OPEN: During the Persian Gulf War, a soldier was assigned to go to Saudi Arabia. As he was saying good-bye to his family, his three-year-old son was holding on to his leg and pleading with him not to leave. "No, Daddy, please don’t go!" he kept repeating.
We were beginning to make a scene when my wife, desperate to calm him, said, "Let Daddy go and I’ll take you to get a pizza."
Immediately, the child loosened his death grip, stepped back and in a calm voice said, "’Bye, Daddy."
APPLY: That’s the kind of behavior you would expect from a 3 year old boy…
He loved his dad… but he loved his pizza more – that’s what you’d expect from a 3 yr. old
But when grown men and women behave like that, we find it to be disappointing and irritating.
A grown person who would make their decisions based on what they could GET OUT of the relationship is someone we wouldn’t trust very far…
I. Let me introduce you to Jacob – a grown man who acted like a 3 year old.
The Bible passage we just read sounds like a great tribute to Jacob’s faith…
I mean, here he is receiving a great vision from God
He erects a stone pillar to honor his God
And he makes a commitment to his God
That all sounds like the behavior of a great man of faith
But that’s not really true
You see (when we find Jacob sleeping by the side of the road) the reason he’s there was because
he was running away from home. Actually, he was running for his life
He had cheated his brother Esau out of Esau’s inheritance and Esau hadn’t appreciated it. Esau threatened to kill Jacob as soon as he found him - so Jacob decided to leave town… to go visit some relatives.
Jacob was where he was – sleeping on the road - because he was a selfish, self centered man. A man who had hurt his brother and shamed his family.
II. And Jacob doesn’t change all that much, even after God gives him this dream & promise
God gives Jacob this great vision. God gives him a powerful promise. And what does Jacob do? He makes a DEAL with God.
He tells God (Genesis 28:20-22) “IF (you’ll) be 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 (you’ll) be my God.
(And if you’ll do all that for me, THEN) this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and (THEN) of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”
Implied in his vow is this: If you don’t follow through, don’t count on getting much out of me.
ILLUS: I don’t know about you… but if God had visited ME and gave ME a dream like Jacob got, and gave ME a promise like Jacob received – I’d be asking where I could sign up.
"You just tell me where to build you a house of worship… and I’ll do it right now"
"Here… don’t just take a 10th of my income… here, take my whole wallet"
I don’t know how I could repay Him for that kind of faith in me. But I’d do just about anything for God … anything except try to bargain with God
Only a selfish, self centered, shameful man like Jacob would do something like that…
III. And yet… it was to this selfish, shameful man that God gave a special dream & promise
Look again at Genesis 28:12-15
"(Jacob) had a dream in which he saw a stairway 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.’"
Why? Why would God give such an impressive dream and such a powerful promise to a man who was so untrustworthy?
Well, there are several possible reasons… In fact, I might be able to preach an entire sermon on the reasons God chose Jacob to receive this vision and this promise…
But because this is a family camp and this sermon is addressing family issues, I’m only going to focus on one reason:
Jacob was chosen to receive this vision and this promise because he had a obedient grandfather who had deep faith in God. A grandfather called Abraham.
IV. The Bible teaches us that parents can have a powerful influence on lives of their children
For example: In the 10 commandments we find this statement:
"I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
In other words, a parent who rejects God, or openly disobeys God can create serious problems for his children, grandchildren, great grand children, and even his great great grandchildren.
But THEN, God promises that if we love God and keep His commandments, he can undo that kind of damage for our lives and for the lives of 1000s of generations of our offspring. God will show love and mercy to those children.
An ungodly parent can create problems for his or her children
BUT a God fearing parent can bring great blessings
ILLUS: I once baptized a man named John into Christ. And John, a divorced father of 3, was very faithful for a long period of time, until he met a new girl and fell in love. She moved in with him. They didn’t marry. They just slept together. And John gradually began to skip coming to church.
I went out to visit with him, pretty sure of what the problem was, and we talked about his relationship with God and how his living with his girlfriend was wrong, and it may cost him his salvation.
He told me how important this girl was to his children, and how (after going thru a nasty divorce before this) he was not about to commit to another marriage right away. Then he made the following comment:
“I don’t care what happens to me (meaning, he didn’t care if he personally made it to heaven or not) AS LONG AS MY KIDS ARE OK!”
It was a foolish comment. Not only was he demeaning his relationship with God, he failed to understand that his actions didn’t just effect himself. His actions had an influence the lives of his children. And I told him as much. I told him about the passage out of 10 Commandments AND I told him about something I had once read out of 1 Kings 11:4, 9-13
"As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been….
The LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods, Solomon did not keep the LORD’s command.
So the LORD said to Solomon, ’Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates.
Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.’”
Did you understand that? Because Solomon had openly disobeyed God… God was going to punish Solomon by tearing his kingdom away from him.
BUT, because his father David had been such a faithful man, David’s faithfulness was like an umbrella of protection covered Solomon’s life.
But, Solomon’s sins hurt his son Rehoboam. The kingdom would be torn from the hands of his son.
What’s interesting though, is this – Rehoboam suffered because of his father’s sinfulness,
…but even then, God was kind to Rehoboam BECAUSE of his grandfather David. God told Solomon "Yet I will not tear the whole kingdom from him, but will give him one tribe for the sake of David my servant…"
As a parent, you have a powerful effect on the lives of your children…
And if you are faithful to God, you create an “umbrella of blessing” that protects them
– even when they make bad decisions
– even if they slip into a life of sin
– even if they break your heart
Your faithfulness to God is an inheritance you give your children that nothing can destroy or take away.
And that inheritance begins right now.
By how you children see you live with God
By how they see you worship Him.
By how they see you obey Him.
By how they see you love Him
They’ll know what kind of God you serve, by how you behave as a parent
And if you love God… and love your children, they’ll see a loving and forgiving God who wants to give them everything He has.
CLOSE: I read about a small boy who was consistently late coming home from school. His parents warned him that he must be home on time that afternoon, but once again he arrived late… in fact, he came in a little later than usual.
His mother met him at the door and said nothing.
His father met him in the living room and said nothing.
At dinner that night, the boy looked at his plate. There was a slice of bread and a glass of water. He looked at his father’s full plate and then at his father, but his father remained silent. The boy was crushed.
The father waited for the full impact to sink in, then quietly took his own plate of meat and potatoes, put it in front of the boy and smiled at his son.
When that boy grew to be a man, he said, "All my life I’ve known what God is like by what my father did that night."
