Only A Few Days

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 29:1-20

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Well this morning as you can tell we're beginning chapter 29 Looking at verses 1 through 20
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We've left Jacob as it were a fugitive He's absconded from Beersheba from the house of his father
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He's on the run. We fought we found him as it were passing through the wilderness and Of course, the question of his murder is hanging over these chapters.
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We we go back to them It's an unanswered question whether Esau's plot will be successful.
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So he's on the run There's this this threat of murder hanging over these chapters as the air
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He's left behind everything that he had received through his father's blessing everything that was familiar to him everything that was comfortable to him, especially the mother that he had such a unique and close relationship to and And now he's obeyed his mother and his father and they're charged to travel to Haran to find a wife and that Really takes up the first 20 verses of our time this morning
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Last week we considered God's providence for all Intents and purposes we could say it was the beginning of God's awakening grace in Jacob's life in chapter 27
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He knew about God he could say to his father your God gave me success in the field
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But here in chapter 28 into chapter 29 Jacob has come to know God himself
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Now it's the God of Isaac who has revealed himself to Jacob. And so the twister the grasper
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Jacob who has been writhing for a blessing will begin to learn here and into the next several chapters how to be still and know that the
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Lord is God and What we see here,
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I think as an overview I'm going to use CH Macintosh as kind of a summary This isn't just for this morning, but really for the next month.
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I think this is very insightful Jacob now begins to realize in some measure the bitter fruit of his conduct
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While at the same time God is seen rising above all the weakness and folly of his servant displaying his own sovereign grace
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His profound wisdom in the way he deals with Jacob God graciously overrules our folly and weakness and Even though we're called upon to reap the fruits of our unbelieving ways and Jacob is reaping the fruit of his unbelieving way
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God takes occasion from these things to teach our hearts deeper lessons of his own grace and wisdom
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And so that's sort of the heading of where we are and where we'll go Sin has consequences error taking a wrong turn
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Leads to consequence and Jacob is now walking in the midst of that consequence But it is not wasted on God's purpose in Jacob's life
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In fact, this is at the very heart of God's purpose for Jacob's life and God will use
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Laban to change Jacob's life Jacob was compelled Macintosh rights to be an exile from his father's house in Consequence of his own deceitful acting
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But it's equally true that he could never have learned the meaning of Bethel God's house Unless he had left his own home.
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And so here we are Traveling from Bethel to Haran as we begin
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Genesis 29 we're gonna look at verses 1 through 20 in three parts and then Lord willing
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We'll have enough time for three points of application The three parts that flow out of verses 1 through 20 can be summarized
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Thus Jacob first seeks for Rachel Jacob seeks for Rachel secondly,
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Jacob stays for Rachel and Third and last Jacob serves for Rachel Beginning in verse 1
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Jacob seeking for Rachel Jacob went on his journey and came to the land of the people of the east
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I guess in our country We're the people of the east He looked and saw a well in the field and behold there were three flocks of sheep lying by it
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For out of that well, they watered the flocks a large stone was over the wells mouth Now all of the flocks would be gathered there and they would roll the stone from the wells mouth
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Water the sheep and put the stone back in its place on the wells mouth. Please note They moved the stone they put the stone back.
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This was a multi -man effort This was a large stone. We have an odd amount of description about the well set up here outside the border of Haran Well Jacob approaches verse 4 my brethren, where are you from?
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He's been traveling as we said this 500 mile trek. They said we're from Haran His heart must have jumped a little and he said to them.
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Do you know Laban the son of Nahor and they said we know him So he said to them is he well and they said he is well and look his daughter
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Rachel is coming with the sheep So let's take stock of what we've read first Jacob went on his journey
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Now we just read that as the flow of the narrative, but it's actually a unique phrase in Hebrew It's literally
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Jacob lifted his feet and it's not used very often Just sent
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Jacob went on from there that would be a normal way of talking but here Jacob lifted his feet and it seems like The impact of this vision of God at Bethel and his resultant worship has given a little jump a little spring in Jacob's steps
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So now he's going with a very different attitude with a very different desire Than when he had left
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Beersheba to get to Bethel and now leaving Bethel to come to Haran We see a new motivation in Jacob's life.
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And this is a result of encountering God now There's a lot of work as we've said that God's grace needs to perform in the life of Jacob But you can already see something of the response of Jacob's life to God's grace.
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He's lifting his feet now He has momentum purpose He has assurance that God is with him and for him.
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And so when he encounters these shepherds of Haran, he already Realizes I've come close to my destination
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Yes Do you know Laban and they do and he asked this would have been a customary
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Almost a statement of respect or showing how polite you were Is he is he well and here we have sort of a narrative setup and literally in Hebrew is
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Peace with him is Shalom with him and that's an idiom is he well But it's also setting up the fact that there's not going to be peace
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Between Jacob and Laban as we turn through the next few chapters. So yes, there's peace right now
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Yes, he is. Well, but you won't be well with him for long. You'll be introducing conflict into the household of Laban And this whole encounter in terms of God's Providence is parallel to Genesis 24 when the servant went to go fetch
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Rebecca from Haran to bring her back And so this is our second time meeting this character that will get to know very well
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The sort of sleazy used car salesman of a guy named Laban No, no besmirching of used car salesman.
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I don't know if that's anyone's profession here. Just you know, it's common stock in The Providence of God he makes it all the way to the borders of Haran and these shepherds
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No, this man named Laban and if that wasn't enough Providence, you'd say well MapQuest could get you there
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God turns it up a notch Not only do they know him behold look and we're brought into the narrative here comes his daughter
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Rachel now Remember that whole mission that called you out of Beersheba by the charge of your father
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Well, actually here comes the very woman you you should marry even right now We read of Rachel that she was a shepherdess.
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We've been talking about CR Wiley, right guys family economy Here you go. She's a shepherdess
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Young ladies probably not the way you'd want to meet your future husband out in the fields covered in manure
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You know, you'd want to hopefully meet at some great theological conference and you'd be all perfumed and looking well and feeling confident
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But didn't matter to him dung and all he fell head over heels for Rachel and this is just another signal of God's Providence and The question really as we begin this is have we been tracking with God's Providence in the lives of his people up to this point in Genesis It's a major theme in Genesis and that will carry us all the way to the very end when
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Joseph Uniquely reflects on the Providence of God in his life
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So with every patriarch were meant to pause and reflect about the sovereign God else Should I who controls the ways coming in and the ways going out of his people?
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And that's a very important lesson for us to learn there's there's people here that are wondering how am
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I a believer and a rather unique believer at that in this place in our country at this time ever going to find a spouse that Has my convictions my vision will share my hopes and dreams will want to follow as as Imperfectly as we may but but honestly and genuinely
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God's will and roles for our lives How am I gonna find someone this is the prospects are minimal at best
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And I'd say take a look at the patriarchs. Take a look at the matriarchs Take a look at these households see the
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Providence of God, which is perfect Do you believe that God is ordering your steps in the same way? It's easy for us to read it and go
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Yeah, yeah, of course, we know we almost want to rebuke Jacob or Isaac Abraham. How could you not see that?
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Why would you go down to Egypt? Don't you know that God is perfect in his Providence? Why are you making these foolish decisions? And of course we need to hold the mirror of God's Word up to our lives.
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Do we recognize God's Providence? How does that keep us back from making foolish decisions or walking in unwise?
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spiritually unhealthy ways Do we recognize that God is ordering our steps even when all that's ahead of us is wilderness and when we feel most alone
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God may be most present to us if we see him with eyes of faith We pick up in verse 7 moving the narrative forward he's still talking to these shepherds
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Rachel hasn't quite arrived Look, it's high day It's not time for the cattle to be gathered together
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Water the sheep and go and feed them These are commands and in Hebrew most likely they would have been seen as sort of a request or friendly advice
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It would seem rather weird that this stranger comes out of nowhere and starts ordering these shepherds around but it's good advice
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It's not high day yet water the sheep go and feed them And they said no no, no, we can't until all the flocks are gathered together and they've rolled the stone from the wells mouth
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We're back to the stone Then we water the sheep And while he was still speaking with them
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Rachel came with her father's sheep For she was a shepherdess and it came to pass when Jacob saw
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Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the wells mouth and Watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother
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So there's this large stone covering the mouth of the well in the ancient world Wells or cisterns were commonly built in this way would have been a large opening
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There probably would have been some large Covering a large stone with a center hole and then an additional stone that would cover up that hole
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And this is the rock that's being referred to that needs to be rolled or dragged away So that you can have access to that cistern or that well
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And of course we've already read that it was common for them plural these men to gather around and and all together on the count of three heave this big stone away and So the whole episode of this event of moving the rock from the well is recorded in detail here in Part to show us just how strong Jacob is
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This is a too much detail to pass over And so we're meant to see something of the strength of Jacob and this is also setting us up for chapter 32
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He's a strong man even able to wrestle through the night with the angel of the Lord And so this is sort of the
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Highland games on steroids here at the well You know, I could picture Jacob in a kilt dragging this big stone
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Well, you know Scotland the Brave blares through the pipes through the valley He's Preparing for this divine wrestling match.
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He doesn't even know it And so I think there's a lesson here as well that God often puts things in front of us that are preparations for What's coming our way?
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We don't even know Trials that test us strengthen us prepare us relationships
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Circumstances at the time maybe we're capable like Jacob seems to be capable Well, that's just the setup for what
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God's going to do in a few chapters and it's the same for the Christians life everything we've seen here is sort of Sprouts of what
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God has done is doing or will be doing in Jacob's life We see that with this repeated phrase his mother's brother his mother's brother his mother's brother
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That's echoing the command. You will go to the house of your mother's brother your uncle
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Laban It's it's showing that this obedience is part of the new step in Jacob's walk
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And in the providence of God verse 11 he finds Rachel she's finally made it to see this he -man drag away the stone all by himself and When Jacob finds her we read
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Jacob kissed Rachel Lifted up his voice and wept a lot.
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Now. I don't know if that's romantic or Bizarre, it may be a mix of both You think of it from Rachel's perspective.
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This is just another day in the fields. She's trudging along There's always the sheep that are getting into trouble running up into the bramble.
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She's dragging him away She's covered in mud and things worse than mud and she comes along to the well And here's this stranger and all of a sudden he finds out her name is
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Rachel She doesn't realize she's been pointed to by the other shepherds and all sudden this guy out of nowhere kisses her and and then he starts
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Crying out loud. So she's probably thinking like where is my pepper spray? I got to get out of here.
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Who is this lunatic? But of course this kiss is not Not a romantic kiss.
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It's a customary kiss It's the same kiss that in a few verses he'll give to Laban and he doesn't start crying out loud when he kisses
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Laban So what what's this cry then if you've ever?
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struggled for a long period of time Wrestling out your your faith with God When you get to this certain point in your life, if you've come to this point in your life where it's a real watershed moment
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You know, it's a fork in the road and it's going to make or break you and it's it's a terrifying reality
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It's a terrifying prospect to walk by faith and not by sight to turn away from the wide path that seems to have all of the stability and security you're looking for and crawl through this this bendy thorny crooked way and yet Faith compels you to go in that difficult narrow way that so few are finding and perhaps the payoffs not there perhaps there's a huge laydown and you're still walking by faith and you're waiting waiting to know if if your faith will be found sure
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If your faith will be rewarded If this really was worth the sacrifices in the effort of your life, and I think that's what
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Jacob is realizing in this very moment This is a more powerful moment for him. Interestingly than even the vision of God at Bethel We don't read of him raising his voice aloud and weeping.
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Remember we saw him negotiating with God Well, if you know if you really want to be my God make sure I get this this this and this and I'll let you
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Be my God He was still twisting Still manipulating still had a sense of control
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But but he had this new step now and this grace was sprouting and by the time he makes it the rest of that 500 mile journey he's so cognizant of God's grace and providence and control and when he has it confirmed here, it's just of Course he's going to weep aloud he realizes
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This this really is the God of my father. This really is my God. He really is protecting and providing
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He really does have a purpose for my life. He really is going to fulfill his promise That those weren't just empty words.
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That wasn't just a weird dream And so he weeps aloud And I love what
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Lewis Johnson says anyone who's ever experienced the province of God can understand why Jacob weeps I Hope you've had moments like that in your
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Christian life And if you haven't you will Where you just see God's graciousness to you and the way his providence unfolds and it just brings tears to your eyes
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Just say it's sometimes so hard to see it Lord and then moments like this come
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Genesis 29 11 comes Lord, and I just see your perfect control and It just takes my breath away
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Well, we're also introduced to to Laban Laban of course is introduced to Jacob Rachel rushes off.
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She's all excited to introduce Laban To this man who came out of the blue kissed her and started crying into the air.
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Of course she realizes that they're cousins and This is our second time meeting Laban Laban the first time seems very impressed by Abraham's jewelry
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She's like, oh, you know perhaps more and more just stay a little bit longer stay a little bit longer Let's go kind of rifle under the the camels there.
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Let's see what we can dig out But here perhaps it's it's Jacob's prowess his strength
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That Laban realizes I could use that too. He may not have gold like his grandfather did but Boy, he can move that rock by himself, you know
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He'd be great around the farm and that seems to be where Laban goes
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And so we read beginning in verse 12 Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative and that he was
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Rebecca's son So she ran and told her father and it came to pass when Laban heard the report about Jacob his sister's son that he ran
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To meet him embraced him kissed him brought him to his house So he told Laban all of these things and Laban said to him surely you are my bone and my flesh echoes of Adam Extolling his wife and he stayed with him for a month and we're gonna have to start paying attention to these time cues
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So here we have this time cue for a month And then after this month Laban said to Jacob because you're my relative should you therefore serve me for nothing?
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Tell me What should your wages be? So here's Laban and he responds like Adam to Eve you really are my flesh and my blood and like Eve you're gonna become my help
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You're gonna help me and all that I'm trying to do around my household and so name your price He refers to Jacob as his flesh in his bone, but he doesn't really treat him that way as we'll come to see
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He treats him like an enemy in many respects as the chapters roll on But of course, this is also signaling the fact that God had guided
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Jacob to the completion of his parents charge He's now at the household of Laban and he has the prospect of marrying
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Rachel so as we'll see in the coming weeks as I mentioned Laban is going to change
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Jacob's life forever and God loves to use Laban's in the lives of his people
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Most Christians that I've gotten to know if they've been Christians for any length of time They've had something that could be named or labeled a
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Laban And so we'll spend some time considering that in the weeks to come Up until this point
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Jacob has been living by his own wits his own sense of control his ability to manipulate any situation to come out ahead or to gain the advantage and The Lord now is going to teach him how to be patient and to wait on the
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Lord to perform all that he has promised It's not going to be through twisting and self -reliance. It's going to be on the
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Lord's timing and This is the beginning therefore of hard lessons in Jacob's life We might have thought he already had some pretty hard things to endure but it's going to get a lot harder for him and This is instructive for us
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It's in these very regions not only here at Haran But as he continues to travel and even makes his way back to Bethel and Beersheba It's these very places that the
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Israelites are also Troubled and tested by the Lord and they repeat in many ways their father
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Israel Jacob's Legacy and of course as believers we're meant to understand the way that God uses his providence to bring about the trials that shape us into Christlike people and There's this echo of God's voice in the background of all of this
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Remember Jacob. I'm with you. I will keep you wherever you go And that has to be resonating throughout
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Jacob's mind as he patiently endures Injustice deceit as as he gets treated the way that he had treated others a sort of anti -golden rule experience
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And in the back of all of that adversity opposition hostility Injustice he has to hear the whispers of that divine promise.
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I'm with you Jacob You can trust in me. I'm a refuge for you. And so it is with God's people
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We need to hear Resonating in our lives in these difficult times in these difficult trials God's promise lo.
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I'm with you always he's our refuge our shield and This also would propel
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Jacob not only to endure but to work rather hard And I think we actually get a little piece of this as we head to the last four verses beginning in verse 16
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Jacob serves for Rachel so He seeks and he finds he stays for a month and now we're heading towards said the first seven -year period and he's going to serve
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For Rachel verse 16 Laban had two daughters The name of the elder was Leah and the name of the younger was
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Rachel Leah's eyes were delicate We'll talk about that. But Rachel was beautiful of form and appearance now
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Jacob loved Rachel and So he said I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter
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And Laban said it's better that I give her to you then I should give her to another man. Stay with me So first we're introduced to Leah and this will be significant as we head in the chapters to follow and of course, we want to understand what it means that Leah's eyes were delicate a
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Gloss could be Leah's eyes were weak dull even Some I've just assumed this is a sort of Hebrew idiom for she didn't have a
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Impressive appearance. She was rather dull on the eyes rather, you know weak to the eyes and delicates a nice way of saying that It's not a whole lot of evidence that that was an idiom.
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We at least don't have it anywhere else Some would just say well She doesn't have the sparkle in her eyes and to a ancient
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Middle Easterner the eyes were you know, these These what is the Song of Solomon say fish pools of Heshbon?
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Apparently that's a compliment to a woman back then Your eyes are like fish pools of Heshbon to me.
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Oh, you're so romantic So she has these dull weak eyes
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Not very not very impressive. Not very attractive. Unlike her sister who's got these sparkling big anime like eyes, right?
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Well, that doesn't really make sense either. There's clearly an idiom here what the idiom means is hard to say
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We're probably closest to say She wasn't impressive or attractive whether physically or maybe even just in terms of her her character her manner that her sister was sort of fiery and And her appearance had a sort of command and she of course is emphasized being very physically beautiful But the contrast is perhaps her character.
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She's very delicate, you know Insulated that might be closer I'm trying to help out our good friend
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Leah here not just a jump and assume after 2 ,000 years of Interpretation that she's the ugly sister the proverbial ugly sister.
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Let's give her a break And this is actually important theologically We're gonna see the way that God actually
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Causes that gorgeous sister to experience barrenness and makes the sister that wasn't even originally sought delighted in she becomes beautiful in Jacob's eyes as she bears children for her husband and so As we're working through the
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Genesis narrative, we need to pay close attention not only to the primary characters The patriarchs this is a patriarchal hair heritage a patriarchal narrative not only were you paying attention to that?
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but we're looking at how much God is concerned about the Hagar's and the Rebecca's and these very prominent women within the accounts and Leia and Rachel are going to be good examples of that so Jacob negotiates
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I Love Rachel. He has clearly no interest in Leia. I love Rachel and I'll serve you seven years for your younger daughter
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Hughes points out our Kendall Hughes he says we have text types from this period
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Newsy tech types of typical bride prices and Apparently if this is a parallel a typical bride price would be
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About four years worth of the average shepherds labor. He's gonna be working as a shepherd, right?
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He's gonna be managing the cattle in the flock. So you figure if he was saying I'll work seven years
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He's almost saying I'm gonna give you practically double the dowry. I'm gonna go almost double
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I'm going well beyond what a standard bride price would be and that shows not only his heart
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For Rachel as we'll see but it also shows a very different character for Jacob What happened to the twister and the deceiver who manipulates everything to gain an advantage?
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What's the easiest way to get the most and cost the least now notice he's doubling up He's actually starting out the negotiation in the worst way possible
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It's like going to the yard sale and it's like, you know I'll give you a hundred bucks for that and the guys like sold sold, you know
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It's like why did you just start out so high you could have whittled this all the way down to maybe two years tops
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So we see a character shift in Jacob He wants to work hard now. He's assured that God is with him and for him
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He knows that if he works to serve the Lord the Lord will prosper him And so he has no problem saying what's fair and I'm even to go beyond that that is an evidence of grace in Jacob's life
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Verse 20 last verse of our passage and we'll move to application Jacob served seven years for Rachel and They seemed like only a few days to him because of the love he had for her
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It's a it's a beautiful state who said the Bible isn't romantic it seemed like a few days to him
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And it seemed like a few days to him because he was working for love he had this love for Rachel that consumed him and It called him to rise early and it brought him home late from the fields
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He worked hard and he worked long days, but they might as well have been minutes He had such a burning love for Rachel if you've ever been in love, you know something
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What Jacob felt time flies? When you're with the object of your love but I think spiritually there's something very important here for us to understand and That the three applications are related to this idea of how our love affects our work
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And so the three points are simply this first working from love Second working for love and third working through love so working from love
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For love through love. Those are the points. The first is working from love
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As Christians, of course, we don't we don't just pursue a love yet to be realized
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That's kind of the second point, but we actually begin working because of a love we've already received
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We we don't just work for a love yet to be realized. We work from a love
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We've already received and this is a very important theological point This is the starting point
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That Christians begin to operate the Christian life as a response to the love of God poured out upon them this is the starting point and if we fail here will fare almost everywhere else a
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Failure to understand the love of God that is brought through Christ into our lives goes a long way in Explaining so many of our own faults and failures as Christians it's simply a
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Misunderstanding a marginalization a selfish misconstrual of the way that God has loved or Perhaps there's some disconnect where we we think somehow that we're loved of God and we love
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God But we never make it out of that first tablet into the second tablet And so we think we can have love of God and yet it never translates into it into a love of neighbor and all of these
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Failures again flow out of not working from love having a proper understanding of God's love
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J. Packer says in the classic knowing God there is a tremendous relief in knowing God's love to me is
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Utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst things about me no discovery can disillusion
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God about me and the way I am so often disillusioned about myself and None of that can quench his determination to bless me
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This is exactly what Jacob is experiencing God knows everything that I am and everything that I've done and he's come and poured out blessing on my life and as a response to that kind of love
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Jacob learns how to Love a guy like Laban and work really hard and give give a double effort as it were seven years instead of three or four
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We think of the Apostle Paul and how he is Perhaps the best New Testament example of someone working from love received by God through Christ He delights in the truth.
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He wants Christians to delight in the truth He always sets the sort of horizon of theology before he ever calls them to put away or put on or act or move
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He always says consider how God shows you before the foundation of the world He chose you so that you would be holy and blameless in him
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Now this is the her before we get to the things you need to do Ephesians just take a step back and look at the love of God He roots the intentions and the actions of God the
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Father toward us He says God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us
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Ephesians 2 4 Have this horizon God's great love this love that you've received
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Before you ever get to the and therefore go therefore do therefore put off Paul prays supremely for the
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Saints to know the love of Christ that passes all knowledge It's an electing love to directing love a providential love in assuring love
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It embraces those who are unholy Those who are wayward rogue it's a love that is demonstrated for all of us upon the cross
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He makes us accepted in the beloved We'd even want to be he makes us accepted in the beloved makes us willing in the day of his power
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He seats us in the heavenly places Spiritually we're with the hosts on high as it were dwelling in this relationship of perfect love between God and his people and Then Paul asked the question as he does not just in Romans 8
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But everywhere who can plumb the depths of this love who can understand it who can fathom it who can sound it out
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This is a love that crosses the the great gulf of sin. It's an unsearchable love
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For me perhaps you're like this, especially coming into sort of reformed theology If you meet someone off the street and maybe they're
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Christian most, you know, most likely they're not they just say oh, you know I just believe that God is love, you know, or just like, you know,
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I love just thinking about the love of God You kind of just you're like, oh, okay, you know, there's more, you know, there's a lot more than that You know, you kind of roll your eyes
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It just doesn't seem they take something that is profound and it just seems to be so fickle and cheap and it loses all of its substance and value
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You meet someone who becomes a Christian and their life is still sort of a train wreck they're at the Genesis 28 part of their
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Christian life and They're just like I've just been all I can think about is God's love God's love God's love
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God's love and you're like, hey That's awesome, you know, but you know Laban's are coming, you know things are gonna get tough and there's gonna be a lot more that God's gonna show you
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He's he's he's got a lot more attributes than just love So as much as I can struggle against that I've realized over the years how much
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I gravitate toward theologians or ministers that have labored for decades and they've been diligent students of the word and they've had many different seasons and experiences that have brought them into deeper encounters of God and and have
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Insight into his word as it's shed abroad in their lives and and when those people can say to me
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You know, I've just been Reflecting on the love of God. That's like yeah, this is not some entry -level foothill.
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This is sort of the summit We should be we should be very slow and careful as we approach it lest we dare cheapen it
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Make it something fickle and and easy as just for For a reason
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I was thinking of this book just yesterday called the difficult doctrine of the love of God It's a difficult doctrine, it's not easy
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It's unsearchable. It's incomprehensible if we're understanding it rightly a Verse that people would have on their refrigerators and maybe not ever think twice about God is love and That is perhaps one of the most incredibly mysterious significant verses in all of Scripture So when we say, you know, we work from love that can't be this fickle cheap
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Trinket of theology it has to be something so vast so weighty
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We're almost intimidated to even approach it but once we're in it there's where can you go it's an ocean without borders without limits
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To be gripped by the love of God in Christ is is Paul's whole foundation for all that he does
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Everything that Paul was called to do has at its root at its core this Love of God in Christ and he prays that Christians would know it.
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They would experience it They would abandon it. They would practice it He presses forward and in love to know more and more of that love.
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He works from love And when we work from that love as we said that the test is that that that love
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That draws us close through that first tablet toward the God who is not to be worshipped as his creation
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Not to be worshipped with the idols whose name is not to be taken in vain. This God is then brought into The neighbor so our love for God is now reflected.
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It's manifest Unto our neighbor and that's how we can know that we've actually pressed into the love of God in Christ for us
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Do we lack love do we possess something of it? I think
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I've shared this before some years ago. I whenever I hear it. It's It's it's part of a
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CD that I have and it's just a diary entry from Robert Murray McShane the great Scottish minister I I mean,
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I just cry like a baby every time I hear it And it's just a diary entry as he's walking around the slums of Edinburgh And he says accompanied by a
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B in one of his rounds through some of the most miserable habitations I ever beheld Such scenes.
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I never dreamed of before. Oh Why am I such a stranger to the poor in my native town?
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I've passed their doors thousands of times I have admired the huge black piles of buildings with their lofty chimneys breaking the sun's rays
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Why have I never ventured within? And then he asked this sort of soul -piercing question to himself
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How dwelleth the love of God in me? No, man careth for our souls is written over every forehead.
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Awake my soul Why should I give hours and days any longer to a vain world when there's such misery at my very door
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Lord? Put thine own strength in me forgive my past long life of uselessness and Folly he was 29 when he died
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And Yet his pursuit of the love of God for him in Christ flooded his his life with such love for his neighbor that he could look at his young life and say it's been a foolish or Largely wasted life because I've lacked love
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How dwelleth the love of God in me is a question every Christian needs to ask themselves
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Can I say that I've understood who God is and what he's done if I lack love
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Or is love the one? Unmistakable proof that we've encountered
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God through Christ God has loved us Christ has died for us the
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Holy Spirit indwells us the God who is love Indwells our lives how dwelleth the love of God therefore in us
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It would be impossible for us to have great love for Christ if that does not correspond to a greater love for our neighbor
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So, how can we do any of this unless we're working from love The answer is not the worldly strategy the worldly wisdom of let's just buck up grab a pail
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You know join the effort donate the $25 through PayPal and just you know Join the effort here of helping our fellow man, which is usually an exercise in feeling better about themselves.
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They assuage their own guilt Convince themselves. They're a good person because they're they're starting not from a place of love
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They're received but trying to muster up some love to give and it's often self -love That doesn't mean the works not honorable or noble In many ways
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Christians have something to learn about that, but ideally Christians work from the love they've received
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We're not able to truly love God and from our love of God love our fellow man
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Unless we begin at the love we've received in Christ when we're actually
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Meditating and reflecting upon how God has loved us and in the Specificities of the ways that he has loved us
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We're not taking the time to do that step outside of ourselves and get a big picture of his
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Providence and his patience his long -suffering mercy toward you you will not be brought into a reflection of the love of God that you will be able to reflect toward others and If there's anything that is unbecoming of a
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Christian it is a lack of love And we live frankly in in cultural currents right now where there's a lot of Christians who ought to know better They ought to know better It's too easy in our reformed pugilistic world where everyone wants to make a name for themselves
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Everyone has a chip on their shoulder to show the most on Christ like lack of love And it cannot be so among us
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So we work from love And that that might irritate you that might be some friction
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I've been there I've been a cage stage Calvinist I get it Work from love, you know, we need fire.
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We need beards. We need Warfield. I Get it, but I'm telling you you're just at the foothold.
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You're just at the foothills of it. You're at the puddles You haven't even begun to understand just how lofty just how high
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God's love is the difficult doctrine of God's love So we work from love second point
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We work for love here. We're getting a little bit closer to Jacob, right? This is Jacob working for love and because he's working for love that love is making his work seem light
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It's seven years, but it seems like days. He's happy to do it More shovels and more hay to haul, you know more animals to feed.
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He's got a smile. He's humming You know as it be do you do that? This is not Jacob singing the you know, the Negro spirituals back, you know in the days of the slave trade
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You know, this is not him suffering He's actually delighted to work That's the difference that working for love makes
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The fact that we have received God's love is not just something we have in the past.
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It's also a future prospect We we've received God's love in Christ. That's certainly true We work from that but there's another sense in which it's not yet fully realized.
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So we're working for it Also, we're working for it to be fully manifest on that great day
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We love him and and want to hear him say well done good and faithful servant
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You worked longer than seven years and you worked for your love. And if you worked for your love, it will seem like days
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You'll be like Paul and Philippians 1 saying I don't even know if I'm ready to depart Isn't there more
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I can do for you Lord, I love you so much. It's far better to be with you It's far better to be with you
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I want to be with you, but I know there's work to do And so I I don't know what to do I'm torn I Want to be with him, but I love him so much.
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I want to fulfill the work. He's called me to hear That that made Paul's ministry the shipwrecks the floggings the beatings the gossip the slander
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The church is that he planted then rejecting him that that made all of that labor
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Seem like a gift even unworthy to reference You don't get a victim mentality in Paul, do you?
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These things are not even counted to be worthy the closest you get to it was but a few days is
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Paul saying You know these these these temporary tribulation
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These sort of passing lenses in light of eternity. It's just it's a blip Paul doesn't say
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If I have a little more time I can do better. I really want to earn my way, you know So much I need to do
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I'm really worried am I gonna have to shave off some time in purgatory. Is that a thing? No, what does he say for me to live as Christ?
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To die is gain If I live on the flesh, it means fruit from my labor what
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I should choose. I cannot say I'm hard -pressed between the two My desire is to depart be with Christ Paul is not earning anything.
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It's the farthest thing from his mind. It's it's working from love for the sake of love
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Paul will willingly 1st Corinthians 9 denies himself what the other Apostles take as privileges
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Do I not have a right he says can I not marry like Peter? Can't you you support me while I'm here instead of me having to raise my own support
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Do I not have these rights as an Apostle, but I gladly deny them You see
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I've been called as an Apostle and God's given me all these gifts and on top of these gifts and blessings He's given me rights.
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He's given me not just privileges but rights. This is a right But because everything in my life has been given to me
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Paul says everything My ministry when I went from being the the chief persecutor of the
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Christians to how the chief Apostle in some ways When I went from being the public enemy number one of the church and I consented when they were being executed and I dragged families apart and I dragged men and women mothers and fathers into prisms and Then he he conquered me with the irresistible grace and he made me his and he loved me and he gave himself for me and Everything I have every gift every insight every opportunity every providentially directed
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Step of my path is from him and I have nothing that I can give him to show my love for him
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And so the most I can do is take something that's rightfully mine and deny it. I Want to have something
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I can give So I don't take up my rights I lay them down. What are the other
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Apostles are do? Well, that will be a token of my love. I Won't do what they do
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Lest what I offer to Christ be held against me. He says This is all not just the love that Paul has received, but he's working for love
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It's this response to God's grace, but he he longs to serve Christ So there's this love for Christ that drives
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Paul. He's working for love. I Love what Rutherford says and if you ever need some help reflecting on the love of Christ you should read his
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Letters that have been collected into a devotional called the loveliness of Christ by Samuel Rutherford and he says
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He's sort of comparing our experience in heaven with the bride's delight on her wedding day
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What delights her the most? It's not the service not the guests not the reception
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Not the flowers of the dress. It's her bridegroom's face her dear bridegroom's face
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The bride he says takes not by a thousand degrees so much delight in her wedding garment as she does in her bridegroom so we in this life to come shall not be so much accepted with the glory that goes about us as With our bridegroom's joyful face and presence
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C .s. Lewis talks about people who have a desire to go to heaven and it would be It would be the worst thing for them because heaven is
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Christ's unmitigated And they have no desire for Christ. They just have a desire for some pleasant afterlife
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If you don't love Christ if you're not wanting to work for the love of Christ As I think
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Rutherford says heaven would be a hell to you And Heaven would be a hell to you and this
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I pray Paul says that your love may abound more and more in more knowledge in more discernment
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More more more love Paul is saying be filled with the fruits of righteousness which come by Christ Love will never abound in the
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Christians life If if they're dwelling or communing or or walking apart from Christ if our love is not growing in correspondence with Christ What we've received from him who he is
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Usually the first step right is just what he's done. Oh, I know I'm forgiven I'm amazed that he's forgiven me
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But then as you mature in the Christian life You're not so delighted by what's taken place for you as much as you're delighted in just who he is
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And I can usually tell the difference between Christians who are just starting their journey and those who have been there for a long time
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The ones that are just starting Talk a lot about their lives and their past and what God's helping them with and where they're still struggling and all that he's done
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I'm so thankful for the cross and amen. Amen Those that are matured or just they just want to sit around and talk about Christ Been meditating on him, you know his patience his beauty his glory
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It's a mark of maturity in a Christian but our love for Christ enhances everything else in our lives
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It enhances all of our relationships. It enhances our efforts We want to work because we love him
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We want to work hard at what he prioritizes because he prioritizes it We want to give like Paul some token of our love to him.
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Even when we're just denying a right or a privilege And this I pray that your love may abound more and more
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So you take that hard work of sanctification? You take those thorns of a trial you take the weariness of your marathon the fatigue of your battle against sin you take all of that and you compare it to the love of Christ and Like Paul you'll say it's not even worthy to be compared.
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It's not even worth mentioning. I won't even bring it up And in this way the love of God constrains us you say
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I'm poor But you're serving Christ and you're working for love I'm weak
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But you're serving Christ and you're working for love I'm discouraged I'm depressed But you're still serving
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Christ and you can work for his love I'm backslidden
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But you can return and you can serve Christ and you can work for his love
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When you ask those questions, how can I carry on this way? You hear echoing just like Jacob heard the promise echo.
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Maybe this time. It's Paul's words Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ You abound in that love you feel it you dwell on it.
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You you make it your mindset. You turn it over in your mind Throughout the day you make it your prayer.
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I Want to eat like Tony said of the word. I want to eat Lord not just of some little insight
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Yes, I don't have a little nugget to take away some in those anyone else notice this. I Don't want to read the
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Bible primarily as a fact book. I don't want to read it as some moral map to have a successful life
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This is not a life coaching manual. I Want to read it as one who's reading a love letter a divine love letter
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The lover of my soul I was I was talking with Caleb just yesterday morning about this It's kind of talk about someone who's meditating on the person of Jesus Well, you've heard my appreciation for retired pastor
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David Green One of the last series he ever preached through at his church up in the North Shore a small small church was on the song of songs and He one point just brought up.
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This was just in a casual conversation. He we went we went out for coffee one day and he said
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You know, I've been thinking about the the order of the books in the Old Testament No song that song of songs.
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It's very difficult to understand everything that's going on there. It's it's sort of erotic poetry And then there's a theological depth to that and it's part of our inspired words
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There's a lot of no wonder it's the last thing he preached to his church It's like, you know, I'd take revelation over some of the songs maybe but He said
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I've been thinking about the ordering of these Old Testament books, you know We we have a certain order that's come down to us
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But it's not the way that you know, the Hebrews would have had the order of those same books You hear
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Jesus or the Apostles reference the law or the law prophets in the writings And that was kind of how they had their
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Canon ordered you had the law if they didn't mean the whole Hebrew Bible by that the law as sometimes it's used and they meant the first five books the
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Pentateuch and then you had the prophets and that meant all of the prophets major and minor and Then also you had the writings and these would be the wisdom writings.
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So your Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the last book in that Law prophets and writings order would be song of songs
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When you realize that the average Israelite for 400 years between the last prophetic ministry in The time of silence and all of this birthing expectation for a
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Messiah to come and deliver the people according to the prophets promises You realize they're carrying their
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Bibles. The last word they were reading was this love letter It was this poem between a husband -to -be and his wife the the betrothed and they're speaking to each other and Then you end that long
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Centuries of silence awaiting the Messiah you end with take great leaps across the mountain my beloved how much longer when will you come?
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When will you come and so they're reading as the last word in their Bible the great the great love of This bridegroom for his bride and Hopefully there were
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Israelites by faith understanding that bridegroom is our Messiah. When will he come? When will you come?
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We're a heart sick for love. We're gonna die if you don't come And then you read Matthew and Mark and Luke and John and he's come
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The bridegroom has come. I hope you don't ever Fish for a verse of the day as sort of a vitamin
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When you read the scriptures you're reading it devotionally as a letter to you from the lover of your soul
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To equip you to understand more of who he is and what he's done so that your love might abound
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More and more and knowledge and discernment. This is what Paul desires And so you don't just work from love you work for love and when you're thinking in these ways and living in these ways
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However, the work is that God calls you to it will seem like a few days and like Paul you'll say
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I don't know I Want to depart but I want to finish the work. He's called me to Last point and we'll be brief
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Not just working from love or working for love but working through love So if working from love is all that's behind us as Christians and working for love is all that's beyond us as Christians Then working through love is our present our present.
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We're called as Christians to work through love and Perhaps the two central words if we were to reduce
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Christianity down to two words. I Don't know what two words you'd write I Think I could make a good argument that the two central words for the
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Christians life Ought to be faith and love faith and love
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Faith and love together Determine the truth of one's Christianity not faith apart from love and not love apart from faith
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But faith and love working together Faith as we have it faith working through love
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There's a lot of people That can too easily read past James, which is more of a prophetic denouncement than a letter
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I mean he says it's just so easy to say you have faith. It's just so easy
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But it doesn't count it's faith working through love it's faith working through love
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We need to have God's love as our beginning and our end We need to work from God's love as the past as what we've received for God's love as what's ahead of us
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But if we have those things in place, we will be working our faith out through love And so my thesis is if we're not presently working our faith out through love
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Coming to a deeper more knowledgeable more discerning understanding of what that is and what that looks like Then we're either not working from or working for love
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Because when those things are in place, you will be working your faith through love If we don't have it behind us and we don't have it beyond us we will not have it along the way and we're tragically self -deceived
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Unbelief is seated in the heart Jesus I mean this is everywhere in Scripture, right?
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We want to attribute unbelief to the head to the intellect To the reason of fallen man.
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We look at someone like Dawkins And we want to say it's it's the intellect that's the problem.
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No, it's the heart It's the heart. That's the issue It's always the issue from the heart flow all the issues of life
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Your affections therefore show your faith your affection. Your love will show your your faith
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Do you believe in Jesus? Of course Even demons believe in Jesus Does your faith work through love?
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That's what James would like to know when Peter denies Jesus Remember, of course that the scene the one who had said
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I'm gonna die with you I'm hacking ears off right? Like I'm I'm your ride -or -die
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Jesus. Yeah, I'm There's no way they're taking you over my dead body you have this loyal almost pitbull like support of Peter and then
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It shows so often so often in life Isn't it true when you get that bravado and that's that confidence and that assertion the real manly man there's often
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That's just a hard porcelain surface and there's a coward behind that and that's what Peter is He's actually a coward
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He's prepared to strike off ears But then he's by a fire and there's just this little teenager and she's going weren't you with him and he's like no
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And he's shaking and rattled But when Jesus is resurrected, of course having predicted
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Peter's denial and of course Peter's still There's this tension right a tension with the risen
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Lord He's thrilled dies to go see him and one of the first to see him and yet there's this tension and Jesus addresses that tension when he restores them and the thing that strikes me is he doesn't say
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Peter Have you followed well at what I've taught you? That's not how
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Jesus restores Peter. He doesn't say Peter. Do you remember the creeds that we memorized together? All right, let's go through it together.
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Yeah He doesn't say Peter don't you remember the teachings How is your family worship?
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What's your devotional life like? Let's make a checklist together and we'll just meet and I'll be your accountability.
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You know, how does Jesus restore Peter? He just sits him down and he says Peter. Do you love me?
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Yes, Lord, you know that I love you Peter do you love me? Yes, Lord, do you love me?
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And he's offended In the Greek something interesting is going on there Jesus is asking the question with sort of the
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Christian word for love right agape Agapes man, do you love me? And when
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Peter responds, he doesn't say the same word back. He doesn't say yes Lord, you know that I love you
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Agapao you know, he says, you know that I'm your friend It's almost like the guilt or the shame of that Denial, it's just too much for him to claim it.
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So maybe he's protecting himself from some rebuke Well, if you loved me, how how could you deny me? And so the most he'll do is say, you know,
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I'm I'm your friend And so Jesus presses on no. No, that's not what I asked. Do you love me?
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Lord, you know that I'm your friend. No, do you love me? And so that's the question for us brothers and sisters
01:00:06
Do we love him? Do we love him? Are we gonna work from love?
01:00:15
For love More and more abounding in it and is having those things in place.
01:00:23
Is that love? Going to work out in our lives Faith working itself through love so that we can say
01:00:31
Confidently with a sure throat in a in a proud chest Lord, you know that I love you
01:00:39
Let's pray father. We thank you for your word.
01:00:48
We thank you for For your love for us Lord so easy to say so impossible to comprehend
01:00:58
And yet we pray it would grip us take hold of us That your love for us would manifest in our lives as love for you supremely and From that love for our fellow man.
01:01:09
We know the first and greatest commandment, but we also know the second is like it Forgive us for not heeding the rebuke of James for not
01:01:20
Staring into the eyes of our Savior when he asked us pointedly whether or not we love him and show to each one of us today
01:01:27
Whether we can truly say we love you Like Paul be so confident to say
01:01:34
It's gain to die It's far better to be with you such as our great love for you But if anything our love for you compels our work as Jacob was compelled to work
01:01:45
May that be part of our evidence the way that we persevere in trials But those trials though they may be
01:01:53
Weeks months years would seem like days because of your love for us and because of our love for you
01:02:00
Lord as the Laban's come along And as all the unknowns begin to press us with fears and anxieties
01:02:07
Let us hear the echo of your promise and the promise of your great love for us in Christ, which is sure and everlasting
01:02:14
And I pray if there's a stranger to your love here this morning That they would encounter it and in ways that would shake the dust off of our cold affections for you