The World Changer Who Wrestled with God - II

The following message from Pastor Greg Laurie is made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Hey, I want to hear from you. Would you consider emailing me? You can reach me at gregatharvest.org.

Again, that's gregatharvest.org, and you can also make me one of your friends on Facebook and drop me a comment. There has to come a moment in every life where we surrender to God, and that was happening now in the life of Jacob. Jacob was the man who wrestled with God, and Pastor Greg Laurie points out what we learned from his loss in that wrestling match. When we lose by surrendering to God, we ultimately win, because Jacob goes from resisting to resting. He goes from cunning to clinging.

He goes from wrestling to nestling. On a daily basis, our thoughts are much more concerned with what's going on in this life than what's to come in the next. But God is much more concerned about our eternity than those things on our mind in the present. And it's that difference that gives birth to so many of the questions we have for the Lord. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us adopt a more eternal point of view.

We're glad you're along as we spend time today seeing what we can learn from a most unusual wrestling match. All right, we'll turn to two passages, Hebrews chapter 11 and Genesis chapter 32, Hebrews 11 and Genesis 32, and the title of my message is The World Changer Who Wrestled With God. So here we are in Hebrews 11 with an amazing collection of characters, what I call the hero's hall of faith, or world changers. Now some of the people that made it in are expected, people like Moses and Noah and Enoch and, of course, Abraham. But then there's some surprising entries as well, like Abel and Lot and Samson, and now a new name, Jacob.

I mean, if we're honest about Jacob, we would have to admit this guy was a rascal big time. Yet he makes it into the hero's hall of faith, reminding us that this is filled with ordinary people like us who change the world. These were world changers, and you too can be a world changer. They discovered the secret of staying on top is not talent, it's not opportunities or status, it's faith in God. These people were far from perfect. In fact, they were far from it.

They failed often. But they're not in the hero's hall of faith because they were great people. They're in it because they had faith in a great God. And I find it really interesting how the Lord came to him because he comes as a wrestler. It's almost as though the Lord was saying, you want some of this? No, you're always fighting me, you're always wrestling me, game on, let's do it. And the Lord takes hold of Jacob, let's read about it, Genesis 32.

I had your turn there. So here's the story, verse 24 to 30. By the way, I'm reading from the New Living Translation. Jacob was all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. And when the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob's hip and wrenched it out of its socket.

And the man said, let me go for the dawn is breaking. Jacob said, I won't let you go unless you bless me. What is your name, the man asked. He replied, Jacob. Well, your name will no longer be Jacob, the man told him. From now on you'll be called Israel because you have fought with God and with men and you've won. Please tell me your name, Jacob said.

Why do you want to know my name, the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, which means face of God, for he said, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been spared. Why do I say Jacob was wrestling with God? Well, this was not an angel. This was the Lord himself.

You say, but why do you believe that? There's other scriptures that confirm it. But the reason I believe it is because Jacob called the place Peniel, which means face of God. This is what we would call a Christophany. A Christophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. You know, we think of Jesus primarily in the New Testament, born in Bethlehem, living his life, dying his death, resurrecting and ascending. But the fact is Jesus, being a part of the Godhead, Jesus being eternal, has always existed. Thus we find Christ in the Old Testament as well, making appearances in different places.

And I believe this is one of them. A Christophany. In fact, remember, after Christ was risen, he walked with those two disciples on the Emmaus road, and he talked to them about all of the things in this scripture pertaining to him. And he was speaking primarily of Old Testament passages. So Christ would have appointed those two discouragement passages that pointed to Messiah, perhaps even some of the Christophanies or appearances of Christ in the Old Testament. So Jacob is meeting Christ. The manipulator is meeting the Messiah. The conniver is meeting the Christ.

And the wrestler is meeting his match. I love the thoughts of commentator C.H. McIntosh on this verse as Jacob is alone with God. He said, and I quote, To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways.

No matter what we may think about ourselves or what others think of us, the great question is, what does God think of us? End quote. That happens when you get alone with God. And, you know, sometimes what you need to do is unplug. You know, for some people, from the moment they wake up, it's constant noise. They turn on the radio when they're getting ready in the morning, and then you get in your car and you're listening to the radio. You've already caught up in your social media. Maybe you're texting while you're driving.

A really bad idea. And then, you know, you're watching television, and then you've got all your electronic devices, and you say, God never speaks to me. How can he get a word in edgewise? Can I suggest that you unplug all of that stuff and just be still and know that he is God? And I suggest to you, you'll hear the voice of God again. And so here's Jacob. He's all alone. His family's not with him.

No one's with him. And the Lord comes to him as a wrestler. He doesn't know what he's really dealing with, but all he knows is, he's gonna win. Because no one beats Jacob. Every negotiation, Jacob comes out on top. Every deal, Jacob is the one who benefits. But this guy is persistent. But then again, Jacob is stubborn.

And now minutes are passing, and now hours are passing. And the angel, or the Lord, realizes that Jacob is just gonna keep fighting because he's so stubborn. So he wrenches his knee out of the socket, and now game over.

Wrestling match completed. He was waiting for Jacob to cry uncle, or better yet, father, because Jacob loses. But in reality, Jacob wins.

You say, what do you mean? Well, when we lose by surrendering to God, we ultimately win. Because Jacob goes from resisting to resting. He goes from cunning to clinging. He's crying out to the Lord.

He goes from wrestling to nestling. There has to come a moment in every life where we surrender to God, and it's not always easy. Because God's plans are often plans that we love and agree with. And then sometimes God's plans are different than ours. And it is then that we have to say, as Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane, not my will, but yours be done. We might say, Lord, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me, but your will be done. And that was happening now in the life of Jacob. And the Lord asks him an unusual question.

Verse 27. What is your name? Again, what does his name mean?

Heel-catcher, supplanter, manipulator. What's your name? Deceiver. Yeah, that's your name, isn't it? That's a lousy name. I'm gonna give you a new name, buddy. It's gonna take you time to grow into this name.

But from now on, your name's going to be Israel. Sometimes God is waiting for us to admit what we are. Remember the story of that poor man in the Gospel of John who hung up by a little body of water called the Pool of Bethesda? There were many disabled people there. There was a tradition that said that an angel would appear periodically and sort of stir up the waters, and the first one to the water would be healed. And so here's this guy waiting.

For 38 years, he had this affliction. And one day, Jesus shows up and asks him this unusual question. Do you want to be made whole? What kind of question is that to ask someone who is waiting by a body of water to be stirred by an angel?

Of course he does. It's a very good question because not everybody wants to change. You know, you can go to an alcoholic and say, do you want to get off booze? You think everyone will say yes?

No, not all of them do. You can go to a person on drugs. Do you really want to be free from drugs? Do you really want to be free from pornography? Do you really want to change?

Not everybody wants to change. Some people are comfortable right where they are. They're comfortable like a pig is happy and a pig's die. You know, a number of years ago, pigs were very popular as pets, which I always thought was craziness. I love pigs, I do.

They're great next to my eggs in the form of bacon or ham. But you know, I would hear people having pet pigs. One friend I had actually said, I take my pig to the beach. I said, do you put sunscreen on them?

Oh yeah, their skin's just like a human. Do you understand a pig doesn't want to go to the beach? A pig doesn't want to be slathered in sunscreen. A pig wants to be in a pig's die doing pig stuff because that's how pigs roll, okay? And by the way, you know why pigs hang out and all that slop? It cools them down.

That's how they cool down. So we don't understand though, I'll just make the pig like my pet. Or dogs, now people with dogs. First of all, pushing them in strollers. If I were president, that would be illegal, okay?

So that'd be my first order of business. It's now against a lot of push, a dog in a stroller, make the dog walk. But you know though, I was in a restaurant the other day. The lady comes in with the dog. I'm sure it was to provide whatever she thinks she needs with the dog's help, but I think some have abused this and they just want to take their dog everywhere, right? And you see them in restaurants and they're feeding the dog at the fork.

It's just, stop. Dogs don't want this. You're taking them out of their environment. Some people want to stay exactly where they are.

They don't want to change. In just a moment, we'll see how Jacob teaches us an important lesson about adopting a more eternal viewpoint. That's coming up in just a moment. We love hearing from listeners from every background and age. Dear Pastor Greg, I'm 11 years old and listen to your sermons every day. When I was younger, I rarely thought about God. I just thought about the things on earth. Now I realize that God is the only true thing we are here for. Thank you. Great insights from an 11-year-old. Do you have a story that you'd like to share with Pastor Greg? If so, would you take a moment to write a letter or email? You can email him at gregatharvest.org.

That's gregatharvest.org. We're learning about the man who wrestled with God today, and Pastor Greg is showing us the lessons to be learned from this world changer. So here's what Jesus is saying to Jacob. Hey, buddy, you want to keep being the conniver? You want to keep being the heel catcher and the manipulator?

Or do you want to be different? And Jacob says, I won't let you go until you bless me. Good answer. From now on, your name is Israel. Verse 28, you'll be called Israel because you've fought with God and with men and have won.

Say, wait, I thought he lost. Yeah, he lost and then he won because he did what God wanted him to do. What does Israel mean? Well, it's translated multiple ways. One translation, one who God commands. Another translation, let God rule. Another translation, one who fights victoriously with God. Even another translation, a prince with God.

Listen, all of those definitions are upgrades from heel catcher, supplanter, deceiver. So this is exactly what Jesus meant when he said, if you seek to save your life, you will lose it, but if you will lose your life for my sake, you'll find it. We win by losing. The way to up is down. The way to happiness is sadness.

What are you even talking about? Listen, Jesus said, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And the word blessed commits translated happy. So Jesus is effectively saying, happy are the unhappy. Or another way to put it, happy are the unhappy because one day they'll be happy.

How? I mourn over my sin, I see myself as I am and now comes the solution. You know, if you go to a doctor because you're having unusual pains or aches or some other issue, the doctor may have to give you bad news initially.

He may have to tell you that you have cancer or that there's a very serious problem that needs surgery or some kind of a treatment and you don't like to hear that. But now here comes the course to change it. And so God will tell us the truth about ourself. Yes, I'm a sinner. Yes, I need a savior, but once I accept that, now I can go from sadness to happiness. And so I find that the way to find life is by losing life, which means to commit it to God. Let me really simplify this, especially for you that are young. You know you have your dreams and you have your aspirations and that's all good, but here's my advice to you.

Commit your life to God and understand that His plan for you is better than your plan for yourself. And He may say no to this and no to that, but what He will say yes to later will be so much better and you'll look back and you'll say, thank you, Lord. Because that's where we find Jacob at the end of his life back at Hebrews 11. Let's look at that verse one last time. By faith, Jacob, verse 21, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

Jacob, now Israel, is a changed man. He's worshiping at the end of his life, leaning on his staff. And that staff was a reminder of how God had broken him. Remember David's words, thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

You ever wonder what that meant? When a shepherd would be guiding his sheep, he would have two primary instruments, a rod and a staff. A rod was basically, well, a rod, a club.

And a staff was that long, crooked instrument. And so when the sheep would go astray, the shepherd pulls him in with his staff. He goes astray again, the shepherd pulls him in again. And when needed, he uses the rod. He is both in the life of Jacob, but now here he is leaning on his staff, reflecting on his life. And what is he doing? He's worshiping.

I love that. He's worshiping at the end of his life. Listen, if you wanna be strong spiritually at the end of your life, be strong spiritually right now.

Because the end is determined by the beginning, the evening by the morning. So you walk with God now, and you'll be walking with him then, and you'll be able to look back reflectively over your life worshiping, saying God was in control all along. We think of that Psalm that tells us, Psalm 48, 14, our God is forever and ever, and he will guide us until death. The same God that has led you from the earliest days of your youth will be with you at the very end of your life, and then he'll be there to usher you into eternity. This is something that comforts me because when my son Christopher died, it was a devastating event for all of us that we still have deep pain over, but it's certainly gotten better, but we still miss him with all of our hearts.

And when I think of him dying in an automobile accident, that's still hard for me to process, to be honest with you. But I'm just reminded of when Lazarus died, not Lazarus who was raised from the dead, but the poor man Lazarus who lived outside of the estate of the rich man that Jesus talked about, and we read that the angels ushered him into the presence of God, and I believe my son was ushered into the presence of God, and I believe all believers are, and one day we will be. So look, we don't know when that day will come, and maybe you're at that day, or maybe you're approaching that day, but then for some death comes unexpectedly, doesn't it? Without warning at a time when we don't think it should come.

I just talked to a father whose daughter is dying of cancer, and she's in her early 30s. Of course we think that's an aberration, and in ways it is, but nobody has a guarantee to live a long life. All we can do is seek to live our life for the glory of God and do all that we can while we can. I think of the words of Jim Elliot who was martyred for his faith, and he, as a young man, wrote in his journal before he was killed, I seek not a long life, but a full one like you, Lord Jesus, and that's what we should all seek, a full life. If God gives you a long life, great. If it's shorter, that's up to God. Let's just live it well and make sure we're prepared for eternity, and I want to close with that idea.

Are you prepared for eternity? See, Jacob, yeah, he messed up. He did some crazy things. He got right with God. He was forgiven, and at the end, he was able to look back reflectively and worship people.

Maybe you've made some mistakes in life. Okay, repent of the mistakes. Ask God to forgive you and end on a high note, end in worship, but listen, there are some of you here that have never even made that decision to get right with God, and God loves you so much that the same Jesus that wrestled with Jacob came down to planet Earth and was born in that little manger in Bethlehem. Then he lived a perfect life, and then he went to a cross voluntarily and died there for your sin and for mine, and he rose again from the dead, and the same Jesus who lived and died and rose stands at the door of each of our hearts, and he knocks, and he says, if we'll hear his voice and open the door, he'll come in. Would you like Christ to come into your life? Would you like to be sure you'll go to heaven when you die? Do you have this hope?

If not, you can have it today, and I'm gonna give you an opportunity to believe in Jesus and be forgiven of your sin and know for sure you'll go to heaven when you die. Let's all bow our heads now and pray. Father, I pray for every person here, every person listening. I pray that you'll help them to see their need for Jesus, and I pray that your Holy Spirit will convict and convince each one of the importance of what we're talking about and help them to come to you now, we would ask them.

Amen. Pastor Greg Laurie, with an important word of prayer, and if you know you need to make a change today in your relationship with the Lord, Pastor Greg will come back to help you do that in just a moment before today's edition of A New Beginning concludes, so please stay with us. Now, if you've had any interruptions in the last half hour and weren't able to hear this whole presentation, you can catch up by listening online at harvest.org. Just look for the study called The World Changer Who Wrestled with God. You can also listen through our mobile app, and you can order a CD copy by calling 1-800-821-3300.

We can take your call anytime 24-7 at 1-800-821-3300. And then we're so pleased to have authors Jeff and Shanti Feldhahn with us in the studio today. They've written an excellent new book called Thriving in Love and Money. It looks at how a healthy relationship and a healthy attitude toward money go hand in hand, and if money is creating tension, that may be a reflection of tension in the relationship. Shanti, in one part of the book, you write this. You say, if you have more financial cushion in your life but do not talk about money, you're more likely to have damaging tensions than if you have less money on hand but could at least talk about it.

Yes, building cushion is important. Talking trumps that because they found that if you build the cushion, if that's what you're focusing on, is the finances, but you're not focusing on being able to communicate about money, be able to come together and talk about it, that the relationship is likely to be worse than if you had less cushion, but you could at least communicate. Very interesting. So if you're listening, I'm speaking with Jeff and Shanti Feldhahn, and they've written a great book that you need to have in your hands called Thriving in Love and Money. No, this is not just another book on money. This is different.

Subtitle. Five game-changing insights about your relationships, your money, and yourself. And so we're getting into the hood a little bit here, and we're talking about these important issues because with this pandemic continuing on, I think we're all hoping it maybe would have subsided more by this point, and people are under incredible financial stress. Some have been laid off. Some have been furloughed.

A lot of uncertainty in the air, et cetera. This is a time when it's really important to talk about these issues. Yes, money, but to talk about our relationships, to talk about our marriages, and talk about communication in our marriages. So for whatever you send, we'll invest it in this ministry, and we'll get you your own copy of this book by Shanti and Jeff Feldhahn, Thriving in Love and Money.

Yeah, that's right. It's a book that can help transform the atmosphere in your home. Money is such a hot button in so many relationships, especially right now. Let us send you Thriving in Love and Money. It's available as our thank you gift to those who can make an investment to help keep these daily studies coming your way. So ask for Thriving in Love and Money when you send your investment to A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call us anytime, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-800-821-3300. That's 1-800-821-3300.

Or go online to harvest.org. And then, Pastor Greg, just before we go, would you mind praying with that person listening who wants to make a change today in their relationship with the Lord? I'd be happy to, Dave. You know, as you've been listening to this today, maybe you've heard another voice. By that I mean, yeah, you heard me say a few things, but you heard God's voice speak to you, deep in the recesses of your heart, and it suddenly dawned on you, this is what I need. Or to state it more accurately, this is who I need. I need Jesus, and I want Jesus.

But maybe you don't know how to make that connection. Let me help you. Pray this after me right now if you want Jesus Christ to come into your life. Lord Jesus, I know I am a sinner. And I am sorry for my sin. And I need your forgiveness right now. Would you come into my heart and my life as Savior, as God, as friend?

I choose to follow you from this moment forward. Thank you for calling me, and accepting me, and forgiving me. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. I know that was a relatively short prayer. Maybe you felt something as you prayed it.

Maybe you felt nothing. That doesn't really matter. Because God's word says, these things we write to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. It doesn't say, so you may think you have it, or you may hope you have it if God's in a good mood.

No, that you can know it. And I want you to know, if you pray that prayer in a minute, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has come into your life. So congratulations. You're now a Christian. Now continue to follow the Lord. And to help you as you follow the Lord, we'd like to send you some resource materials we call our New Believers Growth Packet.

It'll answer many of the questions you might have, and get you started off right in your new relationship with the Lord. So get in touch and ask for it. We'll send it free of charge.

Again, it's the New Believers Growth Packet. Write a New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California, 92514. Or call 1-800-821-3300. We're here around the clock, seven days a week.

That's 1-800-821-3300. Or go online to harvest.org and click on Know God. And our thanks to our Harvest partners for their help in making resources like this available. Next time, we'll see how not only was Jacob a world changer, so was his son Joseph. Thrown into a pit and left for dead, sold into slavery by his brothers, he ends up in the house of a government leader and rises to power himself. It's an amazing story with many twists and turns. And we'll dig in next time on A New Beginning. This is the day, the day when life begins. The preceding message from Greg Laurie was made possible by Harvest Partners, helping people everywhere know God. Sign up for Pastor Greg's free daily email devotions at harvest.org.