Don't Trade Your Future | Adam Weber

Like you and I, we'll trade our kids and our family for our careers and the next promotion. And so many of us are slowly trading away our marriages. I'm talking about people at Embrace Church, us trading our marriages for porn. We'll trade our families for fooling around. We're a grown man still acting like a 17-year-old. It's not popular to say, but many of us day after day are trading our health for fast food, to eat whatever feels good, whatever tastes good. Friends, we'll trade our literal freedom and end up in prison simply to satisfy a craving. Today, just to ask the question, what are you trading your future for? To get right now. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Welcome despite the entender zur amor! Today though, we are kicking off this brand new series called Wrestling With God, looking at one of the most broken, messy stories that you will find, the story of a man named Jacob. And speaking of broken and messy, anyone here come from a broken, messy place? Anyone at our Westside campus have a broken, messy family? Anyone at Durfee, at T, have a broken, messy story? I know for myself, broken and messy sums up my life any moment or day that I'm not with Jesus. And so we're gonna be looking at this broken,

messy story of Jacob. And to do so throughout this series, we're gonna just simply open up scripture, simply open up the Bible, the word of God going verse by verse each and every week in this series. And well, speaking of the Bible, I think this is so powerful. Like even if you're not a Christian, even if you're an atheist, by the way, if that's you, we're honored that you're here. You don't have to believe the same things we believe to belong here. But listen to these stats. Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that sales of Bibles are booming. The Wall Street Journal, a 22% in Bible sales this year. And then in April of this year, elsewhere it was reported that just over half of all Americans say they wish they read the Bible more. To be clear, not over half of Christians. Over half of all Americans wish they read the Bible more. That's crazy. I would argue that God is up to something right now. And even more than that, that humanity is searching for something greater than themselves. But just to call it out though, those stats are great, but opening up the Bible is overwhelming at times, right? Like it's confusing. If you're anything like me, you grew up in a good Lutheran house.

In our house, we had a literal stack of Bibles. In one of our closets, in the corner of the closet, there was a stack of Bibles. But I literally don't remember anyone ever actually reading them. And so where and how and when do you start reading the Bible? Not to mention all the random names. It's like, who are these people? And these big, fancy words, it can just be so confusing to read. And so today, we are giving out 2,000 copies of the book of Genesis, chapters 25 through 35. I've added some personal notes just to help it make sense as you're reading. Also, we have a Bible reading plan inside of your Bible as well. I wanna encourage you. I just think how cool as a church to be going through the book of Genesis together. I wanna encourage you to do that. But our hope with this series though, is that by the end of this series, it would give every single one of us the courage to start opening up the Bible on our own. And so at this time, if you wanna open up your Bibles to the book of Genesis, chapters 25. Chapter 25, we're gonna start at verse 19. If you have one of the copies of Genesis, you can turn to page eight in those.

And leading up to this story though, in the chapters before what we have in our hands, so far in the book of Genesis, there's been Adam and Eve. And we've seen Noah in the ark. And then we meet a couple named Abraham and Sarah. And speaking of Abraham, if you grew up in the church, there's a high chance that you might have grew up singing about this Abraham and his many sons. Can I get an amen in the house of God? Sir Abraham, right, many sons, many sons. I'll stop singing, okay? When Abraham is 100 years old and Sarah is 90, by the way, you're never too late to have children, okay? Don't believe the lies, okay? 90, go for it, okay? 190, they become parents of a son named Isaac and this brings us to our story for today in Genesis chapter 25, starting in verse 19, it says this. This is the account of the family line of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac and Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebecca. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. Okay, so again, there's Abraham and he has a son named Isaac and at 40 years old, Isaac marries Rebecca

and I think this is so cool that we're specifically told that Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife. Friends, if you're married here today, every single day, you should be praying for your wife. Married, every single day, you should be praying for your husband. Every single day, Isaac prays for his wife and Rebecca, she became pregnant. Continuing on in verse 22, we're told the babies jostled each other within her. Okay, so Isaac prays and his prayers are answered and they actually get a BOGO deal because it's twins, okay? Sometimes that happens. Be careful what you pray for. But continuing on, again, the babies jostled each other within her and she said, because the babies are jostling, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other and the older will serve the younger. Okay, so again, Rebecca's expecting twins and we're told that even in the womb, that they jostled each other. This word jostled can also be translated as crushed. I picture the two of them inside the womb,

body slamming each other using the umbilical cord like a tug-of-war competition, you know? All joking aside though, from the very beginning, these two babies, these two brothers, what will become these two nations have a very bitter, broken, messy relationship. Continuing on in verse 24, when the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red and his whole body was like a hairy garment. So they named him Esau. Quick pose at the risk of some major, major TMI. It's okay if you never wanna come back to Embrace Church. When it comes to hair, Esau and I might be related, okay? If that's you, God sees you too. The other day, I mean, my kids have seen me their entire lives. The other day, one of my kids, Dad, you just have so much hair. Like there's so much hair. Esau though, he's like a human chia pet or something and speaking of chia pets, maybe the best looking chia pet I've ever seen, okay? I'm a little biased. But seriously though, you can't make this up. The name Esau translates to hairy. And so Esau is born first and then in verse 26, after this, his brother came out with his hand grasping Esau's heel,

grasping Esau's heel. So he was named Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. Okay, so again, Esau is born. And as he's coming out, his brother Jacob grabs him and he's holding on to Esau's heel. Friends, just to highlight this, the name Jacob, it means grabs the heel or heel holder. Listen to this though, it can also be translated. It means someone or something that takes the place of another by force or trickery, by force or trickery. You see, here's the truth. Jacob is grabbing his brother's heel, why? Because he's wanting to come out first. He's grabbing his heel because he's literally wanting to be born first. He's desperately wanting to take the place of his brother. Why? Well, because at this time, the oldest son in every family was given the family birthright. And you see, at this time, if you had the family birthright behind your dad, you were the leader and you were the head of your family. And then after your dad passed, you were given a double portion, a double amount. of the inheritance of your father.

And so by any means necessary, Jacob is wrestling with and he's grabbing Esau's heel trying to get this family birthright. He's desperately trying to get what doesn't belong to him. He's trying to grab something that's not his to grab. Just to ask the question right now in your own life, what are you grabbing for that isn't yours? What are you reaching for that doesn't belong to you? Hard question to wrestle with, isn't it? If you get honest with yourself, some disgusting things, some really dark, kind of gross, messy things, they just start coming up. Again, though, right now, what are you grabbing for? Like, what are you secretly coveting? What are you jealous of? What do you think that you deserve that someone else has? And maybe if you're really honest, you've even thought about like how you can get it. How I can grab it. Some examples, maybe for you, it's someone else's position at work you think is yours. Maybe it's someone else's wife. If you had her, you wouldn't take her for granted like her dirtbag husband does. Man, I would treat her so good. She deserves what it feels like to be loved. Maybe it's someone else's house, their lifestyle, their marriage, their family.

Maybe it's the attention and recognition that someone else has. Maybe it's the talent that someone else's kid has that you want for your kid. You don't want their kid. You just wish their talent of their son, something your son had. And who are you jealous of? Maybe it's your literal brother, your sister. Maybe it's your coworker, your neighbor. Maybe even worst of all, it's your best friend. You've been their friend all these years and you love them, but gosh, you just wish you had because they just don't even care about it. You just wish you had. Once again, what are you grabbing for that isn't yours? Disgusting, isn't it, to think about? I'll just say this. If this is inside of you at all, by all means possible, you need to confront it and you need to address it because as we're gonna find out, this right here is cancer. It's cancer. Like this crap, it doesn't just ruin you. It'll destroy friendships. It'll destroy relationships. It will destroy a business. It will destroy a church. As we're gonna find out with Jacob, it will destroy an entire family and Jacob's entire life. You see, unfortunately, this name Jacob,

heel grabber, deceiver, trickster, it's symbolic of the person that Jacob is. It's symbolic of his life as a whole. Continuing on in verse 27, we're told, "'The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter, "'a man of the open country.'" I wish they'd say the same thing about me. That sounds rad. "'A man of the open country. "'While Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents. "'Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, "'but Rebecca loved Jacob.'" Okay, so Esau is a hairy, manly man and he's a hunter and Jacob is a mama's boy, okay? Just for the record, I do have lots of hair but I also love my mom and I have baby soft hands and so I'm not judging Jacob, just a fact, okay? But truly though, there are some very unhealthy dynamics in this family and as we're gonna find out next week in the weeks to come, Rebecca is a bit of a helicopter mom herself but reading on in verse 29 though, it goes on to say, "'Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, "'Esau came in from the open country famished. "'He said to Jacob, quick, "'let me have some of that red stew, I'm famished. "'That is why we also call him Edom. "'Jacob replied, first sell me your birthright. "'Look, I'm about to die, Esau said.'"

Okay, so at first glance, it appears that Esau is literally starving, right? Truth is though, he's just hungry. This word famished here, it means hungry, not starving. Translation, Esau is being dramatic. And he might sound a bit like your teenage son. Mom, I'm hungry. Mom, I'm starving. Mom, there's nothing to eat in our entire house. When are you gonna get groceries? By the way, why do they never ask for dad? Okay? Maybe a question you mothers are gonna ask someday when you meet the Lord. And so again though, Esau's hungry. And he wants to eat when? Now. He wants to eat now. He tells his brother, quick, let me have some of your stew right now. You see, Esau, he doesn't want to wait. He doesn't want to wait. He wants instant gratification. He's hungry and he's craving this stew right now. Have you ever heard the phrase, don't go to the grocery store hungry? Ever heard that? You see, the truth is for you and I, we make really foolish decisions whenever we're really craving something.

Let me say that again. This is one of those like facts of life. We make really foolish decisions whenever we're really craving something. Like if we're hungry, more honest, we're hangry. And we're craving food, we make really bad decisions, right? If we want to buy something, do you ever get in that mode where you're just like, I don't know what I want to buy. I just want to buy something, a car, clothes. We make really foolish decisions. If we're angry and we're craving to release that anger, it's just building up in us and we're looking for a way, we make foolish decisions. If we're feeling frisky, if you know what I'm saying, we're craving some boom shakalaka. Not the best decision making, right? Seriously though, if we're craving peace, if we're craving joy, craving simply being loved or liked, craving validation, craving security, craving being comfortable, once again, you and I, we make really, really foolish decisions whenever we're really craving something. And it's insane. You can't see this in yourself, you can see it in others. Like we'll set aside all common sense when we're craving something. When we're craving something, we'll stop listening to everything our family's telling us, everything our close friends are telling us.

We'll set aside even our morals and godly wisdom, just to say it again, you and I, we make really foolish, irrational decisions whenever we're really craving something. And so again, Esau, he's craving something. He's craving his brothers too. And Jacob, he sees the perfect opportunity to finally get what isn't his. His brother's tired, his brother's exhausted, his brother's vulnerable. And Jacob, he takes full advantage of the opportunity to be a piece of crap. I'm just saying in this moment, Jacob's name, he fully lives up to this name, heel grabber, deceiver, trickster. And he finally, finally sees the perfect opportunity to get what doesn't belong to him, the family birthright. Starting again in verse 31, listen to this. Jacob replied, first sell me your birthright. Come on, brother. Look, I'm about to die, Esau said. Again, he's being dramatic. What good is the birthright to me? But Jacob said, swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentils too. He ate and drank, and then Esau got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. For years, when I sat with this story, and even this week when I sat with this story,

I've always felt bad for Esau. I mean, he just seems like a good dude, a good dude who's innocent and he's getting taken advantage of. But the more that I sit with this story, though, the more I see a guy who is willing to flippantly give up his future simply because he wants something right now. He's willing to give everything up because he wants it now. Again, he's not starving, he's just hungry. And so over a bowl of stew, he's willing to give up and trade his family birthright. Over a bowl of stew, he's willing to trade and give up his entire future. And this sounds insane, right? It's like, Esau, what are you doing? What are you doing? But seriously, what are you doing? Like, who would ever do such a thing? And yet, friends, this is something that people do all day. The time. More direct, this is something that you and I do often. Like you and I, we'll trade our kids and our family for our careers and the next promotion. And so many of us are slowly trading away our marriages. I'm talking about people at Embrace Church, us trading our marriages for porn. We'll trade our families for fooling around. We're a grown man still acting like a 17 year old. It's not popular to say, but many of us day after day

are trading our health for fast food, to eat whatever feels good, whatever tastes good. We'll trade our career, our work career, for screwing around or being lazy. While dating, some of us will trade our family and all of our close friends for this one person that we're dating. We'll trade our financial freedom to get what we can't afford today, right now, because we deserve the house, we deserve the car, we deserve all this crap on Amazon. We'll trade our future and all the amazing opportunities that God is just handing us because we just wanna be comfortable, we just wanna play it safe. We'll trade our peace, our joy, to cram in one more thing into our schedules. We'll trade our spiritual lives for our kids' baseball league, their dance lessons. To be clear, not just our spiritual lives, but our kids' spiritual lives. Friends, we'll trade our literal freedom and end up in prison simply to satisfy a craving. Today, just to ask the question, what are you trading your future for to get right now? As we speak, what are you trading your future for to get right now? Is it worth it? Is it worth it? Here's the truth, for so many of us,

it's never too late to stop making the trade. For so many of us, it's never too late to stop. It's never too late to change the course of the direction that we're headed in. Like, it's not too late to reach out and tell someone that you need help in a certain area. It's not too late to take that step of faith instead of playing it safe. It's not too late to slow down in your dating relationship or better yet, to end it. It's not too late to start listening to the wisdom that other people are telling you. It's not too late to start getting healthy. This school year, it's not too late to start putting your spiritual lives and your family's spiritual lives before everything else. Once again, for so many of us, it's never too late to stop making the trade. Once again, though, going back to Esau, he wants his stew and he wants it now and he's willing to trade his future to get it. Yet, just listen to verse 34 again. He, Esau, ate and drank. And then got up and left. So, Esau despised his birthright. Isn't that crazy? How can he despise it? He just got everything he wanted. He gets it and he wants it now and it's handed to him and yet, almost immediately, he regrets

and he even despises what he's given up. Why? Because it wasn't worth it. And it never is. Because it wasn't worth it. And it never is. Okay, so today, this is where we're gonna push pause on this story. Next week, the deception and the manipulation of Jacob and his brother, it increases even more. Just to mention it again, I cannot encourage you enough to use this Bible reading plan. Honestly, I'm pushing pause. I'm going through Matthew right now and I'm like, no, I wanna go through this together as a church and so, if that's you or if you're new to the Bible, I can't encourage you enough to do so. Bring your copy of Genesis back with you again next week. Just for a moment, though, I wanna talk with those of us who have already traded our future to get something right now. That person who's like, it's too late for me. I mean, maybe for you in your dating relationship, you've crossed lines and you and your girlfriend got pregnant and instantly, your life turned upside down and you've had to grow up really, really fast. Maybe for you, you got all the money you could ever desire. You got every promotion you chased after, but you kind of sort of hate the person that you've become, and your kids don't really even disagree with that.

For some of you, maybe year after year, you put their sports way before their spiritual lives, and now they're grown up, and they're out of the house, and yes, they're still playing sports, intramurals in college. They have zero connection to God, to church, to faith, and it's, you're heartbroken over it. Friends, if that's you in any way, I just want you to know that with Jesus, there's redemption. With God, he can use our biggest screw-ups, our biggest mistakes, even our smallest regrets for good. I know for myself, I find so much comfort in Paul's words, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Just to acknowledge it, it might be too late to get some things back. Our decisions and our actions, they do have consequences in this life, but friends, when we run to God, when we love him with our whole heart, it might look different than we originally planned, or hoped, or prayed for, but he can still use it all for good. He can use it all. To close today, we're gonna end by singing a song that we sang earlier in the service, but before we do, I wanna talk with all of us who are currently, like as we speak, trading our future right now to get something right now. As we speak, you just sense like a specific area that that's you, and I just want to acknowledge that for some of us, it will take God's supernatural strength and his supernatural intervention to help us change our course. Just to be brutally honest, some of us, the train is barreling

down the tracks. We're headed in the wrong direction in our private lives, in our dating life, in our decision-making. We are headed in the wrong direction, and we are headed there very fast and short of God shaking us or us hitting rock bottom. There's not a chance that we're gonna make any changes. Others around us have tried to warn us. Others of us have tried to wave the red flags, and we haven't listened, and so today, right now, that's my prayer, that if that's you in any way, shape, or form, that right now, God would wake you up. He'd wake me up, that right now, you would sense God speaking directly to you by name, not in a condemning way, but in a way of saying, hey, I've got so much more for you. I love you so much. I pray that somehow, some way, God would speak directly to you and you'd just sense him begging you to change courses, and so we're gonna sing, and between you and God, right now, just between you and him, just tell him, Lord, I wanna stop trading my future. As we sing at all campuses, if you wanna be prayed for, we'll have people from our prayer team at the front of the room who would love to pray for you at any point. Just come forward. As we sing, maybe you get on your knees. Maybe you stay seated, because you're just like, Lord, I need to address this right now, because when I leave here, all the same things, my whole life is still gonna be there, and so I need your strength, your power, your self-control to make

any changes in my life, but I wanna stop trading my future. And so at all campuses, if you wanna stand, as we go into the song, just make that your prayer, just tell them, Lord, I wanna stop trading my future. I wanna stop trading my future in this big way that's gonna end in a total disaster or in this very small way. Whether it's our relationships or our health, it's like, I wanna be a live God for my kids and their kids. I need to get healthy. I don't know what it is for you, but it's just like, help me to change the course of my direction, whether it's a sinful thing or a not sinful thing, but you just know that God has more for you. Lord, I wanna stop trading my future. Lord, we love you. We bring all these things to you at the altar. We lay them down before you. We ask that you take them from us. We ask that you would help us, give us everything that you are so we can change the course of our lives. Lord, we love you, we thank you, we pray all these things in the name of Jesus, amen, amen.