(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) time and so this is on May 15th through 21st so if you missed the first one if you're interested in this at all talk to brother Raymond get more details and mark that calendar for May 15th through 21st and again the nice thing about this a lot of our foreign missions have had to been put on hold because of all the different COVID restrictions and all the the strict rules about traveling and you know we don't want to get stranded different places and a lot of places are requiring vaccination or just other hassles and so that's why we're doing this because it's sort of a missions trip but yet you're in the United States even though you're going to the Caribbean so you're kind of leaving the country but you're still in the United States so we're doing these for now and and you know the first one was great I mean you want to come up and just I know I didn't warn you or anything why don't you come up and talk a little bit about the trip uh I'm just going to put you on the spot and just tell us a little bit about the trip that you took yeah it turned out to be a great trip we went to the island of Saint Croix and we had 21 soul winners who came out and we ended up getting almost 200 people saved we got 188 people saved it was extremely receptive in the places that we went to and we had a great time I think everybody was happy with the trip and everything so now we're planning our second trip going to Saint Thomas which is another island in the Virgin Islands and it's a comparable size as well both of them have about 50,000 people on each island so now we're going to go to the Saint Thomas as well so we're looking forward to it and I hope that you know lots of people get to sign up this time and everything so god bless you all right and they were out there he'd said that there's kind of a big difference between how receptive things were I talked to my brother also he was on the trip and um you know it was a big difference I guess between how receptive was like in the apartment complexes and sort of the lower income versus when they got into some of the more nicer areas it wasn't really quite as receptive there's kind of a a big difference there so on the first island that they went to at Saint Croix they've kind of burned through all the best soul winning areas I mean obviously there's still a lot of good soul winning to do there but they kind of burn through the best areas so that's why we're going to switch to this other island um and just hit this thing hard and hit the best areas on this new island as well since we're only taking a couple trips out there might as well go to the places that are going to be the most receptive to the gospel so anyway that is available for you if you want to go be sure to talk to brother Raymond even if you're just kind of thinking about going and and you guys can talk about options about how to get there and then uh the small town soul winning's been uh temporarily postponed so we're just taking a break from that for a little while we'll fire it up again uh pretty soon and we've got a Spanish night coming up on February 10th that's the second Thursday of every month and that's about it for announcements so let's go ahead and count up the soul winning for the past few days so going back to Thursday anything from Thursday all right anything else from Thursday what about Friday anything from Friday okay all right Friday how about Saturday okay what about today Sunday okay all right for the Chandler group got it got it uh somebody have the total for brother Scott's group Scott what are you what's going on man nine for the main group all right and then okay gotcha gotcha anything else from today all right very good keep up the great work on soul winning and with that let's sing our next song come lead us all right you should find the answer in the front of your hymnals with the hymn lord bless our home if you don't have them please raise your hand we'll sing it on that first verse lord bless our home it begins families all around us are crumbling every day the enemy lord keep our eyes on you lord keep us our hope to you thank you for your goodness help us face the future always to each other let it be each other hymn number 34 i know that my redeemer liveth hymn number 34 number 34 i know that my redeemer liveth i know that my redeemer liveth and on the earth again shall stand i know eternal life will give and that grace and love are in his hand i know i know and on the earth again shall stand i know i know that life will give and that grace and power are in his hand i know am i know i know i know that life is i know i know all right this time we'll pass our offering plates around as the plates go around let's turn our bibles to genesis chapter 29 genesis chapter number 29 as we always do we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number one follow along silently with brother dan as he reads genesis chapter 29 beginning in verse number one genesis 29 the bible reads then jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the people of the east and he looked and behold a well in the field and lo there were three flocks of sheep lying by it for out of that well they watered the flocks and a great stone was upon the well's mouth and there were all the flocks gathered and they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the sheep and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in his place and jacob said unto them my brethren whence be and they said of heran are we and he said unto them know ye laban the son of nahor and they said we know him and he said unto them is he well and they said he is well and behold rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep and he said lo it is yet high day neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together water ye the sheep and go and feed them and they said we cannot until all the flocks be gathered together until they roll the stone from the well's mouth then we water the sheep and while he yet spake with them rachel came with her father's sheep for she kept them and it came to pass when jacob saw rachel the daughter of laban his mother's brother and the sheep of laban his mother's brother that jacob went near and rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the flock of laban his mother's brother and jake kissed rachel and lifted up his voice and wept and jacob told rachel that he was her father's brother and that he was rebecca's son and she ran and told her father and it came to pass when laban heard the tidings of jacob his sister's son that he ran to meet him and embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his house and he told laban all these things and laban said to him surely thou art my bone in my flesh and he abode with him the space of a month and laban said unto jacob because thou art my brother shouldest thou therefore serve me for not tell me what shall thy wages be and laban had two daughters the name of the elder was leah and the name of the younger was rachel layer was tender-eyed but rachel was beautiful and well favored and jacob loved rachel and said i will serve these seven years for rachel that younger daughter and laban said it is better that i give her to thee than that i should give her to another man abide with me and jacob served seven years for rachel and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her and jacob said under laban give me my wife for my days are fulfilled that i may go in under her and laban gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast and it came to pass in the evening that he took leah his daughter and brought her to him and he went into under and laban gave unto his daughter leah zilpah his maid for an handmaid and it came to pass that in the morning behold it was leah and he said to laban what is this thou has done unto me did not i serve with thee for rachel wherefore then hast thou beguiled me and laban said it must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the firstborn fulfill her week and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years and jacob did so and fulfilled her week and he gave him rachel his daughter to wife also and laban gave to rachel his daughter bilha his handmaid to be her maid and he went in also unto rachel and he loved also rachel more than leah and served with him yet seven other years and when the lord saw that leah was hated he opened her womb but rachel was barren and leah conceived and bare a son and she called his name ruben for she said surely the lord hath looked upon my affliction now therefore my husband will love me and she conceived again and bare a son and said because the lord hath heard that i was hated he had therefore given me this son also and she called his name simian and she conceived again and bare a son and said now this time will my husband be joined unto me because i have borne him three sons therefore was his name called levi and she conceived again and bare a son and she said now will i praise the lord therefore she called his name juda and left bearing other than dear father in heaven please fill pastor's your spirit and please give us all you to hear to receive wisdom from the sermon this night we pray in jesus name amen amen this evening i am preaching on the biblical character rachel and i don't think i've ever done a whole sermon on rachel before she's a really interesting character in the bible and her character is really summed up i think in genesis chapter 30 verse 1 when the bible reads and when rachel saw that she bared jacob no children rachel envied her sister and said unto jacob give me children or else i die and i'm going to show you this evening how envy is really the sin that characterizes rachel and it's why she's never really happy in the story and why she ends up committing some serious sins and so forth but anyway let's back up a little bit in genesis chapter 29 what we just read is the basic story about jacob going to padanaram and he's going to take a wife and when he goes there and he's with his uh uncle laban and he sees rachel she's the first person that he meets and she's very beautiful and it's love at first sight and so he tells laban that he wants to marry rachel and he offers to work for laban for seven years in order to marry rachel and so laban agrees to that he works the seven years at the end of the seven years he says okay i've done the work give me my wife so they have the big wedding and everything but laban pulls the old switcheroo okay so when jacob goes to consummate the marriage with rachel he ends up consummating the marriage with her older sister leah who according to the bible here is not necessarily as attractive as rachel it wasn't the one that he wanted and so he ends up consummating with leah so obviously he's very upset when he realizes what he has done he goes to the father and and laban says well you know it's just it's just not the way we do things around here to give the younger sister before the elder sister but i know your heart's set on rachel so why don't you just have both okay so just wait till the honeymoon's over you know let let's get through this week with leah and then i'll give you rachel as a wife and then you're going to serve seven more years for rachel now you might feel bad for jacob at this point being tricked and deceived in this way but of course if we've read the rest of the story about jacob we know that jacob has been a deceptive person up to this point he's done a little bit of trickery himself he's ripped off esau a few different ways and so basically that's coming back around to him now what he's sown is what he's reaping now by getting tricked by laban okay now laban's motive is a business motive okay he wants jacob working for him because jacob's a really good worker i mean jacob's a very hard worker he's very effective at his job and so laban really wants to keep him around and we'll see in the story that after the seven years are up then he finds another way to keep him around for six years and in fact jacob just can't peel himself away from this job with laban eventually he just has to sneak away and flee away in the middle of the night because laban's just not letting him leave okay so that's laban's motive it's not really that oh i didn't want to hurt leah's feelings it's really just he wants to keep him around for another seven years of free labor is what he really wants so jacob is now married to rachel and leah but there's obviously some tension here because leah is the original wife as it were because he married her first but rachel is the one that he actually loves more and cared about and actually wanted and so obviously jacob has a little bit of a bad attitude toward leah on the one hand and rachel is his true love so to speak and so the bible says in verse number 30 of chapter 29 he went in also unto rachel and he loved also rachel more than leah and served with him yet seven other years and when the lord saw that leah was hated he opened her womb but rachel was barren and then we read through that part where leah has four sons now obviously it takes time to have four sons so this is many years that are going by by the time we get to chapter 30 verse 1 where rachel saw that she bear jacob no children but so you know probably at least what about six to eight years has gone by for leah to have given birth to four sons and so she says uh give me children or else i die give me children else i know the the main thing i want to point out here first of all is that envy is a sin envy is not a righteous attitude to have it's the wrong attitude and so this give me children or else i die you say well she just really wants to have kids and i get that because obviously women want to have kids and it's very difficult for women when they're not able to have children this is a hard thing for them to deal with but what does the bible say is the problem for rachel it's not just necessarily that she really just wants to hold that little bundle of joy in her arms the bible says that she envies leah okay she envies leah envy you know where bitter envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work the bible says and so envy is obviously a work of the flesh envy is a sin one of the ten commandments commands against envy because it says thou shalt not covet what does covet mean well the bible defines it for us in the book of romans the apostle paul says i'd not known envy but that the law had said thou shalt not covet so the command against envy in scripture is thou shall not covet thy neighbor's wife thou shall not covet thy neighbor's house his ox his ass his man servant his maid servant nor anything that is thy neighbors and so when rachel is coveting leah's children that's a sin she's committing the sin of envy here and you know she ought to just be happy for leah because think about it she's the one who gets the most attention from her husband she's the favorite that's obvious to her that's obvious to leah it's obvious to everyone so why can't she just be happy with that why does she have to be number one in every area she's already more beautiful than leah so she's already been dealt a better hand genetically she looks better than leah but then not only that her husband loves her more her husband gives her more attention and so forth but yet that's not enough she wants to take away from leah the one thing that leah has going for her which is the fact that she's having sons for jacob and this is the way that we can sometimes be in our lives as well where everything's going well for us in our life but then we just fixate on that one thing about our life that's not working out and this is the same downfall of hayman in the book of esther hayman is the second most powerful man in the kingdom and everybody is giving him all kinds of honor and he has all kinds of money he's married he has 10 sons he has all of these blessings and yet when he sees mortichai the jew in the king's gate none of it avails him anything none of that makes him happy because of the one little fly in the ointment the one thorn in his side but let me tell you something you are always going to have a thorn in your side our lives will never be perfect it's like i was preaching about this morning when one problem goes away it's typically replaced by another and life is just trading one set of problems for another as you go through life you just switch problems it's like okay once you finish this trial now it's the next trial and then you move on to the next challenge then you move on to the next difficulty then you move on to the next tribulation that's just the way it works you're not going to come to a point where everything in your life is ideal that's just not the way life works and so don't make the mistake of rachel where you look at someone else and envy them because the one area of your life that's not working out they have together because you know what leah could turn around and feel the exact same way toward rachel and in fact she does feel the same way toward rachel because later in this same chapter she chews out rachel about how you took away my husband from me and whatever which you know rachel could kind of say the same thing leah could say the same thing so obviously it's easy to always look at someone else and say oh well yeah sure i have these four sons but at least your husband loves you you know at least he's giving you attention at least you're beautiful you see everybody has things in their life that are going well and things that are going bad don't focus on the things that are going bad focus on the things that are going well in your life and don't fixate on the one thing that you can't have this is a way to be unhappy in life now rachel eventually has children and we'll often bring up these bible stories about women who are barren about how every woman in the bible who's barren eventually has a child sometimes it's after many many years and even jacob's own parents went through this because isaac and rebecca it took them 20 years to have children and she only had that one pregnancy it was twins jacob and esau but it took her 20 years to get pregnant and so we often would point to rebecca and isaac and then we point to rachel as oh look see you know she's barren but then eventually god blessed her with a child and even blessed her with children and that's obviously valid and obviously yeah that's part of what the bible is teaching us is that if you pray and if you're patient eventually god gives you the desires of your heart but i want to preach about rachel from a different angle tonight because i'm i'm focusing on her mistake here and the fact that she's never happy because she is characterized by envy now think about this statement that she made in verse one give me children or else i die here's what's ironic about that statement eventually she has children and minutes after she has children she's dead now stop and think about that give me children or else i die that's pretty ironic given the fact that having children literally kills her so it's literally the opposite having children so that i do die okay is actually what happened and so that goes to show that sometimes what we feel like is just so missing from our lives and and you know if we just had this one thing it would make us happy you know when you get it maybe it's gonna be your downfall maybe it's your doom maybe it's your destruction you know i wonder if she wishes that she would have just gotten pregnant with those two kids right away and then maybe died right away i mean think about that you know by god making her wait to have children he's actually prolonging her life if she's gonna die giving birth to the second child so it's kind of ironic that she says give me children or else i die when her second son literally is why she dies she dies giving birth but look at jacob's response when she says this to him she says to jacob give me children or else i die and jacob's anger was kindled against rachel and he said am i in god's stead who has withheld from me the fruit of the womb he's like i'm not god i can't make you get pregnant god is the one who has withheld the fruit of the womb from you and you know this is an accurate statement because the bible says that god saw that leah was hated he opened leah's womb and he did not allow rachel to have children this is god's choice god has made this decision and the bible does teach that god is the one who opens and closes the womb and so if you're unable to have children you need to just pray about it and then trust god with the outcome okay now if you don't pray about it then yeah maybe you should be having children or something like that because if we don't pray about things we can't expect god to necessarily get involved can't we i mean if i don't pray i can't expect god to get involved in my life praying is when we invite god to get involved and do something in our life and when we ask god to do something then he's either gonna do it or he's gonna not do it but if we don't pray then we'll never know will we because the bible clearly says you have not because you ask not and so i'm not one of these people who thinks oh you know god's will is just gonna happen anyway and when we pray it's just kind of an exercise that we go through no no praying is asking god for things and if i pray to god and i ask him for something you know that actually is a meaningful act if i don't do it god's not getting involved you have not because you ask not when i ask god for something now i'm going to get an answer it may not necessarily be the answer that i want it may not necessarily be in the timing that i want but god is going to answer my prayer period fact god's not just ignoring me up in heaven now if you know if i'm unsaved or if i'm out living in sin or something then yeah obviously then god's gonna ignore me at that point but you know obviously i'm saved i'm living for god if i'm praying to god he hears me whatsoever i ask that's what the bible says and if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire and this is why the bible says be careful for nothing what does careful mean full of care full of worry full of anxiety be careful for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication let your request be made known unto god and the peace of god which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds to christ jesus so if i with prayer and thanksgiving and supplication make my request known to god at that point i should be filled with peace at that point right the peace of god which passes all understanding is now ready to keep my heart and mind in christ jesus because i've put the ball in god's court once the ball is in god's court i need you to stop worrying about it now if you haven't prayed then go ahead and worry be afraid be very afraid if you haven't prayed about it but once you've prayed and said god this is what i'm worried about this is what i'm concerned about this is what i need you to do in jesus name amen at that point you know what you just go about your day smile be happy don't worry about it why because it's done consider it done it's as good as that it's sort of like if i had a really reliable employee and i give him a job to do i don't even need to follow up because once i give him that job i just consider it done well you know what when we put things into god's hands we need to just consider it done just oh check that off my list i don't even need to worry about that god's got that under control god's got that ticket that's faith now does that mean that god is just this thing where i just wish for something and it just appears the next day or something that's not the point because you know when we pray unto god the holy ghost makes intercession for us according to the will of god so he takes what we pray and translates it into what's actually good for us and what's actually good for the will of god and for the kingdom of god so you know i i remember speaking to a friend of mine who who had written down like a prayer journal and every time they had a prayer request they'd write it in this prayer journal and then they would revisit that years later and they'd look at that a year later and they'd go down the list and pretty much everything was either that was answered or i don't even want that anymore i don't even know why i wanted that because that wasn't even the right thing for me i'm glad that didn't work out or you know something along the lines of well that didn't happen exactly the way i asked but what i got was better you know and so that's the way it works when you pray about things they get done period they get done but a lot of people are just impatient and they give up you know isaac and rebecca they could have just said well we prayed to god and that didn't work out and so you know we're seeking other options now you know but here's the thing about that is that they just had to be patient for like 20 years okay and so you're not necessarily going to get your prayers answered overnight with god a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day god's not slack to answer your prayers it's just that he's not as worried about time as you are and often he'll do things delayed but it's all for your good because all things work together for good to them love god so the delay is good looking back you're glad about the delay okay so that's why jacob says am i in god's stead you know you prayed to god the balls in his court be happy why don't you just be happy that you're such a beautiful woman that your husband loves you and by the way she's financially secure i mean her husband's a killer employee he's making tons of money and they've got all kinds of possessions she's got her handmade i mean i'm sure a lot of you ladies would probably love just having your your full-time female servant doing whatever you owe slave come and help me with this you know you'd love to have a female servant with you all the time she's got money she's eating well she's secure she's surrounded by family her husband loves her what's the you know why didn't she just enjoy life but instead it's just i'm just gonna die if i don't get this one thing that i want because i'm just so envious of leah you know what that is that means she doesn't love leah like she should because love is the fulfillment of the law love thy neighbor as thyself fulfills according to roman 13 thou shalt not kill thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness and thou shalt not covet it's all summed up in this one word thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself meaning that if she loved her sister leah she would not envy her sister leah she would just be happy for leah but instead she's self-centered focused on herself envious and one of these people that just can't be happy because the one thing in their life that's not working out anybody could do that i could i could find something in my life that's not working out you could find we could all find something in our lives couldn't we but why focus on that why not count your blessings and think about all the things that are going well so jacob says i'm not in the place of god i can't open your womb only god can do that let's just leave it with him so here's what she says in verse three behold my maid bilhah go in unto her and she shall bear upon my knees that i may also have children by her okay and by the way here's just here's just an aside okay i read about some stupid like feminist science fiction book called the handmaiden's tale who knows what i'm talking about i've never read the book but i read about the book and i think it spawned some movies and tv series or something but whoever wrote this book is a complete idiot as far as i'm concerned because first of all it's some feminist trash or whatever but they're a complete idiot because they interpreted this verse that somehow like it's some kind of a that they're having intercourse with that other woman there folks that's bizarre that's not what the bible's saying you know that came from just uh an idiot's mind who's not saved so they can't understand the bible you know any idiot can read this verse right here okay and it says that she may bear upon my knees bear means give birth any questions so she's not conceiving on this other woman it's like what kind of an idiot that anyway that was for free that has nothing to do with the sermon but what kind of an idiot reads this verse and thinks that that that's involved give me a break obviously what it's saying is that when she gives birth she's going to give birth and rachel's going to be there to receive the baby and it's going to be sort of like she's going to be kind of the godmother of this baby or kind of it's going to be like her baby like a surrogacy type of a mentality it really has nothing to do with the intercourse that produces the child or the conception i think that came from a perverted mind okay so i'm just and look you say why bring that i'm just throwing that out there because i know that that's a thing in our culture that book is out there that tv show is out there that movie is out there i don't know if it's a movie or not but that stuff is out there i just want to make sure that nobody gets influenced by that and gets confused by the story here there's really nothing confusing about the story i hope everybody's clear so she gave him bilhah her handmaid to wife now this is not a godly thing to do first of all it's not even godly to have two wives because at the beginning god made them male and female adam and eve and a man shall leave his father and mother and cleveland to his wife singular and they too shall be one flesh that's what the bible says and so this is not godly but you can at least kind of give jacob a little bit of a pass for having two wives because he kind of got pushed into that or forced into that by his father-in-law so you can kind of say like okay you know he shouldn't have done that but you know you kind of see how it went down okay whereas this though you know just taking on a third wife what are you doing right the handmade is now coming on as a third wife and again this is not god's will to have three wives it's god's will to have one wife but he ends up now getting the suggestion from rachel rachel is saying i want you to you know go in unto bilhah and she's going to bear upon my knees that i may also have children by her so like you know she's going to do the the heavy lifting and give birth and everything and then it's going to be like my baby and i can carry around this baby and take care of it because bilhah is my slave so if i have bilhah's you know baby is kind of my baby and whatever so that's what they're doing here okay so she gave him bilhah her handmaid to wife and jacob went in under and bilhah conceived and bear jacob a son and rachel said god has judged me and has also heard my voice and has given me a son therefore called she is named dan this always cracks me up when people just disobey god do something sinful take things into their own hands they're like what an answer to prayer isn't god good right it's like they divorce their spouse and marry someone else hey isn't this great look at this blessing i like my second spouse so much better my fifth spouse is such a blessing from god you know it's like well hold on a second you took things into your own hands and then you're going to call that god answering your prayer you know god answering your prayer rachel would be you giving birth to a son you're barren and you're praying to have a baby god answering your prayer is when you give birth to joseph later in the story spoiler alert right when you give birth to benjamin that's god answering your prayer but you giving bilhah to your husband as a third wife that is not god answering your prayer that's you committing sin lacking faith in god lacking patience letting envy take over that is you corrupting the family and that is not god judging you and blessing you okay oh you know so she calls the name dan and bilhah 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 prevailed and she called his name naphtali which means wrestling or my wrestling so so the the point is that you know she doesn't have the right relationship with her sister here okay because it's just oh man i've been fighting my sister in fact i'm gonna i mean think about what kind of a person names their names their baby right because i mean obviously bilhah's the one who gave birth to it but she's calling the name of it we're gonna name this baby wrestling because i've been fighting my sister and i finally won yeah it's like what it's like what why would you name your baby that you've got some serious issues rachel so you know these two sons of the of the handmade these sons aren't don't they don't really end up you know necessarily uh being great for the family because if you if you uh you don't need to turn there if you want you can jump forward to this but look at genesis 37 yeah i just flip over a couple pages genesis 37 verse 2 it says these are the generations of jacob joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brethren and the lad was with the sons of bilhah and with the sons of zilpah his father's wives and joseph brought unto his father their evil report so rachel through a lapse of faith in god does this strange arrangement of saying let's give the female slave or maidservant let's give her to you as your wife and then you're going to have a baby with her but then i'm going to sort of commandeer that baby as my own and give it names about you know my drama with my sister but then when rachel finally does have a son that son is joseph that's when god actually answers a prayer and gives her the son but does joseph hit it off with dan and neftalai well according to the bible here you know he's bringing his father their evil report saying man these this dan and neftalai are bad guys they're doing some really bad stuff out here and they end up clashing with him and this is part of why they hate him and so if you think about it this is why joseph ends up getting part of why he ends up getting sold into slavery is because of this clash between joseph and the sons of bilhah that we see in genesis 37 verse 2 you see how events can kind of just domino and you know because of envy now we're violating god's law and and and and breaking apart god's normal plan for the family bringing in this third wife and and she's this servant wife and whatever and all these things and then next thing you know she has these kids and you she gives them these spiteful name uh on neftalai and then now they're clashing with her biological kid and so anyway it's all kinds of problems you know what's funny is when people will try to take jacob as a as a poster child for polygamy you know hey you know joseph did it or excuse me uh uh jacob did it you know if jacob did it but hold on a second when jacob did it was a disaster i mean rachel and leah are just at each other's throats and then you got these maidservants coming into the mix you know let's not even bring up the fact that ruben ends up sleeping with bilhah after she's already been with jacob you know that's a whole other story it's a disaster this this family is in many ways a disaster you know eventually joseph kind of brings them all together and and god uses imperfect people in the bible and god salvages weird situations in the bible but this is a little bit of a train wreck at this point okay from a family perspective so back in genesis chapter 30 let's go to where rachel finally has a baby okay so oh and by the way let me say this you know rachel gives bilhah to her husband as a third wife well then leah decides she's going to get down on that action too because leah is done having kids or at least she thought she's done having kids so then she gives her maid zilpah and then you know now there's four wives and you know there was already bitterness when there were two wives now there's four wives and these other these sons of zilpah are also end up being a pain and so it's a bad idea but when we get down to verse 22 the bible said and remember this is many years later because zilpah has been having babies bilhah has been having babies many years many years go by and finally it says in verse 22 and god remembered rachel and god hearkened to her and opened her womb see if she would have just waited and been patient she would have had a baby anyway and she conceived and bare a son and said god has taken away my reproach now again what is her issue with not having a baby it's not that she just wanted to hear the little pitter-patter of feet so badly it's oh god took away my reproach all what she cares about is what other people think about her that's what reproach means reproach is when other people look down on you or talk smack about you and so again this is all about her rivalry with leah that's what it goes back to god took away my reproach and she called his name joseph and said the lord shall add to me another sign you know you know i'm sorry rachel but the way you name kids is is really irritating it's like first you name your kid dan because you're so oh god answer my prayer he judged me and but no wrong bad name then the next name naphtali oh man i've been fighting with my sister and i finally won the fight yeah what and then now this name i mean think about you've been praying for years and years is you just want to have a baby so bad you finally have a baby surely you're happy now surely you're satisfied your dream you're living the dream now right isn't this great no because let me tell you something envious covetous people will never be happy they will never be satisfied if you are not happy when you have nothing you're not going to be happy when you get what you want because people that are happy they can be happy with nothing or everything because contentment and happiness isn't based on our circumstances okay that's why the apostle paul said i have learned in whatsoever state i am therewith to be content i know both how to be abased and i know how to abound everywhere and in all things i'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and to suffer need i can do all things through christ which strengthens me he said look i have learned in whatsoever state i am therewith to be content and look if you're going to be a happy person if you're going to be as they would say in spanish contento if you're going to be contento you know what you're going to have to be contento in every situation if you think like well if i just get this list of things from god then i'll be happy if you're not happy right now you're not going to be happy when you get that stuff because happiness is a choice okay you choose to be thankful for what you have you choose to rejoice in the lord you choose to forget about the things in your life that aren't perfect and focus on the positive things be thankful to god trust him content with what you have that's a choice that you make that's character that you have where you've learned in whatsoever state you are therewith to be content rachel hasn't learned that you can tell by the way she's naming her babies and so what does she name him she basically names him give me another one that's basically what she's naming him because the word joseph is basically the verb to add it's like addition and so that's what that three-letter root is where we get the name joseph and so she says well she's calling his name joseph it says in verse 24 and said the lord shall add to me another son now you know you might be tempted to read that as well she just has a lot of faith that you know god answered one prayer and he's gonna answer another doesn't really seem to jive with the rest of the story though she doesn't really seem to be a giant of the faith and so I think it's more likely a sign of I'm not really satisfied with having one baby in fact you know I'm gonna name this baby give me another one which obviously his name doesn't literally mean give me another one but it basically means add addition you know add more and so she's saying the Lord's gonna add to me another sign and she called his name joseph look at verse 25 and it came to pass when Rachel had born joseph that Jacob said unto Laban send me away that I may go unto mine own place into my country now jump forward to chapter 31 so Jacob serves for seven years for Leah seven years for Rachel and then he enters into another contract where he serves for six years for cattle and that's a whole nother story where he earns a whole bunch of cattle and possessions from Laban but it's pretty clear that Laban is not gonna let him leave Laban's not gonna let him go he's kind of just stuck and so he ends up leaving in the middle of the night and and and sneaking out and just fleeing away with his family he takes his stuff and he flees away but what does Rachel do when we're leaving dad's house cuz Jacob you know he goes to Rachel Lee and he says look here's the situation your dad keeps ripping me off and changing my wages I've done my time I fulfilled my contract I want to go home I've been here for 20 years I want to leave and they basically say to him you know what there's nothing tying us here we're glad to go with you so Rachel and Leah feel good about the move and they're like yep let's go this is great now keep in mind Jacob is very wealthy he has great flocks and herds and possessions servants I mean he has got a lot of stuff he's not poor at all right so Jacob's like hey let's just get out of here and Jacob only wants to take what's his he's not trying to steal from Laban he only wants to take what belongs to him what he's rightfully earned but what does Rachel do look at verse number 19 and Laban went to shear his sheep and Rachel had stolen the images that were her father's now here's the thing I don't see any evidence in Scripture that Rachel is necessarily an idolater or that Rachel is necessarily worshiping other gods or or lacking in you know faithfulness to the one true God and basically you know polite or not polite she you know she is involved in a polygamous relationship polytheistic I should say okay you know perhaps she is but you know I would say 99% she didn't take these gods these images these idols these graven images because she just really wants to worship them and just really wants to bow down to more gods because you know Jehovah is just not enough for her I believe she wants to melt these things down for the precious metals because she's just that covetous like that that's what I think is actually going on in the story so look what the Bible says she had stolen the images that were her father still look stealing from your parents is wicked she's still stealing wicked stealing from your parents is wicked carrying around a bunch of idols is wicked this is wrong on a lot of levels okay and Jacob stole away unawares to Laban the Syrian and that he took him not and they told him not that he fled and that stole away it doesn't mean he didn't steal anything it means he snuck away slept away it's a different it's where we get our word stealth okay different word verse 21 so he fled with all that he had and he rose up and passed over the river and set his face toward Mount Gilead and it was told Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled so Jacob gets a three-day head start and Laban catches up to him confronts him he's angry chewing him out why didn't you let me say goodbye and you know it's really because Laban just wouldn't have let him leave but he chews him out and he says okay I get it you wanted to leave but why'd you steal my gods why did you take my idols away so Jacob's really offended by this and I didn't steal any I don't want your stupid gods Jacobs worshiping the Lord you know Jacob has been worshiping the Lord for a long time he's the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob here okay so he says in verse 32 of chapter 31 with whomsoever thou finest thy gods let him not live before our brethren discern thou what is thine with me and take it to thee he's saying look you can search my stuff you can go through all my stuff and search everything I defy you to find one thing that belongs to you so did Jacob steal anything no way that's why Jacob has the confidence to say search my bag search my tent search my stuff show me one thing here that belongs to you I didn't steal anything and whoever stole your gods let them be put to death now of course he doesn't know that this is his favorite person in the world that stole the gods because Jacob you know even though I'm a little down on Rachel tonight Jacob still thinks that Rachel is wonderful okay this is still his favorite person and he says whoever's got these gods let it be put to death so as you're reading this you're kind of thinking like oh man is Rachel about to get put to death here what's gonna happen when she gets busted with these gods and so it says in verse 33 or at the end of verse 32 it says for Jacob knew not that Rachel had stolen them so Jacob had nothing to do with this and Laban went into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the two maidservant's tent but he found them not then he went out of Leah's tent and entered into Rachel's tent now Rachel had taken the images and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them so again not super pious of her toward these gods which is why I don't think it was about religion I think is this about the money because these idols are made out of precious metals they're made out of gold or silver or whatever they're worth money and she probably thinks you know she's gonna be able to sell these when she gets or melt them down or whatever so she's sitting on them she puts them in the camel's furniture and sits on them and Laban searched all the tent but found them not and she said to her father let it not displease my lord that I cannot rise up before thee the custom of women is upon me so she basically says sorry dad it's that time of the month so you know I can't get up right now so forgive me so she's lying of course and he searched but found not the images and Jacob was Roth and by the way if your gods can be stolen you probably have the wrong God anyway okay nobody can steal my God from me right but Jacob was Roth he's angry and chode with Laban and Jacob answered and said to Laban what is my trespass what is my sin that thou is so hotly pursued after me whereas thou has searched all my stuff what is thou found of all thy household stuff set it here before my brethren and thy brethren that they may judge betwixt us both so Laban's a little dumbfounded because his gods are missing and now he doesn't know who took him we know Rachel is you know who knows what she's gonna do with them take him to the pawn shop or whatever so go to chapter 35 and we'll wrap up here chapter 35 verse 16 I bet this is the most negative sermon you've ever heard about Rachel huh I've never I've never really heard I don't think I've ever preached a whole sermon about Rachel I've never heard of something about Rachel and I've never heard anyone be this negative about Rachel if anyone whose name is Rachel you know yeah she was she was a beautiful woman all right let's focus on that all right very it's a popular name because you know that she's a beautiful girl okay but her character needed a little work Genesis chapter 35 verse 16 and they journeyed from Bethel and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath and Rachel travailed and she had hard labor so now she's having that second child that she wanted so bad because she didn't say give me child lest I die she said give me children or else I die so now here comes children right second child she had hard labor came to pass when she was in hard labor that the midwife said unto her fear not thou shalt have this son also and it came to pass as her soul was in departing for she died that she called his name Benoni but his father called him Benjamin you say surely pastor Anderson she's getting better at the baby names by now this baby name was so bad that her husband vetoed it and says no I don't care if you died while you named it this I don't give it your last dying wish that is not gonna be this kid's name finally he's just like no I let you name it you know Dan and Naphtali and Joseph but just no okay because here's what's funny about this you know you think like is she finally happy she's having her second baby no this name Benoni means something along lines of son of my sorrow or son of my affliction or son of son of my sorrow so this didn't make her happy his father called him Benjamin and the name Benjamin it could mean a couple different things at face value it means son of my right hand so that's like a more positive uplifting name then you know son of my drag of a life son of my sorrow you know he names it you know the most obvious meaning like the way the letters are in this word right now would be son of my right hand which is a good thing obviously so he's given him like a positive name you know because when you think of the right hand think of like you know your right hand man or something right but it's also possible that this name could come from the words meaning son of basically son of days which would mean like you know son of old age my old age or something I got had him in my old age or something right but either way it's positive right whatever the name is he's taken her negative name Benoni and saying like no we're not gonna name it that and he gives it a nice name whatever Benjamin means is it's a nice name okay it's positive about the baby it says and Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath which is Bethlehem and Jacob set a pillar upon her grave that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day of course now Rachel's grave is surrounded by Israeli troops and barbed wire and machine guns but that's another story because it's in it's in the occupied Palestinian territories of course you know when we were over there making the film beyond Jordan we were visiting as many biblical sites in Palestine as we could but some of them were you know kind of occupied in these Israeli settlements that we stayed out of so we did not visit Rachel's grave I don't know if Rachel necessarily wants to be visiting her grave based on you know how I portrayed her tonight but the thing is that Rachel is a good example for all of us because we all have that little bit of Rachel in us as far as its human nature its human nature to not be satisfied to look at what other people have and wish we had what they had but you know what Leah is doing the same thing Leah's looking back at Rachel and wishing that her husband loved her now stop and think about this and you know especially you ladies this is kind of a lady sermon right because it's about Rachel so especially you ladies think about this for a minute okay you can have a choice between your your financially secure your husband really loves you you're super beautiful but you can't have kids and your sister kind of gives you a bad time about not having kids you know or you are the basically unloved wife your husband is into another woman more than you but you have six sons and a daughter and you're still financially secure and you know I mean pick your poison you know I mean you say well I don't want either one I want my husband to love me and I want to have the maidservants and I want to have the kids and I want to be financially successful and I want to be in the Bible as a good character and I want people in the 21st century naming my name and their baby after me folks you can't have it all you know Rachel's beautiful her husband loves her she's financially taken care of and she's a popular baby name in the 21st century what else do you want ah but I can't have kids but even if then if she would have just waited she would have got that too because eventually she's gonna have Joseph eventually she's gonna have Benjamin and maybe if she would have given her kids better names maybe God wouldn't have even allowed her to die in childbirth maybe God just didn't like her attitude when she says oh give me children or else I die maybe God's like okay give you children and you die how about that because envy is wicked and she's the one who brings in this practice of hey let's get the handmaidens involved let's double the number of wives come on and so don't be like Rachel in the sense that you should be content in whatsoever state you are just be happy with what you have you know sit out when you start getting depressed and down and you know we all have days where we're feel down or feel sorry for ourselves or having a bad day you know sit down and think about all the things you have going for you you know it's like oh my husband you know left the toilet seat up but he didn't fix things around the house and you know whatever but here's the thing there are some women out there just wish that they had a husband you know oh man the kids are such a pain in the neck you know there are some women out there that just wish that they had kids they just wish that they had a baby at all oh the baby kept me up all night yeah but you wanted that baby and now you know I remember one time you know my wife was pregnant and I was talking about yeah we're so excited we can't wait for the baby to be born and I think this was our first baby and this guy said to me he said you know you're really excited you want that baby to come out but he said you know there are gonna be times when you want to put that baby back where it came from you know because it's just human nature just everybody just always finds something wrong with their life just oh you know oh man it's so hard to be pregnant and then it's like oh it's so hard having a newborn oh the terrible twos all of these kids are running me ragged oh these teenagers oh wait till you have young adults for kids you know oh man you know they're good it's just like why don't you just enjoy life why don't you just be thankful that God has given you so many blessings why don't you just say this is the day that the Lord had made and we will rejoice and be glad in it and be content with such things as you have because you know what you can either be a happy person or an unhappy person and you decide it has nothing to do with your circumstances because I guarantee you there are super poor people that are happy and content and then there are super rich people that are miserable despairing of life and we could do every area of life there are people with horrible health just coughing and hacking up a lung every day with just all kinds of joy in their heart as they cough up all kinds of chunks of whatever and spit them out and save them in a jar and they're happy as a clam somebody else has perfect health and saying oh you know my life's not perfect oh get over it be happy be thankful and you know what if there's something that you really need from God then ask God to do it for you that's what he's there for you know he's there to help and bless his children he loves us the hairs of our head are numbered it's not like he just doesn't care about us no he loves us he's our father our hairs are numbered he knows every thought that enters our mind your Heavenly Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask him but if you ask not you're gonna have not so if you need something go to the Lord in prayer ask him for what you need and then just you know what leave it in his hands the ball is in his court at that point just move on let's borrow doesn't have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this story Lord please help us to learn from these examples Lord help us not to steal and lie and covet and do these things Lord and help us not to have bitter envying and strife with our siblings or with our spouse or anything else Lord and and and help us not to name our baby something vindictive Lord but to name it something that would be a blessing of a name and not something negative about someone else or something and in Jesus name we pray Amen. Amen let's take your song books and go to him number four hundred and thirty nine count your blessings number four hundred and thirty nine four hundred and thirty nine when the pond likes billows your tempest toss number four hundred and thirty nine when the pond likes billows your tempest toss when you are discouraged thinking all is lost count your many blessings made them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made what God has done. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one. Count your blessings made them one by one.