Podcasts about jacob god

Looking for fresh ways to cultivate critical thinking and reflection in your classroom? Tune in to hear Heather talk with three TeachBeyond educators about the value of critical thinking, examples from their classrooms, and practical steps to get started. Cultivating a Culture of Critical Thinking by Diane Peneycad Cultivating a Culture of Reflection by Leighton Helwig “Simply put, critical thinking is what your brain does with facts and information.” - Diane “Critical thinking is such an essential part of our image-bearing nature. This is a great privilege we have. We don't live by instinct like animals, but we get to image God.” - Jacob “If we can eat and drink to the glory of God, we can also think to the glory of God.” - Jacob “We do want students to ask questions, but we don't want them to be cynical in an unhealthy way, so I think there's a good balance to have a teachable attitude.” - Jacob “There has to be a balance of responsibility to content and objectives and what's required for us to teach, while still offering an environment or opportunity for the questioning and the thinking. I think if I would err on the side of one or the other, I would err on the side of thinking and equipping for future consumption of content.” - Leighton “There are times we're going to go really deep, and there are times when it may not, but we can still engage them in the thinking process at various levels… Students need time at various levels of thinking throughout their day and throughout their courses.” - Diane “You need to create an environment that's a safe environment, that they understand that we're going to be thinking and there may not be one right answer.” - Diane Project Zero's Thinking Routines Toolbox “Modeling is super important. We bring our own transformed life into the classroom.” - Diane “The best-case scenario is when students choose to use [a tool] on their own for their own learning. That's how you know it's been embedded in the way that they are thinking.” - Leighton “Never say what a kid can say. In other words, I need to create the environment where I'm asking the right question that the student is then going to frame the response.” - Diane “It's okay to disagree, but how do we do so respectfully? How do we honor each other as image bearers of Christ?” - Diane “What makes you say that?” - Diane “I think it's really important for teachers to be willing to seize those teachable moments.” - Jacob “God created our minds to think. If we're not creating environments to have that happen, then we're not allowing the full potential of what God has created in our classroom.” - Leighton “As you develop a school-wide culture of thinking, it just becomes a way of life for teachers and students.” - Diane “To be able to go to that deep place of thought, we have to rest. We have to rest to reflect.” - Jacob Sign up to receive TeachBeyond's OnPractice publication here! What's changing our lives: Heather: Time to journal and reflect Jacob: Journaling Diane: Being able to ride her bicycle inside Leighton: How to Know a Person by David Brooks Weekly Spotlight: Christian International School of Prague We'd love to hear from you! podcast@teachbeyond.org Podcast Website: https://teachbeyond.org/podcast Learn about TeachBeyond: https://teachbeyond.org/ 

First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church

First Presbyterian Church

Going Through the Motions - Right Thinking: What Is Your Name? (Genesis 32:27) God is not suddenly forgetful. It's not like he doesn't know who this is. This is God calling upon Jacob to remember who he is. He is Jacob. Deceiver. Grasper. Out of control, but always trying to work the angle. But God gives him a new name: Israel, God fights. This had to be mind-blowing to Jacob - God fights? Is it that God fights against him? No, not really - it is that God fights for him. Jacob declared, "I will not let you go until you bless me" - only to discover that it is God who will not let him go. God will not abandon his promise. His word is sure. This question is all about identity. The ONLY ONE who gets to tell us who we are - is God and God alone. I am not my sin I am not my struggle. I am not my failure. I am His.

Hey friend! Have you ever wondered if your past is too much for God to use you? What can He do with all of the ways we struggle? Have you ever bargained or wrestled with God?  One of my favorite guests (and fan-favorite!) Max Lucado is here to talk with us about it all today.  Called “America's Pastor” by Christianity Today, Max is the bestselling author of 45 books and counting. He is a pastor and speaker who says he “writes books for people who don't read books.” Max is a father of three, grandfather of two, and he lives with his wife in San Antonio.  In his newest book, God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob's Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy, and God's Relentless Love, Max examines the life of Jacob in Scripture, how God loved and pursued Jacob, and what that means for us.  Join Max and I for a great conversation as we talk about:  Where he gets his  book ideas Why there aren't as many books about Jacob as there are about biblical heroes like Daniel and David How to discern when our understanding of God has become too small Why Max connects with and treasures the story of Jacob God's faithfulness to his people, no matter what You'll also love hearing my chat with Max about how to have hope in a divided world. Check it out here. Favorite quotes: “In the story of Jacob he is hot and cold, in and out, weak, and then he's strong. He has dreams and then he wrestles with God. Then he falls and flops. It is every person's story.” “Jacob's relationship is a transactional relationship with God. You do this. I'll do that. That really strikes home with many of us.” “All of us go through some negotiation or transactional relationship with God.” “It is okay to wrestle with these things. Ultimately there is one authority and it is not you or me.” “Be kind to yourself. God hasn't given up on you. Don't give up on yourself.” Coaching this week:  Three truths about business you won't find anywhere else on the internet.  (31:40) Links to great things we discussed:  Max Lucado Website God Never Gives Up on You: What Jacob's Story Teaches Us About Grace, Mercy, and God's Relentless Love These Days - Jackson Browne The Chosen 1883 1923 PXG Golf Irons The Wino and I Know - Jimmy Buffett Migration - Jimmy Buffett The Coach School The Coach School Instagram 3 Secrets to Become a Successful Coach Order your copy of Remaining You While Raising Them here. Hope you loved this episode! Be sure to subscribe in iTunes and slap some stars on a review! :) xo, Alli https://www.alliworthington.com  

Ok, friends, let's just start with this... there's some really hard stuff found in Genesis 34-36. This one actually comes with a trigger warning as the subject of rape, abuse, and murder are all dealt with in Dinah's story, as found in Genesis 34.   However, as God often does, there is so much tenderness and steadfast love tucked in these chapters as well.   Reminders that Jacob's return to Bethel… to the place he had previously met with God – is also a valuable reminder to each of us to take time in our own lives to remember God's faithfulness to us in gratitude and worship… to keep looking for those reminders of God's faithfulness in our lives. The importance of returning to the places we previously met with God…where we saw His faithfulness… the importance of remembering.   Such a beautiful reminder for us all - even when we are unfaithful, God is faithful. Thank You, God.   So with that in mind, please be sure to listen in for all of this and much more in today's episode release of OOBT!   For the full episode show notes, please go to https://mfahring.com/genesis-34-36/.

Genesis 28:10-22 – Jacob God Builds a Man, shows us the lengths God goes through to build His leaders. Despite Jacob's God-fearing family, a relationship with God was not automatic. In this sermon we see how God reaches out individually to Jacob through a dream to establish a personal relationship with him. Jacob envisions a […] The post Genesis 28:10-22 – Jacob God Builds a Man appeared first on The Mission Church.

We are part of a very big story. Every single one of us who calls on Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is a living stone. Every single one of us has a precious and important part to play in creating this spiritual house, this place where God dwells. I am living my life out as a piece of the dwelling place of God! I take my little piece everywhere I go. Everywhere you go, you bring a dwelling place of God with you. WHAT DOES IT SAY?Jacob's Dream at Bethel - Genesis 28:10-22:10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. 11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it[a] stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.[b] 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”18 Early the next morning, Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel,[c] though the city used to be called Luz.20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father's household, then the Lord[d] will be my God 22 and[e] this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”Questions you might ask the text:1. What does the dream mean?2. Jacob receives the blessing?3. Do the stones matter?4. Call the place Bethel? Observations:1. Standard approach: humans quake with fear when God shows up2. Same blessing is again repeated--maybe we also need to hear things a lot to believe them, especially when they take faith.3. Gen 28:13-15: Sounds like a covenant4. Gen 28: 20-21: IF God is with me… Jacob is not totally sold?5. Gen 28:22: Promised sanctuary, the stone is the consecration…WHAT IS THE BACKSTORY?1. Jacob's childhood and adolescence - he has swindled his brother out of this birthright AND blessing2. His father Isaac sends him away and confers God's blessing on him3. God then confirms the blessing through the dream.WHAT DOES IT MEAN?1. God is committed to making the earth his dwelling place.2. This story is linked to the bigger story of lineage in Genesis, which is linked to the BIGGER story of a coming king, which is the story of Jesus and the story of you and me.WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR ME?1. God is committed to dwelling with us.2. Are you committed to dwelling with him?3. Jacob's stone is a signpost pointing us toward the promised sanctuary in 1 Peter 2:4-6:4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone,and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” WANT MORE? Check out Nicole's book Help! My Bible Is Alive: 30 Days of Learning to Love and Understand God's Word - https://www.amazon.com/Help-My-Bible-Alive-Understand/dp/1641580216FOLLOW NICOLE:Website: https://nicoleunice.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nicoleuniceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicoleunice/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nicole.unice/

Text: Genesis 29:1-30 Speaker: Lance Williams Date: August 7, 2022

Pastor Marq Toombs continues our sermon series "The Promises" in Genesis 28. Jacob finds himself homeless, a fugitive, a wanderer. And what does that mean for us? Jacob is in his darkest season of life. He's lost everything and is hopeless. And this is where God meets with him. Maybe that's exactly where God will meet with you too.

Are you wondering where God is? Jacob encountered God while asleep in the wilderness, running from the fear of retaliation after deceiving his twin brother and their father. In that place he experienced the awesome presence of God. We'll talk about how the anticipation of experiencing God's presence in the place of worship will change our motivation for coming to church and open our hearts for God to do amazing things in our life. Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. If you have any questions about this or any other teaching on our Youtube channel, don't hesitate to comment or email join@discover-life.ca or head to our website to find out more about who we are: https://discover-life.ca/ Do you want to support the work we do? Check out all the ways you can support us here: Support https://discover-life.ca/give/

In this message, Laura Hawting takes an in-depth look at Jacob's wrestling match with God and reminds us that - like Jacob - God wants us to stop striving to receive blessings through our own efforts and instead actively trust Him - the giver of all blessings - to bless us.

This week we are thinking about Jacob, and that God's presence is always with us, as we continue our series entitled "People Like Us". Our reading is from Genesis 28:10 - 22, and the hymn is "Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah". --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/stephen-ogston/message

Just like with Jacob God can change your name, change your life, and you'll never walk the same.

 Audio recordingSermon manuscript:The message that the Bible gives us is that God dwells with his people. In our Old Testament reading today we heard about God entering the tent that God had instructed Moses to build. For about ten chapter of Exodus there are very specific and elaborate instructions that are recorded. The tent had three parts. There was a curtain placed around the whole perimeter, kind of like a wall. The tent itself was to be inside this courtyard. There were two chambers in the tent. The ark of the covenant was to be in the most holy place in the back. That was where God dwelt. In our reading, the glory of God that was manifest in the cloud came to rest in that tent so that Moses could not go into it. When the glory cloud would go up from the tent the people would pack their things. They would follow God wherever he led. When he came to rest, they would unpack their things, including the tabernacle that God had instructed them to build, and they would stay there until the cloud of his glory would go up again. This was a new epoch for God's people. With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob God did not stay with them in such a way. God would appear to the patriarchs from time to time and speak to them by the Angel of the Lord. When he appeared he would give them promises to encourage them. But he did not dwell with them the way that he dwelt with their descendants as he led them out of Egypt with the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. After the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle was built, that was the way that God dwelt with his people. Among all the nations of the earth that existed, it was only among the descendants of Jacob that God dwelt. This made them a holy nation. They were blessed by being in God's presence, whereas those who were not holy were repelled by God's presence. That's the way it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be. Those who have been prepared to be in God's presence by being forgiven and sanctified find God's presence to be healthy and life giving. Those who are unholy and sinful bear God's holiness. The Old Testament, from Exodus onward, has this presence of God among his people at the heart of it. God is present with them first of all in the tabernacle, then later with King Solomon's temple. Generation after generation God sanctified these people. They were blessed to know him and his Word in this life and were prepared to live with him in a yet more intimate and better way in the next. A new epoch for God's people came with Jesus. The Apostle John speaks to this in the opening words of his Gospel that we heard this morning: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made… This Word that existed already at the beginning became flesh in the person who was named Jesus. God dwells among us in this Jesus. I mentioned last Sunday that there is nothing in the Old Testament that holds a candle to what the angel Gabriel said to Mary. The God of the Temple and the tabernacle, the God of Mt. Sinai, the God who created the world was going to take up residence in her womb. This is astounding almost to the point of being absurd. On the other hand, though, it is quite in keeping with the general way that God operates. When God chose a nation to be his own, he did not choose the most powerful or populous nation. He chose Abraham, and his wife, Sarah. He chose them when they were childless and already well advanced in years. They didn't even have any offspring who could receive the inheritance that God was promising to them. With the new epoch of God's grace that came through Moses, you see the same thing. This people hardly deserved to be called a nation. They were an enslaved people under the Egyptians. They didn't have any autonomous government. They didn't have a military. God fought for them and subdued the Egyptians with his mighty arm. They were a wandering band for forty years before they entered into their promised inheritance in Canaan. After that, through all the years when the Israelites lived in Canaan, they never developed into anything more than a regional power. They never became as great as the Egyptians before them or the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, or Romans after them. They were a small people with the great God in their midst. The birth of Jesus fits this pattern. At this time the Israelites were again a subjected people. The Romans ruled over them. The flesh and blood for the eternal Son of God was chosen to be from a virgin who didn't even live in Jerusalem. She lived in Galilee, the hinterlands. It's quite clear that Mary and Joseph did not have a lot of money. Otherwise they never would have found themselves in the straights that they were in at the time of Jesus's birth. If they could have afforded it, they probably would have found some better accommodations than a manger for his bed. The sacrifice that they gave at the temple shortly after his birth was the cheaper option of two pigeons instead of the more expensive option of a lamb. Plus, what's much more, who should believe Mary and Joseph? It's one thing to be a nobody from nowhere without a penny to your name. It's another thing to be disbelieved as a charlatan and a fool. To this day there are people who think that it is impossible that Jesus does not have an earthly father. They think that he was conceived by an earthly father out of wedlock. This is how it has always been, however. People who looked at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would not have believed that God was in their midst. People who looked at the nation of Israel while they were enslaved, but also when they were at the height of their power, would not have thought that God was in their midst. This is especially the case with the virgin Mary. But to those who have believed, this is a wonderful thing in their eyes. God despises the proud, but gives grace to the humble. This general pattern of God's grace being found among the poor and humble continues on to this day. God dwells in humble little churches that have to struggle to find a way to pay the bills. The big churches with the big endowments, the National Cathedral, or St. Paul's in London, quite literally have unbelievers preaching unbelief to those who go to hear them. It was not the biggest, most beautiful building within which the Christ child was found. He is content to dwell in places where we wouldn't even dream of giving birth to our babies. So you do well to not be put off by appearances. The way things look is one thing. What God promises is another. The truth is that God's people have never looked very impressive. In fact, whenever they started to look impressive they tended to depart from their faithfulness. But God's people have always been blessed with the most wonderful promises. The same is true for you as God's people. Take, for example, what was said in our Gospel reading this morning. You, who have believed, have been given the power, the authority, the status of being a child of God. John says you have been born not of blood, or the desire of the flesh, or of the husband's will. You have been born of God. I cannot conceive of a higher or better thing than that you should have Jesus as your brother and God as your Father. That is what John is saying. This is what God has done by uniting himself with us. The promise is high, almost to the point of absurdity, because the appearances do not match up with it. But the appearances will come eventually when the time is right. Right now we are God's workmanship. He who has begun a good work in you is going to bring it to completion on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then you will behold the splendor of our God who now works among us in a humble and hidden way, preparing us for the holiness that is to come. That will be the final epoch of God's grace when everything will be as it should be.

Read about God working through the imperfect life and family of Jacob--God even wrestled with Jacob, changing his name to Israel ("wrestles with God"), showing that He is a God who strives with us and for us.

God was revealing himself to his people more and more, and he helped Jacob to see that he was present in far greater ways than we understood.

America yesterday remembered an event that forever reshaped our nation and our world. Many listening today can recall what you were doing that day. Others cannot. September 11, 2001 will stand out as one of the hardest most difficult times in America. It is in times of hardship that it is most often…

Mark 7:24-37From there [Jesus] set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenecian origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hands on him. He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is “Be opened.” And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.” I want to talk more about the first episode in this Gospel reading today than the second. The fingers in the ears and the spitting and the tongue-touching are very fascinating and little bit gross, but I learned recently a new way to think about that moment between Jesus and the woman who comes looking for help for her daughter. That one has always been a difficult one to square for me – and maybe for you, too – this story where Jesus treats this desperate mother with a sick child so coldly, so callously, so harshly in her time of deep deed.She approaches Jesus, asks for his help, and he basically calls her a dog. Since she's not a Jew – one of the chosen ones for whom Jesus was sent, it seems – he says to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.” In other words, “Let the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – God's chosen ones – get what's theirs. I came, first, for the Jews, not the Gentiles. Wait your turn.”“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”Now, bear with me if this is as hard for you to imagine as it used to be for me, but I think Jesus might have been saying something like, “Hebrew Lives Matter.”“Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.”Again, I get it, this can be a hard word to hear from and about Jesus. It's a difficult thing to imagine he would think or say or do. But, like I said, I recently learned to wonder differently about this woman who suffers this harshness at the hands of Jesus this morning – and the circumstances that brought them together.First, it's meaningful to know that Jesus is in the region of Tyre, which was a port city on the Mediterranean coast. Tyre was a place of wealth and prestige that's mentioned several times throughout Scripture – all the way back in the Old Testament. It's a place that's repeatedly being called out for wickedness, for excess, for idolatory, and the like. And Jesus is there, looking very specifically NOT to be bothered. “He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there,” so the story goes. But in walks… in strolls… in waltzes… in barges, perhaps, this woman, interrupting whatever else Jesus may have been up to.So, she wasn't just any woman – she was local to that region of Tyre – a Greek-speaking, Syrophoenician-flavored woman – maybe of the wealthy, upper-class, more highly-esteemed sort who had heard about this Jesus and pushed her way into his presence with all of her privilege and presumption, because she wanted his help. She needed his help for her sick daughter. (Mark's Gospel never gives her a name. But, with all due respect to my Aunt Karen and the other Karens I know and love, had he written his Gospel in the 21st Century, this woman might have fit the stereotype.)And with all of that history and context (if the story said that this “Karen” from Beverly Hills had interrupted Jesus) it's easier to see and to understand where Jesus might be coming from and why he responds the way that he does. And I love him for it. See, my bias and inclination is to err on the side of sympathy for the way women are portrayed in Scripture, because their status in the first century was pretty grim, generally speaking. But, relatively speaking, that wasn't always necessarily the case.What if the woman in this morning's story was more like this lady who takes the foul ball from a kid at a major league baseball game? Or what if she was like those rich folks who, in the earlier days of this pandemic, made “vaccine tourism” a thing, using their wealth to charter planes and fly wherever they wanted to get their hands on the vaccine long before it was their turn as far as the age requirements and guidelines had been laid out by the CDC.Or like one of those Hollywood moms who committed all of that fraud in the college admissions scandal a couple of years ago?What if she was just like any one of the too many people in a 21st Century viral video who have so naively, ignorantly, arrogantly asserted their privilege – racial privilege, economic privilege, social capital, whatever – to get their way at the expense of somebody else?When we consider this story in that kind of light, Jesus is just doing what he always does – standing up for the last and the least; standing up TO the powers that be; questioning authority; challenging the status quo; lifting up the lowly; scattering the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; sending the rich away empty, and all the rest. All the things the prophets promised and all the things his own mother sung about and hoped for the first time she learned about him.And he was doing all the things we're called to do and to be if we want to follow him more closely.And I think we're called, too, to recognize if, when, and how, we might be more like that woman than we can always, see. And that's hard to admit. In all of this, I think God is calling us to humility, to recognize, like that woman from Tyre, that each of us requires the grace and mercy that comes from Jesus; that none of us is any more or less deserving of the loving forgiveness we receive at the hands of our savior.And it seems to me that Jesus acknowledges her humanity by knocking her down a peg or two and helping her to see it for herself. Once she sees her own humble, hungry need for the grace that comes from Jesus, she's able to fully receive it – and then she is blessed and better because of it – and so is her daughter.See, it's true that “Hebrew Lives Mattered” for Jesus – as one of those Hebrews himself – those who were always the ones being persecuted, displaced, disenfranchised, and more. It's true, too, that Jesus showed up for the sake of the world.But Jesus knew that, in order to save the real-time suffering of the poor and the persecuted, the displaced and the disenfranchised in his midst, he needed to change the real-time hearts and lives of those in power, those with privilege, and certainly those who were doing the persecuting. He spent his days calling them to humility, calling them to generosity, calling them to repentance, calling them to change and to be changed, and calling them to do their part – to do differently – to transform the world and bring the Kingdom, to earth here and now, as it is in heaven.And he's calling each of us to do the same.Amen

Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney  ... The linage from Abraham to Moses is very interesting to those who are interested in the elect of God.   For there is an elect of God which will be taken by Jesus into heaven when Jesus returns to gather the elect of God from off this earth.   Matthew 24:31    And HE (Jesus) shall send HIS angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together HIS elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.  

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).  John 1:40-42 When Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus, Scripture says that Jesus looked at Simon before He spoke to him.  He didn't just look at Simon.  Jesus looked inside Simon.  He saw him.  Just as God saw Hagar in the desert, as she said to the Lord “You are the God who sees me,” (Genesis 16:13), Jesus saw Simon where he was and where he was not yet. He saw what Simon could not yet see in himself. Jesus saw the greatness inside of him. In several places in the Bible we see God renaming people. Abram God named Abraham, Jacob God named Israel, Saul, God named Paul to name a few.  When God renamed someone in the Bible it was because He wanted to give them a new identity or a new mission.  Or they had an encounter with God and God wanted the individual to be branded by that experience or encounter.  God no longer wanted them to identify with their old identity or mission or experience. If you look at the personality of Simon throughout the Gospels you can learn some things about him.  He was a very emotional, type A personality.  One moment he's excited and ready to conquer the world, full of ambition, and the next day he's down in the dumps.  He was incredibly subjective, he lacked objectivity, he's irrational at times, he was an exaggerator, and not the most dependable guy overall.  Jesus looks beyond that and sees greatness and potential in Simon.  And so, Jesus gives Simon a new name, Peter, which literally means big rock or big boulder.  In the first century big strong rocks were used as the foundation for building projects.  Large rocks were used because you could depend on them to hold up the entire rest of the building.  Jesus is calling this reality out of Simon.  Jesus tells him, you are a big rock, you are dependable, you are stable.  “And I say to you, you are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:18).  Jesus wasn't looking at the man that stood in front of him.  He was looking beyond that to see the greatness and the potential inside of Simon. Jesus makes a fierce commitment to Peter.  Jesus gives Simon a new identity as Peter, the large rock. From this new identity and new name, Jesus mentors Peter and the other disciples and Peter becomes the first leader of the church after Jesus ascends to heaven.  He writes portions of the Bible, and he follows after Jesus to the point of martyrdom.  A far cry from the inconsistent and undependable disciple that we read about throughout the Gospels. Jesus is fiercely committed to you too.  He has confidence in you.  Jesus believes in you.  Jesus sees greatness in you.  He loves you in spite of your inconsistencies and failures.  Jesus doesn't look at your exterior.  At the selfishness, inconsistencies, depravity.  He looks beyond exterior masks and facades because he knows what you can become.  Jesus knows what gifts and talents and passions He has placed within you, and he loves you with a fierce love.  Fierce enough to stay by your side, no matter where the tides may turn to teach and to guide you towards your true identity in Him.

Genesis 28

The Bible gives its readers a detailed look at God's many attributes. One that shows up particularly often is His reliability. When He says something, He follows through. He keeps His promises. And when He came to Earth, Jesus Christ pointed to the many promises found in Jewish scripture, and ignited people who realized that He was the living fulfillment of God's most life-changing pledge. Join Horizon as we look at the Old Testament and understand how its characters relied on a steadfast God during turbulent times.

Jacob Flees For His Life – This story is crafted from Gen 28 where Jacob had received Esau’s blessing and left the room. It was not five minutes later that Esau came into the room to bring a savory dish from his hunt early that morning. To find out how you can support this ministry by visiting our website at https://lizardtracks.net. My stories can be fond of your favorite podcast App or Alexa, search for Podcast Lizard Tracks.

Jacob’s Mother – This story is crafted from Gen 27 where Jacob’s mother, Rebekah, called Jacob to the kitchen. To find out how you can support this ministry by visiting our website at https://lizardtracks.net. My stories can be fond of your favorite podcast App or Alexa, search for Podcast Lizard Tracks.

Jacob Steels His Brother Birth Right – This story is crafted from Gen 25:27-34 where JGod gave Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, a prophetic word about her son’s: To nations are in your womb, and two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger. To find out how you can support this ministry by visiting our website at https://lizardtracks.net. My stories can be fond of your favorite podcast App or Alexa, search for Podcast Lizard Tracks.

Jacob’s Birth - This story is crafted from Gen 25:19-26 where Jacob’s mother Rebekah was a barren woman for twenty years of her marriage. To find out how you can support this ministry by visiting our website at https://lizardtracks.net. My stories can be fond of your favorite podcast App or Alexa, search for Podcast Lizard Tracks.

Pastor Wayne Braun delivered his message in person as well as live stream on Sunday, September 20, 2020, on The Story of God: Jacob – God Meets Us in the Moment of Crisis - Genesis 32:22-32. If you were unable to join us for service live or online this past Sunday or would like to view it again, please click HERE to watch the worship service in its entirety.

Pastor Wayne Braun delivered his message in person as well as live stream on Sunday, September 13, 2020, on The Story of God: Jacob – God in Unexpected Places - Genesis 28:16-17.

Part 6 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 29:1-30 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 13 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 35:1-29 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 13 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 35:1-29 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 12 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 33:1-17 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 11 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 32:13-23 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 11 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 32:13-23 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 10 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 32:1-12 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 10 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 32:1-12 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 9 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 31:1-13 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 9 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 31:1-13 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 8 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 30:25-43 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 8 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 30:25-43 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Esau and Jacob - God of our story series

Part 7 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 30:1-29 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 7 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 30:1-25 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 6 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 29:1-30 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 5 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 28:10-22 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 5 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 28:10-22 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 4 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 27:41-28:5 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 4 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 27:41-28:5 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 3 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 27:18-26 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 3 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 27:18-26 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 2 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 25:27-34 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 2 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 25:27-34 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 1 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 25:19-26 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

Part 1 of series, Jacob: God’s Work of Restoration|| Scripture: Genesis 25:19-26 || Dr. Jerry W. Light, Sr.

THE WRESTLEThe story of Jacob starts in Genesis chapter 25 (8 chapters) with Jacob grabbing his twin brother Esau’s heel at birth. He couldn’t wait, he wanted to be out there first, right from the beginning (The heel grabbing didn’t work by the way because Esau came out first), but that became the story of his life – Heel grabbing is all about impatience! Outa my way…Jacob and Esau were the sons of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, the father of the Hebrew Nation. Abraham was told by God that his descendants would inherit the Land of Canaan, the Promised land. So as the firstborn son of Isaac, Esau was in line for he and his descendants to inherit all the Promises given to Abraham. The inheritance was to be imparted at the end of Isaac’s life and now it was time to pass it on. The Bible says that Esau was a hairy man, a hunter, and he smelled of the hunting fields.But Jacob cheated his Father and older brother by dressing up to smell like his older brother, and when Esau was out hunting Jacob asked his blind old father for the firstborn blessing. When Isaac reached out to lay his hands on him and impart the blessing he thought it was Esau. So Jacob received the blessing of the firstborn, with the help of his mother, and Esau missed out. She knew that Jacob had a heart after God and that Esau wasn’t interested in the spiritual blessing anyway and she decided to give God a hand.. She then tells Jacob to run away to where her brother Laban and his daughters lived. He runs away in fear of his life, knowing how angry Esau would be. On his way he camped overnight in a place called Bethel and had an encounter with God – He received a vision where God said; ‘I am The Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you’. That was the first direct blessing from God to Jacob. The blessing of the PROMISE. The blessing was now Jacob’s. Many years later after he had skillfully succeeded in prospering himself at his father-in-law Laban’s expense he decides to return to his land with his wives and children and a wealth of goods. He had been told that Esau was on his way to meet him, and of course he was afraid. So he sent his wives and children and servants ahead of him with gifts for Esau to hopefully placate his brother’s anger. He waits back and stops at a brook and it was there that Jacob has another encounter with God and that changes his life. He wrestles with God, who appears in the form of an angel and they wrestle throughout the night. He tells God that he will not let go of him until God blesses him. God touched his thigh in the wrestle and Jacob’s hip is put out of joint, and God tells Jacob he has prevailed (Lasted the distance, endured)... That was the second direct blessing from God to Jacob – The blessing of the WRESTLE. During the struggle God asked Jacob his name and when Jacob tells him, God says ‘your name shall no longer be called Jacob, (which means conniving cheat )(the swindling heel grabber), but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.’ So that night the old Jacob meets the new Jacob as Israel - a change of name to indicate the change of nature. Israel means You have power with God. He no longer had to live as an impatient heel grabber – God was at work.Jacob also asked God what his name was. God didn’t tell him his name but he asked him why he wanted to know, and Jacob says ‘because I have seen God face to face and have been preserved.’ Face=presence. He had been in the presence of God.Power with God – Preserved – Presence of GodThe real prevailing – lasting the distance, was that Jacob wanted God and needed God more than anything else, and that he was willing to face being changed and go through the wrestle with God, clinging to him and lasting the distance to receive that blessing that only God could give – being changed into the person God wanted him to be, being preserved, having power with God, living in his presence. From that time on after the second encounter, the wrestle, Jacob walks with a limp. God was saying to Jacob; You now have power with me, ruling with me in my strength, with your new name Israel, but only when you don't insist on ruling in your own strength as Jacob. I will be reminding you of your heel grabber weakness that you were born with every time you put weight on that leg of yours and have to limp.Jacob’s limp was the reminder that his inherent weakness was ‘heel grabbing’ and that he had always been tempted to impatiently use that as his strength. These two messages concerning two separate blessings from God to Jacob are lessons for us of two separate experiences of encounters with God and blessings from God that we have through Jesus. For Jacob the first encounter was the promise of the blessings of Abraham. Our first encounter is a revelation of the promise of the blessings we have in Jesus. The second encounter of blessing with Jacob was his wrestle with the angel proving to himself and to God that he had a heart to pursue God to wait on God and to wait for God. That took a few years to arrive.Our second encounter of blessing that we experience is the blessing of our WRESTLE with God, with a heart to pursue God and to wait on God and to wait for God. We don’t have to wait years for that – It can happen any time we’re ready. Jacob had to be reminded that he was a heel grabber – that is what the limp signaled to him – that he had the potential to go back to his old manipulative impatient ways as Jacob to impatiently make God’s promises come to pass, even though he already had all the promises of the blessings of Abraham! We have to go through the same kind of wrestle with God that Jacob went through to become the person we were meant to be. The weakness becomes the strength as we go the distance and are transformed – because of a limp! Having a limp does not mean that we ARE the limp. It is just the opposite. Having something isn’t BEING something. The Jacob in us does not get eliminated but just gets put in its place. It no longer has dominion over us after its power over us was put to death on the cross, and the power of another life has taken its place – God with us in Jesus. Jacob was born with a heel grabbing instinct. It was a drive to get ahead in life and his brothers heel was the closest thing to getting in his way. Jacob was given the gift of an energy to achieve, a drive that came from God. That gift also had a danger with it as well as opportunity - His life would be driven by winning and he would have defence mechanisms about losing. He would be skilled and pushy and probably put a lot of people offside. And God would be on that case to humble that attitude for the rest of his life. That drive had to be submitted to God in the Wrestle…We all have these gifts of God’s creation in us - all different. God has given all of us a drive to get something good done that God wants done – and we are born with it. I am calling this a ‘heel grabber’ syndrome that we were born with, but we do not all want to grab heels - we are all different but we all have our own way of trying to impatiently get that good thing done that only God can get done in us. EG, Another kind of person different to Jacob might have been created with the heart and the energy to be an encourager and a motivator, and they would not have grabbed the heel but maybe instead give Esau’s heel a shove forward - but then they would want the emotional payoff of being appreciated and approved of. They’d have to learn to manage that for the rest of their lives and they would have their Transformation sign post limp to remind them. Another might have a drive for justice and be given the gift of compassion and feel bad for poor Esau and Pat his little heel and shed a tear. That little justice warrior would have a sensitivity about victims all their life and perhaps even perceive themselves that way, and God would have to sort that all out in the Wrestle and give them a limp..And on and on it goes- So we are quite a zoo when it comes to this. We will look at a couple of others in the Bible whose impatient reaction to things that God allowed into their lives caused God to give them some kind of a limp to be made aware of their impatience and to learn to wait for God in how they managed their gift – and be Transformed..So - Jacob impatiently grabbed a heel and Moses impatiently struck a rock. (God had told him to simply speak to the rock but he got impatient). Paul became impatiently irritated by his thorn in the flesh and asked God three times to make it go away but God told Paul he had to live with it because his grace was sufficient for him. Paul’s thorn in the flesh was his limp, but he allowed that to be a signpost to Transformation - to show him that God’s grace was causing him to become the person who he really was in Christ. 1Corinthians 15:10: ‘I am what I am by the grace of God’Paul tells us about his wrestle with God and we learn about his ‘walks with a limp’ experience; 2Corinthians 12:7: (Message) Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap, a thorn in the flesh, to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's messenger did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, ‘My grace is sufficient; it's all you need because My strength comes into its own in your weakness.’ Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer (The hall of funny mirrors), these limitations that cut me down to size-- abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.Paul is telling us we are here to experience the awareness of our limitations but to use that to grow into spiritual growth in the limitless grace of God, and the limp simply loses its power to handicap us in living the life of Jesus within.With faith we accept the transformation process and the weakness becomes the strength. The nature of the wrestle – the struggle against impatience. Cling to God. We see God face to face in the sense that we know we are in his presence.We wait for his power to achieve what we cannot achieve – This needs faith and patience. With Faith and patience we inherit the promise. Faith receives it and patience perceives it we see it as out reality.So we last the distance ie, prevail with God – we have power with God..We wait on God so that we can wait for God.We can either wrestle with the world much of the time or wrestle against darkness much of the time. But if we wrestle first with God the wrestle with life in the world and with the attacks of darkness to defeat us are undertaken by God - showing himself strong on our behalf. We are living in a time in history when there have never been so many people who have sense of loss of the power of being able to control or change their circumstances and God is inviting anybody who is willing to come to him and have that wrestle.God showed Jacob – God showed Moses – God showed Paul – God will show you.  

Part three in our Decoding The Church series, the scripture this morning is Genesis 32:22-32.

Part three in our Decoding The Church series, the scripture this morning is Genesis 32:22-32.

Message by Ps Josiah at Paz in Noborito on Oct 20, 2019. 1. あきらめないで、突破口はもうすぐそこに! 2. 私は私の堕落の深さを認識しなくてはならない 3. あなたの引きずった足について感謝しなさい

“Then Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord considered his response of faith as proof of genuine loyalty (evidence of steadfast commitment, righteousness).” (Genesis 15:6) Genesis provides the historical foundation for the entire Bible and the basis for the Pentateuch. Moses, the author (Matthew 19:8; Mark 7:10), traces the history of the universe from God’s perspective. The account is selective according to Moses’ purpose to encourage the Israelites assembled on the Plains of Moab to trust in their faithful and omnipotent God enough to conquer the Promised Land. The events Moses records in Genesis take the reader from Eden to Egypt and cover thousands of years from Creation to Abram’s family (1-11) and then the 300 years from Abram’s covenant with God to the death of Joseph (12-50). Moses moves the story forward through the phrase “the generations of” (toledot in Hebew, and translated “the account” or “record). It divides the book 10 times (36:9 repeats 36:1) beginning with the person named, who may not be the primary character of the section, and closes with that persons death (2:4; 5:1; 6:9; 10:1; 11:10; 11:27; 25:12; 25:19; 36:1; 37:1). Genesis introduces the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 12:1-3) as God’s solution to a self-destructing humanity bent on devastating destruction. The first eleven chapters surface the desperate need of the Covenant. The remaining chapters unfold the outworking of the covenant through the lives of the four Patriarchs of the Hebrew faith—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. God is the luminary of Genesis as the narrative reveals His place in the origin of the universe and the birth and life of the believing community He powerfully and faithfully delivers. Of His own choice and due only to His love and mercy, He established Israel as the means of blessing the undeserving families of the earth in response to Abrahams’ faith. Imagine the impact this view of history had on the children of the generation that refused to believe God at Kadesh-barnea (Numbers 14). Far more than a gaggle of slaves slinking back home. Moses wanted them to see themselves as the chosen people of the living God with a glorious and eternal destiny! Genesis, the book of beginnings, has encouraged believers since the post-Exodus generation by providing God’s exciting perspective on their role in history: Genesis is a theological presentation of selected facts and stories from history to expose humanity’s disastrous revolt against our Creator and His merciful response. I. Genesis provides the historical basis for God’s covenant with His people and reveals the basic principles involved in God’s relationship with all people of all time. A. HUMAN HISTORY: Genesis 1-11 proves the necessity for the covenant setting apart a special people, Israel, in a special land, Canaan, to worship Him. Two antithetical dynamics of God’s gracious provision for humanity and humanity’s totally rebellious and disastrous response are demonstrated in four primeval events, leaving humanity hopelessly enslaved to sin. 1. CREATION: God, seeking relationship with man, graciously and lovingly provides everything he needs for intimacy with Him—paradise, partner, purpose (1-2). 2. FALL: Man and woman, seeking independence and rejecting God’s love and care, sin and die spiritually, separating the race from God as sin’s destructive power rapidly pollutes every aspect of life (3-5). Messiah: A glimmer of light, a thread of hope. In spite of the curse of the Fall, God promises hope for redemption through the seed of the woman (3:15). Genesis: People of God, trust in your all-powerful and faithful Lord. FLOOD: Sin’s exponential and cancerous growth brings a cleansing judgment to save humanity—a new beginning with a righteous man, Noah, and his family (6-9). NATIONS: At the Fall, one couple rebelled against God. The fresh start fails as now the entire world civilization rebels against God’s love and care at the Tower of Babel. To throttle evil God fragments the single culture and language of the world and scatters people over the face of the earth (10-11). B. HEBREW HISTORY: The decadence of humanity led to a necessary election of a people descended from one man of faith—Abraham. He would be the first of four great men (Patriarchs) who trust God. God promises to build a nation by faith, a nation through whom He will redeem the world from sin and bless all nations (12-50). ABRAHAM: God calls Abraham; Abraham believes God; God makes covenant promises to Abraham (land, descendants, and blessings). The faith and covenants of Abraham form the foundation to God’s program of bringing salvation upon the earth (12-25). ISAAC: God establishes His covenant with the son of promise—Isaac not Ishmael. Isaac would be the child of faith and blessing (25-26). JACOB: God establishes His covenant with the second, ambitious son of Isaac—Jacob, not Esau. He transforms this man from selfishness to servanthood and his name to Israel, the father of twelve tribes. Every descendant of Jacob would inherit the promises to Abraham and Isaac (27-36). JOSEPH: God protects His covenant people through the faith of Jacob’s favorite son—Joseph. A type of Christ, loved by the father and rejected by his brethren, Joseph becomes their deliverer. His brothers deliver him to slavery in Egypt. After his dramatic rise to rulership of Egypt, Joseph delivers his family from famine and brings them out of Canaan to Goshen (37-50). Messiah: A glimmer of light, a thread of hope. In spite of the miserable failure of Jacob’s sons, Shiloh, the One who brings peace to the world and before whom the entire world will bow, will be a descendant of Judah (49:10). “In the unfolding of this grand program of God, Genesis introduces the reader to the nature of God as the sovereign Lord over the universe who will move heaven and earth to establish His will. He seeks to bless mankind, but does not tolerate disobedience and unbelief. Throughout His revelation the reader learns that ‘without faith it is impossible to please God’ (Hebews 11:6).” Allen P. Ross, Genesis, p. 21 II. The God of the Bible moved heaven and earth so that He could relate to those who believe in Him—to love them and care for them as their omnipotent God. Genesis records how God called Abram out of a godless culture and made wonderful promises to him (Genesis 12:1-3) that God guaranteed by an unconditional covenant (Genesis 15). Abraham is the model of faith according to New Testament authors. He trusted God’s promise to rescue him (Romans 4:1-3, 16-24; Galatians 3:6-9). And then, after entering into relationship with God due solely to his faith (Genesis 12:1-3; 15), Abraham trusted Him enough to follow and became God’s friend (Hebrews 11:8-19; James 2:21-23). Have you trusted in the promises of God to this generation of seekers—“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). If you have been rescued from sin by faith, what is He asking you to trust Him for right now? How does the big picture of the Book of Genesis help you trust Him enough to do what He’s asking you to do?

Genesis 28 - God Comes to Jacob; God Comes to Us [July 7, 2019] by Christ-Reconciled Church

God will bless your mess, but not your mask. God is deeply in love with the real you.

God will bless your mess, but not your mask. God is deeply in love with the real you.

God will bless your mess, but not your mask. God is deeply in love with the real you.

Date preached -- May 5, 2019Sermon series -- Jacob: The Struggle for WholenessScripture -- Genesis 29

Genesis 32:22-32 – “Jacob, God Wrestler” The post Genesis 32:22-32 – “Jacob, God Wrestler” appeared first on Princeville Presbyterian Church.

This episode discusses who were according to the Holy bible. We are direct blood line descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob God's chosen people.

Pastor Joe Williams talks about a man who was known as a deceiver until he wrestled with God and won.

The first talk in our Book of the Year series on Genesis.

Last month we noted that the only true God, the Creator of the universe and all things therein—the God of the Bible—has linked His name with and tied His integrity to Israel. Yet many evangelicals, including well-known leaders, insist that Israel is of no significance to God any longer, having been cut off for rejecting Christ and now having been replaced by the church. There are even groups (not only among white supremacists or cults such as Herbert W. Armstrong's die-hard followers today) who persist in the ridiculous theory that the “Ten Lost Tribes” of Israel migrated to the British Isles and that therefore all those of British descent are the true Jews today. Some go so far as to say that all of the “white races” are the true Jews—as though not only England but all of Europe and Russia was uninhabited wasteland until these remnants of the “Ten Lost Tribes” settled there.

Last month we noted that the only true God, the Creator of the universe and all things therein—the God of the Bible—has linked His name with and tied His integrity to Israel. Yet many evangelicals, including well-known leaders, insist that Israel is of no significance to God any longer, having been cut off for rejecting Christ and now having been replaced by the church. There are even groups (not only among white supremacists or cults such as Herbert W. Armstrong's die-hard followers today) who persist in the ridiculous theory that the “Ten Lost Tribes” of Israel migrated to the British Isles and that therefore all those of British descent are the true Jews today. Some go so far as to say that all of the “white races” are the true Jews—as though not only England but all of Europe and Russia was uninhabited wasteland until these remnants of the “Ten Lost Tribes” settled there.

The very thought of a “power” creating anything is ridiculous! Then why is belief in a “power” so appealing? Did the Star Wars slogan, “May the Force be with you,” have that much influence? It went a long way toward changing movie fans' thinking, especially among American youth. Of course, this has always been a popular idea because a power/force can't impose moral laws, demand obedience, or judge and punish anyone—instead, it can be used for one's own ends.

The very thought of a “power” creating anything is ridiculous! Then why is belief in a “power” so appealing? Did the Star Wars slogan, “May the Force be with you,” have that much influence? It went a long way toward changing movie fans' thinking, especially among American youth. Of course, this has always been a popular idea because a power/force can't impose moral laws, demand obedience, or judge and punish anyone—instead, it can be used for one's own ends.

One Kingdom After Another I would Like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 42. And as we continue to go through Isaiah, I want to urge you every week to take the Scriptures and look at the word of God and feed on it. I just move systematically through these chapters, and try to explain what these phrases say. So I'm really very easy to follow, in that regard. Like a very slow-moving target. You know exactly where I'm going, God willing, next week Isaiah 43. So just get ready for it, but we're just going to try to walk through Isaiah 42 today and just feed on the amazing array of images and words, the rich array of words that the Lord has given us here specifically, I believe describing the ministry of Jesus Christ and building a kingdom through astonishing gentleness. And so that's what we're going to see today. Twenty-five centuries ago, the Prophet Daniel had visions at night and recorded for us in Daniel 7. And in his vision at night, he stood on the shore of the sea and he saw the deep sea stirred and churned up by the four winds of heaven. And up out of this churning sea, came four great beasts, one after the other. And each of these beasts were ravenous and powerful and two of them in particular, specifically depicted as ripping their enemies to shred and devouring flesh. Though we would imagine that all four had that tendency and that nature. And these four beasts represented four great empires that came up out of the churning mass of humanity and took center stage for a while in succession, one after the other. The Babylonian Empire, and then the Medo-Persian Empire, and then the Greek Empire and then the Roman Empire. We've seen since that time over the twenty-five centuries, the exact same patterns. Empires that have been built by viciousness and wickedness and by the pride and arrogance of man and hatred for neighbor, and murder and pillage. This is the way that the world builds its kingdoms, this is the way the world builds its empires. But about five centuries after Daniel, another king stood in front of a representative of the Roman Empire. This gentle, humble Jewish carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth on trial for his life before Pontius Pilate, was being charged with insurrection, with being a king to challenge Caesar. And Jesus said this: "My kingdom is not of this world." I think what he meant by that is, "My kingdom has nothing of the nature of the kingdoms of this world, it doesn't derive its origin from the world, it's other worldly, it's supernatural, it's a different kind of kingdom." And you look at the next statement he makes there in John's Gospel, He says, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest from the Jews." So, the nature of the kingdoms of this world is this fighting and this conquest but now my kingdom is from another place. Pilate said, "You are a King, then!" Jesus said, "You are right in saying that I'm a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. And everyone on the side of truth, listens to me." Now, that is how Jesus Christ builds a whole different kind of kingdom in this world and he's been building it for centuries now for millennia, a gentle, irresistible advance of a kingdom that's built by Jesus speaking the truth to people who desperately need to hear it. And they having ears of faith opened by the Holy Spirit, able to hear the saving gospel repenting of their sins entering into, that's the language, entering the Kingdom of Heaven and then thriving in it forever. That's the way this gentle king builds, irresistibly builds his empire. And how radically different is it from what we see in world history? Introducing the Servant of the Lord So we come now in Isaiah 42, to the first of four significant prophecies in this section of Isaiah. And we're introduced to this character known as, the servant of the Lord. "Behold my servant," we're going to see that right from verse one, and the servant passage is so-called by those that study Isaiah are very famous, they're well-known, the servant of the Lord is portrayed. And then as things unfold over these chapters, you're going to see the servant of the Lord in Isaiah 42, we're going to see him in Isaiah 49, and then again in Isaiah 50. And then most famously of all in Isaiah 52 and 53, culminating in what's known as clearly the suffering servant who builds an empire by his own suffering, by his own death. Now, the interpretive challenge comes for us, even in this very chapter, in Isaiah 42, when he uses the term "servant" also to refer to Israel, to Jacob and Israel, etcetera, to the nation of Israel. So we're going to have to face that. He calls his servant in this chapter, "Blind and deaf." And said, "Who is blind and deaf, like my servant." Well, I would never use the phrase blind and deaf to refer to Jesus, who I believe the suffering servant definitely is, so we have a challenge. So I think this is how I harmonize all of this. Israel was called on to be God's servant to witness to the glory of God in this world, but failed through their wickedness and idolatry. Jesus is the personification of everything Israel was supposed to be as the Son of God. He said, "Israel is my first born son," he said that to Pharaoh, "and you wouldn't let him go so I'm going to kill your first born son." He calls him his first born son. Israel is God's first-born son on Earth but that servant, the Jewish nation sinned. And so God sent His own son into the world to embody and fulfill everything Israel was meant to be and do as the servant of the Lord in the world. So that's how I harmonize it. We're going to begin as we just walk through this, Isaiah 42. I. The Gentle King and His Irresistibly Advancing Kingdom (vs. 1-7) By looking in verses 1-7, at a gentle King and his irresistibly advancing kingdom. And in verse one, the Lord presents his chosen servant. Look at verse one. "Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight, I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations." So, the prophecy begins in every translation but the NIV, with the word "behold." Now, I love the NIV, been memorizing the NIV84 for years. They just don't like the word "behold," I don't know why but I love the word behold. You're saying, "But it's a bit archaic." That's why I love it. It's kind of like "behold." We're having something unveiled here, something dramatic, something unusual. So we don't use the word very much. I challenge you, later today to use the word "behold" in a regular sentence. Find some way to use the word "behold", it's a great word. "Behold, lunch is ready," something like that. But it's a greater unveiling, it's an unveiling of this servant of the Lord. He's unveiling a mystery, something that we have not seen before. And he is chosen by the Lord, he was chosen or elect. And the fuller revelation of Scripture is that Jesus was chosen by God the Father for the role as our Messiah, our Savior, before the foundation of the world, before the beginning of time. Isn't that amazing? Think about that. 1 Peter 120, it says, "He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was now revealed in these last times for your sake." So He is chosen and then revealed, so we had the same kind of rhythm here. Chosen but revealed. Again, Revelation 13:8 speaks of Jesus as the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. So in other words, his death on the cross was in some sense a done deal before God said, "Let there be light." And so, here is the servant of the Lord, "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen." And he is anointed by the Holy Spirit, he says, "I will put my Spirit on Him." He's anointed by the Holy Spirit to do the will of God in ways that no one ever has before, since. The word Messiah or Christ, means Anointed One. He is anointed with the Holy Spirit. Now the relationship within the Trinity, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, the relationship between the second and the third person of the Trinity, between Jesus and the Spirit is an infinite mystery. It's something we cannot fully understand but the New Testament presents some amazing insights for us. Though we would think and we should think that God the Son is omnipotent, omnipotent and needs no help to do anything. Yet, it seems he did nothing apart from the expressed will of his Father and apparently also did nothing except by the power of the Holy Spirit. So now if you're going to push me and say, "Could Jesus have done a miracle without the Holy Spirit?" I would say, "The question makes no sense to me, that's not the way the Trinity works." He would not have done anything apart from the power of the Spirit anymore than he would have done anything apart from the will of His Father. There's no "apart from" in the Trinity, that's the perfect unity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. But it's by the Spirit that Jesus spoke every word he spoke and it's by the Spirit that He did every miracle he ever did. And so we have this language here in Acts 10:38, Peter speaking to Cornelius and said, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him." It was by the Spirit that Jesus was presented to Israel as Messiah. At his own baptism, John the Baptist, baptized him and the Holy Spirit came down as a dove. And it was by the Spirit that Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil, and it was by the Spirit he was led out of the desert holy after his temptations ready to do his public ministry. Jesus did everything by the power of the Spirit. The Father’s Delight in the Son Now, it says also, in verse one, "Here is my servant, whom I have chosen, in whom I delight." Isn't that beautiful? Think about this, meditate on how much the father loves the son, how much the Father delights in the son. It's a sweet meditation. But the "Father loves the son," Jesus said, "and shows him everything he is doing" and he reveals this very powerfully. John Piper wrote a book called "The Pleasures of God," I would commend it to you. It's... He called it a prequel that was written after "Desiring God," but it's basically the pleasure of God in being God. And one of the great pleasures of God the Father is in the perfect reflection or radiance of God's glory through God the Son. The Father loves the Son with an infinitely passionate love and the beautiful thing is our salvation is a subset of that. He loves us in Christ, isn't that amazing? And Jesus could say, "As the Father has loved me, even so I love you." And so that's a powerful love that he has. And so this voice came from heaven at the baptism of Jesus saying, "This is my Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased." Isn't that powerful? The Father delights in the son, he loves him, he's well pleased with him. And Jesus himself said, in John 8:29, "The one who sent me is with me, he has not left me alone for," listen to this, "I always do what pleases Him." Wouldn't you love to be able to say that to your Heavenly Father? "Father, you know that today throughout the day, at every moment, I always did what pleased you." Well, that's a goal for us in sanctification, but it's a finished fact for Jesus. He always did what pleased the Father. And so, "Here is my servant in whom I delight. He's my chosen one and all my delight is in him." Jesus Brings Justice to the Nations And so it says, Jesus "will bring justice to the nations." It says it twice. He's going to bring justice. The nations are languishing, under the boot of injustice now. Those empires that came up out of the sea, those four beasts, they made their way through the world by crushing tyranny and injustice. It's what the human heart does as puppets of Satan, the puppet master. And Satan's the dragon, in Revelation 13, behind the beast coming up out of the sea, he's the puppet master and he makes his satanic human servants do wicked, evil things. He's a murderer, they're murderers. He's a liar, they are liars. And there's this oppression and injustice at the root of all of these human governments and empires. This injustice. And you just think of the history of it. We can just think about literature, think about famous books like "The Count of Monte Cristo." I think that's an interesting story. You remember how Edmond Dantes was arrested on trumped-up charges by a corrupt official who's trying to protect his own reputation, ships him off to the Chateau d'if on the charges of being a Bonapartes. He's trying to get Napoleon back from exile and back in power again. When he gets there, he meets this godly man, the Abbe Faria who's at the Chateau d'if and has been there for decades under charges of being opposed to Napoleon. So here's this man who's opposed to Napoleon from decades ago while Napoleon was in power, in prison with a man who's opposed to him. And they're both there and they can't get out. So, how many people are languishing in prisons all over the world because of injustice, crimes they didn't commit? Or things that they're accused of that aren't wrong, like being a Christian? Injustice all over the world. Or think about Ben-Hur, for example. His boyhood friend charges him wrongly with assaulting the governor and just wipes away his whole family and puts him on a slave galley, injustice. Recently, my family, we've watched "To Kill a Mocking Bird." You know, that famous story of racial injustice and a crime that this individual didn't commit. Godly, African-American man charged with a crime that he didn't commit, and evidence is so clear he didn't do it and then he's convicted and found guilty. There is injustice all over the world. And frankly, we know as Christians, the only answer to this is not that you would be in power instead of that person. No, I hope you know yourself. I hope you know that if you or your group were in power, it would be just about the same thing. Give it a little time and the corruption of your own heart will float to the surface, that's not it. We need a perfectly incorruptible king, amen. And we need one who will speak only words of truth and that is only Jesus, the King of kings. And he is the only hope for the islands, for the distant coastlands, he's the only one that can bring justice to this world. And oh, are we crying for it. We're yearning for it. The Bruised Reed Now, as we look at this king, I tell you, verses two and three are some of the sweetest verses in the whole Bible. Some of the sweetest verses in the whole Bible, quoted in Matthew 12. That's the first time, perhaps, you came across them, as the Apostle Matthew ascribed them to Jesus. So I'm just going to go right to this is Jesus, because Matthew gives us the permission to do that, he is describing the servant of the Lord Jesus and it says of him in verse two and three, "He will not shout or cry out in the street or raise his voice in the streets, a bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out." Now, these are verses that you could read in Matthew 12, and just read right over and not really know what it's saying. It wasn't until I read a Puritan writer named Richard Sibbes, on the bruised reed. And I would commend that to you, you can read it online for free. That I had my eyes opened to what was being depicted here, what is being depicted here is the astonishing gentleness of Jesus in His ministry. The supernatural gentleness of Jesus dealing with broken and frail sinners like you and me, that's what it's talking about. Jesus builds his kingdom differently than all of these empires or emperors of the world, he builds it systematically and gently. Through gentleness, he builds his kingdom. Now it says that he doesn't shout or quarrel, perhaps, or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. You think about in the 1930s and '40s as the Nazis would be seizing control first of Germany and then of a better part of Europe. I mean, you think about these jack-booted Nazis running through the streets at night and is screaming and you hear, "Schnell, Schnell," and all that, and pounding on doors and it's just loud and boisterous and terrifying. Jesus is not like that, he doesn't build his kingdom by a frothy harangue, by some dictator into a microphone. Or a street proclaimer of communism, let say in St. Petersburg in 1917, something like that, standing up on a wall and whipping people up into revolutionary frenzy. That's not what he does. Or perhaps during the Middle Ages, Herald of the King going out to announce to these down-trodden and crushed peasants that there's yet another raft of taxes that's going to crush them even further. This is not what Jesus does. He doesn't build his kingdom that way, no such harsh cries needed by Jesus or by his messengers. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news" who what? Proclaim peace. We are peace-loving and we bring a peaceful message. So He doesn't quarrel or cry out or raise his voice in the streets. The kingdom advances quietly, it advances like yeast hidden in a large amount of flour. It just permeates little by little, that's how it advances. And now it comes to this incredible description, "A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out." I believe the only time that Jesus ever describes himself directly with an adjective, he uses the word "gentle." Remember in Matthew 11, he says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart." Jesus describes himself as gentle or meek and humble in heart, that's His nature. He is a meek or a gentle Savior. So now we have two questions in front of us, two sets of questions. Question number one: What is a bruised reed and what does it mean that Jesus will not break it? And what is a smoldering wick? And what does it mean that he will not snuff it out? First, the bruised reed. Picture a piece of marsh grass, broad-bladed green grass growing up by the side of a pond. That's how I picture it. And it's growing up tall but fragile, it sways to and fro in the wind. Picture it's just weakness, it's not a mighty oak or a seed or anything like that but it's just a piece of grass, barely noticeable. But this grass beyond its fragility is bruised, okay? In some way, it's become damaged. You could imagine it trampled by a cow or a horse or something like that or perhaps, just creased. You could imagine a crease going, it's hanging down, maybe by a slender, green thread. It's just about, just about severed. Just about ready to fall off. This has got to be a person, a human being going through extreme agony of soul. Going through extreme trial and difficulty, frail and weak, just about to die perhaps, or just about to give up. It might be a Christian who's going through severe tests and trials of various sorts. It might be a non-Christian who just is about ready to give up in this world, it's a human being though. And what does it say about Jesus? He will not break that bruised reed. He is able to take a fragile broken-hearted sinner and bind them back up again, supernaturally. It's amazing, the skill that he has. It's amazing the gentleness he displays with fragile sinners like you and me. And you think about the little tubules, xylem and phloem. I had to look that up, forgot my biology. But these little tubes that feed, that their circulatory system of the grass and Jesus is able somehow to bind that back up again. So it's not just gentleness, but exceptional skill at putting together a human soul. That's what I think of when I think of a bruised reed, he will not break. Think of the gentleness Jesus displayed in dealing with sinners. Think about that paralyzed man and his friends are digging through the roof and the first thing Jesus sees, their faith. And says, "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." I don't think he fully realized the significance, the magnitude of the judge of all the Earth saying those words to him. Take heart son, your sins are forgiven. Or to that woman with the flow of blood that just wouldn't stop and she touches him and then Jesus has that interaction with her and says, "Daughter, your faith has head you. Go in peace." Same kind of thing. I love the encounter in Luke's Gospel where the widow of Nain is burying her only son, and the grief is just immeasurable. And the entire community is grieving with this woman and Jesus comes up and stops the funeral procession, as only he can. Don't you wish you could do what he can do? But he stopped that funeral procession but before doing anything, he goes up to the woman and says, "Don't cry." I mean it's amazing, his first priority is he wants to minister to her, this widow who's losing her only son now and says, "Don't cry." Do you see the gentleness of Jesus, the incredible gentleness? And then he raises his son from the dead. Like I said, don't you wish you could minister like Jesus? But Jesus knows what he's doing. And for us, the promise of final resurrection should be enough. Amen. It's going to come. The Lord will raise him up or her up, it's going to come. Those were just signs of the future resurrection. But Jesus has astonishing gentleness, he knows how to draw us through amazingly painful trials, things we thought we could never endure. And he knows more about what you can endure than you do, and he'll pull you way beyond what you thought you can handle. And it's not because you can handle it, it's because he will never no never, no never forsake you. And He sustains you and feeds you and the inner man, and he won't let you die. So that's what I think it means, a bruised reed he will not break. The Smoldering Wick What does it mean, a smoldering wick he will not snuff out? Well in Hebrew parables, it's about the same thing, but a slightly different image. Again, it's Jesus' gentleness in dealing with weak, frail sinners. Only this time, we're pictured like a flame. You blow a candle out and it's still glowing but lots of smoke, so you got the glowing ember there on the wick. But there's a lot of smoke and it's just a fraction of a second away from going out entirely. And you know when it does, then lots of smoke comes and then it's gone. We're like that, we are not raging bonfires of piety and faith and godliness, that's not who we are. We are fragile flickering flames. And he knows even when you're down to just an ember, a glowing ember, he knows how to nurse you back into a strong raging flame again of piety and godliness and love for God. He knows how to do that, how to breathe on you. Just the slightest too much breath and it's gone, it's out. But Jesus will not snuff out that flickering ember, he knows how to nurse you back to spiritual health. So the overall message is that Christ is the gentle, skillful physician of the soul. He's able to deal gently with weak and wounded sinners by that amazing, supernaturally, wise, astonishingly gentle power. By that, he builds his empire one broken-hearted sinner at a time. Isn't that beautiful? That's how this empire is getting built by this gentle Savior. The Irresistible Advance of His Kingdom And in this, we also see the irresistible advance of the kingdom in verses three and four. Bruised reed he will not break, smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness, He will bring forth justice. Verse four, "He will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. And in His law, the islands will put their hope." So the advance of this gentle kingdom is irresistible, it can't be stopped, there's nothing Satan can do to stop it. He will build His Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It's going to advance despite its meekness and gentleness and apparent fragility and weakness. And it says here in this text that he is definitely going to bring forth justice. The thing the islands yearn for, the ends of the earth yearn for, he's going to bring forth this justice. He's going to establish justice on earth. And what does this mean? Well, I think justice means. That we will be righteous in our relationship with God and with others, first with God. He will justify us through faith in Christ. He's going to bring forth justice between us and God by taking our wickedness and sins on Himself and dying on the cross for us. So we will be justified by faith in Christ. Made right with God, that justice he establishes first. Then he establishes horizontal justice person-to-person, the Golden Rule flourishes in his kingdom. We will do to others what has been done to us. God's been gracious to us, we'll be gracious toward others. It's a different kind of kingdom. And governing forces, governing rulers will use their position humbly like Jesus who is a servant King and it's going to be a just kingdom. And notice that it says that, "He will not falter or be discouraged." I think that's put in there because this kingdom advances against all odds, against entrenched forces of evil. A number of months ago, I mentioned something I heard from Kevin Deyoung in a sermon, and I had mentioned it here. Sometimes we who are messengers of the Gospel feel like all we've got are spitballs against a reinforced concrete bunker. Do you ever feel that way? It's like, how can this beat that? You look at the world with all of its wickedness and power and big issues are going on and we just have these words that we're believing and preaching and talking about, it doesn't seem powerful enough. And so, there's going to be a temptation for the workers of this kingdom to falter and be discouraged because it seems like it could never happen. But it says here, Jesus "will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law, the islands will put their hope." The Sovereign Power of Almighty God Guarantees this Success Now, how do we know that this is going to happen? Well, look at verses five through seven, the sovereign power of almighty God guarantees this success. Look at verse 5-7. "This is what God the Lord says, He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the Earth, and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people and life to those who walk on it. 'I the Lord have called you in righteousness. I will take hold of your hand, I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles. To open eyes that are blind and to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.'" So the reason this kingdom is going to advance and will never fail is because omnipotent God is behind it. Verse five gives God's credentials. "I the Lord who created heaven and earth. I spread them out, I created the earth. And not only that, I give breath to everyone who walks on the Earth. Their hearts are in my hand, their life is in my hand, I can build my kingdom." And so this powerful God is behind this kingdom, He who gives breath to every person who walks on the face of the earth. But now, we're ushered here into the councils of the Trinity. An inter-trinitarian conversation is happening here, the father is speaking to the son. That's the way I read it. So often when good things are said to you in the text, its like, "That's me." Friends, that's not you. Unless you are the light for the Gentiles and a covenant for the people. Okay? It's not you. So, who's being addressed and who's speaking? The son is being addressed by the Father. The Father is saying to the Son, in verses six and seven, how it's going to go. "I am God. I am the creator of the ends of the Earth." "I have called you in righteousness." He says in verse six. "I will take hold of your right hand. I will keep you and will make you [Jesus] to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles." "That's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to, through you, open eyes that are blind. I'm going to, through you, free captives from prison. And through you, I'm going to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness." The Father's giving him his marching orders. This command I received from the Father, this is where it comes. Isn't that powerful? Think about that, this inter-trinitarian conversation. Now how is Jesus a covenant for the peoples? Remember at the last supper, Jesus held up the cup and said, "This cup is the blood of the New Covenant in my blood." Jesus's death on the cross is the new covenant, His death in our place is the New Covenant. God the Father made it so. I will make you to be a covenant for the peoples and a light for the Gentiles and you're going to open blind eyes." This is Jesus's marching orders. II. The Message of the Kingdom Results in Joyful Praise (vs. 8-12) Now, in verses eight through 12, we see the message of the kingdom resulting in joyful praise. So there is this message that's going out to the ends of the earth and it's going to result in the ends of the earth, praising Him. Now, it begins in verse eight, with the centrality of God. Look at verse eight, "I am the Lord," he says, "That is my name, I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols." So God is exclusive here. He's saying he's the only God, "There is no other God. I am the Lord, I am Yahweh. That is my name. It's my special covenant name and I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols." God makes his claim to exclusivity here against the idols of the nations. He's the only God there is and His glory as God, he will not share with another but he does share it with Jesus. Now, think about that. He will not give His glory to another, but he's going to share it with Jesus. What does that make Jesus other than God? The fierce monotheism of Isaiah rules out the Jehovah's Witness lie. Do you see it? There's no way that Jesus can be a god, but not the God. There's just no way because very plainly, God shares His glory with Jesus. You know what it says in Hebrews 1:3, "The Son Jesus is the radiance of," what, "God's glory." The radiance of God's glory. And yet, he says here, "I will not give my glory to another." Jesus prayed in John 17:5, "And now Father, glorify me with the glory I had with you," what, "before the world began." "I had a glory with you, we shared it." Glory as what? As God. "Now, give it back. The radiant display of my position as God, give it back. You laid it down in the incarnation. But make me obviously, apparently glorious now that I finished all the work you gave me to do." It's an awesome thing that he's saying there. The Credibility of the Messenger: A Track Record of Fulfillment So then the Father establishes his credibility as a messenger, he should be listened to because of his track record. Look what he says in Verse nine, "Behold the former things have taken place and new things I declare before they spring into being. I announce them to you." So what's he saying there? Fulfilled prophecy. "I have a good track record of predicting the future and making it happen. Been doing it for centuries. I predicted the flood to Noah. What happened? Flood. I predicted that a childless couple, Abram and Sarai would have a son and they did. And not only that, I predicted that Abraham through Him, he would have descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky and as sandy as the seashore, and it happened." And he predicted that his descendants would be enslaved in a country not their own for 400 years, and it happened. And he said, he would punish that nation and bring them out powerfully to live in this place in the Promise Land, and it happened. He has an incredible track record of predicting the future, making it happen. Even in the book of Isaiah, he predicts that the Assyrians will invade and go right up to the neck of Judah in Jerusalem, but not conquer the city of Jerusalem. He actually said very specifically, they wouldn't enter the city, or even shoot an arrow there. He didn't have time. They were all dead. God, sovereignly predicted what would happen and made it happen. Now, He's predicting new things. Now, I don't think the new thing is the Babylonian exile, and the recovery. That's part of it, but that's small potatoes. Why do I say that? Because the real thing is the suffering servant, and the salvation that Jesus brings to the ends of the earth. He said, "I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to predict this new thing that's happening, how all we like sheep have gone astray and each of us has turned to his own way." I'm going to tell you all about that. "He was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities." I'm going to tell you new things you haven't heard before. And they're going to happen. So that's his track record. God should be listened to because he knows the end. The Joyful Response to the Message And all of this results in joyful praise. "Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it. You islands and all who live in them. Let the desert and its towns raise their voices, let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice. Let the people of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the mountain tops. Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim His praise in the islands." You know the result of all of this, of all of this gentle Savior, building a kingdom, advancing is praise, it's worship. When we were singing, when Daniel was leading us and we're singing, that's what God was getting after. And more beyond that, when you in your quiet time tomorrow, when you kneel down and you, and then you sing or you just say, "God, thank you for saving me I worship you and I praise you," just... Or middle of the day, that's what God was doing, turning you from an idolater to a worshipper of the living and true God. And so in Verses 10-12, he's saying, "Sing to the Lord," what does he call it, "a new song." We hear about that in the book of Revelation. Let's sing a new song celebrating salvation through Jesus, His praise from the ends of the Earth. And he says, "You who go down to the sea," sailors, let the sailors, the ones that go down in boats and ships on the sea, let them go to distant places, that's the only way you can reach the islands. So let them get on boats and let them go to those distant islands, and let them tell of this God and His suffering servant. And let the distant islands hear of this gospel and let them give forth praise to Almighty God. That's what it's saying. Verse 11 is so sweet, "Let the desert and its towns raise their voices, let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice." Well, what's that? Well, that's what Bible search software is for. Kedar. Alright, so type it in. And up comes Genesis 25:13, the first born son of Ishmael. Ishmael, you remember Ishmael, the other son of Abraham, the one by Hagar, the slave, talked about her... About them in the book of Galatians, "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son." and all that. Yeah, but when he was cast out remember, Abraham's heart went after his son. And he prayed, "Oh, that you would protect Ishmael and watch over and bless him." God heard his prayer and allowed him to thrive, and multiply and have 12 sons and they are the desert dwelling Arabs. The sons of Ishmael living in the desert, Kedar is their first born. And there will be representatives of Kedar at the throne of grace in heaven, Amen. There will be Ismael-ites through faith in Jesus Christ, not by Islam, Islam's a lie. But by repentance and faith in Christ, they will be there and they will worship Jesus Christ. Isn't that awesome? And let it happen when God says, "Let the settlements of Kedar rejoice." It's like him saying, what, "Let there be light." And there's nothing that can stop it. By His sovereign grace, some of Ishmael's descendants will come to faith in Christ. There'll be a representative there. Same thing with Sela, which is connected to Edom, ever heard of Edom? Again, rejected like Ishmael. Rejected. And yet, some of his descendants will be there around the throne worshipping Christ. It's an incredible thing, God is able to step into emptiness and brokenness and create something where there was nothing before. III. The Zeal of the Warrior God Rescues His Captive People (vs. 13-17) Now, in verses 13-17, the zeal of the warrior God moves out to rescue his captive people. One of the biggest problems we have in life, the things we struggle, if the God of the Bible, the God of Isaiah 40 is so powerful, why doesn't he do X?" Have you ever struggled with that? "If God is so powerful, why won't he heal my husband or my wife or my child? If God's so powerful, why won't he save my mother? Why won't he save my co-worker? If God is so powerful, why do things like ISIS happen with little children. Damming the name of Christ... Christians getting beheaded. Why does that happen if God is so powerful? Why is God silent? And we struggle with that. Well, God addresses his silence here, look at verses 13 through 15. It says there, "The Lord will march out like a mighty man. Like a warrior, he will stir up his zeal. With a shout, He will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his enemies." Verse 14, "For a long time, I have kept silent. I've been quiet and held myself back." See that? That's the silence of God, he's holding Himself back. "But now like a woman in child birth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation, I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools." So in the middle of verse 14, we have the silent God waiting a long time. Why does he do it? Well, he says in Second Peter, he does it to give time for repentance. He allows people time to repent, he also does it because he's got a fullness of time, he's got his perfect time when he's going to move out. Then he uses two really amazing images to describe himself. A mighty warrior going forth to battle, which he's going to win, and a pregnant woman about to give birth crying out in her labor pains. So I meditated on this, this is what you get to do in Isaiah. Interesting images. How do they relate? Noise and victory, that's how I put them together. Mighty warrior with a battle cry, going out and wins the battle. The woman writhing in pain and crying out giving birth to the healthy baby. So up to this point, God's been quiet and nothing it seems is going on. But he's going to move and when God moves, suddenly things happen. So do not wonder about it, do not lament. Pray, be patient, wait on God for his timing but there'll come a time when He will move out like a warrior. Now, isn't it amazing? We have these different images. Now, I'm not talking about the pregnant woman now, the images of the bruised reed and the smoldering wick plus a mighty warrior crying out in battle and crushing His enemies. How do you put that together? That's Jesus' Lion and Lamb, do you see that? He is very tender-hearted to his children, but he is terrifying to His enemies. And when He goes out like a warrior he cries out, and he wins. And he will go out, and He will defend his people. He will rescue them, Verse 16, "I will lead blind by ways they have not known along unfamiliar paths, I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them, and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do, I will not forsake them." This is Jesus saying he's going to save us. He's going to bring us along the path that leads to heaven. Now, the immediate context could be the exiles going back to Jerusalem and that's fine. But again, small potatoes compared to a multitude from every nation on a road that leads to eternal life in heaven. He's going to lead the blind by these roads and he's going to rescue the captives and He will never leave us nor will He forsake us. How sweet is that? And yet, verse 17, they are still going to be some who trust in idols. Who say to images, "You are gods." They will be turned back in utter shame. There's a warning to any who will not repent and believe in this great Jesus the Savior, that if you'd cling to idols, you will be turned back in utter shame. IV. The Shameful Condition of God’s Sinful People (vs. 18-25) Now, the final section of this, we'll deal with quickly and then get to application. The shameful condition of God's sinful people. So the chapter ends with a powerful explanation of why God's chosen people are going to be in exile to begin with. Why are they even going? Why is Israel going to get carted off by the Babylonians? Now, God must do this because it's going to be easy to misunderstand. People are going to think that the reason that happened was that God lost in battle to the Babylonian gods, Tammuz, or Bel or Nebo, or whatever their gods were. That is not the case. God actually says in Deuteronomy, he's afraid of people thinking that…That's an interesting thing, God afraid of people coming to misunderstandings. So He sends His prophets, ahead of time to say what he's going to do. They're going... Also the Jews are going to misunderstand and say, "We're the oppressed, we're the crushed, we're the ones that are being beaten down unjustly," and all that. It's not unjust. They're getting punished for their sins, and that's what he's dealing with here. Look at the verses, verse 18 and following. "Hear, you deaf. Look, you blind and see." So call to the blind and the deaf. Verse 19, "Who is blind but my servant and deaf like the messenger I send. Who is blind, like the one committed to me. Blind like the servant of the Lord." Verse 20, "You have seen many things, but you pay no attention, your ears are open, but you hear nothing." This is language that Isaiah consistently uses for the idolatrous Jews. Be ever-hearing, but never understanding. Be ever seeing, but never perceiving. Make their eyes closed and their ears dull, so that they cannot understand. So the Jews should have been God serving in the world, but they're blind. And who is blind like them? Their blindness was unlike anyone else's blindness. Now, here's the thing, the whole world was blind. How then was the blindness of the Jews worse? Well, look at verse 21, "It pleased the Lord for the sake of His righteousness to make his law great and glorious, glorious means bright and shining." Let's say you have two blind men, one of them is in a pitch-black cave and the other one's in a brilliantly lit room. Which of the two has a more obvious clear blindness? Isn't it the one in the brightly lit room? The one in the dark cave, it's not so clear the nature of his blindness 'cause there's no light to see. And so here, the Jews surrounded by the brilliance of God's Word, the brilliance of his law shining and radiant and they couldn't see it. They couldn't see the glory of God in the writings of Moses and the prophets. Psalm 19, "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul, the statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart." Listen to this, "The commands of the lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes." They should have been able to see the glory of God in the commandments of God. But they couldn't, they're blind. So who's blind, like Israel and deaf like the messenger I send. And so because of that, they're going to be plundered for their sins. The Plundering of Jacob God's Just Punishment for Sin Verses 22 through 25, "This is a people, plundered and looted all them trapped in pits or hidden away in prisons. They've become plunder with no one to rescue them. They've been made loot with no one to say 'send them back.'" That's what's going to happen to the Jews. "Which of you will listen to this or pay attention in time to come? Who handed Jacob over to become loot and Israel to the plunderers?" Who did this? God has not along for the ride, God actually sent the Babylonians. He sent them for they would not follow his ways, they did not obey His law, so He poured out on them His burning anger, the violence of war, it enveloped them in flames yet they did not understand it, it consumed them but they did not take it to heart. I wonder if even today, the Jews that go down to the wailing wall and they bow and pray before the wailing wall, do they take to heart and understand why that building was destroyed? Do they understand what God is saying here in Isaiah 42? It's because of the sins of the nation, the idolatry of the nation that all of this happened. V. Applications Application. Well, central application of this has got to be this: "Come to me, all you who are wary and burdened and I'll give you rest." Come to Christ, trust in this gentle Savior. Do you feel like this, sometimes, do you feel like a bruised reed, smoldering wick? Do you feel like you're at the end of your rope? You might be lost, you might be a non-Christian, you might be on the outside, but you're like, "How can I get my sins forgiven?" Come to Christ, He's gracious and merciful and will forgive sins, His blood shed on the cross, His resurrection on the third day, everything you need for salvation as a sinner. Everything. And then once you've come to Christ, he's going to bring you through severe trials. We're going to talk about it, God willing, next week. He's going to bring you through the fire and the water, but He will never leave you or forsake you. What are you going through? It's amazing the number of people in our church that are struggling with cancer right now, it's amazing to me. And struggling, well. For the glory of God going through severe trials. Maybe you feel bruised by all of this, bruised reed. Maybe you're like, "I don't want any more medical procedures to me, no more." And you're feeling bruised, even it might be literally bruised by yet another attempt to get blood out of your right arm or your left arm. You're just at the end of it. Or maybe you're just beaten and down-trodden by the trials you're going through. Understand verse two and three, "A bruised reed, He will not break, he will bind you up." Ultimately, set your heart... Your hope, your heart on the resurrection and the glory to be given to you in Christ returns and that's where he's going to set everything right. In the meantime, He will sustain you and strengthen you. Secondly, friends at the horizontal level, can we not be gentle with each other? Can we not be arrogant, self-righteous sinners who act like we would never sin like this person? Can we not remember how much God's forgiven us, can we not be mindful of the 10,000 talents of forgiveness you've gotten and not choke someone else who owes you 100 Denarius? Let me speak plainly. Can we not be as forgiving to one another as God has been forgiving to us? And then when God brings broken-hearted people into our lives, can we not set aside our business and just sit down and pour out love, and prayer, and ministry on one another? Can we not draw together and just look around and say, "What's going on in this person's life, or that person's life? We're going to watch over one another in brotherly love." We've got to be like this, we've got to be like Christ. A bruised reed He will not break, I'm not going to break it either. A smoldering wick he'll not snuff out. I want to learn how to kindle someone's heart back into flame in Christ. I want to be like that. I think we need to be a community like that. And you need to pray for your elders to be good shepherds like that. That's a special skill that the Lord needs to increase in us so that we can shepherd people with this kind of gentleness. Can I commend to you to go online and look up Richard Sibbes, S-I-B-B-E-S, Bruised Reed, and read it. It's unbelievably encouraging. It will bless you. Worship Jesus, this chapter says to sing to him, from the ends of the earth. Guys, do you realize that's us? We are the ends of the earth when it comes to Jerusalem. What do you think, if you could have described North Carolina to someone who lived in Jerusalem in the first century, they'd say, "Ends of the Earth." Only way to get there is going down to the sea in a boat. We're it, we're the ends of the earth. Let's praise him, Amen. Let's sing to him a new song. When Daniel has us get up to worship, let's worship like never before next week. Okay, how was that sound? Good? Amen. Energy, passion. Let's sing to him a new song like we've been saved because we have been. Let's praise Him. And let's not underestimate how much power Christ exerts every day as a mighty warrior to destroy His enemies. He is so gentle with us but he is with a shout, going to go out and destroy His enemies. So let's not wonder why God's silent and waiting, and all that. Let's know the time will come, we'll hear Christ shout in the heavens. And he'll come down to Earth. And then finally, let's be excited about unreached people group ministry. Today, let's say especially for the settlements of Kedar. Look up Ishmael-ite descendants, Arab... Go online, joshuaproject.net or some other place and find some Arab settlement that hasn't heard, some Bedouin tribe and pray in light of Isaiah 42. Let the settlements of Kedar rejoice, and pray that that ends of the earth will hear the gospel and believe. Close with me in prayer.