The Stairway to Heaven You Don’t Have to Build

[00:10:30] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[00:10:30] Back Creek Church. Good to see everybody. I never introduce myself. I'm Frank Akin. Nice to see you guys. I'm the music ministry lead. And good to see everybody here this morning. We're going to stand and prepare our hearts this morning through song.

[00:10:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:10:46] So glad to be with you in God's presence. We have every reason truly to praise the Lord for who he is as our creator and as our redeemer. For what he has done in the Lord Jesus Christ and reconciling us to himself.

[00:14:59] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:14:59] giving us the hope of eternal life and change in our lives right now. And so thank you so much for gathering with us to worship the Lord our God. We would ask you to, if you're a guest with us or if
[00:15:14] you're not using the Church Center app, look to the center of your pew. There should be a white folder there. Those are a means of connection for us. We'd love to have whatever contact information
[00:15:24] you feel comfortable giving to us, your name and then an address, physical or email address, also a phone number, whatever you feel comfortable giving to us. We want to be able to reach out to you and thank you for being here. We really do value your presence. We want to find out if
[00:15:37] there are ways that we can further connect with you and serve you. A couple of reasons we have to praise the Lord together today. First is that we get to rejoice with Alan and Christina Holcomb
[00:15:51] as they have welcomed little Hannah Jean. Praise God for that. And then this morning I got a text from one of our elders, Cliff Cooksey, that his daughter Amanda, he and Carolyn's daughter Amanda welcomed today Levi Paul Parrish. So we're very excited for the Cookseys and the Parrishes as
[00:16:15] well. What a blessing that is. Look, there's a ton of stuff going on in the life of our church, ways to connect with the Lord, ways to connect with each other. I would refer you to the Church
[00:16:25] Center app to the back of your bulletin as well for all of the information that you might need for that. But it is, of course, our joy and our privilege to worship the Lord our God today.
[00:16:38] And he calls us to worship from Psalm 107.
[00:16:55] and from the west, from the north, and from the south. Let's go to the Lord together in prayer.
[00:17:02] Oh Lord, our God, it astounds us this morning to think that as we are gathered in your presence with your people to give you praise, that we are joining our hearts and our voices with an
[00:17:15] innumerable multitude of people all over the globe, people who have gathered before us to worship you, people who will gather after us to worship you from every tribe and language and nation and people group, and we together as the church militant on earth are joining our voices and our
[00:17:32] hearts with the church triumphant in heaven, the saints who are gathered around your throne and giving praise to your name, all, Lord, because of the truth and the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's our aim and our desire this morning, Lord, to revel in the good news of Jesus, to
[00:17:50] recognize once again and afresh that we are sinners in need of a savior that jesus is our savior and that he has done for us what we could not do for ourselves and reconciling us to you
[00:18:03] the living god father son and holy spirit giving us eternal life eternal hope of eternal joy that informs and transforms our lives right now and makes us into true worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth and so holy spirit lord and god we ask that you would move in and among and
[00:18:27] through and for us now so that you might be praised as you deserve to be praised and so that we might be transformed as we are eager to be transformed for the name and for the glory and
[00:18:39] for the renown of our lord jesus christ we pray these things amen let's stand together and worship

[00:18:45] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:18:45] the Lord our God in song. You may be seated. The hope that we have in life and death, the way that

[00:28:28] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:28:28] we glory in the beauty of Jesus Christ is truly to meditate on what he has done for us, to recognize who we once were, that we were rebels, we were enemies of God, and that day by day, moment by
[00:28:53] moment. Our hope is not in doing more and trying harder and being better. We've all tried that.
[00:29:03] How is it working for us? Our hope, our only hope, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we gather to worship him, to glory in what he has done, we come openly and freely and humbly confessing
[00:29:23] how far short we fall of the glory of God, of the righteousness that He requires.
[00:29:31] And we find our all in Jesus.
[00:29:35] So I'm going to ask you to take a moment to personally and privately confess your sins to the Lord, and then we'll join our hearts and our voices together in a public and corporate confession
[00:29:44] because we sin as individuals and we sin together as the church.
[00:29:48] So let's go to the Lord.
[00:30:24] And now together as the family of God.
[00:30:26] oh savior help us we are slow to learn prone to forget and weak to climb we are in the spiritual foothills when we should be on the heights we're satisfied with spiritual milk when we should be
[00:30:43] craving solid food we are pained by our graceless hearts our prayerless days our poverty of love our laziness in our heavenly race, our burdened consciences, our wasted hours, our unspent opportunities. Make it our highest joy to study you, meditate on you, gaze at you, to know like
[00:31:09] Jacob your presence, to sit like Mary at your feet, to lean like John on your chest, to appeal like Peter to your love, to count like Paul all things but rubbish compared to knowing you.
[00:31:25] We believe. Please help our unbelief. Amen. And to all who are looking away from themselves and to Christ alone for salvation, hear the word of the Lord from Psalm 145. The Lord is gracious and
[00:31:40] merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all and his mercy is over all that he has made. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works. The
[00:31:56] Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him, he also hears their cry and saves them. Amen? Amen. We have the privilege now
[00:32:12] of welcoming some new members into our faith family, the Austin family, and what a joy it is to see how the Lord works in people's lives in so many various ways. One, to draw them to himself
[00:32:29] by taking out that heart of stone and giving them a heart of flesh by his grace, a heart that is responsive to the gospel, and then to draw new believers or longtime believers into a family of faith,
[00:32:43] a local expression of Christ's body.
[00:32:46] And we get to celebrate that today.
[00:32:48] And not only that, but Matthew and Emily, this couple who are joining as communing members, are also coming with their daughter, Ruby.
[00:32:56] and so we get to welcome them as a family into the covenant community of God's people and therefore we're going to mark Ruby with the sign of God's covenant and we don't we don't do this because
[00:33:09] it's some kind of tradition of man we don't do it because it's cute to baptize a baby though it is we do this because we believe that the pattern and promise of God to those who believe is that
[00:33:22] he will be God to us and to our children. In the Old Testament, a sign was given for the righteousness that comes by faith. It was given to Abraham. It was the sign of circumcision, and that sign was to
[00:33:34] be applied to the child of promise, his infant son Isaac, who was not yet a man of faith, and yet the sign of God's promise was applied. When we come to the New Testament, we see that the pattern and the
[00:33:48] promise has not changed that it is still for us to respond to the gospel in repentance turning away from our sin and faith receiving and resting in Jesus Christ alone for our salvation and we
[00:34:00] come into the family of God and we receive eternal life but also when we come with children the promise remains he will be God to us and to our children the sign is different it's no longer
[00:34:16] a bloody sign because Christ's blood has been shed once and for all. Now it's a sign of clean water, of cleansing by that blood shed once for all. It's no longer a restrictive sign only applied
[00:34:29] to the males who were born into a Jewish household. It's now an inclusive sign that includes males and females, Jews and Gentiles to mark out the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the sign of baptism
[00:34:40] always to those who have been baptized whether you can remember your baptism or not preaches the gospel that when you could do nothing god spoke over you he spoke his promises he laid claim to you and he worked in your life to the point that you came to know jesus christ as savior
[00:34:59] and as lord which is our prayer for every covenant child of our congregation so i want to invite the austin family to come and join me as we previously discussed we have a number of questions to ask
[00:35:16] first the questions concerning membership your affirmation of the truths that we went over in starting point group that you've already answered before the elders you've been interviewed by the elders and already received into membership this is our opportunity to publicly welcome and to
[00:35:34] receive you by once again making these affirmations so Matthew and Emily so grateful for what the Lord is doing in your lives do you confess that you are sinners in the sight of God that you deserve
[00:35:49] his punishment, that you are unable to save yourselves, and that you are without hope of salvation except for God's love and mercy, do you? You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of
[00:36:00] God and the Savior of sinners, and do you receive and trust in him alone for your salvation, do you?
[00:36:08] Do you accept the Bible comprised of the Old and New Testaments as the written word of God, and that it is the only perfect rule of faith and how to live, do you? Do you promise to trust in
[00:36:18] the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit to live all of life as a Christian following the example set by Jesus Christ, do you? Do you promise to exercise faithful stewardship of God's resources entrusted to you for the furtherance of God's kingdom and purposes, do you? Do you accept that
[00:36:37] the doctrines and principles of the standards of the associate reformed Presbyterian church are founded upon the scriptures, do you? And lastly, in loving obedience, do you submit yourself to the government and discipline of this church promising to seek the peace purity prosperity and unity of
[00:36:53] this congregation so long as you are a member of it do you amen thanks be to god let's welcome them a few more questions four for you and then one for you the members of back creek church
[00:37:13] do you renew the vows which you just made when you received the lord jesus christ as your savior and entered into the full communion of back creek church do you do you acknowledge that ruby
[00:37:26] is a sinner in need of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit, do you?
[00:37:34] Do you claim God's covenant promises on Ruby's behalf?
[00:37:37] And do you look in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for her salvation even as you do for your own, do you?
[00:37:44] And lastly, do you now covenant and promise in humble reliance on the grace of God to bring Ruby up to love God and to serve Him to the end that she may come to commit her life
[00:37:54] to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, do you?
[00:37:58] Amen.
[00:37:58] And now, to you, the members of Bat Creek Church, this is not only their responsibility, it is primarily their responsibility, but it is our responsibility to stand with them for Ruby's sake and the glory of Jesus Christ in her life.
[00:38:14] So, do you, the members of Bat Creek Church, undertake with these parents the covenant responsibility for the Christian nurture of this child?
[00:38:23] Do you?
[00:38:25] Amen.
[00:38:45] Ruby, you cannot speak today.
[00:38:49] but god has spoken his promises over you you're not going to remember today but our hope is that god in his grace and faithfulness will remember you ruby claire austin child of the covenant i baptize you in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen all right
[00:39:18] because it is our responsibility in partnership with Matthew and Emily to tell Ruby as often as possible and in as many ways as possible that Jesus loves her.
[00:39:29] We're going to start right now by singing one verse and one chorus of Jesus Loves Me.
[00:39:34] You ready?

[00:39:36] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:39:36] Let's pray together.

[00:40:18] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:40:18] Oh, Lord, our God, thank you so much for the Austin family.
[00:40:21] Thank you for your grace in Matthew and Emily's life.
[00:40:26] Thank you for the gift of Ruby.
[00:40:28] Lord, we ask your blessing on her now, accompanying your sign.
[00:40:33] Lord, we ask that you would so work in Ruby's life through her parents and through her church and through believers, that she would come to know and love and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, that she would grow into a mighty woman of God,
[00:40:48] that you might be glorified in her life, your name might be exalted and your gospel promoted.
[00:40:56] We love you, Lord, and we thank you for a new family as part of this faith family.
[00:41:00] And we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:41:15] I want to invite our newest elder, Jason Strine, to come and lead us in a prayer of intercession.

[00:41:27] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:41:27] Good morning. Please pray with me.
[00:41:31] Most gracious and heavenly Father, we come to you humbled by your unending grace and mercy.
[00:41:37] We adore you, not for the gifts you give, but for the giver you are.
[00:41:41] We adore your justice, your mercy, your wisdom, and your presence.
[00:41:45] You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords, yet you are also the shepherd who seeks the lost sheep.
[00:41:53] Lord, we come before you this morning as a broken community, as a broken nation, yet we find our hope in you.
[00:42:00] We come as a diverse community of believers, yet we are united through your Spirit.
[00:42:06] We don't come because we are perfect, but because you are faithful.
[00:42:10] We lay down all of our distractions, the reminders on our phones, the busyness of our lives at your feet, asking that you would calm our minds and open our hearts to hear your word today.
[00:42:23] We pray for your church as a whole and for this local body of believers at Back Creek.
[00:42:28] May we be a light on a hill, not a fortress with closed doors.
[00:42:33] Help us to be welcoming to everyone who steps foot on our campus.
[00:42:36] lord we ask for strength and endurance for our staff for matt adam kelly dawn frank and anna and for all those who serve in leadership roles here at back creek lord we bring to you those
[00:42:52] who are sick grant healing to their bodies and peace to their minds we pray for those in our congregation who are homebound jim jan sylvia hazelene barbara and marianne lord we pray for those who are grieving. Help them to know that they can find comfort in you. And we pray for
[00:43:12] those who are lonely. Remind them that they are seen and cared for. We also pray for those burdens that we cannot see. Anxieties, financial pressures, silent cries of the heart. Lord, we pray for us as
[00:43:26] a congregation. Do not let us leave this place the same way we entered this morning. Transform our prayers into action. And finally, Lord, we lift up our tithes and our offerings. Help us to give with joy in our hearts knowing that all we have already belongs to you we pray all these

[00:43:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[00:43:44] things in the name of your son jesus amen you may be seated if you're a child second grade and

[00:48:41] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[00:48:41] younger you're welcome to stay with us for the message but if you and your parents agree you can be dismissed right over here through this door for kids worship you'll return as we're responding to God's word in song. We're working our way through the portion of Genesis that tells
[00:49:17] us the stories of Isaac and Jacob. It's mostly focused on Jacob by this point, but we're going to be in Genesis chapter 28. Genesis 28 verses 10 through 22. Genesis 28, 10 through 22.
[00:49:32] I grew up in the golden era of professional wrestling. Hulk Hogan, Macho Man, Randy Savage, oh yeah! Rowdy Roddy Piper, Ric Flair, The Ultimate Warrior, Andre the Giant. It was awesome.
[00:49:56] And the big debate on the playground in elementary school as we were pretending to be these superstars was, is wrestling real? Now I was totally into it and I wanted to believe that it was the realest thing on the planet. Imagine my disappointment when I got old enough to realize
[00:50:20] that it's basically a soap opera for dudes. Professional wrestling, not real. But when it comes to real life we don't have to ask is our wrestling real we know that it is and we know it
[00:50:42] goes beyond like the day-to-day wrestling with our struggles and our decisions and our priorities and our relationships like we know that there is a deeper wrestling with God that comes wired into our fallen humanity. We've already seen how this wrestling with God shows up in the stories of
[00:51:09] Isaac and Jacob. Our wants can lead us to wrestle with God's plan and his provision for us and the position that he's put us in. Our blessings are always mixed with bitterness in this broken world
[00:51:25] and that can lead us to wrestle with God over the meaning of it all.
[00:51:30] We wrestle with God when we use deceit to try to manipulate outcomes, when we experience exile and try to find our own way home.
[00:51:40] Our wrestling is real, and our wrestling with God is constant.
[00:51:46] But at the beginning of our series, I gave you two reasons why this real and constant wrestling match that we have going on with the God who made us and the God who loves us. Why this doesn't need
[00:51:58] to be for us a discouraging or anxiety producing reality. The truth is we're going to wrestle with God because God is holy and righteous and infinite and we are finite. We don't know what he knows.
[00:52:13] We don't have what he has. He is righteous and we are sinful. All of our inclinations are away from him and not toward him. So there's going to be wrestling. But two things that encourage us in
[00:52:28] the midst of that reality. One, wrestling is evidence of relationship. Wrestling is evidence of relationship. You wrestle because you believe, not because you don't. If you didn't believe, if you didn't care, then you wouldn't wrestle. The second thing is that God always wins.
[00:52:54] God always wins. If you could beat him, he wouldn't be God. And you would get what you want at the expense of what is best for you. We always wrestle and God always wins. So far we've seen
[00:53:11] Jacob just wrestling and wrestling. And in the account that we're about to read, we see God win and we see how good that ultimately is going to be for Jacob and how good it is for us that God
[00:53:24] always wins and we always lose. Jacob is at this point in exile. He's all alone on a 500 mile journey through the wilderness because back home his brother, who he stole from, wants to kill him.
[00:53:40] He's got the birthright. He's got a blessing and even a double blessing. And yet we can see him just trudging through the desert, kicking rocks and wrestling with why is all this happening to am and God's about to wrestle back. So look with me at Genesis chapter 28 verses 10 through 22 and
[00:54:00] if you're able please stand in honor of God's word. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set.
[00:54:20] Taking one of the stones of the place he put it under his head and laid down in that place to sleep and he dreamed and behold there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached
[00:54:32] to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of
[00:54:44] 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 to the
[00:54:56] north and to the south and in you and your offspring shall all the families of earth be blessed behold i am with you and will keep you wherever you go i will bring you back to this
[00:55:10] land for i will not leave you until i have done what i have promised you and jacob awoke from his sleep and said surely the lord is in this place and i did not know it and he was afraid and said
[00:55:24] how awesome is this place this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven so early in the morning Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a
[00:55:36] pillar and poured oil on the top of it he called the name of that place Bethel but the name of the city was Luz at the first then Jacob made a vow saying if God will be with me and will keep me
[00:55:48] in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father's house in peace. Then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone, which I have set up for a
[00:56:00] pillar, shall be God's house. And all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Let's thank the Lord for his
[00:56:11] word. Lord, our God, we thank you that your word is trustworthy and true and that it changes us by your spirit. And so take your word now and apply it to our lives. Help us to love what it says and
[00:56:23] to believe it, to apply it, Lord, in our walk with you and our lives in the world and to be changed by it. Lord, we know that only you can do this. And so we look to you in faith and ask you
[00:56:36] to speak now for your people are listening. And we ask this in the name of Jesus and for his glory.
[00:56:42] Amen.
[00:56:43] You may be seated.
[00:56:48] I've already told you that my nine-year-old son, Isaac, likes to wrestle with me.
[00:56:56] What he really wants is to win, to subdue his dad.
[00:57:02] But he does not want me to let him win.
[00:57:06] So we're learning about effort and resilience and sportsmanship.
[00:57:13] But in a scenario where I'm so much bigger, there is also going to be frustration.
[00:57:19] And that frustration boiled over the other night a little bit.
[00:57:22] So we had to sit down and talk about it.
[00:57:24] And I said, I know it can be frustrating to give it everything you've got and still get pinned to the count of three.
[00:57:33] But the reality is, buddy, it's going to be like this for a while because daddy is so much bigger than you are.
[00:57:41] And he said, well, you could get thinner.
[00:57:45] touche son this encounter of our constant wrestler Jacob with the Lord Almighty is a revelation to Jacob that he can keep on wrestling and oh my goodness he will but he's not going to win
[00:58:09] God is so much bigger than he is and that's good news because that means that Jacob gets God's presence and promises through and in spite of his wrestling. See, the good news for weary wrestlers who always lose is, one, we get God's presence. The good news for weary wrestlers like
[00:58:38] Jacob and like us who always lose is that we get God's presence. Jacob walks until he is exhausted and the sun is setting and he finds a spot in the middle of nowhere and he gets a rock. And we're
[00:58:56] not sure if he puts the rock under his head for a pillow. That's the story I was told with the flannel graph in Sunday school, but that doesn't seem very comfortable to me. More likely, it's a
[00:59:06] rock that he places near his head for protection against anyone who would come try to take advantage of him or the wild animals who might try to eat him. Either way, it's not long before
[00:59:16] Jacob, who is so tired from walking so far, passes out. And when he's asleep, the Lord shows up.
[00:59:26] It's a dream. It's a vision. But it is also the realest thing that Jacob has ever experienced in his life. And when we read the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament, we do see that
[00:59:43] that God speaks to his people at times and places through dreams, right? Maybe one of the most famous is the dream that God gives to Pharaoh that Joseph interprets. Or maybe the dream that God speaks to Joseph, Jesus's adoptive father, when he tells him to not be afraid to take Mary
[01:00:07] as his wife because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. God has spoken to his people through prophetic dreams and visions.
[01:00:16] And so I think a natural question for us is, should I expect to have prophetic dreams and visions?
[01:00:24] Now, I am never inclined to put God in a box and say, well, God absolutely cannot nor does he any longer do X, Y, or Z.
[01:00:34] As a matter of fact, who am I to do that when I have heard reports from missionaries in the Middle East that the Lord is using dreams among people who do not have access to the scriptures.
[01:00:48] At the same time, what I would say to you is that this should not be a common expectation for us.
[01:00:53] Why?
[01:00:54] Well, because it's very clear in the New Testament.
[01:00:56] Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two.
[01:00:58] Long ago, at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers through the prophets, right?
[01:01:10] So God used dreams, visions, verbal revelation to speak to the prophets who then wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. The author of Hebrews goes on, but in these latter days, he has spoken to us by his son. And when Jesus Christ,
[01:01:24] who is the divine Logos, who is the word of God, comes on the scene, he affirms the Old Testament.
[01:01:31] The New Testament is all about him. And with his revelation to the apostle John, new revelation, new information from god about who he is and about what he has done is closed and what we know
[01:01:47] as the word of god the scriptures of the old and new testaments we ought not be concerned with having dreams and visions when the will of god for us is revealed in his word that makes
[01:02:02] sense okay nevertheless long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke to our fathers by the prophets. And Jacob certainly is having a prophetic dream and experience here. And this is one of the most familiar images in the entire Bible. There's a ladder that is set up on earth
[01:02:21] and it goes way up into the sky, into the very heavens. And there are angels, these fierce and amazing heavenly beings that are ascending and descending on this ladder. And behold, the scriptures tell us, the Lord stood above it. Okay, there's a lot in this image. First, the ladder
[01:02:45] here. We hear it in songs, and the picture that we have is of a ladder, but the truth is, this is probably more a stairway to heaven. So Led Zeppelin got that right. It's probably a ziggurat,
[01:03:01] which was this tall tower that had religious significance in the ancient Near East. And this is probably what the people were building way back in Genesis chapter 11 with what we know as the Tower of Babel, right? They were building this huge stairway that had religious significance.
[01:03:21] And this was a familiar sight to Jacob from being around all of the pagan polytheistic peoples in Canaan. And the ziggurat shows us that from the most ancient times, there was a formula for religion okay so the ziggurat which was common in the ancient near east for all these different
[01:03:41] tribal peoples and their religions and their many gods it shows us that there was from the most ancient times a common formula for religion here's the formula god is way up there in the clouds
[01:03:54] above it all and you are way down here on earth and he is or they are perfect and you are not if you want the presence of the divine then you better start building a stairway or a ladder
[01:04:15] to get there that's the common formula for religion for the ancient near east people it was a literal stairway to heaven it was having their priest ascend this very tall ladder with a sacrifice to appease the god or the gods in the high places but the reality is it's the truth it's
[01:04:36] the same thing in world religions and cults today god is way up there you are way down here god is perfect you are not you want god's presence in your life you want god's presence for eternity
[01:04:49] and we all do then you better build you have to construct a stairway a ladder and convenient for all of these religions and cults we have a pretty good idea of how to do that if you're into judaism
[01:05:06] then it is about repenting from your sins and obeying the law clean up your life get right and you can start to construct a stairway to heaven in islam it's do the five pillars recite
[01:05:18] the shahada pray the right number of times every day fast give and go on a pilgrimage and you'll build a stairway to heaven in hinduism it's do better get better karma have a better round of
[01:05:31] lives, get enlightened, and eventually you'll build a stairway to heaven. In Buddhism, it's follow the four noble truths and the eightfold path, and you'll build a stairway to heaven. In Mormonism, it's make every possible effort to be good, then get baptized, and grace might follow that, and
[01:05:48] you'll build a stairway to heaven. If you're a Jehovah's Witness, it's join our organization, work really hard, and you might be one of the 144,000 that gets a stairway to heaven.
[01:06:01] we could go on. This is a common formula for religions and cults. God's presence is promised through building your own stairway and climbing it by your behavior. Does that make sense?
[01:06:18] That's every religion in the world. God's up there. You're down here. He's perfect. You're not.
[01:06:23] Get to building. But Jacob didn't build this ladder. He wasn't even pursuing God.
[01:06:36] God's presence came to him it was God's love it was God's kindness it was God's initiation it was God's condescension that built that letter from earth to heaven and as if to confirm that there
[01:06:57] is a right instinct in all religion to see God as exalted and perfect to see us as way down here and sinful and to know that somehow some way there is an infinite gap between god and us and we have
[01:07:13] to do something to get there in jacob's vision we see god standing above the ladder in the heavens that's where god's presence is right in almost every religion it's high and exalted and away and distant and certainly we get here that God stood above it and yet the preposition in Hebrew
[01:07:42] that we find in this text above it could also and just as accurately be translated and the Lord stood beside him and that seems to make more sense of the text because the text is not
[01:08:01] God speaking from the top of the ladder though he certainly is there the God that is revealed in the Bible. The God who is there is a God who is omnipresent. He is all places at all times. So
[01:08:13] where is God? Is God in heaven? Absolutely. But what has God promised when people are gathered in his name? Is he here right now? That's right. Our God is omnipresent. So is he at the top of
[01:08:24] the ladder? Yes and amen. But you know where else he is? He is right beside Jacob speaking to him, which is why Jacob concludes the Lord is in this place. The one true and living God can be exalted
[01:08:43] far high above the heavens and at the same time he can be and is right here with us. We get God's presence. This vision wasn't about how far Jacob would have to go to get God's presence but how
[01:09:03] far God had already come to him in grace. That is the hope of the gospel. And that is what makes Jesus better than any and all religions. He does not tell us how to build a ladder. He is the
[01:09:19] ladder. I want to be clear, y'all. Every religion and cult on earth says, God's up there. You're down here. Start building. Be better. Try harder. Do more. And maybe you'll get there. Jesus Christ is the opposite of that. Yes, God is up there. Yes, you are down here. Yes, God is perfect. Yes,
[01:09:41] you are not. But there's absolutely no way for you to build a ladder that high.
[01:09:47] You can try and try and try. Guess what? You're not going to get more than three steps before it crumbles. Every single time. Jesus Christ is the ladder between heaven and earth. He is the stairway
[01:10:02] between God and humanity because he is God. He is at the top of the ladder, worthy of all worship and all devotion. Amen? But because he is human, he is at the bottom of the ladder. He is Emmanuel,
[01:10:20] which means God with us. Jesus, in contrast to religion that presents God up there and us down here says no god has come to be with us and because he is the christ the god man our savior
[01:10:40] who lived and died and rose again for us he is the ladder the stairway to heaven first peter 3 18 tells us that christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous to what to bring
[01:10:55] us to God. There's nothing for you to build. There's nothing for you to climb. Jesus Christ is, for those of you who believe, Jesus Christ is right now your rest and your refuge. He is
[01:11:13] God's presence with you and for you and in you. And if today you have not yet believed that you don't know Jesus Christ as the only stairway to heaven, then I would encourage you to right now
[01:11:26] cry out to him and find in him everything that you ever needed wherever you are today and whatever you are going through you don't need a prophetic vision you don't need a stairway to heaven you have everything that you need already in Christ God with you and not only is Jesus
[01:11:58] god with us he is also the lord who rose from the dead and ascended to the father's right hand so that he poured out his spirit so that the spirit of christ is now not only with us but where
[01:12:12] in us good news for weary wrestlers who always lose if we have jesus we get god's presence Number two, and this is it.
[01:12:32] More good news for weary wrestlers.
[01:12:34] Not only do we get God's presence, we get God's promises.
[01:12:41] God not only is content to stand next to Jacob, but he speaks to Jacob.
[01:12:46] And what he speaks is pure promise.
[01:12:55] And behold, the Lord stood above it, or beside him, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac.
[01:13:04] the land on which you lie i will give to you and to your offspring and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and
[01:13:14] to the south and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed behold i am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land for i
[01:13:28] will not leave you until i have done what i have promised you and jacob awoke from his sleep and says surely the lord is in this place and i did not know it and he was afraid and said how awesome
[01:13:41] is this place this is none other than the house of god and this is the gate of heaven this is jacob in this moment when he declares he's afraid and he says how awesome is this place he's recognizing
[01:13:57] in this moment that he can't build a stairway to heaven and it's not for him to do it that the lord is the one who has already done it and that this place where he is and he's wrongly locating god's
[01:14:09] presence in the middle of the desert right god's presence isn't in the middle of the desert it's both at the top of the ladder and with him wherever he goes as articulated by the lord in his promise
[01:14:20] but when we realize that we can't build our stairway to heaven because we're always wrestling to build what we can't? What happens? What happens when God meets us with his promises and says, listen, stop building. You're not going anywhere. Rest. Receive what I have done. I am faithful to
[01:14:47] all of my promises and I will keep them. You want to know the evidence that God is faithful to all of his promises? The promises that he made to Jacob in the desert so long ago are just
[01:14:59] reiterations of the promises that he already made to Abraham, God tells Jacob, listen, I'm going to make your offspring spread throughout the world, right? They're going to come from the north and from the south and from the east and from the west. And you know what? It's actually not going
[01:15:17] to be limited to just the people that come from you physically, from your genetic line. It's actually going to be all the families of the earth who are going to be blessed through you. Y'all,
[01:15:30] The fact that we, as those who are not, according to the flesh, descendants of Jacob, and most of us in this room certainly are not, but we are people from the north and the south and the east and the west.
[01:15:42] We are those who are the Gentiles, who are strangers and aliens to the promises of God and to the covenants that he has brought us near in Christ, who is God with us, the presence and promise of God.
[01:15:57] We are evidence that God always keeps his promises.
[01:16:00] But when God meets us with his presence and reminds us of his promises, when he tells us you don't have to build, you know what we do?
[01:16:11] We just pivot.
[01:16:13] We pivot from trying to build.
[01:16:15] We go, okay, I guess I can't build.
[01:16:16] So then we try to bargain for it or we try to buy it.
[01:16:22] And that's what we see with Jacob because he's always going to wrestle against God.
[01:16:26] God meets him with his presence and his promises.
[01:16:28] And he meets him with his presence and he has to stop building.
[01:16:31] Then he meets him with his promises, and Jacob starts to bargain and try to buy what he can't.
[01:16:38] So early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head or near his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it.
[01:16:46] He called the name of that place Bethel, which means house of God.
[01:16:50] But the name of the city was Luz at the first.
[01:16:53] Then Jacob made a vow saying, y'all, listen to how transactional this is.
[01:16:58] Listen to how he tries to bargain and to buy God's favor.
[01:17:05] if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I may come again to my father's house in peace,
[01:17:16] then the Lord shall be my God.
[01:17:20] And this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house.
[01:17:24] And of all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you.
[01:17:31] You hear him. He stopped building.
[01:17:33] Okay, I can't build a stairway to heaven. I give up.
[01:17:36] You've already done it, God.
[01:17:38] Okay, you give me all these promises, but listen, if you keep them, if you keep them, then you'll be my God. And if you keep them, then I'll give you a full tenth of what I have. Isn't this us? We try
[01:17:56] to build and we come to the end of our building and realize we have to surrender, that God has subdued us in this wrestling match and we have to release it to him. But nevertheless, on a
[01:18:06] day-to-day basis, even after we have surrendered the building to him, we'll still try to build, it'll still fall down. We'll still have to go to the Lord and say, I'm sorry for trying to build
[01:18:15] what I can't build, what only you can build. We still try to manipulate God by bargaining with him or by buying what he has. Well, Lord, if you'll do this, then I'll do that, right? Lord,
[01:18:31] if you'll do this, then I promise I'll start tithing again. We try to bargain, try to buy, when we fail to build.
[01:18:42] And what this text is telling Jacob, and Jacob is just going to keep wrestling for a while.
[01:18:48] It's going to be painful as we watch him just continue to wrestle with the Lord rather than receiving what God has freely given him.
[01:18:56] But what this text is telling Jacob in real time and what it's telling us thousands of years later is that we are wrestlers.
[01:19:08] Our wrestling is real.
[01:19:10] Our wrestling is constant.
[01:19:12] and wrestling is evidence of relationship, and God always wins.
[01:19:21] And sometimes this wearies us to the bone, but the good news for weary wrestlers who always lose is that we don't need to build, we don't need to bargain, we don't need to buy.
[01:19:39] Jesus Christ has lived and died and risen from the dead so that we might have God's presence and God's promises for free.
[01:19:59] What would be really good for us today is to tap out.
[01:20:05] Let's pray.
[01:20:07] Lord Jesus, we thank you that you are God's presence to us, with us, for us, in us by your spirit.
[01:20:17] We thank you that you are the yes and amen to all the promises that God ever made.
[01:20:23] We thank you, oh Lord, that we don't have to build or climb a stairway to heaven we thank you that there is no bargaining that needs to happen and in fact we have nothing to to bargain with that there's no buying that needs to take place because
[01:20:41] our salvation has been purchased in full by our lord jesus christ at the cross but i pray that today as we like jacob continue to wrestle you that you would subdue us and that lord by your
[01:20:57] love and your grace and your mercy to us in Christ, that you would allow us to surrender, to receive, and to rest in the presence and promises of a faithful God. And we pray these
[01:21:12] things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand together and respond to God's word in song.

[01:21:17] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[01:21:17] And without you, I'll fall apart. Then God's my heart.

[01:22:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:22:14] Thank you so much for gathering with us for worship today.

[01:26:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:26:11] If you need the Lord, good news.
[01:26:16] You go out into the world with His blessings.
[01:26:19] So lift up your heads and your hands and your hearts and receive now the benediction of the Lord our God.
[01:26:24] The Lord bless you and keep you.
[01:26:26] The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[01:26:29] The Lord lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.
[01:26:32] Now and forevermore.
[01:26:34] And all God's people said, Amen.