SPEAKER_00: Our scripture reading this morning comes from the book of Genesis.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 28 verses 1 through 22.
SPEAKER_00: If you're using one of our black Bibles, it's on page 21.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't have a Bible, we encourage you to take one of those.
SPEAKER_00: So Genesis 28, 1 through 22.
SPEAKER_00: Please stand for the reading of God's holy and inerrant word.
SPEAKER_00: Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him: You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women.
SPEAKER_00: Arise, go to Padan 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.
SPEAKER_00: God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Padan Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel, the Aramenian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
SPEAKER_00: Now Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padan Aram to take a wife from there, and that as he blessed him, he directed him, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite women, and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Padan Aram.
SPEAKER_00: So when Esau saw that the Canaanite women did not please Isaac his father, Esau went to Ishmael and took his wife, besides the wives he had.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob left Beersheba and went towards Haran.
SPEAKER_00: He came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set.
SPEAKER_00: Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
SPEAKER_00: And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac.
SPEAKER_00: The land on which you lie I will give you and to your offspring.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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 you.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.
SPEAKER_00: And he was afraid and said, How awesome is this place! There is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: So early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar, pouring oil on top of it.
SPEAKER_00: He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.
SPEAKER_00: 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 can come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and the stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house, and all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
unknown: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning, everyone.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to see all of y'all.
SPEAKER_01: All right, let me pray for us.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Peggy, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: Even with a boot on.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Without uh injury, thank you so much for coming up and reading scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Let's let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.
SPEAKER_01: But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
SPEAKER_01: Father, this morning.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: We want to meditate on your word.
SPEAKER_01: On stories like this from Scripture that some of us might be familiar with, but I pray.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would speak to each and every one in this room by your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Refresh us in your word, nurture us in our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen our affections for you, that we might walk in your ways.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so we are continuing on this morning, uh, where we left off last week in Genesis 27.
SPEAKER_01: You'll remember that Isaac was in the process of making sure that his eldest, his favorite son, Esau, uh, received his final blessings.
SPEAKER_01: And without knowing, Isaac's wife, Rebecca, hatches a deceptive plan to get her favorite son, Jacob, those blessings instead.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll remember that when Jacob finally goes in to see his dad, he not only, there's this incredible scene where he not only has delicious food prepared by his mother, but he's dressed in his brother's clothing.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, he's got, he's got goat skin, hands, neck, just in case his blind father touches him, feels him, and notices, this is not my oldest son.
SPEAKER_01: With all these forms of trickery, Jacob dupes his blind father into giving him the blessings that were meant for Esau.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible tells us that Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him.
SPEAKER_01: And Esau said to himself, the days of mourning for my father are approaching, then I will kill my brother.
SPEAKER_01: Somehow, Rebecca finds out about this plan.
SPEAKER_01: And in another way of protecting her favorite son Jacob, she tells him to run away to her brother Laban in a city called Haran.
SPEAKER_01: Just long enough so Esau can calm down and back down from wanting to kill him.
SPEAKER_01: And what I want you to notice from this story, as we head into the next chapter, is just how much Jacob has to face the consequences of his sin.
SPEAKER_01: You see both incidents where he not only steals, kind of manipulates his brother into giving him the firstborn birthrights, explained that a while back, with just a bowl of soup and some bread, but also this deceptive trickery stealing away the firstborn blessings from his brother.
SPEAKER_01: These two incidents, they expose just how obsessed Jacob is with accumulating money and possessions for himself.
SPEAKER_01: That's what they expose.
SPEAKER_01: He sinfully desired to take his father's wealth for himself, and he's willing to do that at any cost.
SPEAKER_01: Even at the cost of a good relationship with his older brother, and even at the cost of his own honor, his own integrity as a son.
SPEAKER_01: So don't you miss that?
SPEAKER_01: We are seeing Jacob and his heart being exposed for what it is.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus had something to say about money and possessions.
SPEAKER_01: He says in Mark 8, 36, for what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but forfeit his soul?
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jacob was what he thought was a fast path to gaining the world and finding significance in life.
SPEAKER_01: But we know that in the end, no amount of money or wealth or possessions can buy us the happiness, the satisfaction, or the significance we all desire in life.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so, if that's the case, if we can gain the whole world yet forfeit our souls, then how do we find true and lasting significance in life?
SPEAKER_01: That's the question I want us to wrestle with today.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, go ahead and turn back with me to Genesis chapter 28.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis chapter 28, we're going to walk through the story that follows Jacob's deception of his father.
SPEAKER_01: And as we walk through the story, I'm going again, I'm going to answer the question: if it's true that we can gain the whole world yet forfeit our souls, then how can we find true and lasting significance in life?
SPEAKER_01: And the first answer I see in this passage is this true significance comes about when you enter into and cultivate a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: True significance comes about when you enter into, and not only enter into, but cultivate a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: I mentioned earlier that Rebecca hatches another plan to get her favorite son Jacob out of harm's way.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at the last verse of Genesis 27, this is verse 46, you'll see how she does this.
SPEAKER_01: It's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01: She doesn't do it directly, she does it indirectly.
SPEAKER_01: Read there with me, verse 46.
SPEAKER_01: Then Rebekah said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the Hittite woman.
SPEAKER_01: 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?
SPEAKER_01: So you notice she doesn't outright tell Isaac what to do, but she she kind of indirectly makes her point.
SPEAKER_01: You see, in Genesis 26, we find out that Esau, when he was 40 years old, he married two women from among the Canaanites.
SPEAKER_01: They were the Hittites.
SPEAKER_01: They're two Hittite women named Judith and Basmath.
SPEAKER_01: Now the Hittites were one of the many people groups living in the land of Canaan back in the day.
SPEAKER_01: And somehow these Hittite women, we don't know exactly why, they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebekah.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the scripture tells us.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that she loathes her life.
SPEAKER_01: She literally hates her life, Rebekah says, because of these Hittite wives that her oldest son married.
SPEAKER_01: And again, it's indirect, but what she says to Isaac is enough to clue him in to what he says next, what he does next.
SPEAKER_01: So that's that's where we start off in Genesis 28, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Look down there with me.
SPEAKER_01: Then Isaac called Jacob and blessed him and directed him, You must not take a wife from the Canaanite woman.
SPEAKER_01: Arise, go to Padan 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.
SPEAKER_01: So Isaac, in response to his wife's words, he gets the point.
SPEAKER_01: He gets the message.
SPEAKER_01: And it's just enough for him to understand that he commands Jacob to very specifically head back to his uncle's home, Rebekah's brother's home, to the house of his maternal grandmother, uh, grandfather, and find a wife from specifically among his cousins.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very specific command.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples.
SPEAKER_01: May he give the blessings 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.
SPEAKER_01: Thus Isaac sent Jacob away, and he went to Panan Aram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Aramean, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob's and Esau's mother.
SPEAKER_01: Now at this point, what I want you to see is that when Isaac blesses Jacob, he's finally, Isaac is finally aligning himself with the will of God.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see that.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I mean.
SPEAKER_01: You remember the prophetic words that Rebecca received when she was still pregnant with her two boys in the womb?
SPEAKER_01: I have it on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis 25 says, This was the prophetic word given to her, because she was wondering why she was in so much pain when she was pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: And the prophet said, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples are within you.
SPEAKER_01: From within you shall be divided.
SPEAKER_01: The young, the one shall be stronger than the other.
SPEAKER_01: The older shall serve the younger.
SPEAKER_01: And I think the events of last week's passage in Genesis 27, it just points to how Isaac was desperately trying to go against the words of this prophecy.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he loved Esau more than he loved Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: And if you notice, what Isaac was trying to do was he intended to give the blessings he accidentally gave to Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: He intended that for Esau.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he thought he was giving to in the first place, right?
SPEAKER_01: But in God's sovereign plan, even though it came through Jacob's deception, Isaac accidentally gave those blessings to Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: But we know this was no accident.
SPEAKER_01: Because God planned all along for the blessings of Abraham to go through the line of Jacob, who'd one day father Judah, who among his twelve brothers was handpicked by God to be the man whose line through whom came the ultimate offspring, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Isaac was learning the truths of Proverbs 19, 21.
SPEAKER_01: Many are the plans of the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.
SPEAKER_01: Now we see in this next section, the Bible tells us a little bit more about what Esau does in response.
SPEAKER_01: And we find out that he actually overhears or figures out that Jacob was told by Isaac not to marry any woman from the land of Canaan, which is unfortunately something he has already done.
SPEAKER_01: Not just once, but twice.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what happens next, verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: So when Esau saw that the Canaanite woman did not please Isaac, his father, Esau, went to Ishmael and took as his wife, besides the wives he had, Mahaleth, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Naboeth.
SPEAKER_01: And you'll recall that Ishmael was the son of Abraham and his wife's servant Hagar.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells us that after Hagar and Ishmael were thrown out of the household, Ishmael and his descendants eventually settle from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt, in the direction of Assyria.
SPEAKER_01: So I've got a map up here.
SPEAKER_01: There you go, kind of small, sorry.
SPEAKER_01: But the green, so you see the Mediterranean Sea on the left, Israel's right there.
SPEAKER_01: What's in the green is supposed to show you generally where the Ishmaelites settled.
SPEAKER_01: That's just what the map shows.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of where the northwestern peninsula, uh northwestern portion of the Arabian Peninsula is today.
SPEAKER_01: And Esau decides kind of to please his father, kind of make up for his mistakes, he goes and takes a third wife from among the Ishmaelites.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why does the Bible leave this passage in here?
SPEAKER_01: Like, why does this detail, why is this detail important?
SPEAKER_01: Well, remember how Abraham, towards the end of his life, he was adamant that his servant not take a wife from the land of Canaan for Isaac his son.
SPEAKER_01: You remember that?
SPEAKER_01: And so he tells his servant specifically to go back to his homeland to find a wife for Isaac from among his own family.
SPEAKER_01: Well, instead, Esau does something the opposite of what Abraham had wanted his son Isaac to, who to marry.
SPEAKER_01: So one commentator points out that unlike Isaac, who married one girl from Abraham's family, Esau marries two Hittite women.
SPEAKER_01: When Abraham's intense concern that Isaac should on no account marry a Canaanite is recalled, it's somewhat unexpected that Esau should marry two.
SPEAKER_01: And once we realize that neither Esau nor Isaac care about Abraham's principle of not marrying Canaanites, we can't entirely condemn the way Jacob and Rebekah achieved their goals.
SPEAKER_01: Esau's indifference to the law's demands, which Abraham held so dear, suggests that perhaps he does not deserve to inherit Abraham's blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So a bit of commentary just on this section.
SPEAKER_01: Like, why does this exist in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: Let's move on to verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.
SPEAKER_01: And taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so in this next scene, we find Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: And he's all alone.
SPEAKER_01: He's facing the consequences of his actions.
SPEAKER_01: He's fleeing from an older brother who's out to murder him.
SPEAKER_01: And we're told he leaves from his home in Beersheba and heads to a distant place called City of Haran, which is in an area called Padan Aram.
SPEAKER_01: So got a map just to show you just how challenging a trek like this would have been.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he's in Beersheba, he's heading to Iran, and that star represents where he finds a place to rest that night.
SPEAKER_01: And something incredible happens to him at that point.
SPEAKER_01: Look down at verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: And he dreamed.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, there was a ladder set up on earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it.
SPEAKER_01: Now it's been pointed out that angels in the Old Testament are conceived of as looking after different nations and their territories and as patrolling the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And so one possible interpretation is that the ascending angels are those responsible for Jacob's homeland, and the descending ones are responsible for the foreign land to which he was going.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, this vision of angels in a dream is an assurance of God's protection of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I've done what I have promised you.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it continues to amaze me just how much God showers his blessings and mercy and his grace on completely undeserving people.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, so far in this story, there's really not much to commend about Jacob, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's not much to commend.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, here in this dream, God promises Jacob more than he could imagine.
SPEAKER_01: And it's simply because God chose to do so.
SPEAKER_01: You remember in Romans chapter 9, the Bible tells us that God chose Jacob over Esau even before they were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue.
SPEAKER_01: Not because of works, but because of him who calls.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if I were to point fingers at Jacob and just wonder how in the world could Jacob be such a recipient, an undeserved recipient of blessings like this from God after all he's said and done, I only have to look at my own life and be utterly confounded by the same undeserving love God has shown me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you were to tell me as a 16-year-old, a porn-addicted, grade-idolizing, popularity-seeking young man as I was, that God had a plan for me, not only to be porn-free one day, but to walk in newness of life and help others walk in newness of life.
SPEAKER_01: As a pastor, I would not have believed you.
SPEAKER_01: And it just blows my mind how vast and deep and wide and unsearchable are the riches of God's mercy towards those he's chosen to love from before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when Jacob awakens from his sleep and realizes something special about the place he was in, he takes this stone that was under his head and sets it up as a pillar and he pours oil on it, and he names the place Bethel, which means house of God.
SPEAKER_01: And then he makes, this is what I want you to see, most importantly, this vow.
SPEAKER_01: He makes this interesting vow to the Lord in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Look down there with me.
SPEAKER_01: If God will be with me and 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.
SPEAKER_01: Future tense.
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house.
SPEAKER_01: And all that you give me, I will give, a full tenth to you.
SPEAKER_01: Notice those future tenses that he uses.
SPEAKER_01: When Jacob, what Jacob is saying here tells us something really, really important about where he is spiritually in his life right now.
SPEAKER_01: You realize that Jacob is essentially giving a condition to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And he's saying that if God, you take care of me, you protect me, you watch over me, not only to Haran, but back home, then you will be my God.
SPEAKER_01: Which means at present, the Lord wasn't his own God.
SPEAKER_01: He wasn't all in yet with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to notice something else.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how when God first appears to Jacob in this dream, he says, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not until the whole next book over in Exodus chapter 3, verse 6, when God appears to Moses in the burning bush that he uses these words to describe himself.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: So somewhere along the way between Genesis 28 and Exodus chapter 3, something changes.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord turns from being just another God out there somewhere for someone else to worship, to being a God who Jacob himself loves, trusts, and worships.
SPEAKER_01: You see that?
SPEAKER_01: What this tells us is that in every new generation, no matter how much previous generations have loved and trusted and worshiped in the Lord, every new generation has to re-establish and reaffirm their own personal faith in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: One more evidence for this is that after Jacob spends the next 20 years with his uncle Laban, he's told by God to return to this very place in Bethel and make an altar there.
SPEAKER_01: After all, God has uh he's he's watched over Jacob, he's protected him, and he's now bringing him back to his homeland.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible points out how Jacob tells his household and all who are with him to put away the foreign gods that are among you.
SPEAKER_01: And he leaves all his idols under a terabinth tree that was near Shechem.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: So to me, this indicates a decisive moment in Jacob's life to turn away from worshiping idols and leading his family from turning away from worshiping idols to turning to Jesus, not turning to God to be his own personal God.
SPEAKER_01: It's a moment of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And my point is that faith doesn't just automatically transfer from one generation to the next.
SPEAKER_01: And the story of Jacob's ladder and God showing up to him in a dream is meant to show how the God of the universe pursues and woos his elect, as unworthy and as undeserving as they are.
SPEAKER_01: He draws them to himself over the course of time into a relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: And God was showing Jacob just how much more satisfying being in a relationship with him was than all the possessions that money could buy.
SPEAKER_01: I still remember back in college, I studied sociology.
SPEAKER_01: Sociology teaches this idea of socialization, which is essentially that who you are, what you believe is a direct result, or at least a very important factor.
SPEAKER_01: Who you are, what you believe is influenced significantly by where you grew up, who your parents are, what kind of faith they had, who your friends were, did you or did you not go to church?
SPEAKER_01: All of that, all of your environment shapes who you are in very significant ways.
SPEAKER_01: Not saying that that's completely off, but it really bothered me because I wondered, well, if I if I had not grown up with Christian parents, if they did not raise me up in the church, would I still have faith in God?
SPEAKER_01: What if you just picked me up out of this environment, dropped me down in another environment, would my faith stay intact?
SPEAKER_01: Summer after my freshman year, God gave me a chance to test that question, answer that question right on.
SPEAKER_01: And he did it through a summer study abroad experience.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you have been on study abroad experiences.
SPEAKER_01: I spent about two months in the nation of Japan.
SPEAKER_01: He literally picked me up out of Houston, Texas, where I was born and raised, dropped me down in Japan where I knew nobody.
SPEAKER_01: I had a host family that didn't follow Christ.
SPEAKER_01: I could be anyone I wanted to be.
SPEAKER_01: I could do anything I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_01: I could go to church, I could not go to church.
SPEAKER_01: I could tell people I'm a Christian or not.
SPEAKER_01: So the Lord gave me a chance to test that out.
SPEAKER_01: You know what?
SPEAKER_01: In those weeks in Japan when I could have done anything I wanted to, and be as far as I could from God, the exact opposite happened.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe it was a result of just being isolated from loved ones so far away on the other side of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But there was something about those weeks in Japan, those months in Japan, that drew me closer to God like never before.
SPEAKER_01: My host mother, not a Christian, had a phone book or something that she looked up, a looked up a church that I could walk to.
SPEAKER_01: Japanese-speaking church.
SPEAKER_01: I knew I knew understood nothing really of the service.
SPEAKER_01: Thankfully, the pastor knew English.
SPEAKER_01: But I just sat there.
SPEAKER_01: And it you don't, you don't, it's hard to explain, but there's just still something special about sitting in a service where you don't understand anything.
SPEAKER_01: You're in the presence of God with the presence of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: But there was something about that summer that solidified my conviction that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord and Savior of my life.
SPEAKER_01: And it doesn't matter if I'm in Houston, Texas, or in Tokyo, Japan.
SPEAKER_01: He's Lord over my life.
SPEAKER_01: God was drawing me closer and closer to him through experience after experience as a young man, just like he did with Jacob in our story today.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to speak for a moment to those of you here who don't consider yourselves a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Do you see yourself in Jacob?
SPEAKER_01: Do you see yourself in Jacob chasing after the things of this world as you search for significance in life?
SPEAKER_01: There may come a day where, just like Jacob, everything you've accumulated or sought to accumulate or build in your life just crashes in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: That's where Jacob was, all alone in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: And you experience just how disappointing and unsatisfying whatever you were chasing really is.
SPEAKER_01: You realize how it never can fulfill you or bring you the satisfaction or sense of significance you were hoping for.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus Christ laid down his life on the cross, shedding his blood for you and for me, so that none of us would have to hopelessly chase after things in this world, ultimately to find disappointment.
SPEAKER_01: Because he knows that the only way that we could find significance in this life is to find that sense of significance in a relationship with God alone.
SPEAKER_01: So I urge you to turn away from chasing after worthless idols.
SPEAKER_01: And turn to Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life.
SPEAKER_01: He paid the cost of your sins so that you wouldn't have to pay for it yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And he offers to all those who place their faith in him forgiveness of sins, past, present, and future, and the gift of eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: A relationship with him that lasts not only in this life but in the life to come.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to learn more about what it means to be in a relationship with Jesus, how to cultivate one, come find me after service or speak to someone here at our church.
SPEAKER_01: It's my brothers and sisters in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Whenever you feel like your heart is growing cold towards God, towards his gospel, I want you to bring to mind your own story of how he patiently walked with you through your doubts and your struggles, just like he did with me as a college student.
SPEAKER_01: He was patient with you.
SPEAKER_01: And think about this idea.
SPEAKER_01: Was there anything worthy or deserving in you that make God want to choose you to be in a relationship with?
SPEAKER_01: Did you, because you were so amazing, just somehow wake up one morning and say, ah, I want to follow Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Or did God painstakingly stoop down into the drama of your life and slowly begin to draw you to Himself over a long period of time, giving you the eyes to see and the ears to hear the gospel when it was finally presented to you?
SPEAKER_01: Who played the ultimate and decisive factor in your salvation?
SPEAKER_01: You see, thinking about these things will warm your heart towards the Lord once again.
SPEAKER_01: Remind you just how great his love for you is for such undeserving sinner like you and me.
SPEAKER_01: And church, the story of Jacob should remind us how we can't neglect the work of intercessory prayer for those who are far from God but close to us, including our own kids.
SPEAKER_01: The story of Jacob teaches us that no one can ride the coattails of their parents' faith into heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We must all individually come to terms with who Jesus Christ is and whether or not he is our God.
SPEAKER_01: Not just a God out there for others to worship, but our God.
SPEAKER_01: And so pray we must for those whom we love that God would grant them faith and repentance unto salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And so back to the question if we can gain the whole world yet forfeit our soul, how can we find true and lasting significance in life?
SPEAKER_01: The first answer I saw on this passage is that true significance comes about when you enter into and cultivate a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: And the second one is this true significance comes about when you leverage your life.
SPEAKER_01: Everything about your life.
SPEAKER_01: When you leverage your life for the purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: So I want to go back to this passage and I want to point out two specific things that you don't want to miss.
SPEAKER_01: When God shows up to Jacob, he promises Jacob something he specifically hasn't done before to his father Isaac or his grandfather Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, look down there.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, the Lord stood above it.
SPEAKER_01: That was the ladder.
SPEAKER_01: This is a dream, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring.
SPEAKER_01: Now, so far the promise given to Jacob here is nothing new.
SPEAKER_01: He said those things to both Abraham and Isaac.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing new.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Now when God says that he promises that his offspring will be like the dust of the field, dust of the earth, or as innumerable as the stars of heaven, those promises are all already, they've been given.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham and Isaac, it's nothing new.
SPEAKER_01: What's new is right in the middle of that.
SPEAKER_01: And he also talks about offspring being a blessing to all the families of there.
SPEAKER_01: So none of those things are new.
SPEAKER_01: But what's new is right in the middle.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: God adds on top of his previous promises to Abraham and Isaac that Jacob's offspring will spread abroad to the east and to the west and to the north and to the south.
SPEAKER_01: That is new.
SPEAKER_01: That's different.
SPEAKER_01: That's important.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we can interpret this one of two ways, at least.
SPEAKER_01: And the first is to interpret it as simply the ethnic Jews that have descended from the line of Jacob and how they eventually filled the land of Canaan and beyond.
SPEAKER_01: And now, even to this day, we know that Jews are all over this world.
SPEAKER_01: But another way to interpret this is to connect these words to how it would be fulfilled, that in the spreading of these people, there would be the blessing of all the families of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus tells his disciples just before he returns to heaven that you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth, we realize that God's promises to Jacob in Genesis 28 are ultimately fulfilled as the church of Jesus Christ spreads from Jerusalem to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south.
SPEAKER_01: And this has come about by missionaries going out, spreading the gospel to new lands, not only in the days of the early church, but even in our day.
SPEAKER_01: This has also come about when Christians migrate from one land to another, whether for work reasons, to pursue a better life, or to escape persecution or war or harm.
SPEAKER_01: You see, we know that there are Jews all over this world.
SPEAKER_01: But what separates the Jewish diaspora from the global church is that only one of these groups has the ability to bring blessing to all the families of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: One more thing to show you.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22.
SPEAKER_01: The last part of Jacob's vow, he says that if God you will bring me safely back home, I will give you a full tenth of all that you've given me.
SPEAKER_01: Now, where does Jacob get this idea of giving God a full tenth?
SPEAKER_01: Or in other words, a tithe to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the only other time in the book of Genesis where this whole idea of giving a tenth to someone, someone gives a tenth to someone else, is in Genesis 14.
SPEAKER_01: When Abraham, after going to war against these kings and their people, because they had kidnapped Lot, he brings the spoils of war and gives a tenth to a man named Melchizedek.
SPEAKER_01: He was a king of Salem, but the Bible also tells us that he was a priest of the Most High.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only other time in Genesis where a tenth was given from someone to another person.
SPEAKER_01: And what I want you to notice is that Jacob is vowing that if God were to bring him safely home, not only would the God of his fathers be his own personal God, but that he would express his newfound commitment to the Lord by giving him of his wealth and possessions.
SPEAKER_01: That's an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_01: Now the reality is that the Lord has no need for Jacob to give him anything.
SPEAKER_01: He has no need for us or anyone else to give him anything.
SPEAKER_01: He's completely sufficient in and of himself.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 50, verse 10 through 12.
SPEAKER_01: For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
SPEAKER_01: I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.
SPEAKER_01: If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
SPEAKER_01: Acts chapter 17, verse 24 to 25.
SPEAKER_01: The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
SPEAKER_01: So if God doesn't need anything from us, why do we see in scriptures from the Old Testament to the New people offering sacrifices to the Lord or giving back to the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Why does that even happen?
SPEAKER_01: And why, as it's been pointed out, does Jesus talk more about money and possessions more than he talks about heaven and hell combined?
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to answer those questions by attempting to summarize what the Bible says about money and possessions.
SPEAKER_01: Here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Number one.
SPEAKER_01: Because we were born with inherently sinful natures, our hearts are bent towards the worship of false gods and false idols, including the worship of money.
SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important to note that Jacob vows to give God a full tenth of his possessions in light of the fact that he's struggled so much for most of his life with a love of money.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot serve God and money.
SPEAKER_01: Number two, when a person repents of sin and trusts in Jesus as their Lord and Savior, one area where the Holy Spirit begins to go to work on in our lives is our love and worship and trust of money and possessions.
SPEAKER_01: Again, we cannot serve both God and money.
SPEAKER_01: Number three, the way God begins to transform this part of our lives is by changing our perspective on what money is and what its value is to us.
SPEAKER_01: You'll remember that Jesus said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
SPEAKER_01: For where your treasure is, there your heart also will be.
SPEAKER_01: And once we see money as a simply a tool given to us to provide for our families and to provide for ourselves, and then also to advance God's purposes in this world, we will begin to leverage our resources to honor God rather than to serve our own heart idols.
SPEAKER_01: Number four.
SPEAKER_01: God's desire for his children in how to handle money is that we learn the joy of generosity and begin to live lives where being generous towards others and generous towards the needs of this world, especially the expansion of the global church through the spread of the gospel, is just a part of normal Christian living.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy 6, 17 through 19.
SPEAKER_01: As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of what is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: Number five, we are to keep our lives free from love of money and be content with what we have, trusting that God will supply every need of ours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So here's the connection I want to make for you guys between verse 14, where God promises Jacob that his offspring is going to spread to the east, west, north, south, and be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: And then what Jacob does in verse 22 in offering a full tenth to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Jacob turns from being a lover of money into someone who leverages his money for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I see.
SPEAKER_01: And more broadly speaking, when God turns selfish money worshippers like us into generous givers through the power of the Spirit, it is then the generosity of the church that fuels the spread of the gospel around the world through the planting of new churches.
SPEAKER_01: True significance comes when we leverage our lives for the purpose of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's of course in the context of an overflow of a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Not apart from that.
SPEAKER_01: Just last month I was at an event where the CEO of a Bible translation organization called the Sea Company explained why his organization exists.
SPEAKER_01: There are over 7,300 known languages in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And back in the 1990s, there were just so many languages left to translate the Bible into.
SPEAKER_01: A man who was leading Wycliffe Bible translators became the first president of the Seed Company, and they came up with different innovations to get this accelerated, to tackle the problem of Bible poverty around the world.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the innovations was instead of using foreign missionaries to live for decades with people and learn their language and teach it back to them and then start translating the Bible, they used local indigenous people to help this process and speed it up.
SPEAKER_01: And Bernie had an audacious goal at the very beginning, when the seed company was just started, to raise enough funds for 10 new languages to have the Bible translated fully into their language at a rate of$10,000 for the next 10 years.
SPEAKER_01: That's$100,000.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: By God's grace, Bernie found generous givers to do this and to fund it.
SPEAKER_01: It's a million dollars.
SPEAKER_01: And that was in the 90s.
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward to today, there are still over 500 languages with no scriptures in their language whatsoever.
SPEAKER_01: And the Seed Company and other Bible translation organizations are hoping to get the Bible translated into the remaining languages as soon as possible.
SPEAKER_01: And once these Bibles are in the hands of indigenous peoples, there's still going to be a great need for pastors and missionaries to go into that people to explain what the Bible says, to teach them the Word of God and the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: And all of this can happen only as God's people continue to give generously the funds needed for these efforts to happen for the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Again, when God turns selfish money worshipers like us into generous givers through the power of the Spirit, it is then the generosity of the church that fuels the spread of the gospel through the planting of churches around the world.
SPEAKER_01: You see, true significance comes about when we leverage our lives and everything about our lives and all our resources for the glory of God and for the purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: So, parents, as you raise up your kids in your home, take advantage of the time you have before they leave for college and cast a wider vision for your kids than simply to make good grades, to build their resumes, to get into the best college that they can so that they can get the best job that they can, so they can make money and afford a nice, comfortable lifestyle in the neighborhood of their choice, so they can raise their own families and do this whole cycle again.
SPEAKER_01: Cast a wider vision for your children than that.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, cast a grand vision, a grander picture for your kids of how they could leverage their skills, their passions, their resources for the glory of God and the spread of the gospel around the world.
SPEAKER_01: Help them see that they could very well play a very tangible role in fulfilling the Great Commission by becoming a missionary to an unreached language group.
SPEAKER_01: Or they could simply use their skills and find a job in a place somewhere else in the world where there are unreached language groups that live there.
SPEAKER_01: And they could join a church and be a great member, a faithful member in that church.
SPEAKER_01: And as they work and as they live and as they play, share the gospel with the people around them.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have to give up their jobs, their careers, their callings, their skills to make a difference for the glory of God around the world.
SPEAKER_01: And help them develop eyes to see the gospel needs around the world by praying at home regularly for unreached language groups.
SPEAKER_01: We've got, I brought more copies of the prayer guide, Gospel Ambition, over there on the resource table.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have one for your family, grab one for your family and use it regularly.
SPEAKER_01: Christian, put yourself in Jacob's shoes.
SPEAKER_01: This is for the rest of you.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself, what would it look like for you to turn from being a lover of money into someone who loves to leverage your money for the glory of God, just like Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: I think all of us can grow more in this area.
SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna just land here on one specific area, and that's the area of giving.
SPEAKER_01: You see, if you don't currently have a habit of financially giving anything to the work of God around this world, I want to encourage you to start with giving to your local church.
SPEAKER_01: Give something, anything, regularly to the work of the local church.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a regular giver already, work your way up to giving at least 10% of your income.
SPEAKER_01: If you're at 1 to 2% now, work your way up to 5%.
SPEAKER_01: If you're at 5%, work your way up to 7 and on.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're already giving your full tithe of your income to your local church, I want to challenge you to consider giving even more and beyond 10%.
SPEAKER_01: And this is where giving strategically to other causes of Christ in this world comes in.
SPEAKER_01: You see, I notice that if you go online, there are countless articles, there are countless conversations about which stocks and which mutual funds to invest in.
SPEAKER_01: Like people want to know what's the best place to put our money in for the best return on investment.
SPEAKER_01: And what I want to say is that I think Christians would do well to have more conversations and chat about and put online articles about, at least tell each other, inform each other where strategic places, where strategic missions organizations, where strategic efforts around this world will give us the best spiritual return on investment.
SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
SPEAKER_01: We don't talk about that enough.
SPEAKER_01: And so if our overall goal is to give our dollars to see healthy churches planted around the world, especially among the 3,100 or so unreached language groups left in this world, I want to give you several categories for you to think about as you consider where your money goes.
SPEAKER_01: First, you've got missionary training organizations that take aspiring missionaries from their churches and they train them on how to learn a new language, to endure harsh conditions, and to plant churches among unreached language groups.
SPEAKER_01: I think Radius International is a great organization that does this well.
SPEAKER_01: Second, there are missions sending agencies that take on active missionaries under their wings, and they provide the necessary infrastructure for them to be on the field, whether that's through human resource needs, whether that's through managing donor funds or relations, and I think reaching and teaching international ministries, OMF International, they're good examples in this category.
SPEAKER_01: Then you've got the third category, Bible translation organizations like the Seed Company or Wycliffe Bible translators, and they specialize in getting the Bible translated into yet unreached languages around the world.
SPEAKER_01: And last thing, you've got specific missionaries you might know, or even people who are locals on the field who already know the language or at least the trade language of unreached language groups.
SPEAKER_01: They live right there, they know the culture, and they're focused on planting and strengthening churches all around the world.
SPEAKER_01: My point in giving you these categories is that all these are different options where we as the people of God have the opportunity to leverage our resources for the spread of the gospel through the planting of new churches.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you want to learn anything more about any of these organizations or you're interested in funding some of these efforts, I want you to come find me after service.
SPEAKER_01: So if it's true, church, that we can gain the whole world and yet forfeit our souls, what's it gonna take to find true and lasting significance in life?
SPEAKER_01: First, make sure you seek significance in life and nothing other than in a relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: Second, out of an overflow of that relationship, learn to leverage your life, your resources, everything you have for the glory and the purposes of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so to close our time together, I want to give you some time to pause and just reflect, listen to what the Holy Spirit wants to bring to your mind, might be wanting you to do, to think or feel differently because of this passage and because of what you've just heard.
SPEAKER_01: So take a moment, ask God what He wants you to take away from this message, and then spend some time in prayer for whatever response you want to have to God is.