The Comparison Trap | Brad Straarup

I'm so excited just to be here today.

I really believe that God wants to come and He wants to speak a word so specific into your life.

That I pray that there's gonna be some chains that are gonna fall off every single one of us here today, not just the moms, but every single person.

And if you have your Bibles, I wonder if you can turn to Genesis 29, Genesis 29, verse 30.

Genesis 29:30

We're about to jump into a story, and in the story, you're gonna see that it is saturated with comparison and rivalry.

You're about to meet someone by the name of Jacob.

And Jacob loves a girl, and that girl, her name is Rachel.

And he has worked seven years for Rachel, working for his uncle, and finally it gets to this moment, their wedding day, where he's gonna get Rachel.

And I don't know how this happens, but his uncle during the wedding night somehow slips in the older daughter, Leah, and he doesn't recognize until the very next day.

Y'all let me just say this.

If you think the Bible is boring, this is like desperate half-wives.

Like, that's what's happening.

You're like, how does that even work?

Like that you recognize the next day, you're like, you are not the girl that I'm meant to marry.

I have no idea how that happened, but it happened in the story, okay?

Y'all think the Bible's boring?

It is definitely not.

But he's so frustrated, and what he does is he goes up to his uncle and he says, I have worked all these years for Rachel, giving me Rachel.

And his uncle says, Okay, I'll give you Rachel, but you need to work for me another seven years.

And that's where we pick up the story.

And it says that Jacob slept with Rachel too, and he loved her much more than Leah.

It was the one that he always wanted.

It says that he stayed and worked for Laban for an additional seven years.

And when the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, I love this that he is the God who sees us.

Even if you're in this place and you feel like no one else sees you, he sees her in a moment of pain.

When the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, he enabled her to have children, but Rachel could not conceive, so Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son.

She named him Reuben, for she said, The Lord has noticed my misery, and now, say and now says, Finally, now that I've given my husband a kid, he's gonna love me.

Anyone ever been in that place, kind of like Leah?

Where you're like, Man, if I can just get this, finally, and now I'm gonna get the thing that I desire.

When I finally lose the weight, when I finally get that job, when my marriage finally gets all of it, when this finally happens, when I finally get the house, then I'm gonna experience the emotion that I desire.

If I could just blank, then I would feel blank.

What's in your blanks today?

She's saying, if I can get this, finally I'm gonna feel the love that I desire so much.

The challenge is she has an expectation, but her expectation doesn't match her reality.

And even though she's just given her husband a son, his feelings don't change towards her.

Verse 33, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son, and she named him Simeon.

For she said, The Lord heard that I was unloved and gave me another son, but Jacob's love doesn't change.

And then it says that she became pregnant a third time and gave birth to another son, and his name was Levi.

For she said, Surely this time my husband will feel affection for me.

I have given him three sons.

Surely now I'm gonna feel the love and the acceptance and the desire that I want to feel, and she doesn't feel it.

Continues, 30 verse 1.

It says that Rachel, the other sister, realizes that she wasn't bearing Jacob any children.

And she became, I want me to say that word, jealous of her sister.

She became jealous of her sister.

And what happens after this is you see this rivalry between these sisters gets worse and worse and worse.

And the challenge is it doesn't only affect them, it starts affecting their line.

Their kids will go on to fight, their kids will go on to battle.

All because of comparison.

All because the one is like, okay, I have love, but I want kids, and the other one says I have kids, but what I want is I want is love.

And I think so often we come into days like today, like Mother's Day, and I find that it's so easy to start comparing ourselves with everyone else, and everything else that we want for our lives, and it's a trap.

I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, It's a trap.

If you're taking notes, I want to talk from this title today, the comparison trap.

The comparison trap.

And the sermon is for anyone who is in this place and you're struggling to find contentment within you because you are so focused on the people that are around you.

So, God, I pray that you will come.

Holy Spirit, may you speak, may you do whatever only you can do.

We give you this space, we give you this room.

May you speak to us we're listening in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, Come on, everybody said amen and amen.

Um, as a kid, I used to uh do a little bit of running, okay?

Not for very long because I'm uh I eventually went to homeschooling, so I did it as a baby kid.

And the reason I could do it was because I got really long legs.

Okay, and what I learned when I started running in my life is this as a kid, you gotta stay in your lane.

Y'all feel that?

Like you gotta stay in your lane, and often I'd be running, and I would get so distracted by my friends that so quickly I would start to run in their lane.

And here's what we do so often in our lives is that we are looking, just like Leah, to the left and the right, and we don't end up running the race that God has for you.

In fact, the writer of Hebrews talks about this in Hebrews 12.

It says this, Hebrews 12, verse 1.

Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, say, therefore.

Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders.

How many of you want to be unhindered today?

How many of you want some things that you don't want to hold you back anymore?

Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

I need you to understand something this morning is that there is a race that God has called you to run.

Not only is there a race that God has called you to run, He has given you gifts and talents and skills for you to run that very race.

And what I find in my life, if I can just be honest, in church on Mother's Day, is so often I'm not running the race that God has set before me because I'm so busy focusing on the race of everyone around me.

Y'all gonna play me like that for real?

For real?

I know we're like that.

We're on Instagram comparing our lives to everyone else, especially when it comes to Mother's Day.

You're like, her husband got her the perfect flowers and the perfect gift, and all I got was Happy Mother's Day.

Like, what?

We give like that in our lives, consistently comparing.

Man, I've seen it.

Like you go on vacation to Disney, okay?

How many of you love Disney?

Oh, we love we love Disney.

Disney's awesome.

And as as a dad, you're like, I've saved up, and this is the moment I'm taking my family to Disney.

Not only are we going to Disney, I got the lightning passes.

You know the fast passes that allows me to say, I'm skipping you.

Like, we're just going.

You're like, this is gonna be amazing.

And you and you're you're eating your your your Disney Mickey ears popsicle, and you're like, this is awesome.

And then you go on Instagram, and you see your friend, and they didn't take their family to Disney, they took their family to the Maldives.

And it's like those bungalows that are like over the water that have like the glass floor where you can see the fish, and you are so happy with your vacation, and now you're like, I hate that little rat.

Like, I do not like Mickey.

Why am I even here?

Like, I do not like Mickey Mouse, like I thought this was gonna be fun, and now all of a sudden, it's not fun.

We have our kid, and our kid gets first place in the spelling bee, and we're just so happy, but then we have that other friend, y'all know that friend.

That friend, her kid is a freshman, 220 pounds, he already has a goatee.

How does that work?

I don't know, there's something in the food.

He already has the goatee, and he's already prepared for college, full ride, football, let's go.

And you are so stoked about your kid's spelling bee.

And now all of a sudden you're like, what is wrong with my family?

Why are we not getting drafted?

He's 16, he should be drafted by now.

What I've learned in my life is this the quickest way to ruin something special is to compare it to something else.

You see, because God is doing special things in your life, and you'll never actually stop to appreciate the things that He's trying to do in your life when you're too busy comparing your race to everyone else.

And what's gonna happen with comparison is comparison is the number one thing that will kill your joy.

Not only will it kill your joy, it's gonna steal your joy.

Theodore Rissafelt said it is the thief of joy, and I think so often we willingly give up our joy because we just love comparing.

Right?

Can I just talk to the moms for a second?

Like, I know that this is so hard.

Because we get to a place and we're like, okay, it is time I'm gonna get my life in order, I'm gonna get healthy, I'm gonna get fit, I'm gonna get crunchy.

I don't even know what crunchy means, but I'm about to be crunchy.

And you cook that meal and it's organic, and it is beautiful, and you're like, I did it.

You know, and then you have that one friend that was like, it's technically not organic because there's some there's some ingredients in there that you kind of messed up, and you're like, dang! Can't even get it right.

You have that friend, and they're like, Mrs.

Organic.

You know, like they cook every night for their family, it's beautiful, you know, their house is always clean, their makeup is always perfect, their hair is never out of place, their kids have no screen time, and somehow they're perfectly behaved.

They do not need screen time to be behaved, where meanwhile, that's your survival guide.

Whenever you are out with people, they're maintaining their fitness, their business is perfect, all the while being completely emotionally regulated.

Meanwhile, you're like, Can I just get a gold sticker for making it out of the house on time?

Or even two minutes late.

Where's my sticker for that?

We can have these moments, and it's so hard, and I know, especially for moms, I just want to take a second because it's mother days.

I want to talk to moms because I know this, that the weight that you carry is profound.

Like you're managing your household, you're managing school calendars, like you're managing absolutely everything.

And so often you're pouring yourself into the kids that to such a degree that sometimes you feel like you're losing your own identity because the hobbies you used to have, you no longer have, the dreams that you used to have, you no longer have, and you feel like you're losing yourself, you're losing your friendship, you feel like you're already not great, you're not doing you're not being a great mom, you're always failing, and then you go onto Instagram and you see everyone else that has it perfectly figured out.

Let me just say this.

We often look at reels, and we're looking at everyone, everyone's highlight reel.

What you need to know about people's highlights reel, R-E-E-L, is they are not real.

R-E-A-L.

We're comparing ourselves to everyone else.

Meanwhile, we don't know.

The second they posted that they sat on the couch and cried just like we did.

It's not even reality.

But we spend so much time beating ourselves up.

Dudes, I'm coming for you too, because it happens with us too.

Man, they post that beautiful golf swing.

What you don't know is they tried it 20 times before they posted that thing.

It wasn't perfect.

But so often that's what we look at.

Why do people always get the job?

Why do people always get recognized?

Why do I feel like God is overlooking me while he always seems to bless them?

Instead of being focused on what God is calling us to do, we're looking left and right, trying to figure out why I am not getting the same things that we're experiencing.

And just let me tell you this that when we do that in our lives, there is a crash in your future.

Every time you see someone in the Bible start comparing themselves with someone else, there is a crash in their future.

A couple days ago, Saint was running, and he was running because he runs all around the house.

And what he was doing is he wasn't looking forward, he was looking to the right.

And what happened is he ran straight into a wall.

Let me just tell you something.

If you are running and you are looking to the left and the right, let me prophesy that there is a crash in your future.

And so often we won't run the race that God has set before us because we are too busy looking at those running the race beside us.

This thing will destroy your destiny.

It is the number one tool of distraction and destruction in your life.

And the enemy will use it to kill your joy, to steal your dreams.

And I'm here to say today we have to deal with it.

And we need to kill the thing that slowly kills us.

God has a better plan for you, and it's not a plan that compares.

No, it's a plan where you focus your eyes, you fix your eyes on who?

Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

So, what I want to do today is I want to give you a framework.

Some things that you can do, that if you find yourself like me in this place when you're on the couch, eating Fritos, looking at everyone else's life, and so sad about your own because right now that isn't happening quite the way that you wanted it.

If you're in that place, I pray that today the Spirit of God breaks it off your life.

And I want to learn from someone who did it well, someone who did it really well, and that's Paul.

You see, there's a lot of people that didn't do it well.

Saul did not do it well, and it led to his downfall.

Okay, Leah at the time didn't do it well.

Cain and Abel didn't do it well.

Paul, my dude did it well.

Okay, he writes this letter in 2 Corinthians that I kind of want to spend some time on.

2 Corinthians, he wrote it because people were trying to compare him to other apostles, and he even jokes about it.

He calls them super apostles.

He's like, Oh my gosh, yeah, they're so amazing.

And what they're doing is they're like, these guys are incredible.

They have money, they have status, they're eloquent.

What is Paul?

The guy who wrote one third of the New Testament.

He's like, Who is Paul?

He's in prison, he's persecuted, he doesn't even speak well.

So Paul literally writes this letter to defend who he is, and the second he is met with comparison, he rises above it, which is what I want us to be able to do today.

Second Corinthians 10, verse 12, he says this, oh, don't worry.

2 Corinthians 10:12

We wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men.

Can you hear the sarcasm in his voice?

He's like, I wouldn't say I'm as wonderful as these super apostles who tell you how important they are.

The only reason you think they're important is because they're telling you how important they are.

But they're only comparing themselves with each other and using themselves as the standard of measurement.

How ignorant.

Let me read it in a different translation.

NIV says this.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves.

When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

When we compare ourselves to other people, the Bible says that you are not wise because you are being distracted from the very thing that God has called you to do.

What is one of the main things that Paul did that I want us to do?

First thing is this I want you to change your standard.

I want you to change your standard.

What is the standard that you use to measure your success?

What is the ruler that you are using that you're saying, okay, as long as I is it a number on the scale?

Is it a number of people that follow you?

Is it a number in the bank account?

What is your unit of measure to determine your value?

And what I need you to do is change whatever that measurement is.

The hard thing is so often in our lives what we're doing is we're using everything else and everyone else to determine our value.

Here's the problem with that is if you're better than a person at something, you're gonna feel superior, which is gonna lead to arrogance.

If you're worse than them, you're gonna feel inferior, which is gonna lead to insecurity, which is still pride.

Why?

Because both of those things are focused on me.

C.S.

Lewis said this so well.

He said that if you meet a gospel humble person, you won't say, Wow, they're so awesome, because they spent all the time talking about how awesome they are.

He says, You won't say, Wow, they're so humble, because they spent all of the time talking about how humble they are.

He says, if you walked away from a gospel humble person, you would say this, wow, they cared so much about me.

You're not even thinking about them because the topic of conversation wasn't them.

I want you to think about this.

When you walked into church right now, did any of you think about your pinky toe?

Is anyone thinking about their pinky toe?

Okay, you you you're not thinking about your pinky toe.

When you woke up this morning, your wife or husband or friend wasn't like, how's your pinky toe?

Text you, is your pinky toe good?

It's feeling good?

You're like, it's great, it's great.

Okay, you're not thinking about your pinky toe.

But if you were to walk in this building and stab your pinky toe, oh, you'd be thinking about your pinky toe.

What's the principle?

Broken things draw attention to themselves.

Broken egos draw attention to themselves.

So when my ego is broken, when my identity is broken, I'm gonna look for something externally to define my value.

And anytime I am looking outside of me to determine my value, it means that something is broken on the inside of me, and my standard of measurement is wrong.

Paul says, I dare not compare myself, I will not even compare myself.

He has a different standard of measurement, and what's beautiful is when you read the rest of 2 Corinthians, eventually what you see is his standard of comparison is Christ.

Stop comparing yourselves to others.

Compare yourselves to Christ.

Not that you can see how far you are, but you can see how close you're getting.

Man, every day my focus is I want to be like Jesus.

The crazy thing is when we compare ourselves to Christ and we say I just want to be like Jesus, what we start doing is we start acting in line with the things that Jesus wants us to do.

What's crazy about when you do that, did Jesus love people better than anyone else?

Yes.

Did Jesus serve people better than anyone else?

Yes.

What happens in your business when you love and you serve?

Does your business get better or worse?

Better.

When we follow the plan of Jesus, what's crazy is so often we get the thing that we are busy comparing everyone else's.

But I'm not measuring myself by you, I'm measuring myself with Christ.

So I'm gonna say, no, I'm gonna serve better, I'm gonna love more, I'm gonna lay down my life more.

And often, not always, you see the beautiful benefit of what happens when he is our standard.

Change your standard.

Christ himself set the standard.

Not only does he set the standard, he defines your worth.

Some of you are in this place and you've been told that you are not worthy, that you are not loved.

The value of something is determined by what someone is willing to pay for it.

If I pay ten dollars for bread, it means that I value that at ten dollars.

You need to know this that Christ's payment, the value is what someone pays, and Christ said, I'm gonna give my life for them.

I don't need something external to define my value.

Christ has defined my value.

So why will we spend all of our times comparing ourselves to someone else, trying to find value externally when Christ has already told us that value internally?

If I'm always trying to compare, there's a sign of a broken identity, and where I need to find my value is realize what Christ did on the cross.

We have to recognize that.

There's a big difference between looking to learn and looking to look.

If you're if you're like Brad, I'm someone who likes to study what other people do.

Beautiful, do it.

Looking to learn, great.

The challenges most of the time we're not looking to learn, we're just looking to look.

And we start comparing ourselves with everyone else.

What can I learn from them versus what does their success say about me?

One produces growth, the other one produces insecurity, pride, envy, and despair.

Our value isn't defined by what we do, it is defined by what Christ already did.

Can I get a good amen?

You have to change your standard.

The second thing that I want you to do is I want you to clarify your calling.

Paul says the 2 Corinthians 10, 15.

Now we do not boast and claim credit for the work that someone else did.

He's like, I'm not even looking at their work.

He says this instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended.

What he's saying is, I'm not focusing on what everyone else is doing, I'm focused on what God has called me to.

What has God called you to?

Because what I've seen in my life is so often the reason we're comparing is because we don't even know where we're running.

We don't even know the thing that God has called us to.

So we're looking at everyone else around us to try to define value and trying to define direction.

And the way that you stop comparing is not by white-knuckling it.

I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it, I'm not gonna do it.

The way you stop comparing, look at people running in the Olympics.

They're not white-knuckling it, they have such a goal, they have such a focus that I'm so busy running at the thing that God has called me to do that I don't even want to look at what everyone else is doing.

It doesn't matter.

That's what he's calling us to do.

My prayer today is this for every single person.

What is your calling?

We're called to Christ, we're called to reach people, but what is the thing that he has placed in your heart?

What's the dream that you have?

And I'm praying today that many of you will have permission to dream again.

I can track the moments of my life that I am healthiest and the moments that I'm not by how much in that season I was dreaming.

In fact, if you look in the scripture, often health and dreaming are connected.

They are intertwined.

If you are not dreaming, you are not healthy.

What is the things that God has spoken to you?

Because if I don't know where I'm going and I don't know what God has called me to, I'm going to distract myself with everything that everyone else is called to.

I want to give you permission today to dream again.

I think it's something that a lot of us struggle with.

Proverbs 29, 18 says this where there is no vision, the people perish.

That word is chazon.

Sounds like kazun, but it's not.

Where there is no vision, where there is no sight, it's a mental sight, where there is no picture, where there is no prophetic revelation.

Now, in that context, it's talking about the word of God.

But the principle also applies that when you do not know where you are going, you will perish.

That word for perish isn't you're gonna die.

No, you're not gonna die, but your emotions might, your marriage might, your life might, because you don't even know where we are going.

There's a saying that says if a ship doesn't know where it's going, any wind is the right wind.

And so many of us, we're just blown one side to the other.

Maybe I should try to do what you're doing.

Maybe I'm trying to do what you're doing, because at no point did we define God, what do you want me to do?

Another version says this, where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.

What does that mean?

It means they go into who cares?

They're in survival mode.

So many people, they're alive, but they're dead.

Because they don't know what is it that God has called you to.

The message paraphrase, not translation paraphrase, says this.

If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble over themselves.

But when they attend to what he has revealed, they are most blessed.

What would it look like this week if you actually were to you were to dream again?

The thing I love about dreams is dreams is very much the language of the Holy Spirit.

You see it in Acts.

In the last day, God says, I will pour out my spirit on people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.

Psalm 126, verse 1.

Psalms 126:1

It says this when the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, what does that mean?

When he brought them back from Jerusalem, we were like those who dreamed.

And our mouths were filled with laughter, and our songs with joy.

Don't you want that?

Man, my mouth is filled with laughter.

My songs are filled with joy.

How is your dreaming?

When lost did you dream?

People are like, Brad, how do I even do that?

Like, what does a dream even look like?

Do I just make it up?

I want 50 cars.

No.

You don't just come up with some random dream.

The funny thing is, the Bible, whenever God speaks, whenever God gives pictures, whenever God gives revelation, you need to know this that it always needs to line up with this.

And some of you need a dream for your marriage as defined by this.

You need a dream for your workplace, as defined by this.

You need a dream for your family, as defined by this.

What would it look like this week if on Monday you got down?

And you were like, okay, I'm gonna read my Bible, and you said, okay, God, today I'm gonna dream about my family.

What do you have for me?

What does your word say about how I should be leading my family?

And you were to take some time and write that down.

What about the next day?

How about you dream about what God wants you to do in your workplace, how He wants how He wants you to serve people?

What could it look like if we had a discipline of dreaming?

I'll tell you what will happen.

You'll feel health, vitality, and joy return to your soul.

And you'll be so excited about the things that God is speaking to you about that you're not going to care about the things that God is speaking to other people about.

Does that make sense?

You see this in Habakkuk 2, verse 1.

Habakkuk 2:1

He's really mad when he writes this.

He's complaining to God about Israel, and he's like, Israel is failing.

Israel sucks.

He's like, none of this is happening.

And he's complaining to God, and then he is waiting for a response.

Some of you are in that place where you are struggling and you're waiting for a response.

I want I want you to see his process.

It says this, verse one.

I will take my stand at my watch post and I will station myself on the tower.

Okay?

That's military language.

He's not saying, Okay, God, I want to hear from you.

I'm gonna go stand on a wall.

What you do when you stand on a wall or a watchtower is you're looking at the horizon to see if enemies are coming.

You're looking at the horizon to see what's happening.

What he is saying is, I've complained to God, now I'm gonna position myself to hear from God.

When was the last time you positioned yourself to hear from God?

He says, I'm gonna position myself, and I want you to watch this language, it's beautiful.

He says, I will position myself and I will look out to see what he has to say and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

I'm looking to see what he has to say.

Does that seem weird to anyone else?

Last time I checked, you don't look to hear, you listen to hear.

What he's saying is not I'm gonna do that.

He's saying, no, no, no, I'm gonna look to see what he has to say.

What does that mean?

So often, when God speaks, he speaks in pictures, he speaks prophetically through visions that lines up with this.

And then I want you to watch what he does.

He sees what God has to say, and he says this.

The Lord says, Write down the vision, make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it.

What would it look like this week if you said, God speak to me, what do you have from my marriage?

And you were to take some time to actually write that down and start dreaming again.

Start getting excited for the things that God has called you to.

Watch everything begin to change.

We have to change our standard, recognizing that I don't get my value by who is beside me, I get my value through what Christ has done within me.

And not only that, I'm gonna clarify my calling.

God, what is it that you have called me to that when I'm running my race, I don't even want to look because I'm focused on the thing that He's called me to.

Does that make sense?

And the final thing while you're doing that, now that I know this is what I'm focused on.

I'm not looking here because my my worth comes through what Christ did.

I want you to celebrate right in the middle.

I think we've lost this art.

I think for so many of us, we want to celebrate when everything comes through.

What could it look like if you were to celebrate on the way?

What would that look like?

We're starting a new series next week called In the Waiting.

And we're talking about what to do in the moments of your life where where you are isn't where you desire to be.

What do you do in the waiting?

And I believe that God is gonna speak.

Here's what I want you to do.

I want you to celebrate in the middle.

I want you to practice gratitude even when it doesn't look like the way that you want.

Gratitude is the secret to contentment, but where comparison begins, contentment will always end.

Paul gets to this place, 2 Corinthians 10 17.

He says this if you boast, I'm gonna boast about this.

I'm gonna boast in the Lord.

What would it look like for you not to boast in your achievements?

Not for you to boast on what everyone else has done or in your comparison.

What would it look like if when you were gonna boast, you boasted only in the Lord?

And the fact that it doesn't matter what's happened in my life, he knows my name, he knows my name, he knows the hairs that exist on my head, he knows what I'm going through, he knows what I'm struggling with.

It doesn't matter what happens, I am known by God.

What does that look like?

You see, because when that starts to happen, when I can start celebrating who God has created me, I'm less concerned about who He's created you to be.

Because let me say this I make a really bad James, I make a really bad Nick, I make a really bad Jesse, but I am the best brad you have ever seen.

I am the best brad straw you have ever seen, and our entire focus of life is this to become more and more like Christ and to become less and less like everybody else.

Because he's given me a lane, and my job is to fix my eyes on him as I run at that.

Paul's so good at it.

Celebrating no matter what.

He's in prison, he writes Philippians.

Everything about Philippians is about rejoicing.

Like, dude, you're in prison.

He's like, No, rejoice.

Rejoice.

What does it look like to celebrate in the middle?

The thing that I love, we talked about Leah at the beginning.

This is where Leah gets.

I want to show it to you because I think it's profound.

She has her kid, Reuben, her first kid, and she says, The Lord has noticed my misery, and now my husband will love me.

And then she has Simeon and she says, The Lord has heard that I was unloved and has given me another son.

And then she has Levi and she names him Levi because she says, Surely this time my husband will feel affection for me.

Every time she names her son, she names her son out of her pain.

But something interesting happens in her fourth son.

I want you to see this.

Verse 35.

Once again Leah became pregnant and gave birth to another son, and she named him Judah, for she said, Now I will praise the Lord.

And it says, and then she stopped having kids.

It didn't say the Lord stopped her, but she has been striving, doing everything she wanted to try to win something, and all of a sudden she gets to the place where she says, You know what, God?

You're good, you're enough.

And it takes this narrative pause where she steps into contentment.

She doesn't stay there, but for a moment she steps into contentment.

What would it look like for you just to say, you know what, God?

What you've given me is enough.

Like I'm grateful for what I have.

I'm grateful for where I'm at.

I'm grateful in the waiting, even though it doesn't look like what I want it to look like.

Do that, and I want I want you to see how contentment starts coming back when you recognize that there is a God who's the creator of this world who knows the number of hairs on your head, that knows your address.

And he's like, I'm with you.

What's funny is eventually Rachel ends up having a kid by the name of Joseph.

Y'all know the story of Joseph.

Coat of many colors.

We know Joseph.

Significant character in the Bible.

I think what's interesting is when you start looking at the line of Jesus, Joseph is such a big character that you think that he will come from the line of Joseph.

He doesn't.

Jesus comes from the line of Judah.

The girl who was rejected, who named her son, finally not out of her pain, but out of who God is.

God said that.

That's what I'm gonna use.

And I wonder if so often we're in this place and we feel so rejected, but what we need to recognize is that God is still working, God is still moving.

So often we've put in we've put a period where God wants to put a common.

Let me say that if you're believing for something, trusting for something as you run your race, he's not done with your story.

He's not done with your story.

He's still working miracles in your life.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna celebrate every step of our way because celebration gives us what we need to take our next step.

Therefore, since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run the race set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

I've got blinders on, the pioneer and perfecter of my faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning at shame, and is seated now at the right hand of the Father.

He is my model, he is who we run after.

And if we would spend all of our days focused on what he is calling us to, celebrating every step, not using other people as a standard because he has already defined my worth as we step into that and live in that.

I want I want you to see joy return to your body.

So, Lord, today I want to pray for every single person that's here.

Lord, I don't know the things that they're struggling with, I don't know the things that they're waiting on.

But God, I want to thank you that you took someone who was rejected like Leah and you said that that is the moment, that is the thing that I'm gonna use to bring about the savior of the world.

God, I pray that we will dream again.

I pray that we will see again.

Lord, I pray that you will move and you will do what only you can do.

We love you, Jesus.

With every head still bowed and eyes closed, I know that maybe some people here today, and we're talking about this Jesus, this Jesus that died on the cross to give you worth, that paid the price, and you might be so far from him, and you're like, Brad, I just want to come close, I want to have a relationship with him.

Here's what we're gonna do.

If you're here and you feel far from God and you're saying, Brad, I want to come to him, I want to give my life to him.

No one's looking around, it's just you and me.

I'm gonna count to three and I just want you to wave at me.

No one's looking around and say, Brad, I'm making that commitment.

Thank you.

Here we go.

One, two, three, if that's you.

Thank you.

I love it, thank you.

Thank you.

I love that.

I love that.

Hey, pray this prayer off to me.

Just say, Dear Jesus, I believe that you're the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

I know you came to this earth, you died on a cross, and you were raised that I can have life.

Right now, I make you my Lord, I make you my savior in Jesus' name.

In Jesus' name.

Hey, can you all do me a favor?

Can you put your hands together?

Come on for everyone who just did that for the first time.

We love you so much.

And if you were watching and you just said yes to Jesus, congratulations.

This is the best decision you could ever make.

But you do have a next step.

We want you to text the word Jesus to the number 480-485-3405 so that you can let us know.

Because our team has a 21-day devotional that we would love to send you.

It's called You Said Yes, so that we can walk with you in this journey.

Make sure you know you are not alone on this journey with Jesus.

And also, if this ministry has impacted you, I would love for you to pray about two things.

First, pray about sharing this message with someone.

You never know how much a simple share could impact someone's life.

And secondly, we would love for you to pray about partnering with us financially.

Your giving enables us to share messages just like this all around the world.

And so thank you for giving.

You can go to spiritchurch.co forward slash give if you want to participate in that today.

So we love you, church, and we will see you right back here next week.

And remember that with God, there is more.