Faithful Then, Faithful Now | The Rewards of Faithfulness - Genesis 30:25-31:55(May 21) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Let's pray together, Church.

Father, we give you the highest praise, Lord, because you are worthy of it in every way.

And God, it is all because of these truths that we have just sung.

Lord, that through faith in your Son Jesus Christ, we are children of God.

Lord, that we cannot be shaken.

Lord, we cannot be moved from this firm foundation of your Son, Jesus Christ.

And so we thank you for these truths that we declare.

And yet, God, we come here this morning and we recognize that so often, Lord, the truths that we declare, we don't feel them.

Lord, sometimes they don't seem real to us, sometimes they don't seem true to us.

And so, God, I pray in every way, Lord, that you would firm up our faith.

God, that you would make strong the foundation of faith that is here this morning in your Son Jesus Christ.

God, speak to us.

I pray that the praise of your name would not end with the vocal singing of your worship, but would continue now as our hearts bow and worship before your word and in submission to all that you want to do to us, God.

Lord, we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

So good to worship with you this morning.

You guys can grab your seats, and while you're grabbing your seat, you can open up your Bibles, whether uh electronic or paper, you're gonna need to follow along with us this morning.

You can open them up to Genesis chapter 30.

Genesis 30 · chapter mention

We're gonna be starting in verse 25 and working our way to the end of chapter 31.

And while you're turning there, I just want to uh make an announcement to you.

This Wednesday, May 24th, we are meeting here for our worship and prayer night.

We are a church who believes firmly in the power of prayer.

In fact, we believe that prayer is the program of the church.

Jesus said to his disciples, he said, The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few.

So therefore, do you know what God said?

He said, Therefore, pray.

And we believe as a church that if we're gonna be effective, the mission that God has given us of making disciples of all nations, then we need to be a church who prays.

And so I cannot compel you enough to join us this Wednesday at 7 p.m.

here at ANOVA as we link our arms in the mission that God has given us and accomplishing it through prayer.

I want to ask you this question.

Maybe it's uh an inappropriate question to ask you, but I want to ask you this morning this.

What are your wages?

What are your wages?

Now, if I'm talking about income, I know that sometimes that is an inappropriate question to ask you, and so I don't expect any answers on that, but more so I'm asking this question.

What are the wages that you will earn at the end of your life for the way that you are living right now?

The question that I want to pose you is more of to you, is more spiritual in nature.

I want to ask you this.

How will you be rewarded for the way that you are currently living on earth?

See, the Bible is clear that there are two paths.

There is a path of great reward, and there is a path of minimal reward.

And I was reminded of this this week, reading in Luke chapter 23.

Luke 23 · chapter mention

You don't have to turn there, but I want to read this for you.

As Jesus was being crucified, there were two criminals who hung with him.

And it says this in Luke chapter 23, verse 39.

Luke 23:39

It says one of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us.

But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

And listen to what this criminal said.

He said, And we justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds.

But this man has done nothing wrong.

See, the criminal, as he hung on his cross, on the cross, he understood that the penalty he was paying was what he called the reward of the way that he had lived for his entire life.

And it was kind of ironic because there hung Jesus, who had lived perfectly righteously, perfectly faithfully.

Yet he was receiving that same reward as the criminal.

The criminal is able to look at his life and say, this is what I deserve.

These are the wages of how I have lived.

And all through Scripture, what's what God is doing for us in his love for us is he's compelling us to live in a way that leads to the greatest eternal reward.

See, God's reminding us constantly that there is wisdom in living faithfully, that we might receive a great eternal reward versus living disobediently.

And so this morning is kind of like if you were to go into a financial advisor's office and sit down with that financial advisor, and they were to give you some coaching on where to put your money in order to get the greatest return on your investment.

Well, what God is kind of doing for us this morning is He's giving us some life advising.

And he's showing us how to live a life that leads to the greatest reward.

He's compelling us to place all of our time, all of our talents, and all of our treasure on the path, on the actions, on the attitudes, on the habits, on the way of life that can be best summarized as faithfulness.

That's the whole point this morning.

God, through his word, is gonna compel us to a life of faithfulness, hopefully, because of this deep belief we have that there is no better way than that we could spend our time than to live for the Lord.

And so I want to share with you this quote that kind of captures what I'm getting at this morning and what God is teaching us this morning.

This quote's gonna come up on the screen right now, and it's by Thomas Brooks, and he says this Satan promises the best but pays with the worst.

He promises honor and pays with disgrace.

He promises pleasure and pays with pain.

He promises profit and pays with loss.

He promises life and pays with death.

But God pays as he promises.

All his payments are made in pure gold.

Now let me ask you what you are saying in your heart right now.

I read that quote, and this is what I'm saying.

I want the payments of pure gold.

I want to live a life based on the promise that truly delivers a great reward.

See, God is showing us how to invest our life and receive the greatest reward.

And throughout Jacob's life, as we've been walking with Jacob, Jacob's been learning for sure up until this point, and even continued this morning, as we continue to work through this text, Jacob has experienced the life of faithlessness.

Jacob has done nothing but deceive and deceive and deceive, and we've seen in Jacob's life that this has all led to his downfall, that all of his deception has done nothing but invite horror into his life.

It's done nothing good for him.

And this morning in Genesis 30, 25 to the end of chapter 31, we're gonna see that Jacob's beginning to understand that there is great reward in faithfulness.

And I want to see that this morning.

I want the reward of gold this morning.

And so I want you to see this in this text.

How do we partake in the reward of faithfulness?

Well, the first thing, if you're taking notes, I want you to see is this that we do this by trusting God's promise.

If you want to be a partaker in the reward of faithfulness, you need to trust God's promise.

Now, this is a long text, and sometimes we'll read the whole text at the beginning and then work through it.

But instead this morning, I want to work through this text with you verse by verse, and we'll read chunks as we go along.

To give you context, you'll remember that in the past two weeks that we spent in Genesis, Jacob has spent his time in Padan Aram with his father-in-law Laban, and his father-in-law has deceived Jacob into not only working for him for seven years in order that he might be able to marry his wife, but Laban was able to deceive Jacob into working for him for 14 years in order that Jacob might get the wife that he desired, Rachel.

And now God has blessed through trial and tribulation, God has blessed Jacob with children.

And you'll remember that we can't really make sense of Genesis if we don't understand what God wants to do in his people.

Do you remember what God wants to do in his people?

What did God say he was going to do to Abraham?

The threefold promise that tracks all the way through not only Genesis, but really all of Scripture until it is finally fulfilled in Christ when he returns in the second coming.

Well, the threefold promise you'll remember is land, seed, and blessing.

Land, seed, and blessing.

Now, as I'm saying that, my hope is that if you've been with us in Genesis, you're like, okay, Miles, give it up.

I've heard it a thousand times.

But you need to understand this in order to understand Genesis.

You should be falling asleep.

And these three words should be repeating in your head.

Land, seed, blessing, land, seed, blessing.

This is the promise that God had given to Abraham, and this is what Jacob we find is living for.

So notice then in verse 25 of chapter 30, notice what Jacob wants to do.

As soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, do you see the promise there?

See, Jacob is beginning to receive the promise of seed.

Rachel and Leah have given birth to children for Jacob.

And so it says, as soon as Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, send me away that I may go to my home and country.

Literally, in the Hebrew, that word country is land.

And Jacob sees this.

He has partaken in the promise that God had given to his people to multiply his seed till it numbered the sand on the shore and the stars in the sky.

And he's received that.

And yet, Jacob, here, he wants to be a partaker in the full promise of God.

And so he says, There's still a land for my people.

And so he speaks to Rachel and to Leah and to Laban.

And he says, Send me away that I might go receive the land.

He says, Give me my wives and my children.

In verse 26, for whom I have served you that I may go, for you know the service that I have given to you.

See, Jacob here is believing in the promise of God.

Finally, finally, Jacob is beginning to get it.

And Jacob's not going to be perfect at all in this chapter.

We're going to see that.

Jacob's still gonna screw up, but it's taken a long road to get Jacob to this place where God doesn't kind of have to dangle a carrot in front of his face.

Jacob finally understands I gotta live for God's promise.

God has promised me something here.

And if God promises something, he's gonna deliver on that promise.

God has been nothing but faithful to Jacob.

You'll remember that when in Genesis 28, when Isaac sent Jacob into Padanaram, it says in Genesis 28, you can flip back a page if you'd like, or I'll read it for you right now.

Said then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, saying, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.

Arise, go to Padan Aram to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.

And Jacob looks at that promise that God had given to him through Isaac and says, can say nothing but that God has been faithful.

God had been faithful to Jacob, and so as Jacob looks forward, he believes that the path of greatest blessing lies in trusting God's promise.

And so he wants to go back to the land that God had told Abraham, that God had told Isaac, and now God tells Jacob he would win for his people.

The land of Canaan would become the land of God's people.

God would establish his kingdom in this place.

And so Jacob here is trusting that the best path forward here is not under the security of Laban's household, but to go back to his country where God had promised to give him land.

That's what Jacob believes is the best path forward.

And right here, I just want to pause for a second to ask you this question.

Can you ask yourself this question?

And maybe right now what you're doing is praying that the Holy Spirit would help you in this moment to be vulnerable and to be real.

But can I ask you this question?

Do you believe that the greatest path for your life is the path of believing God's promises?

Do you believe that if that means you might have to sacrifice some things, like maybe a promotion at work?

Or maybe the uh neighbors in your neighborhood looking up to you and appreciating you and thinking highly of you.

Maybe you'd have to sacrifice these things, but but let me ask you this question.

Do you believe that the path of faithfulness is the greatest path of God's blessing?

And if that's true, what kind of impact should that be making on your life, on your decisions?

See, this is the reality of who we are as human beings.

This is the reality.

We will always walk on the path that we believe will provide the greatest blessing.

Let me say this again because this is really important.

As you seek to understand who you are as a human being and why you do the things you do, this is really important for you to understand.

Do you know this?

That as a human being, all the only thing that you can do is walk on the path that you believe will lead to your greatest blessing.

This is why sin is so horrific in the sight of God.

Because you know that there has not been a single person who has ever sinned who has not wanted to do that sin in their very core, who has not wanted to commit that action.

Even as you look back on your own life, don't you see that?

Like we're never forced into sin.

Instead, we go willingly, believing that maybe this lie, maybe this gossip, maybe this thing I'm watching that no one else will know about except for the Lord, maybe this thing will lead to my ultimate joy.

So often we ask this question why why do we why why why do I sin?

Why do I struggle so much with this sin?

And the answer at the very root of it is because what we want when we sin is to delete God from our lives and paste the reward of sin into our lives.

We sin because we want to.

This is what makes sin so horrific is that instead of choosing God, we choose this other thing, believing that it can provide more joy and satisfaction and ultimate happiness than God can provide.

Now, contrast Jacob's faith, a faith that believes God's promise and wants to go to the land because he believes that's the greatest place of God's blessing.

Look what Laban says in verse 27.

It says, And Laban said to him, If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.

Now, both these men, Jacob and Laban, believe that God blesses.

Laban had experienced it personally.

He had experienced God's blessing through Jacob.

And yet, notice that the difference with Laban is that he recognizes that there is blessing in God, but Laban wants to use God for his blessing.

Laban does not at all want to get his life on God's plan.

Instead, Laban wants God inserted into his plan.

And you need to understand how vividly this speaks to our kind of North American spirituality.

See, the average gospel of the North American church is that you can kind of just add God into your life, and God is kind of like this genie in a bottle that when things go wrong, you know, you can come to church, you can open up your Bible, you can pray, and God's gonna help you.

God loves you so much, He's gonna help you when times get tough, when times get hard.

And the average North American spirituality or version of Christianity is kind of like this.

I'm gonna live my life.

My life's not gonna look any different than the average unbeliever's life, but I'm just gonna sprinkle God into my life a little bit.

And he's gonna help me, he's gonna bless me.

This is exactly what Laban is doing.

Laban does not want to get his life on God's plan.

Laban wants God to be added to his plans.

The question for us this morning is this are we Jacob, who faithfully believes that the path of greatest blessing is to align his life with God's plan?

Or are we like Laban, who, yeah, I believe that God's good.

I believe that God is gonna bless me, but I'm just gonna add him into my life.

See, if we're gonna walk the path of faithfulness, then we need to submit ourselves to God's plan for our life and give our life wholesale to that.

Now here's the question.

This is a question that comes up often in Genesis, isn't it?

The question is this what should have Laban done?

What should he have done?

Like, how could have Laban acted faithfully in this context?

Well, what Laban should have done was heard the gospel that had been preached to Jacob.

Remember, the gospel that had been preached to Jacob was this, that through Abraham, I don't know if you've heard this recently at all, but through Abraham, God was going to accomplish a threefold promise.

Is this new for you?

Have you heard this before?

There was a threefold promise to Abraham.

This is gonna blow your mind.

God had promised Abraham land, seed, and blessing.

And so Laban should have heard this gospel preached to Jacob and recognized that God's blessing is with this family.

This is the people of God.

And what Laban should have done was attached himself in every way to Jacob.

So that he could be a participant in the blessing that God had promised to accomplish through this family, through his people, and through his children.

Instead, you know what Laban wants to do?

He wants to make Jacob his slave.

And so look at what Laban says in verse 28.

He says, Name your wages and I will give it.

Name your wages and I will give it.

Laban doesn't want Jacob to leave.

This is the same thing that Laban did with the servant.

Remember when the servant of Abraham went and found Rachel?

Sorry, Sarah.

When the servant of Abraham went and found a wife for Isaac, Laban said, stay.

And the servant of Abraham understood that he had to go back.

See, Laban, what Laban wants is to amass these blessings for himself as slaves.

He wants to keep Jacob near him.

Almost as though Jacob is like a good luck charm for him.

And this idea really runs through this story that Laban believes God can be used.

Laban believes that the gods can kind of be like packed up, boxed, packaged, into your own personal benefit.

Now notice that from this point on, both these men are going to turn to deceitful ways, but there's something categorically different about Jacob than there is about Laban.

Look at what Jacob says to Laban in verse 29.

He says, You yourself know how I have served you and how your livestock had fared with me.

For you had little before I came, and it has increased abundantly, and the Lord has blessed you with whatever I turned.

But now, when shall I provide for my own household also?

You see, Laban understands this.

Laban understands that he has been blessed because of Jacob.

And so he says to Jacob, What shall I give you?

And Jacob says this to him, you shall not give me anything, if you will do this for me.

I will again pasture your flock and keep it.

Let me pass through all your flock today, removing from it every speckled and spotted sheep and every black lamb, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and they shall be my wages.

So my honesty will answer for me later when you come to look into my wages for you.

Everyone that is not spotted and speckled, speckled and spotted among the goats, and black among the lambs, if found with me, shall be counted stolen.

Now in verse 34, Laban looks at this kind of agreement, this deal that Jacob has struck up, and Laban says, This is great.

See, Laban is essentially saying this: I will tend your flock for another six years.

I'll stay around you.

Laban's desire is to keep Jacob close.

So Jacob says, I'll stay around you and I'll tend your flock.

You just give me the worst of your flock.

Let me, at the end of this six years, let me take away from your flock the absolute worst sheep, the absolute worst goats.

That's what it means by talking about black lambs and speckled and spotted goats.

Essentially, it means I just want to take the things that you don't want, anyways.

Well, Laban looks at this and he says, this is a great deal.

Not only does he get Jacob to stay, he also only has to pay Jacob the things that he does not want.

Now Laban loves this idea, one, because he gets Jacob to stay, but two, because of what he's about to do.

Look in verse 34.

Laban says, Good, let it be as you said.

But remember, Laban is Jacob 2.0.

And he will always, through scheming and deceit, try to get for himself a better deal.

Laban must have been tiring to be around.

You ever around people that are like everywhere you go, they're always haggling for a better deal.

And you're like, listen, just pay the full price, okay?

We don't need a better deal.

They're constantly haggling.

Well, Laban is doing that with Jacob, constantly trying to get a better deal.

Verse 35, he says, But that day Laban removed the male goats that were striped and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had white on it, and every lamb that was black, and put them in charge of his sons.

And he set a distance of three days' journey between himself and Jacob.

And Jacob pastured the rest of Laban's flock.

See, what Laban thought he could do was just remove all the sheep and goats that Jacob wanted, and then leave, so that Jacob would at the end of the day be able to have nothing.

Be able to have nothing.

See, Laban's desire should be to bless Jacob.

Instead, what Laban wants to do is do everything he can to take from Jacob.

Well, Jacob isn't faultless either.

In fact, look at what Jacob does in verses 37 to 42.

It says, Then Jacob took fresh sticks of poplar and almond and plain trees, and he peeled white streaks in them, exposing the white of the sticks.

He said the sticks that he had peeled in front of the flocks in the troughs, that is, the watering places where the flocks came to drink, and since they bred when they came to drink, the flocks bred in front of the sticks, and so the flocks brought forth striped, speckled, and spotted.

Something really interesting is going on here.

It's really odd, isn't it?

The way that Jacob decides to pay back Laban is he gets a bunch of sticks and he peels off the bark so that the sticks are white, and he places them in front of the trough, so that as these animals come and drink water and eat food from this trough, when they mate, Jacob's idea is that, well, because they're standing in front of this color, white, the goats will come out white.

Now, I don't know how much biology you know.

I didn't get very far in biology, but I can tell you this much: that will make absolutely no difference to the genetics of these sheep and goats.

At this point, the only thing that can make a difference is God.

God is the one who's in charge of this.

God is the one who determines how these animals will be born.

And I think that's really important for us to understand.

See, what Jacob should have done was believe that if God desired to bless him, God would do that without Jacob having to connive some secret plan against Laban in order to get that blessing.

This is what God constantly says to his people.

He says, stand back, says this to the Israelites in Exodus, stand back and do nothing, and I will fight for you.

See, Jacob, he's not the one who has to win God's blessing.

He's just the one who has to stand there and receive God's blessing.

And yet here Jacob is fighting, fighting to try to deceive Laban and get a large share of his flock.

Verse 40 it says, Jacob separated the lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the striped and all the black in the flock of Laban.

He put his own droves apart and did not put them with Laban's flock.

And whenever the stronger of the flock were breeding, Jacob would lay the sticks in the troughs before the eyes of the flocks, that they might breed among the sticks.

But for the feebler of the flock, he would not lay them there.

So the febler would be Laban's and the stronger Jacob's.

Jacob's got his old ways about him.

While he's slowly being changed by God, Jacob's still acting in his flesh, acting in his old self.

He's still Jacob the deceiver.

He's still got that tendency in him, the same tendency that caused him to steal his brother's birthright and to scam his brother's blessing from his father.

And yet, the question that I ask you is this: what's the difference between Jacob and Laban?

Both these men want God's blessing.

Both these men are sinful in the way that they're trying to get God's blessing.

And yet what we read in verse 34 is kind of striking.

Thus the man increased greatly and had large flocks, female servants, male servants, camels, and donkeys.

See, Jacob's way leads to abundant blessing.

And by the end of chapter 31, we're gonna find that Laban really has nothing.

His wives are taken from him, a large portion of his flock is taken from him, his dignity is taken from him.

Jacob leaves this story with everything, and Laban leaves with nothing.

And my question is this what's the difference?

Here's the difference.

Jacob is a child of God.

And the reason Jacob is a child of God is because he has believed the promises of God.

If you were to look at these two men's life right now, without knowing what's going on in Jacob's heart, that Jacob is believing in the promises of God, their lives would look the same.

Both of them aren't trusting God, both of them are living sinful lives, both of them are deceiving each other, their lives very much look the same.

But you know what the difference is?

Jacob has trusted in the promise of God.

And this is really applicable for you because you need to ask yourself this question: How do I know that I'm saved?

It's ever happened in your life where you look at your life and there's just sin is rooted so deeply into your heart that you cannot fathom how you could ever be saved.

You keep struggling with the same sin over and over again.

You keep saying that thing to your family, then instead of building them up, it hurts them.

And you look at yourself and you ask yourself, am I even saved?

Is the Holy Spirit even in me?

Because sometimes I can't see it.

The reality in that moment is that you're looking to the wrong place.

We don't find assurance solely from our works.

We find assurance in the promises of God.

See what God tells us to do, if we want assurance, is not to look at our own life as though our righteousness could save us.

If we want assurance, what we're to do is look at the cross.

And ask this question Do I believe what happened on the cross?

Do I believe what happened in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is true?

Do I believe that it really is effective in my life and saving me, washing me from my sins, and giving new life, new birth to me?

That's the real question that we need to ask.

Do we believe and trust God's promise?

This is where assurance comes from.

Trusting the promises of God.

This is why Jacob leaves the story rich and Laban leaves the story poor.

Jacob is rewarded through faith.

The second thing I want you to see, though, is that first, if we want to receive the reward of faithfulness, we need to trust God's promise.

But the second thing we need to do is look for God's providence.

Now, this is one of my favorite parts of the story of Jacob as a whole.

I love as we've walked through the story of Jacob, we see this slow, gradual progression.

And to me, I want you to know that this gives me great encouragement.

Like you should not be able to read through the story of Jacob without leaving and understanding this.

Like, I am a person that God is working on.

You should get through the story of Jacob and understand this.

Like, we should be encouraged if we're not perfect.

We should be encouraged that God is in progress with each of his children.

That you have not fully arrived yet, and God is not surprised.

And yet I find that my own tendency is to kind of live like God expects my perfection.

Anyone like that?

You live like God's expectation for you is just like you woke up this morning and he's like, okay, it's gonna be a perfect day for you.

No anger, no anxiety, no frustration, no sin at all.

It's gonna be perfect for you.

And then you do something wrong, and God's like, oh, how could you do that?

I read Jacob, and I I realize that Jacob was a work in progress, and that yet all you see is God's abundant blessing on him.

It encourages me because I realize that I'm a work in progress.

That you're a work in progress.

This church is a work in progress.

God understands as he looks at our lives that we are works in progress.

And so then, in this moment, when we are not yet in heaven and perfect in Jesus Christ, what should our goal be?

Well, our goal should be what's been happening in Jacob's life.

We should be growing.

Our highest goal in life, our highest goal this year should be growth into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

And we've seen this in Jacob's life, but we especially see it here now, as Jacob is so willing in these verses to point out the providential work of God.

Up until this point, Jacob has really been kind of godless, hasn't he?

Like you could read up through Jacob's life in this point, and there is the moment where he was in the presence of God in Bethel.

But other than that, Jacob has relatively been a godless man.

And as he interprets the events of his life, he does not think about God's action in his life.

And one of the ways that we know that Jacob is growing, and by nature we know that we are growing, is that we begin to see God's providential action in the hardships of our life.

That's one of the ways that we know that we're growing, is that when things get really tough, we're able to look at our life and see that God is still working.

Trust that God is still working.

Now notice in verse 1 and 2, things are not going well for Jacob.

So look at chapter 31, verse 1 and 2 with me.

It says, Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying, Jacob has taken all that was our father's, and from what was our father's, he has gained all this wealth.

And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.

All this to say, life is not good for Jacob.

People are kind of slandering Jacob.

Like Jacob had entered into this agreement honestly with Laban, and yet people are saying that Jacob is taking our father's goods.

He's a thief.

He's stealing from our father.

And not only that, as Jacob had spent nearly 20 years now in the presence of Laban under his good graces, we'll find in verse 2 that Laban's beginning to not regard him with favor.

Jacob finds himself as a slave underneath Laban's household.

And so in verse 3 it says, Then the Lord said to Jacob, Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.

See, God calls Jacob to return home.

Now I want you to notice what Jacob does.

There's something categorically different about Jacob here.

See, in chapter 29, where Jacob's kind of okay with being a passive agent and letting his wives like duke it out over the children, letting his wives bring servants for him to marry.

Jacob is very willing to be led down the wrong path.

But there's a change that happens in Jacob's life here.

Now what Jacob wants to do is lead his wives on the path of God's greatest blessing.

So notice what Jacob does as immediately as he receives the word of the Lord, it says in verse 4, So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was.

And he said to them, I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before.

But the God of my father has been with me.

Now Jacob, he's able to retell this story.

The things that we've read before, but he retells it and he's able to understand how God has been working this whole time.

Up until this point, Jacob has been godless.

But now he looks at the story and he looks at it and he understands how providential God has acted, how God has acted every step of the way, despite the fact that his life has been miserable.

God has been acting in the midst of it.

Look what he says in verse 6.

He says, You know that I have served your father with all my strength, yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times.

Now we could stop there, and you know what Jacob could say right now?

How dare him! How dare he do that?

Hey, Lee and Rachel, don't you hate your father?

This is ridiculous.

But instead, look at what Jacob says.

He says, But God did not permit him to harm me.

Verse 80 goes on.

If he said, The spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock bore spotted, and if he said, the striped shall be your wages, then all the flock bore striped.

Thus, God has taken away the livestock of your father and given them to me.

Now here in verses 10 to 13, we understand that it was God who had given Jacob a dream.

And he had told Jacob how to live his life in a way that was according and according with God's promises, how to live in a way that God would bless him.

Now he says this to Jacob and sorry, to Leah and Rachel.

In order to compel them to go along with them.

And I want you to apply this to your own life.

And I have this, I want to speak specifically to men here.

As we think about Jacob leading his family, see, one of the works that God is doing in Jacob's life is growing him as a leader.

And this is true of the work that God does in our lives.

As we grow in the Lord, one of our main desires will be to lead other people.

This is one of the ways that the sort of like individual gospel of North America has led us astray.

We've kind of begun to believe that we can grow individually, like kind of like a plant that's in a pot by itself.

And yet the picture that the gospel shows us is that Christian maturity actually is seen in the way that it affects other people.

In fact, I'm convinced that one of the greatest marks of maturity in your life is the way that you are pouring yourself into other people.

Well, why do I say that?

I say that because when Jesus came to his disciples, he did not say between his death and resurrection, he did not say, go into your rooms and read your Bible until you know your Bible really well.

That's important.

He did not say just go into your rooms and pray a lot and just pray as much as you can.

That's important too.

You know what Jesus said to his disciples?

He said, Go and make disciples.

If you're a follower of Christ and that is rooted deeply in your identity to be a follower of Christ, you know what you're going to follow?

The mission that he has given you to make disciples.

It means your life is kind of inflamed with this passion for other people.

See, as God works in you, one of the desires that he grows in you is this is this desire to be used in the life of other people, whether it's to encourage them or to exhort them, but ultimately to serve them.

And we've kind of believed this kind of individual gospel that growth can happen apart from God's church and apart from God's people.

And notice here, specifically, men, notice that as Jacob is growing, one of the things that is growing along with him is the leadership of his family.

Jacob desires to lead his family on the path of God's righteousness.

And let me ask you two questions.

Is that your desire?

Do you desire to lead your family on the path of God's blessing?

But let me ask you this also: are you doing it?

Are the people around you closer to God because of your influence in their life?

Does your wife, does your kids, does your small group, do your friends think more about the Lord and think more highly of the Lord because of your influence in their life?

If we aren't influencing our family and those around us in this way, we are really doing nothing for them.

Jacob could provide all the riches for his family.

He could provide all the money for his wives and for his children.

And yet the most significant thing he could do is lead his family to the promises of God.

This is the most important mark of grace and growth in your life.

I want you to notice something else about Jacob's life as he looks for God's providence, as he sees God's action in his life.

Notice that one of the other marks of transformation in your life is that those who are around you will hear more about God's grace than about your complaining about life.

You see that change in Jacob?

Like now Jacob cannot tell this story, which is there's a lot to complain about in this story.

Jacob has been 20 years under slavery.

There's a lot to complain about, but Jacob just cannot tell it without praising the Lord.

You ever met someone like that?

It's like they get hit by the metaphorical truck of life, and life is horrible, and they're just like, Praise the Lord.

Praise God.

God is so good.

And you're like, listen, I don't understand how God can be good right now.

And they're just praising the Lord.

God is so good.

They just believe that nothing can happen outside of God's control.

And this is one of the evident signs of transformation in your life is that you're more focused on God's grace in your life than the things that you have to complain about.

This is what our lives need to be.

Constantly, every day, every hour, every minute, looking for marks of God's providence.

As we do that, we will grow in Him.

So let me just give you a really practical application about how you might spend even this week, even today, what can you do to look for God's providence in your life?

Well, here's one thing you can do.

One thing you can do, really simply, is journal.

Let me just practically give you this.

Commit this week, every day.

You're gonna write down three things that you are thankful for.

I'm not talking about like generic things, I'm talking about like real things that you're really thankful for.

Specific things.

Maybe it's about your family, maybe it's about your church, maybe it's about your job.

Specific things that you are thankful for.

Notice God's grace in your life.

Well, here's another way that you can look for God's providence.

Maybe you commit once a day.

I'm gonna encourage somebody.

I'm gonna encourage somebody.

I'm gonna point out in somebody's life the way that I see God graciously working in them.

See, these are ways that we can look for God's providence.

But I want you to notice the next thing that Jacob does in order to be rewarded for the life of faithfulness is that he rests in God's protection.

He rests in God's protection.

Now things are about to get hairy for Jacob.

See, Laban is increasingly growing in hatred for Jacob.

And as Jacob has amassed all these riches from Laban, it says in verse 17 that Jacob arose and set his sons and his wives on camels.

He drove away all this livestock and all his property and all that he had gained, the livestock and his possession that he had acquired in Padamaram to go to the land of Canaan, his father Isaac.

Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole her father's household gods.

And Jacob tricked Laban the Armenian, the Aramean, by not telling him that he intended to flee.

He fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.

Verse 22 says, When it was told.

Laban, on the third day that Jacob had fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.

But God came to Laban, the Aramean, in a dream by night, and said to him, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob, either good or bad.

Now I want you to notice something.

Notice that Jacob didn't need to trick Laban into running.

No matter what, once Laban found out Jacob was gone, Laban was going to find him.

The reality that Jacob was coming to understand is that he couldn't protect himself.

Like if God had allowed Laban to reach him, God could allow Laban to overtake him.

Jacob was still acting in his own power, trying to win his own protection.

And it doesn't matter how much he does, it doesn't matter how much he tries to trick Laban, Laban will still catch him.

Laban will still find him.

See, what Jacob needed to do here was trust what God had said in verse 3 of chapter 31.

You remember what he said?

We just read it.

He said, Return to the land of your fathers and your kindred, and I will be with you.

There should be a sense in Jacob's life that because God is with them, he is going to be protected.

You know, Moses wrote Genesis to Israel as they were wandering in the desert.

And it's really interesting that I think as Israel's reading this story, like I think their jaws are probably open, like wide open, because they realize that what Jacob is experiencing, they've just experienced.

Remember, Israel was at one point in slavery under Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

And remember that that slavery started out well, just as it had for Jacob, but it turned very quickly to genocide.

So that the people of God had to leave Egypt.

And as they were leaving Egypt, the very thing that God told them to do, with the presence that God promised to go with them, as they were leaving Egypt, they're running away from Egypt, and they look behind them and they see this dust cloud of the Egyptians chasing them.

Jacob was in the exact same situation they were.

And just like Jacob crossed the river of Euphrates, so the people of Israel, they found themselves up against a river.

And the only way, with their backs up against this river, the only way that they could escape God's enemy was that they trusted in God's protection.

And so God, in a great cloud, came between Israel and Egypt and split the Red Sea so that Israel could walk through.

And Israel knew that they could only live if God would protect them.

They needed to rest in the protection of God.

And they're reading Jacob's story and understanding that Jacob here is experiencing an exodus of his own.

And surely they're convinced because of their own story that God is going to deliver Jacob.

That if God is present with him, he will be delivered.

See, if Jacob was going to be protected, it ultimately had to be a work of God.

That's why in verse 24, we see that it's not Jacob's tricking, it's not Jacob's cunning that leads to his protection.

It's God's.

It's the fact that God comes to Laban and God tells Laban not to do anything good or bad to him.

And in verses 25 to 32, what we're going to find is that the only reason that Jacob is delivered from this is because Laban listens to God.

So that in verse 29, Laban says, It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night saying, Be careful not to say anything to Jacob.

And listen, you need to know this that one of the most freeing beliefs that you can have in your life is that you can really do nothing.

You can do nothing.

That's one of the most liberating truths that you can believe in this moment.

It's a truth that Jesus preached when he came and he said to his disciples, Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Would you just take a moment?

Can you preach the gospel to people beside you right now?

Just tell your neighbor, you can do nothing.

Tell them that right now, you can do nothing.

You thought you were coming this morning for an encouraging word, but you're leaving knowing that you can do nothing.

And yet there's great liberation in that.

Because God's desire for his people is that you rest in his care, that you understand that you can do nothing.

And yet what we so often do is kind of puff up our chests and make it seem like we can, we're like strong, independent people.

We don't need any help.

God is calling us to be his children.

And as a father who has three young daughters, you can imagine what it would be like if my children decided at this point in their life that they were gonna do it on their own.

Like, listen, my kids, they can make a bowl of cereal in the morning, but if I give them any responsibility beyond that, it's absolute disaster.

Milk everywhere.

The house is a mess, nothing's cleaned up.

These kids are gonna survive.

They need to rest in the care of their parents, and so it is with you.

One of the most destructive things to your spirituality right now is likely this belief that you can do it on your own.

Because if you believe that, you'll never turn to the Lord.

If you believe that, you'll never lean into the church.

You'll never pursue the path of faithfulness that leads to God's greatest blessing.

That's why one of the most liberating things that can happen in your life is you become consumed with this overwhelming belief that you can do nothing, that you have no control over anything, that God has to be the one to work.

That you all you need to do is rest in his care.

Listen, if you're an unbeliever here, this is really relevant for you.

You need to hear this: that you have no control over your life.

You have no control.

You have no control of leaving this place and turning on to Mu Lock and being hit by an 18-wheeler and life being over in an instant.

You really have no control over the world.

Sure, you can kind of like control your own actions, but but you have no control over the weather, you have no control over the government, you have no control over other people's actions, you really control nothing.

There is nothing you can do.

And as I'm saying to this, this to you, if you're an unbeliever, my hope is that like this anxiety is welling up in you as you realize there's nothing you can do.

You, in the grand scheme of things, are powerless.

And yet, here is God this morning calling you to his care, calling you to embrace his care, saying, I will deliver you to eternal life.

No matter what happens in this world, you cannot have taken from you the thing that I will give you, eternal life itself.

Not even death can take that away.

God's calling us to embrace his protection, to rest in his protection.

Now understand how tense this situation is.

In verse 31, Jacob kind of eats his words here.

Jacob answers Laban and says to him that he fled because I he said, I fled because I was afraid.

For I thought that you would take your daughters from me by force.

And anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live.

In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what I have, I have that is yours, and take it.

Now, Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

Jacob at this point has put the whole plan of God on the line.

If Laban finds what Rachel has really stolen, then all of God's work of salvation is over.

Because he has made this commitment that you can kill anybody who has the gods that you claim were stolen.

Verse 33 to 35, this is a really tense moment as Laban looks through the tent to try to find these stolen idols.

That's how it says in verse 33.

So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them.

And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's.

Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them.

Laban felt all around the tent, but did not find them.

And she said to her father, let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of a woman is upon me.

So he searched but did not find the household gods.

See, if Laban finds these idols, the plan of God's done.

And yet what God is teaching us here is that nothing, nothing, not even your own foolishness, not even your own wrong decisions and sinful decisions, nothing can thwart his plan.

What God wants to do, he will accomplish.

This is why the psalmist, the psalmist in Psalm 112, verse 7, he believes us so firmly that he's able to say this, that he does not fear bad news.

Psalms 112:7

Because his heart is steadfast in trusting the Lord.

Do you recognize that when your heart is in a place of trusting God, there is no news that can shake you?

Because all of a sudden you recognize that God is faithful to protect you, he's faithful to keep you.

There's no amount of bad news that can cause you to be shaken if your heart is steadfast in trusting in the Lord.

This leads to our last point, the last thing I want you to see that Jacob's life is teaching us.

It's teaching us that the reward of faithfulness is found when we rejoice in God's preeminence.

Rejoice in God's preeminence.

There's some apologetics going on here.

I think as Moses is writing this, he's kind of laughing.

Moses believes in the one true God of Israel.

And it's very clear here that Laban believes in these household gods, and the gods of the ancient Near East.

And I think that Moses is kind of making fun of Laban here.

In verse 32, when he says, Anyone with whom you find your god shall not live in the presence of kinsmen, point out what I have that is yours and take it.

Now God did not know that Rachel had stolen them.

I think that's kind of laughable.

Like the gods of Laban can be kidnapped.

Or maybe a better term is to say god napped.

And in comparison to who the God of Israel is, who the God of Jacob is, this is laughable.

But I think it's relevant for us.

See, for some of us, we struggle to worship God because our gods are the idols of this world.

I don't want to ask you this question.

Can the thing that your heart worships most can it be stolen?

You know, some of us, our hearts delight so much in the material things of this world, whether it's our home or our cars or our phones.

And just as ridiculous it is for Laban to put all of his trust in these household gods that Rachel can hide in a camel's pouch and steal, that are obviously powerful, so uh powerless, so it is just as ridiculous that we will worship the things of this world that can be stolen.

Listen, if you gotta take out an insurance plan on the thing that you are worshiping, it might be evidence that the thing you are not you are worshiping has no eternal value.

God cannot be taken from you.

God cannot be kidnapped.

And our our idols can be stolen, they can rest.

In comparison, God is so much higher than any other god.

I think it's significant here that Rachel is able to place these gods into a pouch, and that as Laban looks throughout the house, we find that these gods are really used in a in quite a dishonorable way.

As Rachel sits on them and says that she cannot stand because the way of the woman is upon her.

And so as to say, like, these gods are good for nothing except to be disposed of, except to be trash.

It's a reminder to us that there is no worth in other gods.

This is why Paul says that to pursue anything other than Christ is to pursue rubbish.

It's to pursue garbage.

There's no value in that.

There's no worth in that.

There's no greater pursuit than God.

Now, Jacob responds to this in verses 36 to 42 in anger.

Look what he says in the first two verses in 36 and 37.

It says, Jacob became angry and he berated Laban.

Jacob said to Laban, What is my offense?

What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me?

For you have felt through all my goods, and what have you found of all your household goods?

Set it here before my kinsmen and before your kinsmen that they may decide between us two.

In verse 38, he says, These twenty years I've been with you, your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams of your flocks, and on and on and on Jacob goes.

Then there's kind of this question that's being begged of us to ask us this question, is Jacob's anger just?

And the reality, as we consider the answer to that question, is no.

Jacob's brought himself here.

Jacob has no one to blame except for himself.

Like we've read through the story of Jacob, and really the takeaway is like if you just do the opposite of Jacob most of the time, you're gonna be pretty good.

Jacob's gotten himself here.

It's not Laban's fault.

We still get this sense that instead of being consumed with the preeminence of God, Jacob's still consumed with himself.

See, what Jacob could be doing in this moment is preaching the gospel to Laban.

Preaching the gospel that God had given to him.

That Laban's greatest blessing is in following him.

Instead, what Jacob is doing is pushing Laban away.

See, the problem is that Jacob's too obsessed with himself.

He's too obsessed with himself.

It's really interesting that, you know, we talked about the comparison between the Exodus and this story with Jacob, and it's interesting because after the Exodus, we see another father-in-law.

And with this father-in-law, we recognize what Jacob should have done.

See, in Exodus 18, Jethro, who is Moses' father-in-law, after the Exodus comes to Moses.

And in verse 8 it says, Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in this way, and how the Lord had delivered them.

And look what Jethro then does.

And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

It's quite amazing.

I believe truly that Jethro is now saved, invited into the family of God, a partaker of God's blessing.

And this is what Jacob could have done.

But instead, instead of Jacob being obsessed with God's goodness, instead of Jacob being obsessed with God's plan, Jacob is obsessed with himself.

And it's a reminder to us.

You are not the good news.

Goddess.

And your greatest need for those around you is that you share the good news.

That you preach the goodness of Jesus Christ.

This is the greatest way that you can serve others.

See, often we look at evangelism, you know what we do?

We think, oh man, this is going to be really awkward.

I'm going to be rejected.

And I think we need to reframe our understanding of evangelism and the work that we're doing when we share the gospel.

Because it's true, we likely will be rejected.

But you know what you're doing?

When you're inviting someone to give their life to the Lord, you are inviting them to partake in the greatest possible blessing that they could ever know.

And I find it shameful in my own heart that I'm so willing to talk to my neighbors about like the best restaurant that I just had, about this amazing food that they've got to try.

You gotta go see this restaurant, and yet I'm so unwilling to point them at times to the thing that is of eternal value of Jesus Christ Himself.

See, what Jacob should have done was invited Laban to partake in the blessing that God had promised to deliver through his people to the nations.

Well, Jacob's not the only deceived one here.

Laban's deceived, too.

Look what Laban says in verse 34.

It says, The daughters are my daughters.

The children are my children.

Now that's just not true, isn't it?

Laban has given these daughters and children away.

They're no longer his.

It says, The flocks are my flocks, and all that you see is mine.

And again, this is just not true.

Laban is deluded.

He had entered into a deal with Jacob.

And yet, out of fear, Laban's required in these following verses to make a protection treaty.

And the story really ends sadly.

Look in verse 55.

It says, early in the morning, Laban arose and kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them.

Then Laban departed and returned home.

Laban he leaves with nothing.

He leaves with nothing.

And this is what we're reminded that on the path of faithfulness, the reward is eternal.

The reward is abundant.

The reminder here for us is that if you don't give your life to the Lord, if you don't wholesale live for the Lord, you can live all this life with all the riches you could ever possibly imagine, but you will eternally have nothing.

And my question for you this morning is which way are you gonna live?

What's your choice?

At this very point, you have a choice.

Who are you gonna live for?

Are you gonna make Jesus Christ your Lord?

Or are you gonna live for yourself?

Are you going to inherit the reward of faithfulness?

Or are you gonna like live and lose it all because you are unwilling to live for the Lord?

Let's pray.

Father, God, Lord, we thank you.

That God, you care for us so greatly, you love us so much that you are willing, Lord, in this time and in this moment, to point us to your goodness and to your grace.

And God, I pray that our reception, our desire would be to follow you and to live for you.

God, help us to believe that there is no greater path of blessing, there's no greater reward than to know Christ, to have Christ, and to live for Christ.

Help us to believe that not only in the words that we sing now, but in the life that we live this week, and the actions that we partake in, and the words that we say, Lord, we want our whole life to drive with this confidence that there is nothing better than Jesus Christ the Lord.

God, we pray this all in the name of your Son.

Amen.