WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:11.380 Now, if you have a Bible, you can turn with me to Genesis 28 on page 30 in the church Bible, 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:20.339 and we're going to read verse 10 to verse 22. We're going to join the story of Jacob 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:26.839 at this point where he has a dream in a place called Bethel, and we're going to think about 00:00:26.839 --> 00:00:35.519 Jesus being this true stairway to heaven that is captured in this dream. So again, let's hear God's 00:00:35.519 --> 00:00:44.240 Word. Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:50.299 the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay 00:00:50.299 --> 00:00:56.820 down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top 00:00:56.820 --> 00:01:03.340 reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it 00:01:03.340 --> 00:01:09.099 stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:15.140 I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like 00:01:15.140 --> 00:01:20.879 the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the 00:01:20.879 --> 00:01:28.060 south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you, and will 00:01:28.060 --> 00:01:34.739 watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I 00:01:34.739 --> 00:01:41.359 have done what I have promised you. When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, surely the Lord is in 00:01:41.359 --> 00:01:50.599 this place, and I was not aware of it. He was afraid and said, how awesome is this place. This is none other 00:01:50.599 --> 00:01:57.859 than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone he placed 00:01:57.859 --> 00:02:04.739 under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though 00:02:04.739 --> 00:02:11.460 the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will watch 00:02:11.460 --> 00:02:18.240 over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return 00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:24.680 safely to my father's household, then the Lord will be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:32.259 pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will give you a tenth. Amen. 00:02:32.259 --> 00:02:42.699 So I want us to think about this as a journey that is interrupted by God's grace. As we begin, let me 00:02:42.699 --> 00:02:52.439 tell you very briefly another story. There's a man called Olaudah Equiano who wrote the, he described 00:02:52.439 --> 00:03:02.139 it himself as the interesting narrative of his life way back in 1789. So this was a former slave who wrote 00:03:02.139 --> 00:03:11.579 the account of his life to present it to the British government. This was part of a campaign against 00:03:11.579 --> 00:03:22.359 slavery, and he tells the story of being kidnapped as a small child, age of 11, being sold into slavery, 00:03:22.359 --> 00:03:30.739 being transported across Africa, taken from Africa to Barbados, and then to Guernsey, 00:03:30.740 --> 00:03:40.939 and into mainland UK, where he lived for many years as a slave. And his story tells of awful conditions, 00:03:41.180 --> 00:03:53.100 of terrible cruelty, of almost unimaginable suffering, and yet we find him giving thanks, which seems 00:03:53.099 --> 00:04:03.419 remarkable. But he gives thanks because on this journey, and as he ended up in the UK, he met the God of grace. 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:12.419 He heard the good news that God had sent his son Jesus to be the Savior for sinners. 00:04:12.419 --> 00:04:25.939 A journey interrupted by grace. That's very much what we see happening in the story of Jacob. As we look at 00:04:25.939 --> 00:04:34.800 this text, we're going to learn from his journey the way God is pleased to interrupt in order to show grace 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:42.079 and kindness. We're going to think about his dream of the stairway, reminding us that God has been pleased 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:50.960 to make a way for sinful people like us to enjoy relationship with the living God. And we're going to 00:04:50.960 --> 00:04:59.240 think about his pillar, reminding us that we are invited to respond to God's goodness with wonder 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:07.319 and with worship. So let's get into our text, and let's think about the journey. So we have jumped in 00:05:07.319 --> 00:05:16.439 as Jacob leaves Beersheba and heads to Haran. He stops at the end of the day, and he makes a bed 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:24.819 out in the open with a stone as a pillow. But we need to know a little bit more about Jacob. Jacob's name 00:05:24.819 --> 00:05:36.339 literally means one who grabs hold, one who will take advantage of others, one who is a deceiver. 00:05:37.779 --> 00:05:43.519 And in his life up until this point, he's absolutely lived up to that name. When he is born, 00:05:44.019 --> 00:05:50.659 he is born grabbing hold of his twin brother Esau's heel because he's fighting to come out first. 00:05:50.660 --> 00:06:00.820 At the age of 40, Jacob takes advantage of his brother Esau's hunger and impatience and lack of 00:06:00.820 --> 00:06:07.780 thought, and he steals his brother's birthright for a bowl of stew. And then some years later, 00:06:07.820 --> 00:06:15.960 we're not told how many years later, he then deceives his blind father. He takes advantage of him 00:06:15.959 --> 00:06:22.379 by dressing up as if he was his brother to grab hold of the father's blessing. 00:06:24.379 --> 00:06:32.599 And as a result, chapter 27, verse 41, Esau, his brother, vows that he is going to kill him. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:38.459 And so this story is in danger of becoming Cain and Abel, part two. 00:06:38.459 --> 00:06:48.279 And this journey that Jacob now finds himself on is in part a way to give him safety. 00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:55.259 So he is, on the one hand, he is off to go and find a wife among his father's family, 00:06:55.899 --> 00:07:01.139 but there is that understanding that this distance will be a source of protection. 00:07:01.139 --> 00:07:08.039 So as we find him on this journey, he is on the run from a brother who hates him and would gladly 00:07:08.039 --> 00:07:16.159 kill him, and he's on the way to find a wife, and in the midst of that journey, God finds him. 00:07:18.199 --> 00:07:26.639 He comes to what's described in verse 11 as a certain place. There is no particular significance 00:07:26.639 --> 00:07:36.279 where Jacob camps that day. It's just the end of the day, but it will become God's holy place, 00:07:36.279 --> 00:07:47.539 because God will enter in and meet with him, and life will change. Just as with that former slave, 00:07:47.699 --> 00:07:56.159 Olaudah Equiano, just as the story of many people here today, God is pleased. 00:07:56.160 --> 00:08:04.800 Even when we're not looking for him to interrupt the journey of our lives in order to show grace 00:08:04.800 --> 00:08:11.300 and to show his goodness. So even at this point, two truths for us to stop and to think about 00:08:11.300 --> 00:08:17.840 together. They're so important to the Bible. One, that God loves to show grace to sinners. 00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:22.760 So we need to understand that the Bible is painting for us a really honest picture. 00:08:22.759 --> 00:08:30.879 Jacob is not a good man who earns his place in God's family and who deserves all these wonderful 00:08:30.879 --> 00:08:36.419 promises. No, he is a liar. He is a cheat. He is looking out for number one. 00:08:38.819 --> 00:08:44.939 God saves by grace, not because of human performance. 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:54.700 We know that even before these two twin brothers were born, it was God's plan that the promise 00:08:54.700 --> 00:09:02.280 would be carried through the family line of Jacob, not because of his goodness, but despite of his 00:09:02.280 --> 00:09:10.480 badness. Despite those actions, those habits of grabbing and deceiving and cheating, despite that, 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:18.920 God will show grace. If you're new to the Bible, and I know some of you are new to the Bible, one of the 00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:27.399 things that the Bible does is it shows people as they truly are. It doesn't try and hide people's faults 00:09:27.399 --> 00:09:39.179 faults and failings. So we read of a character called Paul. And the Bible is very honest. He is a man who hated Jesus. 00:09:40.199 --> 00:09:48.899 He is a man who made it his mission to destroy the church of Jesus. But again, on his journey, this sinful man, 00:09:48.899 --> 00:09:59.240 this cruel man met with the risen Lord Jesus, who saved him despite being an enemy of God and his people. 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:06.860 He wasn't looking to be saved. He wasn't looking to meet Jesus. And he was given a whole new mission 00:10:06.860 --> 00:10:12.419 and purpose. It's really the good news that we find throughout the whole Bible. 00:10:12.419 --> 00:10:19.719 There is that honesty as the Bible speaks to each one of us. It says that we have all sinned. 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:27.059 We all fall short of God's glory. If we compare ourselves to God's commandments, 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:33.019 summarize, love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, 00:10:33.319 --> 00:10:41.740 and love your neighbor as yourself, we all fall short of that. And the Bible is honest and says that our sin 00:10:41.740 --> 00:10:51.139 separates us from a holy God. And our sin is an act of rebellion where we deliberately walk away from God. 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:59.539 And if we were left to ourselves, the Bible is honest, we would have no hope. We would be heading for judgment 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:10.100 for all eternity. But there is hope, not in ourselves, but hope that comes from God. Jesus from heaven speaks. 00:11:10.100 --> 00:11:20.899 And he says, I came and I died for you. My death means your sin can be forgiven. My life means you can enjoy 00:11:20.899 --> 00:11:28.240 life with God. And so Jesus comes and speaks hope, and he says, come to me, put your trust in me, 00:11:28.399 --> 00:11:36.840 and find forgiveness in your life. God loves to save sinners. And another thing we learn from Jacob's 00:11:36.840 --> 00:11:44.639 story which is fundamental is that God can meet us anywhere. For Jacob, as he left his family behind, 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:49.860 that family that had received those covenant promises, as he finds himself far from home, 00:11:50.259 --> 00:11:57.840 far from security, as it doesn't seem like he's seeking God, this is the first time that God speaks to him 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:07.759 in a very unexpected place. Before living in Edinburgh, we were working, living and working 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:13.460 in Glasgow with international students. And one of the wonderful things about our job there is we had 00:12:13.460 --> 00:12:19.280 the chance to introduce many people to the Bible for the first time, introduce people to the good news 00:12:19.279 --> 00:12:28.399 of Jesus for the first time. We had the joy of seeing people come to church, read the Bible, learn about 00:12:28.399 --> 00:12:37.120 Jesus, and be saved. While they were far from home, nobody came with the express purpose of wanting to 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:45.379 become a follower of Jesus, but God had that purpose. And so they went home transformed. And God is pleased to 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:53.179 do that. Some of us here, that's our story, coming from different places to this church, meeting God, 00:12:53.279 --> 00:13:05.379 meeting Jesus, life transformed. Because God has this beautiful ability to turn any place into a holy place. 00:13:06.740 --> 00:13:13.960 Often, as we gather together like this to worship, because God is here and God speaks. 00:13:13.960 --> 00:13:20.980 But wonderfully, God is not limited. Sometimes, God will meet us and speak to us because of our 00:13:20.980 --> 00:13:29.060 circumstances, in a conversation, even in a crisis, because God's love breaks through, 00:13:29.519 --> 00:13:37.000 and God loves to break through and make himself known. So as we think about this wonderful story, 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:42.139 my prayer, my prayer this week, and my prayer for us as a church, is that God will keep on doing this. 00:13:42.139 --> 00:13:52.080 He will keep on surprising, keep on interrupting people's journeys to reveal His glory and for our 00:13:52.080 --> 00:14:00.639 good. Well, having thought about the journey, let's now think about what happens as Jacob settles down 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:09.220 for the night, as he has this dream of the stairway. We find it there, beginning at verse 12 to verse 15. 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:17.940 And as we turn to this dream, it deals with a massively important topic. And again, if you're new to the 00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:22.860 Bible, if you're new to church, and maybe if you've been around for a long time, you might still have the 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:33.160 question, is God there? Is He real? Does God speak? Can we connect with God? Can we know God? 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:41.240 Perhaps for some of us, that's what brings us here, week by week. We have this longing. We want this 00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:47.000 taste of heaven. We know that we need to come, and we need to be in God's presence. We need to know 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:55.600 that God is, and that He is for us. Well, the story of Jacob, and the truth of what Christians believe, 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:05.399 is that our good God is so kind that He is willing to speak to us, to make promises to us, 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:14.879 that God delights to save people for the sake of personal relationship. 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:21.580 This actually, this story really ties in with everything that we've seen in the Genesis story 00:15:21.580 --> 00:15:27.280 so far. Think about the first people, Adam and Eve. They were made in the image of God, 00:15:27.340 --> 00:15:34.980 and their experience in the Garden of Eden, they knew God personally, that God came and He spoke with 00:15:34.980 --> 00:15:43.960 them. But then sin came, as Adam and Eve turned away from God's Word, as they disobeyed Him and 00:15:43.960 --> 00:15:50.640 mistrusted Him, and that sin created separation. They were outside of the Garden. But even then, 00:15:50.639 --> 00:15:56.659 the God of grace comes near, the God of grace comes near. And God continues in the story of Genesis 00:15:56.659 --> 00:16:05.240 to make covenant promises. And it says to us, when we can't go up to God, when we can't draw near to 00:16:05.240 --> 00:16:15.679 God because of our sin, He comes down and He comes near in love and kindness to restore what was broken. 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:23.000 So let's look together, first of all, at what Jacob sees, and then let's listen together to what 00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:31.539 Jacob hears. So verse 12, Jacob had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with 00:16:31.539 --> 00:16:37.559 its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. So again, 00:16:37.559 --> 00:16:44.859 let me take you back in Genesis chapter 11, there was another structure that we came across, a tower, 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:53.359 a tower that was built by humans, a tower from the ground reaching up to heaven. It was built by humans 00:16:53.359 --> 00:17:02.619 in their pride to reach up to God, to seek to claim personal glory, to want to be like God. 00:17:02.620 --> 00:17:14.880 And we discovered this is not how we get to God, by working ourselves up. God's way is the stairway. 00:17:15.900 --> 00:17:25.980 The God makes Himself known as God Himself comes down as the God of glory reaches down to earth in an 00:17:25.980 --> 00:17:36.440 act of grace. This is what makes Christianity unique. We don't tell people, do better and try harder, 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:44.440 and if you're good enough, God will accept you. We say God is so good that He has come down as Jesus, 00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:52.500 and He has done everything we need, and we're invited to trust Him and His work. 00:17:52.500 --> 00:18:00.660 So we have this picture of this stairway, and the angels of God, the messengers of God, 00:18:00.960 --> 00:18:07.960 going up and down, and we're being told this is the meeting point between heaven and earth, 00:18:08.980 --> 00:18:16.660 between God and people, that the God of heaven makes Himself known for the sake of relationship. 00:18:16.660 --> 00:18:28.180 And we know that because of what Jacob hears. So remember, this is a runaway. This is a rebel 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:35.360 who's receiving wonderful promises from God. Verse 13, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham, 00:18:35.460 --> 00:18:41.320 and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 00:18:41.319 --> 00:18:47.519 All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. This is the Lord who is speaking. 00:18:48.700 --> 00:18:54.799 Whenever you see in the Bible the word Lord all in capital letters, this is God's personal covenant 00:18:54.799 --> 00:19:01.139 name. The personal God is speaking personally to Jacob, still working out his promises. 00:19:01.140 --> 00:19:09.880 And as he speaks, he restates that promise that we've encountered in the Abraham story, in the story of 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:18.020 Jacob. I will give you the promised land. You'll become a great family. You will enjoy special 00:19:18.020 --> 00:19:24.759 relationship with the one true God, and one of your family members, one of your offspring, the seed, 00:19:24.759 --> 00:19:33.680 he will bring blessing, God's blessing to the whole world. So remember at what point in Jacob's life this 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:45.019 comes. He has no wife, he has no child, and he is no good. Yet God is faithful and gracious and very good 00:19:45.019 --> 00:19:53.680 for Jacob, and by extension, for the whole world. And if Jacob was prone to doubt, 00:19:53.680 --> 00:20:05.900 listen to how God promises his presence. Verse 15, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, 00:20:06.100 --> 00:20:13.460 and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised. Do we 00:20:13.460 --> 00:20:23.080 hear the personal commitment of God? His active personal presence to ensure faithfulness to fulfill 00:20:23.079 --> 00:20:33.159 his covenant promises. Here's Jacob's hope. Here's the good news. When his grabbing for blessing in the past has 00:20:33.159 --> 00:20:42.159 brought him trouble, God comes down and graciously saves him, calling him into personal relationship. 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:56.380 And so this stairway represents God's desire to bridge the gap, to restore relationship between sinful people 00:20:56.380 --> 00:21:05.940 and a holy God. And as the New Testament makes clear, and as Jesus makes clear, he comes to fulfill what was 00:21:05.940 --> 00:21:13.759 anticipated. He is the true stairway to heaven. Remember when we listened in on that conversation that Jesus had with 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:22.059 Nathaniel back in John chapter 1, when Nathaniel was really skeptical? Nazareth, that's not an important place. Can anything 00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:32.140 good come from Nazareth? Can Jesus really be God's promised king? But then he's amazed by Jesus' personal knowledge of him. 00:21:32.140 --> 00:21:37.740 And he begins immediately to praise him. You're the son of God. You're the king of Israel. And Jesus in response 00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:45.120 says to him, Nathaniel, you've seen great things, but you're going to see greater things. You will see 00:21:45.120 --> 00:21:55.360 heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Jesus says, I am the true 00:21:55.360 --> 00:22:01.120 stairway to heaven. Now how does that help us to answer the question, is God there? 00:22:01.119 --> 00:22:14.179 Does God speak? Can I know him personally? Jesus is saying to us, I am the meeting place 00:22:14.179 --> 00:22:25.399 between God and people. In order to meet God, in order to know that he is real, and that he loves us, 00:22:25.400 --> 00:22:32.160 and that he would speak to us, and enter into a relationship, that doesn't come by going to a 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:38.480 particular building, or performing a certain religion, or ritual, or practicing a form of 00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:49.720 obedience. It comes by knowing a person, Jesus, as Lord and as Savior. That the Bible makes clear that 00:22:49.720 --> 00:23:04.339 the meaning for our lives is the meaning of Jesus, Jesus is the bridge, the way sinners can return to the 00:23:04.339 --> 00:23:13.240 holy God. That what we lost in the Garden of Eden, personal relationship, fellowship with God, is secured for us 00:23:13.240 --> 00:23:22.880 once again by the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jesus comes to reveal God to us, he welcomes sinners to come to him. 00:23:23.539 --> 00:23:27.480 He forgives sin, and he makes wonderful promises. 00:23:29.299 --> 00:23:34.640 Jacob saw the glory of God in this vision. Jesus reveals the glory of God in a greater way, 00:23:34.640 --> 00:23:41.960 through his identity. Through his identity. Who is Jesus? He is the eternal Son of God, 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:53.080 who became one of us. Jesus makes the invisible God visible. He is the true and perfect image of God. 00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:59.780 If we want to know God and what he is like, we discover him in Jesus in the Gospels. 00:23:59.779 --> 00:24:08.240 Think about how he displays the glory of God in his miracles. We see the authority of God over nature, 00:24:08.660 --> 00:24:16.460 over sickness, over disease, over evil, even over death itself. We have this wonderful combination 00:24:16.460 --> 00:24:26.180 of the power of God and the love of God as Jesus performs miracles. And we see the glory and the love 00:24:26.180 --> 00:24:34.779 of God in the death of God in the death of Jesus also. One of the things about the God of the Bible is that he must 00:24:34.779 --> 00:24:45.299 always be true to himself. The holy God must take sin seriously. And we see that at the cross, 00:24:45.640 --> 00:24:55.680 as Jesus, the Son of God, takes our place, and he bears our punishment, and he experiences the death and 00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:04.860 separation that we deserve. But the God who is just and holy is also the God who is loving and gracious, 00:25:04.860 --> 00:25:15.860 because it is God himself who provides the sacrifice, as we thought about last week. God himself acts by giving 00:25:15.860 --> 00:25:24.860 his Son to die on the cross to bridge the gap, to forgive sin, so you and I can know him. Our holy God, 00:25:24.859 --> 00:25:32.740 God sent his Son, Jesus, sent his Son to die on the cross for our sins, so that we can know God 00:25:32.740 --> 00:25:41.479 personally, that we can hear his promises for ourselves, that we too are promised that by faith 00:25:41.479 --> 00:25:49.579 we are part of a great family, the family of God, the church, that we too have a promised land. 00:25:49.579 --> 00:25:58.980 It's heaven and the new creation, and we have a special relationship. We have God with us always. 00:26:01.159 --> 00:26:10.500 So how do we respond to that? It takes us to the pillar and verses 16 to 22. This was a remarkable 00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:19.220 night for Jacob. As he met the God of glory, all of a sudden, unexpectedly, as he received these wonderful 00:26:19.220 --> 00:26:26.960 promises for himself. But now it's a new day. The Son comes up, he gets up from his sleep, 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:37.819 but he's also a new man. How do we know? Because we see wonder, and we see worship in his life. 00:26:38.700 --> 00:26:47.319 Look at the sense of wonder in verse 16 and 17. As he woke, he thought, surely the Lord is in this place. 00:26:49.220 --> 00:26:54.980 He was afraid and said, how awesome is this place. This house is none other than the house of God. 00:26:55.120 --> 00:27:01.960 He has that sense of, oh, God has come near. Even though I am a sinner, he has shown kindness and 00:27:01.960 --> 00:27:09.079 drawn near. This is God's house. Though I am sinful, God has invited me in as an act of mercy and 00:27:09.079 --> 00:27:21.819 hospitality. Sinner though I am. His life has been transformed. And with a sense of wonder, he transforms 00:27:21.819 --> 00:27:31.559 two things himself. Notice first in verse 18, he turns his pillow into a pillar. There's something 00:27:31.559 --> 00:27:38.799 really significant about it. So imagine a big hunk of rock. That's a terrible pillow. But as he meets 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:46.019 with God and has this night to remember, he then turns it so that it's now on the ground but pointing 00:27:46.019 --> 00:27:54.680 to heaven. He wants to remember that stairway, that encounter with God, the God who has met with him. 00:27:54.680 --> 00:28:04.720 And he also transforms the place name. Used to be called Luz, now called Bethel, the house of God. 00:28:04.820 --> 00:28:16.460 This is a place of worship and wonder for Jacob. And we hear it as well in his vow. Sometimes that if 00:28:16.460 --> 00:28:25.840 can be heard as doubt or bargaining, it's better to hear a sense of amazement. He throws himself on God's 00:28:25.840 --> 00:28:36.019 mercy. Knowing he can't demand anything, but he's heard God's promise. If God will be with me and will 00:28:36.019 --> 00:28:42.559 watch over me so I return safely, then this stone that I've set up as a pillar will be God's house. 00:28:42.559 --> 00:28:49.319 And of all that you'll give me, I'll give you a tenth. Here is true worship. For God's people, 00:28:49.679 --> 00:28:55.460 the giving of a tithe was always an expression of giving back to God as an act of worship all the 00:28:55.460 --> 00:29:04.720 kindness that they had received. He is responding to the God who has given him everything. 00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:17.799 And Jacob discovers that God loves to give and loves to give in ways that we don't expect or bargain 00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:27.720 for. What did God give Jacob? New life, life with God. These wonderful promises from God, the reality of 00:29:27.720 --> 00:29:36.220 God with him, the reality of God. And so Jacob responds with wonder and with worship. He sets up 00:29:36.220 --> 00:29:42.940 this monument to God's mercy because that mercy is something he wants never to forget. 00:29:42.940 --> 00:29:51.940 Now as we close, let's ask this question. How do we experience what Jacob did for ourselves? 00:29:54.279 --> 00:30:04.700 I hope as we come to a text list, we get a sense of wonder that this God is real and he is personal 00:30:04.700 --> 00:30:12.299 and he actively seeks people out and he delights to show kindness and he delights to draw near. But how do we 00:30:12.299 --> 00:30:21.059 enjoy it? How can the journey of our life be like the journey of Jacob's? Well, we started with a former 00:30:21.059 --> 00:30:29.660 slave. Let's think about the story of a former slave trader, a famous figure in church history, 00:30:29.660 --> 00:30:39.279 John Newton. So John Newton was a notorious man. As a slave trader, he was a cruel man. He was drunk. 00:30:39.600 --> 00:30:49.720 He was abusive. His life was a wreck. Well, one day he was sailing and the boat hit a storm and he was 00:30:49.720 --> 00:30:58.940 about to go overboard and somebody rescued him by sending a harpoon into his leg to pull him back into the 00:30:58.940 --> 00:31:10.820 boat. And on that journey, God met with him and saved him. And Newton would then give his life to 00:31:10.820 --> 00:31:18.480 following Jesus and preaching about and writing letters about and writing songs about the wonderful grace 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:27.759 of God, famously expressing his wonder and worship in that hymn, Amazing Grace. 00:31:28.940 --> 00:31:39.380 How sweet the sound that saved a wretch, a terrible person like me. I once was lost, but now am found, 00:31:39.460 --> 00:31:51.160 was blind, but now I see. For you and I to have the story of Jacob, for you and I to have the story of 00:31:51.160 --> 00:32:00.779 Newton, we need to come to Jesus ourselves and to trust him, to understand that he is our true stairway to 00:32:00.779 --> 00:32:08.779 heaven. He has laid down his life to bridge the gap between a holy God and sinful people. He is the one 00:32:08.779 --> 00:32:17.820 who descended to save us, making peace by his sacrificial death on the cross. And now he has ascended to 00:32:17.819 --> 00:32:27.539 heaven, our perfect mediator, sitting on his throne, the work of salvation completed, issuing an invitation to come to 00:32:27.539 --> 00:32:38.839 him. For Jacob that night, he saw a stairway and it changed his life. For us, when we look, we're invited to look to see the 00:32:38.839 --> 00:32:52.079 cross. The cross. The cross is God's way to save us, to draw us into relationship, his monument of mercy and grace for us. 00:32:52.079 --> 00:33:04.439 In the gospel, we hear Jesus say, I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. 00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:10.279 He is the one who dies on the cross for us. He is the one who comes to us by his spirit. He is the one 00:33:10.279 --> 00:33:18.599 who will return one day to complete his plan of salvation. And every step of the way, he is with us. 00:33:18.599 --> 00:33:31.159 When we see that reality, when we experience that reality, that's where we find wonder and worship 00:33:31.159 --> 00:33:41.079 from a new identity and a new mission. May that be true for us all today. Let's pray together. 00:33:42.259 --> 00:33:48.279 Lord, we thank you that you're the God that doesn't leave us to ourselves and in our sin. 00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:49.899 But that in the Lord.