An exposition of Genesis 33:1-20. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday evening, December 2, 2012.
Intro:
Do you ever get frustrated with people? Don’t some folks just irritate you to death? Don’t you want to say to some people, “Where you born stupid or did you just grow that way?” We all get frustrated. People tick us off. People hurt us and fail us. We hurt and disappoint others. Sometimes you disappoint me and I often disappoint you. That’s part of the human condition. That’s just our depravity showing. Sometimes we anger ourselves! Sometimes – more times than I care to admit – I tick me off. I do some of the dumbest things. That’s why I can identify with the apostle Paul in Romans 7. “The very thing I want to do, I don’t do. And the thing I don’t want to do – I keep doing. Oh, wretched man that I am who will deliver me?” Can you identify with that? Do you often feel that way? Are you sometimes plagued with the question, “How could I do such a thing if I am really a Christian?” The road to sanctification or Christ likeness is not always smooth. At times it is a bumpy ride. That’s why we must approach life with an attitude that says, “Lord do whatever you must do to me today to make me less like me and more like Jesus.” But this on going struggle in the experience of God’s people is nothing new – we find it reflected as early as the life of Jacob.
Text: Genesis 33:1-20
Let me set the context:
- Jacob has parted ways with his uncle/father-in-law Laban
- Their parting was not on good terms – Mizpah – a line in the desert
- He is facing the prospect of meeting his brother (and an army of 400)
- And God picked a fight with him! (32:22-32)
- But Jacob’s encounter with God at Jabbok was a life altering experience.
- It is at that point that Jacob confessed to who/what he was – a liar and cheat.
- As a result of his confession – God gave him a new name.
- An there is no doubt Jacob was different from that point on.
- However, as we shall see, the transformation was not total.
Jacob’s life serves to remind us that:
Thesis: The heart touched by the grace of God struggles with inconsistencies on the road to sanctification.
You’ve seen the T-shirts and signs – “I’m not perfect just forgiven.” That’s an over simplification – there is more to it than that but it does move us down the road. As long as we live in the fallen, broken world we will be saying, “I’m not what I should be but I’m better than what I used to be.” That is the believer’s testimony. Now I want you to note three things from the life of Jacob from this account of his meeting with Esau.
- The touch of God brings real change. (33:1-11)
- Sinful habits die hard. (33:12-19)
- By God’s grace, a new principle is at work in the life of the believer. (33:20)