The After Sermon /// Is God changing your circumstances—or changing you?

Welcome to The After Sermon by Plum Creek Church.

This bite-sized discussion is where we get to sit down with our communicators and ask a few follow up questions connected to the weekend message, unpack it on a deeper level, and explore how it all relates to our journey of following Jesus more fully.

Jacob’s life was filled with deception, conflict, uncertainty, and long seasons when God could have seemed absent. But underneath every twist in his story was a God who never stopped pursuing him.

In this episode of The After Sermon, Daniel sits down with Doug to explore the parts of Jacob’s story that did not make it into the message. They talk about God’s unmistakable faithfulness through Jacob’s years with Laban, the slow nature of spiritual formation, and the collection of moments that transformed the God of Jacob’s ancestors into the God Jacob knew for himself.

Sometimes we want God to change our circumstances. But what if God is using those circumstances to shape us into who he has always intended us to become?

This conversation is also available on our YouTube channel along with the full sermon that this discussion is based on.

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@plumcreekchurch

You can learn more about Plum Creek Church by visiting our website as well.

Website: https://plumcreek.church/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

All right. Welcome to the after sermon where we get to sit down with our communicator from the weekend, Doug Miller. Thank you. Thank you. Well done. Well done. Okay. After sermon flannel graph part two.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Where'd you go and why?

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Mm-hmm. Well, I uh I chose to talk about a story from the Old Testament about a gentleman named Jacob. And I just love his story. Uh it there's so many twists and turns, and I mean it reads like a novel, and yet we can still see just the undercurrent of God's continued pursuit of Jacob all throughout his life. And um, I thought it'd be fun to teach.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

No, that's awesome. No, that's great. So I think something that you kind of hit on right out of the gate was like what we typically think of when we think of Jacob's story, and it's like the the animal hair on the hands and the deception and the stealing of the birthright and all that. Um, but then you chose to focus more on uh God's what God was doing in his life um through underneath all of that, the undercurrent of his life. Talk to us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yeah. Well, I actually think that's the story of Jacob, and I think that's why the story's there in scripture, because as we try and figure out the complexities of our life, not going to be the same details as his, obviously, but we have twists and turns and ups and downs and good and bad, and times that are really fun and times that are really challenging. And as we try and navigate our lives, I think there's lessons to be learned as we look back and read the narrative of Jacob's life to see that God was a God that pursued him. And that even in those moments where we're like, where is God? And he doesn't see him present. And is he paying attention to me? Does he know about my details? There's still a God that loves us and is in the middle of that. And the thread that we see in Jacob's life is the same thread that's in my life and yours, and everyone that's watching us today. That he's a God that continues to pursue. And oftentimes we're just not paying attention the way we should. And it's hard to do. I mean, if we're honest, that's hard to do. When you're going through a really tough time in life, you know, we're wanting God changed my circumstances more than we are. Well, God, what are you trying to teach me at this point?

SPEAKER_01 2:27

We'd much rather just bypass the circumstances.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Right, totally. So, um, yeah, I think that is part of the narrative and it's just a beautiful story.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, totally. So, one of the cool things I think that uh you alluded to as much as possible while maintaining this uh trajectory of these three stops. I love that framework, but you also mentioned like there's so much to Jacob's story that contributes, especially to his like transformation or his recognizing of who God is, not just like what he's done. Um talk to us a little bit about those the parts of his story that just there just wasn't time to get to.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

Yeah. Well, we still don't have time to get to it all. So I encourage you to go back and read Jacob's story, uh, Genesis 25 to 35. And um, one that comes to mind uh as I read it multiple times over the last couple of weeks is when he gets to Laban's house, not only is there's this like difficulty and ended up with the woman that he really loved and serving uh Laban for seven years only to get the wrong sister and then do it again. But throughout the course of their work relationship, he and his father-in-law, he continually changed uh the the his payment schedule. And the way that he was paid was by the way that the animals that he was raising looked. And God's unmistakable favor is on Jacob's life. And so there were like 10 times that the story changes this, like, okay, here's what we're gonna do now, and here's how I will pay.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

It's like moving the goalposts, totally, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

And it's like, well, we were just gonna give you the speckled ones, now we're gonna give you the striped ones, and then all of a sudden, like all the babies are strife, you know, like it's just you just can't miss it. And so his flock continues to grow in significant ways. And I uh here's another one, you know, we we we talk about the complexities of life, his brother wanted to kill him, and his brother-in-laws all wanted to kill him too, because they're seeing this guy's wealth continue to grow because of God's favor on his life. Well, that also means that their wealth is diminishing. And so by the time that Jacob leaves, and he leaves kind of under the cover of you know, like secrecy, they pursue him and come after him. And part of the message that I taught was the conversation that Jacob had with Laban when they met in a field, and his brother-in-law had intention to kill him because he had taken his flocks that were rightly his. Sure. But anyway, so yeah, there's I mean, you can just it's unmistakable though. You can see the threat of God's continued pursuit, his promises being uh true, and uh his favor on Jacob's life. It's pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

So I think my brain like goes straight to this idea of you know, you're talking about like the God who pursues is the same God that shapes us, and like that's formation language. Yeah, totally. Where and then I think you also mentioned this this pivotal moment where Jacob's um memorials shifted and then he built an altar.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Where in his formation journey, what happened in his formation journey that aided or like helped that transform that mental transformation happen in his brain of like, I'm not just worshiping the God who was or what he did, I'm worshiping, I'm worshiping who God is.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

I I think that's complicated because it's the whole story.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

And it starts with him even recognizing this God that I am having this interaction with, that I am watching be true to his promises, was the God of my ancestors. So I think there's something there about his heritage that starts this journey of him knowing this God that was the God of his father and his grandfather. And so that's continuing. But the journey that he's on is that, and this is true for you and me too, where this is not someone else's God, that this becomes my God. And that's the whole story. Like this is we get to this moment as he's coming out of this wrestling with God and this conversation and this blessing and hearing this distinctive challenge for the rest of his life, that he would go back to Bethel and instead of setting up a memorial, set up an altar. And uh, I think it's interesting, even that before he says, if if if God does these things, I will do that. And God did, and he did. Right. And so there's faithfulness to his pursuit of God too. And and even when we don't see it, even when we don't recognize it, uh, if we will stop and we will just really spend intentional time focusing in on what is it that God is doing in me in this season, and how he uses the circumstances of life, all of them, the good and the bad, to craft us into the men and women that he has wanted us to be is beautiful. And that's the story of Jacob. It's it's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

Yeah, I I agree. I think that that's so interesting, like and one of the reasons why Jacob is such an interesting story, because it isn't just like one, it's not just one pivotal moment. There's like multiple moments that stack on top of each other that then form Jacob into the person that he is. Totally. So cool. Well, thank you. You betcha. I really appreciate you coming up here like right after your sermon. No worries. So great. Thanks, guys. All right. If you want to listen to the message that this entire conversation was based on, you can head to our YouTube channel or you can listen wherever you get your podcast. Until next time, thanks so much.