0:00 and believe that we can see you in all circumstances, Lord. And please speak to us. Thank you for speaking to me and and the life you've given and the help through trials or through things that we would never choose, Lord, but you're 0:15 working, Lord. Help us all to see that you are at work and that you're good no matter what things may look like, Lord. And you have a purpose in us that we could know you more. Please help us to see in Jesus name. Amen. 0:26 Okay. Okay. So, if you want to turn to Genesis uh 29, we're going to talk about Leah in the book of Genesis. Uh Rachel and Leah. This is something that I thought a lot about. As you read through the scriptures, hopefully it's we go through 0:44 different stages in life. Sometimes we're reading the scriptures for information so we can learn what happened here in 2 Kings 13 or what what did Jesus say in John 3 or whatever. And that's good. And other times we might 0:58 someone might ask us a question or we have our own question. We want to find out what does the Bible have to say about this issue and we go to it and we study and we look for that. And that's also good. No, nothing wrong with either 1:08 of those. But another thing that one of the things that's helped me a lot the last few years is just reading reading and and asking the Lord to speak and to show me myself. And he's been very faithful to do that. And I haven't 1:21 always been happy to see what I've seen. But uh I'm thankful and so this is more of a testimony of of me seeing myself in Leah. And so uh in the good and the bad. So hopefully something here can help you as well. But um in Genesis 29, 1:40 Jacob is sent to this far country where his mom's family is. Jacob's not married and Abraham doesn't or Isaac doesn't want him to take a a pagan wife. And so he sends Jacob to this far place and uh in Genesis 29, we'll read, we'll be 1:57 reading in 29 and 30. Um in 29 and verse uh 14, he gets there and Laban is the dad. So we have Leah is the older one and Rachel and Laban is the dad who is actually Jacob's uncle. And Laban says, "Surely you're my bone in my flesh." And 2:15 Jacob stays there a month. So Jacob came from far away. He's he lives here. He stayed there a month. He has already met Rachel and he's he loves her and he's there with Laban. And verse 15, Laban says to Jacob, "Because you are my 2:31 relative, should you therefore serve me for free for nothing? Tell me, what do you want me to pay you with?" Jacob is a shepherd by trade. If you remember back when um Isaac was going to bless his sons, Esau was a hunter and Jacob dwelt 2:45 in tents and was more of a shepherd. And so Laban is also a shepherd. Jacob shows up after a month. Laban likes what he sees in Jacob. He's making him money. He's a successful at what he does. And Laban says, "Hey, I could like I like 3:01 this guy. If he sticks around, that'd be good. I don't want to lose him." And so Jacob is working there for that month. Laban says, "Okay, what do you want? I want you to stay with me. I'll pay you. What do you want?" In verse 16, now 3:13 Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah. The name of the younger was Rachel. And Leah's eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful of form and face. And so I take that to mean that Leah was not attractive, but Rachel was 3:28 was attractive. And verse 18, now Jacob loved Rachel. So he said to Laban, I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel. And Laban said, it is better that I give her to you than some other man. Stay with me. We have a deal. Okay. And it's 3:45 interesting. This will come up later in verse 18. Jacob says, "I will serve you seven years for your younger daughter Rachel." And this will come up as an issue because they have this policy supposedly where the younger can't get 3:58 married first. But Jacob is laying it out. Okay, I love Rachel. I want Rachel. She's younger. Is this a deal? Is this going to work? And Laban said, "Yeah, you got it. I that sounds good." So Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And 4:11 they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her. He loved her tremendously. In verse 21, then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for it's time completed. I can go into her. We can get married." And Laban gathered all the men 4:24 in the place and made a a huge feast. Now it came about in the evening, the wedding night, he took his daughter Leah, and brought her to him. And Jacob went into her. And Laban also gave his maid Zila to Leah as a maid. So it came 4:38 about in the morning that behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Was it not for Rachel that I served with you? Why then have you deceived me?" Can you imagine being Let's back up before you think about I've always 4:54 thought about Jacob. And in my Bible in verse 25, it says, "Behold, it was Leah." There's an exclamation mark. That's a big exclamation mark. There's a lot in that. What a shock to Jacob. And I've always read this in the shock of 5:06 Jacob waking up and the anger and betrayal. But what if you're Leah? Did did Laban ever in these seven years leading up to this did ever did Laban ever tell Leah what was going to happen? Laban's an evil man. He's a conniving 5:19 man. He's a grabber. He's an idol worshipper. He loves money. He doesn't care about his daughters obviously. And is this the day before that evening that he grabs Leah and and does this switch? I don't know. We don't have that detail. 5:33 I suspect so because I think if he would have told her ahead of time, something would have spilled out and Jacob would have got wind of it. But can you imagine being taken your life, you're just living there, you're, you know, your 5:43 sister's in love, Jacob loves her, that's fine, whatever. And then all of a sudden, you're thrust into this. And for me, that was a picture of different things in our life that come along that we have no control over. We're thrust 5:54 into a situation. Some trial comes into our life. We're put in some circumstances. We didn't sign up for that. We didn't choose that. But here we are. And and here she is. She here she is. And you see the disgust in Jacob. 6:07 What is this? I don't want this one. And imagine your Leah. You your dad betrayed you. He He doesn't love you. He look what he's doing to you. Treating you like money or something. And then here Jacob doesn't love you. He doesn't want 6:20 you. Imagine the the pain and the heartbreak of that. And now what's she supposed to do? She's married to this guy the rest of her life. And Laban said, "It is not the practice in our place to marry off the younger before 6:29 the firstborn." What an evil guy. He could have told he didn't tell Jacob that earlier. If that's true. If that's even true. He didn't he didn't do that. He did it so he could have Jacob working there as a shepherd. He was very good 6:40 making all this money making Laban more rich. And so Laban doesn't care at all what going on with Leah. Doesn't care at all the trauma and the heartbreak of Rachel. He says it's not the practice to marry off the younger first. Complete the week 6:55 of this one and we'll give you the other for all the service which you shall serve with me for another another seven years. So imagine in today's salary range, seven years of salary, double that, over a million dollars probably 7:08 worth of free labor he got off of Jacob. And Jacob was very good. The Lord was blessing Jacob. Laban was getting filthy rich off of this at the expense of his daughters. But Jacob said, Jacob obviously very angry, but what's he 7:19 supposed to do? He can't kidnap her. And verse 28, and Jacob did so and completed her week, and he gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife. Laban also gave Bilah to Rachel as her maid. So, Jacob went to Rachel. Also, indeed, he 7:32 loved Rachel more than Leah. And he served with Laban for another seven years. So, this to me was just an example of these things that we're thrust into in life that God somehow allows these horrible trials. We would never imagine ourselves being in these 7:47 situations. But here we are. We find ourselves there. In verse 31, the Lord sees all this. By the way, in your life and in in Leah's, the Lord sees very clearly, crystal clear. We may not even have the Lord in our mind. We might be 8:02 so focused on this horrible thing that happened to me that I didn't deserve this that this is not my fault. We might have our eyes on this trial. But the Lord has his eyes on us. And the first words after this, now the Lord saw that 8:15 Leah was unloved. The Lord sees everything we're going through and he saw this and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. God loved Leah. God loved Rachel and he wanted them both to know him. So God opened the womb of Leah. He 8:32 allowed her to conceive and to bear a son. And even now it's it's such a wonderful thing to have children. But especially back in that culture to have to be the one to give the firstborn, to be the one who was bearing children. 8:45 That was such a special role and that was such a prized thing, especially in this horrible situation where you have a guy with two wives. that that is never obviously I don't need to say that's a bad idea but I I don't see any example 8:57 of of scripture of that ever being a good deal. It's always goes wrong. It always causes awful pain and suffering. It's always a bad situation. But here she is. What she supposed to do? She didn't choose this. She wasn't 9:08 negotiating with Laban. Hey, can you sneak me in there? I want to get married. No, she was just thrust into this. But God saw that God opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah knew Jacob didn't love her. Leah knew Jacob loved Rachel with a 9:25 passion. And in addition to that, Leah was not attractive. And Rachel's beautiful. So Leah has all this what is what is her value? What is she worth to anybody? Nobody wants her. Her dad didn't want her. Her husband doesn't 9:38 want her. What is she supposed to do? She's worthless in her mind until now. Verse 32. And Leah conceived and bare a son and named him Reuben. For she said, "Because the Lord has seen my affliction." I'm so thankful. She She 9:52 recognizes the Lord has seen her affliction. That is amazing. A lot of times we're in a trial and we are desperate to get out of it. We We would never have chosen this. And God gives us a blessing and we don't even see that 10:05 God gives us a blessing. We're so focused on get me out of this trial. God here sees and he blesses us in a different way. He doesn't get us out of the trial. He didn't kill Jacob to free her from this. He saw in a different 10:17 way. He blessed her with his son Reuben. And she does see that. She says, "Because the Lord has seen my affliction. I am so afflicted." She says, "But here in her heart, here's the most important thing to her. Surely now 10:31 my husband will love me." That is her desperate need. That is that is her desperate want and desire. And that is a good thing. She's not wanting riches. She doesn't She's not trying to be the queen. She doesn't want to worship 10:42 idols. She doesn't want fame. She just wants a simple basic God-given instinct to have her husband love her. That's all she's asking for. And in our lives, we can desire things that are godly and from him. desiring a spouse, desiring 10:58 wisdom on a career or where to move or health, financial stability, all whatever it may be that you are dealing with now that we are dealing with these good and godly things. We're not trying to chase the world or grab these things 11:12 for ourselves. It is a godly thing that that she's wanting and is a good thing. And but that has risen to this high level that that's the most important thing to her. She says, "Surely now my husband will love me." So she she 11:27 has her eyes fixed on Jacob every day. She loves Ra. She sees that Jacob loves Rachel. Jacob loves Rachel. What can I do? What can I do? And she's so excited that now she has a kid first. Rachel can't have is not apparently having 11:40 she's barren. She's not having children. So Rachel gets that privilege and blessing to be the one to give Jacob his first son. And she even names him Ruben. That means Reuben means see a son. And I imagine when, you know, it's obvious 11:56 she's, you know, pregnant and she's getting larger and when the baby comes, I don't know how it was back then if Jacob was around or not, but I can just imagine that when Leah had this baby and she came to Jacob for the first time 12:09 that Jacob could see his firstborn son. That's a huge deal. The firstborn son was the one who would get the blessing. The firstborn son is the start of that family. And she she brings this son to Jacob and she says, "See a son. See, I'm 12:21 giving you a son. Don't you love me now?" And you could imagine Jacob's so thrilled to have a son and Leah standing there waiting for this change and there's no change. He still doesn't he doesn't switch. He doesn't drop Rachel 12:35 and say, "No, I love you more now." No, that never happens. Even through her whole life, we don't see that. So, she's disappointed again. And that doesn't happen. And she's so fixated on what she doesn't have that she can't see 12:48 what she does have. She has the Lord who, if we can just remember, the Lord sees our affliction. He may not answer our prayer in the way we want it. Her prayer was, I want Jacob to love me, but he answered a a different desire to give 13:02 her this son, but she's not that's not bringing the rest. And we'll see in the next few verses. And these verses, it's easy when we're reading through to just be in a hurry, not paying attention. These verses cover multiple years, maybe 13:15 a decade. Who knows? I don't know the spacing of the children that they had, but there are years in here and there's years in our life sometimes where we have that thing that we just Lord, please, and I'm not saying don't pray 13:26 for those things. And she prayed. She prayed for children. She prayed for Jacob to love her, I'm sure. But time passes in verse 33. And she conceived again and bore a son, another son, and said, "Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has 13:44 therefore given me this son also." So he named him Simeon. Simeon means hearing. God heard. God heard. And her focus still was not being loved. She was not able to 14:03 rejoice. God has given me two precious boys. And she wouldn't even like in a carnal way say, "At least I have two kids. Rachel doesn't have anyone." She couldn't even get to that level. She was so focused on the number one thing in 14:14 her life was that Jacob would love her. And the Lord saw that everything that happened to her in her life all the way up till now, he saw how her father betrayed her. He saw how that Jacob didn't want her, the rejection. He saw 14:28 the favoritism of towards Rachel and another son has come but she still says I'm not loved. She doesn't see that God loves her. She doesn't see God is loving and kind and here's another son. Leah, I want you to to realize that what you 14:47 think is the most important thing is not the most important thing. And in our lives as the Lord brings disappointment in our life, there's a purpose for everything. That is a that is a bedrock of our faith that God is working all 15:01 things together for the good of those who love him and we're called according to his purpose. And that that last two words sometimes we forget when we throw around 8:28 like it's a I don't know a motto or something. It's his purpose. 15:13 We're called according to his purpose. His purpose for Leah was not that Jacob would love her supremely. His purpose for Leah was that she would know him. And God is allowing these disappointments in Leah's life over and 15:26 over that she would that that he she could snap out of it and see and let go of that that thing that she held on so tightly. And the same for us in our lives. If we hit a closed door, a closed door, or if we get disappointment, 15:38 disappointment, it's so we'll turn to him. It's cuz he loves us. He's he verse 31, he saw what he sees what's happening. Verse 32, he hears what's happening. He's totally aware of everything and he has a plan. It's most 15:52 likely not going to fit and align with what we map out. And you look back at the end of verse 32, she said, "Okay, I have Reuben." She said, "Surely now it'll all be fine. Now my life will get better now. I'll have what I want. This 16:06 is a good thing. I'm not asking for a lot. Lord, just let Jacob love me." She said she was sure. And sometimes in our life when we are seeking the Lord in an area or we are just burdened and longing for something and we start to maybe God 16:20 answered prayer over here. Oh, maybe it'll work out. Maybe my life will go back to the way I want it. And she was wrong. Jacob didn't start. And but God is faithful. It doesn't change God. And just because God doesn't change our 16:33 circumstances doesn't mean he doesn't see, doesn't mean he doesn't hear. Doesn't mean he doesn't love us tremendously. We are just waiting for him to get in line with our program. And that's backwards. He is longing for 16:44 us to see his goodness, that he is worthy. So the Lord saw that she is unloved, she says. And her focus is so off. And this is where we can stop and think about the trials and when we have these 17:03 disappointments just to to step back and and say, "What is the Lord doing? The Lord is not answering my prayer, but he's he's still blessing. He's still giving me. that he doesn't have to give any children. She could have been 17:12 barren, too. It would have been much worse. The Lord is so merciful and kind. But she's so focused on this and it reminded me of John 12 25. It says, "He who loves his life will lose it, but he who hates his life in this world will 17:23 keep it to life eternal." And I've often thought of that that he who loves his life will lose it. And in that phrase, like we say in today, oh, that guy lost it. He's crazy. we're going to go crazy if we're so focused on grabbing and so 17:35 focused on what we want and so focused on demanding that God come to our level and give us what we're asking for and just that yield and that surrender. And um so that encouraged me and challenged me and I saw myself. But in verse 33, you you don't see if we 17:51 just look at what she said. The Lord saw heard that I'm unloved and he's given me a son. So she's still there's still the Lord there. They're still acknowledging this is from God. I'm but I'm unloved. But she doesn't have that hope. The last 18:05 child, she said, "Surely Jacob will love me. It didn't happen." So now she doesn't even have that hope that Jacob's going to love her. She just lost that. But she's she's thankful for the son. At the same time, she's so focused on 18:16 nobody loves me. And so there's that mixture that we can have even in our lives. The Lord's merciful. He didn't come down with a hammer on Lee. He didn't give her leprosy. He's so patient. If it takes four, six, eight kids, however many she's going to have, 18:29 if Lord is so patient with us, and sometimes it takes time for us to come to that place of surrender. But verse 34, and she conceived again. So time goes on, years, we don't know how many. Time goes on. She she has to deal with this every day. Rachel's the 18:45 favorite. He loves Rachel. He doesn't love me. She has these two boys. She could ra be focused on pouring herself into these boys that they would fear the Lord and walk with him. And if you look later on in Genesis, all these kids, 18:57 Jacob and Rachel, Leah's and the handmaid's kids, all these boys, they're all messed up. They all they do some wicked stuff. And if Ra if Rachel and Leah would have taken time, if Leah would have taken time to say, "Hey, you 19:09 know what? I haven't got what I want, but let me pour myself into these boys. Let me raise them up in the fear of the Lord that maybe they'll be godly one day." She could have done that, but often we we we get lost in what we're 19:20 focused on, what's so important to us. But verse 34, she conceived again and bore a son, another son, and said, "Now this time my husband will become attached to me because I have borne him three sons. Therefore, he was named 19:35 Levi." Levi means attached. So we think of we have a book of Leviticus. We talk about the Levites. That whole name is is that name because of this woman wanted her husband to be attached to her. And that was still the number one thing in 19:49 her mind, in her heart. And again she she has renewed hope. She said okay now I have a third son. Now this time my husband will be attached to me because I have borne him three sons. You see the difference here? She didn't say God has 20:02 seen God has heard. God has given me this son. She doesn't say that anymore in this one. She doesn't mention the Lord at all. And then she even in fact says I have borne him three sons. Well you you can only give birth because God 20:14 gives you that child. That's from God. She doesn't mention that. She loses sight. So, it's kind of a downward little slip here that she's not having in the Lord in her vision. She's still so focused. And to step back, I'm not 20:27 trying to be hard on her. I'm This is I see myself in this. You can't blame her for all this miserable life that she's in. But she's she's the one losing out. She's the one with no peace. She's the one with such unrest and anguish. 20:41 But so she has three sons and she's just trudging through life and pushing through and no joy, no peace. It's not a sinful thing for her to want Jacob to love her. But it has become sinful, I believe, because that's overtaken anything else in life. That's 20:57 become the number one thing. And in our lives, we might be longing and praying and so focused on something that that could become that to at that level that that's more important than anything else. But it's not. And sometimes we 21:09 just need a reboot, a reset. And something happened between after Levi. As time goes on, again, we don't have the years put in here. And how long, but time goes on. Levi is born. She has Reuben, Simeon, Levi. She has these 21:24 three boys. She lives in her own separate tent. She doesn't live with Jacob. She sees him, I guess, but she still sees Rachel as favored. She still has that struggle. And over time, we don't know the time. We don't know what 21:37 happened between verse 34 and verse 35. But something tremendous happens between these verses and in verse 35. And she conceives again and bore a son and said, "This time I will praise the Lord." Therefore she named him Judah. Then she 21:54 stopped bearing. This time there's no mention of Jacob. There's no mention of I bore third I bore this other children or naming the kid after some desire to be loved by Jacob. She's completely let go of this issue and now it's just about 22:09 the Lord. She realizes she has she can see clearly through time, through this brokenness. She's come to surrender and she's thankful for these sons. She's thankful for the Lord has seen and heard. She reflects on all that she's 22:23 been through and she's like, "I'm just going to praise the Lord this time. This time I'm just going to praise the Lord. There's nothing about Jacob, nothing about what she wants anymore. And I'm just so encouraged and challenged by 22:34 this. And I've tried to remember the Lord. Often I forget. And you'll see what happens with her down the road. She forgets. But just to say this time, I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm not going to worry about it. I'm not going to make 22:47 this the number one thing in my life. Even if it's a good thing, even if it's a godly thing, I'm just going to praise the Lord this time. And it was also such a blessing as I realized from Adam till now 2,000 plus years no one we don't have any record of 23:03 anyone ever praising the Lord that I can see in scripture with that word. And this is the first written example of someone praising the Lord. And it's after 10 years, four kids, a miserable marriage, anguish, never getting what 23:17 she wants. It's that brokenness and it's that surrender where she comes to a place of praising the Lord. And I just saw that it is such a precious and valuable thing when we can praise him when we have not gotten what we wanted. 23:32 We are still at the bottom of the barrel and at the low point. When we can praise him from that moment, that is a sweet aroma to him. It's easy to throw around the word, you know, the phrase praise the Lord, all that stuff. I'm not 23:42 against saying that. But what what depth and value is backed up by this praise versus a lot of the praise that we could easily throw around. It's like if I wrote if I at home if I drew a dollar bill and printed it out and I I I gave it to you. I said, 23:58 "Here's a dollar bill." And I it's on printer paper and you said there's nothing backing this up. It has no value. But if I give you a dollar bill out of my wallet, that's backed up by the United States government. There's 24:08 value behind that because of what's in the back. And that this praise here has value because of what it what it came from. And I'm just real encouraged by that. And she named his she names her son Judah. And this is the son whom 24:22 through whom Jesus comes, the lion of Judah, Jesus is called. And it begins with with praise. But the praise doesn't she didn't come out with praise on the first round. She didn't come out with praise when Jacob woke up and is 24:35 screaming at Laban, "What are you doing to me?" There was no praise then, but it took time. And one thing I am encouraged by that is that the Lord is willing to wait on us. The Lord is willing to faithfully work in our lives and he's 24:47 willing to wait and let us come to the place of surrender. And it wasn't on the first round. It wasn't on the second, third round of children. It was on this this time that she realized this is about the Lord. I'm just going to praise him. And when the 25:01 Lord is when I've remembered to do this, that is such freedom in that and the freedom and that surrender. And I also saw that praise is the fruit of surrender. If I'm really surrendered, I'm going to praise the Lord. If I'm if 25:13 I think I'm surrendered, but I'm still grumbling, I'm not surrendered. I don't want to fool myself. But if you if you have surrendered, whatever the issue is, and there's a genuine praise, Lord, I'm just going to praise you. And you don't 25:23 have to quote this verse. There's no magic in this verse in saying that phrase. But if that's your heart, like, okay, Lord, I'm done. Whatever you want to do, I'm just going to praise you. That's true surrender. That's true 25:34 surrender. The circumstances didn't change. We don't have any verse verse 36. There's no verse 36 says, "And then Jacob loved her. She still didn't get what she wanted. And you and I still might not get what we want. Our circumstances may 25:49 never change. And for her, they we have no evidence that Jacob ever started loving her more than Rachel or that she was favored." Every time Leah and Rachel in the Bible, it's always Rachel and Leah. Every time. Rachel and Leah. 26:02 Rachel and Leah. Rachel and Leah. Rachel's the second wife. She's the younger one, but she's always put first in every time. Even later on in the book of Ruth, the ladies are making reference to uh Ruth or Naomi uh and blessing them 26:15 and they say, "May you be like Rachel and Leah." Rachel's always first. Leah never gets what she wants, but that's okay. At this point, she's surrendered. And you can just hear the the peace in that when she names him. There's just 26:29 such a peace. So, I praise God for that. And now you have Rachel. And Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children. She's watching Leah. So, here you have a situation where Leah just wants to be loved and she gets children. And then Rachel just 26:46 wants children and she gets the love. And this is God. He's at work. He wants to strip away those things that we want so bad that are not him. And whatever it may be, for for Leah, it was love the love of Jacob. For Rachel, it was I want 26:59 kids. For you or me, it might be something else. And again, none of these things are evil. It's not evil to want your husband to love you. Not evil to want children. But these are the things that rise to be an idol in our life that 27:09 are so important. And Rachel's had it. She saw verse 30 or chapter 30:1. Rachel saw she bore Jacob no children and she became jealous of her sister. And she said to Jacob, "Give me children or else I die." And this reminds me of 27:26 that verse I quoted in John. If you love your life, you'll lose it. She's talking like a crazy person. How is Jacob supposed to create children for her? It's not Jacob's fault. Then Jacob's anger burned against Rachel. And he 27:37 said, 'Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb. And we like the verse grievous words stir up anger. This is just getting ugly. But neither one is yielded and surrendered to God. And Rachel's had it. 27:51 She's so desperate. Verse three, here's my maid. You can have her as a wife and maybe maybe somehow her kid will count as mine. And so verse four, she gave him her maid, Bilha. and Jacob had her as a wife and they all conceived and bore 28:04 Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, "God has vindicated me and has indeed heard my voice and has given me a son." Therefore, she named him Dan. So Rachel, you know, we focused a lot on Leah and her struggles. Rachel's certainly has her own struggles 28:20 and she's even bringing God into this. She's saying, "God has vindicated me, but it's not a rest. It's not a rest. It's a false. It's a religious lip service that go, "Yeah, God vindicated me. It's been so unfair. My life is so 28:32 unfair." And we can have that attitude, too, that when we finally think we get what we want, we can say, "Oh, yeah. Finally, it's happened." And she's just paying that lip service to God. She's still bitter. She still says, "My life 28:43 is not fair." Even though she is loved and cherished by her husband, the thing that Leo wants, she said, "God has heard my voice and given me a son." There she Therefore, she named him Dan. And Rachel's made Billha conceived again, 28:57 born a second son. So time goes on, a year or two or whatever. So Rachel said, "With mighty wrestlings I have wrestled with my sister and indeed I prevailed." She named him Napili. Can you just imagine the the strife in this compound 29:11 if it's they had different tents or however it worked. Can you imagine every day Leah and her sister just this emnity between them? And Leah has come to a place of peace where she's surrendered and Rachel is is so miserable and she's 29:24 I'm just wrestling with my sister. God heard me. She God's going to help me beat my sister. It's just crazy. But she's just loving her life so much and she's going to lose it. And it's also a good a good to step back and see look at 29:39 what a surrendered life looks like. It's a life of peace and praise. And look at what an unsurrendered look life looks like. It's wrestling and fighting and grabbing. And look, we can look back in our lives, the times where we weren't 29:50 were not surrendered to a thing. We could see no peace, no rest, fighting, anxious, all these things. And then you you look at the times where you surrendered and you're like, "Wow, that was so wonderful. I want to live in that 30:00 all the time." And I wish I wish uh the end of 29 was that was it for Leah. I wish she could have just parked there and praising God and surrender and smooth sailing, coasting on heaven. That's not how it happened with Leah. It's it's the 30:15 battle's not over. Just cuz you surrender and praise the Lord, doesn't mean you're good to go for the next few decades. But Leah, verse 9, saw that she had stopped bearing. So Leah wasn't having children. And she saw what Rachel 30:26 did. Okay, we got this maid coming in. She can have kids and I can claim those. And Leah gave Zofa to Jacob as a wife. And she bore Jacob a son. Then Leah said, "How fortunate." And she named him Gad. So as you try to look at this and what is 30:42 she saying? I guess she's she's thankful for the son, but there's no mention of God. There's no there's still there's like this the strife has been reignited in Leah because it says in verse 9, when Leah saw that she had stopped bearing, 30:54 then she started, "Okay, what can I do now?" She could have saw that she stopped bearing and just said, "Okay, I'm going to praise the Lord. That's it. It's okay." She didn't. And we can surrender things and then we can as time 31:05 goes on, something might trigger. We take our eyes off the Lord again. Like Peter when he was walking on the water, he started sinking when he took his eyes off the Lord. And Leah starts sinking because she took her eyes off the Lord 31:14 and that it's about him and we can have that same we lose our peace. And I don't imagine that verse n Leah had peace and said, "Oh, I'm s I'm at such rest. Just praise the Lord. I'm just going to go ahead and give my mate so I can have 31:27 more children." That it was it was strife. It was that wrestling. So she's she's fortunate. She's recognizes this is good. I'm happy. It's all a surface. There's no depth to it. In verse 12, there's another son through Leah's maid. Leah says, "Happy am I, for 31:42 women will call me happy." So, she named him Asher. Again, just kind of a surface. I'm so happy now. And um later on, verse 14, Reuben's older now, and he has some mandrekes. These these are like uh some kind of plant that they believed 31:57 would help you bear children better. And Reuben is Leah's son. So, Reuben knows Leah can't have any kids. So, he's like, "Well, maybe I can bring these. Maybe they'll help you, mom. I don't know. That's his mom. And then Rachel said to 32:09 Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrekes." But Leah, so here we have a conversation between the sisters. But she said to her, "Is it a small matter for you to take my husband?" And you, "Would you take my son's mandrekes 32:22 also?" So here you see it. It's come out. It's come back. We don't know how many years have passed from that verse 35 where she said, "This time I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm done fighting." Things stir up again. And she's not done 32:35 fighting. She's saying to her sister's face, you took my husband and now you want to take the these mandrekes also. So there's that. It's she's not done. And and it's wonderful when you come to the praise the place of praising the 32:47 Lord and surrender. But this let's take this as a warning that just cuz we do it once doesn't mean we're it's one and done. There is a yielding. There is a a trust in God. She she's lost sight of she's not talking about the Lord 32:57 anymore. Leah isn't. She's lost sight. She's she's come back to her eyes have left the vision of heaven as she's come back to looking down to earth. And then halfway through 15, so Rachel said, "Therefore, you can be with Jacob 33:10 because of these mandrekes." So it's almost like Rachel was in charge. And Leah couldn't even have any time with Jacob. So Rachel said, "All right, you give me these mandrekes. I'll let you hang out with Jacob." And so when Jacob 33:22 came in from the field in the evening, verse 16, Leah went went out and said, "You must spend some time with me cuz I've hired you with my son's mandrekes." And he lay with her that night. And God gave heed to Leah. So God again, God is 33:34 here the whole time. God is so merciful and kind. God sees that Leah went from the place of surrender and praise and now she's fighting with Rachel again, and she's desperate. She's grabbing, she's scheming, she's conniving. God in 33:47 his mercy still comes and he doesn't God doesn't say, "Well, all right. You forget it. You I thought you were surrendered. I thought you were on the same page. Well, I'm done with you now." He doesn't do that. He's so merciful. 33:58 And when we come to that place of surrender and if we wander, he's not done with us. He's so loving and patient. He his his heart breaks cuz he knows that we're the loser. When we walk away, when we grab these earthly things, 34:10 they may not be sinful, but these things that are so high in our hearts. But God gave heed to Leah, and she conceived and bare Jacob a fifth son. Then Leah said, "God has given me my wages because I gave my maid to my husband." So that 34:23 doesn't even make a lot of sense, but she named him Issachar. And she conceived again and bore a sixth son to Jacob. And Leah said, "God has endowed me with a good gift." So she's she's come back to acknowledge God, and God is 34:37 doing this. God has given me gifts. But here we are again. This will sound very familiar. Verse 20. Now my husband will dwell with me because I have borne him six sons. So he named him Zebulun. And afterward she bore a daughter named her 34:50 Dina. And so the focus is reset. She's you can see as you read this, she's lost her peace again. She's not worshiping idols. She didn't run away and marry someone else that would love her. She stayed there. But this wrestling inside 35:05 that the Lord just doesn't want us to go through. And it can take time. And just to encourage us all just if we could just have an imprint of what the peace she had when she said this time I'll praise the Lord. The peace that we have 35:18 when we surrender and just praise him and let him be in charge and not waiting for him to get in line with what we have planned. The peace that comes from that. But then God remembered Rachel. Rachel all this time never had her own children. And God 35:33 gave heed to her and opened her womb. So she conceived and bore a son and said, "God has taken away my reproach." And it's all a matter matter of perspective if you think about it. She had her husband lavishing love on her. 35:46 There was no reproach in that aspect. She had the love that Leah wanted so desperately, but the reproach in her mind, the biggest deal was, I don't have kids. And then on Leah's side, she had all these sons, but she didn't have the 35:57 love. So we all have our what we think is such an important thing. And God is in heaven watching, seeing, hearing, blessing. He may not answer the prayer how we want it, but he's there and he cares and he loves us and he wants to 36:09 bring us to the place that we see that this thing is not as good as him. That if he gave us that thing we wanted, maybe it wouldn't lead us to him. Maybe it would lead us away from him. His goal is that we would know him more. And 36:21 that's the best thing for us. That is where we find that peace and rest. If if Jacob would have loved Leah like she wanted, she wouldn't have had the depth of peace that she had when she could praise the Lord. And if Rachel would 36:32 have had all these sons, she wouldn't have had that rest and peace. She would have there still been fighting. And God knows what's best. And it's it's what what are we going to do when when the Lord doesn't answer our prayer, 36:44 when he doesn't give us what we're asking. It's very easy to focus on what he's not given. Leo is focused on I don't have my husband's love. Rachel's focused on I don't have sons. It's so easy to focus on what we don't have. But 36:57 may the Lord help us to start giving thanks for what he has given. If if Leah from the start could have been just giving thanks for what she had, if Rachel could have been from the start just been giving thanks, there's so much 37:09 freedom in giving thanks and and praising and trusting him and yielding and surrendering. And as you as we go through the scriptures, you see that Leah never gets that love that she wanted. Um, oh, one 37:27 thing about Rachel and she said, "God has taken my reproach away." So, she's glad she has a kid. She's not barren. She doesn't have that stigma on her. In verse 24, she named him Joseph, saying, "May the Lord give me another son." 37:41 She's even on as she's having this precious gift from God, she's like, "I want another one. This isn't good enough. I got to have more." And just an example, not to be hard on either of these women. They went through a lot. 37:52 And I see myself in a lot in each of them, but to see that this not surrender. I want more. It's got to be my way. And as we saw, if we seek to save our life, we'll lose it. But if we lose our life, we'll keep it to life 38:05 eternal. And Leah never gets the love she wanted. She never gets to go first except later on when Jacob and and Esau have been separated for a long time and Jacob hears that Esau is coming with 400 people and he's terrified because of 38:21 what he did. He stole the birthright. He's still guilty and terrified that Esau is going to come and slaughter him. So when he goes to meet him, he puts the servants up first. Then he puts Leah and her kids first and then Rachel and then 38:33 him last. He's putting this buffer because he thinks they're going to all be slaughtered. So the only time that Leah gets to go first is when her life is at risk and it's not a good thing. So but you see we don't have any more 38:45 dialogue from Leah. We don't have any more of her prayers or thoughts or what she goes through. But you you want to think that she surrendered. You want to you want to believe that she accepted that this is the life that the Lord has 38:56 given me. I'm not going to get that thing I keep praying for. But look at what the Lord has done. The Lord has seen. The Lord has heard. And in our lives, the Lord does see. The Lord does hear. And may he help us to surrender 39:09 everything to him and let it be his program and not ours. Let it be what his will is and to not be grabbing and fighting and all these things that come with it. And in Luke 9 it also says for whoever wishes to save his life will 39:21 lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake he will save it. And it may take time but may the Lord help us in these trials to receive them from him and to come to that place where we can say this time I will praise the Lord and keep our 39:36 eyes on him and not drift from that. So praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Thanks for this 39:58 wonderful encouraging message. Um it is closely applicable uh for what we face daily focusing on the things what we don't have and ignoring the many many blessings the Lord has 40:17 given to us. Thank you brother Jared. Um there are many thoughts to take home and practice. Couple of things um the Lord encouraged 40:33 me while listening to brother is um he has the king um our lord Jesus has come down and died for us and he gave us the salvation the biggest the biggest gift 40:52 um we pray for a loved one's salvation uh uh healing could be long waiting lines in the immigration many other things. uh but 41:10 many a times the problem may not be taken away but the lord gives us his presence and his grace that is wonderful as brother sur also 41:27 shared in the beginning he will not test us anything beyond our ability if the lord is allowing something into our lives he will help us. He will help us to go through um he will give us his grace and 41:45 he has given us his holy spirit, the power to uh overcome and fight the battle of which Leah and Rachel um lives. What brother has shown today in scriptures that 42:03 the Lord has blessed this Leah, even her own father, her husband's love, she couldn't get it. But he, the Lord has given her six sons. 42:24 So we um we can try but we cannot produce fruit. The fruit comes from the Lord. So he will give us that um encouragement what we needed throughout this week. Uh brothers and sisters 42:44 may the Lord remind us uh his sacrifice the song uh one of the songs we sang today uh may come to our memory throughout this week. Amazing love how can it be? 43:01 Thank you my king should die for me from this heart that surrender life thoughts of the heart of uh the attitude of gratitude what the lord has done. We all know um the war is happening. 43:21 Who is going who is going and fighting the war are not these kings not the president of the United States or the prime minister of the uh Israel are not in the warfront but the soldiers are going and fighting. But here in this 43:36 case our king our lord he fought and then he got the victory. Amazing love. Every time the thought of discouragement comes 43:52 may we have the words of faith. Um there's one words have been recently blessed me from revelation. Um they they have overcome they they have overcome the evil one the 44:10 tempter by the blood of Jesus Christ and the word of their testimony and putting their self-life to death. Thank you. uh and 44:28 the power he has given to us the baptism in the Holy Spirit and and being filled with the Holy Spirit, being led by the spirit throughout this week. Um may the Lord help us. 44:48 One quote from brother Zach blessed me this week. I want to remind if you are more interested in purity than in money, more interested in the fire of God than all the honor of this world, if you pray like that sincerely, you 45:06 will be baptized in the Holy Spirit very soon. So, thank you so much for taking out your time to uh join on Zoom and brothers and sisters who are able to come here. I believe you are blessed. May the Lord 45:21 help us to have um words of faith in your mouth throughout this week to be encourage yourself to be an encourages to our families and uh our brothers and sisters whom we meet. May the Lord help us. Let's close with a prayer. 45:39 Dear heavenly father, we thank you so much for the encouragements you share daily because we need it. to persevere, to be more than conquerors in this narrow path. Lord, thank you for the provision you have 45:59 given to us. Thank you for these examples of your love even we did not acknowledge many times but you consistently pouring out your love in our hearts. Lord, thank you for that. Thank you for your faithfulness. May the meditations of our heart and 46:19 words of our mouth throughout this week be pleasing to you, Dad. Help us to be pleasers of you than the world or money or the people around may be single focused on doing your will as we reminded that transforming into the 46:36 image of Jesus Christ day by day through every situation and circumstances you have kept us in. You are faithful. You are a provider. You are uh provided of the way of escaping. Hear our prayers in Jesus name we pray. Amen. God bless you brothers and 46:55 sisters.
