How To Prevail by Chuck Smith

tonight we'll finish book of Hosea as pastor skip leads us in the study of chapters 12 through 14 and so we encourage you go through the whole Bible with us learn the Word of God discover what God has to say about himself about you about how you can relate to him and you'll find that these evening studies as we go through the Bible are of great help and you'll enjoy them I know next week we take the book of Joel so we continue to move through the Bible this morning we'd like to draw your attention to Hosea chapter 12 verses 3 & 4 here the Prophet speaks concerning Jacob he said he took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength he had power with God and he had power over the angel and he prevailed he wept and made supplication unto Him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us for years I had a real problem with the story of Jacob he was an extremely self-reliant man he was cunning he was clever he was a very deceitful man one that was always ready to take advantage of another man's weakness there was a passage of scripture that disturbed me it said Esau have I hated Jacob have I loved I had no problem with God hating Esau but I had a real problem with God loving Jacob he was such a scoundrel and yet God declared Jacob am I love that should encourage every one of you Jacob was a man who was easy to hate he was a twin we're told that during his mother's pregnancy that she was having an extremely difficult pregnancy so she prayed about it as Fleur Lord why it is so difficult and the Lord said there are two nations in your womb they are diverse from each other so it would seem that these little guys were duking it out in the womb and just giving their mother a terrible time the Lord said to her the older shall serve the younger when they were born his brother Esau was first out of the womb he was red and he was covered with hair interesting to see a newborn baby just covered with hair and so they said look at that he's hairy and that was his name Esau it means hairy in Ebru they were born as they came out his twin brother Jacob had hold of the heel of Harry he was still fighting with him evidently and as they saw him holding onto the heel of Arry they said look at that he's a heel catcher the name Yakov is heel catcher so they both received their names out of circumstances of their birth they were probably fraternal twins for they did not really look alike one was hairy and the other was not and as they grew up their nature and their characters were quite diverse Harry was a man's man he was a sportsman he was a hunter he was a rugged outdoor individualist whereas Yaakov Jacob he a mama's boy he spent a lot of time in the kitchen around the ladies sewing circles he was domestic and so a vast difference between the two boys as they grew up the father of course favoring the son that was the hunter and the rugged outdoor-type esau because he was first born of the two the birthright became his so that he was to receive the blessings of the birthright of the family however one day when he was coming in from out hunting it had been a difficult chase he was tired he was weary he was famished and his brother Jacob had been cooking this savory potties the lentil soup it smelled so good he said to him give me some of that soup Jacob said I'll make you a deal you give me your birthright and I'll give you some soup and he said why could the birthright to me if I die sure I'll make a deal you know to have the birthright it meant nothing to him but it meant so much to Jacob but as we said he was willing to take advantage of another person's weakness and so he traded the birthright for a mess of pottage later as their father was approaching death because of age he had become blinded and he called Esau in and he said Esau I want you to go hunting and get some venison barbecue it and fix it like I enjoy it bring it to me and I want to place the blessing upon you so Esau went out to hunt for deer Rebekah heard what Isaac had said to Esau and so she said to Jacob take some goat meat into your father I can fix it to taste like venison and your father can't see so just tell him that you are Esau and that you have the the meat for him that you might receive the blessing Jacob said that would never work because we're too different from each other if if he should say smell me I don't smell like my brother you know he was the Cologne guy his brother was the Biot guy and and he said he's so hairy you know I be if he touches me you'll feel the smooth skin and all and mom it'll never do and he'll realize that I'm trying to pull a fast one on the mini Oh curse me Rebekah said if he curses let the curse be on me but we'll fix you up we'll rub some dirt on you we'll let you wear your brother's clothes and we'll take the goat skin and we'll tie it on your hand and on your neck so that if he feels you feel the hair of the goat skin and and he won't know the difference he's blind so Jacob went in with the goats meat and he's a high father I've come back with the meat for you and he said how is it that you were able to get it so quickly he said all the Lord was with me and he said well come over here son and he smelled him he said it smells like he saw and he touched the you know the goat skin on him and he said no it's got the hair you know it's got to be Jake it might be it's got the voice of Jacob but it's gotta be he saw so he pronounced this blessing the patriarch T blessing upon Jacob and Jacob went out well soon Esau returned and he had fixed the meat and he came in and he said father I've got the venison that you wanted and give me the blessing he saw began to tremble he said I made a mistake your brother came in and he brought me some meat and I gave him the blessing and Esau said well surely there's something they left for me and he said no I've made you his servant and I've blessed him and he said I don't know what to do and Esau began to cry and he said dad please you know bless me and so he pronounced a secondary blessing upon him and Esau comfort comforted himself with the thought dad will soon die and when he does I'm gonna kill that Jacob Rebekah heard Esau making the vow to kill his brother and so she called Jacob in and said son you better escape to Haran my brother lives there and you can stay with him until the wrath of Esau is over and then you can return but you better get out of here because he is planning to kill you as soon as your father dies so Jacob took off fleeing to Haran and his first night he came to Bethel there in the middle of Samaria a rocky place and he was so tired from his flight that he just lay on the ground and he grabbed a stone for his pillow and he went to sleep and had a dream and in his dream he saw heaven opened and a ladder reaching up into heaven and the angels ascending and descending on this ladder when he awoke in the morning he became conscious of God's presence even in this barren place he said surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not there was nothing to suggest the presence of the Lord I knew it not I know it now and so knowing that God was there and of course Jacob always ready to make a deal decided to make a deal with God and so he said to the Lord if you will be with me and you will keep me in this journey that I'm taking if you will give me bread to eat and you will give me clothes to wear and bring me again safely to my father's home in peace then Joba you will be my god and I will give to you a tenth of everything you give to me so here he is trying to make a deal with God and and they you know bless me make me a rich man and I'll split it with the intent of all that you give to me so Jacob continued his journey to her and when he arrived there there was a well with a stone over the opening and there were three young men shepherd boys who had had their flocks of sheep there at the well and they were waiting for some man to come and roll this heavy stone from the opening to the well that they might water their sheep so Jacob seeing these boys there said hey fellas do you know a man by the name of Laban the son of naor they said sure we know in fact there's his daughter she's coming right now with her sheep to water them so Jacob looked up and he saw the daughter of Laban and he ran up and he kissed her and he said I am your cousin my mother rachel is the sister of your father Laban and I've come to spend some time here she ran home and she told her father that his nephew was there he came running to meet him he hugged him and greeted him and invited him to the house and after staying with Laban for about a month Laban said you know you're a good worker and you really shouldn't just serve here for nothing what would you like for your wages and Jacob who had fallen in love with Rachel said well I would like to take Rachel as my bride he said well I tell you what work for me for seven years and your pay will be Rachel now we'll be your dowry you can have her as your wife so he stayed there learning husbandry for seven years working for Rachel and he was so in love with her the time seemed to pass by rapidly and the day of the wedding named the party on into the evening and it was dark and so he went to his tent with his veiled bride and in the morning when he woke up looked over to see her it was Leah the older ugly sister of Rachel that was in bed with him he was incensed he went to Laban and he said what is the big idea our deal was that I would have Rachel as a bride not Leah Laban said sorry son it's a custom in our land the younger sister can't marry before the older sister but I'll make you a deal work another seven years for me and you can have Rachel too you ever wonder why at the wedding the bride they always raised her veil that's where the custom comes from I think that he gave Rachel right away but he owed is uncle another seven years there came almost a competition between the sisters the older sister Leah was able to have children sons she began to bear sons unto Jacob the beautiful Rachel wasn't able she was barren until she finally said to Jacob go into my handmaid let her become a surrogate mother and it will be as my child and so he did that and Leah not to be outdone several you go into my handmaiden you know it'll be like my child and so within this period of time he had eleven sons Rachel finally was able to conceive and have a son they named Joseph and there was one daughter and eleven sons after the fourteen years Laban realized that Jacob had tremendous skills in husbandry Laban had become very wealthy as the result of Jacob's working for him so he said to Jacob continue on working for me because I'm blessed as a result of your labor and tell me what are the wages that you desire so Jacob said well I would like to have all of the spotted sheep and so they made a deal that Jacob would have for his own all of the spotted sheep but learning about husbandry he learned how to somehow affect the sheep during the impregnation and so whenever there were helped the strong animals ready to have relations and he would engineer it so that the healthy ones would bear spotted and straight animals so that Jacobs animals were stronger Laban --zz were weaker as time went on it became very obvious that Jacobs animals were stronger they were producing more Jacob became very wealthy he had his own servants and he was actually becoming more wealthy than his uncle Laban Laban zhh other sons when they saw this became upset with Jacob and they were plotting against him and Laban himself was upset and Jacob could see that things were no longer friendly and so he came to his wives and he said I'm going to go back home and they said well we're going with you because you know what do we have here in our father's house he you know pondus off for 14 years of labour and so we're going also so Laban was off with his sons and they were shearing sheep and so while they were away shearing the Sheep Jacob took off with his servants and with all of his flocks his herds and camels and all and they headed back toward home in Hebron it was three days before Laban even knew that he left but when he heard that Jacob had left and had fled from the land he and his sons came pursuing after Jacob and the night before they caught up with Jacob he was now at Mount Gilead the Lord spoke to Laban in a dream and he warned him not to hurt or to harm Jacob don't lay your hand on him and so in the morning when he caught up with Jacob and the family he was sort of muzzled by God against really saying anything bad and so he said how is it that you took off you didn't even give me a chance to have a big party a going-away party for you and you're left with my grandkids I didn't even have a chance to kiss them and all I could really hurt you but last night God told me that I wasn't to touch you or to say anything bad but I could really hurt you and of course Jacob realizing that the Lord had sort of warned him and muzzled him he decided to tell him off you know taking advantage again of the situation and and so he speaks to him of his deception how he deceived Jacob and all of course Jacob was a deceiver he had deceived his father now he ends up getting deceived as far as his bride was concerned but he began to chide Laban Genesis tells us he said to him just what is my trespass what is my sin that you've pursued after me so hotly I have taken nothing from you but for twenty years I work for you your use and your goats did not miscarry they're young and I have not eaten they did not miss miscarry they're young and I have not eaten the Rams of your flocks that were torn of the beast I bore the loss of it myself you require me to pay for those that were stolen and during the day I was thirsty I was freezing at night I had sleepless nights and I endured these conditions for twenty years and you changed my wages ten different times and you would have sent me away empty had I told you I was going it was tense it was highly emotional they draw a line in the sand they put up a pile of rocks and Laban said don't come back across this line the line drawn in the sand you've heard that and that's where it was so he and his sons returned and now Jacob continues his journey home he had sent messengers ahead to let Esau know that he was coming home the servants returned and they said your brother is coming to meet you and he has 400 men with him quite a welcoming party and of course east he knew that Esau had sworn he was going to kill him because of what he had done so mister schemer begins to lay out his plans he can't go back the line is there in the sand he's afraid of going forward to meet his brother because he doesn't know what his brother will do so he begins to plan to scheme he took portions of his flocks some of the goats some of the sheep some of the cattle some of the donkeys some of the camels and he set a servant ahead with a portion of the lambs and when you meet my brother Esau and he said who are you and who are these justtell I saw that these are a present from Jacob for his Lord Esau and hopefully he was going to appease his brothers anger and so these men were set out and every once in a while as Esau would come and see it now all of these goats with a servant who are you and while these are from Jacob to his lord esau and he set it up in a clever way so that as soon as his brothers anger seemed to be a piece they wouldn't offer him anything else give him enough but not too much you know scheming or what a fellow the remainder of the flocks were with him and so he divided them into two companies some of the servants and all were over one of the flocks their herds and the other he was with him and they continued on as he sort of came up in the rear his thought was if my brother begins to smite the servants and the flocks that are ahead then will flee while they're engaged in battle will flee will run for our lives so he realizes that his brothers should be there about the next day and that night there by the river jae bok he sets his wife and his children down to go to sleep but he needs to have a good night's sleep and so he crosses he Ford's the little river of J bak and over on the other side he tries to get a good night's sleep because it's going to be a strangest day tomorrow as he mates Esau and an uncertainty of the future but an angel of the Lord came and wrestled with Jacob all night long and Jacob would not give up and as the day began to break seeing that Jacob would not give up the angel touched his thigh and the muscles and the sinews and all shriveled so he became a hopeless could not possibly run his last scheme run if it gets bad run is taken away he cannot flee the angel said let me go the day is breaking and Jacob said I will not let you go unless you bless me the angel said what is your name crooked dirty rotten conniving thief well your name will no longer be Yaakov he'll get your but your name will be Israel and by god in Hebrew a prince of God governed by God interesting it says and he wrestled with the angel and prevailed and that's the thing that always bothered me how could you fight with God and win how could you fight with an angel of God and possibly prevail and that troubled me for years until I came to the book of Hosea and here I found the answer as I read it in Genesis and he wrestled with the Lord and he prevailed I couldn't understand it because in my mind it was a wrestling match in which he won which in a sense is true but how did he win Hosea tells us he said he wept he made supplication unto Him that is it was not a place of dominance that Jacob was now dealing it wasn't that he was in control he had been whipped he was helpless he's crying it isn't a position of power it's a position of weakness I can't do it I'm through please don't go he made supplication he was begging him don't leave me without a blessing and what is the blessing it's the change of character that is recognized in the name you will no longer be a conniving heel catcher but from now on you'll be a man who is governed by God through the surrender to God he then had power with God not in overcoming God but in surrendering to God and our place of real victory in our lives is when we come to that place of surrendering to God it isn't that we have an advantage and we have overcome by our guises or stealth or devices but it is that God now rules in our life we have submitted and surrendered to his rule and therein is where we discover victory the Lord had the crippled Jacob to bring him to this place for the rest of his life he had difficulty walking because of that shriveled muscle and all in his hip but yet the rest of his life he was governed by God and he covered true victory comes in submission unto the will of God sometimes God has to use very severe measures to bring us to that place of submission and it could be that today some of you are fighting with God you're wrestling with God there's an issue that God is dealing with in your life and you've been fighting him over it you're not willing to give in you're not willing to surrender but it is so important for your future that this area that God is dealing with in your life be taken care of and that you submit and surrender to God these things God is not adverse to crippling you in some way or other in order to bring you to that position of surrender to him what does it take what will it take for you to submit to give up this fight against God and to submit yourself to God that you might become Israel governed by God Father we pray that you will help us this day to realize that the path of victory is one of surrender giving up and Lord we realize that there are some people that are going through some really heavy issues right now fighting with you you've spoken to them you're dealing with them over these things but they're hanging on they won't let go and father I pray that before you have to them they will let go they will submit to you they will surrender these areas of their lives Lord to you that they might no real victory your victory in Jesus name Amen shall we stand the passengers are down here at the front they're here to pray for you and de minister to you today who have come to the realization that you're never gonna win until you surrender until you give it over to God it's you hang on to it it's only gonna you ultimately but before that happens I would pray that you would have enough wisdom to just submit it to God and to surrender it to God and let him work in your life there's a PS to the story the next day as Esau came into the camp and he met Jacob they fell on each other's neck and they began to embrace and kiss one another he didn't have to run he couldn't even if he wanted to he was crippled but God worked out his purpose in Jacobs life and he was a changed man he was now a man governed by God and God can bring the changes in your life if you will but surrender to him and these issues that you are facing that are so fearful and you don't know what to do and your planning and scheming and trying to figure out God will take care of those things if you'll just surrender and commit it to him you couldn't become Israel today governed by God and you can have the joy of watching God work a miraculous work in your life the Lord bless the and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee [Music] you

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 14,766

Rating: 4.7723579 out of 5

Keywords: Chuck, Smith, Revival, Repent, God, Sermons, Jesus, SermonIndex

Id: tGVKcJqORsQ

Length: 39min 8sec (2348 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 27 2009