Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Ingredient of Pain in Pursuing A Hunger For God*

 

We saw last week that we must learn how to develop a hunger for God if we are going to face the crisis of life.

Unfortunately, too many of us have masked our hunger for God by doing little more than nibbling on religion instead of feasting at God’s table.

A feast takes time to eat and enjoy....it can’t be hurried or you fill up too quickly.

So let me ask you, what are you doing to develop your hunger for God? Are you at least giving it the time it needs?

/“Well, I come most Sunday’s, Pastor John.”/

Sundays are not enough.

Do you hear me loved ones?

You cannot grow and develop on Sunday morning worship alone.

To be healthy requires eating properly everyday.

And unless we commit to that individually, we eventually come to see God as our “candy man.”

You know…/that nice ol guy who sits quietly until you need a sugar daddy to get you through the pain of the moment/.

No loved ones, Father God is not interested in a causual relationship with you…Father God wants it *allllll*.

In fact, Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

I asked you last week whether your relationship with God was a hobby or a passion?

So let me ask if this way this week: *Do you want God for God, OR do you want God for what He can do for you?*

 

Today we continue our look at what happens when we face a sever crisis.

What is our typical human response and where is God at that moment?

One of the great stories of the Old Testament that illustrates this is the story of Jacob.

Jacob means “trickster” and indeed he was named accurately.

For from the early days of his birth, he knew how to manipulate people, chief among them… his own brother.

Jacob duped his brother out of his birthright, by tricking his father (who was nearly blind at the time) into giving him the birthright.

Jacob was a trickster.

But, what goes around comes around, and when something becomes your character, sooner or later it catches up with you.

Such was the case in *Genesis 32*.

Will open there please?

Animosity and hatred have built up between Jacob and his brother Esau until we reach *chapter 32.*

Here, Jacob knows if he doesn’t act fast, Esau’s opportunity for revenge is at hand.

So Jacob, knowing he must do something, sends messengers, verses 4 and 5, to try and negotiate peace.

In verse 6 the messengers return with the answer:

*V 6*.

This was not good news to Jacob…look: *VV 7-8*

Jacob is in a crisis.

The chickens have come home to roost and his deception has caught up with him.

Have you ever known anyone like this?  Have you ever known someone who thought their past would never catch up with them, and suddenly their past is now the determining factor of their present?

Look at Jacob’s response, it tells us some things about a crisis:  *V 9a*:  Isn’t this a very human reaction?

Jacob is in a crisis, and as a result of his crisis, Jacob remembers God.

There is just something about a crisis, isn’t there?

This is why a crisis every now and then is not all bad for us.

Crisis’ actually serve a couple of purposes in life.

In fact, I believe God allows “Esau moments” in our lives to help us remember…

 

*#1 God exists*.

Now, what follows is the prayer of a scared man.

This isn’t just a simple diddy.

Scared people, suddenly seem to know how to pray.

So with his back up against the wall, Jacob says:  *V 9b-10*…Oh, all of a sudden God gets the credit.

Before, in his mind, it was Jacob the shrewd wheeler-dealer that accomplish all the good things in his life.

But things are different now.

He is in a helpless position and sees clearly, maybe for the first time …that it was God all along Who deserved the glory.

And that is the second purpose of a crisis.

*They help us… #2 to remember we are what we are by the grace of God.*

Well, he finally get’s around to telling God why he’s praying: *VV11-12* What Jacob is saying is, “/Lord, You made a promise.

You promised to bless me.

If my brother comes and kills and destroys…it won’t happen.

So, Lord, I’m calling on you to remember and deliver/.”

Here is a man who not only needs mercy, he needs a miracle.

But does he decide to trust God?

*VV 13, 16, 20-21 *These verses reveal 3 effects a crisis will have in our life and I want you to see them:

 

*#1 When God puts your back up against a wall, no human effort will get you out of it.*

Did you catch that in Jacob’s continued scheming?

In fact, when God wants to get our attention, He will put our back up against the wall, until He has our attention.

*#2 When you’re in a crisis, you don’t talk from your lips, you pray from your soul*.

In fact, do you want to learn how to pray?  Ask for a crisis…that will do more than a sermon.

Then…

*#3 When you’re backed into a corner, you are the loneliest person in the world.

*Isn’t that true?

When we’re in a crisis, no matter how many people are around us, we can feel very alone.

So, what we have before us today is a man who is broken…who is spiritually naked…and helpless before God.

Now that takes us to our passage.

That was all introduction to explain the crisis Jacob was facing, which leads us to one of the great events of the Bible that teaches us a profound and overarching truth of the Bible and it’s our first principle today:

* *

*Principle #1: If we are going to passionately pursue God, it is going to involve some pain.*

But you say, “What???

I don’t want pain!”

Well, let me explain something.

If you are alive you are going to have pain.

I’m just offering you purposeful pain today rather than purposeless pain.

So let’s continue…

 

*VV 22-24*  As if he didn’t have enough trouble, in the midst of the darkness …out of nowhere…someone jumps Jacob and they begin to wrestle.

Now, he doesn’t really need this right now, you know what I mean?

Have you ever prayed to God and things get worse instead of better?

That’s what just happened!

When Jacob prayed, thing got worst.

Jacob just prayed to God!

And instead of blessing, a man comes out of nowhere… and jumps on him forcing him to fight for his life.

Now put this picture of the wrestling ring together in your mind:  Jacob is *alone*, it’s *dark*, and *things get worse*.

When God allows us in this scenario, He has one purpose in mind – God wants you to meet Him in a way you could never meet Him in a group, in a service, or in a gathering.

IOW’s, when God takes you to the bottom, He wants you to discover that God is your rock at the bottom.

So Jacob is now forced to wrestle, *not* with his brother, *not* with his problem, but with something unknown.

*V 25*… Wow…things have now gone from bad to worse.

It finally looked like he was getting somewhere, that he was winning, when the man by just touching his thigh, disconnects it.

*V 26*  Now, how in the world does he go from fighting for his life, to “I’m not letting you go until you bless me.”

Well, two things:

1st  Jacob now knows he is wrestling a supernatural being.

No ordinary man by just putting his finger on your hip, could cause it to pop out of the socket.

So he knows this is no ordinary person.

2nd It’s daybreak.

And so now in the light of day, Jacob is able to see that the same person he saw as one who was trying to hurt him, also has the ability to bless him.

So let me give you our 2nd principle this morning.

When God appears to be hurting you, or dislocating you, and letting things come up against you, I want you to know: *Principle #2: The same God who appears to be hurting you, is hurting you precisely because He wants to bless you.*

But did you notice at the end of that verse: the man says, “Let me go…” If He’s trying to bless me, why is trying to leave?