Learning to Lean | Part 1

Listen closely as Adrian Rogers shares 3 truths to remember as we believe he'll hurt you.

God will hurt you, but he will not harm you. Many of us think that self-sufficiency is a virtue. The truth of the matter is that self-sufficiency is a virtue. The truth of the matter is that self-sufficiency is a virtue. It is not a virtue.

Spiritually, it is a vice. Look at our scripture here, Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 21. By faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. We talked about Jacob and we talked about how he was a man who was a conniver.

He was a man who was always trying to rig things, to work things, to make things work together. Our modern-day equivalency of Jacob, by his natural nature, would have been con-artist. But God is working on Jacob to make him what he wants him to be. And God is working on me that way. And God is working on you. God is working on us and will not be finished with us until our total, complete dependency is not on self, but on him.

And we are going to be something in the Lord Jesus Christ, for Philippians chapter 1, verse 6 says, Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in us will perform it unto the end. Now, Jacob had deceived his father and gotten the birthright that God already wanted to give him, but he couldn't trust God for what God had promised. And he had tricked his brother Esau into giving him the birthright when it was already Jacob's. And he didn't need to trick Esau, but he got Esau to trade what Esau thought was the birthright.

For a bowl of potage, stew, or chili, whatever you want to call it. But now, Jacob has had to flee, because Esau has blood in his eye. Esau, Jacob's twin brother, who's actually born first, wants to kill Jacob. And Jacob, he is running, he is fleeing from his brother, because he's got to get right with Esau. Because he cannot really be right with God until he's right with Esau, his brother.

The brother that he has connived against, the brother that he has tricked, the brother that he has cheated. He knows he's got to get right with Esau. And furthermore, he hears that Esau is coming to meet him.

And so that's the situation that we have it right now. And God is going to use all of this situation to cause Jacob to grow and to cease to depend upon himself. Now, you say, Pastor, what does that have to do with me? Friend, it has so much to do with you, it is incredible. So I beg you not to tune me out. I want you to listen as to how you can learn to cease from your self-sufficiency and depend upon God for the three things that happened to Jacob so long ago are going to have their correspondence in your life today, and in my life.

And this very message that I prepared has challenged my own heart. By the way, I want you to go back and get the Old Testament story, turn to Genesis chapter 32. Just go all the way back now from Hebrews to Genesis chapter 32. And we're going to find the story there fleshed out.

You know, it's an interesting thing. Why would God say, that Jacob worshiped, leaning upon his staff? Now, the Holy Spirit has a great economy of words.

He's not wasting any words. Well, we're going to learn three principles, and I hope that you're ready for them. The principle number one is this, God will protect you, but he will not pamper you. Now, Genesis 32, beginning in verse one, the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's host. That is God's army. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim, which means two hosts.

Two hosts. Jacob is fleeing. And suddenly he sees some angels. He realizes that for these 20 years, out there in the wilderness, and various places, he has had an angel escort. The angels of God had been encamping round about him to protect him. Now, remember, he's not totally right with God, but the angels are watching him. The angels are protecting him.

Now, he was immature. He was out of fellowship with God. And yet, God was protecting him. Thank God for the angels that encamp round about you.

That protects you when you don't deserve it. I know that I know that God's angel escort has protected me through life. I could tell you time after time when I believe that God literally, by his angels, has protected and delivered me.

The Bible teaches these angels are ministering spirits. And so here's a man really out of fellowship with God. And yet, God is protecting him, and God is guarding him. And finally, God lets him see these angels.

And he says, looky there. Why, they're two hosts. They're the host of people that are with me. And then there's the heavenly host encamping all about me. We all have angels watching over us. But yet, even though God was protecting him, God did not pamper him.

God let him go through great need and want and difficulty. Now, what has happened is this, that Esau is coming. Esau is coming with blood in his eye. Esau is coming with an army of 400 strong men. Could God have kept Esau from coming against Jacob?

Listen to me. God engineered him. God is bringing trouble to this man. Put in your margin, and let him go. Now, Jacob had a father-in-law whose name was Laban. And Laban wanted to know, how do I deal with Jacob?

And in this verse, God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said unto him, Take heed that thou speak not to Jacob, either good or bad. Don't hurt him, and don't help him. Don't hurt him. Don't help him.

Just let him go. You see, here's the point. God will let you have your way until you come to the end of yourself. Here's a man out of fellowship with God. Here's a man in danger. And God is protecting him with angels, but God is not pampering him.

God is not removing him from difficulty. Now, Jacob is learning that Esau is coming. Esau is coming with 400 armed men. And Jacob is out there in the wilderness.

And now listen. Jacob's mind begins to work. Jacob begins to plan. He begins to scheme.

You can see his self-sufficiency. Now, in Genesis chapter 32, beginning verse 3. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother into the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak unto my Lord Esau. Can you imagine him calling Esau his Lord? My Lord, Esau, thy servant Jacob, saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban and have stayed there until now.

And I have oxen and asses and flocks and men servants and women servants. And I have sent to tell my Lord that I may find grace in thy sight. Can you hear his flattering tone?

Can you imagine him calling this brother that he had scorned and cheated and connived against? My Lord, would you please show me some grace? No wonder he says that. He's coming with 400 armed men. And then I want you to notice what else he does. Watch his mind now as it begins to work.

Watch his self-sufficiency. Look, if you will, in verses 6 through 8. And the messengers return to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and he cometh to meet thee, and 400 men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. And he divided the people that was with him and the flocks and herds and the camels into two bands, and said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape.

Can you see this? He's trying to cut his losses right now. He's dividing things up.

He says, If Esau gets this group, then this group will be spared. Now, he's working. First of all, flattery. Now, strategy. Now, after all of this, he begins to pray. Notice what he does first. He rigs things.

He arranges things. And after he does that, he begins to pray. Look now in chapter 32, verse 9.

And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which set us unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will die. I will deal well with thee. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all of the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I have passed over Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

That is, part of my company is on one side and parts on the other. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him lest he will come and smite me and the mother with the children. I will surely do thee good and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Now, he's quoting the promises of God. God said he was going to bless him and protect him. But now he's saying, O God, take care of me.

I'm in trouble. It's not wrong for Jacob to pray. He should have prayed. But prayer was not his first thought.

Prayer was his last resort. First of all, he begins to flatter Esau. Secondly, he begins to divide his flocks and herds and his people, and now he turns to the Lord.

And then he goes back to public relations. Look, if you will, now in verse 13 and read through 16. Now, what he does, in shorthand, he takes 580 valuable animals, puts them up into lots of five, and he says, Now watch this. Go out there, and when Esau comes with these 400 men, now remember, he's got some over here, he's got some over here. He's been using flattery. He's been saying, My Lord, Esau, show me grace, da-da, da-da. And now he starts sending these gifts.

Here's a bundle of five, and then put a space. As he comes further, give him another bundle of five gifts. As he comes further, send him some more.

As he comes further, give him some more. Do you see the mind of this guy? I mean, he's smart. He knows how to rig things. He knows it completely. And now, Lord, you help me out, but Father, you know, I've got to rig this thing.

So, Genesis chapter 32, beginning verse 20, and ye say, Moreover, behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us, for he saith, I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face. Peradventure, he will accept me. Appeasement. Strategy? Flattery? Appeasement?

All of these things. His mind is working. Now, God lets him stew in his own juice. The angels are there.

Did you get the first point? God wants you to grow. God wants to deliver you from self-sufficiency, so here it is. God will protect you, but he will not pamper you.

He will not. Now, God loves you too much to let you go. Thank God he protects me, but he will not pamper you.

Now, here's the second thing I want you to learn if you're going to learn to lean on the Lord. God will hurt you, but he will not harm you. You say, God will hurt me, you better believe he'll hurt you.

God will hurt you, but he will not harm you. Now, in this passage of Scripture, he's done all of this stuff. Everybody's here and there, and finally, oh, Jake is alone. Look, if you will, in verse 24, when chapter 32, and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Now, God engineered that Jacob was left alone.

The flesh doesn't want to be left alone. We have a generation of people who cannot stand solitude to be alone with God. We don't want to be alone with God because we cannot look God in the face and we cannot look ourselves in the face. We need solitude to be left alone to reflect, to really think.

I have an idea that if little David had a battery-powered transistor radio, we wouldn't have had the 23rd song. We need to be alone. Now, when he's alone, he has a confrontation with God himself. Look again in verse 24, and Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. He's done all of this stuff.

He's done all of his figuring. Now he's by himself. He's alone in the dark, and someone pounces him. Somebody jumps on him, and he finds himself in a wrestling match. A man out there jumps him.

Who was this? It was the pre-incarnate Christ. Jesus Christ came to wrestle with Jacob.

This was before Jesus was born of a virgin, what we call a theophany, a pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord. So many of us think that Jacob was wrestling with the angel, but that's not the point. The angel started the fight.

The angel is wrestling with Jacob. You see, God is trying to do something with Jacob. He's trying to get Jacob from his self-sufficiency, and so the Lord gets him in a wrestling match, and they wrestle. All night long, they're wrestling, wrestling back and forth, back and forth, a mortal man with Almighty God in a wrestling match. Now, when the day is about to break, the angel now does something that's very significant. Genesis chapter 32, beginning in verse 25. And when he, the angel, saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, and he wrestled with him, and he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. The angel, that is, saying to Jacob, Let me go. It's morning time.

Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. They're wrestling. Jacob and the angel, Jacob and the angel, back and forth, one throwing one, one throwing the other, one getting up, down, back and forth. Now, folks, don't you think that the angel could have thrown Jacob any time he wanted to?

Had it just been an ordinary angel, it would have been no wrestling match. But he's wrestling with the pre-incarnate Christ. All night long, he's wrestling.

And finally, it's as if the Lord says, I hate to do this to you, Jake, but he reaches under the hollow of his thigh and shrivels it up. And Jacob can't wrestle anymore. Have you ever watched wrestlers? Do you know what muscle is most important to a wrestler? His thighs, his legs.

That's where strength is. If you talk about a wrestler, he can't take away his leg. He can't begin to wrestle. And so, the angel of the Lord reaches under here and cripples it.

And now, how's he going to wrestle anymore? And the angel says, Let me go. Jacob says, I'm not letting you go. Not until you bless me.

I'll not let you go. Now, listen, folks, he's come to the end of himself. I mean, he's even lost his secret weapon.

What was his secret weapon? Well, if my flattery doesn't help old Esau, I've divided my people up, and if he kills all my people on either side, and I've sent him these gifts, and they don't soften him up, and if he finally comes, at least I can run. I can pick him up and put him down. I can't even run now.

I don't have any hope except you. Oh, God. And I will not let you go. God has brought this man to the place where he realizes that his only hope is God, not his scheming, but his surrendering, not his bargaining, but his begging.

God hurt him, but God didn't harm him. R. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, Learning to Lean is the title. Mention that when you're called to order at 1-877-LOV..........GOD. This message is also part of the insightful series, Champions of Faith, for that complete 18 message collection. Call 877-LOVEGOD or order online at lwf.org slash radio.

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