There is no substitute for the preaching and teaching of God's Word. Each weekday on enjoying the journey, Scott Pauley leads us in a brief study of Scripture.

Today, on the weekend pulpit, we are happy to share a full-length Bible message given through Scott's pulpit ministry. These messages were recorded live in a local church or gospel event in recent days. It is our prayer that the message will be a help to you today. We started early yesterday morning and all day long and last night.

We studied what God's word has to say about this significant place, Bethel.

Did you know Bethel is the second most mentioned place

in the Old Testament only behind Jerusalem? And there's a reason for that, because Bethel, House of God,

was a place where significant people in Scripture met with God. How many of you want to meet with God

tonight? Now, for the record,

I'm glad we don't have to go to a building or have to go halfway around the world to the same

geographical location. God will meet you right where you are. But there is a principle in the place.

Don't miss this. I'm not really preaching on Bethel. I'm preaching on the God of Bethel.

It's not a place we're after. It's the person of God we are pursuing. And with that in mind, I want you to open your Bible now

in the Old Testament to the book of Judges, Judges chapter number 20. And I want you to get your

pen ready, if you will, because I'm going to ask you to write some things down tonight, and when we finish studying the Word of God together, we're going to have a very

definite season of prayer. I personally think every time you read instead of the Bible, you ought to

let the word lead you to prayer. Because I think the right way to respond to somebody that talks to you is you

talk back to them. And so the word, God speaks to us, he reveals himself in prayer. We speak to God.

We respond to him. And so when we finish tonight, we're going to pray, as we always do, but especially

tonight. And I think you'll understand why in just a moment. Judges chapter 20 is,

I think, one of the saddest chapters in the Bible. I don't know how I missed this for years, but

Judges 20, Bethel is here. When I say Bethel, now before you read ahead of me, look at me just a minute, when I say

Bethel, everybody's mind goes to the book of Genesis, isn't that right? And we think about

Abram going to Bethel the first time and he met with God and then he goes down to Egypt, which

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