Waiting Twice As Long | Adam Weber

I hate waiting. And just overall, in our day and age, we, you and I, we suck at waiting too. Like you and I, we live in a fast food, buy it now, pay for it later type of world, don't we? And once again, we're just terrible at waiting. Now, this might be really, really difficult to hear, but waiting, it can actually be a super healthy thing. Again, I know it's hard to hear, but waiting it can actually be so good for us. Why? Because we might not be ready. ["God's an Invert"] ["God's an Invert"] ["God's an Invert"] Today, we are continuing on in our series called Wrestling with God, looking at the story of a man named Jacob, who we just sang about Jacob. We just mentioned him. This story is found in Genesis chapters 25 through 35. And just to bring us up to speed on what's been taking place in this series, but in the story specifically, this is the Cliff Notes version. Jacob and his brother Esau are twin brothers. And from the very beginning, these two brothers have a very bitter, broken relationship. Well, to make matters worse, Jacob ends up stealing both Esau's blessing

and Esau's birthright. And to put it lightly, Jacob is just a tool of a person. And that's a pastor I'm trying to be pastorous here. He's a tool of a human being. He's deceptive through and through. Jacob is a liar. I mean, that's just who he is at this point. And as a result, Esau hates his brother so much that he vows that he's gonna kill Jacob. And so Jacob cares about this. He moves away to save his life. Well, as Jacob is on this journey away from home, Jacob has this crazy dream where God speaks to him. And this is the scripture that Travis looked at last week. If you missed it, go back and watch this message. In this dream, God tells Jacob that he will be with him. And this dream, it's really the start of a turning point in Jacob's life. God really begins to shape him and mold him. And this is really the beginning of this pivot of Jacob's life. And this brings us to our story for today. And so if you have a Bible with you, I wanna invite you to open it up to the book of Genesis chapter 29. And I really wanna encourage you to do that. If you have one of the copies of Genesis, you can open up to page 28 in that. I really wanna encourage you. If you have the Bible on your phone,

there's something powerful that happens when we open up scripture together. With this, I just wanna acknowledge one last time, we've been giving out these bookmarks that have a reading plan with it for the series. And genuinely, it's still not too late to do this. We've ran out at several campuses, but after the service, stop by the info center and see if they still have one. I just really wanna encourage you to do that with this kind of cool. My daughter, who's a freshman in high school, she sent me this picture the other day. She texted me, I'm fully done now. And I just have to say, as a dad, few things are better than seeing your kids pursue God. Few things are better than seeing your kids as freshmen in high school, opening up scripture. And so mom and dad, I just wanna encourage you, lead the way in that, allow your kids to see you and to catch you looking at scripture, because they see it. Again though, Jacob is on this journey away from home and he comes to a well where he meets this girl named Rachel. And well, Rachel introduces Jacob to her dad, a man named Laban. And Jacob ends up working for Laban and picking up the story. This is verse 16, here is what we are told.

Now, Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Just to pause here for a second, if you're here today and your name is Leah, just know that God loves you, okay? God thinks that you have weak eyes, whatever that means. You got weak eyes, but he still loves you. And if your name is Rachel here with us, my advice, stay humble, Rachel, okay? When you get older, physical things change. And so stay humble, Rachel. Continuing on in verse 18, it goes on to say. Jacob was in love with Rachel, I wonder why, okay? And said, I'll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter, Rachel. Laban said, it is better that I give her to you than to some other man, stay here with me. So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. I just gotta say, aren't people in love, people who are in love, slightly annoying? Can we just say it? Can we just agree with that? Verse 21 though, then Jacob said to Laban, give me my wife, my time is completed and I wanna make love to her.

By the way, can you imagine saying this to your father-in-law? It's time for your daughter, it is time for some boom with your daughter. I can't imagine. So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob and Jacob made love to her. When the morning came, there was Leah. There is some really crazy crap in the Bible. Can I get an amen in the house of God? I mean, talk about a surprise. I just have so many questions. How did he not know? I'm like, this is so bizarre. Can you imagine waking up the day after your wedding and only to realize that you're unintentionally married to the wrong person, insane, continuing on. 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? Which is so ironic coming from Jacob, a guy who's deceived everybody in his entire life 50 times over. Laban replied, it is not our custom here to give you the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. That would have been nice to know, right?

Finish this daughter's bridal's week, then we will give you the younger one also in return for another seven years of work. Okay, so just to remind us, Jacob has already worked seven years just so he can marry Rachel and then Laban deceives him. And now Laban is telling Jacob that if he wants to marry Rachel, he has to work for him for another seven years. Friends, can you imagine working and waiting for seven years only to find out that you need to work and you need to wait for another seven years? Today, the first thing I wanna highlight from this story is this, sometimes you have to wait twice as long as you expected. Let me say that again, sometimes, whether it's result of someone crooked like Laban, it's the result of something outside of your control or it's the hand of God. Friends, sometimes you have to wait twice as long as you expected. Now, I just need to confess, I hate waiting. I absolutely hate it, okay? Years back, you can't make this stuff up by the way, years back, I took a leadership personality profile thing. And when I met with the guy who at the time was a CEO of this large company, and I met with this guy to discuss my results with him, he wasn't joking, he said, Adam, looking at your results,

the test says that you're more impatient than 99% of the world. I'm like, what does that mean? Do I have a soul? Like, what are the fruits of the Spirit is patience. Like, what is that? I just gotta say, after he told me this, I couldn't wait to get out of this flippant meeting. I'm like, what in the world? But genuinely though, I hate waiting. And just overall, in our day and age, we, you and I, we suck at waiting too. Like you and I, we live in a fast food, buy it now, pay for it later type of world, don't we? And once again, we're just terrible at waiting. Now, this might be really, really difficult to hear, but waiting, it can actually be a super healthy thing. Again, I know it's hard to hear, but waiting, it can actually be so good for us. Why? Because we might not be ready. And when I say we, I kinda sorta mean you and I, we might not be ready. Waiting, it can be a good and healthy thing. Like in our career, I'm just saying, it can be so good for us to have to wait instead of getting that promotion right away. For so many of us, it can be so good for us financially to have to wait before we get that bigger income, before we get that house that we want.

Friend, it can be so good for us to have to wait before we get more influence. Seriously, some of us want more influence and we're craving more influence. We don't have the character to sustain that influence. For some of us, it is so good that we have to wait before we meet the person that God wants us to marry. Speaking of waiting, the other day I was shocked. One of my kids said, Dad, I'm so glad that I had to wait as long as you made me wait before getting social media. Once again, I absolutely hate waiting, but it can be such a good and healthy thing to have to work and wait. I mean, I look at Jacob and after living a life of deceiving one person after the next, after being a person who would cut any corner just to get what he wanted, it was so good for Jacob to have to work and wait. I'm saying it was so good for him to have to work and wait, to work and wait. Not just seven years, Jacob, it is so good. As his best friend, I just wanna tell him, Jacob, this is so good that you have to work and wait. Not just seven years, 14 years, this is so good for you that you need to work, Jacob, and you need to work. I'm done working, you need to work and work and work and wait. See, the truth is God often does his deepest work inside of us, in the waiting. In the waiting God often refines us.

In the waiting God often shapes us. In the waiting God often purifies us, in the waiting God often purifies our intentions and our motivations, in the waiting God often makes us more and more and more and more like Him. It can be such a good, it can be such a good and healthy thing for us to have to work. I'm done, I'm done working. No, work and work and work and wait and work and wait. It can be so good for us. So that's true. On the flip side, I also just want to acknowledge though, that waiting can be so brutally hard. I think about the couple who after years is still waiting to get pregnant. I think about the person who's wanting to get married and they're an emotionally healthy person, an emotionally healthy adult. They're not 22 anymore and they're just waiting to meet that person. Or I think about the person like my dad, who after all these years, is still waiting to regain his health. And friends in these situations, the person they're not waiting because they still need to learn something. They're not waiting because they still need to be refined. They're not waiting because there's like a secret sin

in their lives of some kind. Honestly, in these situations, I don't know why they're still waiting. I don't know why. I hate it. In these situations, I hate it, but they still have to wait. I don't understand. Continuing on again, Jacob works for Laban for all these years. And in verse 30, it says this, Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben, for she said, it is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now. Just to highlight this, Leah, she's not as pretty as her sister, Rachel, and her husband, Jacob, doesn't even love her. And yet we're told that the Lord saw Leah. And then when she's pregnant and she has this baby, Leah, she names the baby Reuben. Why? Well, she says, because the Lord has seen my misery. My misery.

Today from this story, here's the second thing that I wanna highlight. The second thing I wanna elevate is this, God sees the one that no one else does. Let me say that again. God sees the one that no one else does. All throughout elementary school, the most stressful part of my day was out at recess. You see, every single day at recess, all the boys in my class played football. And so we get to recess and every day we had the same two captains, the best two players. Eric Rice, who a fun fact, has attended Embrace since the very beginning. He's now a teacher at Lincoln High School and a dear friend of mine. And the other guy was Tyler DeBoer, whose brother is now the head football coach. coach at Alabama. What a weird, small world that is. And so Eric and Tyler, they were the captains because they were the best players. And each day, they'd start picking teams. And for a guy like me, this was the stressful part. The stressful part was wondering when I was going to get picked. I mean, if you got picked near the start, you felt pretty good about yourself. But if you got picked near the end, which was typically true of this Yahoo, the old captains didn't expect much. I was thinking about it this week.

I wish I'd go back and tell Eric Rice, you better pick your pastor. I'm praying for your soul, Eric Rice. He might be here in the room right now. Here's the truth, though. Doesn't this feel so much like life? Doesn't this feel so much like life? Wanting to get picked, yet feeling totally overlooked. Wanting to be seen, but feeling completely unnoticed. Wanting to be validated in love, but feeling unwanted. Wanting to be used by God, but feeling unqualified. Just to say it again, God sees the one that no one else does. And friends, in case you don't know, God sees you. He sees you. What does that mean? It means that God notices you, that He picks you. It means that God doesn't just love you, He likes you. He delights in you. He wants to use you. Why? Because He sees your value. He sees your purpose. And God, He understands you. And speaking of waiting, God, He loves to provide for you. And not just the basics, no, He loves to provide good things for you specifically, the desires of your heart. I'm just saying, if God was picking teams at recess, He'd want to pick you.

He'd want you on His team. He'd have a place for you. He'd want to throw the ball to you. Once again, looking at Leah, she's unnoticed by most. Yet God sees the one that no one else does. He even sees Leah. OK, so God sees Leah, and she has a baby. And not just one baby, but she has another baby, and another baby, and another baby. Literally, a whole lot of babies. And then continuing on in chapter 30, verse 1, it says this, when Rachel saw that she was not burying Jacob and his children, she became jealous of her sister. By the way, isn't it crazy how we can be jealous of someone, and they're jealous of us for something completely different? Isn't that weird? Us human beings are so weird and fickle like that. So she said to Jacob, give me children, or I'll die. Jacob became angry with her, said, am I in the place of God who's kept you from having children? Then she said, here is Billa, my servant. Sleep with her so that she can bear children for me, and I too can build a family through her. So she gave him her servant, Billa, as a wife. Jacob slept with her, and she became pregnant and bore him a son. Then Rachel said, God has vindicated me. He has listened to my plea and given me a son. So Captain Obvious here, this is a mess, right?

Oh my gosh, an absolute mess. Rachel is having her servant sleep with her husband to have a kid? So messy. Just to be so clear for us, though, this right here is not God's best, OK? All this right here is not pleasing to God. God's like, when I'm going to create a family, he didn't think about this right here. He's like, no, not this. Truly, just so we know, just because someone does something in the Bible doesn't mean that God's pleased with it at all. The Bible is filled with a bunch of broken, messy people, which should be deeply encouraging to all of us broken, messy people. Just to remind you, you're so broken and messy. It would be shocking to me if I didn't see my own messiness and brokenness of how messy and broken you are. Shocking. So looking at Rachel, she doesn't trust God. Reading this right here, she doesn't trust God. See, she doesn't trust that he's going to provide. She doesn't trust that his ways are better. And so she takes things into her own hands just to get what she wants. And yes, just for the record, she gets what she wants. She gets a baby. But if you read the rest of Genesis,

this family's a disaster. When I say disaster, more brokenness, more division. Like when these babies get older, because they're also jealous, it's weird, jealousy runs in this family. And so does deception because they're jealous. plus they end up selling one of their brothers into slavery. If you ever think that you have issues with your siblings, just read this story. You'll feel so much better about your family situation. Friends, here's the third and final thing that I wanna highlight for us today. Don't go outside of God's best to get what you want. Let me say that again. Do not go outside of God's best just to get what you want. Now, let me just acknowledge it for us. This right here is something we feel every single day, isn't it? In big ways and in small ways, we just have this temptation that's always there. What temptation? The temptation to go outside of God's best just to get what we want. It's just constantly like sitting there. Everywhere you go, it's like, you could just do this and you get what you want. You could just do this over here and get what you want. Some examples, you long for peace. You long for a break from stress. And instead of processing it with God,

you numb out by scrolling on your phone or reaching for yet another drink that you know you don't need. Or you're feeling lonely and you don't wanna be lonely. And so you go outside of God's best and you convince yourself that what you're doing is okay. You'll even find a Bible verse to twist and skew. I mean, culture's okay with it. You go outside of God's best just to be with someone so you're not lonely anymore. You know it's not your best. You know it. Or you crave approval and likes and followers. And so you post things online that you know don't honor God just to get the attention of other guys. What? Just to get the attention of women. What? Or you're frustrated that your marriage isn't what you hoped it would be. And instead of pushing in and working on your marriage, you start flirting at your office. You start looking for intimacy elsewhere. You want success so badly. A bigger house, a bigger name. Maybe you're just so sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck to paycheck to paycheck that you start compromising your integrity. You start compromising your family, compromising your health just to get whatever it is.

But friends, with all of this, with all of this, as your pastor with two giant red flags, it's not worth it. It's not worth it. It might feel good. It might provide a cheap thrill, a cheap thrill that you haven't had in a long, long time. It might bring you relief in a certain situation. It's like, finally. But over the long haul, all it leads to is more pain, heartache, emptiness, restlessness. Well, with God's ways, it's just the opposite. And be clear, God's ways don't always make sense. In God's ways, they always seem to be more challenging and difficult than my ways. And God's timeframe, it's always different than ours. And yet every single time, God's ways, they always lead to more abundant life. Instead of restlessness and brokenness and regret, they lead to wholeness. They lead to a joy that's unexplainable. They lead to peace in the midst of the chaos in life. Friends, his ways are just so much better than our ways will ever be. And so just to say it again, as your pastor and your friend, it's not worth it. Please, it's not worth it. Don't go outside of God's best just to get what you want.

Okay, so today, this is where we're gonna push pause in our story. And just so you know, between Leah and Rachel, Jacob ends up having 12 sons. Can we just take a moment of silence for Jacob's sanity? I can't even imagine 12 children, Lord, please never. These 12 sons, they end up becoming the 12 tribes of Israel, which we're gonna talk about in a couple of weeks here. Today though, when it comes to our last point, don't go outside of God's best just to get what you want. Today, some of us are here in our whole lives. We've been living according to ourselves and what we think is best. For some of us, our whole lives, we've been doing everything just to get what we want and today we're in church. Why are we in church? Because it's not working. It's not working. We've tried everything to find wholeness, to find enough, to find something that will shut our brains off. to find whatever we're searching for, and it's not working. So that's what's like, I don't even know why I'm in church, but I'm here. My life is so stinking good. It actually is worse when your life is awesome, and you still have all those feelings, because it's like, if you don't have that, it's like, maybe if I just get this money,

or maybe if I just get the house, then I won't feel this way. When you actually get it, and then you still feel that way, it's like, man, can I just go back to having nothing so I can convince myself of something else? But maybe that's you, or maybe you're in church today, for the first time in a long time, or the first time ever, because you just feel so lost, or you look at everything that's going on in our world, and you're just like so confused. And maybe for the first time in your life, you're asking, God, what do you want? Like, I've heard enough of this, Yahoo. Now, I'm gonna shut my mouth for the first time in my life. I'm gonna shut up, God. What do you want? I'm so arrogant, I think I know what's best. It clearly does not add up. I'm gonna shut my mouth. What do you think is best? Today, if any of this is you, my encouragement, seek God. Run to Jesus. Get into his word. Again, those reading plans, just get into his word. Talk with him, and just tell him, Lord, I'm done doing what I want. I'm done doing what I think is best. And today, I'm choosing you, and I'm choosing what you want. I'm choosing what you think is best. Just tell him, man.

Friends, today, with this, whether it's your first time here or you've been with us for a long time, a powerful step that I just encourage you to consider is getting baptized. If you've never been baptized, but you just know that God's working in your life right now, get baptized. Or if you're like me, you grew up in the church, you were baptized as an infant, but you wanna reaffirm it as an adult, you wanna make it your own as an adult, I'd encourage you to get baptized. If this is you, if you wanna get baptized, simply go to imembrace.com slash baptism. As we already mentioned earlier in the service, coming up in two weeks is our next Baptism Sunday, and I just have this feeling it's gonna be an awesome day. I don't even know why I say that. It just feels like something's different right now, and so I just think it's gonna be awesome, and I just wanna encourage you to be a part of it. If that's you, just simply go to this page, get signed up. We'll get you more information. Right now, though, across all campuses, if you'd pray with me, Lord, we are just so thankful for who you are, thankful that you come and you meet us right where we are, and you speak to us in a way that we can understand. And God, just as we started off today,

with that area that we're maybe not trusting you in, if there's any part of our lives that's not in alignment with you, would you just highlight that right now? Any area of our lives where we're trying to do what we think is best instead of what you think is best, would you just highlight that right now? And Lord, would you help us to change it? By your strength, by your self-control, would you help us to address it? Would you just help us to really face on, and I pray next, tomorrow, when we get to our work lives and we start trying to be a coworker on our own strength, that you would just remind us, we'd just stop. God, what is your ways? As a parent, when we try to figure out what we want, God, what is your ways in our dating life? Lord, I know what I wanna do, but what do you wanna do? And just moment by moment, we would just trust him and ask for his guidance and his help. Lord, we surrender to you, we worship you, we praise you. We pray all these things in your son's precious name, the precious name of Jesus, amen, amen.