Are you ready?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
If you could find your seats and grab your song books.
Let's turn to song 162, To God Be the Glory.
song 162 to God be the glory 162 to God be the glory to God be the glory great
things he
praise the Lord praise the Lord
great things he had done Oh perfect redemption the purchase of love to every
believer the promise of God the vilest offender who truly believes that moment
from Jesus apart and receives praise the Lord praise the Lord let the earth hear
his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people oh come to the father through Jesus
the son and give him the glory great things he have done great things he had taught us great
things he rejoicing through Jesus but higher and greater will be our wonder our transport when
Jesus we see praise the Lord praise the Lord let the earth hear his voice praise the Lord praise
the Lord let the people rejoice oh come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the
glory great things he have done amen let's have a word of prayer Lord thank you so much for this
day and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered together to sing praises to your name
thank you so much for all that you do for us pray that you bless the service and in Jesus name we
pray men all right for our next song we'll flip over a few pages to 169 come now found 169 come
now found 169 come now found of every blessing to my heart to sing thy grace streams of mercy
never ceasing all four songs about his praise
teach me some melody son it sung by flaming tons above raise the mount I'm fixed upon it
mountain by redeeming love here I raise my Ebenezer and I know by my good pleasure
safely I'll arrive at home Jesus saw me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God
he to rescue me from danger interpose his precious blood oh to grace how great a debtor
daily I've come straight to be that my goodness like a better by my wandering heart to be prone
here's my heart oh thank you so much coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you need a bulletin
you can lift up your hand nice and high and we can get you a bulletin on the front we have our
Bible memory passage we're on verse 13 of Psalms 148 who's been working on this entire path who's
already quoted Psalms 148 I'm just kind of curious about who's already completed this we got to have
a bigger number than this one okay who's gonna get this one done all right okay we got a lot
more people you're getting close to the end here and on the inside we have our service and so many
times there's gonna be a special prize for those who complete it if we only have a handful the
prize will just get a lot better so I guess all you that have completed it you can hope nobody
else completes it so on the inside we have our service and so many times as well as our church
stats let's get a count for the last few days is there anything to report from Monday by chance
it's like four what about Tuesday it's like six for Tuesday what about today was there anything
from today it's like one for today all right keep up the good work on soul winning on the right we
have a list of several ladies that are expecting continue to be in prayer for them also down below
we have our prayer list we have several to go over this evening we have the nigera family continue
to pray for their health miss Lucy's mother's tumors if you continue to pray for her for the
Cameron Hall's leg also our friends in Manila Philippines and cast pastor Kevin Sepulveda in
Australia down under also we have miss Don Stewart brother Jimmy Stewart's wife continue to pray for
her health miss Ashley holder is requested prayer for her husband's visa to be approved
brother ever Garcia his mother's health and she had a cancer test I don't know the update on that
but hopefully things went well also miss Eva Garcia her daughter her family's health we were
praying for them and then Randall bested added his friends he said that they actually have been
recovering and doing really well so that's a that's good news and if you have any other prayer
requests try to email those in or submit those either via communication card we'll try to include
those in our bulletin the best of our ability and I'm gonna say a quick word of prayer for those
that were mentioned thank Heavenly Father for our church thank you so much for the ladies that are
pregnant I pray that you just be with them during their pregnancy that you give them strength you'd
help them through their delivery and I pray that you'd also bless all the rest of our church family
with health you would give them favor I pray that you would just help in lockdowns and in certain
parts of the country that the gospel could go forward that we would just all be and then service
to you and they bless all the works that we do so that we give you more honor and glory and in
Jesus name we pray amen on the back we have a note about church yearbook pictures we do have a sign
up sheet over here on the cabinet and miss miss Lucy is gonna be helping us take pictures she said
that it's difficult for her to to commit to the Wednesdays right now so if you did sign up on a
Wednesday please just go and mark your name out just sign up for one of the Wednesday time or one
of the Sunday times there's still a lot of Sunday times there's about 20 on each Sunday and if we
have to we'll just go to a third week or something like that it won't be a big deal so if you've
already signed up on a Wednesday we're just gonna not have this photos on Wednesday nights and just
have them just on the Sundays for now and then also there is a we updated the sheet to include
another indication for a baby picture so if you had a child born in 2021 please put a checkmark
there so we can make sure we know that we're also doing baby pictures for that one as well and that's
pretty it's gonna be pretty simple just sign up show up we'll take your picture you can smile if
you want to all right and then also we had our Texas chili cook-off congratulations to those who
placed and there was no beans in sight so that was a that was the win right there okay and we
had a good time next year you know if you want to win bring in your chili all right we also have a
couple Sony marathons Oklahoma City marathon there is a signup sheet Brownsville Sony marathon we're
going to try and get a sheet out there we have a New Year's Eve party on this on New Year's Eve
and so and again please continue to either write a check or do online dose donations to pure it's
Baptist Church and if that does change I'll let you know as soon as possible that's pretty much
all I had for announcements in the bulletin one other quick announcement I had made a Facebook
post internally about cleaning if you had responded to me via text or anything like that actually had
several people respond please just meet with me over here near my office and I just want to kind
of go over that I am pretty much is going to go base in order of who responded first as far as
priority but I still want to have backups and other people that are still interested just aware of
that so if you if you did respond and you're still interested just meet with me and I'll kind of go
over that that's pretty much all I had for announcements let's go to our third song for the
evening 170 hallelujah what a Savior and that song 170 hallelujah what a Savior 170 hallelujah
what a Savior man of sorrows what a name for the Son of God who came through and sinners to
reclaim hallelujah what a Savior bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned he stood
sealed my pardon with his blood hallelujah what a Savior guilty violent helpless we spotless lamb
of God was he full on tone met can it be hallelujah what a Savior lifted up was he
hallelujah what a Savior when he comes our glorious King all his friends bring
as the offering plates are being passed around please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 32 Genesis
chapter 32
you
Genesis chapter 32 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 man name
and Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother under the land of Seir the country
of Edom he commanded them saying thus shall you speak unto my Lord Esau thy servant Jacob
saith thus I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now 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 and the messengers returned to Jacob saying we came to thy brother Esau and
also he cometh to meet thee and 400 men with him and 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 Jacob said oh God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac the Lord
which said unto me return unto thy country and to thy kindred and I will deal well with thee
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou has showed unto
thy servant for 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 and thou said I will surely do thee good and make
thy seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude and he lodged there
that same night and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother
200 she goats and 20 he goats 200 ewes and 20 rams 30 milch camels with their cults 40 kind
and 10 bulls 20 she asses and 10 foals 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 he commanded the foremost saying when Esau my brother meeteth thee and ask
at thee saying who's out thou wither goest thou and whose are these before thee then thou shalt
say they 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 the second and the third and all that followed the drove saying on
this manner shall you speak unto Esau when you find him and say ye moreover behold thy servant
Jacob is behind us where he said I will appease him with the present that goeth before me and
afterward I will see his face pure adventure he will accept of me so went the 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 four jabbok and he took them and
sent them over the brook and sent over that he had and Jacob was left alone and there wrestled
a man with him until the breaking of the day 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 and he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said I will not let thee go
except thou bless me and he said unto him what is thy name he said Jacob 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
and hast prevailed and Jacob asked him and 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
that place Penuel for I have seen God face to face my life is preserved as he passed over Penuel the
sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh therefore the children of Israel eat not of the
sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh under this day because he touched the
hollow of Jacob's thigh and the sinew that shrank let's pray heavenly father thank you for the book
of Genesis thank you for our bible study in our church please lord fill pastor Shelly with your
spirit allow him to preach boldly and help us pay attention and apply the message to our lives and
in Jesus name amen amen so we're in Genesis chapter 32 in chapter number 31 Jacob had fled
from his father-in-law Laban and essentially by fleeing from Laban he's headed back to his father
and one of the reasons that he had left was the simply the fact that his brother and him had a
really bad relationship from the past he had stolen his brother's birthright he had stolen
everything from his brother his brother essentially he stole the birthright he stole the
blessing and his brother wanted to kill him and so he's returning back into his father who he wants
to see but he's nervous about his brother Esau he's nervous about their encounter he's nervous
about if his brother's still angry with him his brother still wants to kill him and so that's kind
of the context that we find ourselves here in the beginning of chapter 32 it says in verse 1 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 Mahanaim now this is very interesting few verses to start out
with Jacob's headed back to the promised land he's headed back to his father and he just gets to see
this miracle where he sees the angels of God and he calls it God's host and and I think this is very
important to kind of set a particular tone that we'll pick up at the very end of our chapter but
you know it's not very many times in the bible where Christians or people get to interact with
angels or get to see them there's a handful of different things we could think of or places in
scripture where we see this as a as a context we have the shepherds out in the field that are met
with this great host of heaven and they're praising God and they're telling him that these these
shepherds that there there's been a Christ that's born and you know they're singing and so it's kind
of a glorious time they're pointing them to Christ right we see certain angels mentioned
in parts of apocalyptic books or you know the book of revelation we have a place in Elisha
his his servant Gehazi is kind of incredulous about a whole host of army that's surrounding them
and then God allows them to see this bigger host of angels and says there's more with us than with
them and so there's not very many places in scripture where we see angels I tell you I
kind of see that there's a theme though that angels often appear for a few reasons either
to point you directly to Christ and or to strengthen you encourage you you know Jesus
Christ has angels come and strengthen him whenever he is in the garden of Gethsemane
yeah he's praying he's worried he thinks he's about to die when he's in the wilderness angels
come and they strengthen him after he's been tempted of the devil and so you know the purpose
of angels are typically there to strengthen you encourage you deliver you God's word point you to
Christ we could think of times like Daniel he's being encountered with angels coming and talk to
them and they strengthen him you know and they basically encourage him with the word of God they
talk to him and so with this theme of the future of the Bible I think we can look back and say
the purpose here has got to be to strengthen Jacob right to point him to Christ to get him
on the right path to strengthen him to encourage him on this journey that he's taking back now
let's keep reading it says in verse three and Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau's brother
on the land of Seir country of Edom and he commanded them saying this shall you speak unto
my lord Esau thy servant Jacob saith thus I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now
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 so you know he's sending these presents and he's sending these
gifts unto his brother and what's interesting about the statement he makes here in verse number
five is that he says I may find grace in thy sight now what does the word grace mean grace means
unmerited favor meaning that you don't deserve it so from Jacob's perspective he doesn't necessarily
feel like he deserves his brother's companionship fellowship favor or blessing but he's hoping
he can find grace he realizes that there's tension he realizes there's some kind of a conflict some
kind of an issue between them and he's he's asking for grace okay now this makes a lot of sense
because you know whenever you have tension between people it's it's nice or it's you know good to ask
for grace you know say you know what I realize that you're upset with me and whether or not you
did wrong or not sometimes you just should ask for grace in their perspective anyways because it's
kind of about their perspective right obviously in your perspective you may feel like you did nothing
wrong but if they're offended if they have a problem with you if they feel like you've done
something wrong sometimes it might just be the best policy just ask for grace just say you know what
would you at least just give me some grace here or can we can we mend things and you know it
doesn't hurt to throw in some gifts you know when you're asking for that grace right throw in some
some some kind of an offering uh to seek for that grace it says in verse six and the messengers
return to Jacob saying we came to thy brother Esau and also he cometh to meet thee and 400 men with
him and Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed and divided the people that was with him and the
flocks and hers and the camels into two bands and he said if Esau come to the one company
and smite it then the other company which is left shall escape now obviously from the circumstances
here alone just the events that are taking place you could see why Jacob's kind of afraid because
you know if you say hey I'm coming back and I'm really excited to see you can I get some grace
yeah an army of men are coming to meet you you're like uh that's weird you know like why is he
coming with 400 men because it doesn't say like 400 people it doesn't say like a bunch of kids
and other stuff it's like 400 men meaning this is like serious you know you would think like this is
kind of a scary deal and you wouldn't know though what's happening now does this say for sure that
Esau's coming to kill him or to hurt him or to harm him or anything like that no it just simply
says he's coming 400 men couldn't you interpret this and say oh maybe he wants to you know
accompany us with a great host of men to protect us you know from any other enemies or or strangers
that could be one way to look at it right or you can look at it like he's coming to kill us to hurt
us to harm us right there's a lot of reasons why this could be happening but what Jacob does is he
kind of takes a a negative approach as far as what's the worst case scenario what's the worst
thing that this could basically be happening he's coming to kill us well if he's coming to kill us
I don't want us to all be in one group because if we're all in one group it's going to be a total
loss so this is what I would call diversifying his assets okay and really this is a kind of a an
interesting you know thought that he has here and it makes sense from a carnal perspective and I
agree with this viewpoint that diversifying your assets helps in reducing risk why would someone
that diversify ask it it's because they don't want to have a total loss or total damage so they
basically separate their assets in a way that it's harder or more difficult to lose everything okay
now in the world that we live in today this is a very this is kind of like a buzzword you know
diversification you know or diversifying your assets or diversifying your portfolio
a lot of times people think about this when it comes to investing into companies
stocks and bonds or these type of things somebody might put all of their money in one company you
know they put all their money in Enron right they buy all the stock of Enron well that doesn't
really work out when you find out it's a Ponzi scheme and it goes belly up and then you lose all
of your assets right or you could put all of your money in Circuit City bankrupt they're all gone or
you can put all your money in Pier One oh bankrupt you know or you could put all your money in Amazon
10 years ago and you're like sweet right so there's always a risk reward in how you diversify
your money your income you could put all your money in gold you could put all your money in
silver you could put all your money in cattle what happens when a lightning storm kills all your
cattle right or a disease comes through and kills all of your cattle so diversification of assets
has always been a reality in the bible and it's a pretty uh it's a smart thing to do if you don't
want to suffer a total loss okay in the sense that you know maybe it makes sense to have some money
in cattle some in sheep some in goats some in gold some in silver some in lots of different
commodities lots of different goods so that essentially you won't lose all of your money
overnight okay now God can do whatever he wants though God could take all of your money no matter
how much diversification you have exhibit job okay job had a full portfolio of all all manner
of diversification but he still had a total loss all diversification of asset does is it just
reduces your risk of a total loss okay now if you put all of your money in one one basket you can
get greater rewards but you suffer potential greater loss as well so this is why he's basically
separating the companies he doesn't want uh them to come upon one company of all of them and kill
all of them he's saying let's just put the worst people first you know the people i like the least
up front we're willing to sacrifice them you know and and basically we'll put the people we like the
most you know behind and further away so as to try and protect them from a total loss that's
essentially what he's doing now when it comes to your life i don't think that there's necessarily
a right or wrong here i think the lesson that we could learn that is good though is this
sometimes it's beneficial when you're in an uncertain situation to consider the worst case
scenario okay thinking about what is the worst case scenario and how can i reduce the risk of
the worst case scenario or if this does happen how can i protect myself from danger from evil
from happening and and really it's a good mentality it's a mentality that a lot of people
that are in software development you have to have this okay they talk about in programming you have
what's called the happy path programming and then you kind of have this negative black hat
programming and essentially you know when you have the right mentality programming you always have to
think what's the worst thing someone could do okay but you'll never ever be able to actually think of
all the dumb things people will actually do you know my dad used to tell me these jokes he said
there was a lady who called into technical support and she was talking to the the technical support
she says i think my computer's broken and and uh he's like how is it broken and she said well
the coffee holder is not working right i said the coffee holder yeah she said the coffee the
coffee holder is just broken it's not holding my coffee well it's it's not uh he's like there's no
coffee holder on a computer man and she's like no no i use the coffee holder all the time and he's
like can you please describe the coffee holder and she's like yeah it says cd and i push the button
and it pops out and then i put my coffee right there in the coffee holder so does that person
know what they're doing could you really have programmed a computer and said like not a coffee
holder you know on the cd from you can't think of things like that right so you can do whatever you
want you know when you have a a program that you're basically trying to create sometimes you
have to think about crazy things that people might type in or they they might accidentally click on
the wrong button or do something weird so you have to try and think about the worst case scenario what
would the dumbest person do and it can make for very difficult programming at times okay whereas
a happy path programmer they always just anticipate everybody's gonna do everything right every single
time they'll never misspell their name they'll never type anything wrong they'll never put in
their wrong date formats or anything like that so you have to kind of analyze the situation and how
you're going to create programming well this works in your whole life you know in your life you need
to think about worst case scenarios that's the reason people have insurance what happens if my
house burns down you know what happens if i'm out driving my car and i it total it right what happens
in all these different various scenarios that's why insurance even exists that's why people you
know sell certain products and and do certain things this is why people diversify their assets
is to reduce a total loss of money now really you're only going to diversify your assets when
you actually have assets to begin with okay if you're poor this means nothing to you okay because
you have nothing to lose anyways it's really just for people that have great wealth or have a lot of
assets and they don't want to just lose it all overnight they end up diversifying it and spreading
the wealth as it were so as not to lose it from a bunch of thieves evil that could happen to them
look at verse number nine and jacob said oh god of my father abraham and god of my father isaac
the lord which said unto me return to thy country and to thy kindred and i will do well with thee
i am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto
thy servant for with my staff i passed over this jordan and now i've become two bands deliver me
i pray thee from the hand of my brother from the hand of esophor i fear him lest he will come and
smite me and the mother with the children and thou saidest i will surely do thee good and make thy
seed as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude so jacob when he hears
about this great company coming he does two things number one he diversifies his assets
he spreads his companies he tries to make it more difficult to lose everything but then
he's praying unto god and he's saying hey deliver me from esau you know you already told you told
me to return i'm doing what you told me to do i i really want you to protect me from this evil
why would you ask me to come back if you didn't really want me to be blessed and he's saying you
know i left with nothing i had a staff you know i had like nothing with me i just left and now
i'm coming back with two bands meaning two large groups of people with large hosts of animals and
flock and he had all this wealth and and this is kind of an a good philosophy that jacob has keep
your finger go to joe because i want to show you verse here go to joe chapter one but if you
realize your life you started out with absolutely nothing you know there's a point in your life
every single person no matter how rich or poor you are today you all came out of the womb with
nothing you know you didn't have any stocks and bonds in your name you didn't have any
obviously your parents could have given you an inheritance you could have been born with a silver
spoon in your mouth as it were but out of the womb it was nothing okay they had to put that
spoon in your mouth afterwards okay they had to give you the assets afterwards they had to bless
you afterwards and you could have been given great wealth afterwards but you started with nothing and
jacob's saying there was a point in my life where i had nothing but now i have all this great wealth
and i think sometimes people they change their attitude towards god based on losing certain
things not realizing everything you already had was just given to you anyways you already started
with nothing there was a point in your time where you didn't have anything so even if you lose all
the great wealth you have now you're still at a net zero you can never lose more than you started
with because you had nothing to begin with anyways essentially is with a point and this
is the philosophy that joe bad too look at joe chapter one verse 21 and said naked came out of
my mother's womb and naked shall i return thither the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed
be the name of the lord so here's the thing when you were born god didn't owe you anything
god didn't have to give you anything okay now if god has given you stuff which all of you are
clothed today praise the lord so he gave you something okay and a lot of you here are married
today that's a blessing a lot of you have kids here today that's a blessing a lot of you have
drove in a car today that was a blessing a lot of you have a money and a job and all kinds of things
the lord has given to you bountifully okay so at any point that god took something away
blessed be the name of the lord because you still have more than how you started with you in fact
can't ever get to a point where you had less than you started with because you had nothing to start
with so don't get this attitude of like well i lost something well i can't curse god now no you
should never do that because even if you lost everything that you had you're still at the point
you started okay and when jacob's realized he said hey i left with nothing and if you wanted me to
come back with nothing then fine but you ended up bringing me here with a whole bunch of stuff
so i'm guessing there's a reason why you want me to have that lord you know i hope that you allow
me to you know be blessed with this and do good with this and the reality is god does you know
it's not like god's just like hey i want to give you a bunch of people that are going to get
slaughtered for no reason or whatever so that's why he's asking for this grace he's asking for
this mercy and he needs to be responsible for it so i kind of look at it a little bit you know the
bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle the safety is of the lord so it's
probably wise that he separated his company in in some ways but at the end of the day he's still
trusting the lord to provide him and protect him in some ways look at verse 13 go back to
genesis chapter 32 and look at verse number 13 so you need to be a good shepherd of all that you
have realizing if god takes it away he takes it away but you don't want to take it away for you
just being a bad shepherd for you being negligent being like a laban ripping people off being a liar
a deceiver you want it if god takes it away to be like job who did nothing wrong
look at verse 13 and he lodged there the same night and took of that which came to his hand
a present for esau his brother 200 she goats and 20 he goats 200 ooze and 20 rams 30 milch camels
with their colts 40 kind and 10 bulls 20 she asses 10 foals and he delivered them into the hand of
his servants every drove by themselves and said unto servants pass over before me and put a space
betwixt drove and drove and he commanded the foremost saying when he saw my brother meeteth
thee and ask of thee saying whose art thou and whither goest thou and whose are these before
thee then thou shalt say they be thy servant jacobs it is a present sent unto my lord esau
and behold also he is behind us and so commanded he second and the third and all that followed
the drove saying on this manner 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 present that
goes before me and afterward i will see his face paired venture he will accept him so then not only
does he separate the band not only is he praying to god to protect him then he goes into another
strategy where he's going to literally just send gift after gift after he's just trying to soften
the blow you know he's just like here's another gift and then he runs the next company here's
another gift and he runs the next here's another gift he's just trying to shower him with gift
after gift after gift now i want to keep your finger here but go to proverbs 21 for a moment
go to proverbs chapter 21 i don't want you to get the wrong idea here you know it's not good to buy
someone's love okay it's not good to necessarily buy favor perhaps and try to bribe people or to
pay them off or whatever but think about the context here he's not trying to get some goods
out of esau later i'm not trying to bribe esau into you know hooking him up with something he's
not trying to later earn some kind of a badge of you know or some kind of a privilege in the future
where he's going to come to esau later and be like remember when i gave you all those goods
wink wink nod nod or it's not a tit for tat he's not asking esau to cover something up
he's not asking esau to you know do something shady it's still a genuine present okay so
anything where you're giving somebody money to buy them off bribe them extort them do any kind
of evil like that that would always be wrong but if the motivation of giving a gift is just to
find favor with the person just to become friends again or just so they won't kill you it kind of
makes sense i don't think that there's anything wrong with that and in fact give him as much as
you got you know just keep blessing them keep giving them money keep giving them goods the
bible has a principle here go to proverbs 21 and look at verse 14 a gift in secret pacify anger
and a reward in the bosom strong wrath so the bible says if you have someone that's mad at you
if someone's displeased with you if you want to basically lower their amount of wrath
reduce their amount of anger sometimes a gift helps just saying now what does this look like
this looks like when you screw up and you bring home flowers for your wife
or you know if you screw up real bad you send flowers and then later another delivery man
comes with chocolates and then another delivery man comes with like another present and it just
it just drove upon drove of presents or whatever and notice what the bible teaches here it says
very clearly it's going to pacify anger you know it's going to reduce that anger it's going to
reduce that wrath now look i'm not saying buy your wife off i'm not and here's another thing
i'm not justifying women to be mad at their husband to get presents okay but what i am saying
is that a wise husband will sometimes think about hey is my wife mad at me maybe i can just
send her a gift and it might pass away here would be a good reason to do that
i did something to piss her off i wasn't spending time with her i wasn't showing her that i love her
in some way why don't i send her a gift just let her know i was thinking about her or i love her
to try and pacify that wrath a little bit and maybe she won't kill me when i come home okay
but again this could happen in all manner of life right it could be your boss at work
it could be your family members it could be a brother it could be a sister sometimes you have
relationships go sour people say words that are mean you know sometimes feelings get hurt bad
things happen and if you end up having an opportunity to come across that person again
gifts don't hurt that's what the bible's showing you as an example here and and i believe this is
a right mentality in the sense that sending a gift to try and pacify anger is a biblical principle
it's something that you could do it makes sense so i would say that you know in a vacuum jacob's
actions here are you know make sense you don't want your brother to kill you here's some money
here's some goods you know i'm i'm i'm good with you brother i don't want i don't wish ill will
towards you i wish favor and blessing to you okay go back to genesis chapter 32 let's keep reading
here so a lot of the actions from jacob and i don't want you to get confused this evening
in a vacuum makes sense okay a lot of things i'm showing you diversifying your assets makes sense
okay um praying god to essentially protect you always going to make sense realizing that you
came with nothing and if you lose it all blessed be the name of the lord anyways sending gifts
to someone that's trying to hurt you or kill you again makes sense but i'm going to later get to
this i don't want to spoil the point but just because he's doing all this doesn't mean it's
necessarily ultimately coming from the right motives okay it could be coming from fear because
isn't that how he started the passage verse seven and then jacob was greatly afraid and distressed
so what was the real motivation for a lot of these things it's really fear that's driving a lot of
these decisions that he's making i'm not saying that those decisions in a vacuum are wrong what
i am saying is that we have to think about the ultimate motives that are being attributed here
okay so i want to keep that in your mind look at verse 21 he went the present over before him and
himself lodged at night in the company and rose up that night and took his two wives and his two
women servants and his 11 sons and passed over the ford jabot they took them and sent them over
the brook and sent over that he had and jacob was left alone and so that's where i want to stop for
a moment so what does he do i would say that jacob did literally everything humanly possible
to basically diversify his to not lose stuff right he's diversifying his assets he's sending
all these droves his presence unto esau he's praying about it and then he literally just
sends all of the family they really cares about across this river now this is an important thought
because back then you know they don't have cars and airplanes and whatever crossing a river takes
a lot of time it's a lot of effort it's dangerous so if you're on one side of a river you can notice
what's going on the other side real easy you have the observance but for someone else to cross that
river would take so much time and effort that if they're there to hurt you you can easily escape
and get it several hours or maybe even a day's worth of time advantage to get away from them so
as they're trying to protect yourself so he's trying to put them in a position where they can
still notice what's going to happen yet if it goes awry they have an opportunity to escape and
potentially preserve their own life but he leaves himself alone and it really seems like he's trying
to do the best to protect his family okay and i get that that's one aspect of this uh you know
picture here but at the end of the day do the action that he's taking here really seem like
he's trusting in the lord to protect him though i mean if god told you to go into the land where
your father is and then you retreat and then send your family back across the river does it really
sound like you're trusting the lord to deliver you though you know it kind of seems like he's
making all his decisions out of fear it seems like he's not really trusting in the lord he's
not putting his confidence in the lord's promises he's not walking the path that god wants him to
walk he's going back you know he's sending his family back he's he's now alone he didn't even
have anything he's literally stripped himself of everything so as to not lose everything it seems
like he's terrified of losing everything but then we find him alone again don't we he says hey i
crossed over with nothing and then we get to this point he literally has nothing again it's like
what in the world are you doing you know it's kind of it doesn't really show a lot of confidence that
the lord's going to deliver him it seems like he's basically believing he's going to be destroyed
for sure okay why would you send these elaborate hosts of gifts under your brother just over and
over and over again why are you separating your company so much why are you sending your family
because i mean when esau shows up isn't he going to be like whoa did you for sure think we were
going to kill you i mean imagine if your brother's coming over okay he's coming over thanksgiving and
there's been some tension and when he shows up you turn on all the lights you get a couple people
shining lights in his face you have your your shotgun out you're pointing it at him you called
the cops and all of your families you sent them to some other house wouldn't he be like whoa
what's going on i mean aren't you almost like treating your brother like a criminal at that
point i mean you're treating him pretty poorly when it comes to your expectations for what he's
going to do doesn't show a lot of confidence either that the lord was going to be there
to protect you and to provide for you okay that's an important point i want to bring up again later
so i made the point let's get into this interesting part here of this of this passage and this is kind
of the more famous portion of scripture it says in verse 24 and jacob was left alone and there
wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day 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 he
wrestled with him and he said let me go for the day breaketh and he said i will not let thee go
except thou bless me and he said on him 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 has the power with god and with men and has
prevailed and jacob asked him and 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 jacob called the name of the place peniel
i have seen god face to face and my life is preserved he passed over penuel the sun rose
upon him and he halted upon his thigh therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which
shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh unto this day because he touched the hollow of jacob's
thigh and the sinew that shrank now this is very interesting it kind of breaks from the the dialogue
that we've been reading jacob's headed back he's worried about esau coming he shreds himself of all
of his assets he's he's diversified everything and then randomly there's some guy and they just
decide to wrestle you know this is kind of i mean that's kind of weird like you just you run into
a guy want to wrestle let's do it you know like obviously when you read the bible someone that's
not saved doesn't have the spirit of god these would just seem like random stories and just
random events and you're just like what in the world is going on here okay but this is a spiritual
book okay it has spiritual pictures all throughout it and this is a really interesting concept
but jacob really wants blessing okay and this man that he's wrestling with is going to be god
himself because he literally even says in verse 35 seeing god face to face so it's not just a
normal dude it's not just a random dude it's god in the flesh wrestling with jacob they're really
touching each other back and forth because that's how you wrestle okay you got to put hands on each
other and we know this is jesus this would be an old testament appearance of jesus christ who is
god manifest in the flesh okay and now someone doesn't believe jesus existed at this point this
would be a troubling doctrine from them okay this would be like your oneness pentecostals or people
that deny the trinity or something like that but jesus christ has always existed jesus christ is
the same yesterday today and forever and jesus christ has always been the son of god he always
will be the son of god and guess what he was god manifest in the flesh here and later he's going
to be manifested later now i would say you could argue he's not necessarily manifested here in the
sense that we didn't find out his name did we it's kind of it's kind of veiled but he's here in the
flesh there's a guy and it's at least enlightened unto jacob that this was god okay but it was god
in the flesh whether or not it's manifested that's arguable i would say probably not it
was really manifested through the birth of jesus christ and him showing himself under the world
being crucified that was what everybody ended up realizing that jesus was there but the bible
teaches many places that jesus showed up in the old testament in flesh people saw him people
interacted with them here's real clear example and not just like an apparition not just like
a spirit not just like something they saw something they touched he's wrestling he's
grabbing onto him okay now this is important understanding some of the spiritual pictures here
why are they wrestling couldn't they have done any any number of things couldn't they played checkers
i mean couldn't they played hopscotch or something i mean they could have played football
they could have thrown rocks you know they could have gone and just done anything any number of
things why are they wrestling well everything in the bible is on purpose and it's because there's
a spiritual picture that's being illustrated here who does jacob represent well it tells you in the
passage because he literally changes his name verse 28 thy name shall be no more called or
be called no more jacob but israel for as a prince has the power with god and with men and has
so jacob represents israel he is israel literally okay what does this mean he wrestles with that's
jesus now what is to wrestle you look up in the dictionary wrestle is to struggle to control or
move struggle to control or move that's what it means to wrestle so how do you win in wrestling
he basically pins someone to the point where you're in complete control of them and they tap
right they basically succumb they say uncle or they say whatever it is but you get to the point
where you've completely dominated you're in complete authority and complete control
of their movement of everything about them or they say mercy whatever so why would someone
not be that point because they're still actively wrestling so there's a fight for control there's
a fight for movement okay this is what's happening with israel and jesus the children of israel
wrestle with jesus who is the word of god why because jesus wants to affect their movement jesus
wants to affect their control but guess what they don't want to relinquish the control they fight
for control with jesus they try to fight for the movement of jesus the physical children of israel
do not submit themselves to jesus christ they resist jesus christ they wrestle jesus christ
they wrestle the word of god they don't submit to the word of god and jesus is trying to get them to
succumb to his will to try to obey his will to try to say mercy right to seek for his mercy
but they won't so that's why we see them wrestling and notice in the bible they wrestle for a really
long time don't they i mean what does the bible say it says that in verse number 24 and jacob
was left alone and they wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day so basically he's
wrestling with this guy all night now who's actually wrestled like like real wrestling
either in high school or like later or something yeah a lot of people wrestle wrestling is like
really strenuous like to wrestle for like five minutes would take all of your breath away and
take a lot of energy wrestle for five minutes beyond you know an hour wow that would be
incredible wrestle for hours i mean this is insane i mean the amount of endurance and strength that
someone would have to have to wrestle a full-grown man for hours and hours and hours i mean this is
an incredible feat it's not even possible really i mean you're probably almost no one's gonna be
able to just wrestle just non-stop for hours and hours and hours but i believe what it's
illustrating is the picture of how the children of israel are going to wrestle for a really long time
with the lord and isn't the old testament a really long time i mean it's longer than the new testament
so far right thousands and thousands of years illustrating a really long wrestling now at the
conclusion we have it coming to daybreak right and and basically the man is asking for uh him
to be let go he's like i'm done i'm done wrestling with he's like i'm not interested in this anymore
okay but what does jacob do he's i'm not gonna let you go until you bless me
now he also asked for his name and he says jacob then he calls him israel and he kind of gives him
this blessing he says for as a prince has the power with god and with men and has prevailed
that's really weird because you're thinking like okay jacob's a man the other man is jesus
how do you beat jesus in a wrestling match like isn't that weird wouldn't you kind of
think like if you're going to wrestle god you're pretty much going to lose right but we have to
think about this is the wrestling picture something it pictures what the jews are going to end up doing
to jesus and what do the jews end up doing they crucify jesus and wouldn't you say that's
prevailing in a sense they did they prevailed against jesus in the sense they wrestled with
them when jesus came they argued with them they contended with them they didn't want to believe
in him and eventually he allows them to win in a sense by allowing them to crucify him
now the crucifixion of jesus what does that do it ends up blessing them doesn't it it's the
blessing that they get because the gospel is blessing keep your finger go to galatians
chapter number three for a moment go to galatians chapter number three and praise the lord it
doesn't just bless jacob it blesses the whole world doesn't it galatians chapter number three
look at verse number 13
galatians ephishians look at chapter three verse 13 christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the
law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree that
the blessing of abraham might come on the gentiles through jesus christ that we might receive the
promise of the spirit through faith so notice jesus christ became a curse for us so that we
could be blessed so the only way that we could get blessed is if jesus lost somehow if somehow
a man prevailed against jesus so it's illustrating how there's going to be this great wrestling
and who's going to be the one that prevails against jesus israel who's the one that crucifies jesus
the jews okay obviously the romans are the ones that physically did it but the romans would have
never done it if israel didn't want it it was at the behest and the will of the children of israel
they even said let his blood be on us and on our children you know roman said the roman pilot
he just washed his hands and said you know i want nothing to do with this man he's innocent
you know and they're like hey his blood be on us and on our children meaning it's really clear
who's crucifying him the jews but even though they prevailed against him it was still a blessing
back to them and not just them to everyone the blessing of everyone came through go to
romans chapter four for a moment go to romans chapter number four for a moment
so see you can't just read the story and think like wrestling when it you got to try to look
for the spiritual pictures here and then everything makes perfect sense okay israel is being
foreshadowed here as the children of israel and the man is picturing the lord jesus christ
he is it in both cases but and israel's it in both cases okay but it's foreshadowing what's
going to come he blesses him romans chapter four look at verse number six even as david also
described the blessedness of the man in whom god imputed righteousness without works saying blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered blessed is the man to whom the
lord will not impute sin come at this blessed then blessedness then upon the circumcision only
or upon the uncircumcision also for we say that faith was reckoned to abraham
for righteousness so the question is were the jews the only ones that were blessed no
it was both but guess what that blessing did come through the prevailing of jesus christ through
the crucification of jesus christ that's a very very important point that we have to realize so
let's go back to our story and let's read a few more verses here to make a little more sense of
this though he asked what's his name and he doesn't just give it to him why well his name
is not ready to be revealed at this point okay and it would take away from the timeline now
god likes to do everything in the right amount of time and real
reveal things in their appropriate season if it's all of a sudden like i'm jesus i'm the son of god
then it'd be like oh wow like who's this guy and we want to learn more about that
god kind of just does things in dark parables and sayings and waits for the appropriate time
to then be like okay this is his name it's jesus let's all focus on jesus god wants to
build up to the climax he doesn't want to just give you everything right on the on the surface
just tell you everything we're kind of building up to that but obviously his name is really important
isn't it what's that name you know it's the name of jesus okay and it's interesting think about this
does jacob ever learn the name no okay what gets you saved believing in the name
okay so it's kind of hidden from him and i think this pictures again how the physical jews
salvation is going to be hidden from them and they're not going to really know that name they're
not going to trust in that name they're not really believe in that name it's not for them it's for
the same okay and obviously i'm not saying jacob's not safe jacob is saved okay but he's picturing
in this unsaved jews and how they're not really going to know the name they're just they're
blinded they don't really know the lord they're not they don't know the name they're obviously
i'm not saying when the jews were there they didn't hear the name jesus what i'm saying is
kind of symbolizing how they don't really know jesus they're not really trusting in his name
now you're picturing him it also says in verse number 30 that he has seen god face to face and
his life is preserved now that's interesting that he brings up the fact that he saw god face
to face again another foreshadowing of what that when jesus comes they're going to see god face to
face jesus wasn't just a man he was god manifest in the flesh they really saw god in human form
and they didn't die this also is laying a groundwork to know that when a man comes on
earth claiming to be god it's possible to see god and live because other verses in other chapters
and other lines of thinking are if i see god i die immediately okay and that's for good reason
there's verses in the bible that teach no man has seen god at any time the only begotten son which
is the bosom of the father he hath declared him right no man shall see my face and live is what
the bible says later in the scriptures so we kind of have this paradox of like how do you see god
and die in one context but then you see god and don't die in another context that's because there's
god the father and there's god the son that's why there's places in scripture where you can't see the
face of god where moses is in the mount he has to be hid in the cleft of the rock and he literally
has to cover his eyes he has to cover him from seeing god the father because if he saw god the
father he would die can you say why it's the same reason that you can't stare at the sun
the glory of the sun meaning the brightness of the sun is so great it's so powerful that it'll
blind you it'll literally hurt you looking at it because it's too great this is the same concept we
have with god the father if you were to see god the father it's so great he's so glorious he's so
holy so magnificent that it would literally just kill you because it's that wonderful it's that
great now i think god the father doesn't want to go the rest of eternity never talking to us face
to face he wants to talk to us face to face you know how he remedied that by sending his son in
flesh to die on the cross so that we could be born again spiritually and physically resurrected
and then one day we can actually see the father face to face and fellowship with him and communicate
with him he's protecting us from himself jesus is our sunglasses okay so you can actually
commune with the father and look i love sunglasses okay i wear them all the time when i was traveling
between houston and and dallas before i had actually moved here i was traveling like an
incredible amount and it was like i was driving back and forth like multiple times every week
and i never wore sunglasses and i started realizing that my eye is like twitching like
all the time like uncontrollably and i didn't know why and then it finally dawned on me when
i was driving without sunglasses i'm squinting a lot and by squinting i was tiring out the muscles
of my eye to the point where then they would just literally just like you know be constantly like
blinking uncontrollably and then i found this great invention called sunglasses and after wearing
this i never had that problem anymore okay so just a little tidbit advice okay but in this
passage we're learning a lot about jesus and we're learning a lot about the children of israel
and you know he wants to know who it is but he never really figures it out exactly it's kind of
a mystery to him now something interesting happens though it says in in the passage that the jesus
essentially this man had touched him it touched the hall of his life look back at verse 25 okay
and when he saw that he prevailed not against him he touched the hollow his thigh and the
hollow of jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him so something had happened
in this passage where he touched his thigh yet he continued wrestling with him beyond
okay what is this picture well in verse 32 again it says therefore the children of israel eat not
of the sinew which shrank which is upon the hollow of the thigh end of this day because
he touched the hollow of jacob's thigh and this knew this ring the wrestling jesus touches this
new it shrinks okay keep wrestling after it's all said and done then he walks hobbling around
yeah i know he's kind of crippled now he has got some kind of issue with this hollow of his thigh
well and i i think for sake of time i don't want to do this but i'll just kind of help you
understand the thigh in the bible is an interesting piece in the body and we've already read this
but when abraham is sending out isaac or not isaac his servant to find a wife for isaac for
rebecca he asked him to put his hand under his thigh and to promise unto him not to come back
without this wife essentially okay you have other places in the bible where people are making an
oath and they put their hand under the thigh jesus christ returns from heaven and he has a name
written on his thigh okay so what does the thigh kind of picture throughout the bible it kind of
pictures an oath pictures a promise it pictures a covenant okay now what does jacob have jacob
has this covenant that's given unto him and essentially the children of israel are going
to have a great covenant given to them called the old testament now but what happens when jesus
comes and he's and israel prevails over him the covenant changes doesn't it and in a sense what
happens it shrinks what is this the new testament the new testament is same as the old testament but
with some changes and some things went away now would you say the laws increased or decreased
they decreased didn't they basically the meats drinks divers washings cardinal ordinances
they all shrink a lot of the rules about the tabernacle basically shrink but it's still there
they still have a covenant it's still kind of the same it's just different
okay so i believe that this is a picture of the new testament that jesus christ is going to bring
and what does the new testament do it cripples and hobbles the false judaism religion that's
going to continue beyond and it's going to be this cripple hobbled religion that they're just
going to have that's basically going to be with them forever instead of just jumping on the new
testament they just now have this perverted crippled you know old testament that they're
continuing with which was no problem before it's only a problem after they prevail against jesus
was there anything wrong with the old testament before jesus no is there anything wrong with his
sinew with his thigh before jesus no but after he prevailed against jesus now it's been crippled
now it's been shrunk now he has a problem and here's the thing we don't believe that we are
judaic christians judeo-christian we're just 100 christian and i don't want the hobbled thigh now
isn't interesting that they just don't eat that portion of meat what does that sound like they
didn't accept the new testament did they they don't want to eat it go to john chapter number
six go to john chapter number six just like they won't eat that portion of meat there was a portion
of meat that they didn't want to eat that was offered from jesus now who made that sinew shrink
jesus did jesus fulfilled portion of the law okay and he offered them something to eat but guess
what they won't eat they won't eat that portion of the thigh look at john chapter number six and
look at verse 51 i am the living bread which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread
he shall live forever and the bread that i will give is my flesh which i will give for the life
of the world the jews therefore strove among themselves saying how can this man give us his
flesh to eat and jesus said unto them verily verily i say unto you except you eat the flesh
of the son of man and drink his blood you have no life in you so eat with my flesh and drink my
blood of eternal life and i will raise him up by the last day my flesh is meat indeed and my blood
is drink indeed he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and i in him
as the as the living father has sent me and i live by the father so he that eateth me even he shall
live by me this is that bread which came down from heaven not as your father's that eat man and are
dead he that eateth this bread shall live forever now obviously the primary portion of this is
talking about man and the future and everything like that but i think it also fits when we think
about this concept is what happened they refused to eat jesus in a spiritual sense meaning they
refused to accept him believe on him and get saved just like they refused to eat that sinew
that shrank so it's symbolizing how the jews aren't going to eat jesus they're not going to
get saved they don't like what he did they don't like that he touched the sinew he doesn't they
don't like that they changed him what did jesus do he changed the israel he made it different
he altered it and they didn't like the altering they want the old not the new they stumbled to
that stumbling stone which is christ therefore it's symbolizing all these pictures go to go to
matthew chapter number 16 last place i'm going to return so let's make a full let's think about
the whole passage okay we start out with angels of god appearing to jacob what is jacob told to do
go to the promised land what could this picture could pick your salvation it could picture
following god's commandments but jacob is resisting following god's commandments even
though god sends a great host of angels i mean do you have to worry about esau when you have angels
on your team shouldn't you have just marched in all confident when you literally had an entire
host of god's angels there saying let's go but what does he do he acts all scared and nervous
and afraid and ends up just doing all these weird actions basically signifying he doesn't have
confidence in the lord he's not really trusting in the lord to preserve now again if you are
genuinely afraid or you really had a legitimate fear i'm not saying his actions don't make sense
what i'm saying is he shouldn't have been afraid in the first place he should have just trusted in
the lord had confidence in the lord but we see him left alone and then he even wrestles with
jesus himself instead of just succumbing to his will instead of just going with what jesus wants
him to do he resists again picture of salvation what do people do they're afraid they trust in
themselves they wrestle with jesus instead of just accepting his mercy instead of just accepting his
plan not only that though people that are saved often will wrestle with jesus
just like jacob you know they wrestle with the lord heeter does this in the bible and that's
why i had you turn to matthew chapter number 16 i want to show you an example of this
and it's really similar look what it says in verse 21
from that time forth began jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go
unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed
and be raised again the third day this is the gospel and you know what it offends peter peter
doesn't like it peter doesn't want to accept that says in verse 22 then peter took him and began to
rebuke him saying be it far from the lord this shall not be unto thee so notice peter's afraid
of losing the lord he's afraid of losing things they are anticipating perhaps just setting up a
new kingdom or setting a little rain let's usher in the morning what is jacob so afraid of losing
all of his possessions isn't he losing all of his goods he doesn't like just trusting in the lord
and just moving forward what does jesus say but he turned and said unto peter get thee behind me
satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of god
but those that be of men now that's not a very nice thing to say is it how many of you all want
me to call you satan later okay or you're again having jesus there and just calling you satan
that's harsh you know what is true wasn't it wasn't it true because what he's saying he's trying to
stop jesus from fulfilling the gospel what could be worse than that i mean that's a bad move on
peter's part obviously he had a bad thought obviously he was doing something wrong and it's
not that peter was literally satan but he's been influenced by the thinking of the devil the devil
doesn't want jesus christ to go through the gospel and what is he ultimately savoring the things that
be of men not the things that be of god what are the things that be of men houses lands money good
all the stuff that you like that'd be the things of men and notice what peter's most concerned with
all the things of men not the things of god because what is jesus ultimately doing he's
sacrificing everything so let's just go back to our story if jacob is going back to isaac
what if god's asking him to lose everything why don't you just say so be it
why is he trying to separate all this stuff because he doesn't want to lose all this stuff
is he really savoring the things that be of god or is he savoring the things that be of men
savoring the things that be of men and you know what some people they're so terrified of losing
anything in this life rather than just saying what does god just want me to do though
what's the right you know what this would be your question not will i lose my job
not will i lose my house not will i lose money not will i lose friends not will i lose family
here's here's the question you should always ask yourself what does jesus want me to do
i mean is that i mean what else matters why does it matter if god wants me to lose it why would i
not want to lose it and if in a lot of cases it's a boogeyman anyways a lot of cases you're so
afraid of losing something that was never going to take away was was jacob ever going to lose any
of these possessions no it wasn't even on table but just the thought of losing them terrified him
terrified him into making all these weird dumb decisions and just diversifying everything and
you know what i'm sure he pissed a few people off when he's like hey you guys go first
you're like why did you put us first you know like he's talking about why he's like uh honey
you go first honey i want you to go last isn't that going to be kind of hurting some people's
feelings there it was a silly decision because he's not trusting in god let's keep reading let's
see what it says then said jesus and disciples if any man will come after me let him deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me for whosoever will save his life to lose it and whosoever will
lose his life for my sake and find it that's a profound words he says are you willing to lose
your life for me he says hey if you're willing to lose it you'll find it but you know what when
you try to hang on to it you end up losing it anyways just like we find jacob all alone trying
to preserve it and he's just standing there by himself and ends up making a weird decision of
wrestling with jesus himself you know you don't want to be wrestling with god you don't want to
be struggling with god but that's what the children of israel are going to do it's foreshadowing the
whole rest of the bible we already know the whole rest of the bible just from this story
the children of israel are going to wrestle with god all the way into jesus
and they're going to kill jesus and then they're still not going to take the blessing that he gave
them they're still not going to trust in him they're still going to resist to the bitter end
as a whole as a group of people but here's the question what are you going to do
you know what is your life going to look like what are you willing to lose
for the lord jesus christ he says it's supposed to be everything now this does not mean you just
have to sell everything and just show up at church naked and be like pastor shelley i sold it all
if you show up naked i'm going to tell you to leave okay or i'll offer you clothes you know
like i'll be like here have a coat or something you know come back when you get some clothes or
whatever that's not that's not what we're saying here what we're saying is when i make a decision
what does jesus want me to do where does jesus want me to go and you say but i could lose
something if i if i go down that path isn't that the whole point isn't the whole point that god
gets glory when you say if i lose it all so be it i just want to do what god wants me to do anyways
i just want to serve him i just want to follow him anyway he gets glory through faith
what is faith it's not sight it's not knowing what's going to happen did jacob know what's
going to happen with esau no god's asking to go back with faith he's asking him to trust in him
he's asking to put his faith in him instead of just wrestling and resisting and being hesitant
in order to fulfill his will that's verse 26 for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul which all men give in exchange for his soul the son of man shall come in
the glory of his father with his angels and then shall they reward every man according to his works
you know at the end of the day you and i will stand before jesus christ period you're saved
you're going to stand before jesus and every decision you made in your entire life is going
to be judged all your good works all your bad works and you know what i want you to be able
to stand there with confidence and say you know what as many times as i possibly could i just
chose christ not the things this world i was going to lose anyways you already lost them
there's no point don't be like jacob and wrestling with them and get hobbled and crippled
and just forsake following the lord and trusting in him having faith in him
to the point where you just resist everything you destroy your children's heritage i mean look
obviously he's going to give us the lineage of jesus christ obviously jacob's in heaven
and obviously jacob is a good example in lots of ways in the bible but a lot of his sons are
terrible a lot of i mean he's going to picture the christ rejecting jews that killed jesus
that's not great heritage there and you know i notice whenever you model for your family
that you care more about stuff than serving god they'll often do the same thing
i wonder if he hadn't done this if he just had confidence the lord maybe would be a little bit
different how his descendants would have responded to the lord jesus christ but rather than clinging
and hanging on to all this stuff and so afraid of losing it you know he just trusted in the lord
maybe his children would have trusted in the lord hey you know what don't be the person don't be the
christian that gets nervous at some point in your life and clings to all your stuff and forsakes
christ stops trusting in the lord you know what you're going to be better off if you get to the
bitter end and you say you know what i may have lost it all but i still finished my course i kept
the faith and henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness in heaven i don't even
think you'll lose it all you know what you can't lose your faith if you just keep it in jesus
no one can take that away from you no one can take away the treasures in heaven
and a lot of the treasures on earth are being taken away by the government every day inflation
taxes i mean communism i mean you name it it's been taken away you might as well just kiss a
goodbye anyways you might just be like sweet you know i'd rather just lose it get a looser
grip on the things of this world and get a tighter grip on christ goes in prayer thank you heavenly
father for this great picture that you've given us through jacob i pray that we would realize
the importance of serving you by faith that you would help motivate us to get a looser grip on
the things of this world and and that we would have a desire to follow you and to go down the
right path no matter what obstacles may come no matter what threat may be coming for us no matter
what evil may look be lurking in the distant future or the or the near future i pray that we
would just walk by faith not by sight that we trust that you're with us that we know whether
we can see it or not there's a great host of angels that are there to protect us and to guide
us and to help us and to encourage us and to strengthen us and that you're you're there with
us the most important that you're there to strengthen encourage us and i pray that we
wouldn't lose faith in our christian life no matter what evil is in is on the horizon in
jesus name we pray amen all right for our last song we'll go to song 209 sunshine in the soul
song 209 sunshine in the soul
209 sunshine in the soul
there's sunshine in my soul today more glorious and bright than any earth
shine blessed sunshine when the peaceful happy moments roll when jesus shows his smiling face
there is sunshine in the soul there's music in my soul today a carol to the king
and jesus
it can be
there is sunshine in the soul there's great time in my soul today
for when the lord is near
the love of peace is in my heart
the flowers of grace appear
oh there's sunshine blessed sunshine
when the peaceful happy moments roll
when jesus shows his smiling face
there is sunshine in the soul
there's gladness in my soul today
and hope and praise and love
for blessings which he gives me now
for joys light up above
oh there's sunshine blessed sunshine
when the peaceful happy moments roll
when jesus shows his smiling face
there is sunshine in the soul
thank you all for coming god bless you are dismissed
you
oh
you