Don't Miss Out on God's Best
The Journey • Sermon • Submitted
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Good morning… We are in our sermon series entitled, The Journey and over the next few weeks we are going to be looking at the spiritual transformation that took place in the life of Jacob… …
When I was born … my dad had the responsibility of going to the Registers office and getting my birth Certificate…But I think… He must have been exhausted because he misspelt my name ..
Instead of spelling my name Brendon with an ON... he spelt it with an EN…Brenden. I only found out years later when I went to get my passport… that my name was different on my birth certificate..than I had been spelling it..
When we moved to the States I just kept the original spelling of my name… because it was easier with all the paper work..
When it comes names in the Bible they are significant.
Names were one of the ways you understood the essence of who a person was… To know someones name was to have insight into kind of nature and character of that person
Names were also tied to ones future.. In fact, one of the ways that God changed someone Destiny was through Changing their names… God changed Both Esau’s and Jacob’s name…
Esau’s name meant Red hair… simply because he was born with this thick head of red hair… God later changed Esau’s name to Edom.. which meant Red Soil…referring the land he would later inherit
Jacobs name meant— One that supplants or the One who trips up… because.. he was born holding onto his brothers foot…
God changes JACOB’s name — TO ISRAEL- Which means ..Prince with God or man of God... Jacob went from struggling against Gods purposes to being man who lived out God’s purposes..
One of the ways that God changes our destiny is through changing our name… John beloved disciple writes in the book of revelations that those who overcome this world will be given a new name in heaven! WHEN WE BECOME Christians we are new creations in Christ.. the old is gone and the new has come…
What drives the Book of Genesis is this sense of Destiny that is found in the Abrahamic Covenant…
God had revealed to Rebecca that there were two nations that were struggling within her… and that the oldest brother would serve the younger brother... this was a bit of shock to Rebecca because it was a
complete reversal of order…
Jacob was God’s choice to continue the blessing of Abraham…and the Destiny of a nation and the coming of the Messiah...
What surprises us in this story ... is God’s plan of Election.. There is this Declaration of the will of God...
The prophet Malachi Picks up on this in his prophetic writings in..
Malachi 1:1–2 (ESV)
1 The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 2 “I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you say, “How have you loved us?” “Is not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob
Malachi tells Israel…that God says I have loved you… and people of Israel replies how has God loved them?
Malachi responds that God has loved them through election… by choosing Israel to be his people.… God has loved Jacob and hated Esau… God declares his love.. for his people.. That is unmerited favor.. nothing they had done to deserve his love!
A woman once approached Charles Spurgeon and asked --How could God reject Esau and love Jacob?
Spurgeon said that trouble is not why God rejected Esau but rather...… how could God have loved Jacob.’ ”
Sometimes it is amazing that God loves us…in-spite of ourselves and our short comings... This is part of His Declarative Will.....
One of the great things to remember is that we have been chosen.. it is not that we loved God but he first loved us.. He knew us from the foundations of the world and had a plan..
Where we often find ourselves stuck getting stuck is in what is called God’s permissive will...
This when God allows certain things to happen in our lives that we find hard to explain.. Things like suffering, sickness, disease, poverty and death……and nobody is exempt from these forces…
We need to be reminded that ..Sin and evil are not part of God’s perfect will and plan…and .
The reason we are impacted by sin is that we live in a fallen World.. The whole Bible deals with Gods to plan of redemption… and in this plan there are three tenses in salvation… past..We have been saved.... present ..We are being Saved....Future.. and we shall be Saved.. God longs that no one would perish.. but all come to a knowledge of Him..
What we need to know is that even though we may not always understand God’s permissive Will . We can take comfort in God’s Character......
Deuteronomy 32:4 (ESV)
4 “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.
Isaiah tells us to
take comfort in the fact that God deals with us out of his character…
and therefore…we can say and agree with what we know about who God is..God you are perfect.. you are just.. you are faithful.. upright..
We say with the apostle Paul..who endured hardships..
Romans 8:28 (ESV)
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
There is God’s Declarative will, God’s perfect will and God’s permissive will...
What we learn from the life of Jacob is that we can seek after God’s perfect will.
Romans 12:2 (ESV)
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
T/s How to avoid missing God's Best for our lives?
1. Pay Attention to Our Own Hearts.
1. Pay Attention to Our Own Hearts.
In our text… Jacob has this lentil stew that he has been working on all day.... He has added all the spices and it is just perfectly reduced… and all the aromas are permeating through the house.. When Esau walks through the door… He is famished.. The first thing that hits his senses are the flavors of this delicious smelling soup.. lets read our text..
Genesis 25:29–34 (ESV)
29 Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. 30 And Esau said to Jacob, “Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted!” (Therefore his name was called Edom.)
31 Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright now.” 32 Esau said, “I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?”
33 Jacob said, “Swear to me now.” So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. 34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
Here is the situation… You have a felt need and you have a resolution to that need…
Esau is famished and Jacob has prepared a meal..
Now.. Esau’s request for food is not unreasonable…You would think that this was a normal part of every day life..
How did food become such a big issue..
But what we find is that there something deeper going on in the heart of Jacob…
He is all wound up…the reason is that Jacob hasn’t just been preparing a meal he has been thinking about this Birthright issue..all day..
Have you ever done that? stewed on something all day?…mulled over an issue or a concern?… and when you with your family.. you start saying things that you regret later… Why does this happen? ... the reason is we are not paying attention to our hearts....
Jesus said in
Matthew 15:18 (ESV)
18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.
We learn from Jacob and Esau that we need to pay attention to our hearts and there are two ways that we can do this…first we can...
a. Keep our responses in Check.
Jacob has been thinking to himself how am I ever going to get the Birthright? He was playing all kinds of scenarios out in his mind..
Then out of nowhere comes this perfect....opportunity… a chance to bargain for it... Remember Jacob is still living up to his name as a supplanter..… He is still being driven by his own ambitions… in fact..
Jacob doesn’t try to hide his intentions… He is not secretly trying to deceive Esau .. . . He says to Esau ... I want your birthright… You don’t get more forthright than that...
What is significant about the Birthright?
First of all it spoke of a Spiritual Inheritance...the channel of blessing that comes with the covenant…God was going to use the Patriarchs as a means of forming the nation of Israel and blessing the world… The Birth Right also spoke of the Physical inheritance.. the oldest brother would have double the inheritance of the younger brothers…
Jacobs response is to get the birthright on his own terms… It is not his that his desires are wrong… it is simply his approach is wrong…
We need to remember ..that it is not how we frame something but our methodology that is important… The How is just as important as the what...
We learn from Jacob and Esau that we need to pay attention to our hearts.. we need to keep our response in check and secondly we need...
b. to Keep our Appetites in Check
Esau’s Problem is that He had the appetite for the wrong things..
When you read the text carefully your will see that...The problem wasn’t so much that Esau was so hungry that he thought he was going to die without food… Rather the problem is, Esau put no stock in the birthright … listen to what he says…Esau says..
“I will die one day anyway, so what good is this birthright to me?
What was Esau saying is the Birthright has no value to me.... He has no awareness of what he was giving up...
When think about it...
One of the ways that God often introduced himself in the Bible. … was as the God of Abraham, The God of Isaac and the God of Jacob… God saw himself represented by his relationship to these men.....
It could have been the God of Abraham, Isaac and Esau… instead it was the God of Jacob..
What Esau was giving up his God given destiny..
There is a lesson here of paying attention to our Hearts … we do this by placing our responses and appetites in check..
Both Jacob and Esau made the mistake of letting their emotions control their decisions..… Psychologist Michael Lawson tells us that
Our emotions have a habit of returning to well-trodden paths.
Our emotions are an unreliable guide to the way things may actually be....
He tells us that A good rule of thumb to keep our emotions in check is to ask… Is to look at your life through a block of time..
‘What has been my dominant attitude over the last month?
It may have been positive or negative, cheerful or miserable, appreciative or critical, celebratory or threatened.
One of the ways that we Pay attention to our hearts.. Keep a watch on your emotional responses attitudes...
Proverbs 4:23 (ESV)
23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
T/s How can we avoid missing God's Best for our lives?
1. Pay Attention to Our Own Hearts.
2. Put into Action the practice of Good Habits
2. Put into Action the practice of Good Habits
Have your ever had a good habit or practice that has saved you?
When I learned to drive… I was taught to watch out for that blind spot... I was taught to look in my re-view mirror and check my side mirrors…but then there was an additional step and that is to look over my left shoulder .... I can’t tell you the number times that simple habit has saved me from an accident.
Good Habits can serve us well..
Experts tell us that take several weeks to establish … but once they are in place they can become automatic.. we can almost go on autopilot....
T/s One of the ways that we establish good habits is
a. being Disciplined in forming habits..
We first make our habits, then our habits make us..
One of the Problems with Esau is that He lacked discipline ..
His father Isaac… made the mistake of giving him freedom without any real responsibilities…He spent all his time hunting and not really spending time contemplating the bigger picture… As soon as Esau is challenged… He doesn’t have a reason to hold to the blessing of his birth right…
The bowl lentil stew looked more appealing in the moment..... Instead of stepping back and taking a moment to reflect… Esau sold his birthright… the bible says that Esau despised his Birthright...
In the 1970’s Stanford researcher Walter Mischel did a long-term study on personal self control.
The purpose of the study was understand when delayed gratification was developed in Children… In the study Children were placed in a a room with a bell and a marshmallow..If the child rang the bell, Mischel would come back and the child could eat the marshmallow.
If the child waited for Mischel to come back on his own, the child could get two marshmallows.
In videos of the experiment, you see children squirming, kicking, hiding their eyes—desperately trying to exercise self-control so they could wait and get two marshmallows.
Their performance varied widely. Some broke down and rang the bell within a minute. Others lasted fifteen minutes.
What discovered years later from this study…
Is that the children who waited longer went on to get higher SAT scores. They got into better colleges and, on average, achieved more as adults.
The children who rang the bell quickest were more likely to become bullies. They received worse teacher and parental evaluations ten years ...
Mischel concluded that children may be taught “that it pays to work toward the future instead of living for instant gratification.”
At the end of the day...short-term gains are rarely worth the long-term pain…The author of the book of Hebrews… warns us of the problem of instant gratification...
Hebrews 12:15–17 (ESV)
15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
WE are told that
Esau had no real time for spiritual things.. He was not attentive to heart and so he was ruled by his passions and desires..
his flesh ruled over him
When we are not attentive to our Heart…our flesh will rule over us as well.
… PAUL warns of the road to apostasy is walking away from God..… he uses ESAU as example of what it means to go down the wrong path.. Paul warns that it is possible to fail to obtain the grace of God..To be professing Christian.. but still not be saved…
After Esau had eaten and had his fill he regretted what he had done, but could not take it back. This causes a growing seed of anger and bitterness in him towards his brother.
The real problem is
Esaus had no real appreciation for the birthright; he willingly bartered it for the momentary gratification of his appetite.
..the problem is that ESAU woke up too late.
There came a moment when he realized what he had done... Even though He was remorseful .. even though he sort it .. through his tears.... it was too late.
Esaus lack of discipline, disqualified him from God’s blessing..
If we neglect spiritual disciplines, we will find ourselves controlled by pride, anger, discord, unforgiveness, lust, etc., as if we walk in our flesh nature it will keep us out of following Gods best plan for our lives..
For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
When we are living in God’s Word, prayer, fellowship, and service, we will find our fleshly desires are weakened..
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
When we walk in step with the Holy Spirit and the flesh will not control us and keep us from God’s best..
T/s How can we avoid missing God's Best for our lives?
1. Pay Attention to Our Own Hearts.
2. Put into Action the Practice Good habits
3. Pursue God's Blessings and Don't settle for less.
3. Pursue God's Blessings and Don't settle for less.
One of the challenges in life is setting for the common and ordinary…
Melanie Stevens a 29 year old nurse found a Cello lying beside a garbage container.. she put in in her trunk and left it there for a couple of days.. She had this idea … that she wanted her boyfriend a cabinetmaker to put a hinge on it and make it a CD container...What she didn’t know was that this instrument was a A 320-year-old cello valued around $3.5 million. The Cello was apparently stollen and then abandoned.. What a shame that would have been..
We can settle for becoming CD racks when God has created us to be unique master pieces.
Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
ESAU was okay with just getting the inheritance…rather than the double portion..
Once Esau was satisfied he went his way...
Genesis 25:34 (ESV)
34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright.
The problem with settling… is satisfaction… We can all relate to ESAU.. we have been hungry… all we can think about… when you have eaten… you appetite is satisfied…
And there was a period of time where ESAU carried on living... unaware that he had given up everything.. How easy it is to live our lives unaware.. that we are settling from less than God's best..
The birthright means double portion..
For all of Jacobs faults one of the things He desired was God’s blessing…. but he went about it the wrong way… He thought that He could purchase God’s blessings..
Now this might seem obvious ....but you can’t buy God’s blessings…
There is a similar situation ...
In the book of Acts God is doing amazing miracles and healings through the apostles.... and there also this was popular magician named Simon who was practicing magic in Samaria.. He had quite the following...
When people talked about Simon they said that he was a man who possessed the power of God..
This all changes when Philip arrived in town and Simon believed.. and God saved...
Then.... Peter comes to Samaria and starts laying hand on people to receive the Holy Spirit.. People begin to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit...
When Simon sees the power of God at work.... he offers the Apostles.. money so that he might have the same power and ability.... Peter rebukes SIMON and says ...may you perish with your money because you thought you could buy the gift of God...
This is the problem with Jacob.. He was Thought that He could obtain the Gift of God with money.. Jacob says sell me your Birth right now... Instant gratification.... What Jacob missed out is that Gospel is one of Grace … it is all God...
We cannot add one single thing to what God has already done for us in salvation…
but here i s the thing is that we can desire the blessings…
Jesus in the sermon on the mount…that there is a blessing for desiring Spirtual things..
Matthew 5:6 (ESV)
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Paul taught..Earnestly Desire Spiritual gifts...
The prophet Elijah desired a double portion of the annointing of his predecessor Elisha ... When the prophet Elisha was being called home.. He was preparing to depart this world…and… Elisha instructed Elijah to stay in Gilgal ..because God had sent for him to got to Bethel.. But Elijah… refused to leave the side of Elisha..
Why because.... Elijah didn't want to miss out on anything that God was about to do.. Elijah refuses to stay away from the blessing.
The result is that when Elisha is taken up to heaven... Elisha asks him to ask anything before he departs... Elijah asks him for a double portion of his spirit... It was big ask!!.. Elisha says only God can do this… HE PUTS A CONDITION...
If you see me when you I depart it shall happen… ELIJAH saw Elisha depart in a whirlwind..
What if we changed our mindset and embraced all that we could be… All that we could be in our marriages? Settling for nothing but the best… what about as parents … grand parents. What would that mean for our congregaTion.. We would do our best for Christ… love out.. serve other and proclaim the gospel.
Conclusion:
Martin Luther pointed out that … the transaction betwen Jacob and Esau was invalid... .because Jacob tried to purchase what was already his, and Esau tried to sell something that didn’t belong to him.
Jacob desired God's blessing... But the Lord had already told him that he would have it.. he didn't have manipulate his brother to secure the blessing..
Jacob desired God's blessing... But the Lord had already told him that he would have it.. he didn't have manipulate his brother to secure the blessing..
What was needed was simply walking by Faith and Trusting God Will in the process…
Gods way is to walk in Faith..
a. We Develop Faith through Walking with God through his word...
When we are in the Bible our faith is going to grow...
Romans 10:17 (ESV)
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Our faith grows when we develop a history with God... As we walk with God .. we are going to see how God works in our lives… How he delivers us.. heals us.. guides and gives us confidence that he will continue to do…
We Develop Faith through
2. Walking with others who have great faith.
Proverbs 27:17 (ESV)
17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
When we walk with others who trust God it build-and strengthens our faith.. We need each other.. no man is an island to himself... we need the body of Christ. ..
Are we taking thought of others and putting them first or primarily thinking about our needs and wants? We must ask ourselves questions like: “How can we bless others?
24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
lastly we build faith by..Remembering is an important part of faith..
Jurgen Moltmann describes the bible as the book of "remembered hopes."
Israel took out 12 stones out of the Red sea to remember their deliverance from the Egyptians..
Every month when we gather around communion we remember what God has done.. remembering our Deliverance from sin and calling to inheritance in the saints.
Go back to your calling when you said yes to Jesus..
How can we avoid missing God's Best for our lives?
1. Pay Attention to Our Own Hearts.
2. Put into Action the Practice Good habits
3. Pursue God's Blessings and Don't settle for less.