Genesis 28:10-19

"Jacob called that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at first."(Genesis 28:19) "Bethel" - it means "House of God." When Jacob had his famous dream of angels going up and down a ladder he realized that he was in a special place; a holy place. He said "This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven."(Genesis 28:17) It was a place where the power of God dwelt in a special way. So Jacob called it Bat El or Bethel - God's House.

But that is not what he used to call the place. He used to call the place Luz. What does Luz mean? Well, I'm not sure. The Bible doesn't identify that name as meaning anything. Although the name Luz is spelled the same as the Hebrew word for almond tree. But neither the Bible nor Bible scholars find any meaning in that. So for all practical purposes the place's name had no meaning. And that's fine because for Jacob it had been a meaningless place.

This is significant. This story is about God taking a meaningless place and giving it meaning. It was God who sent the angels, and it was God who gave the dream, so it was God who gave the place meaning: taking Luz, a meaningless place, and turning it into Bethel, the House of God. Centuries later that place where Jacob slept became a center of worship for Almighty God.

So where was Jacob when all this happened? Geographically he was about ten miles north of Jerusalem. But where was he spiritually? I want to say that Jacob was between Heaven and a hard place.

The hard place was the situation Jacob had gotten himself into. Jacob was on the run from his twin brother Esau who probably wanted to kill him, and for good reason. Jacob had lied and cheated to get what was rightfully Esau's as the firstborn. As you might remember Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob for a "mess of pottage." This pottage was a red lentil stew, so basically Esau had sold his heritage for a bowl of chili. But then Jacob had tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing that was intended for Esau. So Jacob was running from his brother and running for his life. And it appears that he had left in a hurry because he doesn't have any food or a change of clothes.

The place where Jacob spends the night is the epitome of his situation. He is out in the woods. After literally running all day to save his skin he stops to rest. He doesn't have a sleeping bag or a cloak to roll up under his head so he lays his head on a rock. A rock is a "hard place" to lay your head, but that is where Jacob was: on the hard ground with a stone for a pillow.

So where is the Heaven in this situation? Well, heaven comes in a dream. In his dreams Jacob sees a vision of a ladder reaching to Heaven. And angels, messengers from God, are going up and down that ladder. Then God appears to him and says, "I am the God of Abraham your grandfather and the God of Isaac your father. The land you are on shall be yours, and your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. I will bless you and keep you. I, God Almighty, will take care of you."(Genesis 28:13-15)

You can imagine the impact this had on Jacob. There he was in a wilderness, running for his life. He is not sure where his next meal is coming from or whether his brother's men will catch up with him and kill him. Then God lifts him above all that with a vision of glory. Angels, messengers from God going back and forth from Heaven.

Why are they going back and forth from heaven to earth? To do God's bidding. To care for God's people. To preserve Jacob so that God's promises to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and now Jacob will come true.

Jacob was between Heaven and a hard place. His situation was hard - so hard he had to sleep on a rock. But God turned that hard place into a holy place. It would be remembered not as Luz, the place where an exhausted and desperate Jacob slept fitfully on a rock. Instead it would be known as Bethel, the place where Jacob had a vision of a ladder from heaven and received a promise from Almighty God. Not a place of desperation and loneliness, but a place of grace and God's holy provision.

Where are you? Sometimes we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. Like Jacob, we are just one step ahead of trouble. The doctors shake their heads, the accountants say, "You will have to pay the taxes and the penalties," the mechanic scratches his head. Sometimes we are tempted to declare, "If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all." All the options in the situation are bad options. To left is trouble and to the right is trouble. And we feel the only way to go is down. We have all felt like our lives are being crushed between the rocks. But maybe we can also go up, if someone would provide a ladder, then we could rise above the situation.

Maybe it's really Heaven and a hard place that we are between not a rock and a hard place. You know, our God takes pride in making the best out of the worst situation. That ladder that Jacob saw with God's angels running up and down is still here. God still provides for his people in order to fulfill his promises of salvation.

God can turn your Luz into a Bethel, a holy place, if you will let him. Lift up your troubles to God. Let the Almighty, who is bigger than any of your problems, take care of you. If you are stuck between a rock and a hard place God can create a ladder to heaven. And as with Jacob, God will take the hard times of your life and turn them into blessings.

Jacob saw a ladder from Heaven that carried angels back and forth from Glory. I see that ladder too. Every day God's angels descend that ladder bringing blessings for God's people. They come bringing strength to faithful but weary souls. Let them minister to you when you are forced to lay your head on a rock to sleep.

Romans 8:12-25

I am sure many of you are familiar with the character of Annie. Annie was a comic strip and later became a hit musical and spawned a couple of movies. Annie was an orphan in the 1930's. She was unappreciated and even mistreated in the orphanage.

But her life is turned around when she is adopted by a millionaire called "Daddy Warbucks." Overnight she goes from being an indigent orphan to being the adopted daughter of the richest man in the world. She goes from not having enough to eat to having tea with the likes of Elenor Rosevelt. She goes from having to work in the orphanage to having servants at her beck and call.

At first glance that seems to be what Paul is talking about happening to us on a spiritual level. We were once orphans in this world. Because of sin we were separated from the one who gave us life. Our only prospects were death and eternal punishment. We were destined to dwell in sin.

But we have been adopted by God. God sent His Son to pay our debt and free us from sin. And through the Spirit we have been adopted as children of God. We are kids of the King of Kings. Overnight we have gone from being indigent orphans to being the adopted daughter and sons of the creator of the world!

Just in case anyone doubts that adoption God gave His Spirit as proof that we are his children. The spirit prompts our spirit to call God "Abba," Father. This is important. "Abba" is not just any Aramaic word for a patriarch. It literally means "Da-da" or "Daddy." Our relationship with God is like that of a small child who runs to their father crying Daddy, Daddy, Daddy."

I remember when my daughters were small. I would come home and they would run to me calling "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." No one would doubt for a minuet that they were my children. Their childlike spirit was witness to the fact of my fatherhood. In the same way the Spirit draws us to God as a witness that we are children of God.

But there are certain results and consequences to being Children of God. We are heirs. Romans says, "We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." When you hear the word "Heir" you automatically think of money. An heir receives the amassed wealth of the one leaving the fortune.

But in this case we are talking about much more than money. We are heirs to the Kingdom of God! We are talking not about gold and silver and stocks and bonds. We are talking about grace and peace and hope and love. We are talking about power to do good and transform and change people and the world.

If we are heirs to such a fortune why are so many of us living in spiritual poverty? Why aren't we living like heirs to a fortune. Why aren't we just swimming in hope and peace and joy and love. Why aren't we transforming the world and people's lives. I think may of us do not realize the wealth we have received. We say "yeah I am a child of God. God is my Daddy" but we never ask the accountant what we are heirs to. We are heirs with Christ to infinite storehouses of spiritual riches, we should live like heirs.

But being heirs to the riches of Heaven is not always easy. In the context of our being heirs Romans says, "if, in fact, we suffer with Christ so that we may be glorified with him." Like Annie we are heirs but this is real life not a cartoon. There are hardships involved in being an heir to God. We are heirs to a kingdom that is at war with the power that rule this world. We are princes and princesses of selfless love in a world that serves selfishness.

Jesus is the prime example of this. He did nothing but serve his Father and love his neighbor. Yet he was mistreated and maligned and slandered. He healed others but he was beaten and nailed to a cross. He lifted others up yet he was mistreated and lifted up on a cross for other to ridicule.

Paul is also an example of this truth. He was a co-heir with Christ. And like Christ he suffered. He was hunted and imprisoned and beaten and even stoned. Eventually he was beheaded for being a child of God!

And we will suffer in this world. Some today still lose their lives for being children of God. Some lose their jobs or accounts or friends. But Paul, who should know, said that all this is nothing compared to the glory to be revealed in us. This is nothing to compare to the glories of the Kingdom of our Daddy.

That brings us to the next consequence of being Children of God. As Children of God we live in expectation. Romans says, "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God." And we wait with it. The world we live in is a world without hope. It is a world in which injustice and evil rules.

But our Daddy is going to fix that. Our Daddy is bigger than the Devil. The Devil is just a big bully terrorizing this world. But God promised to put the Devil in his place. And all creation is groaning awaiting the fulfillment of that promise.

Romans likens it to a woman giving birth. She experiences pain during child birth. Sometimes that pain can be beyond any pain she has ever known. But she knows that in the end a child is being born. She is willing to go through it all so that she can bring a new life into the world. In the same way we await the coming of our inheritance knowing that the pains of this life will pale in comparison to the glories of God.

You are a child of God. If you have given your life to Christ and accepted him as your Lord then you have been adopted by God. You are an heir to the glories of heaven and a co-heir with Christ. When you heart cries out "Abba Father" that is the Holy Spirit moving your spirit to turn to your heavenly Daddy. When you feel led to pray, to praise, to serve, that is proof that you have been adopted by God.

So live like children of the King. You owe this world nothing. But you owe all you are to God. So serve God and glorify God in everything you do. Share the joy and hope and peace and love that you are as an heir of God have in infinite measures.

Sure, there will be hardships in this life. But those hardships are far out measured by the glories of your Daddy's kingdom. Tell the world that you are a child of God and that they can be to. Say it with me now. "I am a child of God." "And you can be too!"

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Jesus used to like to teach in parables. Sometimes those parables were hard to understand. So one of the disciples wondered, "Why do some people get it and some don't." In response Jesus told a parable that might have gone something like this. The Kingdom is like a man who planted good wheat seed in his field. And at night an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. When they came up the farm hands saw what had happened. They asked the farmer, "Should we go and weed out the fields." But the wise old farmer said "No, you might pull up the wheat too. Wait or the harvest. Then we can separate out the weeds and burn them and gather in the wheat."

Later one of the disciples said, "So we're not supposed to weed our vegetable gardens?" Then Jesus explained the parable. The Messiah sows the good seed of the kingdom and some people believe and become followers of God. But the Devil sows lies that like weeds infest some people hearts and they become followers of the Devil. At the end of time God will send his angels and they will sort the whole mess out. The evil will be burned with the Devil. But the righteous will dwell in eternal light.

There were still some people I am sure who didn't get it after Jesus explained it. But I want to do all I can to make sure you get it. So I am going to need some feedback from you on this one. After each main point in the sermon I make I am going to say "Get It?" If you got it you reply "Got It." Now, if you don't say "got it" with enough enthusiasm, I will know that you didn't get it and I will try to explain further. If you said "Got it" enthusiastically enough I will say "Good!" "Get it?" "Got it!" "Good!"

Jesus is coming again. It's rather simple, but many Christians overlook this truth. I don't know whether we don't like to think about it or what. Maybe we have become so complacent in our waiting that we have forgotten. I mean it has been 2,000 years. Maybe he isn't coming back or at least not any time soon that I need to be concerned about.

But the second coming of Christ one of the central beliefs of the Christian faith. Look at the creeds in the back of your hymnals. It is in every one! It is all through Jesus' teachings. Over and again Jesus says that kingdom of heaven is like something that involves some king or groom or land owner coming back to check on the brides maids or the servants or the farm. He even included it in the prayer he gave his disciple as a model for their prayers: "thy Kingdom come."

Some Christians try to cut this whole second coming business out. But you can't do it. Probably half of what Jesus said was about the second coming. Much of what is in the letters of Paul and the other apostles assumes the second coming and soon! The whole book of Revelation is predicated upon the second coming. Even much of the prophesies in the Old Testament are about the return of the Messiah because they were not fulfilled with his first coming. I mean the nations have not beat their sword in to plowshares and I haven't seen any lions laying down with the lambs and eating straw lately!

If you were to try to cut the second coming out of the Bible you couldn't do it with a scalpel. You would need a chainsaw to get it all. Jesus is coming again just as he left on clouds of glory. And when he comes there will be a harvest. This world is a mixture of good and evil of righteous and unrighteous and Jesus is coming with his angels to gather in the harvest. Jesus is coming again! "Get it?" "Got it!" "Good!"

Jesus is coming again and when he comes he will judge the wicked. I guess this is the part of the second coming that scares most people. We don't like to think of Jesus coming again because he will judge the world. In the parable, the weeds that represent those who do not trust in God are sown among the wheat. We know that unbelievers are living and working with us every day. We don't like to think of God judging our neighbors or even us!

In the parable, the weeds are separated from the wheat at the harvest and then they are burned. Sounds a little too hellfire and brimstone for our tastes. Jesus also talks about there being weeping and gnashing of teeth. I don't want to think of my friends and family members or even myself weeping and gnashing teeth in a fiery furnace.

But what choice does the farmer have. He can't just pull up the weeds without disrupting the growth of the wheat. And if he leaves the weeds there indefinitely they will grow back next year and take over the field. God intended this world to be a garden of grace and love but the Devil has planted hatred. God has to burn the wicked to cleanse the field. So when Jesus comes again he will judge the wicked. "Get it?" "Got it!" "Good!"

When he comes he will also reward the faithful. I think that oddly enough most Christian never get to this point. And I guess preachers are partly to blame. We emphasize the judgment part of the second coming so much that people miss the reward part. In this parable Jesus says that the righteous shall "shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

You remember in the parable the wheat had to live in the same field with the weeds. In the same way the righteous have to live in a world that threatens to choke us out. But it is not without purpose. If we stand firm there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The early Christians I am sure understood this. They faced many hardships. The world around them threatened to choke them out. How long could God allow this to go on? Why didn't God take out those evil people that persecuted them?

This parable answers their questions. God has a purpose allowing the wicked to continue to exist. But the parable also contains a word of hope. There will be a day of punishment for the wicked and a day of reward for those who remained faithful through the trials. Jesus is coming again to reward the faithful! "Get it?" "Got it!" "Good!"

Of course the analogy between the field and the second coming breaks down. You see seeds cannot choose what they grow to be. People however are given a choice. We can choose to put our faith in Christ and become wheat that produces the fruits of the kingdom. Or we can choose to place our faith elsewhere and become weeds that threaten to choke out the wheat.

Which are you? It really matters. It determines what this parable means to you.

Jesus is coming again. When he does he will judge the wicked and throw them in a fiery furnace. But he will also reward the righteous and they will shine with the glory of God. "Get it?" "Got it!" "Good!"

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

Names are very important. They are more than merely a means of distinguishing between people in a conversation. If that were all they were about numbers would do. But people complain and rightly so if they are treated as merely a number and not a name. Names are personal. They not only labels but expressions of who we are. If you say someone is a Hitler you don't mean that they have the name "H i t l e r" you mean that they are and evil person like the famous leader of Nazi Germany. I an sure before the 20th century the name Hitler had no bad connotations to it. But now it means more In the same vein if you say someone is a Mother Theresa you mean more than they are a mother whose name is Theresa. You mean they are a person who loves and cares for the needy.

Let me tell you story about my name. My full name is Scott Alexander Stevenson. Most people are surprised when they find out that my first name is "Scott" because I always go by "Alex." But my father and sister and aunts and uncles and cousins still call me "Scott." Occasionally I will get a phone call and the person at the other end of the line will ask for Scott Stevenson. If I recognize the voice I know right away it is a relative. If I don't recognize the voice it is usually a salesperson.

This brings us to an important point. Simply knowing what a persons name is not the same as knowing that person by name. Have you ever asked a salesperson an innocent question about their product and before you know it they are on a first name basis with you. Now I am usually a friendly person but there can be something manipulative about that. They are just pretending to know you on a first name basis so that they can sell you something.

So why am I rambling on about names? Because God know us by name. The author of Psalm 139 praises God by saying, "O Lord, you have searched me and known me." Then they go on to describe how God knows them. God has know them in their sitting down and their rising up. In other words God has known them in all their action. God has even know their thoughts from afar off.

I have been married almost ten years now. I probably know Melissa better than I know anyone else. But I still can't read her mind. Maybe this is a "guy" thing, but sometimes I think she is almost able to read my mind. But the Psalmist declares that God knows what he is going to say even before the words are formed.

And God's knowledge is not limited by time. Even before we existed God knew us. Even when we were being formed in our mother's womb God knew us entirely. God knew us because God was the one knitting us together as a Mother lovingly knits booties for a baby. It even says that before we were created God had written our days in a book. God's knowledge of us is so awesome that we mere humans are unable to fathom it.

It doesn't surprise me that God called Samuel by name. The Bible tells us that the chief priest Eli and his sons had stopped listening to God. As a result the people were wandering away. But the temple servant boy Samuel was ready to hear. And God knew more than Samuel's name. The Bible tells us that it was by a miracle of God that Samuel had been born.

God knew Samuel inside and out. He knew that Samuel was one who could listen and convey his message to the people. The Sons of Eli would not and Eli was too old to carry on by himself so God called Samuel. The Bible says that Samuel was attending the flame in the temple when God spoke. That flame like the flame on our altar candles was a reminder of the presence of God. So he was doing basically the same kind of thing that our acolytes do.

One night God spoke calling "Samuel, Samuel." It is no surprise that Samuel thought it was Eli speaking. Eli had been like a father to Samuel taking care of him and helping him grow. God's voice must have sounded like the voice of a loving Father. God knew Samuel like a loving father and called him by name.

This same God, who knows us by name, is the God that Nathanael ncountered in Jesus. Philip, who had met Jesus just the day before came to Nathanael and said, "I have found the one. The one that the prophets has said was coming - the Messiah - Jesus of Nazareth." Nathanael was a little doubtful. I mean you know what they say about Nazareth - that nothing Good comes from there. But Nathanael went to see this Jesus fellow anyway.

And when he arrived he was surprised that Jesus already knew him. Jesus knew him by name. He not only knew what his name was, but Jesus knew the kind of man Nathanael was. He was an Israelite without guile. He was a true Israelite: one who truly looked for the coming of the Messiah and strove to be an example to the nations. And their was no deceit in his heart. But that wasn't all. Jesus even knew where he had been before Philip came to him.

"How could this be?" Philip thought. Then maybe he remembered a song from the synagogue. "O Lord you have searched me and known me, you know my going out and my coming in." And in a instant he knew Jesus must be from God because he knew him as deeply as God. And Nathanael said, "Truly you are the Son of God."

God knows you by name. Your Heavenly Father has searched you an known you. God knows your comings and your goings - your ups and downs. God is intimately acquainted with your way of thinking. God even knows what you are going to say before you say it.

Now that's scary. The Almighty is aware of things about me that are so dark that I even hide them from myself. I'm afraid that if others knew me like God knows me they would hate me. But God still loves me. In fact God calls me the serve just as God called Samuel. Each day God calls "Scott, Scott." Not as a mere friends but as a close relative, a Heavenly Father.

God knows you and God calls you by name too! God has searched you and known you. God knows when you come and go. God is even intimately acquainted with what you think. Don't you think it's about time you got to know God - To search out and know God? Don't you think it's about time that you became acquainted with God's comings and goings. And while you are doing that take a lesson from Philip and introduce God to a friend so they can get to know him too!

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