SPEAKER_00: Alright, good morning again.
SPEAKER_00: It is a joy to hop into God's word with you all.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would please turn with me to Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: So if you open your front cover, you'll be pretty close.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: So while you're flipping there, I'll uh just share a little bit more about myself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm actually from Virginia Beach, Virginia, and uh uh went to UVA for undergrad and then went to RTS Jackson for seminary, and there I met my wife, Janelle.
SPEAKER_00: We've been married for seven years, and we have three kids.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have a five-year-old, a four-year-old, and a two-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we've been here since 2019.
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's been fun to be in the DC area, and uh it's it's it's been fun to connect with you all.
SPEAKER_00: I had uh breakfast with Pastor Tom not long ago, and he gave me a tour of you all's beautiful building, and so we had been talking about uh coming on a Sunday, so it is good to be uh with the Saints at Alexandria Prez this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Uh again, uh RUF.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we uh there's a table outside in the lobby, so I'd love to chat with you and and meet you after uh the sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I'd yeah, I'd I'd love to connect and talk about maybe how um if if if if it's on your heart, how you can serve and pray for and partner with us in the ministry to college students.
SPEAKER_00: All right, Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: I'll kind of I'll start off in uh with a verse in chapter 27 and then I'll jump to chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: It's also in your bulletin.
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, here's a bulletin.
SPEAKER_00: If you just turn right over, it's there.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading from the New Living Translation.
SPEAKER_00: I like the NLT for narratives, it just makes it a little easier.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so to give you a little bit of background, Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: God created all things as good, he created humanity as good, and he created humanity to make the earth a place that reflected his own goodness.
SPEAKER_00: But they decided that they can do that apart from God, and when they decided that everything went bad.
SPEAKER_00: So he basically decides to press reset on his creation, which is the Noah and the Ark story.
SPEAKER_00: And Noah has a son, and and there's descendants along that, I guess, lineage, and now you have Abraham.
SPEAKER_00: God decides to rescue the world and restore the world through Abraham's family.
SPEAKER_00: We're now talking about Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is Abraham's grandson.
SPEAKER_00: So God gives promises to Abraham, and through Abraham he's gonna save the world, and now we're seeing that plan continue through Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob was the younger brother of Esau, and he takes Esau's blessing and birthright.
SPEAKER_00: From that time on, Esau hated Jacob because their father had given Jacob the blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And Esau began to scheme, I will soon be mourning my father's death.
SPEAKER_00: Then I will kill my brother Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, Jacob left, so I'm jumping forward to chapter 28.
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran.
SPEAKER_00: At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the heaven, from the earth up to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.
SPEAKER_00: At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: The ground you are lying on belongs to you.
SPEAKER_00: I am giving it to you and your descendants.
SPEAKER_00: Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: They will spread out in all directions, to the west and the east, to the north and the south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.
SPEAKER_00: What's more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: One day I will bring you back to this land.
SPEAKER_00: I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn't even aware of it.
SPEAKER_00: But he was also afraid and said, What an awesome place this is.
SPEAKER_00: It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The next morning Jacob got up very early.
SPEAKER_00: He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar.
SPEAKER_00: Then he poured olive oil over it.
SPEAKER_00: He named that place Bethel, which means house of God, although it was previously called Luz.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jacob made this vow.
SPEAKER_00: If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father's home, then the Lord will certainly be my God.
SPEAKER_00: And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God.
SPEAKER_00: And I will present to God a tenth of everything He gives me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for this opportunity to gather here today.
SPEAKER_00: To be in your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you are so good and kind that you have spoken to us and you have decided to write it down in a collection for us to meet with you generation after generation.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that right here, right now, we would meet with you.
SPEAKER_00: You've met us through singing and praying and giving and all of these different things.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we ask that right now you would meet us through the preaching of your word.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, fill me.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you give me conviction and boldness and clarity, love, humility.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, cleanse my conscience from dead works that I might serve the living God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray for your hearers this morning.
SPEAKER_00: They've come and they are expecting a word, or maybe they come and they um are just just out of it and they're just like, you know what, I'm coming here, I'm here, and Lord, I need you to even work up a desire in me for your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would do just those things.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would open their hearts and they would not only believe your word, but also love your word, cherish your word, delight in your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I ask that we wouldn't just be good hearers of your word, but that we would be good doers of your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, and I ask all these things in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a place where you feel really close to God?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to pause and, you know, think of this place in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you close your eyes and think of this place.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for some of you it's mountains.
SPEAKER_00: When you get up into the mountains, or when you see a mountain range, you're just reminded of how big God is.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe from some of you it's the ocean.
SPEAKER_00: When you hear the waves crashing on the sand, you're just reminded of how grand God is.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe for some of you, it's a beautiful church building, you know, like this one.
SPEAKER_00: You walk in and you feel really close to God.
SPEAKER_00: These places oftentimes have something to do with tranquility or how big the Lord is, or um, it could even be that corner in our home where we snuggle up and grab a blanket and have a warm cup of coffee and we feel really close to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It has things to do with comfort, reminding ourselves that God is big and we are small and he cares for us.
SPEAKER_00: But what if there is a place that you likely didn't think of?
SPEAKER_00: It's an island in the middle of nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's always cloudy, and when it's not cloudy, it gives scorching heat.
SPEAKER_00: Uh when it rains, it pours.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and there is little food, scarce water, no scenic views, and predators all around.
SPEAKER_00: What if I told you that this deserted island is a special place, and we are closer to God in this place than any other place in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: This place is called weakness.
SPEAKER_00: It's called weakness.
SPEAKER_00: In this place, we are desperate, powerless, hurting, and vulnerable, but this is the place where God dwells.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's my main point for our time this morning.
SPEAKER_00: God dwells in your weakest moments.
SPEAKER_00: And we see this in our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob had just received the blessing and birthright that belonged to his older and more powerful brother Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Basically, they were both in the womb, and God told their mother Rebecca that the younger uh would basically be over the older.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they were born, Esau, it says um he he was uh hairy and his skin was red, and so I'm just assuming like that's blood pulsating through his veins.
SPEAKER_00: He was just like a bodybuilder type of guy.
SPEAKER_00: He was just strong and he was a hunter and a warrior.
SPEAKER_00: And the younger brother, Jacob, was you get the sense that he would he he just was a homebody and he didn't get out much and he wasn't strong like his older brother.
SPEAKER_00: And uh basically Rebecca, in order to fulfill the prophecy that was spoken over her, she convinced or she helped Jacob take Esau's blessing and birthright.
SPEAKER_00: And so Esau, he is angry.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Jacob has taken my blessing and birthright.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And so I imagine this was scary for Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: So he his mother says, Hey, I need you to get out of here and go to Laban's house.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jacob's uncle.
SPEAKER_00: His home was no longer safe for him.
SPEAKER_00: He is wondering how he would have food and water and clothing and shelter.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob was desperate, powerless, hurting, and vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob laid down to sleep alone on a rock.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how you really know he's desperate.
SPEAKER_00: Have any of y'all ever slept on a rock before?
SPEAKER_00: He was sleeping down, he laid his head down on a stone, and he had a vision of a stairway.
SPEAKER_00: Now, don't think of the stairways like out here.
SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes in the in the uh olden days in the ancient Near East, the temples were basically giant staircases.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you think of like Babylonian ziggurats, or if you have an image of maybe Aztec temples, or in even sort of the pyramids, like they're these tall structures.
SPEAKER_00: And the the whole point was at the top.
SPEAKER_00: This is the place where heaven and earth met.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord was standing on top of the stairway.
SPEAKER_00: Angels were going up and down the stairway doing the Lord's will.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord gives Jacob all of these amazing promises.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I'm going to bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Look all around you.
SPEAKER_00: All of this land is going to be yours.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to give you many descendants.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I am going to be with you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: I will protect you, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you.
SPEAKER_00: God gives Jacob these amazing promises, the same ones he gave Jacob's father and grandfather.
SPEAKER_00: And Jacob woke up and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I didn't even know it.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls this place Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: He calls this place Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Bethel means the house of God.
SPEAKER_00: Baith means house, and El means God.
SPEAKER_00: Why does he call it Bethel?
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you know, there is the stairway, the gateway between heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: But y'all, there was nothing special about that patch of dirt and that stone that served as a pillow that he laid his head on, other than it was the place of Jacob's weakness.
SPEAKER_00: On that patch of dirt, he was desperate, he was powerless, he was hurting, and he was vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the place where God dwelled with Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: So many times in our lives, don't we waste these moments of weakness?
SPEAKER_00: We get in places where we are hurting or when we were we are vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: And don't we sometimes run away from God?
SPEAKER_00: Or don't we oftentimes run away from Christian community?
SPEAKER_00: We kind of isolate ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: I know so often in ministry, our uh students will be missing from our ministry, and I'll kind of reach out to them and I'll text them, text them, and there'll be a lot of blue bubbles on the I message without a lot of gray bubbles.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying, hey, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Praying for you, uh, thinking about you, and then I'll see them again.
SPEAKER_00: They'll come to Bible study and they say, Man, sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the last six months have been some of the worst moments of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I wish you let me know so we could walk with you and pray with you and we could point you to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But so often in these moments of weakness, we run away from the Lord and we run away from Christian community.
SPEAKER_00: And really, I think just when we think of the church globally, um, we are oftentimes in places of weakness, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: Christians are at a severe economic disadvantage in many countries.
SPEAKER_00: We are persecuted, insulted, looked down upon.
SPEAKER_00: We are marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we kind of have it, we're kind of comfy here in our cultural moment in the United States.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it more and more anti-Christian hostility is growing, and the church is going to have to learn how to be weak, how to be insulted, how to be persecuted, how to be uh the last.
SPEAKER_00: And so often we are allergic to weakness.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be in power, we want to be at the center that we we only want to follow Jesus so long as it is comfortable for us, and so long as we won't lose too many friends, so often as we won't have to lose our jobs, uh, so often uh we want to follow Jesus only when it demands a minimal amount of sacrifice, just enough to where we feel like we've sacrificed something.
SPEAKER_00: But so often God wants us to be in the place of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And if we really think about the scriptures, the storyline of the scriptures, isn't it funny?
SPEAKER_00: Uh 1 Corinthians chapter 2, go and read that chapter uh maybe this afternoon.
SPEAKER_00: But it basically is all about how God uses foolishness to accomplish his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: Have you thought about the way God works?
SPEAKER_00: It really doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?
SPEAKER_00: Why would God choose the younger brother over the older brother?
SPEAKER_00: Why would God choose Jacob over Esau?
SPEAKER_00: God always chooses the stranger, the alien, the person who is marginalized.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't choose royalty, he chooses the weakest people, and oh, and just in case they weren't weak enough, he places them in the weakest situations, and that's where he does his work.
SPEAKER_00: Think about Abram.
SPEAKER_00: He chooses an idol worshiper, brings them to another land, he doesn't have anywhere that there's no place on that place that he owns.
SPEAKER_00: He's surrounded by enemies, and then in Genesis chapter 12, he says, Oh, I'm gonna send a famine, and you'll have to go to Egypt, and they're gonna, and and it just over and over again we see that God works through weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna look at that in the life of Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at two situations that God dwells in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: So, first, God dwells in your weakest moments, even when the powerful exploit you.
SPEAKER_00: God dwells in your weakest moments, even when the powerful exploit you.
SPEAKER_00: And we see this in Genesis chapter 31, verses 10 through 13.
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob had just run away from his home, and he um finds himself at his uncle's house, like his mom directed him, and he ends up running into uh Rachel, and he falls in love with Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: This is this is uh Laban's daughter, and so he goes to Laban, his uncle, and he says, Hey, I'm in love with your daughter, I want to marry her.
SPEAKER_00: And back then you couldn't just come empty-handed if you wanted to marry someone's daughter, and I guess even now, I guess.
SPEAKER_00: Um but but it but so Laban said, Look, you have to work for me for seven years, and then you can marry Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: So he worked seven years, and um basically, basically, uh, when when when you have a marriage ceremony, the marriage is official when you've consummated the marriage, when you intimately know that person.
SPEAKER_00: So uh he is uh excited he gets to marry Rachel and he lays with um uh a woman and he wakes up in the morning and he realizes it's not Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: He had just married the wrong woman, and so he goes to Laban and he says, What happened, man?
SPEAKER_00: I was supposed to marry Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: And Laban says, Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention we don't do that around here.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta marry the older sister first.
SPEAKER_00: He had actually married and laid with Leah, Rachel's older sister.
SPEAKER_00: And so he is finding out that Laban is an exploiter.
SPEAKER_00: Laban is deceitful.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, You know what?
SPEAKER_00: I want you to work for me for another seven years, and then you can marry Rachel.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jacob agrees.
SPEAKER_00: He he uh marries Rachel and then works for Laban another seven years.
SPEAKER_00: And he works for Laban for 20 years in total, and he finds and he finds out over and over again that Laban is a cheater, that he uh cheats Jacob out of his wages, he exploits Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is at the mercy of someone more powerful than him in his desperate moment.
SPEAKER_00: So after Jacob had 12 sons, Jacob wants to leave and he wants to start a life on his own.
SPEAKER_00: And um, but Laban wanted Jacob to stick around.
SPEAKER_00: Laban is like, Jacob, my business has been booming because you've been with us.
SPEAKER_00: So back then they were a pastoralist society, an agricultural society.
SPEAKER_00: So business was basically crops and animals.
SPEAKER_00: So the flocks were thriving, the crops were thriving, and Laban is just like, name your price.
SPEAKER_00: I want to keep you with me.
SPEAKER_00: And the business was thriving because the Lord was with Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: So Jacob says, I want all the streak, speckled, and spotted lambs in the flock.
SPEAKER_00: Just so it was clear, these are mine and these are yours.
SPEAKER_00: You can't cheat me, it's obvious what's mine.
SPEAKER_00: And Laban says, That's a bet.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Laban takes all of the streak, speckled, and spotted lambs out of Jacob's care and puts them in the care of his sons, so that Jacob would go without any wages in perpetuity.
SPEAKER_00: Laban is a exploiter.
SPEAKER_00: But regardless, the Lord miraculously puts streaks, speckled, and spotted lambs in Jacob's flock, and Jacob becomes wealthy.
SPEAKER_00: And Laban and his sons start to get angry, and they start to become hostile against Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: So one day, Jacob decides, hey, it's time for us to go.
SPEAKER_00: He turns to his wives, and his wives says, Yeah, our father's actually cheated us too.
SPEAKER_00: We're ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: And it says this in Genesis chapter 31.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob turns to his wives and says, This.
SPEAKER_00: One time during the mating season, I had a dream and saw that the male goats mating with the females were streak, speckled, and spotted.
SPEAKER_00: Then in my dream the angel of God said to me, Jacob, and I replied, Yes, here I am.
SPEAKER_00: The angel said, Look up, and you will see that only the streak, speckled, and spotted males are mating with the females of your flock.
SPEAKER_00: For I've seen how Laban has treated you.
SPEAKER_00: I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, the place where you anointed the pillar of stone and made your vow to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now get ready and leave this country and return to the land of your birth.
SPEAKER_00: You see, God came to him and said, I've seen how Laban has treated you, and I want you to I want you to go back to the place of your birth.
SPEAKER_00: I am the God of Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: He reminds Jacob, I am the God who lives in your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jacob and his family, they leave without even telling Laban, and this was extremely disrespectful.
SPEAKER_00: So Laban is mad, and he and his sons get together and they're pursuing Jacob.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is in a place of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He is desperate, he is powerless, he is hurting, and he is vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: He is scared that Laban is going to hurt him.
SPEAKER_00: But guess what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Laban actually catches Jacob, and Jacob is probably scared out of his mind.
SPEAKER_00: But this is what Laban tells him in verse 29.
SPEAKER_00: I could destroy you, but the God of your father appeared to me last night and warned me, leave Jacob alone.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, isn't that powerful?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is running away.
SPEAKER_00: He's running for his life, and he doesn't even know that God is behind the scenes kind of squaring up and grimacing against Laban.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, You better not touch my son.
SPEAKER_00: He's under my protection.
SPEAKER_00: Family, I'm here to tell you this morning that the God of Bethel dwells with you in your weakest moments, even when the powerful seek to exploit you.
SPEAKER_00: God for his people will protect his people, and he is always saying over his people, leave my children alone.
SPEAKER_00: It could be when the evil one is putting temptation all around you.
SPEAKER_00: It could be when you encounter unfair treatment from the people who you work with, or the people who are your bosses, or the people who are in authority over you.
SPEAKER_00: It could be when your parents are seeking to manipulate you or your family are seeking to manipulate you, maybe your siblings, your cousins, your aunts, your uncles.
SPEAKER_00: It could be professors or school officials are seeking to take advantage of you.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that uh the people around you, they see your walk and your integrity, and they're seeking to insult you and make you small because of the ways that you are walking with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It could be those that are physically.
SPEAKER_00: And emotionally abusing you are seeking to torment you in all of these moments, you can feel weak.
SPEAKER_00: It feels like the powerful are surrounding you, and you are wondering where God is and if God still loves you in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_00: In those moments, you can feel like God and His promises are really far away.
SPEAKER_00: But just like Jacob, God is being faithful to you in ways you can't even see.
SPEAKER_00: In your situation, if only you can see what God is doing behind the scenes, you will rejoice right now.
SPEAKER_00: And God is advancing his plan to fulfill his good promises to you in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In those moments where God is really far away, those are actually the moments of Bethel, where God dwells in your weakest moments.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, God dwells in your weakest moments even when the powerful surrounds you.
SPEAKER_00: God dwells in your weakest moments, even when the powerful surrounds you.
SPEAKER_00: So sometime later, Jacob settled in Shechem, and the prince of Shechem, whose name is also Shechem, he raped Jacob's daughter, Dinah.
SPEAKER_00: And now Shechem, he was basically Shechem and his father go to Jacob, and they're basically like, we're so sorry.
SPEAKER_00: My son actually wants Dina's hand in marriage.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing Jacob's sons, Dina's brothers, were furious.
SPEAKER_00: But they kind of created a secret plan.
SPEAKER_00: They were like, okay, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: We will unite families with you.
SPEAKER_00: We will give Dina's hand in marriage to Shechem on one condition.
SPEAKER_00: You all have to be circumcised.
SPEAKER_00: All of us are circumcised because we're in covenant with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So if you are circumcised and you accept our God as your God, everything will be good.
SPEAKER_00: So they said, okay, we'll do it.
SPEAKER_00: So the whole town, they go and get circumcised.
SPEAKER_00: And as they are recovering from the circumcision procedure, Jacob's sons, they go and they slaughter the whole town.
SPEAKER_00: There is a lot going on in this scenario.
SPEAKER_00: But in the midst of all of this, Jacob is now back in the place of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he tells his sons.
SPEAKER_00: You have ruined me.
SPEAKER_00: You've made me stink among all the people of this land, among all the Canaanites and Perizzites.
SPEAKER_00: We are so few that they will join forces and crush us.
SPEAKER_00: I will be ruined and my entire household will be wiped out.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is back in the place of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: But God told Jacob to go back to Bethel, the place where God lives, and he tells him to live there.
SPEAKER_00: So chapter 35, verse 2 says, So Jacob told everyone in his household, get rid of all your pagan idols, purify yourselves, and put on clean clothing.
SPEAKER_00: We are now going to Bethel, where I will build an altar to the God who answered my prayers when I was in distress.
SPEAKER_00: He has been with me wherever I have gone.
SPEAKER_00: So it says they set out.
SPEAKER_00: Eventually Jacob and his household arrived at Luz, also called Bethel in Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob built an altar there and named the place El Bethel, which means God of Bethel, because Jacob had appeared to him there when he was fleeing from his brother Esau.
SPEAKER_00: Y'all, isn't this powerful?
SPEAKER_00: Jacob is scared out of his mind that they are going to be wiped out, and if they are wiped out, the Lord's promises will be wiped out along with them.
SPEAKER_00: In this moment, it felt like God was really far away and his promises were null and void.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing they didn't even know that a terror from God fell on all the people around them.
SPEAKER_00: While they were terrified, they didn't even know that the people around them were terrified of them.
SPEAKER_00: They're running for their lives and God is protecting them.
SPEAKER_00: Family, I'm here to tell you this morning that God dwells in your weakness even as the powerful surround you.
SPEAKER_00: It could be that as you're following Jesus, you feel like you're in a lose-lose situation and your back is against the wall and you are wondering where God is.
SPEAKER_00: It can be that you feel like there's no escape from a hostile environment.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're stuck in a house where everyone is toxic or stuck in a workplace where everyone is seeking to pressure you to compromise your relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have a physical ailment or a chronic illness and you are really wondering where is God, and you are wondering how you can truly walk with God and be faithful to God in the midst of such painful and frustrating circumstances?
SPEAKER_00: In these moments, God can seem really far away, but that place is your Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: The place where God dwells.
SPEAKER_00: And He is for you, and He will fulfill His promises to you no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: So, what do we do with this?
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with the fact that God dwells in our weakest moments?
SPEAKER_00: We boast in our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible tells us to boast in our weaknesses.
SPEAKER_00: Do not waste those moments of insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles while you follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And the Apostle Paul shows us how to do this.
SPEAKER_00: In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 8, the Apostle Paul tells us about a time where he tells us he had a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan that was sent to torment him.
SPEAKER_00: So he is in pain.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what this kind of thorn in the flesh is.
SPEAKER_00: It could be an illness, it could be an injury, it could be a spiritual battle, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00: Paul was going through it.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this three times I beg the Lord to take it away.
SPEAKER_00: Each time he said, My grace is all you need.
SPEAKER_00: My power works best in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says this, so now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For when I am weak, then I am strong.
SPEAKER_00: Do not waste those moments of weakness, because this is where the power of God loves to show up.
SPEAKER_00: What does this actually look like?
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know oftentimes we're like, you know what, I'm just trusting the Lord, I'm I'm leaning on Him, but what does this actually look like in real life in real time?
SPEAKER_00: It looks like this When you are weak, pray more, not less.
SPEAKER_00: When you are weak, embrace Christian community and not isolation.
SPEAKER_00: Receive God's word and not the devil's lies.
SPEAKER_00: When you are weak, bless those who persecute you instead of cursing.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive those who wrong you instead of seeking revenge.
SPEAKER_00: Give thanks instead of complaining.
SPEAKER_00: Do good to God and to people and not evil.
SPEAKER_00: Run from temptation and not to it.
SPEAKER_00: When you are weak, persevere when you feel like giving up.
SPEAKER_00: These are the practical ways you walk in the power of God even in the midst of weakness.
SPEAKER_00: So often in life we don't know if we have the power to take that next step.
SPEAKER_00: You say, Lord, that was my last step, and I don't know if I can keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting in God's power is taking that next step even when you don't know if you have the power to make it.
SPEAKER_00: And you sit there and watch God provide every step of the way.
SPEAKER_00: But you might be thinking, you know what, I don't know if God is really going to be there for me.
SPEAKER_00: All throughout my life, people have abandoned me, people have run away when things got tough, and really, it really feels like right now that God is far away, and I can't shake that feeling.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know that God is with you in the midst of your weakness?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You see, all throughout Jesus' life, we see the fact that God's power works best in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to us in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come in power.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was born in an animal feeding bin in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't grow up among the powerful and the rich.
SPEAKER_00: He grew up in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: And somebody said in the Bible, uh, can anything good come from Nazareth?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, our shorter catechism says, was born in a low condition.
SPEAKER_00: He ministered among the poor masses of northern Palestine and he died on a cross.
SPEAKER_00: This was the weakest moment of his life.
SPEAKER_00: But God is so committed to showing you that his power works best in weakness that he rose Jesus from the dead in the weakest, most tragic moment on the face of the planet.
SPEAKER_00: This is how you know that God's power works best in weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died for you, cleansed you, so that he might walk with you as your resurrected Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus told one of his disciples, he says, I tell you the truth, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: You remember that stairway in Jacob's dream?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, That's me.
SPEAKER_00: I am the place where God dwells.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, I am the true and better Bethel.
SPEAKER_00: Family, if you have placed your trust in Jesus, you have Bethel with you all the time.
SPEAKER_00: If you have Jesus, Bethel is not only with you, Bethel is in you.
SPEAKER_00: You, wherever you are, in whatever circumstance you are in, you can know that God dwells with you because you have Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus will walk through you through through all of your trials and your sorrows and your troubles.
SPEAKER_00: And we can be certain of this because of his finished work on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Boast in your weaknesses because God dwells there, even when the powerful exploit you, and even when the powerful surround you, and God will fulfill his promises to you no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, thank you for the opportunity to be able to be in your word.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would strengthen us.
SPEAKER_00: That you would be the lifter of our heads.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, that you would make straight paths for us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you will remove every temptation, every inclination to run away from you, to run away from your people when we are weak.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that your power would show up and show out in those places.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, those of us who are here and we're ready to give up on you, Lord, we're ready to lose hope in you, Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you would make that truth explosively alive in our hearts, that you dwell in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, give us strength and draw us deeper into fellowship in you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I pray that you would teach us what it means to boast in our weakness.
SPEAKER_00: For when we are weak, then we are strong.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we love you and thank you for your finished work on our behalf so that we can know that you are with us every step of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.