Laban and Leah

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 29:21-30

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Well this morning, we're not quite finishing chapter 29 We'll we'll go up to verse 30 and then we'll take verses 31 through 35 into chapter 30
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Next week, so we're going to be introduced of course to the marriage between both
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Jacob and Leah as well as Jacob and Rachel and then we'll meet the offspring of Jacob and Leah next week heading into the conflict that arises in chapter 30
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But this morning we want to focus on verses 21 through 30 Last week we considered
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Jacob's arrival at Haran. Remember he had been sent there by his father really at his mother's insistence and He of course encountered
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God along the way at Bethel the place that to him seemed like the gate of heaven He called it the house of God And it was at Bethel that he had
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God's assurance that he would be with him that he would go before him That he would protect him and provide for him and we saw
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Jacob our twisting Manipulating very self -willed and selfish friend
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Counter with God and say if you're willing to do this and provide for my daily needs then indeed you will be my
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God And he continued on in his journey and arrived at Haran and last week
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We read of his encounter with Rachel the shepherdess at the well and the excitement and the joy as she rushed back to introduce
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Jacob to Laban and then we begin really in chapter 29 verse 18 and following the sort of Negotiations with Laban we read this is going back to last week verse 18
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Jacob loved Rachel Now that's setting up a contrast that we'll see in verse 31 next week.
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So keep that as a banner Jacob loved Rachel He did not love Leah Jacob loved
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Rachel So he said I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter and Laban said it is better that I give her to You than that.
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I should give her to another man. Stay with me So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he had for her
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Now this is not the first time we've encountered Laban. We encountered him back in chapter 24
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When Abraham arranged the servant to go perhaps it was Eliezer and To fetch
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Rebecca for Isaac and of course Laban at the time we didn't necessarily see it but he seemed to be extremely interested in the wealth that this servant brought with him and of course these chapters later
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Laban wouldn't have forgotten that Abraham's grandson was part of this wealthy family
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Although Jacob appeared and there's no indication that he brought much wealth with him. There's no camel train
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He's not bringing gold chests out from under the saddles He's on the run and that doesn't mean he came only with a backpack and you know cargo pants but it probably does mean that he didn't have this very
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Extravagant train of wealth that Laban could attach himself to but what he did notice about Jacob was his strength
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Who who but a highland Scotsman could move a stone like that as we read last week And he's on the run now
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And of course, there's this question of the murder plot hanging over everything Jacob's not exactly the best prospect for marriage
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So you're the heir and what brings you here? You're the heir and what's the family situation?
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How did you become heir by the way? And what of your older brother Esau? What of the firstborn of your family?
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So the fact that Jacob is on the run introduces some uncertainty into the prospect of marriage
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Laban doesn't really seem that concerned. He's mostly interested in what Jake we can offer him and of course in the background
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We need to remember be reminded of the fact God had assured Jacob that he was with him and he was going to bring him
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Back into the land. He didn't say when he would do it. He just said that he would do it now for Laban He clearly wants to marry off his daughters, but he's not down with Jacob of sconding back to Canaan He wants
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Jacob to stay with him in her on he wants Jacob to be a laborer And so Laban just like Jacob is constantly trying to manipulate things to his own benefit
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And that's really important Laban is constantly trying to manipulate things to his own benefit even his nephew even his own daughters
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All his relationships are means by which he can get ahead he can provide for himself
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Have more comfort in life have more ease Laban is a twister as we said of Jacob his own daughters most likely named after one of the greatest prizes in his life his prowess at Raising cattle will will be seeing that in chapters 30 and 31, but of course
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He named his children Probably an honorary name Leia means cow
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Rachel means you if you're looking for, you know Good names there most likely this was meant to be sort of a symbol of prosperity or blessing or abundance
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He had been blessed with all this great cattle and sort of as a tribute He named his daughters
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But that becomes ironic in its own regard as he now in this chapter will Sell his daughters for his own gain just like he might sell cattle for his own gain
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In fact when the time finally comes for Jacob to leave Laban's house Even his own daughters realized just what kind of man their father is we read in Genesis 31 14
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Jacob had brought them out into the field and told both Rachel and Leia His plan to leave and this is their reply.
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Is there any portion or inheritance left in our father's house? He sold us and indeed he's devoured all of our money meaning the dowry
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So this was not a father that was interested in his daughter's well -being This was not a daughter who was very carefully and cautiously arranging a marriage.
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This was a cattle trader This was a man who would consume their own livelihood for his gain and even they recognize what's left for us in our father's house
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He's devoured at all Laban is a deceiver Laban is a twister
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Laban is a master manipulator and it comes as zero surprise
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That God in his providence has placed Jacob the twister the deceiver the master manipulator right at this man's disposal
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Jacob of course is on the run from Esau and Esau According to God's prophecy is supposed to be serving
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Jacob the older shall serve the younger and indeed That was part of the blessing your brethren shall serve you
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But now Jacob is the one serving Laban rather than being served by his elder brother.
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He is serving his deceitful twisting uncle Greedy Jacob now has met his match in greedy
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Laban It means they're cut from the same cloth and perhaps now we look at verse 14 with new eyes
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Laban saying surely you are flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone and we're saying
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Oh more than you realize And so when we're reading chapter 29
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We're seeing God moving forward in Jacob's life from the call what we would call perhaps the effectual call at Bethel where he becomes the
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God of Jacob where Jacob owns him and worships him as his own
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God Not by the hearing of the ear as it would have been at Beersheba, but by his own sight
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He now worships the Lord, but if that was his calling there's so much work to be done and in chapter 29
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What we really have is sanctification the beginning of God untwisting the twister the beginning of God Taking Jacob as he had called him out of Beersheba and making him into a man who walks before him in righteousness and holiness and that's the difference really between Not just Beersheba and Haran, but even
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Bethel and Haran between the calling and the encounter the experience of God and then the grace that God is going to work in and work through like leaven in a dough slowly, but surely
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Captivating and saturating the life of Jacob chapter 29 beginning in verse 21.
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God is sanctifying Jacob So we read beginning in verse 21
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Jacob says to Laban give me my wife now that already tells us something of the
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The way that this conversation and the way that the feelings are when I approached
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My father -in -law to marry Elisha. I did not say that Give me your daughter that I might marry her
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Hey I've got something really big to ask you and you want to smooth things over So what kind of relationship has it been for seven years if there's this kind of conversation?
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All right, listen sit down. Give me my wife. He was counting the days. He didn't want any games
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We almost get the sense that there's no love lost between these two men and here's the deal Give me my wife stop playing games.
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Stop putting things off. My days have been fulfilled Give her to me that I may go into her Now, of course
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Laban would have been the type of guy that you needed to remind Laban was not counting down the days in the same way that Jacob was
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Laban wasn't said isn't this wonderful? Aren't you so excited Rachel? We've been preparing all these years and it's gonna be the most momentous wonderful thing.
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Aren't you excited? I'm so excited for you. Come give me a hug Rather Laban is trying to push off and so Jacob has to come in and demand
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Rachel's hand And we read verse 22 Laban gathered together all the men of the place
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Made a feast and it came to pass in the evening. The darkness here is significant that he took
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Leah already a problem not Rachel but Leah his daughter and brought her to Jacob and He went in to her
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So you have the feast you have what would have been the celebration would have lasted a week
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According to Judges 14 this great feast this great Celebration and of course in that evening when they were finally married one to the other
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They went in into the bridal chamber and as part of the gift
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We read verse 24 Laban gave his maid Zilpah to his daughter Leah as a maid that's setting up in the next chapter
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Part of the progeny of Jacob, but this would have been really part of the bridal price part of the gift
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Zilpah the handmaiden to Leah Now ordinarily as we said a wedding in those times would have involved a large feast and you can imagine a feast would have wine
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And it would have been very long even I Mean I had a relatively short wedding, but it was pretty exhausting
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So I can only imagine a week of celebration and festivity just how exhausting that would be
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And no doubt there was wine being passed around and it was evening and all of these things perhaps
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Can explain how Jacob could not understand that Leo was standing before him behind that veil
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It would have been common for the bride to be veiled We already got a sense of that veil though It was not a marriage so many at the time when his father
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Isaac met Rebecca and she covered herself with a veil Of course
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Jacob was there alone. He didn't have any family He didn't have any sisters or any servants that were putting some detective work together.
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Wait a minute Something's not adding up here Rachel's over there And so he has no help here he's just being pulled around in the dancing as the wine goblets are being passed around and the evening is setting in as late
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Laban is Constantly hovering and ensuring that Jacob's not able to uncover unveil the plot of who's actually behind the wedding veil
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We remember that Leah had been described as dull of eyes an idiom That's very hard to explain and the fact that it's an idiom
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That's hard to explain most likely means it was there for this ironic parallel to Jacob who is now dull of eyes
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He's not able to discern that the woman he's about to take into the bride chamber is in fact
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Leah and not the love of his Heart Rachel and so the whole idea of the veil is really at play
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There's an unveiling of the bride, which is the unveiling of Laban's plot
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And we read that in verse 25 it came to pass in the morning and Behold it was
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Leah behold there in Hebrew. You could translate it 20 different ways, but it's an exclamation So often in the
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Psalms. Oh You know, let us praise the Lord or in narrative often behold as we have it translated here
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But sometimes it's just sort of an exclamation and where I think we're meant to read it that way it came to pass in the morning
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And ah, it was Leah That's how he would have reacted When his senses had returned to him and light was now flooding into the bridal chamber and he could actually see
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No longer being dull of eyes that he had spent that night with who he thought was
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Rachel And in fact, it was Leah and what does he do? He says to Laban What have you done to me?
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What is this that you've done to me? Esau said the exact same thing
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Jacob Perhaps ignorant of the irony at this very moment in the split -second reaction
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But it's the same words with the same tone in light of the same sudden shock.
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What have you done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served you?
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Why have you deceived me? And it wasn't just the ironic echo of Esau's Grievous complaint that we have on Jacob's tongue
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We also recognize the significance of Laban exchanging daughters that one might be blessed in marriage
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In the same way that Isaac had received swapped sons so that one might be blessed
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Why have you deceived me in other words is a question that Jacob could sympathize with Why have you deceived me?
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Laban's answer to that question if it wasn't rhetorical Would have been the exact same answer that Jacob would have given when he deceived his own father and his own brother
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Why did I deceive you? Laban would say but behind the excuse if he was being honest because Laban lives for Laban Laban lives for Laban Why did you deceive me?
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Jacob lives for Jacob. It's a dog -eat -dog world out there You got to provide for yourself
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No one's gonna help you along. No one's gonna do things for you. You gotta you got to make it And you got to do whatever is necessary to get ahead
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Why have you deceived me? Laban of course says well, it's because of my daughter the the custom of having the elders
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But the answer is really Laban lives for Laban He doesn't live for his daughters.
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He has no real concern for them for his nephew He's only concerned about himself, but he gives this excuse in verse 26.
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Oh, it must not be done in our country Should I have mentioned this seven years ago? Maybe well, anyways, just so you know
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This is not done in our country to give the younger Before the firstborn.
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I just wonder hearing these terms if Jacob's complaint all of a sudden was muted the younger
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The firstborn this deception this scandal Now what was meant to be?
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For the younger has been given to the firstborn But Jacob, of course received what was meant to be for the firstborn as the younger
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So there's this ironic reversal that's taken place at the wedding And I wonder if Jacob could begin to see the providential
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Rebuke of God upon all that he had done to obtain the blessing in this marriage
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And so he says nothing Fulfill her week and we will give you this one also for the service, which you will serve me still another seven years
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It must have struck Jacob. He must have seen
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God's fingerprints upon this Providence He of course begins to react like Esau But he never quite follows it through and even when
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Laban all of a sudden adds another Seven years of service to him to gain the bride that he originally was seeking.
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We don't read of Jacob's complaint We don't read of him Hatching this counter plot to run away.
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We don't read of him having this murderous rage He doesn't howl like a lion like Esau did he doesn't tremble violently like his father
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Isaac if anything Jacob Submits to this providential unfolding of God you can imagine what it would have been like To give
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Laban credit at least he doesn't make him wait to have Rachel after that second set of seven years
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They they end up fulfilling that week of the marriage ceremony and now he has Rachel the woman that he sought the woman that he loved so dearly
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But he has to stay around in Haran for another seven years And we read verse 29 that Laban gave
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Bilhah So here again, we have this aspect of the bride price Bilhah Setting up the genealogy in the next chapter is given to Rachel as a maid and we read that Jacob went into Rachel an idiom for the fact he took her into the bride chamber consummated the marriage and Then setting us up for next week
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He loved Rachel more than Leah We have that again just as a statement.
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It's about to be repeated two verses down And so we think of how Leah Must feel in light of this whole week
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Maybe there was a part of her deep down in her heart that Maybe he will love me when he sees me when he's with me
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Maybe somehow Somehow he will love me. We're gonna see it tragically in the rest of chapter 29
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Every time she names a child the child is not is not enough for her
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Her heart is longing for her husband's affection her husband's desire. Maybe now maybe now surely now and So she's going to have to submit to the providence of God and trust
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God in Light of this destructive week think of Jacob and Rachel For seven years.
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He had daydreamed of what it would be like to be at this place. It seemed like a few days to him and now
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What a complete mess and all the joy of that anticipation between Rachel and Jacob, it's it's completely spoiled
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Think of how this destroyed the way that Rachel and Leia viewed Laban their father surely they were in on the plot
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They were forced not to not to reveal it too soon not to do anything
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They had to submit to it and we're gonna see that it's not only Jacob submitting to the providence and leadership of God But it's also
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Leia and Rachel who submit to the providence in the leading of God and now
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Laban not only Begins these marriages in the most difficult places imaginable
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But he he creates for Jacob a household that's already in conflict and the rivalry between these two sisters
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Will carry through not only the next chapter but down through Israelite history as in Leviticus 18
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It's forbidden for a man to marry two sisters Well, they're both alive and it seems to be a lesson learned from this very episode
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So the the banner the the big idea the big point of everything that we've read from verses 21 through 30 is simply this
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In order to untwist Jacob in order to begin to work into Jacob's life that the grace and the
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Holiness that God requires of him. He introduces Laban the twister
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The tables in other words are completely turned on Jacob You could put it and this is perhaps reductive.
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He gets a taste of his own medicine You know what goes around comes around all these little sayings we have but it's so much more profound so much more poetic than that It's providential.
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It's sovereign. It's part of God's good design It flows out of his love for Jacob out of all that he had promised
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Jacob the Laban the Haran All of it is necessary for God to cause
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Jacob to walk before him in uprightness. And so Jacob Who had deceived his brother?
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his poor old blind father Who got the blessing instead of Esau now begins to see the mirror of that before him in this episode
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Now Laban is the one who's deceived blind Jacob in the evening when he cannot see
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The unveiling of the deception comes through the unveiling of Leia And he gives
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Leia Who gets the blessing instead of her sibling all of these things would have been like daggers to Jacob's conscience recognizing
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God's handiwork Jacob has been Jacob as one preacher said
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But of course Jacob is not like Esau and Jacob is not like Laban He does not react
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He does not think or plot in the way that he himself had once done He submits to the providence of God and so we begin to see the impact of God's presence in Jacob's life even in this short time between his calling and Seven years of hard work under an unjust and manipulating man.
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We find Jacob to have a certain patience and resolve He had already worked harder than he needed to to obtain
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Rachel and even now that he does not have Rachel in the way that He expected he submits to work an additional seven years.
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That's like well you work seven years for her You're gonna work seven years for Rachel again, and he submits to that now
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Sort of double the injustice The generosity of Jacob's obedience is taken and manipulated against him by Laban and yet even there
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Jacob submits and he's not submitting to Laban He's submitting to the discipline and the providence of God in his life very important point in The Christian life.
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It's not so much that we submit to the circumstances of Haran We submit to a very difficult person like Laban.
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Maybe you have a Laban in your life It's not that you're submitting to them so much as you're submitting to God's providence of having them in your life
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And so the comparison between Jacob and Laban at one point in Jacob's life that would have been identical
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But already they're so far apart And it's simply because of God's grace to Jacob.
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We remember the echo of God's promise at Bethel. I'm going to be with you I'm gonna prosper you
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You don't have to fend for yourself anymore You don't have to lie and cheat and steal manipulate deceive to get ahead
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I'm gonna provide for you. I'm gonna be with you and Jacob puts faith in that promise of God Even when he knows
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He's at the hands of Laban and he's completely vulnerable to more manipulation and abuse and he's probably thinking
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What's the surprise gonna be seven years from now? What's waiting for me then but he submits in faith to the providence of God So both
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Jacob and Laban are sinners and they're sinners with almost the same sins They have the same sinful desires and they have the same sinful means they use to get them but now there's this difference between them and the difference is simply that the grace of God came to Jacob and took
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Jacob and Providentially guided Jacob and gave Jacob a spirit and a faith and a willingness
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To trust God in the midst of this discipline in this difficulty in the midst of trial
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So if I could reduce everything down to a sentence, it would be this God keeps his promise but God keeps his promise through the trials of sanctification
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God keeps his promise But it's not like tada here I am at Bethel now go on back home
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Everything's been done for you. Isn't that great? You know, I wanted you to come out here So, you know that I'm your
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God and I'm with you now go ahead back home and take ownership of everything Isn't that great that you know me now?
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It's here. I am Jacob and I'm gonna be with you and I've got work to do in your life and And now here you are in Haran and it's gonna be a long stretch
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But I've given you something to work for and as Jacob is working toward Rachel He's also growing in this grace for seven years and and when this whole plot is unveiled
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Jacob is not ruined He's not thrown about by every wind of doctrine He's contented
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There's a certain resolve that he has he does not object. He does not counter plot
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He submits God is keeping his promise to Jacob Jacob knows that he is but he's keeping his promise through the trial of sanctification
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And so this passage is really calling our attention to God's work in us
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God's work in Jacob God's work in Jacob through being in Haran God's work in Jacob as a result of being under Laban And this is all part of how
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God works in his people I don't know what your Haran is meaning your setting your situation the circumstances that are pinching you
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Making life difficult more difficult than it should be more difficult than it is for others We all have a
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Haran at one point or another Or maybe on top of that. It's not just the Haran, but it's the
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Laban some difficult person some difficult relationship You're getting a raw deal in the world's eyes.
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It shouldn't be this way It wasn't meant to be this way and you recognize in this passage that God God's grace
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God's Providence has designed you to encounter this setting and this relationship for his work in you
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This is his design This is how he's building grace into your life how he's conforming you to be able to walk with him in an upright way.
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I was reading an excerpt from a sort of moral philosopher contemporary to Paul Plutarch and He raised this point the book was on the progress of virtue.
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He was a sort of a stoic philosopher and So the point he raised was how do you progress in virtue?
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What do you need in order to progress to grow in virtue? And he says well you need to have some kind assistance in your life kind assistance
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That will that will overlook your faults and carry you forward you need kind assistance But then you also need challenges to overcome that that will cause you to be aware and always pressing forward
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You need some obstacle some grist for the mill so to speak And so he said therefore if anyone wants to progress in virtue, they must have a close friend and a sworn enemy
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It's very wise and Jacob has that he has a kind friend in the presence of God In the love he has for Rachel in the love of his mother who'd sent him to her on he has all sorts of kind assistance in his life
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Then he also has this This treacherous man and God is using both of these both of these things to to grow
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Jacob in his grace in sanctification in the Christians life has both blessing and trial both kind assistance and difficult opposition
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But God keeps his promise and he keeps it through the trials of sanctification
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So what is sanctification? We're going to be returning here a few weeks from now
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This is sort of a larger theme for this part of Jacob's life all the way up to chapter 32
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What is sanctification to set some things out? well
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Sanctification according to the shorter Catechism is the work of God's free grace
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Whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God now, let's pause there
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Please notice the agent of all this activity of sanctification Sanctification is the work of who not us not
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Jacob not Laban Sanctification is the work of God It's a work of his free grace the free grace that bestows itself at Bethel the free grace that's not as of evident or apparent or Experiential but it's very much there and at work and active even in Haran Whereby we are renewed
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Notice that's passive. We are renewed in the whole man after the image of God So we are renewed by God sanctification is the work of God, but then notice this
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We are enabled That's an interesting word, isn't it? We are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness that word enabled all the sudden says
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Yes, sanctification is a work of God. If you don't have God's free grace, you won't have sanctification
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It's a work that God is doing and he's doing it so that you might be renewed, but he's also doing it to enable you
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That's an interesting word Because it implies that you are responsible for your sanctification
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It does not give you the credit for your sanctification. It is a work of God's free grace But that free grace enables you to walk in sanctification
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And so you have to walk in Sanctification and what does that walk in sanctification look like for you?
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you're enabled more and more and more and more to die to sin and Coupled with that simultaneous to that the other side of that coin
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More and more you can't pull those apart, right if you take dying unto sin and turn it over It's living unto holiness.
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That's what it looks like And so God his free grace poured out upon Jacob throughout his whole life
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Even before he was born God's grace was being poured out upon Jacob It was said before the twins were even born
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Romans 9 the older shall serve the younger God's free grace bestowed upon Jacob, but Jacob this man who walks in deceitfulness and manipulation the selfish self -willed
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Laban like man Has now encountered God's grace his effectual calling at Bethel and God now as a result of that grace is is actively renewing
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Jacob according to his own image and With Haran with Laban not just with the blessings, but with the trials
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He's enabling Jacob to walk with him by faith putting sin to death and living unto righteousness
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So God is the worker of our sanctification God is at work actively in the life of a
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Christian to bring about sanctification and Yet this is not some passive event for the
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Christian It wasn't passive for Jacob every time he picked up the plow or tied up the hay bales
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Or ran after the lost sheep every time he moved the well stones and somehow that became his job Why am
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I the only guy all of a sudden that's dragging the well stone? Every time he did anything he was recognizing that he was walking by faith in the work that God had begun in his life
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He recognized that he was not preserving providing preparing himself God was preserving him
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God was providing for him God was preparing him for all that he had promised And so what is his part?
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It's to recognize that that grace has enabled him and every day It's enabling him to press on another day to deal with that difficult
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Laban to put up with all the injustice at Haran Every day he recognized that God would give him the strength that was sufficient just for that day the bread that was sufficient
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For that day and he could let tomorrow's troubles worry about themselves It's an enabling grace
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When we talk about sanctification So Jacob could not fall into the old
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Keswick error the Keswick error Came out of what we call sometimes the higher life movement or the holiness restoration it was a huge part of Wesleyan Methodism about a century and a half to two centuries ago and especially in the in the 19th century in both
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England and America this higher life teaching this holiness teaching was widespread The idea was you can be fully sanctified in this life
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If you've been a Christian for any length of time, I hope you've never been deceived at that kind of thought
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But you had these teachers that would go around and they wouldn't necessarily claim to have arrived You'd really want to walk with them closely if anyone claimed that can
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I you know, can we spend some time together this week? Have a feeling I could catch you out
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But you had these people claiming no, no, no, not that we've arrived but it is possible. It's fully attainable in this life
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To never sin again and JC Raul wrote his book holiness against in part against this very false understanding of holiness and sanctification
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The famous phrase that came out of the Keswick conferences where this teaching was promoted was let go and let
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God Let go and let God And when you take that phrase and you apply it to sanctification, it sounds very pious and very holy
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It sounds somewhat like the shorter catechism, doesn't it? It's it's a work of God a work of his free grace
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So let go and let God It's actually a very dangerous unbiblical phrase
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Sanctification is a work that begins by God that's actively worked by God That's maintained that every at every turn by the grace of God through his indwelling spirit.
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And so it's never something passive It's something that we're actually called to participate with to enact to live out to walk out to to work out even with fear and trembling
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And so you never let go and let God passively as though there's some sanctification zap
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When scripture describes the process of sanctification in the Christians life It looks a lot like Jacob's sweating it out for seven years in Iran It looks like a marathon where you're running to win the prize and you're casting off every entangling weight that clings to you
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It looks like a wrestling match where you're beating your body into submission so that you can be a little stronger than you were last
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Season, it looks like a hunt. It looks like a battle. It looks like warfare or even a crucifixion
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These are the images of a Christian's life being made holy. And so we emphasize especially
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We are enabled More and more to die unto sin We're enabled
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God's grace enables and then we and we repent on our knees for all the things that that grace
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Was spurned for was resisted reacted against wasn't held on to wasn't sought
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Wasn't thanked We're enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness
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Another thing we see here is simply this God is all and this is a point we've made elsewhere.
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I think we've made it with Abraham probably made it with Isaac, too We always think that God is at work
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Most specifically most uniquely perhaps only in those nights of Bethel There he is
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Right his presence his power His work in my life.
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I Said all back to that night at Bethel. I've been living off the vapors of that ever since He filled up my tank that night at Bethel and I'm just driving and waiting for another night of Bethel to come
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That's how we think of the Christian life. So often that he's doing his work in that Bethel night
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And what we see is no If anything, that's the preparation for the work
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God is doing his work in the long long long years at her on Where Jacob's not having these night visions of God, but he's nevertheless seeing
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God's active work in his life and so after the night of Bethel comes the long years of Haran where your faith is
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Being tested and when your faith is tested it produces all of these fruits of righteousness
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Brief mountaintop Experiences in other words are always followed in the
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Christian life by long years of valleys And it's in the long years of Valley that the real test of our faith is tried and and the real
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Fruitfulness of our faith is produced Jacob perhaps would have thought he's the most fruitful at Bethel when he's floored and just Receiving God's presence in his life
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This is amazing and he probably doesn't feel that way when he's working it out day by day
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Seeing all of his failures and stumblings Gritting his teeth hating Laban like an enemy all of these things unfolding over the long years of her on But that is where God is doing his work in Jacob's life
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And so brothers and sisters the test of our faith the fruitfulness of that test. It's not at Bethel.
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It's in Haran It's not in the mountaintop. It's in the long valley. It's not in the night. It's in the years
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It's not in other words the initial reaction we have to grace that produces
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God's work in us. It's the long patient Conduct of our faith one of the most practical pointed pressing questions that I can ask from this then is
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What are you doing with your laban's what are you doing with your laban's are you submitting to them?
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Because you're submitting to the providence of God This is where he's led us.
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This is where he has us It seems like everything's unraveling. But in fact, this is where God's building
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Seems like my my life and what I thought these seven years were for is imploding But actually no
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God is God is building he's strengthening he's reinforcing What are our labors doing for us?
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How is God's grace? operating in our lives through the trials of sanctification if You're not looking for that if you're not consciously aware of that You're probably thinking back to the
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Bethel if only I could have another Bethel I'm just kind of floating by until another
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Bethel drops in front of me, and that's not living the Christian life That's not living the
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Christian two points as we come to a close and I trying to make this as Straightforward as possible knowing we're gonna be diving into it for weeks to come
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But there's really two fundamental points that we must have in place if we're to understand where we are and Why we have a
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Haran or a Laban surrounding us in other words, there's two things I think uniquely that we need to understand that we need to practice in order to see
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God's grace Operating in us as we submit to a trial of sanctification. The first is this we need to learn contentment in trials
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It's amazing to me that Jacob does not respond to Lake to Laban's manipulation.
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It's like he sees right through it It's almost like the divine rebuke has been pronounced in the words and Jacob just doesn't even respond
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Laban's like well, this is why we do it is complete foolishness. He doesn't argue with him
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Why wouldn't you have told me that before? You know, no way. I'm you know, you've cheated me, you know May God be your judge.
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He doesn't do that at all. He just submits to it Laban has free range and you can work another seven years for her.
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Remember that generous offer you made to work almost double yeah, you can do that again and Jacob's just Like where do
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I sign it's amazing that's God's greatest that's
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God's grace Learn contentment in trial Jacob saw the divine rebuke
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That that promise that Bethel echoed through that moment if he was about to howl in a rage like Esau He would have remembered
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God is with me. God's gonna prosper me. God's gonna bring me back. Yeah, I feel that pull
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I know what I want to do. I know what I would do. I'd run I'd run away He cheats me. I'll cheat him I'm gonna arrange the goat hair for a pillow and make to put the blanket over top.
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He'll think Rachel's there. We're gonna be gone I'm gonna take my bride the one that I worked for and I'm gonna head back to Canaan myself
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He just submits Okay, God I'm really trusting you now that this is part of your plan.
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I Don't know how you're gonna make this right, but I'm trusting you Christ's followers are transformed old things pass away all things become new for those who believe in him were fashioned into his image and and our life is filled with the blessings of Conforming to his holiness, but those blessings do not come easily.
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I love what the tremendous pastor tremendous writer J. R.
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Miller Old older gentleman 19th century, I believe he said People sometimes think that salvation imparts godly virtues fine qualities of Christian character lovely traits elements of spiritual beauty
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Without any cost or effort to the believer himself In other words Keswick theology.
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I'm just passive Yeah, I became a Christian and wait till you see all the beauty and growth and patience and grace.
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That's gonna fill my life You've been a Christian, you know God is going to patiently work that into your life and it's not gonna fall out of the sky an
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Impatient man doesn't wake up patient the next day a man with a hot head and a temper rarely just says, you know
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I'm done with all that now God can intervene in that way He can take things away praise that he prays him that he does that But for most of us and for most of our struggles
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God's going to patiently but consistently work it out of our lives How is he going to do that, especially?
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By sticking you in a haran and giving you a laban whatever that might look like It might be you know laban is your health something with your health.
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That might be your laban J. R.
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Miller says there's a cost there's an effort He says heavenly graces are not put into our life like someone hanging up a lovely picture on a wall
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They're wrought in our lives, you know worked By our own hands
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By our own hands We work out our salvation and he gives us example
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For example patience is not put into anyone's life like someone bringing in new furniture
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You cannot merely receive patience as a gift from God Patience is a lesson that you learned through long and watchful
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Self -discipline Christ is the teacher and you are the student and it's the student who is learning the lesson
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And not even Christ will learn it for you He won't spare you the effort and it can't be made easy for you
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It's going to cost you to grow patient and you're going to pay the price Now take that for any of the graces that God wants to work in our lives
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Bethel doesn't produce the patience of submission Bethel did not bring
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Jacob to this place where he could submit to this trial of God's presence in his life if This had happened if somehow he had been cheated the day after Bethel Everything would have reverted back to old
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Jacob It was the seven years of sanctifying grace through hardship in trial that brought
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Jacob to a place that he could submit He had learned how to be content in this trial and that's what
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Paul says, isn't it? I've learned Sat at the feet of the teacher. It was a costly lesson.
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It took a long time. I've learned how to be content I know how to be a based
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I know how to abound Everywhere and in all things I've learned both to be full to be hungry to abound to suffer need
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I Can do all things through Christ who strengthens me are you learning these lessons?
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Are you recognizing that? God has put you in Haran. God has given you labor.
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Are you looking for why he's given you this opposition? this difficulty this injustice even
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Are you letting him provide for you him go your way? Are you looking for his reward? Have you learned how to stop providing for yourself manipulating people or situations to give yourself ease?
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Have you put off what is Laban like and and put on God's grace? You have to learn it it's not gonna fall out of heaven for you
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We'll know that we're content or that we've learned or are learning contentment in the trials of sanctification when we're
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Slow to pronounce upon God's providence in our lives so often discontentment
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Is just us not wanting God's will for us We want
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God's will when it aligns with our will So easy to submit then isn't it?
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Discontentment in the Christians life is so often just simply this is not what I want. This is not my will I Don't want it submitting then
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Submission to God's will submission to his providence his providential outworking in your life Is how you will learn to be content how you'll mute when
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Laban is spouting off and you'll say God's going to bless me God's building into my life
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This is part of my conformity into his image This is how I'm going to be enabled more and more and more to die to sin die to myself die to my will live unto righteousness
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Contentment in other words requires embracing God's providence in your life by faith Jacob had to have real faith here
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Jacob's faith had to trust and embrace God's providence in chapter 29
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Faith is not then looking for the bright side of a situation. That's not gonna get Jacob very far Maybe it won't be so bad.
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You know, maybe we can work this what bright side is there? It's not
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Blind optimism. It's not well, this is gonna work out. You know, who really cares? I'm so depressed and passive.
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Anyways, I don't really care That's not faith. None of that's faith It's this active trust that God has allowed these things to be and I will submit to his will in my life
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And I will trust that he is sanctifying me and this well may be a trial But if it's a trial there will be a blessing and that's how we learn to be content in every situation
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Whether we're suffering or abounding Whether we're a based or honored And we learn how to have
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Thanksgiving. That's that's a mark of contentment in trial. You actually learn how to be thankful thankful for how much worse it could be
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Thankful for what it's not but even in time thankful for how God is using it You might have absolutely nothing to thank about the
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Laban But you can at least be thankful for how God is using that Laban part of learning how to be content part of understanding
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God's sanctifying grace in your life and so again contentment requires embracing
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God's providence by faith And we've sung it in the hymn by William Cooper and if you've ever
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Read the story the life of William Cooper, which is a very sad life You'd see that this is not some flippant
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Christian who's always at 99 % their batteries never load or never stumbling They're just this, you know, come on just trust the
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Lord that kind of Christian Cooper wasn't that way at all But even he could write you fearful
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Saints fresh courage take the clouds that ye so much dread Are big with mercy and will break in blessing on your head
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Don't judge the Lord by feeble sense dull eyes Trust him for his grace behind a frowning
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Providence He hides a smiling face Learning to be content in these sanctifying trials is recognizing just that there's these clouds that you dread the
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Haran That is misery the Laban that is unjust that is making your life so difficult
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But behind that Providence you see God smiling God saying this is the way that I'm building you up I know it seems like you're coming apart
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But this is actually my deep work in your life to bring you closer to me and make you more like me
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Behind a frowning Providence he hides a smiling face So the first application if you're going to find
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God's grace Operating in you through trial of sanctification. You need to learn to be content in trial.
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It's a progress. It's a process It's not just submitting initially to it.
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It's actually growing in contentment That's the real challenge and then the only way you'll be able to do that the second and last application is to seek strength from Christ Seek strength from Christ.
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How could you possibly submit to the trials of sanctification in your life apart from the strength of Christ?
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apart from the presence of Christ Framing everything as though it's for the sake of Christ as Paul did
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I Suffer all these things that I might know him more These are his affliction
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I'm filling up what was lacking in his body He frames everything with reference toward Christ.
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He's seeking Christ's strength FB Meyer said Christ will not merely give us his strength
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He will be in us the power of God unto salvation We don't need simply the strength of Christ like some dispensary, you know, give me strength today.
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Okay, here's some strength for you Like a vitamin we need Christ who gives us strength. It's so marvelous
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We don't just need strength from Christ Give me a little hit today to get through the day and you can say over there
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No, we need to be brought into union with the Christ who gives us strength and that's what we mean.
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Seek strength from Christ No Christ, no strength No Christ, no grace for today bright hope for tomorrow
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C .s. Lewis said God cannot give us peace and happiness apart from himself. It's it's not there
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There's no such thing And so it is with strength to walk through the trial
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To find God's grace and what he's building and what he's doing in her on and through Laban You must find his strength without Christ.
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Jesus tells his disciples we can do nothing Do nothing apart from the vine and so Christ strengthens us
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He strengthens us to persevere in the midst of the trials that he's guiding us through Apart from him each of us will go astray each of us will go our separate way
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Each of us will revert back to old patterns and ways But when we're seeking the strength that he provides when we're communing with his gracious presence
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We'll be restrained from doing those things. We'll be kept in line. We'll be given peace
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Surpassing our understanding of where we are and why we're here and how this could have possibly all come together
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He gives us faith We trust him eyes of faith see how he provides discern what he's doing
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See the the poetry of why you've come to this stage in your life this season for this time
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To address these issues these needs that you'd never otherwise see you'd never otherwise work on He gives you mercy as you confess so much of the sin that the
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Haran is showing you and That mercy begins to draw you closer and closer to him.
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You know more of yourself, but you also therefore know more of him You recognize he's kept you this whole way and if he's kept you here nothing.
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No one can pluck you from his hand This is the precious strength that he gives his people
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Jesus Jesus loves uniquely Loves to answer the prayers of his people when they sound something like I I can't do this.
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I Can't do this. How am I gonna do this? I Can't do it Jesus loves those prayers.
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He loves to answer those prayers. He loves to say you can't But I can and you can do all things
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Through me as I strengthen you and so you can boast in your weakness because in your weakness you'll find my strength
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So often my prayers are only led by what I'm capable of doing Part of learning contentment and submitting to God's sanctifying trials is learning how to pray for the things.
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You can't do you know You can't do it Lord revive my spirit within me strengthen me gird me up Train my hands for a war
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We're not battling against flesh and blood principalities and powers And that means that we have to endure the hardship in this fight
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And we're seeking the strength from Christ to help us endure that hardship That's what he says to Timothy my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus Next verse verse 3 you must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus So Son be strong in the grace that he provides be strong in Jesus so that you can endure hardship for Jesus He's not strengthening us up for nothing.
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I have absolutely no utility at all for strength training in my life If I was an athlete if I was an
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Olympian I would need to be strength training every day If there was a marathon to run if there was a battle to be fought, there's a reason that basic training
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Is so rigorous, right You need to be strengthened so that you can endure the hardship of the conflict.
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And so it is spiritually speaking in the Christian life And this is part of the strengthening grace of Christ and it becomes a witness
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Paul says in the same letter 2nd Timothy the Lord stood with me He strengthened me
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Paul could get to these places in 2nd Timothy. He recognizes I've been in trial
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There's been moments in my life where I've been stone shipwrecked for that almost lost my head
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And even when I had no one around me defending me speaking up for me Visiting for me when
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I was wasting away and starving in a Roman prison cell. I Wasn't alone the Lord stood with me the
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Lord strengthened me Ignatius of Antioch a church father about 150 years removed from Paul He was sent away by Emperor Trajan to be executed in the games and And as he was transported he wrote letters to some of the churches which we have and so from Antioch He sailed to Smyrna and on to Rome and he wrote letters to the church are meant to be submitted to the church
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He was conscious like Paul was conscious of the witness of his hardship The trial of his sanctification and how
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God would not only strengthen him but use his witness as a means of strengthening others
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And so he uniquely understood My role at the time because of church structure as a bishop really just an overseer and not an elder
01:00:28
But in the setup of the time sort of an elder of locale He recognized
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I need the strength of Christ to so strengthen me that in my strength I might not only bear witness to the
01:00:42
Gentiles, but I might be a means of strengthening the sheep the flock So strengthen me
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God that they will be strengthened to endure hardship like good soldiers in the conquest of your kingdom
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This is what he said to the church at Rome He had friends in powerful places in Rome.
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I fear your kindness. It may harm me In other words, I know you're gonna try to get me out of this and that's not necessarily what
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I want Now he wrote this is one of the letters he wrote to the church at Smyrna Now I begin to be a disciple
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Let fire and cross flocks of beasts broken bones loss of limbs Let them come upon me so long as I attain to Christ To be among the wild beasts is to be in the arms of God Only let it be in the name of Jesus.
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I Endure all things that I might suffer together with him since he who became perfect man
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Strengthens That I might suffer with him not just for him no
01:01:52
With him. Do you see the source of his his resolve?
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He's writing that Christ might strengthen him and he's writing out of a place of being strengthened by Christ And you get a sense and he says no.
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No don't vouch for me. Don't try to get me out of the situation He's been given in this trial of his sanctification a peace beyond all understanding
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He was not superhuman. He was not the best of us He did not have some unique Access to the strength of Christ that is barred from you and I here this morning
01:02:30
He simply was a disciple of Christ a believer who had the same Access by the same spirit to the stain the same strength in grace to endure the trial that God had brought before him
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And so whatever your Haran is whatever your Laban is whatever your trial is you have the same access?
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The same strength that Christ will bestow in your life as you seek him And this is how
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Paul could say my strength is made perfect in my weakness I Most gladly boast in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me
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Pleasure in my weakness in my reproach in my need in persecution or distress for his sake
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Because when I'm weak, I'm strong and it was said of Ignatius When they opened the iron gates and the animals began to charge out he he went toward them as if he wanted to hug them
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He was so conscious that he was on a stage in more ways than one It wasn't just a Roman stage for the spectators of the games
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He was on a stage before God and before the Saints on high And he wanted to show forth that Christ had strengthened him to the end
01:03:51
Brothers and sisters if you endure chastening God deals with you like son
01:03:58
What son is there whom a father doesn't chasten and if you're without chastening of which we have all become partakers
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Then you're illegitimate We've had human fathers who corrected us and we showed them respect
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Shall we not more readily be subject to the father of spirits and live?
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Indeed just for a few days. They chastened us. Do you notice that as a parent? I think that's the first one
01:04:26
I've ever noticed that for a few days. They chastened us. Mm -hmm that makes you look at correction a little differently doesn't it as Seemed best to them, of course, he meant in light of their whole lifespan just a few days as it seemed best to them
01:04:43
But our Father in heaven he does it for our profit So that we can partake of his holiness
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No chastening seems joyful for the present No Haran seems joyful for the present working under Laban working with a
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Laban whatever that Laban looks like that's not joyful in the present But afterward
01:05:05
Yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it
01:05:11
God is training Jacob He's training
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Jacob God is willing to train you as you submit to his providence in your life
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Learning to deny your will and submit to his will as you learn through that seven -year stretch or whatever it looks like to find contentment by faith embracing his providence and Day by day hour by hour as you need and more than you need seeking the strength that only he provides
01:05:49
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely And may your whole spirit soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our
01:05:58
Lord Jesus Christ He who calls you is faithful. He will do it father.
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We thank you for Your assurance Lord that you are with your people that you go before them that you keep them and provide for them protect them that you actively
01:06:23
Work in us a grace that enables us to die to sin and live to righteousness
01:06:30
Forgive us Lord when we plot and complain and grumble about the
01:06:36
Haran of a season we're in or a place we're in or circumstance we have forgive us when
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We buckle and run from the labans you've brought before us for your work.
01:06:47
Not so much for their work Help us to have eyes of faith that embrace your control and your guidance in our lives
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To seek you to build in us that which is like you that which is from you For our ambitions and our hopes in this life to to fade and give way
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To your ambition and your desire for our lives to be reflections of your perfect son whom you gave for us
01:07:13
Help us to seek your sanctifying power help us Lord to to trust you as you guide us not just in blessings that sanctify but more
01:07:24
More surely Lord trials that sanctify and I pray if there's a brother or sister or household here
01:07:31
Lord Who's who's in a Haran who's dealing with some difficult situation that you would give them that same faith to embrace it to look for the work you're doing in them by it and And to pray and seek you that that work might be furthered