In the Word of God as you find it in Genesis chapter 32 chapter 31 and Beginning at verse 43 And Laban answered and said to Jacob these daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and this flock is my flock all that you see is mine But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they have born? Now therefore come let us make a covenant you and I and let it be a witness between you and me So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar And then Jacob said to his brother and gather stones and they took the stones and they made a heap and They ate there on the heap And Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha but Jacob called it Galied and Laban said this heap is a witness between you and me this day Therefore its name was called Galied also Mispa because he said may the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from another If you afflict my daughters or if you take other wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us See God is witness between you and me Then Laban said to Jacob here is this heap and here is this pillar which I have placed between you and me This heap is a witness and this pillar is a witness that I will not pass beyond this heap to you and You will not pass beyond this heap and this pillar to me for harm The God of Abraham the God of Nahor and the God of their father judge between us And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac And then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his brethren to eat bread and they ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain Early in the morning Laban arose and kissed his sons and daughters and blessed them and Then Laban departed and Returned to his place The word of the Lord Thanks be to God. Let's pray together Father again, we come to a portion of your word We know that it's your word. We know that you've spoken it. We know that you stand behind it We know that you have preserved it across centuries and millennia But in coming to this portion of your word we come to things that are strange again unfamiliar to us pillars and keeps and pledges So Lord we need again to acknowledge our need of your spirit And we ask that you would take these very strange things and Help us to see in the midst of them Things that really do have to do with our lives things that really do have to do with you and what you are doing in our lives each one of us So help us as we wrestle with your word and You'll be the one To apply these things to our lives. You know what we need each of them And so help us by your spirit to see Understand to receive This your word and you again be the one to apply it in the very particular ways that your Individual people need for this word to be applied in Jesus name with grace. Amen Maybe seated
Ever wonder what life would be like without telephones. We love telephones in this little world of ours Telephones we carry them on our hips we put them in our cars We've got them in every room in our house. We've got them in our offices We've got little wires that we can stick in our ears that we attach to our phones that we carry on our hips So that we can listen to people talking to us and we can speak back to them and we can be real modern Several months ago barb and I were down on park avenue and I saw this guy standing on park avenue It looked like he was talking to himself and then I realized no he had a little wires in his ear and he was listening to somebody talking to him About 9.45 last night the phone rang. I was in bed. I tried to be in bed By 9.30 even 9 o'clock if I can persuade my family to let me go. I like to and I think frankly This is a pretty good practice and I would commend it to you. I like to get into bed. I like to Review my sermon notes. I like to read some songs and just kind of get my heart warm and hopefully Get some things in my head that will be a comfort to me and encouragement to me through the night Quiet my confused and distracted heart 9.45 I'm alone in the house carbon any are out walking maggy our dog the phone rings. Do I answer it?
Second ring the tape machine will get it Third ring is somebody in trouble? Fourth ring I grabbed the phone. Hello Dad The voice asks haltingly dead. Yeah, that's me Dad My hand slipped off the steering wheel turning a corner and I hit the curb and blew a tire 9.45 now 9.50 Saturday night a flat tire. Where are you? I ask and with no sympathy and no concern in my voice And by the enzyme theater Okay, I'll be right there Trash the receiver gently placed back in its And it's carriage So I drive to the enzyme parking lot sure enough Right tire front tire blown out the one I had just replaced last week But the story gets better I haven't been in this parking lot 30 seconds and I hear this And this little red car turns into the parking lot right front tire flat Mike's auto repair Saturday night 1015 This young woman gets out and says Mr Could you help me change my tire? Yeah, after I get this other one taken care of I'd be glad to help you So 45 minutes later I get both the tires changed and these two damsels in the stress are on their way and I'm back in my car making a five-minute trip back to my house And in those five minutes I had to face myself again Will I ever get to the place where my children are not in inconvenience to me? Will I ever get to the place where Their lives are no longer viewed as interruptions In my life am I ever going to change? Is the time ever going to come When I will be more Christ like a servant more concerned to serve than to be served Will I ever get past being frustrated and irritated by things that do not matter? Flat tires Dented vendors missed curfews, etc., etc. Will I ever change? And then what did this other person this young woman who stumbled out of her car intoxicated and asked for help? What about her? What's her life like? Can she change? Can she be different? I prayed for her on the way home. I gave her one of my business cards. They said if you ever need anything please call Will she Is God big enough To do something in my life that needs to be done? Is God big enough to do something in her life? That needs to be done I wrestle with this I wrestle with it I want to be hopeful but like you I suspect I doubt and I wonder will I ever be different? Is God big enough to change me? Is God big enough to change that young woman? And then I look at Jacob and I'm encouraged and I'm hopeful I look at Jacob in this story and I conclude that things really can be different. I'd encourage you to look at the quote of Jonathan Edwards in the bulletin not now, but at some other time Jonathan Edwards is very mindful of the fact that we live in a very imperfect world where change is imperfect or the enjoyment of God is imperfect where sin is always mixed into everything Tarnishing everything So I'm not mindful of that and yet I look at the life of Jacob and it gives me hope Hope for me Hope for you Let me just remind you that there are two stories going on in this book of Genesis There have been two stories going on throughout Genesis in this case There is Jacob's story his pilgrimage the single strand of his life that is woven into the tapestry of the big story the individual stories and the big stories and the individual stories are not just occasions For God to talk about the big story. They're not just a stage upon which God can tell the big story the individual stories are the big story And Jacob's life is the outworking of the big story in his particular life the big story the big purpose for all of history is God's redeeming and rescuing and restructuring and reordering changing everything That's the big story But the little story the individual story is the story of these individual strands Where God is working and with those strands. He is weaving together this tapestry of beauty The small story first the story of Jacob that gives us some hope In reading the whole chapter And we didn't have time it's over 50 verses. It's really too long to read the whole thing In this setting, but if you read the whole chapter and I would encourage you to do that It is very clear that a corner has been turned in Jacob's It's very clear that Jacob is a different person in Chapter 31 from the person we encountered in chapter 30 and 29 and 28 and 27 You know Jacob's story. We've talked about it for weeks now Jacob whose name it means deceiver lived as Bob said a couple of weeks ago lived down to his name He lived down to his name He deceived his brother Rested the birthright and the blessing from his brother He deceived his father Resting the blessing that was due Esau from His father by deception Rather than trusting God to work out his purposes in his way and in his time Jacob took things into his own hands and by manipulation and by his own whipped and by deception He rested these things deceiving his brother deceiving his father You read the first part of the narrative of Jacob's life and You see it seems to me in Jacob's life This sort of polite nod to God God does play a role in Jacob's life But it almost seems that God through these first chapters of this narrative of Jacob's life it almost seems that God exists as a means to an end for Jacob It seems like Jacob likes very much the idea of being blessed of enjoying the benefits of the covenant He likes the idea of having a legacy of having sons and daughters and grandsons and granddaughters and this large family and Imperial prosperity that go with it It seems that he likes that but it seems that God is simply a means to those ends Not one as Edwards says in this quote not one who is his consuming desire and his Highest end and highest good. I'd have you think back to Genesis 28 when God appears to Jacob and And there's that ladder that comes down from heaven and God says I'm with you wherever you go And I'll keep you wherever you go and I'll bring you back to this land I'll not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you and Jacob hears it and While Jacob may have been struggling to believe it still it seems that God only plays a role in his life as a means to an end For Jacob responds and says if God will be with me and if God will keep me in the way that I'm going and give me bread to eat and Clothing to put on so that I do come back to my father's house in peace then the Lord shall be my God God If you hold up your end of the bargain then I'll grant you the extraordinary privilege of being my God. It seems that God does play a role in Jacob's life Toss in a little God Just to patronize cater to the religious Among us throughout this narrative throughout this 20-year period of times since Jacob is departed from home. He remains prayerless. That's another thing to observe He's a deceiver. It seems like he even wants to manipulate God and he remains prayerless No acknowledgement of God no dependence upon God No relying upon the strength of God in fact the narrative seems to suggest that Jacob's strength is his own strength That's a good stone in chapter 29 is repeated so many times. It's not about the stone It's simply a metaphor to describe Jacob's attitude toward himself his own physical strength his own wit His own wisdom His own cunning in his dealings with Laban. These are the things upon which he depended No question that Jacob is a persevering man 20 years he persevered but across that time again no prayer no acknowledgement of God no thankfulness And then we acknowledged Touching his family. He was unconcerned and uninvolved You look at chapter 30 you have to ask how much difference is there really between Laban and Jacob How much difference is there if you don't know the end of the story if you're just sort of stuck in the moment by moment Account of Jacob's life how much observable difference is there between Jacob and Laban a couple of deceivers trying one each to outfox the other But when you come to chapter 31 there's a difference and the difference is seen in a variety of ways each of those things that I mentioned his indications of Jacob's bad condition his Deceptiveness his using God as a means to an end his lack of prayer his lack of thankfulness his lack of acknowledgement of God his lack of concern lack of involvement for his family at every one of those points if you look at chapter 31 He is a different man He's a different man. Let's take first of all the deception It seems to be gone. He encounters with Laban throughout this chapter. There isn't deception. There is Straight forward engagement. He doesn't duck. He doesn't hide. He doesn't manipulate But when Laban pursues him after he has fled this is earlier in the chapter when he's taken his wives and his Children and all of the wealth that God has granted him and he flees from Laban because Laban is often the other direction Sheering his sheep Laban hears about it and then with language that is very Militaristic the narrator describes Laban's pursuit of Jacob He's got an army with him and he's chasing Jacob running him down and when they encounter each other There's no ducking. There's no dodging, but there is engagement the deception seems to be gone away He deals with Laban at the level of truth Verse 36 Jacob was angry and he rebuked Laban and Jacob answered and said to Laban What is my trespass? What is my sin that you have so hotly pursued me? Although you have searched all my things what part of your household things have you found see it here before my brethren And your brethren that they may judge say it here before my brethren and your brethren that they may judge between us both Truthfulness has taken over in Jacob's life great opportunity for Jacob to engage in manipulation and in deceit But he doesn't do it He doesn't do it Jacob's Change life is reflected in his family earlier in This passage the first part of chapter 31 Verse 4 Jacob sent and called to Rachel and Leah and Then he spoke to them. I see that your father's countenance has changed. It is not favorable toward me as before But the God of my father has been with me and then in verse 3 it is Jacob who rises up and who puts his sons and his wives on Camels it is Jacob now who is engaged with his family before you never heard from him the only time you heard from him Is when he had been engaged and then he responded and the responses are always short and tart and angry and then he disappears again But here the man is taking the initiative He's taking the initiative with his family to engage his wives and to protect and to defend his family his children and to lead them And then here's the third thing to be seen The Jacob obeys God when God issues the command in chapter 31 the first three verses Jacob responds he hears what God says He doesn't distort it. He doesn't twist it He doesn't mess with it. He simply hears what God says and something has happened in Jacob's life Such that when he hears what God says and knows that it is from God Then he does what God said He obeys and he gathers his family and begins the trek back to their homeland and then last and
Most importantly throughout this narrative again and again and again You see Jacob acknowledging and praising God It's no longer his strength. It's no longer his wit his cunning But it is God whom he acknowledges To be the one who has given him everything that he possesses 31 for so Jacob sent and called Rachel and lay it through the field to his flock Or that I see your father's countenance that it is not favorable for toward me as before but the God of my father has been with me The God of my father has been with me 31 9 So God has taken away the livestock of your father and has given them to me
31 41 and 42 Thus I have been in your house he says to Laban 20 years I served you 14 years for your daughters and six years for your flock You've changed my wages ten times ten is a figure of speech It doesn't mean ten literally. It's one of those numbers that describes Laban's repeated attempts to renegotiate the contract So that he can derive greater benefit from his relationship with Jacob Again and again and again and again you've changed the terms of the contract But then worst verse 42 unless the God of my father the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had been with me Surely now you would have sent me away empty handed God has seen my affliction in the labor of my hands and he rebuked you last night a reference to God's Rebuking Laban earlier in the chapter and in effect saying don't you lay a hand on Jacob? Jacob now rather than simply having God as a sort of an appendage to his life Jacob a different man Gives thanks to God acknowledges God Prizes God knows that it is God Who is the source of all of his protection and all of his blessing and all of the wealth that he indulge whether in his family or his myriad material possession He's a different man folks and I read this chapter and it gives me hope It gives me hope that people can be different I mean at the stone roll a rascal a devious Blackhearted crooked and twisted person like Jacob Can be changed that gives me hope and here's the second thing How do you account for this change in Jacob? How do you account for it? Why is Jacob different Laban is as deceitful as ever You read first 26 of this chapter and following when Laban catches up to Jacob It's incredible. I mean this is the stuff of which Hollywood drama is made. This is daytime soap opera stuff Laban fangs this deep deep affection for his daughters and his grandchildren You see it why did you flee away secretly and steal away from me and not tell me or I might have sent you away with joy and Songs with timbrel and harp you didn't allow me to kiss my songs and my daughters But you remember what his daughters were to him. They were commodities Commodities to be sold and the daughters acknowledge it in the previous passage Our father sold us to Jacob and The money that came to our father which would have been a kind of an investment You know a sort of a trust that might have supported us in our old age our father has squandered it and now Laban fangs This deep affection for what were come to be bartered and sold The end of this chapter after Jacob has erected the pillar and after Jacob is called for the pile of stones to be built up Laban says I've put it up and I've gathered these stones together Always taking credit for things Always wanting to be center stage. He's as deceitful as ever
Jacob is different. Why is Jacob different? This is the X factor folks This is the X factor God is the X factor God is the element in the equation That explains why the answer is what it is Somebody gave me a book a couple of weeks ago. I've been reading. It's called good to great
And it's the it's the fruit of research done looking at 11 different company that went from ordinary rates of return on investment to extraordinary rates of return three and a half and four times market returns And it's very interesting very interesting to read What the leaders of those companies acknowledged about the elements That made for that transition and that produced great companies from good companies and every single one of them talks about luck Every single one of them has an X factor Every single one of them acknowledges That there were certain forces certain factors certain things over which they had no control Why does this particular vice president come to this company? Why does the particular HR person come to this company? Why do these particular people meet each other engage each other and end up in this company? They say look The X fact the every time in that section of this book that you see the word luck as a good thoughtful Christian you insert the word Providence because you know there is no luck in this universe. It's not a crap shoot Every single one of these CEOs is acknowledging that God is the X fact and it was true for Jacob How do you account for the change you account for the change in the same way that you account for the family and for the Prosperity that he enjoys it is God who is the X factor in Jacob's life It is God who changes Jacob's life It is God who had a purpose for Jacob's life It is God who because of that purpose made promises repeated I will be with you I will bless you. I will not leave you. I will bring you back to this land. I I I I God the X factor and it is because of that purpose that God had determined to accomplish in Jacob's life And because of promises that he made God in his providence insures that everything he's purposed and promised comes to pass any Head of any organization He had a business organization and ministry organization at church a Theological seminary Any head of any organization who would point to himself and Say it is I is a fool It is the fool who says in his heart. There is no God it is God Who is the X factor in Jacob's life and who has purposed to change Jacob's life And he was made promises based upon that purpose and who then in his providence Providence being God's works by which he orders and Executes all of his purposes in all of those things that he has made Both seen and unseen. It is his providence God's Provide ends that ensures That what has been promised which is in accord with God's purpose does in fact come to pass. Let me tell you something folks If you're a Christian today and you know in your heart of hearts that you're a Christian and I'm speaking to those of you who are like me The view your children as irritations and interruptions all too frequently Who wonder whether or not God can change a spouse or can change a heart in a child who seems wayward Let me tell you something if you're a Christian today You may be assured that God's power is strong his arm is not short and he is determined To make changes Look at the New Testament Look at just a couple of passages in Philippians Philippians 1 6 I am persuaded. I'm convinced of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will bring it to Completion at the day of Jesus Christ Do you think that there is any power in heaven any power upon earth anything seen or unseen that can frustrate the Soof God when he determines to lay hold of somebody and change that person there is no power in heaven Or upon earth That can withstand the onslaught the advance the force of the power of God Philippians 2 to 12 and 13 work out your salvation with fear and trembling in awe and Independence how is it that you can work out your salvation? Why do you keep plugging along? Why do you keep hanging in there? because Because it is God who most definitely is at work in you both to will that is his purpose and to do that is his Providential effecting of his purpose to will and to do his good pleasure in your life It's all over the New Testament Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 4 16 and following though our outer man is decaying yet our inner being Renewed day by day. That is what the theologians call a universal positive if you are a Christian You may take it to the bank that God's promise there is for you It is universal that applies to everybody. There's no footnote. There's no asterisk Did you blow it yesterday like I did? Understand That my blowing it cannot frustrate God's purpose for me. It is a universal Positive it is positive in its view in its intention in its goal. God is doing in you what he did in Jacob God is doing in you what he did in the creation he is bringing order out of chaos God is the expect Jacob's a different man God is the X factor and very quickly here's the third thing This little strand this story of Jacob
Is a type of the bigger story you look at Jacob's life And I want you to be encouraged by this folks I want you to fix your gaze upon things that are permanent as Edwards admonishes us to in this quote As you look at the life of Jacob what you see is one who has been vanished One in and through whom God built a family one who was then enslaved One in whose life God intervenes One who with his family is set free from their enslavement and they are headed Home and they will arrive The story of Jacob in small letters is the story of Moses and Israel in bigger letters and in the biggest letters of all It is the story of Jesus Who is building a family building a nation freeing them from their slavery so that he can take him home And he will not be stopped so as you struggle with your own heart And you're irritated by flat tires at 9.45 at night and you wonder about your spouse You wonder about your covenant child
No No God will fulfill What he has set out to fulfill In your lives That's good news folks If I've done turn you on You know the rest you ain't got any switches So go find a switch So you can get turned on Because this is very very encouraging Lord Jesus thank you that you're not done with us you're not finished Thank you that you're going to keep working thank you that flat tires and
stubborn spouses and wayward children Frustrating friends and confusing workplaces will never Stay your hand But O Lord just as Jacob was powerless before himself and his sin So are we This is lent Father Press home to us the gravity of our fall The desperateness of our situation That we might see the glories of our rescuer And would you rescue us day in and day out In Jesus name Amen