You know we encourage you as a pastor, "When you're in an uncertain situation,
go back and revisit all of the things God already did for you in previous seasons of your life."
Maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes just to remind you of when you killed it when
you're struggling, and maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes to remind you of things you
accomplished that really defy your educational background or your pedigree or anything you were
taught or trained to do. Maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes to remember
all of the ways you even surprised yourself. "Wow! I didn't even know I could do that."
But the more I meditated on it, I realized that wasn't really what Bethel meant to Jacob,
because the first time he went to Bethel, he was scared to death.
Now Jacob is in a place in his life where he has never been more uncertain,
and God leads him back to a place where he had never been more uncertain.
When he is in need of the greatest faith, God takes him back to the place of his greatest fear.
The first time Jacob went to Bethel, he had no idea what would happen next. His brother wants
to kill him. His uncle is someone he has never been exposed to, he has only heard about. Jacob
is 77 years old the first time he goes to Paddan Aram and stops through a place called Bethel.
Bethel was not a place where Jacob shouted and danced. Jacob was not in Bethel feeling
goose bumps. Jacob was not in Bethel singing praise songs. Jacob was in Bethel wondering,
"Will I make it?" So now God says in the season of your life…I'm preaching to somebody…where
you have no idea how you have enough to defend yourself from the attack that's happening…
You have a lot on you right now. Some of it is your fault, some of it is decisions
others have made, and none of it is anything you have ever experienced, because you are
the oldest you've ever been and you have never progressed through this season of your life,
this stage of your development. You have never been through this emotional place before.
So now what does God do? He doesn't call you back to the place where you felt the greatest faith.
He calls you back to the place where you felt the greatest fear, but you made it anyway,
to remind you what it really felt like when God revealed himself to you. We whitewash
our understanding of what it means to remember what God did.
I wonder, do you remember how it really felt at certain stages in your life?
Close your eyes. Let's go to Bethel. We can't go to a place. We're not going to load up the
church vans or anything like that. There are too many of y'all and you're too spread out. So
close your eyes. We have to go to Bethel, but we have to go in our imagination. Remember the time,
anytime you want (I have enough to choose from; I have an entire cafeteria of times to choose from),
when you thought you wouldn't make it. "I'm not going to make it another day.
There's no way forward for this." Remember "I'm not going to make it."
Like, to me, "I'm not going to make it up to the pulpit. I have nothing left to say. I'm not
going to make it through what I feel right now. I think I'm losing…" All right. You got it? I know
that for some of us it's a hard place to visit, but I want you to go there for just a moment.
"I'm not going to make it." That's how Jacob felt the first time in Bethel.
He saw a vision while he was asleep, and he saw a ladder resting on the
earth and reaching to the heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending. Twenty years later,
God calls him back to that same place called Bethel where he thought he wouldn't make it.
You thought you wouldn't make it. On the inside, everything was telling you,
"You're not going to make it. You're not going to make it." Open your eyes. You did.
No, no, no. You did.
Jacob is now instructed to build an altar in the place of his greatest fear.
That's where God calls you to build an altar and
to believe him: in Bethel. In fact, one time the Scripture calls God the God of Bethel.
I'm not sure if I like that, because Bethel is scary. Bethel is when you don't know.
Bethel is the place where you can't figure it out and all you have is faith.
God said, "I'm the God of Bethel. That's where my house is. That's where my habitation is.
That's where I live. That's where I reveal. That's where I show myself.
That's where you get to know me. I'm the God of Bethel."
Jacob is afraid, and God says, "I want you to go back to the place you were most afraid and build
an altar there, because if you don't, what's on you is going to cause you to forget what's in you.
I need you to go to the place where you didn't think you would make it. I want
you to go to the place where you didn't know what was next. I need you to go to the place
where you realized…" This is the crazy thing about Bethel. This might be your Bethel right now.
What you are going through right now might be the place you go back to in the future
when your family needs to know that God is a promise keeper and a way maker.
So, I need to teach you about a concept. This is not a pop culture concept. It's the concept of
covenant. Jacob isn't just going off of a good feeling. Jacob isn't just going off of a track
record. Jacob isn't going off of a fortune cookie. Jacob isn't going off of an emotional high.
Jacob isn't going off of something he read in one Bible verse of the day.
He has a covenant. In the Bible, a covenant can be… First of all, it can be with another person.
In the Bible, the context of marriage was not convenience; it was covenant.
In the Bible, the context of my relationship with God
was not my behavior; it was my covenant with him.
Covenant. Jacob is moving, not in certainty; he's moving in covenant with God.
The relationship I have with God is not based on the same covenant Jacob had. Jacob had a covenant
with God that "God will be with me." That's awesome. How many thank God that he's with you?
That's awesome. But look at what happens. On our end of the bargain, we can't keep that up.
Oh, so you followed God perfectly through every season of your life?
Of course in the valley you faint. Of course in the hard times you get led astray.
Of course your heart is drawn to other gods to worship things you can see instead of the God
you can't see or figure out. God said in Jeremiah 31, "I'm going to give you a different covenant."
"'The days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the
people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I
made with their ancestors [Jacob] when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,' declares the Lord.
'This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,' declares the Lord.
'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.'" That's the inside.
"For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did
by sending his Son Jesus in the likeness of sinful man." I don't have the Jacob covenant.
I have the Jesus covenant. I have a covenant that whatever you put on me,
God put something in me that is greater than what you put on me.
So, I know you have a lot on you, but I came to preach. There's something in you
that has always been greater.
Are you getting this revelation? It's in me. When Jacob said,
"God has always been with me…" I know why he has been with you: because he's in you.