Gracious Wounds.

Steve Gentry

[0:03] Amen. [0:04] All right, go ahead and have a seat. [0:06] Welcome to Village Church. [0:08] If this is the first time you’ve been here, my name’s Steve. [0:10] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church, and as always, I’m thankful and grateful [0:15] to see you here this morning.

[0:17] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Genesis chapter 22. [0:21] We’re going to be starting in verse 32 of that chapter this morning. [0:25] We’re going to be back in the book of Genesis this morning after about, I think it’s been [0:29] about eight weeks since we’ve been in the book of Genesis, and so we’re going to be [0:32] back in the book of Genesis for the foreseeable future. [0:35] We’ve got till chapter 50 to get it all straight, and so we’re doing all right.

[0:40] So we’re going to continue in the narrative specifically of the life of Jacob this morning, [0:45] this imperfect vessel that God chose to use to birth the nation of Israel. [0:52] So if you are just joining us now and so you haven’t been here for the rest of the series [0:58] on the book of Genesis, there’s no way that I can sum up the first 31 chapters for you, [1:03] but if you go on our website, we’ve got a lot of podcasts there, and it’s literally [1:08] hours of listening pleasure, so feel free to go on there and do yourself a favor.

[1:14] I mean, it’s a good 40 hours worth of stuff, so it’s really good. [1:17] You can go listen to that. [1:19] But to give you just a little bit of review as to where we are right now, at this point, [1:24] Jacob had left Laban, his father-in-law, to return to his homeland. [1:30] So he took his family, he took his people, took his possessions, and in chapter 32, [1:36] he is journeying towards Peniel.

[1:39] And this is the promised land, so this is his home, so Jacob’s going home. [1:44] And so as he journeys though, he grows very fearful, and the reason that he grows in fear [1:50] is because his brother Esau is going to be in the homeland. [1:53] And so if you don’t know anything about the story of Jacob and Esau, Jacob tricked Esau [2:00] out of his birthright, then he deceives Esau out of his blessing from the father, and [2:06] so Jacob spent much of his childhood manipulating and deceiving Esau because Esau is stupid.

[2:13] It’s a very important thing to know about Esau. [2:16] And so I do that because I’m going to be really offensive about Jacob in a minute, and I need [2:20] to be offensive about Esau right now. [2:22] Esau is a manly man, alright? [2:25] So the scripture tells us he’s a man of the wilderness. [2:29] He’s a hunter.

[2:30] I mean, he is what we would think when we look at somebody, you know, back in the 80s, [2:34] I think it was Crocodile Dundee, you know, he’s out there fearless, he can handle anything [2:38] life throws at him. [2:39] I don’t know if there is an equivalent now because, you know, young people are kind [2:43] of timid these days. [2:44] They’re more like Jacob.

[2:45] No, I’m just kidding. [2:46] But am I? [2:47] But the reality is, okay. [2:51] So Esau’s this tough guy. [2:53] Jacob, when we first kind of see Jacob growing up, he’s called a tent dweller. [2:59] This means he sat at home a lot, watched a lot of the Food Network, played a lot of

[3:04] video games, alright? [3:06] So he wasn’t very, you know, tough, wasn’t very physical. [3:11] So he’s going back, and it’s been about 30 years since he’s seen his brother, and so [3:16] he’s going back, and they did not leave on good terms, and so Jacob is afraid his big [3:21] brother’s going to beat him up. [3:22] That’s basically his fear.

[3:24] And so what Jacob is going to be doing when we first kind of encounter him here in chapter [3:29] 32, is he’s starting to fall back into his old games, into his old traps. [3:35] And these traps are these traps that Jacob has gotten through life not using his physicality, [3:40] but instead using his brain. [3:42] He’s a manipulator. [3:44] He’s divisive.

[3:45] He deceives people. [3:48] He manipulates situations to his advantage. [3:51] And that’s what he had done to his brother Esau their entire life. [3:55] And so he’s going back, and he’s like, he’s got some bad blood with Esau. [3:59] What is he going to do to me? [4:02] And so instead of, and you’ve got to also keep in mind, that Jacob through the past

[4:06] 30 years has had a lot of experiences with the grace of God. [4:10] He’s seen God move in his life in amazing ways. [4:14] But there’s this cycle with Jacob where he will turn away from his latent tendencies [4:20] to kind of deceive, manipulate, sin, trust himself more than he trusts God. [4:26] And then God will move to bring him to repentance after he falls into those sins of his life. [4:32] And he’ll experience the grace of God.

[4:34] He’ll trust in God. [4:35] But then as soon as something happens in his life, he falls back into the same tendencies. [4:39] I mean, he has deceived his brother. [4:41] He’s deceived his father. [4:42] He’s left his mother. [4:44] Then he deceived his father-in-law.

[4:46] I mean, to gain wives and then also to gain most of his possessions to kind of trick people [4:51] out of things. [4:52] And so now Esau, after seeing what the grace of God had actually been doing behind the [4:58] scenes in his life, he’s about to encounter a great battle in his mind. [5:04] And so instead of doing what he should have done, it’s kind of like us, instead of doing [5:08] what he should have done, what does he do?

[5:10] He doesn’t go to God. [5:10] He goes to himself. [5:12] He’s like, how can I get myself out of this situation? [5:16] So he’s on the brink of home, about to cross over in chapter 32. [5:23] And Jacob is going to experience an encounter with God that would change his perspective. [5:30] It was an encounter with God that emptied him of the sin of self-sufficiency.

[5:36] His fear of Esau and the way that he was trying to figure out how to deal with it [5:41] actually took him to a very dark place. [5:45] And God’s going to confront him in that very dark place. [5:49] And so when we get to the narrative of Genesis 32, what I want you to understand is the [5:54] weight of what we’re about to deal with. [5:57] We deal with something that we don’t deal with really anywhere else in Scripture.

[6:01] Jacob has an experience with God that quite frankly no one else has ever had. [6:08] In theology, what’s about to happen is called a theophany. [6:11] This is a manifestation of God that is tangible to every single one of your senses. [6:18] And no one else has had this specific type of experience with God at this level, where [6:27] Jacob is going to physically struggle with the Lord. [6:33] And so this is out of the ordinary.

[6:36] This is a unique narrative that we are about to deal with, and it is weighty in that the [6:43] links that God goes to to deal specifically with Jacob. [6:49] And so it’s out of the ordinary for you. [6:51] You’ve not experienced this. [6:53] And if you think you have, you might want to see a counselor. [6:56] But the reality is that Jacob is dealing with God at a whole nother level.

[7:01] All right. [7:02] And so join me in verse 22. [7:05] That same night, Jacob arose and took his two wives and his two female servants and [7:11] his 11 children and crossed the ford of the Jabak. [7:14] He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had. [7:19] And Jacob was left alone.

[7:23] And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. [7:27] See, Jacob was left alone, but he wasn’t alone at all. [7:30] People of God are never alone. [7:32] When the man saw that he didn’t prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket and Jacob’s [7:37] hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. [7:40] Then he said, Let me go for the day has broken.

[7:43] But Jacob replies, I will not let you go unless you bless me. [7:48] And he said to him, What is your name? [7:50] And he said, Jacob. [7:52] Then he said, You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with [7:57] God and with men and have prevailed. [8:00] Then Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name.

[8:03] But he said, Why is it that you ask me my name? [8:06] And there he blessed him. [8:09] So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, [8:15] and yet my life has been delivered. [8:19] The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. [8:24] Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is

[8:30] on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh. [8:37] Pray with me. [8:40] Lord,

[8:42] My prayer today for us is that you would help us to long for your presence, to live [8:49] lives in which we seek to encounter, we seek to experience, we seek to understand your [8:56] presence so that we would be emptied of all the sin of self-sufficiency. [9:02] Lord, I pray that you would help us to worship. [9:05] Lord, be merciful to me a sinner. [9:07] In the name of Christ, I pray.

[9:10] Amen. [9:11] So Jacob is struggling with falling back into his temptations. [9:15] He’s struggling with this sin of, Can I figure out in my spirit how I can deal with this, [9:21] how I can be crafty, how I can be deceptive about how I can manipulate the situation, [9:26] about how I can be strong enough to deal with my brother Esau, about how I can work all [9:31] of this out.

[9:33] So I want to lay all my cards on the table with you this morning, that what we’re going [9:38] to deal with is going to be very vital for your life and growing in faith in Jesus Christ. [9:46] I want to deal with basically your spiritual maturity this morning. [9:50] And so we are a church in the suburbs, and I know a great deal of you very well, enough [9:57] to know that the people that we are, typically in Village Church, are people who have spent [10:03] their lives achieving things, trying to grow personally, trying to gain things.

[10:09] And so you’ve gained degrees, you’ve gained education, you’ve gained jobs, you’ve sought [10:13] to work your way up the corporate ladder or up whatever ladder you have in the type of [10:19] job that you have. [10:20] You’re pretty educated, you think you’re pretty smart, and you’re trying to be the best person [10:26] in whatever room you happen to be in. [10:29] You want to be the smartest, you want to be noticed.

[10:31] You want people to take stock in you, and you are living your life basically as a self-sufficient [10:40] person trying to grow in self-sufficiency. [10:44] What we’ve got to realize this morning is, is that to grow in the Lord means you’re going [10:50] to have to be emptied of every ounce of that.

[10:57] And I’m going to be pretty firm today, and you need me to, and it’s okay if I talk bad [11:01] about you because I’m doing it to your face.

[11:07] That you, when you enter into a church atmosphere, you’re trying to do the exact same thing [11:16] that you do everywhere else. [11:18] You’re trying to prove to everyone that you measure up. [11:23] So you come into whatever group that you’re in, you come into church atmosphere, you come [11:28] into a Bible study, you come into a grouping of other Christians, and you immediately [11:32] start saying, I’ve got to show these people how spiritually mature I am.

[11:38] And so you try to be a spiritual leader. [11:41] Why? [11:41] Because that’s what you do everywhere else. [11:43] That is what you are conditioned to do. [11:45] But the problem with the way that you do it is, you try to prove to people, you try to [11:50] prove to me, you try to prove to everybody that you’re spiritually mature.

[11:54] You read probably less than a chapter of the Bible a week. [11:58] You probably don’t pray. [12:00] Even if you do pray, it’s just for meals during the day. [12:04] You don’t spend any time in your week longing for the presence of God or by any means experiencing [12:11] the presence of God. [12:13] And yet you want to be seen as spiritually mature.

[12:17] You are living a lie.

[12:22] And it is time for you to stop it.

[12:27] It is time for you to get honest about where you actually are and admit that you are not [12:35] spiritually mature because your definition of spiritual maturity is the same definition [12:40] that you take into other avenues of life that have nothing to do with God. [12:45] Because is there actually anything going on in your life that you need God to work [12:52] in in the first place? [12:53] Or are you doing pretty good by yourself?

[12:58] And so what Jacob’s dealing with in this passage specifically is a place where God [13:05] is actually confronting him with where he actually is with God. [13:12] And that is what you need to be confronted with. [13:16] That is what you need to be emptied of. [13:19] And you need to stop living this charade of self-sufficiency. [13:24] Why?

[13:25] Because number one, self-sufficiency with God is idolatry.

[13:30] Self-sufficiency with God is idolatry. [13:33] Most of what would be classified as worship in your life is worship of self. [13:39] It’s worship of self. [13:41] Jacob had lived a life of continuously seeking to prove himself.

[13:47] Continually seeking to earn more self-worth. [13:51] Continuing to seeking more possessions and gain what he thought was a life worth living. [13:59] And this is the life that most of us live.

[14:03] And we will continue to live it if we do not have a confrontation with the grace of God in our lives. [14:10] Jacob sought gain almost at any cost. [14:14] I mean look at it. [14:15] He connived the family blessing through manipulation. [14:18] Sought to gain his own family through manipulation and self-sufficiency. [14:22] And then sought to deceive his father-in-law just like he had learned from his father-in-law.

[14:28] And now God has throughout his life moved in many, many different ways. [14:34] But here God does something different. [14:38] God does not wait until the story is over and Jacob has fallen into great sin. [14:44] Instead, God doesn’t wait for Jacob to come to him. [14:47] God goes directly to Jacob. [14:51] The greatest thing that could happen in your life is if God would instead of waiting for you,

[15:00] would confront you right with where you are. [15:03] The reality is that God I think has and is in many ways seeking confrontation with you. [15:09] But you are too distracted with everything else that you have going on with your life [15:15] to ever have a tangible experience with God. [15:18] Why? [15:19] Because you’ve got plans.

[15:22] You’ve probably got a five-year plan or greater. [15:26] You’ve got stuff going on. [15:27] You’ve got everything scheduled. [15:29] You’ve got bills that you’re focused on. [15:31] You’ve got dreams for your kids that you’re focused on. [15:34] You’ve got everything in order in your life and you’re just waiting.

[15:39] Well, maybe somewhere along the borders that’s where I’m going to experience God.

[15:46] And so while God’s probably bringing things into your life, [15:49] you are completely ignorant of them because you are so distracted with your self-worship.

[15:56] See, your day planner is probably filled with self-worship. [16:00] Whatever calendar it is that you keep, it’s probably filled with self-worship. [16:05] It’s filled with me, me, gain, me, me, leisure, me, me, vacation.

[16:15] That’s your calendar.

[16:18] And for you to grow spiritually, that cannot be the direction that your life actually takes. [16:26] You cannot hope to experience God under your terms. [16:33] See, God has defined it. [16:34] God has determined what it looks like to actually live a life in seeking his presence [16:40] and growing in knowledge of him and actually chasing after who he is. [16:45] But too often we look at it and we’re like, who has time for that?

[16:49] So I’m going to rely on the grace of God to where I’m somewhere in the tornado of my life. [16:54] God’s just going to insert himself.

[16:59] See, situations like this in Scripture are the exception to the rule.

[17:05] God has determined how you can grow in him. [17:08] And so it is our task to turn our lives away from the worship of self and towards paying attention [17:16] to God’s plans and God’s determinations for what we are to do with our lives. [17:21] Don’t define your worth by idolatry, and most of you do.

[17:27] Some of you think that you’re great because your paycheck is great. [17:30] Some of you think you’re worthless because your paycheck doesn’t even cover everything. [17:34] It feels pretty worthless.

[17:37] And so you’re defining your worth really by idolatrous terms of I’m not good enough or I’m great. [17:47] Part of our problem is how we seek to prove ourselves and how we define gain. [17:53] If you want to experience God in your life, you’ve got to change how you define gain. [17:57] Here’s how the Scriptures define the greatest of gain, and it says that it is wisdom. [18:02] Blessed is he who finds wisdom and the one who gets understanding. [18:05] Proverbs 3.

[18:07] For the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. [18:13] When people ask me, is the Bible still relevant? [18:15] I think so.

[18:19] Because we basically, now we don’t have, some of you do actually probably have gold bars, [18:23] but listen to Glenn Beck too much, but you define your worth by stuff, by money, by house, [18:34] by car, by all of the positions that you have in life, by all of the achievements that you’ve made, [18:40] by how many people pay attention to who you are, or how many people don’t pay attention to who you [18:45] are, or how much stuff you wish you had, but you don’t. [18:49] And the Scripture says here, wisdom is greater than anything gold and silver can ever get you.

[18:57] And so then we say, well, what is wisdom? [18:58] Because most of us would say, oh, wisdom is, you know, it’s not just knowledge. [19:02] It’s how you use that knowledge. [19:03] Wisdom is street smarts. [19:04] Wisdom is common sense. [19:06] That’s not how the Scripture define wisdom.

[19:07] In Proverbs chapter 9 verse 10, it says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, [19:15] and knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

[19:23] Everything begins with God.

[19:28] You need desperately to come to the end of you in order to experience the glory of God.

[19:40] Because wisdom starts with knowing who you are in light of who God is. [19:47] And then it says that when you begin then to grow in knowledge of who God is, [19:52] you start with just a simple, God is great. [19:57] Then when you grow in knowledge, what do you gain? [20:01] Insight. [20:02] You start to understand what life actually is, and you can only do that with God.

[20:09] The reality of who we are and who God is, is where we’re going to find a life worth living [20:16] and actually begin to experience the presence of God in our lives. [20:20] Jacob defined his current life by the fear of Esau. [20:25] It defined him. [20:27] Does fear define anything about you? [20:29] You see, fear of man leads to a very small view of God.

[20:35] Jacob in this passage is seeking to see how he can be greater than Esau. [20:40] And fear of man shines a giant spotlight on Jacob’s actual view of God. [20:48] The greater your view of God, the smaller your fear of man. [20:53] You see, time and again, Jacob had seen God’s grace, yet Jacob’s view of God was still one [21:00] where he did not trust God. [21:03] You see, 2 Corinthians 3, 5 reveals that it is healthy to actually realize how insufficient

[21:09] you are in the things of life. [21:12] Jacob’s, the apostle Paul says, [21:14] we are not sufficient in ourselves to claim anything.

[21:19] Our sufficiency is from God. [21:23] You spend your entire life trying to become completely self-sufficient, [21:27] and here’s what you have to understand. [21:29] That is antithetical to the grace of God. [21:32] That is antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ. [21:34] That is antithetical to experiencing God,

[21:37] and it will only lead to an experience of self over and over and over, [21:43] and you desperately need to come to an end of your self.

[21:48] Especially the things that matter in life. [21:51] It is only God who is sufficient, [21:54] and it is only God who can make you sufficient. [21:58] Every step in your responses should lead us to God rather than our own wisdom. [22:06] Jacob’s struggle is a struggle with self-worship. [22:10] Your effort to prove yourself,

[22:12] your effort to gain, [22:14] your effort to manipulate, [22:16] and even your fears reveal that you worship yourself in your reactions and your responses.

[22:29] So what’s the answer? [22:31] Dependency on God. [22:34] You see, number two this morning, dependency on God is worship. [22:37] Dependence requires a change in the way that you look at yourself. [22:42] And here’s the most amazing part of this narrative to me, [22:45] is that God confronted Jacob.

[22:50] He confronts him. [22:52] He stands by him. [22:54] He struggles with him physically. [22:58] So when you read this narrative, there are so many questions that come up. [23:03] If questions don’t come up about how, what, why, what, but how does that match with…

[23:12] They’re got, they’ve got to happen if you read through the scripture with any honesty in and of yourself. [23:17] But sometimes, here’s the key, we get so distracted by the minor details that we miss the point. [23:24] You see, God is moving in Jacob’s life again to bring about repentance. [23:30] God is moving to bring about submission in Jacob’s life. [23:34] God is being so gracious to Jacob in this narrative. [23:40] Do not miss that.

[23:42] Some of you, there’s nothing I can do. [23:44] You will walk out of here today and you will have these little questions about theological minutia in the story. [23:51] About how this measures up with the sovereignty of God and the reactions of God and blah, blah, blah, blah. [23:55] That’s so stupid. [23:57] Do not do that because you are losing the whole story. [24:04] The whole story here is an encounter with God for the salvation of Jacob’s soul.

[24:12] About God intervening with a miraculous grace. [24:17] Do not miss the grace of God to bring a sinner home. [24:23] That’s the story. [24:25] That’s the point. [24:26] That’s what’s happening. [24:28] And then it tells us, it says, Jacob resisted the Lord.

[24:33] But God’s grace, don’t miss it, is irresistible.

[24:38] God will prevail either to your benefit or to your detriment. [24:46] It’s not a question of, I’m going to resist the Lord and I’m going to overcome the Lord. [24:50] You’re never going to do that. [24:52] Either God prevailing will be to your benefit and you will take great joy out of it. [24:56] You will rejoice in the power of what God has done. [24:59] Or it will be to your detriment and you will receive no joy from the Lord.

[25:04] God still wins and you are separated from his presence in this life and possibly in eternity.

[25:12] Do not let that happen to you. [25:15] God was unwilling to allow Jacob to be unaffected by his grace in his journey through life [25:23] any longer. [25:24] I love the word play in the text. [25:27] It tells us that God was not prevailing over Jacob. [25:32] That Jacob is resisting him.

[25:36] How does Jacob have that power? [25:38] But then when you read the next stanza, it’s like Jacob is totally powerless. [25:41] All right? [25:41] God touches his hip.

[25:45] Kind of builds up, oh my goodness, Jacob’s so strong and it’s as if he’s going to prevail [25:50] against God. [25:50] God doesn’t have to do some Brazilian jiu-jitsu, MMA move to break the hold. [25:56] God’s just like, bam, hip out of socket.

[26:04] What amazing grace in that moment. [26:08] God, the creator of the universe, speaks and worlds exist. [26:14] God can, in this moment, kill Jacob and condemn him for eternity with just a spoken word. [26:25] Instead, in grace, God just touches his hip and it goes out of socket. [26:33] Sure, it speaks to the force of Jacob’s will in the moment, but then the ease of God to [26:41] what he wants to do in the situation.

[26:44] That God can do with us whatever he pleases in any moment. [26:51] That comes through in this narrative crystal clear. [26:56] Your fight against trusting God is like an ant struggling against the foot coming down [27:04] on top of it. [27:06] It’s meaningless. [27:07] It’s meaningless.

[27:09] But we think so much of our will. [27:12] We think so much of our resistance against God. [27:16] We think so much of the pleasures of this world that we actually believe that we can [27:22] struggle and fight. [27:24] We can disobey. [27:25] We can stay out of his presence.

[27:27] We can build a life of self-sufficient independence where we do not need anyone. [27:35] And we think we’re proving something to others, but the sad part is that we believe that [27:39] we’re proving something to God.

[27:43] Rest assured, I know that there has never been a moment where God has looked on my [27:48] life with great impression, thinking, it’s a good one right there. [27:55] My goodness, he went to college? [27:57] Good on you.

[28:00] Thankful I made Steve. [28:03] That’s some good stuff.

[28:07] Yet so often I think we come into the presence of God and we try to put ourselves in God’s [28:11] prayer and we feel like there’s a barrier between God and us. [28:14] And I tell you the barrier so often is that you are impressed with yourself. [28:18] So you expect God to be a little impressed too.

[28:22] Haven’t I done enough to experience the presence of God? [28:26] Haven’t I accomplished enough for God to take notice of me? [28:29] Haven’t I done enough for you, Lord? [28:31] Why don’t I feel your joy? [28:33] Why don’t I feel worship? [28:34] Why don’t I feel good enough?

[28:35] Why don’t I feel?

[28:39] And the Lord is saying you won’t until you come to the end of yourself.

[28:43] And the most gracious thing that God could do in many moments in your life is to touch your hip.

[28:51] You say what does that mean? [28:54] Well I’ve never had a bone out of socket. [28:56] Full disclosure.

[28:58] But my understanding is it doesn’t feel great. [29:01] Maybe some of you have actually dislocated something in your life or something has come [29:04] out of socket or you’ve had to have knee replacement or hip replacement or some kind [29:09] of surgery that’s kind of likened to this type of pain and you would like that is not a pleasant [29:14] experience. [29:14] Believe me.

[29:16] And so Jacob’s hip getting out of socket and I look at that and I think the excruciating pain [29:21] Jacob must have been in this moment and how difficult it is for us when God touches [29:26] whatever it is in my life, the hip of my life, and it goes out of socket and things don’t go [29:32] the direction that I want them to go and I’m feeling less impressed with myself and I start [29:35] to actually see the glory of God. [29:37] How I sometimes don’t want that to happen because I’m so afraid I’ll have a limp.

[29:43] I would rather so often not experience the presence of God than to have a limp after [29:49] experiencing the presence of God. [29:51] And I say that to our shame.

[29:55] That we would rather not experience the discipline of the Lord in so many situations of our life [30:00] so we avoid the pain, so we go away from the pain, so we avoid the presence of God, all to build [30:06] a false God in and of ourselves without the reality of who do we think we are fooling. [30:14] It is only when I come to the end of myself and I become actually dependent on God that I’ll ever [30:20] have any strength worth having. [30:23] Because what is dependence?

[30:24] Dependence is actually trust in God and all that that actually means. [30:29] You see you may want God to show himself powerful in your life but my question is are you doing [30:35] it by seeking your own strengths? [30:38] You see that’s not typically how God moves. [30:39] Look in the scriptures, story after story, narrative after narrative, character after character. [30:45] Do you find these amazing perfect people who get this great resume and then God’s like well

[30:50] he’s good enough I’ll use him.

[30:53] Now here’s how the apostle Paul puts it and I think he sums it up really well in 2 Corinthians 12 9. [30:58] But Jesus said to me, Paul writes, my grace is sufficient for you but my power is made perfect [31:04] in weakness.

[31:09] Weakness.

[31:12] Therefore, Paul writes, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of [31:20] Christ may rest upon me. [31:21] That is antithetical to how most of us live our lives.

[31:26] See we think the impressive thing about us needs to be our strength and Paul says, no that’s [31:31] antithetical to the gospel. [31:32] It’s about weakness.

[31:35] And it’s not about, don’t misunderstand this, Paul’s not trying to make himself weaker every day. [31:41] Paul’s not like, I’m not going to do anything to grow, be physically strong because it’s only when [31:46] I’m frail and starving to death that God’s gonna have me. [31:49] No, what he’s saying is his view of God is growing. [31:52] His glaring at the cross is growing. [31:55] His experience with the Lord is growing.

[31:58] And the more he experiences God, the more he grows in knowledge of the Holy One, the more wisdom [32:04] he has, the more insight he has, the more he ponders the gospel, the more he reads the word, [32:10] the more he spends time in prayer, the more time he spends in the presence of God, the greater he [32:17] realizes that God is and the smaller he realizes that he is. [32:23] See, Paul realizes that a lot of us bring what we think is a great spiritual resume into our [32:27] experience of God, but if you’re actually experiencing God, you will empty yourself more

[32:31] and more of that resume.

[32:35] No one walks into the kingdom of God boastful.

[32:40] The only way you get to the kingdom of God is with a limp. [32:43] And that’s the only way Jacob was getting into the promised land.

[32:49] The power of the gospel of Jesus is not seen in how impressive you are, but rather it’s only [32:54] seen in a rock solid dependence on God to move in your life, because if he isn’t moving, nothing [33:03] else matters.

[33:08] I want you to understand a great thing this morning. [33:11] True spiritual growth is something that happens in the presence of God, not man. [33:17] We live in a culture right now where in order to experience any growth, everybody thinks they [33:23] need a platform to be seen from. [33:26] If you don’t tweet about it, did it actually happen?

[33:31] Everybody gauges how successful they are in this life by is anyone paying attention to me. [33:37] So when we bring that into God’s presence, we begin to bring things that are antithetical to [33:43] how growth actually happens. [33:45] So when you come into the Christian life, you think in order to grow in the Christian life, [33:51] I need a stage. [33:52] I need people to notice.

[33:53] I need someone to listen to me. [33:55] I need to lead. [33:56] I need to do. [33:58] I need to be seen.

[34:04] That’s the opposite of what most of you need. [34:07] What if true spiritual growth meant laboring in absolute obscurity for years with nothing [34:13] but the presence of God through his word and through prayer to grow you into the mature [34:19] Christian that you need to be?

[34:24] The reason that’s a struggle for most of you is because when you post anything in this [34:28] social media generation, you immediately start refresh, refresh, did anybody like it? [34:33] Did anybody notice it? [34:34] Did anybody share it? [34:36] Does anybody like me? [34:37] If an hour goes by and nobody likes your post, you’re devastated.

[34:42] If that is you, let me offer you a piece of advice, and it’ll change your life if you [34:48] actually do it. [34:49] Cancel all your social media accounts for at least the next six months and just spend [34:53] time in the Word and in prayer. [34:56] That would be the most life altering thing that most of you could do. [35:01] And you would get like the worst like withdrawals in the world.

[35:06] You’d be clicking on that hyperlink and you’re like, crap, I canceled my account. [35:10] It’s not even there.

[35:13] But you need to learn what it is to marinate in the presence of God, because worship is a posture [35:18] of total dependence. [35:21] Too many of you spend your life impressed with yourselves to even understand an inkling of [35:26] what it is to worship God. [35:29] Faith in the gospel of Jesus requires an understanding of how sick and weak we are apart [35:35] from him.

[35:36] But once you come to Jesus, understand you don’t then move on to your life. [35:41] You’re not going to have your own strength.

[35:43] But too many of us would rather not limp than experience the grace of God.

[35:51] Number three this morning, the discipline of the Lord builds dependency on the Lord.

[35:59] We spend a lot of time avoiding discipline. [36:02] I know I do. [36:03] It’s something that I’ve tried to avoid my entire life. [36:05] I’ve never really liked authority figures. [36:07] It’s like, oh, I don’t want you to discipline me. [36:10] We think anything painful must be avoided at all costs.

[36:14] But the gospel of God throughout the entire Bible negates such a narrative. [36:19] Jacob is renamed Israel. [36:22] Commentators point out that this variation of this name, which was for the entire nation [36:27] of Israel that would come after him, finds its root in three different phrases. [36:32] God heals, God judges, and God rules. [36:37] The point is to remind Jacob of this moment, to point back to this experience the rest

[36:46] of his days and the rest of the days of the people of God. [36:51] And Jacob would limp the rest of his life for that name. [36:56] Specifically here it tells us that he limped into the promised land. [37:01] Proverbs chapter three, starting in verse 11, tells us this. [37:05] It says, my son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, [37:09] for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son of him whom he delights.

[37:16] It’s interesting that that comes right before the fear, [37:19] right before what wisdom actually is worth in this life. [37:23] You see, God is a loving father that seeks to discipline his children. [37:28] You see, without the discipline of the Lord, you do not have the Lord in your life. [37:32] Without the discipline of the Lord, you cannot be sure of the love of God in your life. [37:38] Many of you cannot point to the last time where you felt the discipline of the Lord.

[37:43] What does that mean about our lives?

[37:48] You see, the Proverbs are very quick, and then this is of course repeated in the book of Hebrews [37:52] to remind us of the discipline of the Lord. [37:55] It talks about the relationship of a father to his child. [38:00] And see, a lot of you dads, you spend too much time avoiding your kids.

[38:05] Your children come to you and they’re like, Dad, can I sit on your lap? [38:08] Dad, will you sit with me? [38:09] Dad, will you play with me? [38:10] Dad, will you spend a few minutes to me? [38:12] And you are no more unlike God than when you are avoiding your children. [38:18] And you should understand that, right?

[38:21] But more than that, it says he’s a father who disciplines his children, [38:28] right? [38:29] And some of that, that’s foreign to you because you don’t discipline your kids, [38:31] and so you’ve got rotten kids, all right?

[38:35] Some of you desperately need to start disciplining your kids more. [38:38] In our house, we have corporal punishment. [38:41] I mean, it is a real deal going on in my house, and you need to institute the same thing. [38:45] It’s biblical, and you’ve got rotten kids. [38:48] And understand, if you’ve got rotten kids, you’re the problem. [38:50] That’s just what it is to be a parent.

[38:52] But it says the Lord disciplines those whom he loves.

[39:02] And I started thinking about my kids [39:03] and how they’ve never thanked me for disciplining them.

[39:08] You know, because I mean, sometimes you got to lay the hammer down. [39:12] And part of my goal as a father is I’m bigger for a reason, all right? [39:17] And so I try to intimidate them a little bit. [39:20] If you’re a dad and you’re like, I don’t want them to think he’s our best friend. [39:24] Well, do they listen to you? [39:25] All right, they need to be more afraid of you.

[39:27] All right? [39:28] A little fear is good. [39:30] All right, and so I’ll discipline them. [39:32] And here’s the thing, they don’t like it.

[39:35] And I think to myself, what’s the problem? [39:37] But here’s the key. [39:39] Sometimes with discipline, it’s not until years later in adulthood that they’re like, [39:43] man, I am so glad you didn’t let me die. [39:47] Because left to myself, I would have. [39:49] And so there’ll be more things later.

[39:51] But sometimes the discipline of the Lord is active in your life. [39:54] And you’re like, I hate this situation that I’m in. [39:56] I wish it wasn’t going on. [39:58] And God is in the middle of it. [39:59] He’s bringing it. [40:01] He’s making it happen.

[40:02] And in 10 years, you’ll look back and you’ll think, oh, my goodness. [40:07] The grace of a father to his child. [40:12] But sometimes here’s the thing. [40:14] You need to open your eyes and you need to realize it right now. [40:19] Because that’s what going on with Jacob. [40:20] And I want to show you something that just jumped out at me as God was dealing with me

[40:25] this week in this passage. [40:26] Look at verse 26. [40:27] So in verse 25, God touches Jacob’s hip pops out of joint. [40:31] Verse 26, then he, God said, let me go for the day has broken. [40:36] But Jacob said, this is the meat.

[40:43] I will not let you go unless you bless me.

[40:48] This is totally antithetical to what I think about a fistfight.

[40:54] God has wounded him greatly. [40:57] A gracious wound hip out of socket. [41:00] That’s the moment you tap. [41:02] I’m out, uncle. [41:04] I’m in pain. [41:05] Let me go.

[41:08] Jacob grabs the Lord hip out of socket. [41:12] And this is the greatest defining moment in Jacob’s life. [41:17] Because Jacob realizes the discipline of the Lord at the right moment. [41:24] And he says, God, I will not let go until you bless me.

[41:31] This isn’t a moment to look at Jacob and say, who does he think he is? [41:34] This is a moment to look at Jacob and say, that’s what I need to be like. [41:39] This is a moment to look at Jacob and say, how often have I left the presence of God [41:43] without getting his blessing? [41:45] How often have I been in his word without hearing from the Holy Spirit? [41:49] How often have I gotten up from prayers?

[41:52] Totally unaffected. [41:54] And you said, but you don’t understand, Steve, when I pray, nothing happens. [41:58] When I read the word, I don’t get anything out of it. [42:00] As John Piper has said so often, if you are reading the Bible and getting [42:04] nothing out of it, stare longer.

[42:09] Look to God and say, God, I will not leave your presence [42:14] without your blessing.

[42:19] And too often we’re unaffected even by the thought of that because we really [42:23] don’t need his blessing for the life that we’re currently living. [42:27] But Jacob had finally come to the end of himself. [42:33] And he said, God, without your move in my life, I’m done. [42:41] And in physical agony, he doesn’t run from the Lord. [42:46] He holds on tighter.

[42:48] Isn’t that what a child does to a father when he’s in pain?

[42:56] This is a gracious wound that the father gave to Jacob. [43:00] And it is a gracious wound that God desperately needs to give each and every one of us. [43:07] We must go to God and not let go. [43:15] We must beg for a blessing in every moment of God’s presence.

[43:24] Because if I go through this life and I miss the presence of God Almighty, [43:28] I have missed absolutely all of it. [43:31] And I’ve not had a life worth living. [43:34] Page after page of scripture shows me person after person who desperately needed the move [43:41] of God or their lives would fall apart without it. [43:45] And I think about my life, I think about your life, and I ask you,

[43:50] what is it in your life right now that if God doesn’t move, it’s over?

[44:01] And when we think about that, do we think to ourselves, I better start getting in the [44:07] presence of God so that I’ll have something worth losing.

[44:15] The apostle Paul writes about this very subject, I believe, but depending on the Lord and [44:21] discipline in Philippians 3, he says that I may know him, power of his resurrection, [44:28] we love that part.

[44:30] Resurrection power is a beautiful thing.

[44:34] And may share in his sufferings. [44:39] I get there and I’m like, huh? [44:42] Becoming like him in his death that by any means possible I may attain resurrection from the [44:47] dead. [44:48] You see, following Jesus is not just about knowing the power of his resurrection, [44:52] which is beautiful.

[44:54] It is also about sharing in the sufferings of Christ. [44:56] It is not just a journey of the highest of highs. [44:58] It is a journey of dealing with repentance that is often painful. [45:03] It is a journey of dealing with sin that is often uncomfortable. [45:06] It is a journey of longing to experience God as God disciplines you into a posture of submission [45:13] and then being thankful for whatever it is that God did to bring you into his presence.

[45:20] We must adopt the attitude of whatever it means to have the presence of God in my life. [45:27] I will endure it. [45:29] No matter what it costs me, no matter what I must do, no matter what I must lose, [45:33] no matter what I must sacrifice.

[45:39] Most of you cannot experience the presence of God in the life you are currently living.

[45:47] And whatever you have to endure to change that, it is worth it.

[45:58] You see, on the cross, Jesus paid the penalty so that I no longer had to ask a question of [46:06] can I have the presence of God in my life.

[46:10] Because of faith in Jesus Christ, because he died on the cross for my sake, [46:14] because of my sins, I have been gifted the presence of God in every moment.

[46:22] God has laid a welcome mat to his presence for me. [46:28] And I walk in. [46:30] And so often, I do not belong to be here and God says, I know,

[46:34] but you have the righteousness of my son. [46:37] Come on in. [46:38] Stay for a while. [46:39] Talk with me. [46:40] Need a bed to sleep on? [46:42] I can just glare at him.

[46:44] I can just worship him. [46:46] I can take every problem to him. [46:47] I can take every thought to him. [46:49] I can say, God, am I stupid? [46:51] And sometimes he says, yeah.

[46:54] But I love you and I’m going to help you not be stupid anymore. [46:58] I take my sin to him and I say, God, I’m sorry.

[47:03] He says, you should be. [47:07] But the righteousness of my son is on you, so I forgive you.

[47:11] I said, God, can I experience your presence in every moment? [47:15] Just like I must look to my children. [47:17] I do when they come to me, they say, Dad, can I just talk to you? [47:19] I said, what a privilege. [47:21] How great is it to be a dad?

[47:25] And God, the father, through the cross of his son, Jesus Christ, he looks to me and he says, [47:30] of course, I’ll spend time with you, son. [47:33] I love you. [47:35] You belong here. [47:38] As the band comes forward, [47:39] I say, there’s so much grace in the presence of God.

[47:46] It’s true, Jacob walked the rest of his days with a limp. [47:50] It’s true that when he crossed over Pinyul into the promised land, Jacob was limping. [47:57] But in every step of Jacob’s limp was a reminder of the presence of God. [48:03] Friend, do not despise the limp. [48:08] Do not despise the pain. [48:11] Let it remind you of how God uses even the uncomfortable situations to bring us closer to himself.

[48:22] Jesus earned me the presence of God. [48:25] The table in the front and in the back, they hold the bread that represents the broken body of Jesus, [48:31] the cup that represents his shed blood. [48:33] When we eat and when we drink, we do so as a reminder of what Jesus has done to earn us [48:40] the presence of God unfiltered.

[48:44] We also do it to proclaim to others, I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. [48:50] If that’s you this morning in just a moment, I’m going to call you forward to come, [48:54] eat, drink, proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. [48:58] But then when you walk out of here, walk out of here with a determination [49:02] to seek the presence of God in the everyday.

[49:08] If you sit here and you’re like, I’ve never experienced the presence of God. [49:11] I don’t even know what that would look like for me. [49:14] I want you to know this morning that you can be saved from that. [49:18] That if you turn from your sin, if you trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross [49:24] and through the resurrection, he will save you. [49:28] He will redeem you out of your sin to himself and give you a relationship with him

[49:33] and give his presence into your life for eternity.

[49:37] If that’s you, trust him today when you’re ready. [49:42] Come.