DAY 38: WHAT DO YOU NEED TO BURY?

Good morning. What do you do when the atmosphere is polluted? The family is trackered. The past is loud. And deep down, you know something has gotta change. You know it. The point of ignoring is over. That's past. What do you do when you're you're tired of pretending everything is fine? That's fine. How you doing? Fine. How you doing? How you doing? How you doing? Answer with a we answer a question with a question. What do you do? You're so worn out on pretending. But in the midst of all that, you feel the compromise in the room. Genesis 35, it doesn't begin in a clean place. It begins after Genesis 34. Dinah has been violated. Remember that from yesterday? Rough show. Rough. Rough episode. If you listen to that, go into that with a good attitude and tissues. So Dinah has been violated. Shechem has sinned. Jacob has been passive. Simeon and Levi, they've answered evil with massacre. The family's exposed, morally shaken, and it's spiritually compromised. And then God speaks, not with noise, not with panic, not with public relations strategy, you know, like it is nowadays. God says to Jacob, Arise. Go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau. In other words, Jacob, come back to the place where I met you. Somebody needs that today. Today. Maybe your soul doesn't need one more distraction. Maybe your family doesn't need one more excuse. Maybe your house doesn't need more religiosity or religious talk. Church buzzwords. Maybe your house needs to come back to God. So, here's the question for your heart. What are you still carrying that needs to be buried before you move forward? Real question for real people who are seeking real faith. Welcome back to Through the Bible in the Year, Walking in the Story of God. The name of this podcast is True Word, Faith for Life with Dr. Sean. I'm Dr. Sean. Today we're walking through Genesis 35.1 to 29. Before we go any further, um, my book, True Word Faith for Life, is available in the store at TrueWordfaithforLife.com. It will help you to stop surviving on religious fragments and start walking in the truth of God's word with courage, clarity, and faith for real life. That same real life you're living today. The book is textbook quality. You'll have it for a long, long time. And you'll use it every day. Read it with uh, don't take a sip of coffee and read, or soda, or whatever, because sometimes it'll come out your nose, because something will be funny, and then other times you're gonna need a bunch of tissues because it will make you cry. Thank you very much, Miss Colleen, Sound Engineer of the Day. Hello to you all, by the way. How lovely to see all of you waiting for me in the live chat. That's awesome. It's a vibrant live chat. It's beautiful, people are beautiful to each other there, and I love it. So today's passage is about returning. Not merely returning to a location, returning, returning to worship, returning to covenant memory, returning to spiritual clarity, returning to the God who met Jacob when he had nothing but a stone for a pillow and fear in his chest. Genesis 35 is what happens when God calls a messy household back to holy ground. And remember, that was holy ground. Still is today. God says, Arise, go up to Bethel. Bethel means house of God. Years earlier, Jacob was running from Esau, as you'll remember several episodes ago. Jacob was running from Esau after deceiving his father and stealing. He didn't just deceive him. He stole. He stole the blessing. Well, he stopped for a night and he dreamt of a stairway between heaven and earth. With the angels of God ascending and descending. God promised him land, offspring, blessing, protection, return, and presence. Jacob woke up and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. That place was Bethel. That was the place where fear encountered compromise. That was the place where the fugitive discovered that God hadn't abandoned him. Now, as you'll remember, after Laban's house, after wrestling, after reconciliation, after family pain, after Genesis 34's disaster, Jacob calls, God calls Jacob back. Not back to nostalgia. That is most assuredly not. We're not talking about the feeling of nostalgia. God called Jacob back to covenant, back to worship, back to the God who had been faithful from the very beginning. And that matters because spiritual drift rarely happens all at once. It happens by accumulation. Little bit at a time. Little bit at a time. Little terrapheme. A tolerated pattern. A little bit. Something tolerated. A wound that nobody addresses. A sin nobody names. After a while, the house is full of things that don't belong there. Let me say that again. Somebody in the audience right now. You know all about the house being full of things that don't belong there. Jacob knows it. He does, he knows it. So he says to his household and to all who were with him, Scripture says, put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves and change your garments. So easy to miss that. Don't miss that. Jacob finally leads. Leadership. So critically important. We think we're on this earth and people who the people are, but people, they, usually called they, their name is usually they have to lead us around. They have to teach us, and they have to make sure we are where we need to be doing what we need to do. No one is responsible for that more than you. Well, here we go. I've been saying, I wish Jacob would just be a leader. Well, here we go. He said, To all who are with him, which means his people, put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. Jacob finally leads. He doesn't blame. He's not given a bunch of blame. He doesn't hide behind confusion. He doesn't say, hey, everybody's got their own spirituality. So I'm just gonna, you know. He doesn't say everybody has their own spirituality. He says put them away. Put those ancient Near Eastern gods away. Put them away. In the ancient Near Eastern world, household gods, they weren't harmless decorations. They were tied to family identity and inheritance claims, protection, power, and spiritual allegiance. Rachel took her father's household gods. Remember the teraphim? She took her household gods from Laban's house. I don't know why she did it. I don't know her life, well, I kind of do. But I wasn't living in the moment to moment. Good morning. Good morning. I wasn't I wasn't all up in there. Rachel, Rachel took these household gods in. It's exasperating to me. Why? Why'd you do that? Then I look at myself and I think, man, don't be don't be too hard on her, bruh. Don't be too hard on her. But now the problem is bigger than Rachel. It's bigger than Rachel. Jacob says there are foreign gods among them. That means the whole household is now in need of cleansing. This is covenant danger. The family of Abraham isn't called to religious mixture. They're called to belong to the Lord. And that's still the issue today. You can't follow the God of Israel while keeping a backup savior. You can't say Yeshua is Lord. Right? We hear people say they make these grand declarations. They don't mean it. Because they've got real security. Oh, my real security is money, control, anger, image, lust, approval, politics, performance, talent, substances, bitterness, fear. You cannot say Jesus is Lord and still hang on to a moment. Whatever you run to, for idemity, for security, for comfort, power, and rescue. Well, it's competing for worship. God loves you too much to leave a rival throne in your heart. What is the rival throne for you? Jacob also tells them to purify themselves and change their garments. I told you, pay attention to that. In the Bible, outward actions often embody inward realities. Oh, come on, somebody. Somebody knows all about that. They're preparing to approach holy ground. They aren't strolling into Bethel. Remember where they are. They're not strolling into Bethel with idols in their bags and dirt on their garments. They're responding to God's call with visible repentance. People often miss this, so don't you miss this too? We want inward spirituality with no outward obedience, we say. Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? But biblical faith, it's embodied. Shows up in your choices. Shows up in your habits. Shows up in what you bury. It shows up in what we stop defending. Shows up when we say, This can't come with me into worship. Can't come with me into worship. Somebody sent me a message one time because I was talking about my Bibles and, you know, I collect Bibles. And I think I'm finished collecting Bibles, but uh this is one of my Moose Works Bibles. She's got three more. Melissa, Mooseworks Bibles on Etsy. She's got three more of my Bibles. That'll be the last three I get done. She's done three already. They're unreal, transformational. And when they get passed down, they'll get passed down for generations more than me. Unreal. Mooseworks Bible. I know it's a funny name. Melissa's unreal. She's just such a nice lady. Anyway. Look. What are you trying to take with you into worship? Man, I need you to think about that. What am I carrying with me into worship? The big the big moment, the big thing isn't the big worship experience that's just like, ooh. I know the Lord was in the house tonight. No? It's that thing when you stop. Maybe it's before you leave your house. Maybe it's maybe it's before you enter the church. And I'm not saying the church is necessarily a special place, but I'm talking about worship. Isn't I I've said this many times, isn't it? Oh, I started to tell you, let me let me finish what I was saying. I got all into the Mooseworks Bible because they train they're wow. Unreal. I'm telling you, you look up close, you're like, oh boy, that's really awesome. So someone said to me one time, they sent me a message and said, you know, you're you're you've you've turned your Bible into an idol. You say you wash your hands before you go into study. Well, I wash my hands before I come into worship, too. Well, that's ritualistic. That's legalistic. No. It's taken a moment to say, okay. I'm going into something special. And I have got to take it seriously. I've got to take this seriously. This is real stuff. And a lot of folks died to bring me that Bible. I'll be darned if I'm gonna disrespect it. Your view may vary. What can't? What do you know that you shouldn't take into worship? Is it your anger? Maybe you were victimized. No fault of your own. Hundred percent get it. I a hundred percent get it. I do. But that cannot become your idol. That can't become your identity. Your injury cannot become your identity. At some point you have to say this. Can't come with me into worship. And I don't know what that this thing is. But I'll tell you this. You'll know when you get to it. So then they give Jacob the foreign gods and the rings in their ears, and Jacob hides them underneath the terebinth. There's a tree called a terebinth tree. In that part of the world. Isn't that interesting? The idols are buried. They're buried. The symbols are removed. They're not displayed. They're not put on the tree. That's special. It's not displayed. It's not saved for later. It's not carried in secret. It's buried. Some of you don't need a better management plan for your idol. You need to have a burial. A burial for the old coping mechanism. A burial for the secret compromise that you think no one knows. A burial for the bitterness that has kept you warm, but it has also made you cold. How about a burial for the fear that has ruled your decisions? Every decision is made with fear. And that's running your life. How about a burial for the Alright people pleasers? Listen up. A burial for the approval you keep chasing. Burial for the control you keep. Control freaks. Maybe it's time. Go get the shovel. It's time to bury that. You don't heal by carrying more idols more carefully. You don't heal by carrying your idols more carefully. That's not how you heal. You return to God by burying what doesn't belong there. I don't know what to tell you. I cannot go get the idols for you. I can't bury them for you. No one can. Only you. You either want to return to God or you don't. And that, to some degree, you know, the thumbnail, if you're if you're listening on audio, um, the thumbnail that was when you clicked on this. Thank you, by the way, for following us. subscribing on the audio playback we're on all of them how about a review give us a review maybe and it says on the thumbnail what are you still carrying tomorrow's episode is is tough but it's also uplifting I can't wait to deliver that one I rewrote this one and and tomorrow God moved in my heart and said no no no say this so last night I rewrote him I don't know I try I'm trying to do what he says I've tried the other way the other way is no bueno look you you do not heal by carrying your idols more carefully that's just not happening oh it's happening but it's not helpful what are your idols you you've got to do the hard work of figuring that out nothing will change on the inside you'll notice I didn't say you you won't get perfect I said nothing will change on the inside do you want to return to God or what? Stop talking about it if I could just get motivated if I could just get motivated I would I would I would do something no no no motivation doesn't bring action action brings motivation start doing you'll get motivated every day pick up your Bible every day look I I understand elect electronics you know I've got a library of 2700 books on here on this little thing on this computer I don't even know how many my wife is glad for ebooks I'm just gonna say because I love books I love bookshelves book geek here's the thing man here's the thing there's something about touching the book the book thank you Justin I will lift up my eyes to the mountains from where shall my help come from my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth amen Psalm 121 and two thank you for coming it's good to have you good to have you all some of you wake up at four in the morning so that you can listen to this live and this is it just amazes me I I just I don't want to belabor this point but I'll tell you what we need to identify these idols can't change what you don't acknowledge return to God some of you don't do daily Bible reading like real daily Bible reading I'm not talking about four hours or six hours I am talking about taking ten minutes five minutes and shutting all the noise off and getting into his word touching it putting it in your hands praying first God help me to understand your word help me to live it help me to see the lessons some of you and I and I know this some of you are dealing with addiction and some of your addictions are your addiction to hurt your addiction to victimization you're addicted to being the victim some of you are perpetually aggrieved you're angry you're mad all the time some of you think you can change your family you think you can change your family you think that's gonna happen it will or it won't keep doing your journey keep doing your thing keep following God keep following keep returning to God handle your responsibilities but don't take on yourself what what doesn't belong in your hand some of you are like me a little keep them control freak I gotta control this I gotta make this go the way it's supposed to go look some of you are addicted to the substances you you know what they are and you're abusing them some may be prescribed but you're abusing them and you think no one sees them maybe nobody does for now here's what happens after Jacob tells his people get rid of your gods put on cling clothes then they journey and the terror of God falls upon the cities around them so they do not pursue Jacob's sons that's mercy that's mercy is that you do you need that kind of mercy are you in that place where you need that kind of mercy you have pillaged you've destroyed sometimes the reason people turn away from you is because they say that one right there is trouble I don't need trouble so they don't pursue you they they won't be around you and sometimes I have to say I I I like this I like it sometimes people see something about you they don't see somebody that thinks oh I'm I'm that I'm all that I'm super christian I'm preferred I'm preferred um they see they they don't see you as somebody who is thinks they're perfect somebody who thinks that they're above everybody they see you and they go something about that person is different in the back of your head I want you to be thinking about what's different I mean as it relates to me and my return to God what's different about me what do they see do they see God in me? I didn't say perfection I said do they see God in you do they not because of what you're still carrying after Genesis 34 Jacob feared the surrounding peoples he feared rightly he was not unreasonable. He feared the people around him Simeon and Levi had made the family stink in the land retaliation easily could have come but God protects them that doesn't mean the violence of Genesis 34 was right it means God's covenant mercy is greater than the family failure God guards them while he's still correcting them listen we live our lives in segments time doesn't stop between those segments God guards them while he's still correcting them listen that's the way it works God preserves them while he's still purifying them I want you to hear this protection isn't permission mercy isn't approval God shields them as he brings them back to worship that's a word for somebody today that's a word for somebody today who survived consequences that you deserved I got what was coming to me probably not even what was coming to me is it you maybe you've survived consequences that you brought about look don't mistake God's mercy for God's silence don't mistake his protection for his approval let mercy lead you home speaking of home Jacob arrives at Lutz that is Bethel in the land of Canaan he builds an altar and he calls the place El Bethel God of Bethel why because there God revealed himself to him when he fled from his brother and that name matters earlier Jacob called the place Bethel house of God but now Jacob calls the altar that he built El Bethel God of Bethel. In other words Jacob is no longer merely naming the place the house of God he is confessing the God who met him there. Listen Jacob is a process do you understand this? It's a process learning to follow learning to return he's worshiping the God who met him there right there and that's important sacred places can help the memory but the place isn't the Savior the altar matters because God met him there. The memory matters because God was faithful but the center is God not the stone not the tree not the ritual not the memory God and some of us need to hear that today some of us need that correction. We don't love it but we need it we can become attached to religious experiences.

Dr.

Dennis Fry the founder of Masters my own mother one of them um whipped up emotionalism looking for the emotion look I I love great music it moves me to tears much of the time I love great worship. I love the old hymns I love I love the soaring songs to God and they move me I love listening to good preaching when I just went to Virginia Creek Ministries I got to be at their uh kickoff of their it's going on now their revival Virginia Creek Ministries at Virginia Creek Campground if you're in anywhere near Surf City North Carolina right now or through the weekend I encourage you it's it's you don't expect it sneak somebody in that place is awesome and the people are even more awesome. Go you'll be glad you did there's always special music Pastor Russell I love him I love him I love the dude he's almost eighty he's not 80 yet is he don't see it in you don't see 80 he lights up when he talks about the Lord he lights up when he sees people making the connection love the dude love his wife love the church amazing people look religious experiences beautiful buildings I love beautiful church buildings sometimes they're made of block sometimes they're just for you can't become attached to the building maybe it's seasons at certain times of the year you're like oh I feel that I feel the presence of the Lord using platforms methods memories all of it those are all good things to remember I built I believe in that remembering write it in your Bible when I pass when I pass from this earth to the next my Bibles will be handed down to my family and a lot of big things in my spiritual life are written in my Bible write it in there write the date write where you were but don't lose the God that you were meant that you are destined to point toward well what happens next Jacob comes back to Bethel but he worships El Bethel the God of Bethel I need to read this this is a comment we have the best people in comments I have a smart audience running and exercising became my idol the adrenaline high I pray God would remove my idols injuries revealed that idol. God is now my adrenaline source nothing like the Holy Spirit moving amen amen Catherina the kingdom of heaven is within you thank you for listening by the way before you click on like and subscribe and all the little bell and all that listen I'd love to say that the chapter somehow or another bing this is the ending and it's so beautiful now sadly the chapter ends with grief. Well it gives us grief I don't know if you would call the ending grief but there's grief in it. Deborah or Deborah Rebecca's nurse dies and she's buried under an oak below Bethel. The place is called Elon Bakuth which in Hebrew means oak of weeping oak of weeping that's a tender detail that if you're just rushing through the Bible ticking off you look at you'd never know this if you were just ticking off books of the Bible to finish in a year instead of walking the story of God. That's why I'm doing this the way that I am because I want you to walk the story of God right in the middle of return. Welcome bunny boy 103 lifelong agnostic raising raised in an anti-Christian house coming to God slowly I have memories of church that aren't mine but are visions of others' lives calling me to God well I'm glad that you're here I pray that you're blessed thank you for clicking on this channel I firmly believe that you will be blessed. This will be a huge part of your journey has nothing to do with me so right in the middle of return in the middle of worship in the middle of cleansing in the middle of this renewal death there's mourning but that's real life isn't it coming back to God doesn't mean you stop grieving obedience doesn't mean you never stand beside a grave worship doesn't mean tears disappear sometimes you bury the idols and you still bury people sometimes you return to God and still weep under the yoke faith doesn't erase grief. Faith doesn't look faith doesn't erase grief faith gives grief somewhere wholly to go are you hearing me are you hearing me then God appears to Jacob again and blesses him he says your name is Jacob no longer shall your name be called Jacob but Israel shall be your name God had already named him Israel after the wrestling at Shabak. Now he reaffirms it at Bethel but why well because identity needs to be anchored in worship Jacob didn't imagine the night happened. Jacob didn't invent the blessing oh that happened the God of Bethel confirms the name you are Israel. You aren't merely your past you aren't merely the heel grabber you aren't merely the deceiver you aren't merely the frightened man you are the one God has named some of you need to hear that again the old name has had too much airtime the old name your old name too much the star of your show no no no too much airtime in that old name that shame that is preached too long you've heard it too long in your ear it won't go away unless you send it away that fear that rules you it's repeated itself too often we are renamed in Christ amenicole amen the fear repeated itself too often come back to God and hear again what he ought listen listen shove out all of the distractions that are going through your around you right now swirling around you no matter where you're listening and hear this come back to God and hear again what he has already said then God says I am God Almighty else should die this is covenant language this is the God who appeared to Abraham this is the same God who gives strength where there is no human strength this is the God who gives life where human strength fails this is the God whose power isn't limited by barren wounds, broken households dangerous roads angry brothers dishonest uncles or compromised families I talked to somebody the other day and uh he listened to the episode and mid-episode he texted his sister he said hey go to this link and listen he's talking about us talking about our family and we talked a little bit about his family and and he said you know what's funny is my sister she never listens to things like this that's not her thing. She's not a podcast person she's not really a Bible person. She's a Christian and he said I'm you know I'm not some big Christian but you know I'm more into it than she is and he said she just kept sending me the tears emoji. And then afterward he said we had this long discussion about our family. It was compromised family. Fear is the virus, courage is the cure. Amen. Hello.

Look.

I don't know where this all hits you. I don't know which of that list I read off is you. But I know this. This is what God says to Jacob be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you and kings shall come from your own body. Oh. Then he repeats the promise of land. This is Genesis covenant continuity. God isn't improvising a new plan because Jacob's family got messy. God is carrying forward the promise he made to Abraham and Isaac land, seed, blessing, kings, covenant future, and ultimately through his line Messiah. Yeshua doesn't come from a sanitized family tree, folks. He comes through the real story of God's covenant faithfulness to broken people. That doesn't make brokenness good. We shouldn't nurture brokenness. We shouldn't make brokenness our idol. But it makes grace astonishing are you not astonished by the grace of God? Well Jacob sets up an altar, sets up a pillar of stone. I love that. I think it's cool. And then he he pours out a drink offering. He pours oil on it. He calls the place Bethel. This is worship with memory. Jacob marks the moment because memory needs anchors. Not idols, not nostalgia. Reminders. Places where you can say God met me there. God corrected me there. God cleansed me there. God carried me there. Then Genesis 35 moves from worship back into sorrow. I've read this I don't know I don't know how many times so many times and so many times it guts me. Go from worship into sorrow and that's how we live and that's how it happens in Genesis chapter 35 Rachel goes into hard labor. She gives birth to a son and in the process of giving birth her own life leaves her. And as her own life is leaving her she names her son Ben Oni. Ben Oni, son of my sorrow here's the thing Jacob doesn't call him Ben Oni. Ben Oni, son of my sorrow he doesn't call him that Jacob calls him Benjamin son of the right hand. That's one of the deepest moments in this chapter pain pain names one thing, right? But faith names another Rachel names him from the agony of her moment but Jacob names him with a future beyond the sorrow both are real they're real we have to live beyond our sorrow we cannot make our sorrow our grief our idol we can't do it. Oh we can you will not experience what God has for you doesn't mean that we're so we're to be quick about all right they're gone whatever life goes on no talking about a different thing here Jacob names him with a future beyond the sorrow both are real the sorrow is real the future is real grief is real promise is real and this is how covenant people live they don't live by denying sorrow they live by refusing to let sorrow have the only name and notice where Rachel is buried on the way to Epref. That is Bethlehem this is where Rachel is buried Bethlehem Bethlechin did you know that before this moment you would never know it unless you you can tell your friends I read through the Bible in a year I got through the Bible in a year well I oh I read scriptures in a year oh the whole thing you know I did that or along the way you can learn some deep deep lessons some thing lessons some things that maybe you didn't know Rachel's buried in Bethlehem Bethlehem will matter later later in our journey together are walking the story of God oh Bethlehem will matter David will come from Bethlehem and far later Yeshua the Messiah Yeshua Mashiach Jesus Christ will be born in Bethlehem come on Rachel's tomb stands in the land like a witness of grief on the road to redemption the Bible doesn't erase real tears from messianic stories from the messianic story real tears. Bible doesn't sanitize it make it go away it carries them look by the time we reach Matthew Metetyahu Rachel's weeping becomes a prophetic picture of Israel's sorrow. But sorrow isn't the end. Betlehem becomes the place where the king of kings the king of kings and savior our savior and our redeemer is born that's the way God works. He doesn't pretend the grave is small. He brings life into the story anyway well then Israel journeys on notice the text now calls him Israel not only Jacob Israel. He moves forward after grief and that matters I wrote a workshop a three-day workshop about grief and it's called Living Through Grief on Purpose. Welcome welcome welcome look that matters you got to move forward after grief. Listen there are seasons where you don't move forward because you feel strong you're not moving forward because you feel strong you feel like hammered poo you feel like I can't get up out of bed I've I've taken to the bed I can't get up out of this thing. You lost someone that it it has broken your heart to lose them I understand I do there are seasons where you're not moving forward because you feel strong you're moving forward because God is still God you move forward with tears yes yes you move forward with tears absolutely you move forward with graves behind you. You move forward with questions you move forward with the promise intact. It's still intact the promise is still intact faith doesn't mean grief can't touch you oh my friends somebody that preaches that maybe they preach it maybe they preach it from a a good place but they're wrong I always say prayer isn't asking for an easy journey it's asking for a strong back my friends faith means grief doesn't get to become your God then comes another ugly moment and it is ugly Reuben lies with Bilha his father's concubine look you can you can say whatever you want about it. The ancient Near Eastern world this was how it worked Reuben lies with Bilha his father's concubine and Israel hears about it. The text doesn't belabor this it doesn't says it briefly but the act is quite serious. In the ancient Near Eastern household taking a father's concubine wasn't merely some sort of sexual sin. It was a challenge to household authority honor and inheritance this is family disorder again. Even after Bethel the household isn't somehow magically healed and that is over powerful worship moment doesn't replace ongoing obedience experience seems like I'm struggling harder now than I ever have those addictions are are are there more profounds like everywhere I go there's the thing that tempts me there's the addiction idols and still need discipline listen we need discipline in all areas of our lives we don't love it we don't love that word but here's the fact even perhaps even especially in our faith faith it should be all-encompassing it's not a thing we put over here we put over there we put back there we just go visit it on Sunday if even you can bury idols and still need discipline you can return to God and still have sin in the house that must be faced Genesis is honest the covenant family is still being formed and later Jacob will remember Reuben's act when blessing his sons grace is real grace is real but so too are the consequences grace is real consequences are real too take a deep breath you're gonna need it then the chapter list Jacob's twelve sons Jacob's twelve son and that list matters more than a rusher casual block taking read would reveal grief rivalry sin sorrow and failure the tribes of Israel are now in view Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Israel Sebon Joseph Benjamin Danley There's nothing simple about them they certainly can't be sentimental they are chosen they are carried they are corrected and they are formed by God reason why I I I I I say this frequently but it's so true the reason one of the many reasons I trust scripture is because the Bible doesn't hide where Israel came from shows us the wound so we we will understand the mercy it shows us the failures so we will understand the faithfulness of God it shows us the mess so we will know covenant isn't powered by human perfection no covenant is sustained by divine faithfulness and then finally Jacob comes to Isaac his father at Mamre Isaac dies old and full of days and Esau and Jacob Abraham as sad as that is that detail is beautiful. Remember Esau and Jacob Esau was going to kill him he was fully capable of killing him and he was gonna had good reason to I'm not justifying the homicide I'm just saying he did a terrible thing multiple times one could understand Esau's hatred of Jacob and yet and Esau and Jacob bury him. The brothers who once stood in life and death conflict now stand together at their father's grave look that doesn't mean everything in the family history is healed but it does show a measure of peace the generation of Isaac closes and the story moves forward. Abraham is gone Sarah is gone Rebecca is gone Rachel is gone Isaac is gone and yet the covenant promise remains people we love pass from our story God's promise does not generations change God remains faithful. Graves accumulate God's covenant still moves and for those in Yeshua even death itself doesn't get the final words Genesis 35 say to us today it says God calls his people back calls them back to worship after disorder it says idols must be buried not managed it says purification matters it says God protects while he purifies it says grief can sit right in the middle of obedience it says that God reaffirms identity when shame tries to rename us well it says sorrow may speak a name but faith can speak another it says worship moments must become obedient alive it says family sin still needs to be faced it says family sin still need I I don't know your story. I don't know your life but I will tell you that last one hangs us up hangs a lot of us up we say man I got all the other ones I can do all the other ones but that last one family sin we gotta face it it can't rule us it says God's covenant faithfulness continues through generations of fragile people are you a fragile person that covenant can come through you as well some of you need to come back to Bethel not a physical place a place of surrender a place of worship a place of memory a place where you stop carrying what has polluted your soul a place where you let God remind you who you are a place where you grieve honestly and still worship deeply a place where you say Lord this cannot come with me any longer and this points us straight to Yeshua because Jacob built an altar at Bethel but Yeshua is the greater meaning place between heaven and earth. Jesus is the greater meaning place where you're living right now. In John's gospel Yeshua speaks of angels ascending and descending on the Son of man he's the true connection between heaven and earth he's the place where God comes near. He's the sacrifice he is the priest he is the king he is the one who cleanses what idols polluted he's the one who gives a new identity stronger than the old name oh that's a story for someone right now someone right now needs to hear that you don't think that you can be cleansed because you know where all your idols are got one over here got one over there got one right there let it go bury your idols you can absolutely be used by God you see my identity is I did this thing back there and now my identity is really rocked. Nope Yeshua is the one who gives a new identity stronger than the old name Yeshua Jesus Christ is the one who carries grief and conquers death he's the one born near the geography of Rachel's sorrow and yet he comes as the joy of redemption in him we don't merely we don't merely return we don't merely return to a place we return to the Father I have for you today a challenge and a choice perhaps they are challenges and they are choices so if you're ready here are the questions and these are questions for you not for your neighbor not for your brother your sister your mother your your father no matter how those people were in your life these questions are for you what foreign God needs to be buried what foreign God needs to be buried what do you need to get out of the place where you are what hidden attachment has traveled with you for far too long is this you know that hidden attachment is in you but you've been toting it you put you've been putting it in your carry on luggage you've been paying the extra money to carry that hidden attachment with you what compromise have you renamed as Normal. This is my new normal. What grief have you refused to bring into worship? What old name keeps speaking louder than the name God has given you? Lots of questions. There's nothing easy about them, but here are your choices. Yes, we absolutely have choices, and here they are. You can keep moving while cluttered. Or you can return to God clean. And say perfect. I say clean. You can keep managing idols. Or you can bury them. Bury them deep. You can keep letting sorrow name your future. Or you can trust the God to speak promise over pain. You can treat worship like a feeling. Or you can make worship an act of allegiance. And this right here, this has to become concrete. So today, name your idols. Don't make it poetic, but don't make it vague. Name it. If it's control, call it control. If it's bitterness, call it bitterness. Look, if it's lust, call it lust. If it's fear, call it fear. If it's approval, call it approval. If it's money, call it money. If it's the screen that you're addicted to, call it the screen. If it's resentment, call it resentment. Then bury it in obedience. Look, I want you to hear this. You know what contact in your phone you need to delete. Delete the contact. Bury it in obedience. Delete the contact. Delete the app. Pour out that bottle that's sitting over there. It's behind that door behind some things. People don't see it. Pour it out. Listen. You might very well have an issue with truthfulness. Tell the truth. No matter how ugly it feels, tell the truth. And then ask for forgiveness. Then make the appointment. Move the device out of the room. Stop defending what's destroying you. Stop it. Stop defending what's destroying you. Bring the grief into worship. Let God speak your name again. Then walk forward. Walk forward as someone who belongs to the God of Bethel. Come back to God. Clean the house. Bury the idols. Change the garments. Build the altar. Name the grief. Receive the identity. And then walk forward, not perfectly, faithfully. And maybe for some of you, this is where salvation becomes personal today. Because sin isn't the look, sin isn't. It isn't only the obvious rebellion that we can point to in other people. Oh, we love to do that. Sin's also the hidden idol in our own tent. Sin is the false God we trust when life gets hard. Sin is the old identity we keep putting on. We keep wearing it. Sin is the refusal to come home to the Father. But Yeshua came to cleanse us. He came to forgive us. He came to bury the old life and raise us into new life with him. He came so we wouldn't have to live under an old name, the old guilt, the old shame, the old idols, the old fear, and the old master. If today you know you need to return to God, don't wait. If you know something has ruled your heart besides him, come home. If you're tired of managing what needs to be buried, come home. If you're ready for mercy, if you're ready for cleansing, if you're ready for a new life, come home right now, wherever you are. Prayer isn't asking for an easy journey, it's asking for a strong back. I want you to pray this with me right now. Father, I know I've sinned and I know I need your mercy. I believe Jesus died for me, was buried, and rose again. Today I turn from my sin as my Lord and my King, forgive me, make me new, and fill me with your spirit. From this day forward, I want to follow you. If you prayed that prayer today, I want to welcome you into the family of God. I couldn't be more excited. This is huge. It's the biggest thing in your life ever. Ever. It's the biggest thing in your eternity. The call says, pick up your mat and walk, leaving nothing to return to. The old identity, the old habit, the old sin. Amen. Listen, you don't have to walk alone in this. I 100% know there's nothing easy in this. I've helped so many take their first steps as followers of Jesus, and I want to help you too. If you're willing. If you prayed that prayer, you have more questions, you want to know more, you must say, I don't know how to find a church. I don't, I don't know how to, I don't, my Bible, I don't know if I, if I if I have a Bible, I don't even know if it's a the right one. I'll help you. I promise, as soon as I receive your message, I will personally connect to you. I'll connect with you and I'll help guide you. That's whether it's whether it's understanding the Bible more deeply, more accurately. Finding a community of believers, growing your faith day by day, you aren't alone. All you need to do is ask. Folks, maybe you've been a follower for a long time. Kinda. Sowda. Come back to God. Not with a polished story, I don't have one. Not with a perfect house, I sure don't. Not with everything already fixed. No. Come back with the idols ready to be buried. Come back with the grief ready to be named. Come back with the old garments ready to be changed. Come back to the God who met you when you were afraid. Come back to the God who kept you, who sustained you when you were weak. Come back to the God who still knows your name. The road may hold graves. The house may need cleansing. The family may still need healing. But the God of Bethel, oh, he's faithful. And he's still calling his people home. Maybe that's you. If this message touched you, if it touched your heart, share it. Share the link, whatever. Think of one person who needs hope and truth and send it to them today. You never know what God might do with your share. It's not about me. It has nothing to do with me. It's about reaching people with God's word. I want you to receive this. Receive this blessing. May Adunai bless you and keep you. May Adonai make his face to shine upon you and show you grace. May Adunai lift up his face toward you and give you shalom. You do not want to miss tomorrow's episode, 7 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Till then. Shalom Bishim Yeshua. Ashalom I Lakim.