Why the Lord Must Be Your God
Genesis 28:10-22
In our passage God reveals himself personally to Jacob in a dream. There is no doubt that Jacob knew about God. Certainly Issac, and even Abraham had told him and Esau all about God and the promises that he had given them. But here we see God showing Jacob that those promises were going to be his as well.
Sometimes when people are saved and grow up in church they hear about God, believe in God and are saved but he is never really personally their God. That is there is never a place where God becomes just as real to them as their parents. He may be the God of their parents, but never truly becomes their God in a personal day to day sense. This is why I feel that many leave the church soon after they become an adult.
In this sermon we will look at reasons for why it is important not only to be saved but why it is vitally important that the Lord is your God also.
Why the Lord must be your God:
1) Because Jesus is the only way to Heaven (verses 12-13)
- The ladder in Jacob’s dream is a type of Jesus Christ (John 1:51)
- What man does begins in the dirt and tries to build or work his way to heaven, but as we have seen this does not work. What we needed was someone who could bridge the gap between heaven and earth. That is exactly what Jesus Christ did by being God manifest in the flesh.
- Note that when Jacob awoke from his dream he said that God was in this place and he knew it not. This is the way with God he is working in the lives of lost people all the time trying to get them to turn to him and they know it not (Romans 2:4)
2) You will find yourself in a dark and deserted place eventually (verse11)
- Jacob calls this the time the day of his distress (Genesis 35:3)
- But it is here that God tells him that he is with him and will not forsake him. Note some interesting times that God says this same thing to other people. (Deuteronomy 31:6 ; Joshua 1:5-8 ; 1 Chronicles 28:20-21 ; Hebrew 13:5-6)
- What should you do if you are young still in church and have not reached a place of despair or distress as Jacob has. First note that Jacob says it is a dreadful place. He is experiencing the fear of the Lord. In Proverbs 2:1-5 we see instruction that shows us how we can understand the fear of the Lord. So, the best thing a person can do is to follow those instruction and trust God when the dark times come.
3) You will need a Rock to come back to from time to time (verse 18-22)
- Jacob takes the stone he had used for a pillow and makes a memorial out of it, and he is instructed to go back to this place in the future (Genesis 35:1-15). This is where God changes his name and reaffirms the promises given unto him.
- We like Jacob must have some place where God became real to us that we can go back to it times of doubt and distress.
- Our Rock is not like other rocks (Deuteronomy 32:31)
- In Paul we see a good example of these things. God was real to him and he knew it (Acts 27:22-25 ; 2 Timothy 4:16-18)