Making the Most of the Moments that Matter | Broadcast from Home During a Michigan Blizzard

Got my coffee, got my glasses. All right, I hope you're

surviving the storm. Well, we have a lot of snow

here. I I didn't have a regular capo,

so I went out to my car and just probably a foot of snow in the

car, I'll bet. So I'll be curious how much

we've gotten, but that if you're home and say you can see several

of you are seeing we're still on.

Just watch it again. Let's see here.

Just want to make sure that we're still happening.

We should. I think this is this.

It's going. Oh, yeah.

Look, we're live. It says it right up there.

Yeah. All right, there we are.

OK. All.

Right here we go, wherever you are, let's join our hearts

together. And open with prayer.

Sure, I'll pray. OK Lord, thank you so much.

That church is your people. So we're so grateful for the

building that we have that we get to gather in and fellowship

in. But God, we know that no matter

where we go, your Holy Spirit is with us.

And Lord, this morning we just thank you that the church is

gathering. Church is never cancelled.

Amen. Church is never cancelled.

God and Lord, we are so grateful to be part of your body.

So we just prayed this morning for everybody watching.

Lord, would you please meet us in our living rooms, in our

kitchens and our homes and our cars and see lifts if people are

watching. And God, let your presents be

with us this morning. Come and reveal your heart to us

this morning. Inspire us, encourage us, heal

us. Lord, lead us to repentance this

morning. God help us, God to encounter

you no matter where we are in our journeys.

We love you Lord. In Jesus name we pray and

everybody say Amen. Amen, guys.

So let's jump into our teaching for the storm.

I should probably leave you for this one because you know me.

I'm going to be jumping in where I don't even.

Jumping in, but it's and maybe you can respond to some people.

People are making comments I can't.

Because my phone is very cool. You can on my phone.

OK, here you go. Steve is on.

Just go to Facebook. All right.

Well, this morning compared a message that I'm excited to

bring to you and it's somewhat of a continuation and from last

week when we're taking a pause from our Holy Spirit series

because we want to jump back into that when we're all

together. OK, so this morning I'm gonna

talk about making the most of the moments that make us.

And this is kind of a continuation.

In the last week, I kind of shared some of these ideas.

When we found on it last week it was like 3 minute version 5

minute version and this week have added some additional

passages to build on study. But we, our churches, brought

our young people, our wildlife group down to Grand Rapids to

the res life for the One Heart Conference and was just a really

just a really profound deep time with our students, OK.

And I was grateful to be there with the team and Alex was

leading us there with the students.

So grateful for Alex and Taylor leadership just growing and

cycling our students. OK.

So as we can mention something that views, but again I'm an

uncapped in much greater depth. So this is Genesis chapter 28

Genesis 28 · chapter mention

versus 10:50 where it says Jacob left Beersheba and went towards

Heron and he and he came to a certain place and he stayed

there that night because the sun had set.

Taking one of these stones of the place, he put it under his

head and lay down in that place to sleep.

And this is Genesis 28. If you have your Bibles, you

could turn Genesis 28. We're going to kind of unpatch

several of the verses here. So this is Jacob.

He I've been to bear Steven interesting enough when I was in

Israel 15 years ago, so I can remember where this was.

And so Jacob let me ask this question first, who is Jacob?

Well, Jacob is is in again the book of Genesis.

He's the grandson of Abraham. Maybe you've heard about father

Abraham had many sons. Many sons had father Abraham and

maybe you sang this in church. Many sons have father Abraham

and I am one of them. So are you.

So let's just praise the Lord. So you have Abraham who begat

Isaac and then Isaac begat Jacob and Esau.

He had two sons. They were twins and Esau was

born first, but Jacob was named his name man like heel grabber

because when he was being born, he was wrestling with his twin

brother Esau to come out of the wounds first because the first

born has better benefits, if you will, especially in the ancient

world. So and he's deceitful.

He deceives numerous times. And this occasion of Genesis 28,

Jacob is running from his brother Esau, who he had and his

father, who he had deceived. And he's by himself.

And he comes to this place and he takes one of the stones of

that place and put under his head, and he's going to sleep

with it as a pillow. OK, So he has this stone big

enough to be a pillow, and he's sleeping with.

Now, what happens after that? We're talking again about making

the most of the moments that make us.

This is going to be a moment that defines and makes Jacob one

of the moments. The story continues in verse 12.

Genesis 28 Now in verse 12 says and he dreamed and behold, there

was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to

heaven and behold, the angels of God were sending and descending

on it again. This is the stairway to heaven.

Let Zeppelin didn't come up with it.

This was in Genesis so, and behold, the Lord stood above it.

And he 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. God says, behold, here I am, I

am the Lord. And then he starts repeating a

promise that he had given to Jacob's grandfather about his

descendants being many. And he says, your offspring and

verse 14 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 osprey sell

all the families of the earth. Be blessed.

And what does God mean by this? He's meaning that the Messiah,

Jesus, God himself is going to come as man to redeem us and

save us. And it's going to come through

the lineage of Jacob. The whole verse 15.

I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring

you back to this land, but I will not leave you until I've

done what I have promised to you.

OK, so Jacob has this beautiful profound moment of seeing the

stairway that goes into heaven with angels coming and going and

he hears God speak directly to him.

Story continues In verse 16 it says then Jacob awoke from his

sleep and said, watch this. He said surely the Lord is in

this place and I didn't know it. Surely the Lord is in this place

in verse 17 and he was afraid and he said how awesome is this

place? This is none other than the

House of God and this is the gate of heaven.

Now he is in awe at this moment where he's interacting with the

Spirit of God and watch this. In this occasion, he's saying

the Lord is in this place and how awesome is this place?

He's focused on the place, but that's OK.

That's the revelation that he's in now.

He's going to get greater revelation about who's awesome.

We'll see as the story continues.

But he says, surely God the Lord is here.

It's holy ground. Now, there were moments last

week when we were at the One Heart Conference and in your

life, there were probably had been many moments where you

looked around and went, wow, God is here, God is here.

And again, sometimes our friend might calls him God weeks,

right? And so there are moments,

whether it's a sunset or the birth of a child, or maybe there

was a season in your life where you were desperate to hear from

God and the Holy Spirit spoke to you, maybe maybe even audibly,

maybe to a friend, maybe just scripture.

But it was so evident to you, surely the Lord is in this place

wherever you might have been. And so this is a big moment for

Jacob. It's a moment that makes him and

defines him. So Genesis 28 verse 18 and the

Genesis 28:18

story continues. So early in the morning, Jacob

took the stone that he had put under his head and he set it up

for a pillar and he poured oil on the top of it.

He called the name of that place Bethel or Bethel, but the name

of the city was loose at the first OK, so watch this.

He's naming the in the city of Luz eventually will become known

as the city of Bethel Bethel. But in this occasion, he's just

saying that little place that's there in the city of Luz, he's

calling it, which means the Lord is here, OK?

This is the place where God dwells.

It's the House of God. And he called the name of the

place that book, OK. So eventually what is going to

happen if that place is going to become bigger than the city of

us, OK. By the time that the readers

would have been reading this after Moses would have written

it, by then the children of Israel would have known the city

to be be Bethel. That's it.

OK, now he has a pillar. And this this pillar is the rock

that he sleeps with his pillow. And what is this?

It's a it's called a matseva. In Hebrew, it means pillar.

And I have his notes. By the way, if you want to text

me or write me today, I'll send you my notes for this week.

OK, so this is a matseva and it's something stationed, a

column, a physical landmark. OK, so he takes this.

And so it's we got on my seats. Am I saying that?

Right? Matseva.

Matseva. That's how we would say it.

It is. It's become a metaphor for a

moment in our lives that we want to memorialize, like when God

showed up, OK, Because watch, Jacob is going to use that stone

to memorialize this event where he senses the presence of God

and hears the voice of God. OK.

So from a stone pillow, he makes a sacred memory stone to

remember that he encountered God there.

Now in our lobby at the church, you'll see that we have the

posters, the big white posters that are the three things that

we want to be about as a church. And the number one thing is we

want to get together as a church and we expect to encounter the

presence of God. Church should not be like going

to see a movie just, you know, punching a time clock.

Obligatory no When we go with get together, we should be

encountering the presence of God and that is our expectation

encounters lifelong with the Lord.

And when we encounter God, it's good that we have a monceva that

helps to memorialize, helps us to remember that moment where we

sensed and knew that God was there.

Yeah, so and so now a Monceva is has grown to be a

memorialization of a moment where we sensed and encountered

the presence of God. Now Jacob goes on with his life

and we're going to go jump to Genesis 35.

If you have your Bibles, if you want to go to Genesis 35 between

chapter 28 and 35, a lot happens in his life.

He goes to work for Manny Lehman and he buries twice made her

sisters Rachel and Leah. Rachel is the true love of his

life, but he's tripped by her father into marrying her.

He he marries her thinking that it's Rachel has to have been

work another seven years. So this, the deceitful Jacob has

met someone who's even more deceitful than he is.

Yeah. So the story picks up in Genesis

35. Now he's fleeing again because

God instruction to do so in verse 1.

So God said to Jacob, arise and go up to the foul and dwell

there. Make an altar there to the God

who appeared to you when you fled from your brother.

He saw. God instructs Jacob to go back

to this place where he encountered the presence of God

so greatly. And God is instructing this time

where before he just had one stone, and he said that one

stone up as a memorialization of God's encountering, encountering

God. But now I've got to say go back

and instead this time build an altar and altar was going to be

a place of worship. So now you're going to go back.

You've experienced a lot of heartaches, a lot of times where

you didn't sense the presence of God.

Jacob and he felt very distant from God.

And sometimes if God's like, go back to that place where you

last encountered me in a great way.

So verse 3, then let us arise and go to Bethel.

This is Jacob speaking so that I may make there an altar to the

God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me

wherever I had gone. He's aware that God has been

with him. But this southern encounter was

even greater. So jumping to verse 6 and Jacob

came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan,

he and all the people who were with him, and there he built an

altar and he called the place al Bethel because their God had

revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother.

Now it used to be that he called it Bethel, which meant house

with God, the place where God dwells.

Now he's updated the name to El Bezel, which means the God of

the House of God. So where it used to be, he was

focused on the place, now he's become focused on the God of the

place, which is actually deeper understanding.

It's an even deeper encounter. Before again, he was in awe of

the place. Now he's in awe of the God of

the place. God often from these encounters

that we have with them, He will fill us with the sphere and then

he will refill us with the sphere.

And the ideas that our understanding, our theology, our

beliefs, our doctor, they should grow in level of truth.

He starts again in all the place, but now he grows to be in

all of the God of the place. So verse 9, God appeared to

Jacob again when he came to Padama Haram and he blessed him.

Now God is not just revealing himself in Bethel, but other

places. Watch this.

He goes to this other place in there.

Now he's learning that God was not just in that one place, but

even when he's in Haddad Aram, he senses that God is also

greatly blessing. He's encountering God now

wherever he goes. And it's in this occasion when

he's in Haram, Haram that he's encountering God again.

And at this place, God changes his name.

God updates his name, He updates his name from Jacob to Israel

becomes his name. This is a moment that makes him

chapter 35, verses 13 through 15.

Then God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with

him, and Jacob set up a pillar in a place where he had spoken

with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured out a drink offering

on it and he poured oil on it. Watch what's happening here.

Jacob is getting a rhythm to his life earlier when he's a young

man, 20 years earlier, he encounters God, the stairway to

heaven, and there he builds his pillar, his memorial stone, if

you will. And then he goes back and builds

an altar. But now he goes on the new

places. And when he's there now he's

continuing to memorialize and intentionally set up tools,

these memory stones, to help him remember he is encountering God.

So this is a model for us, okay, when we have these encounters

with God, it's good to maybe maybe make a photo or maybe

highlight your Bible or, you know, maybe there's something

that you can take to just remember.

And when you run across it again, it will be such that it

will aid you in your growth in the lore.

OK. So sometimes I'll hide old

photos or notes in some Bibles that I have and maybe I'll run

across that note. I remember there was a pastor

that used to work four years ago and he was was a note writer.

And I still have some of those notes that he wrote to me.

And I remember those worship times were really profound.

And some songs that I'd written, I wrote some.

Just a glimpse and in that occasion, I have this card with

the password through with that. And he wrote that he loved this

new song that we had done for the first time called just the

guns. Me remembering, wow, God was

there in that moment. So for me, it can be a note, it

can be a picture, it can be anything that again, that serves

like a memorial stone to help us remember, Wow, we encountered

God in that place. And now because of we're in awe

of the God of the place, the God of that moment.

So Jacob in verse 15, Jacob called the name of the place

where God has spoken with him, Bethel.

OK, so now he's in different places and he's continuing to

say God is here also. So and that's kind of a recap.

What happens to the writer of Genesis.

There's just kind of bookending and to say, OK, this is the

story of Bethel and God has spoken with him there.

Now, what are some Al Bethel moments in your life, some God

of the place moments have you had?

Have you ever set up something to help you remember?

If not, my encouragement to you is to think, where were some

moments where I heard from God in a profound way and to give

yourself a tool to remember those occasions.

I want to show you two more examples that are similar in

nature to the way that Jacob worships in this occasion.

There's a story in Joshua, and Joshua would be hundreds of

years after the story of Jacob. You'll remember Moses is the

great leader who leads the children of Israel out of

slavery in Egypt. Remember from maybe the movies

or cartoons, as you've seen, where the Red Sea opens and

Moses sends his people across. God miraculously leads them.

But you'll remember that the children of Israel end up

wandering in the desert or the wilderness for 40 years because

of their lack of faith and their disobedience to God's prompt

things and leadings. OK, it's long story.

So they wander, they're nomadic for 40 years and eventually

Moses dies and now Joshua becomes the leader and they're

going to enter into the promised land of the Canaan and on this

occasion watch what happens with their memorial stones.

This is Joshua chapter 4 and read verses one through 7.

Joshua 4 · chapter mention

When all the nation had finished passing over to Jordan, the Lord

said to Joshua, Take 12 men from the people from each tribe, a

man, and command them, saying, Take 12 Stones from here out of

the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests

feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you, and lay them

down in the place where you lodge tonight.

This is in the tradition of Jacob.

Then Joshua called the 12 men from the people of Israel whom

he had appointed a man from each tribe.

And Joshua said to them, Pass on before the ark of the Lord your

God in the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you as stone

upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the

people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you, when your

children ask in time to come, what do these stones mean to

you? Then you shall tell them that

the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the

covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan,

the waters of the Jordan were cut off.

So these stones shall be to the people of Israel memorial

forever. I love this story.

So the Jordan River, I've been to the Jordan River.

I can envision that the God led his children after their four

years and one was to cross over the Jordan River, but he stopped

the river from flowing upstream. And when he did, they were able

to crossover it with all of their belongings in the Ark of

the Covenant. And So what they do is they

memorialize this event with stones, one for every tribe

where Jacob had twelve sons. Twelve sons.

And so there are 12 tribes. And after this miracle been

frosting over, he says, take these stones and make them for

memorial. But watch this.

This is so beautiful to me is that on this occasion, it's not

just so that they will remember, it's so that they're children

will remember that they experienced a miracle.

And to this day, you and I still have the story to remember God

miraculously moving. But in the ancient world, they

would have seen the stones that would have helped them to

remember. They made the most of that

miraculous moment in their life. This was a moment that made the

children of Israel when they entered into the promised land.

And so they don't want to just remember themselves.

The goal is that their children and their children's children

will remember again, I'll just read it to you.

They said, then you shall tell them of verse 6.

When your children ask in time to come, what do these stones

mean to you? Then you shall tell them that

the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the art of the

covenant of the Lord. Now there's one other case.

I want to show you that this is the tradition.

This is, you'll see it. There's many of our Scripture,

but I'm showing you there's a couple of them.

This is the story of Samuel and Samuel also set up set up some

stones that helped him and the people of God remember the

encounter, this miracle that they'll have.

This isn't first Samuel. So if you go forward to your

Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,

Joshua, Judges, roots and that first Samuel, the youth, first

Samuel, first Samuel Chapter 7, you'll remember that Samuel is

1 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

the great prophet. If you just saw the David movie,

the animated David movie, the Samuel Christmas, in that story,

he's the prophet before the 1st king of Israel, who was Saul,

the second king of Israel is David.

OK, so so he's a spiritual leader and he is also

encouraging and serving as counsel to Saul and to Saul

becomes arrogant and misses out on God's best.

But watch this story in Chapter 7 as Samuel was offering up the

burnt offering. This is first single seven and

I'm reading in verse 10, as Samuel was offering up the burnt

offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against

the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were

defeated before Israel. This is a miraculous encounter

with God in verse 11. And the men of Israel went out

from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them as

far as below that car. And then verse 12, then Samuel

took a stone and he set it up between this spot and Stan and

he called it it's name Ebenezer. For he said till now the Lord

has helped us. Ebenezer that's what it means.

The Lord is helping us. The Lord has been faithful.

So what does he do? He sets up a stone again, just

like Jacob, he sets up a stone to remember this event that God

miraculously moves. They set up and cause the names

of stone Ebenezer. And I'm reminded that reminded

there's a really wonderful old song.

It's an old hymn and I love this song.

It's been I haven't even practiced it.

I thought I was just singing about the Public Music.

And this song written by it's called Come now Found.

And it's it was written by Robert Robinson in 1758, right

Come thou found in the second verse it says come thou found.

This is the first verse. Very blessing to my heart to

sing thy strings of mercy never ceasing.

And here's where the songwriter gets Ebenezer in the eyes of the

song. Maybe for the sun never knew

what it meant. The Ebenezer is a stone that

Samuel set up to remember when God defeated the Philistines out

there to have, it says. And I woke by thy good place

safely to go on my bed. Jesus saw me where a stranger

punching from the fold of clouds.

So just thinking of I raised my Ebenezer.

In other words, the songwriter 1758 is saying find your

memorial stone, your Ebenezer like Samuel would have had and

use it to remember the goodness. The encounters of God have

encounters with God that you have like long.

So some application. I encourage you to go and think

what happens the moment in your life that made you where God

showed up and maybe you haven't thought of it in a long time.

Maybe it was a youth camp event or maybe it was a when you gave

your life to Christ. Maybe, maybe it's a miracle with

with your house or your job or your children.

Whatever it is, go back and cherish those moments where God

showed up. There's some in my life the

summer before my my senior year, the summer after my senior of

high school, I went to a youth camp near Waco, TX and it was

just a very profound time in my life that event.

And then I our I went to a wonderful college, wonderful

school called Christ for the Nation's Institute.

And years later our daughter went there and I would go back

to CF and I through the years and sang on recordings that they

did. And then our daughter had been

several years since I've been there and we were there because

our daughter was going to go to school.

This was 10 years ago almost. And I just remember coming out

of that campus and just, it just always overcome the memories of

God me and count in the presence of God when I was a student

there. And it just reminded me, Oh

yeah. And I thought, you know, I need

to remember better those moments where God showed up in my life

in profound ways. And I will encourage you to

think of those. And then I will encourage you to

find a way to remember those events often, set up some type

of tool to assist you and remember when God was there.

And a profound way. We saw it in Jacob's life.

We saw it with Joshua when they crossed the dirt river.

And then we saw it in Samuel saying his life when they had

defeated the Philistines because of the power and presence of

God. Let me pray for us, kind of you.

Thank you for this hour that we've been able to be together.

And whether we're watching now or sometime in the near future,

thank you for your presence in our lives.

And help us to remember and to memorialize and to set up

memorial stones that aid us in continuing to be grateful for

your faithfulness and for your presence in our lives.

We pray this in Jesus name and everyone said Amen.

Let me just say blessing over you.

Thanks for being here and now. May the Lord bless you and keep

you and may he make his face to shine upon you.

And may the joy of the Lord that is unspeakable and full of the

Lord, may the bound to you. And may the peace of God that

passes all understanding, may it surprise you in the midst of all

of the challenges that life brings.

And then we have mercies of the Lord.

In other words, the forgiveness of God that's new every morning

may be especially new to you now and your mornings to come.

And now may the Lord Jesus Christ guard your heart and your

mind. You are salt and you are light.

Go now and be salt and light into the world like Blizzard

wise like go like tomorrow or where the roads are there, and

be blessed in your salt and you are light.

We'll look forward to seeing you next Sunday.

But.