Message For Messengers

WHAT YOU FEED, YOU WILL GROW (GENESIS 25:19-25)
In Singapore, I remember having seen a sign board in one of the restaurants “You are what you eat.¨ Today, I would like you to look at the story of Jacob and Esau with me and see that “What you feed, you will grow.¨ The conflict in this passage has led to wars and problems for many, many years. I want you to look beyond the surface of this story into the spiritual application that it has for all of us.
I. SPIRITUAL CHOICES (Verses 29-34)
A) First let us understand that Esau was not actually starving to death. He was hungry. He was exhausted. But he was not dying of hunger.
1) Many times we make the wrong spiritual choices, because our perception of life is distorted.
2) Exaggerations can lead us to dangerous spiritual decisions. When we exaggerate the magnitude of our current circumstance, it can cause us to sell out on our Christian convictions that should be good for time and eternity.
B) Esau was more concerned in fulfilling his present fleshly desires than having a relationship with God. A bowl of soup meant more to him than spirituality.
1) J. Vernon McGhee says “The man who had the birthright was in contact with God, and he was the priest of his family. He was the man who had a covenant from God. He was the man who had a relationship with God.”
2) What fleshly sell-out makes itself a temptation in your life? What is in our lives that may not even be a sinful thing, but giving wrong priority, becomes sin for us?
II. SPIRITUAL STRUGGLES (Verses 22-24)
A) Let us look at this real life situation in the Scripture to give us a spiritual lesson. Esau will represent our flesh and Jacob will represent our spirit.
B) There was a struggle within Rebecca.
1) Our flesh continually struggles with our spirit. Paul teaches us of this battle in Romans chapter 7. This is one of the hardest passages to follow in the King James Version . Please allow me to read it to you from another version.
Verse 14 “The law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master.
V.15 I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate.
V.16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good.
V.17 But I can't help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.”
V.18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can't make myself do right. I want to, but I can't.
V.19 When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway.
V.20 But if I am doing what I don't want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.
V.21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. V.22 I love God’s law with all my heart.
V.23 But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
V.24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?
V.25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
C) When this struggle is raging, it affects us. Rebecca said “What is going on inside me?”¨
Just as in the case of these boys, one will rule over the other, so it is in our life. Either our flesh will rule over our spirit or our spirit will rule over our flesh. We have a lot to say about which one will overcome.
1) Which one do we feed the most?
2) Do we cultivate and weed as needed or do we wait until harvest time to try and separate the weeds from the produce?
III. SPIRITUAL OUTCOMES
A) Our spiritual choices will determine our spiritual outcome. The decisions we make today will affect our lifetime. A person can, in most cases, determine early in life if his death will come surrounded by friends and family or all alone.
B) Jacob, although he did things in a deceitful way on occasion, had a spiritual hunger. After wrestling with God all night on a separate occasion, he became a great nation.
C) Esau, had everything favorable for him. He was a hunter, the eldest son, the favorite of his father and yet because he was more interested in fulfilling the present desires of the flesh than in making wise choices. And thereby he became the enemy of Jacob and the enemy of God.
Genesis 36:1 tells us that Esau became the nation of Edom. Obadiah tells us what happens to Edom ( Obadiah 1:1-4).
All of us are faced with Spiritual choices. We all face Spiritual struggles as well. But ask yourself today, what kind of Spiritual outcome l will I have. Your spiritual choices will determine your spiritual outcome.