[00:00:02] [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome to Gracious Words. Gracious Words is taken from the Weekly Women's Bible Study
[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_02]: taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
[00:00:19] [SPEAKER_01]: We're behold to glory, God, in the face of Christ. It shows us who you are. We're feeling who you are.
[00:00:36] [SPEAKER_02]: Jacob was a very old man when he made the move to Egypt. When asked about his life, he described it as one of pilgrimage.
[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_02]: On today's program, we'll see what he means by this and how our life is a pilgrimage too.
[00:01:10] [SPEAKER_02]: And now here is part 1 of Cheryl's message titled Pilgrimage.
[00:01:19] [SPEAKER_03]: So we're in Genesis 46-48. And I just want to start with Genesis 47-9. And I think this is so interesting that when Pharaoh said to Jacob,
[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_03]: how old are you? Now I don't know how you answer that. How old are you? My mother said a woman who will tell her age will tell anything.
[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_03]: And I tend to tell my age, so that tells you that I'm pretty much an open book. But when the Pharaoh asked Jacob,
[00:01:48] [SPEAKER_03]: this is what Jacob said, the days of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Can you imagine saying that? The days of my pilgrimage are 60 years.
[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_03]: But the days of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_03]: So Jacob characterized his life and the life of his father and grandfather as a pilgrimage.
[00:02:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Well, this is really an apt description when you consider that Jacob was born into a nomadic family. Can you imagine growing up like in Yosemite?
[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_03]: Like I was born in Yosemite on a camping trip and they've been camping ever since. I mean Jacob was born to a life of camping.
[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_03]: His father was constantly moving throughout the land of Canaan, digging wells, building altars and finding fresh pasture for his livestock.
[00:02:47] [SPEAKER_03]: His grandfather had left the city of Ur, which was a sophisticated city, to go to Canaan and spend the rest of his life in tents and in a nomadic lifestyle.
[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Most of Jacob's life was characterized by living in tents. I think Jacob was on a forced pilgrimage.
[00:03:07] [SPEAKER_03]: He grew up in tents and lived that way for 40 years, but when his brother got upset with him, he had to leave. He had to start another pilgrimage.
[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_03]: And then he made his way to Huron where he lived for 21 years, but when there was an upset with his father-in-law, he had to leave again and go back on pilgrimage to the land of Canaan and live in tents.
[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Now he tried to settle down in Shechem, but he was forced back into pilgrimage by Simeon and Levi when they made the conditions of Shechem just intolerable.
[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_03]: He then began an extended pilgrimage through the land of Canaan, moving toward Bethel and then settling in Hebron.
[00:03:51] [SPEAKER_03]: And we're told in Genesis 37-1 that he dwelt in a land where his father had been a stranger.
[00:03:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Hebrews 11-13 states that this was the confession of the patriarchs. In other words, when you would ask the patriarchs, what's your life like?
[00:04:07] [SPEAKER_03]: It's pilgrimage. We're always sojourners. We're not settling down anywhere.
[00:04:14] [SPEAKER_03]: So what is the difference between a pilgrim and a citizen?
[00:04:18] [SPEAKER_03]: A pilgrim is someone who does not have roots or settled down in any certain place. They're always on a journey. Their homeland is elsewhere, whereas a resident is someone who belongs to the place he lives, has ties to the people, has ties to the land, and is under the authority of the government in the place that he lives.
[00:04:45] [SPEAKER_03]: The apostle Peter stated that all believers in Jesus are to consider themselves pilgrims and sojourners when it comes to life on earth.
[00:04:55] [SPEAKER_03]: In 1 Peter 2-11 he said, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, this is who you are. This is your identity.
[00:05:04] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that there are some inherent dangers. When we as believers forget that we are called to pilgrimage, we are called to be sojourners, I think that's when the days of our life turn few and evil.
[00:05:21] [SPEAKER_03]: It's when we try to make heaven on earth. We try to make this place earth heaven. And when we do that, we get mad when earth doesn't feel like heaven, doesn't cooperate as heaven should.
[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_03]: We try to make our best life now instead of knowing our best life is yet to be.
[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_03]: I had one of those days the other day. I think God gives us these days that remind us that we're on pilgrimage and not to settle down.
[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_03]: I dressed, I was already, but I looked and I felt awkward in what I was wearing so I had to change again.
[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_03]: I had 60 things don't fit like they used to fit. Things are shifting around.
[00:06:06] [SPEAKER_03]: And I, you know, at my age it's like, does this make me look too old? Like is it dowdy looking? Do I, you know, I got this outfit online because we're all shopping online.
[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_03]: Right. I got this outfit and it looks so cute on the model and it does. It looks cute on anyone under 30.
[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_03]: But you put that on a 60 year old and it's like, I felt like people expected me to, you know, be passing out muffins or something.
[00:06:31] [SPEAKER_03]: It was just not a good luck. Or then there are those things you put on and you're like, no, you're not 25.
[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_03]: You shouldn't be wearing this. In fact, it looks kind of obscene. It's just crazy how things change.
[00:06:45] [SPEAKER_03]: And so anyway, I finally found an outfit that fit that I didn't feel awkward in and I started putting my makeup on and I did this thing with my eyeliner and it just, it blopped.
[00:06:56] [SPEAKER_03]: If you have that where it blops, it just hits this blob and then when you go to get it off, it just like goes all over your face.
[00:07:03] [SPEAKER_03]: So you have to wash your face. You have to start all over again while it was one of those days.
[00:07:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And so I was like, okay, I finally got that fixed and realized I got the blob on my dress.
[00:07:13] [SPEAKER_03]: So then I had to take the dress that actually fit well for a 60 year old and kind of made me look normal off and find something else to wear.
[00:07:22] [SPEAKER_03]: So I thought, okay, finally I had the right outfit. My makeup's all right. I'm ready to go out the door.
[00:07:26] [SPEAKER_03]: But you know what? I needed a cup of coffee or I was going to get one of those headaches that you get when you don't have coffee.
[00:07:32] [SPEAKER_03]: I have a special machine where you press a button and I can get a latte. I was so excited.
[00:07:37] [SPEAKER_03]: But one of those things when you press the button, you have to make sure the milk nozzle is out and going into the cup.
[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't, it was pressed here.
[00:07:44] [SPEAKER_03]: So the nozzle instead put all the froth milk into every crevice of that machine and then down the machine and all over the sink and onto the floor.
[00:07:54] [SPEAKER_03]: So now I've got a mess. I've got a mess and I've got to be at the church.
[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_03]: I actually was supposed to be doing a Bible study, not today. This was another day. I'm not as stressed.
[00:08:04] [SPEAKER_03]: But this day it was going all over every place.
[00:08:08] [SPEAKER_03]: And so I was down to my last roll of paper towels.
[00:08:11] [SPEAKER_03]: So I didn't want to use that. So I went to my rag bin. You guys have rag bins?
[00:08:16] [SPEAKER_03]: I went to my rag bin. I went to grab one rag and they all spilled out all over the floor.
[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_03]: Like everywhere was rags.
[00:08:24] [SPEAKER_03]: So I grabbed the rag I need, which was insufficient so I had to go back and get another rag.
[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_03]: And trying to get it out of the crevice meanwhile my phone starts going off.
[00:08:34] [SPEAKER_03]: And who is it going off by? All the people that know that I should be at church right then.
[00:08:39] [SPEAKER_03]: And they're all sending me texts. Are you alright? Are you coming? Did you know you're supposed to be here?
[00:08:43] [SPEAKER_03]: And a lot of them are from Brian. Well, you can't answer them because I'm trying to speed clean the coffee maker, the floor.
[00:08:51] [SPEAKER_03]: I want to just throw the rags back into the bin.
[00:08:54] [SPEAKER_03]: And so I finally get this done and I realize that I have got milk and coffee all over my third outfit.
[00:09:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it was three because I tried two in the beginning.
[00:09:06] [SPEAKER_03]: So now I have to go upstairs and change all over again.
[00:09:12] [SPEAKER_03]: And I remember just getting in the car and saying, Lord, you know, the enemy is just after me.
[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_03]: This is just, you know, such a hard day.
[00:09:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And the Lord spoke to me and said, Cheryl, Satan can't get you in the big things.
[00:09:24] [SPEAKER_03]: So sometimes he tries to ruin you with the small things.
[00:09:28] [SPEAKER_03]: He can't do the worst so he'll try the least.
[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_03]: Don't let it get to you. You're on a pilgrimage.
[00:09:34] [SPEAKER_03]: It was so clear. Cheryl, this is not your home.
[00:09:37] [SPEAKER_03]: When you get where you belong, he can't get to you at all.
[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_03]: But you know, I think we get this upset instead of being able to laugh like, I just spilled rags.
[00:09:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I just gloved my eyeliner. Oh, nothing fits me.
[00:09:50] [SPEAKER_03]: We're just like panicked. Like this is terrible.
[00:09:53] [SPEAKER_03]: My life is over. But it's not. It's not at all.
[00:09:58] [SPEAKER_03]: We're just on a pilgrim.
[00:10:00] [SPEAKER_03]: Itch. We don't enjoy the days we have because we know that our days are numbered on Earth.
[00:10:06] [SPEAKER_03]: So we're like, I can't afford a bad day. I only have a few days.
[00:10:11] [SPEAKER_03]: We expect every day to be fulfilling and comfortable and without any issues.
[00:10:16] [SPEAKER_03]: No, when you're on pilgrimage, there's lots of issues you do not expect.
[00:10:23] [SPEAKER_03]: You know, when you go camping, you don't expect the air mattress to feel like your mattress at home.
[00:10:27] [SPEAKER_03]: You don't expect to eat the same food. In fact, one of the things that you eat
[00:10:32] [SPEAKER_03]: when your vacationing is charred food, it's just a part of camping.
[00:10:37] [SPEAKER_03]: You have to burn everything. I never eat beans out of a can unless I'm camping
[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_03]: because otherwise I hate them.
[00:10:46] [SPEAKER_03]: Last year Jasmine and I got the opportunity to go to Columbia
[00:10:49] [SPEAKER_03]: and we had this room that we share and we were on bunk beds.
[00:10:54] [SPEAKER_03]: I remember just getting out of the bed going, whoa, this has no gift.
[00:10:58] [SPEAKER_03]: And then Jasmine got on her top bunk and went, whoa, well they gave you the comfortable bed.
[00:11:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, really? You want to trade? You just want to see?
[00:11:07] [SPEAKER_03]: We both had these rock mattresses. That's what I'll call them, rock mattresses.
[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And you know what we did? We laughed hysterically that our beds had no gift.
[00:11:16] [SPEAKER_03]: We had to search for plugs in order to charge our phones and our iPads.
[00:11:22] [SPEAKER_03]: We took freezing cold showers because there was no heat in the showers at all.
[00:11:28] [SPEAKER_03]: And they were coming straight from some isic glacier.
[00:11:32] [SPEAKER_03]: We took crazy taxi rides without seatbelts and cramped into the backseat of a car.
[00:11:38] [SPEAKER_03]: We ate new foods with strangers who became our friends.
[00:11:43] [SPEAKER_03]: We took hikes in these strange terrains and stepped over biting ants
[00:11:48] [SPEAKER_03]: and we wore crazy hats because of the sun and the heat.
[00:11:52] [SPEAKER_03]: And we got caught in downpours of rain.
[00:11:55] [SPEAKER_03]: We were accosted by smells and a thousand inconveniences
[00:12:00] [SPEAKER_03]: and we laughed at every one. Why do we laugh?
[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_03]: This was not our country. This was only temporary.
[00:12:09] [SPEAKER_03]: We had no expectations for this country except to experience something that was unusual,
[00:12:15] [SPEAKER_03]: something that was not part of our true life and where we really lived and belonged.
[00:12:24] [SPEAKER_03]: We had warm showers at home, we had comfortable beds at home.
[00:12:27] [SPEAKER_03]: We didn't come to experience the conveniences of home.
[00:12:33] [SPEAKER_03]: We came to meet people. We came to tell them about Jesus Christ.
[00:12:36] [SPEAKER_03]: And so our expectations were totally different.
[00:12:41] [SPEAKER_03]: Now, our days become few and evil because our perspective toward the land that we're visiting,
[00:12:49] [SPEAKER_03]: that we're in is not right. We're not seen it as a pilgrimage.
[00:12:54] [SPEAKER_03]: We're seen it as a residence. And as residents we're thinking we can't live like this.
[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_03]: We've got to vote against this. We've got to take up arms.
[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_03]: We've got to change this.
[00:13:03] [SPEAKER_03]: And then we begin to see people as contenders, the competitors and the opponents
[00:13:10] [SPEAKER_03]: rather than the lost, the broken, the sick who need to know that they can become citizens
[00:13:16] [SPEAKER_03]: of a better country, of a better sovereign, in a better, more beautiful place.
[00:13:23] [SPEAKER_03]: We try, we begin to compete with these people to get to the last roll of paper towels before they hoard them all.
[00:13:30] [SPEAKER_03]: We try to beat them out in line or in the parking lot or at the traffic light.
[00:13:37] [SPEAKER_03]: We stop praying for these people and we start contending and competing.
[00:13:42] [SPEAKER_03]: Why? Because we forgot that we are the citizens of a greater land
[00:13:49] [SPEAKER_03]: and they are the slaves of this land who need salvation, who need to be taken to a better place.
[00:13:59] [SPEAKER_03]: Few and evil because we hoard and try to protect all we have.
[00:14:04] [SPEAKER_03]: We feel responsible to keep everyone and everything we own safe.
[00:14:10] [SPEAKER_03]: We do everything in our power to ward off the moth, the dust, the rust, the thief and the uncomfortable.
[00:14:18] [SPEAKER_03]: And we spend our days grumbling and guarding and safeguarding and worrying over.
[00:14:23] [SPEAKER_03]: If only we could keep that perspective that we are pilgrims.
[00:14:29] [SPEAKER_03]: We are only here for a short time and we are here to represent a great sovereign on a great land that we belong to.
[00:14:40] [SPEAKER_03]: If only we would realize that God is with us on this pilgrimage.
[00:14:45] [SPEAKER_03]: This is a journey. This is an adventure.
[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Whenever I used to get lost driving the car when my kids were little, they'd say,
[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_03]: Mom are you lost? Especially when they became teenagers.
[00:14:56] [SPEAKER_03]: Mom are you lost? And I'd say no. This is an adventure.
[00:15:01] [SPEAKER_03]: And so when they suspected that I was lost, they would turn to each other and they're like,
[00:15:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Look another adventure with mother.
[00:15:08] [SPEAKER_03]: But it's only in pilgrimage that we can clearly hear the voice of God.
[00:15:13] [SPEAKER_03]: It's only in pilgrimage that the promises and the assurance we need for the journey truly become ours.
[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And that we recognize how desperately we need the promises.
[00:15:24] [SPEAKER_03]: It is only when we're on a pilgrimage that we are able to know the provision of God.
[00:15:31] [SPEAKER_03]: It is only on pilgrimage that we become distinct from others.
[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_03]: Have you ever realized when you go to a different land, oh my goodness, they dress differently than I dress?
[00:15:40] [SPEAKER_03]: This is how the people here dress and you stand out because you're dressed differently.
[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_03]: It is only on pilgrimage that we bring blessings to others.
[00:15:53] [SPEAKER_03]: We become a blessing and we can bless others.
[00:15:57] [SPEAKER_03]: In Genesis 46, we begin this to understand, to ascertain this pilgrimage of Jacob.
[00:16:06] [SPEAKER_03]: I believe up to this point, I believe for a number of years, Jacob had forgotten that he was a pilgrim.
[00:16:13] [SPEAKER_03]: I think this forgetfulness came after Joseph was, in Jacob's mind at least, murdered.
[00:16:22] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that is when he began to settle down and his days became few and evil.
[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_03]: He was grieving so desperately.
[00:16:32] [SPEAKER_03]: He was mourning.
[00:16:33] [SPEAKER_03]: He was thinking that the past was better than the present.
[00:16:37] [SPEAKER_03]: I believe that he settled down in Hebron and again tried to put down roots.
[00:16:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Perhaps because this was the last place he had seen Joseph.
[00:16:48] [SPEAKER_03]: And if he had any hope of Joseph being alive, he thought that Joseph would return to this place.
[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_03]: He wanted to make sure that if there was any chance Joseph was alive, that he would find them at Hebron.
[00:17:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Grief and anger have a way of paralyzing us and keeping us from moving on or moving forward.
[00:17:12] [SPEAKER_03]: It stops us and we're unable to continue our pilgrimage.
[00:17:19] [SPEAKER_03]: Jacob was being called by God again to a new pilgrimage to leave the land of Canaan where he had lived for the last 65 years.
[00:17:30] [SPEAKER_03]: It's crazy how fast we settled in.
[00:17:35] [SPEAKER_03]: I remember when we moved from Oceanside to London, I had so much accumulated stuff.
[00:17:44] [SPEAKER_03]: We had lived in that house for 13 years and I couldn't believe all the things I had accumulated in 13 years.
[00:17:50] [SPEAKER_03]: And I felt duly rebuked like, I can't believe speaking to myself, you kept all this junk.
[00:17:58] [SPEAKER_03]: What were you thinking? Did you really need this or that?
[00:18:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And I remember just like clearing out and it felt so good.
[00:18:03] [SPEAKER_03]: So we went to England with hardly anything.
[00:18:06] [SPEAKER_03]: In fact, my China all broke in the transport.
[00:18:09] [SPEAKER_03]: And so all that I had to eat on was it was hilarious where those Tupperware squares, that was it.
[00:18:15] [SPEAKER_03]: And so when people came over the English came over for dinner, it's like, I hope you're okay with Tupperware.
[00:18:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And they didn't know what Tupperware was. So they were very impressed.
[00:18:24] [SPEAKER_03]: But I remember just clearing out we lived in England for four years.
[00:18:27] [SPEAKER_03]: Now how much can you accumulate? Everything was expensive.
[00:18:30] [SPEAKER_03]: But when we went to go back again, I had to clear out and I realized how did I accumulate all of this stuff again in just four years.
[00:18:43] [SPEAKER_03]: But Jacob had 65 years just to accumulate because he had settled down.
[00:18:48] [SPEAKER_03]: You see, when you stop traveling, when you're not on pilgrimage, you begin just to collect.
[00:18:54] [SPEAKER_03]: You begin just to hoard up all this stuff, just stuff.
[00:19:00] [SPEAKER_03]: And you find that you have just so much.
[00:19:04] [SPEAKER_03]: Now he's going to start a pilgrimage.
[00:19:06] [SPEAKER_03]: Now it's time to start getting rid of things again and only keeping what is absolutely vital and necessary.
[00:19:16] [SPEAKER_03]: So as he's making his way out of Canaan, he stops at Beersheba.
[00:19:21] [SPEAKER_03]: And there he offers a sacrifice to God near the Tamarask tree that his grandfather Abraham had planted.
[00:19:31] [SPEAKER_03]: I think that this is the first time in a long time that Jacob has communicated with God.
[00:19:39] [SPEAKER_03]: I think an absence of communication came in when Joseph disappeared.
[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_03]: I believe that Jacob was so upset with God.
[00:19:50] [SPEAKER_03]: And if you remember, Jacob's life with God up to this point can really be a constant wrestling between Jacob's will and God's will.
[00:20:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Jacob doing for God rather than just receiving from God and walking with God and participating with God.
[00:20:08] [SPEAKER_03]: So now there's this absence of communication for 20 years.
[00:20:13] [SPEAKER_03]: He has not spoken to the Lord somewhere around 20 years at no communication between them.
[00:20:20] [SPEAKER_03]: And now he goes and he offers God a sacrifice before he leaves the land that was promised him.
[00:20:27] [SPEAKER_03]: It's here that God speaks to him.
[00:20:29] [SPEAKER_03]: And the reason I came up with that premise is because here God does not use the covenant name Israel.
[00:20:37] [SPEAKER_03]: He uses the name Jacob, his former name.
[00:20:42] [SPEAKER_03]: And he says it twice, Jacob, Jacob.
[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_03]: And even in saying that it's almost an attention getter like Jacob, Jacob.
[00:20:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Why did you doubt? Why did you wrestle?
[00:20:58] [SPEAKER_03]: Now that you're aware of everything I was doing.
[00:21:03] [SPEAKER_03]: Jacob, Jacob.
[00:21:05] [SPEAKER_03]: This is not the name of the covenant.
[00:21:09] [SPEAKER_03]: God is reminding Jacob of who Jacob is, his natural estate.
[00:21:15] [SPEAKER_03]: But he's also reminding Jacob of who he is.
[00:21:20] [SPEAKER_03]: I am God.
[00:21:23] [SPEAKER_03]: I've never stopped being God.
[00:21:26] [SPEAKER_03]: I am God, the God of your father.
[00:21:30] [SPEAKER_03]: Do not fear to go down to Egypt for I will make you a great nation.
[00:21:34] [SPEAKER_03]: I will go down with you to Egypt and I will surely bring you up again.
[00:21:40] [SPEAKER_03]: And Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.
[00:21:44] [SPEAKER_03]: Jacob have lived in fear and feeling vulnerable.
[00:21:48] [SPEAKER_03]: Remember Jacob was the guy who thought he had to get for himself.
[00:21:54] [SPEAKER_03]: Remember he thought he had to deceive his father in order to get the blessing that God had promised him.
[00:22:00] [SPEAKER_03]: He felt like he had to deceive his uncle and do all these tricks with the mating habits of the sheep and goats and cows in order to enrich his life.
[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_03]: He felt that he had to bribe his brother with livestock in order to bring that peace that God had promised him that he would have in Canaan.
[00:22:28] [SPEAKER_03]: He felt like he had to move from Shechem because of what Levi and Simeon had done lest he be wiped out.
[00:22:36] [SPEAKER_03]: In other words, Jacob felt like he had to take care of himself.
[00:22:41] [SPEAKER_03]: And the time that he trusted and trusted and sent his son who was supposed to be the patriarch who had these dreams from God, what happened?
[00:22:50] [SPEAKER_03]: The report was given to him that his son had died.
[00:22:54] [SPEAKER_03]: I believe Jacob thought I have got to take care of myself.
[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_03]: I'm responsible to make the promises of God happen.
[00:23:05] [SPEAKER_03]: The death of Joseph or the supposed death of Joseph, I believed had left Jacob feeling so vulnerable.
[00:23:15] [SPEAKER_03]: When somebody who is very close to you dies, it leaves you with this feeling of vulnerability.
[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_03]: I remember after my father died, I felt like I had a target on my back.
[00:23:27] [SPEAKER_03]: I felt like I was vulnerable to all of nature, to every device of the enemy, to every evil thing.
[00:23:36] [SPEAKER_03]: I just felt so vulnerable.
[00:23:38] [SPEAKER_03]: And I started having these panic attacks and I didn't know why until a sweet friend said to me,
[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_03]: Cheryl, didn't you know that one of the repercussions of losing somebody you love is fear, is anxiety?
[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_03]: And then I was able to trace back this feeling of abject vulnerability to the death of my father.
[00:24:01] [SPEAKER_03]: Something so precious, something that I treasured, someone who I treasured so much, a relationship that I absolutely adored was gone.
[00:24:11] [SPEAKER_03]: And I felt so vulnerable.
[00:24:15] [SPEAKER_03]: Death has a way of doing that.
[00:24:17] [SPEAKER_03]: This treasure, this person that Jacob had loved with all of his heart, that he had prioritized above anything else had been taken from him.
[00:24:28] [SPEAKER_03]: And he felt vulnerable.
[00:24:32] [SPEAKER_02]: Jacob described his life as one of pilgrimage.
[00:24:35] [SPEAKER_02]: A pilgrim is someone who doesn't have any roots in his on a journey.
[00:24:39] [SPEAKER_02]: Their homeland is somewhere else.
[00:24:42] [SPEAKER_02]: As followers of Jesus, our lives are a pilgrimage too.
[00:24:46] [SPEAKER_02]: While on earth we need to remember that this world is temporary and it is not our home.
[00:24:51] [SPEAKER_02]: As we're here, we'll have issues and difficulties.
[00:24:54] [SPEAKER_02]: It won't feel comfortable and that's okay.
[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_02]: We were made for something more.
[00:25:00] [SPEAKER_02]: In Christ we are citizens of heaven and our true eternal home is with God.
[00:25:05] [SPEAKER_02]: We hope you have been blessed by today's Bible study.
[00:25:08] [SPEAKER_02]: For more information about the Gracious Words Radio program and the teaching ministry of Cheryl Brodersen, please visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:17] [SPEAKER_02]: Coming up next time on the Gracious Words program we'll learn more about pilgrimage as we continue our series, Our Great Creator in the Book of Genesis with Cheryl Brodersen.
[00:25:26] [SPEAKER_02]: We do hope you make plans to join us.
[00:25:29] [SPEAKER_02]: Again for more information visit our website at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:33] [SPEAKER_01]: We will come for you Lord and wonder, wonder.
[00:25:42] [SPEAKER_01]: We will fall on our knees and surrender.
[00:25:48] [SPEAKER_01]: We surrender to you.
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