Stairway To Heaven

Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to the book of Genesis.

! Book of Genesis, our passage this morning is chapter 28, verses 10 through 22.

Isaiah 28:10–22

We've been walking through the book of Genesis and continuing that series this morning as we make our way here in the section of Jacob and Esau and this famous passage of Jacob's ladder, stairway to heaven.

I promised our musicians there'd be no guitar solos this morning, but we will take a look at this glorious vision of the Lord.

So if you would, when you found that Genesis 28, 10 through 22, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's word this morning.

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.

And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.

And taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep.

And he dreamed.

And behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven.

And behold, angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac.

The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring.

Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south.

And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land where I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.

And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place.

This is none other than the house of God.

And this is the gate of heaven.

So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at the first.

Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace,

then the Lord shall be my God and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house.

And of all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Would you pray with me?

Father, we ask now as we open up your word that you would meet with us.

And that you would speak to us.

And that you would reveal yourself to us.

And you would assure us of all your promises to us in Christ.

We pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Well, some of you know that I took a quick trip, very quick trip to New York last week.

I'd been to upstate New York before.

I had some family up there in upstate New York, but never been to the New York, to the city, New York City.

Before.

And we took just about every form of transportation known to man to arrive to the city.

We drove to the airport here in Charleston.

And then an airplane from Charleston over to JFK.

And then from JFK, we had to take an air train to the subway station where we got on a subway train,

which took us to our stop.

And finally, once we arrived there, we crawled up out of the underground with all of our luggage.

And we looked up and we were somewhere wandering in the streets of New York City.

And from that point forward, for the rest of the day, we just started walking up and down the street,

this street and that street, walking all over the place, soaking in as much as we could see.

We were on a mission because we had two days to see as much of New York City as we could possibly cram in.

And my watch, my Fitbit, it said that we walked about 26,000 steps that day, which is highly unusual for us.

We're not used to that sort of walking.

But even as we walked and saw all these different sites, we really only had just kind of this small perspective of where we were.

We were locked in with buildings on either side.

We couldn't see beyond those buildings to the next street over here.

We really just had a ground level view of the city.

That is until that night, later that night.

We went to the Rockefeller Center and we got into this elevator that took us up to the top of the tallest building in the Rockefeller Center.

It went up 70 floors to where we were now 850 feet above the street level down below.

And from way up there, we had a view of the whole city.

And so now finally, we had a whole big picture perspective of the grand thing that we had been walking through that entire day.

We had a much better, broader perspective than we had down at the ground level.

We were no longer walking on a mission, putting one foot in front of the next, trying to make it to the next stop.

We were still, and we could see with a greater perspective the entire city.

We could look and see, oh, there's that street that we walked down earlier this morning.

And we got a bagel from over here.

And oh, there's the Statue of Liberty.

We rode past that on the ferry this morning.

And oh, there's the Empire State Building.

We walked all around it all day long, and we never had a great view until now.

We could finally pause and get perspective on our journey.

And I thought this week, as I read this passage about Jacob's journey here to Haran,

I thought, you know, sometimes our life can feel a bit like this, can't it?

You and I can get so busy.

We live down on the ground level.

And so week to week, day to day, we get so preoccupied with just putting one step in front of the next.

So busy and preoccupied with navigating to the next stop and making it to the next attraction.

That we can lose sight of the big picture.

Some of you, I know that your work is so difficult, you're just trying to survive and make it to the next day.

Others of you, I know, are raising children.

And I know that between the practices and between the events and between the parties,

just keeping the fridge stocked up, that is a battle every single week.

Others of you maybe are past all that.

You're retired, you're empty nesters, and maybe the slowness of your journey has left you feeling like you've lost a sense of purpose.

And what we all need more than anything is to pause and to have God give us a big picture perspective on our journey.

And that's exactly what God does for Jacob here in our passage this morning.

Jacob, as far as he's concerned, you remember he is on a journey to go and find a wife.

His head is down.

He's on a mission.

He's got one step in front of the next.

He's on his way.

But on his way, God interrupts this journey and gives him this big picture reminder that puts everything in perspective.

And so let's take a look this morning and what we'll see is three parts of the journey.

Three parts of the journey.

This will be our outline this morning if you're taking notes.

And what we'll see is that these three summaries of Jacob's journey, they overlap and they are also three parts of our journey in Christ.

Our journey, like Jacob's, involves fleeing, meeting, and responding.

Fleeing, fleeing, meeting, and responding first.

We see the journey involves fleeing.

If you look there with me starting in verse 10.

You remember Jacob is leaving Beersheba and he's heading towards Haran.

And do you remember why he's doing this in the first place?

Do you remember why he's setting out on this journey?

It's two main reasons why.

For one thing, he's leaving because his brother Esau wants to kill him.

And that's a pretty good reason to get up and leave, isn't it?

Now you remember what happened.

Jacob has lied and cheated his way into this blessing that belonged to Esau.

And so we saw this last week.

Jacob tricked his father Isaac and he inherited this blessing.

And so now Esau is fed up with all this trickery.

He's fed up with Jacob and his cheating and he wants him dead.

So Jacob hits the road.

That's one reason.

But a second reason why Jacob's on this journey is because his parents, Isaac and Rebekah,

they want Jacob to marry a nice young woman.

In other words, not a Hittite woman.

Not a Canaanite woman.

And they want him to go and find one of their kinsmen.

They want him to go find Laban and marry one of Laban's daughters.

In other words, they don't want him to behave like Esau.

You remember how Esau married these Hittite women and it made life miserable.

It says it made life bitter for Isaac and for Rebekah.

And so second reason why Jacob's on his journey, he does not want to be like Esau.

Now think about these two reasons here for a minute.

Flee your enemy for one thing and do not behave like him for another.

Flee your enemy and do not behave like him.

On the ground level, if we just stay here in the immediate context,

Jacob is on the run from his brother.

His brother's mad at him.

We understand this.

This is a dysfunctional family.

But you zoom out a little bit and you remember there is a bigger picture at play here, isn't there?

There's a bigger conflict at play here than just this family drama.

If you remember all the way back from Genesis chapter 3, the Lord promised, he told the serpent,

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring.

And so we know there's going to be ongoing conflict, ongoing enmity between the offspring of that serpent,

Satan, and the offspring of the Lord.

But ultimately, God promises, he says, I will send one offspring who will crush the head of the serpent.

The enemy is at work here through Esau to try and snuff out this promise of a coming snake crusher.

The enemy does not want the Messiah to come.

He knows, of course, God has promised that this Messiah is going to come through Jacob.

And so now he wants to try and snuff this out and destroy the coming Messiah before he even comes.

Jacob's not just on the run from his angry brother, is he?

Jacob is on the run from all the powers of darkness.

Jacob is on the run from the enemy Satan that not only wants to crush him,

but wants to make sure that none of God's promises come true for him.

Christian, I wonder if you realize that the same is true for you.

If you are in Christ,

Do you realize that you, like Jacob, have been blessed by the Father?

That we haven't cheated and schemed our way into this blessing.

By his grace, Ephesians 1 tells us that by his grace,

God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

He says,

In him we have redemption through his blood.

In him we have the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

He says,

In him we have obtained an inheritance.

And we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.

Here's the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory.

We have been blessed in such incredible ways in Christ.

And do you realize that the enemy is not happy about this?

Do you realize that the enemy makes it his personal mission

to try to keep you from realizing the promises of God for you in Christ?

You know, we get so distracted with our heads down in the weeds of our life,

just one step in front of the next,

navigating to the next stop,

making our way to the next thing,

that we can forget we are being pursued by a spiritual enemy who wants us dead.

The enemy hates that you've been blessed by God.

He hates that we have this beautiful inheritance ahead of us in Christ.

Do you realize he hates you and wants to destroy you?

Are you fleeing from your enemy?

Not only this, but are you pursuing righteousness?

Are you fleeing from him?

And are you by the grace of God working and laboring to be different than him?

You remember Jacob's second reason.

He's fleeing the danger, but he's also,

he's distancing himself from the ways of Esau.

He's trying to not be like Esau.

He wants to behave differently and have a different pursuit.

The same is true of us, Christian.

We're called to flee the enemy and we're called to not be like him.

I've heard someone say before that no one naturally drifts towards holiness.

Have you found that to be true in your own life?

You take your foot off the gas pedal, where do you drift?

You don't drift towards Christ.

You drift towards the ways of the world, don't you?

We have to pursue holiness, pursue righteousness by the grace of God.

And so we're told in the pages of the New Testament,

flee from sexual immorality, 1 Corinthians 6.

Flee from idolatry, 1 Corinthians 10.

Flee youthful passions, 2 Timothy 2.

And not only that, it says, but also pursue righteousness,

pursue faith, pursue love, pursue peace.

And not by yourself, but pursue this along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Christian, we need to pause and be reminded and not get so down in the weeds of our life,

putting one step in front of the next that we forget that there is an enemy to be resisted

and there is righteousness to be pursued.

And we see here, first, our journey is marked by fleeing.

Not only this, second, second, our journey is also marked by meeting.

Our journey is marked by meeting.

Look there to verse 11.

Jacob flees and on his way, verse 11 says,

he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun has set.

And he's just so tired from this journey, he lays down to rest.

He gets a stone for a pillow.

I don't know how tired you got to be, but apparently he was exhausted.

He goes to sleep with a stone for his pillow.

And it says, as he sleeps, he dreams.

And what does he dream?

Verse 12 says, behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth.

We could also call it a stairway.

And at the top of the ladder, it reached all the way up from the bottom of the ground,

all the way up to heaven.

And behold, what does he see?

The angels of God are ascending and descending on the ladder.

They're going up and down and up and down.

This is much more than just a strange dream, isn't it?

This is a vision.

Jacob gets this vision to see and perceive into the spiritual realm that exists all around us,

but we don't always have this sight to see it, do we?

And he sees these angels, which Hebrews, the book of Hebrews tells us,

angels are ministering spirits.

It's sent out to minister, to serve those who are to inherit salvation.

Angels are ministers and messengers of God.

And here, Jacob, he sees these angelic beings just going up and down,

up and down this stairway, and all the way at the top,

Jacob sees the Lord.

He's standing above it all.

And for this moment, whatever it is that Jacob was fleeing from,

and whatever it is that Jacob is heading towards,

I mean, he's fleeing from something dangerous.

He's heading towards something good, a good thing.

But right here in this moment, none of that matters.

It's all blocked out.

He is meeting with the Lord.

And at the top of the staircase, the Lord speaks to Jacob.

And he does two important things here.

He reveals and he reminds.

The Lord reveals himself in this meeting.

He says, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father,

the God of Isaac.

He reveals himself again to Jacob.

And in this meeting, he reminds Jacob of all of his promises.

And you notice, I mean, they're not new promises, are they?

This isn't really new information, is it?

These are the same promises that we've heard over and over and over and over again

since we first heard them back when God first gave them to Abraham.

It's this promise of prosperity, of posterity, and of place.

We've seen this time and time again, haven't we?

He says, Jacob, the land on which you lie,

I will give this to your offspring.

That's a promise of a future place.

He says, your offspring will be like the dust of the earth.

You will 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.

That's a promise of posterity that's ultimately fulfilled in Christ and his people.

And he says, in all of this, Jacob, behold, I am with you.

And I will keep you wherever you go.

I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.

That's a promise of prosperity, isn't it?

God with him.

His presence will be with him.

Can you imagine a greater blessing?

Here, Jacob is running from his life on one end, trying to get married on the other.

He's left everything behind.

And he is sleeping on rocks.

And God quite literally parts the clouds to speak with him and remind him of the bigger picture.

He says, Jacob, who I am and what I have promised you are the most important things going on in your life right now.

And notice, he doesn't tell him how he's going to protect him from Esau.

What does he say?

He says, I will be with you, Jacob.

I won't leave you.

He doesn't tell him how he's going to marry his spouse.

He doesn't tell him who he's going to marry.

He doesn't tell him how he's going to find her.

What does he say?

Jacob, I promise your offspring are going to be more than the dust on the earth.

This meeting with the Lord, it completely resets Jacob's perspective.

And Christian, what a gift it is to know.

Whatever it is that you're running from, and whatever it is that you're heading to,

we can set aside time to meet with the living God whenever we want.

We can set aside time to lift up our eyes out of the trials of this life,

out of the pursuits of your life,

and be reminded of who he is and what he's promised you in Christ.

Don't you need this perspective?

Don't we need this holy interruption in our lives?

When we're worried about the attacks from the enemy,

we meet with God, and we remember God is with you.

The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob is also the God of Steve and Treg and James and Pete.

The God who's promised us these glorious promises here to Jacob

has also promised us incredible promises in Christ.

And he will not leave us until he's fulfilled every word.

Don't we need this reminder?

But when we're unsure about what our next steps will be,

how we'll make it to tomorrow,

how we might pay our bills,

how we might handle our children,

how we might do everything that we've set out to do and accomplish in our life,

friend, slow down, open up this book,

meet with the Lord,

and remember who he is

and what he's promised you in Christ.

What comfort it is to meet with God and rest

in the promises of the Lord.

We need more than anything

to meet with him

and have this perspective that we're meant to see,

that we're meant to see that Christ,

Jesus, is infinitely more worthy of our praise and attention

than anything else that's going on in our lives right now.

Now, it's interesting,

you know, Jesus references this passage.

We just read from it from John chapter one.

John is the only writer that includes this story.

I don't know why.

And he never even picks up on it later on.

He doesn't even tell us how this ends up.

He doesn't even give us Nathanael's reaction.

John chapter one,

Jesus says to Nathanael,

he says,

truly, truly, I say to you,

you will see heaven opened

and the angels of God

ascending and descending

on the Son of Man.

What in the world is Jesus talking about?

What in the world is Jesus saying?

Well, for one thing,

you notice Jesus is claiming

that he is the Son of Man.

As you recognize that title from Daniel chapter seven,

it's this image of the Son of Man,

one like the Son of Man coming

and being presented before the ancient of days

and to him was given dominion

and glory and this everlasting kingdom.

Jesus says,

I am the Son of Man.

Nathanael, you're going to see

that I am the one who reigns forever

over the eternal kingdom of God.

As kingdoms come and go

and rise and fall,

you will see me

at the center of everything

ruling over heaven and earth.

You will see it.

But also,

did you see the connection

with our passage here in Genesis?

Jesus says,

Nathanael,

you will see the angels

ascending and descending on me.

Jesus says,

Nathanael,

you probably know the story, right?

Of Jacob and this ladder,

the stairway out in the wilderness.

What you may not realize,

but what you will,

is that I am the ladder.

I am the stairway to heaven.

I am the one who sends my angels

to and from to accomplish all my will.

I am the one who defends you

from all the powers of darkness.

I am the one who has come down

from heaven to earth

in order to bring sinners like you

up to God.

You will see it.

In fact,

let's go a little bit deeper.

If you stick with me

just for a minute,

I got to chase this rabbit trail here.

When Jesus tells Nathanael,

you will see me,

the you there is not singular.

The you there is plural.

He's talking to Nathanael,

but he says,

you all will see.

If he was from Allendahl,

he might say,

y'all gonna see.

Y'all all will see.

Not just you,

but all y'all will see

the angels ascending

and descending

on the Son of Man,

Jesus Christ.

Not just you,

Nathan,

but all who know Jesus by faith.

All y'all will see

the angels descending

and ascending

on the Lord Jesus Christ.

And again,

John never picks back up

on this in his gospel.

He never tells us

what this is gonna look like.

When is this gonna happen?

And so I wonder,

when is this going to happen?

I can think of

at least two ways

in one sense.

If you are a believer,

you have seen this by faith,

haven't you?

If you have put your faith

in Christ,

what God has done in you

is he has given you

by his spirit in you,

he has given you

spiritual sight

to see Christ

for who he is.

He has given you

eyes to see

and a heart to comprehend

this truth

that Christ is God.

That he is the centerpiece

of human history.

That he alone

is your savior.

That he's king

of the universe.

So in one sense,

we see this now

by faith,

don't we?

But in another sense,

this is just fascinating to me.

Stick with me here,

please.

I learned about this

in an article

from Dr. Warren Gage.

When you look

to the book

of Revelation,

which was written

by, guess what?

By John.

You get this image

of this vision

of seven angels.

And I want you

just to try

and visualize this

in your mind

because Revelation

is a very visual book.

seven angels

and all of these angels

are positioned

strategically.

Each angel

has a pair.

They all have

a counterpart.

They all have a partner

except for the fourth angel

which makes him

the centerpiece.

Okay?

Are you tracking with me?

And you look

at where they are located.

Picture this.

The first

and the seventh angel

are positioned on earth.

They're at the bottom.

The second

and the sixth angel

are descending.

And so they're

somewhere in the middle.

They're between

heaven and earth

midway up.

The third

and the fifth angel

where are they?

They are in heaven.

So do you have

this image in your mind?

What does it look like

to you?

It's staggered

a little bit

like a staircase.

Two on the bottom.

Two a step up.

Two up all the way

at the top.

And right there

at the top

what is in the middle?

Where's the fourth angel?

He's right there

standing

at the top.

And what does

John see

with this vision

of the fourth angel?

He says,

I saw heaven opened

and behold

a white horse.

The one sitting on it

is called

Faithful

and True.

And in righteousness

he judges

and makes war.

His eyes

are like a flame

of fire

and on his head

are many diadems.

And he has a name

written on it

that no one knows

but himself.

He is clothed

in a robe

dipped in blood

in the name

by which he is called

is the word

of God.

And the armies

of heaven

arrayed in fine linen

white and pure

were following him

on white horses.

And from his mouth

comes a sharp sword

with which to strike

down the nations

and he will rule them

with a rod of iron.

He will tread

the winepress

of the fury

of the wrath

of God the Almighty.

On his robe

and on his thigh

he has a name

written

King of Kings

and Lord of Lords.

This is a vision

of the risen

Lord Jesus Christ.

King of heaven

and earth.

John looks

and he sees

a staircase.

He sees angels

ascending

and descending

and right

at the top

right at the center

he sees

the Lord

Jesus Christ

ruler

of the world.

Jesus says

y'all gonna see that.

You will see.

You will see me

for who I am.

Friend to know

Jesus

is to see him

as the son of man

to know him

by faith

is to know

that he is

the way

and the truth

and the life.

No one

comes to the father.

No one

ascends the stairway

except by him.

To know him

is to know

that he is

the centerpiece

of all human history.

The one who

descended

to live

and to die

and to rise

so that by faith

in him

sinners like us

might become

heirs of all

the promises

of God.

is also

to know

that one day

friend

we will look

up

and we will

see him

with our very eyes

coming in the clouds

of heaven

to judge

the living

and the dead.

Friend

as we

navigate

our journey

here in this life

we need to be

constantly reminded

that we need

this spiritual sight

don't we?

We need to meet

with the Lord

and hear

from his word

and be

reminded of his promises

and see

King Jesus

for who he is.

Jacob saw

this vision

and he

heard these promises

and guess what?

It absolutely

shook him

to his core.

And in the rest

of the passage

what we see

is Jacob

responding

to this meeting

with the Lord.

So third

third

and we see

our journey

is marked

by

responding.

Verse 16

says that

Jacob

wakes up

from his dream

I would imagine

his neck's got to be

a little sore

probably a big imprint

of a rock

somewhere on his face

but he wakes up

and immediately

he says

surely the Lord

was in this place.

I did not know it.

He recognizes

he has been

in the presence

of God.

Now here's what's

important for us

to see.

Christian

when we meet

with God

and when we hear

from his word

and when by his grace

we see Christ

for who he is

we don't just

get up

and keep moving

as if nothing

has happened.

We can't.

With that meeting

with the Lord

that spiritual side

of the glory of God

that is meant

to change us

and we're meant

to respond

to these things.

It's not just

information

that we're gathering.

This is transformative

for our lives.

You see Jacob's response

here in the text.

Jacob responds

to this meeting

with God

in three key ways

here.

For one

he responds

with reverence

to the Lord.

Verse 17

says he was

afraid.

Now why in the world

would he be afraid?

Everything that God

just said

was pretty positive

wasn't it?

God just promised

to be for him.

He just promised

all these wonderful

things to Jacob

that he's going

to be in Jacob's

corner.

He's going to

help Jacob.

He's going to

bless Jacob.

Why is Jacob

afraid?

Jacob has just

peeked into

the glory

of heaven.

He has just

seen angels

and more than that

he has seen

and heard

the voice

of almighty

God.

This is the same

voice that

God spoke

and created

all things.

This is the same

voice that

thundered

from the top

of Mount Sinai.

This is the same

Lord,

the same glorious

God that hid

Moses in the

cleft of the rock

as his glory

passed by

so that he

wouldn't be

destroyed at

the sight of

him.

Surely in this

moment Jacob

realizes his

unworthiness

holiness.

He understands

that this is

not a God

to treat

casually

and flippantly.

This is a God

to be feared.

Not only this

but he also

responds with

worship.

This is the

second response

here that

Jacob does.

He says,

how awesome

is this place?

This is none

other than the

house of God.

This is the

gate of heaven.

And so what

does he do?

He takes his

pillow and

he turns it

into a

pillar.

Some of y'all

with a thick

country accent,

that's how you

pronounce pillow

anyways, right?

He takes his

pillar and he

turns it into

a pillar.

And he pours

some oil on

top of it and

he renames this

place from

Luz to

Bethel, which

means the

house of God.

What is he

doing?

He is marking

the place and

marking the

occasion as

a holy

moment of

worship.

This is where

I have met

with the

Lord.

This is no

ordinary place.

This is where

I have been

reminded of

who God

is.

This is where

I have heard

his promises.

This is where

I have encountered

him.

This is where

I have been

given the

sight of the

glory of

God and

the worth

of Jesus.

This is no

ordinary

occasion.

We don't

set up

pillars anymore,

but you know

what we do

have,

Christian?

We have

the regular

gathering of

God's people

on the

Lord's Day

each and

every week.

And what a

tragedy it is

that many

Christians view

this holy

moment as

optional

or ordinary

and just

something that

you do

because you

should,

you come in,

you sing the

songs,

you hear

something,

hopefully it

motivates you,

you go off

and you live

your life.

No,

this is a

moment of

holy meeting

with the

risen Lord

Jesus Christ.

We come

here to

meet with

the Lord.

We come

here to

hear from

his promises.

We come

here to be

reminded of

who he is

and all

that he's

promised us

together in

Christ.

We come

here to

meet with

God.

Each of

us comes

from various

trials,

various stresses,

various issues

going on in

your life.

I don't know

what all you've

been through

this week,

but we put

all of that

aside and

for this

moment we're

reminded of

who the

Lord is

and to

respond to

him and

worship.

you realize

that when

the church

gathers we

get a

vision of

heaven.

This

once a

week

gathering is

an

interruption

of our

normal

rhythms of

our life,

yes,

but truly

in the

span of

eternity,

what's the

interruption?

It's all

that out

there that's

the interruption.

Heaven is

filled with

the gathering

of the

saints

worshiping

the risen

Lord

Christ.

Christ,

as we

come

together

and as

we worship

together,

we get

this vision

of what

heaven will

be like.

And we

don't just

leave it

there,

church.

We go

from here

with renewed

devotion.

That's the

last response

here.

Jacob responds

to the Lord

with renewed

devotion.

You can tell

that this

encounter has

changed him,

can't you?

You can tell

that this

encounter has

impacted him.

verse 20,

it says,

Jacob makes

this vow,

saying,

if God

will be

with me

and will

keep me

in this

way that

I go

and will

give me

bread to

eat and

clothing to

wear so

that I

come again

to my

father's

house in

peace,

the Lord

shall be

my God

and this

stone which

I've set

up for a

pillar shall

be God's

house.

And of

all that

you give

me,

I will

give a

full

tenth to

you.

Now this

is one of

the early

foundations for

what would

become the

tithe.

And that

word tithe,

it literally

means a

tenth.

But Jacob

gets very

practical here,

doesn't he?

He doesn't

just leave

this in

general terms.

He gets

very practical,

very specific.

He says,

I'm going to

give the

Lord a

tenth of

all that

he gives

me.

He makes

a plan of

action for

how he's

going to

respond to

the Lord

and what

change this

meeting is

going to

make in

his life.

some of

you have

asked me

before,

how do

I know

how much

money I

should give

to the

church?

And let

the record

show,

in three

and a half,

almost four

years,

I haven't

preached much

on tithing.

But we do

when it comes

up in the

text,

don't we?

Here it is,

and so we

talk about

it.

The Old

Testament,

it gives

more of a

quantitative

principle.

Here we

see 10%,

but you

add in

the temple

tax as you

get later

in the

Old Testament.

Some say

that's 20%,

even as high

up as 30%

that was

required of

the Israelites

there in the

Old Testament.

The New

Testament doesn't

give us so

much of a

quantitative

responsibility as

it does a

qualitative

responsibility.

What is it?

God loves

a what?

A cheerful

giver.

The principle

of the New

Testament is

responding to

all that God

has done for

us in Christ

with a response

of a generous

heart and an

open hand to

say all that I

have, including

my money, but

not just my

money, my

time, my

talents, my

treasures, my

thoughts, my

actions, my

steps, my

words, all of

this belongs to

you.

And so how

can I then

respond to

you, respond to

your worth,

respond to

this meeting

with you in

a life of

worship?

Jacob here

devotes himself

to the Lord

all his life,

all his

actions, all

his words, all

his money, all

his heart, all

of it belongs

to the Lord.

And so he

determines what

he will do in

response to the

living God.

I wonder if you

have determined

how you will

respond to the

Lord.

I wonder if

you have put

steps to your

response to

him.

I wonder if

you will put

this meeting

into action

this week.

I wonder how

this will change

your life.

We sometimes

sing a song,

we should have

sung it today if

I had planned a

little bit better,

maybe we would

have.

take my life

and let it

be consecrated

Lord to

thee.

Take my

moments in

my days,

let them flow

in ceaseless

praise.

Take my

hands and let

them move at

the impulse of

thy love.

Take my

feet, let

them be swift

and beautiful

for thee.

Take my

voice, let

me sing always

only for my

king.

Take my

lips, let

them be filled

with messages

from thee.

Take my

silver and

my gold, not

a mite would

I withhold.

Take my

intellect and

use every

power as

thou shalt

choose.

Take my

will and

make it

thine.

It shall

be no

longer mine.

Take my

heart, it

is thine

own.

It shall

be thy

royal throne.

Take my

love, my

Lord I

pour.

At thy

feet it's

treasure

store.

Take

myself and

I will be

ever only

all for

thee.

Friend,

this is

the theme

song of

our

journey.

Can you

honestly say

this morning

that this

is true

for you?

As you

leave here

this morning

and go

off to the

week ahead,

whatever it

is that

awaits you

this week,

don't get

so distracted

by putting

one foot in

front of the

next and

making your

way to the

next stop,

navigating the

streets of

your life that

you forget

the big

picture.

there is

a God

in heaven

who loves

you and

is for

you and

has promised

you such

wonderful

blessings in

Christ.

Let's pray.

Father,

we pray that

we would be

reminded of

your faithfulness,

God, that we

would be

reminded of

the glory of

Christ.

We pray that

as we

navigate whatever

lies ahead this

week,

Father,

that we would

be constantly

meeting with

you in

your word

and in

prayer and

then responding

to you

with a

transformed

life that

belongs to

you.

We pray

all this in

Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.