July 7, 2025 • 47 mins
Have you ever made a decision based purely on emotion, only to regret it almost immediately? You're not alone. The human heart—our emotional compass—can lead us astray when we trust it blindly.
In this powerful examination of emotions versus spiritual discernment, we dive deep into the biblical story of Jacob and Esau to uncover a profound truth: feelings can be manipulated, but God's word remains steadfast. Through Isaac's deception, we witness how physical senses—touch, smell, taste—were all used to mislead him into blessing the wrong son. Not because Jacob wasn't meant to be blessed, but because Isaac never consulted God about his intentions. His emotional attachment to Esau overrode what God had already decreed.
This message challenges the popular notion of "following your heart" with Jeremiah's sobering reminder that "the human heart is the most deceitful of all things." Instead of allowing emotions to dictate our spiritual lives, we learn practical guidance for testing feelings against Scripture, submitting our hearts to God's examination, and seeking godly counsel from mature believers.
Perhaps most liberating is the understanding that emotions don't always need to be resolved—they simply need to be felt. Many of us carry emotional burdens because we believe every feeling requires immediate action or resolution. But sometimes the most spiritual response is acknowledging the emotion, laying it at the foot of the cross, and continuing to walk by faith rather than feeling.
Whether you're struggling with emotional decision-making or seeking greater spiritual discernment, this message offers biblical wisdom to help separate what feels right from what is spiritually true. Stop letting your emotions drive your spiritual life and start trusting the facts of God's word.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
from worship through music to worshiping through the
word.
I pray that you continue tomove inside of this house, that
you bless the people sitting inthe sanctuary abundantly with
your word, father, that it isdirectly from you and not of me.
Father, god, lord, that youwould soften hearts, prepare
ears, lord, give us a desire tohear the word of God, not just
(00:28):
so that we might hear it, but sothat we may absorb it, so that
we may live it today.
Father, god, change our hearts.
Allow us to leave this placenew and different from how we
came in, lord, different fromhow we came in, Lord.
Make our lives pliable, lord,allow us to adjust our mindset
(00:50):
to be spiritual and not physical.
Lord, I thank you for attentivehearts.
I thank you for attentive minds.
Father, to you be all the glory.
We give you praise and honorthis morning in the mighty name
(01:13):
of Jesus, and the church saysamen, amen, amen.
I have a question for you realquick.
How many of you had a hundredreasons not to come to church
this morning?
Right, you wake up in themorning, especially on Sunday,
and it's so easy to say I've gota hundred things I need to get
done.
Right, the grass needs to bemowed, or you know, I haven't
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done laundry all week.
Right, there's always a reason.
Some of us haven't done laundryall month, but there's a reason
.
All of the sudden, on Sunday,we feel like we have to get it
all done.
Right, there's always a reasonto not be in church on Sunday,
and it's always interesting tome because that feeling will
sometimes override our logic,because we know we need to be
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here.
Right, Our brain knows we needto be here, but our logic, our
feelings, our emotions tell usthat we don't.
Now I have another question whyis it that we come to church
and then we talk through worship, right, you finally get the
desire to be in the house.
You wake up feeling like, okay,I'm going to go to church today
, and then we talk throughworship.
(02:18):
We talk through music ministry,right, or we're chit-chatting
with the people sitting next tous during the message.
I wonder every day, why do we dothat?
And I personally think it'sbecause we haven't prayed our
way into church for the day.
Right, we get up in the morningand we want to go put a check
in the box.
There's a soft spot in thefloor right here, roger, and I'm
telling you now, because I'mgoing to go through it,
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especially if I keep jumping onit like this.
If I keep doing this, I'mdefinitely going to go through
it.
Yeah, right, no kidding.
Yeah, because that'll bedangerous for me.
Yeah, we won't, we won't, no,here's what we'll do when I fall
through it.
We'll just blame Roger Deal.
Here's what I think happens.
I think we get up on Sundaymorning and we want to put a
(03:01):
check in the box and say we wentto church.
Right, I got to go to churchthis week.
I got up and I went to church,but the problem is is we don't
come in prepared for what God ispreparing to do in our lives.
So when I say, pray your wayinto church, when I get here on
Sunday mornings, usually I'm thefirst one in, if not the first
one, fairly close to the firstone, and the first thing that I
(03:23):
do is drop all of my stuff offand then I walk through the
sanctuary and I pray over all ofthe chairs and then I just take
time for myself.
I don't get to worship the sameway everybody else does on
Sunday morning, because usuallyI'm helping in the tech booth,
directing, making adjustments onthe fly as things change.
But what I know is that I haveto find that time for myself.
Otherwise I step into thepulpit unprepared for what God
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is wanting to do Amen.
And so I spend that timeintentionally preparing my heart
and my mind for what God isgoing to do in this place.
I would suspect many of youdon't do that same thing.
You just show up and you sit inthe seat and you expect well,
god will just take care of that.
But all the while you'rethinking about what you've got
to do after church, right Right,how many of you are already
(04:08):
thinking about lunch right now?
It's a fair statement, like I'mnot saying, like I didn't eat
breakfast this morning.
So I'm already thinking aboutwhat am I going to have for
lunch today.
But I can't let that emotion,that feeling, override what the
Holy Spirit wants to do in mylife today, right Now.
Sometimes when I come in andpreach, he wrecks my lives and
you guys leave and you're like Ididn't get anything out of that
(04:28):
.
It's not always for you guys.
It's not always for youindividually.
Sometimes what God is doing isfor somebody else, but your
inability to pay attention towhat God is doing makes it hard
for other people to absorb that.
Now, we shouldn't be concernedwith what other people are doing
.
Right, we try to set thatatmosphere by keeping the lights
low and doing all of the things.
The problem is is you can'thelp it.
(04:49):
Right?
When I was praying and all ofthose babies were crying, how
many of you noticed?
Right, it's easy to hear it,but I don't have to focus on
that.
I still center myself on whatGod is doing in that moment.
Right, those distractions can'tbe how we identify ourselves
with ministry.
We can't always worry.
Well, I can't go to church onSunday morning because I don't
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want to listen to those babiescry.
Right, if you're a lady,chances are your husband's going
to cry or at least whine athome.
Right?
What's for lunch?
I'm hungry?
Right?
What Garden needs water?
Exactly, that's what I'm saying, like, we've always got
(05:31):
something.
My point is is that we have tomake decisions based on logic
and not emotion.
I want to start with a passageof scripture that is not going
to be incredibly popular, but Ijust need you guys to ride with
me for a second.
And I also want to point outthe one song that we sang this
morning had the line that says Isought the Lord and he heard
and he answered.
And I want to point out that itdoes not say that I sought the
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Lord and he told me what Iwanted to hear.
I sought the Lord, he heard andhe answered.
Right, we don't always thinkabout that that way.
I sought the Lord and he didn'ttell me what I wanted to hear,
so I'm not listening to the Lord.
Amen, amen, all right.
Here's the first passage ofscripture, jeremiah 17, 9.
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It says the human heart is themost deceitful of all things and
desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?
And I started with that becauseI want to talk about this first
.
Oftentimes, we talk about heartposture, right, and your heart
posture has to be right in orderto observe the word or in order
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to absorb the word.
The human heart is the mostdeceitful of all things.
So this seems counterintuitive,right, but it's not.
What I'm saying to you is thatwhen your heart posture has to
be right, your heart has to befocused on the right things,
which is being in relationshipwith Jesus Christ.
It cannot be focused onwhatever it is that the world is
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doing around you.
Heartbreak is real and ithappens every day.
The problem is is.
That is the flesh and not thespirit.
God is not actively working tobreak your heart.
God is actively working to mendyour heart.
He is pursuing your heart.
He desires to be inrelationship with you so that he
can mend said broken heart.
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Amen.
Now, broken hearts come in a lotof ways.
It comes from death, it comesfrom the end of a relationship,
it comes from watching yourchildren grow up.
Broken hearts aren't always abad thing.
It's a change of life, right,like when you realize that
you're too old to do certainthings.
You feel that, right, dale, areyou hot?
Buddy, I am sweating to deathup here, but they're telling me
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it ain't hot in here.
So, all right, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying the room issplit on the temperature of the
room.
All right, maybe we need to getdual air conditioners.
The hot people sit on one side,the cold people sit on the
other.
I don't know.
You got it.
Do you have a little fan backthere here?
I'm going to turn this overhere to me.
We're going to crack that badboy up to two.
(08:00):
There we go.
So I want to be clear that, asthe scripture says that the
human heart is the mostdeceitful thing.
We still have to treat thehuman heart with the respect
that it deserves by saying that,so long as its posture is
focused on Jesus.
Now, when we talk about thehuman heart, we think of that
cute little right, that's notwhat it is.
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It's an organ inside of ourbody and, because our bodies
feel a certain way, we thinkthat's what our heart is telling
us.
That is not true.
Those are emotions, right,those are emotions.
Can I tell you something aboutemotions?
Emotions don't always need tobe resolved, they just need to
be felt.
Amen.
(08:42):
Just because I'm emotional aboutsomething doesn't mean I have
to fix it.
I need to feel it, take it forwhat it is and I need to move on
with my day.
I need to be able to look atGod and say I know that you've
got this, lord, and my heart isburdened.
I'm feeling heavy with this,but I know that you are going to
turn this into something great.
Amen.
That is good heart posture.
(09:04):
If you feel emotion and somebodysays something to you and you
don't like the way they say itand you're like you know what?
I'll fist fight you.
Right now, stephanie and she'sshaking her head, yes, because
she knows, it's true, that'sprobably not healthy heart
posture, right?
And so you have to come backand say God, what is it that I'm
doing that you want to changein my life?
Now the problem is is this iswhen God is going to speak to
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you and you're going to want toignore it, Right, because this
is when God is going to.
I asked the Lord, I sought theLord, and he heard and he
answered, but what he told me Ididn't like.
So I'm going to ignore it whenGod says remove yourself from
such a place, take yourself outof that.
And, steph, I'm going to useyou as an example this morning,
(09:50):
just as I'm rolling.
It's working okay.
Stephanie just left a job.
It was her first job, wasn't it?
It was her very first job.
How long did you work there?
Just shy of seven years.
She worked there for sevenyears, Her very first job ever.
That's impressive.
How many young people do youknow that have kept a job for
seven years?
Very few.
(10:12):
Stephanie is the only one thatI know For seven years.
That's a long time.
And finally, god said it's timeto go and he pulled her from
that place and planted her in aplace that is better for her
emotionally, spiritually,financially, maybe not
physically because she'soperating a saw.
(10:33):
Might lose a finger.
Your arm says otherwise, okay,so we're not going to use
physically.
So you're still doing good.
You got 10 digits, you canstill wave, right, you count to
10 on your fingers.
God did not do that by accident.
None of that was by accident,because when you seek the Lord
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and he answers, he will tell youwhat to do.
Sometimes you don't like it.
Stephanie, did you like thattransition?
Not at all.
I remember, as a matter of fact, that you stood here and cried
when you were telling me thatyou were going to have to leave
your job.
You know what you're afraid ofwhen you make big choices like
that Losing friends, losingfavor.
Let me tell you somethingYou're not losing friends,
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you're not losing favor.
You're gaining friends andgaining favor.
Right, and we have to changethe way we look at it, because
we're allowing our emotions todescribe and to dictate how our
lives operate.
Now I have made plenty ofemotions, or plenty of decisions
based on emotion solely, andalmost immediately regret it
(11:35):
once those things have come totake place.
Right, you say something tosomebody that you think might be
helpful, or you say somethingto somebody that might even not
be helpful, and you say itthinking well, what does it
matter?
And pretty quickly it comesback to bite you and you realize
, man, I should have never donethat.
I probably should have soughtGod and asked what is it that
(11:56):
you would have me do?
See, feelings are powerful andGod created all of us with
feelings Amen.
Now, I have less feelings thanmost people, but I do have
feelings.
It might be a single feeling.
It's pretty hard to hurt.
I don't get emotional.
I'm a fairly logical person.
But God created us with emotionsand because they are powerful,
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oftentimes we think that theywere meant to navigate morality,
right?
So when somebody says or doessomething to us that hurts our
flesh, we think that that helpsus to navigate.
Well then, that person is a badperson, right?
When they do something that isinherently wrong, that person is
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a bad person.
Our morality should not bedictated by feelings.
Our morality should be shapedby the word of God, right?
So here's the thing.
This is one of the things Ithink about often People who
don't believe in the Bible, whobelieve that the whole ministry
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of Jesus Christ is made up andthat God doesn't exist I have to
often ask where does your moralcompass start?
What do you decide is good?
What do you decide is bad?
Right, can we all agree thatmurder is bad?
Right, okay, I'm the only onegoing to put my hand up, though,
right, everybody else is like,no, we're good, we're cool with
(13:25):
that.
My question is somebody whodoesn't believe in God also
typically believes that murderis bad.
How do we find out that murderis bad?
Well, no, okay, that you wentto like zero to 10, real quick,
joe.
He says step in front of a gun.
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That's not what I meant.
I don't recommend that foranybody.
Let me be clear.
I'm not condoning that.
Thou shalt not kill.
It's one of the 10 commandments.
Now, if you don't believe in Godand you don't believe in the
Bible, how can you decide thatthat is morally correct?
(14:06):
Right, let me tell you how.
Because the Word of God ismorally correct, and even if you
don't believe in God, youbelieve in the Word of God to
some degree.
It's hard to convince people ofthat, and I don't try anymore.
What I do is I ask questionsand allow them to realize oh no,
I agree with him.
Because that's a scary thoughtfor them, because they look at
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me as maybe radicalized orsomebody who only wants to use
the word of God to convincepeople that they should be
different in life.
I don't want the word of God todo that.
I want that to be a naturalemotion from having a
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Okay, today we're going to lookat a story.
This is I want to tell you thatwhen I wrote this message, it
(14:51):
was not entirely mine PastorJohn Stevenson from Bethel
Worship many of you know him.
He shared a quote with me thatI just thought was mind-blowing
and I thought I have to write amessage about that, and that's
exactly what I did.
And so we're going to start ina story that will be a story
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that we all know.
We're going to talk about Jacoband Esau.
Everybody knows who Jacob andEsau are.
Right, we're going to read itso you don't have to know all of
it, but we're going to focus onhow Isaac was deceived by Jacob
.
Okay, so if you have your Bibles, we're gonna start in Genesis
27.
We're gonna start at chapterone Genesis 27, chapter one.
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Genesis 27, chapter one.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Yes, verse one.
I'm sorry.
Chapter 27, verse one.
Thank you, everybody there.
I still hear Bibles.
Oh, it's Adeline's Bible isflipping.
She's got to follow along.
She likes to highlight in herBible.
She can't read, but she followsalong better than some adults
do, huh?
It says one day, when Isaac wasold and turning blind, he called
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for Esau, his older son, andsaid my son, yes, father.
Esau replied I am an old mannow.
Isaac said, and I don't knowwhen I may die, take your bow
and quiver full of arrows and goout into the open country and
hunt some wild game for me,prepare my favorite dish and
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bring it here for me to eat.
Then I will pronounce theblessing that belongs to you, my
firstborn son, before I die.
I liken this to giving yourinheritance right, to passing
along that inheritance.
You know, maybe my parents aregoing to leave me with junk is
what they're going to leave.
My mom has so much stuff.
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But the trick is, the rule is,when something happens to my
parents, I have to first, beforeI do anything, go through all
of my mom's coat pockets andpurses, because she stashes
money in them and then sheforgets about it.
She said don't sell anythingwithout opening it first.
That's what she told me, but Ialways joke that my mom is going
to leave me with all of thisstuff.
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They aren't going to leave mewith money.
They're going to enjoy theirmoney.
Right, I'm okay with that.
I want them to.
They've worked hard all theirlife.
But in this case he's saying goand do this for me and when you
return I will give you theblessing that is due to you.
My first son.
But Rebekah overheard.
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Now Rebekah is Isaac's wife,but Rebekah overheard what Isaac
had said to her son, esau.
Esau is the older of the twoboys.
So when Esau left to hunt thewild game, she said to her son,
jacob, the second son, listen, Ioverheard your father say to
Esau bring me some wild game andprepare me a delicious meal,
then I will bless you in theLord's presence before I die.
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Now, this is where it gets fun.
She says now, my son, listen tome, do exactly as I tell you.
Go out to the flock and bringme two fine young goats and I
will prepare your father'sfavorite dish.
Then take the food to yourfather so he can eat it and
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bless you before he dies.
Now what just happened?
They have decided that they aregoing to deceive Isaac.
Right, they have decided thatEsau is not worthy of said
blessing and they are going tomanipulate the situation for
their gain.
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Then take the food to yourfather so he can eat it and
bless you before he dies.
But look, jacob, replied toRebecca.
My brother, esau, is a hairyman and my skin is smooth.
What if my father touches me?
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He'll see that I'm trying totrick him and he'll curse me
instead of blessing me.
Now they're thinking thisthrough.
This is premeditated, right?
This isn't just like oh, ithappened and we let it happen.
This is premeditation.
But his mother replied then letthe curse fall on me.
My son, just do what I tell you.
Go out and get the goats for me.
So Jacob went out and got theyoung goats for his mother.
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Rebecca took them and prepareda delicious meal, just the way
Isaac liked it.
Then she took Esau's favoriteclothes, which were in the house
, and gave them to her youngerson, jacob.
She covered his arms and thesmooth part of his.
Can we all just agreeably say,ew, right, that seems kind of
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nasty, but all in the name of agood blessing, right, amen, amen
.
Then she gave Jacob thedelicious meal, including the
freshly baked bread.
So Jacob took the food to hisfather, my father.
He said yes, my son.
Isaac answered who are you, esauor Jacob?
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Now remind you he is almostblind at this point, right?
Jacob replied it's Esau, yourfirstborn son.
I've done as you've told me.
Here is the wild game.
Now sit up and eat so you cangive me your blessing.
And Isaac asked how did youfind it so quickly?
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My son, the Lord, your God, putit in my path.
Jacob replied oh, this ain't.
This is not good.
This is not good.
Then Isaac said to Jacob comecloser so I can touch you and
make sure that you are reallyEsau.
So Jacob went closer and hisfather, isaac, touched him.
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The voice is Jacob's, but thehands are Esau's, isaac said.
But he did not recognize Jacobbecause Jacob's hands felt hairy
, just like Esau's.
So Isaac prepared to blessJacob.
But are you really my son, esau?
He asked yes, I am Jacobreplied.
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Then Isaac said now, my son,bring me the wild game, let me
eat it, and then I will give youmy blessing.
So Jacob took the food to hisfather and Isaac ate it.
He also drank the wine thatJacob served him.
Then Isaac said to Jacob pleasecome a little closer and kiss
me, my son.
So Jacob went over and kissedhim, and when Isaac caught the
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smell of his clothes, he wasfinally convinced and he blessed
his son.
He said ah, the smell of my sonis like the smell of the
outdoors, which the Lord hasblessed, from the dew of heaven
to the richness of the earth.
May God always give youabundant harvests of grain and
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bountiful new wine.
May many nations become yourservants and may they bow down
to you.
May you be the master over yourbrothers and may your mother's
sons bow down to you.
All who curse you will becursed, and all who bless you
will be blessed.
That was a lot of scripture.
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To make a simple point, thisentire chapter unfolds to show
us that we can't always trustour feelings.
Amen.
Now we're talking about aphysical touch.
Right Now, if you blindfoldedme and each of you walked up to
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me, I would have no idea who youwere.
Why is that?
Because I don't touch you.
I don't walk around feelingyour faces, right.
So when you take that senseaway from me, I know what Ashley
looks like.
Now, if she was ever in apolice lineup, I wouldn't be
able to describe her, because mybrain doesn't work that way,
right.
But I know what she looks likeand I would be able to spot her
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in the distance.
But Isaac is blind and he has noway of knowing other than
through touch, and he feels thehairy hands and he smells the
clothes, and so he continues topour out the blessing upon his
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second oldest.
What's interesting is that Godhad already called that to be.
In Genesis 25, he speaks thatinto existence amen.
How many of us remember that?
Let's jump there real quick.
What is it?
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It's Genesis 25, 23.
Now this is as they're beingborn, and the Lord told her the
sons in your womb will becometwo nations From the very
beginning.
The two nations will be rivals.
One nation will be strongerthan the other, and your older
son will serve your younger son,isaac, nearly blind in physical
(24:16):
, but more blind in spiritual.
And I say that because whenJacob disguised himself as Esau
and provided the food, isaacnever went back to the Lord and
asked about this blessing.
He spoke the blessing withoutconsulting God, amen.
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And so Jacob was able to stealthe blessing from Esau.
Now that didn't end well forJacob.
Amen.
What happened to Jacob?
He was exiled.
He had to leave.
He was never able to see hismother again.
He had to leave his homeland.
Can you imagine being so blindto what God would have for your
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life that you steal or robbecause your feelings or your
emotions tell you that this iswhat's correct or this is what
is good?
Can I tell you that feelingscan be manipulated?
See our emotions.
They run rampant all day, everyday, right, you know?
(25:22):
Have you ever woke up and youthink of a person that you
really can't stand and you'relike man, I really don't like
that person.
Tyler, that was too quick, yeah.
And then you run into thatperson and you're like now, god,
why did you wake me up withthat person on my mind and then
make me see them in Walmart,right?
And now you're like now, god,why did you wake me up with that
person on my mind and then makeme see them in Walmart, right?
(25:42):
And now you're upset becauseyou're saying God, what are you
doing?
Can I tell you that God istrying to soften your heart, for
whatever reason, whateveryou're holding on to, that
unforgiveness, that disdain,that hurt, whatever it is, that
is the poison that is derivingyour life.
And God says if you want what'sbest, you have to lay it at the
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foot of the cross.
He's calling you to give itback, to give it up.
I'm telling you, the emotion istoo heavy to carry.
Sometimes we like the emotion,though, right, we like the fight
.
Sometimes we fight for the sakeof fighting, argue for the sake
of arguing.
I want to get a t-shirt thatsaid arguing with me is
pointless.
I knew 10 minutes ago I waswrong.
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I'm just trying to make you mad.
That's one of my favoritethings to do with my wife.
She's way smarter than me.
She's almost always right, butsometimes I just like to see how
mad I can get her Right.
Ashley's saying she would fistfight me if she were.
My point is sometimes we'relike that.
Sometimes the emotion is whatwe want to hold on to, because
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the emotion is what drives us.
It's what drives the flesh.
How great would your life be ifyou could just sit and bask in
the glory of God, saying thateverything that comes your way
is God's problem and not yours.
Your way is God's problem andnot yours.
There is nothing in your lifethat you will be able to resolve
(27:08):
better or faster than God will.
Nothing in your life.
You got the hiccups.
Pray about it.
You think I'm kidding I ain't.
You can drink water upside downall day long, you can hold your
breath, you can have somebodyscare you, you can do all of the
things.
But I'm telling you, god isgood, right, my thing is it
sounds silly and I know it does,but I don't do anything without
(27:31):
asking God for it and sometimes, when I do that, I regret it
real quick.
You ever said something tosomebody that you know you
probably shouldn't say, shareinformation, you maybe shouldn't
share, and you're like probablyshouldn't have done that, right
, thank you Jesus.
Thank you, jesus.
Cover that in the blood,because I'm going to pay for it
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later.
Give me grace and mercy, amen.
The problem is we treat graceand mercy as a license to do
whatever we want, right?
See, we think that we can allowemotion to drive us and that we
can just keep coming back andtrying to resolve.
(28:12):
Listen, when we are covered inthe blood, we should be
separating ourselves from thesinful nature of the flesh.
I'm not saying you won't fallshort of the glory of God, but
when you are willingly choosingto live outside of the glory of
God.
That's the problem.
You allow your emotions todictate how you live your life.
I, again, am not an emotionalcreature.
(28:33):
I don't often get emotional,and I'm happy with that, because
I feel like if I do get tooemotional, I can't see clearly
what God is trying to do in mylife, right?
And so when I have there's oneparticular person in the church
who gives me a hard time aboutthe gym project, and I always
think to myself every time theyopen their mouth, I think God
(28:56):
treat this person like you didthe lion when Daniel was in the
lion's den and just shut itsmouth.
Because here's the reason I sayit when we get that emotion and
we disagree with somebody onsomething and we feel like we
constantly have to talk about it, what are we trying to do?
We're trying to poison thepeople around us.
We're trying to allow ouremotions to determine what the
(29:17):
rest of the world should thinkabout something or someone.
I don't need you to tell peoplewhat to think about me.
I need God to do that.
I don't need you to tell mewhat to think about one another.
I need God to do that.
Listen, you will always havegrace in my presence, because
that's what I allow God.
I have grace in God's presence,and so I want you to have that
(29:39):
same feeling in my presence.
Amen, I'm going to tell youMarcus isn't here.
So I want you to have that samefeeling in my presence.
Amen, I'm going to tell youMarcus isn't here so I can tell
this story.
Hopefully he listens to thismessage because it was fun.
So anybody who knows me knowsthat there's a three to five
business day turnaround on atext message.
Sorry, I love you guys, but ifyou text me while I'm at work, I
probably am not going to see it, right.
(30:00):
And so he sends me a text thathe wasn't going to be here today
.
He was blessed enough to gettickets to take the boys to a
drag race in Sandusky I think Isthat the drag races Norwalk.
So he was blessed to be able totake the boys to those races.
So he texted me and told me hewasn't going to be here.
I was driving when he texted me.
I didn't respond, and then Ihad asked him to come and help
(30:23):
me with a project at the church.
But when I got to the churchthe project was already done,
thanks to Pastor Roger.
So I texted him and said, hey,never mind on that, it's already
finished, all right.
So now what's happening to youremotions, right, I've ignored
you and I'm telling you youdon't have to come and help.
You're starting to feel alittle bit left out.
You're starting to feel likemaybe Pastor Michael's mad at
(30:43):
you, right?
So that's how he started tofeel.
Well, jenny was at my houseyesterday morning and she
mentioned it and I'm like, oh,so I sent him a text.
No, well, he didn't answerright away, but I sent him a
text, said hey, boo, boo, bear,jenny says you're missing me.
And I just went on and it wasobviously a joke and I realized
(31:10):
that it's very easy for ouremotions to get the best of us,
to think that somebody is upsetwith us or doesn't like us or is
mad at us because of somethingso simple.
Now, what bothers me is thatwhen people do that to me, I
don't know how to.
How do you fix it right?
I can't sometimes.
Oh, real quick, I'm gonna pause.
It's really random.
(31:30):
Today's, vicky Hickey's birthday.
What are you 21 now?
21?
, 22?
, 22?
Yeah, okay, you're looking goodfor 22.
Looking good.
And listen, not all of you getthat from me, but let me tell
you a little secret.
The reason that Vicki Hickey Ilove her so very much is there
are few people in the church wholiterally were here before and
(31:54):
have seen me through, and shetexts me regularly to tell me
that she loves me and she'sthankful for me.
It's just a blessing.
It's a blessing to have youhere.
We miss you when you're not.
So, happy birthday.
I would get you a cake, but thenI would have to eat part.
She says no, but then I wouldhave to eat part of it.
And well, yeah, she says eatall of it.
(32:15):
Hey, I'm okay with that.
What was I saying before that?
Can anybody bring me back?
Oh, marcus, so it's hard whenpeople feel that way about me,
when they think that I'm upsetwith them.
Here's my wife's rule If he'signored you, chances are he's
not mad at you, because if he'smad at you, he'll tell you.
You're gonna know he's notgonna hold it back.
(32:35):
And listen.
There's plenty of you that I'vesent text messages to or called
and said, hey, listen, not okaywith that or not happy with
that, or hey, we need to talkabout this.
And it's never because I'mupset, but because we need
clarification, right, becausethat emotion of being angry or
upset or hurt.
I told you guys weeks ago I'mletting all that go.
I'm going to be debt-free whenit comes to emotions.
(32:55):
I don't need to carry thatweight because it does me no
good and it doesn't do any ofyou any good.
Sometimes you think it does,but I promise you it doesn't.
Feelings can be manipulated.
Rebecca and Jacob intentionallymanipulated Isaac's feelings to
get what they wanted.
Jacob willingly disguisedhimself to feel like Esau.
He knew that his father wouldwant proof.
(33:18):
He knew that his father wouldwant proof, so he willingly
disguised himself to feel likeEsau.
The food tasted like Esau'shunting.
Now there's only one personthat could pull that off, and
that would be Rebecca.
Right, my wife probably knowswhat I like to eat better than I
know what I like to eat.
We go to a restaurant and Itell her what I'm going to get.
She's like really, you don'tlike that.
That's a fair statement.
(33:40):
I was telling some people thismorning I also can't eat steak
when I'm with my wife because Ichoke on it.
She laughs at me, tells me toknock it off.
Real life story, folks.
It's not funny.
I thought I was going to dieand she was telling me to knock
it off.
It's for real.
It is kind of funny, it is.
It's okay, I'm going to tellthe story anyway.
(34:05):
So we had gone to that newsteakhouse in Philly yeah, it's
a real fancy one.
And we go there and I order asteak and I take a bite.
Now again, this is, I'm picky.
I'm a picky eater, so she knowsthat.
So I take I'm probably twobites in on this steak and I
start coughing and gagging andshe's swatting at me, telling me
to knock it off.
Now I'm legitimately choking atthis point, all right, and she
(34:28):
thinks that I'm being ridiculousand that I don't like the taste
of the steak.
So I have to grab the napkin,put it around my mouth, pull the
steak out with my fingers sothat I can breathe again.
And I finally tell her I wasactually choking and she's like
oh, I thought you were justbeing dramatic.
So now, whenever we go out fordinner and we get a steak,
(34:50):
emmett always says don't choke,dad, and Alyssa always asks if
she needs to cut it for me.
It's not funny folks, it'sridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
It really is.
The smell of Isaac's clothesbrought back emotional memories,
(35:10):
the feelings of what he thoughthe was feeling was easily
manipulated.
As he's touching Jacob's hand,thinking that it's Esau, as he's
smelling what he assumes isEsau standing next to him.
He knows that there is anemotional attachment oh, your
clothes that smell like thewilderness.
He's reliving memories with hisson, esau.
(35:31):
Those emotions are easilymanipulated.
I just watched a documentarythat teaches that our emotions
are easily manipulated when itcomes to shopping.
It's true, it's very true, andthis documentary was fantastic
because it taught that we aretaught to consume more and more.
Every day.
Everything is throw away, likethey glue the backs of your
(35:52):
phones on now so you can'treplace parts inside of your
phone, you just have to throw itaway and get a new one.
That's crazy, right, but do wesee it happening every day?
No, it's not.
Until the world looks likeWALL-E maybe you've seen WALL-E
that we know we've got a problem.
Our emotions are easilymanipulated by the things we see
in the world.
The world does not want you tofind Jesus.
(36:14):
The world buries Jesus at thebottom of the stack because if
you find Jesus, you becomecontent in the spirit, and being
content in the spirit will makeyou become content in the flesh
, because your flesh has nodesire anymore.
Your body has overcome yourspirit, has overcome the flesh.
(36:35):
Satan is a master manipulator.
He wants to distort how youfeel so that you can
misinterpret what is true.
Amen.
He wants to manipulate how youfeel so that you will
misinterpret what is true.
(36:58):
Isaac blessed the wrong sonbecause he didn't consult God.
He trusted his senses.
God has spoken the truth, butIsaac let his son, esau, cloud
his discernment.
He felt Esau's I'm sorry.
He felt Esau deserved theblessing but ignored what God
(37:19):
had already called him to do.
He should have blessed Jacob inthe first place, but he allowed
his emotion, his attachment toEsau, to tell him to bless Esau
and in turn, jacob steals theblessing and becomes banished.
Now he knows that Jacob isgoing to be a great leader and
(37:49):
yet he chose, because of hisemotions, a desire to bless Esau
instead.
Again, jacob did receive theblessing, but at a high cost.
He had to flee home, never tosee his mother again.
He had a pattern of deceit setin his life.
He would be deceived by Laban.
Later on, esau was enraged andthreatened to kill him.
That's called prison time rightIn life.
(38:10):
Now, when you threaten to killsomebody, when we let our
feelings rule our lives, theresult is not peace, it is
confusion, it is brokenness, itis hate, it is disdain.
Proverbs 24 says there is a pathbefore each person that seems
right, but it ends in death.
(38:33):
What seems right emotionally isnot always spiritually safe.
Do you hear me, amen?
What seems right emotionallymay not always be spiritually
safe.
Now, my question today is howdo we guard against the deceit
of our feelings?
And this is a simple response.
(38:54):
You should be testing everyemotion against the word of God.
Amen.
Because if this is your moralcompass, like it should be,
every emotion should be testedagainst the word of God.
Psalms 119, 105 says your wordis a lamp to guide my feet and a
(39:16):
light for my path.
If you are making decisionswithout first consulting God,
you are doing yourself adisservice, because God wants to
be part of that decision.
Now you're gonna screw somestuff up in life.
He is going to take that andturn it for good, amen.
But I will tell you that thepath, if followed by the word of
(39:38):
God, will be much shorter andmuch easier to live by.
It's not going to feel chaotic.
How many of you live chaoticlives?
How many of you hate chaoticlives, right?
I don't know many of us thatlive in chaos and love it.
I thrive in it.
In the workplace.
I love the challenge of a newacquisition, or whatever the
case may be, but there is stillsomething about it that says you
(40:00):
know, if I could just get upand work a nine to five, monday
through Friday, that paid goodmoney, I'd be content.
Right 10, right.
God has called me to somethinggreater.
I just have to be willing tofight the chaos with the word of
God Every day.
You should be submitting yourheart.
Search me, oh God, and knowthat my heart and know my heart.
(40:23):
Test me and know my anxiousthoughts Psalms 139, 23.
Search me, oh God, and know myheart.
Test me and know my anxiousthoughts.
Psalms 139, 23.
Search me, o God, and know myheart.
Test me and know my anxiousthoughts.
I don't want anxious thoughtsfor any of you, because anxiety
inside of your life drivesfeelings and emotions that are
not in line with what God wouldhave you do every day.
(40:45):
Seek godly counsel.
Surround yourself with maturebelievers who help you discern
the truth.
What does that mean?
There are some young Christianswho are still being raised up
and they think that they shouldgo and give advice to people who
they have no right to giveadvice to.
(41:06):
Frankly, right Sometimes.
That's not based on age.
We're not talking aboutphysical age.
We're talking about how longyou've been a Christian, how
long you've been serving God,how long you've understood what
God is speaking into your life.
And so when people come to me,I talk to Pastor Holly and I
talk all the time and she'll askme for interpretations of
(41:27):
dreams and things like that.
I'm not older than her, she ismuch more mature.
She's been in ministry farlonger.
She's probably been in ministrylonger than I've been alive and
God bless her for that.
But she also knows thatsometimes we have to ask those
questions, right?
But then there are some peoplewho are six years old, thinking
in the Lord, thinking that theycan give advice to somebody
(41:47):
who's 50 years old, in the Lord,in the Lord, thinking that they
can give advice to somebodywho's 50 years old in the Lord.
You don't even understand whatGod has done in their lives,
right?
You also can't seek out advicefrom young Christians who don't
understand.
The Bible tells us to go to theelders, right?
It doesn't tell us to go to theperson that just walked into
church for the first time.
(42:07):
Why?
Because chances are they aren'tgoing to give you godly advice.
They're going to give youworldly advice, fleshly advice.
Listen, it may sound good, youremotions, it'll make you feel
good, but it will not bespiritually in line with what
God wants in your life today.
It will not be.
And I'm not saying you have tocome to me.
(42:28):
Sometimes I don't want you to,okay, but I want you to know
that I love you enough to tellyou the truth.
When you do.
We'll have hard conversations.
We'll look at each other andsay I don't like what you just
said and I'm going to say Idon't need you to like it.
I need you to know that itsfoundation is in the word, that
(42:50):
its foundation is in the wordAmen.
The story of Jacob and Isaac isnot just a lesson about
deception.
It's a warning about how easilywe can be misled when we trust
our feelings over the facts.
Right, we trust our feelingsover the facts, right.
(43:10):
We cannot always worry abouthow we're feeling.
Emotions don't always need tobe resolved.
They just need to be felt.
Just because I'm emotionalabout it doesn't mean I have to
have a solution for it.
It means I need to feel it andI need to move on with my life.
I'm feeling anxious about thisnew job.
(43:31):
Lord, I'm laying this down atyour feet.
Stephanie did all of the rightthings when she was feeling
anxious.
She talked to all the rightpeople.
I stood here was it last Sunday?
We prayed together, steph, orwas it the Sunday before Last
Sunday?
And I said we're going to prayright now and I just wrapped my
arm around her and we justprayed that God was going to
continue to give her favor inthis new phase of life.
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I believe that God heard that.
I believe that we sought theLord and he heard and he
answered.
Now here's my favorite part ofthat story, and it's the perfect
way to button up this message.
She goes to the place that she'sgoing to work at, which happens
to be Provia.
How many of you know aboutProvia?
Heard of it?
(44:13):
Been there, maybe worked thereat one point.
It is a faith-basedorganization.
So she goes in and she sitsdown for her training, for her
orientation, and she sends atext to the young adult group
and says dude, they're playingChristian music in here.
Yeah, I know right, because Godwas saying you can't remain
(44:35):
where you don't have favor.
He's saying I'm pulling youfrom that place to put you in a
place that is better suited foryour spiritual growth, not just
your financial and physicalright.
God is not going to allow youto live somewhere that is not
good for you.
He's going to continue to pullyou out and place you in new
places.
Sometimes it takes a while.
(44:56):
Sometimes it requires you tostep out in faith and say I know
God is going to do somethinggood for me.
Trust me, we're going tocelebrate your win and we're
going to pray through whateverit is that you're working on.
Lord, let your perfect will bedone in this situation.
I know that you've gotsomething greater.
You will not leave us norforsake us.
Amen.
(45:16):
Your emotions cannot keep youwhere you are.
Let go of the emotion.
Feel it.
Let it go.
Lay it at the foot of the cross.
Move on and allow God to workin your life today.
Amen, the foot of the cross.
Move on and allow God to workin your life today.
Amen.
Let's pray together.
Father, I thank you and I praiseyou for an amazing move of the
(45:40):
Spirit today.
Lord, I pray that your wordcomes alive in the lives of the
people who are sitting here andin the lives of anybody who may
listen to this message in thefuture.
Lord, I pray that you bless themabundantly in the future.
Lord, I pray that you bless themabundantly.
Allow us to seek your face inall things.
Allow us to desire your hand inour lives, father, that we
(46:01):
would lay the emotions down atthe foot of the cross and we
would pick up the facts.
We would pick up the word, wewould lean on it, we would
believe in it and we would callup the word.
We would lean on it, we wouldbelieve in it and we would call
it the truth, so that ouremotions cannot be manipulated
by the world any longer, thatthe enemy will have no
strongholds in our feelings.
That, lord, we will continue tothrive in the presence of the
(46:23):
Almighty.
Lord, bless us as we leave thisplace.
Bring us back at our nextappointed time.
Lord, bless us as we leave thisplace.
Bring us back at our nextappointed time.
Lord, we thank you for theanointing on all of our lives.
Continue to lead us, guide usand direct us In the mighty name
(46:44):
of Jesus.
Amen, love you, guys.
We'll see you on Wednesday.
from worship through music to worshiping through the
word.
I pray that you continue tomove inside of this house, that
you bless the people sitting inthe sanctuary abundantly with
your word, father, that it isdirectly from you and not of me.
Father, god, lord, that youwould soften hearts, prepare
ears, lord, give us a desire tohear the word of God, not just
(00:28):
so that we might hear it, but sothat we may absorb it, so that
we may live it today.
Father, god, change our hearts.
Allow us to leave this placenew and different from how we
came in, lord, different fromhow we came in, Lord.
Make our lives pliable, lord,allow us to adjust our mindset
(00:50):
to be spiritual and not physical.
Lord, I thank you for attentivehearts.
I thank you for attentive minds.
Father, to you be all the glory.
We give you praise and honorthis morning in the mighty name
(01:13):
of Jesus, and the church saysamen, amen, amen.
I have a question for you realquick.
How many of you had a hundredreasons not to come to church
this morning?
Right, you wake up in themorning, especially on Sunday,
and it's so easy to say I've gota hundred things I need to get
done.
Right, the grass needs to bemowed, or you know, I haven't
(01:37):
done laundry all week.
Right, there's always a reason.
Some of us haven't done laundryall month, but there's a reason
.
All of the sudden, on Sunday,we feel like we have to get it
all done.
Right, there's always a reasonto not be in church on Sunday,
and it's always interesting tome because that feeling will
sometimes override our logic,because we know we need to be
(01:57):
here.
Right, Our brain knows we needto be here, but our logic, our
feelings, our emotions tell usthat we don't.
Now I have another question whyis it that we come to church
and then we talk through worship, right, you finally get the
desire to be in the house.
You wake up feeling like, okay,I'm going to go to church today
, and then we talk throughworship.
(02:18):
We talk through music ministry,right, or we're chit-chatting
with the people sitting next tous during the message.
I wonder every day, why do we dothat?
And I personally think it'sbecause we haven't prayed our
way into church for the day.
Right, we get up in the morningand we want to go put a check
in the box.
There's a soft spot in thefloor right here, roger, and I'm
telling you now, because I'mgoing to go through it,
(02:41):
especially if I keep jumping onit like this.
If I keep doing this, I'mdefinitely going to go through
it.
Yeah, right, no kidding.
Yeah, because that'll bedangerous for me.
Yeah, we won't, we won't, no,here's what we'll do when I fall
through it.
We'll just blame Roger Deal.
Here's what I think happens.
I think we get up on Sundaymorning and we want to put a
(03:01):
check in the box and say we wentto church.
Right, I got to go to churchthis week.
I got up and I went to church,but the problem is is we don't
come in prepared for what God ispreparing to do in our lives.
So when I say, pray your wayinto church, when I get here on
Sunday mornings, usually I'm thefirst one in, if not the first
one, fairly close to the firstone, and the first thing that I
(03:23):
do is drop all of my stuff offand then I walk through the
sanctuary and I pray over all ofthe chairs and then I just take
time for myself.
I don't get to worship the sameway everybody else does on
Sunday morning, because usuallyI'm helping in the tech booth,
directing, making adjustments onthe fly as things change.
But what I know is that I haveto find that time for myself.
Otherwise I step into thepulpit unprepared for what God
(03:46):
is wanting to do Amen.
And so I spend that timeintentionally preparing my heart
and my mind for what God isgoing to do in this place.
I would suspect many of youdon't do that same thing.
You just show up and you sit inthe seat and you expect well,
god will just take care of that.
But all the while you'rethinking about what you've got
to do after church, right Right,how many of you are already
(04:08):
thinking about lunch right now?
It's a fair statement, like I'mnot saying, like I didn't eat
breakfast this morning.
So I'm already thinking aboutwhat am I going to have for
lunch today.
But I can't let that emotion,that feeling, override what the
Holy Spirit wants to do in mylife today, right Now.
Sometimes when I come in andpreach, he wrecks my lives and
you guys leave and you're like Ididn't get anything out of that
(04:28):
.
It's not always for you guys.
It's not always for youindividually.
Sometimes what God is doing isfor somebody else, but your
inability to pay attention towhat God is doing makes it hard
for other people to absorb that.
Now, we shouldn't be concernedwith what other people are doing
.
Right, we try to set thatatmosphere by keeping the lights
low and doing all of the things.
The problem is is you can'thelp it.
(04:49):
Right?
When I was praying and all ofthose babies were crying, how
many of you noticed?
Right, it's easy to hear it,but I don't have to focus on
that.
I still center myself on whatGod is doing in that moment.
Right, those distractions can'tbe how we identify ourselves
with ministry.
We can't always worry.
Well, I can't go to church onSunday morning because I don't
(05:11):
want to listen to those babiescry.
Right, if you're a lady,chances are your husband's going
to cry or at least whine athome.
Right?
What's for lunch?
I'm hungry?
Right?
What Garden needs water?
Exactly, that's what I'm saying, like, we've always got
(05:31):
something.
My point is is that we have tomake decisions based on logic
and not emotion.
I want to start with a passageof scripture that is not going
to be incredibly popular, but Ijust need you guys to ride with
me for a second.
And I also want to point outthe one song that we sang this
morning had the line that says Isought the Lord and he heard
and he answered.
And I want to point out that itdoes not say that I sought the
(05:53):
Lord and he told me what Iwanted to hear.
I sought the Lord, he heard andhe answered.
Right, we don't always thinkabout that that way.
I sought the Lord and he didn'ttell me what I wanted to hear,
so I'm not listening to the Lord.
Amen, amen, all right.
Here's the first passage ofscripture, jeremiah 17, 9.
(06:13):
It says the human heart is themost deceitful of all things and
desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is?
And I started with that becauseI want to talk about this first
.
Oftentimes, we talk about heartposture, right, and your heart
posture has to be right in orderto observe the word or in order
(06:34):
to absorb the word.
The human heart is the mostdeceitful of all things.
So this seems counterintuitive,right, but it's not.
What I'm saying to you is thatwhen your heart posture has to
be right, your heart has to befocused on the right things,
which is being in relationshipwith Jesus Christ.
It cannot be focused onwhatever it is that the world is
(06:55):
doing around you.
Heartbreak is real and ithappens every day.
The problem is is.
That is the flesh and not thespirit.
God is not actively working tobreak your heart.
God is actively working to mendyour heart.
He is pursuing your heart.
He desires to be inrelationship with you so that he
can mend said broken heart.
(07:16):
Amen.
Now, broken hearts come in a lotof ways.
It comes from death, it comesfrom the end of a relationship,
it comes from watching yourchildren grow up.
Broken hearts aren't always abad thing.
It's a change of life, right,like when you realize that
you're too old to do certainthings.
You feel that, right, dale, areyou hot?
Buddy, I am sweating to deathup here, but they're telling me
(07:39):
it ain't hot in here.
So, all right, I'm just saying.
I'm just saying the room issplit on the temperature of the
room.
All right, maybe we need to getdual air conditioners.
The hot people sit on one side,the cold people sit on the
other.
I don't know.
You got it.
Do you have a little fan backthere here?
I'm going to turn this overhere to me.
We're going to crack that badboy up to two.
(08:00):
There we go.
So I want to be clear that, asthe scripture says that the
human heart is the mostdeceitful thing.
We still have to treat thehuman heart with the respect
that it deserves by saying that,so long as its posture is
focused on Jesus.
Now, when we talk about thehuman heart, we think of that
cute little right, that's notwhat it is.
(08:22):
It's an organ inside of ourbody and, because our bodies
feel a certain way, we thinkthat's what our heart is telling
us.
That is not true.
Those are emotions, right,those are emotions.
Can I tell you something aboutemotions?
Emotions don't always need tobe resolved, they just need to
be felt.
Amen.
(08:42):
Just because I'm emotional aboutsomething doesn't mean I have
to fix it.
I need to feel it, take it forwhat it is and I need to move on
with my day.
I need to be able to look atGod and say I know that you've
got this, lord, and my heart isburdened.
I'm feeling heavy with this,but I know that you are going to
turn this into something great.
Amen.
That is good heart posture.
(09:04):
If you feel emotion and somebodysays something to you and you
don't like the way they say itand you're like you know what?
I'll fist fight you.
Right now, stephanie and she'sshaking her head, yes, because
she knows, it's true, that'sprobably not healthy heart
posture, right?
And so you have to come backand say God, what is it that I'm
doing that you want to changein my life?
Now the problem is is this iswhen God is going to speak to
(09:26):
you and you're going to want toignore it, Right, because this
is when God is going to.
I asked the Lord, I sought theLord, and he heard and he
answered, but what he told me Ididn't like.
So I'm going to ignore it whenGod says remove yourself from
such a place, take yourself outof that.
And, steph, I'm going to useyou as an example this morning,
(09:50):
just as I'm rolling.
It's working okay.
Stephanie just left a job.
It was her first job, wasn't it?
It was her very first job.
How long did you work there?
Just shy of seven years.
She worked there for sevenyears, Her very first job ever.
That's impressive.
How many young people do youknow that have kept a job for
seven years?
Very few.
(10:12):
Stephanie is the only one thatI know For seven years.
That's a long time.
And finally, god said it's timeto go and he pulled her from
that place and planted her in aplace that is better for her
emotionally, spiritually,financially, maybe not
physically because she'soperating a saw.
(10:33):
Might lose a finger.
Your arm says otherwise, okay,so we're not going to use
physically.
So you're still doing good.
You got 10 digits, you canstill wave, right, you count to
10 on your fingers.
God did not do that by accident.
None of that was by accident,because when you seek the Lord
(10:53):
and he answers, he will tell youwhat to do.
Sometimes you don't like it.
Stephanie, did you like thattransition?
Not at all.
I remember, as a matter of fact, that you stood here and cried
when you were telling me thatyou were going to have to leave
your job.
You know what you're afraid ofwhen you make big choices like
that Losing friends, losingfavor.
Let me tell you somethingYou're not losing friends,
(11:15):
you're not losing favor.
You're gaining friends andgaining favor.
Right, and we have to changethe way we look at it, because
we're allowing our emotions todescribe and to dictate how our
lives operate.
Now I have made plenty ofemotions, or plenty of decisions
based on emotion solely, andalmost immediately regret it
(11:35):
once those things have come totake place.
Right, you say something tosomebody that you think might be
helpful, or you say somethingto somebody that might even not
be helpful, and you say itthinking well, what does it
matter?
And pretty quickly it comesback to bite you and you realize
, man, I should have never donethat.
I probably should have soughtGod and asked what is it that
(11:56):
you would have me do?
See, feelings are powerful andGod created all of us with
feelings Amen.
Now, I have less feelings thanmost people, but I do have
feelings.
It might be a single feeling.
It's pretty hard to hurt.
I don't get emotional.
I'm a fairly logical person.
But God created us with emotionsand because they are powerful,
(12:21):
oftentimes we think that theywere meant to navigate morality,
right?
So when somebody says or doessomething to us that hurts our
flesh, we think that that helpsus to navigate.
Well then, that person is a badperson, right?
When they do something that isinherently wrong, that person is
(12:42):
a bad person.
Our morality should not bedictated by feelings.
Our morality should be shapedby the word of God, right?
So here's the thing.
This is one of the things Ithink about often People who
don't believe in the Bible, whobelieve that the whole ministry
(13:04):
of Jesus Christ is made up andthat God doesn't exist I have to
often ask where does your moralcompass start?
What do you decide is good?
What do you decide is bad?
Right, can we all agree thatmurder is bad?
Right, okay, I'm the only onegoing to put my hand up, though,
right, everybody else is like,no, we're good, we're cool with
(13:25):
that.
My question is somebody whodoesn't believe in God also
typically believes that murderis bad.
How do we find out that murderis bad?
Well, no, okay, that you wentto like zero to 10, real quick,
joe.
He says step in front of a gun.
(13:46):
That's not what I meant.
I don't recommend that foranybody.
Let me be clear.
I'm not condoning that.
Thou shalt not kill.
It's one of the 10 commandments.
Now, if you don't believe in Godand you don't believe in the
Bible, how can you decide thatthat is morally correct?
(14:06):
Right, let me tell you how.
Because the Word of God ismorally correct, and even if you
don't believe in God, youbelieve in the Word of God to
some degree.
It's hard to convince people ofthat, and I don't try anymore.
What I do is I ask questionsand allow them to realize oh no,
I agree with him.
Because that's a scary thoughtfor them, because they look at
(14:29):
me as maybe radicalized orsomebody who only wants to use
the word of God to convincepeople that they should be
different in life.
I don't want the word of God todo that.
I want that to be a naturalemotion from having a
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Okay, today we're going to lookat a story.
This is I want to tell you thatwhen I wrote this message, it
(14:51):
was not entirely mine PastorJohn Stevenson from Bethel
Worship many of you know him.
He shared a quote with me thatI just thought was mind-blowing
and I thought I have to write amessage about that, and that's
exactly what I did.
And so we're going to start ina story that will be a story
(15:13):
that we all know.
We're going to talk about Jacoband Esau.
Everybody knows who Jacob andEsau are.
Right, we're going to read itso you don't have to know all of
it, but we're going to focus onhow Isaac was deceived by Jacob
.
Okay, so if you have your Bibles, we're gonna start in Genesis
27.
We're gonna start at chapterone Genesis 27, chapter one.
(15:39):
Genesis 27, chapter one.
Yeah, I'm sorry.
Yes, verse one.
I'm sorry.
Chapter 27, verse one.
Thank you, everybody there.
I still hear Bibles.
Oh, it's Adeline's Bible isflipping.
She's got to follow along.
She likes to highlight in herBible.
She can't read, but she followsalong better than some adults
do, huh?
It says one day, when Isaac wasold and turning blind, he called
(16:03):
for Esau, his older son, andsaid my son, yes, father.
Esau replied I am an old mannow.
Isaac said, and I don't knowwhen I may die, take your bow
and quiver full of arrows and goout into the open country and
hunt some wild game for me,prepare my favorite dish and
(16:28):
bring it here for me to eat.
Then I will pronounce theblessing that belongs to you, my
firstborn son, before I die.
I liken this to giving yourinheritance right, to passing
along that inheritance.
You know, maybe my parents aregoing to leave me with junk is
what they're going to leave.
My mom has so much stuff.
(16:48):
But the trick is, the rule is,when something happens to my
parents, I have to first, beforeI do anything, go through all
of my mom's coat pockets andpurses, because she stashes
money in them and then sheforgets about it.
She said don't sell anythingwithout opening it first.
That's what she told me, but Ialways joke that my mom is going
to leave me with all of thisstuff.
(17:09):
They aren't going to leave mewith money.
They're going to enjoy theirmoney.
Right, I'm okay with that.
I want them to.
They've worked hard all theirlife.
But in this case he's saying goand do this for me and when you
return I will give you theblessing that is due to you.
My first son.
But Rebekah overheard.
(17:35):
Now Rebekah is Isaac's wife,but Rebekah overheard what Isaac
had said to her son, esau.
Esau is the older of the twoboys.
So when Esau left to hunt thewild game, she said to her son,
jacob, the second son, listen, Ioverheard your father say to
Esau bring me some wild game andprepare me a delicious meal,
then I will bless you in theLord's presence before I die.
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Now, this is where it gets fun.
She says now, my son, listen tome, do exactly as I tell you.
Go out to the flock and bringme two fine young goats and I
will prepare your father'sfavorite dish.
Then take the food to yourfather so he can eat it and
(18:21):
bless you before he dies.
Now what just happened?
They have decided that they aregoing to deceive Isaac.
Right, they have decided thatEsau is not worthy of said
blessing and they are going tomanipulate the situation for
their gain.
(18:41):
Then take the food to yourfather so he can eat it and
bless you before he dies.
But look, jacob, replied toRebecca.
My brother, esau, is a hairyman and my skin is smooth.
What if my father touches me?
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He'll see that I'm trying totrick him and he'll curse me
instead of blessing me.
Now they're thinking thisthrough.
This is premeditated, right?
This isn't just like oh, ithappened and we let it happen.
This is premeditation.
But his mother replied then letthe curse fall on me.
My son, just do what I tell you.
Go out and get the goats for me.
So Jacob went out and got theyoung goats for his mother.
(19:25):
Rebecca took them and prepareda delicious meal, just the way
Isaac liked it.
Then she took Esau's favoriteclothes, which were in the house
, and gave them to her youngerson, jacob.
She covered his arms and thesmooth part of his.
Can we all just agreeably say,ew, right, that seems kind of
(19:50):
nasty, but all in the name of agood blessing, right, amen, amen
.
Then she gave Jacob thedelicious meal, including the
freshly baked bread.
So Jacob took the food to hisfather, my father.
He said yes, my son.
Isaac answered who are you, esauor Jacob?
(20:12):
Now remind you he is almostblind at this point, right?
Jacob replied it's Esau, yourfirstborn son.
I've done as you've told me.
Here is the wild game.
Now sit up and eat so you cangive me your blessing.
And Isaac asked how did youfind it so quickly?
(20:33):
My son, the Lord, your God, putit in my path.
Jacob replied oh, this ain't.
This is not good.
This is not good.
Then Isaac said to Jacob comecloser so I can touch you and
make sure that you are reallyEsau.
So Jacob went closer and hisfather, isaac, touched him.
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The voice is Jacob's, but thehands are Esau's, isaac said.
But he did not recognize Jacobbecause Jacob's hands felt hairy
, just like Esau's.
So Isaac prepared to blessJacob.
But are you really my son, esau?
He asked yes, I am Jacobreplied.
(21:17):
Then Isaac said now, my son,bring me the wild game, let me
eat it, and then I will give youmy blessing.
So Jacob took the food to hisfather and Isaac ate it.
He also drank the wine thatJacob served him.
Then Isaac said to Jacob pleasecome a little closer and kiss
me, my son.
So Jacob went over and kissedhim, and when Isaac caught the
(21:41):
smell of his clothes, he wasfinally convinced and he blessed
his son.
He said ah, the smell of my sonis like the smell of the
outdoors, which the Lord hasblessed, from the dew of heaven
to the richness of the earth.
May God always give youabundant harvests of grain and
(22:04):
bountiful new wine.
May many nations become yourservants and may they bow down
to you.
May you be the master over yourbrothers and may your mother's
sons bow down to you.
All who curse you will becursed, and all who bless you
will be blessed.
That was a lot of scripture.
(22:26):
To make a simple point, thisentire chapter unfolds to show
us that we can't always trustour feelings.
Amen.
Now we're talking about aphysical touch.
Right Now, if you blindfoldedme and each of you walked up to
(22:46):
me, I would have no idea who youwere.
Why is that?
Because I don't touch you.
I don't walk around feelingyour faces, right.
So when you take that senseaway from me, I know what Ashley
looks like.
Now, if she was ever in apolice lineup, I wouldn't be
able to describe her, because mybrain doesn't work that way,
right.
But I know what she looks likeand I would be able to spot her
(23:07):
in the distance.
But Isaac is blind and he has noway of knowing other than
through touch, and he feels thehairy hands and he smells the
clothes, and so he continues topour out the blessing upon his
(23:28):
second oldest.
What's interesting is that Godhad already called that to be.
In Genesis 25, he speaks thatinto existence amen.
How many of us remember that?
Let's jump there real quick.
What is it?
(23:48):
It's Genesis 25, 23.
Now this is as they're beingborn, and the Lord told her the
sons in your womb will becometwo nations From the very
beginning.
The two nations will be rivals.
One nation will be strongerthan the other, and your older
son will serve your younger son,isaac, nearly blind in physical
(24:16):
, but more blind in spiritual.
And I say that because whenJacob disguised himself as Esau
and provided the food, isaacnever went back to the Lord and
asked about this blessing.
He spoke the blessing withoutconsulting God, amen.
(24:38):
And so Jacob was able to stealthe blessing from Esau.
Now that didn't end well forJacob.
Amen.
What happened to Jacob?
He was exiled.
He had to leave.
He was never able to see hismother again.
He had to leave his homeland.
Can you imagine being so blindto what God would have for your
(25:01):
life that you steal or robbecause your feelings or your
emotions tell you that this iswhat's correct or this is what
is good?
Can I tell you that feelingscan be manipulated?
See our emotions.
They run rampant all day, everyday, right, you know?
(25:22):
Have you ever woke up and youthink of a person that you
really can't stand and you'relike man, I really don't like
that person.
Tyler, that was too quick, yeah.
And then you run into thatperson and you're like now, god,
why did you wake me up withthat person on my mind and then
make me see them in Walmart,right?
And now you're like now, god,why did you wake me up with that
person on my mind and then makeme see them in Walmart, right?
(25:42):
And now you're upset becauseyou're saying God, what are you
doing?
Can I tell you that God istrying to soften your heart, for
whatever reason, whateveryou're holding on to, that
unforgiveness, that disdain,that hurt, whatever it is, that
is the poison that is derivingyour life.
And God says if you want what'sbest, you have to lay it at the
(26:03):
foot of the cross.
He's calling you to give itback, to give it up.
I'm telling you, the emotion istoo heavy to carry.
Sometimes we like the emotion,though, right, we like the fight
.
Sometimes we fight for the sakeof fighting, argue for the sake
of arguing.
I want to get a t-shirt thatsaid arguing with me is
pointless.
I knew 10 minutes ago I waswrong.
(26:24):
I'm just trying to make you mad.
That's one of my favoritethings to do with my wife.
She's way smarter than me.
She's almost always right, butsometimes I just like to see how
mad I can get her Right.
Ashley's saying she would fistfight me if she were.
My point is sometimes we'relike that.
Sometimes the emotion is whatwe want to hold on to, because
(26:46):
the emotion is what drives us.
It's what drives the flesh.
How great would your life be ifyou could just sit and bask in
the glory of God, saying thateverything that comes your way
is God's problem and not yours.
Your way is God's problem andnot yours.
There is nothing in your lifethat you will be able to resolve
(27:08):
better or faster than God will.
Nothing in your life.
You got the hiccups.
Pray about it.
You think I'm kidding I ain't.
You can drink water upside downall day long, you can hold your
breath, you can have somebodyscare you, you can do all of the
things.
But I'm telling you, god isgood, right, my thing is it
sounds silly and I know it does,but I don't do anything without
(27:31):
asking God for it and sometimes, when I do that, I regret it
real quick.
You ever said something tosomebody that you know you
probably shouldn't say, shareinformation, you maybe shouldn't
share, and you're like probablyshouldn't have done that, right
, thank you Jesus.
Thank you, jesus.
Cover that in the blood,because I'm going to pay for it
(27:52):
later.
Give me grace and mercy, amen.
The problem is we treat graceand mercy as a license to do
whatever we want, right?
See, we think that we can allowemotion to drive us and that we
can just keep coming back andtrying to resolve.
(28:12):
Listen, when we are covered inthe blood, we should be
separating ourselves from thesinful nature of the flesh.
I'm not saying you won't fallshort of the glory of God, but
when you are willingly choosingto live outside of the glory of
God.
That's the problem.
You allow your emotions todictate how you live your life.
I, again, am not an emotionalcreature.
(28:33):
I don't often get emotional,and I'm happy with that, because
I feel like if I do get tooemotional, I can't see clearly
what God is trying to do in mylife, right?
And so when I have there's oneparticular person in the church
who gives me a hard time aboutthe gym project, and I always
think to myself every time theyopen their mouth, I think God
(28:56):
treat this person like you didthe lion when Daniel was in the
lion's den and just shut itsmouth.
Because here's the reason I sayit when we get that emotion and
we disagree with somebody onsomething and we feel like we
constantly have to talk about it, what are we trying to do?
We're trying to poison thepeople around us.
We're trying to allow ouremotions to determine what the
(29:17):
rest of the world should thinkabout something or someone.
I don't need you to tell peoplewhat to think about me.
I need God to do that.
I don't need you to tell mewhat to think about one another.
I need God to do that.
Listen, you will always havegrace in my presence, because
that's what I allow God.
I have grace in God's presence,and so I want you to have that
(29:39):
same feeling in my presence.
Amen, I'm going to tell youMarcus isn't here.
So I want you to have that samefeeling in my presence.
Amen, I'm going to tell youMarcus isn't here so I can tell
this story.
Hopefully he listens to thismessage because it was fun.
So anybody who knows me knowsthat there's a three to five
business day turnaround on atext message.
Sorry, I love you guys, but ifyou text me while I'm at work, I
probably am not going to see it, right.
(30:00):
And so he sends me a text thathe wasn't going to be here today
.
He was blessed enough to gettickets to take the boys to a
drag race in Sandusky I think Isthat the drag races Norwalk.
So he was blessed to be able totake the boys to those races.
So he texted me and told me hewasn't going to be here.
I was driving when he texted me.
I didn't respond, and then Ihad asked him to come and help
(30:23):
me with a project at the church.
But when I got to the churchthe project was already done,
thanks to Pastor Roger.
So I texted him and said, hey,never mind on that, it's already
finished, all right.
So now what's happening to youremotions, right, I've ignored
you and I'm telling you youdon't have to come and help.
You're starting to feel alittle bit left out.
You're starting to feel likemaybe Pastor Michael's mad at
(30:43):
you, right?
So that's how he started tofeel.
Well, jenny was at my houseyesterday morning and she
mentioned it and I'm like, oh,so I sent him a text.
No, well, he didn't answerright away, but I sent him a
text, said hey, boo, boo, bear,jenny says you're missing me.
And I just went on and it wasobviously a joke and I realized
(31:10):
that it's very easy for ouremotions to get the best of us,
to think that somebody is upsetwith us or doesn't like us or is
mad at us because of somethingso simple.
Now, what bothers me is thatwhen people do that to me, I
don't know how to.
How do you fix it right?
I can't sometimes.
Oh, real quick, I'm gonna pause.
It's really random.
(31:30):
Today's, vicky Hickey's birthday.
What are you 21 now?
21?
, 22?
, 22?
Yeah, okay, you're looking goodfor 22.
Looking good.
And listen, not all of you getthat from me, but let me tell
you a little secret.
The reason that Vicki Hickey Ilove her so very much is there
are few people in the church wholiterally were here before and
(31:54):
have seen me through, and shetexts me regularly to tell me
that she loves me and she'sthankful for me.
It's just a blessing.
It's a blessing to have youhere.
We miss you when you're not.
So, happy birthday.
I would get you a cake, but thenI would have to eat part.
She says no, but then I wouldhave to eat part of it.
And well, yeah, she says eatall of it.
(32:15):
Hey, I'm okay with that.
What was I saying before that?
Can anybody bring me back?
Oh, marcus, so it's hard whenpeople feel that way about me,
when they think that I'm upsetwith them.
Here's my wife's rule If he'signored you, chances are he's
not mad at you, because if he'smad at you, he'll tell you.
You're gonna know he's notgonna hold it back.
(32:35):
And listen.
There's plenty of you that I'vesent text messages to or called
and said, hey, listen, not okaywith that or not happy with
that, or hey, we need to talkabout this.
And it's never because I'mupset, but because we need
clarification, right, becausethat emotion of being angry or
upset or hurt.
I told you guys weeks ago I'mletting all that go.
I'm going to be debt-free whenit comes to emotions.
(32:55):
I don't need to carry thatweight because it does me no
good and it doesn't do any ofyou any good.
Sometimes you think it does,but I promise you it doesn't.
Feelings can be manipulated.
Rebecca and Jacob intentionallymanipulated Isaac's feelings to
get what they wanted.
Jacob willingly disguisedhimself to feel like Esau.
He knew that his father wouldwant proof.
(33:18):
He knew that his father wouldwant proof, so he willingly
disguised himself to feel likeEsau.
The food tasted like Esau'shunting.
Now there's only one personthat could pull that off, and
that would be Rebecca.
Right, my wife probably knowswhat I like to eat better than I
know what I like to eat.
We go to a restaurant and Itell her what I'm going to get.
She's like really, you don'tlike that.
That's a fair statement.
(33:40):
I was telling some people thismorning I also can't eat steak
when I'm with my wife because Ichoke on it.
She laughs at me, tells me toknock it off.
Real life story, folks.
It's not funny.
I thought I was going to dieand she was telling me to knock
it off.
It's for real.
It is kind of funny, it is.
It's okay, I'm going to tellthe story anyway.
(34:05):
So we had gone to that newsteakhouse in Philly yeah, it's
a real fancy one.
And we go there and I order asteak and I take a bite.
Now again, this is, I'm picky.
I'm a picky eater, so she knowsthat.
So I take I'm probably twobites in on this steak and I
start coughing and gagging andshe's swatting at me, telling me
to knock it off.
Now I'm legitimately choking atthis point, all right, and she
(34:28):
thinks that I'm being ridiculousand that I don't like the taste
of the steak.
So I have to grab the napkin,put it around my mouth, pull the
steak out with my fingers sothat I can breathe again.
And I finally tell her I wasactually choking and she's like
oh, I thought you were justbeing dramatic.
So now, whenever we go out fordinner and we get a steak,
(34:50):
emmett always says don't choke,dad, and Alyssa always asks if
she needs to cut it for me.
It's not funny folks, it'sridiculous.
It's ridiculous.
It really is.
The smell of Isaac's clothesbrought back emotional memories,
(35:10):
the feelings of what he thoughthe was feeling was easily
manipulated.
As he's touching Jacob's hand,thinking that it's Esau, as he's
smelling what he assumes isEsau standing next to him.
He knows that there is anemotional attachment oh, your
clothes that smell like thewilderness.
He's reliving memories with hisson, esau.
(35:31):
Those emotions are easilymanipulated.
I just watched a documentarythat teaches that our emotions
are easily manipulated when itcomes to shopping.
It's true, it's very true, andthis documentary was fantastic
because it taught that we aretaught to consume more and more.
Every day.
Everything is throw away, likethey glue the backs of your
(35:52):
phones on now so you can'treplace parts inside of your
phone, you just have to throw itaway and get a new one.
That's crazy, right, but do wesee it happening every day?
No, it's not.
Until the world looks likeWALL-E maybe you've seen WALL-E
that we know we've got a problem.
Our emotions are easilymanipulated by the things we see
in the world.
The world does not want you tofind Jesus.
(36:14):
The world buries Jesus at thebottom of the stack because if
you find Jesus, you becomecontent in the spirit, and being
content in the spirit will makeyou become content in the flesh
, because your flesh has nodesire anymore.
Your body has overcome yourspirit, has overcome the flesh.
(36:35):
Satan is a master manipulator.
He wants to distort how youfeel so that you can
misinterpret what is true.
Amen.
He wants to manipulate how youfeel so that you will
misinterpret what is true.
(36:58):
Isaac blessed the wrong sonbecause he didn't consult God.
He trusted his senses.
God has spoken the truth, butIsaac let his son, esau, cloud
his discernment.
He felt Esau's I'm sorry.
He felt Esau deserved theblessing but ignored what God
(37:19):
had already called him to do.
He should have blessed Jacob inthe first place, but he allowed
his emotion, his attachment toEsau, to tell him to bless Esau
and in turn, jacob steals theblessing and becomes banished.
Now he knows that Jacob isgoing to be a great leader and
(37:49):
yet he chose, because of hisemotions, a desire to bless Esau
instead.
Again, jacob did receive theblessing, but at a high cost.
He had to flee home, never tosee his mother again.
He had a pattern of deceit setin his life.
He would be deceived by Laban.
Later on, esau was enraged andthreatened to kill him.
That's called prison time rightIn life.
(38:10):
Now, when you threaten to killsomebody, when we let our
feelings rule our lives, theresult is not peace, it is
confusion, it is brokenness, itis hate, it is disdain.
Proverbs 24 says there is a pathbefore each person that seems
right, but it ends in death.
(38:33):
What seems right emotionally isnot always spiritually safe.
Do you hear me, amen?
What seems right emotionallymay not always be spiritually
safe.
Now, my question today is howdo we guard against the deceit
of our feelings?
And this is a simple response.
(38:54):
You should be testing everyemotion against the word of God.
Amen.
Because if this is your moralcompass, like it should be,
every emotion should be testedagainst the word of God.
Psalms 119, 105 says your wordis a lamp to guide my feet and a
(39:16):
light for my path.
If you are making decisionswithout first consulting God,
you are doing yourself adisservice, because God wants to
be part of that decision.
Now you're gonna screw somestuff up in life.
He is going to take that andturn it for good, amen.
But I will tell you that thepath, if followed by the word of
(39:38):
God, will be much shorter andmuch easier to live by.
It's not going to feel chaotic.
How many of you live chaoticlives?
How many of you hate chaoticlives, right?
I don't know many of us thatlive in chaos and love it.
I thrive in it.
In the workplace.
I love the challenge of a newacquisition, or whatever the
case may be, but there is stillsomething about it that says you
(40:00):
know, if I could just get upand work a nine to five, monday
through Friday, that paid goodmoney, I'd be content.
Right 10, right.
God has called me to somethinggreater.
I just have to be willing tofight the chaos with the word of
God Every day.
You should be submitting yourheart.
Search me, oh God, and knowthat my heart and know my heart.
(40:23):
Test me and know my anxiousthoughts Psalms 139, 23.
Search me, oh God, and know myheart.
Test me and know my anxiousthoughts.
Psalms 139, 23.
Search me, o God, and know myheart.
Test me and know my anxiousthoughts.
I don't want anxious thoughtsfor any of you, because anxiety
inside of your life drivesfeelings and emotions that are
not in line with what God wouldhave you do every day.
(40:45):
Seek godly counsel.
Surround yourself with maturebelievers who help you discern
the truth.
What does that mean?
There are some young Christianswho are still being raised up
and they think that they shouldgo and give advice to people who
they have no right to giveadvice to.
(41:06):
Frankly, right Sometimes.
That's not based on age.
We're not talking aboutphysical age.
We're talking about how longyou've been a Christian, how
long you've been serving God,how long you've understood what
God is speaking into your life.
And so when people come to me,I talk to Pastor Holly and I
talk all the time and she'll askme for interpretations of
(41:27):
dreams and things like that.
I'm not older than her, she ismuch more mature.
She's been in ministry farlonger.
She's probably been in ministrylonger than I've been alive and
God bless her for that.
But she also knows thatsometimes we have to ask those
questions, right?
But then there are some peoplewho are six years old, thinking
in the Lord, thinking that theycan give advice to somebody
(41:47):
who's 50 years old, in the Lord,in the Lord, thinking that they
can give advice to somebodywho's 50 years old in the Lord.
You don't even understand whatGod has done in their lives,
right?
You also can't seek out advicefrom young Christians who don't
understand.
The Bible tells us to go to theelders, right?
It doesn't tell us to go to theperson that just walked into
church for the first time.
(42:07):
Why?
Because chances are they aren'tgoing to give you godly advice.
They're going to give youworldly advice, fleshly advice.
Listen, it may sound good, youremotions, it'll make you feel
good, but it will not bespiritually in line with what
God wants in your life today.
It will not be.
And I'm not saying you have tocome to me.
(42:28):
Sometimes I don't want you to,okay, but I want you to know
that I love you enough to tellyou the truth.
When you do.
We'll have hard conversations.
We'll look at each other andsay I don't like what you just
said and I'm going to say Idon't need you to like it.
I need you to know that itsfoundation is in the word, that
(42:50):
its foundation is in the wordAmen.
The story of Jacob and Isaac isnot just a lesson about
deception.
It's a warning about how easilywe can be misled when we trust
our feelings over the facts.
Right, we trust our feelingsover the facts, right.
(43:10):
We cannot always worry abouthow we're feeling.
Emotions don't always need tobe resolved.
They just need to be felt.
Just because I'm emotionalabout it doesn't mean I have to
have a solution for it.
It means I need to feel it andI need to move on with my life.
I'm feeling anxious about thisnew job.
(43:31):
Lord, I'm laying this down atyour feet.
Stephanie did all of the rightthings when she was feeling
anxious.
She talked to all the rightpeople.
I stood here was it last Sunday?
We prayed together, steph, orwas it the Sunday before Last
Sunday?
And I said we're going to prayright now and I just wrapped my
arm around her and we justprayed that God was going to
continue to give her favor inthis new phase of life.
(43:53):
I believe that God heard that.
I believe that we sought theLord and he heard and he
answered.
Now here's my favorite part ofthat story, and it's the perfect
way to button up this message.
She goes to the place that she'sgoing to work at, which happens
to be Provia.
How many of you know aboutProvia?
Heard of it?
(44:13):
Been there, maybe worked thereat one point.
It is a faith-basedorganization.
So she goes in and she sitsdown for her training, for her
orientation, and she sends atext to the young adult group
and says dude, they're playingChristian music in here.
Yeah, I know right, because Godwas saying you can't remain
(44:35):
where you don't have favor.
He's saying I'm pulling youfrom that place to put you in a
place that is better suited foryour spiritual growth, not just
your financial and physicalright.
God is not going to allow youto live somewhere that is not
good for you.
He's going to continue to pullyou out and place you in new
places.
Sometimes it takes a while.
(44:56):
Sometimes it requires you tostep out in faith and say I know
God is going to do somethinggood for me.
Trust me, we're going tocelebrate your win and we're
going to pray through whateverit is that you're working on.
Lord, let your perfect will bedone in this situation.
I know that you've gotsomething greater.
You will not leave us norforsake us.
Amen.
(45:16):
Your emotions cannot keep youwhere you are.
Let go of the emotion.
Feel it.
Let it go.
Lay it at the foot of the cross.
Move on and allow God to workin your life today.
Amen, the foot of the cross.
Move on and allow God to workin your life today.
Amen.
Let's pray together.
Father, I thank you and I praiseyou for an amazing move of the
(45:40):
Spirit today.
Lord, I pray that your wordcomes alive in the lives of the
people who are sitting here andin the lives of anybody who may
listen to this message in thefuture.
Lord, I pray that you bless themabundantly in the future.
Lord, I pray that you bless themabundantly.
Allow us to seek your face inall things.
Allow us to desire your hand inour lives, father, that we
(46:01):
would lay the emotions down atthe foot of the cross and we
would pick up the facts.
We would pick up the word, wewould lean on it, we would
believe in it and we would callup the word.
We would lean on it, we wouldbelieve in it and we would call
it the truth, so that ouremotions cannot be manipulated
by the world any longer, thatthe enemy will have no
strongholds in our feelings.
That, lord, we will continue tothrive in the presence of the
(46:23):
Almighty.
Lord, bless us as we leave thisplace.
Bring us back at our nextappointed time.
Lord, bless us as we leave thisplace.
Bring us back at our nextappointed time.
Lord, we thank you for theanointing on all of our lives.
Continue to lead us, guide usand direct us In the mighty name
(46:44):
of Jesus.
Amen, love you, guys.
We'll see you on Wednesday.
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