Jacob or Judah

The quickest way to run out of gas is being in a situation where there is no gratitude. Jonathan Evans says when discouragement strikes, we need to ask ourselves this key question. Am I going to labor continuously to get acceptance from man, or am I going to labor because I'm already accepted by God? This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans.

Many of us search for validation in places where it simply can't be found. Today, Pastor Jonathan Evans asks a critical question. Are we laboring for the approval of others, or are we living out of the love and acceptance God has already given us? Let's join him in the Scriptures as he helps us navigate this important decision. Genesis 29, verse 31 through 35.

God gave me this passage of Scripture that really preaches itself. Verse 31 says, Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Leah conceived and bore a son and named him Reuben, for she said, Because the Lord has seen my affliction, surely now my husband will love me. Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, Because the Lord has heard that I am unloved, he has therefore given me this son also. So she named him Simeon. She conceived again and bore a son and said, Now this time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons, therefore his name was Levi. Then she conceived again and bore a son and said, This time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she named him Judah.

Then she stopped bearing. Today we have a crossroad, and many of us have experienced it. You're experiencing it now, or you will. You have to decide, is it going to be Jacob that I deliver for, or am I going to deliver a Judah?

Is it Jacob or Judah? In other words, am I going to deliver and continue to be tricked, unloved, not accepted, not noticed, or am I going to deliver because I already recognize I have triumph, am love? Am I going to labor continuously to get acceptance from man? Or am I going to labor because I'm already accepted by God? Am I going to deliver and labor because I want human response? Or am I going to deliver and labor because I already have spiritual resolve? You're going to have to make a decision, because how are you going to keep doing what God has called you to do? How are you going to keep being who God has called you to be? When you do it and you're trying to give everything you got in the place that you're doing it, the people that you're doing it for are totally ungrateful.

The quickest way to run out of gas is to continue to pull into a filling station that leaves you more empty than when you went in there. And most people are using and delivering and giving effort and doing the best they can to try to get a response, to try to get noticed, to try to get love in a place that is simply not responding. You're doing it at your job and you're working as hard as you can to try to get as far as you can go, and nobody even knows your name. You're coming home in your marriage and you're trying to be different, go different, work harder, and your spouse is not responding, totally ungrateful as if to say that's what you're supposed to do. And you're beginning to lose your mind because you're so focused on Jacob and trying to get him to no longer turn his back on you. And you keep putting yourself in these scenarios where you figure that you can give just enough to change the circumstance. Leah is in this position, she's laboring and delivering, laboring and delivering, and Jacob could care less. And many of you are in the position where you're having to grapple, you're tired, Lord, help me, how am I going to continue to do this? There's nothing filling me up. And trust me, back then, when she was laboring and delivering, they didn't have no anesthesia options.

It hurt. At sacrifice to herself, the pain that she went through in order to labor and deliver and not get any gratitude. And many of us are struggling in this place where we're almost at a gas in our marriage or as parents or at our job or trying to kindle a relationship with a father or a mother and we're trying to fix this situation, giving everything we have, and no one cares. Just because they don't see you don't mean God doesn't see you. Just because your dad's not there doesn't mean your father's not there. Just because your mom mishandled you doesn't mean you're not in God's hands.

What we typically do is we make our physical and natural reality become our spiritual truth, and they are not twins. And Leah starts going down this rabbit hole of trying to produce to get Jacob to do something he never intended to do. To try to get a response that she felt like her productivity would give her power over. And what happens is, watch this, God produced for Leah, Leah turns this way to try to produce for Jacob. Leah's mad that Jacob will not respond to her productivity. But Jacob's not responding to her productivity, and while she's looking at Jacob, she's not responding to God's productivity. So you just created an assembly line of non-responders.

That when we're totally focusing on using what God gave us to try to manipulate circumstances in our environment, we're actually ignoring God while we're mad that we're being ignored. Leah is saying, what about me? And God is saying, what about me? Are you producing? That's because I produced.

You turned the wrong way. And now you're mad and frustrated that you're not getting the response, but I'm mad and frustrated that I'm not getting the response. And many of us create this expectation in ourselves and understand Jacob is no longer scarring Leah.

Now Leah is scarring herself. And many of us take this approach where certainly now that I've accomplished this, dad will call. Certainly now that I've did this, she will respond. She or he will love me. I will find fulfillment and value that what I produce got the just due response. She was just expecting something really she should expect. It's a reasonable expectation based on what she produced. The problem is not that the expectation is not reasonable. It was a reasonable expectation based on what she produced.

It was an unreasonable expectation based on who she produced it for. The problem is not the productivity. God did not open your womb for you not to bear. So what do we do? If Jacob's not going to respond, then why am I doing this? Our whole mentality is based on the virtue and value that we get from the world, from the likes, from the follows, from the responses, from the notoriety, from the love, from the connectivity.

That's where we find all of our virtue. And if we don't get the value in the response, then we shut down on the fact that God was the one who gave us the ability to produce. So thanks God, but no thanks because it's not working. So why would I keep doing this? Why would I keep going in day after day being the husband that you call me to be if she's not going to respond? And God is saying because I called you to be it.

Why would I keep being the wife you call me to be if he's not going to respond? I opened your womb. Why would I be the student or the worker? Why would I come in here with a good attitude?

Oh, you basing your whole life on Jacob. Nothing. Because we continue to go to the same place for a payment. And we go there for payment because of what we produced. But the place where we go to be paid, we already know has insufficient funds.

And then we mad that we walk away feeling robbed. Well, you ought to notice by now, but you think that your value is not found in what God gave you for what you can produce for him. You think your value is found in what God gave you to produce for them. That's a tough reality to face, and it raises an important question.

What happens when we're not recognized for what we do? Jonathan will dive deeper into this when he continues our message in just a moment. First, though, if you've ever felt overwhelmed by life's struggles, I want to introduce you to a powerful collection of 10 talks from Pastor Jonathan Evans called Survivor. These lessons will help you break free from self-reliance to find the confidence that comes with knowing God is fighting your battles alongside you.

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I'll share that information again after Part 2 of today's message. Here's Jonathan once again. And then she gets to verse 34 and says, let me try this again. So she conceived again and bore a son. Now, I've got five kids, so I know this is tiring. I'm reading this passage like, oh my goodness, this is back to back.

Their ages were very close. We at least put a little space in there. She's trying to get a change now. So she conceives again, and now you're talking about years of being wasted.

Not in what she's producing, but who she's producing it for. Something small you need to notice that's big is in verse 32, she says, because the Lord has seen my affliction. In verse 33, she says, because the Lord has heard that I am unloved. In verse 34, she don't mention the Lord at all.

I'm going to do this myself. God's way isn't working in their change. And maybe God's intent is that it won't work in their change when he's trying to get you first. And here she is, leaving God out and saying to herself, certainly I'll produce this son, and now he will become attached to me, which is the meaning of the name Levi, to be joined to or to cling to. And here she is, she gives birth to Levi with the expectation that all the things that she has produced, now she has a list.

And you know you're coming to the end of your rope where you're no longer communicating with God, and you present that person, place, or thing with a list of what you've accomplished. I gave you Reuben the patriarch. I gave you Simeon.

Now I'm giving you Levi. If I've done this, this, that, and this, certainly now you need to be attached to me. She's tired now. She's coming to the end of a rope. I've tried this for my father, that for my father, this for my father.

Certainly by now he ought to be here. I've tried this for my wife, that for my wife. Certainly now she ought to be grateful. I've tried this for my husband, that for my husband. Certainly now things ought to be changed.

I've tried this at the job, this at the job, this at the job. Certainly now things ought to come on, man. And she built another expectation of attachment based on what she's produced and based on what she had done, her resume. Her resume should produce something. That's what our culture is based on.

It's based on performance. And if my resume fixed the bill, certainly I'm the one you choose. No. Jacob didn't choose you. And you keep ignoring the fact that God did.

So you're wasting a lot of time scarring yourself, thinking that what God gave you is supposed to be produced for the world, pre-person places or things, whatever noun you have in your life. It's like social media. You'll spend a whole lot of time making a video and everybody who's watching ain't got no other intent but to give you a quick like and swipe up. They don't care.

They don't. When we're watching it, we do the same thing. And we spend all that time putting that video together, editing that video, chopping that video up. And you know what you do after that? You start checking to try to see how many likes you got. How many people viewed it? How many people viewed it? How many people like it? Man, I only got three likes. It's been a month.

Why? Because you figured surely now that I've produced something like this, people will pay attention. They don't care. Oh, she's trying to please Jacob. And God is displeased. An assembly line of non-responders.

And we don't realize that what we're going after, the problem that we're experiencing, we're giving to God and telling him, deal with it. That's what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to bless me. You're supposed to give to me. You're supposed to wake me up this morning. You're supposed to send me on my way. You're supposed to part that Red Sea. You're supposed to make that man fall down. That's what you're supposed to do.

Now keep giving to me so I can try to find my value somewhere else. So now she's tired. She's gotten to the end. And she said, you know what?

Let me do something different. In verse 35 she says, and she conceived again and bore a son and said, this time I will praise the Lord. Then she named him Judah. Then she stopped bearing, which is really not a picture of her no longer bearing because she gave birth to Issachar and Zebulun later. This is a picture of her rest because now she understands, what am I doing this for?

So she gives birth to a praise. I'm no longer going to turn my attention towards man. I'm going to turn my attention towards God. How in the world am I supposed to keep going and going?

You're supposed to keep going because you're pulling into a station that can actually fill you up. That you were born and created to the praise of his glory. Why would I continue to be the man God has called me to be? Because God asked you to do it. And whether you eat or you drink, you do it to the glory of God. Why would I continue to be the woman that God has called you to be?

Because God called you to be it. He opened your womb and you're going to turn towards God instead of turning your back on God. It's time for us to learn how to praise even when we're in a prison, how to give him praise even when things do not go our way. Bless the Lord at all time. Let his praise continuously be in my mouth.

Habakkuk 3 lets you know that even if there's no grapes in the vineyard, even if there's no sheep, no cattle, no produce on the field, I will praise his name anyway because he gives me hinds feet like a deer to climb these highest heights. We've got to learn to praise him anyway. And when you learn to praise him, even though that may not change your situation, you can be like Acts 16, Paul and Silas sitting in the prison. They're surrounded by four walls, but they let out a praise anyway. And when they let out that praise, the shackles came off, the doors swung open, everybody in the jail heard the praise and walked out towards victory, not because they weren't in jail, but because they praised while they were in the prison. If we learn to direct it towards God, when we learn that, we learn how to make a decision to destiny. Why would I continue to be tricked by Jacob when I can deliver a Judah, when I can deliver a praise to the glory of his glory?

Now, hold on a second. Y'all don't know who Judah is? When Jacob was blessing his sons, he said of Judah, you are like a lion crouching.

You're like a lion who dares rouse you up. The receptor and the rod will be between your feet forever until Shiloh comes. Who's Shiloh? The one who comes to bring peace to the whole world.

Y'all don't know who I'm talking about yet? Judah had a son named Perez. Perez had a son named Hezrin. Hezrin had a son named Ram. Ram had a son named Abinadab. Abinadab had a son named Nashon. Nashon had a son named Salmon.

Salmon had a son named Boaz. Boaz had a son named Obed. Obed had a son named Jesse. And Jesse had a son named David. And through the line of Jesse and David came Jesus Christ. That's why Revelations 5-5 says Jesus is the lion of Judah, the root of David. He put her in the lineage of Jesus Christ.

Listen, Jacob saw Rachel, but God saw Leah. And when she made the decision to praise, she entered a destiny she never knew she could have. When you learn to praise him, he'll give you a destiny you never thought you could have. When you learn to praise him, he'll give you a heritage that you never thought you could have. When you learn to praise him, he'll give you a legacy that you never thought you would have.

He's just waiting on you to go from Jacob and deliver Judah. I opened your womb. I started you on your way. I gave you bread. I fed you. I put you where you are. I kept you alive. You should have been dead, but if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't know where you would be. Praise me. It's all about me. Give it to me. Stop wasting your time with Jacob.

Jacob ain't got nothing for you. You praise him anyway and watch what he will do. The same one who opened your womb will send you to your destiny. Now I need you to understand one more thing.

I just thought about it. Something I noticed in Genesis 49, Jacob was dying and he looked at his sons and he said, you know that burial ground where Abraham is buried next to Sarah? That's the same burial ground where Isaac is buried next to Rebecca. That's also the same burial ground where they laid Leah to rest. That's where I want you to bury me. Jacob requested to be buried with Leah.

He did not request to be buried with Rachel. He understood through her praise. That's where the promise is. That's where I want to rest.

That's where I want to be. Jonathan Evans will return in a moment to wrap up today's message about the struggle of trying to earn love, recognition, and value from people who might never respond as we hope. Now the title of today's talk was Jacob or Judah? And you can find out how to hear the full-length version of this message when you visit our website, TonyEvans.org. And as I mentioned earlier, that's the same place where you can take advantage of our current featured resource offer, Pastor Jonathan Evans' ten-part Survivor audio series, along with Dr. Tony Evans' daily devotional book, Life Under God. This unique resource bundle is yours with our thanks in return for your donation to help continue making this listener-supported program possible.

You can make the arrangements at 1-800-800-3222, but do it today before time runs out. That's 1-800-800-3222, or visit TonyEvans.org. Success, power, prestige. Naaman was an army commander, and he had it all, except the one thing he wanted most. Tomorrow, Jonathan will present his story to us, showing us how true healing only comes when we surrender to God's way. Right now, though, let's listen as he wraps up today's message. I cannot tell you when your change is going to come.

And I can't even worry about that because nobody can tell you that. I can tell you right now, you can change and praise God. And you climb to the top of that ladder and you let him take care of everything else. You ain't got time for no foolishness, but you do have time for a praise.

We've got to learn who we do this for. You got Jacob or Judah. You can't have them both. Pick one. You can continue to lose your mind, or you can give him praise.