God’s Help in Times of Crisis
Text: Gen. 32:1-21
Introduction
1. Read Gen. 32:1-21
2. Illustration: A “lame duck” President met with his successor in the Oval Office. Near the end of the orientation, he presented the incoming leader three numbered envelopes, with specific instructions to open them, in order, when great difficulties arose. After the new President completed his “honeymoon” period with the media and the public, the nation experienced an economic downturn. He opened the first envelope. Inside was a card that read: “Blame me.” So he did, criticizing the former administration. After a while, social upheaval brought about a critical domestic crisis. The President opened the second envelope. Inside was a card that read: “Blame my party.” He did so, in an overt display of partisan politics. About a year later, foreign policy resulted in serious problems and the President opened the third envelope. Inside, the card read: “Prepare three envelopes.”
3. The older I get the more I am convinced that crisis are a regular way of life. The only thing that really changes is how you deal with them.
Proposition: We can let our crisis handle us or we can let God handle our crisis.
Transition: From the life of Jacob, we learn that...
I. In Times of Crisis God is There With Us (1-2)
A. Two Camps
1. Jacob’s life since receiving the blessing of his father seems to go from one crisis to another.
a. He has to flee from Esau
b. He has to work fourteen years to get his wives
c. He has to flee from his father-in-law
2. In this passage we see him face yet another crisis: he has to come face to face with Esau again.
3. However, as he went to face this crisis "the angels of God met him."
a. These divine messengers are there with Jacob but don’t say a word; they are just there (Hamilton, 317).
b. That is how it is so often in the crisis of life. We cannot see God, we cannot hear God, but we know that we know He is there with us.
4. Jacob knows that God is there with him for he says "This is God’s host."
a. More literally, "God’s camp."
b. He knows that God is right there beside him.
c. Just as he was at Bethel, Jacob knows that he is in the presence of Almighty God.
5. Jacob names that place Mahanaim.
a. The word means "two camps."
b. He and his camp are there, and God and His camp are there.
B. If God Is With Us
1. Illustration: We need God’s help on a daily basis. I came across a little prayer in a Christian magazine, headed: "A Morning Prayer for Help" - note that I said "morning"! "Dear God, so far today I’ve done alright, I haven’t gossiped, lost my temper, been nasty, selfish or over indulgent. But in a few minutes God, I’m going to get out of bed and from then on, I’m going to need all the help I can get."
2. There is no time we need the presence of God more than when we are facing a crisis.
a. We cannot handle it on our own.
b. We cannot face it on our own.
c. We cannot get through it on our own.
3. Without God we will:
a. Crumble
b. Fall Apart
c. Crash and Burn
4. Rom. 8:31-32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (ESV)
5. If God is with us:
a. We can get through any crisis
b. Face any adversity
c. Overcome an problem
6. The God news is that our God is omnipresent, which means He is always there.
a. Ps. 139:7-12 Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night," even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.
b. No matter where you go, or what trouble you find yourself in God will always be there.
Transition: From the life of Jacob, we learn that...
II. In Times of Crisis Prayer is a Constant Source of Strength (3-12)
A. O God of My Father...
1. After Jacob had sent word to his brother, what appears to be bad news comes back. His servants tell him "We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."
a. Jacob begins to think that his brother is still holding a grudge and is coming with four hundred men to give him a whoppin’ he will never forget.
b. He knows that there is no way that he can defeat an army of four hundred men and he becomes greatly afraid.
2. Know that we begin to see that Jacob is finally learning something; God is with him.
3. Before he would have devised some grand scheme to get him out of trouble, but this time he does the right thing; he prays.
4. His prayer shows us some very important things to remember about prayer. First, he reminds the Lord of His promises.
a. He tells the Lord "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, ’Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’"
b. He reminds the Lord that He promised that if he was obedient and went home that He would take care of Jacob.
c. God stands behind His word, and it doesn’t bother Him a bit for us to remind Him of His promises
5. The second thing we learn from Jacob’s prayer is humility.
a. He tells the Lord "I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant; for I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I have become two companies."
b. He acknowledges to the Lord that without Him he is nothing, and that he didn’t deserve anything he had received.
c. Without the blood of Christ we are nothing; we deserve nothing; we will accomplish nothing.
d. However, because of the blood of Jesus we can "come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
6. The third thing we learn from Jacob’s prayer is dependency upon God.
a. He acknowledges to the Lord that unless He intervenes he is doomed to destruction.
b. Jn. 15:5 for apart from me you can do nothing.
c. Without God, we are powerless, defenseless, and doomed.
d. But with Christ, all things are possible!
B. Prayer Support
1. Illustration: Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate and effective positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repairman was working on the phone system in the background.
One minister shared that he felt the key was in the hands. He always held his hands together and pointed them upward as a form of symbolic worship. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that they both had it wrong--the only position worth its salt was to pray while stretched out flat on your face.
By this time the phone man couldn’t stay out of the conversation any longer. He interjected, "I found that the most powerful prayer I ever made was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground."
2. There is great power in prayer. Power to:
a. Bless
b. Overcome
c. Defend
d. Heal
e. Achieve
3. All great moves of God come as the result of prayer.
4. All great healings come as the result of prayer.
5. If you are facing a crisis today you can:
a. Worry or you can pray.
b. Stress out or you pray.
c. Give up or you can pray.
6. Worry will make you old; stress will kill you; prayer will set you free!
Transition: From the life of Jacob, we learn that...
III. In Times of Crisis We Often Forget (13-21)
A. Took What Came to His Hand
1. After prayer, Jacob does what many of us do: he forgot about God’s faithfulness.
2. He had committed the crisis to prayer, and instead of believing God, he did what he had done in the past, came up with a scheme.
3. Verse 13 says, "...and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother."
a. He figured God wasn’t big enough to handle his problems so he came up with a way to fix it himself.
b. He starts giving away everything he owns; goats, ewes, rams, camels, cows, bulls, and donkeys.
c. Not only is he giving everything away, but what he is giving away is the blessings of God.
4. The gift is a substantial one; it consists of five hundred and fifty animals, four hundred and ninety of which are female (Hamilton, 325).
5. He thought these five herds sent separately would impress Esau and pacify him (v. 20).
a. Jacob had to learn later, however, that God would have delivered him without such gifts.
b. So we too need to learn that deliverance comes by faith in God, and not by giving tribute to the enemy.—Bible Knowledge Commentary
c. Every time we worry and stress we give glory to the enemy instead of trusting God.
d. We need to remember that the God we serve is not only able, but above all, He is faithful.
B. We Forget
1. Illustration: Hudson Taylor founder of China Inland Mission) used to hang in his home a plaque with two Hebrew Words on it: EBENEZER & YAWEH JIREH. The first word means ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us’ and the second, ‘The Lord will see to it or provide.’ One looked back while the other looked forward. One reminded him of God’s faithfulness and the other of God’s assurances.
2. When in a crisis we need to remember that above all God is faithful.
a. He has been faithful in the past.
b. He is faithful in the present.
c. He will be faithful in the future.
3. 2 Tim. 2:13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
4. God doesn’t know how to be faithless; He can only be faithful.
5. He is just as faithful in:
a. Valley as He is on the mountaintop
b. Desert as He is in the oasis
c. Crisis as He is in good times
Transition: He has never let us down in the past. He cannot let us down in the present, and He will not let us down in the future. He is faithful!
Conclusion
1. In times of crisis God will be with us.
2. In times of crisis prayer is a constant source of strength.
3. In times of crisis we sometimes forget God’s faithfulness.
4. What are you going to do in your crisis?
• Remember or forget
• Worry or pray
• Doubt or believe
We can let our crisis handle us or we can let God handle our crisis.
