Christian Life Church
August 9, 2026
- Unstoppable God
- Yahweh We Love You
- Jesus Paid It All
- The Heart Of Worship
- Lords PrayerBefore we begin today’s sermon would you join me in praying the words our Lord taught us to pray?Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: AmenDismiss Vanguard and NavigatorsIntroductionPlease stand for the reading of God’s Word.
Genesis 35:6–7 NKJV So Jacob came to Luz (that is, Bethel), which is in the land of Canaan, he and all the people who were with him. And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.This is the Word of the Lord, Amen? You may be seatedPray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray Pray PrayWelcome back to our sermon series “Almost Bethel”Almost Bethel series Title SlideIn this series we are slowly going through Genesis 35 and we are talking about the peculare fact that God had to tell Jacob three different times to go to Bethel.Twice God told Jacob “Return to Bethel” when living and suffering under his uncle Laban, and Jacob obeyed… mostly… he made it to a couple of cities just about 20 miles from Bethel, and instead of going ALL THE WAY TO BETHEL, Jacob lived in Almost Bethel for about 10 years...Bethel, of course, is the place where Jacob first encountered God, where the promises of his father and grandfather finally became his, spoken to him not from a family member, but from God himself...Bethel, which literally means “House of God”, was a place of provision, and protection, and prophesy, and promise...It was a place of God’s glory, it represented all of who God is to Jacob… And yet Jacob stopped short of it all...So this series has been and remains for all of the Christians in this place who love God, who fear God, who are serving God… but have spent too long in Almost Bethel… near the promises, but not in the promises… hearing the prophecies… but not living in the prophecies… protected by God when it is needed most, but not that daily, comforting life protected under the shadow of His wings, living within the walls of the Strong Tower that is an all in Christian life...Now, This chapter starts with God’s third command to Jacob to return to Bethel...Genesis 35:1 NKJV Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there; and make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from the face of Esau your brother.”We learned in our first sermon in this series that the word “Arise” is not as much an encouragement as it was a command “JACOB GET UP RIGHT NOW AND GET TO BETHEL!”. So the question that we started this whole series with is “What is taking us so long to go all in for Jesus? We need to get up and get there already!In the second sermon in this series we talked about burying things that are distracting us from God and changing the way we live to completely reflect our conversion to Christ.Last week we talked about how God’s got our back… how if we chose to go all in to Bethel and we start to return, God meets us there, He goes with us… and He won’t let anything stop us from returning to Bethel.Now this week as we talk about verse 7 specifically we are going to talk about having the proper mindset when we return to Bethel… because if our mindset is not right, then our worship won’t be right, and our prayers will be off, and our priorities will get mixed up… And it is going to sound silly, but if we are going to live and prosper in Bethel… if we are going to live and prosper in an ALL IN Christian life, then we MUST HAVE THIS MINDEST… We must know and believe that...God is the God of Bethel!Genesis 35:7 NKJV And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.So immediately as Jacob enters Bethel for the first time in 30 years, he builds an altar, and he gives the altar a… unique name… he calls it “El Bethel”And I call it a unique name because it is three Hebrew words… El Beit El… God House God… So the name of this altar, in more modern English, would be The God of Bethel, or: “God of the House of God”.The God of Bethel Title Slide AgainAnd as I read that scripture, a question jumped out in my spirit… Is God the God of His house, or have I put myself in His place?Like we call this church “The House of God”… but who is in charge here? Is God the God of this church?What about in my house? Is God the God of my house, my wife, my children, myself? Or have I put myself in that place?What about His people? Is God the God of His people… or are there other god’s in our midst? Other masters?Those are the questions I want to confront in this mornings sermon… two points this morning… and listen church, though these questions are challenging, I think there is encouragement too… because there is such a freedom and peace and even prosperity when God is in HIs rightful place… so let’s start with point one this morning… The God of His House.Point One – The God of His HouseMalachi 1:6 NKJV “A son honors his father, And a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, Where is My reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to you priests who despise My name.1,300 years after Jacob re-entered Bethel and created the Altar of El Bethel, we see God Himself rebuking the priests of the temple through the prophet Malachi.And a lot has happened in those 1,300 years. Kings have come and gone through Israel, the temple was built, destroyed, and now rebuilt… pretty much ALL of the event’s of the Old Testament, from what we read this morning in Genesis 35 to the very end of the Old Testament… all of those events have happened in this time frame...But notice what happened… Jacob builds an Altar declaring God as the God of the House of God...But now there is the SECOND temple built in Malachi, the temple which is many times over called the House of the LORD… and yet, the priests are not treating God as if HE IS THE GOD OF HIS OWN HOUSE.Look at this verse to the priests who run the temple… God says “Sons honor their fathers, and servants honor their masters… but I am God… I am THE FATHER… where is my honor? I am THE MASTER, where is my reverence?”In other words, God is saying “Who is in charge of this joint? Because it sure doesn’t feel like it is Me! I don’t feel like I am the God of this house anymore… it feels like you have made yourselves the god of this house”By the way, what the priests were doing was pretty diabolicle… they were serving in the temple, but they were cutting a lot of corners… they were offering sacrifices of lame and blind animals, they would take the sick animals of the flock and use those as sacrifices too...They were thinking very practically… You know… why are we killing all these GOOD animals… these good animals could be sold for a lot of profit… and those sick ones will probably die any way… if we have to kill a sacrifice, let’s kill the ones who are worthless, or the ones who are already going to die...And that line of thinking would make sense if God were not real and alive and active… this line of thinking would make sense if God were not real and we were just putting on a show for people to play pretend too...You see they were thinking practically and that was a problem… because we don’t serve a PRACTICAL God… we serve a SUPERNATURAL GOD...“Well well well… if we sell the sick and the lame animals, we will save the healthy ones to sell for a lot of money… and that will provide a lot of money for temple repairs, and for the salaries of the priests, and even for helping the poor… we are just making sure we are provided for...”And I feel like God is saying “EXCUSSSSEEEEE MEEEEEEE Preists?!?! PROVIDED FOR?! YOUA RE MAKING SURE YOU ARE PROVIDED FOR?! WHO AM I THEN? I THOUGHT I WAS JEHOVA JIREH… I THOUGHT I WAS THE PROVIDER… I THOUGHT I WAS GOD OF THIS HOUSE… YOU CALL IT GOD’S HOUSE AFTER ALL… YET YOU HAVE MADE YOURSELF THE GODS OF THIS HOUSE… YOU TREAT ME LOWER THAN YOU WOULD TREAT A KING OR A GOVONOR OR A PRESIDENT… BUT I THOUGHT THIS WAS MY HOUSE?!”Yeah God wasn’t playing around in Malachi… He was fed up with people putting themselves in charge of what was supposed to be His house.Now that was 1,300 years after the Altar of El Bethel was built by Jacob… and now 2,500 more years have passed since Malachi… and a lot has happened since those verse in Malachi… God sent His son to be our Messiah, our Savior… And that Son, Jesus the Christ, died for our sins, that we might be forgiven… and on the third day He rose again… and the Holy Spirit came down and empowered us… and the Gospel went out to every continent… and at some point the Gospel was preached to you, and you accepted the Gospel and were born again, a New creation… forgiven of your sins… converted and redeemed...And now, every week you come to this place, this building that we call the house of God… and yet many of us… though we come to this place… we come to this house of God every week, sometimes twice a week… many of us come to this house yet we still feel like we are living in ALMOST BETHEL...It used to be that when we came to church it gave us life… it used to be that miracles happened here… it used to be the best part of our week… it used to be that you couldn’t keep us out of this place… but now things are different… you still love God, but sometimes going to church feels like a chore… sometimes you are just tired… sometimes you just want to stay home and watch the livestream (What up live streamers, I love you!).But let me suggest something to you my fellow almost Bethelites… maybe coming to this house of God has become a chore because we have put ourselves as Master over this house… and if I am the master of this house or you are the master of this house… then God is not the master of this house…"Well how, pastor, have we made ourselves the masters of this house? How have we put ourselves in the place of God?”I am glade you asked… and let me answer that by asking you some questions...Who decides if you are going to church every Sunday? Is it you, or is it God?If you are sick, don’t you talk to God before you decide not to go to church? Or do you think “Well it is just practice, I don’t want to spread this sickness”.When you are tired, or it is stormy outside, or you have a lot of work to do, or the plane ticket makes the most sense flying out on a Sunday morning...Do you even pray about it? Do you even seek God’s face… I mean He may very well tell you to stay home and livestream, that’s what the livestream is there for (What up livestreamers!)… but it should be HIS decision… because HE IS GOD OF THIS HOUSE.Genesis 35:7 NKJV And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.Why did Jacob build an Altar in Bethel?Well I will tell you why, to offer sacrifices, that’s what altars were for!What kind of sacrifice? Well probably a tenth of all of his cattle… Why do I think it was a tenth of all his flocks? Because in Genesis 28:22 Jacob is in Bethel for the first time, and right after that vision of the Ladder we now know was Jesus, Jacob talks to God and he makes Him this promise...Genesis 28:22 NKJV And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”Jacob promised to tithe before the tithe was ever commanded in the law… and when he returned to bethel some thrity years latter, now a rich and prosperous man… he built an altar so he could keep his promise...How about you saints… do you read all the verses about tithing… Old and New testaments… and do you make excuses for why you can’t do that… do you look for ways out… look for ways around the scripture...“Well practically, pastor, I just can’t afford to give 10%”… yeah I can’t either, but I do it any way… because God is my provider… and if He tells me to bring 10% to His house then I am going to bring 10% to His house because He is in charge of His house, not me!This is not Pastor Christian's Bethel… it is EL BETHEL… God is the God of Bethel… He is in charge… but listen… when you get this mindset, it is so freeing!Because when God is in charge… well He is the one who pays the bills… I just do what He tells me...And He is the one who deals with the sickness… I just obey...And He is the one on the hook to encourage the body… we just do what He tells us...Can I tell you something… if God want’s us to get a bigger church building, we are going to buy a bigger church building...“But real estate prices are skyrocketing and the economy is down...”Yeah, and that would be a problem if I was in charge of providing for this house… but I am not the God of CLC… GOD IS THE GOD OF CLC… you think He is concerned about the price of real estate, or building materials, or rising interest rates? I don’t think so...God told us to buy a building during Covid… we had no money but we had faith… At one point our realitor refused to put an offer in for a building because he said “It was insultingly low”… so we fired him… because he wasn’t in charge, God was… and we ended up getting this building for hundreds of thousands less than asking, and we raised the down payment for it in 90 days… and God was glorified...Listen, our church finances have been about as tight as they have ever been and yet God told me to prophesy that we would have the biggest MFP pledge as a church ever… practically that is a dumb thing to say… but I said it, because I am not in charge here, I am just a servant to the God of this house… and you know what, we have the biggest MFP pledge this church has ever had… and I didn’t have to do anything to make that happen but obey… and make sure I am keeping God in His rightful place as the God of His House…Now this brings me to point two this morning… God is not just the God of His house, but He is the God of the people whom live in His house!Point Two – The God of His People1 Corinthians 3:16–17 NKJV Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.So in Malachi the priests are being rebuked by God because they have made themselves masters of the temple...But that was the second temple, and it was destroyed in 70 AD. But that is okay because God has a new Temple… He has a new house… and that temple is you and me...1 Peter 2:5 NKJV you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?2 Corinthians 6:16 NKJV And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”He is the God of His people!You are the dwelling place of God! IF CHRIST LIVES IN YOU and the HOLY SPIRIT LIVES IN YOU then YOU ARE A BETHEL! You are a house of God...That means that everything we just said about God ruling over this place should apply to God ruling over all of our lives…Who decides what job you are going to take?Who decides what car you are going to buy?Who decides what… hear me… who decides WHAT MOVIE you are going to watch… you are going to go sit in a movie theater for two hours to let things enter into your soul… are you at least asking God if it is a good idea to go see that movie?Who decides what school your kids are going to go to?Single people… who decides who you are going to date… That is a decision that should be BATHED in prayer!Who decides what trips you are going to go on… or whether or not you are going to go on that vacation...And you know, I owe my wife an apology… because this week I was really stressed about money… and I said “Ugh… we should have never gone on that trip to New York”...Honey, I am sorry! I should not have said that… because you know what, we prayed about it… we both prayed about it… and God told us to go!And He is the God of our lives, the God of our Vacations, and the God of our finances… He knew where we were going to be financially and He is going to get us through...Who decides how many kids your going to have… an what their names are going to be… and how you are going to raise them?These are things you should be praying about, and listening to God about, and studying scripture about...Who decides what happens with your money? Look what Jesus said about it...Matthew 6:24 NKJV “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.you know who Mammon is? It is the God of MONEY! If you are making decisions based on what is fiscally best for you, and not what God wants for you… then you are NOT SERVING GOD… that is what JESUS said! You can’t serve God and money! Pick one!Who decides what investments you are going to invest in, and what you are going to do when you retire, and how where you are going to live when not tied down to a job?“Well pastor, this all sounds like a lot”… YEAH IT IS A LOT! Because I want to be ALL IN TO BETHEL...If you are tired of the almost bethel life then you not to make God your God over every area of your life…And fathers and single mothers in this place, you have a decision to make as well, you are the heads of your household… is God going to be the God of your house? Or is someone else going to be that God?Joshua 24:15 NKJV And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”In other words… if all of this putting God first in every area of your life seems wicked to you… fine, there are plenty of other gods you can go serve… god’s who don’t care what you do with your time and with your life and with your money… they don’t care because they don’t actually exist!But as for me, and my house! Let it be know today! GOD WILL BE THE GOD OF MY HOUSE! Amen?!Let’s close this thing down.ConclusionTurn On Children’s Class LampsGenesis 35:7 NKJV And he built an altar there and called the place El Bethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from the face of his brother.Ephesians 2:19–22 NKJV Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.The beauty in all of this, church, is that when you get to a place where you are living ALL IN BETHEL… so much of the burden, so much of the stress is taken off your shoulders… it doesn’t mean you have no responsibility… it just means that ultimately God is in control.And when God is in controll… in controll of this church… in controll of His people… in control of me and you and our households…When God is in control He delegates responsibilities and tasks to you, but ultimately it is up to Him whether things succeed or fail… and God is not in the failing business…Matthew 11:28–30 NKJV Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”Man, surrounding all to Jesus is not burdensome, it is the opposite… it is light, and it is easy… it doesn’t mean that life will be light, or that life will be easy… but it does mean that in those heavy and hard movements of life… you are not in charge… God is, and He is going to take those hard times and heavy burdens, and He is going to carry them for you…I will leave you with this final verse, from Growth Track 3-4 this past week… When you make God your God… fully and completly… He takes care of the rest...Matthew 6:24–34 NKJV “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.Gospel CallAaronic Blessingיאר יהוה פניו אליך ויחנך ישא יהוה פניו אליך וישם לך שׁלום"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.You are dismissed from this place but not from His Presenceye·va·re'·khe·kha' · Adonai · ve·yeesh'·me·re'·khaya·eir · Adonai · pa·nav · e·ley'·kha · vee·khoon·ne'·kahees·sa · Adonai · pa·nav · e·ley'·kha · ve·ya·seim · le·kha · sha·lom"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.You are dismissed from this place but not from His Presence Genesis 35:6–7NKJV
Genesis 35:1NKJV
Genesis 35:7NKJV
Malachi 1:6NKJV
Genesis 35:7NKJV
Genesis 28:22NKJV
1 Corinthians 3:16–17NKJV
1 Peter 2:5NKJV
1 Corinthians 6:19NKJV
2 Corinthians 6:16NKJV
Matthew 6:24NKJV
Joshua 24:15NKJV
Genesis 35:7NKJV
Ephesians 2:19–22NKJV
Matthew 11:28–30NKJV
Matthew 6:24–34NKJV
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