Following God’s dream
Following God’s dream
Passage: Genesis 30:25-34, 31:3-21, 31:42-47
Big Idea: In the face of our failings and our insufficiency, by faith, follow God’s dream.
1. Jacob’s insufficiency for the trip home
2. Jacob’s failings became his faithful allies
3. Jacob’s faith in his father’s God
Introduction
Who’s been watching the Winter Olympics?
I don’t get have a lot of time to watch sports, but it’s always nice to watch the world come together to compete in the Olympics.
It’s even better if Australians are doing well!
Even though we might only see a few moments of these athletes trying their best to win the gold medal,
Behind each athlete is a lot of hard work, a lot of sacrifice.
These athletes sacrifice many hours over many weeks, in order to be at their peak.
If they spend their time training, they have less time to work.
If they have less time to work, they earn less money, money that they need to keep training.
In the Australian Sports Foundation’s (ASF) ‘Running on Empty’ report, released in 2023, it found that nearly half of all the athletes live below the poverty line, earning less than $23,000 per year.
Sometimes, these athletes have to work multiple jobs to keep their Olympic dreams alive.
They had to get by with little, often not able to afford luxuries their friends enjoy, in order to get a chance to fulfil their Olympic dream.
I don’t know whether you have an Olympic dream.
Some of the younger ones might, but I know I don’t have an urge to chase an Olympic dream.
However, as Christians here at Kogarah, we do have dreams.
Last week, I talked about seeing 500 hundred households coming together to serve our Lord here in Kogarah.
That seem like a big dream, even an impossible dream.
Is that the right dream? Is it too big? Is it too small?
But more importantly? What’s God’s dream?
Surely God is not happy with just 500 hundred households serving in Kogarah when there are 50,000 households around us, many of them not knowing the hope of Jesus?
Surely God wants to see even more people saved!
But is God’s dream too big for us? Can we afford to follow God’s dream?
That’s what we’re going to think about today as we look into Genesis chapter 30 beginning from verse 25.
We’re going to see three things:
1. Jacob’s insufficiency for the trip home
2. Jacob’s failings became his faithful allies
3. Jacob’s faith in his father’s God
Before we look into it, let’s pray,
“Father, please open our eyes to see a glimpse of your dream for our Church here at Kogarah. By faith, we pray this in the name Jesus Christ, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever, Amen.”
1. Jacob’s insufficiency for the trip home
Last week, in Genesis chapter 29, we saw the love-struck Jacob work seven years for the beautiful Rachel.
He was getting the girl of his dreams!
But instead of getting Rachel, Jacob got her not-so-beautiful older sister, Leah, instead.
It was a nightmare scenario for Jacob.
What was he going to do now?
He went to Laban, his father-in-law, to complain that he hadn’t got the dream girl he worked seven years for.
Laban said it was not the custom of this place for the younger daughter to get married before the older.
If Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, he had to work another seven years for Laban.
Jacob obliged and worked for Laban another seven years.
During those seven years, Jacob had eleven sons and one daughter with four women— the two sisters, plus their maids.
If you have time, read Genesis chapter 30 to find out more.
Jacob was slaving away for his father-in-law while trying to make the most of his growing family.
After Jacob and Rachel had their first son, Joseph, and after finishing the seven years he agreed to for Rachel’s hand, Jacob said this to Laban in verses 25-26: “Send me on my way so that I can return to my homeland. Give me my wives and my children that I have worked for, and let me go. You know how hard I have worked for you.”
He reached the last day of his contract with Laban; it was time for Jacob to go.
When he first came to Laban, he probably thought that he would be there for a short time.
However, as things turned out, partly due to Laban’s deception, and partly due to Jacob’s own folly, which made him vulnerable to Laban, Jacob stayed there for 14 years.
He wanted to leave, but there’s a slight problem: He might not be able to afford to leave.
He worked 14 years for the two wives, but now his family is bigger than just him and his two wives.
He now has children and the maids of his wives, who themselves were mothers of some of his children.
Laban could say that according to the laws, he didn’t agree to give these to him as part of his wage.
Even if Laban agreed to give Jacob his family, Laban could still send him and his family away with nothing, which would’ve been horrible, since Jacob didn’t technically didn’t earn anything else besides the two wives.
Jacob didn’t have enough money or resources to go home.
Who uses public transport for commuting to school or work?
Nowadays, people use their Opal cards, or their credit cards, or their phone, or even their watch, to pay for the fare.
Back in my days, I had to bring cash.
I needed to make sure I had cash for the trip to leave home and cash for the trip coming home.
The cost for a bus ride was $1 or even $2.
However, one time, when I got on the bus, I didn’t have any gold coins; I only had a $50 note.
The bus driver was really annoyed because he had to find notes for the change.
He said if I came back next time, he would tell me to get on the next bus. That is, I wouldn’t be able to get home, even though I had the money.
Jacob had little or no money to take his new family home.
Not only couldn’t he go back home, his father-in-law wanted him to stay. Look with me at verse 27, “But Laban said to him, “If I have found favour with you, stay. I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you.”
Even Laban could see that the LORD was blessing him through Jacob.
Since God’s been blessing Jacob, who has been working for him, why would he want Jacob to go?
And so, Laban said to Jacob, “Name your wages, and I will pay them.”
Once again, Jacob was in a vulnerable place.
The last time the Bible recorded a discussion between Laban and Jacob about Jacob’s working condition, the love-struck Jacob was at the mercy of his potential father-in-law.
This time, the family man Jacob was at the mercy of the man who became his father-in-law.
Jacob wanted to do something for his family, and he would stay to shepherd Laban’s sheep under one condition.
Verse 32, “Let me go through all your sheep today and remove every sheep that is speckled or spotted, every dark-coloured sheep among the lambs, and the spotted and speckled among the female goats. Such will be my wages.”
Most sheep were all white and most goats were all black or brown where Jacob was.
The speckled and spotted ones were rare.
And so, Jacob would most probably only get a small proportion of the sheep and the goats.
After Jacob explained his one condition, Laban happily agreed, but just to make sure Jacob wouldn’t try to cheat, Laban himself picked the goats that were streaked and spotted, and any dark-coloured lambs, and separated them away from the rest of the monochromic flock that had no streaks or spots.
He then made sure that the two sets of flocks were separated by a three-day journey, many kilometres away from each other, so that there would be no cross-over between the two groups.
He even got his own sons to look after the multicoloured flock with streaks and spots and Jacob to look after the monochromic flock, so that Jacob could only look after Laban’s flock.
Laban made sure that Jacob had very, very little to work with to increase his wealth.
However, Jacob was a resourceful shepherd.
He did two things. First, he made some peeled branches and placed them in the water channels where the sheep came to drink.
Jacob was following what was probably something that the ancient shepherds believed.
That is, if a sheep or a goat looks at something long enough, their offspring would look something similar.
In Jacob’s case, it might be that he believed that if the sheep and goats looked at branches for long enough, they would have kids and lambs that look like they have branches on them (that is, filled with streaks and spots) even though the parents were monochromic, that is, having only one colour.
I don’t know how this worked in Jacob’s case, but even as Jacob himself would later say, it was all God’s work.
If you want to try it out for yourself, stare at branches all day and see what happens to your children, but I wouldn’t recommend it, because I really hope you’ve got better things to do!
The second thing Jacob did was to make sure he would only get the stronger ones to breed in front of the branches.
This meant that he got all the stronger, multicoloured lambs and kids, and Laban had the monochromic, weaker lambs and kids.
Over time, Jacob became very rich.
Why did the Bible record this for us?
The Bible didn’t record this to show us how to have little lambs and kids with spots and streaks.
And the Bible certainly didn’t record this to show us how we can get rich!
The Bible recorded this to show us what faith looks like.
Jacob had very little he could work with.
His own situation and the way his father-in-law had stacked the system against him meant that even though he knew it was God’s will for him to return to his homeland, the Promised Land, there wasn’t a lot he could do.
However, instead of complaining about how little he had, or blaming his misfortune on Laban, Jacob trusted God with the little that he had.
Jacob would later reveal that it was God who showed him in a dream in which all the spotted and speckled male sheep were mating with the females of the flock.
God had shown him in a dream what would happen.
Jacob trusted God and did what he could to follow that dream.
He was faithful with little, and God richly rewarded his faith as a result.
Jesus himself had said in Luke 16:19-20, “Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and whoever is unrighteous in very little is also unrighteous in much. So if you have not been faithful with worldly wealth, who will trust you with what is genuine?”
Jacob only had a little.
He might have had a few, rare, speckled and spotted sheep and goats, and the odds were stacked against him.
However, Jacob was faithful with the little that God’s given him, and God has blessed him abundantly for it.
I don’t know about you, but I’m constantly reminded of how insufficient I am all the time.
And if I do forget, there will be others will remind me how insufficient I am.
If only I had more time, I could do more for God.
If only I had more resources, I could support more ministries, help more people.
Or, if only the government was more generous and helpful, or if only other Christians were as keen to spread the gospel, then life would be a lot easier.
Do you ever feel insufficient?
Do you feel that for our Church?
If only our Church was bigger, then we could spread the load more.
If only our Church had more old people, more young people, more middle-aged people, more English speakers, more Mandarin speakers, life would be so much better.
If only.
But rather than focussing on what we don’t have, rather than focussing on our insufficiency, let’s work with the little that we do have.
For if we are not faithful with little, if we are faithless with what God has already given us, why would God give us more?
Yes, we’re insufficient, but let’s be faithful with the little that we do have, and use all of it, for God’s glory.
How faithful are you with what God’s already given you?
Can you be trusted with the little that you have?
As a church, can we be trusted with the little that we have?
2. Jacob’s failings became his faithful allies
After working under Laban for another six years, the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your ancestors and to your family, and I will be with you.”
We know it’s six years because in 31:38, Jacob said he worked for Laban for twenty years: fourteen for the two wives, and the other six for the multicoloured sheep and goats.
Going back to the land of his ancestors is a big decision, and so Jacob called his wives for a family meeting.
As a minister, and as someone involved in a number of groups and boards, I’ve been to a lot of meetings.
When we bring kindness and humility to meetings, they often turn out well. However, meetings go bad when we bring mistrust and hidden agendas.
The worst sorts of meetings happen when some members have some unresolved issues, and they refuse to let the rest of the group move forward because they couldn’t let go of their past.
Rachel and Leah have had a lot of issues between them in the past.
Rachel was the favoured and beautiful one, while Leah was the unloved and not beautiful one.
Leah had many children, but Rachel only had one at this stage.
How would they fare at Jacob’s family meeting?
Jacob explained to them that their father, Laban’s, attitude towards Jacob had changed.
Even though Jacob worked hard for an honest day’s living, Laban had cheated Jacob and changed his wages ten times.
However, even while Laban was cheating Jacob, God was with Jacob.
More than that, Jacob told his wives that it was God who had shown him that the future of the flock would belong to the streaked, spotted, and the speckled sheep and goats.
Even though Laban intentionally tried to harm Jacob, God was with Jacob.
Look with me at verse 13, “I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the stone marker and made a solemn vow to me. Get up, leave this land, and return to your native land.”
God has promised to be his God, and Jacob had made a vow to him that God would be his God if he made it back safely.
God was telling him to go now, to go back to his father’s house, to his native land, a land that neither of his wives had seen.
Would the wives follow Jacob’s lead to the unknown?
For the first time in the Bible, these two sisters agreed on the same thing.
They had nothing left in Laban, their father’s, house.
They were treated by him as if they, his own daughters, were foreigners.
To his daughters, Laban was an indulgent man who sold them for money, money that he spent for his own personal benefit, money which he selfishly devoured.
Even here, there’s a faint echo of Esau who sold his birthright to foolishly devour a bowl of soup.
And so, whatever Jacob got from their father, the wives saw them as belonging to the family, Jacob’s family.
And, like Jacob, they recognised that ultimately, it was God who gave all these to them.
And then comes a beautiful command from the wives, “So do whatever God has said to you.”
Wives, this is a command I don’t mind you giving to your husbands.
Husbands, listen when your wives tell you to do whatever God has said to you.
There’s no record of Jacob’s emotional response to what the two wives have said, but I suspect that he would’ve been relieved and maybe even a little overwhelmed.
These two sisters became Jacob’s wives not because they dated and fell in love.
They became his wives because Jacob lied to his father, messed up his own family, and was running away from his own brother.
Coming here to find a wife from his tribe was initially only an excuse for escape.
He ended up with two wives because he was lied to by his father-in-law.
Rather than loving both wives equally, he loved one wife more than another.
The six years they’ve just had were filled jealousy and competition.
Jacob had made a mess of his life and the lives of these two women.
These two women, along with Jacob’s messy family, were reminders of the failings of Jacob and how he foolishly, selfishly, made such a big mess in the lives of his family.
And yet, seeing the two of them supporting his decision to trust God’s word is also a reminder of the glorious and extravagant grace of God.
Instead of staying in the safety of their own father’s house, they were willing to take the risk with Jacob.
They knew that the journey they were about to take would not be easy.
There would be risks to their lives as they attempt to escape from Laban.
They would be living in a foreign land.
They would need to trust the God of Jacob, who promised to be with Jacob.
And so, they would put aside their differences and support Jacob.
They would be his faithful allies.
That’s the wonder of God’s grace.
Jacob had made such a mess of his life, and yet his hope is in the promises of God.
God had promised to look after him and he took God at his word.
That’s why he wanted to go home so much.
God had promised to give him the land he was born in, just as he had promised Abraham his grandfather and Isaac his father.
God had made a promise that the Promised Land will one day be his and his descendants after him.
Though Jacob was living in a messy world, a world he made a mess of, living a messy life that was the consequence of foolish and selfish mistakes that he’d made in the past,
and yet, he knew that this messy world was not his home.
His home was somewhere else.
His home was the Promised Land.
His hope was where God’s said his home would be.
That’s what faith in God is like.
To have faith in God is to trust in God, no matter what happens.
To have faith in God is to set your hope fully on God, even when we have failed him time and time again.
That’s what it means to have faith in God.
It’s not about trusting what you can do, but about what God has promised.
To have faith in God is to long for him, like Jacob longing for the home of his fathers.
Like Jacob’s journey, our faith journey will be risky.
The Lord we’re following is none other than Lord Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ who died on the cross.
If we put our faith in Jesus, then we will walk the path of the cross.
The path of faith is the path of the cross.
To follow Jesus means to deny yourself, take up your cross, and to follow him.
The path of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a good path to take, it’s the best path to take, and the only path that will lead you to heaven, but that doesn’t mean it’s a safe path, or risk-free.
Like Jacob, you will face challenges in your life.
And like Jacob, you will fail. I will fail.
But the good news of Jesus is that though we fail, we can always trust in him, knowing that despite our failings, he will do what he has promised us.
And if we trust in him, and continue to put our trust in him, he will bring us home.
Last week, I read the story of Janeen and Edgar.
One day, both Janeen and Edgar came into their minister’s office with their family.
They were 18 and 19 years old, and Janeen’s parents were pillars of the Church for many years.
As you might have guessed by now, Janeen was pregnant.
They asked the minister what they should do.
After a few meetings, the girl asked what they should do if she’s starting to show that she’s pregnant.
The minister said, “Why don’t you tell the Church?”
They were shocked at the suggestion at first but over time decided to tell the whole Church.
They were nervous about telling the Church, but the minister was standing with them.
They told the Church that they were having a baby and they were going to get married.
The Church stood up to support them, not only at that service, but also in the months to come.
No one wondered whether the Church was encouraging young girls to get pregnant; they knew it was wrong.
But they also knew that this Church is a place of grace, where people can share their failures, pain, and brokenness.
One parent of a teenager said, “Here it is not all about being perfect.
This is what we love when we were looking for a Church.
They want to be in a place where they know that when their kids fail, God’s people would say, “Ok, you messed up. What now?” and not “We don’t want you here anymore.”
Don’t you want to be in a Church like that, a Church where grace rules, even when we mess up?
That’s the Church that Christ has come to die for.
This is what God gave his Holy Spirit to His Church to become.
He wants us to put our trust in him, to become the community of grace that he created us to be.
That was God’s dream for us, and we’ve seen a glimpse of that in Jacob’s faith in his father’s God.
3. Jacob’s faith in his father’s God
Though Jacob had tried to escape from Laban, Laban found out and eventually caught up.
Laban confronted Jacob about leaving him without saying goodbye and accusing Jacob of stealing his gods.
Jacob’s wife Rachel Did steal Laban’s gods, but Jacob didn’t know about it.
When Laban couldn’t find his gods, Jacob was angry and confronted Laban in return.
Look with me at 31:42, “If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work, and he issued his verdict last night.”
Over the past twenty years, Jacob had been slowly learning how to trust the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac.
This same God was not just the God of his fathers.
The God of his fathers is now his God.
He has experienced the love and protection of God firsthand.
He is now a witness of the mercy, the justice, and the faithfulness of God.
There’s a saying that goes like this, “God has no grandchildren”.
We’re not saved because our father is a Christian or our grandfather’s a Christian.
As good as that might be, we need to come to know God for ourselves.
There’s no such thing as a second-hand faith.
We can’t be in a relationship with God through our fathers or mothers.
If our faith in him is true, then we must come to know him firsthand.
And the only way we can know God firsthand is when we put our trust in our Lord Jesus Christ.
That’s God’s great hope for us. That’s God’s great dream for us.
God wants to see us put our trust in Jesus Christ, his one and only Son.
God wants to see us follow Jesus to the real Promised Land.
While God has promised the land of Canaan, a beautiful location, to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, even that promised land is but a shadow of the real Promised Land.
Look with me at Hebrews 11:13-16, “These all died in faith, although they had not received the things that were promised. But they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
This is God’s great dream, to see us living with him in the better place – a heavenly one.
That’s where he wants us to be.
And not just us, but our unbelieving fathers, our doubting mothers, our sceptical friends, our atheist co-worker.
God even wants to see people who failed him, people who failed their families, people who failed the Church, and the wider community there.
For our God is the God of grace.
Since that’s where God wants us to go, and since he wants us to bring as many people there as possible, let’s give ourselves fully to following God’s vision.
Let’s give ourselves fully to following God’s dream.
Like Jacob, we might not have a lot to give, but whatever we’ve got, let’s give it all, by faith.
Like Jacob, we might not be a good person, or a great person.
We might have been someone who had failed God many times.
But give God even your failures.
Trust him with your failures; he can take it.
When we say give God our all, it includes the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly.
Don’t let anything hold you back from following God’s dream.
If you don’t know enough about what God wants, find out by reading the Bible and praying.
And don’t just read the Bible and pray by yourself.
Talk with other brothers and sisters and hear their wisdom.
Remember that God’s dream will always be bigger than us, so when you think about God’s dream, don’t just think about his will for you.
Think about God’s dream for us together, as his Church, as his people.
Once you get a clear idea of what God’s dream is, follow it with all your heart.
And listen to the command of the wives of Jacob, “So do whatever God has said to you.”
Can we afford to follow God’s dream?
No and yes.
No, God’s dream is far too big for us to follow.
We’re insufficient, we’re under-resourced.
We’re incompetent and we fail him time and time again.
So no, we can’t afford to follow God’s dream; the cost is too much…IF we’re just thinking about ourselves.
Can we afford to follow God’s dream?
100% Yes, because God himself had paid the cost for us to follow his dream.
God’s given us his one and only Son Jesus Christ, so that when we put our trust in him, when we rely on him day by day, God’s dream is slowly becoming a reality.
What’s God’s dream? What’s God’s hope?
To welcome us, his Church, multicoloured, multiethnic, and magnificent, into his heavenly home.
Don’t chase your own dream. Chase God’s dream.
Chase it all that you have, even if you only have a little.
Chase it with all that you are, even if you have failed him many times and will likely to fail and fall again.
Friends, the time has come for us to get up and chase God’s dream.
In the face of our failings and our insufficiency, by faith, follow God’s dream.
Here are three questions for us to think about this week in your Growth groups:
Three Questions
1. What do you think is God’s dream for our Church in Kogarah? Why?
2. How has your faith grown in the face of failures, either your own or those of others?
3. What will you give with the little that God’s given you?
In the face of our failings and our insufficiency, by faith, follow God’s dream.
Let’s pray, “God of our fathers, please forgive us for our little faith. Please forgive us when we’ve foolishly put our trust in ourselves instead of you. Father, please help us to see a glimpse of the glory of your dream. Help us to long for what you long for. Help us to long for those whom you long for. Jesus, thank you for paying to cost to see God’s dream and your dream become a reality. Please lead us to your home. Please help us walk the path of faith, the path of the cross. Holy Spirit, we are weak and we are under sourced. Though we can’t see you, please lead us as we study your way you’re moving in the world around us. For we pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen”