Facing your biggest fears takes the boldest faith.

You know we encourage you as a pastor,
“When you’re in an uncertain situation,

go back and revisit all of the things God already
did for you in previous seasons of your life.”

Maybe God brings you back to Bethel sometimes
just to remind you of when you killed it when

you’re struggling, and maybe God brings you back
to Bethel sometimes to remind you of things you

accomplished that really defy your educational
background or your pedigree or anything you were

taught or trained to do. Maybe God brings
you back to Bethel sometimes to remember

all of the ways you even surprised yourself.
“Wow! I didn’t even know I could do that.”

But the more I meditated on it, I realized
that wasn’t really what Bethel meant to Jacob,

because the first time he went to
Bethel, he was scared to death.

Now Jacob is in a place in his life
where he has never been more uncertain,

and God leads him back to a place
where he had never been more uncertain.

When he is in need of the greatest faith, God
takes him back to the place of his greatest fear.

The first time Jacob went to Bethel, he had no
idea what would happen next. His brother wants

to kill him. His uncle is someone he has never
been exposed to, he has only heard about. Jacob

is 77 years old the first time he goes to Paddan
Aram and stops through a place called Bethel.

Bethel was not a place where Jacob shouted
and danced. Jacob was not in Bethel feeling

goose bumps. Jacob was not in Bethel singing
praise songs. Jacob was in Bethel wondering,

“Will I make it?” So now God says in the season
of your life…I’m preaching to somebody…where

you have no idea how you have enough to defend
yourself from the attack that’s happening…

You have a lot on you right now. Some of
it is your fault, some of it is decisions

others have made, and none of it is anything
you have ever experienced, because you are

the oldest you’ve ever been and you have never
progressed through this season of your life,

this stage of your development. You have never
been through this emotional place before.

So now what does God do? He doesn’t call you back
to the place where you felt the greatest faith.

He calls you back to the place where you felt
the greatest fear, but you made it anyway,

to remind you what it really felt like when
God revealed himself to you. We whitewash

our understanding of what it
means to remember what God did.

I wonder, do you remember how it really
felt at certain stages in your life?

Close your eyes. Let’s go to Bethel. We can’t
go to a place. We’re not going to load up the

church vans or anything like that. There are
too many of y’all and you’re too spread out. So

close your eyes. We have to go to Bethel, but we
have to go in our imagination. Remember the time,

anytime you want (I have enough to choose from; I
have an entire cafeteria of times to choose from),

when you thought you wouldn’t make it.
“I’m not going to make it another day.

There’s no way forward for this.”
Remember “I’m not going to make it.”

Like, to me, “I’m not going to make it up to
the pulpit. I have nothing left to say. I’m not

going to make it through what I feel right now. I
think I’m losing…” All right. You got it? I know

that for some of us it’s a hard place to visit,
but I want you to go there for just a moment.

“I’m not going to make it.” That’s how
Jacob felt the first time in Bethel.

He saw a vision while he was asleep,
and he saw a ladder resting on the

earth and reaching to the heaven and the angels of
God ascending and descending. Twenty years later,

God calls him back to that same place called
Bethel where he thought he wouldn’t make it.

You thought you wouldn’t make it. On
the inside, everything was telling you,

“You’re not going to make it. You’re not
going to make it.” Open your eyes. You did.

No, no, no. You did.

Jacob is now instructed to build an
altar in the place of his greatest fear.

That’s where God calls you to build an altar and

to believe him: in Bethel. In fact, one time
the Scripture calls God the God of Bethel.

I’m not sure if I like that, because Bethel
is scary. Bethel is when you don’t know.

Bethel is the place where you can’t
figure it out and all you have is faith.

God said, “I’m the God of Bethel. That’s where
my house is. That’s where my habitation is.

That’s where I live. That’s where I
reveal. That’s where I show myself.

That’s where you get to know
me. I’m the God of Bethel.”

Jacob is afraid, and God says, “I want you to go
back to the place you were most afraid and build

an altar there, because if you don’t, what’s on
you is going to cause you to forget what’s in you.

I need you to go to the place where you
didn’t think you would make it. I want

you to go to the place where you didn’t know
what was next. I need you to go to the place

where you realized…” This is the crazy thing
about Bethel. This might be your Bethel right now.

What you are going through right now might
be the place you go back to in the future

when your family needs to know that God
is a promise keeper and a way maker.

So, I need to teach you about a concept. This is
not a pop culture concept. It’s the concept of

covenant. Jacob isn’t just going off of a good
feeling. Jacob isn’t just going off of a track

record. Jacob isn’t going off of a fortune cookie.
Jacob isn’t going off of an emotional high.

Jacob isn’t going off of something he
read in one Bible verse of the day.

He has a covenant. In the Bible, a covenant can
be… First of all, it can be with another person.

In the Bible, the context of marriage
was not convenience; it was covenant.

In the Bible, the context
of my relationship with God

was not my behavior; it was my covenant with him.

Covenant. Jacob is moving, not in
certainty; he’s moving in covenant with God.

The relationship I have with God is not based on
the same covenant Jacob had. Jacob had a covenant

with God that “God will be with me.” That’s
awesome. How many thank God that he’s with you?

That’s awesome. But look at what happens. On
our end of the bargain, we can’t keep that up.

Oh, so you followed God perfectly
through every season of your life?

Of course in the valley you faint. Of
course in the hard times you get led astray.

Of course your heart is drawn to other gods to
worship things you can see instead of the God

you can’t see or figure out. God said in Jeremiah
31, “I’m going to give you a different covenant.”

“‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord,
‘when I will make a new covenant with the

people of Israel and with the people of
Judah. It will not be like the covenant I

made with their ancestors [Jacob] when I took
them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant, though I
was a husband to them,’ declares the Lord.

‘This is the covenant I will make with the people
of Israel after that time,’ declares the Lord.

‘I will put my law in their minds and write
it on their hearts.'” That’s the inside.

“For what the law was powerless to do in that
it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did

by sending his Son Jesus in the likeness of
sinful man.” I don’t have the Jacob covenant.

I have the Jesus covenant. I have a
covenant that whatever you put on me,

God put something in me that is
greater than what you put on me.

So, I know you have a lot on you, but I
came to preach. There’s something in you

that has always been greater.

Are you getting this revelation?
It’s in me. When Jacob said,

“God has always been with me…” I know why
he has been with you: because he’s in you.