- Hey, good morning. I wanna welcome you to Highlands Fellowship today. My name's Craig Barber. I have the opportunity to serve here at our Abingdon Campus as our Community Pastor, and I'm honored really today and I'm super excited, really fired up, because this is the last conversation around our "Campfire Conversations." And so today, I wanted to kinda start off with just this simple story from several years ago in my life. I had one of my closest buddies invite myself and another and he said, "Hey, "I was looking on this new GPS that I have "and it says that if we go straight up over this mountain, "we can arrive," which was Clinch Mountain. "We can arrive at Laurel Bed Lake." And so I'm thinking, "Man, I've never been to Laurel Bed Lake. "I'd love to go." And so we make these plans. It's gonna be an overnighter. We're gonna take off in the evening. We're gonna hike up through there, spend the night, enjoy breakfast, and then make our way back. And so I'm so excited about this evening, but when I pulled up in our truck, I realized very quickly this is not like one of those hikes where there's a trail. My buddy completely, you know, he completely failed to tell me we're literally climbing straight up the side of this mountain. And this is steep as a mule's face. I mean, I could not believe what we were getting ready to do. And so, but he tells me to trust his GPS, we're gonna eventually arrive there. And so we begin our ascent straight up the side of this mountain. And when I say ascent, it was real. It was so steep at times that I'm looking and I'm pulling on the base of one tree while I'm standing on the base of another in order to get up through there. I quickly realized without any question I was not in shape. I was not in shape enough to enjoy this little hike that we were taking. Nonetheless, we eventually, eventually, make it to the summit of Clinch Mountain. Like, we're at the top of it. And I'm thinking, "Finally, I can walk up and down." Right? No, no, no, no, no, no. What we came to find out, it was on the top of the mountain, the rhododendrons were so thick that we're back down on our hands and knees. And now I'm thinking, "I'm following a GPS "from a guy that's in front of me on my hands and knees. "Are we ever gonna make it to this place?" Well, eventually. Eventually. I was exhausted. Eventually we showed up right at nightfall and we have not yet set up our camp. But we get there and then eventually, just like what you see behind me, we start putting our tents together, right? So we get the tents together and I'm getting ready to, you know, I'm going through my bag and I'm thinking, "The only thing that I have to eat "are one of these dehydrated meals." Less than appetizing, I promise you. And at that same moment I look over and just across the way, there is a group of probably 10 to 15 guys that have a gigantic camp set up and they come over and they said, "Hey, fellas, "we saw y'all just pulled into camp. "We've got a ton of fresh fried fish. "I mean, we just pulled it off, "all of us have already eaten. "Why don't you come on over "and enjoy some fresh fried fish?" To which I obliged. Many, many times. Like, I could not believe it because I was sitting there looking at this dehydrated meal that I was getting ready to have to add hot water to and choke down, and all of a sudden, I realized I was invited into another campfire that was just fantastic. I mean, I could not believe. It was the best trade ever. I traded way up that day and enjoyed the opportunity to meet some neat guys and enjoyed spending some time with the folks that I hiked up the mountain with. And we laughed and carried on. Well, eventually, we made it back down the mountain and we laugh about that story to this day just thinking how that fish was provided. Well, I wanna jump into today's campfire scene. It's a little different. A lot of similarities, but it ends dramatically different than the story that I open with from my own experiences. And I wanna share this story and I wanna set the scene because it involves twin brothers. Now, they're twins but they couldn't be more different, honestly. Their names are Esau and Jacob. I wanna tell you a little bit about Esau first. Esau, his name means Edom or red, right? He's a hairy dude. I mean, he was born so hairy he looked like a little red Chewbacca when he was born. Oh, this is what you wanted. Like his baby picture, parents probably didn't show it a whole lot, right? This is little baby Chewbacca. But his name, his name honestly is Esau. He's red, he's hairy, but man, he's rugged. He's a man's man. He is a hunter. He's an outdoorsman. And he is loved by his daddy. By his daddy, right? And his dad's name's Isaac and you'll see some, you know, there's another story for another day. But some of the favoritism that plays out in these two brothers. And then there's Jacob. Jacob. He's the second born of the twins. Jacob is a quiet man. And instead of the outdoors, Jacob's more of a indoors guy. Like, his favorite TV show is "Housewives in Jerusalem." You know? I know it's bad joke, right? It's just terrible, but I couldn't resist it, right? But he's like an indoors guy and he's much more of a mama's boy. I don't mean that disrespectfully, but he is loved by Rebecca, his mama. And these two guys could not have been more different. And as I'm sharing this with ya, eventually these twin brothers grow up and we enter into this next campfire scene. And so I want you to follow along with me. This is from Genesis 25. I wanna begin in verse 29. The scripture says this: Once when Jacob was cooking stew. Why was he? I told ya. Like, this is what he does. This is not out of his norm. All of a sudden, Esau comes in from the field. Why? That's what he does. This is who he is. But when he comes in from the field, he's exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, "Let me eat some of that red stew." Now, we don't really know what the red stew was, what was inside it. But it was like... In fact, it's translated red stuff. Red stuff, right? And he says this: "I'm exhausted." Twice he gives us that clue. Like, he is wore out. And, therefore, his name was called Edom, which I mentioned to you means old red, right? And so Esau's first words, his very first words, when he comes into the campsite is just like the same words like when your teenagers come in from school. They walk through the door. What are they saying? "Feed me. "Feed me, like, now." And that's exactly what Esau is sharing with his brother, Jacob. Now, Jacob just happened to have on the campfire that day, a kettle full of red stew or red stuff. And I'm telling ya, he was, Esau was all jacked up about that. And he's thinking, "I gotta have some of this." Now, what's in the red stuff? I don't really know. Like, I've thought about this. I don't know the ingredients and I don't know if this was like a Taco Bell experience. Like, is anybody thinking like, "Right now Taco Bell's a great idea?" Like, I'm not feeling it right now, but at two o'clock in the morning, it suddenly becomes a great idea, right? Well, it's back in my college days. Now, some of you might've been there last night at two, I don't know, right? But so we're looking and I'm thinking when he walks into camp that day, he absolutely is sold that the one thing that Jacob has that will cure his desire is it's this bowl of red stew, right? And so he's excited that his appetite can be fed. So I wanna pause for just a second before I move on into the story and say this. Here's a key concept in this story. It's understanding appetites. Esau is fully engaged in his appetite. It's food, but appetites, honestly, are known to all of us. What are your appetites? What are some of the things in your life that you have a natural continual craving for? Think about it, right? Because when I look at them the list is fairly large. It's not just food, but what about the appetite for fame, right? The desire for other people to like us and wanna be us. What about the desire for success? That is the constant win. What about the appetite for sex? Or even stuff, like, just constant stuff? If you've ever bought an epilady earlier in life, you succumbed to your appetite for something that just sounds crazy in my mind. Like, really, how do you use one of those? And to think ripping the hair out of my leg is a great idea, right? And so I'm looking at that and I realize there are appetites throughout all the time of our life. And our appetites say two things. Two things always. And they're answering this question. One, like, when? When do you want your appetite met? Now. That's the answer, now. And how much does your appetite require? More. More. So when I look at my appetites, I began to realize, man, there are two things that are always gonna be constants with my appetite. It's now and it's more without any question. That's how they work in my life. Now, it doesn't matter if you're young or you're old. Your appetites can transition throughout all of life, but you will continue to have appetites, those things that you desire, all through the course of your life. And here's one simple truth I want you to hold on to as we're making our way through this morning's message. And it's this. We either rule our appetites or they will rule us. Okay? So you think about your appetites today. And they be me, they might be many, right? But you're either going to rule your appetite or your appetite will rule you. This, in this meeting of the brothers, we see this truth come to be. One comes in with an appetite, the other has an answer to the appetite. But not so fast, right? Jacob, the younger brother who has the answer to the appetite, sees this as an opportunity. It's a very rare opportunity. This almost never happens that the younger brother has something that the older brother actually wants. And so he aims to seize the day. And in Genesis 25:31, the scripture says this: Jacob said in response to his brother coming in and saying, "Hey, I want some of the red stuff. "I want some of that. Can I have a bowl of the red stew?" His response is this: "Hold on, hold on. "First, sell me your birthright now. "Sell me your birthright now." And so, you know, I'm just thinking about how this plays out and what this campfire scene would have looked like. But I think Esau comes in and he wants it. He is, like, starving. He's hangry. He's all of these things that you and I have become at different points in our life. And he's one. And then, like, I could see, I could see Jacob going, "Man, I tell ya what. "I've made a lot of bowls of this, "but this may be the best bowl I've ever made, Esau." "I know. I want some of it." "Look, I want you to have some of it too, "but first listen. "Listen, before we get to the bowl of red stuff, "I'm gonna need your birthright." And so I know that right now, you're thinking, "I don't even know what that means." Like, that's not part of our culture. But in Deuteronomy 21, a birthright is understood in the Jewish culture to hold three things. The first thing is a financial blessing because the birthright meant if there were multiple children in the family, then whoever has the birthright got a double portion of the inheritance. And so you got a lot more. Not just a little more, but you got twice as much as all of the other children. The second thing is you became the head of the family when the parents passed on. Like, you were the judge of all the family disputes. And then the third thing is this. And, you know, as you look at the scripture, you realize somehow God, He shared, like, spiritual favor with whoever had the birthright. It was the eldest child or eldest son in this portion of the story, right? And so when Esau makes the request to his brother, "I want you to feed me. "I want you to feed me. Give me some of the red stuff. "Like, I'm starving." Jacob says this: "All right, look, look. "I know that you're hungry, "but I want you to give me your birthright. "I want you to know, like, you can eat now. "You can eat now, but first let's make sure "that we agree to the terms of this agreement, right? "I wanna make sure that you understand "I want your birthright. "But don't worry about the birthright "because you can have the stew right now. "Right now." I looked at the story at this point and I realized there's something that Esau is not doing. And it's something that you and I often fail to do as well. He doesn't see the consequences of this choice, right? He's getting ready to make a significant decision and he's not thinking about the consequence, he's just thinking about one thing. This red bowl of stew that is in front of him. And I'm thinking like, "Why? Why? Why would he do that?" And I think, like, for some of us today, there is a bowl in front of us. It's not a bowl of red stew, but there's a bowl in front of us and the only thing you can see in front of you is what that bowl contains. And yet at the same time, you're not thinking about the consequences. You're not thinking about the cost of choosing this over, not just your birthright, but, you know, somehow it's we're choosing the immediate over the ultimate, right? And so one of the things that I wanna hold onto is, like, in making these kinds of decisions in my life is really thinking through the consequences of choosing what's in the red bowl over the future that God has called us to. I don't know. Like, I don't know what's in your red bowl, but I know that you and I could so easily overlook those consequences. And how does that happen? I want you to consider this too if you're writing down and sharing some notes. Appetites always whisper now and never later. They always whisper now and never later. You know, today we're sitting as outsiders kind of looking into this story, but you're probably thinking, "Who in their right mind "would make a trade like this?" Who would trade just a simple bowl of red stew for their birthright when there's so much attached to that? Who would do that? Well, you would. And quite honestly, I would. There's a great chance that you and I do this almost every single day. We trade. We trade the ultimate for the immediate. Like somehow we think that in this moment, right now, that's a great choice. This is not something that we occasionally do but this is something that we often do. And why does that happen? Why would Esau trade the value of his birthright for something so fleeting as a bowl of red soup? Why would you and I trade sometimes eternity for the temporary? Well, I want you to look at this next verse because I think this is how it begins to happen. In Genesis 25:32, Esau said, "I'm about to die. "Of what use is this birthright to me?" So in order to justify his decision here, Esau begins to say it this way. "I'm about to die here. "Do you not understand?" And I'm thinking, "About to die?" Is there a little exaggeration going on? Like, do you feel it a little bit because I'm thinking, "Really? "Dude, you just walked into camp. "I know you're tired. I know you're exhausted. "But like you just climbed the Clinch Mountain. "You just got over to the lake "where you were wanting to set up camp. "Like, I get it. I get all that. "But are you really about to die?" Right? You and I use this term all the time. I'm starving to death. And I'm thinking, "Have I ever really been "or am I just exaggerating?" The reality is, man, we exaggerate that all the time in order to justify choosing the immediate over the ultimate or choosing the temporary over the eternal. Wanted to also encourage you to write this down, just kind of you'll hold onto it. And may not. When I'm looking at this, I saw this in my own life just time and time again. But appetites, think about this about appetites. As they grow, so does our exaggeration. Like, I want something more and more and more. And like, I want not just more, but like I want it now. And in order to justify it, I will exaggerate as much as I need to the justification to make that kind of choice. People do that all the time. I was talking one time with, I get the chance to work with some of the football players at Emory and Henry. And I remember I was over there and I was talking to one of the players and he told me, this really happened. He said, "After a long day of practices, I felt..." He felt like when he described it, he felt just like Esau. He comes in off of the field, he's exhausted. He hopped into his car and he traveled to the closest gas station, right? And when he walks in there, he bought $50 worth of junk food. $50 worth of junk food at a gas station. He goes back into his car, sits down, eats the first portion of junk food and immediately thought, "What did I just do?" Like, I don't know if you've had any kind of experience that resembles that, but I'm looking at him, I'm thinking, "That's exactly what happened to Esau." Right? Because he has made a choice in a moment, just in a moment, that will cost him for the rest of his life. When an appetite grows out of control, and it often does, everything else just begins to blur. I look at guys. I get guys, I understand them. Like in high school, a girl, one girl, can make his whole life blur. That's all it takes, right? We get a little bit older and it's a car. Your car, it was driving fine yesterday but suddenly, you've got your eyes on a new car, everything else becomes a blur. You ever see a guy walking through Home Depot and all of a sudden, he starts looking at a tool he doesn't have, but he thinks, "How have I lived my whole life without that tool?" It all of a sudden becomes a blur. Life becomes a blur until we get what it is that we want. And our eyes can only see that, right? And so here you have, here you have Esau with an appetite that says, "Feed me. "Feed me now." And when everything else becomes a blur, you're primed to make some pretty bad decisions. I've been there. I dare say that you've been there too. And when I look at Genesis 25:33, I want you to see what happens. Jacob said, "Swear to me now." It's like Jacob's saying, "I want, "let's review the terms of this agreement. "I wanna make sure that you understand." "Esau, I keep smelling this red stew. "And Esau, I'm telling ya, this is probably the best. "Look, you can have this now, but let's agree here. "I want your birthright. I want your birthright." And Esau has already questioned why. I don't even need a birthright if I fall over and die, right? And so he just says, "Well, then swear to me right now. "Now. Let's do it right now." It's the immediate for the ultimate. "Swear to me now and you can eat right now, all you want." Because this is what appetite wants. "You can have all you want and you can have it right now." Right now. And I think this is so, this is what Jacob's doing. He says, "You swear to me now and I will give it to you." So this is what happened. Esau swore to his brother Jacob and he sold his birthright to him. Esau... Esau just made the worst trade ever. And you may be thinking, "I don't know. "Like there seems like there might've been "some worst trades in the NFL, Major League Baseball." Look, this is the worst one ever. And I wanna share with ya why. Fast forward thousands of years later and we read this in Matthew 1:2. The scripture says: Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob is one of the brothers we're looking at in the story. And Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. It's the 12 tribes of Israel come from those sons. And I'm looking at this and I realize, do you realize Abraham, Isaac, and it could have been Esau. Could have been Esau. But we know the story as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Now, what is Matthew describing here at the beginning of the Gospel? The lineage of Jesus. The lineage. Jacob is no surprise to God because of His sovereignty and foreknowledge. And He knew exactly what Esau would do. But I wanna make sure that you understand Esau forfeited. He forfeited the ultimate for the immediate. He got a bowl but he lost his birthright. And that changed the entire forecast and what God chose to do for the lineage and the coming of the Messiah. How did He do that? Let me share with you real quick three things that I think lead to bad, bad appetite decisions. First one is this. Sometimes we make emotional decisions. I looked back and it says, Jacob said this multiple times, "I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted." Exhaustion can lead to feeling a number of different ways. And all I'm gonna say is when I look at the emotional decisions that I've made in life, they've been very, very poor. Very, very poor. When I get emotional, I can choose the immediate over the ultimate very, very quickly. And so you could be highly emotional this morning or in this season of life and I would just warn you, it's so easy to make the worst trade of your life or the worst decision. The second thing he did was he made an exaggerated decision. And what do I mean that? You know, what he did was he said, "I'm about to die." And we already looked at that and just realized he wasn't really about to die. But you, look. When you and I find ourselves exaggerating some of the circumstances to justify a bad decision, you've gotta have a friend around you who will speak in and say, "Dude, this is so not true. "This is so not a great idea. "You're getting ready to make a bad decision." Nobody does that for Esau. And then he made also an immediate decision. It was all about now. Jacob, on multiple occasions, looked at him and said, "You can have the bowl of stew like right now, "but right now I want your birthright." And so he chose the immediate over the ultimate. I wish I was there on that day to warn Esau. I wasn't. I wasn't. But I did really feel like God sent me here into this place in this time to say this. Guys, can I just tell ya? Some of you got a bowl. Like, you're looking at it right now. And I would say this. Don't. Don't trade your future for a bowl of red stuff. Like, don't. Weeks from now, months from now, years from now, only then will you realize the cost of the bowl of red stuff. Don't trade what's in here for what God has out there. You will always overestimate what's in here and you always underestimate what God's going to do out there. Don't trade! Please don't trade what God wants to do in your life and in your future for the immediacy of a bowl of red stuff. I don't know what your bowl is and I don't know if you're fixated. In fact, you may be looking at it so hard this morning you don't hear me, you don't see me, you don't even know. Somebody's invited you here to church, but somehow like right now, God's got your attention. Don't jeopardize your entire future over something that is going to be gone in just a few moments. I look here and I realize there's a lot of danger in how this story ends. I want you to look with me at Genesis 25. It's a sad story, really. In verse 34, Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew. He ate it, he drank it, and then he rose and he went on his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. I want you to think about what just happened here. Like, right now, the stew is gone. Like, the bowl is empty. There's no more. Like, he ate what he wanted. But so is the birthright. It's gone too. Hours later, hours later, Esau would be hungry again and the bowl would have to be refilled. But I wanna tell you something that's not gonna return. His appetite would but the birthright's not. It's gone. Hebrew 12, Hebrews 12. When I read through there, it says that Esau experienced buyer's remorse. Like, he looked and he realized what he had given up, but then it was too late. Like, there was a no return policy. There's no exchanges. There's no do-overs. And so, like, today, my final question to you is this. Like, what's in your bowl of red stuff? Like, what is it for you that is in here that you would find so appealing? So appealing that you would be willing to choose the temporary over the eternal? And we do this all the time. We do it all the time. Our world is filled with these moments where we choose self or the appetites that we want right now over what God has for us. Now, appetites can be good. This is the way that we were created. It's sin that distorts it, right? And so there is a way that God wants these appetites to be met, but sometimes we choose the immediacy. Right now, my way, in this moment, this is all that I want. I thought about Mark 8:36. This isn't on your outline. Maybe write this down. Mark 8:36. The scripture says: What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but he forfeits his soul? Like, what if you got everything that you wanted from the world in this bowl? Like, if you? And you could have it like right now, but you forfeited your soul? Guys, your... We sometimes forget this. You're more than a body. When God breathed the breath of life into us in Genesis 2, the scripture says that we became a living soul. Living soul. We just happen to be inside a body that God has given us, but you're a soul with a body. And I think about this and I realize, does my body have appetites? Yes, but there is an appetite that my soul has that is only, it's only satisfied in one thing. My soul longs for the presence of God. Psalm 42, it says that just as the deer pants for the water, so my soul has an appetite or longs for You. And he's talking about God. Do you realize in all the appetites that you experience in this world, the one thing that your soul longs for more than anything else, your soul longs for the presence of God. And so I think you and I can try all the things that the world has in the bowl, but you will never be satisfied until you experience the presence of God. How is that found? One of the last things I would ask you to jot down maybe, or hold onto in your mind is this. Only Jesus can satisfy the soul. Only Jesus can do that. And this is what Jesus would say and I wanna leave this with ya as we close. Matthew 11:28 and 29. Perhaps you've heard this but maybe not connected into the passage that we've looked at today. But Jesus says this. I want you to think about this in your appetite. What does your soul really want? Jesus says, "I want you to come to me. "I don't want you to look to the red bowl, "the immediacy there, but I want you to come to me today "in this moment. "All you who labor and are heavy laden "and I'll give you rest." It's not just a physical rest or a body rest, but as we read on we see that there's something more important here. He says, "Take my yoke upon you. "Learn from me. "There's some things that I wanna share with you "about life and your appetites. "There's some things that you have to know about "the way we created you "and how your appetites can be met. "Learn from me. "I am gentle and lowly in heart." And then notice what He says here at the end of this verse. "You will find rest for your soul." For your soul. And rest for your soul is something that's eternal, not just temporary. And so today I just wonder maybe you're here today and you realize, just like Esau, and I wanna tell ya before it's too late. Don't trade your future, rest, or satisfaction in your soul for a bowl of red stuff. Maybe today God has spoken to you and I'd love to lead ya just like right now, right where you are. If God has just kind of challenged you with this and you're looking and thinking, "I was about to make the worst trade ever." Today, Jesus stands before you and He would say, "Come. Come to me." And if that's where you are then here's what I want you to do. Would everybody just bow your head? And would you bow your head like right now? And let's just pray and recognize God is before you and today, today, you have an opportunity to choose the eternal and not just the immediate. Would you pray with me right now? Father, thank You. Thank You for this day. Thank You for Your Word in our lives. I thank You for opening our eyes to see sometimes, Lord, we choose the immediate over the eternal. We choose the now over You. We choose ourselves over You. Father, please forgive us. And Father today, for those who are hungering for a rest in their souls, I pray that Your Spirit would draw them to the point where they are able to see and surrender their lives to Jesus. Father, I pray that You will do that for Your glory. Father, thank You for helping us, for creating an appetite in us, but also creating a way for those appetites to be met. And thank You for meeting the greatest need of our soul and reconnecting us to You. We love You. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.