Jacob Broken, Bridled, Blessed
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 213 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Good Evening, tonight were going to be talking about Jacob.
So turn with me in your Bibles to . Were looking tonight at a man God had to break in order to bless Him.
Jacob is a very interesting person, you know I never really have liked horses I read in that when we come back with Jesus were all going to be riding on white horses, I dont really like that scripture too much I dont like horses.
I just never had the knack for horses and always saw them as unpredictable.
I have no desire to be on a horse, at all.
One thing about horses is that they need to be broken. When you break a horse you humble them and let them know who is in control.
As a beliver of the Lord there is going to be a time when God is going to break you, and you need to just go ahead on and let Him.
What do I mean by that?
What happened to Jacob is gonna have to happen to everybody, God cannot use somebody who is filled with themself, God has to break you, so He can bridle you, so He can bless you.
Jacob was a man full of himself , his name even meant supplanter, con, trickster. Everytime you turned around he was pulling something over on somebody, the Bible said he was a mammas boy, he liked to stay inside and cook, he had a brother named Esau who was an outdoorsman, loved to hunt.
Jacob, was home cooking one day and his brother came home starving, at least he said he was coming home from hunting. He wanted something to eat and Jacob said I’ll give it to ya if you’ll sell me your birthright.
Esau said what is my birthright to me, he was the firstborn he was going to get a double portion of his fathers blessings at Isaacs death and he said I dont care about my birthright I am starving. Give me some of that stew, and so he traded an enormous amount of wealth for a little bowl of soup.
How many of you know somebody who has traded something very valuable for something very small?
They gave away something precious that could never be gotten back, and later on in time, when Esau was about to be blessed as the first born, Isaac had it ready to go.
Isaac under the leadership of his decietful mother dressed Isaac in Esaus clothes and while Esau was out hunting he went in and his dad was blind and he had some wool over his arms because Esau was really hairy and his mother clothed him this way to decieve his father into giving the birthright to Isaac.
He stole not only his birthright but also Esaus blessing, and the Bible said that Esau was ready to kill Jacob.
So Jacob’s mother said you need to get outta town you need to go to my fathers house Laban you uncle. How many of you know God knows how to discipline ua amen.
God had a bigger trickster than Jacob and his name was Laban, and everytime you turn around Laban was pulling a trick on the trickster.
He was always conning the con, and for 20 years he made life miserable for Jacob. Finally after Jacob had married his two daughters Leah and Rachel, even that was a con.
Jacob was going after Rachel but somehow he snuck Leah in the tent.
For 20 years he worked for those two girls and for some livestock, and when he finally worked and got everything he thought he needed and became pretty wealthy, Jacob left stealthily and was gone for 3 days before Laban even knew he was gone.
He was going back home but he had a problem, now he was between 2 angry men. His father in law Laban was mad at him for leaving, and Esau was probably still mad at him for stealing his blessing and birthright, so he was between a rock and a hard place.
How many of you know its when you are between and rock and a hard place thats where you meet God amen?
He came to a place called Pineal, and the Bible says that he in his own caniving way sent his wife on toward Esau but before he did he sent someone ahead, some messengers ahead to find out how Esau was doing.
Thats when God started really working on him. Let me read you the story that we will be in tonight.
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
“What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,” he replied.
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
Then Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me Your name.”
But He answered, “Why do you ask My name?” And He blessed him there.
Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “and I have been delivered.” The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel —limping because of his hip. That is why, to this day, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because He struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.
Genesis 32:24-
When you pray God breaks you.
Thats a good thing. He breaks you from your sinfulness, he breaks you from your wildness.
Genesis 32:24-26
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
Jacob was in big trouble, he hadn’t seen his brother in 20 years, when he left 20 years ealier he had lied to his father, and stolen from him, he had fled town to go to uncle Labans home, worked for 20 years as a slave.
Now he is on his way home and he finds out that his brother was still angry with him.
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau; he is coming to meet you—and he has 400 men with him.”
Genesis 32:6
Then Jacob did what he normally did in these types of situations he tried to manipulate things.
Genesis 32:7-
Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; he divided the people with him into two camps, along with the flocks, cattle, and camels. He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.”
Then Jacob did what he really needed to do he started praying. You know when your afradi sometimes you’ll pray and god hears your prayers.
Then Jacob said, “God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Go back to your land and to your family, and I will cause you to prosper,’
I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two camps.
Please rescue me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid of him; otherwise, he may come and attack me, the mothers, and their children.
You have said, ‘I will cause you to prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”
This passionate fervent prayer thats whats gonna get him somewhere.
He is praying the promises of God back to the God who made the promise and it wasnt very long that God answered His prayer by sending the angel of the Lord. Now the angel of the Lord is seen all over the NT.
I personally believe he is the preincante Christ because he is more than just an angel. Not all angels are referred to as the Angel of the Lord but whenever the Angel of the Lord shows up people start bowing down, the Angel of the Lord was the one who was in the burning bush and said to Moses take your sandals off your feet for the place where your standing is holy ground.
Angels never said that!
But the Angel of the Lord did. He said the same thing to Joshua when Joshua found him right before they took on Jericho to go into the promised land he found the Angel of the Lord and his swrod was drawn and Joshua said, are you with us or are you with them?
He said no, how many of you know that God doesn’t take sides amen… He just takes over.
The Angel of the Lord is who Jacob is encountering now I believe its Jesus.
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
This man wrestling with Jacob was God in physical form. The Angel could have taken Jacob down at any moment nevertheless he toyed with him and wrestled with him.
How many of you are glad that God could do away with us at any moment but he chooses to put up with us amen?
When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip.
I want you to catch that he didn’t hit his thigh He just kinda tapped it. You don’t want god hitting you because a simple touch can dislocate a bone.
Sometimes he will touch you, and he might even use a sickness or a broken hip, even though Jacob was permantly wounded he refused to let go of God.
He had been wounded and he would be wounded the rest of his life.
Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
Jacob was reayd to wrestle with God until he got his answer, have you ever prayed like that?
Have you ever latched on to god like that?
God wants to answer but he will only answer if you pray like this man did, he was persistent and passionate, he was acting like a spiritual bulldog, and God loved it.
God loves it when we pray like this.
It was here that God broke the stubborness of Jacob, it was here that God got Jacob back on track, it was here that God had to wound him physically but it would change him spiritually.
By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and he worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.
He was still limping decades later.
The time jacob’s hip was wounded at piniel until the time of his death he walked with a limp. Everytime he walked with that limp he remembered I dont trust in me anymore I trust in God.
I wanna say this to you, some of you have a jacobs limp. some of you are gonna get one, if you dont surrender to the Lord, God had to break him.
Now some of the Godliest people I have ever known have gotten sick and died, but I am convinced that God does this with his disobedient people.
He disciplines us sometimes.
You know God gave the apostle Paul a physical illness that made him physically weak, but it also made him spiritually strong.
especially because of the extraordinary revelations. Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself. Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and in pressures, because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-
God used that thorn in the flesh to keep him depending on God to break him to cause him to keep relying on the Lord.
Paul prayed three times
God remove this thorn..... No
God remove this thorn.... No
God remove this thorn..... No
No Paul bc that thorn, your better with it than without it, bc you pray more now than you ever did before you come after me more than you ever did before you trust me more you want me more bc you have that limp.
Thats the very thing I am using to make you more like Jesus,
SOMETIMES THE VERY THING THAT WE DONT LIKE THE MOST IS THE THING THAT GOD IS USING TO MAKE US MORE LIKE JESUS.
That thorn, god has given you in the big sphere of things is a blessing.
2. God Bridles you.
Its one thing to break a horse its another thing to bridle a horse and ride it.
“What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob,” he replied.
When the Angel of the Lord asked what is your name it was the Lords way of asking Jacob to surrender. Tell me your name when you were in battle in that day and you demanded your opponent to to announce his name it meant that you were making him surrender.
Thats what God was doing He was making him surrender.
It’s like two boys wrestling and one of the boys puts a head lock on the other and he is squeezing his head and he is saying say uncle, no no, say uncle no no, say uncle and finally UNCLE i give up.
Jacob had given up when he said his name he wasn’t just saying his name he was syaing uncle.
When he confessed his name the fight was over that was the pinnacle of Jacobs life. When he said my name is Jacob I am a liar a deciever a trickster. I GIVE UP
I can’t defend myself against Esau, I can’t defend myself against Laban, and I can’t stand toe to toe with you Lord.
I have tried and teid an I am sick of fighting you Lord you know who I am.
Good things happen when you confess who you are to the Lord, he surrendered all that he was to all of God and he started receiveing peace in his soul.
I wanna ask you, has God ever broken you?
Has God ever bridled you?
Can God take you wherever He wants you to go?
(Dereck Crum)
You dont do that sort of thing unless youve been broken and bridled
3. Gd BLESSES YOU
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
Genesis 32:28
Then Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me Your name.”
But He answered, “Why do you ask My name?” And He blessed him there.
He got a brand new name He went from a con and liar to one who had voctory with the Lord and after the fight.
Jacob then named the place Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face,” he said, “and I have been delivered.”
The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel —limping because of his hip.
That is why, to this day, the Israelites don’t eat the thigh muscle that is at the hip socket: because He struck Jacob’s hip socket at the thigh muscle.
He is walking back limping, can’t you see Jacob limping back to his family he has had no sleep, in 24 hours he has wrestled with the angle of God all night long.
I just think when you wrestle with God all night long that ya hair is gonna be messed up dont you?
I think if you wrestle with God all night long your clothes are gonna be torn dont you?
I think when you wreslte with God all night long your eyes are gonna be bloodshot. where God touches you on the hip he is limpingin.
God had done something in his heart and lifted that guilt, you can’t do something wrong to somebody like he did to Esau and it not eat at you all the time.
All that was gone, and he would take that imp any day of the week because he had peace with God.
Wouldn’t it be beter to have a limp the rest of your life and be right with God than to have good health and be a deciever?
He’s walking in and Rachel says what in the world has happened to you?
He didn’t say anything, Leah says what in the world has happened to you he didn’t say anything. His kids came up and sat em all down and he said I have seen God and I may be limping but I got blessed last night.
God broke me, God bridled me and I surrendered and God blessed me, I am no longer called Jacob but Israel.
I wrestled with God and he won but I won too, I am a new man now.
Is it me or is it just quiet in here, some of you have wrestled with God for a long time I got 2 words for ya GIVE UP
Let Him have His way.
How many of you believe God still knows how to touch us if we need it?
He sure does
But oh that touch will be so precious bc if you didn’t have that you wouldnt depend on him as much, God is using that very thing to bring you closer to Him.
(let’s pray)