Faith on the Go: Ep 8: The Cost of Instant Gratification: Esau's Story

0:00 Hello, and welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast with our Faith on the Go series. We're at episode seven. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and the title of this episode is Trading the Promise for a Plate, Esau Instant Gratification and the Loss of Spiritual Inheritance. We are still on our Curse of Familiarity series, and I'm, again, your host, Connie Morris. So let's get going. Today's episode is about giving up an inheritance for a plate of food.

0:45 Let's just talk about it. Today's episode in our Curse of Familiarity series is about a man who has something sacred and gave it up for something quick. We're talking about Esau, Jacob's older twin brother, the firstborn, the one who carried the birthright, the one who was in position for a promise, but traded it all for a plate of stew. The episode is titled Trading the Promise for a Plate. He saw instant gratification and the loss of spiritual inheritance.

1:25 So let's break down how familiarity with favor made him forfeit something eternal for something temporary. This is Faith on the Go, real talk, real growth, wherever you are. And I'm your host, Connie Morris. So let's go to Genesis chapter 25, verses 29 to 34. And it reads, it says, Once Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country famished. He said, Jacob, quick, let me have some of that red stew. I am famished. Jacob replied, first, sell me your birthright.

2:07 Esau said, look, I'm about to die. What good is the birthright to me? So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. So let's take a pause here. When you're hungry, is it almost death? I don't think so. Esau gave up his spiritual inheritance because he was hungry. Not dying, not desperate, but just unwilling to wait. That's what familiarity will do. It'll have you treating what's holy like it's optional. Like it's something you can trade off.

2:47 Like you have a spiritual inheritance because you are hungry famished saying I was about to die, you are willing to trade it off for a temporary satisfaction of food think about that think about that the Lord tells you to fast and you know every time you try to fast you notice what happens everybody start having buffets people want to buy you dinner people who you haven't called tomorrow I'm going to take you out to dinner it becomes a fight for sure we have to begin to like, it's a promise, it's a spiritual inheritance God said it, it's holy we have to say can I take a rain check you know so let's talk about this curse of familiarity, here with Esau and his brother.

3:42 Esau didn't steal, he didn't kill, but he did something just as dangerous. He despised the birthright. He's following verse 34. He didn't value what he carried. He traded long-term blessings for a short-term relief. And the worst part, he didn't even hesitate. He just says, give me food or I'm dying. What was the value of the inheritance? It was valuable not to Esau. It was more valuable to his brother. Come on now. So how does that work today? It's everywhere today.

4:24 Choosing the hookup over holiness. Ouch. Wow. Choosing a hookup. In today's language, it's called a booty call over holiness. Choosing gossip over grace. Choosing ambition over assignment. Choosing right now over what's right. We throw away peace, purpose, and purity, all because we can't endure a moment of discomfort. Esau didn't lose the birthright by force. he gave it away because he was too familiar with it to recognize its weight and its worth.

5:07 I just want to pause here. What have you given away that you thought wasn't worth it? You know, since we talked about the hookup over holiness, we talk about giving away our virginity because you thought everybody else is doing it. Everybody else is doing it. And so you give away your virginity. So now, remember once you give it away, you can't get it back. Just the way Esau gave away his spiritual inheritance, once he gave it away, he can't get it back, right? Gossip over grace. The Holy Ghost is telling you to be quiet and you still run in your mouth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but you're still over there running your mouth.

5:52 Choose an ambition over assignment. You want to look good to the man instead of God. God's giving you assignment, but that assignment for now may be like a low-profile assignment. Nobody knows you're doing it. Nobody. But your ambition wants to be seen like right now. It wants to be seen right now you know and that just brought me up to this dream I had right and so I'm gonna share it I wasn't planning on it but I prayed and Lord want me to share it now so I had this dream I was kind of in the in these tall grasses and I was kind of working on my podcast I'm in the tall grass in the middle of wilderness you know how dreams can be very symbolic.

6:39 So middle wilderness, I had these lynx, these kind of wild cats, they were kind of protecting me in this barrier. So they were kind of killing these large rats that were kind of causing distraction for me. So I thought that was interesting. So I'm working really hard on my podcast. But in my mind, in the middle of this high grassy space, there was a shiny microwave, right and you know we always want to be famous fast and so I'm like damn why is this microwave it didn't fit this scenario because I'm in the wilderness but why is this microwave out here you know and so I you know so what I did was I kind of put my my my I don't know what I did I pretty much put my podcast information trying to fast forward it put it into the microwave And when I pushed a button on the microwave, the microwave blew up.

7:36 And then I woke up. And the Lord says, we are not going to be fast-forwarding the assignment. And I say, what you're doing now is going to continue at this pace until I decide when to fast-forward it. And a lot of times we get an assignment from God. And God is telling us that we're doing it. But we want to go at, we're going maybe at a pace of 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3. And that's how much as we can do. And we want to go from 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 to 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2. We want to go super, super, super fast and get over, like, I don't know, we want to do a million downloads, 2 million downloads.

8:20 And he's like, whoa. And then you're going to be trying to blow up, literally, you know, because you're trying to blow up, blow yourself up. You know what I'm saying? People say, I'm going to blow up. I'm going to blow up. Blow up is like become famous. And what you're going to do when you become famous? Are you ready for that? Right? What you're going to do when you become boss? That's choosing ambition over assignment. What am I learning in this whole process? A lot. I'm learning a lot. When God tells you to do an assignment, he got a bigger plan for you, right? So don't be an Esau and sell out your assignment, your purpose for what God has called you to do, to go try to be a superstar before your time. And if you really look at the superstars now, the ones who jumped ahead of God, maybe I ain't saying they were all Christians.

9:08 I'm saying like the ones who thought it was a good thing to do what they did. I mean, we're starting to find out, you know, P. Diddy is on trial and all the secrets are coming out. And what they did to these kids who wanted to be a star, mom sent them ahead to, quote, blow up. Come on now. And so the assignment that God has given us is a process that we have to, he's taken us through a process. It's a purpose. It's designed for long-term growth, long-term growth. People don't want long-term growth. They want instant satisfaction, instant satisfaction, instant satisfaction. And if you go through instant satisfaction, you will not be happy.

9:51 You will get to the top and you'll wonder, okay, I made it. What's next? And he said, you made it to the top. That's where you want it to go. Yeah, there. Enjoy. You see what I'm saying? You're there. Enjoy. So that's what I want to talk about. So we talked about the hookup. Keep your virginity. Keep it tight. Keep it tight. Gossip. Remember, if you're gossiping about someone, then we're gossiping about you. Choose God's purpose over your ambitions. Use that ambition into your purpose and your assignment. You're going to have some fun, and you're going to have long-term growth. And long-term, you're going to be out there for a while. It's going to be a while.

10:35 You'll be 60, 70 years old, still in your purpose and still growing and still bringing in the money, right? And then let's choose right now over what's right. Sometimes we, like I said, the microwave, sometimes we want things too quick, right? We need to slow it down, slow it down, you know. So we throw away peace, purpose, and purity, all because we can't endure a moment of discomfort. Esau didn't lose his birthright by force. He gave it away because he was too familiar to recognize the weight, to recognize the purpose, to recognize that it was holy, that it came from God.

11:22 Four warning signs you're trading the promise for a plate. Number one, you justify a shortcut. I am about to die. You over-exaggerate the moment to excuse disobedience. You ever had somebody do that? You over-exaggerate so you can excuse disobedience. I'm about to die. You know what? Okay, you're not about to die. Or people say, I can't breathe. You're talking, so you're breathing pretty good. Number two, you treat sacred things casual. When church, prayer, and purpose becomes just another thing, right?

12:04 When you're treating the holy as common, then there becomes a problem. And you'll know that. You treat the holy as common. Number three, you prioritize feelings over faith. What's good is a birthright if I'm hungry. Letting flesh dictate decisions. Is that you? Letting flesh dictate decisions. Sometimes that's me. You know, you start a fast and then all of a sudden your stomach. Next thing you know, you find yourself going through a drive-thru. You'd be like, why am I in this drive-thru? I'm on a fast. Come on now. We know.

12:45 You know, instead of pulling your backing up and getting out, you commit to the whole process and you start over, right? So I'm just keeping it real. So you have to pray. Lord, I need help today to finish the fast. I need help tomorrow to finish fast. Like using your faith so that you do not sell your birthright, right, for a hamburger or a fry or whatever, an ice cream cone. Those all sound good right now, don't they? Number four, you act without prayer or a pause. Esai didn't consult God. He just moved on impulse.

13:27 You know, I don't know if you are, I used to be an impulse buyer. I do, I did. You know, whatever I feel, I just go get it. But now I'll pause. Then I will, like, leave it in the, I'll put it in the, you know, you put it in the checkout. And then I'll, if I remember it the next day, I'll go get it. If I don't, I don't. And sometimes I just, that's pretty much a good thing. I'm not at the mall gathering a whole bunch of stuff that I'm not going to use. All right, so let's go over the warning signs that you're trading a promise for a plate. You justify shortcuts or you exaggerate the moment to excuse disobedience. Is that you?

14:14 You treat sacred things casually or common as common, right? Right? Church, prayer, you know, you're not expecting God to move in your prayer group or at church. You're just kind of doing your thing. And so he's not moving because you're not expecting him. So it's so casual. Right? You prioritize your feelings over faith. We talked about that, letting your flesh decide when you're mad, when you're sad, when you're glad, when you're on a fast, and when you're not supposed to be eating something, right? Not supposed to be watching TV, whatever your fast is. Your flesh seems to cry out louder than your spirit.

14:59 That's when you know you need to be fasting, right? Become too familiar with the sacred. And then number four, you act without prayer or pause. You just move on impulse. Those are powerful. So you saw walked into the house with an inheritance, and he walked out full but empty. How many of us has made permanent decisions on a temporary hunger, on a temporary basis, on a temporary situation? That's powerful, right? He walked in with an inheritance. He left without an inheritance.

15:40 Don't let the urgency of your flesh rob you of the destiny of your life. Because here's the truth. That stew will satisfy you for a moment, but will cost you something eternal. This section probably can go a little bit longer. How many things have we thought that it was just a flesh, but we also put some marks on our eternal little checklist in heaven, right? So we want to make sure that we don't treat what's holy as common.

16:22 I must be saying that a lot because that's something that we seem to do. He walked in the house with his inheritance, but then he left without his inheritance. And so don't let the urgency of your flesh rob your destiny. Hebrews 12 verses 16 to 17 warns us not to be godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance. And later, when he wanted it back, it was too late. We talk about that. We talk about losing something valuable, our virginity, valuable, our spiritual inheritance, valuable.

17:07 And once you lose it, you cannot get it back. Pause for a fact here. You cannot get it back. And that's that curse of familiarity, because we may, not saying that we do, we may begin, we've had the games we play with God series. We had eyes wide open, back to back. And now we're trying to figure out, like, why is this curse of familiarity here? Because we play games and then we see it like God shows us and then we're back to playing games again.

17:49 So let's really begin to take God seriously. Let's not lose our inheritance. Let's keep everything. Let's walk in holiness. Let's keep our holiness, right? Let's not sell our soul for some food. Let's not sell our holiness for just a moment. of a temporary pleasure, right? Let's not do that. Let's walk in divine holiness and righteousness all the way through. Let's not be like Esau this year, 2025. Let this be a year of holiness. Let's hold our birthright, right, with honor.

18:30 And our birthright is like, when you decided to have Jesus as your Lord and Savior, You started a new life with Jesus. And so that's your birthright. And so when you start to trade that life with worldly things, like we mentioned earlier in the podcast, then you're losing that whole point of that new birthright, the spiritual inheritance that he's given us for being his son and his daughter. And so you always want it. You don't feel nothing happening, but something happened. There was a shift in the heavenlings when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

19:11 Your position has shifted, right? Now you have access to not just a natural world, you have access to the spiritual world. That's why you can hear Jesus, right? That's why you can actually say, I have access to heaven now. But many people sell out their access to heaven. And still, come over with spirit being, we're going to live forever regardless. You just get to choose your position, your location. We chose heaven. And so remember, you want to hold on to your birthright. You want to hold on to that, to your Jesus right. You want to hold on to that spiritual inheritance and not sell it out to just something, to someone.

19:58 Amen. So let's pray. when it says, Father, don't let me trade my eternal for the immediate. Open my eyes to the value of what you have given me. Give me strength to wait, to endure, to obey, no matter how hungry my flesh may feel. Keep me from impulse. Keep me from Esau's decision. In Jesus' name, amen. This has been Faith on the Go with your host, Connie Morris. Don't sell what's sacred. Don't sell what's holy. Don't give away what God gave you. Stay patient and stay hungry for the right things.

20:42 Subscribe, review, and share. You can connect with me at the Diary of Black Women LLC.com and follow Diary of Black Women podcast on X and Instagram. Until next time, protect your promise, value your birthright, and keep walking with me with faith on the go. Thank you. Until next time, bye-bye.