Great Labor Day Weekend Service!
Mike Henderson shared an important quote -- Sin is the freedom that keeps us chained -- that is surely something to ponder in the coming days
.
Bro Mike announced that we will have Lord's Supper next week and that becomes a reminder that we should begin now to prepare ourselves for that incomprehensible event.
The sermon text for today's message was from Genesis 32. The well-known section where Jacob wrestles with God - and Bro Mike compared it to our wrestling with God in our prayer life.
The subject of prayer seems to be heavy on Bro Mike's mind these days. It is a theme that underlies much of his messages to us -- the importance of prayer, its practice and its power -- especially its power.
A few weeks ago at Wednesday prayer meeting he handed out to us copies of a short quote from Richard Foster:
The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father
that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.
None of us will keep up a life of prayer unless we are prepared to change. We will either
give it up or turn it into a little system that maintains the form of godliness but denies the
power of it -- which is the same thing as giving it up.
I can't get these words off my mind.They are clipped to my brain like a yellow sticky note. I do not,
or only rarely, take into account the power of my time with God (TAWG - Time Alone With God).
I seem to ignore that aspect completely. Why? I guess so I don't have to confront Him. Jacob had to confront Him.
Again, today's message was really all about prayer. And the illustration from scripture was the
time of Jacob's wrestling with God - his perseverance, and his demand for a blessing. It is interesting to me that Jacob had already cheated his brother Esau out of his blessing and birthright - and now Esau
is waiting for Jacob, probably to kill him, and Jacob is asking God for another blessing! How amazing is that! (Is there a message there?)
I had never thought of this event in Jacob's life as an example of confronting God - and God confronting us - in prayer. I never saw that part of the story.
Here are a few random notes that I found provocative. There was so much more. Go to our web site (fbc-bc.org) for the complete message.
Here is the text:
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him til daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Then the man said, "Let me go for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered. Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
Jacob said, "Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" And he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."
So who was Jacob wrestling with? Was it the angel Michael? Was in an appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ? We don't know for certain. But in any case, it appears to be God's very, very special "Man."
Some things Bro Mike brought out:
(1) Jacob was alone. His life was reaching a climax. He had years before swindled his brother out of his inheritance, tricked his father, planted seeds of animosity in his family (his own and Laban's) and was now fearful that he was going to reap the tragic harvest.
Sometimes we have to be truly alone to hear God's voice. Jacob was finally alone, and so God came down to him.
(2) The duration of the event. God is eternal. He has all the time in the world, but He does not give us unlimited time. We must take advantage of the situation when He is speaking to us.
(3) The attitude of Jacob. He did not give up. Like the parable of the woman who kept pleading with the judge in Luke 18. The purpose of the parable, Christ said, was to demonstrate that we should always pray and not give up.
Jacob did not name the geographic place of his encounter to show that he had won a wrestling match with God. He made mention of the place because he had an encounter with God and "yet his life was spared."
He knew it was only through God's grace that he was allowed to enter God's presence.
Why should we wrestle with God in prayer?
Maybe God wants to bless us. Does God let us miss things He has for us?
We should wrestle with Him in prayer and look for the blessing.
Sometimes His blessings equip us to become the person He wants us to be.
There will probably be a scar. And we will say, "Thank you, Lord" for that experience. Jacob left with a limp.
This was a "big" sermon - to hear it all, or hear it again -- go to fbc-bc.org.
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