This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day 28 of our look together through the book of
Genesis. We're going to look at chapter 28 today. We're in the middle of the
story of Jacob, the story of a man who struggled his way to faith.

You've seen that Jacob is not particular about who he struggles with. He
struggles with his brother, he struggles with his parents, he struggles with his
wives, he struggles with his father-in-law, he struggles with them all. In fact,
he carried this tendency to struggle even over into his relationship with God.

It's interesting. However you happen to relate to people, you tend to carry that
over even into your relationship with God. This struggling relationship is seen
throughout Jacob's everyday life, but we get special insight into the fact that
he was a man who struggled his way to faith in three dramatic encounters that he
has with God that we're going to see over these next few weeks.

The first of these dramatic encounters happens here. These dramatic encounters,
there's going to be an encounter later of wrestling, there's going to be an
encounter later on of blessing, but this encounter, this first encounter that
Jacob has with God, it's an encounter of bargaining. Do you ever struggle with
God with no one in his direction for life, with the willingness to do his will,
with unwillingness to allow the changes to take place in your life or he's
calling to take place in your life?

You and I, we look at Jacob as a man who struggled with God and lost, but that
is the one struggle where losing ultimately means victory. There are some points
where I want to struggle with God because in struggling I find the way to
trusting. Jacob, as we said yesterday, is going to go from bargaining to
wrestling to blessing to trusting, struggling all the way.

And here in his relationship with God, chapter 28 verses 10 to 22, we see the
bargaining Jacob. Let me read those verses. Jacob left to Beersheba and set out
for Haran.

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 he lay down to
sleep. 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.

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. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth
and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the
south.

All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with
you and will watch over you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. " When Jacob
awoke from his sleep, he thought, "Surely the Lord is in this place. " And I was
not aware of it.

He was afraid and he said, "How awesome is this place. This is none other than
the house of God. This is the gate of heaven.

" 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. He called the place Bethel, though
the city used to be called Luz. And then Jacob made a vow saying, "If God will
be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me
food to eat and clothes to wear so that I can return safely to my father's
house, then the Lord will be my God.

And this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house. And all that
you give me, of all of that, I will give you a tenth. " There it is, Jacob, the
bargaining relationship with God.

Who is Jacob here? He's a lonely, fearful young man. He's just left his family
for the first time.

He's going to a land that he doesn't know. He's got a brother behind him who
hates him. He's got lies behind him that have made him run away from his family.

And he's got an unknown future ahead of him. And God comes in that moment and
reveals himself. He reveals himself in this picture of a ladder.

We've heard this old song, "Climbing Jacob's Ladder. " Here it is, right here in
these verses. This is Jacob's ladder between earth and heaven.

And this ladder, this picture, it's really not Jacob's ladder. The song is
wrong. It's God's ladder.

It's a vision of God's involvement in the world that he's connected. Jacob's
ladder, this is what God says to a schemer. God comes and says, "I'm here,
Jacob.

The message is I can meet your needs. " In fact, did you notice how
unconditionally God promised into the life of Jacob his blessing? In verse 15,
"I am with you.

I will watch over you wherever you go. I will not leave you until I have done
all that I promised you. " Unconditional promises.

Jacob hears this and he takes it through his scheming mind. And what does a
schemer say back to God? It's shocking in some ways.

Even after hearing this clear promise, Jacob looks back to God and says, "If God
will be with me," God said he would be with him, but Jacob says, "If he will be
with me, then he will be my God. Not you are my God no matter what. Not you are
my God, I trust you, but if you'll be with me, if you'll bless me, if you'll
keep me safe, here's the bargain, God.

Here's my list. You do all of these things, then I will serve you. " That's a
bargaining relationship with God.

We have this kind of relationship too. God, if you'll make my business
successful, then I will serve you. God, if you'll keep me from illness, then I
will serve you.

You will be my God. God, if you will keep, I know a lot of people have made this
next bargain, God, if you'll keep my kids, my children from trouble, then you
will be my God. But the moment life doesn't work like we wanted it to, and
because of someone's own evil choice, I'm hurt, or my child is hurt, or my
business fails, then God's no longer my God, as if this life is all there is, as
if God is not about eternity.

We only want the God of the moment, the God of the bargain, the God who helps me
to get what I want. I recognize myself, I think we all recognize ourselves in
the life of Jacob here. It's what a schemer says to God, "If God will be with
me, then this will be God's house, and I will give you a tenth.

" No, we've got it all backwards. God will be with me, I am guaranteed, and out
of that, out of that, I do everything I do in my life. Why does Jacob act this
way?

After he'd heard this clear promise from God, why doesn't he accept the promise?
It's all about one word, the word control. As long as I want to be in control,
as long as I want life to run the way I want it to, then I've got to say, I make
a bargain with you, God, you do it my way.

The moment I recognize that God is in control, instead of a bargaining
relationship with God, I have a trusting relationship with God. Here's the
shocking thing, God is not a bargaining God, he is a sacrificing God. God is not
a bargaining God, but he's also not an evil God, he is a sacrificing God.

When we try to stay in control, when you try to stay in control and bargain with
God, you are bargaining with a God who's already given his all for you in Jesus
Christ. This ladder that Jacob saw this day, we are told in the New Testament,
this ladder is a, it's a picture of Jesus Christ. John, chapter 1, verse 51, he
then added, this verse says, he then added, "I tell you the truth, you will see
heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

" Jesus says that ladder that Jacob saw, I'm the ladder, I'm the one that can
meet your needs, I'm the connection between God and man. Whenever I get into a
bargaining relationship with God, as if God wants to keep something from me, I'm
bargaining with a God who's already given his all for me. I'm totally missing
the point of who he really is.

As you and I turn to prayer for these next few moments, I want to pray for you
and for me both, that something new would happen in our hearts, that we'd see
maybe like never before, the kind of God that loves us, the fact that we don't
have to bargain with him because he's given his all for us. Let's pray together.
Jesus Christ, thank you that you are Jacob's ladder, you're God's ladder, you
are the connection between God and man, you're the hope of the world, in you, in
you, Jesus Christ, that all my needs can be met.

Not all my wants, not escape from all troubles in this world, but all my
ultimate needs into all of eternity, they will be met. That promise that Jacob
heard, that promise I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, that is
your promise in my life too. Thank you for that promise, Jesus Christ.

And Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for those times when I bargain with you as if
you're trying to keep something from me. Help me to see you like never before as
a God who has given his all for me so that instead of a bargaining relationship
with you, I can have a trusting relationship, a relationship where I realize
that you are the God who sacrifices for me because of your love for me.

Thank you for your sacrifice in Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus, for your love
for me. In your name I pray, amen.

We're looking at Genesis 29 and we're going to see a schemer meeting a schemer.