Wherever We Are

Where can we meet God?

Here?

Other places around building.

Cathedrals / churches.

Nature

Maybe where you have your quiet time.

What about your home / place of work / supermarket / football pitch / pub / neighbourhood?

We can be suspicious about whether or not we can meet God in those places or not.

Some unexpected places I have met God

Soup run in Norwich.

Late evening conversations with Lisa.

By a hospital bed.

The Bible makes it clear that most of the time God meets people in the least likely places

Moses - burning bush.

Elijah - at the entrance to a cave.

Zacchaeus - up a tree.

Samaritan woman - at a well.

Peter - on the beach.

Mary Magdalene - in a graveyard.

God often meets people not in holy places like SA halls, churches, chapels, prayer rooms, etc. but in the least likely places.

In ordinary, everyday places.

Schools, homes, prisons, workplaces, squash courts, pubs, fields, football stadia, etc.

It still happens today.

God is here.

Genesis 28:10-22

Genesis 28:10–22 NLT

Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although it was previously called Luz. Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”

MESSAGE NOTES

God meets Jacob in a random place where he is

After Jacob deceives his father Isaac into giving him his brother Esau’s blessing, his mother begs Jacob to flee to his uncle in Haran until Esau has calmed down.

Map

Huge journey - several hundred miles.

This part of the journey - about 60 miles / 3 days walking in.

Genesis 28:11 NIV

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.

“When he reached a certain place” - Hebrew suggests this is a random place.

Convenient stopover.

Not somewhere he sought out.

Didn’t seek to get into the city, or to find lodgings.

A random resting place.

A random stone to rest his head on.

As he lay down for the night, Jacob wasn’t expecting to encounter God

In those days, most people had the idea that when you left home, you left your god behind you.

As far as Jacob knew, Yahweh was three days behind him in Beersheba.

He probably knew of the idea of Yahweh’s omnipresence, but there is no indication in Scripture that Jacob had encountered him either in Beersheba or anywhere else.

His dream suddenly convinces him otherwise

Confronted with Yahweh who oversees the whole earth from heaven, dispatching his angels all over it to do his work.

Jacob astonished to discover God could be discovered miles from home, away from the family shrines and wherever he found himself sleeping.

Jacob learned that day that the dynamic presence of God would be with him wherever he was.

He would never leave him.

Jacob could never go beyond Yahweh’s keeping.

Jacob marks this frontline as an ordinary place where he met God

In the light of his dream and the promise God gives him, Jacob’s response is to rename the place Bethel or “the house of God” because he recognised God was there.

Genesis 28:16–17 NLT

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

He suddenly felt there was something special about this random place.

He had stumbled on the house of God and the gate of heaven.

This became Jacob’s frontline for as long as he remained there

A frontline is an ordinary place that is a touching place between God and his world that may not know his love.

You have those frontlines in your life.

Your home, workplace, school, the hospital, the doctor’s surgery, your neighbourhood.

Jacob’s response is to worship in that place

And recognising God’s presence on his frontline, Jacob’s response is to worship.

Genesis 28:18 NLT

The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.

Marking a place of worship with a stone, and pouring oil on it was well-known as an act of worship in Jacob’s day.

There was something so sacred about this frontline, that Jacob simply had to commemorate what had taken place.

Jacob heard God on his frontline.

God promised he would work out his purposes through Jacob just where he was.

This ordinary, random place.

Jacob would make a difference in this place.

In response, Jacob pours oil over the place, and whether he knew it or not at the time, symbolised how he would pour out his life in devotion to the Lord.

We are called to do the same on our frontlines

To mark wherever we find ourselves this time tomorrow as a place where heaven touches earth, where God’s presence can be found, and his will be done.

And to pour out our lives there in a worship offering to God:

Philippians 2:17 NLT

But I will rejoice even if I lose my life, pouring it out like a liquid offering to God, just like your faithful service is an offering to God. And I want all of you to share that joy.

God met Jacob in this ordinary place in a dream - Maybe we too need to slow down to see God’s presence on our frontlines

As we think about the places we will be this time tomorrow, I wonder if there is a significance in Jacob experiencing God in a dream?

In the ancient world dreams were simply accepted as a way that God chose to speak with people.

God may choose to speak to you in your dreams, or he may not.

But I think what this event does show us is that God often speaks to us when we slow down enough to listen.

Jacob had been walking for three days.

He was so tired he could even fall asleep with his head on a stone for a pillow.

He was on the run from his brother.

But finally he stopped.

He was in a place and a posture where he could be more aware of God’s presence.

Francis Thompson was Victorian Catholic mystical poet.

He also spent time as a rough sleeper in London.

And he slowed down enough to see where heaven was touching earth on his frontline.

Able to pen these lines:

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)

Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss

Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder

Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,

Cry,—clinging to Heaven by the hems;

And lo, Christ walking on the water,

Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

God is present at Charing Cross station.

He can be found on the Thames!

And he is on your frontline too, if only you slow down enough to see and hear him.

Perhaps you can slow down tomorrow as you go through the door to your frontlines - into the places you find yourselves during the week - by pausing to pray for that place and the people you encounter there.

Perhaps you can go - maybe for the first time - with an expectation that you will encounter God in those places and that God can be and is at work there.

Perhaps as you enter those places you can commit to God as Jacob did that you will seek to join him in whatever he is doing there.

Let’s take the opportunity to worship God wherever we find ourselves this time tomorrow

Video - FS Service 2 | 2:00

God promises to care for you wherever you find yourself this time tomorrow.

He will be with you wherever you spend your time this week.

He will bring you safe back here next Sunday as we gather to worship him and to support and encourage each other on our frontlines.

What can we do but respond by affirming our faith in God.

By seeking to worship him in all those places we find ourselves.

And by honouring God alone in those places and seek to bring glory to him wherever we are.

Prayer

Lord of all creation, thank you that our everyday, ordinary places matter to you and we make a difference there. 

We offer to you the places where we live, work, study, and play. 

May we serve you and bear witness to you wherever we are this week. 

And may we know your presence with us in these places. 

Amen.