God still uses imperfect people.
Sermon Title: TROUBLE IN HARAN
Sermon Text: GENESIS 29:1-10 NIV
Sermon Series: IMPERFECT FAITH
By: PTR NIC SY
Sermon Notes:
GENESIS 29:1-10 NIV
1 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples.
2 There he saw a well in the field, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large.
3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Haran,” they replied.
5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” “Yes, we know him,” they answered.
6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?” “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”
9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.
Review from the previous sermons:
ACT I
HOME IN CANAAN
(Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-28:9)
ACT II
JOURNEY TO HARAN
(Genesis 28:10-22)
GENESIS 28:16 NIV
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”
God works through imperfect people.
Justification is God’s work for you.
Sanctification is God’s work in you.
PHILIPPIANS 2:13 NIV
13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
ACT III
JACOB IN HARAN
ACT III Scene 1
JACOB MEETS RACHEL
GENESIS 29:1-3 NIV
1 Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples.
2 There he saw a well in the field, with three flocks of sheep lying near it because the flocks were watered from that well. The stone over the mouth of the well was large.
3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well.
GENESIS 29:4-8 NIV
4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from?” “We’re from Haran,” they replied.
5 He said to them, “Do you know Laban, Nahor’s grandson?” “Yes, we know him,” they answered.
6 Then Jacob asked them, “Is he well?” “Yes, he is,” they said, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”
7 “Look,” he said, “the sun is still high; it is not time for the flocks to be gathered. Water the sheep and take them back to pasture.”
8 “We can’t,” they replied, “until all the flocks are gathered and the stone has been rolled away from the mouth of the well. Then we will water the sheep.”
GENESIS 29:9-10 NIV
9 While he was still talking with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep, for she was a shepherdess.
10 When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his mother’s brother, and Laban’s sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep.
GENESIS 29:11 NIV
11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud.
RACHEL
“EWE”
GENESIS 29:12-15 NIV
12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative of her father and a son of Rebekah. So she ran and told her father.
13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister’s son, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, and there Jacob told him all these things.
14 Then Laban said to him, “You are my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month,
15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”
GENESIS 24:29-31 NIV
29 Now Rebekah had a brother named Laban, and he hurried out to the man at the spring.
30 As soon as he had seen the nose ring, and the bracelets on his sister’s arms, and had heard Rebekah tell what the man said to her, he went out to the man and found him standing by the camels near the spring.
31 “Come, you who are blessed by the LORD,” he said. “Why are you standing out here? I have prepared the house and a place for the camels.”
GENESIS 29:16-19 NIV
16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.
18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.”
GENESIS 29:20 NIV
20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.
Because God is always with us, we must pray him into our story!
ACT III Scene 2
THE WEDDING FIASCO
GENESIS 29:21 NIV
21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to lie with her.”
GENESIS 29:17 NIV
17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful.
LEAH
“COW”
GENESIS 29:22 NIV
22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast.
GENESIS 29:23-27 NIV
23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob, and Jacob lay with her.
24 And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter as her maidservant.
25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”
26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one.
27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”
GENESIS 29:28-30 NIV
28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife.
29 Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her maidservant.
30 Jacob lay with Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.
Disappointment follows when we look for satisfaction in the wrong things.
What good thing in your life are you treating as an ultimate thing?
Every choice we make is a seed.
GALATIANS 6:7 NIV
7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
What good thing in your life are you treating as an ultimate thing?
You determine the quality of tomorrow by the seeds you sow today.
“In Laban, Jacob met his match and his means of discipline. Twenty years of drudgery and friction were to weather his character; and the reader can reflect that presumably Jacob is not the only person to have needed a Laban in his life.
Derek Kidner