Sermon Tone Analysis

Stairway to Heaven

sO WE ARE HEADING INTO THE NEW YEAR, AND I have been thinking about church, and evaluating church.

I was out last week and took the oppurtunity to check out one of the bigger churches in town.

They had a full service, and it was their second service.

And I went with the full intention of taking notes, seeing how we could better our program here.

Make better transitions....

I will say this, they were very polished.

All the musioc was cordinaated, the program, everything very coordinated.

I mean from start to finish everything was smooth, rolled like butter, but instead of coming away encouraged with some wind in my sails, I came away a little discouraged.

And I came away discouraged not because we could not replicate all the music, media, smooth transitions and what not, I came away because I thought to myself if that is what success looks like in church, if I don’t want it now, what makes me think I’m going to want it when we get it?

Bare with me I am going somewhere… When you look in scripture that church looked a whole lot different then what church looks like now.

In the New Testament the church was filled with aww and wonder and great and mighty things were being done.

It was not focused on one person, it didn’t crumble when one person left.

When I look at the American church today, I see it being a mile wide but only an inch deep.

You take a look at the ordinary christian today, you would probably not see a life that is set apart, but someone that looks just like the rest of the world.

And we have substituted the presence of God for a show of man.

This year I dont what to measure success by attendance for a change.

Frankly Im tired of feeling pumped when we have a full house one Sunday and only have a fraction the next.

this year, I am changing my perspective.

I want to be healthy, and I want you to be healthy.

I want to go deeper with the Lord.

I want to share intimacy with God and with you.

I want to have a respect and awe for the Lord again.

I want to be in the place spiritually, where I say yes Lord, any time, any place, any cost!!

And just as the Bride of Christ is often shallow and superficial, the Lord is not through with her yet.

I love the Church and I believe that God is fanning the flames of revival...

Today we are going to look at a man that is a good illustration of someone that was shallow and superficial.

His name is Jacob.

If you will turn your Bibles to the Book of Genesis

When you think about the things that you are looking for in a church, what do you think of?

The story that we ar e going to read today is one that many of you probably learned in Sunday school growing up.

The story of Jacobs ladder.

Give a little context to the passage

In this story we are in the middle of too twin brother.

Jacob and Esau.

and in the previous chapter their father Isaac is well advanced in years, he blind, and the older of the twin boys Esaua is the one that gets the spiritual blessing.

Well Jacob, who by the way name means, scammer or con-artist ends of robbing his brother Esau of the Spiritual blessing, by pretending to be Esau before his blind father Isaac.

And by the time that Esau returns, Jacob has already recieved the blessing, that was meant to be for Esau.

Well Esau is a outdoorsman type of guy.

And he is ready to literally kill his brother Jacob.

And Jacob goes on the run.

First jacob scammed the firstborn birthright from his brother, now he has robbed him also of the blessing.

Sounds like a typical dysfunctional American family.

But now Jacob, depressed, fearing for his life has fled from his home… that is where we are in the story

Gen 28

Genesis 28:10

Have you ever been to that place, where you are so down, squeezed afflicted in soul, vexed in mind, stumbling and bubbling through life.

He is so spent emotionally and physically that you just soon die right where you lay.

Its usually when you are spent that the Lord shows up.

He is the God of the 11th hour

Gen 28

His stone turned into a pillar, and poured oil.

He does not turn this into an altar, yet… That takes place in Chapter 35:1-7

He is still shallow, He is still lost... but he is getting there

He has not yet made the God of His father, His God… Verse20-21

But This stone is the first pillar, of a sanctuary

Jacob the Schemer...

In a day of me first theology and live your best life now, the American dream has been confused with a cross to bear.

Now there are three types of people here this morning… Tyhose who think they are too good to be damned… 2. Those who think they are too damned to ever be good… And three… those who understand as Paul understood, I am what I am by the grace of God.

The Bible is the story of redemption.

And Jacob had everything in the world going agaisnt him.

His name Jacob means Scheemer, or con Artist.

He came by that honestly, his mother Rachel was a schemer.

In fact in the Previous Chapter Jacob steal a sspirtitual birthright that belonged to His older Brother Esau.

His elderly father jacob is close to death and blind, and Isaac tells Esaua to go out and kill some game and bring him his favorite meal back and then Isaac would Bless Esaua.

Well Rachel hears this, and while Esau goes out to hunt She goes and tells Jacob heres your time.

Rachel cooks Isaac his favorite meal.

That woman knows what her man likes to eat, and then the two of them cover Jacobs arms and kneck wiith goat hair, because Esau was a hairy man, and Jacob pretends that he is Esau and the Father blesses him, thinking he was Esau.

He is disppicable, his mother isa cona rtist.

Jacob is a con artist, and now He is on the run here is chapter 28 because Esau wants to kill Him.

Jacob is all alone in the desert, using a stone as a poillow, but Jacob has one thing going for Him.

God loves Jacob.... and listen to me you who are here this morning God loves you… And what God starts… Gods finishes… God takes the good the bad and the ugly and says you are mine!

Listen when God begins to turn your life around, dont you ever let anyone make you feel ashamed of your testimony.

Some of the most pwoerful men and women of God were those that came from the wrong side of the tracks.

JACOB I BELIEVED AT THIS POINT WAS NOT SAVED.... Jacob pictures a lost man or woman.

He has an orphan mentality.

He has learned to plan, plot and schemen his way through life.

He has manipluated those closest to him.

He has hurt himself and he has hurt others.

He has learned to survive, but he has nnot learned how to thrive.

He pictures the lost man our woaman.

He is out in a desert, darkness has fallen upon him.

He’s all out of tricks, his bag is empty wandering out in a literal desert that symbolizes so many peoples spiritual walk.

He is usuig a rock for a pillow.

He is all alone....

But He has one thing on his side… God loves Him!!

And there in the dead of night, sinking into depression.

All the wild animals of the night ar closing in on him, but then He has a dream… A Dream of angels ascending and descnding on a ladder.... and look at verse 16

Gen 28:

A couple of weeks ago we were studying a James Macdonald study and He said Hey can I tell you everyone that is in here your testimony… Yeah you were going your way and everything seemed good, singing the song Im too sexcy for my shirt… and then something happens.

Going through life thinking all of a sudden you find out that your souce has been having an affair.

Or your kid gets sick

1.

The bottom fell out on your life.

You were battling with depression ready to take you life, and the Lord showed up.

The bottom fell out on your life.

You were battling with depression ready to take you life, and the Lord showed up.

For everyone in this room if you are truly saved… you probably hit a roadblock, something got in your way, a crisis arose, and you reached the point where you were willing to put your pride in the dirt and the Lord at that moment met you

A. And Jacob has this new awareness of God

Surely God was in this place and I did not know it.

What you have here is a man that is religious, just like many church fold.