Message for THE LORD'S DAY MORNING, May 21, 2017 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister TOPIC: Christian Living The Blessings of Brokenness Genesis 32:22-32 (NKJV) Please open your Bibles to today's scripture text in GENESIS chapter thirty two. And let's read verses 22-32. Genesis 32:22-32 (NKJV) 22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaks. But he said, I will not let You go unless You bless me! 27 So He said to him, What is your name? He said, Jacob. 28 And He said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed. 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, Tell me Your name, I pray. And He said, Why is it that you ask about My name? And He blessed him there.
30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. 31 Just as he crossed over Penuel[ the sun rose on him, and he limped on his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob s hip in the muscle that shrank. ************************************************* I N T R O D U C T I O N ILLUSTRATION: Back in the late 1800's a man by the name of Edwin Boston Mabry built a water-powered grist mill up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Little did Mabry know at the time that his grist mill would become one of the most photographed places in the United States. Years ago, Linda and I, and Louis and Patsy Hall, and our dear friends Johnny and Jane Adkins, met for breakfast one morning at Mabry's Mill Restaurant which is located on what is now known as the Blue Ridge Parkway. After breakfast we went to look at the old grist mill, which is still operational as a tourist site. Inside the mill the mill operator explained to us how the grist mill worked. He explained how the mill was powered by the huge water wheel located on the outside of the mill. This water wheel was fed by a steadily flowing mountain stream which filled the troughs on the wheel. Then the operator pushed a wooden lever forward and a huge pulley belt started turning the giant mill stone. The operator then scooped some grains of wheat out of a gunny sack and poured it out on the table stone. And as that mill stone rolled over the grain it crushed the wheat into flour; and with each pass of the millstone the flour became finer and finer. You see, it was through that crushing process the grains of wheat became a useful product.
There is a great similarity between the refining process that takes place in a grist mill and the refining process that takes place in our lives as Christians. It has been said, God cannot greatly use a man until He has broken him. (I want you to meditate on that thought for just a moment, please listen to it again.) God cannot greatly use a man until He has broken him. Broken things aren't of much use to us. What good is a broken dish...or a broken shoestring...or a broken zipper. What good is a broken windshield...or a broken string on a guitar......or a broken lawnmower? Over in the county where I live we have Recycling Centers or trash roll offs as we call them. And every time I go to the roll off I see all kinds of broken things people have thrown away. Broken lawn chairs...broken toys...broken boards...broken tools...broken flower pots...broken coolers and about everything else you can imagine. You see, that's what we do with broken things. We throw them away... we haul them off to the dump, because they are no longer of any use to us.
BUT NOT SO WITH GOD! It is only when we are broken of our self-sufficiency...and broken of our self-righteousness...and broken of our pride... and broken of our sinful, rebellious spirit that God can greatly use. In today's message we are going to see how God broke a man in order to greatly bless him. That man's name was Jacob. Brief Background Information on Jacob Jacob was the son of Issac and Rebecca, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. From the time Jacob was born he was a somewhat shady cunning individual. * On the day JACOB and his twin brother ESAU were born Esau came out of his mother's womb first with Jacob closely behind clinging to Esau's heel. That was the first clue that there was going to be great contention between Jacob and Esau and later their descendants. * When they were older you remember Jacob tricked Esau into trading away his birthright for a bowl of stew.
* And then years later when his father was old and lying on his death bed, Jacob and his own mother concocted a deceptive scheme to trick Jacob's father into passing the family blessing on to Jacob instead of the firstborn son Esau, who was the rightful heir. But despite his shady past, GOD had great things in store for Jacob, but first GOD would have to break Jacob. First of all let's consider... I. The STRUGGLE (vs. 22-25) 22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. 24 Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him.
1. Sometimes God tries to break a man through less drastic measures. -Sometimes God breaks us through the preaching of the gospel. On the day of Pentecost when Peter preached his powerful message on the crucifixion of Jesus and rebuked the people for their guilt in putting the Son of God to death, the people were so cut to the heart...so broken...that they begged Peter to tell them what they could do to right their wrong. And Peter told them what they needed to do. He said, Repent, and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. -Sometimes God breaks us through the loving rebuke of a trusted friend. Remember when the prophet Nathan confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba? He told David the story about two men, one rich the other poor, who were neighbors. The rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man had only one pet lamb, whom he loved dearly. One day the rich man took the poor man's pet lamb and killed it and roasted it for his guest.
After Nathan told David that story, David was enraged that the rich man would do such an awful thing and demanded that the rich man be punished severely. That's when Nathan dropped the bomb! Nathan told him, That was just a story, but you are like that rich man because you took Uriah's wife away from him and had him killed in battle. When David heard that he was so broken so convicted that he cried out I have sinned against the Lord. But when the preaching of the gospel or the loving rebuke of a friend doesn't break us God sometimes must resort to more painful measures. 2. What better way for GOD to get our attention than to place us in a very difficult situation that is out of our control? (A) First of all GOD ISOLATED JACOB (vs. 22-24a) 22 And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok. 23 He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. (now listen carefully...) 24 Then Jacob was left alone...
Often when God is trying to break a man He will isolate him so that he will feel cut off from family, or friends, or fellow Church members. God isolated Jacob from the rest of his family. (B) Secondly, GOD'S HAND WAS HEAVY UPON JACOB. (vs. 24b-25) 24b and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. Who was this Man Jacob wrestled with all night long? Was it some robber or thief hiding in the rocks to ambush him? NO! Notice the word Man is capitalized. The Man was God Himself or the Pre-incarnate Christ. And notice verse 24 doesn't say Jacob wrestled with the Man. It says, The Man wrestled with Him, wrestled with Jacob. God initiated this conflict. God was the one who started this struggle.
All night long this wrestling match went on between GOD and JACOB. And all night long Jacob STRUGGLED and RESISTED and PUSHED BACK against God. But then notice what The Man or GOD did to Jacob in verse 25... 25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. When it says, He did not prevail against him does that mean God had met His match or that Jacob was equal in strength to God? Absolutely not! What is referring to is man's free will to resist God or to surrender to God. Jacob refused to surrender to God, he just kept fighting, and struggling, and wresting and rebelling against God, to the point GOD finally dislocated Jacob's hip.
The hip muscle is the strongest muscle in our body. And yet with a single touch, GOD pulled Jacob's hip out of socket. God broke him at his greatest strength. GOD'S HAND WAS HEAVY UPON JACOB. 3. Like Jacob, how many of us wrestle with God, and refuse to surrender our will to God's will, and push back against God. And when we refuse to surrender to GOD, His hand will be heavy upon us. And He will disable us us in some area of our lives that is the greatest source of our PRIDE. What is the greatest source of your pride? Your job? Your position? Your money? Your material things? Your physical attractiveness? Your children? When you refuse to yield to God and you insist on wrestling with God, GOD may very well disable you at the point of your greatest pride. And GOD doesn't do this because He delights in our suffering, He does it to BREAK US IN ORDER TO BLESS US.
The late Vance Havner once said, God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, and broken bread to give strength. GOD HAD TO BREAK JACOB BEFORE HE COULD GREATLY USE HIM. Well that's THE STRUGGLE. Secondly let's consider... II. The SURRENDER (vs. 26-29) 26 And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaks. But he said, I will not let You go unless You bless me! 27 So He said to him, What is your name? He said, Jacob. 28 And He said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed. 29 Then Jacob asked, saying, Tell me Your name, I pray. And He said, Why is it that you ask about My name? And He blessed him there. 1. Jacob's resistance is now worn down. His strength is completely exhausted. He is in considerable pain with his dislocated hip. He is now ready to surrender. But before Jacob lets go of the Man, Jacob asks the Man to bless him. Jacob wants to know that this struggle has not been in vain; that there was a purpose for it.
2. In verse 27 the Man asked Jacob, What is your name? Jacob he answered. Remember I told you earlier, the name Jacob means, cheater or schemer. So when Jacob told the Man My name is Jacob in essence he was saying, My name is cheater. My name is schemer. The last time Jacob was asked for his name, the question came from his earthly father Isaac, when he was tricking him into giving him his blessing by pretending to be his brother Esau. His father asked him, What is your name? And he answered, Esau not Jacob...but Esau. And ever since that day, Jacob had lived his life on the run from Esau, who was out to kill him. He had lived a lie. He had lived a life of deception, and trickery, and scheming. So now, when the Man or the LORD asked him, What is your name? he answered truthfully. My name is Jacob... my name is cheater... my name is schemer.
3. Now that Jacob was broken and acknowledged to the LORD who he really was, the LORD could transform him into a new man, and make a great nation out of him. 4. Here is a powerful lesson all of us need to learn, so listen carefully. Until we come to that point where we are completely truthful and honest with the LORD about who we are, we are not completely broken. And until we are completely broken we cannot be greatly used by God. Over the years I have had a number of Christians tell me that they didn't get serious about living for the Lord until many years after they became a Christian. They attended Church regularly, but nothing changed about their lifestyle and habits. It wasn't until the Lord touched some area of pride and resistance and broke them that they finally surrendered completely to the Lord. 5. Brother...sister, after all these years are you still wrestling with God? Are you still resisting His will? Are you still refusing to surrender completely? If so, what will the LORD have to do to break you? What will the Lord have to do to get your attention and bring you to the point of full surrender?
CONCLUSION After that night of wrestling with God and ultimately being broken to the point of full surrender, God began to transform Jacob's life immediately. No longer would he be known by his old name, Jacob. God gave him a new name, Israel, which means, He struggles with God or God prevails. Jacob was now at peace with God. He now enjoyed the sweet serenity one experiences when they finally decide to completely surrender to God rather than go on resisting. Where do you go, when you've come to the end of the road, Who really cares when your song is sung? When you've seen all you wanted to see, and become what you wanted to be, and you still don't really know where you belong. You go to the place where life begins, to the love that never ends, To the One who's arms are open wide, you run on inside, And He tells you, You should have come sooner. You should have come sooner. As we come to our time of decision this morning, the LORD invites you to come to Him in full surrender...to stop wrestling...to stop struggling...to stop resisting. He invites you to discover THE BLESSINGS OF BROKENNESS.