This passage teaches us that God blesses the broken. 22-26) and that God’s blessing comes to the self-aware (vv. We’ll see that God sometimes breaks us in order to bless us (vv. The main point of this text and this sermon is that God’s blessing often comes to his people through pain. What happens to Jacob that night is highly instructive for us as we think about how someone comes to meet God and how God often works to change our lives. He finds himself alone and afraid, in the darkness of the night, when God comes to subdue him so that he might bless him. His whole life was a wrestling match looking for an elusive blessing. He sought it from his father, his wife, and his wealth. Jacob has spent his whole life grasping for a blessing. But he was preparing to meet his brother Esau and his army of 400 men the next day. Jacob didn’t have an army of lawyers or a prison sentence awaiting him. In our text this morning, we’re going to meet Jacob who, like Colson, was alone and afraid in the darkness of the night. The “hatchet man” found himself cut down by God’s grace and power. He went from being a proud man to a humbled and servant-hearted man, giving his life to serving his new Master, Jesus Christ. Ĭolson would never be the same man again. Colson – this great and powerful man, wept uncontrollably because for the first time in his life he put down his machismo and pretenses and fears of being weak and surrendered his life to God. When he left he got in his car and began to drive away, but he was too overwhelmed to go further, so he pulled off the road just down the street from the Phillips house and cried out to God, saying, “Take me, take me, take me.” Colson was alone in the dark with the devastation of his life all around him. Phillips asked him if he’d be willing to submit his life to God by trusting in Jesus. Phillips told Colson that pride was keeping him from looking up and seeing something far greater than himself, namely the God who made him and sent his Son to die for his sins. And of course as long as you’re looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.” Lewis writes, “A proud man is always looking down on things and on people. As they talked that evening, Phillips read to Colson a passage from C. Colson noticed that their lives were radically changed as a result, so he wanted to hear more about what happened to them. He had found out that Phillips and his wife had recently attended a Billy Graham Crusade and put their faith in Jesus. As the turmoil of Watergate unfolded, Colson went to visit a friend of his, Tom Phillips, who was the president of Raytheon. Like many around Nixon in the early 1970’s, Colson was caught up in the Watergate scandal. He was known as Nixon’s “hatchet man.” He was a profane and vulgar enforcer of Nixon’s policies in the White House. Colson, you may know, was one of President Richard Nixon’s top advisors. Hear this challenging sermon from Genesis 32:24 as you consider your own Christian experience.In 1973, Chuck Colson’s life was changed while he sat in his car outside a friend’s house. Someone who is humbled by the presence of God. They become someone who knows they have peace with God. All these things result in a changed person or a new man.
With true Christin experience the attitude of the person moves beyond general interest in religion to being dominated with the one thing that matters: knowing their Creator. True Christian experience will penetrate the heart of the individual and therefore disrupt the person’s entire life.
While he acknowledges that any standardized Christian experience is unhelpful, Lloyd-Jones affirms there are broad elements which can be used to authenticate our experience. He seeks to do this by looking at the great turning point in the life of Jacob in Genesis 32. Marytn Lloyd-Jones desires to counter this confusion by discerning the essence of true Christian experience. In this sermon on Genesis 32:24 entitled "The Man Who Wrestled With God", Dr. How do we experience God? Chaos and confusion results among Christians as religious movements emerge based upon unique experiences. 25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. 25And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he …Ģ4¶ And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 24¶ And Jacob was left alone and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.