101 lines
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101 lines
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<title>Blue Letter Bible - Chuck Smith Sermon Notes</title>
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Passage = 'Genesis 32:26-28 ';
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<div class="SSN_title">"THE CRIPPLING THAT CROWNS"</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Gen',32,26);">GEN 32:26</a> And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Gen',32,27);">GEN 32:27</a> And he said unto him, What [is] thy name? And he said, Jacob.</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Gen',32,28);">GEN 32:28</a> 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.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">I. JACOB IS UNDER SEVERE PRESSURE.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. In a way, his past has caught up with him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. He has just had a very strained experience in saying goodbye.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. His father-in-law has made severe threats against him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. Had it not been for the help of the Lord things would have been a lot worse.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. The line has been drawn in the sand, the pillar of rocks set the line which neither is to pass.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. Thus there is no retreating for Jacob.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. His servants have just returned with the news that his brother Esau who was planning to kill him because he had deceived their father into giving the family blessing to him was on his way to meet him with 400 men.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. He can't go back.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. He is afraid to go forward, but he must for there is no place left for him to go.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">C. Jacob is so scared that he even prays.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. He reminds God that God told him to return to his family and country, and God would do well with him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. He acknowledged that he did not deserve anything from God he was not worthy the least of His mercies. Yet God had been merciful and good to him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. The last time he crossed this Jordan 20 years ago, all he had was the walking stick.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. Now he has such and abundance of cattle, sheep, goats, servants and children, that he has to divide them into two companies to travel.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. He confesses his fear of his brother Esau. He is fearful that Esau will even kill his wives and children.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">D. Now we have learned that Jacob is a very cunning and clever man.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. He is extremely self reliant.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. He is always taking advantage of others.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. He makes sure that he gets the best of every deal.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. He will not stop at lying or cheating to get the advantage in each situation.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">E. Even now we see him scheming and planning to try to appease his brother's fury before he gets to Jacob.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. He sends out his servants before him with gifts for his brother.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. He carefully plans that they meet him one at a time with intervals between.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. He instructs the servants just what to say when Esau inquires of the herds.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. These are gifts from Jacob the servant of Esau.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. Hopefully by the time his brother gets to him his anger will have abated.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">6. It seems that Jacob just can't help himself, he is a crooked conniving thief.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">F. Now as a last resort, he divides his goods into two companies.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. The idea being is that if Esau begins to smite the one company, the other can flee from him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. Tomorrow is going to be a rough day, it will be the great showdown.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. Jacob crosses the Jabok with the family and gets them bedded down, then he recrosses the stream that he might be alone and get a good nights rest, so that he will be well rested in case he will have to flee.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">II. JACOB'S WRESTLING WITH THE ANGEL.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. As Jacob is trying to get some sleep, suddenly an angel appears and begins to wrestle with him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. Though Jacob is an old man, he is tenacious and he wrestles all night long.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. Jacob will not give up, he will not surrender but wrestles till the break of day.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. When the day begins to dawn, and the angel sees that Jacob will not give up, he touches the muscles in the thigh of Jacob causing them to shrivel and Jacob becomes a hopeless cripple.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. His last resort is now taken away. If Esau begins to smite the servants and his family, he can not run away, he is a cripple.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">C. Jacob now breaks, he has come beyond his limits, he realizes that he is helpless to flee from Esau if he is still angry and bent on killing him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">D. The angel said to Jacob, let me go for the day is breaking. Jacob responds, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. This sounds like Jacob is still in the drivers seat. He is making demands of the angel.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. He demands a blessing before he will let him go.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">3. The angel asks: "What is your name?" To which he answered conniving thief. (Jacob) "Your name will no longer be called rotten thief, but ruled by God, for as a prince you have power with God and with man, and have prevailed."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">4. Again it sounds like Jacob is in control of the situation, still using his own wits and guise to get the advantage over others.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">5. We must turn to the prophet Hosea to fully understand this part of the story, speaking of Jacob Hosea said:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Hsa',12,3);">HOS 12:3</a> He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Hsa',12,4);">HOS 12:4</a> Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him:</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">6. Hosea shows us how he prevailed. "He made supplication and with weeping."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">7. It was not that Jacob was in control, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." But with tears, "Please do not go without blessing me."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. He had come to his limits.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. He had come to the breaking point.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. He can no longer struggle and fight against God, he must surrender.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. His life is no longer to be governed by his cleverness, he will now be governed by God.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. The crippling of Jacob by God was the means by which God was able to bring him into a totally new relationship with himself.</div>
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<div class="SSN_rnum">III. WHAT THIS STORY TEACHES US.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">A. No matter how resourceful and clever you might be, someday you will face circumstances that are beyond your ability to control.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. The place where you have to reach out for help.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">2. This is the crisis point of your life, everything now depends as to where you will reach.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. Some reach for a bottle of pills.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. Some reach for a gun.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. This is the place where many reach out for the Lord.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. Those who reach for the pills or gun end their lives in tragedy.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. Those who reach out for the Lord, find that the Lord has been waiting for them the whole while, He is right there to help them and deliver them.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">B. God only cripples to crown.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level3">1. The next morning as Jacob again crossed the ford of the Jabok he has great difficulty, because he is a cripple, the muscle in his thigh has been shrivelled.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">a. I can see Rebekah running up to him and saying, "Heel catcher, what is wrong?" And Jacob replying, don't call me heel catcher, Jacob, call me ruled by God, Israel."</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">b. There has been a glorious crowning in his life, he will no longer be ruled by his own wits, but he will be ruled by God.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">c. The pressure is off, God is now in control, He will do whatever He pleases in these circumstances. I will commit the future to Him. I will let Him protect me, I will let Him prosper me, I will rest in Him.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">d. What a great relief when we turn our lives over to the Lord. The burden is lifted and we are free. God loves me and will only allow those things in my life that will work for His good eternal purposes.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level4">e. If it takes a crippling experience in my life to bring me to this place of blessing and glory, so be it.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">C. Perhaps some of you today have been wrestling with God, and you come to that point where you are ready to give up. This could be the worst day of your life, or the greatest day of your life, it all depends upon you, where you turn for help.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">D. I want to read you a scripture which is sort of a post script to the story today:</div>
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<div class="SSN_verse"><a onClick="return mV('Gen',33,4);">GEN 33:4</a> And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.</div>
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<div class="SSN_level2">E. Hubert Mitchell when just a young man went to Sumatra as a missionary. His wife died while they were there and he was left to raise the children. It was then that he wrote the music to the poem written by Annie Johnson Flint, and he sang: When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed ere the day is half done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, Our Father's full giving has only begun. His love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power has no boundaries known unto man, For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.</div>
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