"Don't Trade Your Mandrakes"

The Bible says this, Genesis chapter 30, verses 14 through 22 says in the days.

Genesis 30:14–22

Of the wheat harvest, Reuben, this is Leah's Leah's son, went out and found

the mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah.

Then Rachel said to Leah, sisters here, remember that Laban's daughters, Rachel and Leah.

Rachel said to Leah, please give me some of your son's mandrakes.

But she said to her, is it a small matter that you have taken away or taken away my husband?

Now, if you'll remember, Jacob went and worked for Rachel seven years, seven years.

I mean, Pastor Rob only made me work five years for Ashley. I felt like I got

a good deal. So he goes and he works.

Actually, you know what? I've been I did a long installment plan.

I've been working the last 28 years for Ashley, and so that's kind of where we are.

But so Rachel, Jacob goes in, works seven years for Rachel.

Laban tricks him, gives him Leah to wed instead.

And so because it was Rachel that Jacob truly loved, he worked seven more years for Rachel.

So he worked a total of 14 years and got Leah and then eventually Rachel so there's always this

uh contention between the sisters because what

has happened is that Rachel his first

love his first choice she couldn't have children

she hadn't had children at this point but Leah

had given him children so there's contention there Rachel

feels like she's not enough because Leah has

has has children and yet leah

feels like she's not enough because she knows he

really loves rachel so there's contention so

man that's a lot going on isn't there you you think you have to turn on the

young and the restless or days of our lives to get drama you just read the word

of god it's it's in here so it says please give me some of your son mandrake

but she said to her is it a small matter that you've taken my husband would

you take away my son's mandrakes also.

So Rachel said, then he may lie with you tonight in exchange.

This is why I got to preach this on a Wednesday night. All right.

He may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes.

I know some of you guys like, I didn't read this in the Bible.

Well, you got to read the Bible.

So it says when Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet

him and says, you must come into me for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes.

So he laid with her that night and god

listened to leah and she conceived and

bore jacob a fifth son so notice

rachel exchanged the night with

her husband to her sister who was also

it was lawful it was he had her too it's old

testament okay but that night leah conceived

now now watch this so the bible so

leah said god is god has given me my son

my wages because i gave my servant to my

husband so she called his name issachar and

leah conceived again and she bore

jacob a sixth son my goodness

she was fertile and so it goes on and says then leah said god has endowed me

with a good endowment now my husband will honor me because i have borne him

six sons so he's called his name zebulon afterwards she bore a daughter and

call her name dinah then god remembered rachel.

Gosh all of this has happened rachel trying to figure it out on her own trying

to trade her husband for her mandrakes we'll see what that means in a minute

and the bible says and god remembered rachel and god listened to her and opened

her womb there's a lot going on in this story.

And it's a lot to unpack because if you read it on the surface level,

you don't understand what's truly happening here.

And so I hope to teach us a lesson on obedience tonight on what was going on

in this story of Rachel and Leah.

This is my thought tonight. Don't put your trust in the Mandrakes.

Don't put your trust in the Mandrakes because many times we put our trust,

we try to work it out ourselves. We try to put our trust in every single thing.

And so I want you know tonight don't put your trust in the mandrakes let's

pray tonight father in the name of jesus we come before you we

thank you for your holy spirit we thank you for

this opportunity to be in your house and god let your

word go forth clearly tonight let's take your scripture that you have put in

here for our our understanding and our uplifting our edification uh for our

instruction god give us speak a word into every heart and lord we thank you

for your word tonight everybody say thank you for your word thank you for your

in jesus name we pray the church said.

Amen. Amen. Thank you for your word, Lord. My thought tonight,

if I had a thesis, it would have

to be this, is obedience to God's timing produces fruit that lasts. Okay.

Obedience to God's timing, because we're really our overreaching theme to this.

We're using the mandrakes as an object lesson, but our overreaching theme is on obedience.

Obedience to God's timing produces fruit that lasts while striving in our own

strength only leads to temporary and costly results.

So when we're obedient, we produce fruit that lasts. When we try it on our own,

we strive on our own, then it just leads to temporary and costly results.

Now, I don't know if you've ever tried to work things out yourself before.

Well, that's probably really a rhetorical question because I know you've tried

to work things out yourself before.

I've mentioned it before, but one time I was trying to encourage,

okay, I was almost trying to manipulate my staff when I was a principal at Norton Elementary Middle.

I was trying to almost...

Them into volunteering in the future. It's hard to get volunteers.

I don't know if you guys have ever worked in the school system before,

but teachers are already overworked.

Paraprofessionals are overworked. Everybody's overworked. And so it's hard to get volunteers.

And so I had this, actually a colleague of mine told me about this idea.

And so I thought, I'm going to implement this. I'm going to do this.

He said he thought about doing it. I said, I'm going to do it.

And so the idea was I was going to walk in during our opening faculty meeting at the first of the year.

And whenever all the teachers are in there, I was just going to ask for a volunteer.

Well, we know that in the school systems getting volunteers,

they're just about as nice chicken teeth. All right.

That's just the kind of the way it is. And so I walked in.

And so my idea was now, Josh, if they come in and ask for a volunteer,

just shoot your hand up because you know what it is now.

All right. So I walked in and my idea was I'm going to go in and I'm going to ask for a volunteer.

And the first person that raises their hand, just to show people that sometimes

when you volunteer, you get such a benefit and a blessing that you don't expect. This is my intention.

I'm going to try to teach them this. I'm going to try to pull it out of them.

So my idea was the first one that raises their hand, I'm going to say,

I'm going to work a day for you and you don't have to take the day off.

You just get to stay home and go shop and do whatever you want to do.

And I'm going to work the day in your classroom. Cause I'm thinking, man, you know what?

I can teach fourth, fifth, sixth grade math. I can probably throw out some English,

you know, No, I've got hopes of there like, no, I've seen your slides.

I know you can't speak English, but I could do a little bit of science.

I don't know any much history, but I could probably wing it a little bit.

And so I walked in confident, knowing that I had a plan that was surefire to work for everybody.

And so I walked in that day and I just welcomed them all back.

I said, before we get started, I need a volunteer. I got something I need to

do and I need a volunteer.

Well, of course, nobody's just throwing up their hands or anything like that.

And all of a sudden, a hand goes up. And I thought, man, my plan has worked.

I'm getting ready to blow everybody's mind.

Until I realized it was the hand of a pre-K teacher that went up.

Now, I don't know if anybody has ever worked in a pre-K classroom or not,

but I would just assume to go out and dig a ditch with a spoon than I would to work in a pre-K.

I mean, I'm just going to be honest with you, all right?

I love them. I love those little, bless their hearts. We need pre-K and we need

kindergarten and all of that, but I'm not called to do it. It takes a special

person to be called to do that.

That hand went up and automatically I knew I was in trouble.

My assistant principal, my school counselor, they start to laugh because they

know that I've made the mistake of a lifetime.

And I went ahead and went through with it. I said, I said, you get to stay home.

You get to work. I'm going to work in your place.

And instead of everybody saying, I'm going to start volunteering in the future.

Everybody said, Oh, Mr. Addison made a mistake right there. We can't believe he did that.

I never did it again. I went down there and I really didn't teach pre-K.

I assisted the aid in the classroom all day.

It was the most snot and spilt juice and everything else I've ever seen in my life.

It went wrong. All right. Have you ever been in a situation where you had an

idea how you were going to make things happen and it just didn't work out?

Well, I know I've been there before and I recovered from that example I just

gave you. I made it through the day in pre-K.

Luckily, all the children survived and everybody got home to their parents that evening.

Most of them were fed, all right? And so we got them back there that evening

and everything was fine.

But sometimes things just don't go as planned.

The problem is when we start treating our spiritual life that way,

that's when we begin to walk in the flesh. That's when we begin to make decisions

that are contrary to the will of God.

And that's when things start to go awry, sometimes at the detriment to our lives and our families.

See, we live in a fast-paced world where everything is instant.

We live in a world where we want a fully cooked meal.

You think about it. Years ago, 50 years ago, it would have taken a mom three

hours to cook the meal that we pull up to the drive-thru and order and pull around.

And if it takes more than a minute and a half, we're saying, boy, pal, sure is slow.

They sure have slowed down over the past. No, we're complaining about everything

because we live in a fast-paced world. We are conditioned to hustle.

We are conditioned to make things happen on our own.

We are conditioned to want things right now, and we are not accustomed to walking

in obedience and seeing God work things out in our lives.

See, everything about our culture works against this knowledge,

this doctrine of obedience and faith that we are taught in the kingdom of God.

See, the reality is there is power in obedience.

See, the real story of Rachel, the story of Rachel and the Mandrakes,

it shows us how disobedience to God's timing and relying on your own strength

can lead to frustration and to temporary solutions.

Man, it had to be frustrating. When Rachel made a deal with her sister,

she thought that she was striking up a deal that was going to benefit her,

that she had the answer to her crisis, but it only produced more frustration.

In her life, the womb that was already barren, she had to watch her sister have

even more children, but in our lives, when we try to produce our own results,

and we see it working out for everybody else, and we say,

win, God, win, and God is trying to tell us to slow down and just be obedient. Now.

Of course, this story is in the book of Genesis. We read these stories sometimes

in the book of Genesis, and we think, you know, how was that?

How does that even happen? And it's hard to wrap our mind around some of these kind of stories.

But Rachel is deeply loved by her husband, Jacob.

She struggles here with infertility while her sister is having children.

And in the ancient world, you got to remember this, in the ancient world,

because I know today, women, they decide whether they want to have children or not.

They decide, you know, they make these decisions of when they want to have children.

But in the ancient world, a woman's value was determined by her fertility.

And so we can't, sometimes we can't relate to what was going on in Rachel's mind.

But in Rachel's mind, she thought I'm of lesser value in this culture because I'm not fertile.

And it was defined by their ability to have children and especially sons.

And we read that Leah is having Jacob, his fifth son and his sixth son,

which means that in the culture that Leah is going to be seen as extremely valuable.

And while Rachel is standing or sitting there looking at this happen.

So in her desperation, Rachel decides, I'm going to control my own destiny.

I'm going to figure it out. I'm not going to be obedient. I'm not going to be patient.

I'm not going to trust God. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to try to

figure it out for myself.

And so the Bible says that, first of all, she offers her servant to Jacob to bear children.

Well, we know that that's, we see that from Abraham's lesson, that that's a bad idea.

Trying to work things out yourself only leads to frustration. As a matter of.

There's two warring nations in Israel right now because Abraham and Sarah tried

to work out their own situation instead of trusting in God.

So Rachel, first of all, tries to get her servant to do it.

And while at the time it was culturally acceptable, it wasn't the plan of God.

The plan of God was for Rachel to be obedient to his word, obedient to his plan,

and patiently work in faith.

So the next thing that Rachel does is she tries to gain control of her own situation using mandrakes.

Now, if you don't know what mandrakes are, man, you Google mandrakes when you

get home. There's some weird looking things that are mandrakes.

They've got roots that sprawl out. Some of them say it looks like a human body

sometimes, and they would use these roots.

I know that some people in the ancient world, they were called love apples and

different things, but the mandrakes, it was actually the root of the plant that

they would use in order to do what they believed would increase fertility.

As a matter of fact, they believed that during the time of the harvest,

that they had magical powers to increase fertility in men and women.

So in other words, what Rachel was doing was she was saying,

I'm tired of waiting on God.

And not only am I going to rely on my own strength and my own ability?

She turned to what was really, let's call it what it is.

It was witchcraft. That's what it was. It was witchcraft. She was turning over

to magic, to what the world said at the time.

Figure it out for them. And I'm sorry, we've got so many people in the church

now that they're relying on wives' tales and they're relying on what somebody

said is the magic bullet and on this and on that.

And in reality, guys, we got to trust in God.

Your answer, I'm going to eat healthy. I take vitamins.

But your answer is not in a supplement and your answer is not in a juice and

your answer is not in somebody waving some kind of necklace.

I remember when Ashley was pregnant. People was wanting to wave necklaces across her wrist.

I'm like, listen, those kids right

there are blessed. Don't be doing that witchcraft over my wife's wrist.

Our answers are not in the things of this world. I know people was like, oh, Scott, silly.

Yeah, well, read this story right here and you see how silly I am because it

was those mandrakes that she traded her obedience for.

I'm telling this church right now, don't trade your obedience to these solutions

that you're trying to work out in the world, I know it seems desperate sometimes.

I know maybe your children, you seem like they're too far away.

I know you're desperate to work out your marriage, but don't trade your obedience

to God to some kind of solution, putting your hope in man and not putting your trust in God.

See, in Rachel's mind, these mandrakes are her way to help God.

I want to say this right now. God don't need no help. He needs your obedience.

God doesn't need you to figure it out. See, sometimes in the church,

we think that we've got to figure it out for God. I know, listen, I've been there, okay?

I've been there. I've gotten down before in prayer. It's hard.

It's easy to admit because you know how I am, you know?

I'm not the smartest guy sometimes, and I've gotten in prayer before,

knelt down in an altar before, knelt down in my room before,

and said, God, you know, if you would just do this, then it would open the door

for this, and it would make it easier if this, like I'm telling God something,

like I'm letting God, that He, the Holy Spirit, the most intelligent being in the universe.

I've got to say it sometimes because we Pentecostals sometimes forget that the

Holy Spirit that's living on the inside of us is the most intelligent being in the universe.

He knows everything. He is everywhere.

Listen, he's Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the end.

He's standing at the end looking back at where we are right now,

knowing everything that's going to happen in between.

You don't have to educate God. But we have a habit if we're not careful,

we act out of impatience and we try to become, and I know it's a curse of our

culture, is we've tried to become self-reliant.

You've got to be careful with that because I know I've had to fight that battle

too because how do we walk the balance even with our children on making them

self-reliant but at the same time God-reliant?

How can we teach them to be independent yet dependent upon God?

I mean, I know it's a fine line that everybody must walk, even in the Word of

God. We see that people had a hard time doing this.

We'll talk about Saul and David

a little later, but the reality is we must become dependent upon God.

As the story unfolds, though, we see here that Rachel, eventually she surrenders to God.

That's what we're, it's encapsulated in one verse at the very end is that Rachel surrendered to God.

She was obedient to his plan and ultimately he remembered her and he opened

her womb. But it wasn't until she quieted herself and stopped trying to work it out herself.

I'm speaking to somebody that you've been trying to pray about something.

You've been trying to figure something out.

You've been trying to manipulate situations. You've been trying to work it out on your own.

You've been trying to devise and then figure and calculate

and the reality is turn it over to god and

be obedient to his will and see i'm not.

Music.

Saying that he's not going to to to tell you to stretch a rod over the red sea

so he can open it i'm not going to tell you that he's not going to make you

walk through on dry ground you got a part to play but the reality is he didn't

tell moses when he walked to the red sea that you're going to have to build

something maybe some kind of aqueduct and maybe you can, no,

no, he said, you watched me do the work, and then you got a part to play in this too.

There's a part for us to play, but God is the author and the finisher of our faith.

See, there's danger trusting in the flesh. Jeremiah said it this way,

says, thus saith the Lord, curse is the man who trusts in man and makes his

flesh his strength, whose heart is turned from the Lord.

See, it's a terrible thing to think that we can do this ourself.

It's a terrible thing to think that—I'm going to go ahead and say this,

I'm going to take it up another level—it's a dangerous thing to think that your

employer is your supplier, that the government is your supplier.

Music.

Decided they would pay me. No. The Bible says the heart of the king is in the

hand of the Lord, and like the rivers of living water, he turns it wherever that he wants to.

I pray for my sons every single day. I said, God, put the right people in the

right place with the right plan.

It's not because it's the people, but it's because it's the one that God's placed

there, with the plan that God's placed there. I say it all the time.

I said, God, put my son's names on the lips of people in high places that make

decisions about their future.

You know why? because it's not because they're making the decisions,

because the man that has the ultimate plan, the author and the finisher of our

faith is the one that's putting the intentions, the thoughts in their minds

to speak good things over our lives.

Our source is not man, but it's the Lord.

The prophet Jeremiah makes it plain. To trust in the flesh is to turn your heart away from God.

And here's the problem with that. It's not just a weak decision.

It's rebellion in disguise.

Woo. Man, somebody's like, Pastor Scott came back in town. He's mad at somebody.

No, I'm not. I'm mad at the devil, all right? But this is reality.

When we try to work things out ourselves and we don't trust in the Lord and

we're not obedient to his plan, it's not.

I know people say, well, you know, I just made a lot of bad decisions. No, we were rebellious.

Amen. Amen this Presbyterian church.

All right. I know. I know. That's a hard one to hear, isn't it?

We like to pass it off as just a bad decision when in reality it is us not allowing

God's plan to operate in our life.

To trust in the flesh is to say, God, I got this and I don't need you.

I know that we don't say that, but we act like that.

We think that I don't really need to pray about that because I got an answer. I got a plan.

I got it figured out. That's us saying that, God, we don't need you.

And here's the problem, is the flesh will fail you every single time.

The flesh will act like it gives you just a little bit of hope,

and then it'll fail you every time. It's perishable.

It's temporary. And the Bible says it's deceitfully weak in every area.

I mean, look at King Saul. We mentioned him. God anointed him,

positioned him, gave him clear instruction.

But when the opportunity came and the pressure arose, Saul turned on to his

own strength and his own plan and tried to work things out himself,

offered to sacrifice himself.

Why did he do it? Because he was afraid the people would scatter.

He was afraid of what everybody would think. He was afraid he would lose control.

He was afraid he would lose his kingdom. And the tragic thing is he ended up

losing it all anyway because the reality is when you trust in the flesh you

will lose the very thing that you're trying to save.

Oh, man, I remember years ago, me and Pastor Rob sat in the church office talking to a man.

And this man was making excuses why he was doing things, why he was making decisions.

And Pastor Rob said, you know what's going to happen? I remember it,

Pastor Rob. You looked at him. You said, you know what? He said,

you're going to lose everything.

And I felt the Holy Ghost when Pastor Rob said that. It was a warning.

He said, you're going to lose everything. That man looked at Pastor Rob and

said, well, you know what? You just might be right. You remember it?

He said, you might be right.

You know what happened to that man? He lost everything. He lost it all because

he wasn't willing to trust in God. He thought he had it all figured out.

But you contrast that with somebody like David who was flawed.

I mean, you look at David and he was an adulterer and he was a murderer.

And he, I mean, he was a man of war. He was impatient, all of those things.

Yet he consistently turned to God. He consistently said, even though I may make.

Music.

Mistakes, God, I'm coming back to you.

Even though I may make blunders, God, I'm running back to you anyway.

When he stood before Goliath, he didn't boast about his own strength. Remember that?

He didn't say, I come to you in the name of my sling. No.

He said, you come to me with a sword and a spear, but I come to you in the name

of the Lord of hosts. Hallelujah.

He didn't contrive that plan to use a slingshot.

He trusted in the Lord. As a matter of fact, if I had a plan,

it wouldn't be a slingshot. I'll tell you that right now.

I'd have had two of the best swords I could find. I'd have been armored head to toe.

I'd have had about six guys with me. But he didn't come to him with a sword and a spear.

He came in the name of the Lord because he wasn't trusting in the flesh.

See, the flesh will always tell you you can do this on your own,

but the Spirit will always tell you that apart from him, we can do nothing.

You can find that, by the way, in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

Apart from him, we can do nothing.

The flesh will panic in the storm. The flesh will let you down under pressure,

but the spirit will say, peace be still.

Paul warned the church, the Galatian church says, are you so foolish?

Having begun by the spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Oh man, we fall into that trap sometimes. We come to an altar of prayer.

We kneel down and we ask the Holy Spirit.

Music.

Trust in God once again. Don't depend on the flesh.

Depend on the Lord. Obedience. Obedience. Don't trust in those mandrakes.

That's what it comes down to.

Rachel was trying to find the solution to her problem without having to wait on God.

See, here's what I was thinking about today. I don't think it was that Rachel didn't trust God.

I just think that it was she didn't want to weight on him.

Doesn't that hit us all sometimes? It's not that we don't trust God.

We know he can, but it's just not he's working. He's not working on our timeline.

He's not working on our timetable. And so what we find in this biblical account

is that she tried to take the time out of God's plan by using her own schemes.

And we do the same things ourself. I mean, let's all be honest about that.

See, the reality is we got to get back to old-fashioned obedience and faith.

Obedience and faith. It's been a cornerstone of our faith forever,

and yet we try to work things out.

See, obedience is more than following rules. It's an expression of trust in God's timing.

I mean, that's what it's all about. The Bible teaches repeatedly that obedience honors God.

John chapter 14 and verse 15 says, If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 14 · chapter mention

In other words, you're going to trust my plan. You're going to trust my word.

You're going to do things the way that I say to do it.

Romans chapter 8 verse 14 says it this way, For all who are led by the Spirit

Romans 8:14

of God are the sons of God.

In other words, our faith is made evidence by our obedience.

Our faith is not made evidence by us wearing around a freedom of worship t-shirt.

I told you, I got that call from that guy.

It was at Roanoke. Is that where he lives? Somewhere like that.

I got that call from that guy, wherever, Radford, Roanoke, wherever it was.

And somebody in a freedom of worship t-shirt threw a rock through his window,

broke his window, did some other stuff. But anyway, it was, it was crazy.

So that Christian t-shirt don't show your faith. You put on,

I handed out those freedom worship. You can put on those freedom worship sunglasses.

That don't show your faith. As a matter of fact, well, I'm not even going to go there.

Our faith is made evident by our obedience to God.

Throughout church history, we constantly see there has to be a correlation between

what we believe and how we behave.

I mean, I heard Brother Clendon say that years ago. That's where I first heard

somebody say that, that there must be a correlation between what we believe and how we behave.

In other words, what we profess on Sunday is what we've got to live Monday through Saturday. day.

We've got to be who the Bible has called us to be all throughout church history.

We've been reminded of this.

James chapter two and verse 26 says, for as the body apart from the spirit is

dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

In other words, there's got to be that correlation. There's got to match.

There's got to be a correlation between what we believe, what we profess and

how we behave every single day.

All right. I'm going to bring this home. Three, three.

Key points are obedience, all right, before we get through right here.

Amen. I got nine minutes to bring these home, all right? We're going to do it.

All right, here we go. Number one, that's a good-looking slide.

All right, I'm just going to brag on myself every second.

Key point number one, oh, did I spell everything right? Okay.

I always get nervous after I say things like that because I know,

I got to be honest, Hope and Ashley, they're always pointing out misspellings in my slides.

And so if you don't notice it, then thank you, all right?

It's always Hope and Ashley. All right. Key point number one,

the rest of you guys probably notice it too.

Thank you for your grace. I appreciate your grace.

Key point number one, obedience aligns us with God's timing.

Number one, obedience aligns us with God's timing.

See, what happened in Rachel's story is Rachel, her desire to conceive caused

her to try to manipulate what God's plan for her life was.

First, she tried to do that with her maidservant and get Jacob to have a son with her maidservant.

And then finally, with those mandrakes, she took matters into her own hands.

She tried to figure out the plan of God herself. It was a desperate act because

she was trying to take the time. So I want to say it again.

It wasn't that God wasn't going to open her womb, but she was trying to take

the time out of the plan of God.

A lack of obedience with his timing is disobedience to his plan. I want to say that again.

A lack of obedience in his time is disobedience with his plan.

And so she was trying to take the time out of it when we see all throughout

the Word of God that obedience aligns us with the Word of God.

Psalms chapter 27 puts it this way. It says, wait for the Lord.

Psalms 27 · chapter mention

Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.

In other words, God's got you.

God's got this. He's got a plan for this.

He's got, you are not off of God's mind. You are not off of God's radar.

He sees you and he hears you, but just as important in knowing that he's there,

you've got to be patient with his timing.

Obedient requires us to trust that God's time is perfect time.

Man, I prayed about some things when I was younger, and if I'd gotten them at

that time, it would have been a mess. It would have been a mess.

I've told stories to some younger preachers, and you know, preachers in the

house, you know how this is. You get called to preach.

You preach about six sermons, and you think you're ready to go out there and

preach to the world, you know, and by the time I was a young preacher,

I thought, you know, if I just had me a church to pastor somewhere.

Buddy, I could be the best preacher. They'd know everything.

I'd sit all these other preachers straight, and sometimes I'd go back and look at those old notes.

If any preachers ever try to do that, I'd go back and I'd look at notes that

I did about 20 years ago, preaching notes, and I look at it now and I think,

man, I'm glad that people heard this that long ago to where maybe they haven't

had time to work out what I was preaching, all right?

Maybe they had time to figure something. It was terrible.

Some of those notes are trash. I went back and thought, man,

I remember that sermon. It was a good one. I'm going to try to re-preach that.

I've looked at the notes and I thought, man, that wasn't even worth preaching once.

That's preaching twice. My goodness.

See, the reality is we think we're ready for things sometimes that we are not ready for.

God. God knew that I needed to sit under Pastor Rob for about 20 years before I pastored a church.

Thank God that I didn't, when I thought I was ready, when I thought,

you know, because there was people, there was people that called and said,

oh, come pastor here, come pastor there.

We never felt like it was the will of the Lord, even though we thought we were

ready. And the reality was we weren't ready.

As a matter of fact, when we first, I first told Ashley, first time I told Ashley,

we were probably, I don't know, we hadn't been married that long.

I said, I feel like I'm going to, it's God's will for me to pastor. She said, not mine.

Because the reality was the timing wasn't right yet. The timing wasn't right yet.

And if I had tried to force it at that point in my life, I would have thought

I was ready when I really wasn't.

And she would have been forced into a place that she hadn't even been given the heart for yet.

See, that's what we do sometimes though, isn't it? We try to accelerate,

but out of disobedience, we try to accelerate what God has planned for us anyway,

but we try to put it in the wrong time, and we're not ready for it, and it turns into a mess.

See, what Rachel tried to do is take the time out, and instead,

it led to more heartache because the mandrakes that she traded for,

that very night, her sister had another baby.

That night was conceived.

She didn't have another baby. I'll explain how that works later, all right?

Okay, Ashley's giving me that face. I got to move on. All right.

But it led to more heartache. It led to more heartache. It's a Wednesday night, okay?

So number one, I always know J.R.

Makes a certain face when he says he's very good on with that. But all right.

So obedience, it aligns us with God's timing. Number two is obedience brings lasting fruit.

Obedience brings results that are not temporary, that are not just a superficial

shine, but it's lasting results.

After Rachel's many attempts at forcing the hand of God, when she finally quieted

herself, when she finally settled into God, when it happens,

when it's your will, it's going to happen.

See, I've heard the old saints, people would ask them questions.

They'd say, I don't know when it's going to happen, but I know it's going to.

You know what that's really saying right there.

That's saying, I know it's in God's hands. I know he's got it under his control,

and I don't know when it's going to happen, and I'm not going to make it happen,

but I'm trusting that he's going to make it happen.

See, what happens on that one? Romans chapter 8 tells us this.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons. That's a generic term there,

meaning sons and daughters.

Those that are led by the Spirit are the sons and the daughters of God.

In other words, when you are led by the Spirit, you've got faith in God knowing

that I may not know when it's going to happen.

I may not know how it's going to happen i may

not know what it's going to look like when i get there but i

know god's going to do it i know he's going

to make it happen in my life and ever how long it takes

i trust him and ever what it looks like i trust him and oh man that's how many

of you you've heard some of the old saints your parents and grandparents and

aunts and uncles and great aunts have you heard them say things like that it's

showing a trust in god see when we obey God's commandments,

even when it's too slow for our timing, it's still for our best.

It's still for our best. Man, I've got some testimonies in the work right now

that people have told me about.

I've already told them, when this happens, we're going to get you up here and

we're going to tell about it, about the timing of God and how it may not,

you might have thought it was never going to happen.

You try to work it out for yourself, but when it's his timing, it will work.

And we trust him with his timing. And so we got to know that obedience brings lasting fruit.

The reality is, if Rachel had had a son by Jacob with her maidservant,

that was never really going to satisfy her.

It had to be something that happened through the plan of God.

And finally, I want to say this, is that obedience leads to spiritual victory.

There's a spiritual element to this.

We get so focused on the natural that we leave out the spiritual.

We've said this for years, me and Pastor Rob talked about it so many times,

is that we are guilty of trying to find earthly natural solutions for spiritual problems.

And you cannot solve spiritual problems with natural solutions,

with man-made solutions.

Rachel had a spiritual problem. Her problem was not a physical problem because

the Bible says that in time, God opened up her womb. It was a timing problem.

It was a spiritual problem. She was trying to find a natural result for a spiritual problem.

I'm not going to say that there's never natural problems. You know,

if your water line is out there leaking, that's probably a natural problem.

Dig it up and fix it, all right?

But there are spiritual problems that sometimes we try to manipulate on our

own, trying to find a natural solution for a spiritual problem.

Rachel was bargaining with Leah. Rachel's trying to work it out for herself.

And in the end, she had to realize that the answer was spiritual.

Isaiah said this, said, if you are willing, where's that word again,

and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.

In other words, obedience brings victory.

Obedience brings success. Obedience brings the good of the land that you can

only work out in the spirit.

Hope you'll come and help me. We're going to land this thing right there. I got 21 seconds.

I'm not going to fish in 21 seconds. I will go over, but it's okay.

Okay, but we are going to close it right here.

I was talking to Vip about this sermon today because I'd worked all the way

through it, but I was having a hard time kind of finding that one landing that

really just kind of summarized everything.

And Vip says, tell them about The Bachelor. I said, what?

You know it, right? Tell them about The Bachelor. And he started explaining,

and I said, that's perfect.

That's perfect. Because if you look at those mandrakes, I had it in my opening

slide, they have beautiful flowers on them.

They have beautiful flowers on them. So this show, The Bachelor,

and The Bachelorette, there's men and women.

So I have never watched this show. So I'm going to put this out there.

So I'm going off of everything that I have researched on this.

And by research I mean I just googled it to see what it does but from what Vip

told me and from what I read from Google these contestants,

they they're trying to win another round with these men and women and the ones

that he chooses he gives a flower to,

like Rachel and them mandrakes just looking for that flower that's going to solve her problem.

God's not solved her problem. Her womb is still barren.

If I could just get those beautiful mandrakes and make some kind of potion out

of that root that's going to open my womb.

But what he was telling me about the bachelor and the bachelorette is that these

contestants do crazy things, mean things.

Sometimes obscene things just to win one more round with that rose.

And ultimately, I guess there's a winner. They go on and do life together.

It's supposed to be some kind of happy ending, whatever it is.

He said, but I don't think they're very successful at it. So I researched it,

and what you'll find out is that,

four out of five relationships of the bachelor and bachelorettes that are married

at the end of their seasons four out of five of them end in divorce.

It's actually 81.5% of them. So a little bit more than 4 out of 5.

So less than 19% of marriages from that show actually last.

1 out of 5 success rate. It's not very successful.

They go through all that hoopla. They do mean things, crazy things,

obscene things just to get that flower to the next round to work it out their self,

knowing that I probably don't even have a one in five chance of success.

Four out of five of us are going to end in divorce.

That's what Rachel did. Rachel traded the sure success of God for a plan that was sure to fail.

And when you try to work things out on your own without obedience you're trading

the sure plan of God may take longer, may not. You don't know.

I'm convinced that some people quit one day from their miracle.

I am. I'm convinced some people quit one day short of their miracle.

I was glad, you know, I've said this for some people.

I don't say this a lot, especially when there's a lot of little ones,

but before I gave my heart to the Lord for about three nights,

I sat at the edge of my bed with a shotgun on my feet.

And I've often thought back and I've thought, what if? What if?

You know, sometimes I think, well, no, I don't know.

But I would have stopped one day, two days, maybe three days short of my miracle.

Because when I gave my heart to the Lord, it was an invitation to transformation.

When you trade the sure plan of God for an alternative, you're trading for sure failure.

It's not going to happen. It's not going to work. It's going to be fleeting.

You may be happy for, I've heard people say that before. Well,

I was happy for a little while. But the Bible says that there's pleasure in sin for a season.

But seasons end.

But the Bible says the blessing of the Lord maketh rich and adds with it no sorrow.

That's what we're looking for. Obedience brings us the blessing of God.

Let's all stand up all over the building.

Obedience to God's timing produces fruit that lasts while striving in our own

strength only leads us to temporary and costly results.

So really the moral of the story is let's trust God.

Let's be obedient. Every day.

Obedience is really not really that quick fix. You know. So somebody sent me

a little funny video things.

And it had this big heavy guy in front of his bellies hanging out.

And he has one of those little bodybuilding, you know, undies on or whatever you call them, you know.

And he's doing all those bodybuilding poses. And it says, me after one workout, you know.

That's how we are sometimes.

We think that after one workout after one exercise after one prayer everything's supposed to be fixed,

it's not that way obedience to

the plan of god brings us fruit that lasts nothing else does every head bowed

every eye closed nobody looking around if you're here tonight i'm going to raise

my hand on this one but if you're here tonight and you'd say sometimes i'm guilty

of trying to work things out myself.

Sometimes I'm not as patient with God's plan as I should be.

Sometimes I need to be obedient more than I need to try to figure it out on my own.

If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand right now.

Is that me? Yeah, that's a lot of us. That's a lot of us.

Here's what I want us to do. I want us to have a time of prayer.

I would encourage as many as that would come up to this, this altar and let's pray together.

If you want to kneel in your seat, you can kneel in your seat, but I want

us to have a time of prayer together let's step out of our seats on one two three

step on out let's come meet at this altar let's meet in the you can make

uh the front seats altar area if we don't have enough room

up here but let's join in this altar and say god i want

to i want to do something about this now that i'm

i'm knowledgeable of it now that i know about it

then i'm accountable for it i don't want to work it out myself but i want to

trust you i want to trust in you father in the name of jesus we come before

you god i just ask you right now jesus to help us to help us lord jesus to to

open our understanding jesus allow us to be more trusting in you.

Music.

Hannah Addington. So God's a miracle-working God.

Peanut. That's the one I was thinking about. That's who I was thinking about. And Anne, Sister Anne.

Does anybody else got an unspoken request? If so, just raise your hand.

We're going to take all these requests to the Lord.

Whitney Mullins, Grandma. Yeah, passed away. So, didn't she?

She passed away. Is that the message I got?

Yeah, so pray for that family. Pray for that family.

Listen, I know there's sickness around. There's difficulty. But I still believe

in a God that works miracles.

There's sickness around, but I still believe there's a God that heals.

I believe that by His stripes we are healed.

I know that there's sorrow, but I still believe that there's joy in salvation. I believe that.

So can we pray tonight? God, let's pray for all these needs.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we come before you. We thank you.

We thank you for your word. We thank you for your spirit.

Father, right now we pray for every one of these requests, every hand that went

up that signifies a request. We just pray for these requests right now.

God, we pray for the Mullins family with the loss in their family.

God, we just pray for that family.

God, we pray for Peanut, God, that you would bring healing forth speedily in

the name of Jesus. God, we pray for Glenda's eyes right now in the name of Jesus.

Lord, that you would come and that you would heal that pain,

that you would bring that sight back, God.

Father, I just pray right now for John as he goes through this procedure tomorrow,

that you would guide the surgeons, that you would lead them,

that you would bring healing in his eyes in the name of Jesus.

Father, we pray for Hannah right now, God. God, I just ask you to dissolve that

stone, to do the work right now in the name of Jesus.

Father, I believe that you can do it. Holy Spirit, I believe that you can do it.

Father,

I believe that you can do the work right now in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus.

Father, I just pray for every single request that's come forward tonight,

believing that you are the healer, you're the way maker.

Father, right now I pray for those that are sick and sin right now,

God, that you would bring conviction.

I pray, God, that Sunday morning when they walk in this building,

that conviction is in the room.

Holy spirit i just ask you god for those tonight that that are sick i pray for

the sickness in our area god that you would bring healing in the name of jesus

i pray i pray for people that are discouraged the spirit of depression oppression

in our region we come against it in the name of jesus,

jesus you're the answer jesus you're the answer we thank you for it the name

of jesus amen amen man you know i just i i felt in my spirit.

We need to begin to believe when we pray for these things we need to believe

that he is the miracle worker the bible says there were signs that follow those

that believe are we believing because if so there's signs that should be following amen,

and you know why people you know why people came and they

flocked to jesus even even those that didn't really

know who he was because they saw what he was doing when we

start seeing once again those signs and wonders following those

that believe this this house will be full it will be full it'll look like easter

sunday on a wednesday night in here when we start seeing those signs and wonders

amen i felt that in my spirit all right there's a prayer point for all of us

well i love you guys bless you guys you're still out before 8 30 if you're taking

medicine god bless you guys we'll see you on sunday morning see you on saturday

morning for the diaper giveaway love you guys.