Take your Bibles this morning and turn with me to Genesis chapter 35. In our study through the book of Genesis, we finally got through that bad chapter on chapter 34, and we come to chapter 35, and it's when Jacob is on his way back to Bethel. a place where he needed to be, but we're going to read that account. You follow in your Bibles as we read. Genesis 35, beginning in verse 1. And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there, and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brethren. 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 which 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, Rebecca's nurse died, and she was buried beneath Bethel under an oak, and the name of it was called Alon Bakuth. And God appeared unto Jacob again, and when he came out of Paddan Aram and blessed him, and God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob. Thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name. And he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a 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 I will 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 poured oil thereon. And Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him, Bethel. And they journeyed from Bethel And there was but a little way to come to Ephra. And Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, fear not, thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, for she died, that she called his name Ben-Ami, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried in the way of Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. And Israel journeyed and spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar. And it came to pass, when Israel dwelt in that land, that Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his father's concubine. And Israel heard it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun. the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's handmaid, Dan, and Naphtali, and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's handmaid, Gad, and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to him in Patanerim. And Jacob came unto Isaac, his father, unto Mamre, under the city of Arba, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac sojourned. And the days of Isaac were a hundred and fourscore years. And Isaac gave up the ghosts and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him." Let's pray. Father, we thank you today for the reading of your word. We ask, Lord, that you might give enablement to preach the word today and apply it to our hearts, Lord. We know that it's very likely that someone here today knows the Lord but has strayed away from the Lord, and they need to come back, as we say, come back to Bethel like Jacob did. Lord, I pray that you help us all to realize who we are as Christians, and we might live the way you want us to live. And I pray, Lord, if there's somebody here who's not saved, they've never trusted Jesus, that today would be the day of salvation for them. We need your enablement today, Lord. We need your help to bring the message, and I pray that you might grant that and accomplish your will. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The account we've read today of Jacob returning to Bethel. Bethel is the place where Jacob first met the Lord. That's where he truly met God. Jacob had fled from his brother Esau who vowed to kill him. His mother, knew that he needed to get out of town. At that time, they were living in Beersheba. A little bit later, they moved up to Hebron. And she convinced Isaac and Jacob that Jacob should go, that he should leave home, and he should go to Laban, her brother's house, and there, among Laban's daughter, get for him a wife. So that was Rebekah's plan, and Isaac went along with it, but the main desire was to get him out of town because Esau said that he was going to kill him. So Jacob left and traveled as far as the city of Luz, and he spent the night there in a field outside of Luz. Then he had a dream, and he saw a ladder reaching up into heaven. At the top of the ladder, he saw the Lord, the God of Abraham, and the God of his father Isaac. And God told him he would give him and his seed the land where he was. So he was in a particular part of the land of Canaan, and he said, I'll give you this land. And then he promised to him some things. He said this, his seed would be as the dust of the earth. In him and his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. He would be with him, and he would keep him, and he would bring him back to that land where he was, and he would never leave him. God promised him that. When Jacob woke up after that dream of the ladder and hearing all that from the Lord, he said, surely the Lord is in this place. And he was afraid, and he said, how dreadful is this place. This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven. He rose from his sleep, he took the stones that he had made for his pillow, and he made there a pillar, erected a pillar, and poured oil upon it. He called the place Bethel, and he vowed that if God would be with him and would keep him in the way that he went, and he would give him bread to eat and raiment to wear, And he said, And I come again to my father's house in peace. Then shall the Lord be my God. This is his vow to the Lord. He said, 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 a tenth unto thee. Now that's recorded in chapter 28, verses 20 to 22. So Jacob had vowed that back there at Bethel when he first met the Lord. Now since that time, a lot has taken place in Jacob's life. In fact, 30 years have gone by since that Bethel experience and the latter dream and him vowing to the Lord and the Lord vowing to him. In that time, he had stayed at Laban's house for 20 years. While he was at Laban's house, you remember, he wanted Rachel for his wife. Laban tricked him and gave him Leah, and then finally gave him Rachel. And then after all those years, because of the jealousy of those wives and not being able to have children at the time, they gave Jacob their handmaids, and that was Zilpah and Bilhah. And so he really had four wives, and he had 11 sons and a daughter. So a lot's taken place since Bethel. Also at Bethel, after 20 years, he fled from Laban. And you remember, because he was afraid of Laban, that Laban wasn't going to give him anything, he says, I've got to get out of here. And so he fled from Laban, and Laban, when he found out he was gone, went after him, and his intent was to do him hurt. But then the Lord, you remember, appeared to Laban in a dream and said, Don't you dare touch Jacob. Don't you do anything to him. Well, before that, Jacob met some angels along the way and he found out that God was protecting him by the angels. So God sent an angel escort as he went. Then he met Esau, that dreaded meeting when he thought Esau was going to kill him and he didn't know what Esau would do and so he was trying to make sure that Esau was appeased and finally he met Esau and found out Esau had changed his mind completely. And Esau wasn't mad at him anymore, Esau loved him and kissed him and everything and offered to go with him and he found out that he had worried all that time for no reason. And then after Esau left, went back to Seir, then Jacob stayed in Shechem, and he stayed there probably 10 years. Around those ungodly influences of Shechem, his children grew up, and the result was Dinah, his daughter, the previous chapter we found out that she went out to see the daughters of the land, and she had probably become worldly herself, and then at about 15 years old, she ended up being raped by Shechem, the prince of that city. And then, in trying to get even with them, the sons of Jacob devised a plan, and then Simeon and Levi executed the plan, and that is, they had all the men circumcised, and when they were sore, they went and killed every man in Shechem. Terrible massacre. And Jacob was all upset about that. Why would they do that? Why would they bring reproach to his name and all of that? And he was afraid that now they were going to come after him and destroy his family. So now finally we find Jacob returning to Bethel, the place to which God had promised to bring him back. Bethel was the place where he was close to God. He had an experience at Bethel where he was close to the Lord. Bethel was a place where he experienced God's presence. Bethel was the place where he had the desire to serve God and he wanted to do that, he planned to do that. Bethel was the place where he vowed that if God would be with him and keep him and provide for him that he would come back to that place and he would worship the Lord and he would give the Lord a tenth of all that God gave him. Bethel was a special place for Jacob. That's in Jacob's past. It was 30 years ago. A special place. He was close to the Lord. But during those 30 years, he had drifted away from the Lord. In fact, we found in chapter 34, there was not even one mention of the Lord. In all those problems he was going through, there was no mention of God. Jacob was not where he should be. I imagine this morning that there are some of you who are not close to the Lord like you once were. You remember when you look forward to coming to church. You remember when you were glad to tell others how you got saved. You remember when you talked more about the Lord, and you prayed more, and you read your Bible more, and you worried less. You remember when you promised and you gave God a tenth of all that he gave you, and maybe even more. You remember those days when you were close to the Lord. But maybe this morning, you're not there. You're not where you used to be. You've become cold and indifferent. and no longer happy in the service of the king. You need to come back in a sense to your Bethel, to the place where the Lord met you and you met the Lord and things were so good. You need to rededicate your life to the Lord. You need to go and speak to God and ask him to speak to your heart today through the message. You need for God to speak to you. I don't know who it might be. It might be someone that we would not expect at all because we can all put on a facade, you know, but God knows where we really stand. And maybe you've really become cold as a Christian. Well, let's look at Jacob's life and see what happened when he came back to Bethel. And we're going to look at this passage today and see five things that are true when we go back to Bethel. Five things that are true when you go back to where you should be. Five things that are true when God stirs your heart and you come back to where you should be with the Lord. The first thing is this, you respond to God's word. you respond to God's Word. You see, Jacob, before he got to Bethel, God spoke to him, and he had to respond to God's Word. Let's look at it in verse 1. It says in verse 1, And God said unto Jacob, God spoke to Jacob while he was still in Shechem. In fact, you wonder whether he would have really left. if God hadn't spoke to him, but God did. While he was fearful and he was distressed, after he had been away from God for a long time, God spoke to him. After God was not considered in all the events of chapter 34, God spoke to him. Aren't you glad that God speaks to you when you won't speak to him? Aren't you glad that when you're down and you're discouraged and you don't feel like praying, you don't feel like reading your Bible, that God speaks to your heart? And maybe you're like that today. You come to church and God's speaking to your heart and making you understand, look, you're not where you should be. And that's grace. God speaks to us when we don't speak to him. And that's what happened with Jacob. God spoke to him. And then God said, arise. You see, you can't go to Bethel while you're still living in Shechem. And so he's still living in Shechem, and God said, Arise, get out of here. You cannot get close to God while you're away from God, so you need to go. And he says, Arise. And then he says, Go to Bethel. Go to Bethel. Move. I mean, you go to Bethel, you move. God directs moving objects. You know, you can't, as I've said before, you can't steer a car when it's sitting still. You can turn the wheel and everything, but it's not going to change anything. But when this car starts moving, and you turn the wheel, it makes a difference. And you can direct the car. And the Lord directs moving people, and he says to Jacob, go to Bethel. Get going. Start. Obey the Lord. I'm telling you, go. And so he did. And he says this, dwell there. Dwell there. That means change your address, Jacob. That means you are not going back. You're not saying, I'm going on a vacation to Bethel, but I'm leaving Shechem, and I'm going to Bethel, and the Lord says, dwell there. Pack up, take all that you have, and move to Bethel. Go. Get out of here. Leave. Go and dwell in Bethel. And then he says, make an altar. When you go to Bethel, you're going for a purpose, and that is you're going to worship the Lord. Do what you said you would do. You told me you would do this, Jacob. You told me that you would come back and you would build a house there, the house of the Lord at the pillar. You told me you would do it. Go back, Jacob. You told me you would. Do what you said. Go back and worship me." And then he adds this in the last part of verse 1. He said, make an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from the face of Esau." You see, God is reminding Jacob, Jacob, you were close to me when you were down. You were close to me when you were scared to death. You were close to me when things weren't going well. You were close to me when you thought Esau was gonna kill you. You were close to me. Jacob, remember how you got there back in Bethel. Remember how it was that you were close to me because of the problems. You know, sometimes we're that way. When Jacob left and he was close to the Lord at Bethel, he didn't have anything. He didn't have all the possessions that he has now. He didn't have flocks and herds and men's servants and women's servants and camels and donkeys and all. He didn't have any of that. He had his staff and him, that's all he had. But he was close to the Lord. You remember days in your life when you didn't have much but you were close to the Lord? Remember when you didn't have much but you had the Lord and you were happy with that? And you trusted him and you prayed and you talked to the Lord? Hard times brought you close to the Lord. I don't know if you noticed, but God is doing the same thing with Jacob now to bring him back close to the Lord. And that is hard times have hit him again. Hard times, yes. He left where he was, where Laban's house, and he came on and they brought a lot with him. But now he's got to the place where he spent all these years in Shechem and attained all this wealth, but now his daughter has been raped. What's it matter if you have wealth if something like that happens to your family? Your daughter's been raped. And then your sons go out and kill all the Shechemites. Brutal murder. Massacre. He killed all of them. I mean, that's terrible for a family. And Jacob, you're down now. And you need to realize this is where you were when you met me the first time. You were down. You were distressed. And Jacob, that's where he is right now, down and distressed. So the first thing we do as we go back to Bethel is we respond to God's word. And God's word is found in verse 1. The next thing is you repent of your sin. Repent of your sin. If you've come to a place where you realize that, well, I'm not where I should be. I've drifted away from the Lord. I need to rededicate my life to the Lord. I need to be closer to the Lord. I need to do something. What do you need to do? The Bible says repent. Repent. And that's what Jacob did. Notice verse 2. Then Jacob said to his household, to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. He recognized sin was in his camp. You know, repent is a change of mind. Somebody illustrated the other day, repentance is when you, I heard somebody illustrate this, repentance is when you turn around and you go the other way. That's often said to be repentance, but that's not. Repentance is a change of mind. Before you ever turn around, you have to change your mind. And going the other way is converting. You know, a Christian, before you're saved, you're converted to Christ, but you can also be converted after you're saved. You can be changed, turned around. In Acts 3, verse 19, I think it is, it says that we are to repent and be converted. And be converted means someone else is converting you. You repent, but you be converted, and that is you're turned around. What happens is you have a change of mind, and then God changes your direction. God changes, but there has to come the change of mind first. Now, how do we know Jacob had a change of mind? Well, he knew all this beforehand. He knew there were idols in the camp. That was revealed when he found out, remember, that his wife Rachel had idols. But after he found out, evidently he didn't do anything about it. And that was like most sins, you know, if you don't deal with them, they get worse. And now a whole family seems to have idols. He says, take all those idols, those strange gods that are among you, and get rid of them. And then he said, be clean and change your garments. Imagine the worldliness that Jacob's children had experienced also affected their dress. You know, there's nothing wrong with looking good, but you ladies should not stand in front of a mirror and ask the question, do I look hot? I know you don't believe I said that, but I did. You shouldn't do that. Why? Because what does that imply? That implies that somebody would be tempted by me. You're not to do that. And what had they done? He said, you're going to have to change your garments. You begin to dress like the world, look like the world. You need to be clean and change your garments. Now, Jacob knew all that beforehand, but now he has a change of mind because he's going to go meet the Lord. You know, if your house is a mess, which all houses get that way sometimes, but You have a relative that's coming to see you, and they haven't seen you for 20 years. And you've sent them pictures of your place, and you always make it look good. And your house is a mess, and you know they're going to be there in two days. Guess what you're going to do? You're going to clean up. Jacob said, I knew all this, but it didn't bother me that much. It didn't bother me enough to do anything about it, but now he has a change of mind. Why is that? Because he's going to meet the Lord. And so he's got to change things. And so he recognized that sin was in the camp, and he repented of those sins. Verse 2 says, and Jacob said to the household, to all that were with him, put away the strange gods that are among you, be clean and change your garments. And I have a change of mind now about this. I have tolerated it up to now, but I can't tolerate it anymore. We've got to do something. I have a change of mind. And let us arise and go 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 he says, we're going to deal with this sin. We're going to take care of this sin. Sin must be dealt with, and sin must be put away. true repentance will always result in a change. The repentance is the change of mind. But the change that comes from repentance is the changing of our life, the converting of our life, going the other direction. That's the change that comes, and this is what's happening now. He says, I have a change of mind about that. We've got to do something about it, and we've got to get rid of this stuff. Put away the strange gods that are among you. Be clean. Change your garments. And let's do this. And the Bible says in verse 3, or verse 4, And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all the earrings that were in their ears. And Jacob hid them under the oak, which is by Shechem. That doesn't mean your earrings are sinful, ladies. But there were earrings that were used in that day that were associated with idol worship. And do you remember the children of Israel when they were worshiping that calf and and things got messed up, they used their earrings to make that calf. And later it just seems in the scripture that sometimes this outward apparel sometimes is associated with the worldliness. And if your outward apparel is associated with worldliness, you need to get rid of it. And he says, get rid of these things, and they did. And then notice what they did with them. And Jacob hid under the oak and all their earrings, which were in their ears, and Jacob hid them under the oak, which was by Shechem. Still in Shechem, getting ready to leave, go back to Bethel. Let's get rid of all this stuff. You know, there comes a time when things just have to be getting rid of. Sin can't be recycled. Sin can't be recycled. It's just got to be, it has to be, anyway, got to get rid of it. And it can't be recycled. And you remember that the people who came to know the Lord in the book of Acts, and they had all these books of witchcraft and all those things, familiar spirits that they worked with, and they had all those books. And when they did that, they took and burned them. Ryrie in his study Bible, and it was, I think the last copyright was about 1994, said that all those pieces of silver, 50,000 pieces of silver those books were worth, the Bible says. He said that would amount to 138 years of labor, of pay for labor for a poor man in those days, for a farm worker. That's a lot of money. But what did they do? They came to know the Lord. And they knew these things didn't have a thing to do with serving the Lord. And they didn't need to recycle it. They didn't need to try to use it in the right way. They needed to get rid of it. And so it is with the Christians sometimes. There needs to be a house cleaning. And if you've drifted away from the Lord, it might be there's some things that you have to get rid of. It might be that there's some literature that you have to get rid of. It might be that your computer needs to be cleaned completely. It might be that you need to stop watching some programs that you watch. There needs to be a house cleaning, and God says when you come back to the Lord, there's repentance of sin, and that means taking care of it. Sin must be dealt with before you get to Bethel. And so they took care of all these things as they were going back to Bethel. and they left them behind. Now, we notice that the next thing that's necessary for going back to Bethel is they respond to the word of God, they repent of their sins, and then you rest in God's protection. Look at verse five. 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. You know, it's interesting that Jacob was very, very concerned, and rightly so. I mean, his sons had just massacred all the Shechemites, and he thought, the surrounding cities are going to come after us. But what happened when Jacob was doing what God wanted him to do? God protected him. God took care of him. And when we do what God wants us to do, when we decide we're going to go back to Bethel, so to speak, we're going to be back to where we should be, there are going to be objections. There are going to be problems. There are going to be people who don't like it. But God says to us, you don't need to be afraid. I can take care of that. And God did. It seemed to be a big problem, but how did God take care of it? He just sent terror to the hearts of those people. And they weren't about to attack because God made them feel like, oh, we can't do it. And God gave them that feeling, God gave them that terror, and God will protect us when we decide to do what's right. Sometimes it's fear of family, sometimes it's fear of friends, sometimes it's fear of losing your job, sometimes it's fear of finances. If you're doing things the wrong way, and you've been reaping benefits from that, and you decide, I've got to do what's right, and even it means I'm going to lose some finances. There's those fears, but God says, you don't have to fear. You can rest in God's protection. He will take care of you, and you can move on for the Lord. You see, God had promised Jacob, I will be with you, I will keep you, I will bring you back, and I will never leave you. We might say, boy, if I had promises like that. Oh, we do. Hebrews 13 says, The Lord will never leave us nor forsake us, so that we might boldly say, The Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man shall do unto me. And so when you decide that you're going to go back to where you should be with the Lord, there might be fears, but you don't have to be afraid because God says, I will take care of you. And then going back to Bethel means you return to God. And he returned to God, we find it in verse 6, and he worshiped God. He built an altar, and he called the altar El Bethel. El is God, Bethel, El is God, and Bethel means the house of God, and El means the God of the house of God. And so he said, I've been here before. You know, I named it Bethel, and now I'm just going to put another emphasis on God, and God the house of God, and he calls the place that. And God spoke to him. You know, see, when you go back to Bethel, when you go back to where you should be, the Lord's going to speak to us. Now, he spoke to Jacob in an audible way, because if you think about it, Jacob didn't have any scripture. None of this was written. Jacob had no scripture, and God spoke to him audibly. God doesn't speak to us audibly today, but he speaks to us through his word. And when you're away from the Lord, you can't hear the word of God. When you're away from the Lord, it just seems like it's not interesting, or you don't want to hear it. But when you get close to God, you find that God begins to reveal himself through his words, and God will speak to you. And what did God speak to Jacob? when he spoke to him at Bethel. Well, first of all, he told Jacob who he was. He reminded him who he was. He said, you remember, Jacob, that you're not Jacob anymore. I changed your name some time ago, and you're Israel. And Israel means you're a prince with God and with man, and I changed your name, and that's who you are, Jacob. And he reminds Jacob who he is. Isn't that grace that the Lord, after all this time of Jacob fleeing away from him, or getting away from him, and doing things he shouldn't be, and being around that godless influence of Shechem, all those years the Lord was still gracious, and the Lord was still willing to help him in his time of trial. And the Lord says, Jacob, I'm going to remind you, you are not Jacob anymore, you're Israel. And God reminds us of that. Sometimes when you decide that you're going to do what God wants you to do, the devil will say to you when you're down like Jacob was in Shechem, he'll say to you, you're just a failure. You're a failure for the Lord. You're a fool to believe God. You're not able to stand against all that's against you, and the devil will make you think that, but you need to say, no, that's not true. That's not true. Some of our college students, I was talking to one the other day that's going to be going to college before long, and I said, you'd be very careful. Oh, I won't fall. I said a lot of people said that. A lot of people said that. Because they will influence you. You'll get in a class and those professors will make fun of you because you're a Christian. They'll tear down your faith and they'll make fun of you. That's what the devil does. He makes you think that you're something you're not. And you're a failure. You're not able to stand. You're a fool to believe these things. But God said, Jacob, I'm going to remind you who you are. You're Israel. And God says to us, I'll remind you who you are. You say, I don't know if I can live for the Lord. I don't know if I can take a stand for Jesus. I don't know if I can be what I used to be. I don't know if I can really be close to the Lord and that's sold out to the Lord. I don't know if I can really do that. The Lord says, I'll remind you who you are. You're a saint. Set apart one. I took you and set you apart unto myself. You belong to me. You're a saint. You're a son. You have all the rights of sonship because I adopted you into my family. You're a son. You're redeemed by the blood of Jesus. You're a redeemed one. You are an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. You are more than conqueror. You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. By the way, you're a citizen of heaven, God tells us. And we need to remind ourselves, look, when we feel like we can't do it, we need to be reminded who we are. We're a child of God, indwelt by the Spirit of God. We can do it. We can live for the Lord. And then God reminded Jacob not only who he was, Jacob was, but he reminded Jacob who God was. And he says, I am God Almighty. I'm God Almighty, all-powerful. He's the God who can do anything. Nothing's too hard for him. You remember Moses faced it one time when he was looking at himself, and God told him he had something for him to do, and he wanted him to be a spokesman to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said, who am I? He said, Lord, I'm not eloquent, and I'm slow of speech. And God said, who made man's mouth? Did not I, the Lord? God said, I can use you. And the guy who thought he couldn't do it ended up being the man who led the children of Israel out of Egypt and to the promised land. That's Moses. And God can do the same for us. We are not powerless because we serve the Almighty God. And God reminded Jacob that. God reminded Jacob that he was to be fruitful. Now, that's found in verse 11. Now, you think of Jacob, he's well up in years and he's already had all of his children. He's not going to have any more children. He's not talking about that. But you can be fruitful other ways and Jacob was. And he now had all this family and he was the dad and the kids looked to him. He was the grandpa they looked to and he was to be fruitful and he was. And God used him greatly. And so Jacob was to be fruitful. And then God reminded Jacob of his promises. He said to Jacob, a company of nations and kings will come of you, and I will give you the land. I remind you that I gave you those promises, and it's true. And so when you come back to the Lord, you return to God, God will speak to your heart. And he'll remind you who you are, he'll remind you who he is, and he will remind you of his promises, and we have a lot of them. And so he returned to God. But then also, the last thing we find in this passage is, when you return back to Bethel, when you return to the Lord as a Christian, you are to remain faithful regardless what comes. You know, sometimes people have the idea, you know, if I'm living for Jesus, you see this a lot on TV programs, And I'm living for Jesus, then God's going to provide all these things. I'm going to be wealthy. I'm going to have all this. He promises me wealth. He promises me prosperity and all of that. And I'm not going to have any trouble. Well, that's not the Christian life. Because you see, when Jacob came back to Bethel, he still had problems. And when you come get to a place where you want to come back to the Lord and dedicate your life to the Lord and serve him, it doesn't mean you're going to be problem free. Jacob had problems. What was the problems? Well, in this passage, we find some of them. First of all, he faced death. On his way back to Bethel, he faced the loss of Deborah, Rebecca's nurse. And she died. She was very close to the family, and she died. Sometimes we wonder, why did you take a person, Lord? I'm living for you. Well, that just happens. And she died. And then also his favorite wife, Rachel, she died. And then later, his dad, Isaac, he died. Now, that all came to pass after Jacob went back to Bethel. After he was where God wanted him to be, those things happened in his life. But there are also blessings. The blessings were, well, God reassured him, and that God kept his promises, and God was still going to do with him what he told him he was going to do. And Jacob didn't deserve it, but God said, I'm still going to bless you. And the Bible says in verse 9, and he blessed him. God gave him Benjamin. I mean, his wife died, but God gave him Benjamin. His wife, Rachel, was so upset about this, and she was dying in childbirth, and she named the little boy Benoni, and that means son of sorrow. And Jacob thought, after his wife died, my son can't go through life being called son of sorrow. He'll go through life thinking it's his fault that mom died. And so he renamed him Benjamin, which means son of my right hand, an honorable name. And God blessed him with a child. God also blessed him in another way, and now he has 12 sons, and they're listed in verses 23 to 26. 12 sons, those became the 12 tribes of Israel. God is good to Jacob. You know, in the midst of trial, what we need to do is count our blessings. You're upset because you've lost a loved one. You're upset because things aren't going well. What do you need to do? Well, you can sorrow. That's right. That's proper. Even Jesus wept. But you can also count your blessings. And the Lord wants us to count our blessings. But then I noticed something else that happened. And that is, even though he was back to Bethel, people died in his family. Yes, he was blessed. And then sin rose its ugly head again. And Reuben, his firstborn, went and lay with his concubine, which was Bilhah. Reuben was Leah's son. Bilhah was Rachel's handmaid. And Bilhah was probably a good bit older than Reuben. Reuben at this time was probably 30 years old. And that happened in Jacob's family. You think sometimes, well, I'm living for the Lord, surely things will go well. Not always. Because see, people make choices, and Reuben made a choice that was wrong. And he committed this sin in Jacob's family. so we can take heart when we're trying to live for the Lord and things begin to go wrong. It doesn't mean that we're not doing right. It means that those things happen. People sin, people make their own choices and they sin, and that's what happened. And Jacob later, you remember in chapter 49, he talks about Reuben. He was the firstborn. He had all the rights of the firstborn. But Jacob took that away from him. And he said to Reuben, you're unstable as water. You went up to my couch, you're unstable as water. And at the end of his life, he rebuked Reuben before all the sons for what he had done. But things happen even when you're living for Jesus. So going back to Bethel, maybe you've strayed away from the Lord, maybe you need to come back to the Lord. And what you do is, when you're coming back to the Lord, is those steps that Jacob did. You respond to God's word. You repent of your sins. You rest in the promise that God is going to take care of you. Even though it's going to be hard sometimes, and sometimes you have to suffer because of your choice to live for Jesus, God's going to take care of you. And then you go ahead and return to God, and worship Him, and serve Him, and do what is right. And regardless what comes, you still remain faithful. I imagine there might be some Christians here today that you've strayed away from the Lord, not where you should be, and God's speaking to your heart. And God wants you to come back, come back to Bethel. I hope that you will. Let's pray. Father, we thank you today. We know this passage speaks to our hearts. A man by the name of Jacob has strayed away from you. Through circumstances and your dealing in his life, you brought him back. Lord, I thank you that you do that. I thank you, Lord, that you deal with Christians in love and you bring them back. We do not know the hearts of people, Lord. We don't pretend to, but you do. And if there's someone here today who really needs this message because they've become cold and indifferent, not where they should be with Jesus, I pray they'll come today and rededicate their life to you. Workin' hearts, accomplish your will, we ask in Jesus' name.