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00:00:01 [Applause] [Music] when jacob entered the world he was holding on to the heel of his slightly older twin brother esau that's how jacob got his name because jacob means heel grabber and in a figurative sense it also means trickster or deceiver unfortunately jacob liver lived up to his name he cheated his older twin brother esau he cheated him out of his birthright and later he stole the blessing that should have been given to the firstborn esau filled with anger threatened to kill jacob and so jacob fled to the land where his
00:01:00 uncle laban lived then after 20 years of working for laban jacob is told by god to go back to his family and that's the backdrop for our scripture passage today jacob is going back to his homeland and is preparing to meet his estranged brother when we look at how god dealt with jacob we can learn some truths about how god wants to relate to us today and the first truth that we'll see is if i can get this to forward okay the first truth that we see is god promises us his presence from the very first
00:01:44 verse we see that the angels of god met jacob and at the very end of our text we see that jacob says i have seen god face to face god with us is a theme that pervades the bible both in the old and in the new testaments from the very beginning it's clear that god is a god of relationships the creation story tells us that god desire to have relationship with his most special creation man and woman the first chapter of genesis says this so god created man in his own image in the image of god created he him
00:02:29 male and female created he them well what does created in the image of god mean one important thing that it means is that man was made to worship to relate to god and for god and man to live in fellowship with one another the presence of god was to be experienced by people but sin changed that adam and eve defied god and they wanted to make their own rules and so the relationship was broken but god still desired to have reconciliation to have fellowship with his people he wanted to make a way possible to
00:03:13 restore that relationship with him so god would work through history to bring about forgiveness god called a man named abraham and promised that through him and his descendants blessing would come to all peoples of the earth this promise was repeated to abraham's son isaac both abraham and isaac experienced god's presence god promised them fear not for i am with you now in looking at the life of abraham's grandson isaac's son jacob we see once again the promise of god's plan to bring blessing to
00:03:54 all peoples of the earth and the promise of god's presence with jacob jacob had fled his home because of his brother's threat to kill him and one night on the journey to his uncle's home he had a dream of a staircase from heaven he encountered god and this is what god told him i am the lord the god of abraham your father and the god of isaac in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed and then god assured him and he said behold i am with you and i will keep you wherever you go and i will
00:04:40 bring you back to this land when jacob woke up from the dream he realized that god was there god's presence was with him even though he had not been aware of it until this dream jacob went on back jacob went on to where his uncle laban lived there he married had children and was able to gain a lot of livestock then after 20 years the lord spoke to jacob and told him return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred and i will be with you once again jacob hears god's promise i will be with you but at the same time
00:05:24 god promised jacob his presence he also told him go back to your family and jacob knew that could be dangerous a big problem because esau his brother had threatened to kill him but even so jacob obeyed god he did what god told him to do and god kept his promise he was with jacob and we see that very clearly in the first verses of our text today jacob went on his way and the angels of god met him and when jacob saw them he said this is god's camp this must have given jacob great strength and encouragement
00:06:14 he realized he was doing what god wanted to he had followed god's direction stepped out on faith and now we saw angels evidently these angels were in the guise of soldiers the army of the lord an encampment of the lord's host god showed jacob in a very visible way that he was indeed with him billy graham most of you know in his book angels god's secret agents tells the story of a man named john patton john patton was a missionary in the new hebrides islands he was and one night hostile natives surrounded his
00:07:00 mission's headquarters they wanted to drive the patents out of their home and kill them and so he and his wife prayed through the entire night and when daylight came their attackers were gone a year later the chief of this tribe put his faith in christ and john patton spoke to him about that night the chief asked who were all those men that were circling your headquarters john patton explained that it was only he and his wife but the chief insisted that he had seen hundreds of big men with shining garments and swords
00:07:41 circling the mission headquarters and so the natives were afraid to attack that night in the new hebrides islands there certainly was a double camp angels were there to help serve john patton's family now that was certainly a supernatural experience of god's presence but not everybody experiences things like that as a matter of fact most of us will not but we do have the same promise that jacob had when we follow god's direction we know that he will be with us jesus when telling his followers to go
00:08:25 make disciples of all peoples promise them as he promises us behold i am with you always even to the end of the age yes we have a greater promise than jacob had because we have the promise of emmanuel foretold by the prophet isaiah this promise finds its fulfillment in the coming of jesus in announcing the birth of jesus the angel said behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they will call his name emmanuel which means god with us emmanuel jesus came to show us god the father so that we would know what it is like to
00:09:13 have god with us colossians 1 verse 15 says he jesus is the image of the invisible god and because of jesus's death and resurrection we can truly receive the gift of god with us he's not just with us as a friend who walks beside us though he does that but when we receive jesus in faith he comes to live inside us through his holy spirit giving us strength in place of weakness courage in place of fear and boldness to do his will because emmanuel jesus has come we never need to be alone we never have
00:10:01 to wonder how to please god we never have to worry if our efforts aren't enough we can simply rest knowing that he is with us he is in us he loves us and he will never leave us yes god promises us his presence and the second truth that god can show us from our text today is god will go with us through times of crises yes god is with us but even though he is with us we still face crises we experience things that bring fear and uncertainty god does not always shield us from these things but he does go with us
00:10:53 through them jacob was undoubtedly encouraged by the presence of god's angels to go ahead and immediately make contact with his estranged brother esau he knew it was dangerous but he also knew that sooner or later he was going to have to meet his brother and he knew that he had done wrong he knew that things needed to be made right his past needs needed to be addressed there must be restitution and reconciliation so god sent messengers ahead of him to the brother esau and notice his humble attitude jacob told the
00:11:38 messengers this is what you are to say to my lord esau your servant jacob says i have much livestock and servants i'm sending this message to my lord that i may find favor in your eyes when the messengers returned they said we came to your brother esau he is coming to meet you and there are 400 men with him wow that's a large welcoming party that would be a warm welcome indeed more than likely an army of 400 men jacob undoubtedly knew the story of how his grandfather abraham had attacked and defeated king's
00:12:31 armies with only 318 men and now esau is coming with 400 men can you imagine how gripped with fear he must have been terrified the bible doesn't say what esau's intentions were but jacob feared the worst jacob is facing a serious crisis and he is terror stricken on the one hand jacob was following god's direction he was doing what god had explicitly told him to do he was going back to his family to his people but on the other hand we see that jacob's crisis was a result of his own doing he was responsible for this
00:13:18 situation and he was going to be reaping what he had sown we all experience crises in our lives sometimes we too are gripped with fear and sometimes some of the crises we face result from things that we have done or said like jacob we sometimes bear a portion at least of the responsibility for our problems we too sin we do things that are unethical immoral deceptive or dishonest and then the reckoning comes some people deliberately deceive others you've seen this in the workplace it could be by taking credit for work done
00:14:05 by someone else or sabotaging the work of someone it could be misrepresenting a product or a service just to get a sale and this of course would cause conflict and retaliation and maybe even a lawsuit relationships can be damaged also by hurtful actions several years ago i attended the funeral of my friend's mother in the u.s and my friend had three sisters and they were there at the funeral immediately after the funeral two of the sisters went to the bank and they cleaned out the mother's bank account and they didn't allow my
00:14:54 friend or her younger sister to have anything from the estate although they were entitled to a portion of the money and of the property and as you can imagine this caused untold hurt in that family resentment was high and it took years before reconciliation could take place and even then only with one of the sisters not only will our sinful behavior create problems for us but sometimes we make decisions or do things they're not necessarily sinful but they are unwise and they bring about a crisis a friend
00:15:35 of ours in germany had gone to a party sponsored by his church there he drank a little too much alcohol and then decided to drive home but he didn't make it fortunately nobody was seriously injured in the accident but he did face financial loss he was arrested by the police and fined and his driver's license was suspended but there are also times when we face problems crises that are not a result of our actions many of us know the anxiety created in us upon hearing a doctor diagnosis with cancer
00:16:20 or when we even hear the term covet 19 we shrink in fear of contracting it when someone is a victim of abuse he experiences untold agony and we when we look at the soft economic situation here in malaysia and also globally we naturally have dread for the future but we can be assured that god goes with us through these crises yes some of our crises come because we live in a fallen world and are surrounded by people who like us are sinful but sometimes we have a crisis because we are following god's will jacob was following god
00:17:10 he was doing what god had said to do go back to the land of your fathers and that put him in a crisis situation we too today might experience crises at times when we obey god for example if someone is trying to do business with honesty and with integrity and in a way that honors god he might face crises if he is surrounded by corruption also telling the truth could cause a problem when lying might help us to get out of an immediate difficulty at least temporarily and sharing the gospel with someone who really needs to
00:17:55 hear it which god wants us to do can sometimes lead to crises when there are those around us who object to our sharing a young man we met in another country who came to a seminar that we led was facing a crisis when we met him because he had been obeying god's command to go make disciples of all peoples after becoming a believer in jesus he had shared the good news with all the people in his village and many had come to faith in christ and then he went to a neighboring village and were sharing the gospel
00:18:32 there and saw also many people come in faith to christ but some of the religious leaders and also some of the politicians in the area got quite upset and so they stirred up a mob and then threatened to burn his house and kill his wife and children so he and his family had to flee for their lives and they fled to a nearby large city where we met them they faced these difficulties because they had been obedient to god but they would tell you that god was with them during this crisis and after fleeing into this nearby
00:19:16 larger city and finding a place to live they had already begun to be able to find a new ministry and they were again sharing their faith with christ and sharing their faith in christ with other people although we all face problems in crises none of us enjoy them but at times a crisis can be a blessing god sometimes uses crises to get our attention how kind it was of the lord to drop jacob into the middle of a crisis so that he would turn his attention to god a crisis can end up being a time of mercy sometimes god's appointed means of
00:20:02 grace is getting us stuck and getting us to be afraid so that we will humble our hearts and call on his name in addition to god getting our tension through crises god can also use times of uncertainties and struggles as opportunities to help us grow it was important for jacob to grow in his relationship with god he needed to deal with his sins of the past he needed to learn to trust god step by step the crisis jacob faced led him to an intense time of prayer it led him to wrestle with god and it brought him to a point where he
00:20:47 was more willing to listen to god and to let god transform him the turnaround in jacob's life came because he faced a crisis crisis can be times to experience anew the grace the help and the strength of god verses that have helped me personally in times of stress and fear are isaiah 41 verses 8 and especially verse 10. god said this to the descendants of jacob but it also applies to us today this is what the verse says but you israel my servant jacob whom i have chosen do not fear for i am with you
00:21:40 do not be dismayed for i am your god i will strengthen you i will help you i will uphold you with my righteous right hand in times of crisis in times of fear whatever the cause may have been god is with us and he goes with us through these difficult times and he can even use them to bring about good a third truth we can see through our text is god hears our prayers when christ has come your way pray like jacob did he was facing a crisis was terribly afraid and yes he was largely responsible for
00:22:28 the mess he was in but still he came to god in prayer to seek god's grace and to seek god's mercy this prayer of jacob is the longest prayer recorded in the book of genesis and is it it is instructive for us today jacob begins his prayer by addressing the god of abraham the god of isaac and in doing so he was tying into the promise that god had made to abraham and isaac and then also to him to bless them to give them many descendants and to bring blessing to all peoples of the earth through them
00:23:09 he addresses god as lord using the proper name yahweh for god jacob is addressing the lord god who had already revealed himself to him and who had already spoken to him during his time with his uncle laban when we address god we remember who he is he is creator he is almighty he is all-knowing he is merciful he is just we realize who it is that we are talking to and we remember all that he has done after coming to faith in jesus we recognize god as the one who has saved us and who is working in our life
00:24:05 next in his prayer jacob remembers and quotes god's word now that may not might not be obvious at first glance you might ask what bible verse is jacob quoting well remember there was no recorded scripture at that time it would have been impossible for him to pray the psalms or the lord's prayer but god had spoken directly to jacob earlier revealing his will and so jacob remembered and quoted the word god had given to him you know we can base many of our prayers on god's word i'd like to share with you how praying
00:24:48 scripture and remembering his promises helped me in a time of crisis after being diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2016 i had to undergo surgery and then a very harsh chemotherapy regimen it was very difficult difficult for me physically and emotionally during this time i realized how weak i was and how dependent on god and the prayers of the church i was many days i didn't have to i didn't have the strength to do normal tasks and i became discouraged and didn't know what the outcome would be
00:25:33 would it would the treatment help me or would it hurt me and it was also very difficult for david to see me this way well the church we were attending at the time began a church-wide effort to memorize scripture and during my treatment the church began memorizing a passage that i learned as a youth philippians 4 verses 6 and 7. and as i spoke these words in corporate worship and found myself meditating on them at home and during quiet times they took on new meaning because of my situation listen to the words
00:26:18 do not be anxious about anything but in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to god and the peace of god which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in christ jesus and so i continued to lay my concerns at his feet and i thanked him for what he had already done in my life and i can truly say at that time that peace did come as i prayed god's word jacob prays god's word he quotes god's word and then he acknowledges god's greatness
00:27:10 his mercy his love his faithfulness and in so doing he realized how small and insignificant he was he admits to god i am unworthy i am not worthy of the good you have done me god and so he acknowledges that all of the good things in life that he has received are a direct result of god's grace when we pray we come to god in humility and then we praise him for his greatness we thank him for his goodness and we acknowledge our unworthiness and we can even go further than jacob did and we can confess specific sin
00:28:02 jacob's prayer is relatively short we don't know his other thoughts but there's the possibility that when jacob said i am unworthy his past flashed before his eyes as he remembered his sins especially those sins against his brother esau he knew that his actions had not been pleasing to god and then after jacob admitted his unworthiness then he prayed for deliverance he prayed for salvation this was not only a personal request it was also a request for his wives and children and for those with him
00:28:44 we can see here that at least his perspective in life is a little bit broader than it used to be he is now concerned about family whereas 20 years earlier he didn't care if his family members were hurt as long as it helped him when we pray we can bring our requests to god yeah just like you mentioned from philippians in everything by prayer and supplication let your requests be made known to god yes and also we see this in the lord's prayer give us this day our daily bread lead us not into temptation deliver us from evil
00:29:30 the bible shows us that we can bring our own personal needs to the lord the conclusion of the prayer shows us that jacob's request was not just a selfish self-centered request rather we will see that jacob was praying according to the will of god this is what he said there we go but god you said i will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea you see 20 years earlier god had told jacob that he had a role to play in his salvation plan because god had told jacob in you and your offspring shall all the
00:30:21 families of the earth be blessed god's stated plan his will was to bring salvation to the world through the messiah jesus would be born to a mother who was a descendant of jacob and one of his sons so jacob knew it must be god's will for him or at least for one of his sons to remain alive because god was going to work through them to bring about descendants who would then be the forefathers of the messiah so jacob's prayer was not a selfish self-centered prayer rather he's praying that god's stated will would come to pass
00:31:03 he's trusting god to act in accordance with his word and his will when we come to god we can also align our requests with his will but how do we understand his will well we find his general will for all of us in his word and so we search and we study the scripture god heard jacob's prayer but there was no audible response this time i'm sure jacob would have loved to hear god's voice say don't worry be happy god could have answered like that he could have said do not fear your brother esau comes in
00:31:53 peace he will not harm or attack you and we do hear god speak words like that in other places of scripture for example in the book of acts chapter 18 the lord said to paul do not be afraid but go on speaking for i am with you and no one will attack you to harm you but god did not say that to jacob because god had a better plan for him god wanted to use this crisis to do a work of grace in jacob's life god did hear jacob's prayer and he answered it according to his will now it took some time before jacob knew
00:32:37 how god would answer his prayer but this time of uncertainty was well worth it because god was going to use this experience to transform jacob in the meantime jacob came up with a plan to try to defuse his brother esau's anger he sent ahead of him a tremendous amount of livestock in several large herds as a huge gift to his brother and the servants accompanying the herds were to tell esau these herds belong to your servant jacob they're a present sent to my lord esau and moreover he is coming behind
00:33:21 us it sounds to me like jacob might have gone back to his old ways his scheming tricks is wheeling and dealing sounds like jacob might once again be trying to rely on his own ideas trying to come up with a plan possibly so we really don't know what his motives were because the bible doesn't say but possibly jacob wanted to do the right thing after all he sent the gifts to esau immediately after he had prayed perhaps he felt impressed during his prayer that he needed to do something to make restitution pay his brother
00:34:07 back with the money he had wrongfully taken from him pay him back for this wrong he had done so jacob because he had cheated his brother esau knew that he needed to make things right it could be that jacob really was wanting to do the right thing he wanted his brother to see that he wasn't the same man as he was 20 years earlier and that brings us to the fourth truth we can learn from our text god desires to transform us and he wants to transform us from within jacob had done all he could think of to
00:34:49 prepare for his meeting with esau and he had taken steps all that he could to protect at least part of his family in case of an attack that night separated by a stream from his family jacob was all alone but jacob was not able to sleep suddenly seemingly out of nowhere a man appears and he wrestles with jacob all night long until daybreak when the man appears we're not told who he was at first it seems that jacob might not have known who the man was but by the end of the night jacob realized that his opponent was no
00:35:32 ordinary man his struggle had been against god god had desired to bring jacob to a place where he could encounter him and change him radically now jacob had come from a godly heritage his grandfather abraham loved god his father isaac was also a man of faith but a religious heritage is no guarantee the children and the next generations will love and trust god and early in jacob's life we see very little evidence of him having any kind of genuine faith jacob needed a life-changing encounter from god
00:36:14 and so to each one of us our faith cannot be dependent upon our parents or our grandparents faith transition transformation involves a personal encounter with god and so another truth that we can learn from this passage is that transformation is often preceded by a struggle our text says a man wrestled with jacob all night now that's a very long wrestling match in modern day olympic wrestling the match lasts only six minutes and that's divided into three bouts each of which is only two minutes long but jacob's match
00:37:02 lasted all night it was an intense struggle and what was the struggle about well since jacob was wrestling against god the struggle really must have been with himself as he was confronted with his character with his sin and with his self-sufficiency and undoubtedly he was also struggling against god's rightful sovereign place as the lord the master of his life you and i when we're honest we'll admit that we also struggle with god maybe you have not yet come to the place in your life where you have
00:37:43 repented and placed your faith in god receiving jesus as your lord and savior maybe you come from a different religious background and are wrestling with the truths of the bible and the claims of christ for your life maybe you're struggling with how coming to christ might affect your relationships with your family maybe you're coming from a free thinker background where you struggle to accept the existence of the god who created you and you struggle to acknowledge his claim on your life those of us who are believers in jesus
00:38:24 we will also still at times struggle with god god may speak to us through his scripture or through his holy spirit or through fellow believers about something that needs to be changed in our life or he may have an assignment for us that he continually brings before us and he may that we may not be willing to do and so we struggle and we wrestle with him god might be telling you to reconcile with an estranged family member you may be involved in some destructive sinful activity that god wants you to stop he may want
00:39:06 you to apologize and make it right where if you've wronged a colleague or an employee and it's possible that he wants you to speak to a neighbor or a friend about their relationship with god or even to share the gospel with them and so it becomes a daily struggle when we hear god's voice but we do not respond our text goes on to say that the man wrestling against jacob could not prevail now how is it that someone messenger of god with god's power cannot prevail against the mere mortal of course the power of god could have
00:39:51 crushed jacob no problem just like god's power is greater than any resistance we might bring against him but god in his sovereignty has chosen to give people some measure of free will god allows us to rebel against him to resist him just like adam and eve in the garden chose to disobey god we can be stubborn we can choose to live life our own way sometimes we find ourselves going toe to toe with god in the struggle to surrender our will to his but god won't force us to yield yet he is not passive he humbled jacob
00:40:40 he touched his hip and why do you think god dislocated jacob's hip well god will sometimes use everything at his disposal to help us to surrender to him and in jacob's case putting his hip out of socket now that does not mean that every time something bad happens to us that that's the result of you resisting god but sometimes it is a result of that and so god and his great love will sometimes allow or even cause things to happen to show that his way is best as one african-american preacher said
00:41:22 we don't surrender when we see the light we surrender when we feel the heat as jacob was wrestling he must have realized he could not defeat his opponent so instead of trying to defeat him he clung to him in order to secure a blessing by then he knew that he was wrestling with a messenger of god and he knew that he needed god's blessing and so he held on to this man desperately pleading for a blessing that's one sign that transformation is beginning to take place in our lives instead of struggling against god
00:42:11 we acknowledge our need for god god's blessing in your in my life becomes of utmost importance and we are willing to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness transformation involves a personal encounter with god it's often preceded by a struggle but to truly be transformed we need to let god change us from within because transformation is a work of god before jacob could receive the blessing he had to let god change his name and in doing so god changed his character the man wrestling with jacob would have
00:43:00 known his name he didn't need to ask what is your name just like god knew where adam and eve were hiding in the garden when he asked them where are you but this messenger from god wanted jacob to take a long look at who he really was the man asked what is your name jacob answered by saying jacob and by saying his name he was revealing his character in other words he was admitting yes i admit i'm a trickster i'm a deceiver i'm a con man he was confessing his sinfulness and his stubbornness but then god gave jacob a new name
00:43:49 israel jacob had striven with god and he had prevailed but not in the sense of beating god that is impossible the victory was his because he would now cling to god in faith and depend on him and jacob became a new man his pride turned to lowliness his greed turned to generosity and his self-reliance turn to worship only god can change us from within yes we can try to make changes externally in our outward behavior but we need the power of god to become a new creation we need to be born again by god's spirit
00:44:40 which happens when we receive jesus by faith but then we need to go ahead and let god renew our minds and conform us to the image of his son jesus transformation can happen only when we let god change us and in closing we see transformation brings blessing what blessings did jacob receive well the immediate blessing was that his life was spared his brother greeted him with an embrace instead of a sword jacob had been delivered and he and his family had been saved another blessing jacob had was the
00:45:24 privilege of being integrally involved in god's salvation plan god's plan to bring blessing to the world through the coming messiah would take place through jacob and his descendants but the most important blessing was god himself up to this point we've not seen jacob identify god as his god but in the next chapter jacob builds an altar and he names the place israel which means god the god of israel jacob now known as israel would refer to god as his god and we can receive similar blessings today when we let god
00:46:16 transform us god wants to save us when we come to god in faith acknowledging our sin asking his forgiveness repent turn in faith to him ask him to take control of our life and lead us we're born again he saves us jacob was saved from physical death coming to faith in christ will save us from spiritual death and eternal death god will also give us a new name meaning he will change our character god will give us the privilege of joining with him and his work being involved in his plan to bring salvation to all peoples of the earth
00:47:00 and most importantly god will be our god we can have an intimate relationship with him walk with him trust him follow him as we close in prayer let's remember the truths that we have seen so far in scripture today and as we pray we will pray that these truths be a reality in our lives let's pray almighty god we do thank you for your promise to be with us we thank you for your promise to be our god and i pray that you would be very near very real to each one of us in our lives help us to walk with you to trust you
00:47:46 and follow you almighty god we give you thanks that you do go with us through crises and lord you see the different difficulties and crises troubles that people here are facing we don't know the answer we don't know what the future holds but we do know that you are with us and so we ask you to give us a sense of your being with us a sense of your power a sense of your comfort your strength as you go with us through these crises and almighty god we do thank you that you hear our prayers when we sin when our christ see when the
00:48:25 crisis of our own making i pray that we will not turn our back to you but that we will come to you asking forgiveness asking you for help to overcome this we thank you that every time we come to hear you even know our needs before we pray and father god we do acknowledge that we all need some transformation in our lives we admit that yes there are things that were struggling with you maybe even right now there are things that we are struggling with against your will not wanting to go your way father god we do pray this morning for
00:49:03 those who have not yet accepted jesus as their lord and savior that you would help them to get through this time of struggling and resistance and that you would just bask their hearts and your love speak to them draw them to you and for those of us who have acknowledged you as lord and savior but are struggling with something in our lives right now we pray that you would help us to surrender our will to you allowing you to lead our lives so that we can receive the blessing you want us to have in jesus name i pray
