Heading Home, Part 3

Lance Sparks
Transcript
Turn with me in your Bible if you would to Genesis chapter 31. There are 55 verses in Genesis chapter 31 We're going to read them all to you this morning so follow along with me as I read this story between Jacob and and Laban and What transpires and then we will see what God has for us this morning Genesis 31 beginning with verse number one Now Jacob heard the words of Laban's son saying Jacob has taken away all that was our father's and from what belonged to our father He has made all this Wealth and Jacob saw the attitude of Laban and behold It was not friendly toward him as formerly the Lord said to Jacob return to the land of your father's and to your relatives And I will be with you So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to his flock in the field and said to them I see your father's attitude that it is not friendly toward me as formerly But the God of my father has been with me and you know that I have served your father with all my strength Yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times However, God did not allow him to hurt me if he spoke thus the speckled shall be your wages Then all the flock brought forth speckled and if he spoke thus the stripes shall be your wages Then all the flock brought forth striped Thus God has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me and it came about at the time when the flock were mating That I lifted up my eyes and saw in a dream and behold the male goats Which were mating were striped speckled and Spotted then the angel of God said to me in the dream Jacob and I said here I am and he said lift up now your eyes and see that all the male goats Which are mating are striped speckled and spotted for I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you I am the God of Bethel where you anointed a pillar where you made a vow to me now arise leave this land and return to the land of your birth And Rachel and Leah answered and said to him do we still have any portion or inheritance in our father's house?
Are we not reckoned by him as foreigners for he has sold us and has also entirely consumed our purchase price Surely all the wealth which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and our children Now then do whatever God has said to you Then Jacob arose and put his children and his wives upon camels and he drove away all his livestock and all his property Which he had gathered his acquired livestock Which he had gathered in Paddan Aram to go to the land of Canaan to his father Isaac when Laban had gone to shear his flock then Rachel stole the household idols that were her father's and Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him that he was fleeing So he fled with all that he had and he arose and crossed Euphrates River and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead When it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob had fled Then he took his kinsmen with him and pursued him a distance of seven days journey And he overtook him in the hill country of Gilead and God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said To him be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad and Laban caught up with Jacob Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country and Laban with his kinsmen camped in the hill country of Gilead Then Laban said to Jacob What have you done by deceiving me and carrying away my daughters like captives of the sword?
And why did you flee secretly and deceive me and did not tell me so that I might have sent you away with joy and with Songs and a timbrel and with the lyre and did not allow me to kiss my sons and my daughters Now you have done foolishly it is in my power to do you harm The God of your father spoke to me last night saying be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob and now you Have indeed gone away because you long greatly for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods? Then Jacob answered and said to Laban because I was afraid for I said lest you would take your daughters from me by force The one with whom you find your God should not live in the presence of your kinsmen Point out what is yours among my belongings and take it for yourself for Jacob did not know That Rachel had stolen them so Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the tent of the two maids and he did not find them then He went out of Leah's tent and entered Rachel's tent Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them in the camel's saddle and sat on them and Laban felt through all the tent But did not find them and she said to her father Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you for the manner of woman is upon me So he searched but did not find the household idols Then Jacob became angry and contended with Laban and Jacob answered and said to Laban.
What is my transgression? What is my sin that you have hotly pursued me though? You have felt through all my goods What have you found of all your household goods? See it here before my kinsmen or set it here before my kinsmen and your kinsmen that they may decide between us two These 20 years i've been with you your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried nor have I eaten the rams of your flocks That which was torn of beasts. I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it myself You required it of my hand whether stolen by day or stolen by night Thus I was by day the heat consumed me And the frost by night and my sleep fled from my eyes these 20 years.
I have been in your house I have served you 14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flock and you changed my wages 10 times If the god of my father the god of abraham and the fear of isaac had not been for me Surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands. So he rendered judgment last night Then laban answered and said to jacob the daughters are my daughters And the children are my children and the flocks are my flocks and all that you see is mine But what can I do this day to these my daughters or to their children whom they are born?
So now come let us make a covenant you and I and let it be a witness between you and me Then jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar and jacob said to his kinsmen gather stones So they took stones and made a heap and they ate there by the heap now laban called it jagar Sahudatha but jacob called it galed and laban said this heap is a witness between you and me this day Therefore it was named galed and mitzvah for he said may the lord watch between you and me When we are absent one from another if you mistreat my daughters or if you take wives besides my daughters Although no man is with us See god is witness between you and me laban said to jacob Behold this heap and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me This heap is a witness and the pillar is a witness That I will not pass by this heap to you for harm and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar to me for Harm the god of abraham and the god of nahor and the god of their father judged between us So jacob swore by the fear of his father isaac Then jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to the meal and they ate the meal and spent the night On the mountain and early in the morning laban arose and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them Then laban departed and returned to his place quite a story Is it not?
You say well what's in there for us today? Oh, there is a lot in there for you and me today Jacob is heading home what moved him to leave haran and go back to the land of canaan There were two things number one the ways of man and number two There was the word of god and we saw where the ways of man Was actually the work of god because god said in genesis 31 I have seen all that laban has done to you You get in spite of all the cheating the ridicule the lying the deception that took place Jacob was the man of god jacob was able to to stand strong And so we we went from the prompting to look at some principles and we looked at those principles in two ways number one our theology and number two our Responsibility and this is all review from the two weeks previous as we examined genesis chapter 31 But but I need to bring you up to speed so so we're all together here first of all at our theology and examine romans 11 36 which talks about that all things are from god and Through god and ultimately to god and paul would say to him be the glory forever Amen, that's our theology Our theology is based on what god's word says about who god is, right?
And so when we examine the word of god, we realize that all things not some things not just the good things Not just certain things but all things are from god The bible says in ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse number 14 that in the day of prosperity be happy in the day of adversity consider That god has made the one as well as the other so that man Might not know what is to come after him your theology must be rooted and grounded in the word of god to his wonderful powerful Marvelous Name and so jacob would understand that god cares about all things And if god cares about all things and god controls all things Then we can rest in the fact that god has our best interest at heart And over those 20 years god had jacob's best interest at heart and god was doing a marvelous work in jacob's life First peter 3 verses 8 to 17 help us understand How to live in a world where we've been cheated how to live in a marriage where you have been On the bad end of the deal how to respond properly to those who have treated you improperly If you don't understand that you need to get the two tapes on that because it will revolutionize the way you perceive The way people treat you at work the way you are treated in your family And god tells you exactly what your response is because jacob had the proper biblical response to maintain a life of integrity before laban for 20 years But now it's time for him to move and so now he's on his way.
So we move from the prompting To some principles to number three and this is where we are no longer reviewing But actually picking up our story and continuing on and that is the persuading And that is jacob now Needs to persuade Rachel and leah that it's time to move now.
This is really good. This is so practical gentlemen If you need to persuade your wives About something jacob gives you the example to follow. This is what you do. So important. Listen to what he says He he gathers rachel and leah together in verse number four He says I in verse number five. I see your father's attitude That is not friendly toward me as as formally but the god of my father has been with Me and you know that I have served your father with all my strength. He says listen ladies, you know me You know that I have served your father, but I want to let you know something you need to understand the presence of god god has been with me Gentlemen, if you're ever going to convince your wives of anything You must convince them that you believe in the presence of god And that you are convinced without a shadow of a doubt that god has been with you Jacob was convinced of that and he moved from explaining to rachel and leah about the presence of god to number two The protection of god listen to what he says your father has cheated me and changed my wages 10 times You know as husbands sometimes we come back and say, you know, honey I've been robbed Things aren't right My boss doesn't treat me good You ever been there shame on you gentlemen for doing stuff like that Doggone it you want you need to see god involved in your life Don't go back and whine on the shoulder of your wife be a man Be a leader And say even though I have been treated unfairly and even though your father has changed my wages 10 times And I deserve a raise I deserve a better job.
Look what he says god did not allow him to hurt me That's so good. He believed in the protection of god You see fellas if we go home and we whine in bed on the shoulders of our wives We don't believe in the presence and protection of almighty god That's our problem Stand strong on the truth of almighty god and say honey. Let me tell you something I know things at the workplace aren't good because you see she's gonna come back and say well, honey They're not treating you right?
Well, honey, this isn't good. Honey. You need to get a better job, honey You're not making enough money, honey Things aren't going good and you need to be able to go back to work god's word and say you know what honey? I know i've been cheated but god has Protected us You see i've said this to you before we think logically As a christian you can't think logically because that is illogical you have to think Theologically We look at everything right here in a horizontal plane and still looking through things through god's eyes And so jacob calls his wives together and he's going to persuade them as he speaks to them about it's time to move And I want to tell you why one is because the presence of god second It's because the protection of god and and then he says it's because of the provision of god the provision of god He says if he spoke thus speckle shall be your wages Then all the flock brought forth speckled and if he spoke thus the stripes shall be your wages that all the flock brought forth Striped if your dad said this is the way it's going to be then then god did something He says thus god has taken away your father's livestock and given them to me It says I want to tell you why we need to move god came to me in a dream He spoke to me and god told me what he was doing.
He had the privilege of god He had the privilege of god by saying listen god has spoken to me ladies And this is what we need to do and do we not have that same privilege gentlemen? Sure, we do we have the word of god and if you can't go to your wife and leave your wife based on that privilege You will not be able to effectually lead your wife Because you see he is subjecting himself to the word of god But it goes beyond that because then there was the precept of god god came to him and said arise Leave this land and return to the land of your birth.
That's the precept of god God says jacob do this and what jacob do he submits. Hey fellas If god says to do something and you don't do it, you don't submit guess what?
You have a hard time leading your wives the key to leading your wife will be seen In your willingness to submit to the word of god if you do not submit to any area of the word of god You give your wife the opportunity not to submit to you because she has every right to say well You don't submit to your head. Why should I submit to my head? Aren't you glad you came today? See how practical this is? So simple one more and that was the promise of god look up at chapter 30 verse number 43 It says so the man that's jacob became exceedingly prosperous And had large flocks and female and male servants and camels and donkeys Jacob became a very prosperous man in the six years that he would take care and raise Laban's lifestyle the bible says it look what it says down in verse number 13 I am the god of bethel.
He already talks about what he's been doing He's already talked about the fact that he it's me jacob who has blessed you It's me jacob who has caused you to be prosperous It's me jacob who has allowed you to be where you are today And now he says I am the god of bethel where you anointed a pillar where you Made what's it say a vow? to me Jacob, you made a vow to me. What was the vow he made turn back to denis's check to 28 He made a vow to god and it says this verse number 22 And this stone which i have set up as a pillar will be god's house and of all that thou does give me I will surely give a tenth to thee.
I want to let you know something. There is one main reason god blessed Jacob exceedingly it's because he made a vow to god and the vow to god was this I will give you a tenth of all That I have when he had nothing when he had nothing that means for 20 years Jacob was involved in giving a tenth of all that he had to his god And god now comes back and says jacob. I want to let you know something I'm the god of bethel and you remember the vow you made to me jacob. I have honored that Vow i've honored it.
How much do you give to god if you give less than a tenth to god? It's no wonder that you're not exceedingly prosperous The bible is very clear on that. The bible does not command that you give a tenth to god The bible always commends you giving a tenth to god Do you know that some of the problems you are having today is directly related to what you do with your money? Most of you don't even know that first samuel 230 god says if you honor me I will honor you jesus 31 is a perfect illustration of that jacob honored god and god honored him You see we want to honor god with everything but our money We want to give a tenth of what we have to god except a tenth of our money You say well, wait a minute.
I don't have anything to give to god. Sure You do jacob didn't have anything in genesis chapter 28 and he made the vow It's all of his anyway If you honor me with the first fruits, oh your vats will be filled to overflowing Your barns will be filled to plenty.
That's what god promises He speaks guess what they submit They submit look at verse number 16 do whatever god has said To you.
Hey, don't you wish your wife would say that to you? You see that they submit to god And you know, is it not true that really it comes right down to just one thing in our life submitting to god Draw near to god. He'll draw near to you humble yourself under the mighty hand of god Follow his word That's basically what the christian life is learning to submit to everything. God says in his word And then the third thing I want you to see about this persuading is the stealing So what's that?
What's with this terraphine? What's with the with the idols? And I don't want to go into great detail here because I mean, I don't understand why rachel would do this I mean these little two to three inch figurines called terraphine. They were they were used for Occult practices and layman was into the occult and they were used specifically as fertility images Somehow if you kept these images in your home, you'd be fertile and the only thing I can figure out about why rachel would steal Them is because you remember rachel was barren for so many years before she finally had joseph and before she leaves She wants to take them with her thinking that if she wants to have more children Maybe this is the way to do that to have these in her in her tent.
Remember the man drake story She thought that would work for her It didn't god opened her womb and god would open any woman's womb who? Uh was wanting to have children and it was in god's sovereign plan to give her children and maybe she took them with her thinking Well, if god doesn't come through maybe maybe these little images will you ever been there? Sure, you have you might not pick up a little idol and put it on your little stand But there are little things that we tend to trust in if just in case god doesn't come through Which leads us to the pursuits?
First of all, there was layman's challenge, right? He had to go after jacob. Jacob was gone and and jacob had three days to head start It would take him 10 days to catch up to jacob Now you say well, uh, well if he had three days head start, how did how did layman catch him simply? Jacob had all the livestock. He had his kids. He had rachel leah He has maid servants and they were walking pretty slow and god comes to layman in a dream Layman, let me tell you something.
See god knows layman. Let me tell you something layman Don't say a word good or bad to jacob When you're obedient to god God will take care of everything around you.
You don't have to worry about it and god was taking care of him And sure enough he he finally catches up to him and after he realizes the challenge of of chasing for 10 days He comes and presents a charge to jacob.
Oh, this is what you've done Oh, you you've stolen my family from me. You've stolen my daughters from me. I would have thrown you a party jacob Yeah, rightly right layman i'd have thrown you a great party. I didn't get a chance to kiss him Goodbye, and you stole him right out from under me jacob How dare you do that and the only reason you go home is because you're homesick He says down in verse number 30 and now you have indeed gone away because you long greatly for your father's house Oh you poor boy, you're just homesick is what you are and and then he says and after all you stole my gods Hey, I got news for you.
If your god can be stolen. You better get another god Okay, that's not much of a god but you stole my gods And so he searches the tents and doesn't find them and and then you come to layman's chiding That is his rebuke and and jacob rebukes him Jacob says hey, wait a minute. What's my trespass? Whatever it is exposed it. Whatever my transgression is whatever my sin is exposed it Well, that's a man of integrity, right? He got nothing to hide Jacob didn't know that rachel had taken the idols or the terror theme And so he goes on to rebuke layman tremendously by going through the 20 years and rehearsing what had taken place all focused On the working of god why because when you talk to people you got to make sure that you talk to them Theologically And you take them back to the truth.
And the only way you can do that is to take them through the word of god And that's what jacob did Which leads us to the last point? The pact they made a pact First of all, they called upon god to witness between them may god watch it says in verse number 49 Between you and me when we are absent one from another now I know a lot of you wear those things around your knicks nick called the mitzvah, which Is a quotation of of genesis 31 verse number 49 now I don't want to you know ruin your sentiment of thought here But let me help you understand something the point being is that layman and jacob were calling upon one another or calling upon god to witness Their lives as they were apart because god sees everything god sees it all and then number two They committed themselves to the judgment of god because god is judge Not only is god the witness of all that happens, but god is the judge Of all that happens as well.
And not only does god see my heart's motives, but god is the ultimate judge Of those motives and they make a pact God will see everything you do laban as evidenced by the fact that he came to you in a dream And said don't you say anything good or bad to jacob and god will witness me laban everything I say how I treat your daughters how I treat your grandchildren because god sees all And not only is god witness but god is judge and is that not true? God is the judge my friends and the bible says and this is a good place to end It's appointed unto man who wants to die and after that comes the judgment And one day in revelation chapter 20 verses 11 to 15 There will come the great white throne judgment where only the unbeliever stands before god and they will be judged You see because as god witnesses you today and as god witnesses me today and as god witnesses those round about you today You got to ask yourself the question.
Wait a minute. God's not judging them They're much better off than I am and i'm a follower of god and I want to honor god and I want to please god But but the but the unbelieving world they seem to be prosperous They seem to be a lot better off than I am and isn't god seeing them doesn't god witness their actions? Yes, he does. He does witness them and god is long-suffering And god is merciful but one day payday and while they might not be judged today They will be judged in the end and their judgment will be eternal Damnation separated from the holy god of the universe forever and ever in the lake of fire And I think that we need to understand that as jacob saw god sees me god sees you today Doesn't he and god knows everything that you have done everything that you've said god sees how you lead your family Or how you don't lead your family god sees that and maybe right now You're even experiencing the judgment of god upon your life because you have ineffectively led your family.
Do you ever think about that? It's time for you to go back and get on your knees and say god help me. I've sinned against you I want to lead my family properly. I want to honor you with my whole heart soul mind and strength Lord, you see all that I do. You've seen how I treated my children. You've seen how I treated my wife You've seen how I treated my friends at church and they haven't been good lord and you are the judge I understand that and lord I want to get things right in accordance with your word because I want to submit to your word as jacob would submit to your Word, I want to follow your word and I want to wholly give my life to you and father if need be I'm going to give you a tenth of all that I have lord because you see all And i'm going to give you a tenth of all that I have because i'm going to honor you with the first fruits of my increase Because you are my god and I will serve you with my whole heart And from this day forward nothing will come between you and me ever again Because you are my witness and you are my judge.
Let's pray