-Transcript-
00:37 Amen. Welcome to the cafe today. Good to be here.
00:42 Today we are getting into Genesis 31. This is the third part of a three-part message specifically on Genesis 31:1-13.
00:54 As we’ve gone through this message we’ve learned about God’s character, His love, His provision, His protection, the way that He blesses us even in the sight of our enemies.
01:02 As Psalm 23:5 famously puts it, Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil. My cup runneth over.
01:12 The idea of God taking from the wicked and giving it to the just. The idea of recompense or repayment. Wickedness repaid to the wicked and goodness repaid to those that follow Christ which we know is the only way to be good.
01:29 The only way to be good is to follow Christ. That is it. We must follow Him.
01:35 We must live like Him. We must have that Holy Spirit living within us if we want to be good in any fashion. And we’ve looked at when we live for God, you know, the idea that we suffer with the Lord.
01:46 We are partakers in His suffering. We’ll be partakers in the glory to come. Amen.
01:52 And through that we get to this idea that God sees all things happening and He knows when we are praising Him and He knows when we’re not. Amen.
02:01 And that’s how I was getting into starting in part two of this series the idea that when we prepare an altar for the Lord, when we build that altar for the Lord and He sees it, He remembers it and He’ll bring it up again.
02:16 Amen. And great men of God, in fact, three generations from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob all prepared altars for the Lord. Amen.
02:24 To memorialize what He had done for them, the great promises that He had given them. And you know they believed on those promises. The Bible says that they didn’t always see those promises come to fruition.
02:37 Amen. Abraham didn’t see the Israelites leaving by the parting of the Red Sea from Egypt. He didn’t see that.
02:45 Amen. But it happened and they believed. And currently we must believe and we must look at what Genesis 31 teaches us about having faith and trust in an almighty and all-powerful God.
02:59 And not just believing it intellectually, but believing it in our hearts. So much so that we celebrate what God’s done for us and what He’s going to do for us. Do you have joy in the Lord today from what He has done for you and what He’s going to do for you?
03:15 You know those are two ways to be joyful in God.
03:18 To think back on all that He’s done for you. Look back at all that He’s brought you through as you journey in your life, as you take steps of faith, what God has done to bless you.
03:28 And think about where you’re going, where you’re headed.
03:33 Maybe you’re in the valley today and you think about where God is going to bring you. And you know what? It may be on this earth or it may be in heaven. Amen.
03:42 We know to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Amen. And we celebrate that here today.
03:47 It’s a wonderful day today to love the Lord, to praise the Lord, and to study His Word. And that’s what we’re doing here at this third part of this three-part series studying Genesis 31:1-13.
04:00 We are simply praising God and understanding that when we do those things, specifically when we build an altar in our hearts to God, great things happen and He gets the praise.
04:14 Let’s pick it up here. Part 3. Thank you so much for listening. Verse 16.
04:23 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee. Then Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.
04:39 And so we see Abram building an altar unto the Lord. As I understand it, it’s not the first time that Abram had built an altar unto the Lord, but he did this to celebrate what God had promised him. He did this to bring glory to what God was doing.
04:52 He made a visual thing to appear to people so they could also recognize God’s power, sovereignty, and promises to Abraham.
05:04 And Abraham, you know, the chosen child they have very much later on in their life, is Isaac. And we see Isaac doing something very similar.
05:11 Genesis 26:22-25. And he removed from thence and digged another well, and for they that strove not. And he called the name Rehoboth.
05:19 And he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. And he went up from thence to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father.
05:32 Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee. Multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake. And he built, he being Isaac here, and he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there.
05:41 Andthere Isaac’s servants digged a well. And so we see in Genesis 26, about 13 chapters later, after Abraham had built that altar, we see Isaac building an altar. Again, right after a conflict.
05:59 He was in a conflict. He was building these wells, or reopening the wells his father had done. And he was, all kinds of conflict.
06:07 People were fighting him. The Philistines and stuff said it was theirs. They hated him.
06:14 All kinds of issues. He kept having conflicts, and he kept leaving peacefully, and saying, okay, I’ll go over here. I’ll go over there.
06:19 That’s why it said here, in verse 22 of Genesis 26, for now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
06:26 The idea of making room for us was finally that well was bearing fruit, bearing fruit, and nobody was going to take it from him, or dispute it, basically.
06:33 And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there.
06:39 And Isaac’s servants dug a well. They digged him a well. And so we see in Genesis 26, again, God’s blessing.
06:44 And we see God’s blessing, again, digging the well, finding water, having room for it. God gets the glory. Amen.
06:53 Isaac, he didn’t want to have a fight. He didn’t want to have a battle, even though he was a man of God, even though he was blessed by God. He said, I’m going to have peace out here.
07:01 I’m going to be blessed, and I’m going to make an altar here. And so we see, again, Isaac celebrating God’s sovereignty, and providence, and power, and provision by creating this altar here, building him an altar. And just like his dad had done.
07:16 And then we see Jacob, which would be the grandson of Abraham, right? And we see him. And this here is the scripture mentioned. So in Genesis 31:13, God says, I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointest the pillar.
07:31 Okay, so what is that about from Genesis 31, 13? That is here in Genesis 28:10-22. And Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lied upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set.
07:44 And he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven.
07:58 And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
08:03 And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest. To thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth.
08:14 And thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. And in thee, and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
08:22 And behold, I am with thee, and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land.
08:26 For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place. And I knew it not.
08:37 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
08:44 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of the city was called Luz at the first.
08:56 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way, that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment or clothing to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God.
09:10 And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God’s house. And of all that that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee.
09:18 And so we see here Jacob recognizing God’s power, his sovereignty. Again this is when he was leaving. Esau wanted to kill him.
09:26 He’s in a conflict going towards his Laban’s land there to get to find a wife, and he’s on his own. He’s probably scared, and not knowing what’s going on. And God appears to him, and he gets up, and he builds a pillar.
09:41 He builds an altar. So what do these three altars have in common from grandfather, to father, to son? They all show God’s glory. They all show God’s power in the lives of these people, and they all demonstrate that God had made a promise to them.
09:57 And they are like landmarks. They are places that they can go look at and say, bless God. He is so good to us.
10:09 He did this for us. He promised us this. He delivered us.
10:14 We’re coming out of this conflict. We will receive great blessing. We are so thankful.
10:20 Now today I’m not gonna suggest you build an altar, though. I like to see them. You know, if someone builds something beautiful for God, you know, you drive down the road, you see an enormous cross, you know.
10:28 Or one of our neighbors there on Stony Point, as you drive towards Cherivel, they have that white cross in the field. They light it up. Someone took the time to make that nice cross, and then set that light just right, and run power to that light, and set that light on a timer, and all those things.
10:43 It’s beautiful. You see these kind of altars to the Lord. They’re beautiful.
10:48 I preached a message on one, on a sign that said, pull over and pray. I view that as almost like an altar. But what I’m suggesting is, how can we construct an altar in our hearts to God?
10:57 How can we thank God, and memorialize what God’s done for us in our hearts? And then how can we revisit that altar, and give praise to God every day?
11:05 Because that’s truly what it’s about, is giving God the glory, understanding that He is with us, understanding that Genesis 31, that same God that was there with Abraham, and then Isaac, and then Jacob, that same God is here today, and will bless you, and will help you, and will preserve you, and will do all those things that He promises in His Word.
11:27 It’s nothing that I’m making up. It’s everything that’s already in His Word, that’s been promised to those that believe on Him. Amen.
11:33 The Bible is full of incredible promises about what happens when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And for time’s sake, I can’t get into all of them, but He sticketh closer than a brother. He will never leave us, nor forsake us.
11:47 No man can pluck us out of his hands. We are now not just bought by Christ, but we are brethren to Christ. We are co-heirs with Christ to the throne of glory.
11:57 We will rule and reign with Him. Amen. There are so many great promises in the Bible.
12:03 We’ll have perfect peace when we think about Him. He’ll set a table there in front of our enemies, as I mentioned before. He’ll bless us.
12:09 Our couple run over. He’s incredible. And if you’ve lived for the Lord for a day, a year, 10 years, 50 years, you know it’s true that God is so good.
12:20 I’ve never met a true blood-bought Christian that has ever regretted serving God. I’ve only met a true blood-bought Christian that has said, I wish I would have served Him sooner, because it is so sweet to serve God. His yoke is easy.
12:33 His burden is light. He is so good. So how do we construct that altar in our hearts? How do we take this, this pattern that God puts in His Word, not just for historical context, but for us, the believers, to take this pattern and apply it to our hearts?
12:48 How do we take that and give Him the glory? And I don’t know what it looks like for you, but I ask you to pray about that.
12:54 I ask you to spend time in prayer, praying to God how you can create an altar in your heart for Him, for what He’s done for you, and how He’s shown up for you, and how He’ll do it again, over and over again.
13:03 I believe that’s going to bring God the glory. I thank God for everything that He’s done for me, and I thank Him oftentimes for what He’s done for those in our church, and those that may be listening.
13:13 Lord is so good. We have to give Him glory. Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, He is so good.
13:19 He is our all in all. So I ask you now to think about Him tonight. Pray to Him tonight.
13:27 Create that altar in your hearts, so that when you one day go to heaven, when He calls you home in the rapture, when you get to heaven and you see Him, you can thank Him.
13:35 And you can thank Him and say, Lord, I’m thanking you face to face, but I’ve been thanking you for a long time in my heart. I got an altar there set up for all you’ve done for me.
13:43 You are good to me. And God remembered the altar there. Remember, God remembered the altar that Jacob had made for Him.
13:50 He said, I am the God of Bethel where thou anointest the pillar. God didn’t forget, did He? He told Jacob, I remember what you did. And I believe He’ll tell us, I remember what you did there in your heart.
14:00 You set that altar up for me, and you praised me, and you gave me glory. He knows, amen? He desires our praise, and He’s worthy of it. So let’s give Him all the glory tonight.
14:12 I thank you so much for listening. Take care, God bless, and amen.