Where Is God in Our Relational Messes?

Families Are Messy
Where Is God in Our Relational Messes?

I. Introduction

A. Genesis 30:25-26 (NLT) ²⁵Soon after Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, “Please release me so I can go home to my own country. ²⁶Let me take my wives and children, for I have earned them by serving you, and let me be on my way. You certainly know how hard I have worked for you.”

B. Genesis 30:27-28 (NLT) ²⁷“Please listen to me,” Laban replied. “I have become wealthy, for the LORD has blessed me because of you. ²⁸Tell me how much I owe you. Whatever it is, I’ll pay it.”

C. Genesis 31:6-7a (NLT) ⁶“You know how hard I have worked for your father, ⁷but he has cheated me, changing my wages ten times.”

D. Genesis 31:14-15 (NLT) ¹⁴Rachel and Leah responded, “That’s fine with us! We won’t inherit any of our father’s wealth anyway. ¹⁵He has reduced our rights to those of foreign women. And after he sold us, he wasted the money you paid him for us.”

E. Genesis 30:27 (NLT) “Please listen to me,” Laban replied. “I have become wealthy, for the LORD has blessed me because of you.”

F. Genesis 30:30b (NLT) “The LORD has blessed you through everything I’ve done.”

1. There’s also a part to your anointing.

G. Genesis 31:3 (NLT) Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your father and grandfather and to your relatives there, and I will be with you.”

II. The Ways of God

A. God never .

1. God’s normal pace is !

B. God always .

1. Genesis 31:13 (NLT) “I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me. Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.”

C. God regularly .

1. Genesis 31:38-42 (NLT)

III. How Does God Heal Damaged Relational Messes?

A. We have to the hurt.

1. Genesis 31:43 (NLT) Then Laban replied to Jacob, “These women are my daughters, these children are my grandchildren, and these flocks are my flocks—in fact, everything you see is mine.”

B. We resolve to stop each other.

1. Genesis 31:44-46, 48 (NLT) ⁴⁴“So come, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and it will be a witness to our commitment.” ⁴⁵So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a monument. ⁴⁶Then he told his family members, “Gather some stones.” So they gathered stones and piled them in a heap. Then Jacob and Laban sat down beside the pile of stones to eat a covenant meal. ⁴⁸Then Laban declared, “This pile of stones will stand as a witness to remind us of the covenant we have made today.”

C. Try to see things from .

D. We begin to receive for this other person.

1. God is at work the family messes that we’ve made!

IV. Conclusion