We Give Thanks: It's Everywhere You Want to Be, 11/16/14

SERMON 11-16-14 we give thanks   Genesis 28:10-17

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^[c] 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.^{[d] 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.”

The series is “We Give Thanks”

I want to thank Karen schuler for covering for me…………….

The sermon title is visa- “Its everywhere you want to be”

Jacob is not a good guy

Jacob steals the birth right

Jacob steals the blessing

He and his brother aren’t doing so well

In a few chapters he is going to wrestle with an angel and have a come to jesus with his brother

The personal confrontation with his brother

Imagine a moment in which you will have to give account for everything that you have done

Bernie madoff.

Most of us don’t have to do that in this life, but we all do in the next

As one of my friends told me the other day, none of us leaves this place alive.

So imagine you are going to be called into court and held accountable

And the judge and jury is the person that you have violated repeatedly

For Jacob, it is his brother essau

But that is a few chapters away

Jacob is not a good guy.  Jacob the conniver

He is also a believer

God loves the broken

God answers people when they call

That night he has a dream – angels ascending and descending

When it is all over

God was here and I did not know it.

God was here and I was unaware.  God was here and I was asleep.

In a moment in he deserved only bad news

God was there

He had let his fears overtake him, but God was there

We think that the trouble of the moment is the news

But the news is that God is with us

Today I am not suggesting that you act like Jacob

I hope you don’t.

But I do want to invite you to understand this-

At the very times that we are completely self consumed

God is there, and god is waiting.

He was there.  we just didn’t know it.

We are asleep

A man knocks on his son's door. "Jaime", he says, "wake up"! Jaime answers, "I don't want to get up. Papa". The father shouts, "Get up, you have to go to school". Jaime says, "I don't want to go to school". "Why not"? asks the father. "Three reasons", says Jaime. "First, because it's so dull; second, the kids tease me; and third, I hate school". And the father says, "Well, I am going to give you three  reasons why you must go to school. First, because it is your duty; second, because you are forty-five years old, and third, because you are the teacher".

Completely oblivious

Russian Winters –

When they were drawing up the Russian-Finnish border, the farmer had to decide whether he wanted to be in Russia or Finland. After a long time he said he wanted to be in Finland, but he didn't want to offend the Russian officials. These came to him and wanted to know why he wanted to be in Finland. The farmer replied, "It has always been my desire to live in Mother Russia, but at my age I wouldn't be able to survive another Russian winter".

Spirituality is Subtraction –

"God is not attained by a process of addition to anything in the soul, but by a process of subtraction".

Henry & John – Page 28

We all have our positions, don't we? And we listen from those positions. "Henry, how you've changed! You were so tall and you've grown so short. You were so well built and you've grown so thin. You were so fair and you've become so dark. What happened to you, Henry"? Henry says, "I 'm not Henry. I 'm John". "Oh, you changed your name too!" How do you get people like that to listen?

Have you ever been so consumed by your own stuff that you miss it?

Do we look for things that reinforce what we already believe or are we ready to look at the world in a different way?

Thomas Aquinas lived in 1200’s in – Three Ways to Know God –

 (1) in the creation, (2) in God's actions through history, and (3) in the highest form of the knowledge of God - to know God as the unknown).

Creation theology

I have a friend Larry Jay - from redwood glen

Franciscan spirituality                                                 PICTURE

Tozer’s work on this.

Vs pantheism

Focused on achievement vs living.  Worry instead of God

Archer –

"When the archer shoots for no particular prize, he has all his skills; when he shoots to win a brass buckle, he is already nervous; when he shoots for a gold prize, he goes blind, sees two targets, and is out of his mind. His skill has not changed, but the prize divides him. He cares! He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power". Isn't that an image of what most people are? When you're living for nothing, you've got all your skills, you've got all your energy, you're relaxed, you don't care, it doesn't matter whether you win or lose.

Enjoy –

In the 1970s, President Carter appealed to the American people to go in for austerity. I thought to myself He shouldn't tell them to be austere, he should really tell them to enjoy things. Most of them have lost their capacity for enjoyment.

Places where I have seen God recently, and I am thankful……

In things

Rocks

Trees

In memory - Embarrassing moments - lipstick

Humor

In thoughts

Special spiritual thoughts

Common thoughts that don’t seem spiritual but are

Thoughts that make me uneasy

Thoughts that make me normal

Thoughts that teach me

In relationships

Friends - Watching a friend comfort another

Watching a mentor care for his charge

Pain – drags us kicking and screaming into real life

Christopher and shae sipes Halloween gift                             PICTURE

The homeless man on the cnr of myer and james r Watkins

Conclusion

Are you looking for God? Are you looking for something to be thankful for

The fish is in the ocean looking for water

The Japanese have a nice way of putting it "The day you cease to travel, you will have arrived.”

We work too hard at living instead of living.

When you have found the simplicity of seeing God everywhere, you have what you need.

When you see God everywhere, gratitude pops to the top

He Found the Right Note –

One day a monk was strumming a guitar, playing just one note. After a while a crowd collected around him (this was in a marketplace) and one of the men sitting on the ground there said, "That's a nice note you're playing. friar, but why don't you vary it a bit the way other musicians do"? "Those fools", the monk said, "they're searching for the right note. I've found it.

prayer

Dear Father let me be aware of the treasure of every normal day.  Let me learn from this day, love this day, and bless this day before it departs.  Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so.  Thank you for the gift of you O Father.  Help our hearts to be truly grateful.