Take your Bibles, if you would, and turn to Genesis, the book of Genesis, chapter 35. And I'm gonna introduce this message with some lines written by one of my favorite poets, poet's lady. And it's not about the text this evening, but just to introduce the subject. Annie Johnson Flint once wrote, had you come to the Red Sea place in your life, where in spite of all that you can do, there's no way out, there's no way back, there's no other way but through, then wait on the Lord till the night of your fear is gone. Wait on the Lord with a trust serene till the night of your fear is gone. He will send the wind, He will heap the floods, when he says to your soul, go on. And that's just the first stanza. But I think as you think of that question, have you come to the Red Sea place in your life? Probably most of us, if we've been saved a while, can think of a Red Sea place, a place where we were up against it. And as she said, there's no way out, apparently. The only way is through, and it doesn't seem like that's possible. But God makes a way, sometimes at the last minute. He did for the children of Israel. And so, as you think about it, just think for a minute of that place in your life. There are places in our lives that are important. The place where we trusted Christ as Savior. Most of us can remember that place where The Holy Spirit worked in our hearts to such a degree that we knew we had to get saved right then. Now, that may not have been your experience. It may have been more gradual, but I remember when I was just a child, church service, evening service, much like this, that He began to work on my heart in the afternoon, probably from the morning message, but by the evening service, I was ready to make a profession of faith and went forward. My godly pastor dealt with me at that time, and a few weeks later was baptized. That was a place in my memory that will never fade, I think, until I have no mind at all. But you can think of a place, maybe another kind of a place in your life, When you were saved, but circumstances had piled up, the cares of this world had pressed upon you, and you were not in as close a fellowship with God as you had been before, or as you had wanted to be. And there came a place in your life when you knew that you needed to deal with that situation. I had a similar place, probably there's more than one time when we come to that kind of a place. One of the times in my life I remember is when we were young, newlyweds almost, had just moved to Minneapolis. I was enrolled in a seminary there, and we went to hear an evangelist preach one night. He has preached in our church years ago, But anyway, the Lord just used his message, just like something that crushed my heart. And I probably had, the Lord had been working in my heart already, even on our honeymoon as a young husband. We were moving from North Carolina where we were married, back to Iowa, then up to Minnesota. Just took our time a couple weeks and then I enrolled in school. But anyway, that message that night hit my heart like a thunderbolt and I hit the old-fashioned altar on my knees and restored, was renewed in fellowship like I felt like I needed to be and wanted to be. That's a place in my life. As you know, it's 60 years ago, maybe 55, and it's still fresh in my memory. Maybe you have had a similar experience, a time when you came to a place in your life, even after salvation, where you knew that you had to make a decision and you made that decision and that place lingers in your heart and mind. I want to talk about such a place this evening in the life of a man whose name was Jacob, Genesis chapter 35. Genesis chapter 35, and God said to Jacob, verse 1, arise, go up to Bethel. By the way, Bethel is the most often mentioned city in the Bible outside of Jerusalem. So it's an important Bible place. It was important in Jacob's life and others too. Go up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled'st from the face of Esau thy brother. Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments, and let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went. And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all the earrings which were in their ears, And Jacob hid them under the oak, which was by Shechem. And they journeyed, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were round about them. And they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel, he and all the people that were with him. And he built there an altar and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak. And the name of it was called Elan-Bakath. And God appeared unto Jacob again when he came out of Pedanarum and blessed him. And God said to him, Thy name is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called anymore Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel. God said unto him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply a nation and company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins, and the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac to thee will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land. And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him. And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he talked with him, even a pillar of stone. And he poured a drink offering thereon, and he poured oil thereon, and Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel, or the house of God. It was a place of obedience. It was a place where Jacob, who was probably to this point in his life, though he was redeemed earlier, saved, we would say, saved, he was a saved person, redeemed. But to this point in his life, he was a struggling saint. He struggled with his flesh just like you and I, just like you and me. Struggled, but he struggled for years. His life began with the struggles. He pulled the heel of his twin brother who was Esau, a little bit, born moments before Jacob. And from that moment, he was pulling at Esau until he got his his birthright by conniving or connivory, and finally, and ultimately his blessing that was due Esau, the blessing of the elder. Jacob conspired with his mother, Rebecca, and you know the story, and he got the blessing, and that was coveted. And Esau was so distraught when he realized what had happened through the chicanery of Jacob and his mother that he vowed that he would kill Jacob. That resulted in Jacob's being advised by his mother and father to go down to Pedanaram, where Laban, Rebekah's brother, was. and lived there for a short time. It was actually intended to be just a while. Ended up to be 20 years, and then he came back, and he was on his way back home. But this place here, Bethel, by the way, this is the second time he had come to Bethel. He was in Bethel on his way down to Pedanaram 30 years earlier. I say 30 because he was there in Pedanaram 20 years, and he spent 10 years in and around Shechem before he actually went back to where he started. And on his way back, on his way down, Back in chapter 28, if you wanna just go back there a couple chapters, it says, Jacob went out from Beersheba, this is his flight from Esau originally. This is 30 years before what we're reading in chapter 35. Jacob went out from Beersheba, verse 10 of Genesis 28, and went toward Haran and lighted upon a certain place. By the way, he's all by himself now. He's running for his life basically. And he's totally alone. This is before he meets his beautiful bride. Well, both of them. And so he's, let's read it. He lighted upon a certain place, verse 11, and tarried there all night because the sun was set. And he took up 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 upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God ascending and descending upon it. 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." Can you imagine getting that kind of a promise from God Almighty? He's in a dream, but it's God appearing. God did this in the old days. He appeared in various ways and spoke to his people, and this is a dream, but God is obviously, he's standing above the ladder, it's a stairway that goes up to the gate of heaven, Jacob called it, and speaks to Jacob, who's running, the conniver, the trickster. But he, so can you imagine Jacob's all by himself out there under the stars, probably feeling pretty low at this point, having to leave his homeland. And because of his conniving, having to do that, his brother wants to kill him, his twin brother, and God appears to him with this kind of a promise. And thy seed, verse 14, shall be as the dust of the earth. 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. And behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places. And whither thou goest, and will bring thee again to this land. 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 said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. 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. And Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon it, and called the name of that place Bethel. But the name of the city was called Luz at first. And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, if God will be with me, and will keep me in this way, this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my Father's house in peace. Then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee." So it was in Bethel that he heard from God with this magnificent, superb promise. I'm going to be with you, Jacob, and I'm going to bring you back to your homeland eventually. I will never leave you, and I'm going to give you, I'm going to make of you a great nation. And what a revelation. So he had been there before. And so he comes back. He'd been in Padana Ram 20 years. On his way back, he met a tense meeting with his brother Esau, from whom he'd been estranged, and they sort of made up. And he gave Esau a bunch of presents. bunch of livestock and then urged Esau to go on ahead of him. He said, I've got my family here. I can't travel as fast as you. You go on ahead. And so Esau did after much persuasion. And then Jacob took a little side route and spent another 10 years before he actually decided it was time to go. In fact, he didn't decide, but God said to him in verse one of chapter 35, Jacob, you get up, you arise and go to Bethel and dwell there. and make an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee, when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother." So this is a place of obedience. Notice verse two, then Jacob said into his house, household and to all that were with him, put away now the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments and let us arise and go up to Bethel. And I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went." So it's a place of obedience. Let's go, he says, let's get up and go, and let's get cleaned up, and let's put the strange gods that are among us away, and let's change our garments. So he is obeying God's order to get up and go. What else could he do? I mean, God had been so magnanimous in his treatment of this rascal. But I began this kind of a diversion by saying most of his life up to this point had been one of wrestling with himself. And even with God, we saw in another text, he wrestled with God one night. Of course, God got the upper hand, of course, but That's when God said, you're gonna have a different name, Jacob. Israel, Prince with God. But it didn't stick. He still called him Jacob in this text. It's gonna stick, and if you, we're gonna see that later on as we've already read it. But up to this point, just self, self was on the throne. Some of us could identify with that, surely, in our Christian walk. We are always conscious of the fact that we have that old nature, we have the self, we have a new man, and we can please God by yielding to the Holy Spirit and walking in the Spirit and feeding the new man with the word of God and our walk is with God and it's sweet and it's wonderful, but we can also, if we choose, to walk in the flesh. and to allow the works of the flesh to be manifest in our lives. And they're not very pretty as you read in Galatians chapter 5. And I think as I read the text, much of what Jacob's life to this point was, he struggled with Laban. He said he changed his wages, what, 10 times, 20 times? And they had their conflict. And finally, it got to a boiling point when Jacob said, this is it. After 20 years, I've had enough. We're leaving this place. And they snuck out kind of under the cover of darkness. And so I can identify with it. I have a daily struggle with flesh. I would never say that I've gotten to the point, and I've been saved many years, where I'm walking in the spirit. period. No, it's a daily, it's a moment by moment struggle. But as I read this text for Jacob, it was moment by moment giving into the flesh. But yet he had those promises that God had made. Secondly, not only a place of obedience, it's a place of revival. Notice verses 4 and 5, they gave unto Jacob the people, his family, All the strange gods which were in their hand, remember they left Laban, they left Padanaram with some strange gods. Rachel was hiding some under the camel's saddle or whatever the gear she was sitting on. and caused a lot of problems. She wasn't the only one. Evidently, there were many of the people who had, through the years, gathered strange gods, false gods. And so they gave them to Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, all the earrings which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak tree, put them away. It was not only a place of obedience, it was a place of revival. It was a place of revival. This is revival. When we come to a place in our life when we're ready to recognize there are some strange gods, now we don't have little Handmade things sitting around on our shelves that we worship, made with stone or clay or whatever. Material things like they did, they had literal strange gods, but we have in our hearts, we have in our lives, strange gods. Gods that are strange, gods, small g, gods that are stranger to our God. Strange, strange for a believer to have in our heart. And if I started listing a list, I would probably miss some that are in yours or some in mine. We all have them we deal with. Maybe it's covetousness, maybe it's pride, maybe it's lust, greed, indifference, whatever, whatever, I think it was Pastor Joel said, maybe, or maybe Jonathan this morning, whatever consumes your attention more than most anything else could be a strange God. Could be almost anything. Car, sports, entertainment, food. Strange gods that we harbor in our lives and we need to give up. Francis Schaeffer was an American evangelical theologian I think he's been dead for about 30 years, but he made quite an impact upon the evangelical Christian scene when he was living by his books. He was a philosopher. He was a Presbyterian pastor. He, with his wife, Edith, founded Labrie. Maybe you've read some of their books. But he said this, and I think he died in 1984, so it was before then that he was talking about. He said, we live, we must not forget that the world is on fire. We are not only losing the church, but our entire culture as well. We live in a post-Christian world, which is under the judgment of God. I believe today that we must speak as Jeremiah. By the way, that was true then, it's even more so today. I don't have to recite what's going on in our culture today is all too evident of what's happening before our very eyes, culture-wise. It's a culture that we never dreamed that we would live to see, but it's here, it's amongst us. Jonathan Edwards said this about revival. There are five distinguishing scriptural evidences of a genuine work of the Spirit of God. Number one, Christ is exalted as the Son of God and the Savior of men. The kingdom of Satan, which encourages sin and worldly lust, is worked against. There's a greater regard for the holy scriptures. There's an emphasis upon the spirit of truth as opposed to error. And a new love for God and man is manifested. The key to authentic revival was the fruit that is produced. And in a concluding section, Edward warns his readers not to sin against the Holy Ghost by rejecting that which is the spirit of God. So I think that's significant as we think about the need for revival in our lives personally. Curtis Hudson was another evangelist He was the editor of Sword of the Lord and pastor of a great church in Atlanta. But he made this statement, which I thought was significant, and wrote it down. He said, the church does not need new members as much as it needs old members made new. That's revival when we have old members made new, made new because of our First love that we've returned to, that we've gotten away from. Our love for his word, our love for his person, our love for his church, our love for his people. We need old members in churches, most any church today, I think that would be true. Curtis Hudson said, we need it today. Another person said, revival will come when the thorn Thorn tree of strife is rooted from the heart. When apologies are made for unkind, nasty words and grievances are adjusted in a manner pleasing to God. When the dead atmosphere of indifference and lukewarmness is dispelled by a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit. When there are long vigils of prayer in which the soul is laid bare before God in humiliation and contrition. Prayer is such an important thing. It's important for prayer meeting. when we come together as a spatial group with one mind, one heart, one family, and one prayer, praying that God would manifest his power in our midst. But prayer meeting is not the only time to pray. And it's wonderful if you can spend an hour on your face before God, but most of us can't do that, but we can be constantly praying to the Lord. praising Him in our heart, singing and making a million hearts in the Lord, but also praying as we do whatever we're doing. We can pray while we do just about anything. Talk to God, commune with Him, fellowship with Him. When self-discipline is practiced and self is forgotten in service, self-discipline, that's an old-fashioned concept, isn't it? Self-discipline. Talked yesterday morning at the men's prayer breakfast about Paul saying, he said, work out your own salvation. And the word that he used there, work out, by the way, he lived in a sports immersed world, just like we do today. Every city had a gymnasium. Men went there not only to work out, literally, but also to discuss things and Sometimes preachers, maybe Paul and his cohorts went to a place like that to engage men in discussions about the Word of God and about the Bible. But the word he uses there, work out, is not a casual word. It's like a disciplined runner. He's working out, he's running. He's getting ready for the big race, or he's doing some other, getting ready for the Olympics, or swimming so that he can win the, the swimming contest. So it's a word and it's kind of interesting because when we say, did you have a good workout? We meant how to go at the gym. And he says, workout. I don't, I'm sure he didn't have this in mind, workout at the gym, but we can kind of relate to it because in the next couple of verses he says, I don't want to run. I don't want to run in vain. I want to win the race. So he says, when faith takes hold of God's promises and resists every attack and accusation of Satan, when personal testimony is warm and proven by a holy life, when we attempt great things for God and expect great things from God, when Christians are willing to face opposition, ridicule, persecution, hate, suffering, and shame for Jesus' sake, rather than compromise their conviction or soften their witness against sin. I'm not sure who said that, so I won't even try to guess, but whoever made that list of statements I think was right on target. We are not many, but we are not much. We are many, but we are not much. There's a reason for the disparity between our numbers and our real substance. I don't know when this state was made. We are many, but we are not much. There was a time when we were more. I mean, not just Thompson Road, but churches in America. We've read recent statistics, just recently, where many people that used to claim to be Christians no longer claim to be Christians. And many people who once attended church regularly no longer attend church regularly. You can read the stats yourself, but they're there, and so we, I don't know that we can say that we are many, but we are not much. There's a reason for the disparity, and the reason is not a pretty one. We could pour a lot of verbal perfume over the situation, make the stench of our negligence seem less nauseous, but eventually we must face the ugly fact that our people do not work. By our self-made methods of reckoning, we would be disposed to judge these detached branches as worthy members of the vine, because we mistakenly count foliage for fruit. With monotonous regularity, these members present their bodies not as living sacrifice, but for Sunday morning body count. The problem is not that the churches are filled with empty pews, but that the pews are filled with empty people. Again, I'm not sure who said that. It sounds like Vance Havner, but he was, whoever it was, was right on target. Well, I could go on and on and on about revival. I love to think about it. I love to be stirred in my heart about it. By the way, this has nothing to do with my next thought, but Gary Gilmore, who stood in this pulpit many times, preached revival meetings for us. And when I was in China with Ellen in 2009, Ron White took us to the Far East and we were there, Japan and China, Philippines. Pastor Gilmore, Evangelist Gary Gilmore was the pastor here for five weeks. And I've loved him ever since I've known him, which was in college days. But he has had cancer for the past few years, and that's gone from where it was initially started, I think. But anyway, and he's, the doctor said they could do, they've done all they can do for Gary Gilmore. So I just mentioned that, thinking about revival, ask you to pray for Gary Gilmore. He canceled all of his meetings. And by the way, for a man that's 82 years of age, and has meetings scheduled up ahead, that's pretty good, especially when his friends knew he had cancer. But he's gone to live with his daughter and her family. So pray for Gary, Evangelist Gary Gilmore. I hope you pray for evangelists, the great need that we have, and I appreciate each one. They've all made, God's men have made a great difference in my life. In fact, I felt like God would have me to be an evangelist when I was first called to ministry. and went to Bob Jones and prepared. And even after I graduated from there, I thought that God would put me in evangelism. So I went to seminary, just wanted to be fully prepared, didn't want to be unprepared for whatever was out there, so we went to seminary. And I had a pastor in Minneapolis that said, God doesn't call you to be an evangelist or a missionary or pastor, he calls you to be a servant of his. And He will place you where He wants you to be. You just be willing to go wherever it is. That made a lot of sense to me. So I just said, Lord, I'm willing to be whatever. And I ended up in the pastorate in Wichita, Kansas. And about halfway through that tenure, I wondered if I might have should have stayed in evangelism. or headed that way, but no, I'm just kidding. I would never trade any moment of the pastor for any moment of evangelism. Never, ever, ever. I have loved being a pastor, and I just appreciate the fact that God would use me. Thirdly, number three, a place of renewal. Notice verse six. So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is Bethel, he and all the people with him, and built an altar and called the place El Bethel, house of God's house. I think that would be literal. Or God's house, God, something to that effect, because there appeared God unto him when he fled from the face of his brother. So a place of renewal. He built an altar. He established an altar there in Bethel. By the way, it might be good for us to do the same. If you don't have a family altar, establish one. Maybe you had one and you've let it go by because of the cares of this life. Reestablish an altar. Make an altar in your home, not a literal one, but a place where you gather with your family, It varies from family to family. Have children, might be early in the morning at breakfast if you have that opportunity. Whatever time, maybe it's before you go to bed. And don't make it an hour Bible study. Make it a 10 minute at the most exercise. This is just my opinion. You might want to go 20 minutes, that's fine. But a short, brief time of the word and a time when you can pray and ask God to bless your family, meet needs and be specific. Oh, it's a great, so he reestablished, it's a place of renewal. Fourthly, it was a place of testing. Notice verse eight, and God, but Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, now it'd been 30 years since Jacob had left Beersheba, and so, Rebecca was probably passed on, and when she passed on, the nurse evidently, Deborah, caught up with Jacob. Don't know how long she'd been with him, but she died, and she was buried there beneath Bethel under an oak. Place of testing, because I don't care who it is, when you lose a loved one, and she was a loved one, I'm sure she was loved by Jacob, and loved by Isaac, and loved by, the family, a nurse, probably a lifelong family member, so to speak, and she died. And there was a test right in the middle of revival. Okay. By the way, later on in this same chapter, Rachel died and was buried in the way. Verse 19 to Ephrath. And later on in the same chapter, Isaac died when he was four score years. He was 60 years when Jacob and Esau was born, it says in the Bible. And before Jacob left, he was an old man. He said he was getting old. But he lived to be, what, 180 years. So 120 years he lived after he had his twin boys. It's just an interesting sidelight. It was a place of blessing. This is number five, if you're keeping track. Verses nine through 13, a place of blessing. God appeared to Jacob again when he came out of Pedanaram and blessed him and said, we've read it, we won't read that again, but Jacob, you're not gonna be called Jacob any longer. Jacob connotes struggling, conniving, tricksters, a constant battle for self. That's not gonna be, I changed your name already, but you're gonna be known from here on out as Israel, Prince with God. What a tremendous blessing. And he called his name Israel, indicating there's gonna be a new beginning. There's gonna be a new beginning, and God just reassures his promises. I'm gonna make a great nation of you, a company of nations shall be of thee. Kings, verse 11, the last part. Kings will come out of you, man. Jacob, you're going to be the father of royalty. There's going to be royalty in your line. It doesn't get any better than this. And by the way, God assures it because notice in verse 11, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful, multiply. I am God Almighty. God El Shaddai. Almighty God. You can count on this, Jacob. some promise that's gonna maybe be fulfilled. It's going to be fulfilled. And don't doubt the fact that I will be with you every step of the way. So a place of blessing. And finally, verses 14 and 15, it was a place of consecration. He set up a pillar in the place where he had talked with God. A pillar of stone poured out a drink offering thereon and poured oil thereon. That's just an act of consecration. Paul said, I beseech you, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Present yourself as an offering to God. Well, this is, Jacob was just presenting God an offering. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. When Jacob built an altar back in 30 years ago, back in chapter 28, we read it, but he said in verse 20, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on. Oh, by the way, Jacob went down to live with Laban and his family and had his family there, wives, 12 sons, But he also came back loaded down with material goods. He was very prosperous. Everything he put his hand to, as it were, turned to gold. So God did bless him. But 30 years later, in this vow in chapter 28, he said, if God will be with me. And 30 years later, there's no if there. Jacob set up a pillar. And he poured out an offering to God. There's no ifs, ands, or buts, so to speak. God had been with him. A place of consecration. Fannie Crosby said, consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine. Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope, and my will be lost in thine. Well, I hope you have come to not the Red Sea place, but the Bethel place in your life. If you haven't, this would be a good time to get there right now, tonight. Just say, Lord, boy, I do need revival. I do need to get close to you. I do need to have a family altar. I do need to get rid of some strange gods in my life, maybe in my house even. Help me, oh God, please. Wash me, purge me, cleanse me. I'm gonna change my garments. I'm gonna put on the new man. and walk in the new man. Father in heaven, speak to our hearts this evening. Thank you for these thy people for their attention to your word and I pray that you would take the word because if you don't do that, it'll be just so many words, but you would take this word and drive it by your spirit power into the depths of our hearts this evening so that we will leave here changed and or willing to change. By the grace of God, for the glory of God, in Jesus' name I pray, amen.