Preparing To Meet God

Title: Preparing To Meet God

Text: II Cor 5:10; Gen 32:22-32

Pray!!!

Read Text!!!

Introduction:

Several centuries ago, a Japanese emperor commissioned an artist to paint a bird. A number of months passed, then several years, and still no painting was brought to the palace. Finally the emperor became so exasperated that he went to the artist’s home to demand an explanation. Instead of making excuses, the artist placed a blank canvas on the easel. In less than an hour, he completed a painting that was to become a brilliant masterpiece. When the emperor asked the reason for the delay, the artist showed him armloads of drawings of feathers, wings, heads, and feet. Then he explained that all of this research and study had been necessary before he could complete the painting.

- God is in the business of preparing all people, but not all want to be prepared.

- This morning we are going to focus on how to prepare for the Lord’s coming.

- And to do this, the Lord has lead me to Gen 30-32 as we look at a couple of key verses that will teach us how to prepare for the Lord’s coming or too encounter the Lord face to face.

- Jacob was prepared to have an encounter with the Lord because he lived 3 great truths.

- Jacob’s encounter was in Gen 32:22-31 where he wrestled with the Lord

- All of us need to have an encounter with the Lord here on earth, but one day we will encounter Him face to face, and my question is are we prepared?

- Can we ever be fully prepared to meet the creator of all things?

- As we see, Jacob was not a perfect man, but it was his desire to be blessed of the Lord.

- God knows all of our weaknesses, weaknesses meaning sinful nature, but in spite of them all He still blesses us.

- Why? Because of God’s mercy, but also we are a people who want to be blessed of God.

- God knows we are not perfect, that’s why Jesus came and died on the Cross for our sins.

- God does not overlook our weaknesses but rather works with us to see us change into His likeness. We can’t change into Christ likeness if we are not striving to be blessed of God, like our example Jacob.

- In Gen 30 we read about the weaknesses of the family of Jacob,

- The whole chapter shows that God worked to accomplish his ultimate purpose, despite weakness, struggles and blemishes in the family.

- Despite Jacob’s shortcomings he still developed in himself that relationship that made him prepared to speak to God and to hear from Him.

- Scripture is not clear as too what Leah and Rachel wanted, but we do see glimpses of there hearts.

- There desire was for the temporal things, rather then Heavenly things. We need to be careful that we don’t get caught up in the same trap.

- We see that by the way they acted.

- They was jealousy, envy, manipulation, selfishness all fueled by power for control. We will get into that later on in the message.

- There hearts were on other things, rather then the blessings of God.

- But despite all the weaknesses that the family went through, God still blessed them and produced through them, what we know as the 12 tribes of Israel.

- So what are the keys to being prepared to meet God or to having an encounter with God, as this family did?

- I want to give you 3 points that will challenge you to seek after the blessing of God rather then the temporal things of the world.

- Because we all know the world has nothing to offer us, only God is our true source for everything.

Point 1: Learn To Be Humble With God

- When you look at the character traits of Jacob, he was a trickster.

- That’s what his name meant, trickster. He tricked his father for the birth right and manipulated his brother to sell his birth right for a bowl of stew.

- He was a sneaky guy, but God had a plan for him.

- Before the big encounter with God in Gen 32:22 Jacob developed a relationship with God.

- Whenever we develop our relationship with God we normally have to humble ourselves before Him.

- How do I know this to be true about Jacob?

- When he is criticized by people. Gen 31:1-3 which says, “Jacob heard that Laban’s sons were saying, Jacob has taken everything our father owned and has gained all this wealth from what belonged to our father. And Jacob noticed that Laban’s attitude toward him was not what it had been. Then the Lord said to Jacob, God back to the land of your fathers and to your relatives, and I will be with you.”