Highlights from Sunday's Sermon Dec 9

Round one of an Oklahoma ice storm kept many from attending worship this morning, but I tested out the roads and decided we could make it. I'm glad I did.

I have been very blessed by the preaching ministry of Rick Thompson. I'm grateful that he knows how to preach expositionally through the Bible. And I'm grateful for his hermeneutics that lead him to find Jesus in the Old Testament.

The Scripture text for yesterday was Genesis 29:15-35, the account of Jacob's labor for his two wives, Leah and Rachel. Having worked seven years for the privilege of marrying Rachel, Jacob speaks to her father, Laban, in verse 21: "Give me my wife that I may go in to her..." Jacob has been a lonely man with a great sense of inner emptiness. These words express his false hope of finding in Rachel the answer to that emptiness. But he is tricked. He ends up with Leah.

One of the lessons we should take from this account is that we must take the deepest passionate desires of our heart away from our false hopes and put them on the Lord. So the question I pondered yesterday was, "What do I pour my hope into? What is the hope I am longing for and desiring to be fulfilled?" Whatever "it" is, it will always disappoint. The soul finds no rest until it finds its rest in God (to quote Augustine).

Once again I am in need of repentance for letting myself hope for fulfillment in anything besides a vibrant relationship with God.