Alright, so keep your Bibles open there in Genesis 32.
Genesis 32 and look at verse number 28.
Genesis 32 verse 28.
The Bible says, and he said, thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince
hast thou power with God and with men.
The title for the sermon this afternoon is Power with God and Men.
Power with God and Men. Now I hope that
sounds interesting to you. You know, God is telling Jacob right here
in this verse, or Israel, as his name is changed, that he has power
with God and with man. Do you want
power? Do you want God's power in your life? Would you like to have some of that power
with God? And how you can affect the Lord God, how you
can affect man with the power that God has given you. No, I'm not
preaching some charismatic message this afternoon. No, I'm not preaching some gold dust
as we heard about later, you know, during the fellowship and these kinds of nonsense that
many of these false churches, these Pentecostal charismatic churches make up.
That is not the power of God that we're dealing with when it comes to this passage.
Now I don't know about you, but I want you to have the power with God and with men.
And so this chapter tells us how we can accomplish that.
Now, Genesis 32, if you remember my
sermon on Genesis 31, I said that these chapters, chapters 31,
32, 33, have to do with conflict resolution.
And if you were there for Genesis 31, we went through how
Jacob made a resolved conflict with his
uncle Laban, okay, with his uncle Laban. He
sorted out a dispute between the two of them. He hadn't done the best,
he hadn't really sorted things out the way God had wanted him to,
but eventually he was forced to sort out and deal with conflict.
Well, God had called him, Jacob that is, away from Laban, away
from that land and to bring him back to the land of Canaan, to back to the land of
his father, but he still had his
dispute with his brother Esau. And so as we're reading through this chapter,
he doesn't meet Esau face to face just yet in this chapter, but we see
how Jacob prepares for this meeting, how Jacob prepares
to sort out his dispute, his conflict with his brother Esau.
So look at verse number 1 there. Genesis 32 verse 1,
God had called him, of course, to Canaan, and it says,
And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God
met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host, and he called the name of that place
Mahia-name, okay. So Jacob's on his way back home.
And on his way he meets these angels of God. He recognizes these are God's hosts.
Now God's hosts in heaven, he sees they're here,
and so what I see immediately, God had called him to go back to Esau.
If you remember the story, Esau had sworn
to kill Jacob, okay. So this was a great fear of Jacob. In fact, this is
why he left the land. His mother had besought him to go elsewhere,
otherwise Esau would, you know, made a vow to kill Jacob
his brother. And so if you guys can keep your finger there,
and go to Matthew 26 please, go to Matthew 26
in your Bibles, and I'm going to read to you
from Psalm 91 verse 11,
Psalm 91 verse 11, while you go to Matthew 26,
Psalm 91 verse 11, it says,
You know, something that we aren't fully aware of as believers,
as people that live on this carnal plane,
this physical plane, we don't see the spiritual
realm. Now we can see the effects of the spiritual realm.
If God gives you special spiritual vision, you'll be able to see
the angels, you'll be able to see the forces of the darkness of this world.
You know, we often see the flesh, we see the governments, we see the corruption
of this world, but we don't see the devils, we don't see fallen angels,
we don't see angels at play, and yet the Bible is very clear that these
angels, or even the forces of the devil, are at work.
Okay, are at work, and on this occasion, God gave Jacob
the ability to see these angels physically with his own eyes,
to encourage him as he was going back home dealing with Esau.
And what I just read there is that God has given his
angels charge over us, to keep us in his ways.
What a great promise Brethren, to know that if we walk after
God's ways, we walk after the commandments that we see in God's word,
that God will send his angels to look over us, to protect us.
I mean, I don't know how much our life, you know, the life that we've lived,
who knows how many times we've come close to death.
Who knows how many times we could have been dealt, you know,
a beating, you know, an attack of the devil.
We don't know, we could be walking home, the devil's there as a roaring lion
wanting to destroy us, but God has protected us, sent his angels
before us to protect us, we just go home, open the door, we walk in the house.
No idea what's going on. God makes it very clear he's protecting us.
But we've got to be walking in his ways. If we're walking in his ways,
guarantee God will give us an extra dimensional,
spiritual protection within us.
You guys are in Matthew 26, look at verse 51. Matthew 26 verse 51,
this is of course when Jesus Christ has been arrested,
and it says here in verse 51,
Jesus Christ says, look, don't worry about it, if I want the legions of angels, I want protection from God right now,
he can send those 12 legions of angels at my bidding, at my call,
if I wanted to protect myself. Doesn't that put God's sacrifice,
but doesn't that just show you how much love he has for us?
How much love he has for us? He didn't have to,
you know, go on the cross.
He could have, he says I could do this, he could have called down 12 legions
of the warriors of heaven, soldiers of God, come down, just deliver him
from all the powers that are on the earth. But he goes, I'm not going to do that
because I have a mission, I have a job to do, that's a die on the cross for all of us.
What a great love that Jesus Christ has for us.
If he wanted to, he could have changed it, but no, he stuck by the plan
that the Father gave him, he could have called the angels, but did not.
Now I want to read to you very quickly from 2 Kings 6 verse 15,
2 Kings 6 verse 15, since the morning service,
we looked at Elisha a little bit, we have another story of Elisha here,
and in 2 Kings 6, 15, the king of Syria,
Ben-Hadad, wanted to capture Elisha. I won't go into all the story right now,
but it says here, and when the servant of the man of God was risen early,
so this is a servant of Elisha, and gone forth, behold,
and hosts come past the city, both with horses
and chariots, and his servant said unto him, alas my master,
how shall we do? So this servant of Elisha just gets out and walks out of the house,
sees all these armies, all these horses, all these chariots,
and he's like, oh man, we're done for. Elisha, they're after us, what are we going to do?
Verse 16, and he answered,
fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
Man, if I'm the servant of Elisha, I'm like, what are you talking about?
You and me, Elisha, against an entire army there?
And then verse 17, and Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes,
that he may see, and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
Man, if only God could open our eyes today,
who knows how many horses and chariots and armies of God
we could see around us, of fire, around us,
protecting us, watching over us.
Guardian and angel, that's where you get the idea of the guardian angel,
and that is definitely one of the roles of the angels of heaven.
But, you know, God wants us in the Bible to live by faith.
The Bible doesn't tell us that Elisha saw these angels.
I have a feeling that Elisha didn't even see them.
He just knew by faith that God would protect him, and he asked that God would open the eyes of the young man.
So he would see, so that he would see how God would protect them.
And so, brethren, just at the beginning of the encouragement that I want to give you here,
God is calling Jacob to go back to a place,
to a brother who might kill him. God is asking Jacob
to walk a certain way, and Jacob's like,
well, Lord, I'll do it. And so obviously there's a fear.
We'll see the fear of Jacob soon, but the Lord sends angels to comfort him,
to strengthen him, right, to show him his way. And what I want to tell you, brethren,
is when you see God calling you in his word
to walk a certain way, when you see the Lord guiding you
to sort out conflicts and problems, do what God asks you to do.
And ask him to send some of his legions of angels with you if you're afraid.
Ask the Lord to protect you as you go about doing his work.
Guaranteed he'll do it. If you're walking in his way,
he'll send the angels. He'll protect you. We just need the faith.
We need the faith to know that God will do that for us.
And brethren, we're children of God just as much as Elisha.
We're children of God just as much as Jacob was.
We're born again of the Spirit.
You guys can go back to Genesis 32.
And I just want to show you one more passage before I move on.
This is in the book of Job. Job chapter 1, verse 8.
You guys go back to Genesis 32. Job chapter 1, verse 8.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Has thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man,
and one that fearth God, and a shoe of evil?
And Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear God for naught?
Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house,
and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands,
and his substance is increased in the land.
Satan knows Job. God says, Have you considered Job?
Satan goes, I know all about him. But you've protected him.
You've caused a hedge to protect him, protect him, his possessions,
his family. You know what that tells me? It tells me that Satan was
trying to get to Job. He was trying to discourage Job.
He was trying to hurt Job. But every time he tried to get there, it's like his hedge.
You can't do it. Well, that's what we need for our lives, brethren.
You know, there's a hedge about our lives. We walk in his past.
We see how God looks at Job and says, Look, you know, what did he say about Job?
A perfect, upright man. Fear of God. A shoe of evil.
He's trying to live a godly life. He's trying to walk in the ways of God.
And I'm encouraged. If you want the hedge of protection around you, where Satan can do you
no harm, guess what you're going to have to do? Like Job, walk in righteousness.
Live godly. Live after his ways. God will build up
the hedge of protection around you. And Satan will know all about you.
He will try to get to you, but he won't be able to. Because of the hedge of protection
that God has given you. You've got to just have the faith. Faith that that hedge
is around you. Those angels are around you. This is what the Word of God teaches us.
Back in Genesis 32, verse 3. Genesis 32, verse 3.
Now, I'm going to, basically, I'm going to pull out, I wrote down three tips, but I just saw a fourth tip.
So this is tip number one, dealing with conflict resolution.
Here goes to Esau. What does he want the servant to say to Esau?
He said there in verse number four, speak unto my Lord Esau.
What does he do? What does Jacob do? He exalts Esau.
You know, he says, Esau, you're my Lord. I'm not talking about the Lord God here.
I'm saying, you know, you've got, you know, I'm lifting you up.
I'm edifying Esau. And then it says, thy servant Jacob sayeth thus.
All right. Conflict resolution tip one. When you go into resolve conflicts, go in humility.
Go in humility and edify the other person that you're in conflict with.
That's so hard. When you have a conflict and you want to resolve something, you have an issue, someone's bugged you,
you're probably going to be lifted up with pride early on.
It's going to be very difficult to lower yourself and say, well, you know what? I've got to sort out this issue.
I'm going to humble myself. I'm going to come to this conflict issue humbly.
That's conflict tip number one, guys. Conflict resolution tip number one in this chapter, go in humility.
And then it says here, and I have oxen, verse number five,
and I have oxen and asses, flocks and men servants and women servants.
And I have sent to tell my Lord that I may find grace in thy sight.
Conflict resolution tip number two is when you go and sort out a problem,
go at a point when you can find grace in their eyes.
Now, I've taught on conflict resolution before. It was a sermon called Conflict in the Church.
And one of the main points that I brought out of that is when there's a conflict,
deal with it quickly but not immediately. Deal with it quickly and not immediately.
And the reason I said this, don't deal with it immediately, like as soon as you have a conflict,
all right, let's sort this out, is because when there's a conflict, there's emotions involved.
Someone's gotten upset, you're upset that someone's gotten upset, and you get emotional.
That's not a good time to sort out problems, you know?
When there's a problem, there's a conflict in a marriage, family, friends, church, coworkers,
deal with it once the emotions have died down a little bit.
Deal with it when you can find grace in the eyes of somebody else, okay?
Don't deal with it immediately. Brethren, please, take this as a true tip to someone
that has had to deal with a lot of conflict in his life, all right?
Don't deal with things immediately. Let cooler heads prevail, then deal with the conflict.
Don't put it off forever. Like, don't put it off days after days after days, weeks after weeks,
Deal with it quickly, but not immediately, okay?
Usually, if you just allow people to calm down, settle down, just re-examine,
get factual, not emotional, usually you'll just be able to sort things out pretty quickly, okay?
That's conflict resolution. So, I believe Jacob's doing the right thing.
Now, what's funny about this, though, because this is a story that takes place 20 years later, right?
I mean, 20 years ago, Esau's the one that said, I'm going to kill Jacob.
So, 20 years have gone by, okay?
Obviously, Jacob should not have waited 20 years to sort out his problem with his brother, okay?
But this is the situation we find ourselves in, and he's still afraid.
Listen, brethren, if you don't deal with conflict, you can go 20 years and still have conflict unresolved.
You can go 20 years and still be afraid, if I come across this person, what's going to happen?
What unnecessary burden to have in your life?
You know, for 20 years, and there are people...
You know, I once preached a sermon like this in my old church, Victory Baptist Church,
and a person came up to me later on and says, you know what?
I've been fighting my brother for the last 40 or 50 years.
Your sermon's convinced me to go back and try to sort it out.
And I was preaching on the same issue with Jacob and Esau here, okay?
And so, that's not ideal, but you can see by that response, this person for 50 years or whatever it was,
this was just weighing on their minds. What a waste of life.
Just could have sorted it out, maybe 20 years ago, right?
Instead of waiting another 30 years on top of that.
No, deal with things quickly, so you don't have to constantly be thinking about this.
And what you'll notice in this chapter is when you're not dealing with conflict,
you're allowing the time and time to go, you're constantly thinking the worst of people.
Jacob, in the previous chapter, did not want to deal with Laban.
He didn't want to go and deal with his issue with Laban.
He was afraid that Laban would take away his wives, take his daughters away.
He was afraid.
He thought, worst case scenario, if I go and try to sort this out,
oh man, he's going to take my wives away.
Not even true.
Laban says, man, I would have put a party for you guys on.
I would have, you know, if you guys were there for the last chapter, you'd know that.
And now Jacob's thinking, man, Esau's going to kill me, right?
He's thinking the worst case scenario here.
20 years on, he's still thinking Esau's trying to kill him.
His twin brother.
He doesn't have any other siblings.
This is his family, pretty much.
For 20 years, unresolved conflict.
You know, he's carrying this with him.
But he wants to find an occasion when he can find grace in the eyes of Esau.
That's conflict resolution tip number two.
Look at verse number six.
And the messengers return to Jacob, saying,
We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee.
Hey, that's awesome.
Esau wants to come and meet him.
And 400 men with him.
And 400 Esau?
You're bringing 400 men to come and meet your brother Jacob?
Look at this, verse number seven.
Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed,
and he divided the people that was with him,
and the flocks and herds and the camels into two bands,
and said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it,
then the other company which is left shall escape.
So he's thinking the worst.
Oh man, he's coming with 400 trained men with swords.
They're going to kill us all.
They're going to kill my servants, my wives, my children, my possessions.
So he divides into two groups.
He sends one group first, and then he's going to be in the next group.
And if Esau goes and kills that first group,
that will give him time to escape.
So he's planning for worst case scenario.
Again, unresolved conflict is going to cause you to just think this person,
you're going to just think the worst of that person.
You know, this person wants to kill me,
when he probably wants to chuck a party for you.
Or something like that.
So Jacob's fear, you can see Jacob's fear,
even though God had shown him some angels to encourage him on his way,
unresolved conflict still causing him to be afraid to deal with Jacob,
sorry, to deal with Esau.
Verse number nine.
And Jacob said, now this is the best part,
this is conflict resolution tip number three.
Okay, what does Jacob do?
He's afraid.
And Jacob said,
Oh God of my father Abraham,
and God of my father Isaac,
the Lord which saith unto me,
return unto thy country and to thy kindred,
and I will deal well with thee.
What's conflict resolution tip number three, guys?
Before you go and resolve a conflict,
go and take it to God.
Go and pray to God.
Take it to God.
Take it to God in prayer.
Okay?
And you see he's afraid.
He's like, I'm going to take this to God.
I've got to take this off my shoulders.
He's too afraid.
He's got too many burdens.
And he calls upon the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac.
He says in verse number 10,
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies,
and of all the truth,
which thou hast showed unto thy servant.
With my staff I passed over this Jordan,
and now I am become two bands.
Deliver me, I pray thee,
from the hand of my brother,
from the hand of Esau,
for I fear him,
lest he will come and smite me,
and the mother with the children.
So he does the right thing.
Before he deals with a conflict,
he's afraid.
And look, dealing with conflict's not comfortable.
It's not like something you really want to do in life.
You know, you get out of your comfort zone.
You know, you're going to have to face up to certain situations
and certain things.
But before you do it, you need the power of God.
And it goes to God in prayer.
You know, the first thing I want you to notice is,
and this will play out through the rest of the chapter here,
but I told this sermon, power with God and men.
And you know how Jacob drew power from God?
In prayer.
He drew power with God in prayer.
Brethren, if you are believers that don't pray,
you are lacking the power of God in your life.
God will increase your power with him
when you take your prayers to him.
When you go and ask him to do certain things for you,
he will do those things.
You know, think about Isabel in Sydney.
She wanted to stay in Sydney longer.
I don't know about this.
She prayed to God and said,
God, can we stay in Sydney longer?
Her prayers got answered.
I'm frustrated. I want to come back.
But her prayers got answered.
And Isabel said, she came up to me, she goes,
you know what?
I've been praying for a lot of things lately
and they've all been coming true.
It's all been happening.
She's like excited.
You know what she tapped into?
She tapped into the power of God.
The power of God.
You know, obviously, Isabel did not cause fires
to burn down people's houses, right?
But God used the situation of the fires down in New South Wales
to prevent us from coming up here
and I have no doubt Isabel's just been praying.
I have no doubt that's the reason why that I was delayed there.
Isabel was praying.
Of course, God has his reasons, of course, as well.
But once Isabel told me that, I've been praying for her.
I'm like, okay, I guess we're going to be stuck here for a little bit longer.
But that's the power of God, brethren.
That's the power of God.
You can ask God something and God does it for you.
Is there a greater power than God?
God can change.
You know, God can do miracles.
God can do things that are supernatural,
things that shouldn't take place,
but they take place just because you've gone to prayer
and God's answered that prayer.
That's an amazing power that when you fail to pray,
you fail to tap into that power of God.
Brethren, we fail all the time.
Prayer is so hard.
Prayer is hard.
It should be hard if I'm tapping into the power of God.
It is difficult.
It does require work.
And I think there are many things we forget to pray for,
many things that God wanted to do for us in our lives,
in our church, but we've forgotten to take it to God in prayer, okay?
If you're not a praying people, you're not going to have the power of God.
If we're not a praying church,
this church will not have the power of God in us.
So please take your problems, take your concerns,
take your fears to God.
You see, Jacob pours out his heart to God.
It's not like, all right, dear Lord, please help me today to get through life.
Have a good day. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Jacob and his prayers pouring out his heart to God,
he's afraid.
He's afraid of Esau, afraid of those 400 men.
Your prayer, make sure you mean it.
Make sure you pray with sincerity.
And you know that God has answered some of your prayers in your lifetime.
God can still answer your prayers today.
You just need to have the faith to know that He will do that for you.
And look at verse number 12.
And this is a great way to pray,
is when you know the truth of God's Word,
and you just take it to God.
God, you said this in your Word.
I need some of this in your Word.
I need some of that.
Can you please answer that prayer for me?
That's the best way.
That's what Jacob does in verse number 12.
Jacob says to God,
Jacob says, God, you said it.
You said that it's going to be well with me.
You said I'm going to have descendants.
You said we're going to be fruitful.
We're going to have these multitude of people.
You said it, God.
So please, do what you said, God.
That's Jacob.
Hey, that's a good way to pray.
You know, God upholds His Word.
God has magnified His Word above all His name, the Bible says.
You know, God is not, you know,
we serve a God that cannot lie, the Bible tells us.
And if we just take God back to His Word,
that's the best thing, right?
Because God promises certain things.
God, you promised that in the Bible.
I need that, Lord, please.
God will answer it.
All right, God will answer the promises
that He's given us in His Word.
Nothing wrong with taking God back to His Word.
He will fulfill it.
You're not offending God.
God will always be true to the Word that He said.
The Bible tells us in,
the Bible tells us in 1 John 5.14,
and this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask anything according to His will,
He heareth us.
The Bible says we need to have confidence, brethren.
We go and pray.
You know, we're not wavering with doubts.
Will God hear me?
Will God answer me?
Maybe God will answer in a way that you did not expect.
That's possible.
Maybe God says to you, you know what?
But what promise He tells us
is that He'll definitely hear us.
But we've got to ask things in accordance to His will.
His will.
And brethren, that's of course the new man in you.
The new man that you have in you, the Spirit,
the new creature is in tune with the will of God.
Many times we can pray,
and we can pray things in the flesh,
things that we want in the flesh, the old man.
And God says, no, that's not for you.
You know, it's got to be in accordance to God's will.
And this is why you take God back to the Word,
His Word, this is His will,
and He'll grant those things for you.
So we see the beginning of this power of Jacob,
the power of prayer, the power with God.
And by God changing the natural world,
changing things because of prayer,
you can have power over men as well.
You can.
You can have power over those that are your enemies,
power over those that you might be in conflict with,
power over those that are making your life miserable.
You can have power with them even
because you've tapped into the power that God has,
and He can change the natural events of this world
in answer to your prayer.
Look at verse number 13, Genesis 32, verse 13.
And he lodged there the same night,
and took of that which came to his hand
a present for Esau, his brother.
So he puts together a present, a gift for Esau.
Two hundred she goats and twenty he goats,
two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
thirty milk camels and their colts,
forty kine and ten bulls,
twenty she asses and ten foals.
And he delivered them into the hand of his servants,
every drove by themselves,
and said unto his servants,
pass over before me,
and put a space betwixt drove and drove.
So what does he do in preparation
to deal with this conflict that he has with Esau?
He organizes a present, a gift.
Conflict resolution tip number four in this chapter
is send them a gift.
Someone you've not spoken to for a long time
because you've been in conflict with them.
Some person that you're just frustrated at.
Some enemy out there that's trying to upset you.
You know what you do?
You do what Jacob does.
You send them a gift.
You say, oh, come on, a gift?
That's pretty corny.
A gift?
Hey, that can solve a lot of problems.
Sending them a nice gift.
Sending them something nice.
In Matthew 5 44 it says,
but I say unto you, love your enemies,
bless them that curse you,
do good to them that hate you,
and pray for them which despitefully use you
and persecute you.
Jesus Christ says, do good to them that hate you.
Brevin, you want to solve conflicts?
There's hatred between you and someone else?
Send them a gift.
That's a good thing to do.
Okay, look at verse number 17.
And he commanded the former saying,
when Esau my brother meeteth thee
and asketh thee, saying,
whose art thou and whither goest thou
and whose are these before thee,
thou shall say, they be thy servant Jacob's.
It is a present sent unto my Lord Esau
and also as he is behind us.
And so commanded he the second and the third
and all that follow the drove saying,
on this matter shall you speak unto Esau
when you find him.
And say ye moreover,
behold thy servant Jacob is behind us,
for he said, I will appease him with the presents
that goeth before me,
and afterward I will see his face,
peradventure he will accept of me.
So went the presents over before him
and himself lodged that night in the company.
So as Esau's making his way to meet Jacob,
he's going to be met with servants of Jacob.
You know, and they'll bring some sheep.
And he's like, what's this about?
He says, well, this is from your servant Jacob.
This is a present for you.
You know, Jacob's behind, just further down the line.
So Esau will keep walking.
There's another group of camels and whatever,
all the animals that were mentioned.
Oh, this is another present for you from Jacob.
And Jacob's intention is by the time
all these presents are presented to Esau,
it's like whatever anger he might have had,
whatever wrath is like, well, this guy's,
you know, it softens his heart, as it were,
before Jacob comes and meets him.
I think that's a good principle.
I think that's something good to live by.
Send a gift.
Husbands, I don't know,
have you had a fight with your wife recently?
Maybe you've got an unresolved problem.
Maybe buy some flowers this afternoon, all right?
Buy her a bit of jewellery or something.
I don't know, what does your wife like?
I don't know, buy whatever your wife likes.
Go and give that as a gift
and then sort out the conflict,
sort out the issue that might still be open.
A really great principle to live by.
A lot of people think this is corny.
Send in a gift.
Not at all.
If you guys can go to,
go to Rome, keep your finger there,
go to Romans chapter 5.
Go to Romans chapter 5.
And while you're turning there,
I'm going to read to you from James chapter 1 verse 17.
It says,
You know who else gives gifts?
The Father.
Our God gives gifts unto us, okay?
Look at Romans chapter 5 verse 10.
Romans chapter 5 verse 10.
And of course, what's the greatest gift
that the Father has given us?
Jesus Christ.
The greatest gift that we can possibly have
is Jesus Christ.
You know how God resolved the problem
with mankind and sin?
He sends a gift, Jesus Christ.
If that's good enough for God the Father,
you know it's good enough for you.
If it's not corny,
would you say Christ's sacrifice on the cross is corny?
No.
It's a perfect gift.
It's the best gift we could possibly do.
What a good person to follow after.
God the Father.
Romans chapter 5 verse 10.
Before you got saved, brethren,
you know what you were to God?
An enemy of God, right?
It said there,
For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God.
How did God reconcile us?
We talked about that there.
By the life of Jesus Christ.
But drop down to verse 15.
Romans 5 verse 15.
Continue the same thought here.
It says,
For if through the offense of one,
many be dead,
much more the grace of God,
and the gift by grace,
which is by one man, Jesus Christ,
have abounded unto many.
How does God treat his enemies?
You.
You were an enemy.
I was an enemy of God
before we were saved.
What does he do to us?
He sends us a gift.
He wants to reconcile us unto him.
We've been given now
the ministry of reconciliation
to go and offer that free gift
to this local community.
Thank God for those of you
that went out soul winning
this morning.
Hey, you're bringing the gift
to bring reconciliation
to the enemies of God
that are out there today.
That's how God
brought reconciliation with us.
Free gift.
A perfect gift.
Jesus Christ.
It's good enough for you
to follow, brethren.
You have a conflict,
a long conflict
that's been going on
for years and years and years.
You know what?
It's time for you
to send them a gift.
Just send them a gift.
Christmas is coming up.
Send them a Christmas gift.
Send them a Christmas card.
Get the ball rolling, guys.
Okay?
Good enough for God the Father.
Good enough for Jacob.
Good enough for you.
All right?
Let's keep going.
Verse number 22.
Back in, sorry, Genesis 32.
Genesis 32, 22.
Sorry, guys.
Yeah, 22.
And he rose up that night
and took his two wives
and his two women servants.
Those are the concubines.
And his 11 sons
and passed over the four jebok.
And he took them
and sent them over the brook
and sent over that he had.
All right.
Then look at verse 24.
And Jacob was left alone.
Okay?
So Jacob needs some alone time.
He sends his family away,
somewhere safe.
Then he gets along with God.
Okay?
He gets along with God.
And what this reminds me of,
and let's just read it.
Let's read the verse of 24.
And Jacob was left alone
and there wrestled a man with him
until the break-in of the day.
Jacob is there wrestling with some guy,
some man,
we'll look at it shortly,
till the morning.
All the night long,
he's wrestling with this man.
Okay?
And I'm telling you,
the power that comes from God
is through prayer.
Okay?
This reminds me immediately
of Jesus Christ.
You know, before Jesus Christ
had to make a big decision,
a big day's coming up,
like the crucifixion
or we'll soon see
choosing the 12 apostles.
You know what Jesus Christ does?
He spends all nights in prayer.
He goes out alone all by himself
and just spends all night in prayer.
Okay?
Luke 6-12 says,
So before Jesus makes this decision
to a day and 12 apostles,
he spends all night in prayer to God,
making sure he does the right job.
You know, he's in the will of the Father.
He's doing that which is right.
When we see Jacob wrestling with this man,
listen, you're not going to wrestle
all night with man.
Okay?
With some guy all night long.
You know?
But this, if we want to take
a symbolic, a spiritual lesson for us,
is our need to pray all night.
When's the last time you've prayed
all night long to the morning?
Say, I've never done it.
I mean, I think most of us
probably say I've never done it.
Maybe some of us have.
I've prayed a lot of nights,
pretty early in the morning too,
got in there.
I don't think I've prayed
literally till the sun came up.
Okay?
I don't think I've done that
even in my own life.
Okay?
So this is something challenging.
Okay?
But you can see how important it was
for Jesus to get into the power of God,
to tap into that power of the Father.
And we have this story now
of Jacob being alone,
now he's wrestling with some man
until the breaking of the day.
And again, this is a picture,
we soon see of the power,
of the power that Jacob has with God.
And the Bible says here in verse,
look at verse number 25.
And when he had, sorry,
and when 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 man that Jacob is wrestling with,
this man is not prevailing,
he's not defeating Jacob.
So he basically gets Jacob's thigh,
he dislocates, he dislocates Jacob's thigh.
Okay?
And I believe this was a permanent issue
that Jacob had for the rest of his life.
I personally believe that.
Okay?
I can't really prove that 100%,
but it seems like by the end of the chapter,
by the end of the chapter,
because there's a memorial of this,
that it seems like Jacob's thigh
was forever out of joint.
Okay?
So this man cannot defeat Jacob in this wrestle.
Now look, the Bible doesn't tell us
they're fighting for their lives.
It's not like they're trying to slay one another.
It's not like they're two enemies fighting.
It's a wrestle.
It's a wrestling match.
Okay?
To see who will prevail.
This man will soon see is God,
is actually Jesus Christ.
He's seen.
How much do you want this, Jacob?
You know, are you going to fight all night long?
Are you going to wrestle for this all night long?
How much do you want this answer to prayer?
How much do you want the power of God
to sort out your conflict coming up with Esau?
This is what's going on, brethren.
And when you have that two-second prayer,
God help me today,
that's not much wrestling, brethren.
No, that's like, God, let's have an arm wrestle.
God, all right, let's do it.
Okay, thanks, God.
And you walk away.
It's a prayer.
You haven't wrestled with God.
Jacob is wrestling with God.
And God's saying, well, how much do you want this?
Are you going to wrestle all night with me, Jacob?
Right?
And even with Jacob's thigh being dislocated,
he's in pain.
He doesn't have the same strength.
He's still wrestling.
He still wants it, right?
Because we know the fear that Jacob has.
He needs an answer.
He needs the power of God in his life.
Verse number 26.
And he said, let me go.
This is Jesus.
I'll show you later.
And he said, let me go.
This is Jesus saying to Jacob,
let me go for the day breaketh.
And he said, this is what Jacob says,
I will not let thee go except thou bless me.
When's the last time you prayed like that, brethren?
God, I'm just going to keep praying
until I know you've answered this prayer.
I'm going to keep praying until I know you've blessed me.
I'm not going to let go of this prayer, Lord.
I'm going to wrestle all night long if I have to.
When's the last time?
It puts us to shame, I think.
Sometimes we read these stories,
because I'm honest with you, I've not done that.
All night long until the morning breaks.
Maybe some of you have.
I don't know.
But I would say the majority definitely have not.
How badly do you want God to answer your prayers?
When you have a great fear,
you're going through great tribulation,
great persecution, great difficulties,
brethren, you know what you need to do?
You need to just go and wrestle with God all night long.
Just keep asking for what you need from him.
Don't let go of God, okay?
He's up for it.
He'll wrestle with you all night long if he has to, right?
But don't let go of God until you've made that request,
until you've asked the Lord to bless that,
to answer that prayer for you.
And this reminds me of a story.
Please keep your finger there.
Go to Luke chapter 18.
Luke chapter 18.
This reminds me of the parable that Jesus spoke about.
Maybe some of you guys know where I'm going with this.
But Luke 18 verse 1.
This is a parable that Jesus says.
He says here in verse number 1,
So the purpose of this parable is to teach men,
pray, don't faint, don't give up.
Hey, that's Jacob.
He's not giving up on this wrestling match, right?
With God.
Verse number 2, saying, this is the parable.
So this is a bad judge.
He's got no fear of God in the story.
What's going on in the story?
This judge keeps coming to this judge.
Avenge me, avenge me.
Someone's done me wrong.
Help me, help me, help me.
At the beginning, judge is like,
I'm not going to do this.
I have no fear of God.
This is like, you know what?
She doesn't let me go.
She won't leave me alone.
I'm just going to do it.
I'm going to deal with this now,
because she doesn't let me go.
You know this woman, this widow?
She was a great wrestler, right?
She wrestled until she got the answer she needed.
Now this, obviously, the God we serve
is not an unjust man, of course.
This is talking about an unjust judge here.
And it says here, verse number 6,
Even someone that is unjust, ungodly,
has no fear of God,
if they continue hearing, being pestered,
being brought something to attention,
they're eventually going to give in
and just do it, just to be left alone.
Right?
Then he says, well, if that ungodly man would do that,
verse number 7,
What a sobering thought there.
You know, he says, look,
even the unjust person will answer the prayer,
answer the request.
How much more will God then with his children?
You know, he will avenge them speedily.
You know what Jesus ends with?
He says,
Brethren, are we faithful enough
to wrestle with God all night long?
To see those prayers answered?
Now, you and I know both,
because we're made of flesh
and we're not perfect.
You and I both know many times when we pray,
those doubts creep into our minds.
You know, as much as you and I,
you know, sometimes we pray
just to do our part of the day.
We forget that we're talking
to the God of the universe
and we just,
Dear Lord, please bless this food.
You just don't even think about God, really.
You're just doing it
because you know you should bless the food.
You know, give thanksgiving to God.
That's not being faithful.
That's not being faithful
with how you pray to the Lord.
That's not you wrestling with God.
God wants to wrestle with you.
You know, God wants to see
what strength have you got?
How much do you want these prayers answered?
You know, and we need to keep going
to the Lord in prayer.
You know, brethren,
if you've been praying for things
day after day, week after week,
and it's not happened for you,
don't give up.
The purpose of this parable
was that you would faint not.
Keep going to the Lord.
If it's something in His will,
He's going to make it happen to you
at His right timing.
Not necessarily your timing,
but at His right time.
He will do that for you.
Back in Genesis 32.
Genesis 32 verse 27.
So far the Bible has told us
that the person that Jacob
is wrestling with is a man.
You've got to keep remembering that.
It's a man that he's wrestling with.
It's a man, okay?
Verse number 27.
And he said unto him,
What is thy name?
And he said, Jacob.
And he said,
Thy name shall be called
no more Jacob, but Israel.
So this is where we get
the nation of Israel, right?
The children of Israel.
This is Jacob's name being changed
by Jesus Christ.
I'll show you this is Christ.
For as a prince, thou has power
with God and with men
and has prevailed.
He goes, you win Jacob.
You won the wrestling match.
You've prevailed.
You've got power with God and with men
because you've prevailed.
Brethren, when your prayers
are answered,
when you go wrestle with God
and he answers those prayers
for you, you've prevailed.
You've got power with God
and with men.
Man, how good is that?
Instead of you going,
well, what a coincidence
that prayer got answered.
Oh, well, I guess I didn't have
to pray for it.
It happened anyway.
No, you prevailed.
You've got the power of God
and you're with men.
You have to change, change things
because you took it to prayer,
because you wrestled with God.
It just makes you understand,
this chapter just makes you understand
how important prayer is, you know,
and how much we fail.
Man, I've failed many times
wrestling with God.
I'm like, God, can we start wrestling?
And I run away
before the wrestle starts.
It's a shame though, you know.
We need to be prayer warriors.
We need to make sure we pray.
And again, midweek services
is our time to pray as a church.
Please be here.
Try to make it here
for the prayer meeting, guys.
You know, I'd rather wrestle
with all of you guys and God,
like wrestle God with all of you guys.
I have some other helpers, right,
wrestling God in prayer.
Now, I want to show you
that this prevailing is about prayer.
Because you might say,
oh, you're just linking in.
You know, it's a long bow.
No, actually, it's about prayer.
Keep your finger there
and go to Hosea.
Go to the book of Hosea.
Hosea chapter 12.
And by the way, when he said
that has power with God,
that's because he's wrestling God.
All right, he's wrestling a man
and he's wrestling God.
There's only one who is fully man
and fully God.
That's Jesus Christ.
That's who he's wrestling.
Jesus Christ.
Hosea chapter 12, verse two.
The Lord have also a controversy with Judah
and will punish Jacob
according to his ways,
according to his doings,
and he recompense him.
So you can see he's speaking
of Jacob there.
Verse number three.
He took his brother
by the hill in the womb
and by his strength,
he had power with God.
By his strength,
he had power with God.
Notice there's a colon
at the end of that verse.
Thought hasn't finished.
Verse number four.
How did he have power with God?
Verse number four.
Yea, he had power over the angel
and prevailed.
So who did he wrestle?
An angel.
Who did he wrestle?
A man.
Who did he wrestle?
God.
He wrestled a man.
He wrestled God
and he wrestled an angel.
An angel just means a messenger.
The only person that fits
this description, guys,
is Jesus Christ.
That's who he wrestles, okay?
And he prevailed.
Look at this.
Has the sentence finished?
Colon.
How did he prevail?
In what way?
Look at this.
He wept
and made supplication unto him.
You know what it means
to bring your supplication
before God?
You're bringing your needs.
You're bringing your requests
before God.
You know what Jacob is doing
when he's praying to God?
He's weeping.
His sorrow.
He's got his fear.
He's weeping
and he's bringing
the supplications before God.
He's bringing his needs
before God.
And this plays out for Jacob
in a physical sense,
a physical wrestling with God.
So you can see he's praying.
He's not just wrestling.
He's not just showing his strength.
He's actually bringing his supplications
to God as he's wrestling.
That's how he prevailed.
And then it says there,
he found him in Bethel
and there he spake with us.
Even the Lord God of hosts,
the Lord is his memorial.
So I love how Hosea
just ties it back into the prayer, okay?
Bringing the supplications
was physically being presented to us
by this wrestling match
that was going on of strength, okay?
Back in Genesis 32, verse 29,
Genesis 32, verse 29.
And Jacob asked him and said,
tell me I pray thee thy name.
And he said,
wherefore it is that thou dost ask
after my name?
And he blessed him there.
So he says, why, you know,
why are you asking me for my name?
Jacob really knows who he's wrestling with.
And you'll see this.
Verse number 30.
And Jacob called
the name of the place Peniel,
for I have seen God face to face
and my life is preserved.
Who did God wrestle with?
Sorry, who did Jacob wrestle with?
God. He saw him face to face.
He saw the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, Jesus says in John 1-18,
no man have seen God at any time.
The only begotten son,
which is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath declared him.
No man has ever seen God the Father.
It wasn't God the Father
who wrestled with Jacob.
It was the Son of God.
It was Jesus Christ
that was wrestling with Jacob.
And so look at verse number 32 now, guys.
Verse number 32.
Oh, sorry.
Verse number 31.
And as he passed over Penuel,
the sun rose upon him
and he halted upon his thigh.
So he's still got that dislocation there, right,
as the sun comes up.
And then verse 32 says,
therefore, so because of this situation,
this wrestling match,
and I'm not going to be dogmatic on this,
but I'll just show you.
Verse 32.
Therefore, the children of Israel
eat not of the sinew.
The sinew is like tendon or ligaments,
which attaches the muscle to the bone, okay.
Therefore, the children of Israel
eat not of the sinew, which shrank,
which is upon the hollow of the thigh
unto this day.
This day being, you know,
as Moses is riding this.
You know, these are the books of Moses.
So in the time of the first covenant there,
till this day,
because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh
in the sinew that shrank.
So there's a custom or a tradition,
tradition in Israel in those days
that they would not eat like the ligaments
or the tendon of like a thigh,
of an animal that they were eating.
They were not.
It's kind of immemorial of Jacob's thigh
being taken out of joints
while he wrestled Jesus Christ.
It's not that important, but I just want to show you.
I think this might have been a permanent thing
for the fact that they just continue
remembering what happened to Jacob.
But Brevin, that's the conclusion of that chapter.
And I hope you understand now
how you can receive power with God and men.
You don't need to go on some pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
You know, you don't need to...
What do people do to get power?
You don't need to put gold dust
in the ventilation system
to show the power of God.
That's not the real power of God, right?
You don't need to...
I don't know.
What do people...
You don't need to go to some monastery
and whip yourself to your half dead
to get some power of God.
You have the power of God available to you right now,
right here, right now.
You bow your heads in prayer.
We're going to pray after this sermon.
We're tapping into the power of God right there.
And Brevin, let me say,
I hope you can see how...
Next chapter, we'll go and see how he dealt with Esau.
But I hope you can take some lessons
with how Jacob started to fix some of these conflicts
that he had with Jacob.
Number one, he humbled himself, right?
He elevated Esau.
He humbled himself.
Number two, he sought to find grace in the eyes of Esau.
He sought to deal with it at the right time.
Number three, he...
Was it sent a gift?
I can't remember what number three was.
He sent a gift.
And number four, I don't remember.
Huh?
Who remembers it?
Sorry, was that wrong?
Prayer, prayer.
Prayer was number three.
And then he sent the gift.
Okay, so please keep these things in mind
if you need to recover, resolve a conflict.
Please take the lessons that we find here in the Bible
and please go and wrestle with God.
It's probably time you've done that, okay?
Maybe there are many things God wants to do for you,
but you've just not gone there
and taken the fight with God like a wrestler,
the power of God in man.
Let's pray.