What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?
This passage tells the story of a major turning point in Jacob’s life. What did God reveal to Jacob that would have led him to pray, worship and make a promise to God – when we have no indication he did any of that before?
Do agree with the statement, “What Jacob was searching for his whole life up until this point (from the womb!) was blessing?” How would you – in your own words – define what blessing is according to the book of Genesis. (See Gen. 1:26-31 and Gen. 12:1-3 for some help)
Do you think it’s accurate to say, “All our lives what we have really been looking for is blessing”? How might this describe your life/story?
Have you ever achieved or gotten what you worked so hard to achieve or acquire only to find it wasn’t the blessing you thought it would be? How did you handle this?
When God appears to and speaks to Jacob he essentially says, “The blessing you are searching for, Jacob, only comes from me”. How would you summarize the blessing God promises Jacob in verses 13-15?
How would you life be different if you 100% believed that God promised you, “Wherever you go, I’ll be there. I’ll guide you to where I want you to be and I’ll never leave you?”
The vision of the stairway from heaven reveals how God gives blessing to Jacob – and to us. How can God give sinful, selfish, deceiving Jacob his blessing? See John 1:47-51 for help.

Which of these takeaways do you most need to apply to your life today?

Tear Down All Your Stairways – ways you are striving and trying to get the blessing on your own.
Stop Dressing up to be someone you’re not to get the blessing. Jacob pretended to be Esau to get the blessing, here God gives it to him, alone, as he is in all his sin and brokenness.
Look for God Where You Least Expect Him. Do you feel like you are in a nowhere place, in the dark with nothing? This might just be the place where God can get his grace through to you and you say, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it!”