Sea Change Sermons

Sea Change Church | Pastor Adam Stadtmiller

Main Point: Your Appetite Defines You
In Genesis 25:29-34, Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew, showing how temporary cravings can lead to lasting regret.

Key Lessons
Living for the Temporary
Esau focused on his immediate hunger, ignoring the long-term value of his birthright.
Reflection: Have you ever prioritized short-term comfort over long-term blessings?

Valuing What Matters
A birthright symbolized material, spiritual, and relational significance.
Reflection: What valuable blessings might you be overlooking?
Spiritual Indifference
Esau dismissed his loss, showing a lack of spiritual awareness.
Reflection: How can you intentionally seek and value God’s blessings?

Takeaways
Evaluate what desires may be distracting you from God.
Cultivate spiritual hunger through prayer and Scripture.
Recognize and protect the blessings God has given you.

Discussion Questions
When have temporary desires influenced your decisions?
How can you guard against prioritizing immediate comfort over lasting value?
What spiritual blessings are you grateful for today?

John 13 and Jesus washing feet on the last night — resilient love, demonstrated rather than described.

Esau sells his birthright for a bowl of stew, closing the Old Testament narrative for the year before the Upper Room Discourse begins.

Life is full of struggles—physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual—but the key to handling them is trusting God instead of trying to control everything yourself. In Genesis 25:19-28, Jacob and Esau struggled even before they were born, showing that challenges are just part of life.

What We Learn From This Story:

Reflection Questions:

Practical Steps:

Struggles will always be part of life, but God is bigger. Will you keep fighting for control, or will you trust God to lead the way?

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The same passage a week on — the struggle in the womb, and Rebekah asking the Lord why. Paired with a time of anointing and prayer for healing.

In Genesis 25:19-28, we witness the power of prayer, God’s sovereignty, and the unfolding of a divine plan through the birth of Jacob and Esau. Isaac and Rebekah's story reminds us that God's blessings often come with both promise and struggle, requiring faith, perseverance, and a deep commitment to seeking Him in prayer.

Key Themes:

Reflection Questions:

Practical Steps:

This passage reminds us that prayer isn’t just about asking—it’s about aligning with God’s will, seeking His wisdom, and interceding for others. Are we willing to cultivate a prayer-filled life that leads to powerful transformation?

Genesis 25 and the birth of Jacob and Esau, on changing a family through prayer and on intercession as the thing that shifts a household.

Rebekah at the well, watering ten camels — 200 to 250 gallons. She could not have made that choice without margin in her life to stop for a stranger.

This sermon explores Genesis 24:1-4, 10-14, the story of how Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage came to be—a story rooted in faithfulness, prayer, and God’s steadfast love. Abraham, his servant, and Rebekah each demonstrate faithfulness in their own way, showing us how God blesses those who trust in Him.

Key Themes:

Reflection Questions:

This passage reminds us that faithfulness is not just about waiting—it’s about action, trust, and obedience. As we seek God’s guidance, may we have the heart of Abraham, the faith of his servant, and the willingness of Rebekah.

Abraham is old, and the last thing he arranges is a wife for his son. He will not let Isaac go back to the country he came from, so he sends a servant instead, with ten camels and an oath.

Pastor Adam's subject is faithfulness, and he separates it from belief at the outset. Plenty of people have saving faith and are not faithful people, and the promise in Matthew 25 — faithful over a little, then set over much — attaches to the second.

Three figures in the chapter carry it, and what they share is a servant's nature. Adam observes that arrogant people are rarely faithful ones.

The servant, whom he takes to be Eliezer — a man who once stood to inherit everything and lost it — prays one of the earliest recorded prayers for success in a task, and asks for God's steadfast love. Adam corrects his own Hebrew from the earlier service before explaining the word: covenantal, faithful love, mercy and kindness. The man who lost the most keeps it.

The application is a pair of boundary lines. Know which land behind you is forsaken and not to be returned to. And go toward the place you cannot see yet, unless God has said not to — with a practical caveat about doing the available version now rather than waiting for the whole thing.

This was among the last Sundays under the church's old name, with a pop-up campus running that morning in Claremont.

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