If you and I don't learn to control our appetite, our appetite will eventually control us.
God has given us good appetites — for progress, success, respect, comfort, achievement — but in a broken world those good things can become gods that ruin us if left unchecked. Genesis 25's story of Jacob and Esau is a warning, not a relic, showing how desperation and unmanaged desire can cost us the very destiny God has for us. The hope is that through Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit, we don't have to fight our appetites alone.
A story from life
Story about the preacher's son Braden eating nothing but sugar all day in San Diego and getting sick
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 1 of 6
Our God-given appetites become dangerous when we let them become gods
Pastor Daniel names appetites like progress, responsibility, respect, success, comfort, possessions, fame, achievement, and being envied, insisting each is God-given and good but becomes destructive when it grows beyond the scope God intended for it.
Related passage
“if you and I don't learn to control our appetite, our appetite will eventually control you”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 2 of 6
Appetites are never fully satisfied and always demand now
He explains that because of the fall, we carry a hole nothing in this world can permanently fill, so our appetites lie to us by promising satisfaction 'this one time' while always whispering for more, right now, regardless of future cost.
“They will never completely satisfy you. They can't satisfy you”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
“These appetites will always whisper now, never later”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Point 3 of 6
Esau traded his birthright for a bowl of stew because desperation blinded him
Working through Genesis 25:27-33, Pastor Daniel sets up Esau and Jacob's rivalry, the value of the firstborn birthright, and the moment Esau, exhausted from hunting, sold his inheritance for lentil stew — a trade Pastor Daniel calls the worst trade in history.
“Who would trade their inheritance for a bowl of bean soup”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
A story from life
A phone call the preacher received about a church leader discovered to have had an affair with a staff member
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Point 4 of 6
Impact bias and focalism explain why small appetites feel like life-or-death
He describes the psychological phenomena of impact bias and focalism, showing how an inflamed appetite convinces us we'll die without it and blinds us to every other option, comparing it to buyer's remorse after a car purchase and to addicts who relapse because they 'couldn't see anything else.'
“We will begin to overvalue the immediate and undervalue the ultimate”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
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Point 5 of 6
Esau despised his birthright because he forgot the bigger story God was writing
Pastor Daniel imagines traveling back to warn Esau about the 12 tribes, Moses, and ultimately Jesus, arguing that when we forget the legacy God intends through us we overvalue the immediate and undervalue the ultimate, settling for instant gratification.
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Point 6 of 6
We win the war over appetite by reframing what we want most and leaning on the Holy Spirit
Drawing on Galatians 5 and the Cherokee two-wolves story, he explains that willpower alone fails because our sinful nature and the Spirit are constantly at war, but casting a clear vision for our future and depending on the Holy Spirit lets us feed the right wolf.
“the one that you feed will ultimately be the one that wins”
— Pastor Daniel Goulding
Illustration
Cherokee tradition story of two wolves fighting inside a person, and the grandfather's answer that the one you feed wins
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI
Take it into your week
Pastor Daniel frames the charge around one question: what is your bowl of bean stew?
Application
Name your bowl of bean stew
Identify the specific appetite you'd be ashamed for others to know about, even if it seems small or not illegal, and stop hiding it in silence.
Write a vision for where you want to end up
Start with a blank piece of paper this week and describe what you want your marriage, kids, finances, and family to look like in five years so you can reframe what you chase today.
Refrain by reframing
Once you know what you want most, refuse to settle today for things that don't serve getting you there.
Lean on the Holy Spirit instead of white-knuckling it
Stop trying to defeat your appetites through your own willpower alone and depend on the same Spirit that raised Jesus, which is alive and active in you.
Be honest with God and repent
With eyes closed, admit to God where you actually are, receive His free gift of salvation if you never have, and begin the process of repenting rather than making excuses.
Rewind AI contributed study material from the sermon transcript; church-authored wording and verified sermon quotes keep their own source. Always trust the sermon itself over anything here. How Rewind uses AI