Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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 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.

Genesis 32:6

Then Jacob did what he normally did in these types of situations he tried to manipulate things.

Genesis 32:7-

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.