Jacob or Judah

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

I'm excited to be here.

I'm especially excited in the introduction that the Cowboys have a winning record.

Sometimes that introduction doesn't go well.

But I'm excited to be here and have the opportunity to share.

I'm also excited because my wife is here with me.

Canika stand up.

Canika have a stand up.

You gotta stand up.

You gotta stand up.

This is this is her first time at Gateway.

Which I was like, I don't know how that's possible.

I mean, all you gotta do is jump on the highway and look to the right.

You'll find one somewhere.

But I'm excited to share, we have uh five beautiful children at home.

And so I know.

I'm in the middle of the woods with no navigation, just trying to figure this thing out.

We're just working it out.

But I'm excited to be here this weekend.

This is also my birthday weekend.

And so this weekend I turn, yes.

25.

25.

That's what I'm talking about.

25.

I turned 41 this weekend.

And so I'm excited.

I'm excited to be here.

Well, I'm gonna pray for us, and we're just gonna jump right into God's word.

Y'all alright with that?

All right, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we love you and honor you.

We give you the praise and glory for who you are.

And if you don't do anything else, you've already done enough.

By sending your son Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins.

We love you.

Help us to, yes, believe in it, but even the more walk in it.

Um, so that when people see the people here at Gateway, they get to read a Bible that they may have never read and be more interested in who is this Jesus.

We love you and honor you today.

Bless the words out of my mouth and the meditation of my heart to only be acceptable to you and help us to learn, grow so that we can achieve.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right, y'all.

I'm coming from Genesis 29.

Genesis 29, so Bible apps or pages, whichever one works for you.

Genesis 29, reading from verse 31 through 35, and I really want you to hear this story.

Okay, I want you to key in to this story because this is a really meaningful, impactful story in God's word that I really believe has a simple message, but a profound truth, in order for us to go to the next level in what God is calling us to.

Genesis 29, verse 31 through 35 says this.

Genesis 29:31–35

Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.

Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben.

For she said, Because the Lord has seen my affliction, surely now my husband will love me.

Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son also.

So she named him Simeon.

She conceived again and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons, therefore he was named Levi.

And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord.

Therefore she named him Judah.

Then she stopped bearing.

Today I want to talk about a crossroad.

And a crossroad that Leah faced in her life, and that we all face in her life.

And you got to understand that when you face crossroads, these are really decisions to destiny.

That Leah right now is facing a crossroad that is she gonna continue to labor and deliver for Jacob, or is she gonna labor and deliver for Jesus?

I mean, she has to decide and make a decision.

Is she gonna continue to labor for the trickster, or is she gonna labor and deliver because she knows she has triumph?

She has to make a decision in your life, and you have to make a decision in your life.

Am I gonna deliver so that I can be accepted, or am I gonna deliver because I already know that I'm accepted?

You have to figure it out really quick.

Are you going to labor so that you can garner human response?

Or are you gonna labor because you already know you have spiritual resolve?

If you don't figure this out quick, you'll really quit on the calling that God has on your life because you'll figure that because you're not getting human response, or because you're not getting the resolve that you want from man, that you're also not getting the resolve that you want from God.

And a lot of us have this confusion that Leah is having right now, and we've got to decide between Jacob or Judah.

That's her decision that she's having to make today.

That's your decision that you're going to have to make is why am I doing what I'm doing?

One of the quickest ways to run out of gas is to continue to labor and deliver and produce in an environment that could care less.

One of the quickest ways to back off your calling from God, one of the quickest ways to back out of your marriage, to back out of what God has called you to do, to back away from all of the situations and circumstances that you're dealing with is continuing to pull into a filling station that has no gas.

Because you're looking for human response and you're saying to yourself, with everything I'm producing, surely they would give me some gratitude.

With everything that I'm doing, the way that I'm operating in my marriage, the way that I'm operating as a grandparent to my children and their children, the way that I'm operating at my job, all of the work that I'm putting in, how is it that nobody sees me and nobody cares?

And many of you are dealing with no gratitude while you're laboring and giving it your all.

This is where Leah is.

She's in a situation and circumstance where she's laboring and delivering, laboring and delivering, laboring and delivering, and Jacob could care less, almost as if to say, that's what you're supposed to do.

And some of you have people in your life that you're given everything that you can, and all they're saying is, who cares?

That's what you're supposed to do.

You're going to work every day at a job that's saying, that's what you're supposed to do.

They don't even know your name.

You're working hard in these different situations in your life, and you're running out of gas because nobody is responding to the effort that you've been putting in.

It's hard.

And here Leah is in that situation where she's giving birth and she's laboring and delivering, and Jacob is saying, I just don't care.

She's finding herself in a mess.

Now, what makes matters worse is that this isn't even her mess.

She's trying to get Jacob to accept her.

Do y'all know who Jacob is?

If I saw Jacob, I'd be like, nah, bro, you're gonna have to move around.

I can't, I can't fool with Jacob.

Jacob is not someone you want to actually deal with.

I mean, from the day he was born, he was trying to grab onto his brother's heel as if to let him know, I'm coming after your birthright and your blessing.

Jacob is a trickster from the day he's born.

In chapter 25, he takes his brother Esau's birthright by tricking him with a bowl of stew.

In chapter 27, he tricks his father and his brother with his mother to take his brother Esau's blessing.

And now here he is in chapter 29 going to find a wife, and he ends up at Laban's house and he sees Rachel.

And I'll just say it like this: we're in family worship.

Rachel was beautiful.

He liked Rachel.

And he said to himself, and he said to Laban, Laban, I will work for seven years for Rachel.

In other words, that brother was gonna go to completion for that lady.

Let me just make a side statement here.

Ladies, if if a man knows what he wants, I'll just leave that right there.

Um but this brother was gonna work seven years for Rachel and watch what happens to Jacob.

After seven years of working for Rachel, he says, Laban, I'm finished.

I did what I was supposed to do.

Laban says, Okay, let me cook you a feast.

Sure, that feast had a little wine in it.

Look at y'all, y'all know there's a lot more than a little.

Jacob goes to his room, the lights are off, and Laban doesn't send in Rachel, he sends in Leah.

And Jacob marries Leah and gets up the next morning and realizes what happened and says, Laban, you tricked me.

And Laban said, Well, you know, it's customary in our culture to give the older daughter first.

If I was Jacob, I would have said, You couldn't tell me that seven years ago?

It's a little late.

And so Jacob then says, Well, I'll just work another seven years for Rachel.

So he works in chapter 29, he works 14 years for Rachel.

Watch this.

No, he works 14 years because God was giving him the recompense of his previous performance, and he got Rachel.

See, God never agreed with how Jacob got the blessing and the birthright, and God was letting him get the penalty of his previous performance in chapter 29.

So you got the trickster getting tricked by Laban, you got God allowing him to get punished, you got all of this mess and all of this chaos happening in Jacob's life.

And I know many of you may be thinking, what in the world does that have to do with Leah?

Exactly.

That's the same thing she's thinking.

Here it is, this is somebody else's mess, and now I feel a mess in all the messiness.

How do I feel rejected?

How is it that this is somebody else's game, but I'm the one coming out the loser?

Many of you have been in that situation where it was the divorce of your parents, but they weaponized you as a child, and now you're trying to recover all of this, and they're acting like there's something wrong with you.

You have all of these circumstances that you're going through in your life, and you're saying, This is not even my mess.

Why am I feeling a mess in all of this messiness?

Why am I having to deal with this and go through this?

I just want you to understand the plight of Leah in this passage.

Is that somehow it's somebody else's story, but she has taken sinner stage.

And here she is in Genesis 29, totally rejected, totally unloved, totally unnoticed, totally unseen.

And in verse 31, it says this.

Now the Lord saw Leah was unloved and he opened her womb.

But Rachel was barren.

I want to make sure that everybody in here knows that just because they don't see you doesn't mean God doesn't see you.

What we tend to do is make our physical reality synonymous with a spiritual truth.

That if I'm unnoticed over here by man, that means I'm unnoticed over here by God.

That if I am not getting a response over here, it's because I'm being rejected by God.

That if I'm not getting the applause and the praise over here for all of the work that I'm getting in and all of the work that I'm doing, that means that God is taking his hands off me and stepping back from me.

But the last time I checked, the Bible says that even if you feel left, God will never leave you nor forsake you.

That just because you feel mishandled doesn't mean you're not still in God's hands.

That just because you have a physical reality, you can't make that physical reality all of a sudden and automatically be a spiritual truth in your life.

And a lot of saints back up on God because people are backing up on them.

And he wanted Leah to know listen, I see you, and I want you to know how I see you and that I see you because I opened your womb.

It says that God saw Leah and opened her womb.

In other words, God gave her the ability to produce.

God gave you the ability to produce.

Look at your life, look at your testimony, look where you've been, look where you are.

We all shouldn't even be here right now if it was not for the grace, the mercy, and the gift of God covering us in our life.

The reason why you can produce is because God sees you and He made it evident that He sees you because He opened your womb so that you can deliver value.

The problem is not that God sees her and God sees you, and God opened her womb, and God opened your womb so that you can be able to deliver.

The problem is who you choose to deliver for.

Now understand this, this will mess your whole situation up.

Because if you're taking the gift of God and you're turning it for Jacob, and Jacob is not responding to you, and then you decide, well, I will quit being the man that God has called me to be in my marriage because my wife won't respond, even though God is the one who graced me to be able to provide.

I'll quit being the woman that God has called me to be because I'm not getting the response that I want.

So thank you, God, for opening up my womb and giving me the ability to produce, but because they won't respond, I'm gonna quit on what you gave me.

So I am predicating my entire value on likes and views.

So who cares if God gave me this gift?

See, the reason why I'm saying this is because I used to not want to get on the stage.

I'm Tony Evans' son.

That's like Michael Jordan's son trying out for the Bulls.

It's not a good idea.

And my mom told me before she passed away in 2019: you get up there and you open your womb for an audience of one and you let the fruit of it fall where it may.

And when you learn that, you can live your life, do what God calls you to be, be free in it because you know who gave it to you and who you're giving it back to.

Once you lose sight of that, any external issues in your marriage with your kids, at your job, in this world, in the news, all of these things will be able to dictate over you how you function with the womb that God opened for you.

And here she is, and here we are.

She's taking a gift of God and she's turning it towards Jacob.

Watch this.

Jacob is not responding to her, and it's aggravating.

You run out of gas when you're in a house with someone who doesn't respond to everything that you're putting in.

Not saying it's easy, it's hard.

And Jacob's not responding to her with what she's delivering.

But she's not responding to God with what he delivered.

Once I take the gift of God and turn my back on him for Jacob, and Jacob doesn't respond to me, and I'm frustrated that Jacob will not respond to all of my effort, God is back there saying, But you're not responding to all of my effort.

What you end up having is just an assembly line of non-responders.

Where God is thinking the same thing you're thinking.

You're putting in all your effort to try to get the trickster who has a history of being a trickster, who has a history to let you know that trying to get paid from that account is insufficient funds and you keep going back to it.

And God is saying, I delivered for you.

I opened your womb.

I sustained you.

I make your path straight.

I give you rest.

I have your blessing.

I hold your whole eternity in my hands, and you're gonna quit because of Jacob.

And so now she's about to start the process of delivering and burdening and bearing for Jacob.

And just by the way, um there's no like anesthesia options back then.

They're uh what do you call it, Canica?

What's what is it?

Epidural, they didn't have that option.

So, in other words, it's painful what she's choosing to go through for Jacob.

Even though Christ is the one who went through the pain for us.

This is and so she starts the process of no longer Jacob starring her because now she's choosing to deliver for Jacob, even though God delivered for her, and so she's no longer being scared by Jacob.

Now she's gonna start the process of starring herself because of her decision to live for the world.

In verse 32, it simply says, Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has seen my affliction, surely my husband will love me now.

Guys, she gave birth to Reuben.

Y'all looking at me like, who cares?

Oh, that's what Jacob was saying.

No, you don't understand.

The name Reuben means, behold, it's a boy.

You see, back then they named the kids based on what they were thinking, feeling, and going through.

Okay, so she was saying, look, first child, it's a boy.

Now you got to understand, this is not a governmental culture, this is a patriarchal culture.

So they're run by patriarchs.

Okay, the patriarch, the oldest male in the home, would decide um uh he would administer the law, he would decide how many people get to come in their house.

He would care for them financially in all of these different ways.

He was the government, he would take the rule of law and administer it in his house.

He could decide who lives, who dies.

All of those things would happen with the patriarch.

And in the patriarch's compound, there would be like 30 or 40 people that he would rule over as the man of that house.

That's why in John 14, Jesus says, In my father's house there are many rooms.

He's making an allusion to the great Near East, the ancient Near East, where the Father would have many rooms to take in more of his choosing.

And she's saying, Yo, Jacob, I just gave you your successor.

There's nothing greater than this, Jacob.

You could not ask for more.

Surely you will love me now.

She's climbing the ladder of expectations only to get to the top of it and realize the whole time it's leaning on the wrong wall.

Look at what I produced, Dad.

Surely he'll call me now.

Don't you see what I've accomplished?

Don't you see my achievements?

Don't you see what I've done with my life?

Don't you see all of these things?

Surely I'll get the raise now.

Surely I'll get my income will go up now.

Surely my boss will see me.

Surely they're gonna take notice of me.

Crickets.

It was a reasonable expectation based on what she produced.

It was also an unreasonable expectation based on who she produced it for.

And many of us are producing and producing and producing, and we're thinking, oh, this is the time where this person's gonna change, or this circumstance or situation is gonna change based on what I just achieved, based on what I just did.

Surely everything will be different now.

And you run short on gas when you realize the situation is not powered by your power.

So here many of you are in situations that I've been in, in situations that you may be in now where you're giving your best and it doesn't seem like anyone cares.

I know I feel the same way.

Behold, it's Reuben! Certainly, see what I've done.

Certainly, somebody will notice.

Surely now things will be changed.

No, it wasn't.

And then she continues the scarring process that many of us continue to do, the same expectation.

Well, let me just try it again a different way.

And then in 33, as we jump right through this, then she conceived again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me a son also.

So she named him Simeon.

Simeon means hearing with acceptance or hearing and obeying.

So her thesis is God has heard me, he's delivered to me, I've received from God, now I'm delivering for you.

Certainly, a change in me that's visible will equal a change in you.

Certainly, I heard at the conference, I heard at church, I received the word.

I'm gonna be different.

I'm gonna change my action, I'm gonna deliver a different posture, I'm gonna deliver a different attitude, I'm gonna deliver a different countenance, I'm gonna deliver differently because I heard, I received, I obeyed, now I'm going to deliver it in my home, at my school, at my job, and my expectation is a change in me will automatically equal a change in you.

Crickets.

You've got to be kidding me.

How can I come to my marriage and be this different and you continue to be the same?

How can I go to my job and be this consistent over a long period of time because Pastor Robert was talking about consistency and dreams to destiny and all of these different things and detours and all of these different things.

So I got juice in my cup.

I'm ready to let it fly, let it go, and nobody still cares.

I'm trying to tell you, if you continue to live with those expectations, then those expectations will be the God that determines your participation.

That's why many Christians shut down.

Well, it's not working out.

I'm not getting the play, I'm not getting the stage, I'm not getting the likes, I'm not getting the followers, I'm not getting the change.

Things aren't changing for me.

So thanks, God, for opening my womb, but no thanks, it's not working.

And Leah has no other thought than the thought that we have.

Well, let me just try something else.

Let me keep going down this rabbit hole of trying to get Jacob to respond to me and love me based on my productivity.

And so you see in verse 34, she conceived again and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have bore him three sons, therefore he was named Levi.

If you notice the verses before this, she said, The Lord has seen my affliction, the Lord has heard my cry.

This verse, she don't say, The Lord, nothing.

God's not in it.

Sometimes you can get so frustrated as a Christian, you just leave God out and say, That spiritual stuff ain't working.

Let me just do this with my own hands.

And so she gives birth to Levi, which means cling to me.

Now she has a list.

Don't you know that I've done A, B, C, Reuben, Simeon?

Now Levi, I've cooked, I've cleaned, I've worked, I've provided, I've done.

I have a resume that I can show you of my productivity.

Surely now I'm the one that you give the raise to.

And here we are.

Deciding whether we're going to be who God called us to be consistently, based on the consistency or the inconsistency of the one we're trying to get to respond to us.

How do you keep going?

How do you do what God has called you to do in the school, at the job, in your home, as a grandparent, as a worker, as a CEO, as a pastor, as in ministry?

I'm doing all of this work.

I'm cleaning up the church, I'm doing what they're asking me to do, and nobody even says hello.

They do not know my name.

Many of you, if the truth be told, your gas tank is very low.

There are some people right now that their gas tank is very low in their marriage.

Their gas tank is very low with their parents or children or at your job.

You feel like God opened your womb.

You used to feel like that, but it's amazing how circumstances make us change our spiritual view on things.

God gave me this opportunity three weeks later.

That wasn't from God, that was from somebody else.

That circumstance has power, doesn't it?

Or we get to a place where Leah got.

Leah in verse 35 conceived again.

Guys, you're gonna conceive.

But if you're gonna conceive, you must conceive this way.

And she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord.

Therefore she named him Judah and stopped bearing.

She conceived again and bore a son.

And she said, This time I will praise the Lord.

This time I'm going to conceive and deliver for the glory of God.

What I do, why I do, whether I eat or I drink, I do it for the glory of God.

Why am I who I am?

Because I'm praising God.

I'm gonna deliver for the one who delivered me.

I'm gonna love the one who loved me.

I'm gonna produce for the one who produced for me.

I'm gonna take up the cross for the one who took it up for me.

I'm gonna sacrifice because he sacrificed for me.

I'm gonna serve because he first served me.

I'm gonna do what I do to the glory of God.

And she finally figured it out.

I'm gonna conceive and deliver simply because I'm praising God for all that he's done for me.

And if that's a blessing for you, it's a blessing for you.

But I know that a blessing for me is simply to praise the Lord.

That's why David says in Psalm 34, praise the Lord and let us exalt his name together.

In Psalm 103, he says, Bless the Lord and do not forget any of his benefits.

In Habakkuk, it says, even though there's no grapes in the vineyard, even when there's no produce on the field, if there's no sheep or no cattle, I will give him praise anyway, because he gives me hindsfeet like a deer so that I can climb the highest heights.

She figured out why am I doing what I'm doing?

They may not deserve it, they may not uh respond to it.

It doesn't matter.

If God has opened my womb, I'm gonna do what he has called me to do to the praise of his glory, and I'll let him take care of you.

The only way you survive in a marriage with no response when you're running out of gas, at a job with no response, you're running out of gas.

You better fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and now is seated at the right hand of the Father.

The problem is we are so distracted by human response that we ignore what Christ has already done.

Gateway.

All the campuses.

She gave birth to Judah.

Okay, y'all, y'all.

Come on now.

Y'all don't y'all been at Gateway long enough to know who Judah is, don't you?

Leah gave birth to Judah.

Some people are like this.

When Jacob was blessing his son, he said, all of his sons in chapter 49 of Genesis, he said, Judah, you're like a lion crouching.

Who dares rouse you up?

Your scepter and your rod will rule until Shiloh comes.

Shiloh is the one who will bring peace to the entire world.

Okay, you still don't know where I'm talking about.

Okay.

Judah had a son named Perez.

Perez had a son named Hezron.

Hezron had a son named Ram.

Ram had a son named Abinadab.

Abinadab had a son named Nashan.

Nishon had a son named Salman.

Salmon had a son named Boaz.

Boaz had a son named Obed.

Obed had a son named Jesse.

And Jesse had a son named David.

And from the line of David came the son of David, the son of God, and the son of man, Jesus Christ.

Leah is in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

I thought Leah was unloved.

Jacob saw Rachel, but God saw Leah.

And when she changed her thought process to do what I do to the praise of his glory, God changed her disaster into destiny and put her in a place she could never have achieved on her own.

God is waiting on you to change course so that he can change courses to where he wants you to be.

And as long as you're gonna mess with Jacob, he'll let you mess with Jacob and lose your mind.

And when you decide to praise his name, he'll take care of your heritage, he'll take care of your legacy, he'll take care of your rest, he'll take care of what God is calling you to do.

Whenever you decide to praise his name and give him the glory that's due to his name, and I'll close with this.

Many of you may be thinking today, yeah, but what about Jacob?

In chapter 49, Jacob is dying.

He says, In his old age, he says, Uh, hey guys, they said, Yes, sir.

He said, You know the burial ground where Abraham and Sarah are?

They said, Yes.

You know that's the same burial ground of Isaac and Rebecca.

They said yes.

He said, That's also the same burial ground of Leah.

They said, Okay.

He said, That's where I want you to bury me.

Jacob chose not to be buried with Rachel, he chose to be buried with Leah.

I can't tell you when God is going to change your circumstances, but I am telling you that you need to be changed in the circumstance you're in, and you let God get your circumstances right in his time.

Because he knows how to bring things around.

If it's not good yet, it's because God's not done yet.

You have to choose today between Jacob and Judah, and it's time for the people of Gateway to deliver a praise.

And everything that we're called to do, and let God show us what he's calling us to.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we love you and honor you.

We give you the praise and glory for who you are.

Thank you, Lord, for teaching us a simple truth.

What are we focused at?

What are we looking at?

Why are we doing what we're doing?

Is it because you have gifted us?

Or is it because we're looking for the world's response?

Lord, help us to remember that you're the giver of destiny, the giver of rest, the giver of legacy, the giver of heritage, that you have opened our winds to the to be able to produce.

Help us to produce and let you take care of where all the fruit and chips fall.

So that we will not give up on you simply because others have given up on us.

Lord, we love you.

Thank you for teaching us today.

Thank you for Gateway.

Now make a way, and we'll gladly walk through.

We love you and honor you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you for having me, Gateway.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.