DAY 27: GOD IN YOUR MESS?

Maybe it's just you, I don't know. Or maybe it's others. Maybe it's also others. Maybe you both call it failure. Maybe some look at your situation and they go, Oh my God. What a colossal failure. What a colossal disappointment. What a colossal underperforming. What a colossal lowering of expectations. Unrealized potential. Or maybe your choices. Maybe they were just like Jacob's. I don't know. I don't know your life. I barely know mine. We live our lives. And it isn't till way down the road. Way down the road. That we start understanding some things a little better. And by then, the scars are well set. Now gonna put vitamin E on them and rub it in. Some special lotion. Make them go away. They're there. And it kind of seems like for good. What if the season you called failure is actually the place where heaven is opening all over your life? Genesis 28 isn't the story of a spiritual giant climbing toward God. It's the story of a frightened man. He's a frightened man running from the wreckage of his own choices. Jacob has the blessing, but he also has the fallout. He has the promise, but he also has the consequences. He has a future. But he's leaving home alone. Alone. And right there. Right there in the middle of that mess. God shows up. Before we get too deep in this, I'm gonna ask you. I don't care if you answer in comments or not. Just answer it. You don't even have to answer it out loud. Nobody's listening. Well, somebody's listening. Have you ever looked back at a painful season in your life? Painful. And realized God was there. And I didn't even know it. It was this super rough time, whether you brought it on yourself or someone else brought it on you. That whole brought it on yourself thing, you know, you gotta be honest about that. You can't blame everything on everybody else all the time. That becomes convenient. Little too convenient. Have you ever looked back at this kind of gruesome season in your life? And you realize God was there, and I didn't, I didn't see him. I didn't realize it. Since you're being honest with yourself, I hope. Wherever you needed to wake up and realize, I mean really wake up. Stop making excuses. Just wake up and recognize God's presence in the middle of your uncertainty. Welcome back to and by the way, good morning to everyone listening live. Thank you for joining. Welcome down. Look. This is a this is a thing. It's a grind. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. Eastern. And on playback whenever. And then 6.30 on Sunday. Sundays we kind of pick up some things that maybe we couldn't get to on the weekly ones. Welcome back to Through the Bible in a year. Walking the story of God. I got a note yesterday from someone, I don't know who it is. It's one of those handles that you how do you know? What gender, it doesn't matter. Said you're never gonna get through the Bible. It's never gonna happen in a year. It's never gonna happen. Not at this pace. And I said this might not be for you. Because this isn't a race. It's a lesson. It's a life lesson. This is intense for a reason. By the way, it's free. Walking the story of God. That's no small thing. This book. This book should never be. Should never be that. Should never be that casual. I know some people. They haven't cracked open their Bible in I don't know how long. I don't ever read it. They don't ever read it. And wonder why their life is the way it is. I read it for hours and hours every day. And I can't brag about my life. So but we're walking the story. We're walking the story of God. If you're new here, welcome. I mean, that's that's what we want. We want you to come in and join in and listen. Listen. Be a part of it. We have a whole community of we have true word faithforlife.com. Bazillion resources there. We've got past episodes, audio only. We're on every dead gun. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, Music, iHeartRadio, all of them. We're on all of them. I'm Dr. Sean. You know, if it doesn't break your arm, like this video, subscribe to the channel, and if you want to go deeper, get my book. True Word Faith for Life. It's in the store, Trueword FaithforLife.com. So today we're we're walking the story of Genesis 28, 1 through 22. Yeah. All those verses. What's that about? You'll never get through. This chapter matters because it refuses to flatten Jacob into either some sort of cartoon villain or some finished saint. Jacob is neither of those things. He's chosen, but he's but he's immature. He's blessed, but he's broken. He's carrying covenant promise, but he's also carrying family pain. Sounds a whole lot more like real life you and me stuff than most people want to admit. Took me a long time. Genesis 28 opens after the disaster of Genesis 27. Jacob's deceived his father. Rebecca's manipulated the household. Yikes. Isaac has trembled, trembled, because he realized he'd been had. Esau wept bitterly. The family is completely fractured. Now Isaac calls Jacob again. But this time there's there's no disguise. No goatskins, no whispering, no pretending. Isaac blesses Jacob directly. And he tells him not to take a wife from the Canaanite women. He's just relaying a message from God. Sends him to Padanaram, to the household of Rebekah's family, and that matters. In the ancient Near Eastern world, marriage wasn't just romance. I've said it a million times, if I've said it once. It was covenant alignment. It shaped household identity, inheritance, worship, loyalty, and the future of the clan. And I'm freak out. Good lands. DEI people. The clan. He said the clan.

Stupid.

Man, I don't know how we get stuff done in this country or in this world. People hear that word and they freak out. Clan means something different. Isaac isn't merely saying, Well, you should find a new nice girl. Find you a nice girl that don't wear. Oh, stop it with Godburner Babies Hilbert's Hotel. What an idiot. Thing is, is once your podcast starts to gain a little bit of traction, the crazy people come out. Just that's what they do. They got nothing better to do. And just sit on the internet. I'm gonna find something I disagree with. I'm gonna go get in there. I'm gonna almost stir it up because that's my business.

No.

Out you go. Isaac isn't merely saying, now you go find yourself a nice girl now. Find one that wears nice dresses. She don't do too much, but she don't do, she does enough, but she don't do too much, you know. He's not saying that. He's not saying find a nice girl. He's saying don't build the covenant future on the values of the land around you. That's still a word for us. Be careful who shapes your future. Be careful what household forms your loves. Be careful what voices train your desires. Covenant people don't just ask, do I want this? Is this something I want? They ask, will this form me toward faithfulness? He's cute. He looked good. Will this form me? Will this mold me? Will this will this help me in my faithfulness? A lot of people, we pay a big price for not asking that question before we get all up involved with some folk. Then Isaac gives Jacob the blessing of Abraham. The blessing of Abraham, don't miss that. Fruitfulness, multiplication, land, promise, identity. Here's the tension. Jacob leaves with the blessing. Hang on a second. Don't miss that word. There's one big word in there. Leaves. Not like on the trees. Like beaten feet on out of there. But he also leaves with consequences. Both are true. Yeah, he's got the blessing for sure, for sure. But he leaves with consequences that are all up on his shoulders. Every bit of both are true. God's mercy doesn't always erase the fallout of our choices. God's mercy doesn't always erase the fallout, the shrapnel of our choices. But God can still call you. Yo, if he can call you, if he can call me, he can surely call you. And it doesn't have to be for some big thing. Does it? You know, it's funny. Early on, you know, before I got hurt, there's world famous people who they would hear me speak and they go, look, you need to be doing this for a living. This is what you need to do. I'm not saying I agree with them. I said, you know, do this, do this for you. You'll be a grand scale. You'll make a living out of this. A good living. And it'll be a good life. Fallout. Just fallout from our choices. But God can still call you. He called me. Call me to this. Sometimes he calls me to preach places in person, by the way. The guy, the guy that wants to be a little cool. He wants to be a little cool, come and try to disrupt. He'd never do that face to face, would he? Nah. Y'all that have no you know me, know me. Nah, he wouldn't. He's got some consequences. He's got to work through. God, God can still call you. I look, some of you are on this really, really, really, really tough journey. I can relate. I can. Trials and tribulations in this life. Be of good cheer, for we are victorious in Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Joseph 260, 264. Amen. Glory be to God. That's a good word in season. Look, God can still call you, he can still keep you. When we screw up, he's not like, I'm out. I'm out. What an utter disappointment you are. Gee, I didn't think you'd be like that. God can still call you because he still keeps you. God can still work through you. That's why when I see people on the internet, there are there are whole YouTube channels dedicated to this. Some people's whole career in tearing down other pastors, tearing down other teachers. They'll look for the thing, you know. They'll look for the thing. And they'll chip at it. Just like the world does. Well worse. They'll tear them down, they'll try to just wreck them. It's tragic. It's utterly tragic. God can still work through you. Some of those people that you you see that have made a wreck out of their life, you've seen them. It's tragic. They have a gift. They have a massive gift. Maybe they're a great singer or a great preacher or teacher. I don't know. You know? Whatever their thing is, they're really, really good at. And people really, really listen. But they screw up big. I don't know if you can identify. God can still call you, God can still keep you, and God can still work through you. But some roads, you still gotta walk it. I hate it for you, and I hate it for me, and I hate it for other people out there listening. But you gotta walk the road. Jacob isn't leaving home because everything is wonderful. Mm-mm. He's leaving because the house has become dangerous. Hey, it's dangerous when your brother wants you dead and is capable. You hear me? It'd be different if you got some scrawny little brother that was, you know, could never kill you on his best day. But this brother, easily, easily, with no effort whatsoever, he could kill him for sure, for sure. His brother wants him dead. That's a dangerous house. His mother's trying to save him, sure. His father's blessed him, sure. But and Jacob, he's holding in his hand exactly what he wanted. While losing almost everything familiar and warm. And it's no longer familiar and warm. It's brutal. It's awful. Have you been there? Are you there now? It's a tough place to be. I don't like what Jacob did. I don't at all like what Jacob did. It was wrong. Was so hundred percent wrong. He's suddenly holding what he wanted, and he's looking around at the car crash of his family. I made a mess of this. That's real. Gee, this beautiful thing doesn't feel as good as I'd hoped it would feel. Some people get what they chased. And then they realize the cost was far heavier than they thought or that they can bear. And then maybe you can identify, I don't know. I don't know your life. So then Genesis shows us Esau. Right? Esau sees that Isaac doesn't want Jacob marrying Canaanite women. So what does Esau do? He goes and marries into Ishmael's line. Oh. Lovely. Lovely. Isn't that great? What wonderful choices.

Hmm.

I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna show you. Generational repeat. Tension between brothers. The vicious cycle continues without God's intervention. Imagine that. God's not moving the chess pieces all the time. Sometimes we make our choices. We say, I want free will. I want freedom. And then we get mad at God. Why didn't you protect me from that? Well, I did. Told you not to do it. And now everything is jacked up in this whole family's life, and we come from this. At first glance, that might look like correction. But the text is more subtle than that. Esau is reacting. He's not surrendering. He's adjusting behavior because he sees his parents are displeased. But Genesis doesn't show him bowing before God in repentance, and that matters. Not every adjustment is transformation. Look now. You say, oh, I'm working through it. I'm doing this. I'm doing that. Not every adjustment you make in your life is transformation. Mm-mm. Hard pass, hard no. Hashtag not. Not every religious looking decision is obedience. Look, we can dress it all up. We can dress it up. Hey, you know what we are? We're real good at dressing it up, making it look good. Put on a nice suit of clothes. Learn some new words. These sound churchy. We maybe even get our hair cut just right. Not every religious-looking decision is obedient. Sometimes people change strategy because they don't like the consequences. Hey, I'm gonna, I'm, this didn't work. Uh note to self. Duly noted, didn't work, gonna do something different. Sometimes they clean up the outside because the inside's still unmanaged. You ever see that? You see a house that's just beautiful on the outside, you go in and hoarders live there. Places of pig sty, it stinks. When I was a police officer, I would go into houses and sometimes I'd be stunned. Like, man, this is chaos. Sometimes they clean up the outside because the inside is still unmanaged. Sometimes we clean up the outside because the inside's still unmanaged, and we don't want people to know us. We say we do, but we don't. A lot of people know how to look responsive while still refusing to be ruled by God. We know how to look the part. But we're still refusing to be ruled by how we say, hmm, I like my freedom. I like my freedom. I want my freedom. I'm gonna have my freedom. Esau's problem wasn't only his marriage choices, it was appetite. Now we're talking about Esau here. Remember, Esau.

Esau got just totally rooked multiple times.

I told you about it yesterday. I have a soft spot in my heart for Esau. Esau's problem wasn't only his marriage choices, it was appetite. And I don't mean like, mmm, I gotta give me some of that stew. Reckon I can take some of them French fried potatoes on. No, it wasn't that. It was despising sacred inheritance. He despised it. That's what the scriptures say. He despised it. And then and then living by impulse until the pain became obvious. Have we ever been there? That looks good. That looks good. Hey girl. Hey, mister. You know? And then the pain becomes obvious. We don't change when we see the light. I hear that all the time. We don't. We don't change when we see the light of the torch. We change when we feel the heat of the flame. Sorry. It's how it is. It's true. Now Jacob leaves Beersheba and heads towards towards Haran. Don't miss the weight of that sentence. Scripture says, now Jacob leaves Beersheba and heads towards Haran. In our modern world, we read travel like it's just mileage, like, oh, let me press this into the GPS. I'll be there. GPS says I'll be there. Oh, it has traffic. 31 minutes. No. No, it wasn't like that. Wasn't like that. That's why you got to understand the context. We anachronistically apply what we know and what we see and what we experience here to that. And we go, well, why'd they do that? They were stupid, just like the disciples. Them disciples are so dumb. Why didn't they see that he was Jesus the Messiah? I mean, who walks on water and isn't the Messiah? Who raises people from the dead and isn't the Messiah? Listen, man, 500 people saw him rise into heaven. They saw him over 500. And of that, history tells us only 125 followed him. You saw him, who you knew was dead, because it was no secret that they'd murdered Jesus. Yeshua was put on the cross. He was tortured mercilessly before he got there. He was put on the cross and tortured to death. And then he goes into, then he goes into a borrowed grave. And then three days later, he comes out. Just like prophecy said. They touch his scars. And then over 500 people, human beings, with their eyes watched him transcend. In our modern world, we apply all this stuff. We don't even believe the video. And now you can't believe the video. But nobody was videoing it then. Nobody pulled their phone out and went, oh, there goes Jesus. No, nobody did it. But in our modern world, with AI and all these other things, you what can you believe? Video. I remember as a police officer, I can tell you. You can't always believe the video. You can't. You can't always believe the video. But guess what? We have all these tools. We have all these tools. We have this. Right now I'm talking to you around the world. There's people listening from UK, Germany, Mexico, Barcelona, all kinds of places. Through a box. Through this thing. We have all the tools and yet we don't believe. And when we look at travel, and we think, oh, well, why didn't they get in their car and drive? Why didn't they just punch it into the Jeep? In Jacob's world, leaving the household meant leaving protection. Family was safety. Family was identity. Family was economy. Family was legal standing. Family was your network, your shield, your name, your food, your future. Jacob walks away from all of that. And he's not traveling as some sort of hero. He's traveling as a man caught between promise and pain. Have you ever been there? Have you ever been in that place? You're caught between promise and pain. Then the sun sets and Jacob stops. Don't miss this. Please don't miss this. I tried to depict it as as well as I could. And if you're watching in the thumbnail. Right there on your screen. God in your mess. God in your mess. Heads on a stone. He takes one of the stones of the place and he places it near his head and he lays down. Can you imagine? A flipping stone for a pillow. That's not a travel upgrade. That's not bumping from two stars to three. That's not ancient four-star travel. That's not that's not, you know, going to give you a five-star review. That's not welcome to your Bethel Suites, enjoy your complimentary rock. That's exposure, it's exhaustion. When you look, when your choice is lay your head down on a rock. On a rock. That's exposure, it's exhaustion, it's wilderness survival. And right there, where Jacob has no tent, no bed, no family table, no mother's voice, no father's house, no visible future, God gives him a dream. A dream. God is still visiting him. He has made a total wreck of everything. And God still visits him. Jacob sees something set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. Many English readers grew up hearing Jacob's ladder, right? Remember hearing about that? But the Hebrew word is Sulom. Sulom. And it likely points less to a little ladder and more to a massive stairway or a ramped structure. And in the ancient Near Eastern world, sacred towers and temple structures, they were often imagined as meeting points between heaven and earth. But Genesis, it does something stunning here. Jacob doesn't build a tower to reach God. God opens heaven and reveals himself to Jacob. Human religion says, look, you climb high enough, maybe you'll reach the divine. I hear it all the time. I have lots of Pentecostal folk. Look, I've got lots of friends in the Pentecostal tradition. I've preached in Pentecostal churches. They are fun to preach in. You get a lot of feedback. A lot of times they'll say to different people, I've been asked that a million times. You have the gift of tongues. You ever speak in tongues? You ever speak in tongues? I very politely say to them, no, have you? Well, how do you know? Oh, I speak in tongues all the time. How do you know? How do you know what you're saying? Are you following scripture for that? Have you read all the scriptures around that? I'm not throwing rocks at Pentecostal church or speaking in tongues. I'm just telling you. There's all kinds of measurements, benchmarks, these nebulous benchmarks. Well, you climb high enough, maybe you'll reach the divine. You you you try hard enough, you look good enough, you sound good enough, maybe, maybe, maybe you'll be worth us looking at and going, oh yeah, you know, a good soldier. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob says, you're lying on the ground. Your situation is bad. You're lying on the ground. And I'll come to you. To you. That's mercy. That's revelation. That's covenant grace. Come on. Come on, folks. That's gotta do something to you. You've got to read that and see yourself. Hey, look, maybe you've lived a charmed life. I don't know. Maybe you've made all the right choices. Maybe you've never been in this place. I just might be talking to myself. Mercy, revelation and God's covenant grace. Jacob sees messengers of God ascending and descending. Heaven is not inactive. God's realm is not detached from you. The unseen world, it isn't sleeping while Jacob suffers. Jacob thought he was alone. Listen, if you're suffering in loneliness, you are not. You are not alone. Anyone out there ever feel lonely? You're just sitting there and you suddenly suddenly realize, man, I'm alone here. You're not. Let me lay down and rest my head on a rock. It wasn't. Jacob thought he was between places. I'm gonna go from here to here. I travel now for medical reasons, but I travel now if it's a long distance. I get out. I walk around. I try to smell a place. I try to look and see. I, you know, I always want to hear the birds. I turn my hearing aids way up. I want to hear them. I love birds. I try to see some sort of sights. But you know, it's not it's not the in-between. Jacob, Jacob thought he was going point A to point B. Isn't that how we do sometimes? Hey Chris, how's it going, brother? Or sister? Chris could be a girl, name. God turned this in-between place, because look, a lot of us are in in-between places right now. Idiot. You will burn in hell. You will burn in hell. Can't help you if you don't want help, but turn to Christ, stop all that crazy business. May look cool to your friends, but one day you're gonna face God. Sad. If you can't see the comments, you you can't understand what that's about, but trust me, better off. Heaven is real and so is hell. Let me tell you something. God turned this in-between place for Jacob. Just like we're in, we go point A to point B, we ignore the middle. Listen, you were born and you're gonna die. This is the dash you're living. God turned the in-between place into revelation. Then Adonai speaks. He says, I am Adonai, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. That matters. This isn't vague spiritual feeling. This isn't some sort of vague spiritual feeling. This isn't Jacob having some emotional whipped up. Look, there was no worship team there. There were no, there were no heavy guitars playing and smoke rising up, and the lights was just perfect. No, he's out in the wilderness and he's got his head on a flipping rock. He's not having some whipped up emotional inspiration under the stars. This is the covenant God speaking the covenant promise into Jacob's life. Jacob, everything has been off the rails by his own choosing. The land, the offspring, the blessing to all the families of the earth, Jacob. Are you kidding me? This guy? If we were God, we wouldn't do it. If I were God, I wouldn't do it. I'd look at Jacob and I'd be, man, to heck with you. You get what you deserve. That rock is too good for you. And if you're being honest, so would you probably. We judge people, we look at people, we throw the thing down, and we go, nah, you're done, you're out. Oh, you failed. We do it all the time. The modern culture, we do it all the time. Not just with religious, but political, all those things. We do it, we do it for everything. We do it for people that make mistakes in our life. We can make a million mistakes. No problem. They make a mistake. This is the covenant God speaking the covenant promise into Jacob's life. He is speaking the land, the offspring, the blessing to all the families on the earth. And this promise is bigger than Jacob's comfort. It's bigger than his crisis. Oh, you better believe it is. It's bigger than his crisis. It's bigger than his family drama. Come on, some of us. We got some family drama, do we not? God's covenant purpose is still moving toward redemption for the nations. It is bigger than us. We think it's all just right here. That's what we think. But it is bigger than us. We are bigger than us. What we do and say, the covenant and promises we keep or break are bigger than we say. And here it is God is using Jacob, who is undoubtedly jacked up. He's so jacked up. So are we. But God uses them. But then, but then God says something so deeply personal.

I am with you.

I will keep you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you. Oh. I just about can't go on. Did you hear that? Let me say it again. I am with you. I will keep you. This is the living God, the creator of all things. I am with you. I will keep you. I will bring you back. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you, what I promised you. Some of you are ignoring that because the power of it is too much for you to bear. Jacob hasn't earned that. He's earned the opposite. Jacob hasn't matured into that. Oh no, quite the opposite. Jacob hasn't even fully understood the God who is speaking to him. But God binds the promise to his own faithfulness, his own faithfulness, his own faithfulness. Did you hear it? I said it three times. I said it four times. That's the anchor. Not Jacob's emotional stability, not Jacob's spiritual resume. Not Jacob's family performance. God's faithfulness. Somebody needs to hear that today. You've been measuring God's nearness by your stability. You've been assuming that because your life feels unsettled, God must be far away. Jacob 28 says, no. No. God meets, God meets Jacob in motion. God meets Jacob in fear. God meets Jacob in consequence. And don't miss this. God meets Jacob in the place he would have never chosen. And God says. And I didn't know it.

I don't know if you've ever been there. I don't know if you ever have.

I've been in some rough places in my life. And some rough situations, man.

Dark, dark places. I don't know if you ever have. I don't. But I bet you have. And I wonder if you've ever said this.

Surely Adunai is in this place. And I didn't know it. Look, you can go to church looking for an experience. You can go there looking for a feeling. Slam and worship band, smoke, perfect lighting, sound texts that are the best in the business. I'm not saying any of that's bad. I like good music. I like great worship. We say, surely the Lord is in this place. Why? Because we feel it. It's all designed to make you feel it. Jacob wakes up after laying his head on a rock without a tent. And he has this dream given to him by Adonai. And he says, Surely, Adonai is in this place, and I didn't know it. That ought to stop you. That ought to stop you if you let it. God was here and I didn't know it. God was working and I didn't see it. God was guarding and I didn't recognize it. He was protecting me and I didn't recognize it. God was speaking and I was too afraid to listen. God was present and I misnamed the place. I called it failure. I called it exile. I called it loneliness. I called it uncertainty. I called it the end. But God called it Bethel, which means house of God. This time Jacob's afraid, but it's not panic. It's not panic this time. He's surely afraid I'd be too. This is Reverend Awe. It's awe. I don't know if you've ever felt the presence of God, or just one day said to yourself, Wow. He's God, and I'm not. He says, How awesome is this place? This is none other than the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. Now watch this. Watch this. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. There's no temple here. There's no fancy church. There's no high church. There's no fancy church. There's no, there's no um, you know, uh whipped up emotionalism, none of it. There's no hip trendy cool pastor, nope, none of it. There's none of it. There's no greeting team in the parking lot as you drive in, helping you park, directing you to the right spot. Come on, welcome in. Let's give you a cup. Here's a cup. You know, I'm not saying any of that's bad. I'm just saying there was none of it there. There was no temple there. There's no priesthood there. There was no altar system there. There was no music team, no smoke machine, no branded coffee shop in the lobby. No bookstore, just a man, a stone, the night and the presence of God. God makes the place holy by his presence. This place where we are right now, where you are right now, is holy because he's here. It's not because I'm good, it's not because you're good. This place that God made holy where Jacob was, it wasn't by Jacob's preparation. He didn't make that. Look, I'm not saying that gathered worship doesn't matter. It surely does. I help people every day find great churches where they live. Not perfect churches, but good churches. This doesn't mean sacred rhythms don't matter. I'm not saying that. They do, they absolutely do. But you know what? Genesis 28 teaches us that God isn't trapped inside the places we expected him to be. I was trapped in a car. I was I was just struck 92 miles per hour versus 51. I went from 51 to zero in seven feet. Thank you, Nicole, for sharing that. That's powerful. I put it on the screen, I hope you don't mind. I was trapped in the car and what I didn't know is that I had died. I didn't have some fancy, marketable near-death experience. I didn't know that I had died for two years. And I am as jacked up a dude as you'll ever meet in your life. And let me tell you, when I woke up, when I came back to life, when I reanimated, whatever you want to call it to be, the first thing I did, and I'm not saying I'm some holy dude, I'm not. I am a hundred percent not. I prayed a prayer of contrition. I asked for forgiveness for my many, many sins.

I thought I was about to die, not that I had died.

I was in horrific pain. I'd been in lots of pain. I had lots of very kinetic things happen in my life and into my body. I knew it. I knew how serious it was. And I thought I was about to die. And I prayed and I asked for prayer of contrition and I prayed a prayer of petition. I said, Lord, with all the training I have, if I couldn't avoid this accident, it was a high-speed crash. I could feel the heat from the car that struck me, totally engulfed in flames. I knew I was hurt bad. I didn't think I would live and neither did anybody else. I prayed and I said, Father, somebody in that car. Maybe everybody in that car is gonna die. Little did I know that the person that died in that car was lived right across the fairway from us. Every Friday night we saw him play football. Our son backed him up. Used to go to practice with him, sometimes come home. Andre. He was the only person in that car stuffed full of high school seniors that knew the Lord. And he died. We found that out in the emergency room. I went into the trauma room. All of my injuries. And that was the worst. It was Andre. There was nothing I could do. They told me that I had, you know, made all these moves so fast. They could, they downloaded all the information from the car. They said, you've tried hard. There's nothing you could do. They were on 109 when they hit the median. The point I'm trying to make is the last prayer I prayed is for my family and thanking God. It was a prayer of gratitude. Thank you, God, that nobody from my family was in the vehicle. No, my dog, my beloved dog, wasn't in the vehicle. Genesis 28 teaches us that God. I was for 40 minutes, I was trapped in this vehicle. They had to cut the whole left side off to get me out. Genesis 28 teaches us that God isn't trapped inside the places we expected him to be. He can meet you in the hospital room. I've been in plenty of hospital rooms as a patient. And I've been in a hospital room as people were taking their last breath. Some of them I love dearly. He can meet you in the car after the worst phone call of your life. You got the call that you didn't want. You prayed never to get, and you got it. God can meet you there. He can meet you in the apartment that you didn't want. Look, you didn't want an apartment. You had a home. He can meet you in the job transition. They're scary. They're scary. I know that they are. He can meet you in the aftermath of a choice you regret. Thank you all. You're very kind. Thank you, Tammy. He can meet you on the road between what was and what's next. That in between is a scary place. Jacob takes the stone and sets it up as a pillar. This is why I tell you: if you don't understand the Old Testament, you will never understand the new. Jacob takes the stone. And he sets it up as a pillar. And he pours oil on it. And he marks the place. He names it Bethel. The city had formerly been known as Luz. Jacob never wants to forget what God did. He marks the moment. He marks the place. Some of us need to recover the discipline of remembering. Look, not worshiping the past. Not living in yesterday. But marking God's faithfulness so we don't lose our minds and tomorrow's pressure. Write it down. Tell your children. Pray over it. Name the place correctly. Because if you don't remember where God met you, fear will rename it later. Then Jacob makes a vow. And we need to be honest. Jacob's faith is real, but it's not fully mature. He says, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's presence for my father's house in peace, then Adonai shall be my God. Hear it again. If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I may come again to my father's house in peace. Then Adonai shall be my God. That's not the language of a finished disciple. That's the language of a man beginning to trust. Jacob is still learning. He's still conditional in his language. How many prayers have we prayed? How many prayers have we pray? If you do this, God, then I'll do what you said. He's still conditional in his language, he's still early in his journey, and God meets him right there. And that should humble us. God doesn't despise small beginnings. God doesn't wait until your faith sounds polished. God doesn't wait until you get center stage.

That's Genesis 28 language.

Thank you all, by the way. You're very kind. That's Genesis 28 language. Look, it look, if you don't do the study, if you don't dig in, I know people that their Bible in the New Testament, they've written in, they've highlighted, they've marked, and then you look at their Old Testament, clean, clean as a whistle. Pages aren't wrinkled, there's no oil from fingers on them. The pages are perfectly intact. We've got nothing stuffed in there. There's no post-it notes writing down this or that. New Testament, totally different story, folks. Don't skip over the Old Testament. We are reading through the Bible in a year. We're walking the story of God. And this is where it starts. You'll never understand just what Jesus did for you until you understand everything that led up to it. Genesis 28 language. John 1. Hear it again. Yeshua speaks to Nathaniel and says that he will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Yeshua is saying, Jesus is saying, in effect, the place where heaven and earth meet isn't finally a stone or shrine or a location. It's me. It's him. Jacob saw a stairway. But we see Messiah. Jacob saw heaven opened over Bethel. We see heaven opened in Yeshua. He is the true meaning and the meeting place of heaven and earth. He is the way God comes down to us. He is the one through whom sinners, strugglers, runners, wounded people come home. Bethel was never just about geography. It was always pointing beyond itself. The house of God becomes personal in the Son of God. So what does Genesis 28 say to us right now? It says, God meets people in transition. That's right. God meets people in transition. Says consequences don't cancel covenant faithfulness. Thank God. Literally, thank God. It says the wilderness can become revelation. It says you can be lonely and not abandon. It says you can be unfinished and still be pursued by God. It says faith often begins before you fully understand. It says God's presence is closer than your fear told you. And it says the place you thought was empty may be the place where the heavens open. I have for you today a challenge and a choice, and you can just blithely fly through it if you want. Real questions. Ask them, answer them, do what you want with them. Where have you assumed? Where have you assumed God is absent because life feels unstable? Man, I can't feel God in this moment. I can't feel God in this moment. Things are so messed up, they're so jacked up. Nothing is going right. Everything is unstable. I have no answered questions. God can't possibly be in this place. Don't let some preacher tell you that you will feel shalom all the time. You won't. You won't. I frequently tell people, look, come into Christ, it ain't easy. You are not picking an easy life, but I'll tell you what you are choosing: an eternity in heaven with our Savior and our King, and He's not absent here on earth through the unstable times. I'll ask you another question. Why not? Where have you mistaken transition for abandonment? You said, Man, God has left me. God's left me. I'm in this place. I don't know where I am. God's not here. The next one? Look. I give you a hug after asking you this. If you honestly answered it, I would give you a hug because it ain't gonna be easy. It's not gonna be easy to hear, and it's certainly not gonna be easy to answer. Where have you let shame convince you that God won't meet you until you're easier to love? I'll ask it again. Where have you let you? Where have you let shame convince you that God won't meet you until you're easier to love? Where have you called a place empty? Simply because you didn't recognize his presence there. You didn't see it. You said this place is empty.

I'm going somewhere else. Let me tell you something.

Miss Colleen and I I was in one of the darkest places of my life.

And it was wintry, Ohio, which is the Arctic tundra.

And I had just been messed out of a lot of money, and it was costing me a lot of money and a lot of time I didn't have. I had a house in the country two, I guess two or two and a half hours away, when it wasn't snowing. That's only July and June and August. Might be snowing the rest of the time, who knows? It's Arctic Tundra. Northeast Ohio. And we stumbled into this little church. Didn't look like much. It was in between a liquor store.

I can't remember what was on the other side now, actually. It was a liquor store. Transition. We're just on our way home. We were trying to beat the storm. There was this massive storm. Blizzard. Lake effect snow. We were tired, sweaty, dirty. Working on the house trying to get it sellable. Place in between. We just didn't know. We were just in transition. It was it was rough. We didn't have hardly any money. And we go into this little church. Vineyard of Marysville, or Marysville Vineyard, I can't remember what it's called. Not directly. And it was transformative. It was for me. It was transformative. It was such a transitional thing. And yet God was there. Where where are you calling empty because you don't recognize God's presence there?

Here's the choice. And lots of you know You have a choice.

Free will, man. It's free will. You can keep running without listening. Or you can stop and hear what God is saying. You can keep naming your season by fear. Sure. The time that you're in, the transition you're in, the dash that you're in, the season that you're in. You can keep you can keep you can name it fear. By your fear. Or you can ask God to show you what he's doing in it.

You can believe God only shows up after you get everything together. Look. I understand that feeling.

A hundred percent I do. I do. I get it. You get it honest. You get it honest? I get it honest. God's only gonna come when I get all my stuff together. Or you can receive the mercy of the God who meets people on the road. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. Name the place truthfully. Mark the moment. Take the next faithful step.

And that's this. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey. It's asking for a strong back. Father, I know I've done wrong things. And I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again. I bring you my sin, my shame, my hurts, my habits, and my hang-ups. Today, I turn from my sin and I place my trust in Him as my Lord and my King. Forgive me and make me new and fill me with your Spirit from this day. I from this day forward, I want to follow you in Jesus' name. Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you, Father. It's the only reason I do this. It's the only reason. It is the only reason that I do this. And one day I won't be able to. Oh, you may be in the transition, you may be in the dash, but you're not alone. Reach out to me. I'll help you. I've helped countless others. I will help you. There's no fee or charge or none of that. I love people put their comments in there. Oh, making money. No, sorry. Reach out to me through TrueWord FaithforLife.com slash contact. I will personally. I'll help you take whatever next steps. I'll walk with you in the way. You aren't alone. All you need to do is ask. God meets you in the middle. God speaks in the unknown. God opens heaven where you least expect it. That stone under your head that may become the marker of his mercy. And the place you thought was only wilderness may become the house of God. If that message, if you, if it touched you for whatever reason, not because of me, share it. It's easy to do. Post the link. Social media. Until tomorrow at 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. We'll be here. 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Until then, Shalom Bishem Yeshua. Shalom Elaqum. Shalom Shalom.