1 GOD STAYS WITH US! GENESIS 28:10-22 SERMON Many years ago Jimmy Durante, one of the great entertainers of the WW 2 generation performed in a show. The audience included many WW 2 veterans. Jimmy Durante agreed to perform though he had been keeping a very tight schedule. He told the producer of the show he would do his monologue but due to his tight schedule would have to leave immediately afterwards. But when Jimmy got on stage something interesting happened. He went through his monologue and then remained on the stage. The applause grew louder and louder. Jimmy Durante stayed even longer. Finally, he took a last bow and left the stage. Backstage someone asked him, I thought you had to leave quickly. Jimmy answered, I did have to go but I can show you the reason I stayed. You can see for yourself if you ll look on the front row. In the front row of the audience were two veterans, each of whom had lost an arm in the war. One had lost his right arm and the other his left. Together, they were able to clap and that s exactly what they were doing, loudly and cheerfully! Jimmy Durante remained on that stage because he cared for those soldiers. Just as Jimmy Durante stayed because of his care for those soldiers, God stays with us because He cares for us! God stays with us because He cares for us! If you turn your bulletins to the middle section you ll see the point of this morning s lesson: God stays with us because He cares for us! You might be enduring a difficult time in your life in which you feel God has left you entirely. Perhaps you ve been having severe problems with your marriage. Or, you re failing a class at school. Or, a good friend moved and you feel abandoned. Or you re struggling with an addiction to alcohol or pornography. Maybe you just lost your job or you can t find a job. You might feel as if God has abandoned you but he hasn t left you! God never abandons his people! Let me say that again so it sinks in: God never abandons his people! God will never, ever abandon you! The Bible says this about God in Deuteronomy, he will not leave you or forsake you. Deut 31:6,8, So, regardless of what s happened in your life or how you feel about God or faith or Christianity or the church, God stays with you because He cares for you! God stays with you in your troubled marriage, in your intellectual doubts and questions, as you wonder what to do about your failed class at school. God stays with you in your feelings of sadness over loss of a loved one or a job. God stays with us because He cares for us! God stayed with Jacob in spite of difficulties and sin in his life. In our text this morning, Jacob left Beersheba, the village in which he was raised because his brother, Esau had threatened to kill him. Jacob had tricked Esau into giving up his birthright and blessing. Jacob lied to his father several times and had been very deceptive. So, Jacob set off on this 500 mile journey. Jacob left a life of wealth and privilege for an unknown destiny. He d traveled about 50 miles when he stopped for the night and had a dream.
2 In the dream, he saw angels of God ascending and descending on a stairway. Above the stairway stood the Lord who said, And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Issac. 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 north and 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 where you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Gen 28:13-15) God gave the same, exact promises to Jacob that he had given to Abraham in chapter 12 and Issac in chapter 26! Jacob needed to hear these reassuring words of God! God told him I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. God promised to stay with Jacob! Remember, Jacob left his home which represented the secure, the certain and the familiar for a land and relatives he didn t know. God stays with us not only in our experience and memories but also as we move ahead by faith, exploring new opportunities to use our spiritual gifts and minister for the Lord. God stays with us because He cares for us! This is true in our past, our present and our future! Observe: 1.God s presence gives us hope. God s presence gave Jacob hope! The words God spoke to Jacob also gave him hope. God told Jacob in vs.13-14 that he would give him land, descendants and blessing. These promises must have inspired Jacob! Note how God informed Jacob that He, God would be the source of all these good gifts: The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. God s presence gives us hope! God s presence gave Jacob hope as he traveled to Haran to meet his uncle Laban. God s presence gave the Israelites hope when they languished in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah wrote this to them in a letter he wrote, For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jer 29:11-12 The prophecies of a coming Messiah inspired hope in discouraged Jews. In the New Testament Christ s resurrection inspired hope in the disciples. The promise of Christ s return inspired hope in Christians who suffered for their faith. The promise we have of living in eternity with God inspires hope in us today. Throughout history God s presence has inspired hope in his people! When 8 year old Ryan visited his grandfather in the hospital he took him a handmade, get-well card. Ryan had taken a piece of 8.5 x11 stiff white paper, and folded it in half. On the front he wrote, Hope you feel better soon. On the inside of the card, Ryan wrote this message: I will be with you wherever you go. Ryan did not include the scripture reference because he didn t know where it was in the Bible. So, he wrote instead, God said that. Apparently, Ryan wanted to make sure his grandfather didn t think that he, Ryan would be staying with him during his entire hospital stay!
3 Let God s presence inspire hope within you today! Believers in Christ have the Holy Spirit dwelling within them. Let his presence fill you with hope! God s presence does something further besides inspire hope. It also: 2. God s presence protects us! God reassured Jacob in his dream of his protection over him. Look in your Bible in Gen 28:15: I am with you and will keep you wherever you go Note the phrase, keep you. In the original text this phrase is one word that means, to exercise care over, to protect or guard. God promised Jacob that he would protect him, that he would guard him! No harm would come to Jacob because God protected him! Many years after Jacob, David encountered numerous enemies; men who sought to take his life. God spared David s life! I love the way David expressed God s watchful, protective care in Psalm 121. As I read several verses from this well-known psalm count how often the word, keep appears, the same word from Genesis I spoke of earlier. Again, this word means to protect or guard. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and coming in from this time forth and forevermore. (Psalm 1221:3-4, 7-8) If you counted five times you re correct! David repeatedly stated that God keeps us, He keeps Israel, he keeps our lives, our coming and going! God s presence protects us always! Kay Arthur tells the story of a friend whose father was out hunting one day: It was early evening, and he was just thinking about returning to camp when a noise exploded in the brush nearby. Before he had a chance to lift his rifle a small blur of brown and white came shooting up the road straight for him. He looked down and there was a little brown cottontail-utterly spent-crowded up against his legs between his boots. The little thing was trembling all over, but it just sat there and didn t budge. Now this was really strange. Wild rabbits are frightened of people and it s not that often you d actually see one-let alone have one come and sit at your feet. Down the road- maybe twenty yards away- a weasel burst out of the brush. When it saw my dad and its intended prey sitting at his feet-the predator froze in its tracks, its mouth panting, its eyes glowing red. It was then that my dad understood he had stepped into a little life and death drama of the forest. The cottontail, exhausted by the chase was only moments from death. Dad was its last hope of refuge. Forgetting its natural fear and caution, the little animal instinctively crowded up against him for protection from the sharp teeth of its relentless enemy. Dad raised his powerful rifle and deliberately shot into the ground just underneath the weasel. The animal seemed to leap almost straight into the air a couple of feet and then rocketed back into the forest as fast as its legs could move. For a while, the little rabbit didn t stir. It just sat there, huddled at the man s feet in the gathering twilight while he spoke gently to it. Soon the rabbit hopped away from its protector into the forest. Where do you run when chased by enemies in your life? Do you run to alcohol, internet pornography, comfort food or prescription drugs? Do you run back to work or to an adulterous
4 relationship? Listen: God wants us to run to him! Just like that hunter protected that brown rabbit from a weasel, God s presence protects us from the Evil One! Finally, 3. God s presence restores us. Let s return to our main text in Genesis 28. Note the last part of vs.15 where God reassures Jacob when He says: and will bring you back to this land. In this passage, God promised Jacob that He would bring him back to his home village of Beersheba. After many years away, Jacob did eventually return to Beersheba. His time away from home had actually been very profitable: he gained two wives, several maidservants, many children and numerous animals. Jacob became a wealthy rancher in his own right. However, God still had much to teach Jacob and we will study some further life lessons next week. Jacob originally left his home in response to his father s command. He hadn t needed much encouragement to leave because Jacob feared for his life. He was afraid of his brother, Esau. Jacob had acted immorally in tricking his brother and lying to his father. He had made some very poor ethical choices. But in spite of his sin, God did not give up on Jacob, He restored him! God doesn t give up on us either, in spite of our sin and mistakes!! God s presence restores us too! Whether we ve made poor ethical choices like Jacob, turned our backs on God entirely and strayed or we re just burnt out from serving God, God s presence restores us!! In 2001 I was close to leaving the ministry. Our church had endured several years of hearings, meetings, and lawsuits trying to build this facility. Our opposition seemed determined to keep us tied up in court interminably. We have a great intercessory prayer team and the prayers of people on that team sustained me during those difficult days. In the summer of 2001 I applied for a $30,000 study grant with the Lily Foundation and won a grant to study in Europe. For two months in the summer of 2002 I took a sabbatical from my work in the church and my family and I traveled through England, Scotland, Germany, France and Switzerland, touring important Reformation sites. When we returned in late July I spent the rest of the summer resting and preparing an adult class which I taught on the Reformation in the fall of 2002. This sabbatical break saved my ministry!! In that final month of my sabbatical I d drive to Ashland every morning and read and prepare for my class in what was then the new library. At lunch I would swim at Daniel Meyer pool and then eat my lunch in the park watching the private planes land at the tiny Ashland airstrip. In the quietness and solitude of that time, God restored me. He renewed my vision and strength for ministry. One day I drove by our old church and surrendered the church and my ministry to God. Through that sabbatical, through my own prayers and the prayers of our intercessory prayer team, God restored me! His presence restored my life and ministry! God can do the same for you today! Perhaps you ve been working hard in a particular ministry for an extended period of time. Or, on the contrary, you ve been living your life ignoring God. Whatever the case, God s presence can restore, revitalize your life, your ministry and your faith!
5 As we close this morning, I invite you to say the 23 rd Psalm with me. David wrote these beautiful words of God s abiding presence and protection. Listen for the words of restoration as we say it. Let s say it using the King James Version, the version many of us used to memorize it: The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil For thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen.