Sibling Rivalry

My topic today is on sibling rivalry. We know there's quite a popular sibling

rivalry. It was, if everybody knows, Jacob and Esau.

And that's what we're going to be talking about today, Genesis 25, 19-34.

This is the account of the family line of Abraham's son, Isaac.

Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he married

Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel, the Armamean from Paddan, Aram,

and sister of Laban, the Aramean.

Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless.

The Lord answered his prayer and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.

The babies jostled each other within her and she said, Why is this happening

to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord.

The Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated.

One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.

At the time he came to her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb.

The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they named him Esau.

After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob.

Isaac was 60 years old when Rebecca gave birth to them.

The boys grew up and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country,

while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.

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

Once, when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country famished.

He said to Jacob, quick, let me have some of that red stew. I'm famished.

That is why he was also called Edom.

Jacob replied, First sell me your birthright. Look, I am about to die,

Esau said. What good is the birthright to me?

But Jacob said, Swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him,

selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

All right so i'm gonna kind of go through the story i love the stories in the bible because,

i always remember when i was growing up even as a kid i would read these stories

from the bible i always i always thought they're kind of cool i never really

understood why some people thought the bible was boring because some of these

stories are actually even as a

i think early teenager i found them kind of good stories.

Anyway, we were talking about Jacob in the story, and the story starts out where,

Rebekah is not getting pregnant.

And so Isaac, on her behalf, goes and prays to the Lord, and the Lord answers that prayer.

And not only does he answer it, but he gives her twins.

And while she's pregnant with these twins, they begin to jostle.

These are the word jostle.

It's a word we don't usually use, but that's what they use. And we can kind

of picture that in our mind where she's having, it's like they're having a war within each other here.

And it was so bad that she went to God in prayer and asked, what is going on?

You know, what's going on within me?

And he answered her saying that there are two nations within you.

And furthermore, that the oldest would serve the younger, which in Israel,

well, not Israel at that time, but the culture at that time,

usually the oldest served, the youngest always served the younger or the oldest.

So this is quite a turn, you know, as far as today, we probably don't think much about that.

Okay, but back then, that was a big deal.

But anyway, as it went on, when it came to the day where she was giving birth

to these two twins, Esau came out first, and he was Harry.

And Harry, back then Esau meant Harry. Okay, so that's how he got his name.

Probably today we just call him Harry, right?

But anyway, and Jacob, he got his name because when he came out,

he was holding on to the heel of Esau, which means that very thing, grasping at the heel.

So that's how he got his name. And interesting enough, back then when you said

that, that meant that you were a deceiver.

And that kind of went along with Jacob along his life. If you read the whole

story, he was always kind of deceptive and got things done by deceiving people.

But anyway, and, you know, that actually happens, I think, a little bit today.

I mean, I remember when Megan was born and Maria, I could tell right away they

had two different personalities. Because Megan, when I first put her in my arms,

she had her eyes wide open.

And then she gave me a great big smile. So Maria just slept the whole time, okay?

And those personalities kind of followed them in their childhood especially.

Actually, Megan was always up and ready, and Maria, it was no big deal to just

take a nap here and there.

So it's funny how our personalities, you know, sometimes can tell right off.

And in this case, with Jacob, his personality kind of, it's almost right off

where he was grasping this heel.

Later on down the road, when they grew up more, Esau was out in the field,

and this was kind of what he did. He was a hunter, okay? Jacob liked to stay amongst the tents.

It actually says that Isaac loved Esau more and Rebecca loved Jacob more,

just because, you know, that happens in relationships.

And when Esau came out he was very hungry and he used the word famished,

and he probably was quite hungry and while he was coming in Jacob had this stew

already and I'm sure it wasn't on accident I'm sure he had this all figured

out how he was going because when he came in Esau was like give me some of that red stew,

and Jacob was like well,

first tell me your birthright Okay, so he had this all worked out.

This probably was one of his first deceptions that he uses.

And Esau's like, well, what good is my birthright? I'm going to die anyway.

And I'm sure he's exaggerating.

It's like sometimes I say I'm starving, and Janet goes, you're not starving.

But he may have been quite famished, though, to sell his birthright,

because the birthright was a big deal.

I mean, it was heir to the estate.

So it was a big deal back then to have that and he gave it up and so he actually

gave up his birthright for a bowl of soup.

Now, in Romans 9, 13, just kind of switching gears here a little bit,

it's funny that Jacob, it says that Jacob, or God says that Jacob I love, but Esau I hated.

And I don't know if it comes from this story or from the lifetime of these two

individuals, okay, but I'm sure this story has something to do with it,

because God looks at more than just,

and this goes along with what Chris was saying our exterior or our appearance

he looks at our hearts and it's funny that our worship team we had,

the heart of worship Chris said that as I was sitting back I was like boy we're

really tying this together this morning.

But why I mean why what was the reason why it got I mean those are pretty strong

words that Esau hated Those are strong words.

I mean, it's in the Bible.

Why? You know, what was the reason? I mean, Jacob, he wasn't, like, sitting pretty.

I mean, he was a deceiver. I mean, he just, and as, if you read more in the

story, you can see he does more and more of this throughout his life,

and he doesn't even really call God his God until late in the story.

He's always, like, the God of Isaac. he always used to refer to God as he never

even referred to God as his God and here Esau I mean he was hungry it's his

birthright shouldn't he have the,

right to sell his birthright it's his okay.

But really, this is what it really comes down to, is that Jacob found value

in the future, in future things. He was willing to suffer, and you'll see throughout

his lifetimes that he was willing to suffer to get something down the road.

You know, he had a different heart than Esau had. Esau had a heart of, I want a now.

I want comfort now. I want to have this extinguished right now.

I want to feel better right now.

Okay, and Jacob, if you've read this story, later on he goes to his uncle Laban,

and he has to work 14 years,

for a wife that he wanted, first because he got deceived there where Laban gave

him the sister that he didn't want first.

Then he had to work seven more years for Rachel, the one that he did want.

And he was willing to work 14 years for this, Showing that his heart was okay

with suffering as long as he could look into the future and say, I can get this.

I just have to go through a little suffering right now.

And probably as Americans, we probably have a tough time with that.

I know I do. It's like, I want things.

That's an American thing. We've had that instilled into us where we don't really like to suffer.

We want comfort, and we want it now.

And this kind of brought me to this verse as I was thinking about this.

In Matthew 6, 21, it says, Where your treasure is, there your heart will be

also. And I'm sure we've all heard this verse, and we kind of get the meaning.

I mean, where our heart is there, we'll treasure those things.

Wherever our heart wants, we'll treasure the things that our heart wants.

And that's really the meaning of the verse. And it goes, there's five signs.

And really what you're doing is that it comes down to, are you choosing God

or are you choosing the world?

That's really what it really all comes down to in our life and the choices that we make.

And I think that's really what this verse is really talking about.

And I got five signs that you are choosing God over the world.

And I've got one up here right now. Now, he says you spend more time protecting

your image than guarding your heart.

God focuses on the condition of your heart. The world focuses on appearances.

And some of the examples of that would be like your status would be your appearance.

The car you drive, the house you have, material things. People look at the way

maybe that you're dressed or how you appear to them.

Kind of going back to, you know, how do I look on the outside?

That's what the world focuses on, and God focuses on the condition of our hearts.

Number two, you know what God says, but culture influences you more.

And drift begins when God's truth becomes secondary to popular opinion.

So we know what popular opinion is. That's what the world tells us is okay.

Even though the Bible says it's not okay, we sometimes will twist the Bible

so that it will say what we want to hear.

There was a church I went by the other day that had a gay pride flag on it,

and they said, we welcome everyone here.

And I was thinking, well, we do too, but we don't welcome the sin.

I mean, we're going to tell you the truth about your sin.

And that's what they mean by making God secondary.

If we're making God first, we're believing what he says over what the world says.

And number three, you're willing to compromise obedience to gain comfort, success, or approval.

Following Jesus often costs something. Worldliness avoids that cost.

So if you were following God, it's probably going to cost you something.

If you're truly following God. Following God isn't easy. Following the world, that's the easy route.

That's always the easy route. You're going to get patted on the back,

usually for following the world. For following God, people are going to look

at you sometimes and say, what's wrong with you?

You know, how come you don't get with it? Why don't you, you know, do what I'm doing?

It's not hurting anybody.

Number four, your biggest investments are in temporary things.

Okay, what you invest in reveals what you are living for. So,

and the first thing that pops in your mind is what are you spending your money on?

What do you spend your money on? Well, tell where your heart is.

And the second thing, probably the top two things is now, next time is, it would be time.

Okay. What do you spend your time on?

Okay. So money and time are the two big issues. a lot of times when it comes

to what are you investing yourself in.

Number five, deep down, you know your heart gets more excited about worldly

opportunities than opportunities to grow closer to God.

Okay, so what excites you most often reveals what you treasure most.

That's pretty self-explanatory. I mean, what excites you most?

Does coming to church excite you in the morning, or would you rather be doing something else?

You know, just being real, I mean, sometimes church doesn't blow me away.

You know, it's like, ah, but I come here to honor God, you know,

and that gives me some excitement that it's not for me.

I'm here to honor God when I come here.

So what do we do? I mean, application, you know, how do we apply these things?

Because I'm sure we're all probably guilty of some of this. I mean, I know I am.

As I was reading this, it's like, you know, I'm probably the most convicted,

you know, I do a lot of this stuff.

I've sighed on the world a lot of times rather than God, because it's easy routes.

You know, I don't think any of us are perfect at this, you know.

And so what does God say about this?

In Romans 12, 2, it says we need to be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Okay, because first let's start with transformed.

See, there's two words in here, transformed and renewed, that I want to talk about.

Transformed, I always use changed. I want to be changed by God.

And I was talking to one of my friends one time that I really respect and he

says I don't really use change because change means I can be changed back,

because I like to use the word transformed and he went on to tell me this about,

a door he said you see that door over there that used to be a tree,

but it's been transformed into a door and that door is never going to be a tree

again he goes that that's what transformed means and so I kind of got that and

I was like that's Kind of rung a bell inside, and I was like,

yeah, that's a good word to use.

Because I don't want to go back to where I was. I want to keep moving ahead.

You know, and we'll never say, if somebody were to say, like,

where's Pastor Tim's office? Where are we going to say, well,

it's right through that tree over there. I mean, we're never going to say that.

We're going to say, right through that door. Okay? Okay.

So that's being transformed. How do we become transformed?

That's the next question. It's by the renewing of your mind.

Renewing is the next word.

And if anybody's Star Wars fans, this always comes to my mind when I think of

renewing. It says, you must unlearn what you have learned.

And that's quite a quote of logic there. You know, sometimes some of the things

that God's trying to teach us as we grow up, we're learning one way and God

wants to teach us something totally different.

It's like we've, you know, as we grew up, we were trying to probably gain the

approval of our mom and dad by doing good.

And God's like, that's not how you gain approval because I already approve of you.

And, you know, all these things I read, all these five things that show what

our heart is, that's probably not even the most important part to God.

What the most important thing to God is, is that you have a relationship with him.

And that's what renewing your mind is, is spending time with God,

spending time with our creator so that he can renew our mind and so that we

can become more like him.

And I think all these things that we just read through, they just kind of fall

into place once we start spending time with God.

Sometimes we think, well, I have a hard time with money.

I'm going to go out and I'm going to try really hard to spend my money right

and not be, you know, we try on our own strength instead of going to God and asking him to help.

Because renewing our minds, there's a verse, let's see if I can remember. one.

Philippians 4, 6, and 7 says, do not be anxious about anything,

but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your request

to God and he will transform all of your understanding and guard your hearts in Christ Jesus.

And what that's saying is that when we take our anxieties and we take all these

things to God, we can trust that he's going to help us in that.

And also, don't leave out thanksgiving. Okay, I think for a long time,

I left out that part, and I found myself being very, what's the word.

Not content with life, because I was leaving out thanksgiving.

So how do we get there? How do, what does God want from us? I think Andy said

that when he was saying his, why do we come here?

Okay, what does God want? I mean, and it's really not that hard.

First one is getting the Word. I mean, Bible reading, that's how God talks to us.

Now, a relationship, can you imagine having a relationship where he never talked

to you or your friend never talked to you?

And not just reading the Bible, but it says we need to devour the Bible, meditate on it.

We don't have to read a whole lot. I have a hard time with comprehension,

so a lot of times maybe I'll read just a little section like this,

and I really just think about that for a while.

I really just mull over that and ask God, what does this mean? What do I need?

What am I needing in this? We kind of got to make this a daily thing.

Second is prayer where God is actually talking, where we're actually talking to God.

Because in a relationship, we have to have both ways.

It wouldn't be much of a relationship if there was no conversation.

You know, and that's where that Philippians 4, 6, and 7 comes in,

where, you know, we're pouring out our hearts, we're asking God to help us with,

our anxieties, our worries, what's going on in life, we pour out ourselves to him.

Number three, being quiet, okay? And this is probably one of the toughest things.

I know reading and prayer, we have a hard time with that.

Being quiet before God is probably one of the hardest things because what happens

when we start just going to a room, no TV, no cell phones, no nothing?

What happens when we do that?

Everything starts coming up in our mind that, you know, I got to do this.

Oh, I can't be just sitting here. You know, that's my main thing is like,

I'm just sitting here doing nothing. Okay, that's secularism coming out of us.

Okay, when we sit before God, God is, we have so much in us,

oh Lord, that is secular. And he's just taking that out of us.

When we're being quiet before God.

And as we do this more, the less and less we'll have that and the more the Spirit will have.

So it's very important to go into a room and find, it doesn't even have to be

into a room, just somewhere where you can be quiet and you can just hear God and listen to him speak.

Okay, and in closing today, I want to do something. And it's not nothing that's

going to bring any out of your seats. I just want us to go into a prayer-like,

position, however that is for you.

And as a church, I want to be silent before God, just as a, maybe if you don't

do this, just as a kickoff to get you started.

I don't know. Maybe to get me started.

So I'm just going to say a little prayer, and then we're just going to be quiet

before God and then I'm going to close us in prayer and then you'll be dismissed. Okay.

So, Lord, we just come to you this morning, and we just want to be more like you.

I pray, Lord, that your spirit, O Lord, would just come upon us right now.

Just remove every distraction, every secular thought. I pray,

Lord, that you would just bring that out of us as we are quiet before you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Lord, I pray as we go that you would just bless us, O Lord, that you would put

it on our hearts to strengthen our relationship with you.

And, Lord, we know that's what you really want of us.

You just want us, and you just want to speak with us, have us speak to you.

And just to listen to what you have to say.

Lord, I pray, Lord God, that we would, as a church, implement this into our

hearts and lives as we go today.

And throughout this week, in Jesus' name, amen.