Click here to download the sermon file.
Recap of the sermon from Sunday, January 25, 2009:
1. In Jacob’s moment of need God appears to him in a dream to assure him of His blessings (the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant-land, descendants, blessing the nations through him) and of His presence with Jacob wherever he is.
2. Though Jacob was reaping the consequences of his sin, God would be with him and bless him. “God still had a plan for his life” (Warren Wiersbe)
3. Jacob has a vision of a ladder/stairway in his dream. In John 1:51 Jesus reveals that the ladder that bridges earth and heaven, mankind and God is Him. He was the ladder. Jesus is the only way to God, the only mediator between God and man (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).
4. Jacob’s response to God’s revelation of Himself is to worship, to set up a memorial, to rename the place Bethel (“house of God”), to make a vow (understood as either an act of weakness-bargaining with God, or an act of faith.
5. We must get to the point in our spiritual lives where we no longer bargain with God, but trust His grace.
6. Finally he commits a tithe to the Lord representing giving everything. Money is one of the most practical ways we show our faith.
