Pray
Father,
Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.
Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.
Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.
And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive.
AMEN
When is enough enough?
This is an age old question.
Although these exact words are not found in the Bible, I believe that it has been asked many times. I am sure that Job must have thought this when he was going through his trials.
I bet Noah thought it when he was building the ark.
Moses had to think it when he was leading the Israelites to the Promised Land.
When Jonah was in the belly of a fish he had to think to himself, “When is enough, enough?”
And in Genesis chapters 28 through 31 we see that Jacob got to a point in his life when he thought enough is enough.
Let’s look at his story so that we can determine for ourselves when is enough enough.
Jacob was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham who was the first to receive the promise of God that though his seed a great nation would be born.
Abraham made a covenant with God and he became the father of the nation of Israel.
It happened like this, Abraham’s wife Sarah gave birth to Isaac.
Isaac grew up and married and his wife Rebekah gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. Through a series of events, Jacob became the one through whom God was going to build a nation.
Jacob had tricked his brother and his father so that he could receive the blessing of the first born, even though he wasn’t the first born. Because of his brother’s anger, Jacob ran off to his Uncle Laban’s place.
While he was there Jacob married two women who were his uncle’s daughters. Their names were Leah and Rachel. Now Jacob was head over heels in love with Rachel, but Leah was the older daughter and she was supposed to be married first.
So Jacob made a deal with Laban. Jacob agreed to work for 7 years so he could marry Rachel. When the 7 years were up Laban tricked Jacob and gave him Leah.
Jacob had to work for Laban another 7 years for the privilege of marrying Rachel.
There was a bit of a competition between Leah and Rachel in regards to how many children they could give their husband.
Thankfully times have changed!
Jacob not only had the two wives, but each wife had a maidservant that also bore children to Jacob.
In all, Jacob had 12 sons and 1 daughter. Leah was the leader in the births with 7. These 12 sons became the 12 tribes of Israel.
During this time Jacob continued to work for Laban and was able to increase his own assets during that time. As a matter of fact, Jacob acquired a great deal of possessions during that time.
Because of this, Laban’s attitude towards Jacob began to change and the Lord commanded Jacob to return to the land of his fathers.
So Jacob packed up everything, all his children, all his servants, all his possessions, and all his livestock and they set out to go back to his home.
There were two problems to this exit strategy.
First, Jacob didn’t tell Laban that they were leaving which made Laban mad because he did not get to say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren.
Second, Rachel took some things that did not belong to her and Jacob didn’t know this.
So Laban chased them down.
This brings us to the Scripture I want to read.
36 Jacob was angry and took Laban to task. “What is my crime?” he asked Laban. “How have I wronged you that you hunt me down? 37 Now that you have searched through all my goods, what have you found that belongs to your household? Put it here in front of your relatives and mine, and let them judge between the two of us.
38 “I have been with you for twenty years now. Your sheep and goats have not miscarried, nor have I eaten rams from your flocks. 39 I did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss myself. And you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night. 40 This was my situation: The heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night, and sleep fled from my eyes. 41 It was like this for the twenty years I was in your household. I worked for you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times. 42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my hardship and the toil of my hands, and last night he rebuked you.”
43 Laban answered Jacob, “The women are my daughters, the children are my children, and the flocks are my flocks. All you see is mine. Yet what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne? 44 Come now, let’s make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us.” Genesis 31:36-44 NIV
Jacob had enough. You can hear it in this Scripture. He was basically telling Laban, “Enough is enough.”
For 20 years Jacob worked for Laban and he had enough!
20 years of Laban changing the rules.
20 years of distrust, deception and trickery on both sides.
20 years of the heat in the day and the cold at night.
20 years in which he worked hard to secure all he had.
And now Jacob had enough! And enough was enough. He was tired of it. It was bumming him out. He was at the end of his rope!
Many of us can understand how he is feeling. So how does this relate to us today?
Have you ever had enough? Have you ever thought? “Enough is enough.”
If you pay attention to what happens in the world every day then I would imagine that you have thought “enough is enough.”
In the news this week – 11 year old girl gang raped at a park in Southern California.
– A 49 year old woman is arrested for choking a 71 year old greeter at Walmart.
– A Bismarck woman was arrested after she rammed her husband’s car with her own car with her children in the back seat.
When is enough enough?
The political unrest in the world today is huge news.
All the different civil wars in the Middle East. People who have had enough and they can’t take it anymore.
If you count all current conflicts in the world where hostilities are still present including all conflicts that have ceased hostilities but are still unresolved there are approximately 41.
This includes the obvious conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as conflicts like the Korean War that have cease fires in place but are still unresolved and the 2 sides sit there and stare at each other over a gun barrel.
When is enough enough?
Nation rising up against nation.
Brother rising up against brother.
Even here in the United States there is a political unrest and I sometimes think that it would not take much for riots to break out in some U.S. cities as it has in other places in the world.
When is enough enough?
There are so many things going on in the world that should serve as signs to us.
Signs that show us what will be happening in the future. Signs that give us a warning that Jesus will be coming back again.
What about all the things that are happening in nature.
So many earthquakes in so many places.
According to the US Geological Survey there are approximately 1 million earthquakes that happen every year in the world.
Only about 1/10 of those are felt by people but that still averages out to 275 earthquakes a day that can be felt.
According to scientists the Chile earthquake and the Japan earthquake even caused the earth’s axis to shift slightly.
And what about the weird weather patterns we have been having lately? Snow measured in feet not inches in many places.
When is enough enough?
Christians in many parts of the world are being persecuted because of their faith in Jesus.
10,000 Christians displaced when Muslims burned their churches and homes in Ethiopia.
On March 7, 2010 some 500 Christians were murdered in the night by rampaging Muslim gangs in Nigeria. In the Muslim parts of our world Christian persecution is on the rise.
Churches in the Philippines being blown up.
Pastors in Cuba being banned from preaching.
When is enough enough? How soon before those things begin to happen on our soil in America?
What is happening in America?
A nation that was built on Godly, Biblical morals and standards has fallen far from what we once were.
Sins that were once hidden are now committed openly.
We have politicians who want to stop the enforcement of the Defense of Marriage Act. A law that defines marriage on a federal level as between a man and a woman.
One of the most widespread social problems today is the lack of respect for authority that is blatantly evident in our youth and is re-enforced by television and music.
In the 60's and 70's there was a massive shift in society values and core beliefs, and many of the pillars of our society were thrown out and replaced by the philosophy of “If it feels good do it!”
We need to be careful in America because we are following the same paths that many of the great nations of the past followed and failed. The Assyrian Empire, Babylon, Greece, and the Roman Empire all fell because they turned their back on God and became morally corrupt.
They fell because they had a preoccupation with self. They fell because they over spent their budgets. They fell because they allowed the liberal opinions of a few control their policies.
Does any of this sound familiar? When is enough enough?
Unless we repent nationally and individually, we will continue our moral decline into devastation and destruction.
God Almighty, Who judges the conduct and character of nations, will bring upon this nation greater tribulation and trials then it now sees.
Why do I say that? No nation or empire can long endure without moral character and God’s blessing. King Nebuchadnezzar found this out the hard way.
The history of the world is the story of nations and empires that prospered and then later turned to dust.
The dream that Daniel interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 2 is a prophecy of this coming to past time and time again.
31 “Your Majesty looked, and there before you stood a large statue—an enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. 32 The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. 34 While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. Daniel 2:31-35 NIV
All the kingdoms in this dream rose to power and then crumbled; The Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greco-Macedonians under Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire and the last one the German-Italian Axis that ended in WW 2.
When is enough enough?
And today people are suffering from addictions and obsessions and even idol worship.
I know these are strong words but they are true and we are warned time and time again in God’s Word to not seek after such things.
When is enough enough?
Sin is rampant in the church. People struggling with all sorts of sins like lust, gossiping, and disunity.
When is enough enough?
I will tell you when enough is enough.
I have to tell you when enough is enough because all the things that I have told you so far are tragic.
When is enough enough?
God is enough. (Repeat many times)
When Jacob turned to God, he was blessed.
God provided everything he needed and everything he had.
God expanded his family and his possessions.
God gave him a new name.
God was with him in everything he did.
God is enough!
God sent the prophet Jonah to warn the Assyrian kingdom. Jonah traveled to the Assyrian capital city, Ninevah, along the Tigris River. His warning is recorded in the book of Jonah.
"And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, ‘Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!’" Jonah 3:4.
How did the Ninevites respond? "So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them. Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes" Jonah 3:5–6
The Assyrians responded to the prophet’s warning. They repented of their evil ways and God spared them. This took place in the eighth century BC. God spared them until they returned to their carnal ways in 612 BC when the Babylonians rose to power.
The same thing happened to Babylon. When they turned to God He spared them, when they turned away they were destroyed.
The rock that was cut out in Daniel 2 was cut out by God’s hands and it tells us that God will set up a kingdom that will stand forever. The history of the world is the story of nations and empires that prospered and then later turned to dust.
When a nation and a people turn to God they find out that God is enough.
God is enough.
God was enough for them and God is enough for you and for me.
God is enough!
When God represents only a small portion of your life your problems will appear BIG, you will be overwhelmed by life and by all the trials and temptations.
But when you allow God to consume every part of your life then you will see that all the problems, all the trials, and all the temptations will seem SMALL.
Why because God is enough.
Are you allowing God to be enough in your life?
God is enough.
CLOSE.
