Jacob's Ladder: When Heaven Meets You in the Hard Place

[Music] Well, today we are starting a two-part series. Say it with me. Called Dare to Dream. Come on. A two-part series. You can make it to every sermon in that series. If I was you, I wouldn't miss a single sermon. It's going to be so good. I I really believe this is going to change your life. That God's going to awaken a dream inside of you that maybe you didn't even know was there, but I know it's there. And And today, something is going to happen in this place. You know what I love about kids? They just naturally dream. You ask a kid, "What do you what do you want to be when you grow up?" They say things like an astronaut, a fireman, a preacher. Okay, maybe not the preacher part, but but you know, like a kid, they're not going to be limited by their beliefs. They're not going to be limited by their education. They're not going to be limited by their talents. I mean, some of us look at a kid and be

like, "You're not going to be an astronaut." But but the kids, they just believe it. And I I mean, maybe you're going to be an astronaut. I I'm just saying in this place, we often lose our dreams for one reason or another. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a comedian. I was I was hooked on the Cosby Show before there was Netflix or anything else. I want to be a comedian. I I watched a Cosby show. I love the family. I love the humor. I love the hope. And I said, "That's what I want to do one day is make people laugh." But that dream evolved by the time I was in middle school is I no longer wanted to be a comedian. I wanted to be a rock star. I I dreamed of filling entire stadiums. I dreamed of big hair and tight pants. And I just I just really want to be a rock star. And it was a really weird season for me because here's what I found myself doing when I was in middle school. I started to lie about who I was. I don't know why I did it, but I just lied about

everything. I lied to my mom. I lied to my friends. I tried to be somebody I wasn't. I just want to do just a quick poll today. This is a truth test. All right. This is a scientific poll. I will send the data into CNN, so please participate. All right. Here's how it works. If the answer is yes, you're going to raise your hands. Here's how it works. The first one is this. How many you could remember as a kid you had a dream, a dream for something? Just raise your hands nice and high. Look around. All the dreamers in this place. All right, you can put your hands down. This next one's a little bit tougher. How many you lied to your mama? Just raise your hands nice and high. Keep your hands up. Look around the room. You see someone with their hand down, they're lying about lying. So, I'm just glad we can get relentlessly real in this house today. It's one of our core values. You see, the one thing we all have in common today, and I believe this with my whole heart, God has put a dream inside of

every single one of us. But the the other thing we have in common is we all have brokenness. Every single one of us is a level playing field. Doesn't matter how young you are or how old you are, you have brokenness. And it's often that very brokenness that hinders you from experiencing the God-sized dream that he's placed in every single one of us. And so what we have to do is recognize what is it that's stopping us from this dream? What is it that that's is holding me back from knowing who God is? And today we turn to this book we call the Bible because that's where God reveals his dreams to us so that we would understand his living word that we would understand who he is. The Bible is not your story. It's God's story. And of the 66 books he wants to speak to us today. I love how Romans 15:4 says, "For whatever was written," and he was talking about the Old Testament scriptures. So whatever's written in this book, these scriptures are written

in the former days. It was written for our instruction. I love this. God doesn't want you just to wander. He doesn't want you to question how do I live my life? God gave you instructions for life. That's what the scriptures are there for. That through endurance, God knew you would go through difficult days. He knew you would go through hardship. So he gave you his word that you can endure. You will get through this season. Not only did he give it for instruction and endurance, but through the encouragement. Have you ever thought about this? God wants to encourage you. That's why he gave his word to you. So that you'd be encouraged. And get this. He gave you the encouragement of the scripture that we might have. Say it with me. Hope. Not just for some people, not the religious people, not the people that look like they have it all figured out on Instagram.

God wants to give hope for everyone. every single one of us. God wants to give you hope today. He wants to give you hope for tomorrow. He wants you to know that where you are is nowhere compared to where he can get you. So, so when you start to understand who he is, you start to turn to his word because you want what he has for your life. So, today we turn to a great story. It's in the Old Testament. In fact, it's really easy to find. It's in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. We're going to look at a story of a person named Jacob. Jacob is a really important because his name still lives today. There's an entire nation named after him. And I want us to see in this story what God wants to do inside of every single one of us. To understand Jacob's story, you first have to understand his

grandfather's story. His grandfather is Abraham. Um, this is a pretty big family legacy. Abraham's known as the father of faith. God spoke to Abraham and said, "Out of your descendants will come a great nation." That's a lot of pressure to put on kids. The problem is Abraham and his wife were way too old to have kids. And God gave this covenant promise that something great is going to come out of you. And so Abraham and his wife couldn't figure this out. Why did God give the promise in their old age? Do you ever feel like maybe you miss God's promise? You miss God's dreams? Like God, why did you tell me now? Why didn't you tell me earlier? Like maybe my youth like the 20s would have been great, right? Maybe my 30s would have been okay, but like now 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, why'd you wait so long into my 80s to tell me these things? So Abraham took matters into his own hands. Anybody ever done that before? Don't do it.

If God says to do it his ways, not your ways. And so he he tried to do things his way, never a good idea to do that. And that wasn't the promise. So God says, "No, no, no. You do things my way." So So Abraham and his wife did things God's ways. and they ended up having a son named Isaac. So Abraham has a son named Isaac. He would be a part of that promise. Now Isaac ends up getting a son uh Isaac ends up marrying a woman named Rebecca and she ends up not being pregnant with one child but pregnant with twins. Twins. So here Isaac now knows that this promise is going to be fulfilled through his family. And the first child born, his name was Esau. The second child comes out and he he's holding the heel of his brother. And so they name him Jacob. The name Jacob is just a really interesting one. I mean, I

don't know about you, but sometimes you wonder like, why why did my parents name me this name? Jacob means heel holder, heel grabber. I mean, it's a cool name today. You know, you can call Jacob Jake. Jake the snake. I mean, it sounds tough, but it's like it's really not that great. He was holding on to his brother and like that that's the name we're going to give you is Jacob. And that's the guy we're looking at today, Jacob. Now, Jacob and Esau, they grew up in a dysfunctional family. Now, this should encourage you because Abraham is their grandfather. Their dad is Isaac. Like, if anybody should have a strong, healthy family, it should be this family. But it's totally dysfunctional. So, come on. We should be encouraged with scripture that it tells the truth. It doesn't withhold things from us here. Here's what's dysfunctional. Esau was close to his dad. They were like just together. They hunted together. They did things together. Jacob was a mama's boy.

I mean, they watched the cooking channel together. They did everything together. Mom ran out to Joannne's. Jacob was right there. I mean, they just Jacob was a mama's boy and Esau was a daddy's boy. That's dysfunctional. So, by by the time Jacob was growing up, he realized, I'm not even going to get the blessing from my family. Culturally, the way it would work is the oldest son got the greater blessing. And it was really important culturally. You got the spiritual blessing. You got the family blessing. You got the greater inheritance blessing, the finances. And Jacob says, "This just isn't fair. My dad's so close to my brother and he gets the blessing." So Jacob with his mom, with his mom, because you never stop being a sinner. So many times kids think their parents have it figured out. No, we're just sinners, too. We're just trying to figure it out. Ain't no manual how to raise kids. So his mom messed up, too.

Jacob's mom says, "Here what we'll do? We'll deceive your dad. will dup him and he'll think that you're Esau so he'll give you the blessing and they go through with this. Many times we want what we don't have and then you get the very thing that you're longing for and it does not do what you want it to do. He thought if I just get this blessing my dad I'll be good with my dad. I'll get the finance everything will be good. But what comes out of this is fear. Because Esau says to Jacob in Genesis 27:41, "Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed Jacob." So Esau said to himself, "The days of my morning for my father are approaching. So dad's almost dead. Then I will kill my brother Jacob." Now remember, these guys are twins.

But but if I just go use my imagination based on the scriptures that I'm reading about Esau and Jacob, I think Esau's taking Jacob, you know, like if you were just see like who's going to win this fight. Esau's got him all day long. So Jacob, he's looking over his shoulder now. Jacob has to wonder, will I die? I can't even go to the bathroom without fear of my brother because now my brother is going to come after me. That's where we pick up in the story in Genesis 28. Genesis 28. Now they're of age. They need they need to find their own families. And and the dad says, "Here's what I want you to do. I just want to make sure that you don't marry one of these women here." And so Jacob says, "I'm going to go out and get a wife from my family's heritage, from my family lineage, but he's going to have to travel a great distance." Esau is so mad. He said, "I'm

going to take any wife I want." So you have a picture of disobedience and a picture of obedience. Be careful that you're just not trying to do something because you're mad at your parents. Some of us have made those mistakes before. So Jacob heads out to find a wife. That's where we pick up Genesis 28:10. Remember what the scriptur is for? To instruct us, to get us through endurance, to encourage us, to give us hope. Jacob left Beersa, verse 10, and went toward Heron. This is a 200-mile journey on foot. We we've heard those stories of our parents. I used to walk two miles uphill both ways to school in the snow carrying a tuba. You have no clue how hard it was. You know how hard it was for Jacob to get a wife? He's going to travel this great big long distance. But picture this here. He's leaving home. Remember, Jacob is a mama's boy.

He's leaving the comfort of of of this blanket of his mom pouring. Jacob, you got this, honey. You're going to get that blessing. I'm going to help you get it. He's leaving the comfort of his family. He He's leaving everything that he knows. He saw a blessing, but now he's all alone. Now, he doesn't have the blessing of of his father. He doesn't even have his mom. He he heads out alone. I I need you to know today that according to the scriptures, the personal crisis of our soul is actually an opportunity for God to do his greatest work. That that's where we lean on the Lord. That's where we learn what's most important. In fact, Jacob is going to lose the influence of his family because we all know that sometimes our family doesn't give the greatest influence. And now, he's going to be influenced by the Lord. So we can learn from this. The greatest influence in your life should be the Lord.

Many times we we want to look good in our parents' eyes. We want to be blessed by our parents. But what matters most in your life is not what your parents think of you. It's what the Lord thinks of you. It's what the Lord says of you. It's what the Lord wants for you. It's what what God wants. So So picture this. Jacob heads out alone. Now we continue in verse 11. And he Jacob, he came to a certain place. That word place is important to the author. He's going to say it three times. He came to a certain place. stayed there that night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. You ever been in that certain place before? This is the place you don't want to be because you're alone. The author specifically tells us, don't miss this, right in the middle. This is a Hebrew poetic form to to capture our attention. He stayed there that night

because the sun had set. Here, here's what the author really wants you to get. This is a dark place. He's alone. It's dark now. He wants to go to sleep. So, he's just looking for something good to lay his head on him. What? What? What's there? Stones. This is a hard place. There's nothing but rocks. In our vernacular, we understand this culturally speaking today because we say this when when you're going through difficult times, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place. That's totally Jacob. He He He's got to wonder while he sleeps, is does Esau know where I am? Did Did he follow me? He He's all alone. We We say when you hit really low, what do we say? You've hit rock bottom. I mean, when you're laying your head down

on a rock and you're all alone and it's dark, this is the place that God's not going to give up on you. Jacob at this point, his life is defined as a deceiver. He's a liar. This is who he is. This is what he knows. This is what he's done. This this has defined him. The one thing he wanted was blessing. But instead, he's defined by leaving his family and is on his own. And it's in that very place that we continue the story. Verse 12. And he, Jacob, and he dreamed and he dreamed and behold, everyone shout behold. Behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to to heaven. And behold, shout behold, behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

It's here in this place that Jacob dreams. Never think that God leaves you where you are. He doesn't leave you in your past. He doesn't leave you in your mistakes. He doesn't leave you in that place that you don't want to be. He wants to take you to a place that only he can do. See, the problem with kids having dreams is by the time they get to high school, there's so many pressures. There's pressures about what you look like. There's pressures about who you hang out with. I I mean, there's so many pressures that start just to kill your dream that by the time you become an adult, the mission in life is to get a job to pay the bills. That's like it. You want to dream really big, maybe save up some money so that one day when you're too old to enjoy it, you might have enough money to do something.

I mean, the American dream is not that great anymore when we really start to look at it. And then today we just talk about all the gas prices today, all the inflation, all the cost of homes, and we're like consumed with these things that we can see and we have no dreams. You tell it. Oh, just maybe if maybe you work harder, go get more degrees, get in debt some more. Maybe, just maybe, maybe something will happen to you that was different with me. And it's here that Jacob dreamed. May I just say today, dreams are good. Dreams can be the very miracle God wants to awaken in your heart to say, I don't want you to stay where you are. I don't want you to be defined by your decisions or what you did. I want you to know who I am. You know, in the book of Numbers, the it's interesting that

Pastor David was just talking about this this journey for the Israelites. And there's a story that after many years of traveling together, Moses is leading God's people. And Aaron and Miriam, who happen to be family members of Moses, start to criticize how he's leading God's people. Whenever you're in a position of leadership, people will criticize you. In fact, the criticism typically works like this. I know how to do it better, but I'm not going to do it. So, they they come to Moses and they start to criticize him and God shows up and the Lord actually speaks to them. And this is what the Lord said in Numbers 12:6. Hear my words. The Lord is defending Moses. If there is a prophet among you, now prophet is someone that represents God. They speak forth God's word. If there's a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream.

God God is simply saying,"I impart to them the direction I want this to go." They're not just leading out of, "I'm going to try hard. I'm just doing things my way." God is saying, "I give them the direction through a dream and through a vision." Now, let me just stop there. I tell you that because it's important to know that God gives dreams to leaders. Now, God further with Moses and actually says, "Now, Moses, I don't do it through dreams. We do it face to face." And in some sense, God is saying this. Don't you mess with Moses because he's heard my word. I know you think you can do it better. I know you think this, but but let me just just give you a reality check here. It's difficult to be a leader. In fact, Miriam ends up getting leprosy, has to leave the city for seven days just to see the weight of what what sin can do. But God says, "I speak through

dreams." When God pours out his spirit on the church for the first time, we see this in Acts chapter 2. Jesus died on the cross. He was buried. He rose from the grave. He reveals himself to hundreds and hundreds. He gives us the mission, the great co-mission that we would be on this together. And then he ascends into heaven. He says, "Pray, wait." And they pray and they wait and the spirit comes. People are confused because when God moves, people are confused. And Peter stands up and preaches boldly the first sermon. And he goes to the Old Testament scriptures because in the Old Testament scriptures, we have instruction. We have endurance. We have encouragement. We have hope. And Peter preaches out of Joel 2. And here's here's what he says. And in the last days, it shall be. God declares that I will pour out my spirit on all. Everyone

shout all all flesh. On your sons and your daughters, they shall prophesy. And your young men shall see visions. Then your old men shall dream dreams. Thankfully, he leaves no one out of the equation. Your young God has called you. Your old is never too late with God. Don't Don't be lost by the semantics here of dreams and visions. It's not like young people have vision, old people have dreams. It's the same thing. Here's why. You get God. The spirit of God comes on your life and shows you what you can't see on your own because it's a revelation of God. You who are made in his image start to see something so much more profound, greater. You start to see that I'm made for more.

So what's what's this dream that Jacob has? Let's come back to this verse 12. Genesis 28:12. And he dreamed and behold there was a ladder. The ladder is a Hebrew word sulam. Sulam is a word that's often translated in our English ladder, but this isn't like a ladder you go get next door at Harbor Freight. This is more like the ziggurats of the the pyramids. This is more like a staircase. So, there's a staircase on earth. Where does it go? To heaven. And on this staircase are what? Come on, shout it out. Angels. Angels simply means messengers. These are not angels that are people like, "Oh, sweet. They're that that's an angel." So no, these are these are heavenly beings created by God. They are

messengers. They bring a message from heaven to earth. So So right away we see what this dream does. It links heaven to earth. Heaven to earth. The dream is I know you think you're a deceiver. I know you think you wanted a blessing. I know you think you're alone. I know you you're not married yet. I know you have no kids yet. I know you've heard a promise. But I want you to know this. The greater dream is heaven coming to earth. Because when heaven comes to earth, you're awakened and stirred in your heart because I didn't experience this dream because of what I did. I didn't earned this dream. I didn't deserve this dream, but I just had a vision that heaven can come to earth. So, so in some sense, I can see my mistake cannot and will not stop God's mission.

So, so we have to start to understand that what we've done in our past, which the enemy totally wants to do, define you. You know, you messed up. Let me just go through the laundry list of all the things you've ever done in your life. The thoughts, the actions, the deeds. Oh, the divorce. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. The thing you did in secret that you think no one knows. Oh. The enemy just wants to remind you this is who you are. This is who you are. This is who you are. And this is what God wants to do. He wants to remind you of who he is. Because who he is shapes everything. So if we look at what happened to Jacob, he messed up. We we've got to call that he messed up. He sinned. Now, the Bible teaches us that Jacob's not alone in sin. I just did a poll o earlier and I saw a whole bunch of liars in the room.

The Bible teaches us in Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Now, sin is what separates us from God. And sin does a great job of lying to us. Sin is the chasm that I'm made in the image of God, but God is holy, which means set apart. In fact, the scriptures teach us he's holy, holy, holy, which means he's triune holy, which means he's perfectly completely perfectly holy, which means he cannot have sin. Not even just a little bit. We like to judge sin. I'm at least I'm not a murderer. That doesn't work for God. He can't have sin in his life because he's perfectly holy. So, if we can't be with God, and if we've all sinned from the first man, Adam, sin entered into the story. We have this chasm with God. We have a brokenness that we cannot experience what we're made for. Now, now if you're new to

church, I want you to know that according to these scriptures, you're made for so much. You're made in the image of God. He He made you in your mother's womb. He has a plan and a purpose for your life. No mistakes. No matter what you ever heard about your story or what you experienced in your youth or your childhood, I want you to know God has not forsaken you. He has not left you. He wants you to know this. And what we see with Jacob is God made a way. That's right. He didn't have to do it. Now, if we go back just a few chapters earlier, Genesis chapter 11, we see that people are starting to get really smart in the early story of man. So, what they do is they start building these bricks and they start saying, "Here's what we should do. Let's build a big building to get to God. They don't wait on God. They don't turn to God. They don't ask for God's help. They start to build this building. Say, "Look how great of builders we are." And they start building this tower saying, "We'll make this up to the heavens, and no one's ever done this before." And God saw

this. And I got to imagine he shook his head and just laughed. and he dispersed them and that place became known as the tower of Babel. Babel would later be called Babylon. It just simply means the gate of God. But really, it's God. Lowercase Gi, the gate of God's, meaning you try to earn your way to heaven. And every time you try to do that, you don't get there. The word for this is religion. Religion is man's attempt cut to God. That's not God's dream. I'm so glad I get to prophesy over you today. God did not call you to religion. Some of you still need healing from that from the past. You got to look good. You got to act good. And when you do this, maybe God will be happy with you. Some of us didn't grow up with with any religion.

So, we're still trying to figure out like, who am I? What have I done? I' I've been a good liar all my life, but what's God going to do in my life? And I'm here to tell you today, God is making a way through a dream. So, we look at verse 12. He dreamed and behold there was a ladder. Here's this ladder. What does this ladder symbolize? How do we get this ladder in our lives with angels going up and down? We live in a spiritual world. Sometimes we don't see the spiritual because it's not what you can see. What we often live for is the natural world which we can see. And here's what's really wonderful. There are angels all around you. You can't see it. You may not even know it, but it's real. Like there's there's a myriad which is just an adjective saying there's more than you can can count or describe.

Sometimes angels help you. Sometimes angels minister to you. In fact, the scriptures teach us sometimes you you're entertaining angels. You don't even know it. It's in this place that we start to understand if you're not spiritually minded, which many of us aren't in most of our lives. If you're not spiritually minded, you will not see the dreams of God. Your brokenness has hindered you from seeing what God wants you to see because all you see is the natural. And what happens is the worries of this world holds you back from experiencing God's dreams. And if you're like me, there's a lot of things to worry about. There's worry of family. There's worry of finances. There's a worry of your past. There's the worry of health. There there's all of these worries. There's worries of all the things that are on the news that are meant to be tactics that scared us. And next thing you know,

you're so stressed out, you can't see the spiritual. That's why Paul, when he writes to the church in Ephesus, he says in Ephesians 6, he says, "We're in a spiritual battle." And he wants to make sure it's really clear to the church, my friends, we don't battle against flesh and blood. Your battle is not with another person. No matter how much you hate them, no matter what they did to you, there is an even greater enemy that wants to get your soul. And it's demonic. It's the devil. You can't see it, but it's after you. So what he says is you need to stand firm against the schemes of the devil which you can. How do you do that? He says stand in your faith and you must have the armor of God. And if you don't know the armor of God, the armor of God is spiritual. This isn't a physical armor. This is the truth. This is righteousness. This is salvation. This is the gospel of peace. It's your faith that's going to protect you from the lies of the enemy. So now when you see in spiritual mindset, you start to see what what the L what the

Lord's doing in Jacob's life as he's reversing his past so that he understands his present to define his destiny. That's a dream. But it's crazy how fear will stop you from God's dreams. One night later in Jacob's life, he got married not to just one wife, but to two because he got deceived just like he deceived his own dad. He got deceived just like he duped somebody. He got duped. So he ended up not with one wife, but with two wives. Come on. That's difficult for any man. But God blessed him. God didn't leave him there. God blessed him not with one kid, not with two kids, but with 12 kids. And one day on his journey of life, lest you think that Jacob's life was easy after he gets this dream of heaven coming to earth. One night he's

all alone again. He he's not by himself, but rather his family is away from him. His kids are away from him. And in Genesis 32: 24 says, "Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day." This is called a christophony. This is where Jesus reveals himself before he was born because Jesus is God, has eternally been God. Jesus shows up as a man because Jesus is the God man. He's 100% God. And he came as 100% man. And the picture here, long before Jesus came to reveal who he is, is Jacob wrestles with a man, which we now know is Jesus. Now, he hasn't been doing it for like three rounds or even like a championship, five rounds. He's been doing this all night long. Now, if you've ever wrestled, wrestling is exhausting.

All night long, Jacob wrestling with this man. Then verse 26, then the God man, he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken. The sun is coming up." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." And he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." We know what Jacob means. I'm defined by what my parents called me. Then he said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. There's victory." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he, this is the cleverness of God. He said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. This is crazy.

Jacob in his adulthood, after he gets married, after he has 12 kids, is still wrestling with his identity. Come on. That's a good place to shout amen for those of us that are still dysfunctional. You'd be thinking, "One day in my life, I'm going to have this figured out." Jacob still wrestling this out in his life comes before God and realizes I tried to get a blessing and it didn't work. In fact, the blessing I tried to get from my dad is a blessing only God can give me. So the blessing you've sought in your life through success in career through success in parenting through success in being a child to your parents it's something God alone can give you and he wrestles with him. I I have a son and I can look back now. My son is my height, maybe bigger, don't judge. And he's a he's a young man now, but when he was a boy, one of my favorite things to do with him when he was a boy was wrestle with him. I loved it. We would

get on the bed and we would just seriously have MMA matches and he would twist my arms. He put me on choke holds and sometime I would tap out and I mean I would lay on him. He would lay on me and it was so fun. One of the fondest memories I have. Like what was it about it that was so special? Well, I I just loved it that he was getting aggressive. He was becoming a man. And I I loved it. The fact I was bigger than him, but I would let him win. And there was just a joy. There was the best word I could put this. And I I'm not sure I can give you the imagery, but there was an intimacy in wrestling. Jacob longed for something more than the wrestle. And God gave it to him and he changed his identity. God who is much bigger than him gives him an opportunity. God could have he could have done anything he wanted, but instead he just touches his hips and said, "I want you to remember this

moment from this day forward." God gives him the blessing. See, Jacob wanted what he saw in that dream, heaven coming to earth. What does heaven come to earth? Blessing. Do you know God is the great blesser? Some of us think as God as someone that's angry with us when we mess up. Do you know what God wants to do? Wrestle with you until you say, "Bless me. I'm not leaving." And you know what? God's going to give you blessing. He's not going to give you condemnation. He's not going to say, "Well, I'm going to give you some guilt so you really think about this a little longer." He wants to set you free from your sin to be liberated as his child. Jesus taught us when you pray, I don't want you to pray, "Lord, I just want an ordinary life. Help me to pay my bills, God. I just want to live just a mundane

life that I do the same thing day after day." No, no. This is what Jesus said. You pray like this. Your kingdom come, God. I'm going to wrestle with you. Your will be done on earth, in my life, in my family, in this church, in this city, in this state, in the Pacific Northwest, in our nation, in this world as it is in heaven. I I can't just be be living a life of mediocrity because I'm not made for that. I'm made to dream. I'm made to see what God sees. I'm made to experience more in my life. And look what look what the Lord says because it's like God knew. Listen, Jacob, I'm giving you this vision which don't we all want that dream. We get that dream. Man, you we think it's going to be easy. But this is what the Lord says in verse 13. And behold, the Lord stood above it.

Make sure you know the Lord stands above everything in your life. There is one king, one God. The Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, the God, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring. 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 your offspring shall all the families of the earth be what? Blessed. There's there's a trajectory change. What you did will not define your kids or your kids' kids. That what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12, he's now saying to Jacob. Here's the best way I could put this. God's reiterating his promise that he's already given.

Some of you need to come back to the promise that God's already given you. And you need to see the Lord is above it all. You You don't have to make this happen. It's God. And when you understand God's position, the Lord is above it all. And it's about his promises which never fail. You start to see dreams come true. You start to see that what he did in the days of old, he's doing today. But he's going to do it differently because that's how creative the creator is. that he's going to take you from slavery, he's going to take you to the promised land. But you come against the obstacle of a Red Sea, you walk on the dry land. You come against the walls of Jericho, you just walk around those walls of Jericho. Oh, you come up against giants, you know those giants are nothing compared to your great God. Whatever you're facing in your life, you know God is above it

all. So you get thrown into a fiery furnace. There he is with you. So you get thrown into a den of lions. You're going to be okay. That's right. God gave us his words to instruct you, to give you endurance, to give you encouragement that you would have hope. Now, I don't know what that means for you today. Maybe that means when you walk into the doctor's office, I will fear no evil. No matter what that diagnosis is, no matter what state my family is in, my relationship, no matter what was done to me, or no matter what I've done, I'm not defined by my past. I'm defined by the promises of God. So I stand in that promise. I look for God's dreams in my life, not my dreams. And I realize I can do anything with the help of Christ. I go into the courthouse. I own what I did. My God is my advocate. I

don't look to the ways of man because his promises never fail. See, we're so quick to judge. I think if we were here today, we we'd probably say something nasty about Jacob on on on social media. That guy's a liar. Don't trust him. He's a fraud. You know, he's a deceiver. He steals blessings. That's not what God saw. God saw Israel, a great nation, out of Jacob. Today you see a foster child. God sees a future family. Today you see a drug addict. God sees a prophet, a pastor, a missionary, an evangelist. Oh, today we see but with the lens of the natural, but God gives you the vision of the supernatural, and you realize it's greater than you could do on your own because God has given you himself, the Holy Spirit. So the Lord tells Jacob in verse 15, "Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land.

For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Lest you think God's dreams are easy, we are confirmed in reading about the life of Jacob, it's anything but." Jacob still had fear issues. He still had to work out. He He still had to wonder about his past. He still had to work some of the these things out. So God had to remind him, don't worry, I'm still with you. That means in the bad times, I'm still with you. In the good times, I'm still with you. Jesus last words in the book of Matthew, his biography is, "And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age." Oh, it's so easy though in a pandemic. It's so easy in a war. It's so easy when things are not the way you want them to be to start to question God.

But that means God's with us today and tomorrow and the next. So what does this whole thing mean for you in your life? Jesus explains it thankfully. In John chapter 1, John starts his biography of Jesus life and he tells us that he he got together a dream team, a bunch of misfits. Aren't you glad that God calls misfits? He gets together people that aren't like him, but they're going to be changed and become like him, which is good news for many of us today. And and one of the people he calls to follow him is Philip. And Philip is so excited. called me and he goes and tells Nathaniel, "Nathaniel, I I think I found the Christ, the Messiah. This is the one." He's like, "Who is it?" Well, his name's Jesus from Nazareth. And Nathaniel's like, "Does anything good come from Nazareth?" And I love Philip here because he doesn't argue with him. He doesn't try to debate him and say, "No, let me tell you why he is." He just says, "You come and see." And my friends, that's the best thing I could tell for you to invite friends to Journey Church is you don't have to debate them to come to Journey Church.

You just say, "Come and see." You just taste our donuts one time. You try our coffee, the mana from heaven. This is this is God's provision. But it's more than that. You step through these doors, there's an anointing in this place. This might have been meant for a retail place, but that's what God does. He changes things. So you walk into this place is it's no longer a retail space. This is a holy ground where we are. This is what he does. He starts to to shift this. He starts to change our names. He starts to change who we are. So So Nathaniel says, "Fine, I'll go. I'll go." Look, look at John 1:46. So as he's coming, Nathaniel said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said, "Come and see." Verse 47. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed in whom there is no deceit."

Nathaniel said to him, "How you know me?" Remember, he's already judged Jesus. Who are you? Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, you were under the fig tree. I saw you. You were alone. You thought you were alone. Maybe he was studying Genesis 28. Why does Jacob get all the dreams? I don't get anything. I'm all alone in this dark place under this fig tree trying to trying to figure out God's dream in my life. Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel." He went from being a nobody from Nazareth to the king and God. Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree. Do you believe? You will see greater than

these. You'll see greater things than this." What he's saying is this is the beginning of greater things yet to come. And then Jesus explains Genesis 28. And he said to him, "Truly, truly I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on on who?" The son of man. The latter. in Genesis 28 is Jesus. So the dream that Jacob has, God has put in every single one of our hearts that you're not alone. You're not defined by sin. He has made a way through Jesus. And when you have Jesus, you do not experience a life of mediocrity or normaly. He stirs up in you what you've

never experienced before. The power of God in you to see what he sees. You don't go back living life normal. Look, look what Jacob does. Verse 16, Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it." That sounds like a lot of churches today. You show up and be like, you worship what God? Feels It feels a little dead in here. Every once in a while, this is what God does. He gives us a revelation of who he is. And Jacob was afraid. Verse 17, he said, "How awesome is this place? There is none other than the house of God. And this is the gate of heaven. Babel is a lie. Babel is a false hope. I can't do it, but God can." So early in the morning, verse 18, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head. He thought it was a pillow, but he set it

up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. It's a picture of the Holy Spirit blessing this. And he called the name of that place Bethl, Bethl, the house of God. But the name of the city was loose at verse. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, I will give him bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I will come again to my father's house in peace. Then the Lord shall be my God." May I just stop here? It's okay to know that God is your provider. Sometimes you think, "Oh, I don't know if God will give me the car or the house provision." No, he will give you exactly what you need. Everything is his. Wealth is his. But when he gives it to you, he says verse 22, "And this stone which I've set up as a pillar shall be God's house. And all of you that give and all that you give me, God, I will give you a full tenth to you." Now, the church, we call this a

tithe. If you're new to church, a tithe is a tenth. A tenth of everything. This is a principle that God started long before the law was given. It started with his grandfather Abraham that God the way I trust you that everything is yours I give you a tenth. I give you the best. I give you the first. Today we try to justify what we give. I mean no offense by this but many of us at church we just give a tip not a tithe. I I don't I don't mean to judge me on that. A lot of times it's because we don't have the revelation. When you have the revelation it's of God. You can't help but give God what he gave you. And I'm here to tell you there's blessing that follows. So the only way that Jacob did this is he takes the dream so seriously. He says, "I'm going to do something different." My Could you imagine if

Jacob just wake woke up and said, "Man, that was an intense dream. I'm going back to a normal life." So many of us do that. You come to church, this is called information. And information is little transformation. Transformation is when you put it into action. And when you know what God's done for you, changes you. John said this of Jesus and from him. This is Jesus in John 1:16. from his fullness. We've all received grace upon grace. Don't you ever minimize that. That is God's gift to you. The forgiveness of your sins, a dream that's greater than you could ever come up with on your own. He gives grace upon grace upon grace. You say, "Oh, you don't know what I did last night, pastor. I don't know. I don't want to know." But God knows and he loves you. Yeah. And he says, "Don't keep doing that." Yeah.

Do do what I've told you to do. You go you go to my instructions. you do what I say you should do and you're going to get through this. You're going to have encouragement. You're going to have hope. See, when you have grace, grace leads to gratitude. And gratitude does nothing unless there's action. You can't just say it, I'm grateful for you. Show it. Show the Lord. Act on it. Love somebody. Give. Show the Lord that he's changed your life. I'm so glad that Jacob was not defined by his mistakes. Because if y'all knew my mistakes, I wouldn't even have the right to come before you as a preacher. But I am defined by Jesus Christ. He's changed my life. He's put a dream in my heart that I want you to know.

That's that's why we're doing this series, especially right before Easter. I'm expecting this place to be so packed. It's going to just keep going. God's going to multiply the parking. Y'all are going to park park blocks away so that your friends can get here. You got that? We're going to start believing God's dreams. This is just the beginning of greater things. You say, "How do I get that? How do I get that? Here's my last verse. I'll leave you." Paul Paul put it this way, and this is so good. He's explaining this theologically so it's sound. So you understand this. Some of you might be here today and be like, "I'm not Jewish. I don't get a part of this promise." I'll tell you what happens with Jesus. If you are Christ, if you believe in Jesus and what he's done for you, he died. He was buried. He rose again. And if you believe in him, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. Hallelujah.

His dream is your dream. And if God did it with Jacob, it if he did it with Nathaniel, he can do it with you. He doesn't come before you today and say, "All the times you judge me." He didn't say that to Nathaniel. He says, "You sought me. You wrestled with me. Here's a blessing. You're not too old. Old men will dream dreams. You're not too young. Young men will have visions. For your daughters, for your sons. I prophesy it today. God's awakening dreams. So I want to ask you, do you know Jesus Christ? Right where you are, would you close your eyes? This is the most serious part of the service because this impacts eternity. As your eyes are closed, I'm going to ask you, have you committed your whole heart to Jesus Christ? Do you know that he is the son of God?

Do you know that he is the king of Israel? Would he be the king of your heart? You see, when you receive Jesus Christ and you believe in him, here's what happens. You get the free gift of heaven forever. Can't be taken from you and you get God himself, the Holy Spirit. He'll never leave you, never forsake you. God is with you in your heart. And if that's you, I want to pray with you. Prayer is talking to God. It's communication. Let's let's communicate with God. If that's you, I want you to just raise your hand so I can see who I'm praying with. Just raise it nice and high, bold, so I can see it. Praise God. Praise God. I love it. You're never too young. Praise God. You saying, "Today I've received Jesus. I want Jesus to be my savior. Jesus to be my king. I want to make sure that I see you." Praise God. Praise God.

Anyone else? You could be confident today that when you leave this place, you have a God that's for you. You're not defined by your past, but by who God is. Pray pray this prayer in your heart. In fact, if you've ever received Jesus, let's all pray this out loud together. Just a short prayer. Doesn't need to be eloquent. It just needs to be sincere. Just say this out loud. Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I believe in you. I believe in you. Forgive me of my sins. Today, I trust you. I receive your dream. I receive your Holy Spirit. In your name I pray. Amen. and a