the wrong source. We start to trust in the wrong things. And it also leads us down the wrong direction because of what we feel. So I did a talk one time about the theology of emotions and how our emotions should be indicators, not authorities.

But we live in a world today to where if we feel something, then that's probably the right way to go. If we feel something, I better know our feelings are indicators. We should take what we feel and bring it to the Word of God so that it could give us direction. Amen? You see, I love, I had a friend one time that she was looking for Christ. And I was sharing the Word of God with her. And she didn't believe. And I was like, cool, it's like go do whatever you want to do.

And in that season, that time, she started going to all these different things to figure out peace, to find out purpose. She started going to a person who could read her palm, going to tarot cards, and all these other different things to where I saw her. Then started trying to align her chakras. And I was like, wow. But you see, when she was desiring to have peace, when she was desiring to find that fulfilling that only God can give, you're going to always go to the world and the world will give you a counterfeit of God's truth.

You see, I love what Isaiah 26.3 says. It says, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee. A lot of us are looking for peace right now. And I just gave you the answer to what you should do. Set your mind on Christ and watch what he does. You will keep going to the world. You will keep going to different things and different avenues and success, money, whatever it may look like. You will keep going to those things, but it's not going to provide the peace you're searching for.

I've tried it. And it has never brought what I wanted. You see, when you trust the things that are created over what God has given, you have been deceived by what you perceive. And I love what Augustine of the Hippo says. He says this, man loves truth when it enlightens them, but hate it when he convicts them. You see, we love truth when it helps us out, right? When it helps us out, we're like, yes, it's so good. Oh, I feel good.

But we resist it when it corrects us. I know probably some of you right now, as I was speaking the words, you were like, I don't like this at all whatsoever. It is okay. At my graduation, the man of God said, Dr. Jeremiah said that if you are afraid to speak the truth, you shouldn't be up here. And I don't want to be up. I don't ever want to preach. I'm afraid to speak the truth. But that's what misguided perception does.

It convinces us that we are right, even when God is trying to show us something different. So the question isn't, do you know truth? The question is, will you receive it when it challenges you? You see, don't be deceived by what you perceive. We all have been there. And I love how Rebecca, she has this distorted perspective. Like, she knows the promise of God. She knows exactly what God has said, has spoken, yet she trusts not in the word of God.

And she took over. She took over the work that God was already going to do. She was so confident, she ignores the consequences and says in verse 13, she says, upon me be the curse. Like, that is crazy to me. Like, I could do something wrong, but I ain't saying put a curse on me. That's just not coming out of my mouth. I don't know what she had that morning, but man, I want none of that. But one thing I've learned in my life is that faith waits on God.

Control tries to replace it. You see, she had the right promise, but the wrong process. She knew exactly what the word of God said, but tried to take it in her control. You see, she was deceived by what she perceived and thought that if I don't act, if I don't do something, it's not going to happen. But the truth of the matter is this right here, family, is that God didn't need her help. He didn't need her help. Only thing he needed was her trust.

And some of us in here, including myself, there's areas in your life where you think that you have to go and do everything. And God says, look, stop trusting me. I'm going to provide it. But if we keep trying to work out of our own ability, we produce something that we really don't even want. And that's the vision. You see, I love what Esau, he had a desensitized perspective, right? This guy is so funny that he decided to go marry outside of the covenant.

Like his mom and dad told him who to marry. He was like, no, I'm going to go to the other side. I'm going to marry someone who doesn't even follow along with what we believe in. And for the kids in here or the ones who are not, you know, married yet, please marry someone who believes what you believe. Save your parents the heartache. Okay? Save your parents the heartache. Because it says in a word that the women that he married, they actually brought pain and discomfort to his mom and dad.

And then he goes to sell his birthright to over at Genesis 25. He gives his birthright to Jacob. And one thing I want us to understand and take away from this is this right here. Don't expect to inherit what you consistently dishonor. Like Esau was so deceived that he thought that he could sell his birthright. He thought he could do all these other things but still get the blessing that only a father can give. God has blessed those who put their trust in him.

But we live in a world to where we think we could play with both sides. Like, oh, okay, in this area of my life, I give it to God. But in this area of my life, I'm still going to allow the world to influence me heavily. Look, take whatever you're dealing with right now. Apply it to the word of God. And see what you get out of it. I'm telling you right now, I don't care if it's raising your kids. I don't care if it's your marriage.

I don't care if it's where God wants to position you or place you at. Take it to him in prayer. And sometimes even fast about it to say, God, I want to be clear about what you are saying. I don't want to be deceived no more in this area of my life. And watch what God does. When you start to honor the things that God cares about, when you start to honor the word of God, when you start to honor what God is trying to do in this season right now, he will bless you.

But that doesn't mean you're not going to have a hard time. Sometimes a blessing is just peace in the middle of a storm. When nothing is going right, but you still have the right mind. You still have the right perspective. And you still have a joy that precedes all knowledge. And that's what we're looking for right now. I never forget a time in the military. It was so funny because I perceived something that was not true.

Okay? I perceived that, let me get you back to a little. There's times in the military to where they do things to have fun. They want you to have fun and enjoy it because you're out there, you're away from your family, so they put on these different games. You're saying karaoke. You do all these fun activities. And this one time they were like, you know what? We're going to have snacks on the mess decks. The mess decks is where we eat at.

And I saw, and anyone know me, I have a huge sweet tooth. And I saw some, I saw some Teddy Grahams and I saw some chocolate right beside it. I was like, ooh, I'm going to dip this Teddy Grahams in this chocolate. I'm going to get a few of them and it's going to be good. And I did that and I ate about four of them and then all of a sudden my throat started to close up. I was like, what is going on? And I was like, what is this?

They was like, Nutella. I'm allergic to nuts. And I had the worst night of my life. I'm just trying to drink soda, drinking coffee. I'm like just trying to ease the pain. But I perceived that it was chocolate, but I was deceived because they didn't put no instructions around that. I'm like, why would you do that? Why? It looks like chocolate, not Nutella. But my perception caused harm to me. And I think what we perceive a lot of times in today's world is that God is trying to keep something good from us.

And he's not. He's been a good father trying to protect us. And that's what we have to understand. And I love how Jacob in this story. He is not only like deceived, but he has a false identity working. He already had the promise. He had the promise. Yet he felt the need to secure it by deception. You see, his insecurity drove him to disguise himself as Esau. Believing he needed to trick his way into the blessing God had already promised him.

And if you don't know who you are, you will pretend to be someone else. You see, I love what Proverbs 14, 12 says. It says this, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but in the end thereof are the ways of death. You see, I think we all have a certain perspective on what we should do, what we should be, where we should go, how we should behave. And it could be right on track, but it could be totally off. And that's why we have the word of God to be our compass, to be our true north.

That whatever we may be going through, whatever we're trying to do or accomplish in this life, hey, allow the word of God to be your foundation on how you operate it. But I'm not saying don't own a business. I'm not saying don't be in real estate. I'm not saying, I'm saying go for it, but let the word of God be your foundation and your compass. Because deception doesn't look wrong. It looks right. And I love the fact that in this whole story, the first deception was not in Genesis 27.

It was in Genesis 3. The woman saw that the tree was good. She's always good for food, pleasant to the eyes. And in the very beginning, deception didn't come looking evil. It came looking good. You see, a lot of us have some good things going on in our lives right now, and it's deceiving us. It's deceiving us. It looks right. It looks good. It felt right. But it was against what God wanted for you. You see, sin started with the right.

Sin started with the wrong perception, and it replaced God's revelation. You see, there's so many of us, including myself, to where we think that we're doing the right thing. It's God that's like, no, that's not it. You are perceiving this wrong. You perceiving the struggle that you're going through wrong. God said, look, I'm trying to mold and shape you into me. The Bible talks about suffering like it's actually a good thing at times.

But we try to run away from it. We try to put up guardrails to not go through or experience anything that could cause harm or pain. But when we look at our Savior, he died on the cross for all of us. And from the wrong perspective, you would have thought that was wrong. You would have been like, Peter, no, no, no, that's not going to happen. No, uh-uh. Get thee behind me, Satan. You see, there's things in our lives that God is trying to take and deliver us from, but we keep going back to what we perceive is right.

And I love what John 14, 6 says. It's one of the greatest verses we know, that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. You see, in a world where perception can deceive each and every one of us, Jesus doesn't just give us truth. He is the truth. You see, we are all prone to be deceived by what we perceive, right? But Jesus came so we would not have to live that way anymore.

He took sin, he took our deception, he took our brokenness, and he gave us true identity. He gave us clarity so that we could know and understand without a shadow of a doubt that he has called us. Don't trust what you perceive. Trust the one who sees clearly, and that's Jesus Christ. So some practical takeaways I want us to do really quick, right? Three of them. And the first one is this. If this is you, I want you to repent of trusting your feelings over God's word.

And I had to do this for myself. I want you to repent over trusting your feelings over God's word. Like, I want the word of God to just ooze from me. Like, dang, like, when I respond, I want people to know, like, he's going to respond the right way. Not because there's anything good in me, but because Christ lives in me. Two, stop valuing temporary things over eternal ones. And three, check areas that have been justified because it makes sense.

You see, to wrap all this up as a worship, well, I know Joseph will come up in a second, but I want us to see this, right? This story is so great, but Isaac couldn't see. But Jesus sees perfectly and follows the Father. Rebecca offered to be a curse. Jesus said, I became the curse. Jacob struggled with his identity. Jesus knew perfectly who he was in Christ, well, as Christ. And Esau resisted serving. Jesus said, I came not to be served, but to serve.

You see, the flip side of all of this, and God showed me this, that Rebecca thought the word that was given to her about Esau was a bad one. And it wasn't. God has called us all to serve. Every single person in here. And because we choose that position, God says, I will exalt the humble. Like, he's trying to exalt you, not keep you down. But you first got to understand that there could be a perception that you are believing that it's not according to God's word.

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