["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Welcome to Faith Word Baptist Church.
Would you please find our seats and open up our symbols to song number 413.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We begin our survey. We deserve to receive the song number 413.
Stand up. Stand up for Jesus.
And that is song number 413.
["Pomp and Circumstance"]
We begin our survey.
Stand up. Stand up for Jesus.
And that is song number 413.
Stand up for Jesus.
And that is song number 413.
Stand up for Jesus.
And that is song number 413.
And when our vote is made.
Wait.
Please, our nation, repeat.
And when our vote is made.
Won't we raise our voice and vote for Jesus.
And when our vote is made.
Won't we raise our voice and vote for Jesus.
We thank the saints, though it's true.
We thank the believers, for everything
we've done is done, and we're free.
And when these eyes be changing,
let's repeat strength upon us.
Sing it out.
God, we thank the saints, for everything we've done
is done, and we're free.
And when these eyes be changing,
let's repeat strength upon us.
Sing it out.
Let the lower lights be warning and the song of 372.
Sing it out for us.
Brightly rise, our fathers they were singing.
Hope is mine, let's carry on.
Light's around us, it is the deep air.
Love, the light's upon the shore.
Let the lower lights be warning.
Send them free, we'll be lost away.
Let the waves, we shall receive it.
We'll invest in you, they say.
Dark and loud, we may save us every day.
Love, the air, we'll do as we go.
We will rise, our fathers they were singing.
Hope is mine, let's carry on.
Let the lower lights be warning.
Let the waves, we'll be lost away.
Send them free, we shall receive it.
We'll invest in you, they say.
Let the air, we'll do as we go.
Let the waves, we shall receive it.
Love, the air, we'll do as we go.
We will rise, our fathers they were singing.
Let the lower lights be warning.
Send them free, we'll be lost away.
Send them free, we shall receive it.
We'll invest in you, they say.
Let the waves, we shall receive it.
Let the air, we shall receive it.
Let the waves, we shall receive it.
The Bible says that as always we have our service times there in fact every Sunday
at 10, 3 a.m. and 5, 3 p.m. of course we'll be back this Thursday at
7 as we go through the Book of Genesis.
I'm actually going to wrap up Genesis 32 tonight.
I know I kind of touched on that last Thursday but I want to finish up that latter half of
32 tonight so that's what we'll be tonight. Then we've got the Churchwide Soleim,
the Regional Soleim Salud as you can imagine is below that. Of course a couple happy birthdays
for everybody listed there.
And if your name is not listed here
or your anniversary, and you'd like it to be,
you just gotta give me that information
and I'll make sure that it's in there next month.
So I know there's, I think, one birthday in here
that's not mentioned today, right?
It was, who was it?
Ollie.
Ollie, right?
So little Ollie had a birthday today,
so we'll try to get him in there for next year.
But if you see him, make sure you wish him
a happy birthday as well as everyone else on the list.
And then, of course, speaking of birthdays,
his name is the sixth year anniversary of our church,
so congratulations to all of us in six years.
So it's actually a very crucial time.
A lot of churches don't make it past five.
A lot of pastors quit between five and seven years.
So it's a very, it's really something that made it this far,
is what I'm saying.
Don't take that lightly.
Don't just think, oh, you know,
it's no big deal.
It was just three years, you know,
that we'd say, well, what's going to be the deal, right?
Because apparently that was my attitude
as a three-year-old, three-year-old.
Three years, come on.
And now we're twice as far,
so now I can actually be a little impressed
with what we've been doing here, okay?
So, but I don't mean to make light of it,
obviously, you know, every year is an important year
in the church's history, so keep plugging along,
and we'll continue to serve the Lord together
for many years to come, I'm sure.
Speaking of serving the Lord,
let's go ahead and count up solely,
going back to Friday, November to Friday,
or Saturday, or today.
Seven.
I heard you call it,
in front of you, Mary, you're gonna call it with the?
Fruitville.
Fruitville?
Yeah, fruitville.
Okay.
It was fruitful, not brutal.
Fruitville, okay, all right.
You didn't even think of that name.
Fruitville.
You ain't getting anybody saved in fruitville.
You thinking about the different fruits
I'm thinking about, anyway.
Finally made a connection, is that right?
Anyway, I guess that's just,
you don't use that term around here like that, right?
We just say fag.
Not that kind of, the fruits we like
are the people that get saved.
We love fruits here.
We love fruits.
Um, that'll do it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and sing one more song
before we get into preaching.
All right.
All right, if you could please turn your hymnals
to song number 65.
["Singing Song Number 65"]
Singing song number 65.
Just go over to the glory line
and get another song for 65.
["Singing Song Number 65"]
Sing it like we sing it all first.
["Singing Song Number 65"]
As the offering plate will go around,
as the offering plate goes around,
follow along with Brother Gabriel
as he reaches the rose from Genesis 32.
Again, that is Genesis chapter number 32.
Genesis chapter 32.
Verse one of the Bible reads,
And Jacob went on his way, and the angel of God met.
And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host, and he called the name of that place
to name a name.
And Jacob sent a message that reported
to Esau the brother of the land of Syria,
the country of Egypt, and he demanded them, saying,
Thus shall you speak unto my Lord Esau.
I serve in Jacob, saying, Thus.
I have sojourned lately, and stayed there until now.
And I have oxen, and masters, and cloths,
and menses, and women's sins.
And I have sent to tell my Lord
that I may find grace in thy sight.
And the message is returned to Jacob, saying,
Who came to thy brother Esau,
and also, coming from Egypt, are four hundred men with me?
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed,
and he divided the people that was with him,
and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels,
into two bands, and said,
We saw it come to the one company, and smited it.
Then the other company, which had left, shall escape me.
And Jacob said, O God of my father Abel,
God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said his unto me,
to return him to thy country, and to thy kingdom,
and I will deal well with him.
I am not worthy, but least, of all the mercies,
and of all the truth, which I will show, who I serve.
For with my staff, I passed over this Jordan,
and now I have become two bands.
Deliberately, I pray thee, in the hand of my brother,
my brother, in the hand of Esau, for I fear thee,
lest he will come and smite me in the mother of the children.
And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good,
make thy seed as the sand in the sea,
which cannot be numbered but multiple.
And he lodged there that same night,
and took the vat which came into his hand,
and present for Esau, his brother,
two hundred sheikahs, and twenty heaps,
two hundred eagles, and twenty rams,
thirty milk-downers, with their colts,
forty pines, and ten bulls, twenty shias, and ten foals.
And he delivered them to the hand of his servants,
every drove by themselves, and he sent to his servants,
passed over before me, and put his face
into which drove, and drove.
And he commanded the four of them, saying,
when Esau, my brother, leadeth thee,
and asketh thee, saying, who's our father?
And whither goest thou?
And whose are these before thee?
Then thou shalt say, may be thy servant Jacob's,
it is a present sent unto my lord Esau,
and behold also, he is behind us.
And so commanded he be sent unto the third,
and all that followeth the drove, saying,
of this manner shall ye sneak unto Esau,
when he shall find thee.
And say ye moreover, behold thy servant Jacob
is behind us, for he said, I will appease him,
with the present that goeth before me,
and afterward I will see his face,
for eventually he will accept me.
So went the present over before him,
and himself lodged that night in company.
And he arose up that night, and took his two wives,
and his two women's servants, and his eleven sons,
and passed over to poor Japheth.
And he took them, and sent them over the brook,
and sent over to that he had.
And Jacob was left alone, and the rest of the man with him,
and so the breaking of the day.
And when he saw that he prevailed not against them,
he touched the hollow of his thigh,
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint,
as he wrestled him.
And he said, let me go, for the day breaketh.
And he said, I will not let him go, except thou bless him.
And he said unto him, what is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said, thy name shall be no more called,
called no more Jacob, but Israel,
for as a prince hast thou power of God before its men,
and hast no bail.
And Jacob asked him, and said,
tell me I created thy name.
And he said, wherefore is it
that thou wouldst ask after my name?
And he blessed them.
And Jacob called the name of that place, Peniel,
for I have seen God face to face, and I light the earth.
And he passed over Peniel, and as he passed over Peniel,
his son rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
Therefore he showed the vision, and out of the city,
his strength was upon the hollow of the thigh to this day,
because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh,
and the sin of that strength.
Father Adam, you pray for us?
Lord, let me bother you, thank you for your goodness
and mercy, Lord God.
Thank you for the opportunity to be in your house, Lord,
and continue to bless our church,
and bless our effort, Lord God,
and I feel blessed and preaching as well tonight.
I feel deeply with your Holy Spirit, Lord God,
and give us a ear and a heart of wisdom
to learn, Lord God, in the name of prayer, amen.
Amen, so in Genesis 32, just to recap real quick,
I know I touched on some of the earlier details last week
in the first part of the chapter there,
where he's kinda coming over,
and he's breaking up the family into droves,
and he's sending these gifts forward to Esau,
and we talked about how, you know,
the subtext, it really doesn't say it,
but it might be that that's what actually turned Esau
to reconcile with his brother here at the last minute,
and because you don't typically come out
to meet somebody with 400 men, you know,
he may have for some other reason,
but I don't wanna re-preach all that,
but so he splits up the droves there,
and he sends them away, and then it says in verse 21,
so he went present over before him,
and himself lodged that night in the company,
and he rose up that night and took his two wives
and his two women servants and his 11 sons
and passed over the Ford Jabbok,
and he took them and sent them over the brook
and sent over that he had, and he was left alone,
and there he wrestled a man with, excuse me,
and there wrestled a man with him
until the breaking of the day,
so this is one of those famous stories
that a lot of people are probably pretty familiar with
in the Old Testament, where Jacob wrestles,
as the text goes on to tell us, with the Lord,
that this was actually, you know, I believe,
an appearance, an Old Testament appearance of Christ
that is wrestling, you know, literally wrestling with Jacob.
It's just kind of an interesting story
to think that God himself came down here
and kind of tangled with a man,
like he came in and kind of got into it a little bit.
I don't think it was probably any kind of a violent fight
or anything like that, you know,
the Bible does say that a pastor can be no striker, right,
not a brawler, but apparently you can be a grappler,
so I guess that's okay, right,
because that's kind of a sporting thing, right,
but so the Lord came down and literally he's wrestling
and he's grappling with Jacob,
and again, it kind of speaks to Jacob's, you know,
the fact that he was a strong man
because it says in verse 24,
and he was left alone to wrestle the man with him
until the breaking of the day, right,
so that's a lot of wrestling.
If he's wrestling, you know,
we don't know exactly how long it was,
but, you know, any bout of wrestling is quite a bit,
you know, anybody that's done any grappling
or anything like that, you know,
even just me kind of play wrestling with my son,
you know, after a few minutes or a little while,
it's kind of like, all right, let's take a break, you know,
so, but it just goes to show you that Jacob, you know,
was a very, had a lot of stamina,
he was a strong man, he was a capable man,
and again, it's just another, you know,
just another proof that Jacob was not some kind of a pansy
or a sissy like some people like to insinuate, okay,
but that's really not the point I want to drive in here,
but the fact that God did wrestle with him,
and then it says in verse 25,
then he saw that he prevailed not against him,
he touched the hollow of his thigh,
and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint
as he wrestled with him, so this is while this is going on,
God, you know, has like this move or something
where he kind of touches his thigh and it goes out of joint,
so that's, I've never experienced that,
has anyone ever had anything go out of joint,
have a bone move out of joint, nobody?
One person, is it painful?
I thought so, yeah, it doesn't sound like a good time,
right, the doctor's gotta put it back in sometimes
and stuff like that, but here's Jacob with his,
and the Bible says, you know,
pay attention to the details here,
it was out of joint as he wrestled with him, right,
and Jacob still doesn't let go, he says in verse 26,
and he said, let me go for the day breaketh,
that's the Lord speaking, and he said,
I will not let thee go except thou bless me,
so get the picture, you know,
and he's been wrestling all night with God,
of all people, right, this wasn't, you know,
light work, and this is the Lord,
and while he's wrestling, God, you know,
does this move on him or whatever,
and he touches his thigh, and it goes out of joint,
and he continues to wrestle with him,
and he wrestles with him to the point
where God has to say, hey, let me go, right,
now of course God could have, you know,
made that stop any time he wanted,
but he allowed it to go on to the point
where he's kind of giving Jacob the option
to let him go, okay, and I think there's just,
there's so many different ways to kind of preach this,
there's so many different great applications
we can make out of this, you know,
one, you know, a lot of people apply this to prayer,
and I think that's a good application, you know,
if we really, sometimes we wanna pray with God,
we don't wanna, there might be times and seasons
in our lives where, you know, just a quick,
now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
isn't gonna cut it, you know, there's gonna be times
in our lives when we really need to get something from God,
and you know, it might even be that we end up praying
through a night, we might find ourselves in a night watch
praying to God, spiritually trying to get a hold of God,
spiritually wrestling with God, going back and forth,
and kind of having this attitude of I'm not gonna let go
until I get what I want from the Lord,
or I know that the Lord has heard me,
that the Lord has acknowledged me, right,
and of course we understand that, you know,
we can always come boldly before the throne of grace
at any time, but you know, it's a good picture that,
you know, some prayers, some times that are spent
with the Lord are more intense than others.
You know, Lord, we have a unique capacity as Christians
to be able to have a relationship with God,
and to have fellowship with God in prayer,
and to be able to speak to God
and know that we are heard of him.
So, you know, when we find ourselves in dire situations
such as Jacob, because remember,
this isn't a nice family reunion that he's going back to.
He's uncertain of how Esau's gonna respond
after these 20 years.
He just got, you know, just had that nice little breakup
with Laban back there, right,
where Laban was coming to do him harm,
and God had to intervene, so obviously, you know,
he's distraught, he's separating himself
from the other people in his company,
and he's taking time by himself to get with God
and to get ahold of God and not wanting to let God go.
This, you know, and it's kind of a character arc of Jacob.
You know, we're kind of seeing him,
of course, we're coming out of his life,
and we're gonna move in, you know,
to some other characters in the next couple of chapters,
and so we've kind of seen the character Jacob
kind of come and go, and we've seen this change in him,
where now he's this man who has power and ability,
and he's somebody that can get ahold of God
and has faith in God, and so, you know,
that's a lesson to us.
You know, if we're gonna go the distance as individuals,
you know, being the anniversary,
if we're gonna go the distance as a church,
you know, we have to be a church that's prepared
to wrestle with the Lord, to be able to go through
some strenuous times, perhaps,
and take what the Lord has for us,
and I kind of want to make that point
a little bit more tonight.
He said, you know, let me go, and he said,
I will not let you go, except thou bless me.
You know, do we want to be blessed of God in our lives?
We're not.
You know, some people, I'm convinced,
are just fully content to just kind of pass
on God's blessing, you know, and that's a shame.
You know, some people, Christians who could have
the blessing of God, who could have God's working
in their lives, you know, they don't have this attitude
that Jacob has.
You know, things get a little uncomfortable
in the Christian life, and they just immediately let go.
They just say, you know what, I'm out.
This is costing me too much, this is uncomfortable,
this isn't what I signed up for.
They don't continue to not let go of God, you know,
because again, that detail's important.
He's wrestling with him, and it says,
while he wrestled, his hip was out of joint.
You know, a lot of people might have been like,
okay, you win, right, and just stop right there,
but he, in that discomfort, in that pain,
says I'm not gonna let you go until you bless me, right?
He wants something from God.
This is the kind of tenacity that we need to have
in our Christian lives.
This is the kind of fortitude and desire
that we need to have in our Christian's life
if we really want God's blessing.
Of course, we're all gonna have God's blessing
to some degree.
I mean, there's the blessing of being saved
and other things that we could, we're just kind of,
you know, just we're inherently blessed
by being Christians, right?
But there's other things in our lives
that maybe are more specific to our lives,
specific blessings that we could have if we wanted them.
But a lot of times, those blessings
might not necessarily come easy.
You know, you might have to go through some difficulty.
You might have to go through some trials.
You might have to really wrestle, in a sense, with the Lord.
And in the process of doing that,
things could probably get uncomfortable.
You know, this is Jacob after 20 years of serving
and getting to know God and all that,
because remember in the beginning of the story,
you know, he's seeing Jacob's ladder.
God is speaking to him.
He anoints the pillar and says,
I'm gonna come back to this place.
And if I do come back, you know,
this will be the house of God.
And the Lord God will be my God.
And now that's kind of coming full circle, right?
So what we're seeing tonight in this chapter
is Jacob's growth over a long period of time.
And that's the same way for us as individuals, as a church,
is that if we're going to grow,
it's gonna be over a long period of time,
and there's going to be some discomfort along the way.
There's gonna be some uncomfortable situations,
and not just in the sense of being awkward, right?
I'm talking in the sense of being difficult, of being hard.
There's gonna be times when you're gonna wanna just quit.
You wanna just give up.
You know, and that goes for everybody.
You know, there's gonna be times in the ministry,
where, you know, as I said in the announcements,
a lot of churches don't make it this far,
because, you know, churches disband, they fall apart,
people kind of get disillusioned or whatever, and they quit.
Or, you know, the preachers, the pastors,
you know, they just say it's not worth it,
it's too much of a sacrifice, whatever, and they quit.
You know, the things get uncomfortable,
their spiritual, you know, hip gets out of join a little bit
because God's trying to make something happen,
and we'll talk a little bit about that here in a minute.
And rather than just holding on and getting through it,
going through that, they just let go.
You know, we don't wanna be like that
in our Christian lives.
When we start to tangle with the word of God,
when we, you know, when our flesh comes in opposition
with the spirit of God, the word of God,
don't just set the book down and say,
well, that's enough for me.
I'm not gonna do it.
You know, you need to wrestle with that.
You need to, you know, let your flesh get, you know,
a little messed up there, get in the mix,
and put that thing down, right?
And in a sense, wrestle with God,
with God's will for your life.
Don't just throw in the towel and quit.
Because Jacob here at the end is a powerful testimony, right?
And God even says of him, you know,
you have power as of a prince with God and man.
He has influence.
He can persuade God.
You know, God is somebody that can be persuaded.
You know, Moses persuaded God.
Remember that?
When he said, step aside, Moses.
I'm gonna destroy this people and start over with you.
And Moses, you know, fell on his face and beseeched God
and said, well, you know, if you do that,
and I'm paraphrasing here, what are the heathen gonna say?
And God said, all right, I won't do it.
You're right.
He reconsidered.
So, you know, stories like that should show us
that, you know, we can influence God.
God can even change his mind or move in another direction
or, you know, answer our prayers,
but that it doesn't always come easy.
It's not just this simple thing.
Sometimes, you know, you have to really go through something
in order to have that influence with God
and be able to persuade him.
God's gotta know you're the real deal.
You're not just gonna quit, bow out, and let go.
So he says, I'm not gonna let you go except thou bless me.
And he said, what is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said, thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel.
For as a prince, thou hast power with God
and with men and hast prevailed.
He's prevailed over men.
He's prevailed over Laban.
He's prevailed over Esau.
And he's prevailed over those that have opposed him.
But he also has power with God and with men.
And he's been given this new name.
So that's where we get Israel.
So Jacob becomes Israel in the story.
And of course, that's a great picture
of salvation too, in a sense, right?
Because, you know, when we're saved, we're given a new name.
We're given, we become a new creature.
And in fact, if you would,
go over to 2 Corinthians chapter number five.
You can keep something there in Genesis if you want.
I'll refer back to it a little bit
as we move through the story tonight,
but go to 2 Corinthians chapter number five.
So again, you know, we wanna be people
that don't just quit when things get tough,
when things get hard, when things get uncomfortable.
You know, if we power through that,
if we stick to it, if we add some fortitude,
you know, God is gonna acknowledge that.
And we might even have more ability
to persuade God and others when we go through these things.
But here there in 2 Corinthians chapter number five,
look at verse 17.
He says, therefore, if any, we all know this,
therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature, old things are passed away.
Behold, all things are become new.
So it's this new creature.
It's kind of that, I believe that picture that's there
with this new name being given unto Jacob.
That's kind of a lesson to us too,
is that, you know, we are new in Christ,
just as he's been kind of given this new name.
We also have a new name.
You know, Revelation talks about that,
the stone with the new name,
how God's gonna write his new name on certain individuals.
And even here, we are told that we are a new creature.
Now, if you would keep something in 2 Corinthians five,
cause I'll make application here in a minute
and go over to Ephesians chapter number two,
where we'll see more of this in the New Testament,
where it's showing us, you know, that we're,
you know, we're not what we used to be.
When you got saved, you changed, something changed in you.
And God left a mark.
You know, God made an impression on you,
just like with Jacob, right?
When he got with God, when he spent that time
with the Lord, you know, he came out different.
Something had changed and it wasn't just his name, right?
Cause remember at the end of the story,
they see him coming in the morning
and he was halt upon his thigh, meaning he had a limp.
You know, and from the story, what it sounds like
is like that was with him for the rest of his life.
He just had a very distinct walk.
His gait was changed.
Like the way he walked through this world
was different from that day forward.
So, you know, like I said in the beginning,
there's so many different ways to preach this passage,
but, you know, I kind of started out with One Direction,
but we're gonna kind of just apply it to salvation now,
right, and the impression that it should make
on us and others.
You know, when you got saved, things changed.
You became a new creature.
You became a new man, right?
Look at Ephesians chapter two, verse 14,
where it says, for he is our peace who have made both one.
Now, of course, in context, this is talking about
the Gentiles in Israel, how he's broken down
that middle wall of partition between us,
as it says there in the end of verse 15,
and for to make in himself of twain one new man,
so making peace, right?
So he's broken down that middle wall of partition
between Jew and Gentile, and he's made one new man,
or one body, would be another way to kind of put that,
right, but again, it's the idea that something changed.
You know, through Christ, through our salvation,
we're a new creature, we're a new man.
Something's changed, we're different,
and obviously, in Jacob's case, it was very apparent,
it was a physical thing that had changed.
It's not gonna be that way with us, necessarily,
but something has changed inside of us.
There's this new man, there's the spirit
that has been revived within us.
We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
We are different than before we got saved,
and that's gonna be a permanent change that's always there,
just like Jacob's always gonna have that limp.
He's always gonna have that new name.
Something's changed, and there's purpose behind that.
There's a purpose behind that change having taken place,
and that's why we need to learn to walk in the spirit,
and not in the flesh.
If you're there in Ephesians,
just go to Ephesians chapter number four,
where we'll see, you know, the Bible talks about this a lot,
about the fact that we're new in Christ, we're born again,
and that we have changed in some way.
Ephesians four, I'll start reading in verse 21.
If so be that you have heard of him,
and have been taught by him,
and that is as the truth is in Jesus,
that you put off concerning the former conversation
in the old man, right?
And this is part of the Christian life,
and this is kind of what I was talking about earlier.
This is some of the wrestling you might have to do
in your Christian life,
because, you know, it's easy to just write that down,
and read it, you know,
and it's easy to just read that on a paper,
just to read through your Bible,
and say, oh yeah, you know,
put off the concerning, the former conversation,
the old man.
What could be so hard about that?
That sounds pretty easy, right?
No, that's wrestling.
Anybody who is trying to walk in that new man
knows that that's not easy, that's difficult, right?
Because the spirit lusts against the flesh,
and the flesh against the spirit,
and these two are contrary to one to another,
so that you cannot do the things that you would.
There's always gonna be this inner turmoil,
there's always gonna be this wrestling
between, you know, the spirit of God in us,
and the old man that's in us,
kinda going back and forth, you know,
and it's gonna be there, right?
But that's something that we're commanded to do.
Put off the former conversation, the old man,
which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts,
and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
that you may put on the new man,
which is after God is created in righteousness,
and true holiness, right?
So that's kind of a picture of that wrestling
when it comes to salvation.
Putting off the old, putting on the new,
you know, that's not a one-time deal, folks.
You know, you're not just gonna come to some church service,
hear a sermon about it, and be like,
okay, done, check, what's next, right?
You're not gonna put in so many years in the Christian life
and say, well, you know, I finally got over that hump
between, you know, with the old man.
That's gonna be a battle that we fight every day.
That's why Paul said, I die daily.
That's why we have to mortify the members of our flesh.
That's why we have, this is a continual putting on, right?
You gotta wake up every morning and decide,
are you gonna walk in the flesh,
or are you gonna walk in the spirit today?
And sometimes, even some days,
you might have to decide that moment by moment.
When we're going through some temptation, some trial,
when the flesh has a very strong pull,
when it's the old man, it seems like he's alive and well,
and he's trying to get his way, you know,
that's when you're gonna have to get ahold of him
and wrestle him down and not let go, right?
Get ahold of the new man and say,
I'm not gonna let go of the new man.
I'm walking in the spirit.
You know, that might be a moment by moment thing for you.
You know, there might be days, weeks, months,
yeah, even years where people have to go through that,
and maybe sometimes, you know, they get beat a little bit.
Maybe sometimes the old man gets a leg up on them, right?
But all I'm saying tonight is if you stick with that,
you know, you will, in time, have power.
You will prevail, right?
That's what God said about Jacob.
He said, you know, you stuck with it.
I touched your thigh, things got difficult,
things got hard, it was out of joint.
You know, a lot of other people would equate,
you stuck with it, you have power with God and with men,
and you have prevailed.
You know, we can have that same thing said of us,
you know, if when the flesh rears its ugly head,
we put it in a headlock, right?
Maybe get a little noogie.
Say, take that old man, right?
And hang in there, and don't quit.
Wet willy, you know, whatever.
I mean, slap the old man around is all I'm saying, you know?
We walk, you know, if we live in the spirit,
let us also walk in the spirit.
You know, we have the Holy Spirit.
We have the sword of the spirit.
We can't have victory over the flesh if we want it.
But again, the picture is that that gets uncomfortable,
doesn't it?
It's a lot easier to just say, I give up, you know, whatever,
and just give in.
And then, you know, you give in to whatever temptation
it is, whatever sin it is.
And you always feel so good afterward, don't you?
You always feel like, man, I'm glad I did that.
Nope, right?
Immediately, you realize how the spirit has been grieved,
and you've quenched the work of the Holy Spirit.
You feel like you've failed again.
You know, that's going to happen.
You know, life isn't perfect, but even in those instances,
you know what you need to do is pick yourself back up and say,
you won this round, old man, but the next one's mine.
And you might find yourself on a bit of a winning streak
if you keep that attitude.
Don't be one of those people where, you know,
when the old man slips one in there,
that you just throw in the towel and quit.
Where were we here?
So Jacob's being, thank you, Jacob's
being given this new name after he's wrestled,
after he's prevailed with God.
And, you know, we've been given a new man.
We've been changed.
We're a new creature.
We have wrestlings with the old man ourselves, too.
We have a wrestling in our lives to do.
We should serve in the newness of the spirit.
We should walk in newness of life, as it says in Romans.
If you would, just go back to our story in Genesis,
but we will be back in, we're actually
going to be back in the New Testament.
So keep something over there near 2 Corinthians, I guess.
So we see in the story that, you know,
Jacob is going, he's distraught, he's
going through this turmoil, and he wrestles with God.
It's a great picture of the Christian life.
It's a great picture of salvation.
We're given that new name.
We're going to have wrestlings ourselves.
It's going to be just uncomfortable.
But, you know, there is a purpose behind it.
And if we stick with it, you know,
if we don't give up when things are difficult,
and don't give up when things are hard,
and don't give up when we feel like it,
and you will feel like it, it's just a fact.
There's going to be times when you're going to want to quit.
There's going to be times where you're going to ask yourself,
why am I even living for God?
Why am I even going through these motions?
Why am I going to this church?
Why am I trying to have these standards?
Why am I trying to raise my family this way?
It would be so much easier to just go along
with what everybody's doing.
You know, I wouldn't stand out at work.
I wouldn't stand out at the grocery store or wherever.
You know, people wouldn't look at me weird when I walk
into the grocery store with my girls, you know.
And they're all in dresses, and my wife is in dress.
And, you know, and everyone kind of looks at you sideways.
I don't know, that probably doesn't happen that often, right.
But you know what I'm saying, right.
I'm just using it as an example.
You know, we wouldn't be that peculiar of people, right.
We could just go along and, you know,
the family would quit saying things about us behind our back
or old friends wouldn't, you know,
call us a holier than thou.
You know, we wouldn't have a lot of the conflict
in our lives that we have.
We wouldn't have a lot of the friction that's there.
And all we're trying to do is just serve God.
All we're trying to do is just be right with God.
That's all we're trying to do.
We're trying to actually do something good, right.
And it puts us at odds with our flesh.
It puts us at odds with the world around us,
our friends, our family.
You know, there's going to be times
where you're going to say, you know, what's the point?
Why bother, right?
Well, the point is, is that in the long run,
you will be a testimony, maybe to some of those same people.
There's going to be people that do recognize
that there is something different about you.
And maybe not just that you've changed,
but, you know, that you actually have some wisdom,
some knowledge, some power with God.
You know, it's funny, you know, people will get saved
and start living for God, and they'll get all this backlash
from friends and family, because, you know,
they quit drinking, they quit smoking,
they quit getting high, they quit, you know,
they don't run to the same excess as riot, right?
So they get kind of mocked, you know,
they get kind of made fun of.
And then as time goes by, and as years go by,
you know, those same people that had such a big problem
with you, you know, being this holy roller or whatever,
they want, you know, all the names that they use,
as time goes by, they see you just being consistent,
sticking by the stuff, and they find out
that you're not in a cult, right?
You're in a Baptist church.
It's a pretty regular denomination, right,
that's out there, and you're just an average Christian,
you're just kind of living your life,
you're just not doing some of the things
you used to do, whatever.
Those same people, when they get in a predicament,
it's funny, they'll come to you.
They'll go, well, now we should, you know,
we should actually go talk to them
and see if we can get some advice about, you know,
now that we have kids, and we have rebellious teenagers,
and, you know, our life is getting turned upside down,
and everything, you know, is going,
let's go see what they have to say.
It kind of, it works that way sometimes.
I'm not saying it's gonna happen every time,
but it's kind of funny how that works,
where you just stick by, you don't give up
and those same people, they notice that
there's something different about you,
and it makes an impression on them.
And you kind of see that in the story, right,
because Jacob goes through his discomfort,
he goes through his wrestling,
he doesn't let go until he's blessed, and he is blessed,
and he's separated from everybody,
and he says in verse 29, and Jacob asked,
it said, tell me I pray thee thy name,
and he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask
after my name, and he blessed him there.
And Jacob called the name of the place Penuel,
for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
That's how we know this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
because God the Father said,
no man shall see my face and live.
It's another sermon.
And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him.
So again, it's like this picture of a new beginning,
something's changed, something's different,
it's a new day, right?
But he halted upon his thigh.
This had made a mark.
It left an impression.
And then later in the story,
we'll see that the people that saw that,
they took note of that, right?
They, and the, you know, it says in verse 32,
therefore the children of Israel eat not the sinew
which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh,
unto this day.
So I don't know if this was the right thigh
or the left thigh, but whatever animal they're eating,
they're like, we're not gonna eat one of these thighs.
We're gonna leave that sinew alone, right?
Because they were acknowledging what had happened
and Jacob was a way to remember that.
I mean, this made such a powerful impression, right?
But were any of these people there?
Did they see this happen?
All they heard was the testimony of Jacob, right?
They heard what happened.
He was able to, they say, what happened?
Why are you different?
What has changed about you?
Why are you halt upon your thigh?
And he was able to say, well, because I wrestled a man
until the breaking of the day
and I'm pretty sure it was the Lord.
Because I tried all my best moves and they didn't work.
And he just touched my thigh and went out of joint.
So yeah, he went through this discomfort.
He went through this trial.
He went through this tribulation.
It was uncomfortable, painful even,
but it was a testimony later.
It was something that he could tell other people about.
And people, it made such an impression on them
that they gave up perfectly good red meat.
They're just like passing on the sinew
on the right thigh or whatever.
Why?
Because of what happened to Jacob, right?
And it's the same thing in our life.
If we stick by the stuff, if we wrestle with God,
if we wrestle with the old man,
if we put down the old man, if we stick with it,
we will make an impression other people will notice.
Other people will take note of the fact
that something's happening.
It's the same way, let's just apply it again
since it's the anniversary to this church.
It's been six years.
If we go another six and we go through,
and look, we haven't been through a lot of things
a lot of other churches have been through,
but like any church, we've had drama here and there.
We've gone through difficult things,
things have happened in this church,
and I mean nothing earth-shattering, praise God,
but maybe that's what's on the horizon.
Happy anniversary.
But you think about other churches.
Think about Faithful Word Tempe
and other churches that we know
that have gone through very difficult things.
Yeah, it wasn't fun, but at the same time,
it made an impression, didn't it?
People saw that.
They said, there's something different here.
And it's had a ripple effect through the years
where people are hearing the Word of God being preached,
they're getting saved, they're getting right with God.
Lives are being changed because someone was willing
to go through great difficulty, go through trials.
The same is said of us in our own lives,
and the same can be said of us collectively as a church.
If we stick with it, I guarantee you,
in time, people will notice that.
They'll say, there's something different here.
This church is sticking by the stuff.
And this is just kind of the pattern,
and I do wanna take the time and just remind us of Paul,
because Paul is somebody that can testify of this.
I should've had you keep something in Ephesians,
but, because Galatians is right there.
So if you would, just go to Galatians real quick,
and I promise I'll wrap up.
We're gonna be in Galatians,
and then we'll be in 2 Corinthians after that.
But again, let me just make sure
we're all on the same page here.
Jacob wrestles with the Lord, his hip's out of joint,
he sticks, he doesn't let go, he gets blessed,
his name is changed, he has power with God and men,
because he has prevailed.
And now, as he's leaving Penuel, and he's walking,
it's kind of this great picture,
the sun's coming up and here comes Jacob,
but something's different, he's halt, something's changed.
And that difficulty, that trial that he went through
has left a mark on him, but it's also made an impression
on the people that see him.
They're noticing something's different.
And it actually, they have to,
it opens up an opportunity for him
to tell them about the Lord, right?
Because he was alone.
They didn't go, oh, I know why he's limping,
because he wrestled with the Lord.
He had to explain this to them, right?
So you can kind of see how that's a picture
of us in our Christian lives.
If we don't throw in the towel, if we don't give up,
and we go through trials, and we go through difficulties,
it's gonna leave a mark, first of all.
There might be some hurt, there might be some pain,
there might be some difficulty, in fact, there will be.
But it's worth it, because in the end,
you're gonna be able to testify of God.
Look at Galatians chapter six, verse 16.
He said, as men as walk according to this rule,
peace on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
I like when he says here, from henceforth
let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body
the marks of the Lord Jesus.
So Paul's basically saying, if people wanna call
into question my integrity, or my sincerity,
or my authority, he's like, my proof is not some degree
I've got hanging on a wall, it's the literal physical wounds,
the scars that I bear in my body, right?
And we could go and look at all the different things
that he went through, all the beatings he took,
being stoned, whipped, nearly drowned, I mean,
being destitute, I'm sure the ministry aged Paul
quite a bit, and left a very permanent mark,
marks, plural, on his body.
And that's part of the Christian life.
Now look, I'm not saying we're all gonna have
physical wounds to show, we're not gonna have scars.
Maybe, it's a possibility, I guess.
But we might have to go through things
that are emotionally uncomfortable.
You know, things that are difficult, things that are hard.
You know, I remember experiencing this on just a small scale
like I'm not at all even trying to propose
that somehow I've reached the level of Paul
or something like that, okay?
But it's different when you get on this side of the pulpit,
like you start to see things a different way,
you start to understand the demands of the ministry.
You know, and I'm not gonna go into the details,
but I remember this blow up we had up in the Tempe church,
and I remember, and this was like,
Pastor Anderson's been through a couple already,
so he's kinda able to kinda talk me through
some of these things.
And I remember I was on the phone with him,
and I said, you know, I haven't been able to eat
because I just have such a stomach ache all the time
from everything that's going on, all the stress.
And it turns out there's like a literal,
like your stomach has nerves in it,
but your body normally just ignores it.
But when you go through high levels of stress,
like all your nerves are heightened or something like that,
and you just have this dull ache in your stomach,
just from the stress of what's going on.
Has anyone else ever experienced that?
You don't have to be in the ministry
to experience this, obviously.
But that was kinda, that's when I experienced it.
I've never been through that degree of stress
until I'd gotten in the ministry.
And I'm just saying that to kinda show us that
if we're gonna serve God and we're gonna live for the Lord,
there might not be like a literal whipping
or a beating or something like that,
that there's gonna be stressful times,
there's gonna be difficulties,
there's gonna be trials and tribulations.
I mean, Paul said in 2 Timothy,
all they that live Godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
Whether you're behind the pulpit
or whether you're in the pew,
if you're gonna stick by the stuff
and maybe go through a trial or two
in your personal life or with a church,
you might experience maybe even some physical symptoms
and you might even have some sleepless nights
and there might be whole weeks and months,
a season of your life,
and you'd just rather forget.
There might be whole groups of people
you just would rather have never known
because of your desire to serve God.
You know, that's part of that tribulation, that persecution.
And maybe we will, you know, I pray not,
but it might be that we go through
physical tribulation sometime.
But my point is this, is that,
and if you would go to 2 Corinthians 5, I'll wrap up.
Is that if you don't quit, if you don't go through that,
if you suffer these things, if you go through,
as Paul said, much tribulation
to enter into the kingdom of God,
if on your way to heaven you decide
that you're not gonna quit, you're not gonna let go,
you're gonna keep the blessing of God in your life
no matter how uncomfortable it gets,
in the end, you'll not only have the power
with God and with man and have prevailed,
but you'll actually have a testimony
that will actually be a help to other people.
And again, you're in 2 Corinthians,
I'm gonna get over there with you real quick here,
but you know, Paul was halt, not Paul,
Jacob was halt upon his thigh.
You know, that left a permanent mark on his body.
His tangling with his Lord, his wrestling,
it was a permanent physical disability that he had,
I believe from that day forward.
I know maybe it healed up,
I've always got the impression that, you know,
he just had that limp for the rest of his life.
Maybe as a reminder, you know,
maybe to kind of humble him a little bit.
Are you in 2 Corinthians 5?
You know, you wonder why some people
have to suffer more than others,
it might be because God has to, you know, humble them,
you know, keep them humble.
You know, God might allow us to go through things
so that we don't get too big for our britches,
that we don't get too puffed up and lifted up
and we forsake the Lord or think we don't need him.
2 Corinthians 5, if you look at verse 17,
where Paul's talking about, you know,
the revelations that he had,
if you read the beginning half of the chapter.
He said, therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature, right?
We read that earlier.
Old things are passed away,
behold, all things have become new.
All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself
by Christ Jesus and have given us
the ministry of reconciliation,
to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, not imputing their trespasses
unto them and have committed unto us
the word of reconciliation.
You know, I jumped ahead.
This isn't the passage I wanted.
We're gonna come back to that.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 12, sorry.
The point I was trying to make is that, you know,
if we go through these things, you know,
God might take us through these things to keep us humble,
right, and that's what happened to Paul.
He said in verse seven of 2 Corinthians 12,
and lest I should be exalted above measure
the abundance of the revelations
that were given, excuse me, of the revelations,
there was given me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me,
lest I should be exalted above measure.
Because he's talking about, you know,
all the wisdom was given,
all the revelation that he had from God,
and he's saying, but I also had a thorn in the flesh.
A literal messenger of Satan was there to buffet him.
You know, maybe that's him being hyperbolic, I don't know,
but, you know, or maybe it was literally true.
For this thing, he said in verse eight,
I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me,
and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee,
my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Notice this, most gladly therefore will I,
most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
You say, you know, it doesn't sound like it was,
you know, what's the deal with Jacob having a limp?
That doesn't sound nice.
God touched the hollow of his thigh and shrank the sinew,
and now he's got a limp for the rest of his life?
That might be what comes with you wrestling with God.
That might be, you know, that might be
what comes with the territory of just sticking with it
and not giving up, of putting down the flesh
and staying faithful.
You know, you're gonna get some wounds along the way.
Some things are gonna happen.
You know, maybe some things that are never gonna heal up.
Some things might always kind of be raw that way.
But Paul's saying, hey, you know,
I was given a thorn in the flesh,
a messenger of Satan to buffet me,
and he said, I'm real bitter about it.
You know, and I don't know who God thinks he is,
you know, buffeting me.
You know, he's saying, God did that to humble me
because of the abundance of revelations,
and he said, I will therefore rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ might rest upon me.
He said that if, you know, going,
in order to have the power of Christ
means I have to be buffeted.
If it means that I have to have a thorn in the flesh,
so be it.
You know, that's the same kind of mentality
that Jacob had in our story.
If me getting blessed by God,
if me having, you know, power with God and with men
means I'm gonna have to have a limp
for the rest of my life, so be it.
You know, this is the mentality that we have to have
if we're gonna go the distance
in our Christian lives as a church.
If we're gonna have to go through the fire,
if we're gonna have to go through trials and tribulations,
if we're gonna have to face things,
and things are gonna leave permanent, you know,
marks upon us in whatever shape or form,
so be it if it means it's the power of God.
So be it if it means that we're a testimony for Christ.
As he goes on and says in 2 Corinthians chapter number five
where I was reading, he said,
now we are ambassadors for Christ
as though God did beseech you by us.
We have the power of God,
and we have the opportunity to be a testimony, like Jacob.
Jacob was able to tell them, here's what happened,
and they acknowledged that.
We're that new creature.
We wrestle with our own flesh.
We wrestle against the powers and the principalities
and the darkness of this world.
It's gonna leave a mark, but you know what?
We're gonna have power, and we're gonna have a testimony.
We're gonna be able to be ambassadors for Christ
and to share a message, and people will hear it,
that people will get saved,
and God will be glorified on our part
if we're willing to be reproached for the name of Christ.
So that's why I wanted to touch on that part
of this chapter there tonight.
I think it's an important story.
There's so many different ways to preach it.
You can apply it to so many different things
in the Christian life, but I definitely think
there's a little bit of a parallel there
when it comes to serving God,
with Jacob and Paul and ourselves.
We want power.
We wanna be a testimony.
Well, when things get tough, when things get hard,
when that wrestling match goes on a little longer
than maybe we'd like, when something painful happens
or things get uncomfortable, we have to stick with it.
We can't let go.
We can't quit.
We can't just give up, and look,
you need to determine that now.
You have to make that determination now.
Don't say, well, I'll decide.
I'll see how bad things get.
I'll see how hard it actually is.
You know, I'm gonna quit this sin
or I'm gonna give up this sin or whatever
if it's not too hard.
You're gonna give in every time.
I'll stick with this church until the preacher asks
more than I want to give.
I'll listen to this preaching until the Bible
reaches the limit with me.
Well, we'll find it.
And six years from now, there'll be a whole
different crowd here potentially.
If everyone got that attitude, or not at all.
You know, if we're gonna stick with it for the long haul,
we have to be okay with, like Paul,
being buffeted, having a thorn in the flesh.
We have to be okay like Jacob of allowing God
to inflict maybe some discomfort in our lives
and maybe even leaving us halt weaker
than when we went in, in the flesh,
and yet stronger in the spirit,
having the power of God rest upon us
and the opportunity to be a powerful testimony
on God's behalf and to his glory.
Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for this church.
Thank you for these last six years
that we've had together as a body.
And Lord, I thank you for the many
that have just been faithful over the years.
And Lord, we thank you most of all for your faithfulness,
Lord, that I know and believe, Lord,
that your eye is upon this church
and that you are guiding and you're leading.
And Lord, I pray help us to continue to have patience
and help us to continue to have the desire to serve you,
Lord, and not just for the short term, Lord,
that we would be able to see many more souls come to you
through the ministry here.
And Lord, that we would be continually changed
through the preaching of the word of God
that takes place here.
We thank you for the Bible
and we thank you for the Holy Spirit
and we thank you for the Lord Jesus.
It's in his name we pray, amen.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song
before we are dismissed tonight.
Right, please open up your hymnal to song number 63.
["Singing Song of the Holy Spirit"]
Singing song number 63.
What a day that would be if you had a song number 63.
["Singing Song of the Holy Spirit"]
Singing song number 63.
["Singing Song of the Holy Spirit"]
Singing song number 63.
["Singing Song of the Holy Spirit"]
Singing song number 63.
["Singing Song of the Holy Spirit"]
Singing song number 63.
["Singing Song of the Holy Spirit"]