Latest / Wesley at FSU & TSC / "Esau and the Bowl" | Sunday Service | September 13, 2026

Transcript

"Esau and the Bowl" | Sunday Service | September 13, 2026 · Wesley at FSU & TSC

• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna start.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do one, no sermon series, just one week of a sermon that I'm calling Esau and the Bull.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to be looking at the 25th chapter of Genesis.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you grew up in the church, this may be a familiar story to you, but for a lot of people, I think a lot of us have not heard this story.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna start, I think, in verse 23.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: And uh before we start, I want to give you kind of a heads up of what's happening here.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: We have a guy named Isaac, say Isaac, and a guy named a girl named Rebecca, say Rebecca, and they are husband and wife, and they have children, and their two children are twin boys named Esau and Jacob.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Esau comes out first from the womb, and Jacob actually, it says the scriptures tell us that he's grabbing the heel of Esau as he's coming out of the womb.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you were a twin, you kind of know that you know you're born at the exact same time.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I guess everybody knows that, not just twins.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about my good friend Eli, who's upstairs, whose twin, by the way, is named Isaac.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was cool.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, we're gonna start in the 25th chapter of Genesis, uh, verse 23.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hear now the reading of God's word.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'll get through it.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said to her, to Rebecca, Two nations are in your womb, two different peoples will emerge from your body, one people will be stronger than the other, and the elder will serve the younger.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: When she reached the end of her pregnancy, did she discover that she had twins?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: The first came out red all over, clothed with hair, and she named him Esau.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Say Esau.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately afterward, his brother came out gripping Esau's heel.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Ha, I told you this, and she named him Jacob, say Jacob.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac was 60 years old when they were born.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Say, whoa.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: When the young man grew up, Esau became an outdoorsman who knew how to hunt, and Jacob became a quiet man who stayed at home.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac loved Esau because he enjoyed eating game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Once, when Jacob was boiling stew, Esau came in from the field hungry and said to Jacob, I'm starving.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Let me devour some of this red stuff.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's why his name is Edom.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob said, Sell me your birthright today.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And Esau said, Since I'm gonna die anyway, what good is my birthright to me?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob said, Give me your word today, and he did.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: He sold his birthright to Jacob.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: So Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: He ate, drank, got up, and left, showing just how little he thought of his birthright.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray for the preaching of God's word.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, your word is a lamp unto our feet, and it's a light into our path.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: May it speak to us and speak through us for the establishment of your kingdom on this earth.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh God, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight and in your sight alone, O God.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: You are our rock and you are our redeemer, and we love you because you first loved us.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Be with us, O Lord.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your holy name.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yesterday I had to go to a mandatory all-day event for myself and the district that I serve in as a pastor, and I definitely wanted to go, right?
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I got uh through that day, I got there a little early because our band was actually leading worship there, which was fine.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got there a little early to get them set up, and then we went through the process of the entire day, and it actually was pretty helpful.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but by the time I got home, I was like ready to just collapse.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know you know what I mean?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you just bend at something all day, you just want to collapse into the bed.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of what I was.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the problem is my wife is not feeling very well, and I have two young children.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I got home, uh my wife actually was taking my older daughter out to the dance and uh out to dance class, and my younger daughter, Dylan, said that magical phrase to me that she often says is Daddy, do you want to play a game?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, I want to collapse in the bed, but when your child says that to you, it's like the most magical moment in the world.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yes, I want to play a game with you, but I do wonder like what kind of game.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, because it's easy, do you want to play Uno?
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm thinking to myself, I could play this sitting on the couch, right?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to move, and we can play Uno.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: And she said, No, I want to play Monopoly Jr.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's bluey themed, you know, so I'll give it to her.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: But Monopoly Jr., would you call Monopoly a short game?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's involved.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: You got the cards, you got the money, you got the pieces, it's a board game.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then to make it worse, she always and kids for some reason want to do this, they want to play it on the living room floor.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we have hardwood floors.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, this is painful for a 39-year-old, you know?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like my hip hurts and my my ankles hurt.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And she wants to play it.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, can we please play it on the dining room table?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm gonna play it here because she was watching uh a movie at the same time.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, that's fine.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: We'll play it here.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed something.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if if you've ever played Monopoly, especially of you that are real big fans, there's the basic goal, right, is to acquire as much property as possible in Monopoly, right?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you start earning on the rents when people land on your property, right?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: You understand the general gist of this game.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now there's a thing called jail, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Which kids love.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're like they're like fascinated with jail, just in general, right?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: But they're obsessed with jail.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um I was learning yesterday that Dylan has finally started to get the picture because early on in the game, you don't want to be in jail because you want to acquire property, right?
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: But later on in the game, it actually is beneficial for you to be in jail so you don't land on other people's property.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a very interesting thing because it plays differently depending on where you are in the game.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And she was playing like a rock star at six years old, you know?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: She totally got this.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I was reminded of the time in which I taught her about this principle early on.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because when we first started playing Monopoly a couple of years ago, she just wanted to move.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like that felt like progress, right?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: So to sit in jail and have to roll or whatever.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: She was like frustrated.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so she was always paying her way out of jail in order to get to move.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, why are you doing that?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna hurt you because you're gonna land on my property and then you pay me the money.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't make any sense, you know, because I'm a nice father.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm letting her learn how to play so she can beat me.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like encouraged by this yesterday, but it occurred to me that we often do that same thing, right?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: We don't often think about what's in our best interest in the long term, right?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: What we're often interested in doing is what's right now.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: What's right now, what's important right now.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, I do not want to be sitting in jail, not being able to move my piece around the board.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even if that's beneficial to you for winning the game.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: We often think about the short term rather than the long term, and the long term always plays better.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go back to this story in Esau.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: You've got Esau, he's the he's the outdoor guy, he's the one who's who's hunting, he's the one collecting food for his family and bringing it back.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it says that Isaac, the father, really took a liking to him, and Rebecca took a liking to Jacob.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we already have a little bit of dysfunction in this family, right?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Where, you know, parents are not supposed to have favorites, correct?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, but the clearly at this time, one parent has a favorite and the other parent has the other favorite.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's kind of this opposition happening here.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I read 23 is because the Lord says to her, Two nations are in your womb, two different peoples will emerge from your body, one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's a kind of this prophetic language that's happening to describe the division that's happening between Esau and Jacob.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what happens is we cut into this scene where Esau has gone out to try to get food to hunt and gather.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he's coming back empty-handed.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now you can imagine some of his frustrations, right?
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's um frustrated with himself, he's fearful that he maybe disappointed Isaac.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's some truth to that.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: But most of all, he's not eating, which means he is hungry.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, he's hungry in this moment, and he gets home and he smells this beautiful, delicious stew that is being cooked by Jacob and Rebecca.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I love the way that the scriptures tell us that sometimes it's it's not as clear in the English, but I just love uh what happens here.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: He he says, um, he became an outdoorsman, he he loved Esau because he was eating game.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Rebecca loved Jacob, blah, blah, blah.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm starving, let me devour some of this red stuff.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you remember, when he came out, it says he was red and covered with hair, right?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: So he's this big, burly, kind of uncouth red person.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, Let me devour some of this red stuff.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: And they said that's why his name is Edom.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the poetic language that you might expect.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: You just have, let me, let me, you know, it's a little bit like, I'm hungry, let me eat, right?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like uh, it's definitely this kind of like, the where is this red stuff, right?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want this.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is how the Hebrew reads.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's very straightforward, it's not poetic, it's just like big burly guy needs food now, right?
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And Jacob then sees what's happening, and he says, Well, if you would like some of that, sell me your birthright today.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Jacob sees an immediate need of Esau's, and he says, I can fulfill it by taking advantage of the situation.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, sometimes in college ministry, I have to be your father.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: More often than I would prefer, to be honest with you.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: Can can I just take a moment to be a father?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: In the moments in your life when you are tired and you are depleted and you are needful, and you're like, I don't care what it costs me, just get me this thing now, you are also the most vulnerable.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: In your depleted moments, in your hungry moments, you are also super vulnerable.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And here's what I've learned in my 39 years of life at every moment of hunger, there is going to be someone there willing and able to take advantage of your hunger, and you need to be aware of this.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of different examples that we could give, and we would be here for a long time if I went through all of them.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the one that's plaguing our nation right now, our world right now.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Credit cards.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: What does a credit card give you?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Immediate access to the thing you need or want, even though it's not good for you to go into 20% debt for that thing.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: You understand?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember the first time I got offered a credit card, college.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I signed up for it because they gave me a free Domino's pizza.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I thought, Domino's pizza?
• 12:51
  unknown: Yeah.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sign up, fill out the thing, yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So they can now it's registering on my credit score.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: That'd be great, you know.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: I won't use it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely won't use it.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never use it.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'll never, oh, I'm only I'm just gonna use it for the points.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm only gonna use it for the points, and I'm never ever gonna spend money that I don't have.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you that Citibank and Chase Sapphire, right?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: All of the bank's buildings are bigger than your houses, and there's a reason for that because they know how vulnerable you are in the midst of desire, and they will prey on it and take it from you.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, people have shiny thoughts about credit cards, Keegan Lowry, but let me just tell you, it is dangerous to get yourself into that position, particularly at this point in your life.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: The same is true of other elements that come to fruition in college.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: When you are desiring approval, you start to behave differently so that you may be approved.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: No matter your values, no matter what you say you stand for, no matter how you were raised, all of that doesn't matter.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: What only matters is my gratification now instantly.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's true about sex as well.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's prevalent in our society where we have we don't ever look toward the long term.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we're looking for what can I get right now?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: What website can I pull up right now?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: What person can I take advantage of right now?
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: It happens all the time.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: I don't mean this as a shaming moment, I just mean this as an intentional moment.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: We all end up in this place where the bowl becomes the most important thing.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so Esau has the birthright.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is the piece of it.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: The birthright is his inheritance, it's everything that he's been given.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: It's been promised because of his parents.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a big deal.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's a lot of wealth, it's a lot of influence, it's all of the property, it's all of this.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he is so hungry in that moment.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, he says he's gonna die.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Do I actually believe he's gonna die in that moment from starvation?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: No, but he is so hungry that he now places the value of the birthrights at the same level of the value of the stew.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: What's the point of that?
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: The value of the stew.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: What's the point of that?
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: What I love about it is here.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is verse 34.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then very quickly, and it's the same in the Hebrew as it is in the English, he ate, drank, got up, and left.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: How many words is that?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, four, and five.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Ate, drank, got up, and left.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Showing how just how little he thought about his birthright.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: That thing that we are looking for in our life right now, because we don't want to think about the long term, we want the instant gratification.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: That thing is going to come and go as quickly as that stew did.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: He ate, he drank, he got up and he left.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Done.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: He traded his birthright for that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Ate, drank, got up, and left.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I've been trying for a long time in college ministry, but I have learned I'm very bad at it.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: To fix your behavior.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like impossible.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can't, I can't fix my own behavior.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: How is it?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: How is it gonna be to fix our behavior?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so this sermon doesn't have to end with some sort of like, hey, just work harder and be less like Esau.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Just do better, you know, bro?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just like don't do it.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because what that requires, what that requires is willpower.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I have learned that humans are very bad at having willpower, right?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Very bad at like, I'll fix it.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I've been meaning to work out in my life.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm 39 years old, been meaning to work out and eat better for a long time.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I have yet to do it, dude.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I just know that it's like it's impossible for us to say, well, just have better willpower.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: So can I show you an example of where God can step in to this hunger?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to go to Matthew 4.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible, we're gonna go to Matthew chapter 4.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is in the New Testament.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: If not, it'll be on the screen, and we're gonna read the first 11 verses.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 4.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is the temptation of Jesus.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, just so you know contextually where we are, Jesus was born.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's the beginning, right?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: Christmas.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then as we move forward, he gets older, he goes through the baptism process, and then he begins his ministry in chapter five, because in chapter five, we have the Sermon on the Mount through five, six, and seventh the greatest sermon ever told.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: So this is right before his ministry.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, here we arrive in chapter four.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go, chapter four, verse one.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: Then the spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness so that the devil might tempt him.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: After Jesus had fasted for 40 days and forty nights, he was starving.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: The tempter came to him and said, Since you are God's son, command these stones to become bread.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just want you to pay attention.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: We have another character who is what?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hungry.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: After Jesus had fasted for 40 days and forty nights, he was starving.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: The tempter came to him and said, Since you are God's son, command these stones to become bread.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus replied, It's written, People won't live only by bread, but by every word spoken by God.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, bars.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: After that, the devil brought him into the holy city and stood him at the highest point of the temple.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Since you are God's son, throw yourself down, for it's written, I will command my angels.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: If they tell you that evil can never quote scripture, come on, I will command my angels turning you and concerning you, and they will take you up in their hands so that they you won't hit your foot on a stone.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus replied, Again, it's written, Don't test the Lord your God.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: He comes back with scripture.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Then the devil brought him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I'll give you all of these if you bow down and you worship me.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Oh boy, you know who you're talking to.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus responded, Go away, Satan.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, same thing he says to Peter later.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's written, you will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the devil left him, and angels came and took care of him.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sure seemed like Jesus had the willpower, didn't it?
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, just well, it says man does not live by bread alone.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: It works great for him.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if this is a spoiler alert or not.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: You are not Jesus.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: You are not capable of doing what he does.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: But guess who it is?
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because God shows up in those moments.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: What I love about this, it's not just Jesus saying no.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's this back and forth between him and Satan this whole time.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not just Jesus saying nope, nope, no, no.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: What this is, is Jesus one-upping him every single time, quoting scripture, the prophets in it, but he says, Hey, if you if you think I'm hungry, I'm just telling you that man does not live by bread alone.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: What Jesus has the capability to do in his own life and in ours is to step into your life and reorient your priorities.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: When you're so looking for the bowl and the stew, when you're looking for the quick fix, when you're looking for that just that one chance to just live in it right there, instead of thinking about the long term, instead of thinking what God could do with you long term, Jesus steps in.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Grace steps in, and it says to you, hey, you can reorient your life.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: In the church, we call this sanctifying grace.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's the way we explain a grace that continues to make us more like Jesus.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: There are a couple of things that can help practically in this.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: First and foremost, I think being familiar with the word can help a lot.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of us are not as familiar with this text as we should be.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh you could come, shameless plug Wednesday night in Bible study and learn a little bit about.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're going through Ephesians right now.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's good.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: You should come.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: But the other thing that you can do is coat your life of struggle in prayer.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hey God, I know I'm broken.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm doing this.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know I'm taking the quick out.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm know I'm looking in the short term rather than the long term.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I just need your help.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, at his most vulnerable moment, other than when he's on the cross, he's hungry.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: The word made flesh is hungry.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's hungry.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when Satan comes and he says, Why don't you just turn these stones into bread?
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, It's written that man does not live by bread alone, but on the word of God.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, what if I were to reprioritize my life?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: What if I were to make that choice because of what I see in the future rather than what I see in the now?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: What if I were to not turn that thing into something that could destroy me?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: See, that's the thing about the bull.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: The bull's not inherently bad.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's food, it's sustenance.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is true for other things.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Money, not inherently bad.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: What you do with it, a different story.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sex, a gift from God.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Not inherently bad.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: What you do with it, a different story.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: The bowl is not bad.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: But your instant gratification and priorities need to shift.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way they can do that is that the sanctifying grace of God pours over your life, over your decisions, and said, Can I show you a better way?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's my prayer.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: My prayer for you.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: That somehow you would witness God's grace even this week.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: The temptations and all of the nonsense will happen today.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't something I gotta wait for next month when it just happens again.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna happen today.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna choose the short term over the long term today.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so my prayer is that somehow your eyes would be opened, that you would receive the sustenance you need from the Lord and not from the world.