The Kingdom Way | Luke 5: 21 & 25 with Pastor Clayton Tyner

Welcome to the MetaCurch podcast.

My name is Clayton.

I'm the pastor at MetaCurch, and I hope that today's message is inspiring and enlightening and really builds you up wherever you're at in life.

I want to welcome you in wherever you're joining us from.

If you're at one of our physical locations, I'm so glad that you are here together with the body of Christ.

If you're here in Holotus, man, I'm so glad that you came out for service.

If you're with us online and you're out of town or out of state, we have people who watch uh very regularly.

They're a part of this movement, but they're too far away to come and to join in with us in person.

Man, I just pray that God blesses you.

I'm blessed by you being a part of this.

Uh, if you watch online consistently and you're in the San Antonio area, man, you just need to get here.

Let me just ask the people that I'm looking at right in front of me, the people in Helotus, uh, is it worth coming and being in the body of Christ?

It's different, and I'm this isn't about a guilt trip, but there are people who join us regularly, and when they can, they drive in from Austin and they drive in from Victoria, and there are people who volunteer on our teams at our venues, who drive an hour one way every single Sunday to come and be a part because they see the Spirit of God is moving at MetaCurch and they don't want to be on the outside, they want to be in the body.

So, so make it a priority.

If you're new with us, my name's Clayton.

I'm the lead pastor here at MetaCurch.

What we're doing right now is we are walking line by line through the Gospel of Luke.

This is one of four historical accounts and that tell us all about the life of Jesus.

It's one of the synoptic gospels.

Luke was a Gentile.

He was not Jewish.

Most of the writers of scripture are Jewish.

Uh, Luke was a gentile, he's a physician, he's a historian of the first grade, top shelf historian.

And what he does here for us is he lays out in an orderly fashion so we can have confidence in who Jesus is.

And we're trying to get to know the real Jesus.

And we're in this section we call the kingdom way, because everything Jesus does is demonstrating the way the kingdom of God operates.

And now he is declaring it.

He's actually saying it in words.

He is in this sermon that is his most famous sermon.

You've probably heard it called the Sermon on the Mount.

We believe this is the sermon Jesus took everywhere he traveled, because this is his message.

The kingdom of God is at hand.

The kingdom of God is right now.

You can live in it right now, you can operate in it right now, you can build it right now.

The kingdom of God is now and not yet.

One day Jesus will crack the sky and he will come back and he will establish the kingdom of God fully here on the earth.

But we do not wait until that day, we do not wait until we die.

That is a lie of religion that you hide away in your little stained glass temples and you just wait to die so you can go and be a part of the kingdom of God.

We are a movement that is seeking to live in ways where we start showing people evidence of the kingdom of God right here and right now.

Say amen if you believe that.

Amen.

That's what we're about.

That's what we're trying to do here.

Now, Jesus starts this sermon in the most shocking fashion.

I want to read it to you.

If you're following along, we're in Luke chapter six.

We're gonna start in verse 20.

It says, then looking up at his disciples, Jesus said, Blessed are you who are poor because the kingdom of God is yours.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled.

Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you, exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day and leap for joy.

Take note, your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way they used to treat the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort.

Warning to you who are now full, for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way that they used to treat the false prophets.

This is the most shocking way that Jesus could have started his sermon.

He used a Greek word makarios, blessed.

This is a word reserved for the privileged, the rich, the wealthy, the well-fed, the resource, the love.

Those are the blessed, the makarios.

He uses the word woe, the Greek word uwe.

This is those who are to be pitied.

He says, you know who you should pity?

The people who are looking for their security in the world right now.

The people who are trying to get filled up by the lies of the world right now, the people who have desensitized themselves to the heart of God right now, the people who will corrupt their morals to be liked and loved by everyone right now.

Jesus takes the fundamentals of how we measure success in our kingdoms and he spins them on their head.

And he's just trying to tell you, you don't know how life works.

You don't see reality correctly because everything you know, your paradigm, your worldview, has been fully shaped by the corrupted kingdoms of this world.

The metrics for success in your life have been determined by the kingdoms of this world.

Now, two Sundays ago, I did an overview of this passage.

And if you didn't hear it, I'd like for you to get caught up, not right now.

Once I'm done preaching, you can go home.

And between now and the spurs in Jesus' name, winning game four, between now and then, you can go and listen to a 50-minute sermon where you will get totally caught up on this passage.

And I want you to do that because I don't have time to go through all of that every week.

Now we're digging in deeper to this passage.

The one thing I need you to know so you can track with me today is Jesus in this passage is contrasting now versus later.

Blessed are those who are hungry now, for you will be filled.

Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.

It's now versus later.

And this is what we call at Metachurch a pilgrim's perspective.

This is the daily, minute by minute, moment by moment, realization that this world is not our home.

That what we can observe with our five senses right now is not the realest reality.

That we are living in the midst of a brokenness and a sin-stained world that was not God's original design or desire.

God is redeeming that in real time.

He's using us, the called-out people of God that we call the church, to actuate that rescue and redemption mission here on the earth.

We are ambassadors for Christ on the earth.

We are doing the work of ministry that he's entrusted us with, but we are headed someday to what God actually desires for his people.

Eternity is where we are headed.

Eternity is our home.

Whether you know it or not, maybe you're here, you're not convinced by the claims of Christianity.

The reason why you're 25 years old or 45 years old or 15 years old, and you're realizing nothing in this world can satisfy you at the deepest part of who you are is because you have eternity written onto your soul.

You are longing to be back in the presence of your Savior Jesus Christ.

And we try and satisfy with all the things of this world, and they cannot satisfy.

And a pilgrim's perspective knows that and lives constantly with our eyes on Jesus, with our eyes on eternity, and we organize our lives starting with the end and then moving backwards to today.

And if you can't get that, you can't understand this passage.

And if you become obsessed and infatuated and overwhelmed with the culture and the kingdoms of this world and the influencers and the celebrities and the politicians, then you will not be able to keep your eyes on eternity and you will fall forever short of the destiny that God has on your life.

And so I just need you to know this if you're new.

We start with the belief here that God created you on purpose and with purpose.

On purpose means you're not here by accident.

God created you with intention.

You might not believe that.

Maybe your parents even told you, you weren't um exactly like planned, you know.

Yes, you were.

Your parents might have just had too much rose and a Barry White song.

That does not mean that God did not have a plan.

You were created on purpose.

It matters that you're here.

You're here on purpose, and you're here with purpose.

Which, what that means is that God has placed a destiny on your life.

And for us to reach that potential and to walk into that destiny, we have to know how to live as a part of the kingdom of God.

Not someday when we die, not when Jesus comes back and takes us to heaven, right here, right now.

And Jesus is telling us.

And the first thing he's saying is, I gotta get a hold of your inside.

I need your heart, I need your mind, I need your soul.

We have to have full transformation because you don't know how to live.

And all the ways you're keeping score are not just slightly wrong, they are backwards.

Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, the hated.

That's what Jesus is trying to get here.

Last week we started with our first pair: poor versus rich.

This was getting to the bottom of security.

What is your trust in?

What are you looking to for security?

We looked at Abraham, who God called when he was incredibly wealthy, incredibly comfortable, incredibly secure by earthly measures.

His earthly scoreboard was just racking up wins, and God said, You haven't won anything.

Follow me.

And Abraham's like, Where are we going?

And God's like, I'm not telling.

What will my life be like?

Hard.

Come follow me, and your life will get worse.

Sound good?

Uh man, I'm so it's not my apology to make, but I guess I'll make it.

Some of you, your faith has been so crippled by sitting under pastors who will not tell you the truth about what it means to follow Jesus.

They lie to you, they tickle your ears, they make you feel good, they promise health and wealth and prosperity.

You know what the actual gospel is?

Is Jesus might take everything from you.

And can we stand like Job and say, though he slay me, I will not curse his name.

That's the actual gospel.

All of this nonsense, and they've hurt you, and they've hurt your faith, they've crippled your faith because you think the fact you're not a millionaire means God doesn't love you.

God allowed his son to be crucified.

And you think that all it's gonna be for you is unicorns and rainbows.

This is why we have to get under the word.

This is why you should fact-check, this is why you should fact-check me.

You should not just come sit under the gospel of Luke and then go, well, I guess that's true because the guy that screams and has tattoos told me it was true.

You should go get in the word for yourself.

You should go fact check.

Man, I love when someone emails me and they're like, I didn't agree with this.

I'm like, ooh, yes, yes.

If I'm wrong, I'll get up here and tell you I'm wrong.

But if not, I'm like, you're paying attention, you're doing the work, you're studying to show yourself approved.

You are no longer an infant who just comes on Sunday so you can get some milk.

You are in a nice ribeye right now, you're getting in the word, you're getting fed.

I I need us to grow out of this Western idea that if you just have enough faith, all of your wildest dreams will come true.

Because what might actually happen is in the moment that you demonstrate your greatest level of faith, that you will come under the greatest amount of suffering that you've ever endured.

And then what happens?

And then you walk away from a Jesus who never existed, because there is no version of Jesus who says, if you follow me, your life will get easier.

Jesus said, In this world, you, my followers, will have trouble.

You will suffer.

Jesus said, You want to follow me?

You wake up and you deny yourself every single day, and then you pick up your cross, and only then can you follow me.

And so we have to get this right and we have to understand.

And Abraham follows, and he becomes one of the most influential people who ever walked the earth.

Last week was security.

This week we are talking about satisfaction.

What do you crave?

Satisfaction.

What do you crave?

Abraham was the poor in spirit.

Now you need to know this.

Jesus starts there, poor versus rich, the poor in spirit, those who seek security in Christ in Christ alone, because that's the price to play.

You can't get to the next three pairs if you don't start there, because hunger we look to for security.

Laughter and well-being, we look to for security, and social status we look to for security.

So if you don't start there looking for security only in Christ, you can't even dip your toe into the water of the next teachings.

You have to start there.

Here's the other thing that is very difficult, though.

You can have chosen to be the poor in spirit, and I'm gonna live my life for Christ, I'm gonna follow Him, I'm gonna count the cost, carry my cross, and build the kingdom, and you can still fall into temptation.

And it is because we come to these moments where we are not willing to wait on the Lord to satisfy us.

And here's how I know that's true: because you've done it.

And here's how I know that's true because I've done it.

Love the Lord, following him hard, fall into temptation, fall into sin.

Today's gonna help us understand that and safeguard ourselves.

Here's our passage, just to look at it plainly.

Verse 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled, but woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry.

Here's how Matthew's gospel records this same sermon in a different setting.

Jesus said, Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

When is the last time that you had an overwhelming hunger for God?

When is the last time that you were like, I have to get back home so I can get on my knees and spend time with God?

When is the last time that you hungered for his word?

Like, I have to have it.

I need to hear from God.

When is the last time that you were like, I'm so full of the world, and you just begged the Holy Spirit of God to empty you of everything that is of your flesh and everything of this world and all of your own dreams and desires?

When's the last time you begged the Holy Spirit to fill you afresh?

For most Western, distracted, comfortable, affluent Christians, the answer is like maybe never, and if ever, not for a long time.

And what that means is we are staying so filled with the things of this world that we never have a hunger for God.

Woe to you who stay filled up on lies today.

You will end up starving for truth.

Here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna try to answer the question, and we have to get really honest with ourselves.

Where do I look to be satisfied?

When life gets hard, when I hit a moment of pain, when I feel insecurity, when I'm questioning my significance, when my relationship is tough, when I have money problems, when I have a setback in my career, when I have trouble in my friend groups, when my habits and addiction start coming back, where do I look to be satisfied?

That is the question.

You already know the answer.

Blessed are those who hunger after the things of God, who look to God to be satisfied.

I'm not worried about giving you a spoiler.

I want you to actually do this.

I want you to learn it.

Where do I look to be satisfied?

We have to understand what the scripture is not saying to us.

It is not saying that because you get three meals a day, that you are cursed by God, that because you get your three meals and two snacks, your four your four meals, because you eat your six meals a day.

This is not talking about an external reality.

This is not talking about a level of blessedness based on how many calories you have in your pantry.

This is talking about what is inside.

When Jesus talks about those who hunger, this is a biblical concept all throughout Old and New Testament.

Hunger is not about your stomach, it is about your soul.

Hunger is not about your stomach, it is about your soul.

And some of you, you do turn to food to deal with problems at the level of your soul.

And that is a problem too.

But for some of you, it's not food.

For some of you, you have this internal longing.

Every time something goes wrong, every time one of the areas of your life is depleted, your relationship is in trouble, there's tension in your marriage.

What do you turn to?

Every time you have a financial setback, what do you turn to?

Every time you have a disappointment, every time a friend betrays you, every time something goes awry in your life, where do you look to find comfort?

Where do you look to find satisfaction?

We have to answer this question, we have to get to the core of it because you have a destiny on your life.

And what we are going to learn by studying a character in the Old Testament is that you could forfeit your destiny, trying to fill your temporal needs.

You could give up on an eternal promise.

Last week we looked at Abraham.

Today we're looking at his oldest grandchild.

God gave Abraham this amazing promise: if you will follow me, I'll make you a great nation.

I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those who curse you.

Here's the actual promise.

And through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed.

This is the promise that through Abraham's lineage, through that genealogy, one day, Abraham didn't fully know this.

One day, God would step out of heaven, put on human flesh, and come into the world through a covenant made to Abraham, through the lineage of Abraham, God and human flesh would come to this world to save and redeem the world and change our lives forever.

This is a promise that is made to Abraham.

Abraham then has a son named Isaac.

Isaac then gets his wife pregnant with twins.

We read about this all the way back in Genesis chapter 25.

Genesis 25 · chapter mention

We're gonna start in verse 24.

It says, When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.

The first one came out red looking, covered with hair, like a fur coat.

I'm just gonna stop because I know you're thinking it.

That's nasty.

I don't know what's but she had a ginger gremlin, I don't know, red-looking, like a fur coat, and they named him Esau.

I'm sure he was handsome.

I'm sure his mom loved that face.

After this, his brother came out, listen, grasping Esau's heel with his hand.

So he was named Jacob.

And Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.

We learn in scripture that these twins, Esau and Jacob, that they were wrestling in the womb.

And it was like inherently they knew that whoever was birthed first would get the birth right, this incredible promise.

So much so that Esau is born first, but Jacob comes out holding on to it.

He's trying to drag him back.

This is getting graphic.

I don't know.

But Esau comes out first, and so he gets birthed.

Now we're like, who cares?

Because we're so far removed from the context.

In the ancient world and still in many parts of the world today, the firstborn son is given the birthright.

What does this mean?

Pragmatically, on the material level, it means a double portion of inheritance.

If it was just you and your brother, you got double what they got.

If there were five of you, they got a portion, they got a portion, they got a portion, they got a portion, you get a double portion of inheritance.

This means more money, this means more land, this means more cattle, this means more homes, this means more servants, more of everything.

You get a double portion.

And we are materialists.

So we think that's it.

That's why they wanted the birthright so bad.

But that's not it.

That's not top five on the list.

You know what you actually got?

You got the family.

With all of that extra came the responsibility.

I got to spend some time with my personal mentor yesterday.

Uh, he's around my parents' age.

His parents have lived into their old age, but his father recently passed.

And after his father passed, his mother looked at him and said, You're the family now.

You're who we're going to look to.

You're the spiritual guidance now.

You set the standard now.

You keep the promises now.

Do you understand?

This is the responsibility.

It's responsibility, it is identity, and listen, it's destiny.

It is the oldest son who receives the covenant from the father.

And so, if your father had worked out a land covenant with all the neighbors, that covenant now comes to you.

That is your birthright to steward it, to manage it, to protect it.

Well, he does not have an ordinary lineage.

His grandfather is Abraham.

You know who made a covenant with Abraham?

God.

You know who now holds the covenant?

Esau.

It's destiny.

This is what's on the line.

This is why birthright is held in such high esteem, especially if you are a child of Abraham.

And maybe you already know the story.

Esau does not hold his birthright for long.

Let's read it in verse 27.

When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for wild game, but Rebecca loved Jacob.

Pause.

I'm not gonna do a whole parenting sermon here, but parents, you should be very careful about showing favoritism to your children.

And you're gonna Think I would never.

Can I just tell you something that you know intuitively, but maybe you don't know because nobody's ever said it out loud to you?

Uh, if you have multiple children, they take on different personality aspects of the parents themselves.

Can I tell you the child you'll favor?

You will favor the child who has most of your spouse's personality.

Can I tell you the child you'll struggle with?

You will struggle with the child who has your personality.

Even though you don't like your spouse today because they pissed you off on the way to service today, at one point you loved them a lot enough to marry them.

There's something about that personality that attracts you to them.

And you know who you really struggle to love?

Is you.

And this is why, as parents, we have to try and not see our kids through our own flesh and bones.

We have to try and see our kids the way that God sees them.

We have to try and see everyone the way that God sees them.

There is a lot of parental favoritism, especially in the Old Testament of the Bible.

And it is not God prescribing that.

It is God going, look how badly this goes every time parents do this, okay?

Isaac loved Esau.

Rebecca loved Jacob.

Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field.

Say this with me.

Exhausted.

Say it like we're not Methodists, exhausted.

He said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stuff because I'm exhausted.

And this is why he was also named Edom, which just means red.

Jacob replied, First, sell me your birthright.

Look, said Esau, I'm about to die.

So what good is a birthright to me?

And Jacob said, Swear to me first.

So he swore to Jacob and he sold his birthright to him.

And then Jacob gave bread and lentil stew to Esau, a bowl of beans.

He ate, drank, got up, and went away.

So listen, so Esau despised his birthright.

Desped it.

That's a Hebrew word that means he had contempt for it.

He thought little of it.

That's a Hebrew word that has a word picture associated.

Here's the picture.

You're handed a gift, you drop it, you trample it, you despise it.

What is his birthright?

We're materialist.

So we go, man, he's getting a double portion.

He's getting more money, he's getting more land, he's getting more homes, he's getting more cattle, he's getting more servants.

He doesn't care about that.

That's not what the birthright means to people in the ancient world.

The birthright is about lineage.

It's your family now.

You're the protector, you're the guardrails, you're the guidance.

It's about destiny.

And he gives it up.

What are the stakes here?

Well, we can see the stakes if we go to Matthew's gospel, chapter one.

I want to show you what it says.

You may have never read it this way.

I need you to see the impact of when we trade our eternal destiny for temporary satisfaction.

It says this an account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham fathered Isaac.

Isaac fathered Jacob.

Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers.

This lineage takes us all the way down to a different Jacob, father Joseph, the husband of Mary, who gave birth to Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

There is no greater lineage to be a part of than the lineage of Jesus Christ.

I don't know if you've ever done like a 23 in me, you spit in a tube and you put it in the mail.

It feels the whole thing feels weird, honestly.

And then they come back, and one of the things they can show you is like if you are distantly related to kind of cool historical people, you know.

So some people go, Oh my gosh, I'm like a distant relative of Benjamin Franklin.

That's a pretty cool lineage, that's a cool genealogy, you know.

You can go back and you could nothing compares to being one of the people that God uses to bring about the Savior of the world, God and human flesh, Jesus Christ the Messiah.

I'm sure you're ahead of me.

Jacob's name shouldn't be in there.

It wasn't his birthright.

He was not the oldest.

Let me show you.

I want to make something clear.

This is not Matthew chapter one.

Okay?

I'm gonna make that really clear.

So let's look at not Matthew chapter one.

Okay.

On an alternate timeline, it says an account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac fathered Esau.

The entire genealogy should be different.

There are half a dozen other times that when people in the scriptures talk about Yahweh, the one true God, do you know how they give his full title?

The one true God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.

It becomes how our heavenly father is known by the first three patriarchs, and Jacob's not supposed to be one of them.

It's supposed to be Esau, that's his destiny.

That's what he gave up.

Now I always warn us you have to be very careful because it's at this point that we look at the scripture judgmentally and we go, What an idiot.

I would never.

How could?

And it's like, not only could you, you do.

Every time that we go to the lies of the world to try and find instant gratification, to be temporarily satisfied at the cost of following Jesus, we are giving away pieces of our birthright for nothing.

I want to walk through Esau's story and I want to look at it carefully because I believe in there there is an equation, and that equation equals a level of danger that I cannot put enough emphasis on.

It's not just the danger of mishandling your finances, which if you keep your eyes off Jesus, you will.

It's not just the danger of harming your relationships, which if you don't keep your eyes on Jesus, you will.

It is the danger of forfeiting your destiny for temporary satisfaction.

And the world has like a conveyor belt of lies that are never ending.

And anytime you feel the slightest hunger, anytime you feel the slightest lack of comfort, comfort, the slightest dissatisfaction, anytime there's a little friction in a relationship, anytime there's a little setback at work, anytime you feel a little bit of physical pain, you're just always, always offered, this will make you feel better.

This will fill you up.

This will ease your pain.

This will make you comfortable.

Let me tell you what's really scary about Esau's story.

Let's look at verse 27.

When the boys grew up, Esau became an expert hunter, an outdoorsman, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed at home.

Scripture paints the picture of Jacob like he doesn't have a muscle on his body.

Like, like picture like Chet Holgrim.

I shouldn't have said that.

I shouldn't have said that.

Like you would bet your house they can't get to five push-ups.

That's Jacob.

Esau is the contrast.

He's Arnold.

He is pumped.

He's got muscles for days.

He's an outdoorsman.

He's a great hunter.

There's this contrast.

Now, here's what's dangerous.

Esau is not out acting a fool.

Esau is not out living in sin.

As a matter of fact, Esau is living out his purpose.

Esau is using his God-given gifts to contribute to his family.

Esau's actually doing what he should be doing as the one who holds the birthright and has to take care of the family.

You see, for those who don't care about God, who have no interest in Jesus, who are actively living in sin, it's like none of this really applies.

Blessed are the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and the hated.

If you don't know God and you don't care about Jesus, you're like past.

You don't buy that.

That's not how the world functions.

You have a scoreboard that has been assigned to you metrics of success built for you, prescribed to you by the kingdoms of this world.

That's all you know, that's all you have.

What's more dangerous is that Esau represents someone who is living out their purpose, who does see their destiny, who is acting right, who's not living in sin.

This is us when we fall in love with the Lord and we start following Jesus and we want to build the kingdom of God, and then all of a sudden we fall into a trap of temptation and we are tangled up in devastating sin.

And this happens all the time.

And sometimes it's the kind of sin that causes minor inconvenience, and sometimes it's the kind of sin that destroys your life, that ends your marriage, that ends your career, that starts an addiction that you'll deal with for the rest of your life.

And so, how does this happen?

This is not just a message for people who are out there living in rebellion to Jesus Christ.

Scripture says the way of the cross, that means the kingdom way, is already foolishness to those who don't know Christ.

They look at this list of blessings and woes, they think it's foolishness.

I am talking to people who are following Jesus, and yet when you get depleted, when you get relational hunger, financial hunger, emotional hunger, spiritual hunger, you are trying to fill it with the things of this world.

How did this happen?

How did it happen to Esau?

Let's keep reading.

In verse 29, once when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau came in from the field.

Say it with me.

Exhausted.

He said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stuff because I'm what?

Exhausted.

Every person at our venues, every person online, you know what it feels like to be exhausted.

Hilotus, you know what it feels like to be exhausted.

And here's the thing: there are categories in our life.

You can think of these like different tanks.

Sometimes your relational tank is on full, things are great.

You just got back from vacation with your spouse, you're on cloud nine, your financial tank is great, you're out of debt, you're putting money back, your work tank is on empty.

Your physical health is on empty.

Your relationship with your in-laws is on empty.

We have all of these different categories, these different tanks.

Sometimes we're exhausted across all of them.

Danger.

Sometimes it's just a few.

Sometimes it only takes a few.

What happens when we are exhausted?

This is just another way to talk about our hunger.

It's like when a lot of things are going good, you're thriving in your career, but your relationship with your kids is terrible.

There's an area of your life where you're exhausted.

This creates hunger.

Where do you go to to be filled?

When your career is good, everyone thinks everything is up and to the right, your marriage is good, but financially you've been foolish and you're just in a cycle, more debt, more debt, more debt, less savings, more debt, more.

You're exhausted financially.

That pressure is immense if you've ever been there.

What do you look to to satisfy you?

That's hunger.

Esau is exhausted, and here's the problem: exhaustion prompts us to choose instant gratification over eternal destiny.

Here's the thing about hunger, it cannot be ignored.

Hunger demands an answer.

When you're hungry, you're just hungry, and you stay hungry until you put something in your face.

You know?

It's like you're just hungry.

And hunger demands a response.

And there is nothing like spiritual hunger, emotional, relational, financial hunger that will take your eyes off of Jesus, off of eternity, right down to your situation.

When you have this hunger, this longing, this dissatisfaction, the world is there going, what about this?

Relational turmoil.

What if you just logged on, watched a little pornography?

Temporary satisfaction.

You'll feel worse later.

When you close the laptop, you'll feel even worse.

But let's not think about that.

Let's think about right now.

This is what hunger does, this is what exhaustion does.

It's like, man, you're feeling really bad about yourself.

You got passed up for the promotion again.

You know what you could do?

You could go around the water cooler and you could really tear down with your words the person that got the promotion.

That'd be fun.

Wouldn't that be fun?

You could feel so much better about yourself.

Man, you could talk about how you see them, they clip their nails right there in their cubicle, like a disgusting human being.

It's like you can just spread a bunch of ruin.

It doesn't even have to be true.

Make some stuff up, you know?

It's like just talk bad about them.

You could feel a little better.

Temporarily.

You'll feel worse later, but don't think about that.

You could give up your birthright, at least you'll get to eat right now.

Exhaustion quickly corrodes proper perspective.

You no longer start seeing the world correctly.

Let me show you what that looks like with Esau.

Jacob replied, first, sell me your birthright.

Jacob is a smooth operator.

Jacob weighs 95 pounds, soaking wet.

He has no leverage on Esau.

He fought in the womb and couldn't get out first.

There's never a situation where Jacob has the upper hand, but Esau just put it in his lap.

I have something you need, and if you want it, you're gonna have to pay up.

First, sell me your birthright.

Listen to what Esau says.

Look, Esau said, I'm about to die.

So what good is a birthright to me?

Hunger, exhaustion.

It quickly corrodes proper perspective.

He could not see his destiny as a part of the promise to his grandfather Abraham.

It's two generations.

It'd be a little more understandable if Esau was like 30 generations deep, never even knew Abraham.

It's two generations away.

And he can't see the promise.

He can't see the goal.

He can't see the prize.

Because he's infatuated with his hunger.

Let me tell you something about Esau.

Esau was not about to die.

The same way when your seven-year-old is in the back of your minivan and they haven't eaten in 90 minutes, and they're yelling about how they're starving, they're not.

And by the way, you should tell them they're not.

That's part of how we help people mature.

Esau is immature.

He immediately becomes like a sixth grade girl.

He's like, OMG, I can't even.

I grew up with an older sister from like fifth grade to ninth grade.

I'm not exaggerating.

My parents are here, you can ask them.

Every day, my sister had a story that started with, oh my gosh, you guys, I almost died today.

Not once a week, not three times a month.

Every single day she had a near-death experience.

Here's what's true.

Never came close to dying.

A cricket landed on her leg.

Oh my gosh, you guys, I almost died today.

This is Esau.

The human body can go weeks without food.

Y'all might know this, I've talked about it a lot over the years.

Huge fan of Survivor.

That's Katie and I's show we watch every season.

In the new era of Survivor, you don't get any food until day 14.

And they are doing arduous physical challenges almost every single day.

And they're fine.

Esau is fine.

He's just immature.

He's being dramatic.

His hunger and his exhaustion have corrupted his perspective.

I told you there's an equation that can help us guard ourselves against this and can also reveal incredible danger in our lives.

It looks like this exhaustion plus immaturity equals danger.

Exhaustion plus immaturity equals danger.

I need you to hear me say this clearly.

Exhaustion will come.

Exhaustion will come.

Hunger.

Not physical, hunger at the level of your soul, your heart, your mind.

Loneliness is a hunger.

Desire, the desires for wealth, for promotion, for status, for acceptance, those are hungers inside of us.

Hunger will come, exhaustion will come.

And you can withstand exhaustion and retain your birthright.

Keep marching towards your destiny.

But you must be mature.

If you are immature, and some of you are brand new baby believers, you've like come to Christ in the last days or weeks or months.

We baptized 90-something people just a few months ago.

So many of you starting your walk.

And listen, you can mature in the Lord very quickly because the Lord is with you and He wants you to walk in power and in faith.

And we see so many men and women who are baby believers and they take these leaps in maturity, and it's because they define it correctly.

Ultimately, spiritual maturity is dependence on God.

You don't need a PhD to become dependent on God.

You don't need a six-figure salary to be dependent on God.

As a matter of fact, the more money you have, the harder it might be for you to be dependent on God.

Anybody can choose daily to empty themselves, to die to themselves, and become dependent on God.

That is maturity.

It is a hunger for his word, it is a hunger to spend time in prayer, it is a hunger to hear from the Holy Spirit, it is learning to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit, hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, recognizing that what he's asking will be very uncomfortable, arguing with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, not letting off the gas, and then doing it anyway.

I do not care how many verses you can quote if your life does not look like this word.

I do not care about your Christian t-shirts if you are wearing them walking around your office treating people like crap.

I do not care that your dial is always on K love, K Love, and you don't live out a life that is worshiping God through your actions.

I don't care.

Give me the people who don't really know how to act yet, who still listen to 98.5 every single day, and who are out there trying to listen to the Holy Spirit and do what the Holy Spirit asked them to do.

God wants your heart.

God wants your heart, a dependent heart on God.

The behaviors will take care of themselves over time.

If you are immature spiritually, if everything's good, all of your tanks are full, then you can wing it for a while.

You can control your behaviors for a while, you can act the part for a while, you can fake it till you make it.

The problem is exhaustion will come.

You will go through a difficult season in your marriage, and it might be two days and it might be two years.

How do you keep the marriage covenant when you are in a difficult season for two years?

I promise you this.

If you are expecting the things of the world to be able to fill that hunger, you will not make it.

You will go through difficult seasons of parenting, you will have setbacks in your career, you will have habits that creep up on you and turn into deeper things like addictions.

How will you make it?

You must be the people who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who recognize that you can be filled temporarily right now, instant gratification, or you can wait.

And those who wait on the Lord, He will renew their strength.

He will fill you, He will lift you up on wings like eagles, he will have you walking and never growing weary.

You want to live that kind of life?

You have to wait.

You got to do the one thing our culture refuses to do.

We want it and we want it now.

You know what's funny?

I get on Amazon and I go, I go, buy now, because I don't want to check out, because I don't want to wait.

I go buy now.

I don't want one more screen.

I want it right now.

I go buy now, and it's Monday, and it says, we'll arrive Wednesday.

And you know what I think?

It can't be here Tuesday.

I'm like beside myself.

I'm a I am a prime member.

I can't have it tomorrow.

Just sitting in my boxers, just in my house, don't have to go to a store, just we don't want to wait.

And that's bad news, bro.

Because the world will just be like a little bit dissatisfied, a little bit of relational tension, a little bit of career setback, kind of mad at your employer, kind of this, kind of that.

Let me fill you.

Let me fill you.

Let me fill you.

Here's a bowl of beans, give me your birthright.

Here's a one night stand, give me your marriage.

Here are words of rage that will forever change the dynamic between you and your child.

And we give in because we don't know how to wait and allow the Lord to fill us.

I keep telling you all this.

Um I am not lying to you.

I am preaching this to myself more than I'm preaching it to you.

I'm under so much conviction as we start this sermon.

Let me ask it to you this way.

What can't God have in your life?

What can't He have?

I don't want the Sunday school answer.

He can have it all.

It's like you've never given a penny to the church, and you're gonna be like, He can have.

What can't he have?

For a lot of us, we're materialists, he can have everything but our money.

That's for us.

And we're not gonna steward our money well enough, and we're in too much debt and we spend all the money we have.

We cannot sacrifice, we do not put him first there.

Okay.

Then money fills you.

It's your bowl of beans.

Can he have your career, the one that you spent eight years in school for, the one that you've been building for 20 years, the one that makes you six figures?

Can he have it?

If he wants it, can he have it?

If he calls you to do something else that downsizes your life, will you give it to him?

What can't he have?

Can he have your kids?

We're gonna get there in Luke, man.

I'm just telling you, Jesus is preparing us right now for what's coming.

Because he's gonna tell us if you want to follow me, you gotta count the cost.

And here's what it costs everything.

Everything goes on the table.

Here's how you'll know.

Man, I'm preaching these sermons on Sunday, and I can't get to Friday without God being like, here, Clayton, tell me if you mean it.

Show me if you mean it.

Here's how you'll know.

When you lose the job, if you lose your faith.

That's what he can't have.

When you get the call with the news that breaks your heart, that's when you know.

The gospel is not have faith and get everything you ever wanted.

The gospel is come and die.

The gospel is though he slay me, I will not curse God.

That's the gospel.

Can you stand up under it?

The only possible way that you and I can put everything on the table and go, God, you want my health, you can have it.

You want my kids, you can have it.

You want my relationships, you want all my material possessions, you want my career, you want my dreams, God, you can take my dreams, you can have all of it.

The only way we get there is if our eyes are on eternity.

If we are not living today to build the kingdom of God, then we will prioritize aspects of the kingdom of this world.

And it's not just losing a little here and a little there.

We could be forfeiting our destiny for a bowl of beans.

You know what the real problem is?

Esau gave up his birthright.

He ate that stew at noon and he was hungry by six.

Temporary satisfaction, forfeiting eternal destiny.

And I can't stomach the thought that I would do that.

And I can't stomach the thought that you would.

And we've got to get our eyes off.

We have these great examples.

Jesus came, he was human, all human, all God, but all human, which means he got exhausted, he hungered, he was tempted.

And we see it all throughout the gospels.

What did he do?

When exhaustion came, Jesus got alone and he prayed.

What do you do when you're exhausted?

Do you go to the Lord and just ask to be filled?

I'm learning this.

I'm learning this with you.

What do you do when you get mad?

What do you do when you get offended?

What do you do when you're in a fight with a coworker, in a fight with your kids, in a fight with your spouse?

I'll tell you what you do.

You do what I do.

You lean in, ten toes down, and you try to win.

And because you keep trying to win these arguments, your marriage loses.

Your relationships lose.

Your career is set back.

I'm not great at this, but I've been trying when I feel offended, when I get mad.

I try to just go and I and I just ask God.

What do I need?

Get all of me out of here.

What do I need?

The times I've done this, very imperfectly.

I gotta work on this.

The times I've done this, you know what the first thing God shows me, and it might just be me, it might just be me.

The first thing He shows me is all the ways I'm wrong.

It's like I was about to go in guns ablazing to try and win this thing, and God's like, what about all of this?

And I'm like, oh no.

I'm not always all the way wrong.

But even if I'm 5% wrong, you know what a difference it is for me to walk into that conversation with a coworker, with a kid, with a spouse, and go, okay, here's where I'm off.

And I'm sorry.

Now I'm not trying to win.

Now we're winning together.

We don't do this, man.

We don't do this.

We get a little bit lonely, we get a little bit upset with our spouse, and we go pull up pornography.

We get a little bit frustrated with our finances.

This is this is this one will kill you.

We get frustrated with our finances, that tank starts emptying.

You know what most of us do?

We go swipe cards.

We go on a shopping spree, we just go ahead and take it all the way to empty.

We don't know how life works, but Jesus does.

And if you are filled all the time to the point where you are never hungering for God, thirsting for righteousness, woe to you.

Woe to you who stay filled by the things of this world.

Hunger is coming.

The world can satisfy temporarily, and then it will leave you emptier.

God can fill you forever.

I want to end with Paul.

Uh, last week we looked at Abraham and then we went to Paul's letter to the Philippians.

Uh, this is just great theology.

If you want to put some theology to this, Paul does this right here in Philippians chapter three.

I'm gonna walk through this quickly in verse 7.

But everything that was a gain to me, I've considered to be a loss because of Christ.

More than that, I consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, because of him.

I've suffered the loss of all things, and I consider them as dung.

Some of you are shocked.

Read your Bible.

I consider them as dung.

If you're shocked by dung, the Greek word is not the word dung.

It is a very different four-letter word that we don't put in our Bibles because you would be offended.

He considers them all as dung, so that I may gain Christ.

Here's what he's saying: everything I thought could fill me, I've given up on.

All I want is Christ.

That's all I want.

I've suffered the loss of everything.

What's he saying?

Everything's on the table.

How do you do this?

Paul tells us, verse 12.

Not that I've already reached the goal or I'm already perfect, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do, listen to this, forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead.

I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

This is it, man.

Over and over, it's pilgrim's perspective.

Live with the end in mind.

Get your eyes up.

I know you're hungry.

You know who changes the world?

Those who can wait.

You know who changes the world?

Those who can wait, who can wait on the Lord.

The Lord will fill you.

Sometimes you have to wait.

Those who don't need instant gratification because something greater is coming if you can wait on the Lord.

Now, here's something amazing.

I'm gonna give you some insight.

I'm gonna take you into my office as I'm preparing this sermon.

I'm studying Esau.

I'm going through it line by line.

I'm studying it deeply.

And here's what the Lord lays on my heart.

Yes, Esau's exhausted, but that's not the only problem.

Everyone gets exhausted.

Here's what the Lord lays on my heart.

Esau's immature.

And I go, okay.

I'm a Bible guy.

You discern the words you get.

So I go, look, God will never speak against God.

So I go to his word.

I hold on to that.

I don't put it in my sermon.

I hold on to it.

I go, let me see what you're up to, God.

I go to Philippians 3.

I start studying.

Yes, God.

It's all nonsense.

Nothing can fill me.

Yes, God.

We look to the future.

We keep our eyes on heaven.

Yes, God.

Who can do this?

Next verse.

Therefore, let all of us who are mature, yes, God, think this way.

Exhaustion will come if you are spiritually mature, if you're dependent on the Lord, if you are begging Him to speak to you, if you are sitting in the quiet place, if you are in the Word of God, if you are seeking Him in prayer, if you are asking the Holy Spirit to empty you and fill you anew, afresh, every single day, if you're considering God, when that tension comes, that hunger pain is either a trigger to go to the world or it is a trigger to get on your knees.

And if every little hunger in our life turns us to the Lord, nothing will stop us.

We'll be those who wait on the Lord, are filled by the Lord, and change the world.

You will do that as an individual.

We will do that as a movement.

Say amen if you agree with that.

Last, last, here's a warning.

Paul says, For I've often told you, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

I want you to notice how he describes enemies of the cross of Christ.

He says, This their end is destruction.

Listen, their God is their stomach.

Woe to those who are full of the world right now.

Their God is their stomach.

Their glory is in their shame.

Can you think of anything in our culture today that where there are shameful acts that the culture is proud of?

I could make a list and I would die before I got to the end of it.

We revel and take glory in our shame in our culture, and they are focused on earthly things.

Paul's not gonna let off that you have to get your eyes on heaven.

Next verse, our citizenship is in heaven, amen.

And we eagerly wait for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I'm not gonna stop saying it, man.

If you cannot get your eyes up, if you cannot see heaven, if your eyes are not on Jesus, if you're not living with the end in mind, you will choose to fill your life with the excesses of this world.

They will fill you for a moment, they will leave you even emptier.

The real ones, the mature.

Look, look, I'm working on this with you.

I want to be the mature.

Can I tell you what I am right now?

I'm the mature ring.

Someday you might get a mature pastor.

Right now, I'm with you.

I'm mature ring.

And I'm under a great deal of conviction.

I like getting my way.

Anybody, anybody like getting your way?

Here's the real danger.

I like getting my way, and I'm good at getting my way.

And I'm just like, man, I don't want it.

I don't want my way.

I want God's way in my life.

I want to keep my eyes on heaven.

Exhaustion is going to touch your life.

Suffering's going to touch your life.

God is going to give you the opportunity to see whether or not you really have it all on the table.

If you really counted the cost, and Jesus can have anything he wants.

And to get it right in that moment, you will have to be the poor in spirit, looking only to Jesus Christ for your security.

You will have to be those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, looking only to Jesus to fill you when hunger strikes.

At the end of the day, you will look to be filled either by Christ or by the culture.

And the culture screams very loudly.

Here's what you need.

This will make you happy.

This will make you satisfied.

This will alleviate.

This won't.

It's very loud.

It's in your face.

We're just on our phones all day.

Just it's just marketing to us, just programming us, just pushing us and prodding us.

And then the Holy Spirit is a still small voice calling you to prayer, calling you to repentance, calling you to confession, calling you to the only one who can actually fill you.

And if we do not learn to wait on the Lord, to listen to the Holy Spirit, my great fear is we will trade our birthright for a bowl of beans.

As we close, if across our venues, you would pray with me right where you're at, just bow your head, close your eyes, create a little bit of space.

After this time of application, we're gonna have our time of prayer together corporately.

For those who are believers, I'm going to ask you in this time of prayer coming up to confess to the Lord what you are going to to be filled.

There is power in confession.

God, when I am pushed, I go here.

When I feel empty, I go here.

When I'm insecure, I do this.

When I feel insignificant, this is my behavior.

This is my habit.

This is my outlet.

This is the things of the world I go to to be filled.

We're going to confess it and we're just going to repent.

We're just going to go, God, it doesn't work.

I don't want to do that.

Change my mind, change my heart.

I want to be filled by you.

I want to be the kind of person who will sit and wait, who no longer allows hunger to take my eyes off of heaven.

Some of you don't know Jesus, you don't have a relationship with God, which means your only options to satisfy are here in this world, and it will not work.

And so I'm just calling you today to get right with God.

Scripture says this isn't a religious practice, this is an offer of relationship.

And Jesus says all it takes is faith, believing that Jesus is God, that He's died for your sins, that He rose from the grave, that He's coming back for you someday.

If you believe that, Scripture says all of your sins that separate you from God will be covered by the righteousness of Christ.

That you'll be brought into an eternal relationship, a gift that no one can take from you.

If that's you with everyone's eyes closed across our venues, that's you, the Holy Spirit's pushing it on you.

Man, I'm telling you, today is the day to get right.

If that's you and you're ready to put your faith in Jesus, I want to ask you right now to just raise your hand up.

This is a symbolic gesture.

Raising your hand says, Today I choose to put my faith in Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

As hands go up around the room.

I want you to know, raising your hand right now, this is your declaration of faith.

We can say with confidence, God sees and accepts your faith, all of your sins forgiven.

When God looks at you, he does not see your sin, he sees you clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

And that means that you have a relationship with God forever.

Eternal life, a gift that no one can take from you.

For those who raised a hand, I want to help you acknowledge this with a prayer.

I'm gonna ask you to pray this with me.

I'm gonna ask believers to pray it with me out loud as well.

Let's pray like this Jesus, today I choose to put my faith in you.

I believe you are God, that you died for my sins and rose from the grave.

I thank you for loving me and forgiving my sins.

If you want to know more about MetaCurch, go to our website, metachurch.tv, where you can find out about all things metachurch, and if you feel led, you can contribute to help push this movement forward.

We hope that you'll join us next week on the MetaCurch Podcast.