Starving Sons Series

Starving Sons

Dying to Self, Part 2

(Vineyard Pen)

If you have your bible, turn to Genesis chapter 25.

We’re continuing our series,

based on the life of Jacob.

Last week we talked about letting go

of who we think we’re supposed to be,

so we can become who God created us to be.

Lets read the story we’re looking at today.

Gen 25:24-34

24 When the time came for her (its talking about the mother, Rebekah) to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. 25 The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment;

Now, imagine you show up at the maternity ward,

and your wife or daughter just had a baby boy,

and they want to show you how precious he is,

and they hand you the baby all wrapped up in the blanket,

and he’s so cute,

but when you fold back the blanket,

it looks like a little gorilla, its whole body is hairy.

Wouldn’t that be kinda weird.

It’s a little chewbakka baby.

so they named him Esau. 26 After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel;

We learned last week that the name Jacob means

“heel-grabber” or deceiver.

so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them.

27 The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.

28 Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, "Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished!" (That is why he was also called Edom.)

31 Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright."

32 "Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?"

33 But Jacob said, "Swear to me first." So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

This has to be the worst negotiation

in the history of the world.

Because Esau’s birthright meant that

when the dad, Isaac, passed away,

Esau would get double the inheritance

that Jacob would get.

Now some of you might say,

What’s the big deal about that?

If I got double my parents inheritance,

it would still be zero.

Two times zero is zero.

But Jacob and Esau’s parents were loaded.

They were wealthy.

So this was a big deal,

Esau made a really bad trade,

the double inheritance,

for a bowl of lentil bean stew.

Let me illustrate this for you.

Who in here has a really nice car…

This is not a trick question,

whose got an expensive car that the rest of us might lust after.

Don’t raise your hand if you’ve got a Ford Taurus,

it might be nice to you,

We’re not gonna make fun of you, I promise.

You won’t go to hell if you have a really nice car,

you just might get to heaven faster.

“How would you like to trade this Vineyard pen, for your _______?

Yeah, you’re like, no way,

I steal the pens every week anyway.

I don’t need to trade for it.

That would be a really bad trade wouldn’t it?

That’s what Esau did,

he made a really bad trade.

In fact it was so bad,

its hard for us to believe this story would even be true,

why would anyone ever do that,

why would anyone make such a bad trade.

But then you realize that people all around us,

are making horrible trades every day.

In fact many of us in this room

have made some really bad trades,

and some point in your life.

So I want to look at several lessons from this story.

Here’s the first lesson, if you’re taking notes.

Beware of mistaking growth for maturity.

Verse 27 it says…

The boys grew up,

Now I know this is talking about,

they grew in age and grew up physically.

But even though they grew physically,

we watch them in this story fight like 5 year olds.

Can I have some soup?

No I’m not sharing, go get your own.

If you want some of mine, you gotta gimme your birthright.

I’m about to die of hunger, and I want it right now,

so who cares about a birthright.

The bible says they grew up,

but did they really?

You and I meet people everyday,

and they look grown up,

but are they really?

I have a hard time watching reality shows,