GENESIS 35:1-15 RESTART YOUR WALK WITH GOD2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Genesis 35:1-15 Restart Your Walk With God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Amen. Well, as we look at Genesis chapter 35 this morning, I've titled the message, Restart Your Walk with God. Restart Your Walk with God. We're jumping into the life of Jacob at a point where

He has heard from God and it's brought him to where he is, but he doesn't seem to be walking with God at all just before chapter 35.

In fact, chapter 34 is kind of one of those chapters as you read through the Bible, you go, man, I wish we could just, you know, not have this chapter in the Bible. There's not good things happening in chapter 34 in demonstrating the heart and the condition of Jacob and his family. They're back in the promised land, but they're still far away from God. And so God's calling Jacob back here in Genesis chapter 35.

And it's an exhortation for you and I this morning as we consider this account to follow suit and respond to the call of God, to restart your walk with God. And maybe that's something right now for you that you need to hear that like Jacob, you've kind of been distant. And the Lord would remind you this morning, there is the opportunity now

to start again, to make a new start and connect with the Lord once again. Now, of course, if you're already strong in your relationship with the Lord, if you're pressing on steadily, you know, still the Lord would use these things to encourage us to carry on that course. And we need that continual and constant encouragement to continue to draw near to God. And so some important things that the Lord wants to remind us of this morning here in Genesis chapter 35.

There's five steps we'll walk through to restart your walk with God this morning. The first one is found in verse 1. Here's point number 1. Listen for God's direction. Listen for God's direction. In verse 1 of Genesis 35 again it says, Then God said to Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar there to God who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.

It's pretty remarkable here that we see God speaks to Jacob. Because again, Jacob is not close to God at this moment. And we'll see that demonstrated in the verses that follow. Jacob and his family are there in the area geographically, but their hearts and their minds are not synced up with the Lord once again. And so God speaks to Jacob at this point and says, Jacob, you need to go to Bethel.

this place called Bethel. Previously, it was called Luz, but Jacob had renamed it Bethel many years earlier on his way out of the land as he was heading up to Haran where he would, you know, meet his wives, Rebecca, not Rebecca, Rachel and Leah and spend some time up there. He spends 20 years with his family up there, but as he's heading out of town, he finds

has an encounter with God and renames the place of that encounter Bethel. And so it means house of God. Jacob had appeared to, sorry, God had appeared to Jacob there 30 years earlier. That was the place where he had the vision of Jacob's ladder. You might be familiar with that phrase or that term, right? This is the place where that vision occurred back in Genesis chapter 28.

And God made some promises to Jacob there. God promised to be with Jacob and that he would go with him, he would bless him, and that he would bring him back to that place once again.

And so now in Genesis chapter 35, 30 years later, God speaks to Jacob and says, Jacob, you need to get back to Bethel. You need to go back to that place where I had revealed myself to you and spoken to you so clearly before. Go back there and make an altar to God.

Now, as I look at this verse and consider this chapter in Jacob's life, the timing is significant to me. The timing, it really stands out because when does God speak this to Jacob? It's immediately after a huge failure on the part of Jacob and his family. Again, Genesis chapter 34, right before this, crimes are committed against Jacob's family and by Jacob's family.

And there's things that are going on there that are clearly not of God and not anything that should be taking place in a family that loves God and walks with God. But here is this family that does not really walk with God, does not really know God. And so they're experiencing the consequences of sin and they're engaging in sin actively. And it's after this great failure of Jacob and his family,

that God says, all right, Jacob, you need to go back to Bethel. There would be a case that we can make for God to say, you know what, Jacob, that's it. You had your last chance. You guys keep messing up. You keep blowing it. You've wrecked your family, Jacob. You've done such a poor job. You haven't led them. You haven't taught them the ways of the Lord. You haven't, you know, been strong in ministering to your family. And so I'm done with you. God could have

done that without any objection from us because it was definitely what was deserved. And yet here, after a huge failure, it's not the first failure in Jacob's life. It's not the last failure in Jacob's life. But here, immediately after this failure, God comes on the scene. He begins to call out to Jacob once again and says, Jacob,

You need to get right with me. Come back to Bethel, the place where it all started, the place where I first revealed myself to you. And so after failure, listen for God's direction in your life. After failure,

there's a great temptation for us to think that, why bother listening for God's direction? There's a great, you know, temptation for us to think that God doesn't want to speak to us. He's not going to speak to us. We can expect God not to speak to us because we have failed to such a degree. And yet it's immediately after this failure that God does speak and he does give clear direction. And it serves as a reminder for us, when we fail, we need to listen for the Lord's direction.

God still wants to speak to us. His mercy is still as high as the heavens are above the earth. His grace is still abundant. We're great, where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. And so even after failure, we need to hear from God. We need to listen for God, to reach out to God and seek to receive from him direction, strength, encouragement, help, all those things that he has for us.

But it's not just after failure. You could also think about it as after broken promises. Back in Genesis chapter 28, when Jacob had this vision, Jacob's ladder, and we see this encounter with God that was so prominent for him that he named the place Bethel. At that point, Jacob makes a vow. And he says, God, if you will be with me, and if you'll keep me in this way, I will come back and you shall be my God. And this stone...

The stone that he set up there in Genesis chapter 28 as a reminder, this shall be a pillar of the house of God. In Genesis chapter 28 verse 22 says this specifically, this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house and of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to you. Jacob makes this vow, this promise, I will come back here to this pillar, to this stone in Bethel and I will worship God here. This will be God's house.

But Jacob, up to this point, has not kept that promise. He was in Haran, up north, a few hundred miles, for about 20 years. He comes back, leaving Laban and the family, all of those accounts we've been reading in Genesis. He's been back now in the region of the promised land for about 10 years. But he's not made this the house of God. He's not come back to seek to reestablish this relationship with God.

He's not fulfilled the promise that he made 30 years ago back in Genesis chapter 28. And so he's broken his promise. He hasn't kept it. He hasn't fulfilled it. And yet, here God speaks to Jacob. It's so important for us to remember.

When we've failed, when we have had those encounters with God and made commitments to God, and you know what it's like, you know, to have those experiences, and you make promises to God, you have, you know, things that you're committed to, things that you're saying you're going to do, and then you fail to fulfill those commitments. And the enemy would love to use those times to just pound us with guilt and push us away from God.

But let the Lord remind you this morning, God spoke to Jacob after he had failed, after he had broken his promise to God. Another thing to consider is how long it's been. It's never too late to listen for God's direction. At this point in Jacob's life, he's probably around 100 years old. Again, he's been away from Bethel for 30 years. He's been away from this place for a long time. He's 100 years old.

But it's not too late. God says, Jacob, go back to Bethel. Go back to Bethel. Pastor Chuck Smith says this, here Jacob has been journeying 30 years, traveling here and there, messing things up, and now he's desperate and fleeing for his life. So he comes back to Bethel and God is waiting to bless him. How wonderful is the patience of God. It's been 30 years, but God's patient.

And here he still invites Jacob back. It's not too late for him to hear God's direction and to respond and to move forward into the things that God has for him. And on the flip side of that, maybe a little bit related to that, I would also say it's never too early. It's never too late to start listening for God's direction and restart your walk with God. It's also never too early, right? It's one thing to break a promise that you made 30 years ago,

It's another thing to break a promise that you made 30 days ago. 30 days ago, hey, I made that promise. Like, there's much more guilt that I feel now because I broke this promise that I just made. If I broke a promise I made 30 years ago, it's like, well, that was 30 years ago. You know, lots changed since then. A lot of explanation that I can give. But, oh, man, I just made this commitment to God.

I just made this promise to God and then I broke it. And so many times in our lives, we want to put ourselves on a timeout and we keep ourselves away from God because of how we have failed and we feel like we don't deserve to hear from God. Did you make a New Year's resolution this year? We're just, you know, in the month of February. You know, the statistics are interesting that 90% of those who make promises

new year's resolutions don't keep them past the first two months of the year. Only 10% keep their resolutions beyond February. Maybe you were one of those. This year was interesting in that typically about 50% of Americans say that they're making new year's resolutions. For 2021, it was different. It was 75%. A lot more people are saying, yes, I'm making some decisions. I'm making some commitments. I want things to change in my life.

There was a lot more this year who said, yes, I want to change those things. And maybe you're one of them. And maybe it was in regards to your spiritual life. But now here we are just a little more than 30 days in. And maybe those commitments have been broken. Listen, it's not too early to restart your walk with God. It's not too early to go back and say, Lord, here I am again. I blew it again. I failed again. But I'm here to hear from you. And Lord, would you be gracious and merciful and speak to me once again?

and lead me in the direction that you want me to go. Listen for God's direction. After you've failed, after you've broken promises, after it's been years and years and years, or after just a few days, it's not too late, it's not too early, now is the right time to restart, to listen for God's direction.

Well, moving on into verses 2 through 4, we get the second step to restarting our walk with God this morning, and that is to put away your foreign gods. First of all, we need to hear God's voice and listen and allow God to speak to us. And secondly, we need to then put away the things that are not of God. Here in Genesis chapter 35, let's look at verses 2 through 4 again. Here's what it says.

And Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree, which was by Shechem.

Here you can get a glimpse of the condition of Jacob's family at this time. There is a foreign God issue that must be addressed, that must be dealt with. And so as Jacob hears from God at this point, he addresses his family and he says, okay, guys, we need to clean house. We need to clean up some of this junk that is here. And he's not talking about, you know, just dirt or clutter. He's talking about

He's talking about some spiritual things that are wrong and out of place for them in their family. And so he addresses his whole household. And his household would be, of course, his family members, his wives, his children. But he was also a wealthy man. He had, you know, flocks and herds. He had servants. He addresses his whole company, family, servants, all who are associated with me.

We need to clean house. Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourself and change your garments. This changing, this cleansing is what he's calling his family to. I think it's interesting the way that it's worded here. Put away the foreign gods. And I would ask you to consider that this morning. Put away the foreign gods. The word foreign means

It speaks about something that is from a different country or a different language than your own. It's something foreign to you. For you and I as believers, we can consider foreign anything that doesn't belong to our new nature in Christ. You and I, we have, no matter what our national background is, no matter what our physical, you know, background is,

We have a new heritage as believers in Jesus. We're new creations in Christ. Faith in God has changed our heritage so that our association has changed. As Paul tells us that our citizenship is in heaven. That is where our allegiance is. That's where our focus is to be. That is to be the priority of our lives. Faith changes our heritage. And so it changes us.

What is foreign to us? There are things in your culture. There are things in your family background. There are things in your national identity that now are foreign to you as a believer in Jesus Christ. The author of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 11, records for us that great hall of faith. And as he lists all of these different people and the examples of faith that they had, he points out in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13,

The author of Hebrews says, "...these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." The hall of faith, the examples of faith for us, had this mentality, had this mindset that they were pilgrims and strangers on the earth.

They believed the promises of God. They didn't see them fully, completely fulfilled, but they saw them afar off, that God is going to fulfill these promises, and we're going to hold out for those promises. We're not going to try to find, you know, the fulfillment of those promises right here and right now, but know we're pilgrims and strangers awaiting that permanent place, eternity, and

that God would fulfill all that he has promised to us then. And so in the meantime, we're just passing through. We're pilgrims. We're sojourners. We're strangers. We're foreigners to this earth. We're foreigners to this city. We're foreigners to this nation. We're foreigners because we are citizens of heaven. And so here is the Lord through Jacob is speaking to the family and says, put away the foreign gods. They're

there's something important for us to consider. And that is, what do we have in our household that is not attached to our citizenship, which is in heaven? What have we allowed into our lives that is not associated with our new nature in Christ Jesus? What foreign gods do we possess? Because we've allowed our culture, we've allowed our nation, we've allowed, you know, these things around us

to take hold and take a place in our lives that does not belong there because we are not citizens of this earth. We are citizens of heaven. Your cultural heritage may include things that now should be foreign to you. Yes, that's what you were raised with. That's what you've known all your life. But now as a believer in Jesus Christ,

There needs to be a putting away of the foreign gods. Now, I'm not saying we, you know, disown all nationalities and all heritage and all, you know, please understand that although those things have some value, they have their priority below our commitment to the Lord. You know, God called people out of idolatry from all nations and cultures, right? And so that hasn't changed. There are some things that are part of our culture

previous identity, our old life, that are just not of God. And no matter how important they were to us or how valuable they were to us, if it's not attached to our new nature in Christ Jesus, then it's a foreign God. It's a foreign thing that must be removed. The Apostle Paul says something interesting in Romans chapter 14 verse 23, talking about eating food that is sacrificed to idols and that discussion and debate that was going on. The Apostle Paul says...

He who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin. Paul says the issue here is not the food, it's the faith. And if you violate your conscience, you violate your faith and eat, even though you think that that's not right. Well, it's a sin issue for you now because you're violating what you think is true. You're violating your faith. The issue is not the food, it's the faith.

But he makes that statement, whatever is not from faith is sin. And I would encourage all of us. You know, we're coming into that spring cleaning time, right? So maybe now's a good time to start thinking about what in my house, what in my life is not of faith? What in my life, what in my house is not attached to my relationship with God? What in my life, what in my house is not part of my new nature in Christ Jesus? Jacob tells his family, put away the foreign gods.

That there would be no competing passions, no competing, you know, things for the priority that God deserves. That there would be nothing inconsistent with our new nature in Christ. If it's not consistent with Christ, you know, if Jesus, if he were here, you know, would not be enjoying those things and participating in those things with us, then they are foreign to us.

And we need to be very careful about the kind of place that we give to those foreign things. Because we are citizens of heaven. What have you allowed into your home? That's not part of your new nature in Christ Jesus. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, also in the book of Colossians, that we are to put off the old things. We need to remove them from us. We need to get them out of our lives. And then we need to put on the new nature that we have in Christ Jesus. Yesterday, I looked at Kim. I said,

Honey, today's the day. She said, what day? It's the day I finally take down the Christmas lights. Finally, February 6th, Christmas season is over, okay? It's time for those things to be removed. And so I had to take down those lights. For us as believers, listen, it's time to take off those old decorations that are not of the Lord, that don't belong in

in our relationship with the Lord. It's time to remove those things. Now, if I had springtime lights that I could put up around the house, it'd be okay to put those up, right? But Christmas season, it's done. It's time to take those things down. Put away the foreign gods, Jacob says. And here we see something important about Jacob. He takes a strong role in leading his family in this. Previous to this, we've seen Jacob not really have a strong leadership role. He hasn't really...

given direction or or helped his family to draw near to the lord but but here he does he stands up he says all right guys it's time for us to clean house pastor david guzik says jacob's family only got right with god after jacob himself did this again shows us the tremendous leadership role that men have within the family a man resisting god will see the same effect in his children

A man who gets right with God will see the same effect in his family also. Let that remind you, parents. Let that remind you, men, that God has called you not just to put away your foreign gods, but to be the example of what that looks like to the family that he's entrusted to you. You're to be the one. God has given you authority in the home, or if he's given you authority in another realm,

then you're the example. Put away the foreign gods. It's time to take down those things that were from the old season, the old life. And it's time to put on the new nature that's found in Christ Jesus. Put away your foreign gods. As we continue on now, verses five through nine gives us the third step to restart our walk with God. Number one, we listen for God's direction. Number two, we put away the foreign gods. And now number three,

Put yourself in God's presence. Put yourself in God's presence. Jumping into verse 5, 6, and 7, here's what it says. And they journeyed. And the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them. And they did not pursue the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, that is Bethel, which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who are with him. And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel.

because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother. Here they now begin the journey. They've cleansed their house. They've gotten rid of the old junk that was not attached to the Lord, and they begin their journey to Bethel. Now it tells us as they journeyed in verse 5, that the terror of God was upon the cities. They were in a predicament at this point because, again in Genesis chapter 34,

Real crimes had been committed against Jacob's family, but also by Jacob's family. And because these two sons of Jacob had murdered this whole city, the towns around would typically have brought justice and dealt with those who had behaved in that way. And so Jacob feared for his life at this point. You see that at the end of chapter 34.

He feared for his life and rightly so. The surrounding communities would have been justified in dealing with them as a result of the atrocities that were committed. But here we see that God protects Jacob and his family. Here verse five is interesting because it acknowledges the sin, but also demonstrates the mercy of God. He's merciful and he protects Jacob and his family, not because they didn't deserve judgment, not because God was declaring that what they had done was not wrong,

But because God was not done with his work in their lives, he preserved them. And the fear of God fell upon those surrounding communities. And so Jacob arrives at Bethel in verse 6. And all the people who are with him, he brings his whole household, his whole family, all of his servants, and he arrives at Bethel. It's a very physical journey that's going on here.

It's visible. Jacob is making an external change. He packed up his house. He packed up his tents. He packed up all that he had. And him and his family moved now to Bethel. It's important to consider this because we know, of course, that those who worship the Lord must worship him in spirit and in truth. And when we talk about spiritual life, very often we're talking about internal, invisible things. And that is right. And that is accurate.

to an extent. Because what happens in the heart will be demonstrated by our actions. And there's a little bit of a kind of a hide-and-seek game that we can play where we're pretending to be right with God. We're pretending to be in the presence of God. We're pretending to walk with God. And nobody else can really challenge it because they can't see the internal

But here, Jacob, physically, he packs up his house. He moves from Shechem to Bethel. And I would encourage you to consider that, that there will be a outward manifestation of your relationship with God. And sometimes we deceive ourselves and we deceive others pretending to have a relationship with God, but there's no outward correspondence with what God is doing in the heart. Remember, Jesus said, "'Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.'"

Well, we like to say, hey, what comes out of my mouth that doesn't really matter. God sees my heart. Well, yeah, God sees your heart and he sees that what's coming out of your mouth is a reflection of your heart. You can't excuse your words and the things that you say in saying that my heart is different than that. We say things like, you know, this is really important to me, but then we never actually engage in it. Bible reading is really important. I just don't get to do it very much.

Now the outward then is reflecting the heart. You're saying that it's important, but you're deceiving yourself. You're trying to deceive others. It's important to understand that the work that God does in our heart is reflected in our behavior. And yes, it's not directly and always visible, but there is a correlation between the way that we live, the way that we behave, and our relationship with God.

And so Jacob, in an effort to obey God and get right with God, he packs up his family. He moves to Bethel. In verse 7, it says, there he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel because there God appeared to him when he had fled from the face of his brother. He goes back to that place where God had revealed himself previously. God called him back there in verse 1, told him to build an altar. So you know what Jacob did? He goes back to Bethel and he builds an altar.

He's taking these steps of obedience, taking these steps according to what God has spoken to him. And he's reestablishing his relationship with the Lord in this way. Now, as he builds an altar, this is before the Levitical law.

And so there's things about altars that, you know, are going to be revealed later. At this point, we don't know exactly what God has spoken to Jacob and his family, his, you know, Abraham and Isaac, his parents, about altars. But here's what we know about altars. Altars were a place to devote yourself to God. Not so much a

issue dealing with an issue of sin at this point that that comes more formally in the levitical law but it came as a offering of devotion to god and so a burnt offering would be burned upon an altar saying lord this is me upon the altar committing myself to you completely devoting myself to you wholly they were places of devotion and and commitments to god and so god told jacob here go build an altar there

Go back there and recommit yourself. Redevote yourself. Reconsecrate yourself unto me. Verse 8 gives us a little bit of a side note. It says, Now Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died, and she was buried below Bethel under the terebinth tree. So the name of it was called Alan Bakuth. Rebecca's nurse, Rebecca was Jacob's mom. The nurse's name was Deborah. So she died at this point. We don't know at what point she joined with Jacob and his family.

Possibly she went up to Haran to let him know that his mom had died. Perhaps when Jacob came down back into the region, she joined up with them. But she's with them and she's now buried there at Bethel. But then verse 9, then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan Aram and blessed him. And here's the thing that I think is really interesting. It says God appeared to Jacob again. So going back to verse 1, God called Jacob. He spoke to Jacob and said, go back to Bethel.

So Jacob cleanses his house, packs up his stuff, goes to Bethel, just like God said, builds an altar, just like God said. And then God appeared to him. You see this progressive revelation that God is now revealing himself in a greater degree, in a greater way, as Jacob is moving towards him. But what's also interesting about this is, it says when he came from Paddan Aram.

Now, Paddan Aram is far north for Israel. Where Jacob is, Bethel is kind of central Israel. It's pretty close to Jerusalem and that region.

Haran is the same. It's in the region of Paddan Aram. And so that was where Jacob went to live with Laban. That's where he met Leah and Rachel, his wives. That's where he had his family and raised flocks. And then he escaped, you know, and left. That's what Jonathan was sharing about last week in Genesis chapter 32. Jacob leaving that region, coming back into the land of Canaan, right?

So Haran is about 500 miles north. Back in Genesis chapter 28, we see Jacob make that journey and leave home and head up to Haran. Then chapter 31, chapter 32, we see Jacob leave Haran and come down to meet up with Esau in a place called Peniel. Again, it's about a 500 mile journey. He meets up with Esau.

They talk for a little bit. Then they part ways. Esau goes back home, which was south of the land of Canaan, south of the Dead Sea. And Jacob crosses the Jordan River and lives now in the land of Canaan. But he goes to a place called Shechem. He lives nearby the city of Shechem. And it seems from the context of these accounts that Jacob spends about 10 years in Shechem. But he's not back yet.

He's gone to Haran. He's come back into the land, but he's not back yet. Because in Genesis chapter 28, again at Bethel, he made that promise. This stone that I have set as a pillar will be God's house. Jacob hasn't come back to Haran yet until Genesis 35 verse 1. God speaks to him and says, go back to Bethel. And so he makes the journey. It's about 20 miles away.

from Shechem to Bethel. He was 10 years in Shechem, just 20 miles away from the place that he said he would return to, the place that God is now calling him back to. But here in verse 9, it says, when he came from Paddan Aram. Not when he came from Shechem, where he's been for the past 10 years, right? Here's the point. Hopefully I didn't lose you in all of that. The journey is not complete until you reach the destination.

10 years in Shechem, God says, look, I don't count all of that as you being back yet. You're not back until you reach the destination to get back to Bethel. And so he was back nearby. He was neighbors with Bethel. He was in the neighborhood. He was in the region, but he wasn't back in that place of worship. He wasn't back in that place of obedience. He wasn't back in that place of walking with God yet.

He was just in the neighborhood of walking with God. And listen, what God needs from us, what God desires and requires of us is complete obedience. There's a lot of times in our lives where we, like Jacob, we kind of get most of the way there in obedience to God. We kind of get most of the way there. You know, we're almost back. We're almost to the place that God wants us to be.

But we stop short. We're just like 20 miles away. Now think about the proportion there, right? Like here I am, I've traveled 600 miles to get back into the land. And I think, okay, that's enough travel. That's, you know, I've gone far enough. That's a significant piece. But there maybe is, you know, that little bit more, that 20 miles more that would bring it to a place of complete obedience. Put yourself in God's presence. Sometimes we can get so close, but still miss God.

the fullness of what God has for us. We can get close enough to have a little bit of a taste of the presence of God. We're kind of in the promised land, but we're not exactly where God wants us to be. You know, in the picture of the tabernacle, you have the holiest of all that was there in the center. And there was the holy place where the priests could go. There was the courtyard where the people could come and worship. But for the most part, they couldn't experience the holy of holies. They could only experience those outer things.

For you and I as believers in Jesus, God invites us to a real relationship with God in the Holy of Holies, in the very presence of God. And yet at the same time, many times as believers, we miss out on the fullness of God's presence because we only go most of the way there. We make it to church. We sit through the time of worship. We're close. But are we engaging in the time of worship?

I think this is interesting, you know, for us to consider in this era of sometimes we're in person, sometimes we're online. You know, it's a very dangerous thing to watch online in some occasions because we can be close but not really engage. We can watch the time of worship. We can have it playing in our house. We can have it, you know, playing in our ears. But are we engaged in the worship?

Are we worshiping God in the time of worship? Now, we can worship God just as well at home as we can here, right? We can experience the presence of God in both places. But there's some kind of like natural dangers in our self-deception that come along with both. And sometimes we can feel great about being here. I made it to church. I'm physically here. I'm in person, not like those guys who watch online, right? I'm physically here. Yay me. And yet, are you engaged in the worship?

Are you actually worshiping the Lord? In the time of the word, are you hearing from God? Are you searching the scriptures? Are you engaged in what God is doing? In the time of fellowship, are you engaged? If you're watching online, are you hearing from God? Are you engaged in the worship? Are you finding ways to fellowship even when we can't be together in person? That part of our relationship with God is not just being religious.

And really, that's what religion is, right? It's that, well, I'm most of the way there. It's that ritualistic thing without the real connection to God, without going that final distance. It's been said many times that some people will miss heaven by 18 inches. That's the distance from the head to the heart. There needs to be that last gap, that connection to God. Put yourself in God's presence, whether it's in person or online, in your devotional life, in your relationship with God,

Put yourself, and maybe that's going to involve packing up and moving out like Jacob's family did. Maybe that's going to involve building an altar and making a place, making a space where this is where I worship God. It might involve a variety of things, but the Lord will lead you, right? The Lord told Jacob, go to Bethel, build an altar, right? Let God show you how he wants you to do that. But the important thing is make sure you do it. Put yourself in God's presence, right?

Do what it is that God is asking you to do. Pastor Warren Wiersbe says, many of the problems in the Christian life result from incomplete obedience. We know what the Lord wants us to do. We start to do it and then we stop. When we don't continue to obey God and accomplish his will, even what we've done starts to die. There's a danger for us of just kind of being satisfied with getting most of the way there. No, put yourself in God's presence. Go all the way there.

experience the presence of God. Learn to worship God in spirit and in truth. Learn to know him and love him. James tells us to draw near to God and he will draw near to you. If you will do that, if you will draw near to him and put yourself in his presence, as Jacob experienced a greater revelation of God, you will too. God will draw near to you as you draw near to him.

Well, moving on to verses 10 through 12, we get the fourth step this morning in restarting your walk with God. Here's point number four, believe God's word to you. I'm going to hit this and the next one pretty fast. So buckle up, get ready, follow along. Verse 10 through 12 says...

And God said to him, your name is Jacob. Your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name. So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you and kings shall come from your body. The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, I give to you and to your descendants after you, I give this land.

Here the fourth point is believe God's word to you. As God shows up and reveals himself to Jacob, he tells him some things. He gives him some promises and he gives him a new identity. He says, your name is Jacob, but no longer. Now your name is going to be Israel. Jacob meant heel catcher or supplanter. It was the idea of him being a con man and stealing away from others, you know, for himself.

It's what he did with his brother. It's what he did. You know, it was a fitting name for him throughout his life. But God says, okay, you're not going to behave that way anymore. Now, now you are going to be known as governed by God, Israel. You're going to be submitted to God. You're going to be governed by God. Now, throughout the rest of his life and the rest of the account in the book of Genesis, you'll see it kind of switches back and forth. Sometimes calling him Jacob, sometimes calling him Israel. It seems that Jacob had a hard time accepting this new identity.

And so sometimes he behaved like Jacob and sometimes he behaved like Israel. For you and I, again, as believers, we have a new nature in Christ. Sometimes we have a hard time accepting that new identity. Sometimes we forget who we are in Christ and we behave according to our old nature and we chase those foreign gods. We have those, you know, foreign activities and behaviors that are inconsistent with our new nature. But we need to believe God, what he says about us. We spent a lot of time, uh,

I guess it was a while ago now, but in Ephesians, looking at our identity in Christ, there's some amazing things that God has said of us that we need to know and we need to believe. We need to grasp hold of and we need to live according to those things. And if you're not familiar with those things, then check out the book of Ephesians and spend some time there. But we need to believe God's promises as well. God says, I'm God Almighty. I'm with you. I'm powerful. I'm going to take care of you.

I'm going to give you the land. He continues the promise he had given to Abraham and Isaac. Now it passes on to Jacob. And so now, well, it's known as the land of Israel, which is Jacob's new name. We call the nation of Israel, the children of Israel many times, right? It's the descendants of Jacob, the descendants of Israel. God is able to fulfill his promises and he will fulfill his promises. Believe God's word to you as you draw near to him, as he reveals himself, as he speaks to you.

Believe the word of God. Believe what it is that he has said. Well, we'll finish it up with the fifth step, verses 13 through 15, and that is remember your devotion to God. Remember your devotion to God. Here's what it says in verses 13 through 15. Then God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, a pillar of stone, and he poured a drink offering on it, and he poured oil on it,

Here we see the appearance of God to Jacob concludes. God is ascended up from him and Jacob sets up a pillar. And the idea of setting up a pillar is something we see happen a few times in the Old Testament. It's something that's done as a memorial. Something that's done to make sure that we remember. Remember when the children of Israel were crossing the Jordan River?

That devil motorcycle, is that what that was? Okay, so when the children of Israel were crossing the Jordan River, the Lord told them, take 12 stones out of the river and put them on the shore. Take 12 stones off the shore and put them in the river. And then those 12 stones would forever serve as a memorial of what God did in bringing them across the Jordan River. Here, Jacob sets up a pillar.

He says, look, this is an important place, not because of the physical location, but because of what God has done here. And I want to remember what God has said. I want to remember the promises that God has made. I want to remember the commitments that I've made to God. And so he sets up a pillar here. He pours out a drink offering, which again, it pictures that giving of himself. He just, I'm pouring myself out completely to the Lord. I am fully his. I'm going to serve him and obey him.

He sets up this pillar, this memorial. As we think about restarting a walk with God, it's important for us, it's valuable for us to set up reminders. And whether that be digital reminders, physical reminders, you know, painted on your walls, or some other way that you remember, this is something that God spoke to me. Maybe it's a post-it note in your Bible, maybe it's a

This is something that God has spoken to me. And the Lord will remind those things. He'll bring you back to those things. He'll open that page once again, and there will be that note that you made 20 years ago, perhaps, about, oh, this is something that God spoke to me. And you get to be refreshed and renewed in those things that God has said. Because every one of us, we're gonna have the need to restart our walk with God and to be refreshed and renewed in those things that God has said and those things that God has spoken.

And so this morning, I pray that you would be encouraged by the example of Jacob to restart your walk with God, to hear from him the direction, to listen to the direction that he wants to give to you, that you would put away your foreign gods, anything that's in your life that's not consistent with your new nature in Christ, that you would remove it and clean house in that way. What have you allowed into your home that is not consistent with your new nature in Jesus Christ?

I pray that you would be encouraged to put yourself in God's presence. And that may involve physically moving yourself to a place where you can spend time with God, worshiping God. Put yourself in God's presence. For George and Patty, that's Texas. For you, hopefully that's Corona. Put yourself in God's presence and stay there. Experience the fullness that God has for you. Believing his word to you, the scriptures that we have, but then also those personal things that he speaks to your heart.

And set yourself up for success with reminders. Set up things that you would be reminded continually, this is what God has spoken to me and I want to continue and proceed down the path that he has set for me. God is merciful and gracious, patient, and he gives us this opportunity to restart, to start over and allow us to draw near to him. And his promise is, as we do that,

He will draw near to us. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your willingness, God, to give us another chance, another opportunity to draw near to you, to walk with you, and to represent you to the world around us. I pray, God, that you would lead us by your Holy Spirit. Help us to know you, to hear from you, and to stay close to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.