I Didn't Know This Was An Awesome Place!

Pastor Stan Mons

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Sermon Transcription:

The Lord has given me a word for you today titled "I didn't know this was an awesome place. I didn't know this was an awesome place." And as I've been preparing and praying for this moment, this Sunday morning, the Lord pressed so heavily on my heart that this Sunday morning cannot be a head-knowledge thing. It's not about learning something. Especially on Fridays, we do a lot of discipleship teaching, and we go deep and we dig into the Word, and some of that is head knowledge—and the Bible describes that as well. But there are times where the Lord is seeking to teach our heart something—heart knowledge. And there are certain things the Holy Spirit wants to do. When you are only willing to receive them with your head, you're going to miss it. It's going to wear off. Your head is going to be somewhere else two, three days from now—busy, filled up with other things and going about life. And that word, that work that God is willing to do—it can wear off. You can miss what God is seeking to do.

That's why sometimes we have to become so vulnerable before God that we have these moments—and they're life-defining moments—where we become so vulnerable before God that we are hearing Him with our heart. And so if there's anything at all that is covering your heart this morning—you're willing to listen, you're willing to consider, you're willing to intellectually digest what the Bible says—but right now your heart is covered, you need to deal with that before we get into this word. Because you can miss out on what God seeks to do through His Word. "Well, pastor, what does that mean and how can my heart be covered?" If you have been making love to sin, you cannot have a love life with Jesus and have a love life with sin at the same time. If you have secretly started back up a love relationship with sin—whether it be selfishness, whether it be rebellion against authority—it doesn't matter what kind of sin it is. It doesn't matter how justified you think it is. Sin is sin, and it covers our heart from being able to vulnerably receive from God's Spirit.

And we can become a Christian people that receive here, but our hearts are no longer changed and touched every time the two-edged sharp sword of God's Word comes forth.

It affects our mind. We can talk about it. We can grow a big head and know a lot. But our hearts can come to a place where they're untouched, unchanged sometimes by the greatest of revelations. It can be because the heart is covered—'cause you've taken offense with someone or a people group or just a person in your life. And what they've done may be wrong. But Jesus told you to forgive, to love your enemies. He's given you the blueprint of how to keep your heart open and vulnerable before the Father so that the Father can affect your heart. What does the Bible say? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When Jesus has your heart, the words of Jesus—the truth—flows out of your mouth. When Jesus loses access to your heart, you start to speak from what you know. And when you are triggered or something unexpected happens, sometimes you say things— you say things you wish you could take back.

Then you know: "Oh, Jesus does not have the access to my heart." I'm willing to call people names. I'm willing to talk behind people’s back. I'm willing to look at someone's faults and remember those faults even though love does not hold a record of wrong. And Jesus asked me to even love my enemies. If there is anything at all that may be a covering on your heart this morning—as I'm going to pray specifically for you for this—I want to invite you, if you need to turn away from sins, just—you can do that quietly in your heart. And you simply pray something along these lines. "God, I love this thing. Or God, I’ve been making excuses for this thing. In my opinion this shouldn't be sin, but I'm acknowledging that you are God and I am not. I'm judging this thing as sin, and I'm turning to you, Jesus. I don’t want this sin—I want you." If there's someone you need to forgive—someone you're not happy with them and you're not happy for them—you are in the wrong. It doesn’t matter what they have done. God said love others as yourself. God said love your enemies.

Lord, as we come before you today, I pray, Lord Jesus, that we would not be counted as the people of Israel when you said about them, “These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Lord, we want to render you our heart today. Lord, that you may take out of our heart what needs to go and that you may fill our heart with what we desperately need, Lord God. Lord, if there be any person that has wronged us or angered us or hurt us or wounded us or offended us—Lord, today in the presence of your people and in the presence of your Spirit, Lord, we are saying in our heart: “Lord, I choose to forgive this person.” It may still hurt. Wrong is still wrong. But I choose to forgive, because Lord, you will deal with people if they need dealing with. Lord, I'm letting it go.

Lord, I'm going to choose to love my enemies. I'm going to choose to speak good about those that do not deserve it. I'm going to choose to render my heart to God and not just my words.

Lord, I'm giving up my sins—Lord, the things, the selfishness, the “me time” that I so desperately want, the things that are all about myself, my own will, my own desires. Lord God, I rather have you than have my way. I'm surrendering it to you, Lord Jesus. I'm rendering my heart to you, Lord.

Now I have nothing to protect myself with. I have nothing to hide. I cannot hold back. Lord, if you speak to me, I'm going to have to obey you. If you lead me, I'm going to have to follow you. I'm not holding back my heart from you, Lord God. No longer only head-knowledge—Jesus, I'm going to give you my heart today. If you would pray that with me in your heart: “Lord Jesus, I'm going to give you my heart. Holy Spirit, would you speak to me? In Jesus’ name, amen.”

I didn’t know this was an awesome place. I believe with all my heart the Holy Spirit wants to open the eyes of your heart to something that you couldn’t see before. I didn’t know that this was an awesome place. We’re going to get into the Word. And I want to ask you, church, to think for a moment about the things in your life—whether it is a part of you or your character, whether it is situations in your life, sin struggles, relationships that are not turning out the way that you believed they would, marriages that are broken or on the verge of brokenness or just not as enjoyable as you once believed it could have been. And I want you to think for a moment about the things in your life. Don’t think about your spouse. Don’t think for them. Think for your own life. What are the things in your life—they're not going that great?

These are the things that you would love to see changed. You may be willing to wait 5 years for this to go from here to great. Your marriage may be fine, but it’s not the marriage that you would love for your kids to see. It’s not as presentable. If every part of your marriage would be just presentable—seen by just any person at any moment—you wouldn’t be that proud of that marriage. It’s not horrible, but it’s not quite where you’ve seen some beautiful old marriages be.

When people have grown old together, and they seem to be so soft towards one another towards the end of that marriage—they seem to be so in love with one another. They want every moment that they have left together. It’s a gift. And you can tell it’s a gift to them. You may feel your marriage is about here. And maybe you used to believe it could be here. Or maybe you think, “Well, it’s my spouse’s problem that we’re not going to get there.”

Whatever it may be—whether it is the way things are going at school, the way things are going at the job, the way things are going in secret where you're struggling with something, the way that things are going with just how you thought you would turn out in life and what you thought you would do with your life. Maybe there are things in your life and you feel they’re not going great. They are things I eventually would love to see changed or improved. And in some cases, you may say, “Eventually, I really hope this part of my life is going to actually be removed altogether.” I'm building disappointment in this part of life. I'm disappointed with how some things turned out. I'm disappointed with how some people turned out. I'm disappointed with me making mistake after mistake after mistake. And I'm dreaming of the day where I no longer have to feel disappointed about myself or my situation. Think for a moment on the things that are not going great.

Then I want you to come with me to a story—about Jacob. And think for a moment on that story of Jacob, Abraham’s grandson. Now that sounds like a big deal. Initially, Jacob didn’t realize he was the Jacob from the Bible. He was just Jacob—Isaac, his father; Abraham, his grandfather—quite a difficult family. His grandfather, an idol worshipper. Abraham heard from this God, changed his life around. His father Isaac—all kinds of testimony. And here is Jacob—doesn’t know that God, doesn’t quite know yet how things are going to turn out, if they will turn out. He’s just Jacob. And now his situation—the one we’re going to look at—may not be exactly copy and paste like your situation, but in every case we know that where Jacob was at, he was really hoping that his situation would be changed in the future, that it would be different in the future, that things would work out better, that things would be changed.

Some of the things Jacob had done were haunting him. There were things, there were relationships, there were situations he couldn’t fully enjoy because he was walking around with guilt for the things that he had done. And there he is—separated from his family, which was everything and the only thing really he had at that time—separated from his family, on his own.

And there's all these kinds of things that he would love to see changed. His brother has in his heart to kill him for the way that he has deceived his brother. He has deceived his dying father. He may not see him again alive. Last thing he did to his dad was deceive the living daylights out of him, schemed together with his mom, possibly drove a wedge in doing so between his mom and his dad. And now here he is, away from everybody, in the mess, if you will, that he caused. And he's heard about this God of his grandfather, but he don't really know him yet. Not in this place. It's not ideal, the situation Jacob finds himself in. And that's the similarity to our life.

There are things in our life, whether we caused some turbulence and now we're reaping. Think about how Jacob felt. He did this. It's not like bad things were happening to him. He didn't deserve it. He did it. He made the bed and now he's sleeping in it. And here he is. He has time to think. He's traveling. Brother no longer close. Father no longer close. Even not close to his mom anymore that he was scheming with. Here he is, alone, in a very less-than-ideal situation in his life. Discouraging, confusing, feeling alone. And that is where God sends Jacob his own Bethl moment. And I want to take you to that story where God sends this Bethl moment into Jacob's life—possibly to Jacob, one of the moments you really wouldn't expect it. This was not a good moment in Jacob's life. This was not a moment where he was shining or seeking God or really seeking after the heart of God for his family, trying to lead his family into the things of God. There is nothing about this moment in Jacob's life that makes him—or would make you and I, if we're in a similar place—nothing makes you expect for God to show up in this.

"I deserve what is going on right now. I really do." That's where Jacob is at. And God wanted to show something to Jacob's heart, even more than to his understanding. God wanted to show something to Jacob's heart that Jacob did not know. But again, it's not this head-knowledge thing that you can learn just from reading a scripture verse and you say, "Okay, now I know that's in the Bible." This is something that your heart has to learn from the Holy Spirit of God, who shows to your heart that certain things are right now what God is speaking to you in your situation, over your life. And there will not be a person or a preacher in this world that can ever convince you otherwise, because you heard—your heart heard it—from Jesus. That's what God wanted to do for Jacob right here in this least-of-all pretty moments in his life. God was about to give Jacob his Bethl moment. And God does that when one of his kids has something they don't know.

Genesis 28:15–17 Now God is speaking to Jacob right there in that place:"Behold, I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I've spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Here we have Jacob in his situation, and his situation goes from far less than ideal and all of these mistakes I've made and all of these consequences I'm now literally walking around in—to him saying, I didn't know God is with me right here. I didn't know I have an open heaven right here. This is an awesome place. This is not a place of consequence. This is not a place of rejection. This is not a place where I'm reaping the bad things that I've sowed with my bad actions, like I thought it was. This is an awesome place. And I did not know it.

Now, if you look in the original text, it says it quite a bit different. About the most accurate translation with English wording that you can do to this sentence "and I did not know it" is this: "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew." But that little word "knew" in Hebrew means to recognize, to acknowledge, and to be aware. What he is saying is: Surely the Lord is in this place, and I recognize it now. Surely the Lord is in this place, and I acknowledge it now. Surely the Lord is in this place, and I'm aware of it now. I couldn't see it, but God did something in my heart. And now the place that I thought was a place of failure and loneliness and difficulty—now I see this is an awesome place. God is with me right here. And someone like me, with a track record like mine, with failures like mine—someone like me has an open heaven in this place.

Church, when you have your Bethl moment, God shows to your heart—not your head. God shows to your heart that He is right there with you in your situation. That He is in the midst of what you are going through. And He wants you to know that in the middle of this, you have an open heaven. There's nothing that needs to be done for heaven to be open to you. There's nothing to be done anymore for God's presence to be fully upon you. The Lord shows that to the heart. When God gives you a Bethl moment—when you least expect it, when you at the very least do not deserve it—that's where God gives that Bethl moment, 'cause someone else paid for you to receive what God is giving us. When we have messed it all up, just like Jacob. When we have tried, by coming up with our own plan, to scheme our way into the will of God, and we've hurt people along the way. Everything didn't turn out. We didn't mean to do it, but it turned out horrible. We didn't mean that—we said things that way—but people got hurt and offended, and now everything doesn't work out.

The plan almost feels like it's going to fail—if not, it's already failing. And every "I thought I knew what God wanted..." And here I am in my mess, a couple of years down the road. How did that happen? In the least expected moments, God is willing to speak to your heart, to teach your heart something. God is not with you in a good place—He's with you in that place. God is not opening heaven when you are reading your Bible as much as you can every day, in your own prayer until your knees hurt. God is opening heaven over your situation and over your life because someone paid for heaven to be open for a man or a woman like you. That's where we have our Bethl moment—where we said, "I didn't know that this, where I'm at, is an awesome place. I didn't know God's presence was right here just for me. I didn't know I had an open heaven right here." But God is willing to show it to our hearts.

And think about how Jacob was feeling about himself—because it takes God to learn this. That's why I shared in the beginning: this is not a head-knowledge thing. I can preach this same message over your life 10 times in a row, and you can never get it. You can learn this with your head, and it will never affect your life. This is something that God wants to teach to your heart. That's why we have to render our heart to him—openly, vulnerably, wholeheartedly. Because unless God showed to Jacob's heart that, Jacob, despite of your lying, despite of your scheming, despite of the wounding that you've been doing in your own family, despite of all of it—I am with you. And that's the word our heart cannot hear through our mind. Our heart has to hear that directly from the Holy Spirit. That little word: you. Yes, God is with people—I believe that with all my heart. But for your heart to see and know, God is with me right here, God has given me an open heaven in this place—with everything I am and everything that I'm not—that, our heart needs to hear from Christ himself, as he sends his Spirit to open the eyes of our heart.

As he did to Jacob—to the fact that God made a ladder that connected heaven to earth. The Word says, "and angels coming up and down from it." In other words, now the communication between heaven and earth is restored. There's an open heaven just for you. The communication between you and the Father is restored.

Yes, you've done wrong. Yes, you're not in a good place. Things are not turning out very well. There's all kinds of challenges in your life. But this is the place that is going to be an awesome place. Not because of your problems, not because of your shortcomings, but because Jesus is in that place. And because Jesus wanted you to have an open heaven in that place. And as Jacob—and we know this from later stories of his life—as Jacob has this thing in his heart, that certain things can't be fixed, it's a dangerous thing the enemy tries to convince us of, church: that there are wrong things we can do, sinful things we can do or other people can do, and now this cannot be fixed. We know that Jacob was feeling that way about his relationship with his brother. Even though he had had this moment, he was still holding on to something in his heart that said, "I broke something that cannot be fixed." He was terrified, years and years later, when he was going to see his brother again—still fearful, still worried.

And we can do this same thing in our own situations, where we allow our hearts to be taught by someone else than the Holy Spirit of the living God. And we allow our hearts to begin to believe that we broke things that cannot be fixed. That we broke relationships that cannot be restored on this side of eternity. That we broke possibilities for our calling that cannot be restored on this side of eternity. That we broke certain levels of trust with our partner that cannot be restored. We just messed up too great and too much and too often. We do the same thing sometimes. We allow our heart to believe that certain things cannot be fixed. And instead, Jacob is right there at Bethl, carrying all of this. And instead of being defined by everything that is going on in his heart, his mind, his life, his language changes.

And Jacob now says, "How awesome is this place?" He doesn't say, "Well I'm still dealing with this. I'm still dealing with that. This is not fixed. That is still the same." His eyes have been open. The eyes of his heart see something now. And remember, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. His heart has seen something. Now his language changes. And he says, "How awesome is this place. This is the gate of heaven, and I didn't know it. How awesome is this place." He's saying, "It's going to be okay now. God is with me. I didn't recognize it. I wasn't aware of it. I didn't acknowledge it. But God is in this place. And in this place, heaven is open to me. I'm going to make it through this situation because God is with me."

And church, Jesus has told you the exact same thing—exact same wording—Matthew 28:17 and 20. As Jesus gives assignment to all that would follow him: When they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying—"Why do you doubt? You'll never amount to anything." It's not what he said. They doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I’ve commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen." Here he says the exact same thing. There’s disciples. Some are doubting—the risen Jesus Christ who is showing up physically—and they were the ones that doubted.

Imagine: you have tried to follow Jesus. You’ve been trying to follow him for three years now. He died. He rose again. You’re not so sure about that part. Some around you have already testified. They’ve seen him. They’ve experienced that Jesus actually rose from the dead. They’re excited. They can’t stop talking about it. You’re still on the fence. And here Jesus appears to give the Great Commission. And still, you're the one that was doubting—just like Jacob. You’re not in an ideal situation. You’re hoping that your faith may change in the future, or your track record. You want to be like Peter or you want to be like someone else—like John. And here you are: the doubter. And Jesus comes in. And Jesus doesn’t say, "Well, in this place heaven is closed to you. In this place you're not going to enjoy my presence." In that very place, where they were still leaving some room for improvement, Jesus comes to them.

He doesn’t address their wrongs. He doesn’t address the shortcomings. He tells them, "Listen, I have all authority. You have nothing to worry about. Your situation is not going to conquer you. Your situation is not going to overcome you. I have all authority and I am on your side. Therefore, you can go. You’ll never have to worry about the thing. Go and make disciples. Go to all the nations. Go and baptize them. Go and tell them about what I’ve done. Go and tell them about what I’ve taught you. Go and tell them about what I’ve promised, and that I will come again. I will be with you always. I will never abandon you until the end of the age. And it will be so." That’s what he tells them—when honestly, a lot of those disciples found themselves in a less than ideal situation with a bad track record. The Bible doesn’t just tell us that one of the disciples abandoned Jesus. No, they all did. The Word adds Peter denies him. They all forsook him. And Jesus doesn’t bring any of it up.

He says, "Listen. My presence is here with you. Heaven is open unto you. All authority is getting behind you to help you walk this life out." The question to you and I is: are you aware? Do you recognize? And do you acknowledge that in the very midst of your less than ideal situation—that is the place that you have God’s presence and that you have a perfectly open heaven?

Are you? Is your spirit—is your heart—aware of that? Is your heart awake to that? Do you recognize it? Do you acknowledge it? Do you agree with God on this? The Lord is here. This is actually an awesome place. I have an open heaven. When you fail miserably throughout the week—you fail to be a good husband. You fail to be a good dad. Maybe you fail to be a good son to the Lord, as a bad follower of Jesus Christ. You fail on every level.

When you feel like a failure, are you aware that you have the Lord’s presence in that place, and that you have an open heaven in that place, and that this is going to be an awesome place because of Jesus? I may bring to this place whatever bed I can gather throughout the week, but this is going to be an awesome place because I have an open heaven and I don’t deserve it. And I have God’s presence in this place, and I don’t deserve it either. But that’s why this will be an amazing place. When you sin, when you are stuck, and when you choose very poorly—are you aware? Do you recognize? And do you acknowledge, when I sin, I have God's presence in that place? I have an open heaven in that place. That's why God will turn my place of sin into an amazing place. I didn't know that this was an amazing place.

When you seem to run out of hope, church, when there's no way forward for your situation—just like for Jacob and his brother—I don't see a way forward. I don't see a way to resolve it. I don't see a way for this to work out. For decades they walked around with it. When there's no way forward in your situation, when there's no way forward in your favor with the boss on the job, he seems to always catch you when you do something less than perfect, and he never sees when you put in extra effort. It seems like it's just not working out for you and things are falling to the ground. You've been waiting for jobs to show up and it's just not working out. You've been waiting for those moments to invest in your marriage, and whenever you try, they think you don't mean it. Whatever it may be, there seems to be no way forward in your situation. Are you aware that you have God's presence in that place and that heaven is open to you in that place? Those bad things that seem to accompany you do not define that place.

But are we willing? Is our heart willing to recognize it and acknowledge it—that God has given His presence to someone like me? That God has given an open heaven without interruption? No brass ceiling in heaven for you? Do we acknowledge it? Church, the Lord wants a Bethl moment today in your and my life. And I believe with all of my heart that if you allow the Holy Spirit to move on your heart—and it takes real trust toward Jesus to allow the Holy Spirit to go from working in your mind only to allow the Holy Spirit to work in your heart—it takes trust, it takes surrender. But I believe, if you allow the Holy Spirit to move in your heart today, as we listen to the Word, as the Word is read, as you read the Word on the screen—I believe you're going to walk out of this place saying, "I didn’t know that this place where I'm at, what I'm going through—I didn’t know this was an awesome place. But now I recognize. Now I'm aware. Now I acknowledge—God is in this place and I have an open heaven in this place in my life."

Oh Holy Spirit, I pray that you help us see Jesus with the eyes of our heart. Holy Spirit, I pray that we may see how willing Jesus is to give us His full presence—to give us individually a fully open, uninterrupted heaven, no matter what we are going through.

I believe with all my heart, church, if you can see Jesus clearer—and there are moments in life where, in the Spirit, in our heart, we can see Him so clear—it defines the rest of our life. So we're going to read some Scripture about our Jesus. Here’s what the Word says in Mark: He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. That is Jesus. He commands the unclean spirits, and they obey Him. Luke says, as he recounts the story where the disciples encounter that Jesus calms the storm, this is what they say: “Who can this be? For He commands the wind and the water, and they obey Him.” They’d seen—He commands the spirits; they have to obey Him. Now He commands nature, and nature obeys Him. That is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

The religious people hated Him in His day. These were, if you will, very similar to a lot of church people in our day. They hated Jesus. And we read the story where they want to kill Him ahead of His time. Luke says: “They led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they may throw Him down over the cliff,” interrupting the salvation plan for your life. And Jesus, passing through the midst of them, He just walked away. Passing through the midst of them, He went His way. That is Jesus. Now let’s watch Jesus pray. John 17:2–5: "As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him." That is Jesus. He's praying to His Father now, and He is acknowledging: “Father, You have given Me the ability to give away eternal life to every person that comes to Me.” And then He explains it:

Verse 3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself—with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

Here Jesus allows us to see there was a great glory that He had before the world began.

Sometimes we get this picture that Jesus was Jesus, and then when Jesus went home to heaven, now He's crowned, now He's worshiped, now He is the great victor. But He prayed to His Father, “Can I have the glory back now, when I come home—that I always had, the glory that I gave up to come into this world?” Let’s look at how the Scriptures give us just a glimpse of understanding of the kind of glory that Jesus left behind: Revelation 19:11–16“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes forth a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and the wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

And this is the Jesus. The demons obey Him. Nature obeys Him. People cannot stand against Him. He commands the armies of the living God. He has glory and honor and had it before the foundation of the world. This Jesus seeks to explain to your heart what you mean to Him—what He feels when He looks at you, how He feels about you. Matthew 13:45–46 Jesus has now left behind… We only see a measure of a glimpse of the glory Jesus had before the foundation of the world. He left all of that behind, appeared in meekness and humble form as a man on this earth, laid all of it down so that He could come into this world. And while He was here—thank you, Jesus—that so many of Your miracles and words have been recorded for us to hear. While He was here, He had things written down. While He had left all of His glory and majesty, He came to earth to tell us stories, to tell us things, to have them written down so that you would know—even though He'd go back to heaven and to His glory—so that you would know certain things. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Church, this parable is not about people seeking God. So many times, so often, our flesh wants to put our fleshly understanding on the Word. I've even heard it preached where it's implied: one day, when you're not in this bad place—when you're not in the place where you're struggling so much, where you're not in the place where you're failing so much, where you're not in the place where you're ruining that relationship—one day, while you're going through this life, you're going to fully encounter the kingdom of God. And then you'll even—you—you'll be able to leave it all behind and jump in and go after this kingdom. Church, this parable is not about people seeking God. This parable is about a God who seeks people. Jesus Christ, in all of His majesty, all of His glory, decided to leave everything behind because He foreknew you. He saw you. And He desired your presence. And He desired for you to have an open heaven so much more than everything He had in heaven. Nothing in heaven satisfied Him. And so He gave it all up—to come to this earth in humble form, to take on the punishment, to take on the cost it would take to purchase someone like you, to have you with Him, to be able to tell you: “My presence is going to be with you from here on out. Despite what you’re going through, I’m giving you an open heaven. Despite what you have done.”

You are that pearl of great value. Even though Jesus had so much, He left it all behind. He gave all of it up because His eye had caught something of greater value. Do you understand, church, that when Jesus Christ foreknew you and saw you, He said: “That person—him—worth so much more than everything I have. It's not a thought in my heart—I’m giving it all up because I want to purchase her. I want to purchase him. I don’t ever want him to be without My presence. I don’t ever want her to not have an open heaven. I want them, and I’m gonna pay the price, because it’s of so much greater value than anything I’ve ever seen or owned or had here in heaven with My Father.” This God—this Jesus—left it all to make one purchase: you.

He left His renown. He was honored. He was worshiped in heaven in ways that we could never begin to touch. He had an appearance that was incredible. He had a home that nothing could compare to. And He counted it all loss when He saw you. This Jesus desires you. He’s jealous for you. He’s jealous for you to have His presence. He’s jealous—urgently jealous—for you to have an open heaven. If our hearts can only see to what lengths Jesus has gone, what prices He is willing to pay—any moment, instantly willing to pay—for you to have His presence, for you to have that access to an open heaven. And whatever you’re going through today—whatever it may be in your life—whether you struggle with terrifying loneliness or depression or fear or rejection or guilt or shame or unspeakable sins you don’t know what to do with them, or you struggle with the fear of death.

Church, God is with you in that place. And He has opened heaven for you in that place. That is going to be an awesome place because of Jesus—not because you can change yourself, not because you can work out all of the dirt out of your life, but because Jesus saw you and gave everything to come to you and give you His presence right where you are—and open heaven over you. And today, the Holy Spirit wants to help your heart see this so deeply that you may say: “I didn’t know…I didn’t know this was an awesome place. My heart didn’t know that this is an awesome place. My heart couldn’t understand how this that I’m living could possibly turn into an awesome place.” Church, Jesus loves you. Nothing was too high a price for you. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, loves you so much. He will deal with everything that’s hurting you. Everything that is against you—He’ll deal with it. It’s not a problem.

But the eyes of your heart can’t see it until you render your heart to God and say: “God, help me see Jesus over my life.Help me see Jesus in my situation.” But once your heart sees. Once your heart sees He loves me—He desires me more than anything He had in heaven. Nothing you’ve done, nothing that’s been done to you, will ever look like a problem again. This looks like an amazing place when your heart can see that Jesus loves you. I'm telling you, only the Holy Spirit can teach this to your heart. But I remember so clearly when He did it for me. And when the Holy Spirit has taught your heart—when you've rendered your heart to Him—considering the cost, yet choosing in even the smallest way like Jesus did. Jesus decided, when He saw you: You are worth everything.

And when, in the smallest of ways, our heart begins to consider: “Jesus, I'm willing to lose everything if I can have You.I'm giving You all of my heart—no backup plan, no backup ideas, no motives.Jesus, I want You and You alone.I need You.” I remember the day when nothing was a problem anymore. Nothing looked like a problem anymore. Everything began, instead, to look like opportunities. It's something God does in the heart. It's not a mindset. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. There are too many churches in our nation today that try to make your mind so clever, try to give you an answer for everything. I'm telling you now, church: there's no arguing with life. When God pours life into your heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. It doesn't matter what you run into—nothing looks like a problem anymore.

You struggle with sin? You begin to look at it as an opportunity: “I wonder how God is going to work this one out of my life.It’s going to be a great story one day.” Everything begins to look positive—like an opportunity. I remember me and my wife going through so many trials as we were traveling from country to country, sharing the gospel—visa problems, people problems, you name it. Our marriage was still growing. We were each other’s problem at times—so many things. But I remember so clearly: every challenge we faced, I got so excited. I remember telling her, “Listen, every time life is about to fall apart, I get so excited—because this is how I got saved. I got saved in the place of damage,in the place where I was a wreck,in the place where I had done everything wrong.” And now, when life starts to look a little bit like that place again, I get so excited—because I know there is a presence, and I know there is an open heaven in that place. And I know now, I acknowledge now: That is an awesome place.

Church, whatever you’re facing is not a problem anymore when your heart can see that Jesus looked at you and said, “You can cost Me anything.” When your heart can see it, you’ll never see a problem ever again. But you’ll be able to say: “I didn’t know this was an awesome place.But now I’m aware. Now I recognize. Now I acknowledge:God is here. Heaven is open for me.It’s going to be awesome—because of Jesus.” Here’s the altar call: I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is asking you to make this moment—today—with whatever place your life represents, whatever less-than-ideal situation, your Bethl moment. What does that mean, Pastor? I thought God did it? Here’s what God does—He did the same with Jacob. God reveals.

We’ve spoken about it now in this sermon—God reveals Jesus. God reveals what He has done for you—even in the place where you are at, with everything you’ve done and everything you’ve failed to do. And then we change the name of that place.

That’s how Jacob responded. That place where he was was called Luz. It means absolutely nothing. It is a reference to a nut tree. There’s nothing special about that place. There is no significance to that place—it’s just another place. But he changes the name. God shows him, and he says: “Now this is Bethl.This is the house of God.This is where God is going to dwell.This is where God is taking ground.This is where God is giving me an open heaven.This is where God has given me His presence.” And I believe the Spirit is asking you to speak that over the very place that your situation or your life represents—whatever you’re going through. If you want to say: “God, I’m changing the name of this place.I can hear what You’re speaking over my life.And I’m going to change the name of this place.This place belongs to my God.This place is going to be awesome.I didn’t know it—but now I acknowledge it.” If that is you, I want to invite you to come forward. We’re going to pray, and we’re going to see Jesus take your mess and turn it into His home.

-Pastor Stan Mons