Understanding God's Story: Grace, Community, and Promises

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. **Genesis 29:14-30** - The story of Jacob, Laban, Rachel, and Leah.
2. **Matthew 1:1-6** - The genealogy of Jesus, including the women with challenging pasts.
3. **John 14:1-3** - Jesus' promise to prepare a place for us in His Father's house.

#### Observation Questions
1. What was the agreement between Jacob and Laban regarding Rachel, and how was it broken? ([39:15])
2. Who are the four women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1, and what are their stories? ([41:58])
3. What promise does Jesus make to His disciples in John 14:1-3, and how does it contrast with the broken trust in Jacob's story? ([51:43])
4. How did the patriarchal system influence family decisions and dynamics in Jacob's time? ([36:53])

#### Interpretation Questions
1. Why do you think the inclusion of women with challenging pasts in Jesus' genealogy is significant? How does it reflect God's grace? ([45:25])
2. How does understanding the cultural context of the patriarchal period help us better comprehend the story of Jacob and Laban? ([36:12])
3. In what ways does Jesus' promise of preparing a place for us provide comfort and assurance, especially in contrast to the broken trust seen in Jacob's story? ([51:43])
4. How does the act of communion connect us to the historical and spiritual significance of Jesus' sacrifice? ([58:00])

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you experienced broken trust. How did it affect your relationship with the person involved? How can Jesus' promise of unwavering trust and commitment help you heal from that experience? ([49:23])
2. The genealogy of Jesus includes individuals with imperfect pasts. How does this encourage you in your own walk with God, knowing that He can use anyone for His purposes? ([45:25])
3. How can you actively participate in your church community to support and guide others, much like the patriarchal family structure supported its members? ([36:53])
4. Communion is a powerful reminder of Jesus' sacrifice and the new covenant. How can you prepare your heart and mind to fully engage in this act of worship? ([58:00])
5. Jesus promises to prepare a place for us in His Father's house. How does this promise influence your daily life and your perspective on eternity? ([51:43])
6. The sermon mentioned the importance of understanding the historical and cultural context of the Bible. What steps can you take to deepen your understanding of scripture in this way? ([33:42])
7. Think about the upcoming Bible study on "The Epic of Eden." How can participating in this study help you grow in your faith and understanding of God's plan? ([33:42])

Day 1: The Importance of Community and Tradition
In the patriarchal period, the family unit was central to daily life. The head of the household made all significant decisions, and multiple generations lived together in a family compound. This close-knit community structure helps us understand many biblical stories, including Jacob's. Understanding this context allows us to see the depth of relationships and responsibilities in biblical times. The patriarchal system is evident in the story of Jacob and Laban, where Laban, as the head of his house, decided who would marry his daughters. This setting helps us understand the cultural context of many biblical stories. For instance, when Jacob worked for seven years to marry Rachel but was tricked into marrying Leah, it was a result of the customs and traditions of that time. [36:12]

Genesis 29:25-27 (ESV): "And in the morning, behold, it was Leah! And Jacob said to Laban, 'What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve with you for Rachel? Why then have you deceived me?' Laban said, 'It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn. Complete the week of this one, and we will give you the other also in return for serving me another seven years.'"

Reflection: Think about your own family traditions and community. How do they shape your daily life and decisions? How can you honor these traditions while also being open to God's guidance?


Day 2: God's Grace in Imperfect Lives
The genealogy of Jesus includes women with challenging pasts, such as Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Their inclusion in Jesus' lineage highlights God's grace and the importance of every individual in His plan. These stories remind us that God can use anyone, regardless of their past, to fulfill His purposes. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba were all women with imperfect pasts, yet they were honored and included in the lineage of Jesus. This inclusion highlights God's grace and the importance of every individual in His plan. [45:25]

Matthew 1:5-6 (ESV): "and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah."

Reflection: Reflect on a time when you felt unworthy or imperfect. How did God show His grace to you in that situation? How can you extend that same grace to others today?


Day 3: The Promise of a Heavenly Home
Jesus' promise to prepare a place for us in His Father's house is a powerful image of God's unwavering trust and commitment. Unlike the broken trust in Jacob's story, God's promises are steadfast and reliable. This assurance gives us hope and comfort, knowing that we have a place in God's family. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross ensures that we have a place in God's family, a place where we are known, loved, and redeemed. [51:43]

John 14:2-3 (ESV): "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also."

Reflection: Think about the concept of a "heavenly home." What does it mean to you to have a place prepared by Jesus? How does this promise affect your daily life and interactions with others?


Day 4: The Significance of Communion
During the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread and the cup, symbolizing His body and blood, and asked us to remember His sacrifice. This act of communion is a powerful reminder of the new covenant and the forgiveness we receive through Christ. It connects us to the historical and spiritual significance of Jesus' sacrifice. As we prepare for communion, we are reminded of Jesus' words at the Last Supper. He took the bread and the cup, symbolizing His body and blood, and asked us to remember His sacrifice. [58:00]

1 Corinthians 11:24-25 (ESV): "and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.'"

Reflection: As you prepare for your next communion, take a moment to reflect on Jesus' sacrifice. How does remembering His body and blood impact your understanding of forgiveness and grace?


Day 5: Deepening Our Understanding of Scripture
Engaging in Bible studies, such as "The Epic of Eden," helps us dig deeper into the historical and cultural context of the scriptures. This deeper understanding enriches our faith and appreciation of God's ongoing quest to ransom His creation. It allows us to see the Bible as a cohesive narrative from Genesis to Revelation. This study will enrich our understanding and appreciation of God's ongoing quest to ransom His creation. [01:08:04]

2 Timothy 2:15 (ESV): "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth."

Reflection: Consider your current approach to studying the Bible. How can you deepen your understanding of the scriptures? What steps can you take this week to engage more deeply with God's Word?

No, it's been a great time this morning, and we lost track of time. How is everybody? Awesome. Yeah, evidently, we're all doing fantastic. So, good morning, and happy June. Who's happy that we're in June? Anybody? Y'all aren't? Well, I see one hand. My children are excited that we're in June. Well, I'm Faith. I'm excited we're in June. I'm glad you're in with us this morning. It's going to be a fantastic day, and I am glad that you have chosen to be here at Fleming Island United Methodist. If you're worshiping online, thank you so much for joining us. We're glad you're here.

The new event list for June is out in the back. If you're in the room, we'd love for you to pick one up. Just a couple big events I want to point out to you, really one major one coming up, and that is that this coming Saturday is going to be our food drive, and that is the one that we do with the Catholic Church. So, if you have food to donate, you just drive on up for that.

Okay. Now, I invite you all to stand up for our call to worship this morning. All right. You ready? Waiting is never easy for us. Today, God is asking us to wait, to be patient. Quiet your spirit and open your hearts to God's word for you today. Amen.

Friends, if you have ways that we can be in prayer for you, we'd love to do that. We are a church that believes in the power of prayer. Amen? Amen. If you have a prayer request, you can drop that in the baskets up here at the prayer rails at the time of communion. You can email them to us. You can bring them to the church office. I have one request. Please don't just walk up and say, "Tell me," because I'll make it a confession. I will forget. Okay? And I want, I'm just being honest. I want to remember, and I will, I want to pray for you and with you, and I don't want it to be lost, track up. So you can tell me, and that's okay, but please don't make that the only way you communicate with us is by walking up and just telling me. So please let us join you in prayer with things because we do believe in the power of prayer.

If you have other things that we can celebrate, too, we like to celebrate with you as well. If you'd like to give to things to the church, you can do that, too. You can drop those things in the offering basket at the time of communion. We are celebrating so many wonderful things right now in the life of our church. You can find all of those in the e-mag. But I just, one thing we shared on our Facebook page this week that I wanted to point out, if you have not seen, is that Bannerman. Bannerman, the school we partner with, they had their graduation for, specifically for the parents who have had children in high school, and they got to graduate high school. Is that not amazing? It's one of the unique things about their program is that the moms get to bring their kids to the daycare there at the school and take classes and finish school and learn life skills. So is that not a great program that they have? So that's just one of the many ministries we're blessed to have here as a partner with that school.

So would you go with me now to the Lord in prayer? God, thank you for this day. We're so thankful for the fact that you give us spaces like this one to gather as your people and that you are waiting for us so that we may worship you. I pray that our worship of our voice and our songs were worthy to hear your ears. And as we go to the scriptures and study your word, I pray that you help us to gain knowledge by your wisdom. We ask the blessing of our children, God, as they go into their spaces, study your scriptures too, but also to celebrate today that they've all graduated and they're changing this summer into their next grades. And we ask your blessings over that too, and the blessings over all the adults to feed into their lives. We pray this in your holy name. Amen.

I invite my kids to go back to Kids Club this morning. All children are invited to be in Kids Club. It is Promotion Sunday. We're celebrating that they all graduated to new grades. Y'all have fun. I do love you, Jacob. I want to marry you, too. Some of you probably know that story, right? Yeah, it's one of those famous ones, right? The poor guy. If you know much about Jacob's story, he has like the family story that in turn would be a modern soap opera today. Ends up with four wives, twelve sons. They all argue with each other. We're not going to go into the whole details of all the story, but this summer we're looking into what the sermon series that I'm calling the story arc. And I'm going to explain why.

So if you want to follow with the sermon notes, you can. You can do that, of course, in the church app. But before we jump in, I want to be curious. Who in here likes movies? You like to watch movies? We love movies in our house. We have had a long-standing tradition for like more than ten years in our household to watch a movie every Friday night. It is like religious that we watch a movie on Friday night. When something disrupts that, it becomes a big deal. We have very chaotic lives. And my husband and I, we have very chaotic lives. My husband's National Guard. So he leaves one weekend a month. And no matter what happens, whether he's home or he's across the country or across the world, we watch a movie every Friday night. And there are some times he has watched it with us from across the country. When he's been gone for months at a time, he has watched that movie from wherever he was. It has been the norm in our life. So this is very important to us.

Now, how many of you have watched a movie and seen that little line that says, "This movie is based upon the book of such and such"? You've seen that, right? Now, in my house, other people than me really like to read. I don't like to read. As a dyslexic person, reading is not fun. I do read a lot. I read for information. I don't read for enjoyment. Now, my family, they love to read for enjoyment. So we watch these movies, and they love the movies, and then they'll see that line. This movie is based on this book. And so then the book gets added to their wish list of what they want to read. Because they figure if they like the movie, they're going to love the book, right? So what happens is that my family reads the books, and then I ask all the questions. Right? I'll be like, okay, so what was the deal with this character? And tell me what happened here. Because notoriously, the author has a whole lot more information that we don't get in the movie. Right? Some of you readers, you know that, right? Okay. Some of you are like, I'm like Faith. I don't read. I just watch the movie. It's okay. I'm happy to admit it.

Well, this sermon series is all about us kind of getting the book side of what oftentimes is the movie experience. Because to be truthfully honest, when we read the scriptures, we don't have the background version of what we're reading. Because it happened a really long time ago. And some of these things seem really strange. Like this story we just heard read about Jacob trying to get his wife. And then the switch happening, and that seems strange. All the women in the room, you're trying to figure out how he married the wrong woman. Right? That seems weird. These things are so different from our culture, we have a hard time understanding them. So this summer, we're going to kind of dig into the history and the culture and figure out what that means when we read both the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now, the thing I do love to read is comic books. That's because they have lots of pictures, and I don't have as many words. I like it. It's relaxing to me. And there's this thing in the comic book world called the story arc, meaning the overarching story thread that runs through all the books. And we have that in scripture too. We have a thread that connects everything with us. And so there's been a handful of books that have really impacted the way that I read scripture. And one of them is called the Epic of Eden. And we're going to have, if you want to join in, dig even deeper in this with me. We're going to have a Bible study starting next week on Wednesdays. And I'll have books in the back that unpack some teachings on this. And if you have questions, you can ask me about it at the end. But I want to read you a quote from this book, The Epic of Eden. It says this: "We forget that this book, meaning the Bible, was cast upon the waters of history with one very specific, completely essential, and desperately necessary objective: to tell the epic tale of God's ongoing quest to ransom his creation."

Keep going, Bob. "And to thereby give each generation the opportunity to know his amazing grace." One more, I think. "The Bible is the saga of Yahweh, God, and Adam, the prodigal son and his ever gracious heavenly father, humanity and their rebellion of God and his grace. This narrative begins with Eden and does not conclude into the new Jerusalem." So that's saying Genesis to Revelation. And it's firmly placed in one story. And if you are a believer, which, friends, are we believers? Alright. If you are a believer, then this is your story.

So this morning we're going to use the story that you just heard there in the Bible comic called Broken Trust, or when Jacob and his wife were killed. Jacob tried to go get married, and he made a deal. And that deal was broken in his eyes. Why does this story matter? And how does it help us understand the culture of the Old Testament? So I'm going to explain here by using some details of this that applies to a wide section of Scripture.

Now, some of you love facts, and you're going to love that I give you lots of facts. Some of you don't love facts, and I'm sorry. You're just going to have to bear with this series. Okay? Your facts people are really excited because I haven't done this in a while. So just give them the time. Okay? Alright. So this story exists in what we call the patriarchal period. In the big scheme of the Old Testament, it moves. We're going to be in different periods throughout. But the patriarchal period is where we have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These three people—Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—is where the story within the patriarchal period is found. Okay? So we have the three heads of house: Abraham, who we say we are the children of Abraham, and then his son Isaac, and his son Jacob. And our story, of course, today is on Jacob.

You can click one more for me, Bob, so we can zoom in. There you go. Now you can see that a little smaller. So we don't know the timeline of Eden or Noah, but we believe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was around 2000 years before Christ. Okay? This is as best as archaeologists can figure out. So there's a couple of things important about this period. It is what we call patriarchal because it's defined by the oldest living male in the house. See, they didn't have kings. They didn't have rulers. You were overseen by the head of your house. If you got in trouble, the patriarch disciplined you. There wasn't a jail or anything like that. You were dealt with by the head of your house. The immediate family was 15 to 30 people. Okay? The family reunion would have been like 150 people. Who's ready to go to that Thanksgiving? Anybody? Alright. So the family units lived together all the time. This head of the house, he would decide all the important things. He decided who was allowed within the family, who needed to be removed from the family. He approved all the marriages. He made all of the money decisions. He managed everything that had to do with the farming or the livestock and everything within. He made every decision. He also had to sometimes make decisions regarding life and death things for the house. He oversaw it all. That's big stuff right there for this kind of day and age.

So when someone was acting inappropriately or causing harm to the family, the head of the house had to decide how he was going to manage that person and how he was going to discipline them. That's what it meant to be patriarchal. So we see this in the passage that we read just a bit ago when we look at Laban. Go back to Genesis chapter 29. So Laban is the head of his house. And we see in verse 14, Laban exclaimed, "You really are my own flesh and blood," after Jacob had stayed with Laban for about a month. Laban said to him, "You shouldn't work for me without pay just because we're relatives. Tell me how much your wage should be." So Laban is Jacob's uncle. So they're related, but they were not in the same direct household. But they are related.

So we go down to verse 18. Since Jacob was in love with Rachel, he told her father Laban, "I'll work for you for seven years if you give me Rachel, your younger daughter, as my wife." "Agreed," Laban replied. "I'd rather give her to you than anyone else. Stay and work with me." So we see Laban deciding who is in his house, who is working for him, and we see him deciding who is going to marry his daughter. This is the normal relationship. This is the response of the head of the house.

We also get this idea of the family tree or the lineage being passed on by the men. So this is what we call patrilineal. Now, this is pretty normal to us as Americans. We're used to lineage being traced through the men, right? Yes? Okay. You're zoning out on facts here. Come on now. We can be a little more awake. I mean, it's shifting some in the United States, but as a whole, usually us women, we get married, we take our husband's last name. And it's important for men to have sons so the family name continues, right? Okay. That makes sense to us.

So in Jacob's family tree, we see the fact that we trace the lineage by the men. Okay. So Jacob has gone to his uncle Laban, who is his mother's brother, and he wants to try to stay within his clan to find a bride. And as we said earlier, we have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—three of the men and how the lineage is traced. So Laban has no sons as far as we know because otherwise the women would not have been out herding sheep. The women didn't go in the fields and work if there were men to do it. So to best we can tell, he only had daughters.

Now, this is important to note because when scripture tells us about women and lineage, it's intentional why they do it. Because they don't ever list women in family trees unless there's a reason for the woman to be listed. I'm sorry, ladies. It's just the way it is. We weren't that important back then. And the only reason we got listed in a lineage is if either we were one of multiple wives, so they needed to indicate which child was receiving all of the assets, and so they needed to indicate that, or if we were really important. And I point this out because if we go to the most important lineage in scripture, to the lineage of our Lord, in the book of Matthew, there are four women listed in this lineage other than Mary. Obviously, Mary is listed because at the very end we talk about Mary, the descendants of Jesus.

So let's look at this for a second. Matthew 1 verse 3: "Judah was the father of Perez and Zariah, whose mother was Tamar." Tamar was widowed without a son, and her family didn't follow the laws to help her receive a son. She did the righteous act when her brothers-in-law and her father-in-law wouldn't. So God viewed her as a righteous woman, honored her, and gave her a son in her righteousness. So she's listed. Not only did her son that she honored her deceased husband by honoring him and bearing him a son, she's in the lineage of Jesus. She's listed in the lineage of Jesus because she was righteous.

And if we go on to verse 5: "Solomon, who was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab." Now what does that mean? Rahab was the woman that helped sneak Israel, the people of Israel, into the city when they were trying to get into the city walls of Jericho. The spies. Y'all remember Jericho, right? They marched around the city and then they shouted, and the walls came tumbling down. Rahab got the spies over the wall so they could see into the city. She was not a person of Israel. She was a foreigner, not considered a woman of respectable history. But she was then honored by God for helping the foreigners. She was also put into the lineage of Jesus and then noted for her, again, her righteousness.

And we move on in there. Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Ruth, who was honored. She left her hometown, again a foreigner, and stayed to the side of her mother-in-law. And then we get Jesse was the father of King David. Verse 6: "David was the father of Solomon, whose mother was Bathsheba, the widow of Uriah." Bathsheba, who was abused by the king, lost her first son, and then redeemed in her second of Solomon and became mother of the next king.

These women all had very imperfect pasts. Can we say it that way? Not the storybook stories of women that we would expect, right? But God redeemed them. He showed that you don't have to be perfect to be used. You don't have to have the history of everything going the right way for you to be put not only in a place of honor but for you to help be in the lineage of the Lord. And the gospel writers documented them for a reason because they wanted history to know that these women played an important role. When we see them, it's important to note because they were only there to draw attention to something special. Because otherwise, the women were not listed.

We do see in the very beginning of Matthew in verse 2, when the head of the patriarchal lineage, Abraham, was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers, the tribes of Israel. See, the family was set in these ways.

Now, the last piece is that it's patriarchal. I think I said that right. Y'all know I don't say all the words right. You live with me, and I appreciate your love and grace. Meaning that the household was set by the father. They all lived within the father's house. We have a lot of images in our head of the father's house, don't we? The family unit could be better said as the family compound. Remember I said the immediate family is more like 15 to 30 people living within a single home. It's more like a compound of homes because they all lived within this space with little mini houses within. And the women would stay within the whole time, and then the men would go out in the day, and they would farm and they would shepherd all their things, and the animals stayed within the compound too.

And we had this what we call the four-room dwelling where the animals stayed within the immediate space. And you had an upper room, which was the roof, and the rooms below where the even more immediate family. There's no word in the Old Testament to indicate a more immediate family. But the archaeologists have found these four-room dwellings all grouped together. So they had a more immediate space. The animals were on the ground floor, and they had a cooking space and a living space and a storage space, and then the roof that they called the upper room. So Jacob probably was given one of these spaces after he married Laban's daughter so he could have a space to live with his new wife.

Now, I just want to say we shouldn't be too hard on Jacob for the fact that Laban tricked him. It was tradition then that when they had these big old wedding feasts that the bride would have been completely veiled. The whole extended family unit would have come, and a big old party. We talked in the last series. They liked to have fun, right? They would have had fun till late in the night, and it would have been dark. And the bride would have been given to Jacob, and he wouldn't have really been able to see. It wouldn't have been, as it said in the passage, to the morning that he realized who had been given to him because she would have been covered the entire time. And I would guess, it doesn't say in the passage, I would guess if Laban was a smart man, he wouldn't have had Rachel walking around the wedding feast visible, right? Because Jacob would have figured that out.

Now, something I want to point out as we think about this because we see this story of trust being broken. But our God doesn't break trust, does he? See, we are thinking about this story and the deal that was made and how the head of the house made the deal, and he was able to re-change the deal and all of these things because Jacob was at Laban's mercy in this. And we sometimes are at the mercy of our God. But when Christ throws a wedding feast for us, he doesn't change his deals. He is there waiting, and he even says he has a room ready in his family compound for us.

We think about the upper room that would have been much like the space that Christ sat with his disciples at the Last Supper. A rooftop space. They used it all the time unless it was in the rainy season when they couldn't. So as Christ entered Jerusalem and he was sitting with the disciples in someone's home, he would have been sitting on the roof enjoying the Passover meal in someone's private, personal, intimate space. And he would have been with them as they were enjoying the meal. And all of a sudden they hear him say, "Hey, guess what? I've got to leave you." And as their teacher, they had left their families, and they were under his authority. He was their head. No longer were they under their father or their grandfather or their great grandfather's authority. They were under Christ's authority. And now he says he's leaving, and the panic and anxiety within them would have been great.

But we read this in John 14: "Don't let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and trust in me. There is more than enough room in my father's home. If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?" Friends, Jesus is sitting here in a space that felt so familiar to him and to others because the homes, it would have felt like a home he had been in a thousand times, even if he had never been in it. And he is telling his disciples, "Our father," a word that sounds so familiar to them because they lived in a society that was so used to the father, the head of the house making these decisions. And he is saying, "Our father has a room for us."

Now, oftentimes we have imagined these rooms to be big old mansions, and we are all going to have our own big old house. But I love the idea of us all living within these personal spaces. It feels intimate and nestled and safe. It feels like our father knows us and wants us right beside him. It feels with these walls that they have to protect us from the world, that we are ready for whatever comes. But we also have an openness and a freedom because you see, much like Laban was bringing Jacob into his house, Jesus is saying to the disciples, "Our father has done the same in heaven for us." And Jesus, he made this promise when he left to prepare a place for everyone else.

See, these are the images that we have to connect between the old and the new, remembering that the wedding feast that Christ promised he is preparing is never going to have a deal switched. The sacrifice has been made. The price has been paid. We are not going to have to work another year. It's all done. Would you pray with me?

Say, "God, I am so thankful that you put so many beautiful images in scripture like this one for us and that we have so many things that we get to celebrate with you. God, I am thankful that our Bible characters aren't perfect. It's so different, our culture today from the biblical times. I am thankful that we don't have the same culture, that we give different value on people than we did then. But I am also thankful that we can learn from it and understand what it is that you are trying to say. As we come to this table, Lord, I pray that we imagine the wedding feast that you have for us in heaven, that when each of us join in your heavenly host, that we get to feast for as long as we want, and it's a joyful celebration as you welcome us in your presence. And this table is just a taste of that. So receive us as your beloved so that we may be in this space 100% as we are, loved by you, known by you, and redeemed by your sacrifice. We pray this in your holy name. Amen.

Friends, this table is open to all because Christ did pay the sacrifice for all, and he has already done everything required. So the scriptures are filled with stories just like us—men who grieved and women who questioned and siblings who did not get along and parents who chose favorites. But God's world of grace is meant for people, all people like us. And there is no pretense here in this place or at this table. The only thing God asks is that we confess our sins together and that we come with an open heart.

So would you join me in this confession on the screen? "Patient and persistent God, we come to this comfortable room as we knew what to expect, as if we were safe in a predictable place. And as if we could observe, Holy One, forgive our tepid expectations in the mystery of your love. Overshadow us. Plant the seeds of your gospel in our hearts until we bloom and spill with your passion to serve in a world that is wasting away."

Take a moment. Lift in your hearts anything you want to confess to God. Almighty God, hear the confessions of our hearts and prepare us to be others that receive new people into the reception of your kingdom. And our immediate family in heaven and our family compound will continue to grow. We thank you for the sacrifice you made for us and that when you sat there with those that you loved, that you thought of each and every one of us sitting in this room, and you imagined a room for each of us in your heavenly home.

As Christ sat with his friends, he took the bread and he broke it, and he said, "This is my body, which has been broken for you. Eat in remembrance of me." He also took the cup, and he said, "This is the blood of the new covenant, shed for the sins of all people of all time. Drink just as you eat in remembrance of me."

Father, we ask that you send your holy spirit upon this bread and juice and transform it to be your body and blood that we may be redeemed and fill us with your spirit. Thank you for Christ's sacrifice that we may now share in this word of forgiveness together. Friends, would you share with me, "In the name of Christ, you are forgiven." Amen.

We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Those who are going to help me with communion will come forward. Just a word of instruction as they come. We're going to give you a small piece of bread to dip into the cup. We'll come up the center aisle and out the outside. If you prefer for your communion not to be touched or you need gluten-free bread, we'll have that here in the center.

After I serve my helpers, we'll invite everyone forward. The Lord's table is all prepared. We invite all to come as you wish. We'll start in the back and come up the center and out the outside. Y'all can have a seat for a moment.

Two things. One, if you wanted to pick up one of the Epic of Eden study guides, they're in the back. I have a couple more copies. Again, that will start next Wednesday at 6:30. If you pick up the book, you can go ahead and start the first week of reading because we'll start like one week behind the sermons, but there's a little... like you do the readings ahead of time. You don't have to have the book to come. You can just come and watch the videos and join the conversation. So there's multiple ways to participate. It's a great study. The lady who wrote it, she's an archaeologist. She's an Old Testament Bible scholar and archaeologist. So she's a really cool teacher because she's hands-on in the dirt studying these things that form our understanding of the ancient culture. So that's one thing I really love about her is that she's like, you know, chipping away at this stuff. So if you have questions, let me know.

And then, have y'all heard the Vacation Bible School is coming? Awesome. I got a little something to show you about that. Hey, what's going on here? Oh, no. There's always more room for volunteers at VBS. So nobody have a mad rush panic about volunteering. There's always room.

So just a couple of things. On June 23rd, after worship, we will have what we call our Youth and Child Protection Training. We do this every year. Anyone who wants to volunteer at Vacation Bible School or volunteers anywhere in Children's, we ask that you do this training. It is something we do to ensure the safety of all of our children and youth because we want to make sure that our ministries are always safe. So it's max, like usually 45 minutes is all that it is. So just know that please put that on your calendar. If you can't attend, like Katie, no, and we'll get you materials for later. There is a place at VBS for everybody. If you can only attend one day, that's fine. We will put you as like a fill-in. If you like to just sit and craft, if you want to do snacks, if you like games, like there does not matter what you like to do, they can find a place.

Now that also being said, if you have not registered your child, you know, if yet, please do so, okay? Last year we got really full in the community kids, and we had our own kids that hadn't gotten registered yet, alright? Parents, I love you. Please make sure we get, if your kid wants to come, we would like to make sure our kids are here before the wait list happens because we do only have so much space in the church for kids. So like go ahead and get yourself if your kid is coming registered.

And the last thing I want to say, if you have a child that is seventh grade through 12th grade, they can volunteer for community service hours for school or scouts or whatever and do things, and then we will sign service forms for them. So know that, and we will be happy to fill out the forms for whatever they need hours for. Okay, if you have questions, Katie is in the back and she'll be happy to answer those questions for you.

Let me pray you all out. Almighty God, we are so thankful for all that you've done today for us, and we hope, I hope, that we have seen what it means to be a part of your house a little differently. Send us from this space excited to be a part of your family and to continue to show the love of Jesus to other people. We pray this in your holy name, amen.

### Quotes for Outreach

1. "We forget that this book, meaning the Bible. We forget that this book was cast upon the waters of history with one very specific, completely essential, and desperately necessary objective. To tell the epic tale of God's ongoing quest to ransom his creation. Keep going Bob. And to thereby give each generation the opportunity to know his amazing grace. One more I think. The Bible is the saga of Yahweh, God, and Adam. The prodigal son and his ever gracious heavenly father. Humanity and their rebellion of God and his grace. This narrative begins with Eden. And does not conclude into the new Jerusalem. So that's saying Genesis to Revelation. And it's firmly placed in one story. And if you are a believer. Which, friends, are we believers?" [33:42](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



2. "So we see this story. Of trust being broken. But our God doesn't break trust. Does he? See we are thinking about this story. And the deal that was made. And how the head of the house made the deal. And he was able to re-change the deal. And all of these things. Because Jacob was at Laban's mercy in this. And we sometimes are at the mercy of our God. But when Christ throws a wedding feast for us. He doesn't change his deals. He is there waiting. And he even says he has a room ready. And his family compound for us." [49:23](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



3. "Friends Jesus is sitting here. In a space that felt so familiar. To him and to others. Because the homes. It would have felt like a home he had been in a thousand times. Even if he had never been in it. And he is telling his disciples. Our father. A word that sounds so familiar to them. Because they lived in a society. That was so used to the father. The head of the house. Making these decisions. And he is saying. Our father. Has a room for us." [52:15](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



4. "But she was then honored by God. For helping the foreigners. She was also put into the lineage of Jesus. And then noted for her again. Her righteousness. And we move on in there. Boaz was the father of Obed. Whose mother was Ruth. Ruth who was honored. She left her hometown. Again a foreigner. And stayed to the side of her mother-in-law. And then we get. Jesse was the father of King David. Verse 6. David was the father of Solomon. Whose mother was Bathsheba. The widow of Uriah. Bathsheba who was. Abused by the king. Lost her first son. And then redeemed. In her second of Solomon. And became mother of the next king." [44:21](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



5. "We are celebrating so many wonderful things right now in the life of our church. You can find all of those in the e-mag. But I just, one thing we shared on our Facebook page this week that I wanted to point out, if you have not seen, is that Bannerman. Bannerman, the school we partner with, they had their graduation for, specifically for the parents who have had children in high school, and they got to graduate high school. Is that not amazing? It's one of the unique things about their program is that the moms get to bring their kids to the daycare there at the school and take classes and finish school and learn life skills. So is that not a great program that they have?" [24:51](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



### Quotes for Members

1. "So this story exists in what we call the patriarchal period. In the big scheme of the Old Testament. It moves. We're going to be in different periods throughout. But the patriarchal period is where we have Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These three people. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Is where the story within the patriarchal period is found. It is what we call patriarchal. Because it's defined by the oldest living male in the house. See they didn't have kings. They didn't have rulers. You were overseen by the head of your house. If you got in trouble. The patriarch disciplined you. There wasn't a jail or anything like that. You were dealt with by the head of your house. The immediate family was 15 to 30 people. The family reunion would have been like 150 people." [36:12](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



2. "So Jacob probably was given. One of these spaces. After he married. Laban's daughter. So he could have a space. To live with his new wife. Now. I just want to say. We shouldn't be too hard on Jacob. For the fact that Laban tricked him. It was tradition then. That when they had these big old wedding feasts. That the bride. Would have been completely veiled. The whole extended family unit. Would have come. And a big old party. We talked in the last series. They liked to have fun. Right? They would have had fun till late in the night. And it would have been dark. And the bride would have been given to Jacob. And he wouldn't have really been able to see. It wouldn't have been. As it said in the passage. To the morning that he realized. Who had been given to him. Because she would have been covered. The entire time." [48:10](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



3. "So we have the three heads of house. Abraham, who we say we are the children of Abraham. And then his son Isaac. And his son Jacob. And our story of course today is on Jacob. You can click one more for me Bob. So we can zoom in. There you go. Now you can see that a little smaller. So we don't know the timeline of Eden or Noah. But we believe that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was around 2000 years before Christ. Okay? This is as best as archaeologists can figure out. So there's a couple of things important about this period. It is what we call patriarchal. Because it's defined by the oldest living male in the house. See they didn't have kings. They didn't have rulers. You were overseen by the head of your house. If you got in trouble. The patriarch disciplined you. There wasn't a jail or anything like that. You were dealt with by the head of your house. The immediate family was 15 to 30 people. The family reunion would have been like 150 people." [36:53](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



4. "So we see this in the passage that we read just a bit ago when we look at Laban. Go back to Genesis chapter 29. So Laban is the head of his house. And we see in verse 14. Laban exclaimed you really are my own flesh and blood. After Jacob had stayed with Laban for about a month. Laban said to him you shouldn't work for me without pay just because we're relatives. Tell me how much your wage should be. So Laban is Jacob's uncle. So they're related but they were not in the same direct household. But they are related. So we go down to verse 18. Since Jacob was in love with Rachel he told her father Laban. I'll work for you for seven years if you give me Rachel your younger daughter as my wife. Agreed Laban replied. I'd rather give her to you than anyone else. Stay and work with me. So we see Laban deciding who is in his house. Who is working for him. And we see him deciding who is going to marry his daughter. This is the normal relationship. This is the response of the head of the house." [38:24](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)



5. "So this summer, we're going to kind of dig into the history. And so the culture. And figure out what that means when we read both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Now, the thing I do love to read is comic books. That's because they have lots of pictures. And I don't have as many words. I like it. It's relaxing to me. And there's this thing in the comic book world called the story arc. Meaning the overarching story thread that runs through all the books. And we have that in scripture too. We have a thread that connects. Everything with us. And so there's been a handful of books that have really impacted the way that I read scripture. And one of them is called the Epic of Eden. And we're going to have, if you want to join in, dig even deeper in this with me. We're going to have a Bible study starting next week on Wednesdays. And I'll have books in the back that unpack some teachings on this. And if you have questions, you can ask me about it at the end." [32:55](Download raw clip | Download cropped clip | Download vertical captioned clip)