How to Get from Here to There

Amen. What an awesome presence of the Lord is here today. Amen. I'm glad Jesus comes to church. Amen. If you have a Bible this morning, I'm going to go to the book of Genesis chapter number 32, and we'll begin reading in verse 24. As you're turning there, Genesis 32 and 24, I want to give honor to your pastor and his wife today. I so appreciate their friendship and kind hospitality. I hope you know that God has blessed you with great leadership, and they give themselves selflessly to the kingdom, both here and at large, and I honor them for who they are and what they stand for. And you can tell a lot about people by observing their children. And I know there comes a point in life when a child will be of age where they make their own decision, and a parent cannot be accountable for everything,

but certainly in childhood and teenage years, much can be observed or concluded by the observation of a family. And you've got a good pastor. And you ought to thank God for that. I'm going to read here in Genesis 32. We'll begin at verse 24, and we'll go all the way down to verse number 30, somewhat lengthy scripture reading, but I want to make sure that we start on level ground today because we're going to work our way through these passages of scripture this morning. And what I will share with you today is not necessarily profound or revelatory. It might be in part not what you even want to hear, but I am convinced it is something that we all need to hear. And so let's read, I'm going to start at verse 24. 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, says the angel touched the hollow of his thigh. The hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him. Verse 26, he said, Let me go for the day breaketh. Jacob responds, I will not let you go except you bless me. And he said unto them, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he, this is the angel of the Lord speaking, he said thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel. For as a prince you have 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 that would ask after my name? And I want you to notice this sentence here. The Bible says he blessed him there. Verse 30, Jacob called the name of the place Pneel,

for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. Verse 29, it said that he blessed him there. And I'd like to draw a little play on the word there this morning. And I want to talk to you about how to get from here to there. Amen. Let's pray one more time. Lord Jesus, we love you. God, I'm so thankful for the people of God. Your presence that we feel in this house today, I'm asking Lord that you would help me speak your word with clarity and with anointing. I pray Father that you would touch the mind and the heart of every here in this house that we would receive what it is you have for us here today. We know except you build the house that our labor is in vain. You must do the work, so let your word speak.

Let your spirit help us now. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. You can be seated. How to get from here to there. Our text began in verse 24, which is at the conclusion of Jacob sending his wives and servants and sons and possessions across the brook or the river Jabbak. And as he sends them over, the Bible says that he stays or he is left alone. Now, loneliness is not an enjoyable thing, even for the introverts of which I am one. In fact, at the beginning of your Bible, God said he was not good for man to be alone. It's one of the first emotions recorded in Scripture. But here the Bible says that Jacob is left alone. He is no longer busy with the tasks of caring for family and possessions. They have passed to the other side of the river.

And now on this particular night, he is alone all by himself. He is freed for a moment from the task of caring for people and possessions. And this is noteworthy for us to consider now because when Jacob is alone, it is at this time that God would command his attention. Jacob is not the instigator in this account. And here it is in verse 24, at this place where he is alone, that the Bible says there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. It is noteworthy that the Bible says there wrestled a man with him. It does not say Jacob wrestled with the man. This is to say that the conflict of which we read did not begin by the pursuit of Jacob, but by the pursuit of the angel which is of God. This means that God has been in pursuit of this moment for a long time.

God has been waiting for an opportunity to capture the attention of Jacob. He has been waiting with great anticipation for a moment where he could get the man all alone, all by himself free from the many distractions of life. And so I pause today to tell you that I've not just come to preach to you about Jacob. I've come to preach to you about you because what is true of him is true of all of us here today. God, the Bible says it like this, goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life. And so it is that God follows us in every place and every step, waiting for the moment when our minds are free of the many distractions and where our attention is arrested by God. And God too waits for the moment when he can pursue us and he can wrestle us.

I wrestled a man with him. I want you to hear me today. God is in search of your attention. Now you know what it's like. You can be in the house of God, but your mind already be three days into the future. You can be here in the presence of the Lord, but your mind already be on what you're going to have for lunch or what you're going to do this week. It is not the same. That's why the Bible said they were in one place but in one mind or one accord because you can be in one place but not be in one mind. And I come today to preach to thank God you're in the house. Your attendance to the house of God does matter. But God does not just want your attendance. God wants your attention. And sometimes you don't realize that God is all you need until he's all you have.

And here under the dark sky on this particular night when Jacob is all by himself he comes to this awakening, this starling realization that this man whom he does not yet know to be a manifestation of God the angel of the Lord that this man has been in pursuit of me even when I did not realize it. And the wrestling match begins. And as that sun begins to rise we read in verse 26 the angel tells him I will not let you go unless you bless me. He says to the angel I will not let you go. He is relentless. Now let me pause here and make application. Because well God is God and God can do many things. The likelihood of anybody in this room physically wrestling with an angel is probably quite small. And while you might think yourself spiritual if you were

I would submit to you if God has to go to such lengths to let an angel be revealed and wrestle with you to arrest your will. This is not a compliment. You ought to be submitted surrender insensitive enough that when he speaks and when his spirit moves you respond. So one will some might pat themselves on the back because they wrestle with an angel. I would submit it's probably not as much a sign of your spirituality as your stubbornness. Well the truth is that probably none of us will have the account of which we read. The Bible speaks of a man named Apaphras in Colossians 4 who Paul says is a servant of Christ and he is always laboring fervently for you in prayer. The new international version says it like this. He is always wrestling in prayer for you. So it is well none of us will probably ever wrestle with God

by way of an angel. The scripture does give us understanding today that the way in which men and women still wrestle with God today is by prayer. That's why Paul said in Ephesians 6 and 18 that we are praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Prayer is the means by which we wrestle in the spirit. Sometimes we're wrestling with God. Sometimes we're wrestling with our own will. Sometimes we're wrestling with situation and circumstance. Sometimes it may even be that we wrestle with powers of evil but this is what you must understand today. Prayer is how we wrestle. And here it is in this conflict where the patriarch is wrestling with the angel and he is relentless in his pursuit. He will not give up and do you know why? Because he believes in his own sufficiency. I am strong enough to prevail.

I will not let go. I will not quit. I will fight you until you give me what I want. And while his desire is good and why we should freely ask of the Lord and while I hope to provoke you today to ask God for things you must understand there are things in God which you cannot obtain by your own strength. You are not sufficient. Your knowledge is not enough. Your determination while good and commendable is not enough and here is Jacob wrestling with an angel. Determine that he will not quit. I will not let you go until you bless me. Then the angel asks this question because he sees the persistence of the patriarch and he realizes he is willing to contend, unwilling to stop. And he asks the question, What is your name? And he said, Jacob. Now to us in our day when we select the name

and I'm guilty of it, I've got one son with the family name and two with names that we just liked. Carson, he got the family name. Sawyer and Finn, they got name because we just like the name. We give no consideration to the meaning of a name and for this I'm glad because when I was a teenager and learned that my last name meant son of ugly, I was not too thankful about that. It's not too bad when you're the kid because that just means your dad's the ugly one. But then when you become a dad, in the story of which we're reading here today in this ancient culture, names tell a story. Jacob, it means deceiver, supplanter. What is your name? What he's saying is tell me who you really are. My name's Jacob, the deceiver, the tricker, master of trickery. This is who I am.

I get what I want because I outwit, I outsmart, I deceive. I've been fighting from my mother's womb playing tricks on my brother, my mother, and my father. I always get what I want. I've learned how to be a man of my own will driven by selfish ambition. This is Jacob. That's who I am. I am Jacob. Jacob, the deceiver, the liar. Jacob, the man of self-will and ambition. That is who I am. Now here in this wrestling matches, they go back and forth and back and forth and back and forth and the day is soon to break and the match is soon to end. The angel looks at him and says, no, thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel. It was a total transformation. The giving of a new identity, the making of a new man. The prophet Hosea would write about this very experience

in 12 and 4. He said he being Jacob had power over the angel and prevailed. It seems to imply that he is in some way victorious over God. Yet the next phrase in Hosea 12 and 4 says this, he wept and made supplication unto him. He had power over the angel. He prevailed over the angel but he wept. Another translation says it like this. He wept and he begged for favor. And I would submit to you that this seems like somewhat of a contradiction. How can on the one hand you say he had power over? How on the one hand can you say he prevailed but on the other hand say he wept? On the other hand say he begged. To beg is the voice of defeat. It is the recognition of your vulnerability. It is the acknowledgement of your inability and your need. How is it then that you can prevail and be a beggar?

How is it that you can weep and be victorious? And to this I would submit to you the answer. No man can conquer God. Jacob came to the realization. I am in a match in which the only way I can win is by being willing to lose. I know in every other area of your life you got to be the big man, the head honcho, the tough guy. You got to be composed and have it all together. Walking on the backs of other people. No consideration of anybody else. Just me, myself, and I. But these are not the virtues of the kingdom. And Jacob had finally found himself in a wrestling match that he could not win by his own strength. That's why the angel said, I'm going to touch the hollow of your thigh. I'm going to put your hip out of joint and I'm going to make you walk with a limb for the rest of your life.

I'm going to give you a sign of weakness. A sign of your own inferiority to remind you that the only way in which you win with God is by being willing to lose. Didn't Jesus teach you the same thing? He said a man has to be willing to lose his life. If you try to keep it, you'll lose it. But if you lose it, you'll gain it all. This is the principle of the kingdom. The way in which you win with God is by being willing to lose with God. To surrender yourself, surrender your will, and actually let God be the God of your life. Tell me who you are, Jacob. I'm Jacob. I'm the deceiver. I'm the liar. I'm the struggler. I'm the self-built man. I've been doing it by myself, according to myself, all the days of my life. And God said, Jacob, I've been waiting for a moment like this

when I could bring you to the end of yourself and turn you into the man that you're supposed to be. Because I don't want you being a deceiver. I don't want you being a liar. Who you've been is not who you'll always be. Tonight, I'm going to turn you in to Israel. You're a prince. You've got power with God. That's who you are. And I come today because God would like to give some of you a Genesis 32 experience. But now let me tell you what you might not like to hear. Because this whole encounter began with the recognition that he was about to be confronted by the brother he deceived. Going earlier in Genesis 32, in fact, this pursuit of God, if your Bible has little subtitles over sections like mine, it may say something like this over verse 9, Jacob's prayer. You know where this prayer meeting began?

It began by Jacob asking God to deliver him from his brother. But the reality was he did not need delivered from his brother. He needed delivered from himself. He believed Esau to be his enemy when in reality he had been his greatest adversary all the days of his life. And the fear that lingers in his mind and the concern that weighs so heavy on his heart knowing that he is about to face Esau again drives him into a place of prayer. He is concerned about his circumstance. But God is concerned about his character. And all too often we are guilty of the pattern of Jacob. Living according to our own will and ambition. Operating in our own strength. Our own waltz and desires. And then we come to God burdened by circumstance. God I don't like this. Change this. Change that. Deliver me from this and help me with this and get me out of

that and get me into this circumstance after circumstance after circumstance. And it was if God was saying to Jacob by the confrontation that night in the calling forth of his name and the giving of a new name what he was telling him was this. The changing of your character is of greater priority. The changing of your circumstance is not. And I've come today to tell you we are guilty of the same. Sunday after Sunday midweek after midweek. Camp after camp and prayer meeting after praying. Appealing to God knowing his goodness. Believing in his power. God get me out of this and change this and change that. And God is saying I'm just waiting for you to get alone. I'm waiting for you to get honest and vulnerable. I'm waiting for your attention to be arrested by my presence because you keep talking to me about

circumstance but I want to talk to you about character. I fear that North American Christianity is losing this fundamental tenet of what it's supposed to be. Salvation. Conversion is the changing of a man or a woman. It's the taking out of a stony heart and the giving of a heart of flesh. It's those sins being left in the waters of baptism when the name of Jesus is spoken over you and you are buried with Christ and baptism and Paul said you rise to walk in the newness of life. You don't keep living how you used to live because the old man is dead and I am dead to sin and the perfect law of liberty sets me free from the power of sin and now I walk different and I talk different and I think different and I speak different. It's the changing of the man.

The fact is even the greatest among us like Paul himself wrestled with this kind of thing. In 2 Corinthians 12 and 8 he said I for this thing this thorn in my flesh this circumstance I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me and if the great apostle Paul did it I feel somewhat confident that we've probably all done it too. God take this away. Deliver me from this thorn in my flesh to which God responded in verse 9. My grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory and my infirmities at the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul my grace is sufficient for you. In fact my strength is made perfect in your weakness. You can't know the fullness or the reality of what I can do for you until you come to

the place where you recognize and are confronted with your own weakness. That's why God had to touch the hollow of that man's thigh. That's why God had to put a little limp in his gait. He'd been walking with so much swagger he didn't know what the spirit was. So God said let me give you a limp. Let me take that swagger out of you. Let me remind you who you are and show you your need of God. And to Paul it was no different. He said Paul I've given you an abundance of revelation. I've showed you the mysteries of the kingdom. I've let my spirit move upon you to write the scripture from which we read and preach today. And Paul in order to live in that spiritual reality. In order to know the profound depths of this revelation. I had to put a thorn in your flesh.

I had to put you into a place of weakness. And Paul responded to God. And this is what he said most gladly therefore. Okay. What is the therefore therefore? A response to the proceeding statement. He says okay. If it is such that in order to be the man that you want me to be. I have to embrace the weakness in my life. Most gladly then I will rather glory in my infirmities. I will be glad in the grace of God. Because that's all he was promised. He wasn't promised deliverance. He wasn't promised a way out an easier path more money or a better life. God just told him Paul my grace is sufficient. And what Paul was saying is grace alone is enough to make me glad. I don't need a bigger house or a new car. I don't need another vacation or more of this or more of that.

I don't need a change of circumstance I just need the grace of God to change who I am. And can I preach to you today? That's what grace will do. The Bible said in Titus 2 that the grace of God hath appeared to all men bringing salvation. But it also he said teaches you to deny ungodliness and live soberly and righteously in this present world. Grace doesn't just save you. Grace sanctifies you. It gets inside of you. And it starts reprogramming how you think and rewiring your values. And you don't talk like you used to talk. And you don't do the things you used to do. And it's not because it's legislated. It's not because anybody makes you do it. But it's because you're not the same person you used to be. When you got saved you got set apart. You were a new creature in Christ

Jesus. Come on this is who we are. I preach today that conversion still happens. God still changes hearts. He still changes men and women. And finally the Bible said it and we read it. He blessed him there. There. Now I know literally that there is an adverb. When used it means in at or to that place or position. To say he blessed him there literally is speaking of that location that night by the river Jack. But I don't preach to you today of the literal there but the principle there. I don't preach to you of that location by the river but by the elements that made there what it was. And the question to be asked today is this. How do we get from here to there? There is the place of transformation. There is the place of salvation. There is the place where you

prevail and are changed. There is the place where God speaks blessing and power over your life. There is growth and there is abundance and there is expansion and there is power and there is healing and there is dominion. How do you get there when you're here? How do you get from here to there? You have to wrestle with God and you have to embrace your weakness and see wrestling is not a passive activity and I fear too many of our churches and our collective church culture is becoming passive in our engagement with God. Just kind of well when it happens you know church today and perhaps this is why God didn't wait for Jacob to start the match. God said if I don't bring conflict in your life if I don't bring pain if I don't wrestle you if I don't engage you Jacob I'll never get you there.

I preach today. If you want to get there if you want power working in your life if you want God's blessing in your life you're going to have to get to a place where God just does not have your attendance but he gets your attention where you are alone with God and you start wrestling with God and you get in a place of prayer with God and you let God start wrestling your will in the submission and you let God ask you what is your name. Tell me your story. Confess to me your struggle. Show me your weakness. You have to let God touch the hollow of your thigh put a limp in your step an ever present reminder of your encounter with God your need of God a lingering reminder that except the Lord build the house our labor is in vain. Stand with me now. So much

of our church culture in America is passive just spiritually blasé and unwilling to embrace our weakness defined by image so much as giving to marketing and presentation and I think we ought to practice a spirit of excellence in the church don't misunderstand me I'm not advocating that we do things have heartily or sloppy but why is it we can give so much consideration effort and preparation so much care and concern and so much diligence to our presentation but then it comes to our real pursuit of God we're passive what do we need we need to meet with God under a starry sky by river we need to meet with God right here and start wrestling with the Lord until our will is subdued and our life is changed if we're actually going to get there I hope to God that when he looks at my life

there are places he can say there is where I blessed you there is where I changed you there is where I saved you you weren't always there when you came to me you were here you were in need you were lost you were struggling you were confused you came like so many people come asking me to deal with the circumstances in your life but God said, Jacob your circumstance is not my primary concern and Esau is not your greatest enemy this is about your character not your circumstance this is about you not Esau so how do you get from here to there how how do you get from out of debt to blessed how do you get from 75 people to 100 100 to 150 how do you go from 100 to 200 how do you get from here to there you've got to let God change your character

because church was never meant to be a presentation this was not supposed to be just some big performance this is not just a spiritual concert this is not just another classroom lecture please God that by the foolishness of preaching he might save them that belief this is the method God chose that his word would capture your attention like that angel captured Jacob's that his spirit would move upon you like that angel moved upon Jacob that you would start wrestling with God you're not always going to like it may not always be your preferences may not be the way in which you would choose but it's not your kingdom it's not your word it's his and he keeps wrestling and wrestling and wrestling his desire is good he wants a blessing but God knows I can't put another blessing on a man who's not had his character

changed by the power of God the blessing of God in my life how do we get the blessing of God on our church I'll tell you how it's not another event it's not another program it's when men and women from the youngest to the oldest wrestle with God and are formed by his word and are shaped by his spirit it's when their character is changed and like Paul said you become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ that's how we get there and so today I come to provoke you a little bit to desire to ask but to also show you how it happens to lift your prayer to a higher plane where you're not just coming to God like a child aimlessly asking their parent for thing after thing after thing after thing I want this, I want this I want that, I want that

circumstance after circumstance no, I'm talking to you about letting God get deep on the inside your name, Jacob confess to me your struggle tell me your fears and be honest about your battles because no failure is too great and no failure is final if you'll be honest about who you are because I've just been waiting for a moment like this to get you from here to there would you lift up your hands right now don't let your word return boy to death Father I know there's men and women in this house your spirits leading them you're guiding them you're working in them but you sent me here today to provoke them to elevate their prayer to a higher plane to a deeper place it's not just circumstance that you're seeking to change it's character, it's the very fabric of who they are that we would be better people

better husbands better wives, better parents better children, better Christians better bosses and managers, better employees better students, better friends better family it's not always that we need more sometimes it's that we need better but better does not come by human strength or ingenuity it comes by a person who is changed by God today here