08.31.2008 The Importance of Prayer

Audio (sermon only):

The Importance of Prayer - Life of Jacob

Video (Entire Service):
08.31.2008 Grace Summit Community Church Service from grace Summit on Vimeo

Let’s pray for the Gulf Coast…

We also ask for the time here, that You would speak to us – we are here and listening. If we are not ready to listen, make us ready. Move in our lives, that Your Spirit would communicate to us and change us. Challenge, convict, reprove, comfort and encourage us.

We have been talking about the patterns we see in scripture. Abraham, Noah, Nehemiah, Daniel – that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God still works in our lives. What we talked about last week – our church’s story – 12 years ago our church had been moved around for about 9 months – many locations – we were about to get kicked out of the location we were meeting – finances were tight – Extremely – Things were tough. We had a professional church consultant come in and he told us the best thing to do might be to shut down. We had called a time of prayer – prayer and fasting for the church – we had a number of things we were praying about. The need – we had come to the end of our rope – Like Abraham, last week – God told him to go to a land he didn’t know – and there was a famine there – and he was at the end of his rope.

We knew we needed a permanent facility. Did I mention that finances were extremely tight? Then we felt like we needed to have more leadership – for me, to have a partner. We had some young teens – not enough for a teen group – but we recognized the importance of a strong teen ministry. We prayed and sought God. About a week and a half later, one phone call answered all of those prayers. We prayed and God moved. That phone call was from Dennis Knable – they had tried to get something going – “We were wondering if you guys would pray about taking the building – maybe we could join up with you – we would become a part of your church. We had an instant teen group. Dennis would love to partner with me. Prayer changed things for our church – saved our church! Preserved our church!

Abraham came to the famine and failed to pray. He took things into his own hands.

Next week is the first week of Sunday School. Ministry-wise – it is really the beginning of our year. We’ll start getting small groups going. It is the beginning of a new year. We would like to give you a vision for this year – a goal, a purpose – A Year of Expansion. I am not a wordsmith. I prepare with a small thesaurus.

I am going to give you a backwards sermon. Normally, you read the Scripture, give an exposition – then an application. We’ll start this week with a promise – it ties into the concept of being at the end of your rope.

Isaiah 54:1 "Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no [child;] Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed;

If you know anyone with fertility problems, you know it is not a joyous time.

For the sons of the desolate one [will be] more numerous Than the sons of the married woman," says the Lord.

What he is saying – this is a pattern – he needs to get us to the end of our rope – when we get to the end, we have to be willing to call on him – and then God is willing to act. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be as numerous as the sands of the seashore. At the age of 99 – no children – and God says – You will have a baby next year. This is the pattern – God takes that which is not – the barren one – the person who lacks – and in what they don’t have – God blesses.

2 "Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords, And strengthen your pegs. 3 "For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations, And they will resettle the desolate cities.

This has been God’s promise from the beginning – first words to Adam and Eve – Be fruitful – Grow! Increase! Expand!

Abraham – your descendants will be like the sands

Noah, Ditto

Paul – a light to the nations.

Jesus, when he spoke about the kingdom of God – every parable was about it spreading. This is God’s goal – to fill up His kingdom – His house. For it to spread throughout the world.

Revelation – every tribe and tongue and nation – multitudes of people. That is God’s desire for His church, for His people.

Now – to our year of Expansion

1) Commitment to Discipleship. We want to grow in our walk with the Lord. We want to be better followers – More faithful to Christ. A sense of obedience. Obedient servants – when God says to do something, we are quicker to obey.

Involvement in Missions – We have been looking at that over the past month.

We want to pay off the church building – accessibility of our facility

Expand our focus on prayer. Why? 12 years ago, prayer changed the course of this church. For our lives – without prayer we cannot expect God to work. It must become a part of our life – an important part – if we want God to work.

Life of Jacob – We are going to do a quick survey of his life – He won’t be happy in that we’ll only dedicate about 25 minutes to this survey.

Abraham – did not let God control what God wanted to control.

Jacob – He is the poster child of control issues. He had it over you. You have a mild case in comparison to Jacob.

Gen. 25: 21 And Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Isaac is 60 – and no children. He prayed. And what happened – His life changed. Rebekah conceived. Through this was born the twins – Jacob and Esau. Prayer changed things.

22 But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I [this way?]" So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples shall be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger."

Remember how God calls his promise with Abraham? God calls his promise in the womb regarding Jacob – God promises – Even though you are born second, you will rule over your brother. The firstborn got double the inheritance – it was all about the firstborn. This goes against their culture what God says. Jacob gets the double portion.

24 When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. 25 Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. (I think that means RED) 26 And afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

Jacob means – supplanter, schemer, deceiver, liar. Think if your parents named you that. His control issues came really early! He is trying to take his brother’s position. Kinda solves the nature/nurture question!

The boys grow up – and Esau is a hunter, a warrior – loves going out and blowing things up – he is all boy – like the one with the trucks. Esau had been hunting – and gets nothing. Jacob is a cook – and he comes up with this scheme. He starts cooking this stew – makes sure it is smelling really good.

“I am famished, give me some of that food” – He has taken the bait… “Sell me your birthright!” “I’m gonna die – what good is a birthright, sure, I’ll give it to you.” The problem is, Jacob is not doing it God’s way. God is going to give Jacob a blessing – in His own time –

We go on – Genesis 27: - Isaac is going to bless his sons – and Rebekah comes up with this deceptive plot – (He got it honestly) – They put hair on Jacob and Isaac is blind and probably senile and gives him the blessing. He is doing it his own way again – and so he has to flee.

Jacob is finally at the end of his rope – and he is alone – with just a staff.

Genesis 28: 12 And he had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. 14 "Your descendants shall also be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 "And behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."

Here is the promise again – spread out! Be fruitful and multiply! This is when God first speaks to Jacob – when he is at the end of his rope and alone. Even with all of Jacob’s failures, God is still faithful. No matter how far down we have gone – God is still faithful and will fulfill His promises to you.

Jacob’s response is really interesting:

Gen 28: 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."

This is the first time that he realizes that God is there. All these years, he has been doing it himself. It is almost like, WHOA! God is involved in my life. WOW! I left this small detail out. God, the one who promised is the one who must work.

Jacob does what I would call an antiprayer.

20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, 21 and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God.

He is giving God some prerequisites for his devotion. He is putting some demands and qualifications upon God! He is still in control. There is no real sense of need. If you have control issues, you have faith issues – they go hand in hand. IF – means, I don’t really believe Him – and if things go my way – and I get the outcome I want – I’ll be okay. God is trying to get us to use His outcome in life. To accept His choice and decisions for our lives. That is the battle. You don’t overcome that when you are 40, 50, 60 – you battle it your entire life. Resting – trusting – allowing Him to decide. Jesus won that battle – especially at Gethsemane – “Not my will but Yours.”

Chapters 29-31 – Jacob goes to his half-uncle’s house – and works and meets Rachel. I want to marry your daughter! Laban says sure. Jacob has been a liar, supplanter – all his life – and now he meets his match, because Laban is going to pull a Jacob on him.

Work for me seven years!

At the end of 7 years – He is given Leah – the older sister. I don’t know how that happened. Then he works another 7 years and gets Rachel - and Then they have these 12 kids – with 4 different moms – and he figures out how to get Laban’s livestock, so now he has to flee from him and eventually – God brings him back to the beginning. He has to face Esau – you cannot get away from it – When God reveals an issue – you must deal with that. Wherever it is in our lives – we must take the steps necessary. Jacob spent years away! But he knew that Esau would not forget. He sends a reconnaissance team – with gifts –

Gen. 32:6 And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, "We came to your brother Esau, and furthermore he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."

This is not a hospitality team! This is Esau’s army! So he has to scheme

7 Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and the herds and the camels, into two companies; 8 for he said, "If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the company which is left will escape."

And Jacob is at the end of his rope. AND FINALLY HE SAYS,

9 And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who didst say to me, 'Return to your country and to your relatives, and I will prosper you,' 10 I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which Thou hast shown to Thy servant; for with my staff [only] I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. 11 "Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 "For Thou didst say, 'I will surely prosper you, and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'"

Jacob, this time, for the first time, at the age of 40 or 50, he really prays. It is an honest and desperate and humble prayer. It recognizes his need for God – it has no scheme or control – it gives himself up completely to the will of God and God’s sovereign control in his life.

God makes Jacob confront the darkness inside of him – and does not let him get away until he deals with it. We don’t like it.

How man of you enjoy taping yourself and listening? I do it all the time – I hate it – but I know I must confront it – because that is what I do for a living. I need to see where change must take place. But you know what is harder than that? Looking at what goes on inside our hearts. It is dark – I don’t like facing those things that have been there since I came out of the womb.

Gen. 32: 24 Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 And when he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob's thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, "Let me go, for the dawn is breaking." But he said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." 27 So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob."

Hosea 12 explains these verses – Jacob wrestled with God and made supplication to him.

Jacob is desperate and pleading and begging for the first time to God.

Jacob has been trying to control everything his whole life – and now all he can do is cling to this guy’s robes. Fear and anxiety have consumed him – and he says – I won’t let go unless you bless me. That is where God wants us. “I am not letting go, God, until you bless my life.”

What is your name? Jacob – supplanter – he is getting him to admit who he is. Control freak, passive aggressive, selfish, self-centered…

Then something happens

28 And he said, "Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed." 29 Then Jacob asked him and said, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And he blessed him there. 30 So Jacob named the place Peniel, for [he said,] "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved." 31 Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.

Now that you have called on Me, I will begin to change you. You are no longer supplanter, you are one who has power with God (what Israel means). Prayer changes things. He gets up and goes to his brother, and in the meantime, the brother has changed. He welcomes him. There is no bitterness. He has melted before the hand of God.

Now, back to year of Expansion –

We will focus – Focus on Prayer – because Prayer changes things.

12 years ago, prayer changed the course of our church. We have had experiences where prayer changed our lives. You know that – I know that – I don’t have time to tell you the amazing prayers God has answered.

Jim Cymbala – is the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle church – famous for its choir. It is in an area of prostitutes and crack addicts. He stopped in the middle of a sermon – said – we need to pray. They started a Tuesday night prayer meeting – and God began to change things – they have this to this day – thousands show up every Tuesday.

You cannot require, impose, make people feel guilty – there is only one way to be a person who prays – to believe that prayer can change your life. Many have seen that happen. I want to give you the opportunity – as we focus on this – Not that we’ll start a prayer meeting – but within our own lives – that God wants to do something in you – He wants you to call upon Him.

Lord, 12 years ago, You rescued us – and blessed us and promised us. Each of us today – we are at the end of our ropes – one way or another. Help us to not wait to call upon You, but to do it today. In Your name we pray.