September 9, 2007
Morning Worship
Text: Genesis 32:22-32
Subject: Jacob Wrestles with God
Title: Who Am I – The Quest for Identity
Who are you? Sounds like a simple question doesn’t it? Most of you would answer that by telling your name. But the question is not, “What is your name.” The question asks, “Who are you?”.
“Well, I’m a Christian.”
I’m not asking what you are (though that may be part of what I am looking for) but the question is, “Who are you.”.
“I’m a plumber!”
I’m not asking what you do – I want to know who you are.
And we could go on and on. The answer to the question may not be as simple as you would think. You may not even know who you really are.
Mark Buchanan, in his book The Rest of God, tells the story of a man who took two weeks to walk in silence and solitude in the Highlands of Wales.
He kept company with stones and fields and cold starry nights. At first, the journey was a reprieve, a needed break from his life’s clutter and scatter. But around the fourth night, something shifted. He grew terribly afraid, but not of wolves, ghosts, brigands, or storms.
He sensed something shadowy and naked stalking him, edging ever closer.
He was afraid of himself.
Solitude unlatched a cellar in him, someplace where memories and longings and fears lay buried, locked up so long he’d almost forgotten them. Aloneness loosed them.
“I thought I’d gone mad,” he said. “I felt I couldn’t escape. I feared sleeping. I feared waking. I dreaded daytime and nighttime. I wanted to get as far away from myself as I could.”
But he had nowhere to hide. After many days he began to see things he had not seen for years, some for a lifetime. He saw how he avoided closeness with other people, the subtle way he sabotaged this and made it look as if the other persons were to blame. He saw how he had become busy as a way of eluding his sense of emptiness and insignificance. He saw that all his many accomplishments had never removed from him a primal fear that he was a fraud – and soon to be exposed.
At the end of two weeks, he knew himself in a way he had never imagined. “It was as if I met myself for the first time. I felt I returned from that two weeks with a soul mate. Of maybe I just returned with a soul.” (p. 203)
Let me ask again, “Who are you?” Today I want to take you on a journey with Jacob as he comes face to face with the reality of who he is, and I want to challenge you to begin to ask yourself the same question. Open your hearts to receive a special revelation from the Lord today.
I. THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE OF A MAN You really can’t get a feel for who Jacob is just from this story in his life. For if you look at him now what you see is a very successful business man with an abundance of possessions, a happy family and lots of employees. On the surface it looks like Jacob has everything going for him. On the surface it looks as though he is genuinely concerned about the safety of his family. On the surface it looks like he wants to reconcile with his brother. On the surface it appears that he has thought everything out, has a plan in place, and is ready to move forward with his life. But the reality is that he is so obsessed by his past that he just doesn’t know what to do. To understand how Jacob got here you have to go back to the beginning of the story. In Genesis 25 we see the story of the birth of Esau and Jacob. (The name Jacob means, “he grasps the heel”; literally, “he deceives”.) Here’s how Jacob started his life – with the promise that God’s blessing would be upon him. 23The LORD said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
And two peoples from within you will be separated;
one people will be stronger than the other,
and the older will serve the younger.”
Jacob and Esau grew up to be such different men. Esau was a man’s man, a sportsman. He would rather hunt than do anything else. He had a real appetite for life. Jacob was quiet and stayed to himself (25:27 – a quiet man, staying among the tents.) Jacob liked to cook. Esau liked to eat. Jacob was a thinker. Esau was a doer. You know the stories. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew. Later Jacob would deceive his father into giving him the blessing his brother should have received. Jacob runs away in fear of his life. When he gets to his uncle Laban’s house wouldn’t you think that he would be able to start fresh and put all that past behind him? But for the twenty years that he worked for his uncle he became the deceived and Laban the deceiver. When he prepares to leave we see that the same character traits are still there.31:20, 20Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away. 21So he fled with all he had, and crossing the River, he headed for the hill country of Gilead. Can you see what was taking place in Jacob’s life? Even though he had personal encounters with God in his life he never really had a personal relationship with Him. He was trying to fill up the “Christ –Shaped” hole in his heart with the things of this world. His problem wasn’t a financial problem; it was a sin problem. And he was trying to fix it by filling up his life with more sin. In Mark 7:20-23 Jesus said, 20 “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ 21For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” These were some of Jacob’s problems and he was trying to compensate for them by adding more to it.
II. THE INWARD STRUGGLE OF A MAN. 32:24 says, 24So Jacob was left alone… If you stop and think about this Jacob became “alone” long before this time. 1) He had alienated himself from his father by lying to him about who he was. 2) He had angered his brother and pushed him to the point of murder before he ran away. 3) He had separated himself from his father-in-law in his business dealings. 4) He continually pitted the two sisters, his wives, one against the other, in striving to bear him children. Everywhere he went he left a wake of damaged relationships all for the purpose of getting what he wanted. But at some point he realized he was alone. There was nothing left any longer to insulate him from all the wrongs he had committed. I have to think that as he was headed back to his homeland that his thoughts were going back to all the illicit scheming that earmarked his life. He was left alone to answer the question, “Who am I”. No wonder he feared for his life. I often wonder how people who don’t know Jesus deal with problems in their lives. But I think in all actuality that they treat their lives just like Jacob has. They try to fill up what they are missing by putting the same junk back in. Jacob was obsessed with things. He tried to fix what was wrong with his life by adding more things. Jesus said in Matthew 6,
19“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. In Colossians 1:24 the apostle Paul said he was filling up in his flesh what was lacking in the afflictions of Christ… So for many people they take that to mean that I can somehow fill up what appears to be lacking in my life. And they don’t even understand that there is a struggle taking place on the inside. The problem is they don’t know that that the satisfaction, the peace, the stability they are looking for in life will come only with a proper relationship with God. That only happens through Christ.
III. THE SPIRITUAL REALITY IN A MAN Everything that we have talked about today leads us up to this point in Jacob’s life. He now has to face two realities and ask two questions, “Who am I?” and “who is God?”. 24So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
27The man asked him, “What is your name?” God is asking Jacob, “Who are you?” You will get to a place in your life where you have to face reality. Jacob couldn’t retreat because a river was behind him. He couldn’t hide any longer because God was right there with him. He couldn’t avoid the fight because God initiated it. The only thing left for him to do was wrestle with God and come to a clear understanding of what God wanted in his life. This wasn’t just an all night wrestlemania. This was the preincarnate Jesus fighting, struggling, contending with the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. The battle had to take place in order for Jacob to be brought into submission with God’s will for his life. He had to confess who he was and confess who God is. When the struggle ended God had won. Now I want you to understand that God could have ended that fight at any time. But he allowed Jacob to wear down his self – self-centered, self-reliant, self-indulgent – and to fully trust God’s will for his life. Verses 29-30, 29Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”
But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.
30So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” In the struggle Jacob came to the point of confession of who God is and his life (and his name) was changed. Israel means, “he struggles with God”. Verse 30 says, I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. I think even more frightening than that is the fact that Jacob saw himself face-to-face in his sin and yet God still blessed him. “Where sin abounds grace abounds much more.”
The Spiritual reality in a man is that if you take the steps to see yourself for who you really are, and God for who He is You too will be changed forever. God left Jacob with a physical reminder of their encounter. You will be left with a spiritual reminder.
Closing.
For those of you who are sitting there thinking that this sermon doesn’t apply to you since you are already a Christian and God has done a work in your life I want you to consider this.
When is the last time you got alone and asked yourself “Who am I?” Many of us will be like Jacob and we will store up righteous acts and holiness as a testimony to who we are in Christ. We pile up good works like we think that they will somehow make us more saved. We become so caught up in our works that we forget about relationships. We become obsessed with the outward appearance of a man. Who are you?
Too many of us go through our Christian walk like a whipped puppy. I love the Lord and I am willing to pick up my cross daily and follow Him wherever He leads me. If I am sick I’ll take that sickness and learn to deal with it and keep on following Jesus. If I struggle with finances I’ll do what ever I can to be able to contribute to the cause. I know I’m weak on the inside but I’ll still follow Jesus. That is the inward perception of man that many have.
But I want to tell you something. There is no such thing as a defeated Christian. There are just Christians who don’t now how to see who they are in Christ and take their positions of authority. You are not defeated. You are an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. “satan, I’m a blood bought child of the living God and you can’t do anything more to me.”
Your authority cannot be lessened. Romans 8:37, 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Your position in Christ is not diminished by an outbreak of demonic activity against you. 4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus… 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength…
Who are you?
Or maybe a better question would be, “Who have you become?”
The best question is, “Who is God?” Ask Him and let Him show you who he is, who He wants to be through you, and who He wants you to be in Him.
It may require getting alone in the quiet of your own life.
It may require an all night wrestling match with the One who loves you.
It may require a change in your thinking, in your life, in your spirit.
Let God reveal Himself to you. Let God reveal you to you. Then trust Him to be who He is and take your authority that He said you should have.
Be changed in the name of Jesus.
