Will you please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 27, and we return to the continuing story of Jacob's place. Genesis 27, verse number 1, And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old. I know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat it, that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard Isaac speak to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison, and to bring it. And Rebekah said unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for thy father such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father, peradventure, will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory meat such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goat upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck, and she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou bidst me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Well, because the Lord thy God brought it to me. Strange how many things get blamed upon the Lord, isn't it? And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, sensing something wrong here, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, Lying, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat, and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. He had sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. But there was still another chance of blessing for poor Esau. There were two inheritances that went with being the firstborn son. There was the birthright and the accompanying blessings that were attached to it. And then there was the specific paternal blessing to the eldest son. That also had in it the intrinsic values of the Abrahamic covenant passed on to him. Now having deceived his brother and tricked him out of the first, Jacob would now be a party to deceiving Esau and stealing his blessing. All the world pities poor Esau. He is forever the man that lost the blessing, the man who went through life having to settle for second best. In settling for second best there was an arch enemy, Jacob the culprit, Jacob the shrewd, Jacob the deceiver who was always plotting to get ahead of him, always trying to take what belonged to the eldest. God had some things that were just naturally Esau's. But ladies and gentlemen, Esau lost the blessing. How awful for a man to go through life with a second -rate existence and not have what God wanted for him. Because somebody stole the blessing, he lost the blessing that was basically his. Tonight, as we take one last long loving look towards Spirino, there is a very real application in this story for First Baptist Church. Without question, in recent months, our Lord has blessed us as never before in all of our history. Why? I believe the answer is very, very obvious. God has simply found a people that are consumed with a desire to win the hearts of men to Jesus Christ. And folks, that's where it's at. That's where the blessing is. And tonight, the enemy, the arch deceiver, would deceive us and blind us and never give up trying to steal our blessing. I don't know about you, but I want to spend another year and another and still another and on and on like the last year and the last months and the last weeks that we have known. It has been a delight to my heart. I've always wanted to see, I have preached for 20 years, that I'd like to see kids, I'd like to see adults, I'd like to see people get excited about Jesus Christ. And I have seen it. And God has blessed and people by the hundreds, yea thousands have been saved. Why is God blessing us? For one reason, because we are majoring on evangelism. Our membership has almost doubled in a few months. The attendance is growing. The debts are being paid. And our church is 14 months away from being totally debt free. What a challenge it is. What a blessed day it will be. How long will it be before we can make plans and have a new facilities and new space and new capabilities of winning men to Christ? It's sooner by at least one day than it's ever been before. God is blessing us because we are doing what God has nearest to his heart. Evangelism is where the blessing is. That's why Jesus Christ came from heaven. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. The son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. God robbed heaven of its fairest jewel to send Jesus to this world because though he was interested in the physical affairs of man, that that is nearest to the heart of God is the winning of lost men to Jesus Christ. How wonderful when a church discovers that. How wonderful and how when a denomination finds that out. The great Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth has been going down and down and down for years. I was in a revival there a few weeks ago. The pastor said to me like a kid with a new toy, preacher, a year and a half ago we discovered the priority of evangelism. And since then things have been happening. Well they should have discovered that 144 years ago. And so should we and Christianity and Christian people dare not get off of this main track. Now we are doing and I am proud to say our wonderful staff and people a good job of helping men in their social needs. There are those that are being counseled. Homes are held together. Brother Knizel does an unbelievably good job of helping people in marital problems. We see our sick people and counsel and love and comfort them. We give uncounted suits of clothing and food and medical services and oftentimes free psychological counseling by some of our men to the needy. We have helped over 200 people to find jobs in the inner city. We've gotten uncounted people in touch with their relatives that have gone astray and sent them back home to a glad reconciliation because in the providence of God their influence of their life fell neath the shadow of First Baptist Church. All of these things are wonderful. The teaching and the training of the people, the counseling of the of the needy, the feeding of the poor, the placement of the jobless, the lifting of the underprivileged and the prejudiced. Oh but hear me the blessing is in evangelism. That's where it's at. That's where the blessing is and now that we have found it my heart's desire and prayer for our church is that not all of the enemies of God in this world shall ever once again get us off of the main track. Believe me the devil would like nothing more than to steal the blessing from First Baptist Church. Empty pews and dry altars and dry baptistries please the devil. They do not honor the Lord and he will move heaven and earth to keep us from winning people to Jesus Christ. A recent uh recent reports are coming from all over the world from Indonesia and South Africa and India where this young man has just gone. From Westbury College from Southwestern Seminary in Tennessee and California and Florida all around church revival's happening. A news writer in the life magazine this week told about the Jesus movement and he finished it by saying look out America revival's on the way. Jesus Christ is happening. That's where it's at. That's why God is blessing. That's why folks are being saved because churches are rediscovering the priority of evangelism. The early disciples burned with a holy boldness. The Bible says of them that they literally turned the world upside down for Jesus Christ. They went everywhere from house to house in every house ceasing not to teach and proclaim the name of Jesus Christ. Consumed with a holy boldness believing believing that the great commission could be fulfilled in their generation. They gave all that they had to the priority of winning the loss to Jesus Christ and to the degree that the church has gotten off of evangelism to that degree we have been dealing with symptoms rather than problems and now we're trying to pick up the mess in our society that our business of getting off the track has created. Oh it's wonderful. It's wonderful to send a group of policemen and psychiatrists and counselors and new programs and plans into the schools to keep the black from fighting the white and the white from hating the black. But if we would send that same money and that same power and that same intelligent drive trying to win the blacks and win the whites to Jesus Christ we would find the old time religion would make people love everybody and they wouldn't want to cut each other to bits in this high school in our city or any other high school. Evangelism is the answer winning the world of Christ is the priority and I say to you that we will see repeated pressure of the world of religious groups of those in high places good thinking people well thinking people but misinformed people who would try to get us off the track and when we do when we do to that degree we will find that God will remove the blessing. Someone will seal the blessing from us again and we run the risk of drying up and blowing away. Jesus said what is a man profited though he gained the whole world and lose his own soul. In other words our Lord who was obviously the final authority on the question said that the first and singularly absolute most important priority in all of Christian service is the winning of the soul of the man to Christ and we must give ourselves increasingly to other things. We must increasingly be better pastors and better counselors and better social workers and better helpers but never never never at the risk of losing the priority of soul winning for that's where the blessing is. That's where it is and the world would try to steal it from us. This week I have talked to our staff at long detail about the importance of the fact that we must have a happy balance a happy medium we must not take we must not burn our people out we must be a good well balanced church but church ultimately in the final analysis the magnificent obsession of us all must be the winning of the lost to Jesus Christ I believe that and that alone is the only reason God has blessed us that's why thousands are being saved that's why people are coming that's why homes are being saved that's why we're catching up on bills that's why people are getting happy that's why folks are anxious to come from church instead of anxious to get out of church because God is blessing us because we're on the track and doing the main and the right thing now I realized that I ran the risk and it was a calculated risk when we planned Spirino back to back with the Houston for Christ crusade and for five or six months it's been soul -winning revival evangelism converts day and night day and night day and night but I planned it that way we we we did it that way on purpose for this reason because it was my desire and prayer that once we got a taste of what it means to see the altar filled with converts to see lives changed to see 114 kids last Wednesday night in a testimony meeting walk across this platform and all but maybe a dozen of them tell they had been saved from dope and saved from drugs once we had gotten a taste once we had tasted the joy of seeing people wonder Christ in great numbers that we would never again be satisfied with anything else and I hope that we won't let me tell you a story and finish many years ago an evangelist was preaching revival in Ireland and he told a story a very true story that illustrates the point and points out the danger to a man to a church to a denomination to a religious organization do you know that the YMCA for example was started by D .L. Moody the great evangelist as a soul -winning extension of the church and what is it today a place to get a room for a buck and learn how to draw but to ever hear about Jesus to ever hear about being saved you'd have to knock somebody down to get a testimony of salvation at the YMCA it is so easy to get organized and to organize yourself clean out a business and to priority yourself clear off of the main track and he told the following story once upon a time there was a great lighthouse on the shores of Ireland he said this great lighthouse this great life -saving station had a great record of success oftentimes as the ships came in close the awful and awesome rocks and the crags would cause ships to be wrecked and every time there was a shipwreck people by the hundreds would lay down as the sound went out and the alarm was made they would lay down what they were doing they would leave their jobs and rush to their boats and fling themselves into the water to save the people that were drowned in the shipwreck they saved hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and thousands of them well they went on year after year one day a man died he himself had been saved in one of those accidents and he left in his will several thousand dollars as a memorial of appreciation to the lighthouse to the life -saving station there on the shores well they were endowed and someone got the idea we're so busy we have so much to do why do we not hire the young men to do it and so they employed a hundred strapping strong young lifesavers they taught them to swim taught them the proper procedures of life -saving and employed their services and every time the bell rang and every time the alarm sounded that men were drowning they would stand by idly and proudly and watch the young men as they went out to save the dying well they went on and they had an anniversary banquet one night and somebody proudly announced that he had written a book a beautiful book of memoirs about the good old days when they used to do life -saving and they established a couple of bookstores and they sold their book all up and down the coast and around the encircling globe and everyone bought it and all of the proceeds went to the foundation and it was wonderful as they rejoiced and how they read again and again of how many souls they used to save well they became very prosperous so someone decided that they ought to build a hospital to help those who were saved and so they did so down there by the shore and some poor souls when rescued but still in danger would be placed in the hospital why there they could talk to them about life -saving but they got so busy they hired a chaplain and he went to the hospital and he talked to everybody about life -saving well time went by and it grew and the work prospered and they decided to hire an executive secretary in charge of life -saving and so they did and they got organized and they departmentalized and they had a great structure and they had a women's branch for life -saving and a men's branch for life -saving and a boy's branch for life -saving and they started a great school and people came from all over and they gave money and they endowed it and hundreds and hundreds of young men were trained in life -saving but it seems that as they went through the school they got so interested in the mechanics of life -saving that very few of them saved anybody anymore and they went around giving great speeches on the beautiful dynamics of how to save people when they drowned they even had a Department of Public Relations and somebody came along and took pictures every time people were life saved every time somebody would be saved they published a little newspaper and they spread it in the headlines and they had their own weekly publication about how many people were being saved and how wonderful it was but one old boy always began to be always continued to be unhappy he didn't like it that way he was kind of an old crank and he said one day I don't like it like this we're too high pollutant we're too high powered we're too highly organized I'm gonna pull out and he pulled out and split the whole thing wide open and went three miles down the beach and he started his own life -saving station well that was pretty good and a few folks went with him and they split too and they joined in the life -saving station and boy when there was a shipwreck they jump in and save lives but they started getting older and they decided well they'd endow and let somebody else do it too and they got just like the first bunch and one of the young fellas got uptight about it and he wanted to pull out he said I don't like it this way I want to go back like it was in the old days when we did the life -saving so he pulled out and went three more miles down the beach and started another life -saving station and they went on and on and on and on for about 300 years and now today when you drive up and down the beach of that great countryside in Ireland you will find a gorgeous four -lane highway and people drive on Sunday afternoons and look at the beautiful life -saving stations and all their great towers and all their monuments and all their grand organization and it's wonderful and the people enjoy it and mile after mile the beach is dotted with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of highly organized life -saving stations shipwrecks oh they still have them but now every time they do everyone drowns once upon a time there was a church may we stand our father you have blessed our church you have blessed our denomination and we have so many good choirs and so many good staff meetings and so many training union discussions and so many folks in Sunday school and so many deacons meetings and so many activities that we fear that we have almost activated ourselves clear out of business Lord we thank thee that we have begun to rediscover what the purpose of all of this is and in rediscovering that we have reclaimed the lost blessing oh God may we never forget it and never lose it in Jesus name amen