Christ Church Bentonville

Peter begins to weave the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ together with the implications and applications for the Christian life of holiness flowing from that good news.

Our hope is not in ourselves or in our circumstances.  Our hope is in the grace of God.  And that grace is ours.

Peter seeks to encourage and instruct Christians who are navigating and living in a world in which they do not fit or belong.

The final words of Jacob and Joseph (and Genesis) include prophesies given, professions made, purposes identified, and promises to which they were clinging.

Advent is about preparation.  It’s about anticipation.  It’s about celebrating the announced arrival of our Savior’s first coming and about making ourselves ready for His second coming or his return that has been foretold as well.

Our call is not to be like Jacob but to exercise the same faith he exercised.

Thanks be to God that Jesus, the greater Joseph, has saved our lives!

God will keep His promises through the one man whom He has chosen, the Lord Jesus.  

Joseph was able to objectively observe the change in his brothers over an extended period of time that ultimately rebuilt the trust necessary for him to reveal himself, to draw them close, and to embrace them.

Joseph did not lose his identity because he had not forgotten the God who had not forgotten him.  He continued to be faithful and serve the Lord who had been and continued to be with him.

In the midst of Joseph’s trials and temptation, in the midst of his adversity and prosperity, the Lord was with him.  The Lord is with us as well.

This text is another example in which we see how God loves to take what is meant for evil and use it to bring about good. 

On the surface, it’s a story of extreme sibling rivalry and the main characters are, of course, Joseph and his brothers.  Below the surface, however, God is the main character and it's a story of His providence, our hope, and our Savior, the greater Joseph.

While their choices and their destinies and legacies were vastly different, God’s sovereign grace was put on display in both Jacob and Esau.  God’s salvific grace was evident in Jacob’s life and God’s common grace was evident in Esau’s.  And the ultimate lesson we learn is that God's grace is greater than all our sin.

While our Heavenly Father may not prevent us from sinning or spare us from the consequences of our sin, He does intervene and rescue us, just as He did Jacob.  Through His Word, He graciously calls us to repentance and reminds us of His promises.

What happens when everyone ignores the Lord and does what is wrong? Genesis 34 tells us. Yet, through it all, the Lord of the covenant of grace remains faithful to His promises and works for His glory and the good of His people.

Genesis 33 depicts Jacob - the elect of God - seeking to make peace with his brother Esau because the Lord showed favor on him and forgave all his sins.

This is a story of how God uses the things we struggle with most to bring us to the point that we will cling to Christ alone and never let Him go. (There was a problem with the first download.  It was only 8 minutes long.  This is the full sermon is 32 minutes long).

This is a story of how God uses the things we struggle with most to bring us to the point that we will cling to Christ alone and never let Him go.  (The original download was only 8 minutes long.  The updated version is the full sermon and is 32 minutes long.)

Jacob turns a corner as far as his character is concerned.  But he is still a work in progress.

There is nothing our God cannot do and nothing He can't overcome.

This is a love story.  But it’s not so much the love story of Jacob and Rachel as it is the love story of God and His people.  This love story of Jacob and Rachel simply points us to the love story of Christ, the Better Jacob, and His Church.

God affirms His promises and thus His presence and covenant faithfulness with Jacob like He did with his father and grandfather before him.

Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob were all equally at fault, but God worked all things according to His will and for His purposes. (A sermon given by Associate Pastor Aaron Raines)

It’s a true story about a man who was his father's son and made some similar choices, but who, like his father, was also graciously preserved and blessed by their covenant-making, covenant-keeping God.