Jacob

So, I want to take a few moments here to open this up in a word of prayer whether you're on this campus or any of our campuses, and I want us to just take a moment and ask God, by His Spirit to speak to us because anything that I would have to offer to you is only as good as the Spirit's intervention in your life. And so I'm going to ask you in just a moment to pray a prayer that I'm going to pray for us and just so you know what you're praying I'm basically going to ask you to ask the Lord to receive what He has for you. Whatever that is today, if you would cooperate with His Spirit as He wants to speak to your heart, your life and to say yes to Him, whatever it is that is that He wants to say.

You do realize, ladies and gentlemen, that I have no intention of just going through the motions. And you should not have any intention of just going through motions. Oh, I showed up again today, I heard a guy talk, it was nice, I feel good, I leave. Waste of time. God who lives, God who lives speaks. And He wants to speak to you. He wants to speak to me. We just need to be responsive to that. So could we pray together. Would you just pause in your heart now and would you pray these words.

Father I want you to speak to me. You know everything about my life. You know what you want to say. And I pray you would help me by your Spirit to listen, to respond. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

So it's been a reasonably tough week at The Chapel. This past week we did funerals for three men, one who was 83, one who was 76 and one who was about 26. And in all of those cases the good news is that all of them knew and trusted and had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the good news. Two of them were reasonably unexpected with, those being the older two. And the younger, Ira, had so many medical battles and problems and struggles. And all of them now are with the Lord. And I'm reminded that even in their dying, their faith in Jesus was well placed.

And so, interestingly enough as God would have it, in our series that we are embarking upon in Hebrews chapter 11 talking about people who live by faith and learning from that, we're actually talking today about a man who is described in Hebrews 11 as a man who was dying. And only God would put that all together in the same week for us to be able to listen to and receive and hear, but that man's name was Jacob. I want you to take a look in Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 21, here's what it says. It says "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff".

Now some of you may be saying okay, what else are you going to talk about? There doesn't seem to be a lot there, right? It's a verse that when we're reading in Hebrews 11, it gets lost in the shuffle quite easily. Because we've got so much on you know, Abraham, and later we'll have plenty on Moses, and we've got a number of people that have more than one simple seemingly harmless sentence that is tucked in by the writer of Hebrews for us to be able to glean something from. But I would suggest to you that there's plenty here. In fact, there is enough here in this verse that it's going to fill our time, because I'm sure you didn't assume that I was going to say very, very little. I was going to read the text and go, there you have it, goodbye. I'm sure you're thinking there's going to be more to discover and to study, and there is. And I want us to be in a position to be able to see it. But with such a simple verse, what I'd like to do is just give you a summary at a very high level of what the verse is saying to all of us, again, at a very high level. And then we're going to unpack it, piece by piece.

But at a high level, I maybe would summarize this verse this way, our faith should be living even when we're dying. Our faith should be living even when we're dying. That's a summary of the verse that we just read about Jacob. By faith when Jacob was dying, he did some things.

Now for us to understand what it looks like to have a faith that is living even when we're dying, we're going to explore Jacob's life just a little bit, and we're going to do that by picking up on three action verbs in the verse we just read from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 22. Because those verbs are going to teach us what we should be able to grab hold of about what it means to have a life that has a faith worth living even when we're dying.

Look back in Hebrews 11 verse 21. It says this: "By faith Jacob when he was dying did what? Stay with me. "By faith Jacob when he was dying" did what? Blessed each of Joseph's sons and what else? Worshiped, as he did what? Leaned on the top of his staff. We've got three action verbs here in this description for us and what we're going to do is we're going to take each one, one by one and I'm going to give you a statement surrounding them to kind of fill out what they're describing and what they're saying so that we can get down a little bit deeper into the details of why Jacob's faith can affect our faith and how that looks like in terms of the application of our faith now.

So the first thing that I would suggest is this. We're going to look at kind of this idea of blessing as I would say that a faith that blesses will resist human interference. I know you may be thinking what I was thinking when I wrote that sentence. What in the world does that mean, because when we read the text it seems to be reasonably harmless. Look back at it again in Hebrews 11 verse 21: "By faith Jacob, when he was dying blessed each of Joseph's sons". Okay. Sweet. He blessed them. What now and why are you talking about the idea of human interference being a part of blessing or resisting human interference being a part of blessing?

Well, let me see if I can help you with that a little bit, because this seems harmless enough, but we're going to have to back up to understand it a little bit. Jacob had a past. How many in this room by a show of hands in this room, the East Worship Center, Lockport Campus, everywhere, online, how many of you have a past? Show of hands, show of hands. Okay, that's all of us. Notice I didn't say a good past or bad past, I just said a past. Therefore we're all included.

Jacob had a past. And if you remember Jacob's past, Jacob is described when he is about to be born, he's in the womb with his brother Esau. And the Bible actually tells us that what Jacob was doing with Esau in the womb was grabbing at his heel, because Esau was coming out first and apparently Jacob was not happy about that and wanted to pull him back. I don't know if mom would be thrilled about that, but nonetheless, that was what was about to transpire. As they grew, Jacob and Esau, they were two very different kinds of people. Jacob's name actually means "heel-grabber" or "supplanter" or "deceiver". And Jacob would actually end up living up to his name as a deceiver.

You see, when Jacob's father, his name was Isaac was getting ready to die, Isaac was old and about to die and had lost his eyesight. And he announced out in the room there wherever he was sitting and he announced that he was going to give the blessing and that blessing was always to be aimed at the firstborn son and he was going to give him kind of the firstborn's blessing. But interestingly enough, Isaac's wife, Rebekah, Jacob's mom heard about that because she was in the kitchen. Jacob happened to be in there as well. Esau wasn't in the room because Esau was out hunting. That's what Esau did.

You see, Esau and Jacob were very different. Esau was, you know he was a hunter and he was hairy, he smelled like deer, right? And Jacob, he was in the kitchen, the Bible says he was fair-skinned and he wears Axe Body Spray. That's Jacob. The Bible doesn't say anything about Axe Body Spray, by the way but it does say that he was fair-skinned, okay? So Jacob's in the kitchen with his mom, Esau, hairy man is out hunting and when they hear the news that the announcement of the blessing is going to come, Rebekah and Jacob literally cook up a scheme to steal the blessing.

Now I find this very interesting, because they went to great lengths, like if you started reading that passage as to what they did, they went to great lengths to steal the blessing. Because even though Isaac was blind, he could still hear and he could still smell. So Isaac asked for you know, a pot of stew from wild game that Esau would make up, and then he would eat that and then he would then give the blessing to Esau. But what Jacob did is he went ahead and started making up that stew, and then they got some goat skin, put it on his hands and his arms, literally. He went and put on Esau's clothes so that he would smell like him, and then he came in to his blind dad and said "Dad, I'm here". Dad says "who's here". He says "Esau". He said "you sound like Jacob". "No, it's me". Isaac said "let me feel your hands and your arms, yup, you're hairy like him. But I'm not sure. It still sounds like Jacob. Come on in here, son and give me a hug". And he does and he says "Ah, the smell of wild boar" or something like that, right? Because he had on his clothes. And sure enough, right there he pronounces the blessing over Jacob.

Shortly thereafter Esau walks into the house. "Dad, working on the stew and I'll be in for the blessing in just a minute". He's like, "wait a minute, who are you?" Esau. And he's like, uh-oh. Jacob's gone because the Bible says that Esau wanted to kill Jacob. Wanted to kill him. So it didn't actually turn out altogether that well for Jacob, the deceiver.

But isn't it interesting that what the writer of Hebrews does is he picks up on the idea in Hebrews chapter number 11 of Jacob, who is now old and who wants to bless Joseph's sons. Now, what this has to do with the idea of resisting human interference has to do with this: You see, Jacob had sons of his own, twelve of them if you remember, Simeon, Reuben and Zebulen and Dan and Naphtali and all of them. I won't name them all, probably because I'll forget some. Joseph was one of them. But you remember how that started, don't you? Jacob loved all of his kids, but Joseph kind of had a special place. And Joseph started talking a lot to his brothers, like hey, you know, I had this incredible dream that I think that God gave me. And all of you, my brothers, of which he was one of the youngest, all of you my brothers are going to bow down before me one day. Do you like that dream? And they're like, no, we don't like it all. And what we're going to do is we're going to sell you, and send you into you know, slavery. And then we don't have to listen to these stupid things anymore. Oh and by the way, your stupid coat with all the colors, we're going to put blood all over it and give it to Dad and tell him you're dead. And that's what they did.

So, you've got that scenario going on. So Jacob is living with the understanding that his son is dead. He thinks that forever, until many, many years later he finds out that not only is Joseph not dead, but Joseph is actually the second in charge in Egypt next to only the Pharaoh. Which was a tremendously big deal because in Israel where all of Jacob and his family were from, they were suffering under a severe famine, and the only way they were able to live and to spare the people is they came to Egypt because Joseph had had the wisdom to store up grain that was going to be able to help them and save them. So in God's sovereignty, Joseph is in the right place at the right time. Jacob and his family are now living in Egypt. And now, what Jacob wants to do is he wants to take Joseph's sons which were born in Egypt and he wants to bless them.

And we get a picture of that story when we begin looking in Genesis chapter number 48. And it says this: "Some time later Joseph was told, 'your father is ill.' So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.' In other words, Manasseh and Ephraim are Joseph's sons that were born to him in Egypt. "When Jacob was told your son Joseph has come to you," Israel... Pause. Israel is actually Jacob's name. So his name got changed, we'll see it in a little while. His name got changed from Jacob to Israel and sometimes the Bible refers to him as Israel and sometimes the Bible refers to him as Jacob. So don't be confused. This is not talking about national Israel even though sort of it is to come, but it's talking about Jacob. "Jacob rallied his strength and he sat up on the bed. " Remember he's old and he's about to die. "Jacob said to Joseph, 'God almighty appeared to me in the land of Canaan and there he blessed me and said to me, 'I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.' "Now then, your two sons, Joseph that were born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine; Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine, just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours; in the territory that they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers."

Now this is interesting, because what Jacob does is he says to Joseph, when you're bringing your two sons that were born to you in Egypt, you bring them to me and I am going to bless them. But I want you to know something in advance. They're mine now. Now here's what you've got to keep in mind. You've got to keep in mind that Jacob is doing this actually by faith. Why is he doing it by faith? Because Jacob knows that there's a promise that God has made to his people. It started with Abraham, his grandfather, it came through Isaac, his father, and now God has made the same promise to him. And as an old man, he's reflecting on that promise that God is going to bring his people into a land.

And what he knows is that Joseph has been in Egypt all of this time and he's borne two sons in Egypt, and these sons were of royal stock. You do know that Joseph's wife that gave birth to them was basically a princess. And so these are royalty, these two kids. Ephraim and Manasseh are basically royalty. They're aristocrats. They've got everything at their disposal, they've got culture and education and wealth and position and prestige. They've got it all. Their dad is the number two man behind the Pharaoh. He's the second most important man in the most important empire in the world at the time. It's extraordinary.

And do you know what Jacob thinks about that? He doesn't care. That's what he thinks. Do you know why? Because by faith, Jacob is more concerned with honoring the promise of God than he is with all of the human wealth and education and culture that could possibly interfere with God's promises. So he says to Joseph "they are mine". I don't care that they're going to be in the Harvard of wherever, I don't care. They're coming into the Promised Land along with us if God so sees fit to let us see it.

But that's not where it stopped. Because Jacob was actually going to put his hands on them and bless them. And I want you to notice what transpired. It's also in Genesis 48. It says: "Joseph took both of them." So Joseph is coming up to his dad. Let's say I'm Jacob right here. Joseph is walking up to his dad, and he takes Ephraim on his right, Joseph's right and puts it on Israel or Joseph's left hand. So Ephraim would be over here, right? If I'm Jacob here's Ephraim. And then Manasseh on Joseph's left, toward Israel or Jacob's right hand. Right here. And he brought them, Joseph brought them close to Jacob. But Jacob reached out his right hand, which is where Manasseh was and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger. And crossing his arms he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. "Then he blessed Joseph and he said, 'May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the Angel who delivered me from all harm - may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.' And when Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head he was displeased; so Joseph took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to Jacob 'no my father, this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head.' But his father refused and said, 'I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless his younger brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.' He blessed them that day and said, 'In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: 'May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.' So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh."

Now listen. I tell you all of that to tell you there's a couple of things going on here. Number one: Jacob, by faith had heard clearly from God as to what he was supposed to do with Joseph's sons. God had made a promise, and so he said I don't care that they're here and have all the access to everything in Egypt, I want them to be a part of the people of God and the Promise of God. And you can't interfere with all that with all the money in the world. And then he knew God had said to him "the younger one I'm going to bless even more than the older one", even though it was supposed to be backwards. And Joseph said, Joseph who was a godly guy, a wonderful picture in the Scripture, Joseph said "Dad, you can't do that." And do you know what Jacob said? "I'm going to do that." And let me tell you why. Because he heard from God. He heard from God. And no amount of human interference, whether that was cultural, whether that was family, no amount of human interference was going to get in the way of that. If you want, listen, if you want a faith that blesses, you're going to have to sometimes resist human interference. For when God, speaks God means what He says.

I remember it was probably, I don't know, 2003, maybe 2004. When you get to a certain age things just run together. Can I get a witness? Yeah. So some of you that are younger, you're going, they don't run together for me. Some of you who are in my age, maybe slightly older, you're going it's starting to run together for me. And some of you who are way up there are going where am I? What are we doing? what's happening right now?

So it was somewhere in that neck of the woods, maybe 2003 or so. I was on probably the first mission trip that I took with The Chapel. And there was a team of us in the Dominican Republic. And one night we snuck out and myself and Daryl Largis and Jeff Hackett actually snuck out to build a frame for a church in the middle of a sugar cane village. We had to do it under the cover of darkness because they kind of had a rule. You weren't allowed to do it, but if you did it and you didn't get caught, they wouldn't make you take it down. So we were like, we can do that. So in the middle of the night we have this stealth mission. I still remember the exact date, it was October 7th, which is my birthday, and I was sick as a dog. It's like 3:00 in the morning, I'm behind like three triangular slats, you know, that have gaps in them and there's a hole in the ground and I'm sick. And so I'm in there while they're mostly building the frame of the church under the cover of darkness, two of them, of which I was going to be really not a lot of help anyway. You know, I would have done what they told me to do, but more or less I was just going to be the pretend boss. It seems to be going good up there, guys. Keep doing that, hammer that thing, yep, do that. So, I was really no good, but I'm in there singing happy birthday to myself while I'm sick as a dog, you know. Happy birthday. And they're laughing at me while they're building a frame for a church.

But I remember right after that, Daryl and I were having a conversation. And I was talking to him about his career and what he was doing, and he was working for a multi-billion dollar global corporation. And he was telling me about how they're kind of fast-tracking him as an executive. He would be in one place, you know, he would live for about two or three years, and then they would move him to another place for two or three years, and they'd move him to another place for another two or three years, because they were exposing him to all of the aspects of the business. Which they do with people they're kind of putting on a trajectory toward being an executive in that company. And so I was telling him, so when's your next move? And he said it's coming up pretty soon. They're probably going to ship me up to Philadelphia and those kinds of things. And I said, well tell me a little bit about your background and history.

And so as he was talking, he actually said this to me. He said back when he was, I can't remember whether he said Wyoming or Montana, he said while we were there and I was working for this company I really felt like that God was calling me to ministry. I was like really, tell me about that. And he said well, I just sensed that God was calling me and kind of I've been thinking about it, I feel like maybe with the trajectory God's got me on that I'm going to be able to retire at a very early age, like in my fifties, and I'll probably be able to give you know, twenty, twenty-five good years in ministry full time at that point. And I'm not going to have much need for anything, you know and all of that. And so I was like, wow, that's cool. And so I don't know what possessed me to do this because I wasn't trying to challenge him, because Daryl could clearly beat me up. I mean if you knew him you'd know that to be true. He would never do it, I think. But I said to him, I said well what if God said it wasn't in twenty-five years from now, but it was now? He didn't bat an eye. Didn't blink. He said, then it would be now, because this is God we're talking about. And in my mind I'm just sitting there having a conversation with this guy and I'm thinking to myself this is the kind of man, this kind of man is the kind of man that I would love to work alongside. And within the next year we hired him. And he took a grotesque pay cut to come work for us. And served the Lord faithfully with us for eleven years before his home-going less than a year ago.

And I tell you that to tell you this. Do you know what? There were people around him that thought he was nuts. He's on this trajectory for all this money, right? Already making a really great paycheck and on the road to making, you know like stupid money. And he said no to all of the human interference that wanted to get involved in his life, that wanted to tell him no, man, you're mid-career, this is like, you're going to have the best earning years of your life, this is what's going to be able to happen. You've got to be kidding me if you're going to do something like that. He said no to all of the noise because he heard God and he acted in faith. That is what we're talking about. That is what we're talking about here. Jacob didn't allow people to interfere because he had heard from God.

Parents, grandparents, let me say this to you. If you'll go ahead and run your time to end of your time right now in your mind, if you're looking back.. if you're somebody who knows Jesus. When you look back on your life, if you have the privilege of being able to even see kind of your impending death, not everybody has that privilege. But if you were able to see that, if you look back on your life, all that you would want is for your children and your grandchildren to walk with Jesus. When you're about to die, that's all you care about. If that's the case, then I would suggest to you as a parent - I am one - or you as a grandparent - I'm not one. But I would suggest to you as a parent or as a grandparent that you don't meddle too hard by trying to tell your daughter or your son or your grandchildren what they have to do. I really want you to get your masters so you can work in the family business. I'll be really disappointed if you don't do that. What if God says something different? Here's my suggestion to you. If he does, get out of the way! Because a faith, ladies and gentlemen, a faith that blesses is a faith that resists human interference. That's what happened in Jacob's life. That's what should happen in our lives.

Let's take a look at the second action verb, and let me give you a statement surrounding it. Here it is. A faith that worships will respond to God's promises. Let me show it to you in our text. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped.

Now oftentimes, when we think of worship, we think of singing a song. Singing a song can be an act of worship without a doubt. But, I'll tell you this, do you think it's easier to sing a song, or to respond to the truth of that song and live our lives in obedience to the revelation to what we know about God? Which one's easier? Singing a song. Right? Cause some of us can just sing a song, and just kind of go, okay now I'm done. That's really not worship. Worship is action. It is action that results in obedience. Worship is a life of faith that results in a life of obedience.

So when he says that Jacob, when he was dying, by faith he worshiped, he's actually, the writer of Hebrews, is borrowing from the narrative in Genesis. And I want to show you where that came from in Genesis chapter 47. Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years. Remember he came over after the famine, after he found out Joseph was alive. Jacob lived there for seventeen years. And the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. He lived a long time. When the time drew near for Jacob (Israel) to die, he called for his son Joseph and he said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness." What that is, by the way, was a sign of making a covenant with someone in the ancient world, okay? He said this. Here's the promise. "Do not bury me in Egypt,  but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” “I will do as you say,” Joseph said. “Swear to me,” Jacob said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel (Jacob) worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

So here's what happens. Jacob knows that there's a promise that's been made to his grandfather Abraham that there's going to be a land for them. He reaffirmed it to Isaac, Jacob's dad, and he's reaffirmed it to Jacob. He made a promise. He said, I'm going to create a people out of Abraham, of which now Jacob is a part, and that people is going to live in the land of promise, Canaan.

Here's the problem. Canaan right now was full of all the Canaanites. The people of Israel weren't in Canaan. It was overrun by all the Canaanites. The Hittites, the Amarites, the Jebusites, the electric lights, the mosquito bites, the whole "ites", right? Every "ite" is there. Every single one of them. They're all there. But in faith, here's what Jacob says. Joseph, I believe this promise so strongly, I want you to swear to me that when I die, you will bury me in the land of promise, so that my actual bones will be pioneering the reality of my faith, and everyone that eventually gets in there is going to see Jacob believed God. That is what faith looked like.

And so, he was acting on the promise of God. You know, even greater than that, he was acting on the promise of God that he couldn't see, because if you read further in Genesis, we were just in chapter 47, but if read further in Genesis into chapter 49, here's what you would see. In chapter 49, you would see Jacob actually allotting all of his kind of places in Canaan. He wasn't even there yet! They weren't even there yet! And he is distributing land and telling them where they are going to be in Canaan. By faith he's doing this.

You see, this is an act of worship. Jacob's worship is really geared around the fact that he believes God and he's doing what he says. And do you know that Jacob's worship affected people around him? His faith actually affected people around him? Not the least of which was his son Joseph. Because I know Joseph's faith was affected because we're reading in Hebrews 11:21, but if you read verse 22, here's what it says. By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. You know what he said? Just like my dad believed God for the promise of a land to come, so do I. Bury my bones there, too. Jacob's life affected Joseph's life, because Jacob's faith was living, even while he was dying.

This has challenged me. I wonder how well you and I actually respond to God's promises that we can't see yet. We can't see their fulfillment yet. How well do you respond to them even when you can't see them?

For instance, God has promised that all of His people will all be together. Not one of them will be missing. And that He will be their God, and they will be His people. That's His promise. We can't see it yet, but that's His promise, right? So here's what we know. All of the people who will make up the body of Christ are not yet in the body of Christ. And what God has said is that He wants to use the people of God now to reach those who have yet to believe. Are we acting in faith on a promise that we can't yet see by actually in faith surrendering our lives to God in such a way that he uses us to share the good news of Jesus with people around us. In our neighborhoods. At our workplace. In our schools. In our places where we socialize. At the baseball field. At the ballet recital. Wherever it might be. Is God using your life? Are you leveraging your life for that purpose, because that's what faith does. It believes in what we can't yet see.

The Bible also tells us in Hebrews and in other places that we are going to be a better country. A new heaven and a new earth, right? We long for a better country as the people of God. We can't see it yet, but we know that God has promised that, right? Well then, are you living with a divided loyalty as if you citizenship is here? Faith would say that we live in light of eternity and in light of the kingdom that's coming, that maybe we can't see. But we're living by faith.

Or maybe, you know that Jesus has said and promised that you can right here on earth, store up treasures in heaven. Jesus said you could. It's a promise. Though we can't see it, it's a promise. But I wonder how many of us have said, well, forget that. I'm going to store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves can break in a steal, instead of thinking about how I leverage my stuff for the sake of the kingdom and store up treasures in heaven.

It's challenging, isn't it? I don't know that there's anybody under the sound of my voice, including the guy who's voice is sounding who are not challenged by this reality. To live in light of eternity, we have to do that by faith. Jacob, by faith, had a worship that responded to God's promises.

Let me give you a third thing. If we want to have a faith that's living even while we're dying, it will be a faith that leans. And a faith that leans will remember the grace of pain. Let me explain to you what I'm saying. Remember our text here in Hebrews 11:21. It says, by faith Jacob, when we was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of this staff.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself, yeah of course, he's leaning on the top of his staff. It's because he's 140 or whatever he is, right? He's really old. No doubt that's true in part. But this staff, this staff was not just an ordinary thing to Jacob. It meant a lot to him. In fact, it had gone with him everywhere where he had gone.

You remember when he was running for his life from Esau? God told him, I want you to actually go hook up with Esau. And Jacob's scared to death because he's like, Esau is going to kill me. But he was still going to do it.

He actually said something interesting that I picked up on when I was looking back at that story. Look at what he said in Genesis chapter 32. It says, then Jacob prayed, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ 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 camps. In other words, I have been prosperous, I have been blessed, and now I'm going to go see Esau.

You see, this staff to Jacob had been a traveling companion for years and years and years and years. And every time he would have that staff, it was almost like that staff told a story. He could remember back to everything that he had been through, and what he had done, and some of the stuff that God had brought him through. He could look at this staff and realize that.

But, Jacob didn't know when he was saying what he was saying when he said, I only had my staff when I crossed the Jordan. He didn't realize just how much he was going to need it. He had no idea at the time. Because here's what happened. He sent all of his family and his kids and his animals and his possessions, he sent them ahead. They crossed over the river, and he sent them ahead to go meet Esau and his whole gang. Jacob's thinking, I don't know how this is going to go. I'm a little scared. He sent them all away, and Jacob was all by himself.

And do you know what happened when Jacob was all by himself before he went to see Esau? Says in Genesis 32 this. So Jacob was left alone, and a man (what an understatement) wrestled with him till daybreak. 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. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak. ”But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob (deceiver),” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel (one who wrestles with God), because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” And Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But the man replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then the man blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

See, Jacob's understanding was that he was wrestling with God. We would understand that as what we call a Christophany. A pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus in the Old Testament before he was born in Bethlehem. Some of you are going, wait... I thought he was born in Bethlehem. No, he's from everlasting. He put skin on in Bethlehem. He's from everlasting.

Jacob wrestles with God, and here's what God does. He wrenches his hip. Do you know what that means? Jacob, who had a name change to Israel, which means, one who struggles with God, or also means prince. Jacob was now, he went from being a deceiver to being a limping prince. He never knew how much he was going to need that staff, because everywhere he went, he limped, because God had wrenched his hip. He went from the curse of deception, to the blessing of brokenness. And in his brokenness, he began to learn what the grace of pain looked like.

You see, for us, you can see in Jacob's life how the deepening of his faith came through some pain. Do you know the same thing, the suffering pain that we endure is not unlike what Jesus endured in his lifetime. And do you know that that leads us often to a place of faith and obedience, that our suffering and our pain, if we allow God to use it, can actually use it to lead us into places of obedience.

Listen! The writer of Hebrews actually says this earlier in Hebrews chapter 5 about Jesus. Listen to what he says.  During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though Jesus was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.

Jesus endured suffering, and through that, learned obedience, even in his life. And he was always and forever obedient. And as a result of his obedience, now we can be saved eternally through him. But here's what happens. When we put our faith in him, we now share in his suffering.

That's what Paul said in the book of Philippians. Listen to his words. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, a faith that leans, a faith that has had brokenness becomes dependent upon God. And ultimately is the kind of faith that will remember the grace of pain. What's your staff? What's your pain? You've walked through some. I've walked through some. You've had suffering. You've had pain. Some of you have not allowed it to be a staff that brings remembrance of the grace of God to shape you more into his image, and instead you've made it a rod to beat yourself up or to try and beat other people up as a result of it, because you're bitter.

You see, that staff for Jacob was his ability to remember the grace of pain. That God took a deceiver and wrenched his hip to bring him blessing. So that in the humility of his now limp, he would be reminded how much he needs God!

Some of us have experienced pain that was self-inflicted. You have been involved in substances you didn't wish you were. You've made poor relational decisions. Whatever it looks like. You've maybe inflicted it upon yourself. Some of us have experienced pain that we didn't inflict on ourself that came to us because we live in a broken world. And sometimes we are casualties in a world of brokenness. And other times, we experience pain, it's because God himself has wrenched our hip. But in all of those things, if we will submit them to Him, He will use them to shape us into people who have a living faith.

Now, it's often said, and this I find to be generally true in my twenty-five years of ministry, people have a tendency to die the way they live. It's not always true, but it's often true generally. If they were rebellious in life, they die rebellious. If they were cursing God in life, they curse God in death. If they were gracious in life, they are gracious is death.

But you see, Jacob shows us something. That a faith that is living even though we're dying is a possibility. But it's only a possibility, ladies and gentlemen, if we have a faith that's living even when we're living. You're not waiting till the end. You're choosing to live in faith now, because that's what prepares you for the end.

So where's your faith today? Is it living? If it is, is it strong enough to resist human interference when God himself speaks to you? Is it willing enough to make sure that above all things in your worship that you're actually going to act in faith and not just talk or sing about it? And does your faith have a strong enough memory to remember every pain and remember every time that you may have suffered, but that God has used to shape you into who you are now to trust him, and depend upon him regardless of how that pain came.

Is your faith living, or is your faith dead? Some of you may say, you know what, I don't really have anything in my life that I could point to where my faith is actually alive. I don't even know if I have any faith. Oh, you do. Because the Scripture says that to every man or woman a measure of faith has been given. You have been graced by having some faith. It's a matter of where you're going to put it. For too often, maybe you have just put it in yourself, or you've put it in some other people.

I can assure you that there's only one place that your faith can pay off. It's in the person of Jesus. That's who gave it to you, and he's the object of it. The one who died in your plan, because you as a sinful person that has come short of the glory of God, can never save yourself. That because of our sin, the Bible says that we will be separated from God. Not only relationally here while we are living, but forever in a place the Bible calls hell. But it's God desire that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Because of His great love, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And he rose from the grave, conquering our sin, taking upon himself all of our judgment, so that our faith in him would mean that we could now be the righteousness of God, because he became sin for us. This is the glorious news of the gospel.

And if you would say, I want to put my faith in Jesus, so he will transform my heart, and save my soul, then I can't think of a better day than today, and a better time than now. Could we bow our heads together?

Before we're dismissed, which we're going to be in just a moment, if you're here and you've never before put your faith and trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then when we dismiss in a moment, I'm going to ask you to do something. I'm going to ask you to make your way directly to the Fireside Room. Because we've got some pastors and some prayer partners in there who would love to talk to you for a moment about what it means to turn away from sin and put your faith and trust in Jesus, who is the only one who can save you. The words of Jesus, he said I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me. He is the only way of salvation. And if you've never come to a place where you've done that, then when we dismiss, I want you to walk right out into the atrium, right across it. There's a room that says the Fireside Room, it's very clear on the top of it. Because we've got some folks who would love to pray with you and help you understand what it means to have a relationship with God through his Son. Listen carefully. There is no greater decision you'll ever make in your entire life than settling the issue of your soul's eternity and your faith in Jesus Christ. No decision you'll make is more important than that, ever. So I encourage you, come by, talk to somebody, respond in faith.

For the remainder of us, I'm gonna pray for you, because there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that God has things for you and for me to respond to in faith in our lives if we're children of God.

So Father, whatever your spirit wants to pinpoint in the life of every person, including mine, I pray you would have free reign to do that, and that we would willingly cooperate with whatever it is that you want to say to us. Father, if that's having the ability to say no to the culture that we live in of bigger money, more prestige, but instead say yes to the promise of God, whatever befalls us. Then give us the grace to do that. If we need to respond in faith as a parent or a grandparent, because too often, instead of giving wise counsel to point our children to Jesus, we are trying to craft the plan for them ourselves. Would you give us the faith to step back enough to let you do your work in the hearts of our kids and our grandkids.

Would you give us a faith that is so secure in your promise, even though we can't see it, that we would live lives that are focused on what we truly and actually say we believe. That we would live lives with eternity in view. In how we love and share with people around us. In how we stewards our time and our influence and our resources. I pray that that would affect the people around us. That they would sense and know you because of our faith example.

And Lord, I pray that we would have a faith that would truly and generously impact our own kids, our own grandkids, and the people that are around us, because they are looking to see the reality of Jesus in our lives. May they see it. Whatever it is you want to pinpoint. Please do. And please give us willing hearts to respond in faith. Because we know God, if we want to have a faith that's living even when we're dying, we need a faith that's living even while we're living. Thank you for your word to us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Bless you guys. Thanks for listening.