This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit series.
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Genesis chapter 28, if you'll turn there with
me please.
Genesis chapter 28, pouring oil on your pillow.
Pouring oil on your pillow.
Now this is a message for Christians, for
people who have come to God.
Maybe you have been saved only a short
period of time and others may have been
saved for quite a period of time.
But you find yourself in a very, very
difficult place.
I'm going to believe that God is opening
a doorway today to show us where that
place of victory really is in the midst
of difficulty.
And I believe that people are going to
be set free this afternoon.
Now, Father, I thank you for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
Holy Spirit, you have already moved in a
powerful way in this gathering time today and
you have released captives.
Lord, you've given hope to those that were
discouraged and cast down.
And now, Lord, you're going to come with
your word and seal the work that you
have done in this house today.
Father, I ask for an unction, Lord, that
you would go forth through my life.
God, that you would bless the people that
you have gathered here today.
Lord, I ask it in Jesus name.
Amen.
Genesis chapter 28, a story about Jacob, man
in the Old Testament, beginning at verse 10.
And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went
toward Haran.
And he lighted a pond or he came
to a certain place and tarried there all
night because the sun was set.
He took up the stones of that place
and put them for his pillows and laid
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.
And behold, the angels of God descending and
descending on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it and
said, I am the Lord God of Abraham,
thy father, 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, 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.
And behold, I am with thee and will
keep thee in all the places where thou
goest and will bring thee again into 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.
He was afraid and said, How dreadful or
awesome is another word for dreadful there.
How dreadful is this place.
This is none other but the house of
God.
And this is the gate of heaven.
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.
In other words, for Bethel is the house
of God.
He called the name of that place the
house of God.
Now, Jacob was in a hard place.
Jacob had deceived his father.
He had stolen the blessing from his brother
Esau.
And now, because of Esau's anger and his
wrath, he was forced to flee for his
life.
Jacob was in a very, very difficult situation.
And that night he laid down and took
a stone from that place that he was
in and he put it in place for
his pillow.
Now, certainly that stone was a nagging all
night reminder of his predicament.
There are many, many people who go to
bed at night in hard and difficult places.
Sleep is infrequent and uncomfortable as the pain
of past failure and present disappointments and fears
sometimes make the dark times seem as if
they will never end.
And folks, I believe that there are some
people here that are in that place right
now, a place like Jacob was in.
And maybe it's because of some past sin.
Maybe it's because of something that you need
to turn away from today.
And maybe it's just a circumstance that's come
your way.
You have no control over it.
You don't know what to do about it.
And no matter how you try to fluff
up a stone at night, it's still a
stone.
And even though you may go to bed
at night and you put your head down
on a pillow, that pillow is a hard
place because in that place there's pain.
And there's a cry in your heart.
And you say, God, will I ever get
the victory over this situation?
Will the pain that I'm experiencing ever end?
Has anybody ever been in a place like
that?
But it's in this dark and difficult place
that God begins to reveal himself to Jacob.
Folks, the dark places are only dark if
we don't see God in the midst of
it.
If we fail to understand that sometimes His
purposes are being worked out in places for
us and through us and in us, in
places that we're not aware of and places
we'd rather not be in.
But it's in those places sometimes that we
have the greatest revelation of Jesus Christ and
the greatest growth as a Christian begins to
take place in us.
It was in a place like this that
the Lord revealed himself to David.
You remember in Psalm 18, verse 5, David
said, The sorrows of hell compassed me about.
The snares of death prevented or confronted me.
And then he goes on to say, In
my distress, I called upon the Lord and
I cried unto my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple.
My cry came before him, even into his
ears.
He bowed the heavens, in verse 9, he
says, and came down and darkness was under
his feet.
Now, in verse 12, in this place, Jacob
lays down in this place of difficulty and
God begins to reveal himself to Jacob in
a dream.
In verse 12, he says, And he dreamed,
and behold, a ladder set up on the
earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven.
And behold, the angels of God ascending and
descending upon it.
Now, what God was showing Jacob is simply
this.
He was revealing himself to Jacob as a
father who is not indifferent to the daily
happenings of his creation.
Rather, he is in complete control and he
is actively involved in the affairs of man.
One of the very first things the devil
will try to do when you're in a
hard place is he'll try to come to
you and say, somehow God has forgotten about
you.
God doesn't care about your situation.
God has turned his back or turned his
face away from you and he's not interested
in what you're going on.
You're just going to have to go through
this all by yourself.
And certainly the enemy may have been coming
to Jacob and talking to him about some
forebodings that were coming his way.
But that night, in that place of difficulty,
heaven was open.
And God began to reveal himself to Jacob
and said, I am not indifferent to your
circumstance.
I'm not indifferent to the plight of those
who are on the earth.
I created it and I am still in
absolute control.
And every day I am actively involved.
There were angels ascending and descending from that
place where God was.
Psalm 34, verse 15 says, The eyes of
the Lord are upon the righteous and his
ears are open to their cry.
The writer of Hebrews chapter one, verse 14,
speaking about angels, he said, Are they not
all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to
them who shall be heirs of salvation?
God showed us the depth of his love
by sending his son, Jesus Christ, his only
begotten son.
And through him, he made us for us
a way to escape the penalty of sin
and to make an entrance for us into
heaven.
In John chapter one, verse 51, when Jesus
was talking to Nathanael, he showed that he
indeed was the fulfillment of what God had
revealed to Jacob in that hard place.
Because he said to Nathanael, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He said, Hereafter, you shall
see heaven opened and the angels of God
ascending and descending upon the son of man.
Jesus Christ is God's absolute fulfillment of his
caring for you and I.
He sent his son, Jesus Christ, and it's
in him.
It's through him.
It's because of him that we have hope
in dark places.
It's because of him that we have life.
It's because of him that we have light.
He was saying, You'll understand that I am
the fulfillment of God's caring for you.
All you need will be found in me.
And folks, I want to tell you something.
No matter what kind of a situation you
might be going through this afternoon, all you
need is found in Jesus Christ.
If you're going to cry for something, don't
cry necessarily to get out immediately of your
situation, but say, Lord, show me yourself in
the midst of my situation.
Give me a revelation of yourself.
Give me an understanding, O God.
You spoke like Jacob knew the promises that
were given to his grandfather Abraham and then
to his father Isaac.
He knew that there was a promise that
I'm going to bless you and you are
part of a seed that through you, I'm
going to bless all of the nations of
the world.
But yet he was in a difficult place.
And many of us come to Christ and
we open the Bible and we see all
of the magnificent promises that God gives to
us.
And then before you know it, it seems
like we've got our head on a stone
and we're in a place of such difficulty,
such incredible pain, such a misunderstanding of even
the purposes of God.
And we say, God, how is it possible
that you can be in this thing?
And Lord, what good could come from this
thing?
And instead of belaboring the situation we find
ourselves in, we need to begin to pray,
Lord, reveal yourself to me in the midst
of this.
You have a plan.
You have a purpose, God.
Show me.
And as Jacob was dreaming now in verse
13 in Genesis chapter 28, he saw the
angels ascending and descending, showing that God was
actively involved.
There was a plan that was unfolding.
God was saying, I'm not a distant God.
I'm not far away from your situation, Jacob.
I know exactly where you are.
And I'm showing you that I have a
plan.
And right now where you're sleeping, right in
your hard place, this plan is going.
You see angels ascending and descending.
My plan is moving forward just as I
ordained that it should move forward.
And then in verse 13, he saw God
standing.
And behold, the Lord stood above it.
And he said, I am the Lord God
of Abraham thy father, the God of Isaac,
and of course, the God of Jacob.
He was Jacob.
And he says, in effect, he was showing
him, I am above your circumstance.
I'm standing higher than anything that can come
against you.
I'm higher.
Jacob, I've got a plan for your life.
The enemy will come against you on this
side, but I will counter him on this
side.
I am higher.
Jesus Christ, this very afternoon, no matter what
circumstance you're in today, he has risen from
the dead.
He triumphed over the powers of darkness.
He sits now at the right hand of
power and authority.
He ever lives to make intercession for you.
He has not forgotten about you.
He is not unaware of your pain.
As a matter of fact, the scripture says
he touched with the feelings of your infirmities
and has said to you, come into my
presence, walk with confidence and assurance and right
before my throne.
I'm there to help you in your time
of need.
I'm higher than your circumstance.
I'm more powerful than all of your enemies.
Trust me, even when your natural mind can't
reason what is going on in your life.
Then he says, the land where you lie
on, he said, I'll give it to you.
To thee will I give it and to
thy seed.
In other words, he's saying, I'm going to
give you victory over the place of your
trial, both to you and to your children.
Hallelujah.
I thank God for that with all of
my heart.
I remember the day when the enemy came
against me and tried to tell me that
he was going to take my children.
He tried to tell me, Carter, you're going
to preach the gospel and maybe hundreds will
get saved.
He said, but I'm going to take your
children.
I'm going to take them away from you.
But then God opened up to me a
promise.
Just let me read it to you in
Psalm 112, a promise that the Lord made
so very, very real to me.
He says, Praise you, the Lord.
Verse one.
Blessed is the man that fears the Lord,
that delights greatly in his commandments.
And I know that I walk in the
fear of God and I know that I
delight greatly in every word that's written in
this book.
And so every blessing that's written in Psalm
112 is a promise for my life.
God began to speak to me in verse
two.
He says, His seed shall be mighty upon
the earth and the generation of the upright
shall be blessed.
Hallelujah.
His seed shall be mighty.
In other words, it doesn't mean that they
will govern nations, but it means my Holy
Spirit will be upon your children.
Not a mightier pathway, not a mightier plan
than to have your life a channel of
the living God working through you, giving life
to those who sit in darkness, giving strength
to those that are weak.
And based upon this particular verse of scripture,
I have the authority now to sit at
my table in my house and say to
my children with a loving heart, You will
not be mediocre people.
God has promised me because I love him
and I walk with him.
God's promised me that you are going to
be mighty upon the earth, that he's going
to use your life, that he's going to
flow through your lives and you're going to
be a channel of blessing.
That's what God said to Jacob.
He said, In that hard place that you're
in, He said, The land that you're lying
on right now with your head on a
stone, I'm going to give it to you.
I'm going to give you victory over your
circumstance and your situation, and I'm going to
give it to your seed too as well.
God is so faithful.
Folks, it doesn't matter necessarily if your children
are still at home.
I've shared this here from this pulpit before.
I know there are some men, some women
here.
You say, Pastor, how can this apply to
me?
I've lost my children.
My marriage broke up long ago.
I don't even know in some cases where
my sons and daughters are.
Folks, that promise that's here is not conditional
on that.
God says, You fear me.
You walk in truth.
You love this book and I'll do this
for you.
Folks, there's a natural desire in your children's
hearts to turn, especially to the fathers.
Isn't that what the prophet Malachi said?
Before the day of the Lord comes, the
spirit of Elijah is going to come and
turn the hearts of the fathers to the
children and the children back to the fathers.
Lest I come and smite the earth with
a curse.
It's in the heart of children to want
to follow their fathers.
Hallelujah.
And then in verse 14, He says, Thy
seed shall be as the dust of the
earth.
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.
He says, I'm going to bring you through
your trial.
You will grow in grace and knowledge.
And many will be blessed through what I
am about to do in your life.
Hallelujah.
Verse 15, he says, Behold, I am with
thee and will keep thee in all places
where thou goest and will bring thee again
into this land.
I will not leave thee until I have
done that which I have spoken to thee
of.
You talk about an incredible promise.
Now he's giving this to Jacob by revelation.
Even though you're laying in a strange place,
you've got your head on a stone.
He said, I am with you.
I will not leave you.
I've made you a promise.
And I'm going to bring this promise to
pass in your life and in the lives
of your children.
Hallelujah.
I will keep you in every place that
you go.
And Jacob awaked out of his sleep in
verse 16 and said, Surely the Lord is
in this place.
And I knew it not.
In other words, he's saying, Lord, I failed
to see this as part of your plan
for my life.
You were in this place.
Lord, you brought me to this place.
You see, God brought Jacob to this place
because he had to deal with some things
that were in his life.
His plan was unfolding.
And there are many, many people when they
get into trial and difficulty, they begin to
cry out and even, in fact, blame God
for something that's going on in their life.
But if they would really take a moment
and say, Lord, give me revelation of what
it is that you're doing.
The Lord would say, I brought you into
this place.
I brought you into this place to fulfill
my plan in your life.
I have a plan for you and I'm
going to teach you something and I'm going
to bring you into some hard places and
I'm going to press you sore.
Like the Apostle Paul said, you're going to
be pressed down, sometimes even despairing of life.
Those who say that you come to Christ
and it's just a great big party from
the time you get saved till you go
to heaven don't know God.
They've never walked with God.
They don't understand the principles of God and
the ways of God.
You know, God will take you if you
really want him with all your heart.
God will take you into some hard places.
There will be nights when your pillow seems
like a stone.
There will be nights of confusion and nights
of isolation, nights and times when you don't
understand what God is doing in your life.
But if you have entrusted yourself to him,
if you have come to him and say,
Lord, I surrender my life to you.
There's a plan that God's unfolding.
He is the potter.
We are the clay.
He knows what needs to be done.
He knows our pressure points.
He knows where he has to press, how
he has to mold, how he has to
form us so that we can be a
vessel of honor for his name.
So that we can come through refined, purified
by the very touch of the master's hand.
That we can stand not with our own
strength, but in the strength of the risen
Christ.
Having in ourselves something that is not given
to those that walk in self-will and
in self-effort.
Jacob awakes and the time of true victory
for the Christian who's in trial is the
time that faith awakens in your heart and
in your life.
Oh folks, Jacob says, God, you were in
this place and I knew it not.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
There is a faith that God is looking
to birth in our hearts.
Folks, anybody can walk with God when things
are going good, can't they?
When there's fair sailing.
But there's only a few apostle Pauls around
that when the storm comes and the ship
begins to fall apart, can stand in the
midst of all the confusion and say, I
have been with the Lord.
And an angel of God has talked with
me and this is what we're to do.
You see, because Paul was not a man
who walked by his sight anymore.
He walked by faith.
And folks, that doesn't come unless we go
through trial.
It doesn't come unless God puts us in
places where we can't see his hand, but
we have to believe that he is doing
something.
Oh Lord, Jacob says, I see now that
you are in absolute control of everything.
You love me.
You will never leave me.
You will never forsake me.
Give me the eyes of faith to understand
what it is that you're doing in my
life.
In verse 17 says he was afraid and
said, how dreadful or how awesome is this
place?
This is none other but the house of
God.
This is the gate of heaven.
This is the way to eternal life.
This isn't the revelation that God was giving
to Jacob.
Lord, I am on your pathway.
Folks, because you're in a time of trial
this afternoon doesn't mean that you are off
the pathway of God and don't for one
minute.
Now, if you have willful sin in your
life, that's a different story.
But I'm talking to Christians.
I'm talking to people who love the Lord.
I'm talking to people who want to walk
with God.
And all of a sudden, it seems like
everything is dark all around you.
It seems like you're fleeing and seems like
you're sleeping in such a hard place.
And all of a sudden, heaven begins to
open and say, God, this is an awesome
place that you have me in right now.
You are forming your character within me.
Your hand is upon my life.
Even though you press me sore, even though
I can't understand it, God, something is happening
in my life.
And I know in my heart that I'm
going to come out of this a different
man, a different woman, a different person, a
different father, a different mother, a different employee.
Thank you for the hard places.
Folks, I want to tell you something.
I believe that I have grown and measured
over the years as a Christian, but I
have not grown in the easy places.
I have grown in the hard places.
I have grown when God has pressed me
sore.
I've grown in places where I've despaired even
to be able to go on another day.
I've gotten to a day, a time in
my life when the Holy Spirit would speak
to me.
I'd tell him I can't go on anymore.
I can't do it anymore.
And he'd say to me, can you do
it for one more day?
And I'd say, Lord, one more day.
He says, then do it for one more
day.
The next day he'd say, can you do
it for one more day?
I'd say, God, in your strength, one more
day.
I didn't understand the trials.
I didn't understand why it was pressing me
down, but I understand a little bit more
of it today.
And it's given me hope for the future
because every time a hard place comes, I
say, Lord, I know that I love you.
I know that I'm in your hand.
If you're trying to show me something in
my heart that I can't see, I trust
you.
I trust you.
I believe that I am in the Father's
hand and no man can take me out
of that hand.
I believe that with all of my heart.
How awesome is this place?
Lord, how awesome is this place?
Hallelujah.
It can be dreadful too at times.
Maybe that word is more appropriate sometimes.
How dreadful is this place?
How dreadful.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth
and the life.
John 10, 9, he says, I'm the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and go in and out
and find pasture.
In John chapter one, two of the disciples
of John began to follow him.
And as he turned to them, he said,
what do you seek?
What seek you?
They said, where do you live?
Where do you dwell?
He said, come and see.
Come and see where I live.
There's something in the heart of all of
us.
Say, Lord, where do you dwell?
Where do you live?
He says, come and see.
Come and follow me.
Now, in Luke chapter nine, verse 57, a
certain man said to him, Lord, I will
follow you wherever you go.
I will follow you.
And he replies to him saying, foxes have
holes, birds of the air have nests, but
the son of man has nowhere to lay
his head.
Will you really follow me everywhere I go?
He was saying, this is what in effect
he was saying.
I have no certain dwelling place that you
can see with the natural eye.
You can't see where I live.
He said, my dwelling place is in the
care, the custody, the will and the keeping
power of my father.
If you want to know where that is,
you have to come and follow me and
see for yourself.
You have to go to places where there's
nothing more than a stone that you can
lay your head on.
But in the midst of that stone, you're
going to begin to understand in the midst
of your trial.
I don't dwell in houses made with hands.
Jesus was saying, come and see where I
live.
I live under the care of the father.
I live out in the open field.
I live in the garden with my friends.
I live in whatever house will have me.
I live in wherever place they open the
door and say, come in.
That's where I live.
Come and see.
Come and learn about the faithfulness of my
father.
Come and walk with me and see that
even in the midst of trial and difficulty,
he's still with me.
Even when I have to go into a
garden and die to my own will, he's
still with me.
Angels came down into that garden and ministered
unto him.
Just like God showed to Jacob, the plan
of God was unfolding through his son, Jesus
Christ.
There's angels ascending and descending, coming down into
the garden and saying, this is my beloved
son.
Hear him.
This is my son.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.
Come and see where I live.
Come and see where I dwell.
He dwells in the hard places.
He dwells in places that nobody else will
go.
I remember one day just turning to a
chapter of scripture and just matter of factly,
the writer of the New Testament just records.
And Jesus was found in Simon the leper's
house.
I want to ask you, folks, how many
people went to eat at Simon the leper's
house?
I would bet you they're not too many.
And Jesus said, I go and I dwell
where nobody else will go.
I live in the hard places.
Come and see.
Come and see where I live.
Come and follow me.
Come walk with me and I'll show you
some things.
I'm going to lead you into some hard
places and you're going to learn what I
had to learn.
Though he were a son that says yet
learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
Come and learn of me.
I'm meek and lowly of heart.
You shall find rest for yourselves.
You come and walk with me and you
begin to see that I dwell in a
place of absolute protection.
I dwell under the loving hand and guidance
of my heavenly father.
Now, Jacob was about to be taken on
a journey.
On that journey, he was going to learn
some things.
See, Jacob was a swindler and he was
about to meet up with Uncle Laban, who
was a greater swindler than he was.
He was about to find out that there's
a little bit of pain associated with the
things that he thought were just natural for
him to do to others were about to
be done to him.
He was about to experience God's protection, too,
in that place of difficulty, because when he
got up and said, I've had enough of
this, I'm going home.
And he started heading back.
Uncle Laban came after him to do him
harm.
But God met him and God said, you're
not going to touch him.
You don't touch that man.
He's chosen.
He's a chosen vessel of mine.
He also knew was going to be led
to a place where he was going to
be purified.
He had a river he had to cross
in order to come back home to meet
up with his family again.
And that place was called Jabbok.
He had to come to that river.
And it was at that place that he
wrestled with God.
And he said, and then God looks him
in the eye.
He won't let him go.
He began.
He said, Lord, I can't go back until
you bless me.
I can't go back to you.
Change me.
And he wrestles with the messenger of God.
The messenger of God looks him right in
the eye and says, what is your name?
What is your name?
I love that portion of scripture.
And he says, Jacob.
He says, Swindler.
That's what my name is.
He says, now you're on the right road.
You're beginning to deal in truth now.
He says, your name is no longer going
to be Jacob, but your name is going
to be Israel.
Hallelujah.
You have prevailed and you have power with
men and with God.
Now, as the journey begins.
The journey begins verse 18, when we take
our hard places and turn them into an
altar.
Folks, we can't follow Christ until we're willing
to do that.
Now, listen to me carefully.
Jacob rose up early in the morning and
took the stone that he had put up
for his pillows and set it up for
a pillar and poured oil on the top
of it.
He called the name of that place Bethel.
The journey begins if we want to follow
Christ and learn about him and have informed
in us when we take our hard places
and we turn them into an altar.
We don't try to get out of them.
We don't blame God for being in them.
We don't look around to blame somebody for
what's happening to us.
But we say, Lord, I've given my life
to you.
Your hand is in this.
Surely God was in this place.
And I didn't know it.
Jacob said, your hand is in it.
And so you say, I dedicate this place
to you.
I surrender it to your purposes.
He took oil and poured it on the
stone that had been his pillow.
And that oil represented simply this.
Lord, you have a divine appointed purpose in
it that I may not understand.
But I submit it into your hands and
I release myself to your care.
This is where we begin to learn about
Christ.
This is where the nature of Christ begins
to be formed in us.
It's when faith comes alive and say, God,
I'm going to go home.
I take this marriage situation and I'm going
to pour oil on it.
Now I'm talking about a spiritual application.
I'm going to pour oil on this.
And God, I don't fully understand.
But Lord, I'm trusting that you're going to
bring your purposes to pass in this situation.
Some situations are as varied as the number
of people that are here this afternoon.
But I want to tell you, you begin
to walk in Christ and begin to understand
Christ when there's a willingness to take that
situation and dedicate it completely to God.
That's what a sacrifice of praise is all
about.
That's why many people come into the house
of the Lord and are unable to worship
God.
It's because you haven't taken your hard situation
and given it to him.
And so you come into the house of
the Lord and all that's before you is
why, God?
Why, God?
And you can't worship him when you're saying,
why, God?
Or how, God?
How am I going to get out of
this thing?
How am I going to get away from
this?
And we come in and we can't bring
that sacrifice of praise because we have not
taken that situation and built an altar around
it and said, Lord, I give it to
you.
And then we can come into the house
of the Lord and say, faithful God, all
powerful God, majestic God.
I don't understand it, but I don't have
to.
I know there's a purpose in it.
This is the end of side one.
Chapter 8, verse 28 says these words.
And we know that all things, all things,
all things, good things, bad things, easy things,
hard things, things we understand, things we don't,
all things work together for good to those
who love God and are called according to
his purpose.
Now, look at verse 35.
He says, who shall separate us from the
love of Christ?
Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine
or nakedness or peril or sword?
Now, there are some people that are experiencing
some of these things today.
As it is written, he says, for thy
sake, we're killed all the day long.
We're accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
In verse 37, he says, nay, in all
these things, we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us.
I am persuaded, are you persuaded today?
That neither death nor life nor angels nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present or things
to come, nor height nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Nothing shall be able to separate us.
Absolutely nothing.
Now, here in verse 19 in Genesis 28
again, says he called the name of that
place Bethel or the house of God.
In verse 22, he says, in this stone,
which I have set for a pillar shall
be God's house.
He called it the house of God.
He was saying, in effect, this hard place
shall be one more testimony throughout eternity of
your faithfulness, your provision, your keeping power, your
delivering power, and your love for me.
I'm dedicating this to you.
And through all of eternity, my life and
testimony shall be one more stone added to
the millions that will be assembled in your
name.
To be your dwelling place for all of
eternity.
God doesn't dwell in buildings.
He dwells in people.
And he is assembling a church, a bride
unto himself.
And that bride who loves him, that bride
who knows him, takes every hard place and
says, Lord, I am going to trust you
through this.
And I'm going to trust you in this.
And I'm going to believe with all of
my heart that you are in absolute control
of my life.
You have a purpose for what you're allowing
into my life.
It didn't happen by chance.
You have allowed it to come into my
life.
And I don't understand it.
But I believe, I believe that all things
work together for good.
Because I love you, Lord.
And I know that I'm called according to
your purpose.
And so I take this and I dedicate
it to you.
And through all of eternity, this is going
to be one more stone in your house.
One more word of praise before your throne.
Maybe there's a million giving words of praise
to you.
But I'm going to be there too.
And it's going to be one more stone.
And say, listen, I was in a hard
place.
My head was on a stone.
It seemed like death was all around me.
I thought darkness was going to swallow me.
I didn't understand what was going on.
But God was in that place.
And he was faithful.
I took that hard situation.
I offered it up to him.
He brought me through in victory and changed
me.
And he formed his nature in me.
I went in one kind of a man.
I came out a different man.
God had touched my life.
And the longer I walked with him, the
less afraid I became of the hard places.
I began to understand that sometimes the hard
places are my friend and they're not my
enemy.
Sometimes it's not the devil after me at
all.
Sometimes it's the hand of God working in
my life and forming his plan in me
and through me.
Oh, folks, if you can lay hold of
that.
Jacob woke up and said, God is in
this place.
And I knew it not.
There are folks here today.
You're in hard, hard, hard places.
This is a hard time, a hard era,
a hard generation.
It's a hard city, hard family situations, hard
life situations.
But if you will take that situation and
pour oil upon it.
Say, God, you have a purpose.
And make that a life pattern.
Not to question him, not to accuse him,
not to look for people to blame.
But to say, God, you have a plan
in this.
And even if I may not like it
and I may not understand it.
But Lord, I know I'm coming through it.
I'm going to come out the other side
and I'm going to be a different man.
Every time I go through a different woman,
a different person.
Every time I go through, there's going to
be a change in my life.
Hallelujah.
And your house is going to be built
upon this principle of faith.
You see, this house is being built, God's
house.
By people of faith on a principle of
faith.
It's faith, it's trust and belief in Christ.
Not walking by what we see, but what
we know.
And what he has revealed to our lives
through this precious book.
Hallelujah.
There are some hard times that some are
going through.
There are some hard times that are coming
for others.
But I want to challenge you with all
my heart.
Pour oil on those hard times.
If you offer it up as faith.
You talk about a time of worship.
Pastor David said today, I believe God's trying
to open a door to us.
And I believe that's what the door is.
To understand that I am the door.
You trust me with every circumstance.
Trust me with every situation in your life.
And you come into this house and the
worship.
The roof won't be able to contain the
worship that's in this house.
Hallelujah.
When I can find the people who will
trust me.
That will let me touch their lives.
That will let me form them and mold
them.
That will let me take them through darkened
places.
So that I can lead them into righteousness
and lead them into truth.
One day, folks, we're going to stand before
God.
And I'm going to praise him for every
hard time in my life.
I'm going to praise him for coming back
from Eastern Canada.
My house was burnt to the ground.
I'm going to praise him for every time
I've gone through things I couldn't understand.
I'm going to praise him for every time
he presses me down.
And presses me so that I have to
seek him and preach out of relationship.
I'm going to praise him for the hard
times.
And the confusing times.
Because his hand has been in all of
it.
And every time I've come through.
I've not been the same as when I
went in.
Oh folks, let that be a pattern for
your life.
One day, we're going to stand before him
and sing with all the choirs of heaven.
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not.
Thy compassions, they fail not.
As thou hast been, thou forever will be.
Great is thy faithfulness.
Great, great, great is thy faithfulness.
If you're in a hard place, let's stand
together in this house.
If you're in a hard place this afternoon.
I'm going to ask you to come to
this altar today.
And give it to God.
Just give it to him.
Place of confusion.
Place of despair.
Misunderstanding.
Whatever it is.
Would you come and would you give it
to God?
We're just going to pour oil on it.
We're going to offer it up to the
Lord.
And when God brings you through.
I want to tell you folks.
You're going to be able to praise him
and love him.
Listen to this.
Those that have come to this altar today.
Revelation chapter 21.
I saw a new heaven and a new
earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth
were passed away.
And there was no more sea.
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem.
Coming down from God out of heaven.
Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying.
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
He will dwell with them and they shall
be his people.
And God himself shall be with them and
be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from
their eyes.
There shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
no more crying.
Neither shall there be any more pain.
For the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said,
behold, I make all things new.
He said unto me.
These words are true and faithful.
It is done.
I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
beginning and the end.
I will give to him that is a
thirst of the fountain of the water of
life freely.
He that overcomes shall inherit all things.
I will be his God and he will
be my son.
There's a day coming.
When all sorrow, all trials, all difficulty, all
tears are going to be gone.
Until that day, we are in the palm
of his hand.
And it is a wise thing.
It is a good thing to take everything
that comes into our lives.
And offer it up as a praise offering
to God.
Say, Lord, I don't understand, but I know
that you're in this.
I know that your purposes are being worked
out in my life.
I know that good's going to come from
it because I love you.
And I want you, I desire you as
my savior all the days of my life.
I know that you're going to bring me
through.
I know that you're going to keep me.
You have said I will never leave you
and I will never forsake you.
And that's the truth.
I know that when I come through, I'm
going to be a different person.
Something is going to have been worked in
my life.
God, I thank you for this.
Now, let's pray that together.
Let's take our situations today at this altar
and we're going to offer them up to
God.
Then we're going to praise him for a
moment.
We're going to just tell him we love
him.
Precious Lord Jesus.
I take my situation, my hard place.
I don't understand what you're doing in it.
But it's as if I've awakened.
And I understand today that you are in
the midst of my circumstance and you are
doing something to me and for me.
You are changing my life.
You are teaching me.
You are molding me.
You're forming me into a vessel that will
bring honor to you.
So today, Lord, I take my circumstance, my
hard place, and I pour the oil of
Christ on it and I offer it up
to you as a sacrifice of faith.
Lord, thank you for your goodness.
Thank you for your goodness.
Just thank him now.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you, Lord.
Say with me, I believe, I believe all
things, all things, all things work together for
good for me because I am called.
I love you and I'm called according to
your purpose.
I thank you, Jesus, for your faithfulness to
me.
This is the conclusion of the tape.