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All right, we're in Genesis chapter 30, and we're going to cover basically the first half of this chapter. The name of the sermon is Keeping Up with the Joneses, Keeping Up with the Joneses. Now this is a very famous expression in America, so let me just kind of explain what it means. The last name Jones is very famous. It's one of the most famous last names, and Keeping Up with the Joneses, it's this phrase that basically means you're trying to keep up with everybody else. So if somebody buys a new car, you need a new car. Somebody goes to a nice restaurant, you go to a nice restaurant. Somebody gets something really nice or buys something, and you feel like you need the exact same thing. Kind of the general idea is you look at your neighbor, and your neighbor gets something, then all of a sudden you got to get something. And so it's this expression, Keeping Up with the Joneses, and what it really is doing is basically comparing yourself to other people, and if they have something you don't, you feel like you need it. And really what it is is it's envy. And what we see here in this chapter is that both Rachel and Leah are basically keeping up with the Joneses with each other, where basically Leah has something that Rachel wants and does not have, and Rachel has something that Leah wants and she does not have. So starting verse number one, it says, And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. So point number one we have is this, envy. We see Rachel envies Leah. Why? Because Leah has children, and Rachel does not have children. Now here's the thing about this, Rachel might have been okay if her sister didn't have any kids. Right? I mean she gets upset, but it's not merely because she does not have any children, but she's also upset because her sister has kids, and she does not have kids. If her sister didn't have any kids, maybe she'd be okay. Maybe she wouldn't really care that much, but because her sister has something that she does not have, she's envious, and she wants that. And she tells Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. Give me children, or I do not want to be married to you. I want to be done with this. I don't want to live. It's a pretty strong statement that Rachel makes to her husband. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel when he said, Am I in God's stead who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb? Now Jacob's statement is a true statement, but it's not really necessarily a wise thing to actually say, and just because something is true doesn't mean it's a wise thing. If your wife is really upset, trying to basically throw gasoline on the fire is not a good idea even if what you're saying is actually true, because God did withhold the fruit of the womb from Rachel. So what he says is true. Now go to Psalm 73. Let us look at some verses about envy. Psalm 73, Psalm 73. And I would say that all of us, at least from time to time, we get caught up in this thing of keeping up with the Joneses, where if somebody has something and you don't have it, you naturally kind of become envious. Right? I mean, you could be good friends with someone, and let's say they get a promotion at work, and then all of a sudden you find yourself upset about it. You say, Why? Because they got it and you didn't. Now, if you both got a promotion, you'd be very happy for them, but because they got it and you didn't, all of a sudden you find yourself upset at them. And I would say that all of us inside of ourselves, this is something we struggle with. We struggle about being envious at what other people have and desiring what other people have that we do not have. Psalm 73, verse three. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And what Asaph says here is I was envious of this people. Why? Because I saw their prosperity. When they had prosperity, when they had nice houses, when they had money and I didn't, I found myself envious. Now here's the thing. If they didn't have money, he wouldn't be envious of them. But because they have something that he does not have, he finds himself envious. Or if neither one of them had a nice house, he wouldn't care. Neither one of them had a nice car, he wouldn't care. But because they have something nice and he doesn't, he finds himself envious at them. Go to James chapter three, James three, James three, James three. James chapter three, verse number 13. Who is a wise man and dude with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. It's about having envy inside of your heart. And here's the thing. On the outside, maybe people are not aware that you're envious. But you personally know on the inside whether or not you're envious. The Bible says if you have envy inside of your heart, don't lie against the truth. Don't deny it. I mean, just realize you've got a problem. Verse number 15. This to wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envy and strife is, there is confusion in every evil work. So the Bible says this is not from above, envy and strife, because the bottom line is envy is always wrong. It is always wrong. Now the word jealousy is when basically something belongs to you and basically you take it very seriously. You want it. You don't want to give it to anybody else, but it belongs to you. That's understandable. Envy is when somebody belongs to somebody else and you want what they have. That is always wrong. If somebody's got a nicer car than you and you want that car, that's wrong. And it's very closely associated with coveting. Coveting where basically you want something and then envy is you're mad at someone who has that thing, basically. Go in your Bible to 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. Anyway, I think that all of us struggle with envy from time to time, but just to show you basically how carnal we can be as saved people, where we can basically get caught up in the flesh and things of the world, even in terms of soul winning. Sometimes you might go soul winning and let's say somebody gets more saved than you as you go out soul winning or whatever. Sometimes there's that little bit of you is like, I wish I had the three and they had the two or something like that. That's not really a very good attitude though. I mean, because realistically, if I come back with two salvations, isn't it better that somebody got more than that because there's more people saved? If I win two to one, it's like, that's not something to worry about. It's better if I lose and everybody gets a lot, right? But even with something like soul winning or something spiritual, reading the Bible or something, that can even develop in somebody. Or you have like, let's say, a men's preaching night and a bunch of people preach and let's say somebody gets more compliments than you on their sermon. That can be something that can bother somebody, but it's kind of like that King Saul and King David thing we looked at recently, where basically King Saul slain his thousands. King David is ten thousands. And then what happens is Saul envies David because what he did was more impressive than what he did, or at least what he got credit for. First Peter chapter two verse one, wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. If so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And the Bible says things to lay aside are guile, which is basically another word for sin, malice, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings. And it says, as newborn babes, the idea would be that a newly saved person is probably really going to struggle with envy. You know, when they're first newly saved, it's something they really need to work on. And it says, as newborn babes, think about a young baby in this world physically, because there are links between the physical baby and the spiritual baby, right? And physical babies, young children, they get very envious when somebody has something that they do not have. I mean, a young child could have every toy in the world, everything, but then one kid gets one thing he doesn't have. Or they could have a hundred pieces of candy, but they didn't get, you know, a Hershey's and one kid gets one piece of candy, but it's the Hershey's and then they're like mad about it. They're envious. They cry. They throw a fit and everything. And that's the physical baby. But the idea is that a spiritual babe in Christ acts very similar with things as well, where they get very envious when somebody has something that they do not have. And one thing to keep in mind is that when a person gets saved, they're supposed to grow in grace and knowledge. And what you see with like the online preaching sort of movement is people learn all of this information very quickly. I mean, they can tell you all about the end times. They can tell you about, you know, salvation, repents of sins and all of these topics. And that's great. But what you often see is some of these same people don't really seem to have a whole lot of grace in their life. They don't have very good character. They have a lot of knowledge and they get kind of puffed up with it because knowledge puffed up, the Bible says, and they don't yet have grace. And that can be where there's a danger of the overdosing on online preaching and not actually having enough of the Bible reading and your personal walk with God. This is something probably we've all been caught up in because you learn new sermons, you get excited and obviously those things are good, but we need to make sure we're spending our time with God as well because that will give you the proper balance of grace and knowledge. And the Bible says as a newborn babe, as a spiritual baby in Christ, you want to put away envy, hypocrisies, evil speakings, and these things go to Genesis 37, Genesis 37. And what the Bible said, you know, I didn't really explain that verse in first Peter two where it says, if so be that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. The idea would be someone who's basically very content and very happy. They understand what the Lord's done for them. If you're holding onto envy, because it says putting away all envies, you're not going to be content. It's impossible. I mean, if you envy what other people have, you're not content then in what you have. And what the Bible is basically saying is you want to be content, you want to be happy, put away the envies, put away the evil speakings because you will not be able to taste that the Lord is gracious if you're holding on to this envy inside of your heart. One of the great examples of this in the Bible is with the story of Joseph in Genesis chapter 37, and notice what it says in verse nine, Genesis 37 verse nine, and he dreamed yet another dream and told it his brethren and said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more and behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And this is a reference, the sun referencing his father, the moon referencing his mother and the 11 stars being his 11 brothers. And obeisance would basically mean that they are in obedience to Joseph. And he told it to his father and to his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him, what is this dream that thou has dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. So his father's not really happy about this dream because this dream is literally saying that, hey, I'm going to be more prominent or powerful than you, which does end up taking place. But his father observes the same. It's kind of like in the Bible when Mary, it says she kept the matter in her heart. The idea is she hears something that, you know, she doesn't agree with. Jacob hears something he doesn't agree with or doesn't like, but he keeps the matter in his heart. Same thing we need to do when we're reading the Bible or listening to preaching. As I talked about just on Saturday, how to listen to preaching, you know, you hear something, it doesn't always, you know, make you happy, but keep the matter in your heart, search the scriptures and see whether those things are so, as the Bible says. So point number one, we see envy, but point number two, we see ensuing. What ensues or what is the result of envy? Ensu means, you know, the result of envy. What takes place? What ensues? Well, notice what it says in Genesis 37 verse 12. We'll go back after we look at this story, but let's see what ensues in the story of Joseph and Jacob. Verse 12, and his brethren went to feed their fathers flock and chesham and Israel said unto Joseph, do not thy brethren feed the flock and chesham? Come and I will send thee unto them and he said it to him. Here am I. And he said to him, go I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron and he came to chesham. Now, you know, obviously you see some mistakes that Jacob makes in his parenting where he loves his son Joseph more than his brothers and he's trusting his son who's younger than his brothers to basically take watch over the rest of them. And, you know, it's not a very wise thing to do. And obviously that's really the result of the anger that they have toward their brother. Another thing might be the fact that obviously Jacob loved Rachel more. And so you have Joseph coming from Rachel, which obviously we're looking at Rachel and Leah. But basically Joseph was the child from Rachel, the firstborn son from Rachel, which was the favorite wife of Jacob. So obviously being married to multiple women didn't help the matter. I think that all is kind of the root causes of what takes place in Genesis 37. The Bible specifically mentioned envy and they envy Joseph, verse 15, and a certain man found him and behold, he was wondering in the field and the man asked him saying, what seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee where they feed their flocks. And the man said, they are departed hence for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near onto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And so they're planning to kill Joseph. Now realize his brothers are not young people at this point. They're adults at this time period. It's not like they're five and six and seven fighting over a toy. I mean, Joseph himself is a teenager and his brothers are older. So you're looking at men that are in their twenties, in their thirties, you know, somewhere in that age. These are grown men. And yet the envy they have towards their brother because the dad prefers Joseph over them ends up boiling up to the point that they want to kill their brother. And it's sort of a reminder to us to be very, very careful in our parenting to not show any sort of favoritism because it can literally lead to this sort of anger towards the favorite child. They're conspiring to kill him. They're conspiring to slay him. They want to get rid of him. Verse 19, and they said one to another, behold, this dreamer cometh, come now therefore and let us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And in verse 20, they're saying, well, let us kill him. And basically we're going to claim that an evil beast ended up killing him. Now look, whenever you find yourself planning to tell lies, you know that you're obviously doing something wrong. It's like, what are you hiding? Right? So if you catch yourself wanting to tell a lie, you should know that what you're planning to do is actually the wrong thing to do. It says in verse 21 and Ruben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. And Ruben said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. Now let me say this. I don't, I don't want to go on too big of a rabbit trail, but I've preached this before about Ruben. Ruben is a bad apple. He is just a bad dude. And when you quickly read over this, he seems like the good brother, but, but he's not. You have to realize Ruben is the oldest brother. So if something happens to Joseph, he's going to be held responsible. And once you understand that as a root cause I remember reading this and I got confused because you know, later on in Genesis, Ruben's just not a very good guy, right? The stuff he does and basically, you know, and, and here's the thing later on in the story. What Ruben says is basically like, if I don't deliver him back, you know, you can slay my sons. It's like, why don't you offer to have yourself slain? Why are you? And see what Judah does is he offers himself. That's not Ruben. And his father actually listens to the word of Judah because he trusts you and you knows Ruben. I can't really trust what he says. It's like all talk. So Ruben, he wants to deliver them, but, but the reason why he does, I believe is simply because he's responsible and he does not want to get in trouble. And so basically he says, well, you know, let us deliver him to his father again. Now here's the thing about this though. If Ruben was wise or he cared so much about his brother, I don't know why he doesn't just stay beside his brother. I mean, I don't come from a big family, but imagine if you have a lot of brothers and some of your brothers are like, I'm going to kill your other brother. Wouldn't you think that if he cared about your brother, you would make sure you stayed beside and said, no, nothing's going to happen to him. But Ruben's just gone. It's like, well, what are you doing? They just said, they're going to kill Joseph. And then all of a sudden you're gone. I mean, it's like, are you Bobo or you just don't care that much. It's like, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me, but he shouldn't just stay, especially being the oldest, you need some wisdom. You got some responsibility. It's like, take it seriously. And yet he's just gone from the picture. And then he's shocked when Joseph's gone. They just said they were going to kill him. Why are you shocked that something happened, right? And so he wants to deliver them to his father again, but I believe they're all ulterior motives. Verse 23, and it came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty. There was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread and they lift up their eyes and looked and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said to his brethren, what profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother in our flesh and his brethren were content. Now I remember Brother Ehrman in our church in Manila on a Wednesday night, he preached in this story and he talked about this and I'd never contemplated what he said, but I think he's correct about this. It kind of made me rethink this story because when it says that his brethren were conspiring to slay him, it doesn't say all of his brethren. He has a lot of brethren there. It doesn't mean that every single one was planning to kill him. And what he suggested, which I think is actually accurate, is that Judah was not one of the ones that was actually saying, let's kill him. And although this is probably not the best thing for Judah to do, it's kind of like, I want to rescue my brother. This is like best case scenario. Let us just sell him. Is that the right thing to do? Maybe not. I mean, I don't really know what you do in this situation. This is a rock and a hard place. But given the way that Judah acts later on in the book of Genesis, it seems to make sense to me. I believe he's correct about this when I read this, that basically Judah is doing the best he can in the situation he's given because later on he offers his body to his father and he never makes excuses. He puts himself to blame for the whole situation with Joseph. He seems to have good character, at least in regards to his brother. And so I do believe that he's doing his best in this situation. Probably not the best thing to do, but given a short time span and you're not sure whether you're going to get killed, you know, it's kind of like that's the decision he made. So it doesn't necessarily mean that all of the brothers were actually planning to kill Joseph. But if a couple of them wanted to, such as Simeon and Levi seem to have a bit of an anger and a hot streak in the Bible, they're the second and third oldest and Reuben's sort of out of the picture and kind of a pushover, kind of the other brothers might have just been like, well, we're not going to stand in the way of Simeon and Levi. I think that makes a lot of sense here, but it says here in verse 28, then there passed by Midianites merchant men and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph into Egypt. Now go back to Genesis 30, Genesis 30, Genesis chapter 30. So what ensued because of the envy in the story of Joseph? Basically attempted murder, selling into slavery, conspiring to kill and lying about it. I mean, it's just like the root cause is envy toward Joseph. And of course that has a root cause as well because of how the father acted towards Joseph compared to the other ones, the coat of many colors. But this all springs from envy. Now I'm not saying that if you have envy in your life, it's going to lead to attempted murder, but we do see it's possible that if you envy somebody so much, you might get so filled with rage because of that envy on the inside that it might boil over to let us conspire to slay him. And so when the Bible is saying, if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, well the idea would be if you feel a little bit of envy inside of yourself, fix it at a small level before it gets out of control. Because if it gets out of control and it gets big, you're going to have major, major problems that are going to be very, very hard to actually fix once basically they come to fruition. So that's what we see in Genesis 37. Let us look at Genesis 30 though, verse three. And she said, this is Rachel speaking, behold my maid, Billa, going onto her and she shall bear upon my knees that I may also have children by her. And she gave him Billa her handmaid to wife and Jacob went in onto her. And so Billa becomes a concubine wife of Jacob. This is now wife number three, which obviously polygamy is wrong. Polygamy is a sin. As a result of envy, we see sin already ensuing. Verse number nine, go to verse nine because we also see Leah envious of Rachel because Rachel has a couple of children, so to speak through Billa. And then all of a sudden verse nine, when Leah saw that she had left bearing, she took Zelphah her maid and gave her Jacob to wife. And so what does Leah do as a result of envy? Well, she also gives her maid to Jacob. And now Jacob has four wives, two regular wives, two concubine wives. And I really don't understand some of the ladies in the Bible that they're willing to give away their husband to another woman in order to have kids. But that is what we see in the Bible taking place multiple times. And this is what we see here in Genesis 30. Verse number 14, and Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them onto his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, give me I pray thee of thy son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, is it a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? And what is thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, therefore he shall lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. And so when you're reading this about the mandrakes, the question that pops up in your head is, what is a mandrake, right? And so here's the definition of what a mandrake is. Stemless perennial herbs with large tap roots that can grow up to two feet long. That doesn't really answer the question. I still don't know what that really looks like in real life, but I would guess there's something of a lot of value, probably a very rare herb that's hard to get that would have at least a lot of value in that society. And so it's a big thing, I guess. And so basically, Rachel said to Leah, give me I pray thee of thy son's mandrakes. And so Leah basically gives away her mandrakes and then gives her husband back to Rachel for the night. So it's very strange. I don't know when I read this whether or not they have different houses. And whether or not they had two houses and it became four houses. And where basically it's like, okay, now you go home to this house tonight. I mean, Jacob's just kind of told, hey, you're headed this way tonight. It's a bizarre story. I don't understand why anyone would want to be involved in polygamy on either side. It would just be chaos and madness and problems. I mean, we see that. And so people sometimes ask about polygamy. And they say, well, how do you know polygamy is wrong? Well, the Bible says, no, don't multiply wives under yourself. It says that in, I believe it's Deuteronomy 17. But what I would say is, you can look at the stories and see the results. And you can see that they're reaping what they've sown, right? There's major problems. I will say that God gives more of a pass to polygamy than probably we would in our modern day because it's not something that takes place in our modern day. We would look at it as a major, major sin and it seems like in the eyes of God it is not as major. But it's certainly still a sin. It's certainly something the Bible says, do not multiply wives under yourself. You get married, two become one. Well, if you're married to multiple people, then that doesn't make any sense, right? Two become one when you get married. It says in verse 16, and Jacob came out of the field in the evening. And Leah went out to meet him and said, thou must come in unto me, for surely I have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her that night. And God harkened unto Leah, and she conceived and bared Jacob the fifth son. And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again and bared Jacob the sixth son. And Leah said, God hath endured me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons. And she called his name Zebulon, and afterwards she bared a daughter and called her name Dinah. Now unfortunately with Leah, because we see her at the end of the last chapter I talked about when her fourth son was born, she makes a statement, now will I praise the Lord. And she takes her focus off trying to get her husband's attention, and she's just thankful because of what God has done in her life. Unfortunately, as this keeping up with the Joneses ensues between these dueling sisters, unfortunately she reverts back to her old ways and says, now will my husband dwell with me. And once again, her contentment is based on the circumstances as opposed to based on the Lord, and that destroys the contentment that she would have. Now go back to verse number two, verse two, verse two. Point number one, in this story we see envy. Point two, we see ensuing. What ensues as a result of envy? A lot of problems, a lot of sin. Point three, we see infliction, and infliction is like a punishment that comes upon you. So as a result of envy and what ensues, basically there's an infliction. And honestly, people are basically inflicting themselves. If you are getting envious at somebody else, you harm yourself. You don't harm the person you're envious at. I mean, if I was filled with bitter and envy towards somebody else, that doesn't affect them, right? I mean, if you're really envious because, I don't know, Donald Trump is really rich, right? That doesn't affect him, that affects you. That's gonna destroy your contentment, it's not gonna destroy his. Doesn't affect him whatsoever. And when you're envious, it affects you. It doesn't affect the person that you're at. So if you wanna harm the person that you're envious at, it's the most foolish thing to do because you're only inflicting yourself. You're harming yourself, right? You're not harming that person. Genesis 30, verse 2, and Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel and he said, am I in God's stead who hath withheld from me the fruit of the womb? And we see anger as a result of Jacob. And now Rachel has made her husband very angry because of the envy that she has. Verse 5, verse 5, and Bill conceived and bared Jacob a son, and Rachel said, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son, therefore called she is named Dan. Now, to me this is comical in verse 6, and this is a great example of someone justifying their actions. Because Rachel knew I'm not having any children because God's stopping it. Then she commits a sin. She gives her handmaid to Jacob, clearly a sin, right? This is not the same thing as trying to change your diet around or whatever. It's like she's giving away another woman and somehow she thinks that God's blessing her when a child is born. It's like, look, it's like God would have just given you a child. It's like you gave away this woman to your husband, which is a sin. Just because a son was born does not mean that God answered your prayer. Doesn't mean that God blessed you. And the reality is, sometimes in life, God gives you things that you want that are not good for you. That's the truth. Sometimes, I mean, because people pray about a lot of types of things. And some people pray for things that are just dumb prayer requests. Now, I do believe that if your heart is right, number one, you're gonna be in general making good prayer requests. But I also believe that God can redirect your prayer in the right way. For example, let's say you've got a job interview and you pray, God, I would love to have this job. Well, that's not really sinful because based in your own flesh, it seems like the right choice. But at the same time, we don't know the end of the line. And so God might see that and he might redirect that prayer. But here's the thing, if your heart's not right, you tend to pray for things that are just kind of foolish prayer requests. And Rachel ends up having a child, so to speak, via her handmaid that she gives her husband. A son is born, and she's like, God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son. Well, God hath judged you, you're right about that, because Dan is an infliction, it's not a blessing. I mean, think of Dan in the Bible. Think of the 12 tribes. Think of the most wicked out of all of them. Who would you name? Dan, right? I mean, Dan is not exactly a godly character in the Bible. In the lineage, it's just wicked. Look, Dan was not a blessing, it was a curse. And she thought she'd get contentment in this way, doesn't end up being a blessing, right? Just because she got what she wanted. I mean, the one thing she said that was true is, God hath judged me. You're right, you reap what you sow. God did judge you, and now all of a sudden, it's not even your son. And basically, it's just gonna cause problems in your family. I mean, think of this. I mean, Dan very likely could have been one of the ones that basically conspired against Joseph, the actual son of Rachel. Cuz Dan was pretty wicked throughout the Bible. I would assume he was one of the primary people. So it's like, here's the thing, you've actually just caused infliction and reaping what you've sown to yourself, even years down the line, as a result of the action that you chose to take. It's not a blessing, Dan. Then it says in verse 7, and there Rachel's maid conceived again, and bear Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed. And she called his name Naphtali. Now this is also kind of funny to me, because first off, you're still at zero sons, Rachel. But let's give you credit for two. It's four to two. I mean, if you lose a soccer game four to two, we've prevailed. It's like, no, you didn't, right? You lost four to two. I mean, she's behind. It's like, I don't know who taught her addition, but she's behind four to two. You have not prevailed. Even if she was going to prevail, it would at least take several years to get to number five. So it's kind of like, I don't really understand that, but she feels like she's justified because all of a sudden children are born. Now go to Genesis 16, Genesis 16. By the way, Naphtali was also not a very godly tribe either. The ones that come as a result of the bondmaids, they didn't actually turn out right in the Bible. The Bible's trying to tell you something. And you know, the truth is, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I don't know what the side effects would be, but I'd imagine the side effects on those sons could be something. The fact, I mean, I'm sure that they know about this story. I'm sure Dan knows how he was born. And that'd be pretty frustrating if it's just like basically, you know, your mom was basically given to your father. And it was, I mean, that would kind of mess with your head, I think, as a kid knowing that story. You know, Dan and Naphtali, I don't know what the side effects would be, but I would imagine that didn't exactly help Dan and Naphtali, because they'd feel like rejected children. They'd be like, you know, we're not the favorite. I mean, obviously Leah's children might feel rejected as well, because Rachel was preferred. And you see Jacob's preference toward Joseph. But even more so, I would say with Billa and Zilpah, you know, the children that resulted there. Genesis 16, another great example of this is Sarah and Abraham. And it says in Genesis 16 verse 1, Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children, and she hadn't handmade an Egyptian whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, going on to my maid. It may be that I may have obtained children by her, and Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai. So Sarai realizes, Sarah realizes, God's restrained me from bearing. Then why are you trying to give your husband to your bondmaid? It doesn't make any sense. But she does the exact same thing that they do later on in the book of Genesis. Verse 3, And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abraham to be his wife. And he went on to Hagar, and she conceived, and when she saw that she conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarai said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes, the Lord judge between me and thee. And Sarah realizes, I made a horrible mistake. She inflicted herself for the punishment, because Ishmael ends up basically kind of dueling with Isaac, and then Hagar ends up hating Sarah. It leads to all these problems. And it's like when you have envy, and you allow these things to take place, all of a sudden you're inflicting yourself with punishment. The end result of envy is basically you're punishing yourself. You're gonna reap what you've sown as a result of being envious. Go to Genesis 30, Genesis 30, Genesis 30. Genesis chapter 30. Genesis 30 verse 10. And Zophila is made bear Jacob a son, and Leah said, a troop cometh. And she called his name Gad. Now, what does Leah mean when she says a troop cometh? Well, it's like in a military, there's like a troop or a group of people. So basically, she gives her bondmaid to Jacob, and then a son is born. She's basically saying, hey, we're gonna have a lot of children, Rachel. We're gonna win this battle, right? A troop cometh, right? It's kind of a funny sort of statement that she makes there. Verse 12, and Zophila is made bear Jacob a second son, and Leah said, happy am I, for the daughters will call me blessed, and she called his name Asher. Now, I want you to realize something, Leah's not happy. She's lying. She says, happy am I. Just because somebody says they're happy doesn't mean that they are happy. She's not happy. She's miserable. I mean, and you see this later on in the chapter, cuz we kind of bounced around, but we're gonna look here in a minute at later on verses where she says out of her own mouth, basically, I'm miserable. My life is horrible. She says, happy am I. That doesn't mean that she's happy. It's kind of like when you see people that drink alcohol, they act like they're so happy. It's like, man, you ought to drink with us and party. It's so great. It's a time of your life. They pretend like they're happy. And what does the Bible say about those who drink alcohol? It says they're miserable. It says they have sorrow. They have will. They have all these problems, but they're addicted to it, right? They can't stop. They're not actually happy, though, right? We should realize this as Bible-believing Christians. We live the happiest life of anybody on Earth, those that are really serving God and trying to do what's right. The Bible says, if you know these things, happier ye if you do them. And the primary context is not even necessarily just obeying God's rules, although that does apply, but it's about basically serving other people. And when you serve other people, you're going to find contentment. You're going to find happiness. I mean, what's the greatest joy that we get to experience on a weekly or a monthly basis? Getting somebody saved, right? What is getting somebody saved? It's about caring about them more than yourself. It's about basically laying down your life for them rather than yourself. No, obviously we try to have a balance at our church. Yesterday we did the CDC park, we got to play games and everything like that. But it's just like we also put in the effort of preaching the gospel to people. You say, why? Because we care more about them than we care about ourselves. But honestly, as a Bible-believing Christian, we realize that gives you contentment in your life. That gives you joy in your life. I remember when I got saved at the age of 18. Before that, I was very scared about my eternal destiny. But I wasn't really happy in life when I was 18. As a freshman in college, I was just like, what is life about really? And I got saved and I was very thankful. But here's the thing, just getting saved doesn't mean that you're living your life for other people. Because getting saved is about yourself, right? You believe in what Jesus did for you. I'm not saying it's based on your works, but it's like you get saved because you don't want to go to hell. But actual contentment comes when you don't want to see other people go to hell. And you care about them more than yourself. And when I actually started living for God, I started reading the Bible and going to church and going soul winning and volunteering at bus routes at our church and doing things for other people, I found myself more busy. I didn't have as much time for hobbies, but I found myself happier. Even though I wasn't doing my favorite hobbies as much. You say, why? Because when you make your life about other people, it's actually gonna bring you contentment. Unfortunately, we let the world lie to us. We let the world tell us that basically it's all about yourself. Live for yourself. It's all about what you want. And people, when they find themselves miserable, they think it's because they're living too much for other people. It's like, no, it's the opposite. The reason why you find yourself miserable is because you're not living enough for other people. It's not because you're doing too much for God. It's because you're doing too little for God. That's the reason why you're miserable. The happiness comes when you serve other people. And she says, happy am I, but as I said, I do not believe that she was happy. Now, in conclusion, I want you to realize that the sad thing about this keeping up with the Joneses thing for both Rachel and Leah. Both of them could have been happy. Both of them could have been happy. And yet, neither one is happy. You say, how could they have been happy? Genesis 30 verse 22, Genesis 30 verse 22. And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bared her son and said, God hath taken away my reproach. It's like, wait a minute, I thought that those children that Billa had, I thought Dan and Naphtali took away your approach. Apparently not, she's still miserable, she's not happy yet. But now as she has her son Joseph born, she's very thankful. And as I said, I believe Dan and Naphtali were probably two of the ones that basically conspired against Joseph. If she wanted happiness, and it says in verse 24, and she called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another son. Here's the thing, what was the secret to happiness for Rachel? Patience, patience, right? I mean, the child did come, Joseph was born. Instead of giving her husband away to another woman, that literally the worst strategy you could possibly have. I mean, just buy a dog or something, right? It's just like, don't give your husband away to another woman. You know, buy a pet or get a hobby or whatever. It's like, why are you giving away your husband to another woman? What was the secret to happiness for Rachel? Patience. Happiness was there, it's just it wasn't gonna happen right away for her. Patience. What about with Leah? Verse number 20, verse number 20, and it says, and Leah said, God hath endured me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with me because I have born him six sons, and she called his name Zebulon. And afterwards, she bare a daughter and called her name Dinah. Now, Leah, she's still miserable. You say, where's the happiness? Well, she says, now will my husband dwell with me. Here's how she could have had happiness. Patience to wait for a man who wants to marry her, right? I mean, she's miserable the entire time. It's like, he didn't wanna marry you. And you're miserable for decades. Your whole life is full of misery, what? You didn't have any patience. Rachel did not have patience. If she had patience, instead of having to have what everybody else has, she could have been content. Leah, if she had patience for the right guy, she could have been content. This idea of keeping up with the Joneses, it's about basically wanting what other people have. Being envious of what they have. Here's the thing, if somebody's able to buy a nice house, you might also be able to buy a nice house. But maybe not now. Maybe it's just not a wise thing now. Maybe you just need patience. Somebody goes to nice restaurants and you're not able to. Instead of getting envious about it, just be patient. Maybe one day you will be able to go to the nice restaurants. And look, this is an easy thing to preach, but it's not an easy thing to do. Because at the root of all of our hearts, envy is there to some level of degree. These things like envy and pride and covetous, we all struggle with them to some level of degree. But when we see that creeping up inside of ourselves, when we see, I mean, if there's bitter envy and strife in your hearts, you gotta just admit the truth. Have an honest and good heart, admit the truth and realize, I got a problem. I gotta fix this. Because if you do not fix that envy that is inside of you, it's gonna lead to massive problems. I mean, it could even lead to murder, the Bible says. That's pretty extreme. Envy can end up destroying not the person that you're mad at, unless you get so envious to the point that you kill them. But it's gonna destroy you. Because envy does not harm the person that you're envious at, it harms you. And if you have this idea of trying to keep up with what everybody has, you're gonna find yourself miserable in life. You say, why, Brother Stuckey? There's always gonna be somebody who has a nicer cell phone than you. There's always gonna be someone who has a nicer house than you. There's always gonna be someone who has a nicer car than you. There's always gonna be somebody who has something that you do not have. And you might have a lot of things that they don't have, but if you have this sort of attitude inside of you, once they get one thing that you don't have, you're like, well, I gotta have it too. They go on a vacation somewhere, and then all of a sudden you buy plane tickets a day later to the same place. It's a foolish thing, because what people end up doing when they develop this attitude, they waste all of their money when they don't have it. Here's the reality, when people first get married or they first graduate college, they generally don't have a lot of money. They generally can't really do that many exciting things. When I graduated college, I really didn't have much money, right? I mean, I had some money in the bank account, but it's not like I was going to fancy restaurants or anything like that. Nobody fresh out of college, because when you get your first job out of college, they don't pay you a lot of money, because you have no experience and you have no skills, right? But here's the thing, if you stick with it, you can eventually make a lot of money, depending on what the career is and things such as that. But here's what I'm saying. I've seen so many people in my life, people that I went to college with, they graduate college, and they buy a fancy new car. But of course, they don't buy it in cash, because they can't afford it. And they still have these major loans that they're paying off from college. They got these loans they're paying off. And then, I mean, people will basically stretch themselves so thin, and it's like, man, if they really understood how much extra money they're spending on that, I mean, it makes no sense, right? It's foolish. A great example I know of this in a good way is actually my sister. Now, they were blessed, my sister, my brother-in-law, because they both got their college completely paid. And he worked for the university as a mechanical engineer, so he's making money in college and everything. But here's the thing, they actually did have some money in college. They got married, my sister graduated college at 18. They got married right before she graduated. But here's the thing, they had money, and you know what? They actually bought a trailer because they could buy it in cash. And basically, they were just saving up money. And of course, everybody thought at the time, why don't you buy a nicer place? You got the money for it. It's like he literally retired at the age of 30, basically buying a house in cash in West Virginia, retired to do a family business because they're like, you know what, we don't have to have the nice house immediately. If we wait, it's actually gonna do us so much better in the long run. And whether it's referring to a house, a job, career, whatever, it's like you wanna avoid this attitude of comparing yourself with other people. It is okay for somebody to have something that you do not have. Because the reality is, if you don't have something, it usually doesn't make you upset. What makes you upset is when somebody has that and you don't have it. And that's what you see with Rachel and Leah. Because Rachel is something Leah does not have, Leah is something Rachel does not have, and they find themselves just upset and envious. Why? Because they're trying to keep up with the Joneses, keeping up with what everybody else has in life. Let's go to prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to see your word on this topic. And I ask you to help all of us in this room to avoid having this attitude. It's something I think we can all fall into and all struggle with. God, help us not to be envious people. Help us to be content with the things we do have. Help us not to