Thank you, Lord.

Be seated.

God is good.

Amen.

Thank you, Rob.

We want to go ahead and dismiss our children, pre-K through fifth grade, if you guys will follow Mr. Debbie, Mr. Chris and Miss Debbie.

Sorry about that.

I was going to get it right in a moment.

Yeah.

Oh, my goodness.

I was half tempted to just tell the worship team to let's just continue on with music this morning.

That was just good stuff.

And so maybe we should have done that.

Maybe I wasn't listening to the Spirit as I should have.

I praise God for his Holy Spirit, the way he is moving in our hearts and lives.

It's good to be back.

I've been on vacation for a couple of weeks.

Some of you might not have even missed me.

That's good.

So there you go.

It's good to take a break.

I will go on record and say that the words vacation and two and a half year old do not belong in the same sentence.

And I think next year we're going to do things differently.

The first week I'm going to send Jill off on vacation while I stay home with Caroline.

And then the next week I'll go on vacation while she stays home with you with Caroline.

So we're going to do it that way.

And so Chuck says, yeah, right, right.

Yeah, I ain't going to fly, is it?

I did learn a few things on vacation other than that, and that is this is just for the masses.

We live in a beach community.

I know we went down to Coco and all that stuff, and it's beautiful down there.

The water is great and all this, but hey, I don't notice it so much here as I did down there.

Let me just say this.

There are some bathing suits you all shouldn't be wearing.

I mean, and moms, some of you moms don't realize that you should have given that bathing suit up a long time ago.

Let me just say that out loud just for the sake of all of us.

In the name of Jesus, stop it.

Stop it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're still loved.

You're still loved.

But let's go along with whatever fits the property, right?

Here we go.

Wow.

So, but it was great for my prayer life.

I prayed for a lot of people this past week.

So there you go.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Today, we're going to continue.

I want to say thanks to Brother Joe and for Brandon for helping out while I was gone, standing in, doing a great job, as they always do.

Joe, it's a consensus from the congregation that you cannot preach again until you get a new jacket, though, okay?

So when you get a new jacket, you can have, you can preach again.

That's what they told me to tell you.

So there you go.

But they said you did a great job.

So there you go.

I won't call anybody out on that, but there you go.

Today, today we're going to, we're going to tackle a lot of information here today because we're going to get through the entire 31st verse.

We are doing, if you're visiting with us this morning, we are in the midst of an expository, verse-by-verse study of the book of Genesis.

It's big.

It's foundational.

It's so important.

And you guys have been going on this journey with us.

Today is really important because we're going to tackle all of chapter 31.

It's a long chapter.

There's 55 verses.

I know there are some Sundays where I preach an hour to you and I only use two verses.

I realize that.

But today, we're going through a lot of information, a lot of the story.

I look for a place to break it up, but there wasn't any place to break it up.

And so we're just going to kind of lay in this.

While I'm here, I'm going to get the names wrong.

Christina?

Is that right?

Christina?

Tony?

Christina?

Yeah.

Thanks for helping us out down at his ministries on the Friday nights.

I thought that was right.

I just want to make that sure.

You guys are such a blessing.

And thanks for visiting with us today, too.

And we're taking the third Friday of every month at Rhema Community Church down to

his ministries down there to try to love on these folks down there.

And it's just a blessing.

And these folks are down there every Friday and throughout the week as well, too.

So I just want to give a shout out to you guys and say thanks for all the ministry that

you get to do.

Amen.

Today is Let's Hit the Road.

Let's Hit the Road as we get into chapter 31.

Just as a little bit of recap in here, and I'm trying to do things a little different.

I took my little music stand away because I'm tired of it going up and down, up and down,

up and down.

So I got a table here to see you.

Do all the x-boncic tract all over this world.

I have a table here.

It's a beginning. It tells us the beginning of mankind. And God placed man upon the earth. It gives us the beginning of sin. Where man falls and sin enters in. The fall of man. And sin enters into the bloodstream. And everything is perverted after that. After this takes place. And so God also brings us to the beginning of His plan to heal sin. And we see that in the beginning as well too as we get to that sin, that devastation that's in the bloodstream.

As we get to Genesis 3. And He says that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. We see the beginning of human government. We see the beginning of marriage. We see the beginning of a nation in here. And we see this includes the patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so now we've entered into this phase right here. And where we have the 12 sons of Jacob. They've been unfolded. And which are going to become the 12 tribes of Israel.

And once again by way of reminder for those of you who may not have it on the tip of your mind. The book of Genesis is divided up into two sections. Chapters 1 through 11 is primeval history. Chapters 12 through 50 is patriarchal history. Okay. That's how Genesis is divided up.

And so we see this patriarch meeting that male leadership. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. These were patriarchs. And we notice some things about these guys. These guys were just, we look at their character and we see that their character was kind of questionable at times.

That gives us a great reason to rejoice. Because we can look at these guys who are held up in high esteem and say, hey, I got a chance to be used by God.

If these bozos can do all this stuff, ah, there's a chance God could use me too. Amen.

That's the beauty of the scripture. It doesn't unfold something for us that isn't true.

It shows us everything. God working through people with all the warts.

Because if you and I were going to write a book and we're going to write a book to really try to compel people, we wouldn't put some of this crazy whack stuff in here that these people are doing and continue to do.

But we see that Jacob already, he's a manipulator.

From the very beginning, he comes out. He's grabbing his brother's heel. He's given the name Jacob.

Yakov. Okay. He's grabbing Esau's heel.

His name means a supplanter, one who trips one up, a heel catcher.

Okay. And he's, but he's a con artist and he's good at it.

All right. He has this, he has this whole life that he's doing this.

We're going to see this kind of bared out a little bit today as well, but he steals his brother's blessing.

Okay. And, and for a bowl of stew, Esau traded his spiritual heritage as well to the right of the firstborn.

Jacob gets it. And as soon as his dad, though, Isaac confers the blessing onto Jacob, Jacob has to hit the road.

He has to run because in fear for his life, Esau is going to kill me.

Esau realizes what he's done. So he's been on the, on the run.

Now keep that in mind as we get to next week, because Esau and Jacob are going to be reunited.

And it's going to be 20 years since they've seen each other.

20 years.

And so Esau's on the run.

He comes to the member.

He came to this barren spot and he's feeling rejected.

He's feeling alone.

And he thinks, well, maybe I'll never see my family again.

I'm feeling alienated, maybe feeling alienated from God as well, too.

But he has a dream that night.

The Bible tells us that he was tired.

He was tired and he went to a place at that time that was called Luz.

And he goes there and he pulls up a rock for a pillow.

And he has this vision where he sees the, uh, a ladder, but it's really a staircase.

And the angels of the Lord are ascending and descending, showing us that God is involved

in the work of all humanity in there, but they're ascending and descending.

And the next day he wakes up and he says, wow, this is an awesome place.

And, and he says that God, the Lord is in this place.

He doesn't, and he doesn't say, I did not know it then, but I know it now.

God is in this place.

He doesn't say God was here.

No, God is in this place.

The Lord is in this place and he makes a pillar, pours oil on it, makes a covenant with the

Lord.

And God says, you need to go, I'll protect you and I'll bring you back.

So he goes to a place that today that's, it's known as Northern Iraq and it's a place called

Paddan Aram.

And so, uh, back then, and he falls in love with this beautiful girl.

And what's the beautiful girl's name?

Come on, people.

He's got a real big baby boom, okay? But he serves Laban for 14 years to get Leah and to get Rachel, and he ends up staying there another six years. This is important as we lay out chapter 31 in here. I know we've got a lot to read, and I'm going through this fast, but I think we need a little bit of recap. But he stays another six years. When we get to Genesis chapter 30, verse 25, he says, I'm going home. I'm going back home, you know? And Laban says, no, please,

don't leave. Stay here, Jake, because everything that you touch turns to gold, and I'm prospering while you're here. You name your price, whatever you want, I'll give it to you.

But he stays another six years, because he wants what? He wants some flock for his own. And he works out a deal with Laban in there,

and he says, listen, all the ones that are either striped or spotted, those are like not the blue stock flock. I'll take all of those.

I'll take all the throwaways, okay? And Laban's like, sure, we can have that. And so what does Jacob do?

He strips a bunch of wood, and different types of wood, almond wood, poplar wood, all this stuff, and he lays it in the water trough for the sheep.

And he believes that the sheep, when they come there to drink, they're going to mate, and when they mate,

they see the striped wood, and that's going to somehow make the flock spotted or striped, and all this stuff.

And so he believed that the Lord was going to stack the odds in his favor, and his flock is going to grow.

And it does happen. But I mentioned last week that that was probably very superstitious, all right?

And it may be, but just possibly, as I was thinking a lot about this over the last few weeks,

where we ended last week in chapter 30, that this was a superstitious thing that he was doing.

There is a possibility, I just want you to keep this in mind, it could have been a revelation.

Because we're going to read in this chapter that he's going to say that an angel of the Lord revealed to him something in a dream.

And we're not told what that is, but it could be that the angel said,

Now this is going to sound really stupid, and it has no bearing scientifically at all,

but I want you to strip this wood, and I want you to put this down, and the Lord's going to increase your flock.

And that's exactly what happens in chapter 31.

We don't know. We don't know for certain.

But chapter 31 is a long chapter. We're going to go through this.

I'm going to show you in three different sections, three different parts.

I don't think I made a slide for this,

But the first thing I want you to see this morning is there is first a heavenly confirmation.

There's a heavenly confirmation that's given as we start this right here in chapter 31, verses 1 and 2.

Now Jacob heard that the sons of Laban were saying,

Jacob has taken all that was our father's.

And from what was our father's, he has gained all his wealth.

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

So the body language has changed.

All right?

Body language has changed.

In communication, it's not always what we say sometimes.

It's how we say it.

Right?

You can communicate a lot through body language.

Okay?

Even more so than by your words at times.

For 20 years, there has been this tension.

Okay?

Between Jacob and Laban.

There's been a tension, but they've had an agreement.

We're going to make this agreement.

We're going to work together.

They're both con artists.

They're both trying to manipulate each other.

And, you know, Jacob was good, but Laban was numero uno.

He was the Mac Daddy con artist.

And he's still kind of training Jacob, if you will.

But it continues.

And in the midst of their contest to see who was going to outwit the other,

there seemed to be this adjustment to the tension that they had in their relationship.

And it got to me thinking, you know, you can almost adjust to any kind of tension in a relationship.

Can't you?

If you really think about it, you can almost adjust to any kind of tension that's in there.

And, in fact, if you think about it, sometimes out of great tension comes great harmony.

Because, you know, opposites tend to attract.

And probably one of the things that drew you to your wife or drew you to your husband has become a great source of conflict at some point in time.

You know, that very thing that you loved about them drove you crazy at some point in time in that relationship.

But in that relationship.

There's a there's a change. And the friction is jealousy. Laban's sons are jealous. Laban's jealous. God's blessing Jacob all over the place. And he's jealous. And in the previous chapter, I mean, Laban tells Jake, don't go, man. Name your price. You can stay here as long as you want. Take whatever you want. But things are changed. He's so successful that he's showing Laban up now. He's become so successful. The body language has changed. And I'm sure he's given him the cold shoulder.

And his sons. And his sons. His sons are accusing him. Jacob has taken all that was our father's. And from what was our father's, he has gained all his wealth. And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. You know, when you are when you when you speak in public, when you are a public speaker, you know, there is great. You appreciate the value of not getting hung up on people's faces and their body language.

I will tell you, it is a different dynamic standing right here on stage week after week, staring out at you guys sometimes. I'm like, holy cow, I'm in trouble. Is anyone coming with me? And so therefore, and if you've ever, has anybody ever done a lot of public speaking? You know, you look for the yes faces and not the no faces. I'm going to look for that yes face and guess what? I'm preaching to you today. Because you're smiling and you're like this. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to look for that. Okay. And so Jacob's not getting that. He's not getting that.

That, that, that, that feedback. I mean, no wonder, no wonder God, when God called Jeremiah the prophet, he's a teenager. And he says, you're going to take a message to a bunch of people. They're going to be so stinking mad. He tells him, he says, do not be afraid of their faces. God tells Jeremiah, I will be with you. I'm going to be with you. And no, and some, and in all fairness, sometimes people are contemplative.

And they're really thinking through what you're saying. And then, but they, when they have that look, it looks like they're mad as all get out though. Right. But so you, I find the, the smiling faces. So if someone's taking notes, oh, it's you and me today, Kim, I see you writing. It's you and me today. You might be writing to Hannah Kate, but I don't know that. So I'll just, I'll tell myself you're listening. There we go.

So here we go. I said, we got to get through all these verses. I'm going to read like crazy. Then the Lord said, verse three to Jacob, return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred. And I will be with you. You know, it's very noteworthy for us this morning to, to know how God prepared Jacob to move from Padam, from Padam Aram back to the place that he left 20 years before.

And I want to note it because I think there's an important principle in your life and in my life. The first thing that God did was he put a desire in Jacob's heart to go back six years before this. Six years, you know, back in, again, back in chapter 30, verse 25, he announces to Laban after Joseph is born, I'm going home. I'm going, I'm going to hit the road. I'm heading back. I need to be back in the land of the covenant with Abraham and Isaac, but he didn't go back.

He didn't go back. He was talked into stain for six more years, but that desire in his heart never left him. It was a desire deep in his heart, but he didn't react or act quickly to it. But God put a desire in his, in his heart. And that's the first step because that God uses to move us from one experience to the next, or maybe one place to the next.

He puts a deep, a desire deep within your heart and within my heart. David says in Psalm 37 to delight you. If you delight yourself in the Lord, he will give you the desires of your heart, right? That doesn't mean that he's just going to give you whatever desire you want, whatever your, your heart fancies, whatever your feelings are.

I think it means that when you delight yourself in the Lord, that the desires that you have are the desires that God has planted within you. Okay. And so where did that desire come from? It came from the Lord. He put that desire in your heart.

Now that desire has to be confirmed and you don't want to, you don't want to act on every desire that comes across your table. That can get you in a lot of trouble. You might, that might be very impulsive. But the second thing that happens are circumstances. He had a desire to go back, but he stays. But now the circumstances go from tension to friction.

desire, but now the circumstances are against him. And he thinks it's time to hit the road. It's

time to get out of here. What I feel in my heart is now being confirmed by the circumstances that

the Lord has placed around me. Do you see that? We need to keep that in our, in our minds too,

as we go through life. You know, sometimes when things turn sour, we are apt to complain right

away. God, God, this can't be God. God, how could you let this happen? How could you allow this to

do this? And you know, at times I can hear the God saying sometimes, are you serious? Are you

really asking me how this could really happen? Weren't you praying for two months for something

that something would change in your life? And now you've been fired. Now you've hated that job for

seven years. You wouldn't get off your duff and move. So guess what? I moved you. Now you're going

to be looking for a new job. You had that job. Now you're going to look for new. The Lord stirs up

things by circumstances. And those circumstances sometimes are not always favorable. We think that

it has to be the Lord if it's favorable. That's prosperity gospel. God leads you through some hard

stuff. Somebody say amen. Yes. Those, those things happen in our lives. And so the Lord could be doing

something to move you along, to move you along. All right. I'm going to get off on a sidetrack.

We're going to be here for a while. If you got to go to the bathroom, go to the bathroom. Okay. You

won't upset me. I'll find a happy face this morning. But listen, I remember a long, long time ago,

it was my daughter who was probably in the 12th grade at the time spoke a word of wisdom to me

because I never, ever, ever, ever, ever wanted to pastor a church. Never. Don't want it. Didn't want

it. I was working for a missions organization. I was teaching a Bible study here on Sunday

nights. And in the transition, God birthed something and Ramah Community Church came

out from the Lord. Okay. Came out from the Lord. And in the process, as I'm scratching my

head, wondering how all this went about, Caitlin says to me, dad, if, if things wouldn't have

gone south at that other church that you were serving, you would have stayed there and

continued to serve. But God had something else and he had to bring you to a hard place

and lead you to lead something that leave something that you loved for eight and a half years. And

then look what God did in the meantime. I said, all right, I'll pay for your college.

But the third thing that happens that we need to look in this as well, too, in these circumstances,

I know we're only on verse three, we'll get there. I promise we'll get through all of this,

but something else happened is that the word of the Lord comes to him. The word of the Lord says

in verse three, the Lord said to Jacob. So the word confirms what he felt in his heart and what the

circumstances were telling him. Do you see that? The word is going to line up with that. The word

of God will never lead you to do something outside the will of God, outside the character of God,

ever. God says, return to the land of your fathers. So when life turns sour for you at times, sometimes

maybe God is, is, has some sweet blessing around the corner. And so instead of complaining,

maybe you just say, man, what great opportunities does God have for me next? I can't wait to see

how God's going to fill this void in. I can't wait how he's going to be to see how he's going to be

faithful. So the friction causes him to seek a new direction. Anybody relate to that? Verse four.

So Jacob sent, he called Rachel and Leah into the field where the flock was and said to them,

I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before, but God, but the God of my

father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength. Yet your

father has cheated me and changed my wages 10 times, but God did not permit him to harm me. So probably,

or at least evidently, he has moved all of these flocks toward down the road towards getting out of

town. But before he left, he does something very smart. He calls his wife.

And, you know, the Lord has...the Lord wants me to go back home. Your dad has... Dad's got spooky eyes. I don't like the way he's looking at me. Okay? He's putting a stare down on me. And...

And God has spoken to me.

He confers with them.

He confers.

And he says, he's changed my wages ten times.

I don't know what's up and what's down anymore.

And so, but God did not allow him to hurt me.

And there's a lot to be said in that as well, too.

We could get in.

I don't want to chase too many rabbits.

But there's a lot to be said in.

A lot of times, you know, it is important to bring your wives in on this.

But, man, you need to lead.

You need to lead.

And your wives want you to lead.

Now, ladies, sometimes you have to understand that your men are trying to lead.

And you have to step out of the way and let them lead.

Because here's the thing.

For the ultimate responsibility of the family, it ain't on you.

You won't answer to God.

He will answer to God.

Some of you so desperately want a man to lead, but you won't let him lead.

You'll lead when I tell you to.

That's not biblical.

All right.

Verse 8.

See, you guys are no better than give me a vacation anymore.

If he said, the spotted shall be your wages, then all the flock were spotted.

But if he said the striped will be your wages, then all the flock bore striped.

And something else I want to mention through this as he gets to this.

I noticed, and it really spoke to my heart in here, he was, Jacob was mistreated by his employer.

Is that new today?

Anybody ever feel slided by here?

Don't raise your hand.

We might be on Facebook Live or whatever.

Yeah, you get turned in on that.

That's not new.

It's not a novel thing.

You feel mistreated by your employer.

But notice what he appeals to.

He doesn't, they didn't have an HR department back then.

Okay?

And so, and he doesn't go on and file some complaint or sign a petition or go on strike or screenshot everything against labor and throw it out there on the book and Twitter.

That's what I'll do.

I'll get them back like that.

You know, he appealed to God and God took care of him.

He appealed to God and God took care of him.

I know this is going to sound real simplistic to some, but if you want to live your life at the level of the world, guess what?

God will let you.

He'll let you.

You want to crawl down there and live like that?

He will let you do that.

Okay?

But if you want, if all you want to do is complain, file petitions, go on strike, screenshot everything, you got to complain and everything, then you know what?

Have at it.

That's a miserable way to live.

If that's your whole existence.

I would say one of the most exciting ways to live is to simply trust and to trust simply.

Basically, what Jacob is saying is, listen here.

I have lived above reproach.

God will protect me.

I have lived above reproach.

God's got me.

God's got me.

And this is how it's coming down.

Pulls his wives in.

Has the conversation.

Verse 9.

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

See, in the breeding season of the flock, I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream that the goats that mated with the flock of the striped, spotted and molten.

Then the angel of God said to me in a dream, Jacob, I said, here I am.

He said, lift up your eyes, lift up your eyes, see all the goats that mated with the flock are striped, spotted and molten.

For I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.

I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me.

Now I'll rise and go from this land and return to the land of your kindred.

Then Rachel and Leah answered and said to him, is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father's house?

Are we not regarded by him as foreigners?

For he has sold us and has indeed devoured our money.

All the wealth that God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children.

Now then, whatever God has said to you, do it.

Do it.

And so Laban wasn't really good at managing money, obviously.

And so what this is talking about here is he has...

Well, he's blown it all. He spent all of the money. OK, so it was all gone. So they're putting two and two together. And it's not like they're going, no, I can't leave and go to this crazy place 300 miles away that I've never seen in my life. OK, you know, our father, they're saying, you know, our dad has mistreated us. And and and if God has spoken to you, let's go for it. Let's hit the road. Let's hit the road. You know, my dad was always very frugal. Maybe you're you're in your parents. Maybe we

your mom or dad. But I remember my dad, my dad pinched every penny and I never really. He always said the same to me. I never really got it until I got older. He goes, boy, you got champagne taste on beer money.

I was like, what does that mean? I don't even like beer. I don't like champagne. What does that mean? But as I got older, I realized, oh, stink. This don't balance out. I got I got I got I got have some reassessment.

But it looks like at this point in Jacob's lives and the lives of his wives, God seemed to be taking care of them. Right. They were flourishing.

And so he's going to he's going to consult his wives and they're going to encourage each other. And they're going. Verse 17.

So Jacob arose and and and set his sons and his wife's camels and drove away all of the livestock and all the property that he had gained the livestock in his possession that he acquired in Paddan Arab to go to the land of Canaan to his father, Isaac.

Let's read through 19. Laban had gone to shear the sheep and Rachel stole her father's household gods.

What's up with that? You read stuff and go, what? This is the wife of a patriarch.

She's been around. She this is the pastor's wife.

She stole the household gods of daddy. Now, why would she do that?

Why would she go back and take these these little trinkets?

There's a Hebrew word. The Hebrew word is teraphim.

OK, and these little teraphim were like these little people.

OK, they weren't really like really made of solid gold or whatever.

They were painted. They you you make you create them.

You put the dots on their eyes and these were the gods that they would have in their household.

Some believe that there were spirits behind them.

Some believe that the actual deities were behind this God themselves and you would pray to these gods and these and these ancestors.

But I believe what's happening is Rachel believes that her dad counts on these little gods because there's still some idolatry going around in here.

So, you know what? I've been slighted by dad.

Number one, because he gave him Leah to begin with.

I got to put up with her sorry self the rest of my life, calling herself as Jacob's wife as well, too.

But now also you spent my dowry.

I'm going back in and your daddy's going to pay.

I'm taking the little trinkets.

Are they worth a whole bunch?

No, but guess what? I feel better about it.

Anybody ever been vindictive?

Don't raise your hand.

I think it says in the Beatitudes, if you've been vindictive in your mind, you've been vindictive out loud, something like that.

No, it doesn't say that, but it needs to.

Yeah, we've all been there.

I mean, but what it came, think about how ridiculous this is.

These little gods, excuse me, Mr. Idol, I'd like to know, should we leave Paddan Aram and turn left or right?

I mean, is it not ridiculous how this, you know, you speak to the idol.

They have no capacity to hear.

It's just like what David writes in Psalm 115.

The heathen serve idols.

They have eyes, but cannot see.

They have ears, but cannot hear.

They have a mouth, but cannot speak.

They have feet, they cannot walk.

You painted eyes on them, and now you're going to pray to them?

Holy cow, that's ridiculous.

And it just drives me crazy that she's going to resort to this.

Let's pick this up in verse 20.

Is that where I left off?

Yeah.

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

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

When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob fled, he took his kinsmen with him and pursued for seven days and followed close after him.

and you're going to see why in just a minute. Verse 23. He took his kinsmen with him and pursued for seven days and followed close after him into the hill country of Gilead.

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

Be careful not to say anything to him, either good or bad. Literally, it means from good to bad.

Don't let this conversation be impassioned with your own desire. Don't let it go from good to bad.

That's what he's getting to. And I believe that he fully intended to kill Jacob because of some of the language that he uses in the confrontation.

But now from verse 22 onward is the second part of this, and that's the earthly confrontation.

Okay? First we had the heavenly confirmation, but now we have our earthly confrontation.

He catches up with him. And in verse 25,

And Laban overtook Jacob. Now Jacob pitched his tent to the hill country,

and Laban, with his kinsmen, pitched tents in the hill country of Gilead.

And Laban said to Jacob,

What have you done that you have tricked me

and driven away my daughters

like captives of the sword?

And how melodramatic is that?

They're his wives.

I didn't take them by the sword, you knucklehead.

They're my wives. We just left.

Verse 27,

Why did you flee secretly and trick me

and did not tell me

so that I might have sent you away

with mirth and songs,

with tambourine and lyre?

You are a liar.

You were not going to celebrate

them leaving?

Oh, so I could have gone,

We would have thrown you a great party, Jacob.

That was my intent.

That was my plan.

Whatever.

Alright.

Verse 28,

And you did not permit me

to kiss my sons and my daughters farewell.

Now you have done,

and what you have done foolishly.

That's very common

for the head of the household,

the father,

to be able to kiss,

to send them off with a blessing.

Okay, that's what he's asking for.

To kiss the daughters,

to bless them as they go out.

You deprive me of that.

You didn't even let me get to that.

Verse 29,

It is in my power to do you harm.

Okay, that's true.

He had an army that was greater than Jacob's.

But really what he's doing right,

that's what bullies do.

This is what bullies do.

This is what they throw out.

I could hurt you right now.

I could throw it out,

and I could hurt you right now.

But the God of your father spoke to me last night,

saying,

Be careful not to say anything to Jacob,

either good or bad.

And now you have gone away

because you long for your father's house.

But why did you steal my gods?

Man, there's comedy all over the Bible.

You know what?

You know,

But think about that.

That's a great question.

And how would you like it

if you had to watch over your God?

I hope no one's still with God today.

I got some prayers I got to throw his way.

Oh, somebody better hide him.

Charles is going to want him next week.

Charles is going to want him next week.

You know,

I love,

Why did you steal my God?

I love that verse.

I mean,

Anyway,

I'll shut up.

Verse 31.

Jacob answered and said to Laban,

Because I was afraid.

For I thought that you would take

your daughters from me by force.

Fear is an absolute awful taskmaster.

Fear will keep you from fulfilling

all the potential God has for you.

Fear.

It is,

Fear is self-imprisonment.

63 times the scripture says,

it tells us,

Fear not.

Do a word study.

It's a great word study in there.

Type it in.

Whatever you got to do.

Notice all the time,

God commands his people to fear not.

The cure for fear is faith.

It's faith.

Faith and fear are mutually exclusive.

Absolutely.

If you are a fearful person,

you are not walking.

You are walking.

I can't wait.

I have to think about it.

Anyone with whom you find your gods shall not live. Uh-oh. In the presence of our kinsmen, point out what I have that is yours and take it. Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them. Okay? So Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two female servants, but he did not find them.

And he went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the household gods and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them. But when Laban felt all about the tent, he did not find them. The camel's saddle is just basically a big old blanket. Okay? She's tucked them in the blanket and sat down on these things. But now watch this.

And she said to her father, let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you for the way of women is upon me. So he searched and did not find the household gods.

Dad, it's my time of the month. I'd love to get up and say hey to you, but I got to sit right here.

Now where in the world would Rachel, this pastor's wife, learn this trickery? Let me think. Her dad is Laban. Her husband's Jacob.

Oh man, that acorn didn't fall too far, did it? Oh, I'd love to get up, dad, but you know, you know.

Stay there, baby. We'll look everywhere else. Right?

And it works. It works.

So let's, 36.

Then Jacob became angry and berated Laban.

And Jacob said to Laban,

What is my offense? What is my sin that you hotly pursued me?

For you have fell through all of my goods.

What have you found in all of your household goods?

Said it before my kinsmen and your kinsmen, that they may decide between us.

These 20 years I have been with you.

Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried.

And I have not eaten the rams of your flock.

What was torn by the wild beasts I did not bring to you.

I bore the loss myself.

From my hand you required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night.

So the Hebrew word here, what he's talking about when it says angry right there, means to be hot under the collar.

Okay?

He was hot under the collar.

And he berated or he rebuked Laban.

It means he lashed out.

Okay?

Or contended with him.

Both inwardly and outwardly.

And so he just let it go.

He let it rip.

I'm going to let you have it.

All this pent-up stuff.

And now in those days, what he's saying here too, if you were a shepherd of someone else's flock, okay?

And one of the flock, one of the lambs gets attacked by a predator.

And that shepherd has to prove that that lamb was attacked and you didn't steal it and eat it.

And how did you do that?

By bringing whatever was left of that, whether it was a piece of an ear or whatever.

Here.

That's what's left of Bambi.

Okay?

That's all we got.

And so it was attacked by a lamb.

That way you would be in good standing.

But what Jacob is saying is, I didn't even bother with that.

I assumed the loss.

I went over and above.

This is the kind of integrity I've dealt with you, Laban.

I went over and above the call of duty.

Verse 40.

There I was.

By day the heat consumed me.

And by night, the cold by night.

And my sheep fled from my eyes.

These 20 years I have been in your house.

I have served 14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flock.

And you have changed my wages ten times.

If God my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side,

surely now you would have sent me away empty handed.

God saw my affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.

Now I just want to stop for just a moment before we finish and close this out.

Jacob, Jacob felt totally justified in his anger, didn't he?

Both inwardly and outwardly, okay?

With Laban.

He felt a righteous indignation.

And he felt that it was right to rebuke him.

But was it right to rebuke him?

No.

No.

He didn't have all the information.

He didn't have all the information.

He didn't have all the information.

He didn't have all the information.

He didn't have all the information.

He didn't have all the information.

He's getting his digs in. He's lashing out. But he was not justified. Listen, I just want to say, next time that you are ready to lash out at a person, and you think you got all the information, you think you've got everything, you think you've got all the facts, think twice and think back to this chapter. And when you start to think, why did he or how could she, okay, and any of that stuff, you may not have the whole story.

You may not have the whole story. When you get those digs in, just understand that you're being Jacob all over again. The Bible says that we see through a glass darkly, okay? We don't see everything, okay? There's only one who knows everything about everything and about every situation and what motivates every person, what's behind that. And that would be God himself.

The writer of Hebrews says that all things are naked before the eyes of the one to whom we must give an account to. So you don't have all the facts that you think you do sometimes when you make these assumptions. So if you or I have this judgment that spouts off in our mouth, always remember there are three other fingers pointing right back at you when you are out there pointing that one finger and making assumptions, okay?

So he wasn't justified. He was wrong.

And he tries to get real spiritual in there too. Verse 42.

If the God of my father and the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had not been on my side, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.

God saw my affliction and had the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.

So he's trying to get real spiritual on him right now, okay?

And that's how you feel when you have that righteous indignation welling up inside of you.

But you know what Laban was for Jacob and Jacob didn't see it?

He was a mirror.

Remember, when he looked at Laban, he saw himself, and that's what enraged him.

You know, isn't it amazing how often, not always, but so often the very faults we seem to pick apart in other people,

the very things that we recognize in them, are the very things that we deal with and work on ourselves.

We're so quick to find those faults.

Laban was a mirror reflecting who Jacob really was.

And here's the third part of this as we bring this to a close.

And that is what I'm going to call a carnal.

They have a carnal cooperation here.

They're going to make an agreement, but it's not on the highest level here.

Verse 43.

Then Laban answered and said to Jacob,

The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flocks are my flock, and all that you see is mine.

But what can I do?

This is the day for these, my daughters, or for their children whom they have bore.

Come, now 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 up a pillar, and Jacob said to his kinsmen,

Gather stones, and they took the stones and made a heap.

And they ate there at the heap, and Laban called it Jagar Shehadathah.

But Jacob called it Galid.

I like Jacob's name better.

It's a lot easier to get through there.

But the one is an Aramaic name, and the other is a Hebrew name.

And they mean the same thing, though.

It's kind of interesting how that comes about.

Let's read down to verse 47.

Then, is that 47?

Who were stopped?

48, okay.

48.

Then Laban said,

This heap is a written witness between you and me.

Therefore, he named it Galid and Mitzvah.

For he said,

The Lord watch between you and me when we are out of one another's sight.

If one opposes my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters,

although no one is with us,

see, God is witness between you and me.

Unfortunately, this little verse right there that we just read sounds so beautiful.

And a benediction. But you know, what they're saying is that, you know, we're not always going to be together all the time, so we'll just trust that the Lord will watch over us. But that couldn't be any further from the intent of this passage. This is not a benediction. This is a malediction. What he's saying is, you're a jerk. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you. Okay? Absolutely not. And these stones are a witness. I can't keep my eyes.

I can't keep my eye on you any longer. So God's going to. That's what he's saying right here. That's the point. And it just shows the propensity that many times that we have as Christians, to sacrifice the meaning of the text to give some sweet, romantic little blessing, when this wasn't meant to be a blessing at all.

I can't trust you as far as I can spit. So we're going to make, we're going to draw a line right here. God's going to watch you from this day forward. That's what it's getting at right here. Let's wrap this up. Verse 50.

If you oppress, if you oppress my daughters, if you take the wives besides my daughters, although no one said God is a witness between you and me.

Then Laban said to Jacob, see this heap in the pillar that I've set between you and me. This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness that I will not pass over this heap to you and you will not pass over this heap and this pillar to me to do harm.

And so basically here's the line in the sand right here. Okay. Right here in Galilee. Okay. I'll not go over this and you stay on your side. I'll stay on my side. If you dare to cross it, guess what? God's watching. God's watching. That's what it means right there. 53.

Uh, the God of Abraham, the God of Nahor, the God of, of their father judged between us. Um, so Jacob swore by the fear of his, uh, of his father, Isaac and Jacob offered a sacrifice in the hill country and call his kinsmen to eat bread.

And they ate bread and they spent the night in the hill country. And early in the morning, Laban arose, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and bless them. Then they departed and returned home.

Um, now this is in there twice. And I waited to hear to mention it, but in verse, verse, uh, 53, if you look in your scriptures, maybe you're says, it says, uh, the fear of his father, Isaac.

And if it says that the word fear should be capitalized, this was used once before in this chapter. And that was back in verse 42. This is another name for God.

This is one of God's names. What they're invoking the name of the Lord here. The fear of the fear, the fear of the Lord. Okay. The, the respect in that, but that's, that's another one of God's names in this.

But Laban gets to, gets to give the blessing to his children, his grandchildren, his daughters, and he blesses them. Is there any mention in here that he, that he, uh, gives a kiss to Jacob? Nope.

Probably gives him deuces. See ya. Wouldn't want to be ya, right? Don't let the good, don't let the door hit you. Okay. But this is the last time that you're going to hear of Laban in the scripture.

He, he passes from the text. And so, and there's no love loss here. No love loss. The story's going to continue. Obviously in the next chapter, we're not going to get into it, but it's a turning point for Jacob right here.

This is a turning point. And he's left Iraq and he's, and he's coming toward from Gilead now over the Jordan. He's going to see his brother, his brother Esau, whom he portrayed.

And we'll get into that. But you know, it brings me back as I want to land the plane right here on this question this morning. You know, we talked about this briefly this morning, but have your circumstances in your life been moving you have circumstances, a thing, are you going through some things that are a little bit unpleasant, maybe unfavorable? Some, some things are going and it's not, it's not pleasant.

And you've been praying that God would do something different and something great and something powerful in your life. And yet, have you ever thought that what you're going through could be an answer to that prayer?

You know, I can remember how Wednesday nights for two years, Miss Luanne poured out her heart. God, would you please help me sell my house? He put a desire in her heart to sell her house and downsize, right? Did that happen immediately? But that desire didn't.

Two years. What's two years in the span of a lifetime? Seriously, blink of an eye. Yeah, we get so impatient. And we try to just figure out when circumstances start to go a little sideways, we try to manipulate things so that things will be favorable when God is saying, no, I'm trying to work something out in and with you. Let me do my work in your life.

Let me do that.

And always let the Word of God speak to confirm that. You know, even as Jacob brings out his wives to help confirm this, you know, he felt it in his heart. The circumstances were leading it. They agreed, let's get on the road. Let's hit the road. But there's another principle here that I think we didn't touch on, but we need to get into here as a New Testament church.

And that is, after God puts something in your heart, and the circumstances are lining up with this thing, and you're hearing the voice of the Lord through the Scripture, and that is confirmation with family.

The family. I mean, the family of God. The family of God. The Bible says in the multitude of counselors, there is safety.

There is safety. And I mean, get counseling. I don't mean this counselor you've got to pay 50 bucks an hour for.

I'm talking about find someone who's mature in the Lord and walks with the Lord, and their life validates what their mouth says.

And you can trust in them, and you can go to them, and you can have these conversations to help bring insight and weight to whatever is going on in your life.

To help validate all these things to confirm.

They are not the Lord, but they can also help bring about a confirmation in your life. Amen?

That's how God works these things out.

And so, as we close this morning, maybe you're here this morning.

It could be that God has been moving you to Him.

I don't know. Maybe up to this point, you've just been sort of meandering through life.

You're not really walking with God.

And God's been moving things to get your attention, and to bring you into covenant with the God of covenant that you're not yet at this point in with.

And you haven't really committed yourself in your life to Jesus Christ.

You've heard about Him.

You're on the periphery.

You're looking in.

You're singing the songs.

You're going to church.

All that's good stuff, but something's missing.

Something's missing.

And God has been moving things in your life to try and get your attention so that you would surrender your heart and your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Maybe that's you today as well.

So, no matter where we are, we can find ourselves in one of those two places.

God is moving circumstances and people and places to get our attention to continue in the sanctification process as we grow in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But also, there's a drawing that God wants from those who have never surrendered.

Amen?

And so, as our worship team comes up this morning and we close, I just want to encourage you to find beauty in the chaos.

As long as God has orchestrated that chaos, there is beauty in that chaos.

Allow God to do what God desires to do in and through your life.

And if you've never truly surrendered your heart and your life to the Lord, I would love to just simply pray with you today and talk to you about what it means to just walk hand in hand with a Savior.

Boy, we've sung our hearts out about Him today, right?

The angels are still up here and kept telling us and Rob kept telling us and Jill kept telling us and Cherise kept telling us and Cedric kept telling us.

And we can't praise Him enough, right?