Marking Moments that Matter

All right, well, welcome to church, everybody, glad to have you, and I'm going to tell Jeremy Nottingham that our students over here booed him during the 6-7 joke, which was wonderful. I actually love that. So we're glad you're here today. I want to welcome all of our campuses. This is one of those days we call a One Church Sunday, where we remind ourselves we are bigger than any one campus for one church across northeast Arkansas, progressing the gospel to everywhere that we can. And so wherever you are, we're glad that you are here and joining us today at church. Today I know that many of you are ready for a moment with God. And for some of you, you didn't expect to have a moment with God, but I believe God's about to speak to you. We're coming off the Heels of Freedom weekend with our students, where many of you just had a moment with God, and you may be wondering, like, well, what's next? Like beyond just a singular moment with God, what does it look like to move forward? And so today, here's the title of our message, we're going to talk about marking moments that matter, okay, marking moments that matter. And I want you to grab your Bible, if you've got it, turn with me to Genesis chapter 28. If I were to ask you, what is the greatest moment of your life, how would you respond? Some of you would say, well, it was the day I got married, or the day that I got that promotion into the job that I wanted. Or maybe you would say, you know, the birth of my children, that was the greatest day of my life. We have all kinds of those kind of moments spread out across this room and beyond. If I were to ask you, this is a fun dinner conversation, by the way, of what was your greatest sports memory of your life? That's when it gets really interesting. I had a guy tell me, he's probably in his 50s or 60s, he told me after the first service about when he was 12 years old playing baseball, and that was his greatest sports memory. I've got a few.

I remember in 1994, I think I was in maybe fourth grade or so, and the Hogs made it to the national championship game in basketball. And I remember, you know, the very end of that game, we were on our street, like at a family friend's house, and several families had gathered together. And I can remember as time clicked off, and it hit zero, and we won, and all the families that were just bouncing, like jumping up and down as the Hogs won the national title. I'm praying and believing God for this year, amen? And by the way, the score of that game was 76 to 72, the Hogs beat Duke. And a little fun fact about me, every time I fill out a bracket where you have to predict the championship score, I always do 76 to 72. Which is normally shot by that point anyway, so it doesn't matter, all right? So that's a sports moment for me. I think back to winning a couple of state titles in football as a high schooler. Every one of those was special in different ways. But if I'm honest with you, the greatest sports memory I ever have was with two teams that I don't really care about today, all right? Now I am just a massive football fan at all levels. I love high school, college, NFL, you name it, I'm all in. And so really, I just follow it at all levels, and I'm a fan in general. I was at the 2013 Iron Bowl, which is now known as the kick six game. It faced number one in the country, Alabama, I swear you boo, okay? It faced number one, Alabama, there you go, against number four, Auburn. Okay, more boos on Auburn, that's fine, I don't care. At that time, at that season of Auburn, I enjoyed rooting for them as well as Arkansas, of course. But I would root for them because my high school coach was a guy named Gus Malzahn, who was the head coach at Auburn for numerous years and had success with them. And so I knew Coach Malzahn and Gus, and then the offensive coordinator was a guy named Rhett Lashley, who I grew up with, Rhett, and now Rhett is the coach at SMU. And so it was a big game, like the biggest game in the nation, Iron Bowl's a big deal

anyway. And so I texted Rhett that week, and I was like, hey man, any chance you could get us two tickets? And he was like, yeah, I can. So he gave us two tickets. So Meredith and I drove down there with my brother and his wife, who was living here at the time, and we all went to the Iron Bowl and experienced all that that is. And so if you remember the game, some of you watched it, with about six minutes left, Auburn was gonna lose the football game. We were sitting with Rhett's parents, Phil and Judy Phillips, who were part of Pinnacle Hills campus. So I'm sitting with Phil, and he says, hey, if we want to see Rhett, we probably need to go ahead and leave before the crowd dismisses all at the same time, because the game was really a little bit out of reach. And so we said, yeah, that's fine. And so we're walking, one of those old stadiums where we're just like concourse to concourse back and forth, and we walk down to this recruiting area that was kind of in the belly of the stadium where recruits and their families were all watching the game. And by this time, Auburn was making a comeback, like in the final moments of the game. And so I'm watching the TVs that are all in this little room we were in, and then I see the tunnel to the field over him. And I'm like, and evidently Phil noticed and was like, hey, you can go out there if you want to. And we didn't have any passes or anything, but I grabbed him and I was like, let's just act confident.

And so we just walked right past the security guard, right onto the field at the Iron Bowl. And so we're behind rows of people like that, like recruits and stuff that are all bigger than we are. And so we're kind of in the background, but we're at probably the goal line or five or 10 yard line, I can't remember. We're kind of on Auburn sideline over here. If you do not know what happened in the game, it's the greatest ending in college football history. Whether you care about Auburn or Alabama or not, the greatest like ending to a college football game. Let me show it to you real quick for context, okay? Well, I guess if this thing comes up short, he can field it and run it out. All right, here we go. 56 yarder. It's got, no, does not have the leg. And Chris Davis takes it in the back of the end zone. He'll run it out to the 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 45. There goes Davis. Oh my God. Davis is gonna run it all the way back. Auburn's gonna win the football game. Auburn's gonna win the football game. He ran the missed field goal back. He ran it back 109 yards. They're not gonna keep him off the field tonight. They're not gonna keep him off the field tonight.

And so we're right there and we're in that end zone. Like, but on the sideline. And so the ball's being kicked this way and there's so many people in front of us. I'm watching the screen. So like my back is towards the kick. And I see the guy, Chris Davis, catch the ball, which is an odd play in football. If you don't know football, it's just weird. And so the guy catches it and he starts to run it back and Meredith's right here. And I go, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. And the guy's scoring. I turn around, all the people in front of us have run on the field. And I grabbed Meredith, I said, let's go. We're running on the field at the iron, but we go, Auburn, go Hogs. Just all kinds of weird things. And so we experienced all that. And then somehow in the middle of these thousands of people that are crowded around us, we find Rhett and his wife, Lauren, and so we're taking pictures. And Rhett's like, do you wanna go in the locker room? I'm like, do you wanna go? What are you talking about? Of course I wanna go to the locker room. He said, don't film or take pictures and just kind of stay to the back. And I was like, I got it, man.

So we're walking in and I get to the entrance of the locker room and Gus is like, well, Nick, what do you think about your first Iron Bowl? And I'm like, I pledge allegiance to the Iron Bowl for the rest of my life, okay? And it's just this crazy thing. So I go in there and they're all Auburn people and they're all celebrating together. And I'm just kind of watching in the background and just kind of doing circles because everybody else is just talking. And before I know it, Bo Jackson, the Bo Jackson of my childhood, like I had the VHS Bo Knows Bo. If you know, you know, if you don't, look it up. And he gets up on a chair and he is celebrating and saying words that are not right for church. And he's just, he's going crazy up there. And I'm just like, this is the greatest moment of my life right here. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And then we leave the locker room after probably 45 minutes and we go do what Auburn people do. They take toilet paper and they throw it in the trees at Toomer's Corner. It's kind of weird, but that's just what they do. And so we went with Rhett and his wife. And so, you know, we're throwing it up there. And it's just this crazy, magical moment that we had that I don't care if Auburn wins another football game

from now on, but I'm glad they won that one. I mean, it was a really cool experience. And it stands as the singular greatest moment of sports in my life, all right? Now it did not change my life. Close, but it did not change my life, all right? On the flip side of that, I could take you throughout my life and throughout my story of spiritual moments that have done much more for me than the Iron Bowl, all right? Of spiritual moments that God has used in my life in a special way and in a unique way that mean much more than a football game. This is Genesis 28 today, all right? We're talking about marking moments that matter. If you're new today, we're in really a study of the book of Genesis for the majority of this calendar year. This is our fourth series we've been in in the book of Genesis called One Big Happy Family. were studying Isaac and Rebekah and their two sons, Jacob and Esau. They were anything but one big happy family. They're all jacked up, all dysfunctional. But today we're talking about the life of Jacob, okay? At the time of this passage, Jacob is now about 70 years old. So he has grown up, he's a grown man, and he is about to have a moment with God that would mark the rest of his life, okay?

So let's look at it together, Genesis 28. And I want you to begin reading down in verse 10. Verse 10 says, Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. Those are the two places that are key today. And he came to a certain place, this is a place called Luz, L-U-Z, we'll learn that later in the passage. And he stayed there that night because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones, he put it under his head and he lay down in that place to sleep. So he's leaving again, he's leaving Beersheba and he's headed to a place called Haran. Now we have a map of this, for those of you who like a good map and geography, let's throw that up here on the screen for you. You see it right here. Okay, so he is at the very bottom at Beersheba. He is headed all the way to Haran, 450 miles away. This is not the day when you got cars and trains and planes, okay? This is the furthest distance he would have ever traveled in his life. This is a nerve wracking travel. And he stops 60 miles into the journey at Luz or Luz. This would be later named Bethel and it's named that in our passage today actually. And he's getting ready for an uncomfortable night of sleep. You ever been camping? You're like, dude, this is horrible. This is where he's at.

He's laying on a rock, all right? Look at verse 12. It says, and he dreamed. The whole sermon today is about a dream that he has. 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 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 it 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 the north and the south. And in you and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Just pause there. Is this familiar to anybody from our study? You making the connections here? Verse 15, behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And I will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until all that I have done what I have promised you, okay? This is quite the dream, okay, that I'm gonna explain here in just a moment. If you've ever heard the term Jacob's ladder, it's from this passage and it is from this dream right here.

I saw that. Some guy just went, it's right here, man, right here in Genesis, okay? Anybody dream a lot? Okay, like 10% of you? Okay, I don't dream a lot, but I dream every now and then. Weird dreams are weird, aren't they? And I wanna encourage you to do something that Meredith and I do. We started doing this to one another, when one another dreams. Have you ever been at work, like and you're getting your coffee and somebody's like, dude, I had the weirdest dream last night. Or you're sitting at the lunch table, you know, at school and like, I had the weirdest dream last night. And they begin to unfold this dream that makes no sense whatsoever. And by the way, it doesn't make sense to them either. And they say things like, well, you know, I had this dream when I was at my house, but it wasn't my house. And then I was driving down the road, but it wasn't my car, but somebody else's car. It doesn't make sense to me. And then I was going and my grandma was there, but she wasn't even my grandpa. And like, dude, I'm not following you at all.

And you're bored out of your mind. Here's what Meredith and I now do to one another when one of us says, man, I had a weird dream last night. And we'll start to say it. We'll say to one another, I don't care. I don't care. And it just, it makes her laugh and it makes me laugh and you should try it. It's a great marriage thing right there, okay? Because the reality is you don't care. You don't care. And then we'll normally listen to the other person. It's wonderful, okay? So let's get this dream right, okay? This is not just any dream. I would say if you line up all the people in the Bible who had dreams, this is one that rises to the top, okay? As far as fame, okay? Jacob's dream, there was a ladder. Angels are going up and down of it. And at the top of it, God is speaking to him and God begins to say things like this. He begins to reiterate the covenant that God has made with his grandfather Abraham and his father Isaac. He says, I will give you this land. Your offspring are gonna be like the dust of the earth. Through your family, will all the nations of the earth be blessed. I'm gonna be with you. I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave until everything that I have promised has come to pass. I asked you, does that sound familiar? It should sound familiar. We have seen this in Genesis again and again and again and again. This is called the Abrahamic covenant. covenant. You say, well, what is the covenant? Very quickly, if you're brand new, okay? God makes a promise about giving him land that would become the land of Israel. God also would make a promise about his descendants becoming a great nation. And then there was basically a promise of blessing that the nations of the world would be blessed through your lineage. This is pointing to a savior coming from the line of Abraham. So God is now telling this grandson, all that I have told to your granddad, all that I have told to your father, all of this is going to come to pass. Now, let me give you some crazy context, right? You like crazy Bible things? Here's some crazy context as to why this was necessary for God to say it yet again. We believe that from Genesis chapter 12 to Genesis 28, there's about a 160-ish year gap. So from when the Abrahamic covenant is first given

to his grandfather to the first time that he hears it from God himself is 160 years. So if you're wondering, well, why does God keep on having to say it? He grew up hearing about it from his granddad. He grew up hearing about it from his father. Here's why God's got to say it again. It's been 160 years. Do you even know your family, like who they were 160 years ago? I don't. I think about it like, let's just do US history. Let's take 1865. So we're 160-ish years from that. Anybody know what happened in 1865? Several key things. The Civil War ended. So that's good. I can hear mumbles of like, so it's probably Civil War. All right. Civil War ended April 9th of 1865. A few weeks later, who was assassinated? Abraham Lincoln. You go on further into that December 6th of 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified, which abolished slavery throughout the US. So I think we can all agree, like just those three things, pretty big year in our nation's history, right? And yet if I were to like pin you in the lobby before you came to the service,

like, hey, what happened in 1865? We'd probably be like, ah, ah, ah. You know, like these are things you learned in school. And once I reminded of you, you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's right. That was the time of the Civil War and all. So this is his own family. And from what we know, okay, if you look back to Genesis 28, God has repeated what he has told his grandfather, Abraham, 160 years previously. Here's why Genesis 28 is so important for you, okay? Up until this point in his family's story, Jacob has heard about the move of God from his family. Okay, he's just been a hearer. God's got a covenant with us. God's gonna do something great with us. God has a plan for us. He's always heard about the movement of God. In other words, he's heard about the movement of God from other people. Genesis 28 marks a key transition in his life where this is not his family speaking to him about God. It is God speaking to him about his family. It's a massive difference right there. This is the first record we have of God reiterating the covenant, not to Abraham or Isaac, but the first time we see in scripture that he is reiterating it here to Jacob. And so in many ways,

what God is telling his grandson Jacob is this, man, I am here still and I will be here. And all that you have heard, it will come to pass. I will remain true to my promises and I will take care of your family. I've got a plan for your family. That's a great word for many of us here today who are wondering, God is still here. God sees what's going on in your family. God has a plan for your family and he will be true and faithful to his promises. Now, here's what you need to know. Let's make this practical. If you are a younger person in this room, and I'll let you define that, all right? If you're a younger person who you grew up with believing parents so that they had trusted Christ by faith, they were Christians. So let me define it. If you're a child in this room, teenager in this room, young adult in this room, and I'll let young adult people, you figure out if you're still in it or not, all right? This would be like you having Christian parents, and here's what Genesis 28 is teaching us. It's given us a spiritual principle about families. Here's what it is. For those of us who are younger, believing parents, you cannot rely on the faith

of your parents or grandparents. Now, it's a massive blessing that you were born into a Christian home. There are people all over this room, they would kill for your background because they had to wade through some stuff to get to where they're at right now and are still wading through some stuff. So it's a massive blessing. So it's great that you were raised in a Christian home, but you cannot rely on that. If we were to walk out onto Weddington and we were to hit up all these restaurants after church, and we would just do a survey of like, hey, how does a person get to heaven? Or why do you think you're going to heaven? Some people at the tables would be like, well, I was raised in a Christian home. My parents are Christians, and I went to church a lot when I was growing up. And they are relying on that to save them. Only problem is the Bible gives a totally different picture of salvation. You are not saved because you have Christian parents. You can't be saved just because your mama saved, even though she wishes she could save you, right? I was born a pastor's kid. Like if anybody's in by birth, it's me, okay? And yet I'm sitting in a room like this, I'm sitting up in the balcony area,

two rows like in the top area. And I heard someone share the gospel on a Sunday morning, and my pastor's kid, little wicked, sinful heart, heard the gospel and thought, man, that's exactly what I need. So you cannot rely on the faith of your parents or your grandparents. And here's my challenge to you, okay? And I would say this a lot to our students over here for Freedom Weekend, who you had a massive moment with God. And I know we're spread out throughout here as well. I would just say to you this way, at some point, your faith has gotta become your own. It really does. And so like, that means, number one, you gotta trust Christ to save you on your own. Your parents can't do that for you as much as they wish they could. I'm a parent, I know, okay? But you've gotta make a personal decision to follow Jesus. That's where some of you are right now, or where some of you just have been. But I would say beyond that, once you're a Christian, once you're saved, here's what I tell you, at some point, your faith has gotta become your own. Like, you've gotta learn to grow on your own. You gotta learn to hear the voice of God and obey the voice of God. You say, well, I don't think I've ever heard

the audible voice of God. I'm saying like, hear the voice of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God in your life. And when you begin to do that, you'll begin to see why your parents followed Jesus in the first place. And so I really believe that there are many students or children or young adults out there who you know you're saved, you've kind of been living the life just because you know you're supposed to do the church thing. And you believe in it, you believe in the Lord. Like, you're in, but not in. Does that make sense? And today, the call of God on your life is you cannot rely on the faith of your parents or your grandparents. You gotta learn to follow Christ on your own and let this passage push you towards that, okay? Again, first record that we have of God speaking to Jacob about his family covenant here. Here's the question. Does he miss the moment, yes or no? We'll find out right here. Look at verse 16. It says, 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."

Circle that word afraid in your Bible or in your journal. And he said, "'How awesome is this place! "'This is none other than the house of God, "'and this is the gate of heaven.'" So he recognizes the presence of God, even though he had previously not known that God was there. Okay, so God is moving in his heart to where he notices something different. I would say it this way. Think about what you're doing today. You're at church. When God moves in your heart, you begin to notice the things of God. One of those things that you begin to notice is the presence of God, where if you're, like, away from the Lord and you're coming into church and you kind of walk in casually and, like, man, I don't really care about this, and you're standing during worship, and you're like, man, when are we gonna get done with this? My legs are tired, my back hurts, I wanna sit down. And you see people all around you that are, like, hands raised, eyes closed, really singing and worshiping God. Like, I just don't understand it. What's the difference? One person does not notice the activity of God and the presence of God. The other person notices the presence and activity of God.

Here, he begins to notice something that he had previously not known. And here was his response. It says that he experiences the presence of God through this dream, and he says this, and he was afraid. He was afraid. Now, I think this is an appropriate response to the presence of God, though it doesn't show all the ways that you respond to the presence of God. Anybody ever been in a service, and, man, you're at rock bottom, and you came to church, and, man, you just needed to sense the presence of God in your life. And you walk in, and first drumbeat hit, and, man, it's like the presence of God is all over your life, and it's a. Comforting thing. Anybody ever been there, okay? Or if you've ever been like in a hospital waiting room and something tragic has just happened, and if you've ever uttered these words like, man, there was a weird piece that I did not understand. You know what that is? It's the comforting presence of God. So the presence of God can be a very comforting thing. Hope you have experienced that and get to experience that. I would also say, at times,

the presence of God is a very fearful thing. Have you ever been in a moment in your life, maybe you're at home alone reading the word of God, reading a Christian book or something, and something strikes you to such a level that you're like, dude, I feel like my face needs to hit the floor right now. Or if you've ever been in a service where the presence of God is so thick and you are so aware of your sinfulness before a holy God that you feel like, man, I need to get on my knees, I need to get as low as possible as I can be. Like God is entirely unlike me. I think that's where Jacob is right here. He is afraid recognizing who God really is in light of who he really is. Maybe today some of you are like Jacob. Very first time you've ever sensed the voice of God speaking to your life. Here's what I'd say. It's time to pay attention to what God's doing in your life, even here today. Keep on reading, look at verse 18. Here's how the passage wraps up. It says, so early in the morning, Jacob took the stone, that's key, and that he had put under his head and set up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called the name of that place Bethel. So if you've ever heard that word and thought,

man, where is that in the Bible? Right here in the Bible, okay? But the name of the city was Luz or Luz at the first. Then Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in the way that I go, remember he's got 400 miles or so left to go in his journey. And if he will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace, here's the key phrase, 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 10th to you. Now, let me wrap up with this today, okay? There are three things taking place at the end of this passage that I think are really important for your life and for my life. Write these down if you got your journal right with you. Number one, Jacob is marking the place of God's visitation. He's marking the place of God's visitation. It's interesting, like Old Testament history, like a little fun fact for you here, scholars will tell you that from this point forward in the Old Testament, in like the history of Israel, you see memorials begin to happen. You begin to see them set up markers of God's activity

from this point forward. Markers of place where God spoke or God moved. Take the book of Joshua, like fast forward a couple of books in your Bible. Remember Joshua 3 and 4 and all the people are about to cross over the Jordan River and yet it's heavy, heavily flowing. I mean, how are we gonna get all these people across the Jordan River? And God tells them, take the priest with the Ark of the Covenant. And when they step into the river, remember what happens? The water, that is my sound for, the water is held back and they are able to walk across on dry ground. So how did Joshua and the Israelites respond in there? Well, they got some history here, all the way back to Jacob. What do they do? Look at the screen, Joshua chapter four. 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 into the midst of the Jordan and take up each of you a what? A, call it out, a stone upon a 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? Here's what they were to say. 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 a memorial forever. This is what's taking place. This is the Genesis, no pun intended, all the way back of memorial stones, all the way back here in Genesis 28. Jacob is marking the moment. This is where God's presence met me and this is where my God moved, okay? Let me get real practical with you, all right? I wanna encourage you as a family to mark moments that matter in your life. To mark moments, okay? When God moves in an extraordinary way, mark the moment. Let your kids see it, remind them of it. I think this passage in Joshua is a great model. When your kids see this, here's what you were to say. is how our God moved. I have some friends who for years, when God would do something

that only God could be responsible for, like no doctor, lawyer, no business connection, like whenever God moved in a way that he delivered them, what they would do in their backyard is they would plant a tree. So that as long as they lived in that home, they could look at the tree and they could say, do you remember how God moved in that time? Like a really cool practical way to play this out. So I wanna encourage you to do that in some way. The problem is we move at such a pace that we often jump ahead of the movement of God. God moves and then before we know it, well, I mean, it's lunchtime, let's go. And we just move on to the next things. I wanna encourage you, you find what works for your family. Plant a tree if that's what works for you. Set up a stone in the yard. Have a nice dinner as a family where you recount the faithfulness of God. Do something to mark the moment of God's activity, okay? Here's the second thing, I think this is important. What's happening in this passage is this, Jacob is putting his faith in God for the first time. He's putting his faith in God for the first time. If you were to recount the last three or four weeks of our study on Jacob and his family, here's what you would find. If I could define his life in three ways, here's what I would say.

You have a selfish man who is a conniving deceiver. Is that not true from Genesis so far? It's not a good dude. You don't read the first part of the story and be like, that's a guy I'd like to model my life after. But he meets God in this passage. And how did he meet God? He had massive uncertainty in his life. He had a 400 mile journey that he still had to complete. And he's at the beginning of that. Remember, they don't travel like we travel. So there's a lot of fear, a lot of uncertainty. And he had just heard God say this, hey, I've got a plan for your family. And I will hold true to my promises and I will bring you back to this land. And Jacob, here's what God has done. He says, look, if you will do all that for me, then you will be my God. Likewise, some of you need to hear this from the word of God today. God has a plan for your life. And that plan extends much beyond what you even understand. In fact, from before time began in eternity, God decided that he would in love and in his mercy and grace, he would send Jesus Christ, his only son, to die on the cross for your sins in your place and rise from the dead three days later for moments like this,

when your sins could be atoned for and covered. And some of you need to hear that God has a plan for your life and he's already done everything necessary to save you. And you need to hear that and say, if he will do all that for me, then he will be my God, just like Jacob did. Third thing, it's a little bit of an odd ending. Jacob has promised to tithe to God. It's just where the passage ends. You may read that and go, that's kind of weird. Why would Jacob's heart be drawn to tithe to God in this moment? Can I give you a real like deep answer? I go to seminary for this type of thing. You ready for this? Why was he drawn to tithe? We're not told. We're not told. Can I give you my guess? Here's my hunch, okay? I do find it interesting that when he surrendered his heart and life to the Lord, his money and possessions naturally followed. Like when he bent the knee to Jesus, his hands naturally started to open. That will happen in your life. It's happened in my life. The more that I have grown in my relationship with Christ, the more that my hands with my money and possessions

have become open. And maybe that's what God needs to do in your own heart today, okay? So let's wrap up like this. Maybe you're here and you really do resonate with the life and with the story of Jacob. Maybe today the Lord has reiterated that he has a plan for your life, a plan for your family. And some of you need the comforting presence of God in your life in this moment. Like if we were to see all the grief that's going on in the room today, all of us would be brought to tears for our fellow church members. But today if you need just the comforting presence of God, I'm just gonna open up this altar here in just a moment. We call the front of the stage the altar. And it's a place just to come and do business with God. And if that's you, you just come and say, Lord, I need to feel you. I need to sense you. I need to hear from you. I need your comforting presence in my life. Maybe you're here and you're just burdened about something in your life. This altar is also a place where you can come and just get on your knees and say, Lord. I am desperate for you in this area of my life. Maybe you've got a kid running away from the Lord. Maybe you've got people in your life that need Christ.

And you're just desperate for God to move. I wanna encourage you to come. Maybe you're here and God's really convicted you that in some way you need to mark the activity of God for your family. And that doesn't mean like you bring stones to the altar and build it. It means you probably leave here today and you discuss this as a family of, hey, how can we commemorate what God did here? How can we talk about what God did here in our lives where it's a constant reminder to us of the Lord's presence and his movement in our lives? Maybe you're here and God has something he desires to do with your heart. Like God is drawing you to a moment of surrender with him. Maybe it's a draw to something like tithing we just talked about. Maybe it's something like serving God in some way with your life. Maybe God's called you to ministry and you're kind of fighting it. You're like, dude, I don't wanna do that. God continues to pour on the Holy Spirit conviction right there. Maybe God's calling you to forgive somebody in your life. Just some element of heart work that God is desiring to do in you. And here's what I know. It's like the secret weapon of preachers.

God, the Holy Spirit is pointing the finger at your own heart today in ways that I don't know and I'm not mentioning. Others of you need to have a Bethel experience of Lord, I need a moment with you that literally changes everything in my life. We're at a fork in the road as a family or I'm at the fork in the road as an individual and I need the presence and power of God to just come through. I'm just gonna ask you to come. If you're here today, maybe you're like Jacob and you've been around the things of God but it's never become personal to you. And yet you hear me say that, man, God has a plan for your life and God wants to forgive you of your sin. That's why he sent Jesus. And if you hear all that and you're like, dude, I feel like you're speaking directly to me but I don't know if that's to me. I don't know if it's the Taco Bell I ate late last night or I don't know if this is God speaking to me. Listen, if you, everybody look at me, okay. If you feel like this is what God is doing, let me just tell you, that's not a preacher. I can't do that. And so if you feel like God is literally grabbing you by the shirt and saying, this is you, it's time for you to receive Christ,

I wanna encourage you to do that today, okay. I want us to bow our head and close our eyes all over this room. Please, no one leaving. We're almost done. Our team is gonna make their way to the front, the men and women of our staff. And they're coming forward for you. If you are the person I just talked about, of Nick, I feel like God is calling me to surrender to him once and for all. I need to be saved. I'm gonna encourage you to come forward to one of the men or women that are at the edge of this aisle. And just to tell them, I need to give my life to Jesus. And right here in this moment, they will lead you to faith in Christ. It's all you gotta say. They have these conversations all the time, okay. I'm gonna encourage you to do that. If you're here and you would say, Nick, I fit into one of those other categories. I need the touch and presence of God in my life. God's doing a work in my heart. I'm desperate for God to move in some area of my life. Then I wanna encourage you, do not leave this room without responding to God. Like, do you need to make your way to this altar? And when you just let your knees hit the floor,

just say, God, I'm just surrendering to you. I'm just submitting to you. I'm asking you to do a work in my heart. Lord, I give you this in my life. I'm surrendering that in my life. Lord, I'm desperate for you in this area. Just talk to God like you would talk to a friend. And he can hear you. So Lord, as we finalize this service, we pray that we would not leave this place without a real Bethel moment with you, a real encounter with you where you speak to us. So Lord, I pray that you draw people to Christ, pray that you draw people to their next step of faith and surrender with you, whatever that is. And it's in Christ's name that we pray, amen.