Wrestling with your Reflection
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Introduction
Introduction
Dismiss kids
How many of you are naturally inquisitive? You ask questions, you like to know how things work…raise your hands.
I’m that way. I think it’s really cool to watch shows like how it’s made or some of those competition shows where experts and professionals show off their skills and we get to see the process for how something beautiful came together.
Have you ever noticed though, that when it comes to art or anytime you are making something beautiful…it doesn’t start out that way?
Take glass for instance.
Raw Glass Photo
Before being molded into something beautiful it starts out as a hot molten mixture of sand, lyme, and soda. Inside of a furnace thats set to 2,250* F a glass blower will place a hollow tube to gather up some of the molten liquid and begin to shape it.
Glass blowers have done some great works of art. There is a competition show on netflix about it right now.
Once in the hands of the glass blower the molten liquid is then transformed into something beautiful.
Glass cups
This is just one example of the amazing work done by glass blowers on that show and there are many more throughout the world.
When placed in the hands of a master craftsman, even the most unusual things can become great works of art.
What if the glass blower saw the raw glass and just said …that’s perfect…there’s nothing wrong here…would it ever become something beautiful?
Like raw glass in the hands of the artist so are we in the hands of our Savior.
God can take you and mold you into something beautiful but first there must be an understanding of who you really are without Him.
Jacob in Genesis 32 has a wrestling match with God. It’s during this time with God that we see Jacob receive the greatest loss anyone could ever have.
Follow along as I read and ask yourselves “why am I not getting alone with God?”
Gen 32:22-32
22 And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two womenservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok.
23 And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.
24 And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
25 And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
29 And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
31 And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.
32 Therefore the children of Israel eat not of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew that shrank.
PRAY
I. You can’t know God if your never alone with God
I. You can’t know God if your never alone with God
If you have never heard the story of Jacob, you should know. Jacob is the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. Abraham is the one I preached about last week that God promised a great nation too. Here we are with the Grandson who that promise would be fulfilled through.
Long story short on Jacob, he was a trixster. He was a person that caused mischief and woudl be considered quite selfish. He stole his brothers blessing from his father and convinced his brother to give up his birthright for a bowl of soup.
He has worked for many years to wed his two wives and is now returning to his homeland to meet his brother that when they last spoke, was not happy with him. He’s expecting the worst.
He sends his caravan ahead in hopes of softening his brothers heart.
Now here, we are with Jacob alone.
It’s in this time of solitude that Jacob meets with God.
As 21st Century Christians we should know this practice of solitude with the Lord is a best practice for our lives.
Do you have one of these in your home? (MIRROR) Most do. Many of us avoid it. We also avoid some other objects in our house....Ever seen one of these? (SCALE)
I hate this thing don’t you?
Why do you avoid these? Why do you neglect time in front of or on these items?
Because you can’t spin the truth thats staring back at you.
A scale and a mirror are not bad objects. They are not evil nor are they good. Yet, I would be willing to bet they are the most despised objects in our homes…When you get alone with them you see unfiltered truth looking right back at you.
Why should we spend time with these objects though? They make us aware of areas that may need adjustment.
You wouldn’t want to walk out the door without knowing about the pen your kid used to draw on you at night. Knowing your weight helps you know how your doing on that diet or just in general.
Objects intended to help are often neglected because they show us areas we are not happy about.
Just as a mirror or a scale is a neglected in our homes, in our lives we neglect the one thing that can bring us to an understanding of problem areas in our walk with the Lord…being alone.
Ever been alone in your thoughts? That can either be peaceful or, most of the time, very revealing. Your thoughts can be good or bad but what you do with them is what determines right and wrong.
We neglect the mirror because we don’t want to see the nose we want fixed or the freckles we wish we didn’t have and we neglect solitude and spiritual reflection because we are afraid we may begin to see ourselves for who we truly are. Desperately wicked, depraved, full of iniquity, and broken.
Your reflection in the mirror of the gospel may not be one you like, but it is the one He died for.
It’s in the reflection of ourselves as seen through the lens of the perfection of Christ that we find our need of Him.
This practice of solitude is one practiced throughout the Bible.
Luke 5:16
16 And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.
Jesus did this. In the OT God told Israel that in rest and quietness they would find strength.
Is 30:15
15 For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: And ye would not.
This passage in Isaiah is following after the king of Israel had turned to Egypt to protect them rather than God.
Like Israel, instead of facing the problem head on with God, we turn somewhere else to fix us.
I’m for counseling. I’m for therapy....as long as the basis of that therapy is not humanistic thoughts and ideas of self improvement. The basis for any counseling or therapy you receive should be grounded in the Word of God.
Most commonly though, I believe we turn to ourselves to fix the problems. When we are looking into ourselves to bring about change in us we are looking to the problem to bring a solution.
Would you call an arsonist to install your sprinkler system? No. That would be stupid. Because while he may install the system…he most likely won’t install it properly and will come back and burn your building.
Then don’t go to yourself to bring about change in your life.
It’s God that transforms and brings about heart change in each of us.
Phil 1:6
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Rom 6:4
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
The problem with us is that we don’t seek to be alone with God. Being alone isn’t what society tells us we need to be. We are told we need to be entertained.
While in quarentine Americans watched an average 3.2 hours per day of nextflix.
Average time on Facebook....38 minutes... Youtube…24 minutes....Twitter....3:39
Young Millenials and Gen Z....48 minutes per day on Tik Tok...
That’s 48.5 days on netflix, 9.6 days on Facebook, a little over 6 days on Youtube, almost one whole day on twitter, and a little over 12 ays on tiktok.
Thats over 2.5 months of the year spent on social media. That’s not including watching the news, playing games on your phone, watching tv, or anything else.
If a person works full time that’s on top of the at LEAST 86.6 days of the year given to work.
The reason so many Americans don’t know God, is because you are never alone with God. 21st century Christians are empty because they are filling themselves with entertainment rather than being full of the Spirit.
We have full schedules and empty hearts.
It’s like needing to fill a bucket with water and only pouring in air. Is the bucket technically full? Yes. Is it doing anything for you? absolutely not. So you keep trying to fill it.
You need to Know God and then you will know fulfillment. But you can’t know God if your never alone with God.
II. Losing to God leads to winning
II. Losing to God leads to winning
Jacob was alone physically wrestling with God. and then the man who he is wrestling with knocks his hip out of socket.
Jacob was putting up a good fight…many of you put up a good fight with God. We pretend we can wrestle Him and win. We pretend we are strong enough to do things on on our own. Yet in our strength we fail.
It’s in His strength we find victory. But how? How do we find our weaknesses?
I can’t say definitively that Jacob had a hip or leg issue before this. What I do know is that Jacob was 77 when this wrestling match took place.
Now, I’m less than half that age but from what I hear, hips are known to mess up at that time of life right?
If that was a weak spot some may say it was wrong of his opponent to exploit it. Here’s the wrong thinking there....Jacobs opponent in this match wasn’t trying to defeat Him....He was trying to help Him.
Notice what happened when Jacob’s hip was knocked out of socket
Gen 32:26-28
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
The man he was wrestling says “let me go” jacob had lost the use of that leg and appears to have grabbed onto him. Then declares....BLESS ME or I wont’ let go.
This is the second time Jacob has tried to recieve a blessing. There is a big difference between this time and the last time though.
Hear the interaction between jacob and his father the first time he tried to receive a blessing
Gen 27:18-19
18 And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son?
19 And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; I have done according as thou badest me: arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.
Issac asked him…who are you?
Jacob said “I am Esau” He was being the trixster he was known to be. He was projecting this image of who he wanted Isaac to beleive he was. He was hiding behind the identity his mother had given him.
Now, with a hip out of socket, wrestling with God , he asks for a blessing. He gets asked again…”what is your name?” essentially he is asked “who are you?”
When we get alone with God and begin to wrestle with our identities in light of the gospel, this is a question we must answer.
Who are you? Are you the person everyone says you are? Are you the person you say you are?
When we get alone with God we can truly find our identity. We can find who He made us to be.
Jacob responds with his name. He has accepted who he is. In his tiredness and brokenness he can’t fight anymore…all he can do is hang on to God with a percieved identity he has established...
It’s in this moment…when we forsake all ideas of who we are. When we are broken and alone that God gives you, your identity.
notice the response to Jacob
Gen 32:28
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
No Jacob…you are not just a trickster. No Jacob, you are not just a broken man…No sir, your not just a hot heaeded father, no maa’m your not just an insecure woman, no teenager your not just a smart alleck hormonal annoyance....
Jacob you are Israel. You are not defined by the world. You are not defined by yourself…you are defined by me.
Christian here today…you are not just those things. You are created, you are not a mistake, Jesus died for you, you are forgiven, you are chosen, you are redeemed, you are wanted, you are saved, you are loved, you are a child of God.
It’s when you lose yourself that you find who God made you to be.
But you can’t know who God has made you to be if you don’t know God. You can’t know God if you’re never alone with God. It’s when your alone with God you will lose…you will lose all your cares and concerns of judgement from the world and yourself. It’s when you will let yourself go and let God take hold.
It’s in those moments that God took Abraham from being some guy to being the father of a great nation, it’s in the solitude of night that Jacob was made the father of the nation of Israel, it’s in the quiteness of the mountainside that Moses was called to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Stop holding back. Stop holding on. God can do something great with you. Will you let Him?
Some of you may look at me and say “Pastor…I believe you believe what your saying but that’s not for me. I got bills to pay. I got a life to live. Do you know who I am and what I’ve done? God can’t use me. Besides I’ve got things I want to do…”
ever heard of the Apostle Paul?
He murdered believers. Then became one. As the world’s first gospel missionary he planted churches and wrote many epistles inspired by the Holy Spirit. One of them was to the church at Rome which he had never visited. He wrote this...
Romans 8:1-9
1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Let me say it plainly…Your pursuing after your flesh because you are living in your flesh. The righteousness of the law which brings the guilt into your life has been fulfilled in Christ Jesus. If your a Christian you are called nay you are commanded to not pursue after the things of the flesh but after the things of the spirit.
Being carnally minded you are at emnity with God. Jacob in his own power and decieving those around Him was at enminity with God. God broke Him through years of service to Laban for his daughters and now returning to his brother not knowing the response he would get he breaks him physically.
Jacob is now at a place where he MUST rely upon God. I believe the Lord wants to do a great work in your life individually. Not just corporately as a body of believers but in your individual life I believe God has a work for you to be accomplishing. What is it? Why are you not purusing it? Are you carnally minded and at emnity with God?
If you are saved you are not in the flesh but in the spirit and the Spirit of God dwells within you.
As Jacob had to yield to his opponent so must we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit.
Jacob had to have his pride broken for God to work....
James 4:6
6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
My question is will you yield yourself or will you need to be broken by outside circumstances for you to accept what God has for you?
It’s in Jacobs loss that he found victory. And when he lost…when he lost his identity…he worshipped.
III. You should worship in your loss
III. You should worship in your loss
Gen 32:30
30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.
He named the place after the event that took place there. I see that as a means of worship to the Lord.
We often see a broken person as a weak person. When in reality it’s those of us that put up the barriers to prevent ourselves from breaking are the weak ones.
Too weak to accept who we are. Took weak for you to lose the image others have of you. Too week to lose the identity you have formed in your mind.
Too weak to let God be strong? Why?
Find a place in scripture where a man or woman was broken by the Lord and not used greatly.
Do you want to be used by God? Do you want to pursue after the things of the spirit and not the flesh?
Then stop pretending to be something your not and become who He made you to be.
That starts with you making time to get alone with God. That starts with you losing yourself to the Lord and receiving who He has made you to be. That continues with your worship of Him in your life.
Time of Response
Time of Response
Christian, are you making time alone for God? Are you reflecting on the areas of your life that are weak so that He can make you strong? If not…why not?
Are you here this morning or listening online and not sure if you have a relationship with God? What I’ve said today doesn’t make sense to you. Maybe you don’t know if your saved and on your way to heaven.
The Bible says that when we believe by faith in Jesus, we are saved.
John 3:16
KJV 190016 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
God does love you. Loves you so much He sent Jesus to die for you.
Now you are faced with a decision…will you continue finding salvation in your own works or in the finished work of Christ?
Ephesians 2:8–9
KJV 19008 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Your first have to admit your sinner
Romans 3:23
KJV 190023 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
I’m sure each of us could do that.Next you believe
Romans 10:9
KJV 19009 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Then confess. Confess Jesus as your Savior and call out to Him
Romans 10:13
KJV 190013 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
IF you’d like to do that today I’d like to help.
“Dear Jesus, I know I’m a sinner, I believe you came to die on the cross and rose from the dead. I put my faith right now in you and ask you to come into my life and change me from the inside out. Amen.”
Christians…until you decide to give up who you are, you will not find who He has made you to be.
Matthew 16:25
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
PRAY