Sunday, August 29th, 2021 • Mission Baptist Cincinnati
We began our Youth Sunday Worship Service with congregational singing followed by our Youth and Children Choirs singing a hymn to Honor God. Afterwards a special young man sang to conclude the music service.
Associate Pastor Kurt Lemke then continues his journey through Genesis with a message from Genesis 29 entitled: “Jacob Meets Rachel”. He reads verses 13 through 30 and thanks God for the young christians in our church. He also prays for the Holy Spirit to move in people's hearts with this message about Jacob meeting Rachel to give us godly advice regarding marriage, warnings of consequences of bad decisions and blessings of good behavior and what our christian life passion should be focused on. Pastor starts with a disclaimer...the Bible, many times records things that are not the will of God. Saints many times say and do things that are accurately recorded but are not doing the will of God. In this case, polygamy.
• MARRIAGE Advice
God ordained the marriage of one man and one women as his wife. the Bible shows us that men who find a godly wife are finding a "good thing" and have "obtained favor with the Lord". Jacob seeks after Laban's younger daughter Rachel who was beautiful. Laban, his uncle agrees to Jacob's offer to work seven years to gain Rachel as his wife. Jacob gladly works the seven years so he can marry Rachel. However, Laban deceives Jacob by giving him his eldest daughter Leah who was veiled on their wedding night. Jacob and Leah consummate the marriage. Jacob sees Leah the morning after and is shocked and complains! Laban points to tradition regarding giving the older daughter first in marriage but then offers up Rachel for another seven years of labor. Jacob desires Rachel so much, he agrees. Pastor then gives some great MARRIAGE ADVICE to younger adults today: First of all, Jacob and Rachel were not lazy. They worked hard to please Laban, Jacob ended up working 14 years to marry Rachel! Rachel gladly kept Laban's sheep, a very important and busy duty. Young christians: look for a spouse who is NOT LAZY! If they are lazy at home and at work, they'll most likely be lazy for the Lord. Look for MATURE potential spouses who are already making ways to provide for a family. We see from the example of Jacob, he had matured enough to go out on his own to travel to his uncle's farm. Rachel was mature enough to wait 14 years to be Jacob's wife. Patience is a sign of maturity in a christian. This also demonstrates TRUE LOVE in both of them. They endured those 14 years patiently waiting and working to finally be married. They had a ZEAL for each other, exactly as God intends for our soulmate. Work on these things to make yourself more attractive to a potential spouse. Be ready to endure TRAINING & GROWTH in your life to accomplish this.
• REAPING & SOWING
Jacob waking up on the morning after the wedding ceremony is a prime example of REAPING & SOWING. Jacob and his mother Rebekah worked to deceive Issac to bless Jacob with firstborn rights as if he was Esau, Issac's favorite son. Now Jacob is deceived by his Uncle into marrying Leah, the older sister of Rachel. Our sins of the past will many times catch up with us here and now in the flesh. On the positive side, our sowing for the Lord will gain us many blessings from God. This is a biblical generality, but a reliable standard to consider. Leah, who was the victim in this story eventually sowed to the Lord asking for his help in not being loved as much by Jacob and was blessed with Judah, one of the twelve sons who was in the bloodline of Christ himself! We all need to "SOW for the Lord" (even in tears) so we can REAP in joy.
• LABOR of LOVE
Jacob understood that if he worked for 7 (14) years he would be rewarded with his beloved Rachel. He saw the big picture and these long years seemed like just a few days! We as christians today need to remember that our labor for Christ will be the most valuable thing we can have in this life. Peace with God, assurance of salvation is ours when we trust Christ. He did all the work for us to be saved and now we need to dedicate our life to serving and LABORING for him. He is so worthy!