Being Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

Intro

You know we are in the thick of summer

summer growing up for me

always meant sleepovers

late nights

video games

man hunt

ding dong ditching

trips with friends

and I remember when I was living out in california in my high school years my friends and I would always go on a trip

well rather I would join my friend and his family and we would take their RV out to the”river”

this river is in Arizona

it leads to Havasu

it’s amazing

it cuts through canyons

there’s rock formations everywhere

the river has nice beaches so we would pull up our RVs and unload boats and jet skis and anchor them near the beaches

this was in the middle of the desert which meant it got upwards of a 110 degrees each day

but the river ooooh

the river was cold as ice

it was amazing

each day would be full of wakeboarding

tubing

water skiing

fun times

and at night we would have campfires play games

talk

it was always fun

but there was this one night we wanted to do something extra

instead of sleeping in our RV we wanted to sleep under the stars

and since we were afraid of snakes in the sand

we agreed on sleeping on a boat

our friends really really big nice boat

now remember the boats arent on the shore

they’re anchored some 10 yards away from the beach floating in the water

and since it’s a desert it gets really cold at night

so we were not about to swim out to the boat with our sleeping bags

but we did find a tube

and we found some rope

and we found a stick to dig into the sand as an anchor

so we lassod the one side of the rope over into the boat and made a pulley system where with shifts we could have one person pull themselves to the boat and then shove the tube back for the next person

we all made it to the boat

listened to music

stared into the vastness that is the heavens and fell asleep

when we awoke just after dawn

we packed our stuff up and we ready to get on our tube pulley system and head back to shore for breakfast

but we had an issue

over night the tide rises

even on a river since it was very broad

and when the tide rose

it pulled on our stick and our tube

and it came free sending our tube down the river never to be seen again

and since the sun just got out it was still pretty flipping cold out

and the water was even colder

I have no felt such despair as I did in that moment

no amount of yelling could make our tube appear or any tube for that matter as the one we lost was the only one anyone brought

and we didnt have keys to the boat to ground it on the beach

and so with pain in our eyes and hopelessness lost

we jumped into the freezing water

shrieked and floundered towards the beach

walked towards the RV ashamed and embarrassed and frigid

and as soon as we turned the corner that headed up from the beach we saw rope and we saw our stick and we saw our tube

and we soon discovered that my friends older brother watched us with our system

and im sure with a smirk on his face decided that it would be better if we swam back in the morning

the way back was awful

but the sleep from that night was amazing

today I want to look at someone who’s main lesson came from sleep

a man who I love to learn about/ preach about

a man named Jacob

and in this scripture we’re about to read I believe there are super practical applications that we can begin to put into our daily lives on a regular basis.

there’s two main things I want to pull from this text that I believe the Lord wants us to look at

The New International Version Chapter 28

10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 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. 12 He 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. 13 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. 14 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. p 15 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.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, d though the city used to be called Luz.

I want to talk to you today on two points from this idea of being comfortable with the uncomfortable

the preparation

and the purpose

In order to understand the text we need to look at the context

Jacob from the very moments of his life to this day has lived up to his name

you see his name means heel grabber

trickster

deciever

and he’s done things to prove this

he tricked his brothers birthright since his brother Esau was the firstborn

and just before this text he stole his brothers blessing from their father as the firstborn

and he’s on the run

I want to talk about being comfortable with the uncomfortable