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[ Silence ] [ Music ] God be the glory and king to the crown, for loving the world and giving it his power. To him, this flag of the Lord Jesus is, now open the highway, and all things will be.

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♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Who left the earth in his hands ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ That the people may know ♪

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♪ O God, now the power of Jesus was found ♪ ♪ And with the Lord his name he did asound ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the earth hear his voice ♪

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♪ Praise the Lord, praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Let the people rejoice ♪ ♪ For God the Father ♪ ♪ Is risen from the dead ♪

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♪ And gives him the glory ♪ ♪ And makes me as one ♪ Jacob went in also to Rachel and he loved Rachel more than Leah and served with him yet seven other years, Genesis 29 and 30. The first thing I would like

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to do is to correct the title of the sermon that as it appears in the bulletin so that we will be together on the title. The title is just the opposite from what it is listed there, it's wanting Rachel and getting Leah.

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All right, would you just repeat that after me? Wanting. - Wanting. - Rachel.

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- Rachel. - And getting Leah. - And getting Leah. - Try that once more.

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- Wanting Rachel. - And getting Leah. - One more time. - Wanting Rachel.

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- And getting Leah. All right, thank you. I was, when I called it in to the office, I was thinking this, but I said something else,

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and so that's why it occurs that way. Wanting Rachel and getting Leah. We want what we bargained for in life. We seek to get what we are promised.

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In fact, as one of my uncles used to put it, "Don't take any wooden nickels. We want metal that is tested and true. We want to get out of life what we bargained for." Jacob was known as a shrewd bargainer.

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He knew how to take advantage of a good deal whenever he saw it. He was the kind of person that would not let any grass grow under his feet.

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He lost no time in taking advantage of his brother's offer to sell him his birthright. And almost before Esau really knew what he had done, he had done it.

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Jacob shows this ability to outmaneuver people as he serves with his uncle as an employee in the role of a shepherd. He prospers. And then he strikes another bargain with Laban, a bargain which he considers above all the

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others. He agrees to work seven years for Rachel, seven years for a wife. I think it may help some of us today recognize how much people in ancient times valued a wife seven years of labor.

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He does this because he's in love with Rachel. Rachel is Laban's younger daughter. She seems to have everything that Jacob wants in a woman. Rachel is one who is possessed with a lovely form and an attractive face.

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She was well built. When I was a boy they used to say a little piece of leather but well put together. She had all that.

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She was doubly blessed. Sometimes you see one who has a lovely form but not a lovely face but she had both a lovely form and an attractive face. And then she had something else that every Oriental man really loved and that was she

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had a luster in her eyes. There was a radiance in her eyes. There was fire in her eyes. And Leah, the older daughter, did not seem to have any of these things.

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She had, first of all, the most attractive thing that the old real man was concerned about she didn't have but that lust in a luster in her eyes that radiance that gleam which [MUSIC]

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[MUSIC] >> Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. He is worthy. He is worthy. He is worthy. He is worthy. He is worthy. He is worthy. By himself, he don't need no one else. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. >> ...seven years. So, he signs the contract, so to speak, with his uncle, Layden. uncle, Laban, he signs the contract. Seven years of labor for Rachel. But he loved us all. The

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scripture says that those seven years just seemed to be a few days so great was his love. When the seven years are completed he goes to Laban, he wants him to deliver on the contract. The laborer said, "Okay."

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And the time comes for the deliverance. The wedding takes place. In those days, oriental weddings, the woman wore veil.

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She was heavily veiled. And it was not until after everything was over, they celebrated that wedding night and when the veil is lifted so to speak all of its over Jacob discovers that he has Leah instead of Rachel. I don't think I

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have to spend a great deal of time telling you how he felt. He was absolutely enraged. This is not what I bargained for. He came to his father-in-law Laban and said what do you mean treating me like this? I made a deal with you, we signed a contract, you promised to give Rachel to me and here I end up with Leah.

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"Leah? I didn't want Leah. I bargained for Rachel." And Laban said, "Now listen my son, you really didn't read the fine print in the contract so to speak. A lot of times we don't read the fine print.

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You know, it says one thing on the surface. One of my friends signed a contract to buy a car and he said he paid on that car out in California for two years and after two years he discovered he owed more on the car than he did

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when he started. He didn't read the fine print. He said you see there's a custom in this country that we have that the older daughter must be married first and you see Leah is my oldest daughter, my older daughter, so I had to give her according to the custom so I really didn't mistreat you. I just followed the

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customs. He said, "Now, I'll tell you what you do. Cool down, simmer down." And he said, "Go on through the festivities." And the festivities, you see, lasted for seven days. You know, some of us could not afford a waiting like that today. We just can barely afford one day. But according to those customs, it was seven days, a

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week of celebration. He said, "You go ahead on, go on through the seven days with Leah and on the eighth day I'll give you Rachel providing now you work for seven more years but you can have her on the eighth day. Jacob agrees and eight days later on On the eighth day he has both Rachel and Leah.

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Now it seems to me that Jacob first of all worked for Rachel. He worked for her. He wanted Rachel. He not only wanted her, he worked for her and he got Leah,

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he didn't want. And you know it all happened really because Laban played games with him. He was treacherous. He defrauded him really even though it was a legal contract he defrauded him. And really life has a way of playing games with us. We get deceived. Life really doesn't deliver to us many times what is

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promised. We get cheated. We start out with wanting Rachel. We start out wanting Rachel with high hopes and good intentions and we work hard in order to achieve those goals. We expect to receive what we desire. We want those results and and it just doesn't happen that way. I'm indebted to David Critchfield, a minister

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who reveals his experience along this line for this idea. He said he worked for Rachel, but he got Leah. He and his wife decided that they would volunteer, they would dedicate their lives to the foreign mission field. That was their Rachel. And so they worked hard in order to to be accepted by the foreign mission

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board. They took all of the necessary courses, the seminary work, the college work, all of those things that are required. And then there are the physical exams, the psychological exams, all of those things. They took all of that. They went through writing all of the personal histories and so on and finally when

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came down after working for some seven years or more, the Foreign Mission Board said no. They worked for Rachel but they got Leah. For health reasons they said no. And they said come back, come back. And they came back in about 10 years, said things may be better and of course the two children were in college and

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that sort of eased the health concerns that the board had and the board said wait a while longer. And he says really what sort of tugging away at his heart was whether or not he had the courage, the determination to work seven more years for Rachel when he had gotten lit. And that's a question that many of us must ask ourselves. And really if that happens to so many of us today, we work, we make a bargain and so we do our part.

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And we say, "Yes, my labor, I've done my part. I've worked seven years for Rachel, but you've given me Lynn." And we'd come back the next morning and say, "No way, Jose." say? No way. As young people would put it. I want my choice to be honored. I want Rachel, not Leah. You can have Leah, I want Rachel. It's Rachel I love. But that's so often what

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happens to us in life. Many people start out, you know, we have a high dropout rate and we are focusing on that more and more. The dropout rate we have in our high schools, we have it in our colleges. I've been looking at it for some years.

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I remember when I was at Texas Southern, the dropout rate was 80 percent. 80 percent of those who start college drop out. drop out along the way. And we're becoming more and more alarmed because we see it happening over and over again

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even before they get through public schools. Don't finish high school, drop out. Now state is indicated in the paper today is becoming more and more alarmed because more youngsters drop out. That affects the education of the state. If you don't have people who are well educated in the state, you're not going to attract industry,

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you're not going to have a good economy, and you're going to have more people in the prisons, and that's what we're doing. We're filling up our prisons. We see another headline saying, "You know, we've got to build bigger prisons, more prisons, more prisons." And we're all becoming more and more alarmed because the very neighborhoods in which we live are not so peaceful. We find that there's so much crime, most of us can't go to sleep very well, you know,

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and rest because there's so much crime happening in all of our neighborhoods. And really, much of it comes right from the fact that early, early in life, there are those who discover that in working for Rachel, they end up with Leah. And he said, "That's the way life is. I give up on it right now. I'll stop right now, man.

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I'm not going to be working all my life and not getting what I want. And others, you know, get their lives changed and it gets distorted and hurting." We have trouble, trouble, trouble with teenage pregnancy. Work for Rachel and end up with Leah. That happens in so many ways.

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So many ways. I've talked with teachers who prepare themselves. They go in and they'd like to have the upper percentile of the class.

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Everything you'd like to ask. And then they go into the class and they find out that they have all of those discipline problems in the school, that they seem to have picked those out and put them in that class. And instead of having the upper class, they have the bottom.

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And they say, "I didn't prepare for this." I want Rachel, not Liv. Yes Lord. And it happens over and over again.

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It has happened to us as a people. We were promised Rachel. You know, that's the promise. That's the promise of our country.

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Give me your Todd, your Paul, no, your Richard, all of that. And we look for Rachel and we end up with Leah. Leah.

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Many preachers come to churches and they like to have churches where all the deacons and tithers, all of the Sunday school people come to teachers' meeting and prayer meeting is filled with people who are dedicated

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and praying to God. We'd like to have Rachel! So often you get Leah. That's the way it is, that's the way it is, that's the way it is.

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So all through life we have this experience and I think all of us need to sympathize with Jacob. This man worked hard for Rachel and Laban gives him Leah. But one of the things that we notice is that Jacob has the tenacity to endure. Oh, I know what we hear a lot of times about what a rascal he was and all that, but here

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what we really want to see is that when Jacob really discovers that he has learned, this is the way it is and he goes back and and and Laban said now you can have Rachel but you got work seven more years. What I admire about him is he had the will to endure. He said all right I'll do that and that's the lesson for us

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brothers and sisters that when life gives us lea when we have worked so hard and our intentions have been so serious that we would have Rachel and life gives us Leah that somehow we will have the will, we'll have the tenacity to endure. So yes, I'll work seven more years.

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And that's the kind of God we serve. We have the kind of God that will help us to overcome our disappointments. We have the kind of God that will give us the strength to hold on and keep on keeping on no matter what life brings.

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Yes Lord. That's the kind of God we serve. He has, Jacob does, the faith to persevere. Road may be stony, but I'll walk it.

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The rod may be bitter, but I'll accept it. I'm going through no matter what happens. I'm going through. I'm going to keep on keeping on.

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I'm going to pray to God, and I'm going to keep my hand in God's hand. And even though the years may be long, this weary Jacob goes on and toils through the years.

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Thanks be to God that can give us a spirit and a will like that, no matter what happens. You know you get something like that in Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl has written a book that has to do with what he

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calls "The Will to Meaning" and it grew out of his experience in the Nazi concentration camp. Frankel had decided to write a book and he had the manuscript and when he was taken as a prisoner they took the book and

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destroyed it and he thought his life would completely fall apart when that manuscript was - he spent his life writing that book. But he says in the midst of his experience in that

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concentration camp he saw many who were brought in. As you know, Hitler destroyed six million Jews and he saw many come into the camp die. He said that as he studied those people that what he discovered was that really what mattered more than anything else was the will to live.

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He said if you really have a reason for being that you can put up with anything, if you really deep down in your heart have a reason for being, a will, he said, sometimes they bring in the soup and it would be so watery that nothing but, say you were fortunate if you were able to get just one pea,

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one green pea out of the soup. That was a great achievement. And yet some of them with feet that were frostbitten and all of that swollen twice the size and they were forced to work and all

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of them, though those conditions were almost impossible conditions, many people went through that and lived because deep down within was a will to live. - Yes Lord.

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- And that's something I'm talking about is God. That if God is with us and we have God in us and walking through us, that somehow no matter what life brings that we can put up with it

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and say yes, Lord with your help I'm going through. I'm going through. I've started out, I've started out looking for Rachel even though I've been handed Leah, I'm gonna keep on keeping on till I get Rachel.

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I'm going through no matter what others do. Lord, I've started to walk in the light, shining on me from heaven so bright. I bed the world and its follies adieu, I've started in Jesus and I'm going through. Oh many have started in the race but with the light refuse to keep pace.

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Others accept it because it is new, but not very many will ever go through. I'd rather walk with Jesus alone, have a pillar like Jacob a stone, living each moment with his face in view than shrink from my pathway and fail to go through. Oh brother, now will you take up the cross, give up the world and count it as

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dross, and with thy wealth send the message to the poor, then go through with Jesus and those who endure." And the answer comes back, "I'm going through. I'm going through, yes, I'm going through. I'll pay the price, whatever others do, I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few, for I've started with Jesus and I'm going

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through. You know it's amazing what God will do with us if we submit ourselves to it. It's amazing how he'll bring us through, through danger, seen and unseen. It's amazing how God embraces us in the midst of all of the contradictions of life and strengthens us and gives us the victory. That's what we see in Jacob and that's

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why so often you read in the scripture "Oh God of Jacob." Oh God of Jacob, the God of Jacob who's with us in the midst of our disappointments, oh God of Jacob, bow it with us now to lead us and to comfort us and to give us the Rachel and that Rachel is that blessed that blessed blessed victory that comes in

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being faithful to Jesus. As the choir leads us now let us all join in singing amazing grace how sweet the sound, praise the red light of day. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Why?

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[MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [ Music ]

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♪ Amazing grace ♪ ♪ How sweet the sound ♪ ♪ That saved a wretch like me ♪ ♪ The ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? ♪

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♪ And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air ♪ ♪ Your love, my love ♪ ♪ Your love, your love ♪ ♪ I see in you ♪

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♪ Your grace can call my heart to Him ♪ ♪ My faith, my will, be with Him ♪ ♪ And we will live ♪ ♪ The Praise ♪

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♪ God gives ♪ ♪ And we are free ♪ ♪ We are ♪ ♪ My world ♪

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♪ We ♪ ♪ We live ♪ ♪ We pray ♪ ♪ God's laws ♪

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♪ One day I have ♪ ♪ O'er death ♪ ♪ Begone ♪ ♪ The day ♪

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♪ That's won ♪ ♪ These days are gone ♪ ♪ And pain will be ♪ ♪ Begone ♪

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♪ Let me be ♪ ♪ And when they come ♪ ♪ The King ♪ ♪ Christ shall be ♪

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♪ And the Son ♪ ♪ We'll go ♪ ♪ And see ♪ ♪ To see ♪

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♪ The street ♪ ♪ That we ♪ ♪ We met ♪ ♪ In the ♪

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