Flip The Script | Genesis 30:1-24 | Peter Kim | July 12, 2026

Preaching Passage: Genesis 30:1-24 (ESV)

Guest Preacher: Peter Kim of Seven Mile Road Houston

Image: Genesis Tree of Life. Copyright The Khronos Group Inc. Used by permission. Free of charge. 

Ethnos Church of Houston, Texas

Welcome to Ethnos Church: A Church for the Nations

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Today's scripture reading comes from Genesis chapter thirty, verses one through twenty-four. If you have one of these you can turn to the page uh page twenty-two. Genesis is the first book of the Bible. We all stand for the reading of the inerrant and holy word of God. Genesis chapter thirty, verses one through twenty-four. She said to Jacob, Give me children, or I shall die. Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Then she said, Here is my servant Bilhah, go into her, so that she may give birth on my behalf, that even I may have children through her. So she gave her, she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife. And Jacob went into her, and Bilhah conceived and bore Jacob a son. Then Rachel said, God has judged me and has also heard my voice and given me a son. Therefore she called his name Dan. Rachel's servant Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son. Then Rachel said, With mighty wrestlings, I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed. So she called his name Nephtali. When Leah saw that she had ceased bearing children, she took her servant Zilpa and gave her to Jacob as the wife. Then Leah's servant Zippa bore Jacob a son, and Leah said, Good fortune has come. So she called his name Gad. Leah's servant Zippa bore Jacob a second son, and Leah said, Happy am I, for women have called me happy. So she called his name Asher. In the days of wheat harvest, Reuben went and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Please give me some of your son's mandrakes. But she said to her, Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also? Rachel said, Then he may lie with you tonight in exchange for your son's mandrakes. When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes. So he laid with her that night, and God listened to Leah, and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. Leah said, God has given me my wages because I gave my servant to my husband. So she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived again and she bore Jacob a sixth son. Then Leah said, God has endowed me with a good endowment. Now my husband will honor me because I have borne him six sons. So she called his name Zebelon. Afterward, she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah. Then God remembered Rachel and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, God has taken away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph, saying, May the Lord add to me another son. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated.

unknown 4:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Well, Church, I want to introduce you to our guest preacher this morning. His name is Peter. He is not a stranger to us. He's guest preached for us more than once now. And um last time we had him, just about this time, this last year. So we're happy to have him. He's a Peter Kim is a uh he serves as the pastor of leadership and strategy at uh Seven Mile Road Houston, where he and his wife were instrumental in implanting it, was it 10 years ago, 2016? So this is your 10-year anniversary. Um praise God. Uh Peter's in charge of providing leadership for the staff, for the elders and other key leaders around the community. And uh he and his wife Kat have two children now. Uh last year was just one, so how old is Eliana? Six months. All right. Elijah and Eliana. So we're happy to have Peter bring the word to us, and let's give Peter a warm ethnos welcome.

SPEAKER_02 5:21

Thank y'all very much for the warm welcome. Uh I don't think it's by chance that even the people group you guys prayed for uh is a people group that I'm intimately connected to. I take an annual trip to that part of the world into Tajikistan, and I've met Parisa believers. Um I'll get to go again in a couple of months. And so it just all feels intertwined in a really sweet way. So thank you for anyway, that reminder that God is not just good, but he's great in the way he makes connections and bridges. We do me a favor, will you bow your heads? I'm gonna pray one more time before we dive into God's word. Our Father, I thank you that we get to say those words and really mean it. You are a God who has committed yourself to us intimately, deeply, personally. That when we taught, were taught by Jesus to cry out, our Father, you wanted us to know intimately not just your greatness, but also your goodness. And so I pray that today would be the day for lots of men, women, and children in this room who get to experience both in full. And we can only experience it that if if you are true to your word, that the grass withers, the flower fades, but your word is what stands, endures forever. You've assured us that it will not return void if we submit ourselves to it. And so I pray, God, I beg you, in spite of me today, would you speak to your people? We need your voice, nobody else's today. So please, by your spirit and through your word, speak to your people. We need that. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Every single winter I try to love my wife as best I can, uh, particularly by watching a movie she has asked us to watch every single year. That movie, if you know it, uh maybe some of you are too, I can see some folks who won't know it. It's a 2006 film called The Holiday. And every winter, on Rinse and Repeat, for maybe 15, 16 years now, we've watched this movie. Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslett with Jude Law and Jack Black. It's a love story, a rom com, and it's a tale as old as time, if you can imagine that, right? Like boy meets girl in a terrible situation, they hit it off, and then they're thinking maybe our circumstances will change, but then it all goes sideways. But miraculously, rom-com esque, a tale as old as time, they get hitched. It all works out. Now, tale as old as time. You see, when it comes to at least these individuals, the the stars of the movie are really the ladies, Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslett. Cameron Diaz is a woman who can't bring herself to cry. She's so emotionally detached, protecting and preserving of herself. She's been hurt as a child, she won't get hurt again. So no man will ever make her cry. And that becomes like her trauma, the thing that she carries around that will never be broken, the script that has already been written over her days. For Kate Winslet, it's the opposite. She's a hopeless romantic. She loves a man that's really cruel to her, that chooses other women in spite of her, and she just can't help but cling to him, linger around. So pretty opposing stories that feel irreversible, courses over their days that seem to just be so strong, so fortified that they can't be broken. What movie film writers, what script writers, what avid moviegoers know is that every good story has what's called an inciting incident. A moment in a story where it breaks, the course is reversed, the script is flipped somehow, somehow, and that happens for each of these ladies in this movie. I know at 15 years watching this movie, uh, that's why I can talk about it so intimately. Now, in order for the mold to be broken in your life and in mine, for the script to be flipped, we also need catalytic moments, events that are inciting in nature. Like the sort of, I've never cried before, but I'm crying now and I don't know why. Like that's a moment in that movie, and those are the sorts of moments in our lives that we need in order for real change to happen. For the script to finally be flipped. Now, Genesis 30. This is not the genesis of just one family. This is not just the genesis of the Bible, this is the genesis of humanity of our days. And what was just beautifully read for us, verses 1 through 24, I'm trying my best to come in right where you guys are studying the text. And believe me when I say, when I first read the passage, I was a little bit like, ah, this is a little bit of a doozy to come in and guest preach on. And yet, so good and so timely, I needed it for me because what we experience, what was just read for you, is a tale as old as time. Here is a man, Jacob, who is a man with an idol, an idol of comfort. And then you see a couple of women with idols of their own, an idol predominantly of control. And how a man idolizing comfort and women idolizing control, how that intertwines and operates, what we're gonna come to find, is a tale, sadly, as old as time. You've seen it in your life or in the lives of your parents or in the lives of those around you, but a man who idolizes ease and a woman who envies and idolizes control, those are tales as old as time. And it's the children who pay the price. And that's what this story is about. So if you hear nothing else, I hope you hear this this morning. The effects of your idolatry, whatever it might be, the effects of your idolatry are going to ripple through generationally. Your children and your children's children will pay the price. So I have a simple invitation for you today. Break the mold, flip the script. Let's dive in and try to unpack that together. So if you've got your Bibles, look at me with me in verse 1 of chapter 30. When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister, and she said to Jacob, Give me children or I shall die. Now look at verse 2. Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in the place of God? Who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb? Gotta pause here. The first individual that we're going to study a little bit together is Jacob, because here is a man whose idol is ease, whose idol is comfort. He wants to come home after a long day's work and he wants a cold beer. He doesn't want a conversation. He wants to sit on the couch on the lazy boy. He doesn't want to have this dialogue. And when his wife, the wife that he loves, the wife that he delights in, the wife that he waited 14 years for, is telling him, I'm desperate. I'm grieving at a heart level. Give me kids, or I feel like I'm gonna die. And what does he do in response? He explodes. This is a man marked by a cold heart, marked by passivity. He just wants to work, have a home-cooked meal, cold beer, and go to bed. He doesn't want to, he doesn't want the grief of the conversation. And so what does he do in response? He's explosive. Did you catch it in the text? Look again in verse 2. His anger was kindled against Rachel, and then he essentially says to her in his own way, Don't blame me, blame God. This conversation's over. Here is a man with cold-hearted passivity who looks upon his grieving, desperate wife and says, Don't blame me, blame God. Go take it up with him. I don't want to deal with this. Not tender, not thoughtful, a man whose idol is ease and comfort after a long day's work. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, a tale as old as time. But look furthermore, look in verse 3. Then she says, Here's my servant Bilhah, go into her. She'll give birth on my behalf, then even I may have children through her. So she gave him her servant. And then it says, And Jacob went into her. No words. He just does as he's told. Fast forward to verse 9. Leah, who sees that his her sister is also doing this mechanism, she does it also. I'm done bearing children. Here's my servant, husband. Take her. And what does Jacob do? Takes her as his wife. No words, just compliance. You fast forward to a verse like verse 16. After his wives, these sisters have contended with each other. Leah runs out in the field, meets Jacob in verse 16. Meets him and says, You must come into me, for I've hired you with my son's mandraks. So he lay with her that night. No questions, no words. Cold-hearted passivity, complacent and compliant. These are the markers of a man whose idol is comfort. He does as he's told, if it doesn't bother him all that much. Oh, he gets to sleep with this woman, then that, and this one as his wife, and this one also. I'll just do as I'm told. Probably with a rolling of the eyes. Like these women just continue to do what they do. And I'm no words, no meaningful presence. This is the mark of a man whose idol is comfort. It's as if he's got this bright neon sign above his head that says, Do not disturb me. Don't disturb. His end game is just to live a life of ease after a long day's work. A complacent man with a cold heart. I just need us to receive today. We're supposed to read passages like this with sadness. We're supposed to receive these moments with a grieving heart. Jacob was not always this man, right? When he first saw Rachel, what did he do? He kissed her. He can like control himself. I'm so affectionate for this woman, I'm gonna work seven years, and then I'm gonna be deceived by her dad, and then I'm gonna work seven more. It's clear that he has the capacity to be warm-hearted, he has the capacity to be committed, to work really hard for the things that matter. But here is a man, for whatever reason, I think it's because his idol might be comfort, that his heart is so cold. He's not proactive, he's passive. He's not responsible over the people over his house. And all of a sudden, you feel it right now with this man, the very foundation of his house, his family, his days. It feels like there's cracks everywhere, and he's just ignoring them step by step. Because he just wants to go home. He wants to sit on the couch and take it easy, put his feet up. This is really sad. Now, I feel the weight of this, especially as a father, especially if a father of a boy. So this is a picture of my son Elijah. He's a four and a half year old, like wonder. I love this boy with all my heart. Um, this is a picture of him at a pool a couple of weeks ago, and he's got one of those contraptions that can like shoot water out. Because to my boy, this is like a Nate and a boy, uh, everything can become a canon, you know, or everything can become a lightsaber or a sword, right? Like everything in anything, and all of a sudden becomes instinctive of a boy to, oh, this is a this is a thing that is capable of some energy, some power, either for protection or for destruction. I don't like I don't know what's gonna happen right now, but everything can become a sword, everything can become a canon right now. And that's just him being a boy. Now, for every man in the room, guess what? There's still something about that in each of us. A killer instinct that is drawn to things of power that can either protect people or destroy and harm people. It's true of all of us. It's why there's so many grown men that still play video games late at night. We're dr we're like we're drawn to that. And I, men in the room, boys in the room, or whatever age and stage you might be in, would you please look me in my face when I I want to I want to warmly, just like up with a pastor's heart, I want to warmly invite you today. Lay down that idol of comfort, and with that killer instinct where everything can become a sword, anything can become a gun, would you with bullseye look at that idol of comfort and kill it? Like kill it, make it the aim of your days, make it the aim of your life that you won't be a man marked by irresponsibility but by responsibility. A man who understands that when God created Adam, the Adam of humanity, he creates this man from the dirt, he blows into it breath, life. All of a sudden, here is a man, and what does he say? Get to your knees on the ground, work it and keep it, preserve it, protect it, and then I'm gonna give you a woman to love after I give you a job to do. And you are a servant, not meant to be selfish, a servant. That's how you love and lead this house. Now, if that was God's intention at creation, I just need you to hear me, men in the room, boys in the room, with that killer instinct where anything can become a sword and anything can become a gun. Aim it right at that idol of comfort. It needs to die. Or the ripple effect will be upon your children and your children's children. They will receive the brunt of you allowing this idol to stay alive. Kill it, please. If you don't, your children will pay the price. It's not just the cold-hearted, passive man that we see, we also experience a hot-headed, envious woman. Just reading the text here. Look back at verse one again. Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, and what does it say? She envied her sister. That term for envy, just want to pause here for a moment. That term for envy is a word that can either be translated in the Old Testament in one of two ways. It can either be jealous or it can be zealous. Because either way it goes, it's talking about idolatry. So in the Old Testament, it's about this blazing up, this heating of your head, and how you think about life. And you will either be heated to attack an idol or amplify it. One of two ways. So that's why in the text it's either jealous or zealous, because either way you're hot-headed towards some idol to attack it and kill it, or to allow it to amplify in your days. Here, what do we see? Her envy, her jealousy is getting kindled. She's glowing from it. Give me children or I'll be a dead woman. Because what does she want more than anything else in this life? The plan that I had set aside for my days. I'm supposed to be a mom of lots of boys. Give me children, or I will die. I might as well be dead. Furthermore, in verses 14 to 16, we won't study the text all throughout, but what we see is this really interesting interaction inserted in the text for our benefit. Leah's oldest son, Reuben, goes out, gets a mandrake. What in the world is a mandrake? A mandrake is it's a fruit, and the word, like the in the original language, is so closely associated with the word for making love, like a sexual intimate act between spouses, that in Song of Solomon it's used almost like in a poetic way to talk about both. So that's what a mandrake is. A mandrake in these days represents an aphrodisiac. It makes maybe a man want to be more intimate. It also is viewed kind of like pomegranates are in certain cultures, right? Like it's a it promotes fertility in a woman. And so, whatever a mandrake might mean, I think it means maybe different things to Leah than it does to Rachel. I think Leah wants it for the aphrodisiac. My husband prefers my sister. Maybe this will make my husband want to be around me more. For Rachel, I think it's something different. I think she views it in the sense of like maybe it'll help me finally bear the children that I want. Whatever it might be, it's this substance to them to grant them a little bit more control of the thing that they want to control. You see, jealousy both goes both ways for these two. We see it in verses 14 through 16. Leah's looking upon Rachel and she's like, Can I have some mandrakes? I'd love I'd love to be more fertile than I am. She even says, please. And then look at Leah's response of hostility because she knows of her sister's envy for her. Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?

unknown 21:43

Right?

SPEAKER_02 21:43

Is it a small matter that you've already taken away my husband? The way that the text reads, that Jacob has to come into her, that phrase is typically only used for the first time a man and a woman have sex when they're married. So what that what that means from the author, what that Means from the way that these words are penned together for us is that it's been probably a very long time, maybe, maybe since the last time a child was born until Leah, that she has had sexual intimacy with her husband because he doesn't prefer her. So you feel the way that both of them are struggling, suffering even, but where is their hot-headed thoughts going toward? I'm jealous against my sister. No, I'm jealous against my sister. No, she's taking away my husband. No, no, she's got all the boys, I've got none. Whatever it might be in these moments, it's the envy that defines their relationship. You see, these are two sisters that are at war. They're at war with one another. And now all of a sudden, what we've read so far already is that they're pawing off their servants to their husband, trying to gain footing in his mind. They're amassing whether it's fertility treatment or aphrodisiac substances, whatever it might be, they're amassing almost ammo or artillery, because they want the knights with Jacob to matter for the ways that they want it to matter. Because they've got idols of control, they've got plans, desires, and they will do whatever it takes, manipulate the moment, scheme, and plot. Because what do they want? They need to do whatever it takes behind closed doors to make that man do what I want him to do. Be affectionate for me, maybe for the first time. Or give me the kids that I want more than anything. Maybe you can relate today. Maybe for the woman in the room, especially, you you want things so badly that there's something burning in your mind and you can't get rid of it. And you look over the fence at other people who have the thing that you want that you don't get to have in these days. And that envy will lead you to do things unless you kill it that you never thought that you would do. Because again, it's not just you that pays the price, it's generational, it's your children and your children's children. And so I think about this often. I've got a, as Jonathan mentioned, I've got a six-month-old girl who's like, it's dangerous territory as a dad. Uh I I already I've already said this like a couple times to my wife. Like, I would take a bullet from my wife, I would shoot bullets for her. It's a very different, like, I would, there's this protective instinct, right? There's this thing of like, she's my she's my prize, my treasure. Like, I will I will like run over people for her, sort of mentality. And so this is a picture of Eliana. We call her Ellie. She's perfect in every way. And uh, and yet I know, like, and I think it was God's kindness for me, experiencing just how my wife is as a human, and the things that I appreciate and love most about her. It inspired the thing that we've been praying for Ellie every day since she was in her mother's womb. The moment that we found out, we've been praying the same prayer for her since pregnancy, and every day of her life, I'll pray it over her that I get to hold her. And it's from Proverbs 3, verse 17, when it talks about lady wisdom. Lady wisdom, her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. Now, that's what I pray over my daughter every single day, that her ways would be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths would be peace. And the reason that I pray that is because I realize that if her if her mind is settled with contentment in God and in God only, she will experience, like everyone else's experience of her, will be just that. Proverbs 3 verse 17, all her ways are ways of pleasantness, all her paths are peace. And so I pray that every day for her. You see, it's a true contentment that can inspire that sort of pleasantness, that sort of peacefulness. And it's because I see it everywhere and all around. Like even as a pastor for just 10 years running, like I see it in so many faces and stories and families and households and in individuals, a tale as old as time, where idolatry, especially idolatry of control, it morphs these moments, and people look at their lives and wonder why they're so frustrated with all the ways that they've planned, schemed, manipulated the moments, and discontentment defines their days. And so I long for a very different story for my daughter. That's why I pray what I pray. And so, women in the room, whatever age, whatever stage, wherever you may be in today, would you please hear from a pastor's heart this warm invitation? Please. Please be contented. What I love about this text is that there's this infighting of a family. And the Lord, Yahweh, the covenant-making, covenant-keeping God, he has a few specific verbs associated with him. He sees Leah's hurt. He sees. He sees the night that she sleeps alone. He hears. It says that he listens, listens to Rachel's cry at night where she can't get pregnant. Where maybe a miscarriage after miscarriage, she just can't do the thing that she knows will make her happy. She can't have it. And it says that God hears. And it also says at the end of this passage that God remembers them as if he's on their minds. Like they are the names that are upon his mind, they're the names upon his lips. He sees their tossings and their turnings, he counts every single one of them, bottles up their tears, as the psalmist says. God is that sort of God. He listens, he sees, he remembers. And so my invitation to you, women in the room, wherever you are, however disgruntled you may feel, however hard your days might be today, please, there is a God who sees you, who hears you, who remembers you by name. And would that inspire the sort of contentment that only God can give you? He sees. He knows. And if you don't, it'll be your children and your children's children who pay the price. And we see that in the text. We're not gonna go through all the verses. I'm just gonna kind of rattle them off for you, right? Every child is named based on the trauma that they're experiencing. It's funny, like the every child to the child. Like, oh, God sees me in my affliction because my deadbeat husband won't be so, like he'll be just so passive and cold-hearted toward me, right? Like he doesn't care for me. But God sees, so I'm gonna name my son that way. Or God has judged me. He has to give me kids only through a servant. Dan will be his name. God is my judge. Right? To the child, the mandrick story, right? Like, oh, like I bought my husband with these wages. I earned the night with him by giving of my son's mandrics. I'll name my son wages. Right? You feel it in the way that the kids are named to the child. To the child, their names are rooted in trauma, in pain, in brokenness, in idolatry, the way that it ripples through their family, the way that the cracks of the foundation of their home are all settling in, the child, the children. Every single one of them are named based on these roots of brokenness. It's really devastating, right? Really devastating because what we realize is that if a cold-hearted, passive man mixes with hot-headed, envious women, guess what you get? Lukewarm children. And when I say lukewarm, I mean lukewarm morally. Lukewarm in their sensibilities. All they've seen is mom or moms and dad be the opposite of the things that God has called us to. And in that space, what happens? Their morality is lukewarm. You're gonna study this for the weeks to come. Just you wait. Hold on for the ride. It ripples generationally the brokenness, the idolatry. Twelve brothers will be at war with one another. They'll justify all the wrong decisions. The immorality will be the testament and the summary statement, chapter by chapter, verse over verse. And we wonder why. How did they end up this way? How did you end up this way? Whether you're here today, and it's in light of the great parents you had, or in spite of the terrible ones, you are who you are today in many ways, because of the way that your parents dealt with or did not deal with their idolatry. And so hear me when I say this. You can talk about it really easily when you're the victim. Now, now, if you are the culprit here, if you are the one about to pass along your undealt with idolatry and the rippling effect of it to your children and your children's children after you. Please hear me. Let's flip the script. Let's pave a new path. Let's experiencing something different altogether. See, this is a tale as old as time, sadly. Now in that movie, The Holiday, uh I know way too much about this movie. Uh there's there's uh a term that uh an elderly man leverages. He he's this famous uh writer, and uh he essentially informs Kate Winslett of a term that movie writers all know, which is the meat cute. And it's exactly what that phrase means. It's a hyphenated phrase. It's when like the circumstances begin to change, potentially because like boy meets girl, right? Like this moment where it's like something might change finally, like the meeting has happened. It's called the meat cute. Now, you sitting here today, guess what? You get to live in a really privileged position in time. On the other side of the incarnation, we've already experienced the inciting incident. On the other side of Jesus taking on flesh, you and I have gotten to experience the greatest meat cute that ever happened in the greatest story that God has ever written. At one point in time, the Son of God was willing to take on flesh. He wasn't passive, he wasn't cold-hearted, no, no, with a with a heart that we know from the scriptures is gentle and lowly. He saw your need, your desperation. He heard your cry, he listened, and then he chased after you like a good man should. Like a good husband would. He saw you in your desperation, and he didn't belittle you. He didn't explosively reprimand you and sit on the lazy boy. No, no, he came after you. He took on flesh for you. Two thousand years ago, the Son of God took on flesh and said, You're mine, and I'm coming for you. And we know also that he wasn't hot-headed, like even when he was accused by the very people he came to save, ridiculed, spat on, judged wrongly, cool headed. He wasn't looking over the fence at everybody else that got it easy. No, no. He bore it, he took it. Like a lamb taken to the slaughter, he was silent. In his patience, in his contentedness as to who his father said that he was, the promise and the joy set before him of us beyond that cross and that empty tomb, he bore it all with patience, with contentment, with a cool head. He lived for you, and then he died for you. And rising from that grave victoriously forevermore, he sits upon his throne, looking upon you every single morning that the sun shines with a smile upon his face, because he wants you to behold him again, believe his words again. You are his. And because that inciting incident happened, because the meat cute of all meat cutes took place 2,000 years ago, you don't have to wait. You don't have to wonder when is it finally gonna happen for me? It's already happened. All you need to do is behold him and believe his words. He is yours and you are his. The generational impact exists right there in that place where you're willing to see him for who he really is, love him in the ways, fractionally the way that he has loved you, and he will pour it out. A generational transformation. He wants that for you. He wants that for me. I want that for my kids so badly, and I hope you do too. Atmos church, I have been praying this text over you with great hope and anticipation. Would you, with bull's eyes set, go kill that idol so that your children and your children's children after you might receive the blessing in Jesus? Amen. Let me pray for us. Our God, we come to you this morning and are reminded of the treasure trove that is your scripture. Thank you for your word. Thank you that a passage that we could easily skim quickly by, a story that might feel old or unrelated to our lives. Thank you that what it exposes in each of us is that we are so easily swept up into the tales as old as time. We are so invested in ourselves, God, that we don't, we don't recognize the idols that rob us of the joy and the gratitude and the patience and the goodness of our days. We are robbed of it because our idols own us. And I pray, God, that today would be the day that to the man, woman, and child in this room that you would give us a zeal, righteous anger against the idol, and that we would go after it. That we would be men and women and children who are marked by something very different. And so please, Jesus, for your name, for your fame, and for our great good, would you please help us along the way? We want a different story to define our days, God. Help us. Please. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.