Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is connect with skip Heidzig and we're so glad
you've joined us for today's program. Connect with skip Heidzig
is all about connecting you to the never changing truth
of God's Word through verse by verse teaching. That's why
we make messages like this one today available to you
and others. Before we get started with the program, we
want to invite you to check out connect with Skip

(00:21):
dot com. There you'll find resources like full message series,
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Sign up today at connect withiskip dot com. That's connect
with Skip dot com. Now let's get started with today's

(00:43):
message from pastor's Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We've noted something about Genesis. It's a book of beginnings.
It tells us the beginning of God's creation of the
heavens and the earth. It tells us the beginning of
mankind as God plays man upon the earth. It gives
to us the beginning of sin, the fall of man,

(01:06):
and sin entering into the bloodstream and perverting everything, and
everything becomes depraved after that, Genesis also reveals to us
the beginning of God's plan to heal the sin that
is in the blood stream, and his plan includes in

(01:28):
Genesis chapter three the seed of the woman that would
crush the head of the serpent. We see the beginning
of human government. We see the beginning of marriage. We
see the beginning of a nation which includes the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac,

(01:50):
and Jacob. And now we've already entered into the next phase,
the twelve sons of Jacob, which become the twelve tribes
of his So once again, by way of reminder for
those of us who may not have it on the
tip of our minds, the Book of Genesis is divided,
as we mentioned, into two sections, chapters one through eleven

(02:14):
primeval history, chapters twelve through fifty patriarchal history. A patriarch
meaning a male leader. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob were patriarchs, and
one of the things we noticed about all three of
these guys is they were highly imperfect characters, which causes

(02:38):
us to rejoice because we relate to them, We see
ourselves in them. We think God used these nerds. Boy
is their hope. Now with Jacob, we saw that from
the beginning. He was a manipulator right even from his birth.

(03:01):
His name was really prophetic of what his character would be,
for he came out second after Esau, grabbing Esau's heel
as if to trip him. So he was given the
name Yakov, which means one who trips or heel catcher
or manipulator or mister Khan artist, and he was good

(03:25):
at it. He stole his brother's blessing and for a
bowl of stew. His brother Esau traded the spiritual heritage,
the right of the first born to the second born
to Jacob. Jacob got it as soon as he got it,
and as soon as he got the blessing later on

(03:46):
conferred on him by his father Isaac. He had to flee.
He ran away from home. He was scared that his
brother was going to murder him. Keep that in mind
for next week when he sees his brother again after
twenty long years. He has to run, he has to flee,
and in the middle of the will wilderness, in a

(04:09):
barren spot, he's feeling all alone. He's feeling rejected. He
thinks I'll never see my family again, and he must
have felt alienated even from God until that night he
had a dream. The Bible says he was tired. He
went to a place called Luz and he pulled up

(04:30):
a rock for a pillow under his head, and he
fell asleep, and he saw a vision of the angels
of God on a ladder from Earth to Heaven. They
were descending, coming down and us ending going up into Heaven.
He woke up the next day and he went, Wow,
this place is awesome. He was from California. Awesome. And

(04:53):
then he said, the Lord is in this place. And
I knew it not. I know it now, but I
knew it not and it's not the Lord was. But
the Lord is in this place, but he's still on
the run. He builds a pillar, pours oil on it,
makes it covenant with God. God says, go and I'll

(05:14):
protect you and you'll come back. So he goes to
a place we know today as Iraq, Northern Iraq, a
place called padan Aram back then one of the northern
Mesopotamian provinces, where Laban lived, and he fell in love
with the beautiful young girl named Rachel. You know the story,

(05:37):
so I won't get too much into it, but he
got I was going to say a two for the
price of one deal got two wives, but he really
it was two for the price of two, and what
a steep price it was. He served Laban fourteen long
years for Leah and Rachel, though he really only loved Rachel.

(06:01):
He ends up staying another six years. He wanted to go.
He said, I'm leaving back in chapter thirty, verse twenty five,
he said, I'm going back to my father's place, and
Laban says, please don't go, please stay, for I know
that the Lord has blessed me just because you're hanging
around me, and I want you to hang around me.

(06:22):
So you name your wage and you can have whatever
you want. So he stays for another six years, and
all that he said he wanted was the ability to
have what Laban would consider the castaways, the leftovers of
his flock. Jacob, as we saw last week, came up

(06:45):
with a very interesting way of reproductive management of his flocks.
He took these pieces of wood from poplar trees, chestnut trees,
and almond tree and he peeled back the bark, made
little strips on them, and put these pieces of wood

(07:06):
into the watering troughs of the sheep, believing that when
the sheep saw them, and they would conceive that the
Lord would stack the odds in his behalf and his
flocks would grow, giving them the kind of speckled and
streaked animals that he said that he wanted from Laban. Now,
I mentioned last week that that was probably a superstition

(07:29):
on his part. However, as I think about it a
little more deeply, it could have been superstition or a possibility,
just a possibility. It could have been a revelation, because
in this chapter he's going to say that the Angel
of the Lord revealed something to him in a dream.
And though he doesn't spell all of that out what

(07:49):
he did in the last chapter, it could be that
the Angel said, now, if you do something that's going
to sound really stupid, and there's really no scientific reason
why this should work, but if you do it by
faith and trust, the Lord will increase your flocks. Whatever
it was exactly, the Lord increased his flock. And that's

(08:14):
where we come to now in chapter thirty one, As
I mentioned, it's a long chapter. There are fifty five
verses in this chapter. I've divided it up into three
sections and will go through all three of the sections
in one chapter. Tonight, Beautiful Lessons. In chapter thirty one

(08:35):
Beautiful Lessons, there is, first of all, a heavenly confirmation
in the first section, a heavenly confirmation as God confirms
his will to Jacob to go back home. Number two,
there is an earthly confrontation. Now, I don't know what

(08:56):
the relationship is like with your father in law, but
no matter how bad it might be, it couldn't come
close to this one. Jacob and his father in law
had been at tense odds for years, and that confrontation
comes to a head. And then third and finally there

(09:18):
will be a carnal cooperation, and that's how the chapter ends.
So beginning in chapter thirty one, in verse one, now
Jacob heard the words of Laban's sons saying, Jacob has
taken away all there was our fathers, and from what

(09:40):
was our fathers, he has acquired all of this wealth.
And Jacob saw that the countenance of Laban, and indeed
it was not favorable toward him. As before, the body language,
the way Laban looked at Jacob had changed. In communication,

(10:04):
It's not just what we say, it's how we say
it right. Body language can convey much more than even words.
For instance, you can say something, but by the tone
of your voice, or the stiffness of your posture, or
the rigidity of your lips, you can mean something completely different.

(10:27):
You could say, for instance, to your wife, you look great.
That will mean one thing to her. If she says, honey,
how do I look and you glance at them and go,
you look great, that will mean something different to her.
And if you were to even take it a step
further and say, well, don't you look great? That will

(10:50):
mean something. And I suggest you don't, it means something
wholly different than the first two. Now twenty years there
had been a tension between Jacob and Laban, attention and agreement,
but attention. They were both con artists, and Jacob was

(11:13):
great at lying and manipulating and being a con artist,
as I mentioned, but l manipulator numero uno was Laban.
He was a pro at it. And they would go
back and forth and have this long contest to see
who would outwit each other. And it continues tonight. But

(11:35):
in the midst of that contest between con artists to
see who would outwit each other, there seemed to adjust
to the tension. You can adjust to any kind of
tension in a relationship. In fact, if you think about it,
sometimes out of great tension can come great harmony. Opposites attract.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig before we return to
Skip's teaching, if you've ever wondered what the Bible has
to say about some of our culture's big issues, we
have a great resource for you. When you give a
gift of fifty dollars or more this month to support
the ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you
God Speaks Biblical answers for today's issues. This special resource

(12:22):
bundle contains six of Pastor Skipp's booklets that address topics
like suicide, why the Truth matters, Heaven and Hell, and
the Church's response to racism. You'll gain valuable insight into
what God's Word says about the big questions in our
culture and get equipped to stand for the timeless truth
of Scripture. Go to connect with Skip dot com slash

(12:43):
offer or call eight hundred ninety two to two eighteen
eighty eight and request your copy when you give fifty
dollars or more. Now let's get back to Skip for
more of today's teaching.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
Probably what drew you to your wife for your husband
has also been I'm a source of conflict. But even
out of that tension can come great harmony. Example is
a piano in this well. Piano got raptured. It's a
selective rapture now that it's behind the stage. But a

(13:20):
piano has up to twelve thousand moving parts and can
exert the pressure of those tight strings on that harp
of two tons two tons of pressure on a metal harp.
But out of great tension can come beautiful harmony. So

(13:43):
this tension between them for seven years for one wife,
seven more years for another wife, six more years to
get the flocks. He wanted tension, But now we see
something different. The tension moves into friction, and the friction
is the jealousy that Laban's sons. In fact, Laban himself

(14:05):
has toward Jacob because he's so successful. God is blessing him. Now.
In the previous chapter, he tells Jacob, don't go man,
I love having you around because I'm blessed because you're
with me. So whatever it takes, you name your wage.
But things have changed. He's so successful, and it's so

(14:29):
showing off or up Laban. The body language has changed,
and I'm sure he was cold to him, Jacob, oo,
are you very formal? Very aloof, very stiff. But he
could see that something has changed, so the sons accused him.

(14:51):
In verse one, Jacob has taken away all that was
our fathers, and from what was our fathers, he has
acquired all of this wealth. Now that's a false accusation.
Jacob saw that the countenance are literally the face of Laban. Indeed,
it was not favorable toward him as before. If you're

(15:13):
a public speaker, you can appreciate the value of not
getting hung up on looking at people's faces. It's an
interesting view from this angle, looking at all of you,
looking at a crowd, looking at a group. A person's
face can be very unsettling. You don't know it, but

(15:36):
when people listen, they don't always do this. Sometimes they
do this. It can be unsettled into a speaker. Or
sometimes they do this, or they get up, or they

(15:56):
look contemplative, and they're truly just content and contemplating, but
the look of contemplation on a person's face can sort
of look grumpy. So that's why public speakers will often
scan the crowd to find the happy faces, the yes faces,
rather than the no faces, the faces that smile, those

(16:20):
that take notes. Now, no wonder when God called Jeremiah,
the prophet who was a teenager. When God called him
and sent him as a prophet to the nation, he said,
I've called you. Do not be afraid of their faces,
because I will be with you. It would be a temptation,

(16:41):
as a prophet is giving a heavy message and people
are scowling at him, to look at the face and
get all freaked out and not want to go through
with the boldness that God prompted you to have. I
was once in New York City. I was teaching preaching
at a church in Manhattan, and somebody in the crowd

(17:03):
caught my attention because he had a smile. Not only
did he have a smile, he was taking notes, taking notes,
taking notes like like it's like the first time he
ever heard a Bible study in his life. So I
was concentrating on him a lot. And then afterwards I
asked the pastor, I said, who was this? It was
an old guy. Who is this old guy? He said, interesting,

(17:27):
this guy is a man by the name of John Dolorian.
John Delorian was the guy who developed several cars, including
the Deloorian car used in Back to the Future and
was indicted for twenty four million dollars worth of drug
smuggling and put into prison. And while he was in

(17:48):
then the charges he was cleared. But when he got
released from prison, he showed up at Mike's church every
week and he could not get enough of Bible study
and just so up God's word until he died, but
filled with truth, filled with God's word, and the countenance
on his face was so wonderful to look at. So

(18:10):
I digress. Let's get back to the story. Verse three.
Then the Lord said to Jacob, return to the land
of your fathers and to your family, and I will
be with you. It's worthy to note how God prepared
Jacob to move from Padan a Ram back to the

(18:32):
place he left twenty years before. And I want you
to note it because I think it's an important principle
in your life. The first thing that God did is
put a desire in Jacob's heart to go back six
years before this, six years before this. In chapter thirty,
verse twenty five, he announces to Laban after Joseph was born,

(18:57):
I'm going back. I need to go back home. Heart
is there. I need to be back in the covenant
land of Abraham and Isaac, I've got to go back.
He didn't go back. He was talked into staying, and
he did stay for six more years. But that desire
never left him. It was a desire deep in his heart.

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He didn't react or act too quickly on it. But
God put a desire in his heart, and that's the
first step that God uses to move us from one
experience to another, or one place to another. He puts
a desire deep within. David writes in Psalm thirty seven,
if you delight yourself in the Lord, he will give
you the desires of your heart. I don't think that

(19:39):
means God will give you your heart's desire, whatever little
feeling you have in your heart at that time. I
really want that, Okay, I'll do it. I think what
it means is that when you delight yourself in the Lord,
the desires that you have are the desires that God
plants within your heart. Where did this desire come from?

(20:01):
It came from the Lord. He put that desire in
your heart. Now that desire that you have has to
be confirmed. You don't want to act on every desire
you have. It might be impetuous, might be impulsive. So
the second thing that happens are circumstances. He has a

(20:23):
desire to go back, but he stays. But now the
circumstances go from tension to friction. And I'll listen carefully.
The circumstances toward Jacob are not favorable. They're unfavorable. There's jealousy,
there's accusation, there's lies. In other words, the nest is

(20:48):
getting stirred up for Jacob by the circumstances around him.
He has a desire, but now the circumstances are against them,
so he thinks it's time to get out of here.
I really need to leave. What I feel in my
heart is now being confirmed by the circumstances that the
Lord has placed around me. Now keep that in mind.

(21:12):
When things turn sour in your life, you're apt to complain,
God can't be in this. Don't be so sure, God,
why would you allow this to happen. I can just
hear the Lord sometimes going, really, you're gonna ask me
that you've been praying for two months that something would

(21:34):
change in your life, So now you got fired. It's
about to change in your life. You had that old job,
you didn't even like it. Now you got fired. Now
you're in a position of looking for a new job.
I'm going to give you a new job. And so
the Lord stirs things up by circumstances, and they may

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not be favorable, and that could be the Lord doing
something to move you along. The third thing that happens
is the word of the Lord comes to him, says
in verse three. The Lord said to Jacob, Now the
word confirms what he felt in his heart and what
the circumstances were telling him. God says, returned to the

(22:18):
land of your father's. So when life turns sour, God
may have some sweet blessings right around the corner. Don't complain,
don't moan to say, great, what opportunities might God have
in store if I trust him and I move forward?

(22:42):
So the friction causes him to seek a new direction.
Verse four, Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to
the field to his flock, and he said to them,
I see your father's countenance that it is not favorable
toward me as before. But the God of my father

(23:05):
has been with me. And you know that with all
my might I have served your father. And yet your
father has deceived me and changed my wages ten times.
What would you do if your employer changed your wage
ten times? Not in that direction, then you go, thank

(23:29):
you Lord. What if it goes in that direction? Notice
what he says ten times, he's done it. But God
did not allow him to hurt me. Evidently, or at
least probably. Jacob took his flocks that had grown substantively

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and moved them out toward the west, toward the road
that would lead back to the land of Promise, where
he felt the Lord wanted him to go. But before
he left, he was smart. He called his wives out
and conferred with his wife wives. Honey number one and
Honey number two. I feel the Lord wants me to

(24:17):
go back home. Your dad has spooky eyes looking at me,
and I think God has spoken to me. So what
do you say? He confers with them. He says, he's
changed my wages ten times, but the Lord has been
with me.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember
that when you give fifty dollars or more to help
reach more people with the Gospel through connect with skip Heitzig,
we'll send you. God speaks biblical answers for today's issues,
which contain six of Pastor Skip's booklets to help you
understand what the Bible says about big issues like racism,
the importance of truth, suicide, and Heaven and Hell. To

(24:59):
request a copy of God Speaks Biblical Answers for Today's issues,
call eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
eight hundred nine two two eighteen eighty eight, or visit
connect with Skip dot com slash donate for more from Skip.
Be sure to check out the many resources available at
connectiskip dot com slash store. Come back next time for

(25:23):
more verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here on
connect with skip Heidzig.

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