The Worst Trade Ever // 24Ever (Part 3) (Charles Metcalf)

we are going to jump into the words day are you ready all right I heard somebody say this and I'm totally stealing their line but I wore a suit today because I came to do business with Jesus you know I'm saying but I am really really excited for the word today and I really believe it's gonna encourage you and we are in a series called 20 forever somebody say 20 forever and we're talking about worship now it's so important that we do this because even myself I grew up in church around Church and worship was something that I knew what it was I knew it was at the the top of service I knew depending on what church we were at at the moment it could be 15 minutes or 3 hours depending on where you grow up anybody have 3 hour worship where they're just like sing it again you're like I'm hungry but it's we're talking about worship and it's so important that we we clarify this and really get an understanding and wisdom about worship is it's not enough just to have knowledge about something there are a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge about something but until that knowledge is initiated and moves into action it really doesn't help us that much so we want to get into a wisdom to worship wisdom is applied knowledge I have I have understanding I have knowledge about this now I'm going to apply it and so we've been talking about worshiping and what it means to worship it over the last couple weeks week one we talked about what worship is and knowing that worship starts with love that it starts with really and and here's what you need a little secret the Bible and the in following Jesus it's actually not about you loving God spoiler alert for God so loved the world so the Bible is a love letter to humanity it's not about you being in love with God and you show its first about him being so madly in love with people who didn't even ask him or care about him he was so in love he said hey I'm gonna send my son just in case you may ever think about following me the Bible's about God being in love with us and out of response of that love of that we talk about worship worship is love expressed that last week we realized that that God loved us so much that it is now we express our love back to God and you don't passively express love some people talk about you know that's just not me I'm just not that I don't have that much to say and I'm just a quiet person let somebody say something about your kid and see how expressive you get some people express somebody says so about your kid you ready to punch them right between the eyes so the right thing will get you to express something so we talked about love Express in this week I'm really excited cuz I want to move a little bit further in our definition that we have and I want to start with this first I looked up the in the dictionary the definition of the word worship and this is what it says it says to ascribe Worth to someone or something now it this is fairly true but there's something I want to clarify that you need to know today God is God whether you decide to worship Him or not so it talks about ascribing Worth and sometimes with the way we live our lives it ascribes worth of things when you go somewhere and you pay $14 for a movie ticket you're ascribing that your time and $14 is worth what you're spending there but what you need to know whether you clap your hands or not he is still King of Kings like whether you decide to sing and shout whether you participate it has not changed God's value like you not or deciding to participate does not change God's value when it does is allows us to express how grateful we are and we respond to his grace so I just want to set that foundation for some of you thought yeah when I come in God gets encouraged and he gets Booster points from my worship he would be okay without you just so you know like he doesn't need anything for us but he wants our worship the Bible says he inhabits the praises of our of his people so we need to understand that hey first of all God doesn't need it but he wants it because it's the only gift that we can give to God listen I want to go and have you write this down we've been using this as our anchor definition for worship this is what it says says worship is our love X pressed to God as a response somebody say response to his grace towards us today I want to talk about that word response that word response and we're gonna be in two scriptures today mainly and so if you have your Bibles turn to Hebrews 12 is where it's gonna be if you don't have it don't worry we'll have it on the screens for you but I want to talk about that word and really believe and share with you why we should respond in worship Hebrews 12:15 this is what the Bible says it says look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you corrupting many verse 16 make sure that none of you know one is immoral or godless like Esau who traded his birthright as the firstborn for a single meal make sure that that you look after each other so no one fails to receive the grace of God and make sure no one is immoral like Esau I'm gonna jump to Genesis 25 this is the story that the writer of Hebrews is referring to it's a story of Esau and Jacob and so if you want to turn there I'm gonna read it real quick just so we can get context as a story of Esau it says one day when Jacob was cooking stew Esau arrived from the wilderness exhausted and hungry Esau said to Jacob I'm starved give me some of that red stew all right Jacob replied but trade your rights as the firstborn son look I'm dying of starvation what good is my birthright to me now but Jacob said first you must swear your birthright his mind so Esau sworn oaths thereby selling his rights of the firstborn son to his brother Jacob then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil soup Esau ate the meal then he got up and left he showed contempt for his rights as the first born the title of my message today if you're taking notes and I would encourage you to do that it works as a fast pass when you get to heaven you just show him your notes and they get you in the short I get you right in the title is the worst trade ever the worst trade ever hey we're gonna pray real quick and ask that God would join us Lord we thank you and we need you show us who you are and allow us to get an understanding of how much you care about us Jesus then we pray amen I grew up making Christmas lists did anybody grow up making Christmas list now it's weird to me that not everybody made Christmas lists because the Bible says you have not because you ask not so I grew up and it was a very big deal like your Christmas list like I started making my Christmas list in like September like I was just ready and the way it would work is my mom would say hey make a list of your top three things it ended up being like 40 things because I just you know I just had a hard time deciding but she would say hey the top three things like you're the biggest things you want put them on the list and the top three you'll get one of those three things and my parents were so so great and gracious and they would always get me one of the top three things and it was usually combination of shoes clothes or a video game when I was little so that was all and then as I got older it just went to shoes and clothes and then my parents parents taste got a little bad so it just went to money so I could buy my own shoes of clothes but uh but I remember one year I made this list and I opened up the first gift and it was a pair of Jordans and I got it and I freaked out like I was screaming running around the house I think I took my shirt off and like ran outside with like I don't know it's very weird but I was so excited and so I come back inside and I says hey will you head up to the game room with your brother Chandler and I was like yeah sure so we go upstairs we look and the second thing on my list was up there it was when the we came out and bowling and so the we come and we're like screaming freaking out my little brother's like five or six we're like yeah I like shoved aim like that's just what older brothers do you like so we're freaking out we're so excited I'm like this is the best Christmas ever like I got two of my top three things this is amazing and I come back downstairs and there's another gift and I'm like is Jesus coming back cuz I don't know it seems like we're all about to die because you're just getting everything out right now but I go down and it was the third thing on a list and I lost my mind now what I realized as I was thinking about that story is all of my responses were relative to whatever I got so when I understood the value of what I got or the perceived value in my heart it caused a certain response in me that was relative to the reward so I responded because I got a pair J's and I'm like ah man it's gonna be so fresh so I would freak out respond because I got I responded because I knew what it was worth now I want to use that that story as a platform to talk about our response to God's grace and I want to think about if we say okay that the definition is worship is our love express to God as a response of his to of his grace towards us if if that's our definition and your response to something it is always relative to the reward like you see people on TV they win a million dollars they freak out why cuz they know what that will do to their life they know how that will change their life they know what that means if we start to think about God's grace I mean just just pause the grace of God is the greatest gift ever given like if we just start to talk about what it means how it's changed our life it is the greatest gift ever and as I started to think about okay our response to God's grace if worship is a response to His grace it's a response to His grace if it's a response to His grace our response should be crazy many of us lose our minds over inanimate objects that add nothing to your life except for you can take a picture of it and feel like maybe you're a little bit better than somebody else but for some reason we can show up to a worship sir and sit with our hands in our pocket and not respond to the greatest gift ever given we can we can live our lives we talked about that that worship is a lot more than just a service you need to know that worship it can be a song it can be in church but worship is how you live your life so why is it that we we don't always respond why is it that we can we can see things that are that are just random gifts and we freak out at Christmas and we cheer and yell and this has nothing to do with anything against gifts I'm just saying in comparison to what God gave you why is it so much easier to respond to your Christmas list than the grace of God I want to look at this story today and the writer of Hebrews kind of paints a picture and I want to read it and and kind of give some thoughts that I have on why we don't necessarily respond to the grace of God it says this we read it it's the first verse that we read its verse 15 it says look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God it goes on to say after that says watch out that our poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you and then after that it says you could put it back up on the screen after that it says make sure no one is immoral or godless like Esau now you're reading the scripture and it seems kind of random to me because it starts office says make sure that everybody gets the grace of God getting the grace of God is simply receiving you don't have to do anything you don't have to get your life together you don't have to change you don't have to make sure you're perfect you just simply it's a free gift so you just simply receive it it's talking about the grace of God and then it throws in Esau and says hey as we're talking about grace don't be like Esau and I would start a sounds like that seems what what do you mean and so we read in Genesis 25 to get more context of the story Esau and Jacob were brothers and Esau shopped at Bass Pro and was an outdoorsman and hunted and Jacob I would I probably would've been friends with Jacob I can't cook but he says Jacob like being inside I don't really mess with outside that much I don't I just don't get it like we didn't have houses we were living in caves and then that we like slowly built houses and stuff and then we want to act like sometimes let's go act like we ain't got houses no more and sit outside like there doesn't seem fun to me like we've progressed past that but progression not perfection but that's just dumb but anyways so these two brothers are sitting there and the story comes up and it says Esau was starving cuz he had been hunting all day and he comes up to Jacob and he says give me some of that soup now this must have been some really good soup because Jacob responds with oh yeah you want the soup how bad you want the soup it smells good doesn't it it's really good soup I spent a long time working on this soup he says if you want the soup give me your rights as the firstborn child now you need to know that this was a ridiculous proposal of Jacob the birthright was a very big deal you would get the wealth of the father you would get the authority of the father and you would get the blessing of the father and if you look at this proposal it seems like why would you even consider this this is a terrible trade but in the moment Esau responds he says listen I'm starving what good is a birthright to me now as I started looking at this Scripture I thought why why would you trade a birthright for a blessing or why would you trade a bowl of soup for a blessing why would you trade the the authority the wealth I mean the amount of wealthy word received would change his life forever it would set him up for the rest of his life and I started thinking why would you trade that bowl for your birthright you want to know why I think he saw made this trade one of the worst trades ever I think it's because his president screamed louder than his promise I don't think he saw didn't know what a birthright was I don't think he made this trade out of ignorance I don't think he he made this trade out of though I don't know what a birthright is anyway so you can have it I think he was fully aware of what a birthright was I think he was just really hungry in the moment his present of I'm hungry seemed louder then one day you will have this and in that moment when he started focusing on the current situation when he started getting to get caught up with what was happening right there he made one of the worst trades ever now some of you think of Charles what in the world does this have to do with worship I think sometimes we don't respond to God's grace because we treat the grace of God like Esau treated his birthright think about it a scripture says look after each other so you don't fail to receive the grace of God and don't be like Esau what did he saw do he traded something that was so valuable for his current situation I think sometimes we can show up to church and we look at the grace of God and it's not that we don't know what it is it's not that we don't know the value of the grace of God it's just in the moment we're really hungry we're we're really stressed out we're really overwhelmed with the pressures of life we're really it's not that we don't understand that it's a big deal it's not that we don't understand what he did for us it's just in the moment your present seems to get louder than the promise so you can show up to a service you can start to live your life you can have an opportunity to obey God and as you look at it you think yeah I know about the grace of God but I need to pay my bills right now and it almost becomes a sign of the human condition you ever heard somebody even around Christmas time and say whoa you got that and they say what oh this whole thing I've I've had this for awhile okay let me illustrate it this way me and my wife have been married for two and a half years we got a little baby on the way which is crazy and so awesome but in that something that happens in marriage if you're not careful and it happens across a lot of marriages is you need to know marriage is what I mean you you get married to someone and they're always there so you wake up there there you go to sleep they're there you make decisions they're there and it's so constant and if you're not careful what's constant becomes common so it's so constant and you're always there that it's slowly if you're not careful can become common to you and maybe at one point when you would compliment and freak out about certain things the longer you're together you just start to expect it because it's been so constant that it's become common and now you've stopped complimenting so it started off as constant and you were enthralled and you were in love and it was amazing but over time it just became common you're like yeah they always do that like I know they do that and then it became so common that you stop complimenting you stopped responding could it be that God's grace is so constant in your life that maybe it became common to you that the greatest gift ever given was so constant which is its greatest power it's always gonna be there but if you're not careful it is so constant that you allow it to become common and someone gets on a stage and starts talking about the grace of God and say yeah I know about that you you hear it come up and you say grace and you're like yeah I know about grace that yeah grace I get it let's get some real revelation though let's get but but could it be that His grace was so constant it became common and you stopped responding or you took the grace of God for granted I just I I want to come to you today to encourage you to do not let the grace of God become common to you do not become so in routine of God's grace and mercy that you allow it to become common that when someone starts to talk about it you're like yeah yeah I know about grace but let's talk about revelations or let's talk about no no the grace of God you could spend the rest of your life talking about the grace of God and still not have it all figured out I can't if our response is a response to His grace His grace can never become common and this is not some big thing and I literally I spent hours this is I'll tell you this little secret this is like one of the craziest most difficult and simplest message I've ever ever written in my life me and my friend were sitting there we were working on working and we were like it's three hours in had nothing and all that said I was sitting there thinking and I was like I need some sort of revelation or worship or something that will just really show him and God said instead of a revelation what if it could just be a reminder like a lot of us are educated far beyond our ability to execute so we we that was good we walk around saying I need something new I want to learn something new I'm just gonna remind you of God's grace because if it had not been for His grace and His grace is something to respond to you we could take the rest of the years the rest of our lives and every message we have up on this stage be about grace and that would be okay because His grace is the greatest gift ever given and today literally I'm just gonna remind you of His grace because maybe if I remind you you won't have trouble responding maybe if you get a reminder of what he's done for you of how good he's been then it will be easier to respond because you haven't forgot about it and you didn't let it become common and you said you know what I'm gonna respond to his grace side of my message the worst trait ever I want to I want to give you a couple reminders of God's grace and you know when it comes to response I don't I don't think people on purpose sit in a service or live their lives or have an opportunity I don't think they purposefully say I'm not gonna respond I don't I don't believe that I think what they're just it's just the pressures of life it's just that in the moment your your present situation it starts to feel bigger than what God has already done and in you go and you and you feel stressed out and you feel worried but I'm here to tell you don't make the trade don't trade your worship don't trade your response don't trade it for worry don't trade it for it for your current feelings or how it looks right now don't make the trade and here's the reminders I want to give you of God's grace the first one is this it's saving grace because we need saving my points are get again this in case you have catch caught on its a grace message today because if we could truly grasp His grace if we could truly understand it it would not be an issue at all we wouldn't have to talk about why do we need to respond to it because we know the value of it my first point it's saving grace because we need saving Ephesians 2:8 says this it says God saved you by His grace when you believed this point is very simple but you need to realize and remind yourself you need saving listen if you don't understand that you start to think you're fine by yourself if you don't remind yourself that it's not that you are a bad person and now you're a good person because you have grace the Bible says the wages of sin is death so if you don't understand that it's God saved us by His grace it's saving grace because you need saving what do you do you start to think I can do it by myself I can save myself and now you've put yourself in the place of God so it's easy for you not to respond to something that you think you can do by yourself you need to understand it's saving grace because God saved you now this is so and it's so elementary but if you don't remind yourself of that that I need saving you can show up to church every weekend you can have moments where you can worship outside of church and the way you lived your life and you just sit there and think you know what it's not a big deal to respond to his grace because you know I'm a good person and I show up and I give and I do nice things and I open the door for old ladies or I do what well I give to charity you can do a lot of good things but it's only the grace of God that has saved you you I I need us to get this and I know it's it's simple but we need saving and by God's grace he did that my second point write this down you can't afford the cost of your sin again there's no big revelation today it's a reminder that you can't afford the cost of your sin imagine with me if me and my wife we have the baby and right after we have the baby we go out to eat and we're sitting there have a newborn baby we'll say we'll order all this food they bring the check and I'll say he'll take the bill that would seem insane and ridiculous to expect someone who has no business no ability no money they have nothing they can give to pay for the bill that they have ran up I need you to understand that in this situation we are the newborn baby and God knew that we had no business paying for our sin he knew we had no business paying for the hurt and he said don't worry I got it we need to remind ourselves that we cannot afford the cost of sin donating to charity is an amazing thing but does not pay for the sin that your life has caused it sits there are may and you can be a good person and that is amazing but you need to understand that in and of yourself you cannot afford what your sin cost and when you start to back up and you realize that you understand that that god saves me because I didn't even have any business paying for this like I couldn't even begin to pay for this then you start to think okay maybe I should respond like maybe in light of what he's done in maybe and in light of who he is my response is the only thing that I could muster up that would make any sense because I couldn't pay this by myself anyways it's God's grace it's his love it's his mercy and we got to understand that hey it's it's saving grace and we can't afford the cost of our sin in my third point grace is a free gift just reminders today in case your present is getting really loud just a reminder today in case you started to think that maybe you had earned grace just a reminder today if you thought because of who you were connected to and who your family is and how much money you put in the offering you need to know today that grace is a free gift Ephesians 2:8 we just read it God saved you by His grace when you believed and you can't take credit for it it is a gift from God salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done your the grace of God is a free gift and this morning I just want to remind you of His grace what would have happened if someone would have been there to remind Esau of his birthright if in the moment he walks in he's like man I'm really hungry and man give me some of that soup it was like well give me your birthright and as he's about to make decision you stop and say wait wait wait this is the worst trade ever I know I know you're hungry I know you really want the soup but don't trade your blessing for a bowl of soup and it seems ridiculous but day after day we have moments where we're trading our blessing for a bowl of soup we're trading a response to God's grace for our current situation and I know it feels big but I promise you his grace is bigger if you'll just hold all it I'm just here to remind you don't make the trade don't allow what's happening right now to get you in a place where His grace has become common and you just stop thinking about it you say yeah I got the grace but I need something bigger than that I need something more no what did the Bible say when said I asked God three times to take it away and God said my grace is sufficient for you you need to know His grace is sufficient what do you mean his grace is enough that's really I mean his grace is enough period and God could not do anything else he could never bless us again he could he could not do anything ever again and his grace would be enough today I just I want to remind you of His grace and as I start to think about this message and I think about the grace of God I start to think about my own life and if worship is a response to His grace I need to understand what His grace saved me from I need to understand that without His grace I'm my talent isn't enough like without his grace having on a cool outfit or feeling like I'm somebody it doesn't do anything without his grace I wouldn't be where I am and not you save that cliche no I'm saying like physically I wouldn't be right here without his grace and it's just I have to take a moment and maybe this message is just for me but I'll take a moment to remind myself that without His grace I'm not enough without His grace without his grace I wouldn't have the family that I have without his grace I wouldn't have the wife that I have that is Grace I wouldn't have a little son on the way it's important that we take a moment and we remember and we remind ourselves that we needed saving that your good deeds who you're connected to it's not enough and that if you understand that you needed saving that I needed saving and that is Grace is a free gift you reach a point in your life where what you do who you are it doesn't matter because you find yourself in a place where you realize my only response to His grace is to worship Him my only [Applause] my only response when I look at what he's brought me from when I look at where I should have been my only response is not to worry about what someone would think about me it's not to worry about your story it's to stop and take a moment and say god I thank you for your grace I thank you for your mercy I thank you that you rescued me out of my addiction I thank you Lord Jesus that you're seeing me through look I I thank you for your love [Applause] the great thing is is the more you know you who you are without him it the more you can worship Him the more you realize that you're not enough it says his strength is made perfect in your weakness the more you understand that your good deeds can't make up for your sin the more reason you have to worship Him I wonder if the knowledge of who we are without God has kept us from understanding who we are with him your your knowledge of something is the sealing of how you can worship it so if you don't understand what you are without him it makes sense that it's hard for you to respond but maybe just maybe could we take a moment and think about who it would be without God and in light of that we could worship Him don't don't make the trade it says at the end of that scripture decision from that moment on Esau showed contempt for his birthright he just he wrote it off later on that changed what you need to know is the Bible it says the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob that wasn't the plan firstborn son the God of Abraham Isaac and Esau but in a moment because of how loud the current situation was he just wrote it off I want to encourage you every time you walk in a church service every time you just wake up in the morning forget walking in a service when you wake up in the morning take a moment and it doesn't have to be some big thing and this is not a message about we should walk around feeling sad about who we are no it's just understanding who we are without him and in light of that why we should worship Him why we should respond listen I just want to I want to read this last scripture it's in 2nd Peter says this 2nd Peter 1 verse 3 says by His divine power God has given us everything we need for living a godly life we've received all of this by coming to know one him the one who called us himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence and because of his glory and excellence he has given us great and precious promises these are the promises that enable you to share and His divine nature and escape the world's corruption verse 5 in view of all of this make an effort to respond it goes on to say in verse a says the more you grow like this the more productive and useful you will be with your knowledge of Jesus but those who fail to develop short sighted or blind forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins says if you get to a point in your life where you you just stop responding you're short-sighted Esau was short-sighted in a moment he didn't realize what would happen but I want to stop and over any revelation I want to remind you even though it seems loud right now even though that soup looks really good don't make the trade don't trade your worship for worry don't trade your worship for a wrong moment don't trade your worship for something that seems so big I promise you God's with you and His grace is sufficient for what you're going through he has a plan for your life and he is working it all out the Bible says he's worked all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose in view of God's grace and view that we needed saving and view of who we are without him our only response that's my last point you can write that down number 4 worship is my only response because of his grace because of his mercy because of how because of how good he's been I can stop and there could be music playing or there could be no music playing I can be happy or I can be sad I can have a lot of money or no money I can feel like it's all working out or I don't have a plan but in view of His grace my only response is worship and I believe we're gonna be a church that we're not going to trade now for later we're not going to trade convenience for something that could really change the rest of our lives cousin I want to pray for you today you everybody bow your heads and close your eyes I want to pray for two groups of people the first group there's maybe some people in this room who if you're honest with yourself you've thought about making the trade it's not that you don't understand God's grace it's not that you don't love God it's not that it's just in the moment right now you feel like there's a lot of pressure you feel like you don't have a plan you feel like the the healing was supposed to come you feel like it was supposed to work out you thought by now the marriage would be whole and right now that the present situation seems bigger than the promise right now responding to His grace seems really hard because it doesn't seem like you understand or doesn't seem like he's there but right now I wanna pray that you would be reminded that you would be reminded that as grace is with you that it's enough and it's always been there so if you're in here and you say you know what trust if I'm honest I just I need that reminder I need to remember who I am without him because without him I'm not enough but today I'm today I'm deciding that I'm always gonna respond I'm always gonna respond and I don't need my type of song or my music but today if that's you I just want to pray for you would you lift your hand right now and the hands all over the room thank God I thank you for those people or who are saying well we're not enough without your grace and though we're gonna make a decision to stay reminded that because of your grace because of who you are because of what you've done Lord Jesus our only response is to worship you you can put your hands down every head still bowed every eye still closed there are some of you in here and we talk about responding and worship but before that there's a there's something you need to know and it's pretty easy to to talk about because it's its grace and it's crazy to think that God would look at a world that was broken that was hurting that had evil hearts that would didn't even care about him and he said it doesn't matter I still love you someone needs to be reminded thank you Holy Spirit now you need to know he still loves you what you did did not disqualify you for his love what happened to you did not disqualify you from his love what people have said about you nothing can disqualify you from his love and there are some people in here right now that you need to respond to his grace and he just surrender your life to Him you've tried doing it by yourself you've tried living life on your own but you're coming to an understanding that I need something bigger I need a Savior listener those of you that that's why you're here today is to make the decision to follow Jesus and say I'm done living life on my own I'm done doing it by myself I need His grace I need His mercy I need him to come save me from my current situation listen you don't have to be perfect you don't have to get your life together you don't have to change if God can get your hearts he'll help you change your habits but in a moment you can make a decision that would change your life forever so I'm gonna ask you on the count of three that you would lift your hand don't worry about who's around you don't worry about what they'll think this is between you and God one two three lift your hand right now if you want to respond to that grace I see you right here in the back I got you over there I'm so proud of you over here in the back I see you brother so amazing so proud of you listen transformation Church we are family and no one prays alone following every one to repeat this prayer after me say dear Heavenly Father thank you for loving me dear Jesus thank you for laying down your life to save mine I admit I've made mistakes save me change me transform me in Jesus name I pray transformation Church can we make some noise for those who just made that decision to follow Jesus [Music]

Channel: Transformation Church

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Length: 41min 49sec (2509 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 19 2018