Oh, you hear me now. Okay, thank you. Genesis chapter 29 verses 1 through 30. I say as an introduction that we have spent several weeks, of course I've been going a little bit here and there, but anyway, we spent about a month trying to talk about the fact that God can take our pain and turn it into something good.
We do not necessarily believe that God is by any means, the one that creates the pain in our lives, but he certainly knows how to use it. He knows how to use circumstances, he knows how to use hardships, trials, disappointments, setbacks to accomplish within us. A unique work that an easy comfortable life probably isn't gonna change us. It's important to know that as much as you and I are individuals that make choices and they end up with kind of results or consequences, but there are decisions that God makes in our life that sometimes changes things.
The beauty of our relationship with God is that God has the capacity or the ability to produce change in us and we are willing to say yes and amen. The challenge often becomes as in the journey of life that sometimes God is attempting to accomplish unique things and personal things and deep things and we have a tendency to maybe be a little stubborn or resistant in the process. It's not always easy to know when God is trying to do something and when life has simply thrown a bad deal down our way. Many times God gets blamed for the stuff that he didn't do and sometimes he doesn't get credit for the things that ultimately were for our good in the long run.
Genesis chapter 29, verses one through 30. Genesis chapter 29, beginning with verses one, will read down through 30. Then Jacob continued on his journey and he came to the land of the Eastern peoples. There he saw a well in the field.
With three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. So when all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well's mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
Jacob asked the shepherds, my brothers, where are you from? We're from Haran, they replied. He said to them, do you know Laban, Nihor's grandson? Yes, we know him, they answered, then Jacob asked them, is he well?
Yes he is, they said. And here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep. Look, he said, the sun is still high, it's not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.
We can't, they replied. Until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well, then we will water the sheep. While he's still talking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep where she was a shepherdess. When Jacob saw Rachel, daughter of Laban, his mother's brother and Laban's sheep, he went over and he rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well, and he watered his uncle's sheep.
Then Laban kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebecca. So she ran and told her father. As soon as Laban heard the news of Al Jacob, his sister's son, he hurried to meet him.
He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home. And there Jacob told him all these things. Then Laban said to him, you are my own flesh and blood. After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, Laban said to him, just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing?
Tell me what your wages should be. Now Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah. And the name of the younger was Rachel.
Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely and form and beautiful. Jacob wasn't in love with Rachel and said, I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel. Laban said, it's better that I give her to you than to some other man stay here with me. So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel.
But they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife. My time is completed and I want to lie with her. So Laban brought together all the people of that place and gave a feast.
But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob and Jacob lay with her. And Laban gave his servant girl, Zilpa, to his daughter as her maid servant. When morning came, there was Leah. So Jacob said to Laban, what is this you have done to me?
I served you for Rachel. I served you for Rachel, didn't I? Why have you deceived me? Laban replied, it is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.
Finish the daughter's bridal week. Then we will give you the younger one also in return for another seven years of work. And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah.
And then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. Laban gave his servant girl, Bill Ha, to his daughter, Rachel as her maid servant. Jacob lay with Rachel also. And he loved Rachel more than Leah.
And he worked for Laban another seven years. Father, we pause before you because we're not always sure what is a plausible and what is completely wrong. Help us Lord in the search of our hearts to gain some discernment today because we have certainly trusted that Jacob is pleasing to you. And yet we know as well that each and every one of us must mature, we must grow.
We must learn to gain discernment and wisdom. We pray not only as we look at these scriptures to begin to receive application to our lives. We pray that your Holy Spirit might impress upon each and every one of us. What is right?
What is pleasing? What's true? And what's honorable in Jesus' name? Amen.
If we consider and remember why Jacob had made this long journey in the first place from his home in the land of Canaan to go back to Padan around to the home of his mother and grandparents Abraham and Sarah. We know that Jacob went to find a wife. As we know in chapter 28, Genesis chapter 28, we look at verses one and two. So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him and commanded him, do not marry a Canaanite woman.
Go at once to Padan around to the house of your mother's father, Bethul, take a wife for yourself there from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. Now unless we know a little bit of background to this, it kind of seems like these are some pretty strange and bizarre stories. But there's something about faith that encourages us and compels us to do what's right, not simply for me and not simply for the person on my right to left, but it's what is right for the next generation. And so there's a mystery that is hidden in here and I don't want to overcomplicate it this morning.
I simply want us to consider Jacob, the man that God isn't finished with yet, the man that God is beginning to do some potentially great things, but the thing that we must understand about Jacob is God needs to undo some things before he can entrust them with the future blessings of the next generation. And as soon as Jacob arrives at his destination, he by chance or maybe we say divine appointment, he meets the woman of his dreams. Some of us are well aware that what that's like, right honey? Genesis chapter 29, we find as we anticipate the dream of everman to find the perfect wife, we must again consider the things we might call chance, or might they be divine appointment.
Genesis 29, we get the verse 14. Then Laban said to him, you are my own flesh and blood after Jacob had stayed with him for a home. Laban said to him, just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.
Now Laban had two daughters, the name of the older was Leah, the name of the younger was Rachel, Leah was, we can eyes but Rachel was lovely and form and beautiful. Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel. Again, my chance or maybe we call it by divine appointment, Jacob cuts a deal. His journey to Padan around is obviously in his mind successful.
And so for seven years, he lives on an amazing amount of enthusiasm, he's diligent at work, he probably got up earlier than anybody else because to him, Laban has carried him over the horizon. He is living seven years as if they are but a few days because love is powerful. Genesis chapter 29 and then we get to verse 20, it says, so Jacob served seven years to get Rachel. But they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
Now Jacob doesn't waste any time, his purpose for all that he has done for seven years, his thoughts, his energy, his imagination and probably his many prayers was to not only find of the woman of his dreams, but this will become an ultimate reality very soon. And so Jacob, who is known as the grabber, sees as a hold of the opportunity to get the desires of his heart. Let's read in Genesis 29 now, verse 21 through 25. Then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife, my time is completed and I want to lie with her.
So Laban brought together all the people of that place and gave a great feast, but when evening came, he took his daughter Lee and gave her to Jacob and Jacob lay with her and Laban gave his servant girl, Zoopa to his daughter as her maid servant when morning came, there was Leah. This morning we want to consider the thought of how can we maintain and develop a godly integrity in a world that is filled with many moments of dishonesty and deception. As we look at the lives of many individuals in the Bible, we realize that though they seemingly began in a healthy place with a focus upon the things that really matter in life, it's easy for us to grasp, that the influences of life, they have a tendency to shape us and we have a tendency to take the God given gift of an earnest, sincere devotion to God and it gets flavored by the conditions of the world around us. And so we find that it's not easy to maintain integrity when dishonesty comes from the left, it comes from the right and deception confronts us boldly in the face at various times in life.
The first thing we need to understand about maintaining integrity in a world that is not so perfect and so pure is that we need to recognize that every one of us, regardless of who we are gets deceived at some point in our lives. I think one of the greatest tragedies in working through the concepts of integrity and maintaining a godly walk is that somehow we believe that our situation is different. We're an exception to the rule. God understands that I could simply just say to Leah, get out of here.
Maybe I could say to Laban and say, you know what, you cheated me, I'm out of here. But somehow Jacob has enough of a grasp of concept of integrity, at least in its small minute little form to say, but that is wrong. Certainly he's not perfect, but he's in the relationship with God that God is able to change and to transform him from the inside out. But we begin in the wrong place if we assume that, wow, that one is pretty nasty, thankfully for modern electricity and a custom that in our marriages, we lift that veil before we take her home.
That was funny, but it was really sad. But we all have been deceived in one form or another. This one seems like an extreme one, and God sometimes allows somebody else to go through situations so that you and I at least may check some things out before we find ourselves in deep trouble. Maybe it's a friend who's betrayed us.
Maybe it's a neighbor who's lied about us. Maybe it's someone who has stolen something that's very precious to us. Maybe it's the boss that took advantage of us. Maybe it's the teacher who favored someone else, and you had to pay the price.
Or those who we had trusted most is probably the area that seems to rock our culture more than anything else, someone in the home, someone we loved, someone we believed in. They neglected us, they've abandoned us, they've abused us or they have rejected us. Every one of us in some sense has experienced the brunt of a world that lives in deception and seems to be for the most part okay with that. The challenge is that integrity causes us to distinguish between, yes, the pain has been there, but integrity calls us to live differently, to look distinctively in other directions so that we might rise above this deception that comes and goes.
And so the question that we often deal with quite often when it comes to being taken advantage of those kind of things is we want to know why. How could this situation have ever happened? But in order to develop integrity, in order to grow into maturity, we must humbly consider what should I do with this situation now? Jacob was confronted with the reality, he's been burnt, he's been taken advantage of.
Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13. Now I realize that because of translation issues, might I say that when the Scriptures were first given to us, they were really not written in English or King James, they were written in Greek, they were written in a language that somehow has to get translated in English and so we can lose some of the punch of this particular scripture. The scripture translates in English rather smoothly to say that no temptation has seized you and yet the more accurate a translation includes both a trial and a temptation to run from the trial.
It is a kind of temptation that is unique in the sense that you and I could justify what we're gonna do next. We could minimize the rightness of what we ought to do in this situation. It is a temptation that causes us to somehow cut a deal with God that's less than what it takes to have experience change of heart. So here in a situation, it says that no temptation or trial or hardship has seized you except what is common to a man, common.
That's a strange thought and God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted or tried or ripped into beyond what you can bear but the promises here but when you are tempted and tried and ripped into, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. The way out is not so much that the problem disappears the way out is that you and I come out changed. Which important to realize in order to develop integrity and deeper qualities of character is that you and I must recognize that just as life is harsh and just as there are plenty of deceivers out there, we need to realize that God is in control and we can change and grow through the experiences that even evil seems to throw its best shots at us.
This is the promise, is that in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the temptations, in the midst of the circumstances, God is opening a door and we learn to pray, God let me see what it is that you want to show me. Naturally our immediate prayer is, Lord, I want Rachel and that's what Jacob does. He hasn't quite caught on the circumstances. It's all about what Laban did to him and Laban in some sense has justified his behavior because he says that's not our custom.
It's so important to know that outside of a world of pursuing integrity, those who are not concerned about integrity have no problem justifying the things they do but we as a people who want to mature and grow close to God, we want integrity to develop, we are stuck with one grand commitment. God, my eyes on you, I can't let Laban destroy what's happening in my life. It's obvious as well that the life that is filled with deception and therefore painful experiences is common to us, but integrity, we must understand, is rare. That might seem discouraging to us, but it empowers us who have a courage to say, but integrity is the direction that I desire to place my foot to move into.
As rare as it might seem, God has a promise for you and I and that promises God will provide a way. He's going to work out those details to bring about a more mature and a stronger UNI. Jacob has choices to make and so do we. We live in a world in which integrity is seemingly becoming less and less of a concern and when it becomes less and less of a concern, even in the Christian community, we are in trouble and yet we need to recognize the beauty of what this character is truly all about.
Think about the rest of the history of the Bible. It is the God UNI serve is a God of Abraham, Isaac, and this man, Jacob. God's purpose and plan is that these understand the importance and the significance and we trust, that this is the path and the footsteps that we two desire to walk in. We live in a world in which integrity is seemingly becoming less and less a burden or concern and yet this is the essence of Christianity to be transformed into his likeness.
Now it might be a worse noting that Laban had clearly justified his actions and we, not going to take the time to look back at that, it's understandable if his purpose in life is not necessarily integrity that he is okay living a life that is less than that which we would call integrity, but the rules change and our rights change and our principles of life become so different when we lose sight of that importance of integrity. But to us who cherish integrity, we must look beyond the experiences of disappointment and confidently look to God. Proverbs chapter three verse five and six, I believe is really a powerful concept here. Let's turn to that, I know that many of us might be well familiar with it, but it probably won't hurt to look at the fine print once again.
Proverbs chapter three verses five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your past straight. You know, I memorized that one years ago and it's not until you're in a situation that you don't understand that it really brings a clarity to our mind and our hearts. If I understood my circumstances, if I thought that things were going quite well, if I wasn't in a middle of a situation that caused me to say this does not make sense that this scripture really has no meaning. Once again, it's easy to trust God when you're on the mountain top, but trusting God when you're in the midst of a very complicated situation, that's what the beauty of this is.
And so the second thing that's important in developing integrity is not only to understand that what I go through is rather common among all of the Christian community, it may not be so common to the world that is without faith because they don't really have the sense of I need to become different, they're perfectly at peace justifying and minimizing and rationalizing their whole current of life, they simply believe that if I get to see, I'll give it back to them. Well, we need to realize it's not only must we understand that the circumstances we go through are common, but second of all, God has promises for us in the midst of that common confusion. God has promises to us when understanding doesn't make sense. When our circumstances don't fit, they don't line up, we humbly can choose to trust God.
Trust is a lot different than faith because faith seems to communicate a thought process that is consistent with what is written, whereas trust is when the lights go out and you don't know whether it's Rachel or Leah. The important thing we must realize is trust is that, which is in the dark and faith is that which we can look to the truth and say, there's the promise, there's the principle, I by faith will walk in that way and we come to trust is a whole different issue. Notice in verse 31 of Genesis chapter 29, Genesis chapter 29, we'll back here again and look at verse 31. Now when the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
One of the most difficult lessons about integrity is to humbly consider that God may be desiring to use this disappointment, this trial, this injustice to promote his own glory and ultimately our own good. We sometimes live a Christian life that is geared so much on pursuing the woman of our dreams or the world of our dreams. We have this idea of what it means to be blessed and prosperous and successful. We have this idea that we really want the favor of God in our life and we want the good things of God to come into our life as so many promises contribute.
But we must understand integrity doesn't happen because we always receive the good things in life. Integrity is what is developed when something seems to go wrong and it's not that something goes wrong, is that our interpretation of life is that this is not supposed to happen at least to me. Integrity is what grows and matures in the dark. It's what happens when you and I cannot pull the right strings and push the right buttons.
It's when trust begins to become the only bottom foundation stolen that you and I can find. Faith is a different kind of dynamic. It builds its confidence, it gains its speed, it gets its determination based upon the principles and the truths of scripture trust is when it all goes belly off, it all falls to pieces. But is it falling to pieces?
Integrity believes. God, you are still in control. By a confident trust, we look to God again for his glory and his power to move in spite of what faith seems to say. So some that's a contradiction.
To some of the rest of us, it's where worship begins. Worship begins when you and I realize, God, you look like you've lost and you've let me down. But Job teaches us. What he does is he worships.
It's so important that you and I, if we want integrity, it takes us on a different course. If we simply want to justify or minimize or say, well, it really doesn't matter how I live and the choices I make and how I go through life, then all the rules change. Integrity calls us to a new way of thinking and living. The truth is we serve the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And they went through all kinds of trials and hardships. They went through huge promises and a lot of pain. They went through circumstances that don't make sense. But God was not only preparing a people that he would consider as a treasured possession to him, but he's setting the tone for what our forefathers stood upon and anchored themselves in.
And those qualities and principles of life is what sets the foundation for the Christian faith that you and I long for to be established in our lives. Integrity is possible when we humbly look at the bigger pictures we mentioned. God has his eye on Leah. Jacob still is dreaming about Rachel.
And in the midst of God's intrusion in the process, he gives Jacob a chance to consider what's taking place. And yet rather than humbly asking God for a little advice, a little bit of guidance, he makes another deal, seven more years, and I'll still get my dream. He loved her so much, he was so precious to him, he figured 14 years for is great, Leah, take a back seat. It's strange to think when integrity is not the driving motive of our lives, now sometimes we can really justify and minimize a lot of bizarre behavior, but on the surface if we allow Jacob to be recognized as a hero of our faith, we may never see the tragedies of the struggles he personally went through.
And the same thing is with all the heroes of the Bible, we wonder sometimes how in the world God ever brought out his glory and his purpose and plan. Fortunately we have a God who is bigger than even our own foolishness. And as long as we like Jacob, we spend too much time feeling defeated and discouraged because we do not get our way and yet boldly come back and all we want is a woman of our dreams. That might be interpreted that we simply want some things that we have insisted God gives to us.
He insisted he provides into our life. We have this enormous ability to sometimes miss the beauty of a changed life because we are so focused on what we might be at God as another plan. His plan was about Leah and Jacob. His plan was that this is the woman I want to give you.
He's the one that orchestrated that. Now that's a little tough for us to process because, oh, we can pick any woman we want. Or we can dream for anything we want. We can desire anything we want.
We can ask for whatever we want and then be given to us. You and I need to realize as true and as precious as those promises are, let's turn to Genesis chapter 27. Genesis chapter 27. Integrity runs its own kind of course.
It takes us on a different direction because character formation takes us on a deeper out. And that's the beauty of what we and I must humbly consider. Genesis 27, we look at verse 15 and I'll start there. Genesis 27 and verse 15.
Now, Rebecca took the best clothes of Esau, her older son, which she had in the house and put them on her younger son, Jacob. She also covered his hands and the smooth part of his neck with goat skins. Then she handed to her son, Jacob, the tasty food and the bread that she had made. He went to his father and said, my father, yes, my son, he answered, who is it?
Jacob said to his father, I am Esau. You're first born. I have done as you told me, please sit up and eat some of my games so that you might give me your blessing. Now, that's a scary plot, but is there a chance that we somehow could allow others to manipulate us into thinking the secret to the blessing is to be a deceiver yourself.
The reason we know that God's plan was probably that Leah would be the wife of his choosing rather than Rachel being the wife of his own choosing is because we clearly see that God's plans are always higher and his thoughts are always greater than ours. And what God's purpose and plan was is to get Jacob to realize this life is not about you. It's about God's glory and God's purpose and God's plan, but he was a grabber on the day he was born. And he was a grabber throughout the years he lived.
And one day the grabber got grabbed. And God needs to bring us to a place where he wants to teach us and reveal to us and show us and stretch us so that we might come to terms, Lord, what in the world am I doing with my life because my life is truly to be led by you and I are going to face circumstances every day in which it takes us or causes us to react or respond in one form on another. But integrity is that call that you and I have received from God to let character develop within us. The price is, can I always have what I want?
And the other question is, would it do me any good? Jacob had more problems with Rachel all the way to the finish line than he ever had from Leah. But somehow we like the love story. So we believe that Rachel is the right answer because she's the woman of his dreams.
She was the one that was beautiful. She was the one that was desirable. And somehow you and I must recognize that the secret to integrity is to let God win when he's already demonstrated and shown us this is the right way. I realize as individuals who have a sense of freedom in our life that we can allow ourselves to just simply desire and delight in the things that the world offers and somehow believe that there's a lot of freedom in our choices and direction in life that might be true.
But one thing is you and I will not become the people of integrity that God intends until we realize that when things begin to twist, we have to humbly say, Lord, what does this mean to me? Because if we jump too quick, we move too soon, we respond too impulsively that there are chances that character gets foreshort changed. And yet we walk away saying, but I got what I wanted. Father forgive us in the journey of life to realize that yes, we indeed can have so many things in life.
We can have things our way. We can get the things we want and the things we demand. And somehow it gets endorsed, it gets applauded. And forgive us Lord for the times in life that the only one that knows the truth is ourselves.
We pray Lord that you would do your great and glorious and deep penetrating work, help us to realize by trusting you, that's where our strength truly lies. Shape us Lord, transform us into the people that you intend us to be and I trust that that transformation would be the proof to the world you really live in Jesus name. God bless. I guess I'm supposed to invite everybody to my own party.
Come on downstairs.