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God’s Purposes regarding My Problems (Genesis 32:22-32)
58 Plays2 years ago
God’s Purposes regarding My Problems (Genesis 32:22-32)
Growing in Grace Devotions and Inspirations
Hosted by Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam Street
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Growing in Grace Ministry
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Pastor Victor Morrison. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, FBCColumbusTX.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Victor gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
Welcome back to Growing in Grace. Glad you're checking in with us today.
The Purpose of Life's Problems
00:00:47
Speaker
When I ask you a question, do you ever have any problems? I think everybody experiences problems in their life from time to time. But the issue is, does God have a purpose in these problems that are in our lives that He permits? What is it that He's looking for? Even a Roman emperor of all people named Marcus Aurelius, he once said, the art of living
00:01:13
Speaker
is more like wrestling than dancing insofar as it stands ready against the accidental and the unforeseen and is not apt to fall.
00:01:28
Speaker
I don't know if Jacob fell or not, but he certainly lost. I want us to look in Genesis 32, verses 22 through 32.
Insights from Genesis 32: Jacob's Struggles
00:01:37
Speaker
There's something that just stood out in my own personal devotional readings when I was going through Genesis, and I wanted to pass it along to you. This biblical character at the end of Genesis chapter 32, his name is Jacob.
00:01:53
Speaker
And he thought that other people were the problem. He assumed that his brother Esau, who is ahead of him, Esau is coming toward Jacob with 400 men. He assumed that his uncle Laban, who is behind him, he got out of Laban's
00:02:16
Speaker
property as fast as he could. He married a couple of girls there, and so now he's trying to get away from Laban. He's running into Esau. He had already taken advantage of Esau on a couple of different occasions. And so what we're going to hear in Genesis 32 verses 22 to 32 is God's breaking process.
00:02:41
Speaker
He's going to gather in, I guess we could call it, Riverside Arena, just in jest, but it was on the riverbanks of the Jabbok.
00:02:51
Speaker
There he has a wrestling match, and he doesn't know who it is perhaps at first, but by the end, he knows exactly who he's wrestling with. He's wrestling with God. And so I don't know if you ever feel like you're wrestling with God, but just in case you haven't learned this, I just want to pass it along. He's got an undefeated record.
00:03:11
Speaker
He's sort of like the man Kale Sanderson, the only NCAA wrestler who won four national titles during his four years at Iowa State. I mean, this dude had 159 wins and zero losses.
00:03:28
Speaker
He was such an outstanding wrestler that Penn State picked him up and said, would you come and be our head coach? Do you know that at Penn State, I think he's got a record going of nine national championships. So the guy is still winning.
00:03:43
Speaker
But anyway, way more than Kale Sanderson, of course, God just doesn't lose. So the way that I think we can experience victory is when we surrender all of the problems that we're facing to Him. So let me read through the text and then make a few comments about it that I hope will be helpful the next time you're surrounded by problems and they have you on the mat.
00:04:08
Speaker
It says in Genesis 32, verse 22, the same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his 11 children, and crossed the ford of the Javac. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.
00:04:34
Speaker
And when the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket and Jacob's hip was put out of
Lessons from Jacob's Wrestling with God
00:04:44
Speaker
joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, let me go, for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, what is your name? And he said, Jacob,
00:05:02
Speaker
Then he said, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. And then Jacob asked him, please tell me your name. But he said, why is it that you ask my name? And there he blessed him.
00:05:24
Speaker
So Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel, saying, for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed, Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.
00:05:54
Speaker
Well, quite an interesting passage, don't you say? Wow. I think there's some things, though. There's some lessons that he learned in the wrestling match that I feel like will help us when we're wrestling with a whole lot of problems. Maybe they're in front of you. You know you're headed toward them. You're going to face them eventually. Perhaps they're behind you in your past. Let me suggest these lessons that we can learn. The first lesson is found in verses 22 through 24, the first part.
00:06:24
Speaker
I think that whenever we surrender to God, He's going to simplify life's greatest priority. What is life's greatest priority? Well, it says here that Jacob was left alone. He had already sent his family over. He had already sent all the flocks and all the cattle and so forth across the river. He's there by himself.
00:06:48
Speaker
And while he's there by himself, this angel of the Lord, some say it's actually a Christophany, where the Lord Jesus comes. It's a pre-incarnate revelation of Christ. But whether it's an angel or whether it's Jesus, either way,
00:07:04
Speaker
It's sort of a reminder that Psalm 46.10, God's still saying this, be still and know that I'm God. You see, God started this wrestling match, not Jacob. I don't think Jacob wanted to wrestle with God. I think that he assumed my only problems are with Laban, my only problems are with Esau.
00:07:26
Speaker
But really, he needed to learn to go to the Father whenever he has problems. You know, Jesus said in Matthew 6, verses 5 to 6, that we need to go into our room, shut the door, and pray to our Father in secret.
Solitude with God and Endurance through Trials
00:07:42
Speaker
There's something there. That's the way Christ lived it out, right? I mean, in Mark 1.35, in Mark 6.46,
00:07:50
Speaker
In Luke 4, verse 42, in Luke 6.12, Luke 9.28, I mean, over and over again, the Gospels are clear. Jesus would pull away from the disciples, pull away from all the obligations and responsibilities, and he would just meet with the Father. And when he did that,
00:08:11
Speaker
everything lined up perfectly. So I would just submit to you that let your problems strengthen your resolve to maintain that priority above all others. Let the Lord simplify life's greatest priority to simply meet alone with Him each and every day. I think there's a second thing, though, that God was after. It says that they wrestled until the break of day. Have you ever wrestled anybody?
00:08:41
Speaker
Do you think you could wrestle for about six to eight hours? That's probably how long Jacob wrestled with the angel. I think it's really phenomenal. But I think that the Lord was trying to develop the discipline of perseverance, of persistence.
00:08:57
Speaker
You see, Jacob was able to wrestle six hours, but I don't think I would have lasted six minutes in the ring with God. But you know what I think? I think that God wants to train us not to give up when we have problems, not to give in and throw in the towel. You know, Romans chapter five, verses three through four says that suffering actually produces something that we need, endurance.
00:09:24
Speaker
James 1 and 4 says that God permits trials because He doesn't want us to have anything missing in our growth and development as one of His disciples. Do you know what we pick up whenever we go through those kind of trials and hard times?
00:09:44
Speaker
endurance. The ESV uses the word steadfastness. Let the Lord use those problems to teach you, don't give up. Let the Lord say, okay, let's work on this together. And so take it to God in that personal and private time and say, Lord, help me not to be a quitter. Help me to surrender it to you.
00:10:08
Speaker
but help me not to walk away from all my problems. The third thing I think that the Lord will do is He will take all of our experiences and teach us dependence upon Him.
00:10:21
Speaker
You see, wrestling really depends on the movement of the hips, on the stability of the legs. As a matter of fact, I would say that probably your legs and your hip, they're your greatest strength, much stronger than your arms and your shoulders, even though those are necessary, right?
00:10:40
Speaker
Well, what happens during the wrestling match with Jacob? God says, you know what? I'm going to have to touch him in the hip and dislocate his hip. Man, the fight was over at that point. I mean, Jacob's finished. He can't win a wrestling match with a dislocated hip. I guarantee you that must have hurt.
00:11:01
Speaker
You see, whenever things are allowed and permitted into our lives, sometimes there's a higher purpose. I know that we can either become bitter toward God or we can become better. It's really our choice. I think sometimes, you know what we're doing? Jacob was really good at wrestling matches. He was good at winning. He had already won over Esau and he won over Laban.
00:11:26
Speaker
But you know something, he wasn't going to win over God. I think that Jacob could always play to his strength of being sort of deceptive, of trying to be a trickster and so forth. But this time he was going to have to depend upon God.
00:11:41
Speaker
I thought it was interesting how in Revelation 3, verses 15 through 17, there was a church in a place called Laodicea. And the word that the Lord Jesus said to that church was that they thought, they assumed that they were rich and needed nothing. And so the Lord had to touch that strength. Remember the Apostle Paul in the lesson that he reveals to us in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 through 10?
00:12:11
Speaker
What he learned is that sometimes God permits weakness so that he can show himself strong. What's the purpose? What's he trying to do? He's trying to get us not to depend upon our strengths, our talents, our abilities, all those amazing accomplishments that we could just stack up if we wanted to,
00:12:32
Speaker
He's trying to get us to depend upon Him because He made us for Himself. He wants to receive glory through our lives, but if people always look at our pedigree, if people always look at our resume, if people always see just our abilities and not His ability, then they might not know. But whenever He allows us to go through an experience that we are certainly overwhelmed, then we're like David. We're saying, teach me to run to you, Lord, when I am overwhelmed.
00:13:02
Speaker
And so we need to learn dependence upon the Lord for whatever it is that we're facing. I think there's a fourth lesson, though. There's something that happens in Jacob's wrestling match that's very significant in verse 26.
00:13:19
Speaker
I think that Jacob can now, now that his hip is out of joint, he can only cling to God. I think it's sort of like a picture of praying when we learn the importance of prayer. I think God can convince us of that. It's not always just a fun game of pitch when he does that. Sometimes God's got to throw the ball really hard in order to help us pay attention.
00:13:43
Speaker
But, you know, isn't it amazing that Jacob and his wrestling experience, it probably took place somewhere around 1800 B.C.? Well, 1,050 years later, perhaps around 750 B.C.,
00:14:02
Speaker
Another prophet named Hosea picks up on the lessons and Hosea writes in Hosea chapter 12 verses 3 and 4, he writes about Jacob's wrestling match. And you know what he identifies happened there? That Jacob cried out to God.
00:14:20
Speaker
He cried out to God in prayer. As a matter of fact, I'm not sure Jacob did a lot of praying until chapter 32. But if you look a little bit earlier in chapter 32, you'll hear Jacob say this, oh God of my father, Abraham, and God of my father, Isaac, oh Lord, who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good.
00:14:45
Speaker
I'm not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant. For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children
00:15:09
Speaker
But you said, I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." You see what he's saying? He's going back to God and humbling himself in prayer, and he's saying, Lord, I believe you've got something more for me than to die at the hands of Esau in the morning.
Transformation through Surrender and Prayer
00:15:31
Speaker
And so I just thought it was really interesting how he had learned to submit all of his troubles, all of his problems and all of his stresses to God in prayer. He was convinced at the importance of prayer. But I think also, whenever the Lord asked him to identify himself, I kind of wonder if that's like a confession of the impurity, a confession of who Jacob had become.
00:15:58
Speaker
Do you know what the word Jacob means? The word Jacob means a heel grabber. It means somebody who grabs you from behind, pulls you back, and then he takes your spot. That's exactly what Jacob did to his brother Esau. He deceived him. It's kind of like whenever Jacob admits to God,
00:16:20
Speaker
My name is jacob what he's basically doing is he's confessing to god you know what i turned out to be turned out to be a crook turn out to be a deceiver.
00:16:32
Speaker
You know, God takes us into wilderness experiences sometimes, like He did the children of Israel. You know, in Deuteronomy chapter eight and verse two, that's where Moses writes and says, this is what God was trying to do. He was trying to humble us, He was trying to test us, and He was trying to find out what is really in your heart. You see, God is a holy God. He's not a, well,
00:16:59
Speaker
Let's call him a bless me anyway type of God. I can just live any way I want to and God will still bless me. No, I think that God was leading Jacob to learn the lesson of purity. So he was leading him in the direction of purity whenever he said, what's your name?
00:17:18
Speaker
And Jacob said, my name is Jacob. And so he's basically admitting that he had deceived others. First John 1.9 tells us what to do when we feel that we've failed God, when we've been disobedient. It says all you got to do is confess your sins. He's faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. But then what happens when God forgives Jacob? It's really incredible.
00:17:46
Speaker
Well, he gives him a new name. Instead of the name Jacob or deceiver, crook, supplanter, whatever you want to say there, he's given a new name. He's renamed by God now that he's surrendering to the Lord. And God says, you know what, your new name, it's going to be called Israel. You know what Israel means? It means God prevails.
00:18:12
Speaker
So isn't it amazing that this God, Jacob, who's known for being cunning, now he can only be a clinger. He can only cling to God because his hip's out of joint.
00:18:25
Speaker
But he learns through this the importance of character. And, you know, going back to Romans 5, 3 and 4, it says that suffering produces endurance. I said that earlier. But, you know, endurance produces character. In character, it always brings hope.
00:18:44
Speaker
You know, so what I'm saying is let God transform your character to where you're the type of person he can entrust with more blessings. Let God work in your life to the point that he can prevail.
00:19:00
Speaker
You know, I've memorized through the years certain scriptures that have been a great, sort of like a guide, almost like a promise, though, to me. One of those is 1 Corinthians 15, 57. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I tried to emphasize the word give there.
00:19:22
Speaker
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if you'll surrender to Him, hey, listen, my name is Victor. When my parents were thinking of what name shall we give this little bitty baby boy, they thought of the name Victor.
00:19:40
Speaker
But you know what? I can tell you the truth. I hadn't accomplished one thing when they gave me the name Victor. I mean, I hadn't won anything. I didn't have any accomplishments or achievements. I was just given that name. You know, 2 Corinthians 2.14 also says that God can lead us in His victory, in His triumph. We can have triumph through Him in every place we go.
00:20:05
Speaker
No wonder Paul says in Colossians 1.27 that it's Christ in you that is the hope of glory. The only hope of glory that I have to win in this broken world with my fallen, sinful nature, oh yeah, I'm being transformed, but if I will allow myself, I'll get off track. The only hope I have is that Christ in me
00:20:32
Speaker
is going to give me hope that He can change me. He can put me on a course to where I win rather than lose as I go through life. You see, maybe you perceive Jacob, maybe I perceive Jacob as having lost, and he did technically. He didn't win the match. But you know what?
00:20:53
Speaker
God said, you know what? You're a winner. You're a winner, Jacob. Not because Jacob technically won over God, but it's sort of like whenever I used to wrestle with my two daughters. We would sometimes wrestle in the floor and have just great laughs together. But you know what? I would let them win sometimes. And whenever they would win, they felt like a champion.
00:21:16
Speaker
You know, I think God wants us to win. Jesus went to the cross to pay the price for our sins so that we could share His victory. So it's really like He's winning. We're not winning. And so if we'll allow Him, He'll put that way down in our spirit, in our character, in our mind, so that we'll know, you know what, He's changing me. And so I'm going to be on course of winning through Christ rather than losing through self.
00:21:46
Speaker
Well, there was one other thing I wanted to note from this passage. It's sort of found in verses 30 through 32.
00:21:53
Speaker
He names that place Peniel. It means the face of God. He felt that he had come face to face with God, and yet he lived. And that's what he's trying to name a place with that kind of tribute. But also, I thought it was significant that he went forward with this limp because his hip was out of joint.
00:22:20
Speaker
So he must have told other people what had taken place because it says that even to this day that the Israelites didn't want to eat that piece of meat around the hip socket and so forth. You know, if you will allow the Lord the opportunity, he's going to take all your problems. I think he can even take all your failures.
00:22:45
Speaker
all your weaknesses, everything that is harassing you and stressing you, he can take all of it and he can build a testimony. A testimony to his name and his greatness that is so incredible, it will give you something that you can share with other people in the future. You'll be able to say, you know what? I thought I was beat. I thought I was going down.
00:23:09
Speaker
and yet the face of God. You know, if God turns his back on you in scripture, that's not a good sign. But when God turns his face toward you, when God makes his face to shine upon you, that means you're going to have his favor. Can you think of the grace that must have been involved here for God to turn his face
00:23:35
Speaker
toward Jacob in such a way that Jacob would say, I've seen the face of God and I can't believe I'm still here to live to talk about it. Some of you have experienced the grace of God in a very powerful way at a very low moment in your life. You know what? That's something you can share with other people.
00:23:55
Speaker
you'll be able to really help those people you're sharing your testimony with be able to identify with you. It'll validate the gospel. They will think, well, maybe I can connect with the grace of God if you can connect with the grace of God at that low moment. And so you'll be sharing with other people and people will be rejoicing with you.
00:24:19
Speaker
Well, I don't know about Marcus Aurelius' statement that the art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. But I will say this, that I still, I mean, I've been walking with the Lord for several years, but I still, I face problems and struggles, and I have to wrestle.
00:24:39
Speaker
But you know what? I do believe that God gives joy. He gives a joy in Christ because I know that I'm not wrestling now with my problems. I'm submitting these problems over to the Lord and it's almost like
00:24:54
Speaker
I'm saying, you know what? I don't wrestle alone. I have a partner in my wrestling matches. His name is Jesus. He's far more advanced than Kale Sanderson, who never seems to lose a match. Well, God doesn't lose matches. I want you to experience his victory as well. So let's go to the Lord and let me just pray for you that you'll be experiencing victory as you go through this week. Let's pray together.
00:25:23
Speaker
Lord, we don't always know why you've placed certain experiences in Scripture from some of those biblical heroes and characters that we see across the pages of Scripture, but sometimes we read one and it just resonates with us.
Encouragement and Closing Prayer
00:25:40
Speaker
So I know when I read this, it really connected with me. Perhaps there's someone out there that's listening to this podcast and it's really hitting home with them. Lord, would you just strengthen them, bless them, help them know that the way forward?
00:25:56
Speaker
is to surrender. The way forward is to acknowledge that they're just a Jacob and that they want to be an Israel. They want to have that victory that can only come through Christ. And so I pray that, Lord, you have transformed them. Show them what you can do, not that you are going to remove all of those problems that they have in their lives, but that even in the midst of that,
00:26:22
Speaker
they're going to be more than conquerors. I believe that's what you promised in your word at the end of Romans chapter eight, is that in the middle of all those things, we are still more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. And so Lord, bless my friends and help them to be led by you each and every day this week. Thanks again for this time that we shared together. In Jesus name, Amen.
00:26:48
Speaker
Well, I want to thank you so much for joining today, for listening in. Pray that you would walk with the Lord, take that time you need to meet with Him each and every day and let Him be your strength as you surrender it to Him. He's going to teach you not to give up, not to assume that the best way is for all your problems to go away. I think the best way is to say, Lord, I'm giving all of this to you. Will you help me in what I'm facing? All right, you have a great week.
00:27:18
Speaker
Bye-bye. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.