What’s Your Price?
Pastor Tim Coleman May 24, 2026
About This Message
Everyone has a price. It’s a provocative idea, but if we’re honest with ourselves — and if we read our Bibles carefully — it’s undeniably true. This week’s message from our series through the Book of Genesis took us deep into the life of Jacob, one of the most complicated figures in all of scripture. His story is full of scheming, family dysfunction, divine encounters, and ultimately, breathtaking grace. If you’ve ever wondered whether your past disqualifies you from God’s purposes, Jacob’s life is an answer you need to hear.
Background and Context
We’re currently making our way through Genesis, and this week we covered ten chapters in one message — chapters 25 through 35 — tracing the arc of Jacob’s life from his birth to his transformation into Israel. Jacob is the third of the great patriarchs, following Abraham and Isaac, and his story takes up more real estate in Genesis than anyone else’s: a full 22 chapters. That’s not an accident. His life, messy as it is, is central to God’s unfolding plan of redemption — the covenant promise that would eventually lead to the Messiah.
The passage that anchors everything is Genesis 25:23, where God tells Rebekah before her twins are even born: “Two nations are in your womb… and the older will serve the younger.” God had already chosen Jacob. Not because Jacob was worthy of it, but because God’s purposes are rooted in grace, not merit. That divine declaration sets the stage for a decades-long drama of deception, exile, wrestling, and reconciliation — and it reminds us that God’s plan doesn’t depend on our performance to move forward.
What We Explored
The sermon opened with a playful but pointed illustration: the kind of random “Would you rather?” questions a young child asks his dad. Would you cut off your arm for a million dollars? Would you take a punch from Thor for $100,000? Silly as they sound, these questions all circle the same deeper question: What’s your price? The pastor was honest about his own journey — 36 years of walking with God, and every single day sustained only by grace. He’s watched close friends walk away from faith and ministry, and that reality leads to an uncomfortable conclusion: we are all capable of selling out on God, given the right circumstances and the right price.
The story of Esau trading his birthright for a bowl of stew is almost too on-the-nose. Here is a man who held the rights to the covenant blessing — a lineage that traced all the way to the promised Messiah — and he handed it over because he was hungry after a long day in the field. “What good is a birthright to me if I’m about to die?” he said. But of course, he wasn’t about to die. He was just hungry. His impulse to satisfy an immediate craving cost him something he could never get back, and the writer of Hebrews uses his story as a sober warning to all of us: don’t trade what is eternally valuable for what is only temporarily satisfying.
Jacob, for his part, was no hero in this story either. He exploited his brother’s weakness, collaborated with his mother in an elaborate deception, and essentially stole the family blessing right out from under a blind, aging father. The pastor was clear that the Bible presents this story descriptively, not prescriptively — this is not a model to follow. What it is, though, is a mirror. Jacob’s scheming and self-reliance looked like strategy in the short term, but it cost him 20 years of exile, relational brokenness, and eventually his own taste of deception when his uncle Laban turned the tables on him.
The turning point comes in Genesis 32, in one of the strangest and most powerful scenes in all of scripture: Jacob wrestling through the night with a mysterious divine being. Physically broken, hip dislocated, Jacob refuses to let go until he receives a blessing. And in that moment of utter vulnerability — when every human strategy has been stripped away — God renames him Israel, meaning “one who struggles with God.” The man who spent his whole life grasping and scheming finally learns what surrender looks like. And what follows is equally remarkable: a tearful, unexpected reconciliation with the brother he wronged 20 years earlier.
Key Takeaways
- God’s grace overcomes human failure.
Jacob was chosen before he was born — not because of his character, but by God’s grace. He was a liar, a deceiver, and a manipulator, and yet God patiently walked with him for decades, transforming him into the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. Your past and present failures do not have to define your future.
- Our actions have consequences.
The law of sowing and reaping is real. Jacob’s deception cost him years of exile and relational pain, and the dysfunction he experienced in his family of origin he later repeated in his own home. How we treat the people around us — especially those closest to us — ripples outward in ways we may not fully see until much later.
- Adversity is often the path to spiritual growth.
Jacob’s defining encounter with God didn’t happen in a moment of triumph — it happened in the wilderness, at the end of his rope, in the middle of the night. The hardships we face are rarely random. Often, they are the very place where God does His deepest and most lasting work in us.
- God remains faithful in spite of us.
Despite every failure, every scheme, and every detour, God kept every promise He made to Jacob. He is called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — and those are not just names of great men. They are names of deeply fallible men. Which means He is also the God of us.
A Question Worth Sitting With
“What “birthright” — something genuinely valuable in your life — might you be in danger of trading away for something that only feels urgent right now?”
This Week’s Challenge
Take a few minutes this week to read Genesis 25–35 in one sitting, just as the pastor encouraged. Let the full arc of Jacob’s story sink in — the failures, the flight, the wrestling, and the reconciliation. As you read, ask God to show you where in your own life you might be relying on your own cleverness instead of trusting His faithfulness.
Catch the full sermon at westhillchurch.ca or join us Sundays at 8025 Sherwood Drive, Regina, SK.
This post was prepared as a ministry resource for Westhill Park Baptist Church. An initial draft was generated with the assistance of Claude AI (claude.ai), developed by Anthropic. All AI-assisted content is reviewed, edited, and approved by church leadership before publication to ensure it faithfully reflects the message and values of our community.
Westhill Park Baptist Church · westhillchurch.ca · 8025 Sherwood Drive, Regina, SK
Comments are closed