Citing the unconscious living by Esau when he sold his birthright for porridge, Bishop Itse Enonuya advised the Christians to live consciously everyday and avoid taking rash decisions which will tantamount to selling their birthday in Christ. Christians were also advised to take the work of the vineyard serious and obey the commandments of the Lord.

1. CHURCH OF CHRIST,
SANGOTEDO
LIVE CONSCIOUSLY
(Gen 25:29-34)
A Sermon Presented by
Bishop Itse Enonuya
7 August 2016

2. AIM
 Subject: The Christian Birthright
 Topic: Live Consciously!
 Proposition: Learning from Esau’s
example
 Objective: Awaken the individual
to the need for a long term focus
rather than living for the moment
 Aim: To warn about not taking
God seriously

3. Being Alive
 ‘Don’t sell your birthright’ could also be topic for
this sermon
 To be alive is to be conscious
 Difference levels of consciousness
 Awareness
 Conscious vs unconscious
 Consider carefully in daily decisions so don’t lose our
birthright (John 1:12-13)
 Two Kinds of persons in the scriptures
 Good examples (Joseph, Daniel, Abraham, Paul)
 Do like these
 Bad examples ( e.g. Esau)
 Do not do like this

4. Birth-right
 Important & Sacred in the patriarchal age
 Honour given to firstborn son
 Confers head of household in the absence/death of father
 Spiritual implication is that God dealt with the family head (Heb 1:1-2)
 Gets double portion of inheritance – Deut 21:17
 Jacob/Esau’s case special, as Abraham’s covenant blessing will flow here
 Ultimately Messiah would come through holder of the birthright & bless all
nations
 Esau failed to appreciate the value & sacredness of his birthright
 Same situation with many Christians in attitude to the things of God
 Give priority to temporal, rather than spiritual (Matt 6:33)
 Not giving due regard to God’s promise of future glory (Rom 8:18)
 A timely warning, from God, not to be like Esau (Heb 12:16)
 To treat the things of God as ordinary or thoughtlessly is to profane them

5. Irreversible Consequence.
 Esau’s example teaches us about the nature
of irreversible consequences
 Confer Heb 12:17
 Lesson to Christians about spiritual apathy,
described as profane
 A dis-regard for religious & holy things by someone
who is familiar or well-acquainted with them
 Note Esau was well acquainted with the divine plan of
God/promise to Abraham
 Issue here is that Esau made a
choice/decision, which set in motion a series
of consequences
 Although afterward he desired to inherit the
blessing, he could not!
 Situation was irrevocable!

6. Warning for Christians.
 Esau handled spiritual things lightly
 He lost out on the blessing & it was unchangeable
 If we live for the moment, with a light
appreciation of the Christian inheritance, we can
lose our opportunity
 There is no second chance , no use for tears, no
chance for repentance after death or the
Judgement (Heb 9:27, 1Pet4:17)
 Remember the unprepared foolish virgins (Matt
25:1-13) or
 the rich man who was sorry in torment and it was
too late to repent or warn his brethren (Lk 16: 19-
31)
 This kind of regret comes too late.
 Now is the time we have to take God seriously (Heb
11:6b, 1Cor10:12)

7. The Esau Principle.
 Don’t miss out on long term blessings for
temporary pleasure.
 God wants to bless us with eternal
inheritance/blessings
 We should not let immediate gratification block
our rights to these blessings.
 Through Christ, we are born into the family of God
& become heirs to eternal inheritance
 For non-Christians, these blessings are for those
who believe in Jesus (Acts 16:31), repent of their
sins (Acts 17:30) & are baptised for forgiveness of
sins & refuse to sell their new-birth right (John
3:3-5) for temporary pleasures.