Genesis 28:1-22

Someone told me this is what you are saying to!

I don't know if you would, but I'm ready to come, because I'm ready to come, because I'm ready to come!

They don't can hear me, cause I'm ready to come, because I miss them.

While you're ready to come, I don't know if they're ready to come.

You're ready to come today!

Thank you.

Thus, I will bless you while I live.

I will lift my hands in your name.

Good morning, Ramah family.

How are y'all doing this morning?

Okay, praise the Lord, everybody.

Bless his holy name in this sanctuary this morning because he's worthy of all praise and honor and glory and thanksgiving.

Thank you.

And stand to your feet and we're going to worship.

Hands up, hands up, hearts open, we lift you high.

We lift you high, we lift you high.

Hands up, hands up, hands up, hearts open wide as we cry.

God, we lift your name high.

Let all the other names fade away.

Let all the other names fade away until there's only you.

all the other names fade away.

Lord, all the other names fade away.

Let all the others fade away.

Hands up, hearts open, wide as the sky

We lift you high, we lift you high

Hands up, hearts open, wide as we cry

And we lift your ring high

Hands up, hearts open, wide as the sky

We lift you high, we lift you high

Hands up, hearts open, wide as we cry

And we lift your ring high

Oh God, we lift you high

We lift you high

Hands up, hearts open, wide as we lift your name high

Oh God, we lift you high

That's it, it starts to be high

心配

Thank you.

of the altar

or the church in the back

if you take time to fill those out

if you have anything pressing on your heart

yee-haw

It's your end, Lord

For a time for all of us

You have made us new

Now life begins with you

Reached from my chains

I know it's your one

I know it's your end

You've been waiting for me

You've canceled my day

And you've called me this way

You've been waiting for me

Thank you.

A Savior displayed on the crown of those crows

The darkness rejoiced with the heaven at last

And Jesus rose as our freedom is

A Savior's grace is my love, He can

Whatever we bring

Don't join the sound

Or the reason

Just the free

Free

The memory

And

That's what the rest

My love

And just the free

Free

Whatever we bring

Don't join the sound

Or the reason

Just the free

Free

That was a rest in my life

Amen

We're free

You unravel me with a melody

You surround me with a song

Of deliverance

From my enemies

Until all my fears are gone

Cause I'm no longer a savior

Cause I am a child of God

Cause I'm no longer a savior

Cause I am a child of God

From my mother's womb

You have chosen me

Your love has called me

So I was born again

Into your family

Your blood flows through my hands

Cause I'm no longer a slave to fear

Cause I am a child of God

I'm no longer a slave to fear

Cause I am a child of God

I am a child of God

You rescued me so I can stand and sing

I am the sound of love

This way

You rescued me so I can stand and sing

I'm here to shine the perfect love

You rescued me so I can stand and sing

I am the sound of love

I'm no longer a slave to fear

I am the sound of God

I'm no longer a slave to fear

I am the sound of God

Sing that again

You split the sea so I could walk right through

My fears are drowned in perfect love

You rescued me so I can stand and sing

I am the sound of God

You split the sea so I could walk right through

And my fears are drowned in perfect love

You rescued me so I can stand and sing

I am a child of God

I am the sound of God

Amen

What could I give to you

What could I offer to your King

For all the love you consume

For all your mercy over me

I called your name

You heard my name

Out of all grain

And into life

My heart is gone

My soul is free

Thank you God for saving me

What can I give to you

A rock of salvation

My hope is built on love

And yes, morning by night

How great is your great goodness

Thank you God for saving me

You heard my cry out of the grave

And into life

My heart is yours

My soul is free

Thank you God for saving me

Thank you for meeting me.

Thank you for hearing my cry when I called out, Father.

Thank you for being there.

Thank you for revealing yourself.

You were always there.

Thank you for revealing when I said I needed you, Father,

when I can't do this on my own.

Thank you.

Oh, you saved me.

You saved me from a path of destruction that I was doing to myself, Father.

You saved me.

Oh, God, thank you so much.

I thank you for meeting somebody else in this room. I feel like somebody else needed you, too. I know that you did. We all need you, Father.

We can't praise you enough. We can't say your name loud enough for you to hear it. We want you to know that we love you, Father. We will praise you forever. This worship is all yours. You are worthy. You're the only one worthy. It is all yours.

The glory, the glory, the honor is for you because you came and you said, I've got bigger things for you in store. Stop doing what you're doing. Lean on me. Hand it over to me. I will take your burdens. I will give you rest.

You made a way, Father. You made the way.

I am nothing but a vessel for you, Father. Make me your vessel. Let you shine through me so that others can see the life that you've created, the life that you've done, the work that you're doing, Father. It is all you.

We love you, Father. We love you so much.

It is but a candle up to the sun compared to the love that you have for us, Father, but we love you. We will shine for you, Father. We will lift you high. We will give you glory.

In your name, we love you, Father.

In your name, we love you, Father, but we love you, Father.

This morning, um, this is going to be okay for a second.

Luanne has asked for prayer this morning. Why don't you take a seat for just one quick second.

And, um, I'm going to have her share in a minute. And she's asked for prayer. She's, she's had some, some health concerns.

And so, uh, in a moment, um, and those of you who would like to stand in the gap as well, too, we'd like to invite you to come and to stay and pray as well.

But also this morning, I want you to remember in our times of prayer this morning, one of the things that we need to do a little bit better job of is remembering those that we have sent from this church.

Families that we have sent from this church that are now on the mission field.

Jeff and Stephanie and Michael Imperial that are over in Cologne, Germany.

You see their, their names on our information wall.

But they're in Germany right now serving the, the, the, uh, the Serbian refugees that are over there.

The, the, the, the Muslims that are coming in there.

They, they gave up everything, uh, here, teachers in Glen County.

And they took their 10-year-old at the time.

And they have a, a three-year minimum of a three-year commitment over there.

They're over there serving.

We need to remember the Imperials this morning as we stand in the gap.

And as we lift up Ms. Luann as well, too.

But also remember, uh, Kansas Robison, who's over in an undisclosed area of the Middle East over there that we can't really talk about.

But she's over there ministering to the Muslims as well.

To how old is Kansas, 20, 26 years old, who's, uh, given up everything to go and to serve the Lord with such fervor.

And so, and I know that, um, we, Ms. Luann, prays for them as well, too.

So I know that we'll be able to stand in the gap this morning.

So I want you to have that in, in your mind as we, as we pray this morning.

But Ms. Luann, I want you to share as well, too, please.

Good morning, family.

Um, I have this little call, so that's why I'm a little hoarse.

I hope you can hear me.

You know, the Word of God, I was sitting there, I was not going to do this today.

But the Holy Spirit said to do it today.

But you know, the Word of God says that they overcame by the Word of the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony.

And so, according to the Word of God, that's what we do.

But anyway, um, most of the prayer group that I meet on Wednesday night with knows that for the past couple of years,

they prayed for me for my blood sugar.

That seems to be...

Exactly.

I had been praying about this, so I didn't expect a radical, a radical move. So I sat there in his office saying, I just cried the whole time. I was okay, but I just cried. And he said that, um, my body was very toxic. That's why I was not receiving the medication anymore. So it needs to get my blood sugar down because my A1C is like 13. Anybody knows that's pretty high. So anyway,

I, um, he started me on an insulin therapy for about 30 days to bring it down to get the toxicity out of my body and then I'll be changed to another medicine probably. So I don't know, you know, I always pray when I go to doctors before I go to doctors that God will speak to them specifically for me and not just to have a cutty cooker, you know, kind of thing, but it's for me that the Holy

Spirit will minister. And I don't know if it's normal or not, um, for him to check my thyroid while he was there. And he said that my thyroid's a little enlarged and he wanted me to, uh, have a sonogram while I was there. So they did a sonogram and they said there's a little polyp there, this little one. And, uh, so I had to go back on Thursday to have a biopsy of that.

And I feel at peace and rest in the Lord because by his stripes, I know I'm healed. And I walk in that divine health every day. So you are my family and I need to come to you for prayer. But I want more than that. I want you to declare God's word over my body. He says by his stripes, I'm healed. He already did it. We already sang about it.

And thank you, Rob, for being led by the Holy Spirit because the Lord was speaking to you for me and probably for others as well. God is love. And God does not, he does not his will for me to be sick.

And anyway, I believe that. So I'm asking you to declare God's word over me.

It says, no weapon formed against me will prosper.

And every tongue that rises against me in judgment, I shall condemn.

But this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

Spirit, speak that over me.

And in Matthew 11, 28, it talks about speaking to mountains and they have to move.

So speak to this mountain and it has to move in my body and in your body.

So plead the blood of Jesus over me.

I trust God.

He's the only one I can trust.

I trust his word.

So speak God's word over me and over your situations too so that we can see change in our lives.

So the Bible talks about if anyone's sick and I don't claim to be sick, call for the elders.

Let them anoint you with oil and pray the prayer of faith.

And we've got some elders here that can pray the prayer of faith, I assure you of that.

So they will anoint me with oil and pray the prayer of faith.

And anyone else who wants to stand in agreement,

I would appreciate it.

I love you guys.

I love you.

I'm asking you if you feel less so that you can come join us as well.

I love you too.

I gave you the life of God.

You gave your life upon the cross.

Your sufferings were all made of rage.

Jesus, your victory in your words.

You made us so alone.

I'll say,

You gave your life upon the cross.

Your sufferings were all made of rage.

Jesus, your victory in your words.

You made us so alone.

You gave your life upon the cross.

Your sufferings were all made of rage.

Jesus, your victory in your words.

You made us so alone.

Jesus, your victory in your words.

God gave my life upon the cross.

Your glory in yourします.

You made us so alone.

God gave us so alone.

I called your name, you heard my cry, out of the grave and into life, my heart is yours, my soul is free, thank you God for saving me, thank you God for saving me.

Thank you God for saving me.

Thank you Father for healing, amen?

Let's lift him up, praise him one more time, lift him up, hi, Jesus, Jesus.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

Again, happy Father's Day, happy Father's Day.

And if, I'll tell you what, let's go ahead and dismiss our K-5 through 5th grade if you guys will follow Ms. Sowers out the door.

There we go.

Amen.

That's the favorite thing to say in children's ministry, isn't it?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

We're in Genesis 28 this morning as we continue our expository journey, study through verse by verse, chapter by chapter.

Before we get into our message today, I feel like I need to just kind of backtrack just a little bit as a sort of a clarification slash disclaimer.

I had a brother of mine bring something to my attention last week, blessed to be able to sit down with him this week and kind of talk about it.

But I felt like I needed to say something kind of to clarify some things that I was teaching on last week.

Last week we were talking about just some of the things that were clear within, making sure that you're clear within the Scripture, the Word of God, and that the Word of God is the Word of God and you adhere to the Word of God.

And we said that there were a lot of things that people...

Number two, it is practiced by the church in the book of Acts. And number three, it's expounded upon in the epistolatory literature.

That's the books that are written by Peter, James, John, all those guys in there, okay?

So, and we talked about some things that, like baptism. We said, is that taught by Jesus? Yes.

Was it practiced by the early church? Yes. Is it expounded upon in the epistolatory literature? Yes.

We talked about communion. Is that taught by Jesus? Yes. Is it practiced by the early church? Yes.

Yes. And is it expounded upon in the epistolatory literature? Yes.

I also talked about the fact that Christians, believers, claiming to be demon-possessed, okay?

And to having a demon exercised from you. Is that taught on by Jesus? No, it's not.

Is it practiced by the early church? No. Is it expounded upon in the epistolatory literature? No, it's not.

If you are a born-again believer, the Holy Spirit dwells within you, God is not going to share residence with Satan.

You may walk away, you may stray away, but the Bible is very clear.

I know my sheep, and they know my voice, okay?

There will be a time maybe that God will bring you back. We don't know how that is.

But if you are His, you are bought and paid for.

And then I made this statement that I should have expounded upon a little bit.

I said, the whole being slain in the Spirit, where you have people fall out.

Oh, Jesus, boom, slain in the Spirit.

And you have people with the blanket ministry that throw blankets over everybody.

And that kind of thing. Is it taught by Jesus? I said, no.

Is it practiced in the early church? No.

Is it expounded upon in the epistolatory? No, it's not.

Now, what I will say is this, can God cause, does God, does the Holy Spirit have the power to cause someone to be laid out in the Spirit?

You better believe it. You better believe it.

What I'm talking about is those who tend to elevate the gifts rather than the giver.

And they make a whole ministry, their whole ministry is based out of this, the pushing of the forehead, and this, that, and the other, and the causing of something.

If something is going to happen, it has to be the hand of God in order for it to be biblically true.

That's my point that I was trying to get across.

Does God have the power? Does the Holy Spirit have the power to do those things?

Yeah, absolutely.

I've seen God do some things in my time and in my times of ministry that I've got to walk away scratching my head going, wow, can I explain that?

No, but it's obviously God.

It's obviously God.

So I'm not, I say that just because as a whole, I'm going to meet with a very dear brother of mine this week.

But I say as a whole, I don't want anyone to get an idea that I am somehow corralling or minimizing the power of God, the omniscience of God, and His work in the Holy Spirit as well too.

Make sense?

All right.

All right, today, today, you get that as an apology from your pastor.

There you go.

Today we have the Stairway to Heaven.

Stairway to Heaven.

And so now we're going to break into this song, right?

Yeah?

So, maybe we should just play the song.

As I was trying to come up with a title for this and I had Stairway to Heaven, all I could think about is Tom Riccio because Tom is like the goofiest ones of all the rock names and

rock bands and everything.

If you ever get into a, what is those contests where they have where you have to know all this trivia stuff.

Yeah, Tom would probably win.

Okay?

But we're going to be in chapter 28, 28 of Genesis.

Say again?

No, okay, yeah.

We'll get to that in a second as well too.

That's Casey's best Stairway.

Casey came up with a really good Stairway.

I liked it.

They're making fun of your Stairway, Casey.

I gave her a hard time because I said, man, all the PowerPoints lately have been really, really boring, Casey.

So she said, I just tried to jazz it up.

And so now Rob says it's not a Stairway to Heaven, it's an Escalator to Heaven.

So there you go.

So the Escalator to Heaven, there we go.

We knew that Led Zeppelin had it wrong all along, right?

All right.

But as we get into chapter 28, man, we digress, don't we?

As we get into chapter 28, okay, you know, there's something that I learned as a Christian

early on in my Christian walk.

And it's one of the hardest concepts to do.

Godly life. You know, um, I remember growing up, my dad had lessons that he taught me. You need to make sure that get a job, earn a living, make your own way, make sure that you don't have to depend on somebody, you know, all these things put, putting these things out before me, you know, these are the things that you needed to know. Um, I remember as a young, a younger boy or younger man, I should say, some of you might, might remember this, but there was an old commercial by Smith Barney.

It was a, an investment firm and they had this British bloke on there, this old guy. He says, Smith Barney, they make money the old fashioned way. They earn it. Remember that? They earn it. Some of you look at me like I lost my mind, but some of you know what I'm talking about, that they earn it.

And so, um, you know, a lot of us, we have that in the mindset when it comes to God's grace and the things of the Lord that we got to earn it.

But see here, here's the problem. You can't earn it. You can't earn it because God is perfect and he doesn't need anything from you.

He doesn't need a thing from you. And so this whole concept of earning something from God is very misleading and it makes zero sense.

And that's where grace comes in. Grace is God bestowing freely his favor toward the most undeserving people.

And you be one and I be one of these most undeserving people.

And also one of them is going to be Jacob that we're going to see this morning.

Now, Jacob as a human being, okay, was not particularly, particularly spiritual. All right.

Um, he did understand the value of a spiritual blessing, um, in the home and that's why he connived and he deceived to get it.

But he's not really particularly, especially at this point, he's not really a spiritual person.

Um, and he didn't go about getting spiritual things the right way.

We talked about that a few weeks ago as well, too.

In fact, there's no record whatsoever of Jacob ever praying up to this point, up to this point.

We have a record of Abraham praying. We have a record of Isaac praying.

He was out in the field praying for his wife as she's coming in.

But we have no record of any kind of, of, uh, Jacob praying, um, or any, anything that, that, uh, God got him doing really anything really spiritual up to this point.

But we see, by God's grace, this man's about to change.

Jacob is about to change.

Now, remember, Jacob was, Jacob was a homeboy, okay?

Not like he's your homeboy, okay?

You know, he was the, he was the homeboy.

He wanted to stay in the tent and cook with mama, okay?

That's why mama liked him.

He watched the Martha Stewart reruns with mom all the time.

But now he's on the run.

He's on the run and he's on a journey.

He's 500 miles away from home.

He's, he's, he's gone out there.

Um, he's going to the place of his ancestors and he's, he's going to meet up with some of his relatives.

And on the way, God has got some lessons he's going to show him.

And you remember the last time we met, when we talked about this, his mom says, hey, quick, you need to get out of here.

Go on the run.

Get out of here and, and go for a little while until Esau forgets what you've done, okay?

And when Esau forgets, then you can come back like Esau's going to forget.

I'll use, you snag my birthright.

You robbed me of these things.

Slip my mind.

I know you did last week, but I'm over it.

So, um, he says at beginning, so at the, uh, beginning of chapter 28, he leaves and the tent door kind of shuts.

And those few days go away for a few days becomes 20 years, 20 years.

In which his mom's going to die.

She will never, ever see her favorite son again.

He will never see his mom alive again.

But there's a good thing here.

And, and this is why it applies to us is because Jacob is a work in progress.

He is a work in progress.

It's like saying, you know, man, that guy's a piece of work.

You know what?

Jacob is God's workmanship.

Jacob is, is, is God's work in progress.

And, you know, if we're honest, all of us here this morning, me included, we can all stand up and say, I'm a work in progress.

I am absolutely a work in progress.

But Jacob goes wife hunting, wife hunting.

Let's tackle the first nine verses here.

Then.

May they become a company of peoples. May he give may he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham. Thus, Jacob, I'm sorry, Isaac sent Jacob away. And he went to Pata Aram, to Laban, to the son of Bethuel, the Armenian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.

Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Pata Aram to take a wife from there. And that as he blessed him, he directed him, you must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. And Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Pata Aram.

So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac, his father, Esau, went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives that he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Neboath.

Okay, so why is this important? Why are they letting us know this? I think simply to let us know that Esau is still perhaps wanting to get that blessing back.

I'm trying to find a way to regain that. I've lost the blessing. And so now he goes to marry somebody from his own family, one of the daughters of Ishmael,

because he realizes that's what dad wanted. And he's got a really warped way of thinking right here.

I'm going to do evil that good may come. And that evil I'm talking about is he's continuing to multiply wives.

He's multiplying wives. He already married two, not one, but two Canaanite women.

And he thought, well, maybe if I can add to my collection and I'll just put in there one of the women that dad wants from our family, I'll get that blessing back.

I'll get him to bless me. But it never happens. And that becomes a little bit of intrigue to a little bit of the backstory of what's going on here.

Verse 10, Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.

And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set, taking one of the stones of the place and put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.

So the place that he's in is we'll discover is called Bethel. OK, and that's the name that he's going to give it.

And we'll see that in a few names, a few minutes. But it's ancient Luz. L-U-Z is the name of the town.

And at least that's what it was called during Abraham's time.

And at this passage here, this is where a lot of people will say, well, here's where the Bible contradicts itself.

Because because Jacob comes here and the town's called Luz, but he gives it the name of Bethel.

But early on, if you remember, back in chapter 12, Abraham comes and he makes a sacrifice in the scripture.

Moses writes, being led of the Holy Spirit, he said he calls the same place.

He calls it what? Bethel. So a lot of people say, see, the Bible has all these.

No, that's not what it is. What is happening here is they write Bethel back then,

because if they would have written Luz back then, Jacob had already given it into the new name Luz as Bethel.

They would never have known what he was referring to.

So that's why early on they call it Bethel, even though back then it was still called Luz.

Now, I know that you've been like really burdened with that.

Most of you needed to know that information.

So there you go.

But now you have a way to explain where they say there's contradictions in the scripture, and there's not.

But this means that he's about 12 miles to the north of Jerusalem.

And so it means that also on his first day he had to travel maybe 40, 50 miles.

That's a lot when you're hoofing it, okay?

That's a good journey.

It's a long day's journey.

And he's fleeing, okay?

And he's running away.

He's running away, and he's got to be filled with a lot of emotions.

Don't lose sight of this.

All these questions that may be, you know, that are going through his mind.

Remember, he's at least 77 years old, and he's always lived at home.

He's home.

He's been at home, you know?

At some point, mom and dad said, love you, but get out, you know?

But he's always been at home.

And he's probably thinking thoughts like he's out there, will I ever see my mom and dad again?

Will Esau find me out here in the wilderness and kill me?

Will he take my life out here?

You know, I'm out here in the wilderness.

Where is God in all of this?

and you're new, and there at night, it's extra dark, isn't it? It's extra dark. And every little sound, every little sound, like my little girl Caroline says, what's that? What's that, Daddy? What's that? And so every little sound, man, you hear it, and so he's got a rock for a pillow, okay? Somebody once said, you know, a long journey, an uneasy conscious, and a hard pillow. That's the stuff crazy dreams are made of, right there.

So we have, and he's going to have a dream, all right? He's about to have a dream, but it turns out to be a revelation from God. Now, Bethel is a beautiful spot. It's sort of the heartland of Jerusalem, okay? It's beautiful. It's in the Jerusalem mountain range. It's beautiful, but it's very rocky. It's very barren. Very barren.

And so there is, that'd be the last place that you would expect God to hang out, okay? Especially during this time, especially during this age.

And he lays down, he puts his head down and says, probably looking up at the skies, looking up at the sky up there, and it's so dark.

And you know, there's no light pollution in there. They don't have the city lights and everything.

So the sky has to be super dark, and the stars just have to be just beautiful. Think about that.

That's one of the things I love about, you ever go camping? At nighttime, you look at the skies?

We used to love that about camping. When I lived in South Dakota, me and my friends, we would just take our sleeping bags

and go sleep in your buddy's backyard. You know, you didn't have to have a tent or anything.

I just, we had Aurora Borealis then. It's just, it's so, it's so magnanimous. Just the, just the stars when you look up.

And I remember even as a little boy, when I was reading through some of these scriptures, and I would look up at the sky at night,

I would think, man, that's the same sky that Jacob looked at. You know, think about that.

The constellations haven't moved all over the place. It's all still there. It's the same sky.

And I always wonder what kind of thoughts maybe went through his mind.

And I don't know about you, but, you know, when I look up at the galaxy that we live in, what's the galaxy we live in called?

Thank you very much. Terry, you're the man, man. You're the man.

The Milky Way galaxy. You think about that. What's one of the first thoughts that come to your mind?

Vast. It's huge. It's huge. Right?

Right? 10,000 light years by 100,000 light years.

Light years. That's riding at the speed of light.

Okay? It would take you 10,000 years by 100,000 years to get through the Milky Way.

That's just massive.

And in that, we're told that there are 10 billion stars in our galaxy.

Now, I haven't counted them, but I believe what they tell me.

There are 10 billion stars just in it.

And we're also told that there are also, I'm sorry, 100 billion stars.

100 billion other galaxies other than our galaxy.

Now, that's vast, isn't it?

And the Bible tells me that God spans the universe or measures the universe, not just our galaxy, but the universe in what?

The span of His hand.

The span of His hand. That's huge.

And so, when I think of that, and I look at the vastness of the sky, and I think about that, I think about power.

I don't think of intimacy.

You understand what I'm getting at here?

You know, that if I'm thinking of God in this whole universe, and I'm just a speck in this whole thing, I don't really think about intimacy.

You know, I think about an all-powerful God, and there's some distance there.

It's so remote, and I have a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that God wants to be friendly with me, and wants an intimate relationship with me.

And He measures, He measures the universe like that.

And now, Jacob looks up at the sky.

He has to, he has to have some of these thoughts.

Wow!

How is God concerned with me here in Beersheba, in Haran, going to Haran?

I'm just a speck.

You ever feel like that in your life?

Man, I've got so much going on, but my whole world's spinning out of control.

Surely, God can't be concerned with just little old...

In Brunswick, Georgia, if I was living in Atlanta, He might care.

If I was in L.A., He might care.

But I'm in, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in the wick.

I mean, God didn't even like the wick, because He lets it smell so bad, you know?

The Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, and the land in which you lie, I will give to you and your offspring.

Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.

And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

So, you know, Jacob has to be looking up at the sky, and it's so vast, it's so this, it's so that.

You know, I always think of King David in the Psalms, he says, when I consider the heavens and the sun and the moon, and how you've ordained the stars, you know,

and what is man that you are mindful of him?

What is man that you are mindful of him?

But Jacob discovers, when he falls asleep, that God is very, very mindful of him.

He's very mindful of him.

And it's going to shock him, it's going to change him, he will become more spiritual, and praise God for that, he becomes more spiritual.

So, from this episode, you know, dreams are typical.

They say that we dream every night, but you just don't remember your dreams, okay?

Does anybody remember their dreams every night?

You remember your dreams?

Wow, that's crazy.

I don't remember my dreams every night.

Sometimes you have really good dreams, sometimes it's a late night, scattered, smothered, covered, chunked dinner, and you have some really, really bad dreams, okay?

You can blame it on the Waffle House, right?

But this dream is uniquely from the Lord, and it's interesting because he says that he sees a ladder.

And literally, it means a staircase or a stairway, and that was in the original language.

So, Jacob's involved with the original stairway to heaven, okay?

Right here, in this chapter, and it says that he sees God's angels are both ascending, going up, and descending, coming down.

It says, first they're ascending, and it's like that they were from earth, and they're going back up to heaven, and there's other angels coming back down, okay?

So, it's like one shift is over with, they're finished their work, and the next shift is coming back down.

So, obviously, just showing that the whole point of this is that God is involved in the affairs of human beings.

Of his creation.

He's involved in the affairs of us.

He cares about it.

God is involved in what's going on.

And Jacob is thinking, man, I'm in a God-forsaken place.

I've run away from home.

I've deceived my brother.

I've stolen a blessing.

I'm running for my life.

Surely God can't be here.

Surely God's not in this place.

And he gets this wild dream of the angels of God ascending and descending.

But God is very involved in human affairs.

And God gives him a promise.

And we read about the promise.

And what I love here, though, is that when God begins to speak to him in this dream, and it is the Lord.

It's not just some crazy dream.

When he begins to speak to him, God doesn't reprimand him.

He doesn't reprimand him.

You know, what if you or I were the Lord?

And this is the first opportunity we have to speak into Jacob, okay?

This is the first time we know that he's going to be paying attention, okay?

What would we say to Jacob?

And by the way, let me just say that perhaps he got the dream because he wouldn't listen to God any other way.

You know, so I say that because don't think that people are necessarily more spiritual because they get dreams.

Sometimes the most ungodly people in the scriptures get a dream from the Lord.

And so God can't get through any other way in the conscious.

So in the subconscious, he begins to speak to them in a dream.

And so if God can't speak to you in a still, small voice, he may need to amp it up and get your attention in a dream.

So don't necessarily think that you're more spiritual.

You might be less spiritual if you get dreams from the Lord.

Because God can't seem to reach you any other way.

You won't shut down unless you shut up and listen to me while you're awake.

So guess what?

I'm going to scare the fool out of you when you're sleeping.

That's right.

Look what you got yourself into. Now your road is going to be hard and it's going to be long and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But these are words of grace that God gives him. These are words of promise. And he makes three promises that we need to see here this morning. First, he gives him the promise of provision. The promise of provision because he says, I'm going to give the land that you lie on. I'm going to give you that land. It's the same promise that God makes to Abraham. Same promise that he gives to Isaac. And now he makes the same promise.

Same promise to Jacob. The land. I'm going to give you the land. The land that we call Israel today. All right. I've given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. So from a biblical viewpoint, not a military viewpoint, not a political viewpoint, not a recent historical viewpoint, but from a biblical viewpoint, it's really easy to see who the land belongs to over there. You know? Who owns the land? Who has the right? Abraham.

Isaac and the twelve tribes of Jacob, the nation of Israel, the children of Israel. And so this is the promise that God makes him. But he also makes him the promise of his presence. The promise of his presence. Look at verse 15 with me.

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.

So we're told that he thought that he came to a God-forsaken place, and surely God's not here. I'm in the middle of nowhere. A barren wilderness.

And so God's not in here, but he says, I wake up. I wake up, and I absolutely know that God is in this place, and I did not know it.

You know, I mentioned that we all have a hard time with grace. I kind of started off on that.

And so, to be quite honest, when you read this story, though we love this about God, we really do love this about God,

we have a hard time that God is promising a blessing to somebody who's so disobedient.

We have a problem that God provides, pours out such rich grace and such rich blessings on somebody who's so embryonic in his spiritual growth.

If you continue to stay so shallow, okay, I want to share with you, I didn't have a chance to put it up on the board, so I just need you to listen up.

I want to share with you a couple of snippets from a book that really changed my life years and years ago, early on in my Christian journey.

And it's by William R. Newell, and all it is is a verse-by-verse commentary over the book of Romans.

But he's got some things in there, he's got some things in there that were just absolutely earth-shaking for me, and I hope that you can bear witness with this.

First, this section's called A Few Words About Grace.

Okay, now, when I used to meditate on this, it blew my mind, and again, I just want to give you a sampling that helped change my whole perspective.

He writes this, Newell writes this, first of all, he says,

The nature of grace, all right, listen up.

Grace is God acting freely, according to his own nature, as love with no promises, no obligations to fulfill, and acting, of course, righteously in view of the cross.

Grace, therefore, is uncaused in the recipient.

Its cause lies wholly in the giver, that is God.

Grace is always sovereign, not having debts to pay, or fulfilled conditions on man's part to wait for.

It can act toward whom and how it pleases.

It can, and often does, place the worst deservers in the highest of favors.

Grace cannot act where there is ability.

Grace does not help.

It is absolute.

It does all.

There is no, there is, there being no cause in the creature why grace should be shown.

The creature must be brought off from trying to give cause to God for his grace.

Anyway, skip down just a little bit, and Newell continues to write in the section that says,

The place of man under grace.

It says, He has been accepted by Christ, who is his standing.

He is not on probation.

To be loved while unworthy is the great secret. You know what I mean? Did you get that? To consent to be loved by God while unworthy. So few people get that. It is so important. And here is another one. To refuse to make resolutions and vows for that is to trust in the flesh. If you think you have to make resolutions and vows for God's grace, you are trusting in your flesh. And finally, to expect to be blessed, though realizing more and more.

Lack of worth. Lack of worth. I mean, when was the last time you lived like that? I expect to be blessed. I expect to be blessed just because that's who God is. You didn't earn it. God said he's going to bless me. He'd be faithful to me.

And here's a couple other things, and here's a couple other things, and I'll quit. Things which gracious souls discover.

To hope to be better is to fail to see yourself in Christ only. How many times have you said, oh, I'm going to do better. Oh, Lord, I'll do better.

That's to fail to fail to see yourself in Christ. To be disappointed with yourself is to have believed in yourself.

So real devotion to God arises not from man's will to show it, but from the discovery that blessing has been received from God while we were yet unworthy and undevoted.

And the final sentence is this. To preach devotion first and blessing second is to reverse God's order.

It's to preach the law and not grace. The law made the blessing dependent upon devotion.

God's grace confers undeserved, unconditional blessing.

Our devotion may follow, but does not always do so in proper measure.

Newell. Go to Newell. Read the book. It'll change your life.

As I said, these things really just rocked my world at an early age.

And I see it in Jacob. I see it in Jacob.

And I remember the night that it just resounded with me.

And I was like, yes, Lord, yes, you blessed me not because of who I am.

You blessed me because of who you are.

It's your nature. You love me.

God's God. That's why God's going to pour his grace out on Jacob because it says,

Esau, I have hated. Jacob, I what? I loved.

And we're not going to unfold that whole hate love thing again.

We did that a few weeks ago. Go on the podcast. You can find it again.

OK, there we go. We're running out of time.

Verse 16.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.

And notice in the wording, he didn't say, Surely the Lord was in this place last night.

That's not what he says.

I know the Lord is in this place right now.

I didn't know it.

I've been there before.

Man, I've been so busy with church stuff,

been so busy with making sure an order of worship goes on as it's supposed to,

that I just forgot to notice God is in this place right now.

He doesn't need me to come up here and stir up the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is already moving in the hearts of the people right now.

He doesn't need me to come up here and recite 17 verses from my knowledge,

that I can remember and expose to you.

God is in this place right now.

I felt him this morning.

He put me on my knees this morning.

Amen.

Verse 17.

And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place?

There is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

So early in the morning, Jacob took a stone that he had put under his head

and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

So it's a commemoration stone.

He's worshiping by commemorating something.

This is very typical.

And again, you go back to chapter 12.

This is where Abraham, he built an altar right here in the same place.

He built an altar to the Lord.

And then before he goes down to Egypt, and then when he comes back from Egypt,

he comes back to the same place and he worships.

This is a stone of commemoration.

Verse 19.

And he called the name of the place Bethel.

He said, It's not cool.

He said, It's not beautiful.

He wants to go and help to

Now it sounds a little bit like he's bargaining, doesn't it, with God? You know, if God does this for me, then I'll do that for him. It sort of sounds like he's bargaining, and to be honest with you, that's kind of been his M.O. You know, he has bargained, he has deceived, he's done all these things, so we can kind of maybe see that, but often, and in modern translations, it will sometimes correct

this, and very often the word if, is translated since, okay? If is translated since, and that's how I prefer to see it, me personally. Many of the modern translations show us that it says, since God is going to do this, therefore, I will do that.

And so it's a response to God's favor, it's not a condition. God, if you will do, it's not, God, if you do this for me, then I'll get really, really religious. That's not what he's getting at, okay?

But since God has made these promises, he's done this, and I know this, therefore, I'm going to keep it.

You know, one of the most important things that we have to recognize is that our speech, our speech to God, whether it's spoken or unspoken, okay?

And by the way, God knows all the spoken and unspoken, but our speech to God betrays our true theology.

It betrays our true theology. If you want to know what people believe, truly believe about God, do not listen to their theology.

Listen to them pray. You listen to them pray. That will reveal to you their true theology of who God is, who God is in their lives.

Let's draw this up. Verse 22.

And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God's house, and all that you give me, I will give a full tenth.

So he's worshipped by commemorating, he worshipped by committing himself, and now he's worshipping by contributing.

It's fascinating to me that he says, I'm going to give a tenth.

This is way before the law has ever been put into place.

But he's saying, I know this is all God's.

God gave it to me, so I'm going to give back to him.

He's realized that this is from the Lord, and he voluntarily does this.

And before the law was ever written, before the children of Israel gave a tenth.

And it's a tenth of everything, three times a year, by the way.

So they really gave 30% if you really want to give.

And this is no message on giving, okay?

I'm just telling you, that's what the word lays out before us, okay?

But he voluntarily does this way before the law is ever given.

So there's obviously a movement on Jacob.

But listen to me.

This story is not about Jacob.

It's about the fact that we need a stairway to heaven.

We need a stairway to heaven, and we have one.

We have one.

Turn with me to the Gospel of John.

We'll close this out.

Chapter 1, John 1.

Beginning in verse 43,

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee.

He found Philip and said to him,

Follow me.

Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

Philip found Nathanael and said to him,

We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote,

Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Nathanael said to him,

Can anything good come from Nazareth?

Philip said to him,

Come and see.

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,

Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit.

Nathanael said to him,

How do you know me?

Jesus answered him,

And before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree,

I saw you.

Nathanael answered him,

Rabbi, you are the son of God.

You are the king of Israel.

Jesus answered him,

Because I said to you,

I saw you under the fig tree.

Do you believe me?

You will see greater things than these.

And he said to him,

Truly, truly,

I say to you,

You will see heaven open

and the angels of God

ascending and descending

on the Son of Man.

You will see the angels of God

descending on the Son of Man. We are not saved because of the ladder, the staircase that Jacob

saw. We are saved because of the staircase that Nathaniel saw. That's why we are saved.

Jesus says Himself, I am the gateway to heaven. I am the way to salvation.

He's going to say further on in this very gospel right here

I am the way I am the truth and I'm the life and no man comes to the father

But by me I am the true

Stairway to heaven and as you look to me you will see the angels of god

Ascending and descending on the son of man

So when we read genesis 28 about a staircase to heaven that jacob saw we read about the staircase that john saw

That's the staircase to heaven. That's the stairway to heaven in which we are saved

That's why jesus refers back to this. That's why he does this. He says I am the ladder

I am the ladder. I am the stairway. I am the gateway. I am the link. I am the mediator

I am the mediator

If you want to know god in any capacity at all you must come through me and I will take you to him

I will take you to him

That's what this passage is showing us

Man interestingly enough

I was

I grew up a child of the 70s

That shows you how old I am. There you go a child of the 70s and is a child of the 70s

I heard about I heard all about another stairway to heaven

Led zeppelin sang about it

And it was real popular back then and many of you who are younger right now

You think you found the newest thing since you found the stairway to heaven. Let me tell you it's been around a long time. Okay

Long long time

There's a lady who's sure

All that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven, right?

When she gets there she knows that the stores are all closed with the word she can get what she came for

She is buying a stairway to heaven

I don't know if I really put two and two together back then and I don't know if zeppelin ever put two and two back together back then

And really understood where they got that phrase that terminology

Many many people hum the tune to that song the stairway to heaven not knowing that they need a stairway to heaven

And here's the truth. We come back around to the good. It cannot be bought

It can't be bought

It cannot be bought

There is a stairway to heaven

His name is Jesus Christ

Can anything good come from nazareth the messiah

The chosen one

The chosen one who is the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father, but by him

We've talked a lot about the foreshadowing in genesis

This is the reason why we're going through the book of genesis guys. It is so rich

It is so rich

Jesus referred back to genesis more than anything else

There's a reason there's a reason

you know

And we're going to read on that

You know that during the years that the jacob's going to work for for laban man

He endures a ton of trials

Both as a shepherd and both as a husband of four women

Come on, man

Somebody somebody speak to that brother, you know

And father of tons of kids

But you know what the thing that kept him going was his faith in the promises of god

He learned this night that he can trust in the promises of god just as

Luann is talking about trusting in the word of god being spoken over her

God promises to be with him and jacob depended on that

And the lord didn't fail him

And I want to tell you this morning that no matter what you're going through as well. The lord will not fail you either

You can trust in the promises of god

I'm gonna have the worship team come up and we're going to close out with this i'm going to read this

And as I prepare to read this I just want to just encourage you that

If you have never really trusted and seen the need to put your trust

I want to say oh

in the stairway to heaven named Jesus boy I sure would just love to talk to you about that what that really means to to to make that declaration of faith and to trust in him I sure would love to be able to spend that time with you and talk about that but for those of us

those of us today you know I couldn't help I couldn't help but think and remember as as a worship team was playing this morning

that um and I've shared this story a few times here

that I believe true revival broke out years ago a a form of true revival in the Lord broke out years ago

at a church in Pensacola, Florida

in Brownsville

I believe that there's some things that went on there that were not of the Lord but I also

I also also experienced firsthand some things that just

were just undeniable to God

and the whole and that revival went on I believe it was for seven years

and it started off with just a few extra services on Sunday to Saturday and Sunday services to where

at a point they were doing services on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

people began to stand in line and wait

you had to wait to get into the place only held maybe you know a little over a thousand people in there

and if you didn't make it then you get to the overflow room and you experience the service on the big screen

and maybe some of you went down there during that time as I did a couple of times and just really experienced that

but I share that with you because

the whole thing started when a little girl

a little girl

came forward on Father's Day

and she had been praying for her dad

to really surrender his life to the Lord

and she came forward during the worship set and just began to pray

and hearts began to be broken

as they found out

just the

the meaning behind what she was doing

and Dad eventually came and gave his life to the Lord

and it was just

it was just so glorious

and I couldn't help but to

to sense this morning

as our worship team was leading us

that God was trying to do something with us this morning

and I'm not looking for any

I'm not looking for anything outside of what God ever wants to do

but you know what

many of us

many of us in this room

need to be reminded

that God is very very involved in your affairs

he cares deeply about what goes on in your life and your world

and the angels of the Lord continue to ascend and descend

to minister to you

and I just want to just encourage you today

to trust

to trust in the stairway

his name is Jesus

trust in the stairway

he will not fail you

he will not leave you an orphan

amen

for God is our refuge and strength

the very present help in trouble

therefore we will not fear

though the earth gives way

and though the mountains be moved

in the heart of the sea

though its waters roar and foam

though the mountains tremble

at its swelling

there is a river whose streams

make glad the city of God

the holy habitation of the most high

God is in the midst of her

and she shall not be moved

God will help her with

morning dawns

the nations rage

kingdoms totter

he utters his voice

and the earth melts

the Lord of hosts

is with us

the God of Jacob

is our fortress

the God of Jacob

is our fortress

be still and know that I am God

the God of Jacob

around the world we may celebrate father's day this this Sunday morning we say we thank you that you are a good good father that's who you are you are a good good father Lord I just couldn't I just couldn't help but be overwhelmed this morning Lord God just thinking of how you have all that you have brought me from and rescued me from and the things that I have twisted and tried to change and manipulate and even throwing your

your name behind your name behind it God you still pour out your grace you are still so gracious we will not lose sight of that your gracious love in our lives your gracious hand in our lives

the declaration that we make today is that the God of Jacob is with us and he is our fortress and if you are for us Lord who can be against us

who can be against us

we give thanks and praise this day for the beautiful ladder the beautiful stairway whose name is Jesus Christ all God's people said together

Amen

Jesus we love you

I won't

we love you Jesus thank you my heart

For all that tonight we will

For our love will still be

Our answer to all

We love you

Oh, how we love you

We love you

Our answer to all

Jesus, we love you

Oh, how we love you

You are the one

Oh, how we love you

Jesus, Jesus

Lord, I love you

Oh, how we love you

Lord, I love you

Jesus, Jesus

Oh, how we love you

I love you

Oh, how we love you

Jesus, Jesus

Oh, how we love you

Jesus, we love you.

Oh, how we love you.

Oh, I love you.

I love you.

In love of Jesus, our affection, our devotion, Lord, I will love you.

But I'll have you, I'll be the one who I want

I'll be the one who I want

Jesus, Jesus, we love you

Oh, I'll be the one who I want

I'll be the one who I want

We love you

Oh, I'll be the one who I want

I'm not going to lie down, but I could go.

I could go.

that your presence would not leave us throughout the week.

You would show us every opportunity that we have to love on other people.

Father, we don't want to miss an opportunity to share this with the world around us.

Father, we love you and we thank you. It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.

Father, we pray. Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

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And now I can breathe

I was a dead man walking

Until I was a man walking with you

I was a blind man falling

Until I found the light

You're calling me too

Pulling me out of the darkness

And pulling me out of the light

Pulling the beat in my heart again

I was a dead man walking

Until you left this day

Man walking back to life

I look for the words but cannot explain

A new kind of love right into my veins

You are the key to all of my chains

To all I was, now I'm not a slave

And you rescued me

And now I can breathe

I was a dead man walking

Until I was a man walking with you

I was a blind man falling

Until I found the light

You're calling me too

Pulling me out of the darkness

Pulling me out of the light

Pulling the beat in my heart again

I was a dead man walking

Until you left this day

Man walking back to life

I have tasted and I've seen

The wonders of your heart

And I do not deserve a thing

But that's just who you are

I was a dead man walking

Until I was a man walking with you

I was a blind man falling

Genesis 28:1-22

Scripture

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