Man, anytime I'm in someone else's church, I forget how a normal church functions with just not having a pastor that takes an hour to get to the preaching. If you know Adrian Dominguez, he preaches through the song service, he preaches through the announcements. He preaches through the special, and then an hour and a half later, church starts. That's okay, you can tell him I said that, I'm okay with that. But, no, in somebody else's church, it always seems like it goes by super, super fast, because I forget that's how normal churches do it. But yeah, like I said this morning, I'm not gonna be super long-winded today. The food smells too good back there. 45 minutes maybe, 45, 50 minutes, something like that. Not as long as your pastor, Tyler. I do look forward to going down to the blowout. Preaching it this February. So I'm gonna try to make it down there if If my schedule works out, I would love to go down there and hear him preach he like I said he's been a friend of mine for over a decade and I like to have friends that are doing something for the Lord. You know, I like to have friends that are preaching in places and being a blessing, and I know he will to that church down there. He didn't even tell me he was preaching the blowout. I had to find out through Brother Donovan. He was just at Adrian Dominguez Church, maybe last week, the week before, I don't remember, but he was telling me, he's like, yeah, I asked that Campbell, He's like, you've got that big guy who's six foot five, and I say, hey, you want preach to blow out? He starts shaking like a little girl. He just starts shaking. And he's like, that gave me such a kick. That big tall guy had to put his hands on the table because he was so scared. So it's going to be good. I couldn't imagine. I could imagine that would be the scariest time of my life. So anyways, Romans, Chapter 12, we're going to start in Romans, Chapter 12. And I'm going to preach a message on on something that we all have, and that's a personality. And let me just preface this by saying there's this new stupid book out there that some of these, even PBI graduates that are starting to read, Living the Fearless Christian Life, and it's about your identity in Christ and all that nonsense. And that is not what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about you go before God and you present who you are in your identity, and then after that, the Christian life, as long as you follow who you are, there's no struggles, there's no problems. And that's what that book is laced with, is you go before God and He says, you know what you are? You are a bold pastor. And you say, okay. Now I've got to live as a bold pastor and with that I'll have no problem walking in the Spirit. I'll have no problem being my best. I'll have no struggles. One of these guys that actually preached at Brother Peacock's church, he said that, he said, the reason why some of you pastors are having a hard time is because you're not really called. That is directly against scripture though to say that You can't have struggles as a pastor. And that's what he said from Brother Peacock's pulpit. And that lit a fire under Brother Peacock. And rightfully so. So that's not what I'm talking about. I am not talking about you yielding your personality to the Lord and then all of a sudden life is easy and you'll just walk in the spirit and there's no problems. As a matter of fact, the opposite. The message I want to preach is that God gives each person a personality and they're all different. and you put that in a God's hand and He can use it, you take it out of God's hand and you can make a mess of it. In other words, the strengths that you have in your personality can become a great weakness to you in your Christian life. And that's what I want to preach on, and we all have them. We all have different things about, about us that are just come natural to us. And even if you don't feel like it, there is something about you that you excel in. Maybe not on a large scale, like some other people, like you can look at these. I have a friend who always. beats himself down and he talks about it. He says, man, I'm just not like this guy. And he's a single guy still. I just can't get girls like this guy. And I can't do this. And I'm not this. I'm not funny. I'm too shy. I'm this. I'm that. And just beats himself down all the time. And the truth is, no matter how bad you want to be like somebody else, you're going to have to be yourself. You're going to have to be who God made you. You're going to have to be used as God wants to use you. And that's all you can do. And you'll take, he'll give certain individuals a certain portion, maybe a boldness, and he'll take that boldness and he will just magnify that in that Christian's life. And then this one over here, he may have some boldness, but it's just not magnified as much as this guy's, but he'll still use that boldness. So the point is you use what God gave you, but every single one of us has something about ourselves that God wants to use. and it's specific to the individual. naturally dynamic or charismatic or whatever they are. And you may envy some of those personalities and think, oh man, I wish I could just make people laugh like that guy or whatever comes natural to them. And then you have other personalities that are just boring. Annoying I know some of those all right. There's there is a personality out there and I Every time I come across somebody with that personality It is annoying and that's the one to me that is like I don't want to be around you for more than five minutes. I And I could tell you what that is, but it's just, to me, that personality just makes me just wanna get away and be around some other people. But you know what? My personality is annoying to some people. There's other people out there that look at my personality and say, I don't wanna be around that guy. The truth is, though, whether we find certain people annoying or not, God made us that way. and were to be used as God made us. And you'll have that, you'll have those little things that you have. And they may sound stupid, I have some that sound so stupid if you tell somebody else, they'll be like, that is dumb. But to me, it's just something that God gave me. One for me is I don't, I don't really, I do okay in awkward situations. And I don't really, get like super like, oh, that's just not appropriate. That's just awkward. That's wrong. I'm standing there in a urinal one time using the bathroom next to a guy. And I reached over and I handed him a gospel track. And he said, Thank you. And he put it in and he's like, what is it? And I started telling him, it's just about Jesus Christ. And then I got out of the bathroom and we're talking and my mom's like, my wife's like, did you get a guy track in the bathroom? And I was like, yeah. She's like, that is not, you shouldn't be doing that. I was like, it works for me though. You say, that's stupid. I know it's stupid, but it works for me. That is my personality that when it comes to some stupid situation like that, I don't think, oh, I can't do this because that it just feels weird. It doesn't bother me. So you know what I've seen? I've seen God use that in weird situations. You have some things like that, that you do for yourself, that is just a part of who you are. And God says, I can use that. that's more than what he could do in a different individual with your strength. We all have them, we all have some strengths. And you'll see a personality at a young age that will start to form. People in here who have kids, you'll see that at one years old, you'll see, that kid is gonna be a character with this. or that kid's gonna have problems with that, or that kid's gonna have some issues with this, or whatever it is. At a young age, you can see some personalities developing. And I know that sometimes there's tragedies that happen to young kids. And it can kind of shape some things about them that will change. I get that. But with that being said, there's still something about them that's individual to them. and that they have. You know, I remember my daughter, my firstborn, she's a stubborn little thing. And right away, she was, from just to when she was able to start crawling, she was the kid that would get her hand smacked. get her hand smacked, get her hand smacked, get her hand smacked, get her hand smacked, get her, and it just went on and on. She was that kid. There was a, I remember when we would put her to bed, and she had this thing, she didn't want to go to bed, and so she'd reach her fingers under the door, and we'd see her fingers come out, and she'd go, hi, like this, and we'd say, go to bed, and then 30 seconds later, hi, mom, Dad. And then I'd go in there and I'd say, give her a little swat on the butt, and I'd say, go to bed. She'd cry and she'd run to the bed. And then, not even a minute later, those fingers come out again. You just see them. I'd say, go to bed, and they'd suck back in. I'd go in there and give her a little swat. It got to the point after a week of that, to where when I would open that door, she would hand me the paddle, and then run over to the bed, bend over, and start crying, because she knows she's getting a swat, and then I'd swat her on the butt, and then she'd go to bed. And that went on for over a week before she finally learned the lesson that, hey, this is not playtime, it's bedtime. And you know what I've seen, I saw with that? She's gonna have a hard time submitting some time someday. That little girl, she is hard-headed. But you know what else I can see? God can often use a hard head if it's put in the right place. And with our personalities that we have, we're gonna have to submit those to the Lord and let the Lord use them. Because if we don't submit them to God and put them in his hands, we will make a mess of things. We will destroy some things. We'll make a complete wreck of our lives if we try to use some of the strengths that we have for ourselves. Now look at Romans chapter 12. Look at verse 1. He says, I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So as a Christian, your job is to submit your body to Jesus Christ. That means Your personality, that means your eyes, your ears, your characteristics, your looks, everything about you is supposed to be submitted to the Lord, so that as a living sacrifice, so that He can use it for something. And that's what our job is as Christians. And now I just picked out three random characters out of the Bible to say a few things about their personalities and the way that they really made a mess of things with them. But when they yielded it to the Lord, how the Lord really used it. And they're just three random characters. But before we go there, I just wanna say also that God never justifies sin because of someone's personality. That is becoming a thing to where that's just so-and-so. That's so-and-so in the flesh is what that is. That's so-and-so as a sinner is what that is. Just because your personality is more prone to something than somebody else's doesn't make it okay. You can't say, oh, he has an addictive personality, so. There's no so that should follow that. I don't care if he has an addictive personality, that does not excuse the sin. We're all prone to different things, but the thing we're prone to doesn't justify it. Well, you know so-and-so, they just like to tell everybody's business. That's called gossiping. That's called running your mouth. That's called, according to James, setting a fire and causing a mess. You know what a gossiping tongue does? The Bible likens them to a fire that kindleth, and you know what it eventually does? Yeah, I mean, I was up there in Alaska, and we'd have those forest fires, and you would see hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of acres that would burn up every summer. And I remember there's one that I would drive by down Chena Hot Springs Road, and you look down, and you got right up to the road, and it was just black when I moved up there. About the time I left Alaska, about 10 years later, that thing just started to grow back and look green again. That's what a tongue does. You will spread some stuff about things that you shouldn't be spreading, and it's just like a fire, it just goes and destroys. And it may take 10 years for that individual to be able to recover from what you did. It takes a long time for that thing to grow back before you can't even tell that there's a fire there. So there's no excuse for it. I mean, you look at Moses in the Bible. He was a great man. Moses was used by God. The Lord put his hand on Moses and said, I'm going to use, I'm going to choose you to lead the children of Israel into the promised land. He never made it to the promised land, but he led them for 40 years in the wilderness. Moses was close to the Lord. Over those 40 years, he became very close to the Lord. but he had an anger problem. Moses one day looks at that thing and says, well, if you're not gonna listen to me, I'm gonna kill you. That's what people do in traffic now. You cut me off in traffic, I'm gonna shoot you. That's an anger problem. Moses comes walking down one day and says, I told you guys not to do that, and he breaks those commandments. Something that God just gave him. Moses says, I don't care if God doesn't speak to the rock. I'm so mad, I'm gonna smack it. And he smacks it. And then he doesn't get to go into the promised land because of that. That's anger. You know what? God didn't even excuse that in the man Moses, who is much better than you or me. And God said, you don't go to the promised land now. As good as Moses was, God still held Moses' sin accountable to what he did. So there's no excuse for that. And in anger, the Lord takes anger seriously. You have an anger problem. You need to get a hold of your spirit The by the problems talks about that about a man that has control over his spirit is better than a man that take up the city What that's saying is that you're better off being able to control yourself. I Then if I put it this way, if I could gather all the men in Divide, Colorado and say, let's go, let's fight. And I go in there and I can take that city by myself and go in there and just go through these men, knocking them out, knocking them out, knocking them out. And all the things over, whatever the population is, they're all just laying down flat. And I just stand up in victory and I just beat the whole city of Divide, Colorado. The Lord says, yeah, that's great. But what's better is a man who in that anger rises up. He says, knock it off and stop it. And he puts it down. Better is a man that controls his spirit than a man that takes the city. The Lord takes that stuff serious, even though your personality may be prone to it. It's not an excuse. Now, look at 1 Kings 18. This is the first one that we're going to take a look at. 1 Kings 18. And just like you, I also have things that I look back, and I think sometimes, man, why did I do that? Or why did I say that? Or why did I, you get done doing something, you think, oh, I'm such an idiot, I just messed, I just did that again too, or I did that, or whatever it is. We all have those things about us to where we can look back, and we're prone to use the good things about ourself that God gives us, and we're prone to mess it up and use it for the wrong things. and to make a mess of stuff. But when you're in God's hands, He takes the individual and He makes something out of them. When you present your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord and say, Lord, this is who I am, this is how you made me, now take me and use me. He tends to do that. Look at 1 Kings 18. Now what we know about Elijah is Elijah, when you read the story of Elijah, we know that God's hand was on Elijah, and we also know that Elijah was a leader. He was such a leader that the Lord says that in the future in the book of Revelation, I'm going to use Elijah to represent the prophets. That's how much of a leader he was in his time there in the nation of Israel. Now, look at 1 Kings 18, look at verse 17. It says, And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? So that's a strange thing to ask Elijah. He comes to him and he says, Are you the one that's troubling Israel? There's thousands of prophets in Israel at this time. Thousands, and you see that over in chapter 19, over 7,000 that still haven't bowed the knee to Baal. And Ahab comes to him and says, you're the one troubling Israel. Look how Elijah responds. And he answers, I have not troubled Israel. He doesn't say we haven't troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house and that he have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and the house of Baal. You know what that means? That means that when it came to the issue of serving the Lord and serving Baal, Elijah was the authority on the side of serving the Lord. Meaning that everybody thought Elijah was the one causing the controversy. Elijah was the one that Ahab was looking for. Elijah was the one that Jezebel wanted to kill. Elijah was the one that everybody was thinking about. And you don't read any of the names of the other thousands and thousands of prophets that were there during that time. It's Elijah, he's a leader. You can look at history and see cases like that. When you think of the Reformation, you know who pops in your brain? Martin Luther. Zwingli was during that time too. Nobody talks about, oh yeah, you remember Zwingli. You remember during the Reformation what Zwingli did, and you know what he was? He was way more doctrinally sound than Martin Luther was. And as a matter of fact, he was responsible for teaching better Bible to thousands than Martin Luther did. But everybody thinks of Martin Luther. Everybody thinks of William Tyndale. Nobody talks about Thomas Bilney. Thomas Bilney was this little guy, just a small guy with really frail bones, and he was a super shy guy. And they used to call him Little Bilney growing up because he hardly ever grew. And when he was an adult, one time he goes out there to try to preach the gospel when he figured out that the Catholic Church was lying to him. And he found out that the Catholic Church was holding back biblical texts because they didn't want the people to read them and learn them. They wanted to keep it in Latin and not allow anybody to understand what the scripture says, but take their word for it. And he figured that out, and so he started studying that stuff and he came to the right conclusions that salvation is by grace through faith and that we do have the right to read the Word of God. We should be able to give the Word of God to the common person just like William Tyndale went off and did and what he was known for. And he goes out there to street preach one time to tell people this and he goes out there and he says, I couldn't even do it. He was so nervous and so scared he went back to his house. And he goes out there again, he tries it again, he just, I can't get the words out, he goes back to his house. So he says, okay, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put the gathering in my house and I'm gonna have people come over and I'm gonna teach them what I've been seeing. And this group comes over and it was said that he sat there and shook. what he taught. He just opened up his Bible in his own house. He's sitting there shaking and he's trying to explain to them that grace through faith and that, listen, we can have the Word of God and the Word of God is not bound and we're supposed to be able to put it out there and let people know. And he was so scared that when he ended, they said he took his Bible, he closed it, he turned around and he just walked away. And they awkwardly sat there and they looked and thought, okay, I guess it's over. But you know who was sitting in that room? William Tyndale. And he said, whoa, that's true. And he said, what I'm gonna do is take what he says, and I'm gonna make every common man in this country know about it. And he went off and did it. Thomas Bilney didn't do that. Hardly anybody even knows who that guy is. Unless you really read a lot of church history, you don't read much about him. You say, why is that? Because he wasn't a leader. Elijah was a leader. So Elijah is the same way. He's back there in the prophets. He's back there in the time of Israel when they're preaching against Baal. And Elijah's the one getting all this credit that naturally came to him. That's who he was. It cannot be forced. He was a natural leader that God put his hand on. And he said, that's Elijah's strength. I'm gonna use it. You know, I read all kinds of books on textual criticism. I have a great interest in that study and being able to defend the King James Bible. I will never, ever be like Dr. Ruckman was. I know that. I can never defend the Word of God like Ruckman did. It's not who God made me to be. That's not how God made me. I don't have the ability to have people by the thousands say, oh, what does Tim Moore think? And then we flock to what Tim Moore thinks. I don't have that. You know who did? Dr. Ruttman did. And God used that as a great leader. He uses men like Schofield and Larkin, men that everybody says, well, they're kind of an authority on scripture today. Let me go see what they have to say. And he uses them. And I'm not even talking about you have to be something drastic like that to where everybody knows you. I'm just talking about the people that are in your life, you have an effect on with who you are as a person. And that can be a leader. I knew of a guy who was a leader in church a long time ago, and he was able to get people into the church. And in a short period of time, he had all kinds of people who were not in church for years coming back to church. And I'd hear people say, oh yeah, I'm reading this book because so-and-so said it's a great book. Oh yeah, I'm memorizing this chapter because so-and-so said it's a great chapter. Oh, I'm doing this because so-and-so said this is great. And this guy would go around and all these people would just follow him. And I remember thinking, that is, why are so many people like this guy? And I just didn't, I didn't understand it. But one thing I could not deny is that he had a natural charisma about him to where people just wanted to please him more than they even wanted to please the Lord. And he would say some of the dumbest stuff, and they would take that hook, line, and sinker and say, well, so-and-so believes it. And they would grasp, they would hang on to that as truth. Because he was just a natural leader, he was able to do that. You know what I found out later, too? He was able to lead a lot of people out of church, too. And he did. A lot of people left church one day because of him. You know where he led a lot of people? To drugs and alcohol. People who were in PBI who were in church. You have a great leadership, that's a great quality to have. It's a great strength to be able to have. But boy, if you're not careful with it, and you put that into your hands, you can sure make a mess of your life. Look at chapter 19, what we're hearing in 1 Kings. Chapter 19, look at verse 9. And he came thither unto a cave, and lodged there. And, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him, What doest thou hear, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altar, and slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And he says the same thing in verse 14. And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with a sword. And I, even only I, am left, and they seek my life to take it away. So Elijah's out there and he's out there in a cave by that brook and he's thinking, this is the worst thing ever because I'm the only one left and nobody else is around. That wouldn't bother somebody who's a loner. If you're a loner by nature as a person, you would be out there and you'd be like, this is just fine, not a problem. out here by myself, knowing that I'm serving the Lord, knowing that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, preaching the gospel or preaching the message that God gave Elijah. Because let me tell you, Elijah saying that I'm alone, what does that have to do with the message that he's been preaching? It doesn't change. And you know what a loner could do? That's fine with me. You know how that affects somebody who is a leader? They look around, they say, I have nobody to lead right now. I don't have the back and forth with people. I don't have that thing that just comes natural to me to where I just want to take people and say, hey, let's go this way. Hey, let's go this way. There's nobody around and it's driving me crazy. I can't deal with this. But a loner would have just sat there just fine and been happy out there in that cave. Maybe even enjoyed it. But not to somebody who's a leader and charismatic like that. You know what you'll find? Your strengths that you have, if they're not fully submitted to the Lord, they'll get you in a mess like it does with Elijah to where he's ready to quit, give up and die and say, I'm done. You know why? Because he put stipulations on how God wanted to use them. He says, God, this is how I am. I like to lead people and now I have nobody. and they put stipulations on it. You put stipulations on how you think God should use some of your strengths, and you have some problems. You know, there may be some good leaders in this church, and I have seen good leaders in churches, and I have seen how they would make a better deacon, a better song leader, a better pastor, better Sunday school administrator, a better whatever, and in their brain they think, I could lead these people better, I could do better, I shouldn't be the one sitting and listening, and you know what they do? They end up causing a big problem in a church because of that. You say, what's the problem is? It's not yielded to the Lord. Maybe God wants to put a leader in a church for ten years to put some wisdom behind that ability he gave him before he sends him out. You never know, but the point is you have to put what God gives you into his hand and let him use you as he sees fit. Look at Genesis chapter 25. And when Elijah tried to take it into his hands and say, God, this is not how I saw myself being used, it put him in a state of depression. You present your bodies. That's who you are in God's hand. You say, use me as you will. Look at Genesis chapter 25, and this is one of my favorite ones. This is Jacob. And what we know about Jacob is, first of all, let me just say this, when you read about Jacob, don't look at him as a no good for nothing. Oh, that guy's just a conniver. He's just a deceitful man. He's just this, he's just that. He's a terrible character. Don't look at him as that because you know what God said? God said, I love that man. I love Jacob. And he was just unfortunate enough to have his sins printed in a book for us all to read. And it was for our learning that God did that. If my sins were printed in a book for you to read, you would not be here this morning. And vice versa, if your sins are printed in a book, I'd say, wait, those are the people I'm going to preach to? I'm going to stay home. And you'd say the same thing about me. When God printed what Jacob did in a book, you know what, Jacob for the rest of his life now, or not the rest of his life, he's dead and gone, but the rest of mankind, we get to look back and look at Jacob's life and see all the problems that he made and all the things that he did that was deceitful and wrong, but the truth is, we have things about us that I am so glad are not in a book. And just remember, God loved Jacob. And what you see about Jacob's life is that oftentimes he uses the strength that God gave him for good. And oftentimes he uses the strength that God gave him for bad. And you know what you'll find? Good things that come into Jacob's life and you'll find bad things that come into Jacob's life because of it. And what I want to say about Jacob is even though he had problems, he also had a great strength. And what his great strength was is he was a calculated son of a gun. That guy would sit down and think every circumstance, every outcome, every scenario. If this happens, I can do this. If that happens, I'll do this, this, this. And I have plan A, B, C, D, E, F, and G for this scenario. And he just sits there and lets his mind go, and it go, and it go. And you know what? Some of you are that way. Maybe there's somebody in here that's that way, that just thinks, OK, so if this happens, if they respond this way, then I'm going to say this and do this. And if this happens in the forethought, they put all this forethought into it. That's not me. I'm kind of an idiot when it comes to that. I am too lazy to want to sit down and try to think out every scenario. And I just don't care that much about it. You know what I find in my life? Sometimes I'm glad I didn't try. Because it worked out better. Sometimes I find that I wish I would have put some thought into that. and that's just not a strength that I have, but there's been strengths of people who have a mind where they just have a ton of forethought and they look ahead and they think, okay, we can do all this stuff and let me try to put all the pieces together, and great ministries have been built off of that kind of mind. The problem is, the tendency is, you have a tendency to forget about faith because you can't figure it out and you can't make it work. And you say, well, I can't deny this. Well, I know God said this, but I need to force it and make it work. And that's what you see in Jacob. Great calculator. Very, very good at looking at a situation and saying, I can maneuver all these pieces and put it right into place. But there has come points in his life when he has to rely on God, and what he says is, uh-uh, I'm gonna take that strength and that ability I have, and I'm gonna finesse it and twist it into my way and make something out of it. And you know what a strength eventually becomes? It becomes a weakness when you do that. Look at Genesis chapter, what did I say, 25? Look down at verse 29. Genesis 25-29, And Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at a point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he swore unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread, and pottage, and lentils. And he did eat, and drink, and rose up, and went his way. And thus Esau despised his birthright. Esau despised his birthright in a way that even in the book of Hebrews the Lord looks at that and says, Can you believe what that profane and wicked man did? He sold his birthright for a bunch of lentils. And that's what a profane man does. He comes in, he says, I'm at the point to die. I'm just gonna get rid of something that is valuable. Esau was not about to die. He's walking and talking and carrying his stuff in from the fields. That's not somebody who's about to die. You know what that is? That's somebody who is so quick to sell something valuable in their life because they want instant gratification. That was Esau. Esau's back in his hometown. He's out of the woods now. He's back where people are dwelling. He could have walked a little bit longer, got to his mother's house and got some food. But that's not what a profane person does. A profane person says, I don't care about that. I don't care how valuable it is. That's what people do all the time. I don't care about how valuable the word of God is. I'm going to put it off for a couple of weeks. Cause I got shows to watch and TV to watch and I've got other things to do and they'll just sell three weeks of their life. They could have been spending in the word of God and growing for something that's just feels good. After all, I need to relax. I've had a hard week. After all, I need to relax because I'm very stressed right now. Not to the point of death, you're not. That's what we tell ourselves, though. And Jacob, on the other hand, though, is even though Esau's coming in as a profane person ready to give up his birthright, you take Jacob, and you know what Jacob's doing? During that time when he sees Esau walking out of the woods, Jacob takes a quick second, he looks, and he thinks, He's been gone for a while. And he's got no food with him. I bet he's really, really, really hungry right now. And he says, I know exactly how Esau gets when he's hungry. He's so undisciplined that what he'll do is he'll sell his own birthright to me for food. Actually, that's a good idea. I'm gonna try to see if he can give me his birthright. And Esau comes in there, and you know the story, he comes in there and he ends up selling Jacob his birthright. And Jacob, you know what the Lord says, let me ask you, could Jacob have gone about that a different way? Yeah, he absolutely could have. Did he use that strength to calculate that situation in the wrong way? Yes, he did. But you know what the Lord still saw about Jacob? That Jacob wants the things that last forever. Even though he went about the wrong way, he said, there was at least a desire there for the things that matter. So Jacob, even though he saw so quick to throw it off, Jacob looks at that birthright and he says, I know what that thing does. It comes with land. It comes with children. and it comes with God's favor. And one day in the future, what may happen is my land may be dry one day with the famine, and I'm gonna need to put that thing before him and say, God, here's the birthright, and he may just so send me some rain on my land. And he's looking far into the future and calculating away for the things that matter. Not the right approach. Look at chapter 32. Not the right approach, but Jacob at least cared for the things that mattered. And this story that you read about Jacob there with him taking his birthright, that was the beginning of a separation between two brothers that would last for over 20 years. That was the beginning of a separation that would just tear their family apart. That was the start of it. Just that conniving toward his own brother. Jacob was already told that the younger was going to serve him. But he says, I don't forget faith, I'm gonna go about it and try to make it work my way. And don't deceive yourselves, you will reap what you sow. For over 20 years Esau lived in the agony of what Jacob did to him. So much so that he was still so angry with him in this chapter, chapter 32, where he's ready to kill him. And then you know what happens to Jacob? Do the math on it, for over 20 years he loses his son Joseph. still as Esau is blessed and God takes his blessed son from him for over 20 years. You're going to pay for your sins. That reaping will come. And Jacob experienced that because he took a great gift that God gave him and he used it for himself. Look at chapter 32 here. And the Lord had to deal with Jacob and put him in a place to where he could get Jacob's attention. And you know chapter 32 here, you still see toward the end of all this, after 20 years have passed, Jacob still has not learned his lesson in being calculated. still has not learned his lesson in trying to force things and make things work to the point where he hears that his brother's coming and right away he says, okay, Rachel and Leah, you're going to separate and you're going to take these servants and you're going to go this way and you're going to take these servants and you're going to go that this way. And then what you're going to do is my other servants, you're going to go out, you're going to go out before me and you're going to go meet Esau. But when you go, make sure there's a good distance between each of you. You're going three different groups. The first group, you're gonna go, and you're gonna present to Esau, and you're gonna say, hey, here's a present for you. And he divides them up into three different groups of presents, instead of presenting them all at once. Have you ever been mad in somebody, you don't want to be mad, and maybe it's with your spouse, and they say, they try to squash the beef there, and you're just not quite ready, but you're close. and they say something to you, and you still say something sharp back, even though on the inside, you're almost ready to be over it. You know what Jacob's doing? He's looking ahead, he's thinking, that first present that gets to him, that might be the case. Esau comes and he says, get out of the way, I'm still gonna kill him. But there's something inside that will tug on his heart and say, I don't wanna do this. Maybe when the second group comes. He'll say, get out of the way, I'm still mad. He's like, maybe by the time that third group comes, he'll be able to say, okay, you know what, this is stupid. It was 20 years ago, let's forget about it. That's how Jacob still is after 20 years. conniving, calculating, and then he goes before the Lord and he says, God, I'm so scared. Please remember the promises that you gave me about preserving me and preserving my seed and using me to bring the nation of Israel about. Please don't forget those promises. I'm fearful, I'm afraid. I have all these problems mounting up in my life. And he gets done doing his prayer and he still rises up and he says, hey, you take the kid and you cross over Jabuk. Because when Esau comes and he's going to look at that river, he's going to say, no way did they take all this cattle and kids across the river. They probably went this way. But I'm going to be way over here. That way if something happens to me, you guys can still escape. He's still calculating. And what happens is the angel of the Lord steps in. And if you know anything about context in your Bible, pay attention to context. Verses that seem random, they're not so random all the time. You read about Moses fighting the will of God to go into Israel. And then right there, there's a little blip of Zipporah coming in and circumcising their son and throwing that foreskin at Moses' feet and saying, a bloody husband art thou. That's not so random. It fits the context of the two chapters before it and the chapter following it. If you read them in a context, it makes perfect sense. Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the mist. Everybody says, there it is. There's a promise that if two people get together and pray that you have to be in the mist. That's not what it's talking about. Read the context. You have seven or eight verses on forgiving one another. And then you have, whatsoever shall be bound on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever shall be loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven. You take care of the animosity with your brother on earth. It doesn't have to take place at the judgment. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the mist. Meaning, you squash the beef with your brethren and the Holy Spirit is right there in the center of that thing. And then you know what it does? It carries on into more verses of context of forgiving one another. Pay attention to context when you're reading it. You have Jacob still calculating and calculating and trying to get out of this and saying, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna fix this my own way. And that angel steps in and says, hold on. Too long has that gone on. For too long have you taken things into your own hands. For too long have you tried to fix things. For too long has this animosity between your brother gone on. Stop. And I'm just gonna humble you if I have to. And Jacob doesn't want to stop, so he starts fighting and wrestling with that angel. Look at verse 24. And Jacob was left alone, and there he wrestled a man with him until the breaking of day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh. And the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, and he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go. Except thou blessed me. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince, thou hast power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee thy name. And he said, wherefore thou hast asked my name? And he blessed him there. So Jacob does get a blessing in the midst of all this. That is one calculating son of a gun. It is amazing when I read that passage and see that Jacob is sitting there in the midst of everything that's going on, and he's still asking for a blessing. You know what your first impression of that is? What an entitled man to actually think that he should be blessed right now. But Jacob knows the Lord God, and Jacob knows that his God is the type of God that likes to pick people up when they're low. That's what he knows about him. And Jacob's laying there and there and he's thinking, he's thinking, man, I destroyed my family. I made a mess of it. Never saw my mom again after she died. Never got to bury her. My brother, he's about trying to come and kill me. I even ruined my relationship with my wife's family to the point to where we have to have a covenant of a rock so we promise not to go kill each other. So that way, if that bitterness ever rises up, I'll go into his land and I'll see those rocks and I'll say, you know what? There was a covenant there before God that I can't go in there for harm. That's how bad the strife was. And Jacob thinks, everywhere I look, I just destroyed stuff. And now my leg's ruined for life. I've got nothing. I'm low, I'm low, and I don't, I've never been this low before. And he says, God, can you give me a blessing? And that's God's nature to do that. You know, some of the times in my life when I've been so low just in sin, in problems, has been the time that God has picked me up. And you know what Jacob does? He knows that about the Lord. And he says, I'm gonna get a blessing through this circumstance, through this situation. I have seen Christians that have such a great strength with that. A problem that arises in their life. And you know what they say? This is terrible, how can I get a soul through it? This is terrible, how can I help somebody through it? That's a great strength to have. But you know what, that calculating mind to actually look at things like Jacob was able to look at and get things out of him was the same calculating mind that one day walked into Isaac's tent and said, your son Esau, and put forth his hands and let him rub his arms and stole Esau's blessing. That same strength that Jacob had about him brought him low and messed his whole family up. But it's the same strength that he got the spiritual blessings from the Lord. Christian, the things that you have about you as a person, you put that in God's hand and he can use that. But you take it into your own hands and you will make a mess of your life and make a mess of things. Let's look at one more. We won't be long on this one. We're almost we're almost out of time. Look at John chapter six. This one is, of course, Peter. He's one of my favorite in the Bible. I think he's a lot of people's favorite in the Bible just because he's got such a bold and strong personality. And of course, In dealing with Peter and his personality and the way he is, you have to talk about the big mouth that he has. That's something that anybody who's ever read through their Bible or been in church for any amount of time knows that Peter had a big mouth. That's just who he was as a person. And oftentimes he put his foot in his mouth and oftentimes it was used for good. And Peter here in John chapter 6, look at verse 66 is the first time chapter 6 verse 66 shows up and it has to do with his disciples drawing away from him. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? So who is Jesus talking to? The twelve. Then look at verse 68. Then Simon Peter answered him. So he's talking to the twelve, but Simon Peter's the one who's going to answer. Lord, and then he answers for them and tells them what they think. Lord, to whom not shall I go, but Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And those guys just sit there and they let Peter talk for them and tell them exactly what you're thinking. You know, I've known some big mouth people that would do that to me. No, Timmy and I don't want that. Yes, I do. I didn't say that. You just answered for me or told people what I want. That's what Peter does. And you know, it doesn't go into it, do it in the chapter here, but it doesn't expound on how close that some of those disciples must have come to some of those other ones that finally walked away. There were some friendships there. There were some memories of laughter and some memories of some good times and serving the Lord together. And then they just walk away. And it hurts when a Christian friend walks away. I have a couple that did that, where they just walk away and they're no longer in church, no longer serving the Lord. That hurts. And maybe they're thinking about that, I don't know. All I know is Peter says, Lord, we're not gonna go anywhere. We're all gonna stay here. Because to whom shall we go? That's how Peter was. Look at Mark chapter 9. We're not going to read all the accounts of his big mouth, but just a couple, just these two here. Mark 9, verse 2, it says, And there appeared unto them Elias and Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make us three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias, for he wist not what to say. So Peter's the type of personality that when it gets quiet, it gets awkward, nobody's talking, he's going to blurt out something. He's the type of personality when you're in a delicate situation, his mouth is going to shoot off because he just doesn't know what to say. I have friends like that. that just, boop, there it goes. And you know what you tell them? Hey, if you don't know what to say, don't say anything. You don't always have to be talking. Always have to be telling somebody your thoughts. But that's how, that's a big mouth's natural tendency is to be talking and talking loudly and letting everybody know what you think. That's a big mouth, but you know what? In God's hand, he can use that big mouth. In your own hand, you're gonna drive wedges between relationships and say things that hurt people. And maybe some Christian just might be down and you'll go over there and you'll kick them even harder when that's not what they need. You put that personality of yours in your own hands, you make a mess of it. And that's what Peter does. You know, when I was down there in school, I had two friends down there and they were both big mouths and all they ever did was talk, talk, talk, and they were really loud. and sometimes annoying, but they were still my friends. I remember this one guy in class, and down there, these guys, they worked framing out there in the sun, and so they were outside all day working, and they'd go to class at night, and this guy had a family too on the side. He had a lot on his plate, so he was always tired in class, so sometimes he would doze off in class. Real hard worker. up at six, working straight to school in his work clothes, sitting in class. That's hard, out in that sun. And he's sitting there in class one day, and I'm sitting right where he's sitting, and he's sitting right where he's sitting, on the front row there, right across from each other. And he starts dozing off and pushes his hands like this. And he's just going. That's too loud. He's going. And he starts going. He's starting to snore. And Dr. Ruttman is just still teaching. And he's just. His head's going down and he's over here like this. Snoring. And then Dr. Rubbin says something that's really funny and the whole class goes, blah, blah, blah, blah. They're just laughing. And this guy goes, yeah, amen, amen. And I was thinking like, you don't even know what he said. You were sleeping. Why are you doing that? He wisps not what Dr. Ruttman said, but he felt like other people are being loud, so I have to be loud. That was this guy's personality. Just be loud, be heard. You know what I've watched that guy do, though? Stand in front of a concert with over 1,000 people out there and preach without showing an ounce of fear when he's being threatened to be beat up if he doesn't stop. That big mouth, just out there preaching the Word of God for 30 minutes, as these angry people are around him, just screaming at him, shut up! I'm gonna hurt you! And one guy pulls out a knife, I'll stab you! And he just preaches the Bible, preaches the Bible. That's a big mouth in God's hands. I had another friend down there who was just as bad as this guy. He was a real good friend of mine and he was always putting his foot in his mouth. Always. In the three years I was down there, he came to me multiple occasions crying because I said this about so-and-so and then I told him what I told his wife what he told me in confidence and then now they're fighting and they're mad at me and and then I told my old pastor something that brother Donovan told me in confidence and now they're mad at me and now he's just always crying because he's putting his mouth foot in his mouth is always talking always talking and you always knew when this guy was there I'd be sitting in class and all the way outside out here With that just long laugh that's just so obnoxious and you could just hear it through the building. And you're just like, oh, someone's over here. And then you can walk in that, he had a strut, you can walk in that building. Like this. Timmy! Across the way, and you're just like, oh my gosh. Like this guy is too much. And that's how he was, just a big mouth. I mean, just loud. We're in class one time, Dr. Ruttman's teaching. He says, so you see those words that are in italics? Those were not found in the original. They're not part of original inspiration. And what they are is they're giving. Dr. Ruttman! He didn't hear me. Dr. Ruttman! And he's like, yeah? He's like, did you just say that the part of the Bible's not inspired? No. I said, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. That means those italics that were added, any time you're adding from one language to another language, you have to put words in to make sense. But those words were not in the originals, but they're still given by inspiration. And he just turns around to the class, he just goes, whew, I thought Dr. Upton was going to apostate. And everybody's just, just sit down. Just stop. Just have a seat. That was this guy. He's preaching in class, and I knew him well enough at this point that he's telling a story that's not true. And he gets down, I meet another guy who knew him. We're having glances in class as he's preaching. We get down, we say, hey, did you make that story up? Yeah. I make up stories all the time when I preach. Like, you can't do that. Why? It works. That's what he said. Why, it works. He said, I make up stories all the time. That's called lying. He's like, do people laugh at him? Okay then. And that was this guy's mentality. Just a big mouth that just shoots his mouth off constantly. And over the years, I watched that guy put his foot in his mouth and make a mess of stuff. And he even hurt some friendships. Some people he was friends with for a long time, they broke their confidence bad. and destroyed some stuff. But I'll tell you this, that's the same guy that the Lord put his hand on that big mouth and used it. One day he's walking through a hospital and he's just strutting along. And he stops and he looks. And in this room, there's this old lady that's laying on this bed. And all these family members are standing around her. The normal person would want to give them their space. the normal person would wanna be courteous about it. This guy walks up with those big, heavy doctor doors that weigh 100 pounds that are loud, and he goes. And all those heads go. And he says, is she dying? And they said, yeah, she doesn't have much longer. He said, can I ask you guys a question? He just bites himself in the room. Does she know Jesus as her savior? And I said, you know, actually she does. We grew up in such and such Baptist church, and we're all saved, and we know Christ as our savior, and she's going home to heaven when she dies. He says, can I talk to her for a second? And they awkwardly look at each other, and they think. Sure, go ahead. And he walks in that room, and he takes that old, those doctor chairs, and he goes, and scoots it across the way, makes all that noise, just who he was, just loud. And he plops down, and he gets down that lady's ear, and he says, hey, ma'am, you don't know me. You don't know who I am. And he starts crying, too. And he says, I just came walking in. And I saw you laying on this bed, and your family tells me you're saved. I just wanna tell you something. I just wanna remind you that the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. And he says, he gets down that part about the valley of the shadow of death, and he says, you're gonna cross that valley now. But remember, the still waters are on the other side. And Jesus Christ will go through you, go through those waters with you. And that old lady starts crying. She's near her death and those tears start coming down her face. And he gets up and he struts out. And all those family members are just in tears at the end of that thing. That's a big mouth in God's hand. He can take a big mouth and your personality and who you are, you put it in God's hand and he'll use you to be a blessing to some Christians. You know, Peter found himself in a mess. After he made it public that Jesus Christ was not going to die, put his foot in his mouth and said, he ain't gonna die. I'm not gonna let that happen. And then, you know what he does? He finds himself sitting by a fire, just sitting there with his head down and just depressed and worried about how he just blew it again because of just his natural tendency. Why does he do this? Why do I say the things I say? Why do I do this? And you know what happens though? The Lord gives us second chances. And one day Peter's out there at Pentecost in Acts chapter two. And Peter's standing out there and he's looking out across this way and he sees thousands of men. Thousands out there. And the Lord comes down and he says, Peter, I want you to preach. And he says, to everybody? He says, yeah, to everybody. And Peter says, this is exactly what I was born for. And he takes that Bible and he goes out there and he says, Men and brethren, these are not drunk, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is the prophecy of Joel, where men shall dream dreams, and women shall have visions. Even the handmaids and the servants shall see dreams and have visions, and the sun shall be darkened." He goes through this whole message, and over 3,000 people come to be joined to the church that day. You know what God does with our personalities? We'll constantly find ourselves making a mess of things in our life because of who we are. but you present your body as a living sacrifice. That's everything about you, that's your personality, that's your characteristics, that's who you are. You say, God, I am yours. And he'll take that and he'll use it. Let's stand for prayer. I guess we'll have the piano play and just pray for a few minutes. Now, every one of you has something about you as a person that you're gonna stand before the judgment seat of Christ for. It's like I said earlier, I'm not Dr. Ruppman. I'm not Clarence Larkin. but I'm me. And I can hand a tract to somebody over the urinal and give it to that person to tell them about Jesus Christ. That's something I have about me that I'm okay in those weird, awkward situations. They don't bother me too bad. Now, what do you have? Because God will use it. I beseech you, brethren, that you present your bodies, your bodies as a living sacrifice. You know, I remember one time this guy on a job site, he had a terrible childhood. His mom, just as stubborn as can be, this guy was. But God can use stubbornness. And he's on this job site, I'm talking to him, and he's telling me this story about how his stepdad used to beat him growing up. Punch him in the face, smack him around, and his mom never did anything about it. She never stood up for him, she never protected him. That was 30 years ago, this guy was in his 40s now. And I'm talking to him, and he says, I will never forgive her. And I said, you've been hanging on to that thing for a long, long time now. He says, I'll hang on to it till the day I die. Stubborn, just as stubborn as can be. I will never let that go is what he told me. And 25, 30 years of his Christian life is gone and wasted. But you submit that stubbornness to the Lord. I know of a missionary up in the villages of Alaska where hardly anybody even knows who he is. Those villages are so small up there with a group of 200 people that lives in that village. Snows in July there. Just cold all year round. Just up there serving the Lord and his son saying, Dad, if you don't take me out of this place, I'm gonna kill myself. Dad, if you don't take me out of this place, I'm gonna kill myself. You know, he says to his son, you do what you gotta do, but this is where I'm called. And that kid puts a shotgun in his mouth one day, pulls that trigger and blows his head off. That guy got a call from all kinds of pastors that he knew that said, this is a sign from God to step off the field. He said, I'm going forward. I will not leave where God put me. He said, my son couldn't handle it, that's his problem. But this is where I'm supposed to be. His granddaughter at four years old, dying of cancer. They said, leave the field, go be with your family back in Fairbanks. He said, I'm going forward. This is where I'm supposed to be. Stubborn. And look at the two extreme outcomes. You know what God will take? Your characteristics about you. And man, can he use them for something. or use them for yourself and you'll just make a mess of your whole life. Thank you. Brother Isaac, could you close us in prayer, please?