Sermon Nuggets Mon Oct
15
Verses Gen 32:22-24 22 That
night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven
sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.23 After he
had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till
daybreak.
Wrestling with God
When I was a youngster I would
wrestle with my brother. It was not by any rules and I certainly wouldn’t call
it a sport. It was sometimes play, but often our childish ways to express anger
toward siblings. Our squabbles would escalate from verbal put downs, to
physical scrapping.
Also during the late 50s and early
60s I watched wrestling on TV. I came to realize that wasn’t really a sport as
much as it was entertainment for many who wanted to watch a fight. After awhile
personalities were developed to have good guys and bad guys that people would
want to see get beaten up. I did not continue to watch for it was so
fake.
The nation was refocused on
professional wrestling when Jesse Venturia, the Body, was elected to be our
governor of the state of Minnesota. Tough guy persona followed him into office
where he would speak his mind and sound intimidating to his opponents. But this
was far different than the sport we see in school or at the Olympics.
Competition over strength with rules and regulations and strategy make
competition a positive activity. Yelling and bullying, threats and prideful
statements takes a different avenue. WWF makes lots of money when they realize
people come to see celebrities tell a story with all the flash and dazzle of
entertainment.
Now
it may surprise you that the first wrestling match every recorded is in the
Bible. You will find that the match was between an angel and Jacob. Last week
we talked about how Jacob was trying to make peace with his brother, Esau whom
he hasn’t seen in over 20 years. The last conversation they had, Esau vowed to
kill his twin brother Jacob and when he heard there were 400 people coming he
was petrified. Jacob sought reconciliation, he sought restitution with his
gifts, he prayed but now it was the night before they were to met. He could not
sleep, so he got up, roused his household and moved them all across the river.
Now Jacob was left alone. Suddenly
out of the dark a hand seized him. Was it a wandering bandit, or a member of
Esau’s household? Was this a murderer or one of the jealous brothers in law? He
found himself in hand-to hand combat, wrestling grimly as if his life depended
on it.
Who was this intruder? Vs. 28 says
that he wrestled with God. If you read in Hosea 12:4 says ‘He
struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor, He
found him at Bethel and talked with him there- the Lord God Almighty, the Lord
is his name of renown.” Some believe like the unknown visitor with
Abraham this was the pre-incarnate revelation of Jesus. Perhaps he was. Either
way Jacob fought God.
The struggle was not a dream or a
nightmare. Never has a man awakened from such a “dream” with a limp! And it was
a struggle, which God Himself initiated: “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man
wrestled with him until daybreak” (32:24).
Interestingly God was not
coming to him to comfort him but to confront him. In this wrestling match it
was not Esau who opposed Jacob, but it was God Himself. Notice the Bible did
not tell us that God could not overcome Jacob, only that he did not. God had
come to confront Jacob with some truth. God forced him to wrestle with the
issues that had brought him here.
What are issues you are struggling
with today? Do you feel at times you are in conflict with some of God’s
principles? Do you feel as if to follow the Lord is a wrestling match over your
will and His will? How would you describe some of your confrontations with God
and His truth?
When Jacob met with the Lord in
this match he was never the same.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Tues Oct 16 –
Gen 32:7 7 In great fear and
distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and
the flocks and herds and camels as well.
Facing His Fear
What are you afraid of? Sometimes the
only way to get rid of our fears is to finally face up to the weaknesses within
us. I think one of the things we wrestle with most is fear. We might wrestle
with our emotions on the inside. We fear what others think or might say, or do
to us. We might wrestle with fears of losing a job or break up of family or
loss of house for financial reasons.
Fear can
paralyze us. Our imaginations can run wild as to all the things that could
happen. Liberties are limited when we center so much of our thinking on
protection from possible attack that we
do not pursue our dreams or risk adventure.
I remember
one missionary being asked a question in our church. Because of reports of
danger in the country to which she was to return a member asked, “Aren’t you
afraid of going back?” Her reply was, “If God called me there, I’d be afraid
not to return.”
There are
people who refuse to share their faith because of fear. Who fail to go where
God wants them to go because of what family or friends will say. Who are
reluctant to tithe or give generously because of the fear of the economy. There
are people who refuse to do projects for the fear of failure. And people who
refuse to reach out to the needs of others for the fear of being taken
advantage of.
I read on
Facebook yesterday a post that said, “Fear has two meanings: Forget everything
and run or Face everything and rise.”
Sometimes
facing our fears is also a spiritual issue. It is not only finding the comfort,
peace and rest in knowing God more, but struggling, suffering and being in
conflict finding a stronger faith because of our situations that he sees us
through it. Instead of yielding to fear and escaping the battle Jacob arises to
face the foe and finds the one he is struggling with is God who was making him
victorious.
When we
were raising Judi’s sister, we were young. Married only 6 months and I
struggled with the role of being a father figure yet a brother-in-law to a
teenager. One afternoon we had a confrontation. She had bought a T-shirt that
had one of those mixed messages on it. I said she needed to return it and not
wear it because even though it had a different meaning to her it was not what
others thought when they read it. She resented me for making her return it and ran
away. It was one of the worst feelings of my life. I thought of her safety. I questioned
if I should have just let her wear it. It was the first time I felt as if a
knife was plunged into the stomach and was twisted around.
I felt a mixture of anxiety, fear, worry, and confusion as
to what to do. I didn't know if I should call the police. Instead, I jumped
into the car and rode around wondering if I should be glad to find her, or mad
because of her stupidity. I called friends who didn't see her. Finally, several
hours later I found her. The next day I realized I was wrapped up on fear of
failure, inadequacy, and confronted by the Lord. I needed to face my fear and
do what is right even if the consequences didn't come out that well. I needed
to take responsibility for the role that was given to me to do the best I can
do but leaving the results to the Lord. I realized in my prayer that her sister is
not primarily my responsibility. She is God’s responsibility and what I needed
to do was obey and follow God and provide Spiritual input to the best of my
ability and I had to give her over to the Lord to take care of.
What Jacob did not realize was that
he did not have to connive and scheme in order to obtain the promised blessings
of God. Jacob was mistaken if he reasoned that Esau was the barrier to his
entrance into Canaan and the blessings of God. He
needed to face his fears and realize that God was in charge of the situation
and he also needed just to trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy
in Jesus but to trust and obey.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Weds Oct 17
Gen 32:25-30 - 5 When the man
saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so
that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then
the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless
me.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your
name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
28 Then the man said, “Your name will
no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and
with men and have overcome.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your
name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he
blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying,
“It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Facing His Frailty.
How could
God possibly imply, much worse clearly state, that Jacob had contended with Him
and won? How can man prevail over God? And how can it be said that Jacob
contended with men and won? Indeed, all of his efforts at self-help were wrong.
Genesis 32 is the pivotal chapter so far as Jacob’s life is concerned. He is a
vastly different man here from the person we have come to know in previous
chapters.
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At this point the Angel disabled
Jacob by dislocating his hip. This would be devastating to a wrestler. It would
be like breaking the arm of a quarterback or the leg of a running back. Jacob
was now unable to wage an offensive battle. He was helpless. All he could do
now was to cling defensively in desperation. And this he did.
Jacob, at the very point of being
incapacitated, seemed to gain the upper hand. The Angel pleaded with him to be
let go, for the dawn was breaking. It looks as though the Angel did not wish to
be seen in the daylight. The Angel implied to Jacob that he now had the winning
edge (contrary to the reality of the dislocated hip). Jacob was tested and now encouraged
to make a request of the Angel.
There are some that say this
passage teaches us to wrestle with matters in prayer until God answers them.
Well that might be good advice, but that really isn’t the meaning behind what
happened. Like a butterfly seeking to break out of his cocoon, so Jacob is
gaining strength of a different sort in this contest that is all planned of
God. Jacob is not on the offense, but
the defense. His is clinging to Him in helpless dependence, not by trying to
manipulate Him. He won not because he was the victor over the fight, but that
he overcame the things in his own life that needed to be faced and God granted
him the blessing that he wanted to give him all along. His life was spared and
he realized that in vs. 28.
Have you ever had God wrestle with
you when you have wanted your way or were persisting in some course that you
knew displeased Him? I imagine you have since most of us have fought with God
at some point in our Christian experience.
Isn’t that like sin? It refuses to give up. We have a hard time giving
it up. Perhaps it is pride, or self-control, or plans or purposes that we have
with our lives instead of yielding them to God.
Now I do not know all the answers
as to why God touched his hip. But have you ever have your life put out of
joint by God? Have you ever had your plans dislocated? You were trying to do
something contrary to Gods’ will and suddenly out of the blue, God use sickness
or loss of job or severe setback or a disappointment or bring you to the end of
yourself and turn you to Him. I do not suggest that every sickness, loss or
disappointment comes because we are out of the will of God. He sometimes has
other purposes with these things, but sometimes, just sometimes he sues them to
bring us to our senses.
Charles
Wesley expressed the clinging nature of faith in his hymn “Jesus Lover of My
soul” “Other refuge have I none, Hang my
helpless soul on Thee; Leave ah leave me not alone, Still support and comfort
me. All my trust on thee is stayed All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my
defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing. “
It was not God’s intent to beat
Jacob, but to bring him blessing by being on the throne instead of self. With a
touch of his finger he could have destroyed Jacob’s life, but he didn't His
life is spared and he is blessed. The God, who had wrestled with Jacob, now
walks with Jacob through life and wrestles for Jacob. With great relief and
gratitude he acknowledges that he had been spared through God's gracious
goodness, when all he deserved was to have been crushed thoroughly and
completely. He had always thought of himself as a self-made man, a person who
was in control of his life, but now he realizes that in God’s eyes he wasn’t
some great hero of earth-shaking significance after all.
Sometimes God uses calamity,
tragedy, or danger in our life so that we have no choice but to cast ourselves
on His mercy. Sometimes God uses unemployment, bankruptcy, or poverty in our
life so that we will cast our cares on him. Sometimes God uses conflict,
struggle, or fights in our life so that we will look to him. Sometimes God
consents to problems with our children so that we will depend on him. Sometimes
God uses a crippling disease, a stroke, a cancer, a near fatal heart attack in
our life so that we will learn to trust in him. God doesn't like to see us
suffer. Yet, he will use all this if he has to. And, perhaps he already has for
some of us here.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Thurs Oct 18
Gen 32: 29 Jacob
said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he
blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying,
“It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
Facing His Faith.
We don’t usually see God as our
contender. He is a benign friendly, loving, heavenly father to whom we turn
when things get rough. Jacob believed in God. He used God to do what he thought
God wanted him to do. He had been using God all his life, but like in our lives
he needed another important lesson for his faith growth. There are experiences
in our lives which so changes our understanding of ourselves and God that we
live a different life. That happened to Jacob. God was more important to him
now.
Have you ever been in a place so desperate - where
you needed an answer so badly- that you felt like you couldn't get up off your
knees until you had a sense of relief and peace? We want our answers quickly
and easily. We don’t like the idea of a struggle. Our trouble is we’re used to
wrestling in a lighter weight class. We can pin down most of the lightweight
stuff pretty easy. We spend a little bit of time in prayer here and there and
put a headlock on the small problems. But sooner or later, something big will
face us and we find out we’re way out of shape. Wrestling with all that light
stuff didn’t get us prepared. When we face a heavy weight problem we can’t
expect the quick and easy victories we had before.
Jacob faced
life pretty much on his own acknowledging God’s help before, but now he needed
more than God’s help. He needed to stop using God and letting God use him.
Finally, Jacob had come to realize that the only
important thing in life is to be blessed of God. In the words of Proverbs, “It
is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, and he adds no sorrow to it”
(Proverbs 10:22).
Esau could neither provide nor
prevent the blessing of God. It was not Esau that stood in the way of Jacob’s
blessing in the land of Canaan. It was Jacob himself, who by means of his
trickery and treachery, his cunning and deceit attempted to produce spiritual
blessings through carnal means. The blessing of God must be obtained from God
himself
Do you realize that Jacob would have received the birthright
and blessing anyway…that he didn’t even need to steal it? How do I know that?
God spoke it when Rebekah became pregnant with Jacob and Esau. Genesis
25:21-23. These two brothers were already fighting inside their mother and
Rebekah inquired of the Lord, “Why is this happening to me?” And God answered,
“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be
separated; one will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the
younger.”
There it is! I don’t know how it
would have happened but Jacob would have received the blessing/birthright some
other way if he and his mother had waited for God to work things out His way,
in His time! All the lying, cheating, deceiving…running, hiding, living in
fear…guilt, separation from his family…all of it was completely avoidable. It
was self-inflicted pain.
Having prevailed with God, Jacob
was assured of victory no matter what opposition men might offer. This
certainly and specifically included Esau. In the words of the apostle Paul: “If
God is for us, who is against us?” (Romans 8:31). If God is on our side, we
cannot be overcome. This is what verse 28 was intended to convey to Jacob. In
learning how to prevail with God, Jacob had also found God’s means of
prevailing with men. But in the end it was God and only God that mattered for
his life.
Pastor Dale
Sermon Nuggets Fri Oct 19
Gen 32: 31 The sun rose above him as
he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore
to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the
hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Facing His Future
The final
picture is of the patriarch limping forward to meet Esau, limping because of
the wound inflicted on his hip. It is a strong picture for now Jacob is moving
forward at the command and in the power of God, not himself. This is the
significance of his new name. Before Jacob mean heel grasper, and cheat, supplanter.
Now his new name is Israel. He is striven, or struggled with God. He surrenders
himself and able to go in the new strength as God’s man.
The picture
of the limping Jacob describes us. We limp as far as our own strength is
concerned in the world eyes we are cripples. For Gods strength is made perfect
in our weakness and when we are weak then he is strong and in that He is
invincible. So may it be. It’s not always easy. It’s not intended to be. That limp
throughout Jacobs life was no doubt like the thorn in the flesh in Paul’s life.
It may have been a physical reminder of many crippling decisions he had made when he
insisted on doing things his way. Or it may have been the realization that we
cannot go on our strength but in our weaknesses God makes us strong. It isn’t
in our power but in our humility that future is bright. It isn't in our
striving, but in our willingness to be open to His blessings that we find peace
and a future.
God wants to change you. He does
not wish for you all the pain that comes from choosing your own way. He wants
to bless you. You don’t have to fight for it…just obey. He wants to change your
name – to write His name upon your heart. Jacob walked away from that place with
a most unusual story. He had finally realized his dependence on the God who had
continued to bless him. Are you depending on God?
Bill McCartney from Promise Keepers
tells of an experience in his book “Sold Out” He spoke at a large arena and
when he stepped off stage he began asking his friends how he had done. There
were high five’s, back slaps, encouraging compliments that he had hit a home
run. He as quite pleased with himself.
The next
morning he went to his knees and writes ‘God wasn’t to be found.’
“Lord where are you? I rose early to meet with
You. I spoke of your wonder and glory last night I praised you with all of my
heart. I thought You would be pleased. What have I done? Where are you?”
In that very instant, He sense God
asking him a Question; Last night when you finished your message why didn’t you
ask Me how you did? You came to Me for anointing to speak, but you went to your
friend seeking their opinions. “
McCartney said it pricked his heart
but it was true. He had spent week seeking Gods heart for that message at that
time and the power of the Holy Sprit fell on the area. Not because of anything
he said, but because God showed up. And yet when it was over who gets the
credit and to whom does he go. The only one I've ever needed to please was
God.’
The lesson for us is the same. Our
warfare is a spiritual one and it cannot be won by carnal means. “For our
struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces
of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
But how do
we prevail with God? We must come to the place of recognizing our own
inadequacy and helplessness. We must come to the end of ourselves and recognize
the futility of our own plans. We must trust in that which God has promised to
do. Jacob did not prevail with God in some new and uncharted path. God had
already promised in the Word to bless him, but now it needed to be done God’s
way, not man’s way. That is how you face 2001. Lord here I am. Now do with me
as you will for your glory and my blessing and if it takes a touched hip, or a
broken spirit, so Lord, have your way with me.
Sometimes the only way to get rid of
our fears is to finally face up to the weaknesses within us. Face up to your
frailty. Face up to your Faith and face up to your future. He can cause “old
things to pass away.” You can become a new and different person. These
experiences may be God’s way to give you a new life in facing a new year. Let
Him have his way with you.
Pastor Dale
