So I titled the message "I Surrender All," right? And it's really a requirement. It's not an option
for those who would name the name of Jesus and be those who walk with Him.
And Jacob is learning that, and I'm fascinated by the patience of God. Has God been patient with you?
Right. When you think of what we deserve and all of that, and you think, "Oh my gosh, how come God
has let me come thus far?" And in His mercy and in His grace, He kind of just lets us limp along.
And hopefully we're growing in the process. And sometimes we get stunted or we get turned sideways
and we abandon ship and we walk away from the Lord, and He promises never to forsake us,
even though we do. There's a scripture in 1 John that says, "If your heart condemns you,
know that God is greater than your heart." Right? And so often our heart does condemn us.
And rightly so. We're scumbuckets, right? And why God chooses to use us, those who are a little
lower than the angels, the Bible says, right? That we're just, we're down here. And yet the
Lord chooses to use us because He chooses the foolish things in the world to confound the wise.
And if you're in that camp of foolishness, you're in good company, right? Years ago,
when my little brother, he became a senior pastor at 26 and he preached a message one Sunday and
an old preacher was there. He'd heard about this upstart church in Pocatello, Idaho called
Calvary Chapel. So he goes and he's retired and he kind of wants to check this out. And
he walks up to Pastor Rick after the service. He goes, "Pastor Rick, I'm going to go to the
church." And he goes, "Pastor Rick, after the service." He goes, "Pastor Rick," he says, "You
know, I was reading the other day where the Lord spoke to Balaam through a donkey. And so I just
want you to know you're in good company." Because Pastor Pooh was just a little bit arrogant back in
those days. He needed to be knocked down a notch or two. And that old boy did it. But we see Jacob
in our reading today in the 32nd chapter of the book of Genesis. And I was watching Amir
Sarfati this week and he was doing the timeline, the prophetic timeline of the nation of Israel.
Do you realize without the nation of Israel, folks, there ain't much of a prophetic timeline?
There just isn't.
Chuck Missler said it years ago, I remember hearing him say, he says, "Listen, Israel is
God's time piece. That's where time began and that's where time's going to end." Right?
And so what is the significance of the nation of Israel? It's
giganticuous. Is that a word? I don't even know if that's a word. It's incredible. And so
to know and understand Israel and its history and who Israel is, actually Israel was a person.
And we're looking at him here in chapter 32. And to know that history, because to know
so much of prophecy is connected specifically to the nation of Israel. When you read,
there would be no Daniel chapter nine, if it was not for Israel. Right?
And there would be no understanding of the book of Revelation. It's just like a house of cards
without this people that we know as Israel. And here's this dude, Jacob, he's stuck between a
Laban and an Esau. Right? We've seen last time he did the mitzvah thing with his uncle Laban.
Mitzvah, meaning may the Lord watch between you and me that you're not going to hurt me and I'm
not going to hurt you that you won't come to me to hurt me. Didn't say they couldn't come to each
other, but they couldn't come to each other for harm. And maybe you've got some relationships
like that. Hey, that's okay. Right? There's some people you have to love from a distance.
It's just the way it is. But in your heart, you don't want to hurt them.
And that's where the Lord would have you. He says, no man, no man can say that he loves God
and hates his brother. He's a liar. Right? You cannot, you cannot say that you love God and hate
your brother. You can't. You're out of line. You're not right with God. So if you got some hatred in
your heart towards somebody, get rid of it, take it to the Lord, get on your face, whatever it takes,
get that out of your heart. Cause there's no place for that. And so the last thing that
Jacob hears his brother Esau tell him is just that I hate you and I'm going to kill you.
Soon as dad's dead, I'm killing you. And that's the last time Jacob and Esau had any interaction.
And so I'm wondering as he's on this journey running from Laban, I'm wondering what, what,
if what that was like in his mind thinking, Oh my gosh, I'm running from Laban, but I'm running
right into the jaws of Esau. No doubt he was in turmoil. This, this, this Jacob. And he's kind
of stuck between the two as he is at peace for the moment, or he's actually removed from Laban.
Now he's moving towards, towards his brother Esau. Doesn't it just seem like sometimes
life is a constant grind. If it isn't one thing it's 20, right? It's just, if it isn't one thing,
it's another. And that's kind of, kind of where, where he's at with, he knows his brother was
offended and, and he's, he's, he's, he's possibly going to be hard after him. Proverbs 18, 19 says,
a brother offended is harder to win than a strong city. And the con and contentions are like the
bars of a castle. Have you experienced that? It's the very worst when it's family.
And this just breaks your heart. Oh no, I love these people, but I hate them right now.
I remember getting sideways with my brother, my older brother who had the AIDS,
had the HIV virus and, and he was doing some careless things and man, we, everybody got
sideways. Man made my mom mad and made my other brother mad. And my sister was far removed. She
wasn't in the middle of it. And man, we were just like, that's it. We ain't never coming over there
again. We ain't never seen you again. And eventually I have to go make peace, right?
It's really important to make peace. I mean, I, I should, you know, the Bible says that
with all that is within you, Paul said, be at peace with everyone, right? With everything that
you have, right? Oh man, no, oh, no man, anything but to love. That's what Paul says. And but when,
when, when you're trying to make peace, sometimes it doesn't go like you planned. You ran that,
right? Oh, I thought this was going to go so much better. And it just didn't. And
but all of us within you, because you can't, you can't determine what the other person does.
All you can do is say, grovel on your knees. Oh, please forgive me. Please forgive me.
I was wrong. I want to make it right. So I'm kind of a,
I like, I like movies that pull a little of emotion, right? I'm kind of a crybaby.
Just like, I'm honest. And so I watched the movie I can only imagine the other day,
you know, with Dennis Quaid. And when he comes to his son and he says, I want to make things right
between me and you, right? Is there anything more powerful than that?
Is there anything more powerful than somebody coming to Lord and say, Lord, I just want to be
right with you. Isn't that, that's a beautiful thing. I actually got invited over for a cup
of coffee yesterday and got to talk to a guy that had kind of been estranged from the Lord for some
years, 43 years old, struggling, struggling in his life, struggling in his marriage.
He came to church here one time. The reason he called me over is because he wanted to apologize
for walking. He was in service. He was sitting right down here in front. So, and he wanted to
apologize for walking out of service. I was good, dude. You'd have to apologize. In fact, I don't
even think I remember seeing you walk out of service. Right. And I miss a lot from up here,
just saying. And, and he, and, but he says, I got to tell you the last five weeks, God has just been
rocking my wife and I's world. We were both, we were both running for the Lord. In fact,
four weeks ago, we were, we were on the verge of divorce. She was going to move back to Alaska. And
I, I was vowed. I was never going to go back to Alaska. I think he got on a plane today to go back
to Alaska and God is just rocking their world. And he just, you know what he did? He, he finally
went to the Lord and he goes, I'm done. That's it. I'm done. He finally surrendered after all
these years, he had gone to a Christian school growing up. If you're here today and you have not
surrendered all that you are and all that you hope to become to the Lord Jesus Christ, please do that.
It will do your soul good. Right? It will do your soul good. And, and it's just a powerful thing to
see people come to that place. Lord, I'm done. I cannot do this. I cannot live this life. It's just
too much. And all of us know somebody like that. Don't we? We got people in our families like that.
And God is so good. He's so loving. He's so willing. He's willing to forgive the Lord's willing to listen.
However, it is strange how we convince ourselves that we can escape the past and not reap what
we've sown. We try to forget our sins, but our sins don't forget us. Right? Right. Be sure of this.
It says there in the Old Testament, right? Your sin will find you out. And in fact it does. And
it has a wage and it's very faithful to pay that wage. The wages of sin, the Bible says is dead.
Because of Jacob lying to his dad, snatching the blessing away from his brother Esau, right? With
the tricky little hairy thing going on, he rightly is fearful that Esau may just follow through on
his promise to kill Jacob. Right? But God. There it is again. Those two words. It's less like you
need to write that on a card and put it in your pocket. But God. God's going to intervene. God's
going to not let that happen. Right? God made a promise too. And I think God's probably better
at keeping his promise than Esau is. Which should always be our focus. God's promises
should be our focus. Do you focus on God's promises? Right? The promise of forgiveness
and redemption and a future and a hope and heaven and glory. Do you focus on those things?
Or is it woe is me? This life is so hard. I think everybody in this room knows that.
I don't think nobody needs to tell each other that at all. This life is hard.
But with Jesus, it ain't near as hard. Amen. With Jesus, it ain't near. Okay. So we're going to
start. I'm going to pray and we're going to look at this chapter real quick. Lord, thank you for
your word. That is powerful. It's good. It's full of life, Lord. Full of incredible lessons. Lord,
what we learned from you is Lord it's life-giving. And so Lord, I just pray that we would be yielded
and have ears to hear that you would speak, that you would bless as only you can. Lord,
I know that there's hearts in here this morning that Lord, they just need a touch from you.
They just need reminded that you got them and you got a plan for their life, Lord. And Lord,
convince them too that they need to repent and turn from their sin and turn to you and experience
that second birth and experience the life of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and help us to be
in that place. All of us, Lord, and that we would set our mind in a good place and that we would
have the mind of Christ in Jesus' name. Amen. Chapter 32 verse one. So Jacob went on his way
and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp." And he called
the name of that place Meha-Naim. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother
in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them saying, "Speak thus to my Lord
Esau. Thus your servant Jacob says, 'I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there.'" Excuse me,
breakfast breed over there. Sorry. "I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now.
I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants. And I have sent to tell my Lord
that I may find favor in your sight." And then the messengers returned to Jacob saying,
"We came to your brother Esau and he's also coming to meet you. And 400 men are with him. And so
Jacob was graciously afraid and distressed and he divided the people that were with him and the
flocks and herds and camels into two companies. And he said, 'If Esau comes to the one company
and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.'" Wow. This is just like
going headlong right into a battle and right off the bat, right? But right off the bat,
the Lord shows up, right? The Lord shows up and He says, "And Jacob went on his way and the angels
of God met him." Angels, this is more than one. I don't know about you, but when I study angels,
they're a pretty ferocious creature, these angels. We see in the book of Kings there and Chronicles
or Isaiah when this one angel kills 185,000 man army, one angel. They're bad dudes, right?
And here there's more than one. The angels of God and He calls the name of it, "Mehaneinaim,"
which means double camp. In other words, two camps. There's Jake's camp and there's angel
camp. Angel camp, that's a place somewhere. Anyway, right there's these camp. It's that double
camp that the Lord's letting Jacob. Dude, you're not alone. Do you ever feel alone sometimes?
We do when we're going through those hard things and you think, "What nobody knows. Nobody knows
what I'm going through. I'm the only one." You're never the only one. You remember what the Lord
told Elijah when he was running from a girl? What a stinking whanny, right? Running from a girl.
And God goes, "What are you doing?" "Well, she wants to kill me and it's just me left. I'm the
only one that really serves you, Lord." And the Lord goes, "Elijah, what are you doing here?"
I have 7,000 prophets that had not bowed their knee to Baal. You are never alone, right? You're
never the only one that has gone through hard things. We are all people of like passion.
Everybody's got a story, but Satan wants you to isolate and focus on your own little pity party
hard life, right? And the Lord calls, "Quit looking at yourself, right? Take your eyes
out for yourself and look out and go where I tell you to go and listen to what I tell you to do."
And so we are never alone. And the Lord's telling Jacob, "Hey, man, the angels of God,
they're right here." This powerful, these powerful creatures, right? Hebrews 1 14 says,
"Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation?"
That's what angels are. You got some? I had a couple growing up, right?
Because I was such a blundering wonder. It is a miracle, you guys, that I'm here.
I'm serious. Everywhere from choking on a beer bottle cap to trying to run down a
rooster pheasant on a motorcycle at 45 miles an hour. I'm chasing this pheasant because he jumps
up. I'm on this alleyway and he jumps up and he's flying just like, "Oh, I'm going to catch him on
my motorcycle." But what I didn't forgot to account for was right at the end of the lane is a T,
right? And the hay fields on the other side, but there's about this six or eight inch solid,
straight piece of dirt bank. And I didn't get stopped. I hit that thing and it launched me in
the air with front tire down like this. I fly about 35 feet in the air, land, I go over the
handy bars, the bike comes over the top of me and we roll out through there for another 35, 40 feet.
I mean, it should have killed me dead. My boss wasn't real excited about his panel bars because
they were demolished. Run a jeep off into the irrigation ditch. I mean,
the Lord does watch out for fools and I was one. Well, still am. I told you about my wife seeing
me up in the tree. You're going to die. Probably. I'm probably going to get killed by some freak
accident, fall and hang my neck in a crook of a tree or something. And pastor dies falling
out of tree. I can see it now. But my angels, they, I know they're real. I just know they're
real. I don't know if you know and believe that they're real, but they are. They're for us who's
going to inherit salvation. Maybe you haven't got your inheritance yet. Are you saved? If you're not
saved, please get saved. Right? Give them something to work for. They've kept you alive to this point.
Right? Reward your guardian angel by getting saved. Would you? And at the end of today,
I want to give you that opportunity. I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but I love that question
that pastor Olypio Amorola asked everybody. So how did you become born again? And can you answer
that question? And if you're here today and you cannot answer that question, how did I become
born again? If you can't answer that question, you need to answer that question before you leave this
room today. Right? You need to answer that question. Yea or nay? If it's nay, then you
got some figuring to do. Right? And you're frustrating your guardian angel just saying.
But it says, it says a lot about angels in the scripture. I love Psalm 34, seven,
the angel of the Lord in camps around all those who fear him. He fear God. Oh boy.
It's a good thing. You remember Jesus when he was, he was in his battle with the devil
there in Matthew chapter four. And then the devil left him and behold angels came and ministered to
him. I love second Kings, right? When it talks about Elisha, I think I might've mentioned this
last week, but I don't think I quoted the chapter in verse, but it's found in second Kings chapter
six. And it says, and so he answered, do not fear for those who are with us. This is Elisha speaking
are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray open his eyes that
he may see. And then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man. And he saw and behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. Right? Guardian angels. They're awesome.
And here Jacob encounters them. Right? And this isn't the first time, right? His, his time with
Laban, the two bookends is angels, angel experience, right? Remember there when he was at Beth-El
and he saw the angel of God ascending and descending on this ladder,
he's had some pretty intense experiences with angels. Now what's really sad is we live in a
society today where it's very popular for people to, they worship angels, right? They encounter
angels, righteous holy angels and or fallen angels. Sometimes they'll talk to them. That's
not a good idea. Every time that we see somebody in the scripture that has an experience with angels,
they're fearful, right? They're fearful. And we should not try to entice or conjure up
demonic or fallen angels. And so that's something you need to be careful about. Keep them
in their proper place. Just reading through Exodus chapter 20 with the 10 commandments, right? He
talks about graven images. Don't make under yourself any graven image of anything here on
earth or anything that's in heaven. Angel worship is so popular. We're to worship the one true God
and Him only. And so
it's interesting that the experience with the angels is right at the
right at the border of the promised land. And so they're always around that land.
It says in Deuteronomy that that land is protected. And we're seeing it right now, right? With
what's going on over there. Deuteronomy 11, 12 says, "A land for which the Lord your God cares.
The eyes of the Lord your God are always on it." This is speaking of the land of Israel.
From the beginning of the year to the very end of the year, Deuteronomy 11, 12, God watches over,
right? He watches over His timepiece, Israel. He watches over those who inherit salvation.
That'd be you and I. Thank you, Jesus. Right? He watches over.
So Jacob sends messengers. So here he is in this double camp, seeing the angels,
and he sends messengers to Esau. Now talk about flattery, right? And you're, you know,
because he calls, he calls him, "Oh, yes, my Lord, Esau, your servant, Jacob." Where did he learn
this? From Uncle Laban, right? He learned flattery. Oh yeah, just butter him up, grease him up, man.
He's, you know, you can just make him feel so good about himself. And I don't even know how many
times he says it here, right? That Esau, my Lord, or Jacob, your servant, he says it several times
there. And he tells him, he says, "I have stuff. Please be favorable to me. I have stuff. I come
with gifts." And I guess, you know, then he hears about the 400 men and he is absolutely terrified,
absolutely terrified there when he hears about it and says, "And he was greatly afraid and distressed
and he divided his people that were with him and the flocks and herds and camels into two companies."
Thinking that if he attacks, at least somebody can get away.
Paralyzing fear. Jacob is so afraid, he springs into action. Maybe he totally forgets about the
angels that are there. Oh well, maybe somebody will survive. And in verse nine, we see something.
This is the first time we see him actually pray, right? He recognizes God. He speaks about God,
but we see him actually talking to God here in verse nine. The first recorded prayer of Jacob,
AKA Israel. And then Jacob said, "Oh God of my father, Abraham, and the God of my father, Isaac,
the Lord who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal with you. I
am not worthy of the least of all the mercies of all the truth, or mercies of all the truth,
which you have shown your servant. For I crossed over this Jordan with my staff and now I have
come, become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of
Esau. For I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For you said,
'I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea,
which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"
So Jacob does something that's very powerful in prayer, right? His fear was good because it led
him to prayer. His fear was good because it led him to take a review of his life, right?
"Well, I came with nothing and now I'm loaded." And Jacob's fear was good because it led him to
seek out a suitable promise from the Lord. He says, "No, I remember now. You promised me.
You told me." When you pray, you can remind God of what He said. He's not offended by that.
You can remind God of what He said, but you can't do it, but you don't know what He said.
That's why it's so important to read God's word. Know what He said. And Jacob is remembering very
specifically what God said, that you are going to multiply my descendants as like the
like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. It's pretty incredible.
So we can remind God of His word because He is steams His word very highly. Now, Jacob
is no doubt remembering when he was there the last time on his way to Uncle Laban,
where the Lord said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father, Abraham, the God of Isaac.
I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. Your descendants will be like
the dust of the earth and you will spread out the west and to the east and to the north and to the
south. All peoples of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you
and will watch over you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land."
He's remembering God's word. That's really cool. But isn't it amazing how fast you forget it?
You can read something in the morning and by noon you've forgotten what you read.
Oh, it's terrible. Why are we like that?
I think it's on purpose. I think it is on purpose because God set a precedent when the children of
Israel were in the wilderness. You guys remember the story, right? And they were hungry. And they
said, "Oh, we're going to starve to death out here and we should have stayed in Egypt eating
leeks and onions." That was a good belch, I bet. But God started raining down the manna.
He said, "Okay, every day go out and get the manna. Every day." You know they couldn't store
up for two days. They couldn't binge. They had to go out every day, get enough for that day.
The only time they could double up is on Friday before the Sabbath, that it would carry them over.
Otherwise, stinky rotten worms would get in. It just would go off like really quick.
Folks, that is a picture of the word of God. It is truly manna from heaven. But you can't
binge the word of God. "Oh yeah, I read like 10 chapters every other month."
Doesn't work like that. Try eating every other month.
"Yeah, just one time every other month. Kind of gorge a little." Yeah, that ain't gonna work.
So it needs to be a constant every single day. If you want to rest on Sunday and get it from a
dummy like me, go ahead. But you should be, if you're only getting it from here, you're starving
to death spiritually. Right? You have to self-feed. And so God's word's powerful, and God remembers
His word, and God honors His word. So remembering what God has said in prayer is really good.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, "When God gave His promise, He did, as it were, put Himself in the
power of those who know how to plead the promise. Every promise is so much strength given to the man
who has faith in the promise, for he may with it overcome even the omnipotent God Himself."
That's a pretty bold statement. Because Psalm 138 says, listen, it says this. Verse 2,
"I will worship toward your holy temple and praise your name for your loving kindness and for truth,
for you have magnified your word even above your name."
The power of God's word. Folks, most Christians don't have a clue.
Satan knows the word better than most Christians.
Right? Satan even tried throwing the word at Jesus. You remember that, right? Right? He says,
"Hey, since, since you're the Son of God, throw yourself off this temple, because the Bible says
that He will give His angels charge when they shall better you up." But He left something out.
That's what He's really good at. He left something out. And He would acknowledge you in all your ways.
That's the part He left out. So Satan will give you 80%, maybe 90% of the truth.
Throw a little cyanide in there. It's kind of like having a little jar with 100 jelly beans in it.
One of them is laced with cyanide. If it touches your tongue, you're dead. You're gonna, you're
gonna eat it? Oh, give me one of those. That's how Satan works. So it's important to know God's word.
Here, Jacob remembers God's word. And because God takes His word seriously, right?
Jacob did as well. It's the first thing he did here is he reminds God of what he said.
Secondly, in verse 10, it says, "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and all the truth,
which you have shown your servant. I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become
two companies." He is humble before the Lord. He realizes, "Oh God, look what you've done, right?
You've been merciful to me. I understand this truth of who you are, realizing that God has
increased Him. And I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy of your mercies and your truth." Knowing you're
not worthy is really good. We live in a culture here in Eastern Idaho where there is a desire to
be worthy. And so many people will, "I'm not worthy." Well, you're absolutely right. You're
not worthy. I'm not worthy. There is none worthy. There is none good. There is none righteous. No,
not one, the Bible says, right? And so Jacob acknowledges that this truth, wow, I am not
worthy of this mercy that God has showed me and this truth that He's revealing to me,
nor are you and I. That doesn't mean it isn't ours.
Because what makes us worthy is our God, not we ourselves, right? And so
he mentions truth here. And truth is something interesting. In fact, is there a truth project
going on right now? Anybody hosting a truth project? It's pretty powerful. The Bible talks
about having a love for the truth. In 2 Thessalonians chapter two, it says,
"And with all unrighteousness, deception," this is talking about the lawless one who is to come,
"among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might
be saved." Do you love the truth? Even, listen, even when it hurts, because the truth really does
hurt. The truth about myself, it really hurts. But if I embrace it, I'm in a good place. And that's
what Jacob does here. He's starting to see, oh yeah, God's been faithful. He's been merciful to
me, even with my conniving and what I have done in the past. Lastly, so first of all, he
reminds God of his word. And secondly, he humbles himself. And lastly, he asks for the Lord to
deliver you. He asks for the Lord for help. Have you asked for the Lord for help this week?
If not, maybe you should start, because he'll help you. I know on Sunday mornings, it's my prayer,
and I know it's profound. And I get up every Sunday morning. Well, a lot of mornings, not just
Sunday, but especially Sunday, because I get up so early. And I say, "Oh, Lord, please help.
Please help today. I gotta have your help. I can't do this. I don't know all the ins and outs.
The hermeneutics and the stuff that I'm supposed to be doing right. I don't know those things.
God's got to help me by his Spirit. And if he don't, I'm sunk. And you guys are probably
wasting your time." But he's been so faithful. So he prays there and says, "Deliver me. Deliver me,
I pray." His prayer had faith. He believed. And a lot of times, God puts you in a really tight spot,
so you'll look up. You ever been in a... It's amazing to me. When I get calls from people,
I go, "Man, please come pray with us." Why do they want me to come pray? Well, they want me to come
pray because they have already assessed the situation and realized it's hopeless.
We can't do anything. And it's helpless. Have you been in that place? You're just helpless.
I'm so helpless here. It's really tough when you get called to go pray for a little kid or something
that's been injured or their life is hanging in the balance and you got to come pray. And I'm just
like, "I don't know. I can't fix that kid." But I know who can. And we have to come to him by faith.
He boldly asked God to do something and gave him humble grounds for why the Lord should fulfill
his word. He said, "Lord, you told me I'm going to have the sand of the sea. I've only got 11.
I have 12 can't dine it." We don't know how many daughters he had. But he said, "They're definitely
not the sand of the seashore. So this still has to happen. This thing needs to happen."
George Mueller years ago was a man considered a man of faith and prayer. And he once asked what
was the most important part of prayer. And he answered, "The 15 minutes after I have said Amen."
He says that's the most
important part because no matter how great Jacob's prayer was, his faith would be seen
in what he did after his prayer. Was he going to trust God or was he going to revert back
to his own ways? Well, Jacob's faith is still pretty small, right? Is yours? I feel like mine
is at times. Proverbs 24 verse 10 says, "If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is
small." I think one version says your faith is small. If you faint in the day of adversity,
well, who doesn't have days of adversity, right? Where's your faith at where you're going through
those hard things? Unlike Moses, right? Unlike Moses, when he's standing at the Red Sea,
we read through that this last week, where he says,
"Do not be afraid. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will accomplish
for us today." Right? That's faith. And what happens? The waters part. Pretty cool.
So what does Jacob do? He invokes, he invokes Proverbs 21 14, "A gift in secret pacifies anger
and a bride behind the back strong wrath." He's going, "I got to give him a gift." Right?
I've got to give him a nice basket. A nice, you know, a nice gift basket. I got to give my brother
and then maybe he won't be mad at me anymore. Well, let's read it. Verse 13 says, "And he
lodged there that same night and he took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother."
200 female goats and 20 male goats and 200 Jews and 20 rams. 30 milk camels with their
colts. 40 cows and 10 bulls and 20 female donkeys and 10 foals. And then he delivered them to the
hand of his servants and every drove by itself and said to his servants, "Pass over before me and put
some distance between successive droves." And he commanded the first one saying, "When Esau my
brother meets you and asks you saying, 'To whom do you belong and where are you going? Whose are these
in front of you?' And then you shall say, 'They are your servant Jacob's. It is a present sent to
my Lord Esau and behold he also is behind us.' And so he commanded the second, the third and all who
followed the droves saying, 'In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find them and also
say, 'Behold your servant Jacob is behind us.' For he said, 'I will appease him with the presence
that goes before me and afterwards I will see his face. Perhaps he will accept me.'" So the present
went on over before him and he himself lodged that night in the camp. So he said, "You guys go,
set a little distance between you, you know, and take the goats and then the sheep and then
the camels and then the donkeys and the cows and five things he takes." And he gives him 580 head.
Now as a stockman you're going, "Oh, that's a really good start, right? 40 head of cows and
10 bulls? Man, you could sell most of the bulls. Two bulls could service 40 head of cows and that's
young bulls. And then the 20 male goats and the 200 female goats and the, I mean, he's setting
Esau up. I don't know what Esau's got but after this it would be a couple years he'd be over a
couple thousand head. That's a good deal." And yet Jacob, he's trying to buy him off, right?
He's trying to buy him off. He's kind of, Jacob's kind of like that guy, you know,
that we see in Mark chapter 9 when he comes to Jesus and it's after the mount of
transfiguration he comes to Jesus and this guy comes and he falls down before him with tears and
said, "Man, heal my son. He's demon possessed." He frosts at the mouth and the demon tries to
throw him into the fire and Jesus asked him, he says, "So do you believe I can heal you?"
He goes, "Lord, I believe that help my unbelief." Do you ever feel like that, right? "I believe,
Lord, but help my unbelief. I waver at times." Jacob is wavering here by sending these gifts.
Or maybe he just feels like he's got to do his part. He doesn't agree with Moses and stand still
and know that I'm God and you're going to see the salvation of the Lord. And so he's struggling. And
so we see him all by himself in verse 22, and I'll finish up the chapter here. We see him all by
himself. And he rose that night and he took his two wives, his two male servants, or female servants
and his 11 sons and crossed over the fort of the Jabbok. And he took them and sent them over the
brook and sent over what he had. And Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the
breaking of day. Now, when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his
hip and the socket of Jacob's hip went out of joint as he wrestled with him. And he said, "Let me go
for the day breaks." But he said, this is Jacob, Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless
me." And so he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." And he said, "Your name
shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel. For you have struggled with God and with men
and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked saying, "Tell me your name, I pray." And he said, "Why is it
that you ask about my name?" And he blessed him there. So Jacob called the name of that place
Penuel, which means face of God. "For I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved." And
just as he crossed over Penuel, the sun rose on him and he limped on his hip. Therefore,
to this day, the children of Israel will not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket
because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank. And so here it is. I don't
know if you've ever seen somebody with a hip out of joint, but woo doggies, do they squall to high
heaven? We were in high school doing a scrimmage and my buddy, Hobie Peterson got hit a certain
way and I heard him scream. And as I looked over, it was strange because he was on his belly like
this, but his leg was going up behind him, straight up like that from his hip right here. It popped
out of socket and it was stuck straight like that. And I mean, he was squalling like a gut shot cat.
He was in severe pain. This is a very painful thing, but who's he wrestling with? There's all
kinds of conjecture because angels have appeared as men before. Most people think it's Jesus. It's
a pre-incarnate Christ that he's wrestling with. He's wrestling with God and he's alone and he
needs to be alone. You and I need to get alone with God. Put all the distractions aside. You
need to be quiet. You need to be still before the Lord, let him speak to your heart. He's got a lot
going on in his brain right now. Right? Worried and, and, and, and a position in himself and trying
to not die at the hands of his brother. And pretty soon he's just alone with God. He's kind of like
the guy I was telling you about. Okay. I've done all I can do. I'm done. I'm done. And
Psalm 46 verse 10 says, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth. And when you are, I are still before the Lord and truly let him speak
to our heart. He's exalted in our hearts and that's where he needs to stay. Exalted is in
your heart and mind that we would hold him, esteem him high because he is high above us.
And yet when we call out to him, he will humble himself and come to us."
Jacob wrestled with God and man. His whole life. He wrestled with God and man.
You wrestle with people. You struggle with people.
God would have you be at peace. Like Paul said, I mentioned it early. He says, I, I, I'm going to be
in debt to no man. The only thing I'm going to owe anybody is God's love. That's the only thing I'm
going to owe anybody is God's love. And the idea is there that you're paying up all the time.
You're paying up God's love. We all need to be alone. And yes, it might be a wrestling match.
It might be a wrestling match with God, but know that we sing that song. He's already won the
victory for us. We don't have to struggle against him. We need to be going with him.
Hosea talks about this in Hosea chapter 12. It says, he took, speaking of Jacob, he took his
brother by the heel in the womb and in his strength, he struggled with God. Yes. He struggled
with the angel and, and prevailed. He wept and sought favor from him. He found him in Bethel.
And there he spoke to us. That is the Lord God of hosts. The Lord is his memorable name. And so you,
by the help of your God, return, observe mercy and justice and wait on your God continually.
You're wrestling with God. Can I just encourage you? Don't. Right? Let him have his way with you.
Don't struggle against him. Right? He, cause he will change you. Notice he asked him his name.
So Jacob confesses right here. Right? He's so honest. What's your name?
Do I have to? Right? Do I have to say it? Jacob. Right? I'm the heel catcher.
I'm the cinch cutter. I'm the cheat. And he confesses who he is. And the Lord goes,
bingo. That's how you get right with God right there. Right? First, y'all in one night,
confess your sins. He's faithful and just, forgiving you sins. Cleanse you from all
unrighteousness. Jacob confessed who he was to God. Have you? Does he know all about it?
Well, I know he knows all about it, but have you confessed it to it?
Cause we had this bizarre, futile idea that God does not know about us.
That when you're all by yourself, nobody's here. Nobody'll know.
Are you crazy? Has Satan lied to you so much that you actually believe that? Nobody will know.
Because man, he'll whisper. You get all by yourself and it's quiet. And you're not,
you're not talking to your God. You're not inviting the Lord into your,
into your heart and into your mind. Satan will have a hay day with you.
Years ago, when I was at the school, I went to Colorado state to take an artificial
insemination course that they put on over there. Cause we had a horse program over here.
I was all by myself. And he tried that on me. And then I was reading the word. I was,
I was sleeping in the van. I was all by myself, man. They had happy hour. And, and there were,
you know, not very well-dressed waitresses and stuff like that at this, at this motel where they
were having this, this class. And I'm just going and Satan whispers in your ear. Hey Scotty,
go by yourself. There's some cuties, some hotties here. And I was just like,
obviously Connie and I, at that time we'd been married for 20 some years and I'm just going like,
he stinking pig, right? You're going to, you try to get me, you'd want to destroy everything.
And that's what he does. He hates us. He wants to destroy everything. It was a fight. And the
second to the last day me and this guy got to talking, he was a believer. And he goes,
and he goes, you've been sleeping in your van? I said, yeah, I've been sleeping in the van. I said,
we're pretty low budget here. And it was this time of year while it was in February, pretty low
budget. He goes, he says, my roommate just left. He said, I got an extra bed in, in, in my room.
And this guy was a believer and we fellowshiped and encouraged one another. And I'm just going,
you're never out of the woods. When you're all by yourself, if you're not seeking the Lord,
it's a good chance you're going to get in trouble. Right? Cause you're going to believe that lie.
Oh yeah. Nobody knows. Well, sure they do. Heaven knows. The angels are watching. You're,
you're toast. You're busted. You're not getting away with anything and you will never get away
with anything. Every secret thing. Right? Look chapter 12, every secret thing will be revealed.
Everybody's going, no.
God knows us. He comes clean. We just need to come clean with him. He changes his name. No longer,
no longer shall you be called Jacob, but right here, right now, I am changing you.
I am changing you from Jacob to Israel. That's who you are now. And that's who we are in Christ.
Right? There's all kinds of conjecture. What does Israel mean? Right? You listen to John
Corson means governed by God, right? You look at some of the literal translations of the word
Israel, prince with God. Some say it's, it's God's wrestler.
I'm convinced that it's just God's person. Israel becomes God's person. I'm changing you from a,
from a cheat to a person who's right with God. Just being right with God. Are you right with
God today? Have you surrendered? What's it going to take? Is God going to have to cripple you?
Does God have to cripple you? I don't mean physically, could be physically.
I've known people who've been crippled physically. Yeah. That's what it took to get
their attention. You might get crippled financially.
Why not just surrender? Why not have God not have to cripple you? Just surrender. Be
all his right. Because Jacob will never, ever, ever forget this day ever.
I've never forgot the day that I threw my hands in the air and I said, Jesus, it is yours. I was just
like that guy talked about. I'm done. I am not going to try to live this life without you anymore.
I do nothing but make a stinking rotten mess. Jacob will never forget this day. And there's
two witnesses that will cause him another one. What he named the place, Peniel, face of God.
He saw the face of God that day. Have you encountered God? Do you have a reference
point that you can go to? If not, you need your day. It may be today. Today might be your day.
The day that I surrendered and I said, okay, you got it all. You got all that I am,
all that I hope to become, I give to you, Jesus. That's what our pastor told me and Connie to tell
each other when we said our wedding vows. All that I am, all that I hope to become, I give to you.
That's what it is for those who would follow Jesus.
All that I am, all that I hope to become, I give to you, Jesus.
And that is a life that is going to do exploits, right? For the kingdom's sake.
I've seen it over and over and over again.
So I'm going to close with a thought. Absolute surrender is what your soul needs.
Many people today have become Christians, are Christians. They're saved by God's grace and
yet they're still mastered by their own flesh. They're not mastered by God. They're still a
Jacob. They're still resisting God's will. They're still living as though God exists. Listen to this,
because this is so true of the American church. They are still living as though God exists to
please them rather than vice versa, right? That God exists to please them rather than vice versa.
I'm telling you it's vice versa. God is servant to no one. He owns it all. He owns your breath.
He owns the beat of your heart. Why not willfully just give Him all that you are
and all that you hope to become. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for
Lord giving us an example of surrender. And even though it was painful,
and there may be some here today, Lord, that have yet to surrender to you. And maybe you're
knocking pretty loudly on the door of their heart right now. And so Lord, I just want to give them
an opportunity, Lord, for you to minister to them and to lift up their souls, Lord, to let them know
that all of their sin and their failure has been paid for by you. And so if that's you and you're
just saying, okay, I'm at that place. I need to totally surrender to Jesus and give Him all that
I am and all that I hope to become. And if that's you, as we're just in an attitude of prayer right
now, I want you to stand to your feet. I want to pray for you. I want to encourage you. And I
want you to remember this day, that this is the day that you said, yes, I surrender. I surrender to you,
Lord Jesus. Okay. I see a few of you standing. I'm standing with you.
I'm going to pray with you. In fact, I want you to pray with me. Say these words, Lord Jesus,
I surrender to you. I want to give you all that I am and all that I hope to become.
I turn from my sin, the things that have kept me from you. Wash me, make me clean and make me new.
Lord, show me the way and how you want me to walk with you and how to bring glory to your name.
Lord, I want it forever for all of my days. Lord, I'm with Him. I want it forever for all of my days.
Give us your strength, your wisdom, your spirit. Lord, you're able to keep us. You're able to cleanse
us and wash us. You're able to help us to put all of our past behind us, just as you did, Jacob.
And Lord, we just thank you for this day. May we remember it.
And may we honor you with all that we are. All that the future holds, we lay at your feet.
And all of the past, we lay at your cross. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
Let's all stand. We're going to worship Him because He truly knows our name.