Mr. Randy Schreiber

Sermon Transcript

December 29, 2001

God's Great Promises
Twenty Chickens

Stories that I heard told and movies that I saw a few adaptations from over time was Washington Irving’s classic tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. A couple of years ago I saw a television adaptation of that move that added a little bit to the story that I thought something quite profound occurred within that story, the T.V. version, of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

In this version, Eric Van Tassel was a young boy that lived in a small New York community of Sleepy Hollow. And Eric’s primary job, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year, was to take care of the chickens. His job was to feed, gather the eggs, clean out the chicken house, and his dad had that in mind, Beltus Van Tassel, had that in mind with him. And his other family had similar duties and their whole world basically centered around the Van Tassel’s farm.

One day a schoolteacher from Connecticut, Ichabod Craine, came ridding into town, that ungangling figure you are familiar with if you are familiar with the story of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. And he was to become the schoolteacher, the schoolmaster of a previously non-existent school. And he was trying to build up his class. And he would go around, as teachers did at that time and in that age, and spend time at the various parent’s homes of the students that he would be teaching.

And he happened to be at Beltus Van Tassel’s home. And he was trying to explain that it is good for his kids to have education. It is good for them to move out and beyond their present boundaries where they lived. And Crain’s hope was to bring education and freedom of opportunity to the town’s children.

And in this particular adaptation, as Ichabod Craine was trying to get the Van Tassels to have their children join the school house, Van Tassel wanted to make sure that schoolmaster Crane understood the rules. And he said, "My son Eric don’t need to learn to count to no more than twenty because that is all the chickens we have room for in the hen house."

Now, think about it. Eric Van Tassel, a young boy who took care of no more than twenty chickens, and his dad Beltus wanted Eric to hurry and get this schooling thing over so he could get back to his twenty chickens in his hen house. And he was sure that he would never need to take care of no more than twenty chickens. They were sure that young Eric would never do anything in his life beyond taking care of twenty chickens. They were sure that Van Tassel farm was the only place that Eric would ever want to live. Learning to count to more than twenty would certainly be a complete waste of time.

Turn to Genesis 25. There is kind of a similar story back here. I will read it out of the Living Bible. It makes it a little more story like. It is speaking of Jacob and Esau.

Genesis 25:27 As the boys grew, Esau became a skillful hunter, while Jacob was a quiet sort who liked to stay at home.

Other translations say he was a tent dweller. He like to stay in the tents. It seemed like Esau was one who, what he had was basically all he needed. He stayed home. He stayed in his tents. He didn’t need to go out. He didn’t need to expand his education. He didn’t need to expand his adventure. He didn’t need to go on. And he probably had twenty chickens that he tended at home. Who knows.

Genesis 25:29-31 One day Jacob was cooking stew when Esau arrived home exhausted from the hunt. [30] Esau: "Boy, am I starved! Give me a bite of that red stuff there!" (From this came his nickname "Edom," which means "Red Stuff.") I am not sure that is in the original Hebrew, but that is the Living Bible version.

[31] Jacob: "All right, trade me your birthright for it!"

The birthright would basically have been Esau’s future. It would have been what he would have inherited from his father. Yet he was willing to get rid of it. It didn’t mean much to him.

Genesis 25:32-34 Esau: "When a man is dying of starvation, what good is his birthright?"

[33] Jacob: "Well then, vow to God that it is mine!" And Esau vowed, thereby selling all his eldest-son rights to his younger brother. [34] Then Jacob gave Esau bread, peas, and stew; so he ate and drank and went on about his business, indifferent to the loss of the rights he had thrown away.

He was a lot like Eric, who really didn’t need to learn to count to no more than twenty. Because that is all the chickens I have room for in the hen house. What is in the future? Well, not much. I will settle for taking care of twenty chickens. Esau was willing to stay at home in the tent. Never get out. Never do anything. Never look forward beyond basically the confines of home.

Now, Esau didn’t see the need to the birthright. He only had room for twenty chickens in his hen house anyway. Jacob on the other hand saw what could be. Jacob was one who looked beyond and that is why he tried to finagle that birthright out of his brother. And you know the story where he continuously did that type of thing. He wrestled with the One who would become Jesus Christ to get a blessing. He saw what could be. He looked for the future. He didn’t just look at what was here and now. And he would do whatever it took to be in a good place in the future.

There are people who basically look around at what they have got. And they dwell in their home and that is all the further they look. Not that staying at home is all that bad of a thing. We are talking about something much greater than that today.

Genesis 37:5 is where a person had a dream.

Genesis 37:5-8 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. [6] So he said to them, "Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: [7] There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf." [8] And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

You know, one day God called you and opened your mind, or you are a young person who has grown up in the church and you have been exposed to the truths of what our future is. You have been exposed to the fact that God says when we follow His way, we have an inheritance. We have an eternal inheritance. And we are going to live and reign with Jesus Christ and we are going to be the rulers of other people.

Now, when you were called, first told that to a relative, when you first told that to a friend that hey, we are going to be ruling and living and reigning with Jesus Christ and ruling over…you, if you are not called. They reacted the same way, undoubtedly, that Joseph’s brothers did to him. Because it seems like a fantasy that we would actually be called and chosen to rule. It was as much a fantasy like as it was for Joseph to say that he was going to rule and his brothers getting in their head that that is what would happen.

Genesis 37:9-10 Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me." [10] So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?"

They said, right, that’s likely. But Joseph was a dreamer because God had opened his mind to what could be, the eternal inheritance. Not just what was around. And all of the things that Joseph ended up going through. And you know the stories. He was cast into a pit by his brothers and sold into slavery. He was thrown in prison for several years. He was falsely accused. He was abandoned by friends. But through all of this he never quit dreaming. The instruction that he was getting through these trials and tests was much like the instruction that Ichabod Crane wanted for young Eric; that you get education. And it is a freedom. You get training and knowledge and it is a freedom that will allow you to move beyond your present circumstances. And in a physical sense, education and training are things that can help you to move beyond your tent, or your twenty chickens in your hen house, and to do something with your life.

Spiritually, following God’s way. Following His directions. Pursuing the knowledge that He gives and the understanding He gives will open up an inheritance to us that makes anything on this earth and what it possesses, like twenty chickens in a hen house by comparison.

So what about us? Do we see the vision of the inheritance of becoming future rulers? Satan is there declaring that you don’t need God’s laws. You don’t need God’s character. You don’t need to learn to count that high. And you can settle for what I will give you. You can settle for this earth. He tried to tempt Christ that way when he said, look, I will make you ruler over all that I have if you will just bow down and worship me. And Jesus said no. Because He knew there was something well beyond that. And that what Satan has to offer in his world is like twenty chickens in a hen house by comparison.

2 Peter 1. Do we look at just what the present world has to offer? Or do we look beyond that? Do we see what God has to offer us and what is in our future? And do we always keep that in mind and realize that this is indeed a training ground for eternal life in God’s presence.

2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

There is knowledge that God gives to us. Just like that knowledge that a teacher wants to impart to his student so it can open his horizons and expand his or her opportunities. God gives us knowledge that will cause us to have eternal life and inheritance.

2 Peter 1:4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

So he talks about great and precious promises. Those things that are out there for us to achieve, if we will only go get them. If we won’t settle for less. If we won’t sell our birthright and sell out that that God has promised to us by taking something that is temporary, very small by comparison.

2 Peter 1:10-11 Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, [11] and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There is something out there for us. Are we going to grab onto that? Are we going to use it? Are we going to put it to use in our lives? Or are we going to settle for much less; that which Satan has to offer?

Life is like school. You know, a lot of you just finished up if you are in high school, or college, your exams. You maybe had a term paper you had to finish. It is a lot of work. It is very hard. It is very difficult. My wife just ended up getting her Masters degree a year ago and it was very hard, for someone who is a little older, to go back and get all that schooling. A lot of trials, a lot of tests involved with it. But she had her mind on something greater than what she currently had. And that is what the kingdom is all about. Instead of looking to what we currently could have, and just play with our twenty chickens, we see what can be. And all the trials and all the tests and the problems we go through in life is a training ground. That is part of our education for ruling with Jesus Christ forever in the kingdom.

Some have felt that this hen house we live in of the world is all we will ever need. We don’t have to worry about anything beyond that. There is no need to learn, spiritually, to count to more than twenty. I’ll settle for what Satan has to offer. We sell our birthright. But God has given us the opportunity to use our time on earth as a training ground. That education that is going to open up freedom and opportunity for us forever.

Sometimes God gives us these learning opportunities, and we respond by saying I don’t need to learn to count to no more than twenty. It is all the room I got for in my hen house. Some give up the future for a mere bowl of soup by comparison.

Now, we look at Esau for example, and we say that seems awfully narrow minded to sell your birthright for a bowl of soup. We could look at Eric and say that is awfully narrow minded to settle for counting to no more than twenty because I will never have more than twenty chickens to deal with. That is the way it is when we turn down God’s offer. God’s offer to do much better with our lives. And it is short sighted and God sees it as short sighted. When we go through a trial and feel like giving up, He says that is part of our education. Don’t settle for less.

We see many examples of those who settled for less. You see examples of those who had an opportunity to do better but it was too much trouble. I don’t really need to do any more than what I have got already. And then we see those who were willing to go through anything for the reward that is there for us to have if we will just pursue it.

Hebrews 10:35-39 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. [36] You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. [37] For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. [38] But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him." [39] But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews 11:8 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.

He didn’t see it right then. For this Eric Van Tassel to go to school and to start learning things, he would have to spend a lot of time away from the farm. He would have to spend a lot of time taking tests and studying for his exams and getting his hands slapped by a ruler. But it would have expanded his horizons. It is the same with us. Abraham saw that although he had to go through a lot of things in the process and didn’t receive his reward immediately, he was willing to go through whatever it took to be given the reward, the inheritance.

Hebrews 11:9-10 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. [10] For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

He looked beyond the present to the future and was willing to sacrifice anything he needed to to obtain that inheritance.

Hebrews 11:24-26 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. [25] He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. [26] He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.

He looked at the great palace of the pharaoh as being a hen house with twenty chickens in it by comparison. He looked beyond and he looked to what could be. He looked to what God had to offer and was willing to suffer anything in order to receive that great inheritance.

Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

You know, it is funny, a lot of people have left the Church of God and they have gone out because they got offended by what somebody said. They got offended by someone saying something they didn’t like. Some small thing by comparison, and basically throw away what could be, for something temporary, for something small. He said don’t let that happen. Take the exams. Follow through.

Hebrews 12:16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, Some people have an eternal life ahead of them; rulership with God and with Jesus Christ forever. And they throw it away for an affair. You have seen it happen. And I have seen it happen. And it is selling out for twenty chickens. Selling out the birthright for something so small, so insignificant. But people are willing to do that because they don’t have the big vision, the big picture in mind.

Hebrews 12:16-17 It says, …Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. [17] Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.

Sometimes it gets to be too late. Don’t sell out. Don’t do something stupid. Sometimes teenagers like to do that. They get involved with the present, they get involved with friends, they get involved with things that are around. You have to understand that those things are so small by comparison. That when you leave the truth, when you leave God’s way of life, it is just as ridiculous as not needing to learn to count to more than twenty because that is all the room you got for in your hen house. Don’t sell out by any means.

Hebrews 12:25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. God calls you. He gives you that opportunity for that spiritual education. He gives you the opportunity for freedom and to do so many good things; so many positive things. Even on a physical level, following this way of life there is nothing better.

We were talking about that last night with a bunch of us that had grown up in the Church. And we talked of the opportunities that we had growing up. Some people call this way of life a burden. All of us who have grown up in the Church, we have been to lands far away because of the feast. It gives us an opportunity to travel. We have got friends that we have had forever. So many good things. So many positive things that even the physical blessings of doing the right thing so far pale anything that Satan has to offer that it is just unbelievable. And if you settle for less, if you settle for Satan’s way, there are temporary pleasures, but it ends up not going anywhere. You end up staying in your little world that Satan has created for you because he doesn’t want you to get out beyond your boundaries. God’s boundaries are limitless.

Hebrews 12:25 … how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

At that time his voice shook the earth, and he is speaking of when Israel was giving opportunity for the promise land and when he spoke to them on Mt. Sinai and gave them his laws, his commandments, his instruction, that teaching, that would have caused them to have good times, would have caused them to have a good life. They rejected it for the things the world had to offer.

But it goes on to say we have got something even greater than that. He says, …Hebrews 12:26-27 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, "Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven." [27] Now this, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.

In other words, eternity. The heavens. The stars and the universe. Everything is out there for us. I know you have all dreamed about the inheritance of the universe, the inheritance of the stars, whether in a physical state or a spiritual state, however God chooses to do that in the future, that we will rule and will have possibly our own worlds. So much is out there that God gives us opportunity to pursue. Our inheritance is unbelievable. You can look up at the sun and the moon and the stars and you start trying to count them. And you can’t do it. They are innumerable. That is our inheritance. But sometimes we settle for twenty, when God gives us eternity. Let’s not do that.

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,

The reward is the universe. The reward is eternal life. Don’t sell out for a few minutes of fun. Don’t sell out for what Satan has to offer. His offer is twenty chickens in a hen house by comparison. And it is ridiculous to even ponder it, to think about it. Don’t settle for a way of life that will tie us to Satan’s little farm where he wants us to think small and look at the present. Look at God’s offer. Look at God’s inheritance He gives us.

The next time we are discouraged. We fell like giving up. We feel like what is it worth. It is worth so much and we need to grab onto it. Look up into the heavens and try to count the starts. Try to count everything that is up there, and then start counting the five fingers on one hand and five on the other. And take your shoes off and count your toes. There is twenty. What is it worth? What number is that by comparison to what God has to offer? Absolutely nothing. God promises to open up endless opportunities in the universe in eternal life. Don’t sell it out for twenty chickens in a hen house.