July 19, 2026 - “How Awesome is this Place”

July 19, 2026-OVUMC 10:30 Spirited Traditional Worship

Pastor Sang Park

The Scriptures are Genesis 28:10-19.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:34

When the star speak you'll hear the trumpet sound to wake the nation look into my God's right hand when the star speak and to fall what a morny what a morning oh my what a morny when the stones be gold you'll hear the sinners moan to wake the nation's under cry Look into my God's right hand when the stars begin to fall my Lord what a morning my Lord what a morning Oh my Lord what a morning when the stars begin to fall you'll hear the Christian shout to wake the nations under crowd looking to my God's right hand when the stars begin to fall my Lord what a morning my Lord What a morning Oh my Lord What a morning when the star begin.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Good morning. Welcome everyone to this house of the Lord. I see some new friends and also some good old friends. So welcome everyone to join us this wonderful Sunday morning. I would like to welcome also those who join us through the online live stream service here, sitting in your uh RV or any on the floor or in your living room with a good air conditioning, but we have pretty good air conditioning here as well. Uh please find a friendly register you may uh on your pew uh so that you may write your name to be known your presence to us so that we can uh care you in the best way we could. Uh one announcement there. Last two Sundays there was an insert to invite anyone who may God fear the Holy Spirit hope for you to serve any leadership in this church. This is an invitation. Uh and you may sign with RSVP. I will be there. Uh that does not necessarily mean we will have you on the board, but that will be a good start. Our uh nomination and leadership committee will consider for next year's new leadership laws. So please take a moment. Uh you can find uh in our online newsletter or the corner left side of the sanctuary, there is uh information desk that you can find in the phone. Now, I invite you to welcome our worship leader for this uh spiritual traditional service, Sandy Core. Sandy?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Grace and peace, ocean view. I have one announcement uh for you, and you will find that in your bulletin. I want to bring your attention to the Brunswick Family Assistance 2026, Christmas in July backpack and school supply drive. You'll find a tree out in the North X and uh it has tags on it, and there's directions take a tag for a child to um buy some supplies and some goodies for their school backpack. So uh with that, let's open our service with a prayer. Holy God, we have come into your house and gathered in your name to worship you. Let your spirit move in, around, and among us as we worship. In Jesus' name we pray, and all God's children said, Amen. I invite you now to stand as for our enjoy and our call to worship. And on the screen. Come, let us worship the Lord of hosts, for surely the Lord is in this place. Whether we wander in the wilderness or dream of heaven, we are held by grace. Open your hearts to the one who knows us, searches us, and never leaves us. Let us worship God with joy and gratitude. Amen. Join me now in singing. Come, ye thankful people, come. You'll find that in your hymn on six ninety-four and on the screen, and red letters.

SPEAKER_02 12:21

I know. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Join me now in standing and singing red letters.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Guilty in the first degree, Son of God hanging on a hill. The crowd was shouting percified, could have come from these lips of mine. The dirty shame was given me. It would take a miracle to watch me leave. I read the red letter, and the ground began to shake.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

We praise you, knowing that we are part of your ongoing purposes and promises. We praise you, for you are always forgiving, always available, and always with us. Forgiving God, sometimes we choose not to admit our errors until we stand in your presence. Before you we cannot hide. We confess our lack of humility and our demanding prayer saying, My will be done instead of your will be done. Help us to remember that there's a battle on, a fight with powers of darkness, a struggle for peace, wisdom, and freedom. Increase our faith and trust in your promises. You are a liberating God whose kingdom has come and will come, bringing hope, forgiveness, and deliverance from evil. Healing God, your word tells us that you are our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. When we, like Jacob, think we're alone, you are with us wherever we are. And when our circumstances are grim, you speak to us. You tell us of blessings and healings that we don't see. Hear and heal those whose names we intercede for on our ocean view prayer list, those we lift up to you daily in our hearts, and those we now say aloud in the presence of this congregation. Lord, hear our prayer. We pray for wisdom for the leaders of our church, country, and world. Open the eyes of your people to see and speak out against injustice. We pray for our pastor Sang Justin and their families. Open our ears, and through the power of your Holy Spirit, allow us to hear and apply Sang's message to us today and every day. Hear the prayer Jesus taught his disciples as we pray together, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Before we have the ushers come forward, I want to just tell you a little something. Those of you who went to Sunday school, you remember Jacob's Ladder. We are climbing Jacob's ladder. Well, today's scripture is about Jacob's ladder. It's about God making a promise to Jacob to bless him and through him to bless others, to bless the whole world. And that's a great way to think of our tithes and offerings. God has blessed us, and through us, and through our tithes and offerings, we will bless others. Holy God, we ask that you bless these gifts and use them as answers to the prayers of those who are who need to know your healing, your freedom, your support, your daily bread, and most of all your son. May your name be revered as holy. May your kingdom come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Join me now in singing we a story to tell to the nations, found in your hymn on page 569 and on the screen. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and to your offspring. And your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth. And you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, and to the north and to the south, and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. Then Jacob woke 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. So Jacob rose early in the morning and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel, but the name of the city was Luz at first. The word of God for the people of God, thanks be to God.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Thank you. Thank you for our chance required today. Let us pray. For you remind us once again that Jesus is our everything. Almighty God, unto you all hearts are open, all desires are known, and from you no secrets are hidden. Cleans our hearts and minds by your Holy Spirit. Amen. Throughout the Bible, God makes his appearance to his people. Very often when they were at the end of the road. Like Jacob today. Jacob had to leave mom and dad in fear of death from his own twin brother Esau. You know, in the Bible, some people have left their hometown. As Abraham left his home, as God says, go. And sometimes we took that adventure with good faith and good trust in God. As I came to the United States with that good trust, and for good reason, even I was a little bit old to study and to start a new life at 40 years old. Jacob, he is a little bit different. He has not a good cause. There's a good reason to leave his home. Actually, he had to leave his hometown as he deceived his father to steer a first-right blessing set aside for his older brother. He was heading into the unknown future. He's a long way. Perhaps this might be the first unsettled moment for Jacob, as he has been always his mother's favorite. Mother loved him and treated him with good things. Maybe more than his older brother. But now Jacob is alone. And again, the Bible tells us when you are alone, when you fear left alone. That's the moment God starts to have in your life. So here in Genesis chapter 28, we see God stars speaking to Jacob. One and one. Up to this point in his life, we cannot find anything that Jacob had a personal experience with God. In fact, in the previous chapter, 27, Jacob refers to God of Abraham and God of Isaac as your God. But only after this happy moment in his life, Jacob affirms that the Lord is my God. As friends, at some point in our life, as God challenges us to decide whether we would stay with some on earth, God, like our fathers and mothers, as we may grow up in a small old cottage church in the middle of the earth. And we have learned that God from our fathers, uncles, grandfathers, kind of family God. But there is a moment that we got to claim that God is my God. Not for someone else. That's the Genesis moment. That's the story we read in Genesis. As we want to have this story as my own Genesis story as well. By God's grace. Only by God's grace, he knew that. And his life has changed. Forever, even though this time of loneliness, a time of unshattered emotions and a crisis in his own security. You know, Jacob has never been a speech man. There is no record whatsoever that Jacob has been praying. Up to this moment. He prayed for his nephew Lot and his family as they were living in Sodom and Gomorrah, where the angels warned, they will be getting fire of wrath. Isaac prayed for his wife Rebecca as we have read last Sunday. Not for Jacob. Until this moment, when he finally understood, it is God. It is God that he needed more than anything else. As he embarks on a journey into the unknown future. As we are all in this journey. Somehow in the unknown. In a short time, even in a long time. If there is anything like Jacob. His name is Grab. He grabbed his brother's hero from his mother's home. But this is a defining moment that Jacob understood now. If there is anything for him to grab in his life, is not someone else here. God to grab. And wrestler with his God on that night. Yes, it is God. Not the money, not your past, or even the unknown future. Because God is the first and foremost foundation on which our lives stand. So my hope and prayer on this day is that you may find a Genesis moment as you read this story. As you embark on that journey. Maybe this story is a story pushed to you to determine. As you're forced and foremost one. As we walk a different season of life, we came here with some changes. Some new things, exciting and joyful. But sometimes there is some uncertainty arise. But friends, as you come across every crossroad, the transition. In your life, remember it's God's time. It's God's time for a promise. It's God's time for a new creation that will carry you out all the way to the promised land. Yes, very often God comes into our lives through those moments of unshattered. God helps us to know who we are. More importantly, whose we are. Is that right? Where Sheba. Where means wear or spring. Sheba has two different meanings in Hebrew. One is oath, like swearing, or the number seven. So I read, even though it is originally from Abraham, as he dug aware and swore a treat of peace with Abimelech, the king of Philistine, so that might be well of oath. But for Jacob's life, this is a place beautiful. We may call Puer Shiva, meaning seven springs. It has good springs in the middle of wilderness. But he got to live there. He got to go five hundred miles north. He didn't take any train. As you remember, five hundred miles. There was one had to say goodbye and take train to go 500 miles. But for Jacob, he was on donkey or camera. Maybe he was on his own feet running around from the wrath of his own brother. On this first day of his runaway, he ran fifty miles. Now it was already dark. You know, history tells in ancient days the city gates closed at night for the security of the residents inside. So when Jacob arrived at town called Ruth, it's already dark. The gate is closed. So he had to sleep outside in the field under the stars. And we can imagine he had many different emotions and thoughts spinning around in his mind. Probably he was asking himself, well, can I ever see my mom and dad again? Can I come back home safely? Okay. Maybe what if my brother Esau had already started to chase me down and approach me to care out here in the middle of wilderness? It was a night that just seemed extra dark to Jacob. He was totally exhausted. It was a long day. And he fell asleep, still carrying those unsettled feelings and emotions. And the Bible reads he had a dream. And you know what it was. A dream. That he saw a ladder from the earth to the heaven. It seems like it's too far to get to heaven, to touch God's presence. There are some angels descending and ascending. Maybe that might be his own guardian angels to walk with him in this journey. And in verse 15, Jacob heard what God has spoken. Three promises. Jacob, I promise you, no matter what you are from, no matter if you're the tunnel of this darkness, I promise you, remember. I will be with you, I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back home to this land. How many of you have been there feeling being far away your home and asking whether I would be back home? As I remember those days, 20 some years ago, when I first came to the state, I walked during the summer, the night shift at the gas station. It starts 10 o'clock in the night until 5 in the morning. That's the beginner spot. I was beginner. And the manager advised me, as you walk at 2 o'clock in the morning, you go out and visit every pump in the gas station and change those trash cans back. And with your uh groom uh clean all the parking lot. As holding that groom and looking up the sky and the same moon. My mom and brothers in Korea may still look up and I said who I am, what I'm doing here. Even though I came in a good reason, in a good adventure. It's overwhelming to be away from your home. But Jacob had more troubling night. But the Bible tells that is the moment Jacob was found in God's mercy. As we know, we don't know why God grabbed him and giving him that promise. But that was totally God's initiative. Absolutely is up to God. As we may think, Jacob has nothing to deserve this promise. He is a cheater. He is a deceit. Maybe God would say, Jacob, what are you doing here? You are a deceitful idiot. Why are you sleeping here with a stone pillow? What has brought you here? But we hear a different story. God didn't say those things. Lather, God granted Jacob anything but blessing, promising, affirming, and forgiving. You are the one. I chose, even though you are broken. I chose you as the one to succeed at the promise given to Abraham and Isaac. That's the moment Jacob woke up from that wild dream and he claimed, sure, the Lord is in this place. And I didn't know that. But now I realize, yes, God is here. Where I put the stone as my pillow, tossing up and down all night. But that place with the mark of unshattered journey became the holy ground where God is there. So he called that in a new name called Bether. Beth is the house, the heir is the Almighty God. This is the place that my Almighty God has his presence with me. And he gave me that promise. I will be with you, I will keep you, and I will bring you back home. And some years ago, when I read this, I will bring you back home. And that might make my emotion strong. Where the mom and dad, and brothers and sisters, and friends and nephews. But I now read in different way. I realize there's no more mom and dad in my home. Home is not like the one I have had that homesick. And I read, if God will bring me home back, that is a transformation, a change in my life to rediscover and reawakening that wherever I stepped in, and wherever there I can find, God is awesome. In the middle of my pilgrim journey, wherever you are, that is your home. That is your pather. That is your holy ground. Because you encountered that God and claimed, Yes, I know this is my God. And our journey with this God. I don't know how many of you find that home. That awesome place in here, Ocean View. If you need that home in your spiritual journey, that makes you fear peace. The presence of God's loving and forgiving and affirming who you are. Take that as your place of Genesis, a new beginning. As we come here from all different places. That's the reason why we claim, yes, this is my batter, the house of God. So as you go into the community and encounter anyone you meet, tell them this is your home. As you find God there. May God speak to you in such a way. May God make every place you step in to be your holy ground there. And you claim how awesome, how beautiful, how blessed this place this moment. In the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit. And all God's people say Amen. Please stand for our singing praise together.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:13

You surround me with the song of deliverance from my enemy to the feel. I'm all again into your family.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

May God bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. And go and all God's people say, Amen.