The path to blessing starts at the place of surrender.
Sermon Title: THE BLESSED LIMP
Sermon Text: GENESIS 32:24-32 NIV
Sermon Series: IMPERFECT FAITH
By: PTR NIC SY
Sermon Notes:
GENESIS 32:24-32 NIV
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
25 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.
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.”
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
28 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.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
Crisis never made a man, it just reveals what he is already.
ACT I
HOME IN CANAAN
(Genesis 25:19-34; 27:1-28:9)
ACT II
JOURNEY TO HARAN
(Genesis 28:10-22)
ACT III
JACOB IN HARAN
(Genesis 29-31)
GENESIS 31:3 NIV
3 Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Go back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”
The path to blessing starts at the place of surrender.
ACT IV
JACOB, THE BEFUDDLED MAN
befuddled
adjective
“unable to think clearly; confused or perplexed.”
GENESIS 32:1-8 NIV
1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.
3 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
4 He instructed them: “This is what you are to say to my master Esau: ‘Your servant Jacob says, I have been staying with Laban and have remained there till now.
5 I have cattle and donkeys, sheep and goats, menservants and maidservants. Now I am sending this message to my lord, that I may find favor in your eyes.’”
6 When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.”
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well.
8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
Jacob’s response
1. He plans (Gen 32:7-8)
Genesis 32:7-8 NIV
7 In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. 8 He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.”
2. He prays (Gen 32:9-12)
GENESIS 32:9-12 NIV
9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’
10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.
11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.
12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
GENESIS 32:13-15 NIV
13 He spent the night there, and from what he had with him he selected a gift for his brother Esau:
14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty female camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, and twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys.
3. He pays (Gen 32:13-23)
GENESIS 32:1-2 NIV
1 Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
2 When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God!” So he named that place Mahanaim.
When we plan without relying on God, we are relying on our plans.
ACT IV
JACOB, THE BROKEN MAN
GENESIS 32:22-23 NIV
22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions.
GENESIS 32:24 NIV
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
GENESIS 32:25 NIV
25 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.
GENESIS 32:26 NIV
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.”
HOSEA 12:3-5 NIV
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God.
4 He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there-- 5 the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name of renown!
Our greatest triumphs come out of the leftovers of our greatest defeats.
ACT IV
JACOB, THE BLESSED MAN
GENESIS 32:27 NIV
27 The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered.
It is only the God-wrestlers whom God can bless.
GENESIS 32:28-29 NIV
28 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.”
29 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
Israel | Greek: yiś·rā·’êl
God strives, God struggles
The real story that worked out behind the scenes was not Jacob’s futile striving to win but God’s relentless striving to pin Jacob down by his grace.
GENESIS 32:30-32 NIV
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”
31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon.
The blessing of God does not go to the winners but to those who surrender to him.
GENESIS 33:1-3 NIV
1 Jacob looked up and there was Esau, coming with his four hundred men; so he divided the children among Leah, Rachel and the two maidservants.
2 He put the maidservants and their children in front, Leah and her children next, and Rachel and Joseph in the rear.
3 He himself went on ahead and bowed down to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
The path to blessing starts at the place of surrender.