Tricks Are For Kids

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over the world, all over the world. I just stuck in that melody all day. Stop it stop it because I'm ready to preach. Oh, y'all aren't ready to listen, but I'm ready to preach. I y'all be seated. We're going to go right into the word. Can I pick up where I left off last week? Do the new you? Resist the temptation to go forward into your future on the old template. Do the new you. It's a little series that I'm doing here in the first month of the year, and I'll go as long as God leads me.

But I committed to him to at least do it for this first month because I think this cultural phrase that we have comes from the pit of hell. Do you I mean cool? Yeah, be unique? That's great. However, if the you that you are doing is not the you that God wants to use, you've got to grow. Amen. Oh, this is going to go good. This is going to go good today. This word that God gave me last week, and I do want to start with where I ended

last week. Go to Ephesians chapter four briefly as I read you this scripture, and then kind of remind you. I don't often like to say this is a review because then it'll make you feel like you're jumping into the middle of a season, and that's not the case, especially if you're here for the first time. How many of you are in church today really needing God to give you some clarity in your life? And then how many of you believe put it in the chat as well?

How many of you believe that that can only come from Jesus clarity. Now, we can figure out other things other ways, but when it comes to spiritual matters, we need Jesus. And that's what Ephesians four is saying, all right, in this epistle, epistle is not a wife of an apostle. It's a letter breaking out all my preacher humor for the first of the year. Look at verse twenty Ephesians Chapter four, Verse twenty. I love y'all. Y'all are a little slow to say it back, and I love you

enough to tell you the truth. And that's what we're going to do today. This message is going to be a grown up adult message, all right. Verse twenty. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ, and we're taught in Him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. Well, now that messes up my other least favorite cultural saying, live your truth. And Paul just said that I need to learn a new truth. And the truth that is new is not

the truth that is new at all. It might be new to you, but the truth is in Jesus, not in me. I don't trust my own judgment enough to figure out what truth is. There was a time in my life when I thought there was a tooth fairy that brought me money for my teeth. That's how stupid I was. So I figured there's probably something i'm still that stupid about today that I haven't figured out that is stupid yet. And baby truth doesn't fall out like a baby tooth, so it has to be uprooted. Oh yeah, yeah,

I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. God is good. God is good. God is good. We got to yank it out. But he said the way of life. Look verse twenty two. This is really really important. You were taught with regard to your former way of life, baby Truth, to put off your old self, which is being shout the next word, corrupted, corrupt by its deceitful desires, to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on the new self created to be like God in righteousness or

true righteousness and holiness. And so that's the contrast we focused on last week. Corrupted verse twenty two. Put it up again, please corrupted, and then verse twenty four created, and write them both down if you want to corrupted and created. And I'm not saying that there are two yous, but I am saying that, according to the scriptural revelation here from Paul, as well as my own personal experience, there is a choosing every day of my life and your life about which one of us is going to

show up for any given situation. And once you realize the power that choice, you don't feel so stuck anymore. And that is a wonderful thing. I get sick of myself sometimes and I begin to believe that this is just the way I am, and then somebody comes along and says, just do you, And I'm like, great past the cheese fries. I went out to Gaston County to watch Graham wrestle yesterday. Those cheese fries look good, and

there were two mes. And my taste buds know exactly about those cheese fries, and my waistline knows what my taste buds are trying to make me forget in that moment where this leads if I do it long enough. So I didn't eat the fries. Cheer me on, yeah, Pastor. But sometimes I don't do as good of a job resisting the fear as I did resisting the fries. Sometimes I don't do as good a job about what comes out of my mouth as what goes in. Say what I want to say, do what I want to do.

And I'm just doing you, and you do you, and I'll do me, and together we'll get divorced in seven years, just doing each other. This is what Paul is talking about to the church at Ephesus, and to the Church at Valentine, and to the church at University City, into the church in Nepal, and into the church in the UK, and into the Church of your heart. When he says, you were taught the truth in Jesus, and so the Lord gave me this and it really touched me that

I need someone to teach me Jesus. He says, you were taught a way of life in Jesus. And I don't know who taught you about Jesus or who taught Jesus to you, but you ought to thank God for them, and you ought to thank them, whether that's my mom, thank you, whether that's pastor Mickey. He will never ask me an offering for ministry that I won't help him build it. And so even if the church had twenty dollars, if he needed five, if he needed ten, I'd have

to pray in tongues about it. But I will always support him because he taught me Jesus, and I'm really grateful that he did. And he wasn't the first one. I mean, at the Methodist church where I grew up, there were Sunday school teachers who taught me Jesus, and I appreciate them so much. And you probably can think of somebody right now who taught you Jesus or who brought you to church so that you could learn Jesus,

and you ought to thank God for them. And know this is not a selfish and motivated part of my sermon, because I'm the one who teaches the Bible. I'm talking about those personal people who help lead you to Jesus.

Is amazing, because I need somebody to teach me Jesus because the world is screaming everything else, So to teach me Jesus a way of life that is outside of this crazy, corrupt, crooked culture, this siloed culture, this panic attacks society, this judgmental culture, this cancel culture, this hypocritical cure, this materialistic culture, this jacked up it might burn down quick. Let's hurry up and praise God while we've still got a planet culture. I need somebody to teach me Jesus.

But I need Jesus to teach me me because in all the things that I've learned about him, there's a feeling I get some time that I haven't really met me yet, that I haven't quite grown into the me that I've seen glimpses of. I think I can be more free than I am. I think I can be more patient than I am. I think I can be more intentional than I am. I think I can be a little bit less of a control freak. Why did you say yes so loud to that you know me?

We must have grown up together. Takes one to know one, Oh man. The control thing is one of those dumb things that you believe that you have. You have no control, So really, a control freak is an idiot. And where we're coming at from the scripture. He says, you were taught the truth in Jesus, the truth about what the rapture. Sure, but nobody knows the day or the hour. That's not something we can figure out. I mean, I can teach

you some charts and all that, that'd be awesome. I can teach you about prayer, and I will tell you one thing about prayer real quick as we go, is that prayer is your way to get out of that default mode that you wake up in in the morning. Just like you brush your teeth, Just like we hope you brush your teeth and we admonish you to brush your teeth. Prayer is that way that you get in

contact with God. I'm talking about God. So any view of me that doesn't start with God is doomed to get stuck in an infinite loop of stupid because the truth is in Jesus. And that's why I don't want you just buying into everything that you hear out there. Live your truth. What if your truth is a loop

of doom? What if God, who stands outside of the loop of time and comes from a realm called eternity, knows you in a way that if you knew you like he knew you, you would stop doing self destructive things. You would stop running to people who are limited, trying to get an ocean out of a thimble sized personality and thinking something's wrong with you. Help me preach, y'all. There was somebody who wanted your seat today to use it.

I love the Lord because he knows me. And last week I was showing you from Ephesians four twenty two. I hope this is not too esoteric, but it really helped me that the new you is not something in the future. When we talk about new Year, new You, we all roll our eyes collectively because knew you and new Year. Yeah, they both start with why. But I've done this before, so move on with that all that stuff. I'm just out here surviving. I'm just doing me. I'm

just getting by. And as long as we think of who we can be in Christ as some future event contingent on our human abilities, we will always be limited to our moods, our emotions, and our background. Because I need somebody to teach me Jesus. But I need Jesus to teach me me. Here's why. When I talk about you changing, you, think of that in terms of a destination at a later date. God doesn't think that way.

Here's what I showed last week that a lot of people reached out to me and said, oh, I love that. So in case you missed it, when I say the new you, I'm not only talking about you that is going to be for your future. I'm talking about the youth that God is already very familiar with. And I take this not from my own mind, but from Jeremiah one verse five. Do y'all know this scripture. This is a top ten scripture where the Lord says to Jeremiah, I've got a calling for you. I've got an assignment

for you. You've never done it before. You don't even see yourself in this way. You don't imagine that you have the capacity to do it. I'm going to put you as a prophet to the nations. And Jeremiah is about to give God some excuses. But watch what God

said to Jeremiah before the excuses begin. He said, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you now for you, the new is out here in the future, when I get married, when my kids get out of the house, when we're able to get pregnant, when the economy bounces back when I get out of this job, when they leave this job and I stay when when this happens, I will be It's out there. That's one way to look at it. You can find plenty of

people on Instagram that will preach that to you. That you know, get on your grind and buy my course and then the future you will get girls. The future you will have washboard ass a superior intellect and be able to understand Jordan Peterson perfectly. The future you is going to be amazing. And that's what we normally hear, right, is all this height that we pass off as hope. It's like, Okay, I'm gonna do a new this year, and then after three weeks we can't. But God does

it different. Watch this. Jeremiah is insecure. Jeremiah is inexperienced. Jeremiah is surprised. If you're any of those three things, this is for you, touch somebody say this is for you, This is for you. Now. God doesn't tell Jeremiah, no, You're going to be something in the future that I'm telling you about right now if you just do it long enough. He says this, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you so take that knew you

and put a key on the top of it. Not just the new you that people haven't seen yet, that you haven't even met yet, not just to you that you imagine when you get a real good church high a real good church buzz, where's off about twelve minutes after you sit in traffic in a church parking lot And instead of seeing this as I'm going forward towards something that I'm really not seeing how God says it, because what's in the future to you is what's familiar

to God. Well, what's in the future you call it new. Okay, That's who I'm gonna be one day when and God's like, that's who you already are. That's who you always were, That's what I created you to be before SID corrupted what I created. Oh God, God got this thing started in my life. God set this thing in motion in my life. God is the one who set me in families. God is the one who set me in time. God

is the one who set me in a generation. And I didn't get to say it to the staff Wednesday because I forgot, but I wanted to tell you He is also the lord of your limitations, just as God is the God of my potential. He is the lord of my limitations. It is true that we cannot put in what God left out. It is also true that most of us have no clue what God has put in the new you, the one God talks with, the one that makes you want to Sometimes you just kind

of go. I want to change some things for the better, and I think I can. I want some relationships that encourage me this year, and I think I have the right to ask God for that. Yeah. I want to get around some people this year who don't just describe bones on the valley floor all the time. I want to get around some people this year that speak breath into the bones and know how to call out something that's on the inside of me. That me is the true you, it's the new you. Well that's what we

said last week. This week I got a title, and I'm almost done preaching. Kind of maybe we'll see called. I didn't get this title. I got it from the scripture, but I also got it from a cereal box where you may remember this. If you're a child of the nineties, you definitely remember this. If you remember that Jeremy spoke

in class today, you definitely remember this. If you remember Zach Morris's phone and Kelly Kopowski's temptation as a young man for you to lust and she was the first girl that you ever fell in love with, was Kelly Kapowski, you will definitely recognize this. I'll start it, you finish it, silly rabbit. I want to preach for fifteen minutes on tricks are for kids, because there is no shortcut to this.

There is no magical worship button you're gonna press this morning that's gonna take the wind in the waves away in your life this week. That's how immature people think. One of my buddies texted and said, thank you for sharing that immaturity leads to instability because I needed to hear that because it is in my selfishness and my own desires. That's what Paul uses that phrase in the scripture. He says deceitful desires. I almost called the message that,

but I thought it would sound too depressing. Today I want to talk about deceitful desires. I thought, though, we need to talk about these deceitful desires for a moment, because if the me that God sees is not the me that I'm stuck in right now? Then what's happening in the darkness. He describes to the Ephesian Church that we are children of the light, but he also says that the darkness keeps the gentiles from living the ways of God, and when we copy the patterns of the gentiles,

we are forfeiting the promise of God. Do you understand what I'm saying? So every time you're scrolling through stuff, trying to figure out stuff of what other people are doing, you are forfeiting the self that God knows in the spirit and copying a pattern of the flesh that puts you in that doom loop of stupid. So now we have to deal with or desires, which are real. A lot of Christian teaching will almost put faith as the opposite of feelings. You know, we don't walk by feelings.

We walk by faith. Bible doesn't say that. It says we walk by faith, not by sight. So we have feelings like even how would you know that there was faith if you felt nothing. That's the stupidest thing in the world. Preach is good. We don't walk by feelings, we walk by faith. But feelings have a place even in faith. You know, how do I know what God wants me to preach, Well, a certain amount of me has to feel I'm not saying that that that's solely dependent on It has to be true. It has to

be from God's word. But there's a lot of stuff in God's word. How do I know this is what God wants me to preach for now? Well, there's a certain amount of that. I just have to know it on the inside, because God knows I'm not going to be one of these preachers that just reads whatever is on the headlines of the news and comes in the pulpit and just gives you another dose of the same crap that's already making you nauseous in the pulpit. You don't come here for that. So I'm not going to

do that. I'm not up here to do that. And yet, what is the word that God has given us for this moment, for this year? What is the word that God has given your life for this point in time? What is it? How do you know if God's calling you to go here or there? How you going to know if God's calling you to do this or that? How do you even know what you're good at? I mean, part of this has to be feelings right, they have their place. But now here is how the enemy pickpockets you.

Here is how the devil gets you to give up. Watch this the new self that God knows, the you that you kind of suspect us. There, the you that you can be for about three days at a time, and then you give in. How does he get you to give up on that? So easily? Deception? And in order to deceive, you have to diminish. Quick story I mentioned my mom taught me about Jesus. She also confronted this person one time for me and I never will forget.

Being nine years old going to the trading card shop in Monk's Corner at the railroad track, right over the railroad track. I bought a pack of basketball cards. I didn't know anything about basketball cards. This is my first pack of basketball cards. I had baseball cards. And I open it and there's a Michael Jordan card in the pack. The guy's watching me. I'm in there by myself. She's waiting in the car, and he goes, hey, I'll give you a whole other pack for that one car. I'm

like a whole pack for a car. Sure, mister. They called him mister so like the Andy Griffiths show. In here you were mister gee Whiz Gollie hold back for a single card? Wow? Because I'm just a kid, just a kid. So I opened the next pack. I don't recognize any names I knew. Michael Jordan went out to the car. My mom said, how'd it go? I said, I got two packs? She said, how'd you get two? And gave money from one? I said, you never believe it. He gave me a whole other pack for one card. Mom,

she said what was the card? Because she knew this man has a book. He knows how much that card was worth. And he's grown and my kid doesn't know the value of a car, so so so, so she said, what was the card? I said, Michael Jordan. She said, a Michael Ordon car. How much was it worth? I said, I don't know what it was worth, But I got a whole pack. My mom went back in that store with my Michael Jordan car and the third pack because she knew what was it up? Foot? Do you have

a book? Have you read it? Hawn met Jesus? Did you know he's the perfect slockless laugh of God? Did you know they marched it up a hill to Calfrey, and they died for you, and bled for you, and suffered for you, and put the stripe for you, and put the mocking for you. And he stretched his arms and said, you're worth this once. Did you know that when he left to go to heaven, he sent his spirit, and that spirit lives in you. No, we don't know that.

We don't know that. We're so busy copy in other people's style that we don't even know the spirit that came from God because we got so much stuff from culture. I'm sorry, y'all. I'm Baptist in my heart. I went to a Baptist school. Comes out sometimes I'm sick of this. They're like walking up in the Devil's card shop and helping you get your peace back, your toy back, your dream back, your sweet self back, your creative self back. I got the book. I looked you up. In the book.

I found out that you are precious in the sight of God. I found out that you are more than a conqueror. I looked you up in the book. You don't know me, pastor neither to you. That's what I'm trying to introduce you to. Jesus. So Jesus can introduce you to you the new you knew with a K or new with the N both. That's what I want you to get this yere, and I will preach through every battery they sell in radio shack until you get this. Do they still have radio shack? I need to update

the reference? All right? What order money Amazon? It'll be fine, We'll get the batteries. Y'all get distracted by the dumbest stuff. How about that when you think of the enemy's tricks in God's truth, what comes to your mind in your life? The first step if we're going to do the new spell it out. Notice evaluate and then the w's are not quite as good. But walk in okay, notice evaluate walking psychology for all of you who are too stubborn to go to therapy. You can't deal with feelings until

you know they're there. So now one habit I've incorporated my life the last five years. Instead of going I'm scared, I try to back up and go I'm having a feeling of fear, because if I say I am scared, that becomes an identity. I'm feeling fear, that's an event. The truth is in Jesus. Jesus isn't scare Jesus is in me? So I'm feeling fear. But that's the old thing.

That's the old thing. So I notice it. I evaluate it like how I mean you would you would probably, I would think, spend time shopping for a pair of shoes. If you're gonna spend money on them, you probably would spend time figuring out do they fit? And we will spend more time evaluating what we put on our feet than what we put in our mind, our heart, who we let in our phone. So is this from God? Is this what God gave me? Or is this a trick? Now?

How you know if it's a trick, Well, you got to have the book value and then you have to well you have to actually spend time. You have to actually spend time around people who love God. They had a thousand E Group leaders. I think that online and physical that they encouraged this week. Let's thank God for our E Group leaders. Amazing Holly came out and preached, we've just been going this week. Man, we've been going.

We're getting ready. We're getting ready. I don't even know what it is that God wants to do, but I figure since they're saying the world is going to fall apart. A falling apart world needs a built up church, and I want to be that. I want to be that church ready for all over the world. Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord. I'm gonna do it with whoever God gives me around me to do it. We're gonna build something significant for this season of our life in Jesus' name.

And then, you know, if you think about when somebody uses a counterfeit ticket, because Elijah shops all the time for these shoes, I'm like, how do you know if they're real or not? If you get it off this side or that side, how is it all verified? And all of that. And when when me and my father in law and my brother in law Jody, they all go to our Greenville campus. Holly's family is all at Elevation in Greenville. They better all be there right now,

because embarrassing if they're not. We went to a New York Knicks game and we want We were just spur of the moment wanting to go. This is when I was dating Holly and her dad. You have to know this guy, he's real. He's kind of like he's a bull in the China shop. So I said, how how are we going to get tickets? And we and he said, well, they're too expensive. We'll just buy them off a scalper. Ain't that dangerous? It's like no, no no, no, not, you

know what you're doing. So we buy these tickets and we're walking up and it's kind of dark, and so we're walking up to the game and I'm like, merle, these tickets don't look are they supposed to be printed diagonal on? There? Doesn't nicks have a CEA in it somewhere. It wasn't that bad, but look kind of fake. We get to the thing and we hand him to the guy and he laughs. He doesn't hardly even look. He laughs he and he goes, guy, you got ripped off. Man, Go do what you gotta do at the box office

or go back to the hotel. This in real. And my father in law goes, how do you know you didn't even hardly look at that pal And he goes, he goes, this is what I do all day when you've handled as many real ones as I have. I saw the fake ticket in your eyes. You walk like you have a fake ticket, You country bumpkin, This is New York City. Anyway, cannot be myself in the pulpit. Sometimes it feels good, do you, pastor? I promise I'll do the holy, the good one, the anointed one. I

won't do the other one. But now we decide what to walk in. And so when he says deceitful desires, when Paul says deceitful desires, the key is for you to be handling the real thing enough that your feelings begin to align with your faith. And when they don't, you notice it and you bring it back. Feelings have their place. Feelings have their place. How many of you agree with me. Feelings have their place. But it's not on the throne. Jesus sits there, The book sits there.

The spirit of God is the seat of my decisions, not what I feel, because if I do, I'll end up with a pack of crap and trade the goat. So if the enemy is diminishing it, he's deceiving you, Well, you're not that gifted. And I think it comes in this way like, well you don't really matter that much. This doesn't really matter that much. I mean, there's one time you get who cares. That's how deceitful desires were. The desire isn't bad. The way the enemy tries to

get you to fulfill it is. That's what a deceitful desire is. Whether it's a sexual desire, whether it's a financial desire, whether it's a desire for success. You can't attack the desire and demonize the desire. The first question Jesus asked in the New Testament was what do you want? So apparently desires are not something to be bypassed in our life. The deceit is not in the desire. The deceit is what the enemy tries to get you to do to get the desire. That's where the deceit is.

Oh no, you just settle for that, You just scavenged for that. All you're ever gonna be is that. All you're ever gonna get is that. All you really can do is that all you ever have done, is that all you ever have been is that you're trash. That's why they walked out. You're trash. That's why it hasn't happened yet. You're stupid. That's why you haven't built it yet. You're an idiot. That's why all your friends make that you make this. You sup. But if you are growing

in Christ. The more you grow in him, you get the ability from the inside to notice it, evaluated and look him right in his eyes and say, silly devil, tricks you should have you should have tried this on me before I got back to church this year because I'm growing this year. Tricks are for kids, but I am a new creation. Hey, Christ, I did the bom silly devil. That's for kids. That's kids. There's child's play. That's how I thought when I didn't know God. That's

how I spoke when I didn't know God. That's how I came running when I didn't have a liberator named sees Us. That's how I struggled in my sin before I had his name to call on. I got help. Now I got a new self and a new self. And the me that God saw an eternity is the me that I'm say in the future, and I'm throwing into it. Hey, I'm throwing into it. Hey, I'm gonna be it because I have it. Yes, Lord, let somebody says, silly rabbit, trying to eat kid's food, trying to do

kids stuff, trying to get people to notice you. What are you fifth grade saying I can't change. What is this seventh grade? Somebody wrote in your notebook, never changed, and you took their advice and raise hell over the summer. And here you are still hard, pitching a fin over what you didn't get when God has skinned you the riches of Christ and the spirit of God and that came down. I want to say a pinacoff this ferdid these your pelly. I'm growing now. I'm growing out of this.

Somebody say, I'm growing out of this. I'm growing out of this. I'm growing out of this. This addiction will not be able to hold me another ten years. I'm growing out of this. It might take me some time, it might take me some tears, it might take me some tough decisions, but I'm growing out of this. I will not stay in this prison, not one more dang put it forward. Somebody should have told Esau the stew is not that good. Do y'all know about Jacob and Esau?

You do you know about Jacob the god of Jacob. It wasn't supposed to be the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was supposed to be the god of Abraham, Isaac and Esau. He was the oldest brother. He had the right to the inheritance, just like you have an inheritance in Christ. What is it every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, reconciliation with God, the ability to be at peace with Him and others, the love of God she'd have brought into hearts through the holy spheres. You have that.

So why do we not sing I'm calling on the God of e Sau apart from the fact that it doesn't rhyme with generations, which is the next line in U saw why because he got hungry because he saw bull of Was it cereal or stu stu stu? Jacob was cooking stew. And it's interesting because all the way from Rebecca's womb they've been wrestling each other. Jacob's name means deceiver, trickster exactly exactly. And the funniest book in the Bible if you know how to look for it.

And if the Bible is boring to you, you're boring. The Bible's not God is interesting, you're basic because that's the funniest book. What is the one I gave you? In Genesis twenty five where it said about the nations wrestling in her womb, the Lord said the nations are wrestling in your womb. Two nations, two nature's to you to use, wrestling in the womb of what God is

doing in your life. The old one that was put on that is being corrupted, the new one that's the real one that was created in the image of God, that he sent his son to bring you back to. And he said, two nations are in you, two people's. One will be stronger than the other, the other will older, will serve the younger, give me some more. When the time came Verd to give birth. There are twin boys in a womb right now. There are twins in the womb of your mind, your heart, your desires. I'm not

preaching this in an allegorical way. It's said in Anythesians. I'm illustrating it. I'm illustrating it to you. That's exactly what Paul said. And I want you to notice. This might be the best part of my sermon. And I saved it too late, so you probably won't even hear it. But it didn't say make sure you don't take off the new nature and put the old one back on. The old one was the first one that is mentioned, which means that your natural state of mind is not

your true nature. In order to put on what God gave you, you you have to take off what he didn't and stop accepting any old attitude as being you, because that's not you. Oh I notice it. There I am again blaming people. I notice it. There I am again catastrophizing. I notice it. There I am again, But I'm not it. I notice it, but I'm not it because I have learned the truth in Jesus in a new way of life.

So I'm taking that off and putting this on. I'm growing out of that old one, and I'm growing into my new one. The future me is God's familiar men. That's what I'm becoming. And since my life had its origins in the mind and heart of God, nothing can stop it. Just ask the stone, what can stop God? Therefore, when we look at Jacob and Esau, we see a picture of us. We see that they were wrestling from the womb. And I told you I'd give you the funny verse, and I didn't yet give me next verse.

The first one to come out with red his whole body. It's like a Harry garment. So they named the Misau. That's not the funny one. Sounds funny. Who's a Harry. They named him Esau, which means red because he was red, real creative Isaac. After this brother came out, it is hand grabbing Esau's heel. That's Jacob grabbing Esauce heel. That's been you a lot of your life too, that's been you trying to by. I want to be first. I need to be that. Oh no, I need to be that.

Now watch what happens. He was named Jacob Trickster. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebecca gave birth to them. The boys grew up. That's the funny verse because they didn't. Physically they did. Esau became a skillful hunter. And you've accomplished a lot too. No, no, no, you have. I'm not saying that sarcastically. You've learned a lot, You've become a lot, You've overcome a lot, and I want to pause and celebrate your progress to this point. I'm not

setting you up. You got that hesitant clap, like is he about to tell us what were really filthy rags? Not? But I'm saying it's possible for you to grow in your skillfulness and be deficient in your spirit. So es he's a good hunter. He's growing up. They're both grown up, but they're doing the same crap they did when they were little boys. They're still fighting and Jacob is still tricking, and Esau is still stupid. I mean, he's good at hunting. Man of the open country. Jacob is content to stay

home among the tenths. Isaac had a taste for a wild game, but loved Esau. Rebecca loved Jacob. And I watched this once when Jacob was cooking some STU. I think it's no coincidence that STU is the beginning of stupid, because this is worse than a pack of cards. This is worse than any house you ever bought. This is the worst deal in human history. Jacob is cooking some stu. Esau came in from the open country. Famish. Now, the first thing Esau need to do is notice, I'm hungry.

Right now. I am in no position to make decisions right now. I am in no position to respond to this email right now. I am in no position to have this conversation right now. I'm hungry. I need a minute, even if I have to fake like I'm going to the bathroom. That's what I'm gonna do. And I'm gonna stand in the bathroom and call on the God of the bathroom, and he'll meet me in the bathroom. He's the God of the mountain, He's the god of the bathroom too. I'm gonna shut this stall and pray before

I sell my soul for some stew. She's not that pretty, she's not that gorgeous. Not to throw away what God gave me. I need a moment to notice. I'm hungry right now, trying to make this reel where it can live, where you live, Praise God, he said. He said, I'm famished. And then watch what he did because he did not notice it. Because he did not notice it, he responded to it. And he responded to his hunger now in a way that he would hate later. And I've done

it many times quick, he said to Jacob. Let me have some of that red stew. I'm famished. I'm famished. I'm I'm feeling hunger right now. But let me deal with it the right way. I am what I feel. Are y'all getting as much out of this as I am? This is a good sermon, Stew right here, look at me, Church, give me the verse again. I'm famished, I'm exhausted. That's why he was called eat them red Verse thirty one, Jacob replied, for some of your birthright. Look, I'm about

to die you. Sau said, what good is the birthright to me? But Jacob said, swear to me first. So he swore and oathed them, selling his birthright to Jacob. And that's why we're calling on the God of Jacob for a single meal. Next verse and final, so Esau despised his birthright for some bread and lentil stew. He ate, drank, got up left and despised his birthright. I thought that

strong language. It doesn't say he hated his birthright. But when you are hungry, When you are hungry, you will make decisions now that will create a life that you hate. Later this year, God brought you to Elevation Church and our ethanm online to tell you it's not too late for you to change. If you're still breathing, you still got a birthright. If the blood is still running warm in your veins, you have a birthright. And the blood that Jesus shed for you purchased it back from the devil.

So we've got the book and we've got the blood, and we have an opportunity this year, this moment, forget about it, this very moment. You have the opportunity to make an exchange your unrighteousness for his righteousness, your sin for his salvation, your no for his yes, your filthiness for his purity. You don't see it, your ashes for his beauty. This is the greatest exchange that has ever been made. Not with Jacob, I'm talking about Jesus, the great exchange of love and grace. You don't get it

through grinding. Tricks are for kids. You don't get it through effort. That's for the perfect people. But for the children of God. There is a grace for this moment, a grace to change you, a grace to call you forward. Is pulling on you now, that's why you feel it. It's not me speaking as him speaking. I'm teaching you Jesus, and Jesus is showing you you how many times are you gonna give the enemy your desires and let him tell you how to fulfill them? The new you, I'm

walking in a new way. Ah, it's gonna be step by step. Baby, what you thought I could just put this new attitude on you like it's my jacket. I would if I could. I could sell this jacket for a lot of money if it worked like that. No, no, no, This wardrobe is only received through your daily walk and worship. So I keep hearing the Lord say it. It's an old line, but I just got to say it. Beans

for a birthright, Beans for a birthright. Uh huh. You're making trades every day, stew pid trades, y'all laugh at Esau. Me and Esau have a lot in common. I've given up a lot of stuff too, because I felt it. I defied my feelings this week. Everything in me told me, you don't have enough songs to record this Friday something he said, put it on the calendar and let God give you the songs that he wants you to have and do what he told you to do. I got a question, answer me in the cha Do y'all think

God knew about those songs before I? Did you think God knew about the season you're in before you did? Do you think that he knew that you were going to need a job before you did? Do you think he knew that we would be in a time of political how we say this weirdness? Before we did right before we were born. He knew what we were born into. What I love about the Lord is that there are no tricks with him, only a trade. Oh, come to the Otar, the fatherest sor this is the trade Spondy

the fish spa. Oh came wo come to he answer the Father? Psalms A fucking n It's folly, Jesus Christ. No one moving. In just a moment, our pastors are going to give an invitation for people to receive Christ. Be ready. I just want to tell you this before I give the service to them. Heads bout ice closed? Are you hurting and broken with it? Overwhelmed by the way of your sin? Jesus is calling? Have you come to the end of yourself to their forgery? From Jesus

is calling? Well, if you enjoyed today's podcast, there are a couple of things I'd love for you to do. Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast. You can also help us reach others by investing today at Elevationchurch dot org, slash gift and thanks again for joining us on the Elevation Podcast.