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How Will God Change My Life?
Genesis 32:22‑32 & Selected
An incident from the life of Jacob illustrates the process God uses to change our lives.
After this event, Jacob was never the same again.
This morning we're going to look at the story of Jacob.
This is a wrestling match with God.
It's filled with symbolism and principles for us to apply in our lives to how we change.
This was a turning point in Jacob's life.
He was never the same again.
From this simple story ‑‑ this wrestling match with God ‑‑ we can draw four principles on the four phases God uses in how He changes us.
Jacob's weakness was that he was a manipulator, a swindler.
His name literally means "cheater".
He was always using people and he was always getting into trouble because he used people.
This experience transformed his life and from this turning point he was never the same again.
I.
PHASE ONE: */HE STARTS WITH A CRISIS/* (Gen 32:7-12)
"So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
When the man saw 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."
(Gen 32:24‑25)
God uses crises to: get our attention.
Lesson: We never change until: the pain becomes greater than the fear of change.
II.
PHASE TWO: */COMMITMENT/* (Gen 32:13-26)
“Then the man said, `Let me go, for it is daybreak.'
But Jacob replied, `I will not let you go unless you bless me.'" (Gen 32:26)
*/ILLUSTRATION:/* How many of you in the last twelve months have started a physical fitness program?
I will not ask how many of you are still on it.
We are great starters but we don't continue.
I once tried to diet for an entire afternoon.
As a result, I'm now getting furniture problems: my chest is dropping into my drawers.
My body keeps adjusting Under middle age attack
My waistline's pushing forward While my hairline's falling back.
Hey diddle, diddle, I've got a bulge in my middle
And hope to whittle it soon.
But eating's such fun That I won't get it doneTill my dish runs away with my spoon.
God often waits to resolve a problem to see if we really mean business
*/Lesson: Many people miss God's best because: they give up too soon./*
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Gal.
6:9
III.
PHASE THREE: */CONFESSION/* (27)
"The man asked him, `What is your name?' `Jacob', he answered."
(vs.
27)
"Jacob" means “Cheater”
*/Lesson: I'll never be able to change my weaknesses until: I admit them./*
*/Illustration:/* Question: If today you were named for your greatest character weakness, what would your name be? Temper?
"My name is Temper, I can't keep a lid on it."
Lust?
Unreliable?
Guilt?
Depressed?
Worrier?
What would be your tag? Greedy?
Resentful?
‑‑ Confession.
IV.
PHASE FOUR: */COOPERATION/* (Gen 32:28-31)
"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.
... then he blessed him there.
So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, `It is because I saw God face to face ..." (Gen 32:28‑30)
Peniel means “the face of God” Jacob came face to face with God.
All of us have to do that some day.
You can run from God for the rest of your life but then you can't run any more.
Gen 32: 31 Note: Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his life.
It was to be a constant reminder of 2 truths:
1.
In the first place, your thigh is the most powerful muscle in your body.
It has the most strength over any muscle in your body.
When God touched Jacob He touched him at his point of greatest strength.
The reminder to Jacob, constantly, as he limped the rest of his life was that Jacob was to depend on God and not his own strength.
It's a reminder for us to remember.
I must depend on God not my own strength to work the changes.
Will power does not work.
It causes tension in your life.
The thing we resist persists.
When you try to stop doing something in your own strength what are you focusing on all the time?
The thing you don't want.
What we resist, persists.
God said, "I'm going to touch you at the point of your greatest strength so you know that from now on you're not to walk in your own strength but in My strength."
2.
You don't have to stay the same!
As you study Jacob's life and you look at all of his previous experiences, you find that every time Jacob got in trouble he ran.
He ran away.
That was his modus operandi.
Whatever the situation, when he got in trouble, he split.
God said, "I know how to fix that temptation.
I'll just put a limp in his walk so he could never run again."
Jacob had a limp the rest of his life.
It was a reminder to Jacob that it is never God's will to run from a personal problem.
Running doesn't solve it.
Running away never solves a problem.
If I've got a problem in my character ‑‑ a defect ‑‑ to hide it, ignore it, deny it is to run from it.
God said, "We never solve our problems by running from them."
Jacob, from this point onward, no longer stood in his own power, but in God's power and that made him stronger.
"So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to ... and put on the new self, which is created in God's likeness ... " Eph.
4:22‑23 (GN)
Jesus said, "...
You must be `born again.'"
John 3:5
\\ HOW CAN I CHANGE MY LIFE?
Genesis 32:22‑32 & Selected
The question that has come up in every survey I've ever taken is what I want us to look at this morning.
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