Three-year-old, Mark, accidentally spilled his fruit punch on the floor one day. He decided to clean up the mess himself and dashed to the back porch to get the mop. Suddenly, realizing it was dark outside, he became apprehensive about reaching out the door for the mop. His mother reminded him Jesus is everywhere – even in the dark. Mark thought for a minute. Then, putting his face to the door, he said, “Jesus, if you’re out there, will you hand me the mop?” (Kathy Gunter Martin, Dandridge, TN, “Small Talk,” Today’s Christian Woman)
Sometimes, either through our own poor choices or because of life’s circumstances, we find ourselves in some pretty scary places. Well, those are the times God loves to show up. Even when we’re not looking for Him, He loves to surprise us with a strong sense of His presence. That’s what happened to Jacob when he was running away from his brother who had threatened to kill him.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 28, Genesis 28, where we see what God did for Jacob when he was running scared and where we see also what God wants to do for us.
Genesis 28:10-15 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway a resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (NIV)
At a time when Jacob is running scared, God in His grace reveals Himself to Jacob. Jacob did not DESERVE to see God. He was a cheat and a liar. That’s what got him in trouble with his brother in the first place. & Jacob did not DESIRE to see God. He wasn’t necessarily looking for God at this time. He was just running away from home. & Yet, God in his grace makes himself known to Jacob. God doesn’t show up because Jacob was a good boy. No! God presents Himself to Jacob purely out of grace, and God gives him a wonderful promise – a promise of land, seed and blessing.
Jacob’s father had already blessed him, passing on the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant. Now, God Himself blesses Jacob directly with those same blessings! & On top of it all, God promises Jacob His protecting presence: “I am with you,” God says in verse 15. “I will watch over you.” “I will bring you back.” & “I will not leave you.”
Oh how those words must have brought comfort to one who had never been away from home before. Jacob’s brother was the hunter in the family, used to the outdoors. Jacob was a mama’s boy, used to helping mama at home. Now, Jacob is all by himself, out in the middle of nowhere, 70 miles away from home, without even a tent over his head.
That’s when God meets with Jacob, and that’s when God likes to meet with us. When we’re running scared, God in His grace reveals Himself to us. When we least expect it, sometimes in far out-of-the way places, and often in times of fear, God shows up. Even when we’ve made a mess of things, een when we don’t deserve it, like Jacob, or don’t even desire it, God comes to offer His blessing and the promise of His presence forever.
That’s how Jesus came into this world. In a time of Roman oppression and fear, In a far out-of-the way place called Bethlehem, located in a small Roman province of little consequence, God revealed himself in the flesh as a little baby, whose name was Jesus. Then, 30 years later, when he began his public ministry, he declared to his followers, “I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (John 1:51). sus was telling them, “I am the stairway into heaven that Jacob saw.” “I am the way, the only way, to heaven.” “If you want to get there, you have to come through me.”
God revealed himself when and where we least expected it and when we least deserved it. The Bible says, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Jesus didn’t wait until we straightened out our lives. Jesus didn’t even wait until we acknowledged him. No! While we were still sinners, wile we were still His enemies, Christ came to die on a cross for our sins and rise again.
Now, all you need to do is trust Him to take you to heaven when you die. Now, all you need to do is “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:32). Dear friends, if you’ve never done it before, I invite you to tust Christ with your life today. Call upon the name of the Lord and ask Him to save you from your sins. Then you too can have the assurance of eternal life and God’s protecting presence forever!
That’s the experience of everyone who puts their faith in Christ. They have the assurance of God’s protecting presence every day. For God in His grace still comes to us in times of fear. Jesus still makes his presence known often when we least expect it.
On April 25, 2003, 13-year-old Natalie Gilbert was chosen to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a nationally televised NBA Western Conference playoff game. For her, it was a dream-come-true, but that dream almost became a nightmare (show video clip).
Natalie bravely stood alone at mid-court in Portland’s Rose Garden Arena, but as she began to sing before a capacity crowd, her mind went blank. She forgot the words. Closing her eyes and shaking her head, she appeared on the verge of tears.
Then, at that moment, the head coach of the Portland Trailblazers, Maurice Cheeks, walked toward her, put his arm around her and began to sing with her. As a result, Natalie regained her composure, found her voice and ended strong. (AOL News, 4-28-03; www.PreachingToday.com)
Sometimes, like Natalie or like Jacob, we find ourselves all alone in this world, ashamed or afraid, and ready to give up. That’s when Jesus comes, puts his arm around us, and stays with us until we finish strong.
GOD IN HIS GRACE REVEALS HIMSELF TO US.
He shows up when we least expect it and often when we least deserve it. What can we do but…
RESPOND TO HIM WITH GRATITUDE.
What can we do but respond with reverence and sacrificial commitment? What can we do but give ourselves wholly and completely to God?
You see, that’s what true worship is all about. Warren Wiersbe says, “Worship is the believer’s response of all that he is – mind, emotion, will, and body – to all that God is and says and does” (Real Worship). Worship is a response to revelation – giving everything I have to God, because He gave Himself for me.
The question is: What’s the appropriate way to respond to such a God? What kind of response is fitting for a God who graciously chooses to reveal Himself?
Well, Jacob shows us how to respond to a holy and gracious God. In fact, his response to God’s revelation is a prototype of Israel’s worship throughout the Old Testament and instructive for our own worship today. So how did Jacob respond?
Genesis 28:16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” (NIV)
Like Jacob, when God reveals Himself, 1st of all, we must recognize His presence. We must acknowledge that He is here! Worship is not singing songs, saying prayers, and listening to a boring sermon. True worship begins only when we recognize that God is really here!
Annie Dillard had some very interesting things to say about the typical Sunday morning worship services in a lot of our churches across the country. Her comments are over 20 years old, but still very relevant today. Here’s what she wrote back in 1988: “Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? …
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.
Speaking of an older era in Christian worship, she continues, “It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” (Annie Dillard, “Teaching a Stone to Talk,” Harper Perennial, 1988, p. 52; www.PreachingToday.com)
True worship is not child’s play. It’s the recognition of the presence of Almighty God, who can shake us up so much, we will never be the same again.
How about you? How about me? Are we going to leave this place of worship transformed because we’ve met with the Living God Himself? Or are we going to leave this place of worship just tired and bored? True worshippers recognize the presence of Almighty God.
Then they can’t help but reverence Him. After we recognize His presence, our first response is going to be one of fear and awe. That was Jacob’s response.
Genesis 28:17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome (or how fearful) is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” (NIV)
Don’t diminish what Jacob is feeling here. He was afraid! At first, he feared man – his brother Esau. Now, he is beginning to fear God. And that’s the response of any sinner who finds himself in the presence of a holy God. Adam, in the Garden, hid from God after he ate the forbidden fruit. But when God came looking for him, Adam could only say, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid…” (Genesis 3:10). Isaiah, in the Temple, saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted. Then he cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I... have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). Peter, in a boat with Christ, who had just performed a mighty miracle, “fell at Jesus’ knees and said, ‘Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!’” (Luke 5:8). That’s the initial response of everyone who meets with God. It’s a response of fear in the presence of a holy and powerful God.
Warren Wiersbe, in his book on True Worship, says, “We must beware of trying to get chummy with God. I know the apostle John leaned on the bosom of Jesus in the Upper Room; but he fell at the feet of Jesus when he beheld Him in His sovereign glory (Revelation 1:17).” Then Wiersbe continues, “There is an undue familiarity with God that only proves that the worshipper does not really know God at all.” (Warren Wiersbe, True Worship, p.26)
If you’ve never trembled in the presence of God, then you don’t really know God at all, and most certainly you have not worshipped Him. Now, none of this negates the comfort and the peace we feel knowing that God is near. But it is only after we have trembled in His presence that we can truly appreciate it when he says, “Fear not, for I am with you.” It is only after we have learned to fear God that we can truly enjoy the magnitude of His love.
You see, the presence of God should invoke reverence, awe, (and yes) even fear! Otherwise, we have not begun to worship Him.
The students at Wheaton College, several years ago, got a taste of this kind of worship. Dr. V. Raymond Edman, a past president of the college, was speaking in chapel that day on the subject of worship. He was talking about the need to be reverent when we come into God’s presence, and he illustrated that with a story about the time he was invited to have an audience with Haile Selassie, then emperor of Ethiopia.
He spoke about how he prepared himself, knowing that he would have an audience with the king. He expressed his excitement when he walked into the palace. Then he described the reverence he felt as he bowed before the king.
At that point in his sermon, Dr. V. Raymond Edman paused, collapsed, and died. He actually entered the presence of the King of kings even as he was talking about it. And no student left that chapel the same, because they too felt awe in the presence of this same King. (“Blessed are the Pure in Heart,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 83; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s what true worship is all about. When God in his grace reveals Himself, we can’t help but recognize His presence, reverence Him, and then remember that experience the rest of our lives. We can never forget our meeting with God. That’s what Jacob does.
Genesis 28:18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. (NIV)
Jacob turned his pillow into a pillar as a memorial to His meeting with God. Then he poured oil on top of it as an act of consecration. He set that stone apart from all the other stones, again, as a memorial to the God who graciously revealed Himself. Jacob never wants to forget this experience. That’s why…
Genesis 28:19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. (NIV)
Jacob named that little, out of the way place “Bethel,” which means House of God. He did it so that he and the generations to follow would remember that God met with Him there.
It’s a part of Jacob’s worship, and that’s what we must do if we want to truly worship God. We cannot forget what God has said and done for us. That’s why we partake in the Lord’s Supper periodically. It helps us remember that Christ died for us. & That’s why we meet on Sunday every week. It helps us remember that Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday. These are memorials of the most awesome visitation of God in history – the time when Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.
Dear friends, let’s never forget what Christ has done for us. On Memorial Day, every year, we remember the sacrifices of those who died for our country. On Sunday, every week, let’s not forget the sacrifice of the One who died and rose again for our salvation, because that’s what worship is all about.
When God in his grace reveals Himself, we must recognize His presence; we must reverence Him; we must remember what He has done; and finally, we must reserve ourselves for Him if we’re going to truly worship God. We must consecrate ourselves to the Lord. We must give ourselves wholly and completely to God. That’s what Jacob does.
Genesis 28:20-22 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the LORD will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
This giving of a tenth to the Lord is a practical recognition that it all belongs to God. Jacob has consecrated a stone to the Lord. Now, he consecrates himself with a vow. It’s a voluntary commitment Jacob makes to give himself and to give part of his possessions to the Lord when God comes through for him.
Such vows were very common in Israel’s worship. You see them all throughout the Psalms. They were commitments to praise or commitments to give in response to God’s deliverance.
That’s what Jacob is doing here as an act of true worship, and that’s what we must do, if we want to truly worship the Lord. We must commit ourselves wholly and completely to Him.
Romans 12:1 says, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – THIS is your spiritual act of worship.” (NIV)
We haven’t truly worshipped God until we have given ourselves to Him.
Bryan Wilkerson talks about a sterling silver tea set that a family member gave him and his wife as a reminder of her love for them. It’s quite old and beautifully made, and it sits on a stand in their dining room. There’s only one problem: they can’t use it. The woman who gave it to them had it chemically coated so that it wouldn’t tarnish, and hot water will ruin the finish.
Then Wilkerson makes this comment: “God is not looking for sterling silver tea sets. He’s looking for rough-and-tumble clay pots—the kind that can be used everyday. He’s looking for the kind of pots that don’t need to be tucked away in a china closet, but can be sent out into a crash-bang world, carrying within them the life of Christ. The church was never meant to be a china cabinet, where precious pieces could be safely stowed out of harm’s way. The church was meant to be a working kitchen, where well-worn pots are filled again and again to dispense their life-giving contents to a thirsty world. (Bryan Wilkerson, Unbreakable? www.PreachingToday.com)
How about you? How about me? Are we content to sit on the shelf (or pew) week after week just looking pretty? Or are we willing to give ourselves again and again in service to Christ?
Please, when God in His grace reveals Himself to you, don’t just sit there. Instead, respond with gratitude. 1st, Recognize His presence. 2nd, Reverence Him. 3rd, Remember all that He has done for you. & 4th, Reserve yourself wholly and completely for Him. For then, and only then, will you have truly worshipped the Lord.
