Hey Fred, welcome to the Semi -Seminarian. What
we do here at this podcast is we examine the
Bible as if we're grown -ups. Here on the Semi
-Seminarian, we assume that more than likely
we were either taught the Bible as children or
maybe we were taught as adults by people. who
were taught the Bible as children. And often
that's left us wanting for answers in adult world.
So what we're doing is we're looking at the Bible
as if we're a bunch of grownups. This week, we
are looking at the famous story of Jacob and
Jacob's ladder. Won't you come with us? Hope
so. And go back with me in time to our story
of this guy named Jacob. Tonight we're going
to be looking at a story that you may know the
story. You might know what the story is. This
is going to be the story of Jacob's Ladder. Definitely
one of those children's church VBS kind of things.
At the same time, you might know the story of
Jacob's Ladder, but you might, if I were to say,
well, yeah, but what's Jacob's Ladder? What's
the story about? Right? Okay, that's what we're
going to do. So there are series here called
Jacob Enigma. We're using that word enigma because
it means a puzzle. It means something that's
a mystery. What's mysterious to us about Jacob
is one. That he seems to love God. Oh, the Bibles.
He seems to love God, yeah. He seems to love
God, but he goes about trying to establish God's
blessings in his life by trying to take control
for himself. And then the other part of the enigma
is, despite all of Jacob's being a pretty stupid
guy about this, God still loves him. and God
still wants to pass the blessings through him.
So, not only is it enigma, a mystery, that Jacob
actually wants and loves God, based on how he
acts, but the other enigma is that Jacob is loved
by God. And we see ourselves, every week we're
going to say to ourselves, We see ourselves in
Jacob. This is what I want you to see. You are
Jacob for the good and the bad. You are Jacob.
So tonight's story, our Bibles are Genesis 28.
We're looking at the story of Jacob again. Again,
this is a story that if you've been for Christian
for several years, you probably have heard this
story. So Genesis chapter 28, beginning to read
at verse 10. Jacob left Beersheba and set out
for Haran. So here's our little map down here.
Beersheba's down here at the bottom, right? And
right here, Bethel, is where he's going to go
to. He's going actually all the way up here to
Haran. That's going to be the story of next week.
But right now, on this journey, he's right here
at the second dot down here at the bottom. When
he reached a certain place, he stopped for the
night because the sun had set. Taking one of
the stones there, he put it under his head and
lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he
saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its
top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God
were ascending and descending on it. There above
it stood the Lord. And he said, I am the Lord,
the God of your father Abraham, and the God of
Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the
land on which you are lying. The descendants
will be like the dust of the earth, and you will
spread to the west and to the east, to the north
and to the south. And all peoples on earth will
be blessed through you and your offspring. I
am with you and will watch over you wherever
you go, and I will bring you back to this land.
I will not leave you, God says, until I have
done what I have promised you. When Jacob awoke
from his sleep, he thought, surely the Lord is
in this place. And he says, I was not aware of
it. He was afraid and said, how awesome is this
place? This is none other than the house of God.
This is the gate of heaven. Early the next morning,
Jacob took the stone he placed under his head
and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top
of it. He called the place Bethel, though the
city used to be called Luz. That Jacob made a
vow saying, if God will be with me and watch
over me on this journey I'm taking and will give
me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I
will return safely to my father's house, then
the Lord will be my God. And this stone that
I have set as a pillar will be of God's house.
And all that you give me, God says, or Jacob
says, I will give you a tenth. Okay. Title of
tonight's message, again, is Jacob's crazy dream.
Remember, as we've been studying the life of
Jacob, we've seen that Jacob really epitomizes
everything that's in our fleshly humanity. Remember,
Jacob's name literally means to grasp, to supplant,
to snatch at, trying to grab something. Jacob
is the kind of guy who got places in life being
an opportunist. by believing that it was his
work and his energy in his fleshliness rather
than waiting on God's timing and believing on
God's promises. He did want, Jacob did want God's
best in his life, but he wanted to get it by
his own strength. Now we've seen these last previous
weeks. And I'm not going to replow this ground
tonight. Right. But the only answer to this idea
of human flesh, whether it's the bad flesh that
manifests itself in sin or when we break God's
laws. Right. Or iniquity in your life or whatever.
But but also there's the good flesh. There's
the good flesh with good intentions, trying to
get God's favor by doing good works. And that's
a really good working definition, I think, of
religion. Trying to gain God's favor by doing
God's works. Good works, rather. But there's
no answer for either the good flesh or the bad.
The only remedy for flesh is death. Death upon
the cross. We cannot wrestle with it. We can't
overcome the bad by doing good. There is only
one way, and that is the way of the cross. When
Jesus died and realized, That you have died in
Him. Right? And that your fleshly sins may die
in Him as well. But that's not enough. We also
need to replace it with something. We need to
replace the flesh. So we need to answer this
question. Is there something that authentically
substitutes and supplants The counterfeit, the
fake energy of the flesh, the thing that gets
us in so much trouble, whether we get in trouble,
whether we get it blatantly through sin, or even
religious practices that we practice and they
just get us in circles and we actually don't
ever go anywhere. The answer to that question
is yes, there is something. It's the revelation
of God's Spirit that is the answer. Right. I'm
going to present to you through the story of
Jacob's dream, his unconscious encounter. Right.
This this crazy night. I'm going to introduce
to you, present to you a principle, a principle
that I believe to be true within the kingdom
of God. And that is it is not by might nor by
power. Right. God's words in Zechariah, the prophet
four and six. But by my spirit, God says. To
put it another way, and I will explain what I'm
saying. Another way to say this we find in Proverbs
22, 29, and 18. Without a vision, the people
perish. Another translation of this verse. Where
there is no revelation, people cast off restraint.
In other words, people need to. We need to be
hearing from God. Because the fleshly counterfeit
energy of our human nature is not enough. We
cannot get what we need from God by trying to
do it by getting it by our own power, by that
fleshly energy. We must have revelation from
God. And without that vision, people are being
destroyed. And what happens in that instance,
rather, when that happens, is this. That flesh
will surface and revelation will become absent.
Right? Another way of saying it, when God is
not speaking, your flesh begins shouting. When
you can't hear from God in your own ears, the
flesh will begin to yell at you. Right? There's
a biblical illustration of this. In 1 Samuel
3, verse 1, we read there, The boy Samuel ministered
to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord
was rare in those days. There was no widespread
revelation. This verse says. Now let me give
you a little bit of background of this story.
Eli, at the time, is the high priest. But what
this verse is basically saying is there was no
voice of God in those days. God was not speaking
through revelation and vision the way that he
used to do. Because there was no vision, Eli
was personifying this. In the story, by his physical
blindness, Eli, the high priest, was blind. Let's
see. So the people of God, they were not seeing,
symbolized through Eli. Because he's the guy
trying to lead them. And he wasn't giving them
leadership either because God wasn't speaking
to him. His own two sons, Eli's own two sons,
ministered as priests. but they were abhorrent
to the Lord. Okay? So these two sons are killed.
The Ark of the Covenant, in which the physical
manifestation of God exists on this earth, was
stolen by the Philistines. Right? His two sons
are killed. When he hears the news about that,
he throws him back so hard that he breaks his
own neck. And his daughter -in -law, one of his
son's wives, she's giving birth. And when she
hears of her husband's death, her water's broke.
She begins to give birth. And she dies in childbirth.
But before she dies, she names that son Ichabod.
Which means the glory has departed from Israel.
The picture here? Things are going really badly
for the people of God. Why? Because there was
no open vision. God had stopped speaking to the
people. We as Christians today, those of us seeking
spiritual victory, we need to understand the
importance of hearing God's voice. When revelation
ceases, spiritual life ceases. And that's why
I think so many people are in the spiritual predicament
that they're in today. Because they're certainly
just not listening and hearing from God. Jacob
had come to this juncture in his life where God
just flat needed to break in, to interrupt his
fleshly cycle. God had to do something with Jacob
crazy. Now please note, God doesn't force Jacob
to do anything. I don't think God forces anyone
to do anything. But what God did... was give
him a revelation of his own truth, of God's truth.
And then he left Jacob to have Jacob work it
out and obey. The point I want to make tonight
is this man, Jacob, was so full of fleshly scheming
that God had to render him unconscious before
he could speak to him. Isn't that incredible?
He had to put... Jacob under an anesthetic so
that he could gain his attention. There are people
in this world today, right? And the Lord needs
their attention. I want to ask you just, you
know, in your rhetorically, how maybe has the
Lord ever allowed debilitation to take place
in your life in order to get your attention so
that maybe you might get stopped riding your
tracks of fleshly. striving and conniving to
confront you. Maybe you just become too busy
with life or religion. You just become frantic
over things, with things and with stuff, good
and bad. You've just become worn out from trying
to do all you can for God. You're doing the good
and you're doing the bad and you have become
frantic. It's still not enough. Now, we read
in the Acts of the Apostles, which is the story
of the early church, in the 13th chapter of the
Acts, verse 2, we read there that the early apostles
ministered of the Lord and fasted. And the Holy
Spirit spoke to them, told them what to do. And
that's what we need to do. Waiting upon God.
and listening for his voice. Now, admittedly,
we have seen what a, in an earthly sense, what
a great man Jacob was. He had ingenuity, he had
strength, he had cunning, he had intelligence,
but what he really needed was revelation. That's
what we all need. God needs to speak to us. Something
that can't be learned at a college or a university
or a seminary. Right. This is something that
has to be imparted to us in our hearts. In other
words, it's a gift of grace, not of works. God
gives it to us freely. We can't earn it. Right.
That's how God chooses to work. And yet here
we see Jacob. Right. Without going again, without
going over old ground that we've covered. Jacob
leaves home under this cloud of threat, the threat
of death, right, from his brother Esau. We remember,
we kind of looked at the individual characters
of his family. We decided last week that they
were utterly dysfunctional. His world had become
a battlefield. And all because of his fleshliness
and the fleshliness of his family. And now he's
on this lonely journey. It's a long, it's about
500 miles. From here to there. Probably took
him traveling by foot about two months to make
this journey. He has begun on a long journey.
A lonely journey. He lies down probably totally
exhausted. Exhausted running in the flesh. From
his flesh. And all of a sudden, as he expires,
God steps in as only God can. Perhaps there's
someone here tonight. I believe that there is.
Maybe this describes you. What we need only God
could give, we cannot create it for ourselves.
The lesson of Jacob. We need God to reveal Himself
like He revealed Himself in Jacob. But we also
need to see that this story tonight, this crazy
dream was God's appointment. Now I'm not saying,
and please don't misunderstand, I'm not trying.
To say that we can't seek and find the Lord any
darn time, in any darn place we want, if we truly
want to. I'm not saying that. But there are moments,
there are times, there are places, where God
invades, whether it's by our choice or not. Right?
Where God arrests us and captivates our attention.
We see it in verse 11. If you look at chapter
28, verse 11, Jacob came to a certain place and
stayed there all night. There is a certain time
and a certain place. And it was the right time
and it was the right place for Jacob. This was
God's timing. This was God's appointment. I want
to ask you, friends, what time is it? I don't
mean looking at your watch, right? When is this
guy going to shut up, right? I mean, in your
lives. What time is it? Remember friends, it's
always the right time to stop and seek the Lord.
For whatever reasons you've come here tonight,
your own family, maybe your church, right? You
have your own personal dreams. Maybe you've been
given visions by God, little ones and metaphorically
speaking. Now, of course, right? This here. that
we're describing is a literal dream that Jacob
had. And we know from the Bible that dreams are
significant in the way that God uses them to
speak to people and continues to speak to people.
And as well, it reminds us that in the ancient
world, dreams were often understood to be communication
with God. But here's my question to us. Are we
watching for? Are we waiting on? Are we looking
to God to perform His world in our lives? In
our own calling? In the environment that He's
put us in? Or have we given up? Right? God did
give you a dream. Maybe God did impart a vision
to you, but through disappointment, through distractions,
we've become diverted. Listen to Habakkuk, the
vision, the prophecy of Habakkuk 2 and 3. God
is going to bring it alive again. For there is
still a vision for the appointed time. It speaks
of the end and it does not lie. If it seems to
tarry, wait for it. It will surely come. It will
not delay. So I suppose what I'm trying to say
here is some of us know there's time. And then
there's also these moments of opportunity in
our lives. Things that we refer to, that I'll
refer to tonight as... God moments. Moments of
opportunity. Not a moment in time like 716. But
a moment where you just know. Right? But if you
know that, I wonder, are we recognizing it when
we see it? Are we stepping into it? Are we seizing
it? Ephesians chapter 5 says we need to redeem
that time. When we recognize those times of God
breaking in our lives. We need to seize upon
those opportunities because the days are evil
and the time is running like sand through our
fingers. This opportunity, this window is not
going to stay open forever. Maybe you're saying,
Tim, I don't know what you are talking about.
I don't have a vision from God. I certainly don't
see an open door in front of me. I don't see
a gateway to heaven and certainly not something
I would consider a God moment. I don't understand
what you're talking about. Well, one of the big
lessons we get from Jacob's life story is that,
remember, what he already possessed, he couldn't
see. Remember? He already had the blessings from
God. But he couldn't see it for himself that
he already had them. He thought he didn't have
them. Right? He thought he had to strive to try
to achieve, to scheme. then he had the promise
we can go back and look in 25 and 23 god gave
a promise to his mother that the elder would
serve the younger that esau wouldn't get this
blessing yet he had to scheme to try to get it
he had to buy it he thought his birthright in
order that he might get god's blessing yet god's
favor continued upon him if we read verse 12
through 16 we see that god was blessing him in
the dream here, Genesis 28. God says, I'm with
you. I'm going to do all these things for you.
So what has changed in Jacob's environment? Moving
from thinking that he hadn't got these things
to realizing that he had. I don't think anything
changed in Jacob's environment, to be honest.
What I think changed was Jacob's perception and
Jacob's perspective. He could only see with the
vision from God and that's how it starts. He
could only see from revelation. God had to show
him this. And God has to show us the truth. He
needs to show us sometimes what we already had.
Sometimes we need all his help. We need His help
to open our eyes, to unplug our ears, to soften
our hearts. Right? And that's how this ordinary
wilderness here, second dot down here, this ordinary
barren wilderness where Jacob puts his head down
on a stone, right? As he puts his head down to
sleep, that night ends up becoming a house of
God. How? When God imparts a vision. Let's watch
his actions. Look at verse 18. Look at what he
does after the dream. Jacob, after the dream,
rose early in the morning and took the stone
that he put at his head and he set it up as a
pillar and poured oil on top of it. Now, back
at verse 11 at the beginning of the story, he
says, he came to a certain place and stayed there
all night because the sun had set. He took one
of the stones out of that place and put it in
his head and he laid down in that place to sleep.
He made a pillow out of a stone. Strange thing.
But do you think that when he lifted that stone
to lie down for the night that he thought that
that stone had any significance? Do you think
that the situation that you might be in your
life right now in this moment of time, maybe
you don't see it as a God moment. Maybe you don't
see an opportunity. In your life for God to step
in. And you don't even feel like there's anything
significant about you. What do you think about
where you're at right now? What do you think
about what you're doing right now? Did Jacob
think that there was anything unique about this
stone? Of course he didn't. If you could imagine,
I certainly would. If that was all he had to
use for a pillow, he probably hated it. I would,
right? That would not have been a very comfortable
pillow. It was something insignificant. It was
even something that was painful to him. Most
assuredly, it was not what he wanted or what
he expected his blessings to look at. But by
God's intervention at God's appointed time, that
stone was transformed into what? A marker, a
monument. A memorial to the blessing of God.
And an encounter with God in his life. Now, I
just have to tell you guys, this is amazing to
me. Because Jacob couldn't see any of this. Probably,
and I'm just going to say this tonight, we might
be in the same situation where we cannot see.
Are we seeing God in our circumstances? God in
our environment? God in our situation? Right?
But if God tonight imparts a vision upon you,
you're going to see something never seen before.
Because ordinary things, things that we think
of come out of wastefulness and barrenness, right?
Things that we think have no value when they
become ordained by God, when they are given an
imparted vision from God, they become anointed
carriers of God's blessing. Right? God in our
environment. God in our situation. That's why
this stone was a pillow and became a pillar that
was set upright, anointed with oil, and it became
a monument to God's dealings in Jacob's life.
In the space of one evening, one dream, all of
that changed. Why? Because God had given him
a vision. Now, big question for us. What is dreaming?
Now, I don't mean daydreaming. I don't mean like
the kind of dream you might have after too much
Detroit style pizza from Pizza Hut. Right. I'm
talking about dreaming of God. Getting dreams
from God. What is this vision that we're talking
about? Well, I'm trying to make this as simple
as possible. It's the only way I really understand
it. But basically, God dreaming. In this way,
casting these visions is allowing God to dream
through you. God is dreaming through you. Remember,
as a Christian, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling
within you. And so vision is God's eyes looking
through you so that you're able to see as God
sees. God wants to dream through you. God wants
to bring His plans, His purposes, His blessings.
To you. That is God's dream. That his kingdom
should come. That his will should be done. But
here's the question. Are we dreaming his dream?
Are we seeing his vision? Or are we dreaming
our own? What was God's dream and vision for
Jacob? Okay. Let's look at it. Verse 13. First
of all, a land. Here we go. What's the dream
about? First, a blessing of the land. Right.
And the Lord stood beside him or above him, your
Bible might say. It said, I am the Lord, the
God of Abraham, your father and the God of Isaac,
the land of which you lie. I will give you and
to your offspring. Now, this, of course, is a
promise that is specific to what would become
the nation of Israel. But the blessing of inheritance
of the nations that is promised here is in Abraham
and it's to the whole world. And we as Christian
believers believe that is fulfilled. through
the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's
being fulfilled now as multitudes continue to
come into the kingdom of Christ. The blessing
is the blessing of the land, but it's also the
blessing of offspring. Verse 14, And your offspring
shall be like the dust of the earth, and you
shall spread abroad to the west and the east,
to the north and to the south, and all the families
of the earth shall be blessed in you and your
offspring. Now this is the Jewish people. But
again, all the families of the earth shall be
blessed through the promise given by God to Abraham.
Now listen, when God conceives of something,
like the Holy Spirit in a vision, in a dream,
there always seems like this incubation period,
like the natural seed in the womb. There's a
period of gestation, but the object, but the
objective of conception, of impregnation. of
incubation and gestation, right? These types
of things that happen when God plants these seeds
of blessings. It's the same thing as travail
and birth in the human experience. And friends,
that's the whole point of this entire thing.
If you ever wondered and maybe been hanging out
with your friends drinking too many ice waters
or something. smoking some grape leaves or something
back out behind your grandma's house, and you
go, why am I here, man? Let me tell you why you're
here. You are here to participate in creation
with the Creator. That is the ultimate desire.
The reason why there is a creation is that the
Creator desired that we participate in creation
with the Creator. And that requires our involvement
in this gestation period of God's blessing, this
incubation period. But remember, friends, God's
intentions is always to bear fruit. God's own
purpose has never changed. In the Garden of Eden,
He says to Adam and Eve, be fruitful and multiply.
When He destroys the earth because of sin, and
puts Noah in the ark whenever the ark comes open,
right? He starts to reproduce and populate the
earth. God said, be fruitful and multiply. God
told Abraham, and this is the repetition of the
Abrahamic blessing, right? That God was going
to multiply his seed as the sands of the shore,
as the stars of the sky. Whenever the Lord makes
these promises of fruitfulness, listen. Whenever
God makes these promises of fruitfulness, if
you have any real familiarity with the Hebrew
scriptures at all, particularly this book that
we're in, Genesis, right? You'll see that whenever
God makes these types of promises, I'm going
to multiply you. Satan comes in and he always
tries to thwart that blessing by creating barrenness.
Have you ever noticed that? How many times God
brings his promise, right? Anointed deliverer
out of a barren and fertile womb. Again and again
and again, the Lord has to work this same miracle
in Sarah's womb, Rebecca's womb, Hannah's womb.
So there was land, there was offspring, but thirdly,
there was protection and promises to be fulfilled.
Verse 15, the point here of God visiting young
Jacob. Know that I am with you. That's the blessing.
Not the land, not the offspring. Know that I
am with you. And I will keep you wherever you
go and bring you back to this land. I will not
leave you until I've done what I promised for
you. God will protect God's work. This baby that
he's become instrumental in the birth of, the
nation of Israel, all of the people of the world.
He's going to fulfill his promises. He will fulfill
His promises in you. Please do not be like Jacob
and try with the arm of the flesh to make those
things happen. Wait on God in faith. Like I just
said though, but ultimately God's dream was for
His presence. Verse 15, know that I am with you.
Look, through all of biblical history, right?
God's heartbeat. God's desire, God's passion
has always been to dwell in the midst of His
people. Right? If you don't know that, know that.
The whole point is so that God could dwell in
the midst of His people. Right from the Garden
of Eden when He walked with Adam and Eve in the
cool of the day. Right to the tabernacle where
He dwelt with Israel in a pillar of cloud by
day. by night, right where he was in the Holy
of Holies, where he dwelt over the Ark of the
Covenant, in that cloud that they call the Shekinah.
Why do I say it wrong every time? The Shekinah,
sorry. Which means, it means dwelling of God.
I even prepare myself, don't say Shekinah. Every
time, right out it comes, Shekinah. That word
is Shekinah. Right on to the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Word, capital W, Word of God. John chapter
1, 14, who tabernacled, who dwelt among us. Jesus
was the absolute epitome because he was God manifest
in the flesh. God had come to dwell in the midst
of his people. God is always looking for a dwelling
place. He's always looking for a Bethel. He's
always looking for a piece of land, a group of
people where he can rest. Do you want that? I
sure do. You see, fair enough. Revelation caused
Jacob to see what was real. Revelation caused
to see him for him to see what was already there.
And so what does he say? Our old buddy Jacob.
Verse 16. Surely the Lord is in this place. I
did not know it. Do you see this? Do you see
the journey he's on? He comes down to this as
far as he's concerned. It's this God forsaken
wilderness. This barrenness. And he lies down
immediately exhausted from his striving to get
the blessing of God. And that's what so many
of our friends and neighbors, perhaps even you
yourself, if you were honest. might be doing,
striving and striving and striving and striving
to get the blessing of God. God reveals himself
to him with a head on a pillow and he wakes up
and he thinks, God is here and I didn't even
realize it. Some people just don't see it. Some
Christians just don't see what's already there.
Why? Because of the flesh, right? Because there's
something getting in the way of the revelation
of God. What does God want? Right. Here's what
God wants. He wants a house. He wants a gateway
from heaven to earth. Verse 12, the dream. Behold,
the ladder was set upon the earth. Now, it's
interesting that the ladder was put upon the
earth. It doesn't say that the ladder was sent
down from heaven to earth. Right. Meaning to
say it was already there. So the ladder set on
earth. Right. Now, it was a stairway from heaven,
from earth to heaven, rather. They're angelic
ministrations passing between dimensions. Jacob
found himself literally underneath an open heaven.
Now, Jesus, we that are Christians believe that
Jesus is our open heaven. In fact, in John chapter
one, Jesus came to a Jew named Nathaniel, and
he actually quotes from this Bible study story.
He says, most assuredly, I say to you hereafter,
you'll see heaven open up. The angels of God
ascending and descending. upon the Son of Man.
He said to Nathanael, you'll see even greater
things than these. Jesus, Christian brothers
and sisters, is our ladder to heaven. Where is
the house of God today? 1 Corinthians 3 and 16,
Paul says this, do you know, he's talking to
you, me. Do you know that you are the home, the
house of the Holy Spirit? Right? The church and
each individual Christian in the church is the
home, the tabernacle of God. Right? That's what
being a Christian is. Not going to church. Right?
Christians doing good things and going to church
on Sunday. Come to church. Don't be a goof. Right?
But that's not what it's about. It's about Christians
being the church. You are the temple of God in
which God dwells. God's Holy Spirit is living
in you. And that means that if you are a true
born -again Christian, you too are living under
an open heaven. And we are to be stewards of
our heavenly realm. We as Christians are to be
gateways to God's glory. What does that mean?
It means that when people see us, when people
meet us, they meet heaven. They are meant to
meet God in his presence whenever he meets us.
And I believe that that's what the church is
supposed to be. People are meant to come in and
sense being heavenly. You are a gateway to heaven.
You are an opening to heaven if you're a child
of God. God wants gateways to heaven. We need
to realize this. And listen. I believe that God
is making this place. I believe God is making
this place a gateway to heaven. I believe that.
I believe this, and especially tonight. This
is God's moment for someone. Someone once said,
I don't have a credit for it, but someone once
said, getting us to heaven is not nearly as great
a challenge as getting heaven into us. Right?
For that to happen, it means that we must be
a people saturated with God. But so many people
today in our world, what are they saturated by?
They're saturated by things like addiction, materialism,
sensuality, right? We're saturated by political
correctness. We're saturated by these religious
adherence to these crazy right rules that make
Christianity this beautiful, vibrant relationship
with Christ, something that's dead and stagnant.
That leaves so many people in our culture today.
Maybe you know someone. Maybe you know some peoples,
right? This death, this barrenness has left people
feeling like Jesus is meaningless in their lives.
We're saturated in this world by death and despair
and depression. We need to be saturated. We need
to be a people saturated by God. I mean, can
you have vision? Can you truly receive an impartation
of a vision tonight? What would it be like for
God to be everywhere? Do you believe it's possible?
Right? It's all to do with the Spirit of God
imparting vision. And then, what do you do with
it? Let's see what Jacob's response to the impartation
of a vision is. Good old Jacob. Verse 20, quickly,
and I'm closing. Do you know what? Here's what
Jacob does, like always. Right? He starts dealing
with God. He starts trying to make arrangements
with God. He's saying, verse 20, if God will
be with me. God said to him, I will be with you.
Right? He didn't say, Jacob, I might be with
you. He said, Jacob, I will be with you. Jacob
says, well, if you will be with me. And instead
of humbly submitting to the promises God was
giving him, he instead tries to set the terms
of the covenant. And that's what so many people
do with God. They try to make deals with God.
They try to bargain with God. Well, if God gives
me this, then maybe I'll serve Him. Right? That's
dealing with God on your own terms. You compare
and contrast God's promises. You read God's promises.
And again, we don't have time to go into it,
to look at it this evening. But God does say
in these covenantal promises, I will do this.
I will do that. I will do this for you. They
are God -centered. They are God's promises, right?
And they are focused on God. Jacob's conditions
were man -centered, right? If you do this for
me, if you'll do that for me. And yet, being
the enigma, God was gracious to him. Should be
wonderful for us. God doesn't call, like maybe
you or I might have done if we were in his shoes.
Right. God just called the whole thing off and
say, look, I've had enough. I can't hang with
this Jacob dude anymore. He doesn't even get
it whenever I pull him into a dream. Right. I
have just given Jacob a supernatural experience,
an unconscious encounter. And he's down here
trying to haggle with me. Right. But God hung
in there just like he's hanging in there with
you and he's hanging in there with me. The sad
thing about the story tonight is up to this point,
Jacob remains unchanged. He'd been given a vision
by God. You remain the same. It's unbelievable
in a sense, but whenever you understand the propensity
of the flesh to get in God's way, you realize
that it's not incredible at all. Now, from what
I spoke about, I want to ask you, will we remain
unchanged? Please. Please don't leave the meeting
tonight. Please don't say, wasn't that a nice
bubble study? Wasn't that wonderful? You know,
I never thought of that before. I want you to
go away changed, transformed in such a way that
your environment and everybody that comes into
the vicinity of you will be changed as well.
I want our church to be changed. I want our community
to be changed. I want our country to be changed.
Is that too big? Well, how big is your God? Because
God lives in all believers. The glory of His
presence comes to rest only in a few. Let me
repeat that again. God lives in every believer.
But the glory of His presence, the peace that
comes with His presence, comes to rest in only
a few. Will you be one of the few that will be
a gateway to bring His presence to this place?
I hope so. Can we pray? Now, Lord, we're asking
you for just a little bit of heaven on earth.
That's what we need. That's what people need
to see. They need to see that God lives and God
is real. Lord, these are your people and they
need a touch from you to know that you're there.
Pray that you'll touch them just now. I pray
that this meeting, people will have dreams, will
have visions. I pray that the gifts of the Spirit
can be imparted and released in our lives. The
new characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit
will explode within us. Wherever we go tomorrow,
we'll carry that fragrance of the presence of
Jesus on us. Others will be able to see and hear
that we have been with Jesus. Lord, pour something
out upon us tonight that is beyond anything we've
ever experienced before. Do whatever you want
to do. I don't know what it sounds like. I don't
know what it looks like. As long as it's from
you, that's all that matters. Oh God, would you
come and would you do it? Lord, we pray. We thank
you for your presence here tonight. We thank
you for your voice, and we pray that it will
not fall on the ground because of our neglect
of it. These things we pray in your all -present
name. Amen. Okay, cool. Thanks, buddies. Well,
friend, that's it for this week. I'm curious
what you have to think. Can you see Jacob? And
yourself, can you look at your own life and see
the enigma that exists between you and God that
you recognize how much God loves you and yet
you work hard and find yourself further from
God. It's an enigma. It's a mystery. We love
God and yet we seem to find ourselves working
our way from God. Even despite our worst efforts,
we find God coming to find us. Well, friend,
I hope you enjoyed this episode. And I hope that
you will end Wednesday with the next installment
of the story of Jacob. Thanks, buddy. Have a
great week.