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[0:00] Our scripture reading this morning will be taken from Genesis 27, 41 to 46 and Genesis 28 verses 1 through 22.

[0:21] The days of mourning for my father are approaching, then I will kill my brother Jacob.

[0:35] But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob, her younger son, and said to him, Behold, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you.

[0:50] Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, arise, flee to Laban, my brother in Haran, and stay with him a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him.

[1:08] Then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I be bereft of you both in one day? Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite women.

[1:20] If Jacob marries one of the Hittite women like these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me? Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him.

[1:35] You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women. Arise and go to Paddan Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take as your wife from there, one of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.

[1:54] God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 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.

[2:13] Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Paddan Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob and Esau's mother.

[2:24] Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Paddan Aram, to take a wife from there, and that as he had blessed him, he directed him, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother and gone to Paddan Aram.

[2:44] 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 he had, Mahalith, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebaoth.

[3:02] 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, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.

[3:17] And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac.

[3:35] The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.

[3:47] And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.

[3:58] 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.

[4:11] And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.

[4:27] He called the name of that place Bethel, But the name of the city was Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

[4:50] And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a tenth to you.

[5:01] Here ends the scripture reading. Thank you very much, David.

[5:17] Do you bow in prayer with me? Heavenly Father, we are so grateful this morning that we are able to gather in this place to sing to your name, and then, Lord, to be addressed from your word.

[5:41] And, Lord, we pray this morning that you would use these ancient words and you would transform our lives. Would you speak to our hearts, Lord, in ways that we need to hear from you collectively and individually.

[6:00] And, Father, we pray that your name and your name alone will be exalted and glorified in all that is said and done.

[6:10] I ask, Lord, that you would anoint me by your spirit, that you would enable me to be faithful to your word and profitable to your people.

[6:22] We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. When we consider this passage that we have come to this morning in light of the passage from last week, and we compare the two, I don't know about you, but when I do that, my response simply is, wow.

[6:49] What a dramatic turn of events from last week to this week and the passage before us.

[7:03] The section is filled with some surprising promises. we see in verse 27 of verse 20, verse 41 of chapter 27 that Esau is mulling over in his heart the fact that his brother stole his blessing and he's angry and he is determined that when his father dies, he's going to, he's going to kill his brother.

[7:35] But it's a promise that he doesn't get to fulfill. We see Rebecca in verses 42 to 45. Aware of Esau's murderous intent, somehow he uttered it loud enough that others would hear it and it came to her.

[7:54] And she tells Jacob he needs to flee to her brother's house, Laban in Haran until Esau's anger subsides. And she promises him, she says to him, when his anger subdues, I will send for you and bring you back to this place.

[8:15] It's a promise that she doesn't get to fulfill because as we later learn, Jacob spent 20 years there and different circumstances brought him back.

[8:26] He didn't come back because she brought him back. He came back because the Lord brought him back. And not only that, when he came back, Rebecca was dead. In verse 46, we see Rebecca coming up with another scheme.

[8:42] She doesn't want Isaac to know that she was involved in this deception that Jacob inflicted upon him. and she needs a way to get Jacob out of the reach of his brother's murderous intent.

[9:01] And so she says to Jacob, if one of these Hittite women, if she says to Esau, to Isaac, sorry, if one of these Hittite women were to marry Jacob, my life would not be worth living.

[9:15] And so Jacob, Esau, I'm sorry, being a very good husband, we see him hearing his wife's voice in verses one to five. And he sends Jacob away.

[9:28] He sends him away to Laban. He blesses him. But Isaac does not make any promises, at least any personal promises to Jacob.

[9:41] He utters the promises of Abraham over him. He pronounces the words that God had initially pronounced to Abraham and that God pronounced to him and he pronounces those over Jacob and clearly he is to the place where he is accepting that it is Jacob through whom God is going to continue the blessings of Abraham and not Esau whom he was determined to bless.

[10:12] And so Jacob is sent away to Laban's house under the guise of looking for a wife but he was actually in truth running in fear of his own life.

[10:26] In verses 6 to 9 which seems parenthetical but I think it's worthy to look at we see Esau's response to Jacob being sent away to Laban's house to look for a wife.

[10:41] We read in verse 8 that it was at this point that Esau realizes that his father is displeased with Canaanite women.

[10:53] Now this is pretty startling because we remember that Esau got married when he was 40 years old. He took two Canaanite wives and at this particular point he is 71 years old and that's based on just doing the internal math from the data that's there he is 71 years old so both he and Jacob are 71 years old and so 31 years went by and Jacob did not and Esau I'm sorry did not know that his father Isaac was displeased with Canaanite women.

[11:33] And it's very difficult to know what was in Esau's mind but he goes out and rather than seeing the point that his brother is being sent to his mother's brother he goes to his uncle he goes to Ishmael the other side of the family the side of the family that was outside of the covenant and he gets a wife from there just another wife and who knows why he did that but one thing is very clear is that Esau is walking in darkness one thing that's very clear is that Esau is doing his own thing he's going his own way and for whatever reason that is we're not told in scripture but for God's own sovereign reasons God leaves him to himself but we don't see that with Jacob we come to the final section of this chapter in chapter 28 and in verses 10 to 22 what we see is some surprising promises that God makes to

[12:51] Jacob and that Jacob makes to God and when we think about this and we contrast it to what's happening with Esau we can't do anything other than worship a sovereign God who does as he pleases two twins God lets one go his own way and do his own thing and another one God is relentless and determined that he will have his way with and so this morning I want us to take the remainder of our time and I want us to consider these verses 10 to 22 in which we find these surprising promises from God to Jacob and from Jacob to God and so I have two very simple points this morning and we'll be done number one God's promises to

[13:51] Jacob and number two Jacob's promises to God and what I hope that we see this morning I hope that we see this morning that God's promises to his people are rooted in his faithfulness not theirs and brothers and sisters when we realize that we are not faithful even if we're faithful to 99% we cannot say that we are faithful period and when it comes to God what he requires is 100% faithfulness and I believe that what we should see I pray that we will see is that God's promises to his people are rooted in his faithfulness and not ours because if they were rooted in our faithfulness they would never come to pass and so first let's consider

[14:54] God's promise to Jacob in verses 10 to 15 we read in verse 10 that Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran now it's easy to really miss a lot that's going on in that sentence it's easy to miss the heavy burden that Jacob would have been under as he trekked from the known to the unknown as he trekked from what was certain to what was uncertain as he was leaving under the real threat of his angry brother who wanted to kill him Jacob was leaving everything that was familiar to him his family the land he was even leaving the birthright that he schemed to get that he ruthless he said to his brother if you want some of this food sell me your birthright he was leaving that behind as well because that would only come to him upon his father's death and here he is going to this unknown location he probably had very little with him maybe just the clothes on his back maybe a little provision of food and he is in quite difficult circumstances look at verse 11 it says and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set taking one of the stones of that place he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep you may recall that all that

[16:41] Abraham had the substantial wealth that Abraham had he gave to Isaac he sent away his other sons with gifts but he gave his substantial wealth to Isaac and so both Esau and Jacob were from wealthy families he would have had an abundance of wealth but here he is now on his way he has very little with him he is sleeping almost like an animal laying on the ground and for a pillow he takes a hard rock and puts it under his head as I read that I thought about something my mother used to say to us all the time she used to say you make your bed up hard you lay down hard and we have heard that as well but this was the bed that Jacob made up he's deceived his father he's cheated his brother and now he has to run for his life and he is in a very difficult place

[17:52] I think the picture of him laying on the ground with a stone behind his head communicates to us the difficulty that he found himself in but that night something unusual happened something Jacob did not expect something that was the furthest thing from his mind God visited him God visited him in a dream and Jacob saw a ladder that stretched from earth to heaven and there were angels ascending and descending on the ladder and above the ladder there was God and God was speaking and God spoke to Jacob and listen to what the Lord spoke to Jacob again look at starting in verse 13 and behold the Lord stood above it and said I am the Lord I am Yahweh the God of Abraham your father and the

[18:53] God of Isaac the land on which you lie I will give 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 and to the north and to the south and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised to you I don't know if you could recall in your own life maybe when you were younger a child and you did something that you knew was wrong and you saw maybe your mother your father or your teacher you saw somebody coming who knew what you did but somehow and you were just bracing yourself for it bracing yourself for what they're going to do or say and they don't do what you expect

[20:02] I had many occasions like that where at least I thought my father had forgotten but he didn't forget he just was getting on to something else and then he remembered and he dealt with me so this isn't the exact same thing but sometimes you just get what you don't expect I think that's what was happening to Jacob right here and it's really easy to miss the significance of God appearing to Jacob at this point in his life first of all this is the first time that the Lord has appeared to him this is the very first time in 71 years and here is a man whom God chose before he was born he chose him to be the one through whom the blessing of Abraham would continue and 71 years goes by and God does not appear to him but God appears to him at this very difficult point in his life he comes to him just as he went to Abraham just as he went to Isaac and God appears to him and he recites the same promises to Jacob that he promised to Abraham and to

[21:24] Isaac and so really what is happening here is the God from whom nothing is hid the God who knows all and sees all the God who's aware of everything about Jacob cheating his brother deceiving his father God appears to him and God proceeds to pronounce upon him the blessings of Abraham it was one thing when Isaac did this a little earlier in the chapter when Isaac pronounced these blessings of Abraham upon him but now God himself comes and God pronounces these blessings upon Jacob and that's not all God assures this scheming and cheating and deceiving man that he was going to be with him wherever he went he was going to bring him back to the land of

[22:27] Canaan and God promised Jacob that he would not leave him until he had fulfilled everything that he had promised these are surprising promises to Jacob one would have thought that Jacob and all the distress that he was under would do like so many people do and cry out to God but he didn't instead he laid on the ground put a rock under his head and he went to sleep no thought for God the Lord is the one who came to Jacob now the other way around Jacob didn't go pleading to the Lord God help me my brother wants to kill me help me I'm going into this land I don't know what I'm going to meet there help me none of that the Lord is the one who came to

[23:29] Jacob and first committed himself to Jacob and again it is not the other way around and brothers and sisters this is an important pattern that we need to see we need to grasp we need to recognize that this is the pattern of scripture God always seeks us out first indeed the Bible teaches that our condition is such that all of Adam's fallen race are dead in trespasses and sins and therefore we cannot come to him and therefore left to ourselves we will not go to him we saw this back in Genesis 12 with sorry in Genesis 3 with Adam and Eve when they sinned what did they do they ran and hid from God God was the one who came and said where are you we saw this in Genesis 12 with Abraham he was in

[24:30] Ur of the Chaldeans worshipping the moon God comes to him and God calls him out of that and tells him that he is going to send him to a land that he is going to show him and what we see is this is God's gracious divine initiative scheming deceiving Jacob didn't deserve such grace from God he deserved rebuke he deserved correction he deserved punishment God comes to him and God gives him these gracious promises and why did God do it because God is gracious and because God determined to set his love and affection and goodness on this man who did not deserve it Jacob was an undeserving recipient of the grace of God and this is always the case brothers and sisters this is always the case with all of Adam's fallen race for those of us who belong to Christ this morning this is a picture of our story this is a picture of our lives we didn't go looking for God we didn't go calling out for

[25:50] God but God came to us he came to us in our sin he came to us in our lostness he came to us in our undeservedness he came to us in our difficulty just as he went to Jacob and not only that he committed himself to us unconditionally just as he did to Jacob and this brothers and sisters is a truth we shouldn't pass over quickly we shouldn't pass it over quickly and especially if we're not in a difficult place this is the time that we want to ponder and we want to meditate on this amazing truth so as I mentioned already Jacob is 71 years old at this point in his life we know from Genesis 25 that the Lord chose him over his brother Esau that he would be the one through whom the promises of Abraham would continue and yet

[26:55] God is choosing this very difficult season of his life to appear to him and I think one of the reasons that the Lord does that see we we read into things what we shouldn't read into things so easily perhaps if God had come to him in his maybe early childhood before all the difficulties came his way and maybe his personality came out we may be tempted to think that okay God went to him maybe because he was in a good place no but we see that God came to him in a dark place in a hard place and that should encourage us brothers and sisters but even in our darkness even in our difficulty God sees us God knows us and God comes to us no sin no darkness is too great for God to come to us notice again the last words of the

[28:03] Lord to Jacob in verse 15 the last sentence in verse 15 he says to Jacob for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you the promises that God makes to Jacob are unconditional they are without condition never once does he hinge it on Jacob's response or Jacob's doing this or doing that or anything else he simply says to Jacob I will I will I will I will so how does Jacob respond to that how does Jacob respond to these surprising and amazing promises from God well Jacob responded with his own promises which brings me to my second and final point look at

[29:11] Jacob's initial response in verses 16 and 17 then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it and he was afraid and said how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven the first thing we should see is that apart from God's self-revelation Jacob would not have known that God was in that place God reveals himself to us just as he revealed himself to Jacob and Jacob's reaction is consistent with when people encountered the majesty and the awesome presence of the Lord fear fell upon him he was awestruck by God's presence and he realized in the moment that he was in a place where he had access to God and he describes the place as the house of God and the gate of heaven look at how he further responds in verses 18 and 19 so early in the morning

[30:28] Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it he called the name of the place Bethel but the name of the city was Luz at the first so Jacob gets up takes a stone that was under his head pours some oil on it and he says this is the house of God and what should we make of that what should we make of Jacob's actions when he got up well in order to really assess how Jacob responded we really need to look at how Abraham and Isaac responded when God appeared to them first let's look at Abraham's response and it's projected on the screen for you it is in

[31:28] Genesis 12 verses 7 to 8 that's the way Abraham responded when God spoke to him and pronounced those blessings upon him and then we have Isaac's response in chapter 26 in verses 24 to 25 and the Lord appeared to him that same night and said I am the God of Abraham your father fear not for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake and he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there so both

[32:35] Abraham and Isaac built altars to Yahweh who appeared to them but not Jacob in response to God's appearance and if you look at it Jacob's being more affected than Abraham and Isaac worship I mean if you have a vivid imagination you probably could see him skipping around and saying hallelujah and all sorts of other things that this is a wonderful place that this is the house of God but what we see is that Jacob's response was really just very superficial Abraham and Isaac took time to build altars which were places of worship and they were communicating that they were going to worship the true of the living God they were going to serve him Jacob no effort takes the stone that he laid down on puts it there pours some oil on it and says this is the house of God he demonstrates that that encounter with

[33:46] God did not affect his life he was awestruck but there was no change he builds no altar he does not call on the name of the Lord but he's not finished he's not finished he goes on to make a vow to God a vow is a solemn promise with deep conviction that a person is committed to fulfilling look at what he vows to God what he solemnly promises to God starting in verse 20 then Jacob made a vow saying if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace then the Lord shall be my God and this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be

[34:48] God's house and all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you now hopefully you've noticed a very big difference between the promises that God made to Jacob and the promises that Jacob makes to God there's a very big difference between how those promises were made Jacob's promises to God are conditional God's promises to Jacob in verses 13 to 15 are unconditional Jacob's promises begin with the conditional word if Jacob says to God if you will be with me and you will keep me in the way that I go and give me bread to eat and clothes to wear and keep me safe and bring me back to my father's house then if then if you do this then you will be my

[35:49] God and the pillar that I set up will be your house meaning I will come and worship you at this place and not only that I'm a generous man all that you give me of all that you give me I give you 10% back Jacob thinks he is dealing with Esau or with Isaac no he's dealing with the living God he's dealing with the God of the universe Jacob makes these promises to God that are all conditional and he shows that he is not committed to God he doesn't want to serve God he wants God to serve him and if God will serve him the way he wants God to serve him then God will be his God and if not God will not be his

[36:51] God these are surprising promises that Jacob makes to God in light of the promises that God has made to him in light of the unconditional promises that God made to Jacob it is surprising indeed shocking that Jacob would make such conditional self-serving promises to God and it helps us to see the hardness of Jacob's heart the selfishness of his heart and the depth of his sin maybe see the desperate place that Jacob finds himself in the wonderful promises of Abraham that God pronounced upon him those are not even on his mind he's only concerned about survival he just wants food to eat he just wants clothes to wear and he just wants to be protected and be brought back to his father's house he has no concern at this point in his life for the Abrahamic vision that the world will be blessed through him that salvation will come to the nations through him all he wanted was that

[38:04] God would serve him and if God didn't serve him then he wouldn't serve God and sadly much of Jacob's promises to God reads a lot like modern Christianity it reads a lot like what is being proclaimed today from the lips of people in pulpits and in pews that we'll serve God if he blesses us we'll serve God if he does for us whatever we want him to do but if our life meets with trial and suffering if our life meets with financial hardship or sickness or broken marriage or some other life crisis then God will not be our God I remembered one of the first occasions where I saw this

[39:06] I was a young boy in the church I grew up in there was a businessman who was a farmer and he he lost massive amounts of crop because of a hurricane and he turned his back on the Lord and he went to his grave angry and bitter because the Lord allowed a hurricane to devastate his crop and to eradicate much of his wealth but he is not alone there are many who do the same thing and you know what brothers and sisters maybe we are not as bold as that man or as Jacob to say God if you do this for me then I'll do that for you we don't say it with our lips but what about our lives and our attitude and how we relate to the

[40:09] Lord we'll serve him and be fervent in serving him when things are going as we want them to go but when they're not we turn away and we do our own thing and this really is nothing new we remember it with Job when Job lost everything his wife said to him in Job chapter 2 curse God and die why are you holding on to your integrity curse God and die and Job responds the way I pray all of us would respond if adversity comes our way he said you speak as a foolish woman shall we only receive from God what is good and not what is evil recognizing that all that comes our way comes from his sovereign hands and the same

[41:09] God who blesses us sovereignly is the same God who at times for his own reasons allows hardships to come our way and he intends good in the same way when he blesses us as when he brings adversity our way he intends good he does it all for our good and he calls us like Job even without understanding what's going on and we cling to him and we say though he slay me yet I will trust him I pray that this would be the cry of all of our hearts I pray that our way would not be Jacob's way I pray that out of gratitude to a God who commits himself to us unconditionally that we will serve him and we will say God if that's all that you do for me that's enough so how did God answer

[42:17] Jacob it's quite interesting how this encounter ends Jacob has the last word God gives him the last word but God does answer him Jacob didn't realize in the moment that God was answering him but God does answer him God's response to Jacob is the 20 years that he will spend with his uncle Laban in Haran little did Jacob know it was really the Lord who was taking him from Beersheba to go to Haran to be with his uncle Laban God was going to use those 20 years that Jacob would spend with his uncle Laban to humble him and to break him God was going to use Laban as an instrument in his hand to break

[43:21] Jacob to turn him away from his selfishness to turn him away from his deception God was going to use this time not just to change his brother Esau's heart but God was going to use this time to change his own heart and to humble him as well little did Jacob know his uncle Laban was a bigger schemer and deceiver than he was and he was going to go to school about learning what it means to cheat and to deceive he was now going to be on the receiving end and God was going to use all of that in his life and turn him away from the man that he was and when he's leaving Laban's house what we find him doing the first thing we find him doing is building an altar he builds an altar to God and he calls on the

[44:24] Lord because he's a transformed man but it took 20 years and it's a reminder to us of God's patience with his people it's a reminder to us that he who begins a good work in his people is faithful to the to complete it to the day of Jesus Christ no matter how long it takes it should be a reminder to us to be patient with one another sanctification is not a sprint sanctification is a marathon God begins and God is determined to finish thank God that he didn't put conditions on Jacob thank God he didn't put conditions on him to get it right and to be straight in a year or two or three and thank God he doesn't put conditions on us as the basis upon which his promises will be fulfilled he places those conditions on himself and his own faithfulness and he's able to say

[45:38] I will not leave you until I've done these things because he is the one who is able to work in us to will to do what his good pleasure is and he doesn't do it with us dragging and screaming he makes us willing he makes us pliable he works in our hearts the same way he worked in Jacob's heart and Jacob at the end of all of this is a humbled man and a broken man and a man that God was able to call his servant a good question for us to consider as we close this morning is why did God give Jacob this dream of a ladder going up to heaven and angels ascending and descending upon it rather than just pronounce the blessings to him just tell him the way he appeared to

[46:44] Abraham the way he appeared to Isaac why does God give him this dream and he sees this ladder God above it and angels ascending and descending upon it I think as a visual as a picture it helped Jacob to see the distance between him and God it helped him to see this separation between himself and God but in addition to that the words of Jesus in a conversation that he had with Nathanael in John chapter 1 I think gives us some more insight as to why the Lord gave Jacob this vision of this ladder ascending to heaven listen to what it says in

[47:46] John chapter 1 verses 49 to 51 Nathanael answered him answered Jesus 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 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 brothers and sisters the ladder that Jacob saw is the ladder of the grace of God that brings the grace of God to sinners like you and me and that ladder is the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who bridges the gap between sinful man and holy God he is the one who gives access into the presence of God to sinners like you and me and we are not destroyed he is the one who opened heaven whereby we can receive

[49:05] God's transforming grace and we can enjoy his presence and that's possible all because Jesus came and lived and died and made the way open for us he is our access he is our ladder but all who believe in him will be forgiven of their sins and they will be reconciled to God and they will be given the gift of eternal life and brothers and sisters there is no better news to hear there is no better news to hear that sinners like you and me who justly deserve wrath who justly deserve to face the full fury of the wrath of God instead receive mercy and grace through

[50:05] Jesus Christ because God poured it all out upon him and there is none for you or me to absorb and this is true for all who put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and this is nothing short of amazing grace amazing grace to undeserving sinners like you and me amazing grace to people who are just like Jacob who have hard hearts and who want God to serve them instead of him being served I pray for all of us this morning those of us who have already trusted in Jesus Christ I pray that we will serve God for who he is and not for what he does for us doesn't do for us serve him for who he is and if you're here this morning and you don't know

[51:15] Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord I say come to Jesus come to Jesus and you will find a Savior who is quick to pardon all of your sin doesn't matter what the sin is it matters not his grace is more than enough and not just barely getting by grace abundant grace amazing grace the picture of the feeding of the 5,000 when Jesus had the disciples to feed them all and they were all full and there were 12 baskets left over that's a picture of sufficient grace that even after we've all been served there's still an abundance left I pray you'd come to that abundant grace this morning let's pray Father we are so grateful for the grace that has come to us through the

[52:18] Lord Jesus Christ thank you for your promises that are not conditional and thank you for your commitment to finish the work that you've begun in all of your people we thank you this morning that your promises are not dependent upon us but they are dependent upon you and your faithfulness and for this Lord we rejoice!

[52:55] we give you thanks in Jesus name Amen we stand for our closing song unto Thank you.