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For the last few weeks we have been looking at the church and what makes a church.
The church does not exist without the Resurrection.
The resurrection gives us hope.
Every step that we take on this spiritual journey should move us to another level.
Today, I am concluding this series called The Easter Challenge.
Today’s sermon is called The Journey to Another Level.
Let’s pray.
If you have your bibles with you this morning, turn with me to the book of Genesis.
For those of you that don’t know, Genesis is the first book of the bible.
I want to read from chapter 28, beginning at verse 10.
The story that I just read to you was the beginning of Jacob’s spiritual journey.
Jacob was about 57 years old when he left his father’s house and went in search of a wife from his mother’s brother Laban.
From scripture, we don’t have any knowledge of any conversations that Jacob had with God.
What we do know is that Jacob was very mischievous.
He swindled his brother out of his birthright and he stole his brother’s blessing from their father Isaac.
And now because of stealing his brother’s blessing, his parents have sent him on a journey to find a wife from his mother’s brother Laban, so that his brother Esau won’t kill him.
And that is where our story picks up.
This is the first encounter with God that we read about for Jacob.
I believe that we can find something for each of us in this spiritual journey of Jacob.
The Journey Isn’t Always Easy
Our text is the first stop on Jacob’s journey.
We know that he is running from his brother Esau.
Because he stole his blessing, Esau was angry with Jacob.
He was so angry with Jacob that he wanted him dead.
He wanted to kill him.
Genesis 27:41 says Esau held a grudge against Jacob...
This was something that Esau wasn’t going to forget.
Not only was he running away from home to save his own life, but it also was a short journey either.
They didn’t have any motorized transportation back then.
All of their travels was on foot.
The journey from Beersheba to Haran was 457 miles.
That would be the equivalent of walking from Fort Smith to San Antonio or from Fort Smith to New Orleans.
I went to San Antonio this past Spring Break and it was an 8 1/2 hour drive if we did not make any stops by car.
And unlike the trip to San Antonio where it is pretty much a straight flat drive, the trip to Haran was a mountainous trek.
Not an easy journey.
God never said that you would have a perfect journey in your Christian life.
He never said that it would be easy.
He never said that you wouldn’t have difficulty.
This journey will have its ups and downs.
You will have those spiritual highs and there will be times that you may question whether or not God is still with you.
On this entire journey Jacob was met with many moments that were great, but he also had some hard moments as well.
That is when you have to learn when to rest and let God restore you.
Your Journey Will Bring You to a Place of Rest.
This was a special place.
The bible doesn’t tell us if he chose this place on purpose.
It was about 50 miles from Beersheba.
This was also the place that his grandfather Abraham had built altars to Yahweh years earlier.
But it is Jacob’s encounter with Yahweh that establishes it as a place of significance for the Israelites.
Jacob was alone.
There were no servants.
He had made this trip all by himself.
He was at a moment of fear.
He was at a moment of abandonment in his life.
No family, no friends and in his time of rest God shows up.
Look at what tells him in his dream in verse 13.
In your moment of weakness, when you feel like you are all alone, God will give you a promise that you are not alone.
God will show you that He will not leave you.
All throughout scripture God promises His people that He will never leave them nor forsake.
And just as He did that for the people of the Bible, He will do that for us.
He never leaves us.
He is always by our side.
It was on this journey that Jacob became closer to God.
Your Journey Will Bring You Closer to the Father
As Jacob goes to sleep, God speaks to him in a dream.
It is in this dream that Jacob sees a ladder or stairway as our translation tells us.
This ladder makes its way from earth to Heaven.
And he sees the angels of God going us and down this ladder.
And then God tells him that his descendants will occupy this land and He will be with them till the very end.
This was a sign to Jacob that he had access to the throne room of God.
Jacob now knew God was closer than ever and there was real access and interaction between heaven and earth.
When Jesus came to this earth, He made it clear to us that He is the access to heaven.
When Jesus died on the cross, the veil that was covering the holy of holies was ripped into and now you and I have access to God the Father.
As you continue on this spiritual journey and you stay in tune with God, you will grow closer with the father.
That dream changed Jacob’s life forever.
When he woke up that place was different to him.
There was something special about that place because that was the place where he met God for the first time.
Sure he had heard the stories.
He knew about his grandfather Abraham.
I’m sure that his father told him about the time that his grandfather was going to sacrifice him but at the right moment God provided another sacrifice.
He heard the stories.
He probably knew them frontward and backward.
But it wasn’t until that moment that he truly experienced God.
This morning, have you truly had an encounter with God.
Do you remember your moment?
I do.
There is 3 significant times that I remember in my life that I knew God moved in me.
The day I got saved.
I was about 4 or 5 years old and I said the prayer during a revival service on a Monday or Tuesday night.
I can even take to the place where God began a work in my life.
The second one was when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit.
I was at camp.
Camp number 7 in the month of July at Mountain Valley Retreat Center.
It was the night that God knocked me to the ground and I was forever changed.
The third was a night in my bedroom at the house I grew up in.
I was watching an evangelist on tv and I felt God call me into full time ministry.
After each one of those experiences, my life was never the same.
That was my Bethel moment.
Do you have a Bethel moment?
If not, God wants to wreck you like you’ve never been wrecked before.
Jacob’s moment was so significant that He changed the name of that place.
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