(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 I threw a couple extra twinkles in there, so don't worry about it. Oh yeah. Like, the one where it's like... 🎵Music🎵 But, you can play every one over here. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 If I don't play something, I like, glitch on my legband. So I have to like... Keep the timing going. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Yeah, I can't play that thing. 🎵Music🎵 Yeah, I missed that formata the first time. I'd like to... Yeah, we'll take a watch on them. I don't know how it works. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 I can probably put that one in the other one. I don't know. I can't play that one. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could find your seats and grab your songbooks. Let's turn our hymnals to song 257, Look and Live. Song 257, Look and Live. 257, Look and Live. 🎵Music🎵 🎵I've a message from the Lord, Hallelujah🎵 🎵A message unto you I'll give🎵 🎵Tis recorded in his word, Hallelujah🎵 🎵It is only that you look and live🎵 🎵Look and live, my brother live🎵 🎵Look to Jesus now and live🎵 🎵Tis recorded in his word, Hallelujah🎵 🎵It is only that you look and live🎵 🎵I've a message full above, Hallelujah🎵 🎵A message on my friend for you🎵 🎵Tis a message from above, Hallelujah🎵 🎵Jesus said it and I know it is true🎵 🎵Look and live, my brother live🎵 🎵Look to Jesus now and live🎵 🎵Tis recorded in his word, Hallelujah🎵 🎵It is only that you look and live🎵 🎵Life is offered unto you, Hallelujah🎵 🎵Eternal life my soul shall have🎵 🎵If you'll only look to him, Hallelujah🎵 🎵Look to Jesus, he alone can save🎵 🎵Look and live, my brother live🎵 🎵Look to Jesus now and live🎵 🎵Tis recorded in his word, Hallelujah🎵 🎵It is only that you look and live🎵 🎵I will tell you how I came, Hallelujah🎵 🎵To Jesus when he made me whole🎵 🎵Twas believing on his name, Hallelujah🎵 🎵I trusted and he saved my soul🎵 🎵Look and live, my brother live🎵 🎵Look to Jesus now and live🎵 🎵Tis recorded in his word, Hallelujah🎵 🎵It is only that you look and live🎵 Good singing. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day and the opportunity to be in your house this evening. Thank you so much for salvation and how easy it is, a free gift given to us. Thank you so much for your son. We love you so much. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. For our next song, we'll go to song 150, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place. Song 150, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, 150. 🎵My faith has found a resting place🎵 🎵Not in device nor creed🎵 🎵I trust the ever-living one🎵 🎵His wounds for me shall plead🎵 🎵I need no other argument🎵 🎵I need no other plea🎵 🎵It is enough that Jesus died🎵 🎵And that he died for me🎵 🎵Enough for me that Jesus saves🎵 🎵My faith sends my fear and doubt🎵 🎵A sinful soul I come to him🎵 🎵He'll never cast me out🎵 🎵I need no other argument🎵 🎵I need no other plea🎵 🎵It is enough that Jesus died🎵 🎵And that he died for me🎵 🎵My heart is leaning on the Word🎵 🎵The written Word🎵 🎵Salvation by my Savior's name🎵 🎵Salvation through his blood🎵 🎵I need no other argument🎵 🎵I need no other plea🎵 🎵It is enough that Jesus died🎵 🎵And that he died for me🎵 🎵My great physician heals the sick🎵 🎵The lost he came to save🎵 🎵For me his precious blood he shed🎵 🎵For me his life he gave🎵 🎵I need no other argument🎵 🎵I need no other plea🎵 🎵It is enough that Jesus died🎵 🎵And that he died for me🎵 to an usher myself or you could do that to brother Dylan as well on the inside we have our service times as well as our church wide soul winning one note of change the regional soul winning time with brother Jeff Goodwin in Weatherford was on Saturday and he's changing that to Monday at 5 p.m. so just take note of the new time he's right here in the UPS so what can Brown do for you if you live over here in Weatherford area or somewhere similar you can go check that out also our church stats I'm going to get a count for the last few days anything to report from Monday as far as soul winning is concerned one for one for Monday okay what about Tuesday two for Tuesday today the van had one anything outside of that by chance all right one for today and then on the right we have our list of expecting ladies please keep them all in your prayers we have our prayer list as well we'll kind of go over this we have the Negara family please continue to pray for their health Miss Lucy's mother's tumors brother Cameron Hall's leg Verity Baptist Manila and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda just help continue to pray for their churches that they'll be able to resume services normally and do soul winning and everything else that they'd like to participate in normally also Miss Stephanie Weathers just an additional prayer for her health Don Stewart her health as well Miss Ashley Holder her husband getting his visa passed brother Duncan knows something about that one all right and RG but continue to pray for them Miss Evergarcia's mother health and she's getting tested for cancer so continue to pray for her brother Carlos Guzman his friend Steve is on life support so we'll be praying for him also Fabiana D'Amico prayer for her children Gabe and Emily also brother Randall Best wanted to add to the bulletin this isn't listed there but he has a couple friends Tom and Sandra Dutton they have COVID-19 they're from another Baptist church that he's friends with and so please be in prayer for them also the Manueos family their health as well so I think we have a lot of health stuff to be in prayer for so we'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church now thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity to be here this evening and to sing praise under your name I pray that you bless all aspects of the service and the preaching and I pray that you just bless our church members here that you bless all the ladies that are expecting you help them with their pregnancies and their deliveries as well as I pray that you would help all the others members that are struggling with various health issues and concerns I pray that you just give them favor and wisdom and that you could bless them with health that you would also help all the churches that are friends of ours to just resume services and continue to share the light of the gospel I pray that you would also help those that need to get saved to have someone come and to present the gospel in a clear way and that you just soften their heart and I just thank you for all that you give us I just pray that you continue to bless our church in Jesus name we pray Amen On the back we have the note about our Texas chili cook off it's almost here I mean you've been hearing about this for a long time I know but it's almost here and we got some great prizes for first second and third and so I'd encourage you to participate if you can even if you just want to bring some extra dish or something you're always welcome to bring it but my wife is going to help provide cornbread and where the church is going to get cheese and some sour cream I don't know why anybody would want that but she said she will bring it Fritos and some drinks and stuff and so I'm excited about our cook off and also we have November 13th we have our Oklahoma City soul winning marathon there's actually a sign up sheet over here on the cabinet so make sure to sign up just so we can anticipate food and everything like that and travel arrangements also December 9th through 11th is the Brownsville Matta Morris soul winning marathon and so there will be a sign up sheet for that as well there will be opportunity to ride in the van for the Oklahoma soul winning marathon but it's going to basically probably leave in the morning at 6 am and then come back after the soul winning and so my family and I we're going to go up Friday night and then I'm going to be preaching that Sunday so just FYI depending on who wants a ride or needs a ride we'll just kind of play it by ear but there should be at least transportation just for Saturday if that's what you want to participate in but just go ahead and fill out your information and then we'll follow up as far as caravanning or everything like that and then also the Brownsville Matta Morris will probably you know we'll kind of have to play that by ear I didn't know this but you can actually fly into Brownsville apparently too so I looked it up there's flights from Dallas to Brownsville it's about an hour and a half flight so it's not really a long flight and there was flights Wednesday night and Thursday morning that I noticed and then flights in Saturday afternoon and stuff like that so I think it was like $220 or something like that round trip from American Airlines I just looked it up so if that's something that interests you just wanted to throw that out there flight prices might change every single day though so don't quote me on that that's just basically what I looked up yesterday so if people are interested that's available to you if you get yourself there we'll take care of you as far as getting your ride or food or whatever else that you need but down below and if you want to just ride the church van there'll be some kind of a church van potentially that goes down there unless nobody wants to then we'll have to figure something else out it is pretty far drive I think it's like 8 hours so just FYI the baby shower is this Saturday in honor of Miss Nexus Cooper and her baby girl Melody from 12 to 2 she's registered on Amazon if you'd like to get her a gift and if you'd like to bring a snack or dessert you're always welcome to do so nothing is necessary we just want all ladies to participate it is nursing's only preferred if that's a possibility down below we have the specific information about our cook off chili cook off there's also going to be hot apple cider so that's going to be really exciting as well and it does say they're in fine print there cannot be any beans ok just in case you weren't aware just no fillers you know screwdrivers you know whatever else VCR remotes or you know we don't want to put anything weird chocolate you know I'm just trying to save you from putting something weird in there I'm sure someone will try something but we will catch you ok the Lord is always watching alright and then also if you do donate online or via check just please still continue to make that out to Pure Words Baptist Church that's pretty much all I have for announcements at this time we'll go ahead and go to our third song we're going to do a new song as far as the congregation is concerned we're going to sing Psalms 148 in our handout alright so I know it might be new to some of us and you just try to follow along brother Dylan's going to do his best and we're going to give it a try this is our first time seeing this as a church if you saw Pastor Shelly's music video you should be very familiar with the tune of this song really catchy if you haven't watched it I recommend you check it out yeah go ahead and turn in your white handout Psalm 148 or in your King James Bible Psalm 148 Psalm 148 Praise he the Lord, praise he the Lord from the heavens, praise him in the nights, praise him, all his angels praise him, all his hosts praise him, sun and moon praise him all ye stars of light, praise him ye heavens of heavens, any waters that be above the heavens let them praise the name of the Lord. For he commanded and they were created he hath also established them forever and ever, he hath laid a decree which shall not pass praise the Lord from the earth, he he, dragons and all thieves, fire and hail, snow and vapor, stormy wind fulfilling his work mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars peace and all cattle creeping things and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth will come and end, maidens, old men and children let them praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is excellent his glory is above the earth and heaven he also exalted the horn of his people, praise of all his saints, he come the children of Israel, the people near unto him praise he the Lord. While the offering plates are being passed around please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 31 that's Genesis chapter 31. . . . . . . . . . . Genesis 31 the Bible reads and he heard the words of Laban's sons saying Jacob hath taken away all that was our fathers and of that which was our fathers hath he gotten all this glory and Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban and behold it was not toward him as before and the Lord said unto Jacob return unto the land of thy fathers into thy kindred and I will be with thee and Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock and said unto them I see your father's countenance that it is not toward me as before but the God of my father hath been with me and ye know that with all my power I have served your father and your father hath deceived me and changed my wages ten times but God suffered him not to hurt me if he said thus the speckled shall be thy wages then all the cattle bear speckled and if he said thus the ring straight shall be thy higher then bear all the cattle ring straight thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father and given them to me and it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived that I lifted up mine eyes and saw in a dream and behold the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ring straight speckled and grizzled and the angel of God spank unto me in a dream saying Jacob and I said here am I and he said lift up now thine eyes and see all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ring straight speckled and grizzled for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee I am the God of Bethel where thou anointest the pillar and where thou vowest to vow unto me now arise get thee out from this land and return unto the land of thy kindred and Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house are we not counted of him strangers for he hath sold us and hath quite devoured also our money for all the riches which God hath taken from our father that is ours and our children's now then whatsoever God hath sent unto thee do then Jacob rose up and said his sons and his wives upon camels and he carried away all his cattle and all his goods which he had gotten the cattle of his getting which he had gotten and paid an arum for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan and Laban went to shear his sheep and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's and Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian and that he told him not that he had fled so he fled with all that he had and he rose up and passed over the river and set his face toward the Mount Gilead and it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled and he took his brethren with him and pursued after him seven days journey and they overtook him in the Mount Gilead and God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said unto him take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad then Laban overtook Jacob now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mount and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead and Laban said to Jacob what hast thou done that thou hast stolen away unawares to me and carried away my daughters as captives taken with the sword wherefore didst thou flee away secretly and steal away from me and didst not tell me that I might have sent thee away with myrrh and with songs with tabard and with heart and hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters and hast now done foolishly in so doing it is in the power of my hand to do you hurt but the God of your fathers spake going to be yesterday saying take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad and now though thou wouldst needs be gone because thou sore longest after thy father's house yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods and Jacob answered and said to Laban because I was afraid for I said peradventure thou wouldst take by force thy daughters from me with whomsoever thou findest thy gods let him not live before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me and take it to thee for Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them and Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the two maidservant's tents but he found them not then went he out of Leah's tent and entered into Rachel's tent now Rachel had taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them and Laban searched all the tent but found them not and she said to her father let it not displease my lord that I cannot arise up before thee for the custom of woman is upon me and he searched but found not the images and Jacob was wroth and chode with Laban and Jacob answered and said to Laban what is my trespass what is my sin that thou hast so hotly pursued after me for as thou hast searched all my stuff what hast thou found of all thy household stuff set it here before my brethren and thy brethren that they may judge betwixt us both this 20 years have I been with thee thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten that which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee I bear the loss of it of my hand didst thou require it whether stolen by day or stolen by night thus I was in the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes thus have I been 20 years in thy house I serve thee 14 years for thy two daughters and six years for thy cattle and thou hast changed my wages ten times except the god of my father the god of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had been with me surely thou hadst sent me away now empty God had seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuked thee yesterday and Laban answered and said unto Jacob these daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattle are my cattle and all that thou seest is mine and what can I do this day unto these my daughters or unto their children which they have borne now therefore come thou let us make a covenant I and thou and let it be for a witness between me and thee and Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar and Jacob said unto his brethren gather stones and they took stones and made a heap and they did eat there upon the heap and Laban called it Gegarsahaduthah but Jacob called it Galad and Laban said this heap is a witness between me and thee this day therefore was the name of it called Galad and Mizpah for he said the Lord watched between me and thee when we are absent one from another if thou shalt afflict my daughters or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters no man is with us see God is witness betwixt me and thee and Laban said to Jacob behold this heap behold this pillar which I have cast betwixt me and thee this heap be witness and this pillar be witness that I will not pass over this heap to thee and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar run to me for harm the God of Abraham the God of Nahor the God of their father judge betwixt us and Jacob swear by the fear of his father Isaac then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount and called his brethren to eat bread and they did eat bread and tarried all night in the mount and early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them and Laban departed and returned unto his place Father we thank you for Genesis 31 and also for Steadfast Baptist Church and our pastor I pray that you fill him now with your spirit and help him to explain this chapter to us so that we can understand this portion of scripture better and also I pray that you continue to bless and protect our church through this prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Now in Genesis chapter 31 and it's continuing the same story line and narrative that we had in the previous chapter right before we enter into chapter 31 the Bible described for us how Jacob had made a deal with Laban about appointing him as wages and the wages were related to the sheep and that he was going to basically take his wages from the cattle or the sheep that were ring-streaked, spotted and speckled and a period of time has passed to where essentially all of the good of the cattle, the strength of the cattle and the majority of the cattle are now ring-streaked, spotted, speckled and everything else and so that's where we find ourself in verse 1 it says and he heard the words of Laban's sons saying Jacob hath taken away all that was our fathers and of that which was our fathers hath he gotten all this glory so they're saying this because all the cattle have now basically transferred ownership unto Jacob even though he's still living amongst them, he's living with them they can identify that Jacob now has the majority of the flock he has all of the goods and that they're no longer in Laban's name verse 2 it says and Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban and behold it was not toward him as before and the Lord said unto Jacob return unto the land of thy fathers and thy kindred and I will be with thee Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock and said unto them I see your father's countenance that is not toward me as before but the God of my father hath been with me so in this opening portion of chapter 31 we learn a few different things here because Jacob has all of Laban's goods his attitude towards Jacob is completely changed and I think this is important to think about but if someone you know like Laban is around you and their countenance is completely changed and their attitude around you is completely changed it's probably just a good idea to get out of there anyways and the reality is this happens to a lot of us you know you start serving God or you start wanting to be more Christian or doing things that are right your family and friends their attitude or their countenance or their face might change a little bit towards you they may look at you as a different person they may become envious of you or disgruntled against you and honestly if you have the ability to separate yourself often times it's for the better you know it's for the best that you don't stick around someone that doesn't like you that's disfavorable towards you you know if you have that opportunity you don't want to just stick around and basically be around people that don't like you it's just going to cause more problems and more issues now obviously it's depending upon the circumstance but another thing you have to understand is just because people don't like you does not mean that God is upset with you you know Laban is very upset with him Laban's sons are very upset with Jacob right they despise Jacob because he's taken their goods he's taken their money but the Bible teaches that God is with him that God is on his side so even though the whole world may start not liking you or people in your life may not like you that's not an indication of God's pleased with you or not that's a completely separate issue God is with Jacob God has blessed Jacob and because God has blessed Jacob that's why Laban doesn't like him in fact this is a very common theme in the Bible even if you start at the very beginning we've been going through the book of Genesis what's another story like that I don't know about Cain and Abel right what happens well Cain and Abel offer a sacrifice unto the Lord but God does not respect unto Cain's offering or to Cain himself but the Bible says that he had respect unto Abel and to his offering so what happens Cain ends up despising Abel Cain ends up killing Abel so it may have been a good idea for Abel to say like I'm going to stay away from you you know I'm not going to hang out with you as much anymore because obviously your countenance has changed another thing we can learn from this and I want to preach a little sermon on this later but you can tell how somebody feels about you based on their face alone I'm not joking you know when you're around you can only hide your emotions so much you know now obviously there's some people that are just considered a psychopath what that means is they have no feelings inside so everything's fake to them but a normal person has a really hard time you know disguising how they feel around somebody and their true emotions about someone and often you can kind of figure out how someone feels about you just simply by their face you know do they light up when they see you do they kind of look away when you're coming you know do they make eye contact with you and all these social clues are important because they'll help you in making friends and not making friends because there's some people that just don't want to be your friend and you say well how do I know that look at their face their face will tell you if they want to be your friend and so sometimes people like force a friendship on someone that they're not really that interested in it's because they're not picking up on the social clues and so it's important to pick up on social clues and identify and look women are typically much more keen on these type of things women typically can kind of tell her like that lady doesn't like me and you're like how do you know that and it's just like just look at her you know whereas guys I mean we could like hate each other and really ignorant about it because we just don't really know we don't pick up on these clues as often but you know it's important to still try your best to pay attention to social cues to how people respond to you you know and identify sometimes even if your boss is mad at you so you see an opportunity to fix it or to correct it or to ask them about it and you know you don't want to just be around people that don't like you you don't want to be in a situation where people are disgruntled against you you got to kind of identify those situations so that you can handle them to the best of your ability but at the end of the day what can I learn from these three verses here is this just because people around me start hating me and disliking me God can be very pleased with me at that same time God can be very for me and on my side and want to bless me and often times it's because you're being blessed that so many people dislike you you know they get mad at you they get envious of you because of God's favor God's blessing in your life but you know that's their problem it's not yours look at verse number six the Bible says and ye know that with all my power I have served your father that's a crazy statement think about what he's saying he's saying I've served Laban the best I could possibly serve him with all that I've got and you know what you guys you want to get promoted serve your boss with all your power and here's the thing when we read this story Laban is not a good boss Laban is a terrible boss Laban doesn't pay well Laban rips him off Laban lies to him Laban is not sincere to him yet he still works for him with all of his power with all that he's got and that's what God expects of us to do is to work to the best of our ability and to work hard and to be diligent even if you have a bad boss some people kind of have this cavalier attitude as if their boss mistreats them well I don't have to work as hard now or I don't have to show up on time or I don't have to you know I can cut corners because they're not paying me as well or doing good things for me I read a story about Amazon workers recently and apparently they were being paid automatically through this payroll system and there was like a glitch where it just wasn't paying their employees at all or like cutting their hours or wasn't tracking their progress they would show up to work but the automatic system wouldn't notify their work so they're not getting paid for days that they actually showed up for work and they estimated it was millions of dollars or you know tons and tons of money that basically Amazon was just shorting all their employees on a regular basis and here's the thing even if you work for Amazon you still have to do your job you still have to be a good employee and you know what's frustrating in this world today is it seems like very few people work hard I mean the customer service in this world has just gone to almost nothing I mean it's very poor people are very upset and you know a lot of them have a pretty legitimate reason to be upset with their employer I'm sure that they're being overworked underappreciated underpaid all kinds of issues they have to deal with on the job you know they have to be constantly bombarded with their health concerns you know what poisons they put in their body recently you know certain diapers they're putting on their face and all kinds of other issues they have to worry about and all kinds of safety protocols and all kinds of weird things that are being mandated and forced to have to deal with so it'd be real easy to just be upset be real easy to just get mad at your boss even though it's not really your boss's fault in a lot of cases you know get mad at just the world and just be a bad employee you know what you should never be a bad employee you should never give it a half's effort on the job you should always give it a full effort whatever thy hand find to do it do with all thy might is what the bible teaches and you should really look at it as your boss of being Jesus Christ you know how much effort would you put into it if Jesus Christ showed up on the job and said hey I need you to go put in a few extra hours you'd be like yes sir you know like can I do more I mean that's how you would actually treat the job and look there's always going to be a balance to life work church these type of things you know you got to kind of balance and juggle all these things you know my boss is saying don't go to church anymore I'm going to go to church right if my boss is saying you can't be with your wife and you can't see your family and you can't provide for their needs you know I would I would find a different job but within reason is my boss says jump I'm just going to jump I'm not even going to ask how high I'm just going to start jumping you know and you know how high I'm going to jump as high as I can some people are like how high you know I don't want to jump that high he's like jump and you're just like yeah done I mean because you know the man of God says smite and you know instead of just wondering what to do you should have just been smiting with all his might you know just smite until the guy tells you to stop smiting you should be like the guy at Olive Garden with the cheese he walks up and he's just like do you want cheese on it and you're just like tell me when tell me when tell me when tell me when but he's just going to keep going you know you should just keep going until they're like when you know keep going just jump as high strike his heart I mean that's what the attitude of a true Christian worker should be like you know and it's sad that the world today they want to find out everything you know is this covered by insurance jumping you cover my workers comp on jumping you know is this really part of my job duties show me in my job duties where I'm supposed to jump you know instead of just saying yes sir and jumping you know what I mean and look Jacob is a great example here someone who did everything with all his power and all his might even though he had a pretty crappy employer here and he's got to work for his father in law too that's probably a bonus look at what it says in verse number 7 this is what he says his boss was like and your father had to seed me and changed my wages ten times but God suffered him not to hurt me you know how much to complain about when you haven't got your wages changed ten times can you imagine that would be kind of that would be frustrating right verse 8 if he said thus the speckled shall be thy wages then all the cattle bear speckled and if he had said thus the ring straight shall be thy hired then bear all the cattle ring straight thus God had taken away the cattle of your father and given them to me I came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived that I lifted up mine eyes and saw in a dream and behold the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ring straight speckled and grizzled and the angel of God spake unto me in a dream saying Jacob and he said here am I and he said lift up now thine eyes and see all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ring straight speckled and grizzled for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee I am the God of Bethel where thou anointest the pillar and where thou vowedest a vow unto me now arise get thee out from this land and return unto the land of thy kindred so the Bible tells us that even though Jacob was being ripped off ten times even though Jacob was you know being defrauded by his father-in-law even though his father-in-law was a bad employer the Bible teaches that God noticed all those things noticed that Jacob was a hard worker anyways and so God decided to take care of Jacob and God decided to provide a way to give all of the wealth of Laban unto Jacob now when you read chapter number 30 by itself it kind of seems like Jacob is being kind of sneaky he's being kind of cunning he's kind of taking advantage of his employer he's ripping him off but when you study the story the Bible makes it very clear that God told him to do everything that he did God said look this is what's going to happen the cattle are going to produce this way you need to basically go unto Laban and tell him that's what your wages are going to be and then it's going to happen just like I said now in order for Jacob to fulfill this prophecy he had to have faith because he's basically trusting that God's going to provide his wages based on the grizzle speckled and the ring-streaked dream he hasn't seen it yet he doesn't know he made the deal with Laban before it ever even happened so what was he really relying upon he was relying upon God to be faithful he was relying upon God to pay his wages and he said you know what the ring-streaked spotted speckled grizzled all those I'll take those based on what faith of the Lord and then what happens the Lord gave him all of Laban's cattle it's not Jacob's fault that the cattle ended up bearing that way God's in complete control of the genetics God's the one that opens and closes the womb not just of the male and female but also of the cattle also of the beast also of all the birds of the air every single living creature God is in complete control of those items and so he wanted to give that unto Jacob he noticed that Jacob was suffering and here's something that we don't often think about but even though Jacob suffered it was a long period of time that he was he was getting ripped off over and over at the end how much was he ripped off zero he got everything so he ended up not getting ripped off at all it just only felt that way or seemed that way in the moment and that's where it takes faith it takes faith to serve and be a faithful humble servant and to work hard and to do that which is right trusting that the Lord will take care of you that the Lord will provide for you then in the end you're going to get all your due but you know what that takes a lot of faith to get to the end point it's easier to just you know you're ripping me off I'm just going to go ahead and leave what if Jacob had quit at any point during his employment would he have received this huge bounty would he have received all the wages that were the back wages no he wouldn't have but God made sure to give him the back wages because he was just a faithful employee doing that which is right having faith in the Lord and then eventually God gave him the cattle God gave him all of the goods and he ends up suffering nothing at all he gets all the wages that he had you know what if throughout his history he had just gotten you know a little bit here one tenth here two tenths here three tenths there four tenths and then he eventually got to the all having all the cattle that he had he just felt like okay you know I worked hard and I made all this money but rather he got it was like zero zero zero zero zero zero ten you know he got it all in the last minute didn't he he got it all at the end which took a lot of faith it took a lot of hard work it took a lot of trust in the Lord to take care of him and then God ends up getting the glory for having given him all that cattle you know it's not based on his own power or might or strength but rather just serving the Lord and the Lord ends up blessing him go to Proverbs chapter 13 for a moment keep your finger here go to Proverbs chapter number 13 but it's important to remember in this story that it's not by his cunning not by his deceit not by his trickery that he got the cattle it's by God seeing him faithful and God rewarding him with the cattle that's why he got the cattle okay cause some people might read that story and think like oh so we're supposed to swindle our employer oh we're supposed to take advantage of our employer no no no no no God gave him the cattle it was not through deceit or any kind of malicious intent but rather he was just trusting the Lord would provide for him and the Lord did so Proverbs chapter 13 look at verse 21 evil pursueth sinners but to the righteous good shall be repaid you know that's a verse that you should take by heart and by faith evil pursues sinners you know evil in the Bible can mean two things it can be something wicked or harm and often times the Bible refers to evil as harm but it's basically saying harm is going to pursue people that are sinners but to the righteous good meaning blessing and favor shall be repaid meaning if you do that which is right if you're a good and faithful steward of the things that God's blessed you with you should get repaid eventually God's promising you that good is going to repay you and you know what's really good just going to sleep having a good conscience now going to sleep feeling like you did that which is right you know it's hard to sleep when you feel like you just screwed up and you've done wrong and you've done evil and you look we've all been there we've all done that we've all screwed up we have bad days we do things that we're not proud of we sin and even other just not even sin just do something that's wrong and you feel crappy when you go to bed you know you feel bad that day you feel bad the next day but you know what when you do that which is right even if you've been cheated even if you've been swindled you still feel better than when you did something wrong than when you did evil you know or if you've ever stolen you know especially you know maybe when you're younger you steal ten bucks steal five bucks that money doesn't feel as sweet as when you worked for it even if look if I worked you know ten hours and got paid five bucks that five bucks would feel better than stealing five bucks in five seconds even though five bucks in ten hours is not a good job you are severely underpaid but you know what I'd feel better about that five bucks than I would if I'd stolen it or fifty bucks or a hundred bucks it wouldn't even matter because you know what it's better to just do things that are right be right with God look at the very next verse a good man leaving an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid out for the just and that's a cool verse notice what he's saying hey the people that are sinners sometimes they'll store a lot of wealth up sometimes it seems like a lot of good things are going for them but then just all of a sudden they just lose all that wealth all of a sudden that wealth just goes to the just doesn't it seem like that's our story here all of the wealth of Laban just keeps getting stored up stored up stored up Jacob's just storing it up for him right but then eventually what happens to all that wealth is just handed over into Jacob all of the wealth of the sinner was laid up for the just and obviously Jacob is just by faith not because he's such a great guy go to Exodus chapter 3 let me show you another version of this this is an important concept to believe in because this is how God's economics work you know God's economics are not you know the economics of this world you know it's not Keynesian economics not communism economics it's not you know a lot of people their whole philosophy in this world is carnal you know their health advice is carnal their spiritual they ignore the spiritual they ignore the spiritual in economics they ignore the spiritual and everything that goes on but you know what the spiritual always is the exception to every carnal rule he's saying like I was working hard for a terrible employee going to pay off but it worked out didn't it for Jacob you know you could even be in an even worse situation how about the children of Israel in Egypt are literal slaves talk about not getting a paycheck talk about not receiving that which is good you know they built all kinds of cool stuff for the Egyptians they built the pyramids they built all kinds of amazing structures for the Egyptians you know when they end up believing all this wealth is stored up for the Egyptians but then what happens look at Exodus chapter 3 verse 21 this is when they're going to leave this is God telling what's going to happen all these people favor talking about the children of Israel and the sight of the Egyptian it's come to pass that when you go you should not go empty but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and you shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters and you shall spoil the Egyptians isn't that cool when they left God didn't just you know kick them out God said hey just borrow all of their goods borrow all their money borrow all their silver borrow all their gold because you're not going to have to come back and pay it back you know and they just spoiled them they just took all their goods just right out of Egypt all the wealth of the sinner was laid up for the just wasn't it and we know that they weren't just by their actions they were just by faith in Christ because the children of Israel are just as wicked as any other people okay in fact they really struggle in the wilderness because of how sinful they are but notice God God blessed them with all the goods God blessed them with all of this money and prosperity go back if you would to Genesis chapter 31 see what that tells me it's more important to be right with God than to have lots of money you know a lot of people say you know in order to make money in this world it's who you know that's true because if you know God he's going to take care of you it is about who you know but you know what it's not about cheating and deceit you're never going to keep those wages and easy come easy go anyways people that have lots of money given to them super easy they don't spend it well they're not good stewards or money managers and when you come to celebrities sports athletes people that win the lottery any of these people that get these huge payoffs just real quick I mean they just waste it and blow it and lose it and all the people that are their friends are fake anyways you know it'd be better to learn who your friends are for a lifetime and then get money then to get money at the beginning and wonder who your friends are for your whole lifetime and realize that you didn't have any in any way right Job kind of realizes I didn't really have a great of friends as I thought his friends aren't even that great but you know what it's important to have righteousness than to have wealth even if you never get money in this life even if you never have great riches in this life I mean the poor widow woman that we read about having great riches in heaven I don't think she got rewarded on this earth necessarily we don't read about her inheriting some great mansion or something on this earth or having some great wealth given to her winning the lottery I'm sure all of her needs were provided for though I'm sure she still had clothing and food because God is going to make sure to take care of her in those ways but you know what she may have gone without she may have not had the nicest car there wasn't any cars right the nicest chariot you know the nicest horse the nicest house you know she might not have had all the nicest goods back in that time you know what you're just passing through anyways it's all a rental right now anyways okay whether you own it or not it's a rental okay look at verse number 14 the bible reads that is ours and our children's now then whatsoever God has said unto thee do then Jacob rose up and said his sons and his wives upon camels and he carried away all his cattle and all his goods which he had gotten cattle of his getting which he had gotten and pat on the ram for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Cana so now he's going to return he wants to return to Isaac his father it's been a long time and his wives you know Leah and Rachel they are like what is the point in sticking around here? I mean he's got all of our money anyways but I don't know if I really like their motivation or what they say but what they do is right and I want to go to verse keep your finger and go to Matthew chapter 19 for a moment but the bible clearly teaches that once you get married the dynamic or relationship that you have with your parents has changed okay and this is an important thing to learn and not everybody likes this teaching especially grandparents but the reality is that once you get married you're supposed to be closer to your spouse than your parents okay your spouse replaces and trumps your parents look what it says in Matthew 19 verse 5 and says Jesus for this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh so the bible teaches the reason you would even leave father and mother is because you're married but notice it says to leave I've seen people literally say or you know I've heard people say it's wrong for children to leave their parents after marriage and I'm thinking like the bible says the exact that says that exact statement you know you're supposed to leave you know you're supposed to get some distance and honestly I believe that if you want to have a healthy marriage you need healthy boundaries away from the parents both your parents and definitely their parents okay you really want to be away from the in-laws okay and look I'm not against having a great relationship with your parents or your in-laws I think you should but you want to have some healthy boundaries you want to keep some distance because they're only going to cause problems in your marriage in a lot of ways let me phrase that differently when you have this proximity your in-laws and your parents can cause a lot of problems typically they're not going to make the marriage itself better that's what I mean by that meaning that they're not going to make you love your spouse more typically they're only going to draw you away from your spouse or put some kind of animosity in between you and your spouse because your parents have a bias they care about you way more than this other person just naturally speaking so therefore they're going to always side with you see you're good I mean you could do all kinds of bad things and your mom still loves you your mom thinks you're right you know all these murderers you know all these drug dealers or whatever their mom's like he's such a good boy you know and it's just like really I don't think so because your mom's just always on your side you know the mom the mom thinks that her son can do no wrong you know it's a face that only a mother could love but the mother loves it but when it comes to marriage if you want to have a tight bond you have to stop relying upon your parents and rely upon your spouse you know as a wife you have to stop asking dad to fix everything and you have to start asking your husband to fix everything and it's easier to want to ask your dad because your dad's been a father and a husband for decades right so he's good at it whereas your newly found husband he might have no idea what he's doing because he probably doesn't he probably doesn't know how to fix the car he doesn't know how to fix the trash compactor he doesn't know how to do all the things that dad knew how to do you know what if you never give him a chance then he's never going to learn it but when you start relying upon your husband to fix everything when you start relying upon your husband to be the provider and to take care of problems and to be there to comfort you you start realizing he's capable you start transferring the trust in your heart to your husband rather than your father whereas if you just are in close proximity I mean if dad's just downstairs or whatever some people live with their in-laws okay if dad's just downstairs you know and there's a problem I'll call dad or I'll ask dad and of course dad's always going to fix it dad always knows what to do you know dad always has the the answer to your problem but I'm telling you if you want to have a healthy marriage it's better to have some distance now look when it comes to your proximity of your home to their home it doesn't really matter okay you could be next door to each other but I'm just saying in your practical life you want to keep some distance there you want to rely upon your spouse and a good rule of thumb is this never ever talk trash on your spouse to your parents and it's really easy to want to it's really because they're like the closest relationship they look after you they want to know these things they want to be your support structure but I'm telling you you're going to create a bad marriage when you're giving all your dirty laundry to your parents like oh she puts beans in the chili it's like well that's your problem you know you gotta you gotta rule your home buddy you know stop buying the beans buy more meat he's like well it's cheaper and it's like okay well get a bigger pay check you know and then you can have the right kind of chili okay but whatever the problems are you know you want to fix them you don't want to complain and you don't want your parents or your in-laws to have bad feelings towards a relationship a lot of marriages that end in divorce or have problems a lot of times the parents fed that the parents were like you know what you don't deserve to be treated that way he shouldn't talk to you that way or she should she should be more understanding or she should be more supportive of you or whatever and they'll get in there and they'll try to draw their child back to them or they'll draw their child away and so that's why it's important to leave and then realize that you're now one flesh marriage is a one flesh thing when you were born you separate you cut the cord you and your mom started one flesh you cut the cord okay now you cleave unto your wife now you cleave unto your spouse and when Jacob says we're leaving honey he's like bye dad that's the right mentality see you later you know I'm gonna let him decide he gets to rule his decision and look I'm not saying you can't live by your in-laws or whatever you can't live by your parents or anything like that in fact when I got married my parents lived one block away from us okay and my in-laws lived let's see if I can calculate it was like seven I think I'm accurate seven blocks away so I know all about living close to your parents and your in-laws okay and then eventually we moved two states away and you want to know what was the best part of our marriage two states away okay and look I have great in-laws I have great parents there's nothing wrong with them they're very loving in fact my family fortunately really believes this doctrine my mom is very much just like leave them alone I don't care in fact they'd probably side with my wife over me in almost every dispute okay so usually because she's right but I'm just saying but you know they would side with her so at least they get it but all parents are gonna be meddling all in-laws are gonna be meddling it's important to leave to your spouse and have a deep relationship with your spouse and often times physical distance can actually improve your marriage if you feel like you're having a problem in your marriage and you live you know in the same house as your in-laws I have really good advice leave you know get some distance and look I'm not against you being around your family sometimes you go on hard times or you're traveling or moving you gotta live with the family but most normal people are like I can't wait to get out of here you know cause it's just healthy it's just normal to have some boundaries have some distance and see them every once in a while go to if you would to verse number 19 now go back to Genesis 31 and let's look at verse number 19 but the motivation I don't know if I really agree with it but at least they did the right thing they're gonna follow Jacob verse 19 Laban went to shear his sheep and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's and Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian and that he told him not that he fled though he fled with all that he had and he rose up and passed over the river and set his face toward the Mount Gilead and it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled and he took his brethren with him and pursued after him seven days journey they overtook him in the Mount Gilead and God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said unto him take heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad and Laban overtook Jacob now Jacob had pitched his ten in the mount and Laban with his brethren pitched in the mount of Gilead Laban said to Jacob what hast thou done that thou stolen away unawares to me and carried away my daughters as captives taken with the sword wherefore didest thou flee away secretly and steal away from me and didest not tell me that I might have sent me away with mirth and with songs with tabret and with heart and has not suffered me to kiss my sons and my daughters thou hast now done foolishly in so doing it is in the power of my hand to do you hurt but the God of your father spake unto me yesternight saying take thou heed that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad and now though thou wouldest needs be gone because thou sore longest after thy father's house yet wherefore hast thou stolen my gods now if you think about this scenario they're leaving the in-laws to go to the father okay so obviously they're still going to be around family sometimes you can't escape them right they're everywhere but in this story Jacob left without telling Laban and I think if you read between the lines in the previous chapter Jacob had already told him he wanted to leave and before he left he said appoint me thy wages and there was a sheep well according to the story he served Jacob for twenty years meaning fourteen for the two daughters and six for the cattle that would mean he says I want to leave six years later he's still there okay now that's even longer than we read in the story of Judges you know chapter 19 when they can't get out of it right so I guess in some ways it makes sense that he's just like we gotta go you know we gotta get out of here and it's hard it's hard when you have time where you're spending with family sometimes it's hard to get away they always want you to stay longer and stick around but Laban's very upset that he did not get an opportunity to say goodbye and that makes sense the Bible tells us that God came and told Laban not to speak to Jacob good or bad and I think that's an important thought because he's telling him not to say good or bad he reiterates it in verse number 29 he says take thou he that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad so I believe that he did not speak good or bad because it wouldn't make sense for God to tell him and then for him to go through his whole speech and then to reiterate the fact that I was already warned not to speak to you good or bad so at least in Laban's mind he's not speaking to him good or bad so keeping that in mind what are some things that he did say to him well he said in verse 28 thou hast now done foolishly in so doing so notice by telling someone they've done something wrong or foolish is in no way bad it's also not good we're not saying it was good but we're also not saying it's bad now what would be the context of good or bad good would be blessing what would be evil wishing harm or doing evil unto somebody but here's the thing if you do something that's wrong if you do something that's foolish if you do something stupid and someone says that was stupid that was a foolish decision they're not hurting you they're not harming you they're not speaking bad to you whereas a lot of people that can't handle this they think if you actually point out their mistake if you criticize them in any way oh now you're railing oh now you're speaking evil of me now you're speaking bad about me but wait a minute is everything I said true wait a minute is everything I said line up with the scriptures then I'm not speaking good or bad I'm just telling you the facts okay and really that's what Laban's doing and I wish we could go back to a world where we can just say facts you know it used to be that you'd be on the job and your employer could just tell you facts about you like this was a bad job and they're like oh why are you speaking so bad about me it's like it's just facts you know you did a bad job on your work here you know or you did this you know just saying anything that's facts like someone's white someone's black oh he spoke so he said I'm black it's like is it a fact though are you actually black it's like it gets scary people start getting like they get all nervous when you just start naming facts this guy's short this guy's tall this guy's skinny this guy's fat you know oh just saying this is a man this was born a man oh this is a woman you know just by saying facts this is an Asian female you'd be like people are like horrified you know or whatever this guy's an Indian you know it's just just saying facts now are offensive saying facts are good or bad or whatever no it's just facts just facts don't hurt feelings okay and the reality is that we live in a society that they can't handle this but I wish we could go back to a society where you can handle it and look when people are just spitting facts at you stop getting so offended you know it's one thing if he says I hope you die you know it's one thing if he says I want you to trip and fall and break your neck or whatever that would be speaking bad to someone let's go back to that's the reality you know not actually just saying things that are normal saying facts saying things that are just true about someone and look not allowing a father to say goodbye to his family does seem like kind of a dumb decision it doesn't seem very fair to Laban to just completely just run away out of nowhere and not allow Laban to say goodbye to his daughters to his grandsons his granddaughters he should have given him that courtesy I believe that's probably true now what his motivations were probably is he just wanted to get out of there but at the end of the day if God like comes to you in a night and says like don't speak good or bad and you're just like okay for him to say this must mean that it must have been true must have been that he had great conviction of that being true and I think he probably was speaking the truth let's see how Jacob even responds in verse 31 and Jacob answered and said to Laban because I was afraid for I said peradventure thou wouldst take by force thy daughters from thee so obviously Jacob's kind of saying like well I was afraid to you know I figured if I told you I'm leaving you would have you know taken my wives away from me or you would have you know fought me or striven against me or something but it's not necessarily right for him to make that assumption or to treat Laban like that because if you think about this whole story they're going to end up parting he's going to say goodbye and he doesn't take away his wife so it's probably a weak faith that God will allow all this evil to come to Jacob for him to just say goodbye you know and really people should learn how to say goodbye in all areas of life you know on the job learn how to say goodbye normally you know don't just like not show up all of a sudden you should you know formally get in writing and say hey this is my last two weeks or three weeks or four weeks whatever's appropriate for your job your industry say hey I'll help you through this transition I'll give you all these goods you know today people just quit mid shift and I'm not saying like they're walking out and protest I'm saying like they're just you know like I don't want to be here anymore see ya you know this would happen especially in the restaurant industry servers would just like quit randomly you know just walk out not even care go chase a Pokemon or something it's like don't do that and you know in your relationships you know if you have some kind of a parting you have conflict or whatever say goodbye you know here's a good idea if you leave a church say goodbye sometimes you know honestly for me people come up to me they'll be like where did so and so go and I'm like I don't know I haven't seen them have you seen them where do you think they went you know and I'm just like I don't know you know almost nobody it's hard for me to even think about how many times people have come and said officially like hey I'm leaving but it's probably like less than ten percent less than ten percent probably been smaller than that I mean it's only happened a handful of times usually people just leave and they're just like see ya suckers you know I don't even know about it you would think you'd have the common courtesy to just tell people like see ya bye now at the end of the day it doesn't really bother me that much I'm just saying that you know for you to be good on your part it probably makes sense to just say goodbye you know to people that you know you care about you're in a relationship with and when I left every church that I left recently I told everyone even the really crappy non and non church that I was going to I was in this like men's group where they would study the word as men of the word you know and it was a joke but I was leaving it and you know what I did I told the leader I said hey I'm no longer going to go to this group anymore I'm going to a different Baptist church I'm King James only now and I just you know I don't agree with the doctrine have a good day you know thanks for whatever even though I didn't like the church anymore I was really disgruntled against it then hey I went to an independent Baptist church I was leaving to go to Faithful Word and try to become a pastor there potentially and you know just get plugged in and learn how to grow in the Lord and I told my pastor in person I said hey I'm leaving I'm going to this church I really you know appreciate everything you've done for me love you guys we've been praying for you and he was like great and then obviously leaving Faithful Word I let everybody know everybody knew I was leaving you know they even threw me a party which was nice you know they threw me a going away party which it's hard to throw a going away party when you just sneak out at night and that's what Laban's even saying he's saying look we could have sent you away with mirth you know we could have you know thrown a party we were glad that you were leaving anyways no I'm just kidding we're like sweet he's leaving you know some people might be like that but that just gives an excuse to party right but at the end of the day you need to learn how to say goodbye hey whenever you're dating someone and you're no longer interested say goodbye you know and they might get mad at the method I would not advise this don't break up over email okay they don't take it that well or whatever I don't know but at least tell them goodbye you know some people they'll just like kind of break up with someone in their mind but they won't tell who they're dating and they're like what's going on they're just like they're hoping it's like office space where they just these things work themselves out naturally they stop giving Milton a paycheck and they're just like it'll eventually work itself out naturally now you need to learn how to say goodbye and just deal with the consequences of partying you know handle it appropriately handle it above board I think that's what Jacob should have done look what it says in verse 32 with whom server thou finest thy gods let him not live before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me and take it to thee for Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them and Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the two maids servants tent but he found them not then he went out of Leah's tent and entered into Rachel's tent now Rachel had taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them and Laban searched all the tent but found them not and she said to her father let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee the custom of women is upon thee and he searched but found not the images now just one quick note Rachel ends up taking Laban's false gods now here's my question how much good did Laban's false gods do for him he lost all of his money well his whole family and his gods he lost it all now here's the thing what sense does that make for Rachel to take her father's false religion when it totally didn't work for him it made no sense and here's another important thing when you leave father and mother and you cleave unto your spouse sometimes it also needs to be ideologically it also needs to be religion I'm not interested in the false religion that my parents taught me growing up I'm going to accept the real religion of the word of God I'm going to submit to my husband or as the husband you're going to lead your family and not just because dad said so but because God the father said so and at the end of the day you have to realize whatever bad habits you have whatever evils you have often times you're going to pass them down on your children that's why it's important to correct it now so that when they leave they don't leave with a bunch of baggage Rachel's leaving with a bunch of baggage that came from Laban and here's another thing men realize that your wife might be carrying some baggage with her from mom and pop that you have to address that you have to fix that you have to think about you know the Bible says that Jacob's unaware well it just sounds like he's not getting to know his wife very well that he's allowing his wife to literally have false religion under her bosom you know hidden from her husband and look whether it be husband or wife you know you don't want false religion in the home you don't want people you know just even tinkering with this kind of stuff Jacob should do a better job understanding what's in his home and not allowing false religion to come into his home not allowing these false gods it's going to cause problems look at what it says in verse 36 yes thou found of all thy household stuff set it here before my brethren and thy brethren that they may judge betwixt us both this twenty years have I been with thee I use and thy she-goats have not cast their young and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten that which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee I bear the loss of it of my hand didst thou require it whether stolen by day or stolen by night thus I was in the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes thus have I been twenty years in thy house I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters and six years for thy cattle and thou hast changed my wages ten times except the God of my father the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac had been with me surely thou hadst sent me away now empty God has seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands and rebuke thee yesternight I never use that term but I like yesternight we always use yesterday but it was like in the nights it's yesternight right but Laban took advantage of Jacob it's so clear as you keep reading it just gets worse and worse what Laban was like unto Jacob not only did he change his wages ten times not only was he kind of deceitful with them and treat him poorly if something got stolen he'd make him pay for it he would also put him out in the worst conditions you know at Christmas while everybody's enjoying you know Christmas dinner he's out getting the frostbite you know he's out when nobody's having a good time he's having to work double shifts he's having to work extra he's having to bear the loss I mean all this bad stuff is happening but you know what God saw Jacob's work ethic God saw what he was doing and God is going to bless him and take care of him that's why it's important to make sure that you're doing right because it says God has seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands now it says in verse number 43 and Laban answered and said unto Jacob these daughters are my daughters and these children are my children and these cattle are my cattle and all that thou seest is mine what can I do this day unto these my daughters or unto their children which they have borne now therefore come thou let us make a covenant I and thou and let it be for a witness between me and thee and Jacob took a stone and set it up for a pillar Jacob sat under his brethren gathered stones and they took stones and made a heap and they did eat there upon the heap Laban called it jagar shahadutha but Jacob called it galid a lot easier and Laban said this heap is a witness before or a witness between me and thee this day therefore was the name of it called galid and mispa for he said the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent one from another thou shalt afflict my daughters or if thou shalt take otherwise beside my daughters no man is with us see God is witness betwixt me and thee and Laban said to Jacob behold this heap and behold this pillar which I have cast betwixt me and thee this heap be witness and this pillar be witness that I will not pass over this heap to thee and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me for harm God of Abraham the God of Nahor the God of their father judge betwixt us Jacob swear by the fear of his father Isaac then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mountain called his brethren to eat bread and they did eat bread and tarried all night in the mountain and early in the morning Laban rose up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them Laban departed and returned unto his place now here's the last kind of thought I want to make real quick is this that we see a covenant being made between Jacob and Laban and I kind of look at this covenant as being about 20 years too late but when he first gets married well I guess you know 14 years or whatever how you want to look at the timeline but whenever you get married to someone's daughter there's kind of this baton handing off where you're kind of entrusting this other man to take care of your daughter and at the end of the day because you're supposed to leave and cleave the father now no longer has rule over this daughter her protection, her being provided for, everything good and bad that's going to happen to her is now kind of under the authority and head structure of the husband and so it's important that the husband realize that even though the father can't always be there, the father doesn't always know what's going to happen, God is still there and God is still going to witness everything that happened and just like in this chapter how God gave all the flock unto Jacob from Laban because he was a bad steward of that flock you know whenever you take on a wife, whenever you take on a family there's a lot of responsibility, there's a lot of importance there and God is still a witness to everything that you do it's important to take good care of your family, it's important to provide for your family, go to Proverbs chapter number 5 one of the things that really upsets Laban and this is a normal thing, is the idea of Jacob going and finding another wife, going against some other woman, you know he's given him both of his daughters, he's given him Leah and Rachel he doesn't want then Jacob to go find some other hussy, some other adulteress he wants a woman to become his prize and to leave his wife in the dust, to leave his wives in the dust and not care about his wives anymore he wants them to be provided for, to be the apple of his life, and obviously it's a weird situation he's got two, but think of it in the context of one a father, the worst thing you could think of is giving his daughter to a man that then no longer loves his daughter and wants another woman is now after another woman, that's why it's important to take your marriage vows and when God and another man gives you his daughter look at that as a serious oath, as a serious covenant that he still cares about that young woman, look at Proverbs chapter number 5 verse 15, the Bible says, drink waters out of thine own sister and running waters out of thine own well, let thy fountains be dispersed abroad in rivers of waters in the streets, let them be only thine own and not strangers with thee, let thy fountains be blessed and rejoice with the wife of thy youth let her be as the loving hind in pleasant row, let her breast satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love, and why wilt thou my son be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger so he's saying, look, you've got a wife you're married, enjoy your wife, be with your wife satisfy yourself with your wife but look at the next verse, this is an interesting verse to go along with this thought verse 21, for the ways of a man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings I don't think that's a coincidence, he's saying, hey, why are you going and seeking another woman God notices everything that you do, and isn't that exactly what we see Laban saying unto Jacob, saying, hey, don't take on other wives you know, I'm not going to be there, I can't see where you're going, and a lot of men in here, you live far from father-in-law I mean, the father-in-law's eyes aren't upon your family, they don't know what's going on they don't know what you're doing, in your day, and in your life, and how you treat your spouse you know what, God sees everything go to Proverbs 15 for a moment, flip the page, go to Proverbs 15 and look at verse number 3 the Bible says the eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good, God sees everything, go to 1 Timothy 5 and the devil through CCTV is trying to get really close, but here's the thing even if you can escape CCTV, you can't escape God the eyes of the Lord everywhere, seeing everything, seeing the good and the evil, not hiding himself, and so if you want to be blessed in your life, you have to realize God's always looking that'll motivate you to do right, that'll motivate you to take care of your family and treat your wife as a special prize, not as a slave you know, I feel like a lot of guys, they just want a slave to satisfy their lust as opposed to a precious, valuable commodity as something that's far above rubies as a helpmeet, as someone that they're supposed to cherish, love and sacrifice for, you know, God, whenever he sent his son here to die on the cross, it was for the church, you know, he purchased the church with his own blood, and Jesus doesn't look at the church as just some kind of a slave to satisfy his lust, but rather it's one he provides for, loves, cherishes what does he expect the church to do? Obey, right? What's a wife's job? Obey. What's a husband's job? Provide, cherish treat with respect, not to look down upon not to just overly be critical because think about it, you know, guys often, they love the doctrine of being in charge, and they get to tell their wife what to do, but here's my opinion, you should analyze your life and say how good am I following God's commandments and then that's how I'm going to criticize my spouse because some guys, they want to criticize their spouse to a perfection level, and I'm like, you're not perfect you've got serious problems too, and look, if you're looking for a wife to be perfect you're never going to get married, because you're not perfect, he's not perfect now I'm not against correcting your spouse, getting things right fixing things, you need to do it with love and affection and you need to provide and take care of her as if the father-in-law was in the room look at 1 Timothy 5 verse 8, but if any provide not for his own and especially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel, that's strong language, the Bible teaches you have to love your spouse, you have to take care of your spouse, she's now under your protection, you know, my wife makes zero money she's good at spending it, but she's not making a lot right now, so she needs someone to provide, she needs someone to take care of her, to help her and to assist her you know, it's a two-way street, obviously this is my help meet, but at the end of the day I also have to help her, I have to provide for her and enable her to be a good mother, you know, by getting her all the needs, you know, if you want really good food, get her nice kitchen utensils you know, it's like a Christmas present that's a double gift, it's, you know, get her the nice oven get her the nice, you know, sink, get her the nice pots and pans, get her that instapot, you know, get her whatever that you get her two, you know, I think my wife wants like four instapots or something, I don't know, it's crazy it's like, get her, you want that really good chili, get the crock pot bring home the bacon, hey you want to eat bacon, you got to bring home the bacon right, you want to eat the meatless chili, don't buy the beans okay, bring home, you want to eat the good meal, you got to bring the good meal onto the table, you got to love her, take care of her you know, realize that marriage is something that's not you know, doesn't just happen automatically marriage takes a lot of effort, energy, and you're going to reap what you sow, you put a lot of love into your spouse, you'll reap a lot of love, if you put a lot of demands and expectations you know what you're going to get, a lot of demands and expectations this is what you should give your spouse, lots of grace, love, mercy, treat them with respect, realize they're, you know, someone that God died for on the cross, or someone that agreed to marry you which for some of you guys, that was a long shot I mean, you don't want to go down, you don't want to play that game again you want to see if you can strut gold twice, okay, you need to just cleave to what you already got okay, some of you, I've seen, you know, you changed after you got married, okay, you're not that strapping young man anymore, don't hold your wife to an unrealistic expectation either go if you went to Psalms 36, I want to go to one more verse here there's a lot of things we can learn from this chapter, but again ultimately, I think it really evolves around this one point just the fear of God, right? Why is Jacob such a good employee, because he had the fear of God he realized God's paying attention to what he's doing, you know, why is it important to take care of your spouse because you fear God, and notice when Laban doesn't fear God when Laban's not paying attention to what God wants, you know, he loses everything that he had and when I look at this world today you know, what did stop Laban at least, he had some level of fear of God he had enough to say I'm not going to kill Jacob, I'm not going to hurt Jacob but there's coming a point in time where the fear of God is going to get to such an extreme that it just doesn't stop anybody, and it's crazy what it says in Psalms 36 verse 1, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before his eyes you know, the thing that stopped Laban from doing something foolish was the fear of God you know, what we notice in this world today is the fear of God is absent from the hearts of men that's why they lie, they steal, they cheat, they murder with just no fear, they just don't fear God today and you know what, it's a dangerous place, it's a dangerous world that we live in today because people have no fear of God, they don't care what the Bible has to say they don't care what a preacher has to say, they don't think they're going to be judged for anything they don't think that the Bible has any impact on their life because of that, they just do all kinds of evil and wicked and harm and so that's why it's important that we have church that's why it's important for people to stand up and to preach thus saith the Lord, that's why it's important to get up and to preach the law so that people can have the fear of God in their life and realize we're supposed to fear God, God is not some paper tiger just putting out a bunch of commandments and be like, you guys please follow this pretty please, you know, God's not up in heaven like the parent at the grocery store saying like, don't cry don't grab that candy, I'm going to count, come over here, I'm going to count to three don't make me count to three, one, two two and a half, two point seven nine, come on Johnny, come over here, don't make me count to five now, three, four, no, God's not like that God is going to actually recompense every single person for everything unless you have the blood of Christ I mean, you are going to get what's coming to you in this life or the next depending on if you're saved or you're unsaved and you know what, we need to fear God even in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation even when the whole world says nuts to God, we need to still say, you know what, I still fear him and there was a whole nation that said that to God, the children of Israel, but Jeremiah said, you know what, I'm not and guess what happened, they destroyed them, it was the worst slaughter, they're eating their own children they're dying of famine and the sword and pestilence and just all manner of evil just constantly consuming them and destroying them and God said, in fact the people that died by the sword were the lucky ones, it was so evil and you know what, in America, we're headed in such a horrible direction it's so evil, people have, they don't care, they'll just lie, they'll lift up their hand and they'll swear to God and they'll just lie just straight through their teeth, you know what they're telling that person, no fear of God and when we have people, so called Christians today, going around and they just lie like nothing, they just twist people's words and just deceive and defraud and steal and just they get repulsed at the commandments of God, you know what that tells me, they have no fear of God, that's a very dangerous world that you live in so beware of the world that you live in, but even if the whole world is crashing around you you can fear God and God can still provide for you and protect you and you know what, the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just, it goes in prayer thank you Heavenly Father for this great chapter and the blessings that you gave to Jacob and the blessings that you give us through Christ, who Jacob often pictures Christ and I pray that we would realize that all the goods that we have today are just a gift from you and that we're supposed to be good stewards of everything we have, the physical possessions the wives, the children, all the stuff that you bless us with, our church and I pray that we would fear God rather than man, wouldn't care what man would do to us what man might take away from us, because in the long run we realize that you're going to bless those that fear you with the favor and the wealth of the sinner, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen For our final song, we'll go to song 364 364, Standing on the Promises 364, Standing on the Promises song 364 Standing on the Promises Standing on the promises of Christ my King Through eternal ages let His praises ring, for in the highest I will shout and sing, standing on the promises of God Standing, standing Standing on the promises of God my Savior, standing standing, I'm standing on the promises of God Standing on the promises that cannot fail when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living word of God I shall prevail, standing on the promises of God, standing standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior, standing standing, standing I'm standing on the promises of God Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, mounted Him eternally by love strong Lord, overcoming daily with His Spirit's sword, standing on the promises of God, standing standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior, standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God Standing on the promises I cannot fail, listing every moment to the Spirit's call resting in my Savior as my all in all, standing on the promises of God, standing standing, standing on the promises of God my Savior, standing standing I'm standing on the promises of God Thank you all for coming, God bless, you are dismissed. Thank you.