If Rock Could Talk Part 1

If Rock Could Talk Part 1

Luke 19:40-40 If Rocks Could Talk

Part 1

Luke 19:40

A new year brings many thoughts to my mind. As we close in on the end of 2003 I started thinking about the verse and wondering, “If the stones of the bible could cry out what would they say? So today’s message I have entitled If the Stones could speak… You see the more I went on a rock hunt the more I knew that God used rocks in the Bible to show significant occurrences of his faithfulness. By the way did you know that the word Stone is used 218 times in the Bible.

Rock hunts are fun… every vacation we go on the kids collect rocks to bring home to remind them of their the place they visited. You should give it a try it makes for cheap souvenirs. One word of advise, one rock per place per child seems to be the best formula… We’ve had to learn that the hard way. Each of the rocks the kids collect have a very special meaning. Last year the kids came home with rocks from lake Erie, the ocean, an island in Boston Harbor, coneia from St. Augusten Florida all reminder of a point in time and although the rocks can’t talk our family can give you stories for each rock.

There are a lot of things that change in life… people move, building are built and torn down, governments come and go. But stones don’t go anywhere they just kind of lay around in the same spot and waiting for something to happen or someone to pick them up.

I suppose the stones that witnessed the things of the bible are still right where they were when the things that were written happened. They serve as a reminder of day gone by, places seen and lives changed.

I suppose a good place to start our rock hunt would be in Genesis 28:10 There we find Jacob settling down for the night. He was running away from his brother after deceiving his father and receiving the blessing. He grabbed a rock for a pillow and placed it under his head. That night he had a dream where he saw the stairway to heaven and angels going up and down it. Then all the sudden the Lord spoke to him and told him that he would carry out the blessing promised to Abraham through his offspring. When Jacob awoke he took the stone and anointed it with oil and called the place Bethel.

A few years pass and 7 chapters and in chapter 35 of Genesis and we find Jacob back at Bethel again. Now he has married a couple of sisters and started a family. The Lord tells him to go home, Jacob is scared to death but everything works out and his brother had 14 years to cool off and meets him with a hug.

I think that if the stone could talk, It would tell us that Our God is a God of Second Chances… Even though Jacob started out the wrong way, God still blessed him. Isn’t it awesome that God can use us despite our imperfections.

I think that another thing we can learn is that God never leaves us. Jacob met God in his youth after he made a mistake and assured him that he would bless him. But it wasn’t going to happen right now there was some growing that had to take place.

In our lives when we first accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we think that everything is going to be perfect. Then we realize that there is a lot of growing that has to take place. Life is not as perfect as we thought it was going to be. People have different ideas than we do. The devil steps in and tries and often succeeds to get us off course.

We come to a place that we realize that we need to visit Bethel again… So we come back to the church we rededicate our lives to the Lord and we begin to grow again. I can’t help but think that there might be one of you here today that need to visit Bethel again. You gotten away from the way you once were with your relationship with the Lord.

I think the next stone that I would love to hear speak is found in Exodus 17… The people were having a difficult time believing that God would provide. You would think that after the Israelite people saw the water part and they walked across on dry land… You would think that after watching Manna fall to the ground and having Quail to eat that the people would be happy.

But no, they kept on wining. This time they wanted water to drink. Moses prayed to the lord for guidance and the lord told him to strike the rock and water would come out. So Moses did and out of the rock poured fresh water to drink.