Underestimating the Power of Your Birthright

0:06 I want you to open your Bibles to Genesis 25. Genesis chapter 25. Y'all know who Tiger Woods is? Y'all know who Tiger Woods is? He was named one of the greatest golfers of all time. Not just the greatest golfer now. They've named him the greatest golfer of all time. He grew up under the guidance of his father who tooted him, mentored him, taught him about golf. from a young child and he grew up and became a great disciplined golfer. Dominant, one of the most, the most dominant golfer in the history of golf. He made millions upon millions of dollars. He had a ton of endorsements, a great reputation and for a long stretch of time he was unbeatable on a golf course but it all came crashing down in 2009.

1:10 When it was revealed that he had been having multiple extramarital affairs, multiple. He lost most of his endorsements, he lost his stellar name, his reputation, he lost his marriage, all because for a moment he decided to satisfy his flesh. and that's what I want to talk to you about today. I want to talk to you about the danger of compromising and sacrificing your name, your reputation, your career, your family for the sake of a momentary thrill.

1:48 Amen. I knew y'all wouldn't be excited about that. It's a mindset that I want to talk about. It's a posture I want you to have because whether you know it or not, somebody on your row is a descendant of a guy named Esau. Some of y'all got the same spirit of Tiger Woods. Go ahead, look up and down your row and see if you can figure out who it is.

2:17 The person that's not looking up and down the row looking straight ahead, that's the person right there. Yeah. I want to talk about Esau, who for a momentary thrill, for a moment's pleasure and selfish satisfaction, gave up what the Bible calls his birthright. As a matter of fact, open your, let's read Genesis chapter 25. I'm going to start at verse 29. Genesis chapter 25, beginning of verse 29. It says this, now Jacob, verse 29, cooked a stew and Esau came in from the field and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, please feed me with that same red stew for I am weary. Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, sell me your birthright as of this day. And Esau said, look, I am about to die. So what is this birthright to me? Then Jacob said, swear to me as of this day. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.

3:31 And Jacob gave Esau bread and stews of lentils. Then he ate and drank a rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. I want to talk to you about this today. I want to use the title for a few moments. Don't underestimate the power of your birthright. I know some of you don't realize that when you became a Christian, God gave you something called birthrights. He gave you rights and privileges and opportunities and powers that God gave to us when we accepted Jesus in our lives. When he came into our life, God gave us certain privileges and rights. And I thought I should talk to you about it today because Esau had the birthright. Now let me back up and let me slow down, Pastor. Let me slow down.

4:24 Let me tell you what the birthright meant to Esau. Esau was a twin. He and his brother Jacob, they are children of Isaac and Rebekah, and they're twins. Esau was born first. Jacob was born second. The firstborn son in the Jewish family got birthrights. Firstborn son. And here's what those birthrights were. Number one, it meant that you always received special attention from your parents. That's what the first thing the birthright meant. Secondly, it meant when daddy was not around, the oldest son was the next in charge. I'm the oldest in my family and I appreciated the privilege of having that authority praise them do we have any first born people here alright thirdly the birthright meant this thirdly the birthright meant when the father died that the oldest son received a double portion of the father's estate he got twice as much as everyone else did twice as much as everyone else did That's what the birthright meant.

5:39 And this is the birthright. This is the deal. This is the thing that Esau had that Jacob said when Esau came from the field and he was hungry and weary, the Scripture says. He said, I want some of that soup you got, some of that stew that you're making.

6:00 And Jacob said, well, if you want it, it's going to cost you your birthright. And Esau gave up his birthright. for a momentary thrill to satisfy his flesh. I know y'all looking at me like my crazy, but some of y'all have put your birthright in question by compromising and giving up and yielding to satisfy your flesh for a moment. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. I feel tension in the room.

6:30 You've given up. You haven't maintained the things that God has given to you. You haven't held on to your convictions. Matter of fact, some of you don't even have any convictions. By the matter of fact, it's clear. I believe that if you don't have anything worth dying for, you don't have anything worth living for. We give it up. We give it up for a momentary thrill. We surrender. And that's exactly what Esau did. Esau gave up the privileges and opportunities and the birthright that was given to him just to satisfy his flesh for a minute. And it's tragic. It's sad. And I thought I should talk to you about this today. But he didn't get there. Esau didn't get to that posture suddenly. He didn't just all of a sudden became a compromiser. It is him yielding and slowly giving up things over the course of time so that when he came from the field that particular day, he was ready to give it all up.

7:29 I believe, did I say that already? I think there's some descendants of Esau here. Did I say that already? Did y'all figure out who it is? Go ahead, look up and down your row and see if you can figure out who it is. If you can't find them, they might be sitting in your seat. He didn't get there overnight. Here's what he did. Here's what verse 29 says. Let me tell you how he got there. Here's the first thing he did. Verse 29, it says, Esau came from the field and he was weary. Verse 29, he came from the field, he was weary. Here's what I believe. He stayed in the field too long. He went to work. That was his job. He was an outdoorsman. Esau was an outdoorsman. Jacob, his twin brother, was a mama's boy. Esau was a hunter. Jacob was a house boy. He was a kitchen fella hanging around in the kitchen. Esau was the one that went out and went hunting and brought the food in.

8:23 That's Esau. He's an outdoorsman. He was his father's favorite child while Jacob was his mama's favorite child. Their parents had favorites. But Esau would go out into the field and work and look for food. and it says right here, he came from the field and he was weary. He was weary. He was tired. He was worn out. He had not caught anything. He had been searching all day to get something. He didn't get anything. So, he comes back into the house and he has nothing to show for it. And so, he's willing to sacrifice and compromise and give up his birthright just to get a meal,

9:04 to get something to eat. Here's what I'm saying what he did. Here's what he did. Here's my first point, he came from the field and he was weary, he spent an extended period in personal pursuits. Y'all missed that. That went over your head. Let me tell you what he did. He spent an extended period of time in personal pursuits. Let me tell you what that means. He was so busy working, he didn't have time for church. if you can't say amen say out say just pull your toes back yeah some of you are so busy chasing money you're so busy chasing fame you're so busy chasing career so busy chasing an opportunity so busy trying to get a reputation so but so busy that you forgot about god you you can't make it to church. You're not serving in ministry. You're not doing anything. You've gotten weak and weary and tired. You don't pray anymore. You ain't in worship anymore. You don't study anymore.

10:08 You don't do all of the things you should do because you have spent an extended time in personal pursuits. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. If you can't say amen, say ouch. I don't care what you do on your job. I don't care that you pursue and you want to be great and you want to be good, but don't let it push God out of your schedule. It's so easy. It's so easy to chase after that thing and forget about it's God who woke you up this morning. It's God who gave you the activities of your limbs. It's God. Amen. And you think because you show up every now and then that it's okay that every now and then you pop your head in. every now and then, but you have gotten so weak and so jacked up and so tore up that you're no longer the person that you used to be. You used to be sought out to the Lord. You used to be on fire.

11:12 You used to be passionate. You used to quote scripture. You used to read the word. You used to pray, but now you are so busy trying to get rich and trying to make a name and trying to be somebody that you have lost all of the passion that you once had. I'm calling you back to come back home. He stayed away much too long.

11:43 Away from the word. Away from his devotions. Away from his prayer life. Maybe he got into a weakened condition and position. As much as I love our church, I love the First Baptist Church, Glenard, and I've laid my life down for this church. As much as I love it, as much as I love our worship environment, you need more than Sunday morning to be everything that God wants you to be for. If you want to be everything that God wants you to be, you need devotions. You need prayer. You need reading the word. You need accountability. You need people to hold you accountable. You need people to ask you, when's the last time you read the word? When's the last time you fasted? When's the last time you prayed? Okay, let me go on to my next point. Y'all don't, you don't hear me.

12:36 Here's verse, here's point two. Did y'all get the first point? What was it? Personal pursuits. And here's number two. He says in verse 32, look at verse 32. Here's what he said. He said in verse number 32, he said, look, I am about to die. Now, he had a, check this out, he had an exaggerated perspective of a potential problem.

13:03 An exaggerated perspective of a potential problem. He thought that his problem was worse than it really was. He said he was about to die. Now, I know he wasn't about to die because it tells us twice in the scripture what his problem was. Here's what it says right here in verse number 29. It says he was weary. Verse 29 says he was weary. He came from the field and he was weary. And in verse 30, he said, Please feed me that same red potter for I am weary. So twice it tells us in the scripture he was weary. And the word weary means he was tired and hungry. All that joker needed was a nap and a sandwich. And he is talking about, I'm about to die.

13:59 And some of you make your situation worse than it really is. Y'all not hearing what I'm saying to you today. You make your drama worse than it is. You make your situation worse than it is. All he was was tired. And all he needed was some rest. Go lay down, boy. Take a nap. Get a sandwich. But here he's willing to give up something very important and very precious. He was willing to give up his birthright just to satisfy his flesh. Oh, okay, let me give you some application. Y'all look at me like I don't know what I'm talking about. Some of you are willing to compromise all of the blessings that God has given to you as one of his children for a hot moment of a thrill, a drink, a piece of leg. is that the right way can I say it that way I don't know any other way to say it.

15:01 I'm just, is that okay? Y'all got to keep going. Is it worth it? Sacrificing your walk with the eternal God who answers your prayers, who loves you, who fights your battles. Is it worth missing out this because you want a momentary thrill? He made his problem worse than it was. He said, I'm about to die. Y'all ever met somebody when you talk to them about their problem and they about to die? You about to die? For real? Is it that bad? Is it that devastating? But here's the third thing. I'm almost finished. I'm almost done.

15:49 Verse 32, he says this. As well in verse 32, he says, look, I'm about to die. Then he said this, what is this birthright to me? He underestimated the possibility of a powerful promise. He underestimated the possibility of a powerful promise. God has made promises to us as his children. Do you not know when you became a child of God, he made some promises to you? When Jesus came to live inside of you, he made some promises to you. He gives us as children of the most high God. By Jesus living inside of us, he gives us certain rights and privileges. I don't know where y'all are. I'm so happy to be a child of God, to have a personal relationship with God, to be able to commune with God and talk with God and walk with God and have a relationship with God.

16:47 He's given to you and I. When you accepted Jesus, he gives you certain rights and certain privileges and certain opportunities. Don't you know no weapon formed against you shall prosper? Don't you know that you are an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ? Everything that's been promised from Christ is yours. Somebody say amen. Do you not know when you became a child of God, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you? Do you not know that he has given us the power and the right to become sons of God? He has given us the privilege to be able to go straight to God. We don't have to go through no priest. We don't have to go through no other person. We can talk to God ourselves and tell him what our burdens and our problems and our situations are. Don't you know that God has opened up the door for you to go straight to him with whatever problem that you have and whatever situation? and he will lean his ear unto your cry and hear your cry and answer your cry.

17:51 Don't you know who you are and whose you are? He underestimated the power of what it means to be the child with a birthright. And some of you have underestimated what it means that God has made you his child. Don't you know who you are and whose you are? Go ahead, lean over to your neighbor. Tell him I'm a child of the most high God. Tell them on the other side, I don't know who you are, but I'm a chosen people. I'm a royal priesthood. I'm a part of a holy nation. Hallelujah. Somebody say amen. Jesus made it possible for us to have a relationship with the Father.

18:50 He made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. He made it possible to do what nothing else could do. The law couldn't do it. The prophets couldn't do it. But Jesus came along and died on the cross so that we could be forgiven of our sins. and have a relationship with God. Is anybody grateful for that other than me? When Esau came from the field, came in the house, was tired and weary, his birthright meant all he had to do was go to his parents and say, Mama, Daddy, I'm the oldest, I got the birthright, I get special attention from you, I'm hungry.

19:44 because he had the birthright. He gets special attention from his mother and his father. Don't you know that you get special attention from your heavenly father? Y'all not hear what I'm saying to you today. The birthright meant that when mama and daddy was not around, he was the next in charge. He could have just went to Jacob and said, I'm going to take that sandwich right there.

20:24 I'm going to take that soup right there. You make yourself some more soup. I'm going to drink that. Y'all are not saying amen because some of you firstborns know that you take that privilege sometimes and saying I'm the firstborn, I'm the oldest. And did he not know if his mother and father's not around, he's in charge. You get to bark off the orders and give the instructions because you're the next in charge. Don't you know whose you are and who you are? I want you to say to yourself, don't underestimate the power of who I am. Don't underestimate who's my Lord and my Savior. Don't underestimate that you and I, when you accept Jesus, we are his children.

21:21 y'all stop I've been preaching this all year let me say it one more time stop worrying about Trump because we serve a God who trumps Trump