When You Run Into God Where You Shouldn't Be.
Memory Verse: 'If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. '
Galatians 5:25
Sermon Sentence: God’s offer in the middle of our brokenness is the call to follow Him to real life.
Galatians 5:25
Sermon Sentence: God’s offer in the middle of our brokenness is the call to follow Him to real life.
Day 1
Read Genesis 28:1-9
My whole life, I read the Bible using the Bible-like language in my head. That matters because the voice in your head is what makes you interpret the story in a certain way. I read the stories in a mono-tone dry inflection with the assumption that all of these characters are really good dudes with really good stories. That was so boring. It is why I was never really interested in the Bible. Now I allow the storyteller to tell the stories, and not my assumed approach. That is why I get so captured in stories like Jacob’s. It is so dramatic and absurd and he is such a bad character. The Bible has this weird struggle of trying to portray the perfect goodness of God in the stories of the worst sorts of people.
When you leave chapter 27, you are wondering how this whole thing that was started through Abraham, the revelation of God’s good plan of blessing all the world, is going to continue through this seemingly scoundrel-ridden generation. If the plan of God is going to get fumbled anywhere, it is here. Did you notice that the WHOLE story of 26 and 27 was told without God even being involved?
How do you think Jacob is doing at this moment? Does he think he has it together and feels he is on a good path, or do you imagine him struggling with all that just unfolded?
Jacob leaves home (forced out) without anything. Don’t forget that. He has an idea and a thought, but there is no actual thing yet. He has the “birthright” and the “blessing”, but those are just ideas at this point and nothing more. Do you think he really thinks he has anything or that he is still in a tight spot and with no real value in life?
Do your best to make the case for why Esau is like he is. Argue his perspective for him and explain what you think he needs at this moment.
How does this become part of your prayer?
My whole life, I read the Bible using the Bible-like language in my head. That matters because the voice in your head is what makes you interpret the story in a certain way. I read the stories in a mono-tone dry inflection with the assumption that all of these characters are really good dudes with really good stories. That was so boring. It is why I was never really interested in the Bible. Now I allow the storyteller to tell the stories, and not my assumed approach. That is why I get so captured in stories like Jacob’s. It is so dramatic and absurd and he is such a bad character. The Bible has this weird struggle of trying to portray the perfect goodness of God in the stories of the worst sorts of people.
When you leave chapter 27, you are wondering how this whole thing that was started through Abraham, the revelation of God’s good plan of blessing all the world, is going to continue through this seemingly scoundrel-ridden generation. If the plan of God is going to get fumbled anywhere, it is here. Did you notice that the WHOLE story of 26 and 27 was told without God even being involved?
How do you think Jacob is doing at this moment? Does he think he has it together and feels he is on a good path, or do you imagine him struggling with all that just unfolded?
Jacob leaves home (forced out) without anything. Don’t forget that. He has an idea and a thought, but there is no actual thing yet. He has the “birthright” and the “blessing”, but those are just ideas at this point and nothing more. Do you think he really thinks he has anything or that he is still in a tight spot and with no real value in life?
Do your best to make the case for why Esau is like he is. Argue his perspective for him and explain what you think he needs at this moment.
How does this become part of your prayer?
Day 2
Read Genesis 28:10-22
“Jacob’s life had reached a moment unlike what he had expected.”
This is the part of the story that my imagination starts to play off. To me, this section of this story reads like a country song and the images that go through my head are that which you would see in a music video. I see a really, really cheap and shady hotel. After spending what he has, Jacob is given his room key on a large plastic key chain and he makes his way to the door of his room where he is crashing for the night. He is exhausted and the paint is peeling off the door as he arrives and tries to jam the key into the rusty keyhole. Inside the hotel, which does not have good lighting at all, and therefore a strange yellow tint to the lighting, he finds the bed that is far from clean. He is wondering how in the world his life ended up here as he lays down, trying not to think about what he is in danger of in this place. Racing through his mind is the struggle and realization of what the last few days have made his life and wondering if he would ever get to see his family again, or if his brother would come looking for him. He has nothing. He plans to simply travel far east to an unknown place in hopes of finding family he has never met and getting help. Life is not good. Not at all. Slowly, exhaustion starts to take over and he drifts off to sleep. And then….God introduces Himself….
This was my dramatic retelling of the way I imagine the story. How can you relate to where Jacob is and how have you experienced a moment like this?
How has God randomly shown up in your life in an attempt to get your attention before?
What did you learn from that moment that you often think about today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
“Jacob’s life had reached a moment unlike what he had expected.”
This is the part of the story that my imagination starts to play off. To me, this section of this story reads like a country song and the images that go through my head are that which you would see in a music video. I see a really, really cheap and shady hotel. After spending what he has, Jacob is given his room key on a large plastic key chain and he makes his way to the door of his room where he is crashing for the night. He is exhausted and the paint is peeling off the door as he arrives and tries to jam the key into the rusty keyhole. Inside the hotel, which does not have good lighting at all, and therefore a strange yellow tint to the lighting, he finds the bed that is far from clean. He is wondering how in the world his life ended up here as he lays down, trying not to think about what he is in danger of in this place. Racing through his mind is the struggle and realization of what the last few days have made his life and wondering if he would ever get to see his family again, or if his brother would come looking for him. He has nothing. He plans to simply travel far east to an unknown place in hopes of finding family he has never met and getting help. Life is not good. Not at all. Slowly, exhaustion starts to take over and he drifts off to sleep. And then….God introduces Himself….
This was my dramatic retelling of the way I imagine the story. How can you relate to where Jacob is and how have you experienced a moment like this?
How has God randomly shown up in your life in an attempt to get your attention before?
What did you learn from that moment that you often think about today?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 3
Read Genesis 28:10-22 (again)
“God was trying to get Jacob’s attention.”
When you read this story, I wonder what you think about the silence of God up until this chapter? We often say things that we experience are God trying to get our attention. For instance, a car accident happens and we say that one of the reasons for it is that God was trying to get our attention. The reason that I have often struggled with that is because it almost sounds like we are saying that God ran that car off the road and not that the driver was inebriated and that is why they wrecked. The logic is simple, if I was in the car and I was trying to get the drivers attention with a wreck, then I would grab the steering wheel and land it into a ditch. So it sounds like we are saying that is what God is doing. But God’s attention-getting methods are far more versatile than that. They can leave intact the fact that the driver was inebriated and that God was trying to get the attention of that person. That doesn’t mean he grabbed the wheel and ran them into the ditch.
Have you ever thought about God’s uninvolvement and silence being a way of getting our attention? I imagine Jacob’s life as one that is careening toward this really bad direction and after a few warnings to pay attention, God steps back and says, “You are going to wreck the car, but you won’t listen to me telling you to stop. So go ahead, I will catch you at the crash site…then we will talk.” Jacob has crashed. God met him at the lowest point, the whole time desiring to get his attention, and now He has it. I feel that story is familiar enough to experiences in my life as well.
Do you see a time in your life that God was uninvolved and silent and that was Him trying to get your attention?
Why do we have to “crash” to hear better?
How do we avoid getting to those crash sites and making a deliberate effort to hear God before we lose control of our lives?
How does this become your prayer today?
“God was trying to get Jacob’s attention.”
When you read this story, I wonder what you think about the silence of God up until this chapter? We often say things that we experience are God trying to get our attention. For instance, a car accident happens and we say that one of the reasons for it is that God was trying to get our attention. The reason that I have often struggled with that is because it almost sounds like we are saying that God ran that car off the road and not that the driver was inebriated and that is why they wrecked. The logic is simple, if I was in the car and I was trying to get the drivers attention with a wreck, then I would grab the steering wheel and land it into a ditch. So it sounds like we are saying that is what God is doing. But God’s attention-getting methods are far more versatile than that. They can leave intact the fact that the driver was inebriated and that God was trying to get the attention of that person. That doesn’t mean he grabbed the wheel and ran them into the ditch.
Have you ever thought about God’s uninvolvement and silence being a way of getting our attention? I imagine Jacob’s life as one that is careening toward this really bad direction and after a few warnings to pay attention, God steps back and says, “You are going to wreck the car, but you won’t listen to me telling you to stop. So go ahead, I will catch you at the crash site…then we will talk.” Jacob has crashed. God met him at the lowest point, the whole time desiring to get his attention, and now He has it. I feel that story is familiar enough to experiences in my life as well.
Do you see a time in your life that God was uninvolved and silent and that was Him trying to get your attention?
Why do we have to “crash” to hear better?
How do we avoid getting to those crash sites and making a deliberate effort to hear God before we lose control of our lives?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Ephesians 4:17-32
“God gave Jacob a glimpse of his life from God’s own perspective.”
In our story of Jacob from Genesis 28, we have been following this incredible scene where Jacob has a dream and God reveals Himself to him. If you would have taken the events of chapter 28 and put them before 27, it would not have been as big of a deal. The real surprise comes when God starts to tell Jacob what it is that He wants to do for Jacob. When I read it, I notice that everything that Jacob just finished wrecking his whole family over and deceiving everyone close to him, are the very things God promises to give him. You could read that story in one of two ways: you could read it as if Jacob won the birthright in his plan of trickery and he also secured the blessing in his plan of deception, so that is why he is getting it. When I read the story like that, it sounds like God gets played the whole time and falls into Jacob’s trap. I just don’t feel that God is like that, or even vulnerable to that. That means the only other way to read this story is that God truly does desire to give Jacob this. Not that He has been tricked into it or that Jacob had earned it. God just wanted to give it to him. So Jacob does all of the tricking and even though he reads like the villain of the story, God still loves him and desires this level of good for him.
God wants good life for me. That is a struggle of my every single day. I don’t think that Jacob deserves it, but then that leaves the door open for me to also realize that I don’t deserve it either. He doesn’t just desire good for me, but it’s even deeper than that. He desires me to be good, so He makes me good with His death, burial, and resurrection. This is what the Bible means about me having a New Life.
There are two halves to these verses. The first half describes the way you must “no longer walk.” The second is the way you walk now. How do these two ideas describe your past versus your present?
How does this passage explain how belief changes behavior?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
“God gave Jacob a glimpse of his life from God’s own perspective.”
In our story of Jacob from Genesis 28, we have been following this incredible scene where Jacob has a dream and God reveals Himself to him. If you would have taken the events of chapter 28 and put them before 27, it would not have been as big of a deal. The real surprise comes when God starts to tell Jacob what it is that He wants to do for Jacob. When I read it, I notice that everything that Jacob just finished wrecking his whole family over and deceiving everyone close to him, are the very things God promises to give him. You could read that story in one of two ways: you could read it as if Jacob won the birthright in his plan of trickery and he also secured the blessing in his plan of deception, so that is why he is getting it. When I read the story like that, it sounds like God gets played the whole time and falls into Jacob’s trap. I just don’t feel that God is like that, or even vulnerable to that. That means the only other way to read this story is that God truly does desire to give Jacob this. Not that He has been tricked into it or that Jacob had earned it. God just wanted to give it to him. So Jacob does all of the tricking and even though he reads like the villain of the story, God still loves him and desires this level of good for him.
God wants good life for me. That is a struggle of my every single day. I don’t think that Jacob deserves it, but then that leaves the door open for me to also realize that I don’t deserve it either. He doesn’t just desire good for me, but it’s even deeper than that. He desires me to be good, so He makes me good with His death, burial, and resurrection. This is what the Bible means about me having a New Life.
There are two halves to these verses. The first half describes the way you must “no longer walk.” The second is the way you walk now. How do these two ideas describe your past versus your present?
How does this passage explain how belief changes behavior?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
Read Psalm 84
“Jacob responds by putting God on hold.”
Spoiler alert- but Jacob goes right back to living the life of tricking people even in his new home. It would seem that this story of his dream about God leads him to big change in life. He is a follower of God now, right!? No. That all ended with Jacob turning the deal back to God. “IF, you do all of these things, then I will follow you.” That’s not a conversion. That is not following God. That is simply expressing interest in the idea of what God is talking about. The problem is that many confessions and decisions amount to little more than that same thing. God is not interested or needing to be put on trial. He has been proven over and over again. He is not the faithless one.
Being interested in God is not as good as being in the presence of God. Seeing a picture of God is not as good as seeing God. I am not saying these things are what actually happened, but that these are a great way of seeing what is happening in this story. There is not a greater place to be than in the presence of God, dwelling in his courts and before his throne. That is where real life flows from. That is a statement that is about far more than proximity, but also about a spiritual truth we need to understand.
What verse stands out to you in this Psalm the most and why?
How can you make this about your life today?
How does this become your prayer today?
“Jacob responds by putting God on hold.”
Spoiler alert- but Jacob goes right back to living the life of tricking people even in his new home. It would seem that this story of his dream about God leads him to big change in life. He is a follower of God now, right!? No. That all ended with Jacob turning the deal back to God. “IF, you do all of these things, then I will follow you.” That’s not a conversion. That is not following God. That is simply expressing interest in the idea of what God is talking about. The problem is that many confessions and decisions amount to little more than that same thing. God is not interested or needing to be put on trial. He has been proven over and over again. He is not the faithless one.
Being interested in God is not as good as being in the presence of God. Seeing a picture of God is not as good as seeing God. I am not saying these things are what actually happened, but that these are a great way of seeing what is happening in this story. There is not a greater place to be than in the presence of God, dwelling in his courts and before his throne. That is where real life flows from. That is a statement that is about far more than proximity, but also about a spiritual truth we need to understand.
What verse stands out to you in this Psalm the most and why?
How can you make this about your life today?
How does this become your prayer today?
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