What Goes Around, Comes Around

Good morning, Renovation Church! My name is Clynt…I'm one of the pastors over at Westwood Community Church in Chanhassen…and it is such an honor to be with you this morning. Pastor David has become a dear friend over this past year…and can I just tell you something you already know…you have a one-of-a-kind pastor. Every time he and I get together, I leave that conversation encouraged and inspired! I feel like I could do anything!! And God is really doing something here at Renovation…your church is giving us all hope and assurance that God is on the move…so know how grateful I am to spend my Sunday with you all.

In fact, I got back into town last night, having spent the past few days in Alexandria, MN. Every summer, my wife's whole family rents a cabin together…but this is not one of those quiet, serene cabin getaways…this is 27 people…15 of them kids 10 and under…crammed into a 5 bedroom cabin…how many know, this is not a vacation…this is what I like to call a trip…and here's what kept coming up all weekend…Annie is one of five kids…that’s why there’s so many of us all crammed together…and in about a week…Annie and I are about to add our fifth child to the mix…apparently…what goes around…comes around.

You ever use that phrase before? Someone cuts you off in traffic…maybe even on the way to church today…and then they get cut off by an even faster moving car…what goes around, comes around. Some people call it karma…and if we're honest…most of us kind of like that idea. There's something almost satisfying about the thought that payback finds people. The problem is though…we almost always mean that for other people.

Very few of us wake up in the morning hoping what goes around, comes around to us… and neither does our friend, Jacob, who you’ve been studying for last few weeks…but here’s the thing: he’s about to have a come around moment in his story…So turn with me to Genesis 29…it’s on page 20 of the Bible at your chair…and I want to read a selection of verses from this chapter as our focus for today’s message…so I encourage you to follow along and also go back sometime this week and read the full chapter.

Genesis 29:1-30 (NIV)

Then Jacob continued on his journey and came to the land of the eastern peoples. 2 There he saw a well in the open country, with three flocks of sheep lying near it. The stone over the mouth of the well was large. 3 When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well’s mouth and water the sheep.

4 Jacob asked the shepherds, “My brothers, where are you from? Do you know Laban?”

“Yes, we know him,” they answered. “And here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep.”

10 When Jacob saw Rachel…he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle’s sheep. 11 Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud. 12 He had told Rachel that he was a relative…So she ran and told her father.

13 As soon as Laban heard the news about Jacob, he hurried to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home.

After Jacob had stayed with him for a whole month, 15 Laban said to him, “Just because you are a relative of mine, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what your wages should be.”

16 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”

22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her.

25 When morning came, there was Leah! 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?”

26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

Okay…a lot just happened. So let's go back and walk through this together, because there are some details here I don't want us to miss. And the first is the fact Jacob is hundreds of miles from home…and he's not on vacation…he’s on the run because he has completely detonated his family. He deceived his elderly, blind father Isaac in the dark. He stole his brother Esau's blessing…and Esau was so furious he started making plans to kill his younger brother. So Jacob's mother pulled him aside and said: Go find my brother Laban…and maybe one day you can come back.

So Jacob runs…and eventually he comes over a hill…and there's a well. Now don't picture a little wishing well. This is a cylindrical hole dug deep into the earth usually with a diameter of 3-5 feet…And in the ancient world, a well was the center of life. Entire communities gathered around wells because it held the most important commodity… water. And this particular well, we’re told, had a massive stone over it. Imagine something like a large boulder…the kind that required several shepherds to move. Now the stone was likely in place to protect the water and it also helped ensure that you waited until all the flocks from the surrounding area had gathered before you move it…in other words, you don’t…and truly you couldn’t…move that boulder alone…

So Jacob asks the gathered shepherds: Do any of you know a man named Laban? And before anyone even finishes answering…Rachel, Laban’s daughter, comes walking over the hill. And as soon as Jacob sees her…he’s smitten…and he walks right over to that stone covering the well…and moves it by himself…talk about a feat of strength…it reminds of me of those wildlife documentaries…where the male of a species sees a female…and he brings out his plumage or he puffs out his chest…all as a way to get their attention…how many know Jacob is showing off here a little…

And then we’re told he kisses her (which is not romantic kiss but a form of greeting in the ancient world) and then…he weeps…he breaks down right there at the well after his feat of strength…it’s quite the juxtaposition…now we're not told exactly why he breaks down crying…but think about everything he's carrying. He's been walking alone for weeks. He left his home in shame. And now looking at the face of his uncle's daughter… something in him realizes: I made it. And all of the relief and exhaustion and grief of what he left behind…it all breaks open. Some of you know that feeling. That moment when you realize…I shouldn't be here. I made such a mess of things. And somehow, by the grace of God…I made it.

That’s what God does…and what Rachel does next is she runs and tells her father, Laban who comes out, embraces his nephew, kisses him, and brings him to his home. And as Jacob settles in…Laban, ever the businessman, comes to him with a proposal: I'm not going to let you work for free. Tell me what your wages should be. And it’s at this juncture that we get introduced to the fact Laban has two daughters. Leah, the older one, had weak eyes, which wasn't just a note about her vision…it was the ancient way of saying she didn't quite measure up…unlike her sister, Rachel who we’re told has a lovely, beautiful figure. So Jacob makes his offer: seven years. I'll work seven years for your younger daughter, Rachel. And Laban says…deal.

Now before we go further…some of you are sitting here thinking…wait, he ends up with two wives after all this, right? Does that mean the Bible endorses polygamy? That's a fair question and the truth is the Bible often describes things without also prescribing or endorsing them. Polygamy, this practice of having multiple spouses, was accepted in the ancient Near East as a way to ensure family lineage and wealth was passed down, and dowries, or payments for the right to marry, often involved years of labor. But none of that means God designed marriage or even courtship that way. From Genesis 2 onward, God's design has always been one man, one woman, becoming one flesh. And if you keep reading Genesis…and really the whole Old Testament…every family that departs from that design experiences incredible heartache. So to be clear, the Bible isn't celebrating this arrangement. It's showing us what happens inside a broken world. And some more brokenness is about to come to Jacob…

But before he is deceived by his own uncle…we read one of my favorite lines in this entire story: Verse 20, "So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." Seven years of hard, outdoor labor gone in a heartbeat. It reminds me of when Annie and I first started dating…I could stay up until 2 in the morning talking with her and somehow function the next day. Now…9:45 rolls around and I'm already in bed…somehow I can sense time again…do you know that feeling? Maybe it's a sport you love so much that five hours of practice feels like thirty minutes. Maybe it's a project you're genuinely passionate about. Maybe, like me, it's the early days of a relationship where you drove an hour each way just to spend an hour with someone… For Jacob, seven years…it felt like mere days to him.

And then Laban throws a feast because it was finally time for Jacob to receive Rachel…And when evening comes…Laban pulls off a substitution…and instead of Rachel, he brings his older, weaker-eyed daughter, Leah to Jacob...in the dark. And Jacob doesn't know…until morning comes…Seven years of labor and longing and sacrifice and love…and Jacob opens his eyes to discover…he has been deceived…

So he goes straight to Laban and says, What is this you have done to me? Why have you deceived me? And right there…is the irony of ironies…it’s Jacob’s what goes around…comes around moment…Why have you deceived me? This is the man whose name literally means deceiver. This is the man who put on a disguise in the dark in front of his blind father and said I am Esau your firstborn. This is the man who substituted himself for his brother and stole a blessing that wasn't his. And now he is standing in front of Laban asking…why’d you do this to me? Oh, how the tables have turned…what goes around…has come around.

It reminds of this cartoon image…how many know this is Jacob’s life…this, if we’re honest, is our lives…when we’re caught in sin…One domino tips another…one lie creates another…one deception makes the next one easier…one betrayal plants the seed for the next. And it goes on and on…and around and around…until eventually…it comes all the way back. That's Jacob. He pushed a domino in his father's tent…disguised himself, told a lie, stole what wasn't his. And now the dominos are falling his way. Laban used darkness. Laban used a substitution. Laban exploited what Jacob couldn't see. Any of that sound familiar? It should…because Jacob wrote that playbook…and now he’s on the other side of it…

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul said it like this in one of his letters: a person reaps what they sow. Paul’s using agrarian language here to say we should not be surprised when what we plant in our lives starts to grow…and some of you hear that and think…there it is, karma…but this is not describing karma…karma is a new age idea that the universe balances it all out…karma is believing that others are finally going to get some payback…but that’s not what Paul is saying here…what the Scriptures say is friend, don’t you know your actions have now and forever consequences...and your sinful actions, in particular, can take over your life like weeds…so Jacob sowed deception. And now Jacob is reaping deception. And again, a lot of us are just fine with that for other people…until we realize…I’ve got some weeds in my life, too…to go back to that cartoon image, I’ve also pushed over some dominos…

One of my dominos is avoidance. Unlike some of you…I don't love conflict. If there's a hard conversation, I am remarkably gifted at convincing myself that maybe it'll work itself out. The problem is…avoidance doesn’t shrink a problem. It feeds it. Every day I avoid the hard thing, another domino falls. And eventually what I didn't want to face comes back around and hits me twice as hard…

Maybe your domino is anger. Maybe it's comparison. Maybe it's addiction. Maybe it's gossip, or bitterness, or a pattern you watched your parents live and swore you'd never repeat…and now you can see it starting to show up in you. Whatever it is…the dominos don't stop on their own. They keep falling…around and around…Unless something…or better yet, someone…interrupts it. And this is why the gospel is such unbelievably good news. Because the ultimate substitution is coming…Jesus Christ, stepping into our place on the cross as darkness covered the land. Only this time, it wasn't the innocent being tricked. This time, the innocent one willingly took the place of the guilty so that the coming eternal consequences of our sin wouldn’t go back around to us…in fact, you could say it like this…

Jesus stepped into what was coming around, so that grace could start going around.

Jesus stood in the path of what was coming back around to you…and he took the hit. Now let me be honest with you about something, too…Trusting Jesus doesn't mean every earthly consequence magically disappears. Forgiveness doesn't instantly rebuild trust. The damage we've done to relationships doesn't vanish overnight. Sometimes we still live with the fallout of dominos we pushed years ago. But here's what the cross changes: the deepest consequence…eternal separation from God, the full weight of what we actually deserve…that has already been absorbed. Justice wasn't ignored. It was satisfied. Mercy wasn't cheap. It was purchased at an enormous cost. So the question isn't whether the dominos are falling. The question is whether you're still trying to outrun them…or whether you've let Jesus step in to save you.

So let me ask you something this morning: What's coming around in your life? Maybe you've been running from it for a while. Maybe you've been carrying shame for something you did years ago and you're convinced one day God is finally going to give you exactly what you deserve. Can I tell you what the gospel says? Jesus Christ already received what you deserved…so that you could receive what you never deserved: Grace.

So if you've never trusted in Jesus Christ and received his grace, the forgiveness of sins…today can be your day. In fact, as we close this service, I’d love to pray with you to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior…to have him step into middle of your life and save you…to hold back the dominos from separating you from a loving and holy God. So if that's you this morning…if you want to see the power of God’s grace interrupt and intervene the sin that’s going around in your life…then I’m going to ask you to raise your hand in just a moment…and your raised hand is simply a way for you to say…I want grace to come around in my life…because again:

Jesus stepped into what was coming around, so that grace could start going around for you.

So with every head bowed, every eye closed…if you’re looking for the grace of God to come around you this morning…if you’re looking to say yes to good news of Jesus Christ…the ultimate substitute for you…then lift up your hand right now…this is you saying, I want to be saved…I want to enter into life and life abundant. Praise God!

And if you raised your hand, we want to help you take your next step, so after a closing song, I will come up and give you some instructions. Remember Jesus stepped into what was coming around…the consequences of our sin…so that grace could start going around, instead. So this week…let grace be what goes in and around and through your life…and you know what…and this is something Jacob will learn too as you study more of his life this summer…there’s more than enough of God’s grace to go around, too.

Let's pray.