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The perils and sorrows of a contrite heart.
Heavenly Father, there are people here this morning
that don't understand their sufferings, their pain, and
their sorrows because they have been praying, they
love you, they serve you with all their
heart, and yet they're going through a trial
they don't understand.
And I pray, Lord, that you bring us
an understanding by the power of your word
this morning.
I pray for an unction and anointing of
the Holy Ghost that is beyond me.
Lord, I can't produce it.
I can't produce conviction.
I can't make this word effective.
You have to do that.
Cleanse me, sanctify me.
I pray for the wonderful cleansing and covering
of the blood of Jesus, and that everyone
in this building be able to hear what
the Spirit has to say.
Father, I take your authority in Jesus' name
over every principality and power of darkness, and
I speak by faith that they are gone,
that nothing can hinder the word of the
Lord from going forth.
I pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
The perils and sorrows of a contrite heart.
Now, to me, one of the most interesting
of all Old Testament characters is Jacob.
Yep, the cheating, deceiving, manipulating, supplanting Jacob.
This man is incredible, and yet God loved
him, and he loved him dearly.
In fact, his life is absolutely filled with
marvelous lessons about God's dealings with human nature,
and I want to go into his life
with you this morning and teach you some
things the Lord's been teaching me.
Now, let me pick up a story as
he's fleeing for his life from his brother
Esau.
Now, remember he has just, he's already tricked
his brother out of the birthright.
That's the right of the firstborn to be
the head of the clan, and all the,
he got a double blessing.
He got a double portion of all his
father's belongings, possessions.
He got to be ruler over the whole
clan, his brothers and sisters, and more than
that, he was the progenitor of the covenant
that would bring Jesus Christ.
He was to be of the seed.
He was to be a patriarch through which
the seed of Christ would come, and that
was a very spiritual thing, and that shows
us the awful thing that Esau did in
giving up this inheritance, giving up the firstborn,
the rights of the firstborn, and then he
pretends to be Esau, and his mother covers
him with a skin because he was fair
and smooth-skinned, and his brother Esau was
hairy, and he goes in and pretends to
be Esau and gets the blessing.
Esau comes in, of course, you remember, and
the blessing is gone, and Esau says, he
supplanted me two times now.
He took away first my birthright, and behold,
now he hath taken away my blessing.
And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing
wherewith his father had blessed him.
And Esau said in his heart, the days
of mourning from my father are at hand,
then I will slay my brother Jacob.
He was determined to kill Jacob.
Of course, Rebecca, hearing this, goes to Isaac,
his father, and tells the story, and so
they send him off on a trip to
Paddan Aram to her brother Laban's house to
find a wife, and his mother as well
has said, go and find a wife, not
a Canaanite wife, but among our own kind
in Paddan Aram, and come back when your
brother Esau cools off.
And we pick up the story in Genesis
28, if you'll go to Genesis 28, if
you will, please.
Genesis 28.
And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and
charged him, and said unto him, thou shalt
not take a wife of the daughters of
Canaan.
Arise, go to Paddan Aram, to the house
of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee
a wife from thence of the daughters of
Laban, thy mother's brother.
And God almighty bless thee, and make thee
fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be
a multitude of people.
Verse 7, Jacob obeyed his father and mother,
and was gone to Paddan Aram.
Verse 10, Jacob went out from Beersheba, and
went unto Haran, and he lighted upon a
certain place, and tarried there all night, because
the sun was set.
And he took the stones of that place,
and put them for his pillows, and he
lay down in that place to sleep.
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set
up on the earth, and the top of
it reached to heaven, and behold the angels
of God ascending and descending on it.
Behold the Lord stood above it, and said,
I am the Lord God of Abraham thy
father, and the God of Isaac, the land
whereon thou liest, to thee will I give
it, and to thy seed.
Thy seed shall be as the dust of
the earth, thou shall spread abroad to the
west, to the east, the north, and to
the south.
And in thee, and in thy seed, shall
all the families of the earth be blessed.
Now that was speaking of Jesus Christ and
the family of God.
And behold I am with thee, and will
keep thee.
Listen to these covenant promises as God now
makes covenant with Jacob.
And behold I am with thee, and I
will keep thee in all places whither thou
goest, and will bring thee again into this
land.
For I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken to
thee of.
Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he
said, surely the Lord is in this place,
and I knew it not.
He's afraid and said, how dreadful is this
place.
This is none other but the house of
God.
This is the gate of heaven.
God does an incredible thing.
He gives an open heaven to this man.
Now this ladder that Jacob saw with angels
coming and going.
Now this really in the original is a
staircase, a passage by which angels were going
to and from the throne of God.
Now this was not staged for his benefit.
This was not some special effect that God
was giving to him for the sake of
a vision.
He was literally taking back the curtains showing
him the activity that's going on all the
time.
These ministering angels coming down to earth to
minister to men, to guide, to lead the
aims of the Lord that camp around about
them that fear him and keep them from
dashing their foot against the stone.
The angels that guard children, the angels that
are sent on his behalf ministering to the
children of God.
He saw this, and by the way folks
not one of those angels have aged a
day or a month or a week or
an hour.
They're the same angels and they're still there.
The ladder is still there.
The passage is still there.
Those angels are coming and going.
Hallelujah.
Folks, I've seen the work of angels all
around me.
I don't know if you have or not,
but I've seen.
I don't worship angels, but I know they're
sent to minister to the children of God.
Those angels are still there.
Jacob sees the Lord above it all.
The Lord brought Jacob into the covenant blessing
of Abraham and Isaac.
In thy seed shall all the families of
the earth be blessed.
He's saying, I have accepted you into this
seed.
You are the firstborn.
You have the birthright now because you have
the birthright.
Now I'm going to bestow on you the
covenant blessings that your father Abraham and Isaac.
And it will be, we even today we
talk about the father, we serve the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And behold, listen to these promises.
I am with you.
I will keep thee in all the places
where you go.
I will not leave you until I have
done all that I have spoken to thee
of.
Now, Jacob is given by an oath.
God said, I am not going to leave
you.
Every step you take, I'll be with you.
There's never going to be a move you
make that I'm not involved in.
And he says, I am going to ultimately
bring you to the purpose that I have.
My eternal purpose for you is going to
be fulfilled.
No matter what it's going to be accomplished.
Now I'll look at that picture and something
rises up in me.
I say, now, wait a minute, Lord, do
you know who you're making these wonderful promises
to?
Have you forgotten who he is?
This man has just, just come hours before
from one of the worst deceptive, uh, manipulative
moves in history.
He goes to a blind father who can't
see, weak, bedridden, cooks him a good meal.
His mother cooked him a meal and he,
he is lying three times.
He lies to this blind, uh, weak father
and he steals the blessing.
He's a manipulator.
He's a thief.
He's covetous.
And I'm, I'm trying to search the scripture
to find some reason why God would bless
him.
And I can't find any faith in the
man.
I can't find any goodness in the man.
I can't find any grace in the man.
I said, God, why would you say you
love this man?
He saw I hated and Jacob I love.
Why did you love this man?
What did you see in him that shortly
after you're not, you're not correcting him for
this?
I know that you, there is no, uh,
sin in my heavenly father.
I know that you don't endure these kinds
of things.
Why did you endure this?
Why didn't you correct him?
Why are you blessing him just hours after
he's stolen something?
Well, you have to go to the scripture
because only scripture answers scripture.
I'm telling you, God loved this man and
God saw something in his heart that brought
forth this love and this great desire to
bless him.
And I'm saying, God, why did you appoint
him the birthright from the womb?
Remember Jacob came out of the womb with
his hands grabbing Esau's hill.
It says, no, it's mine.
And God honored that God had chosen.
In fact, God came to his, his mother
when both boys were in the womb and
there was a struggle and she couldn't, she
couldn't explain and ask God for explanation.
He said, it's because there are two nations
in you and the elder will serve the
younger.
He's going to have the birthright in otherwise
the younger God, this was all God's mind.
God saw something in these men.
He, you'll see it unfold as we go
on.
I don't want to get ahead of the
story.
His very name, Jacob means supplanter.
That means one who trips up another to
take his place through scheming to overthrow another
to replace him.
Now, certainly God took this all into account
because he's a God of holiness.
He does not stand for manipulation, cheating and
obnoxious ways.
And Jacob at this time is old enough
to know better.
He's at least, he can be no less
than 40 years of age and some believe
he was at least 70.
He was not a boy.
He should have known better.
There should have been some, something in his
character by now that shows.
And I asked the Lord the question, what
do you have to see in a man
before you make covenant with him, Lord?
What is it that you, you, you are
looking for in this human vessel that you
can bless?
What is it was in Jacob?
What did you see?
And so we go to the scripture for
the answer.
Now I found it in Isaiah 57, 15.
I dwell in the high and holy place
with him also that's of a contrite heart
and a humble spirit to revive the spirit
of the humble, revive the heart of the
contrite ones.
He is here by his spirit reviving this
man.
This man is dejected.
He's on the run and God by his
spirit is reviving him.
He is blessing him.
He's honoring him.
The scripture also says in Isaiah 66 too,
but to this man will I look.
You can finish that, can't you?
Even to him that is poor and of
a contrite spirit and trembles at my word.
Now man's always looking on the outward appearance,
but God is always looking at the heart.
Man all can see in Jacob is covetousness.
All they can see is the greed and
the manipulation that God saw beyond his flesh.
He saw something in his heart.
He saw a contrite broken spirit.
He saw something that was willing in his
heart to be changed.
He knew what he was, but he was
wanting to be changed.
It was always there and the story will
unfold.
I can prove it to you in the
scripture that that's what God saw.
You see, God is always looking for that
broken contrite heart that he can work on.
He can't do anything for an Esau type
who takes the things of God for granted,
who weeps just phony tears of repentance.
This man's heart was hard.
He was sensuous.
Esau was sensuous.
God, you don't find him suffering.
There's no evidence of him even suffering, even
though he's a part of the covenant.
You don't see that at all.
There are Christians that seem to be able
to just float through life because there's no
eternal purpose for them.
They're just trying to make it through life.
God has no plan for their life because
God does not work in these kind of
situations.
He's looking for the Jacob type.
Oh, there are some people you say, how
can God ever use him?
How can God ever use her?
My goodness, there are some of you saying
that to yourself right now.
Lord, how can you ever use me?
I'm so weak.
I've got so many inconsistencies in my life.
This man was totally inconsistent as far as
humanity is concerned, according to those who see
him by the flesh.
But the Lord says to this man, he's
looking at Jacob, to this man, Jacob, I'll
look because he is poor and spirit of
contrite spirit and he trembles at my word.
Now I know that he trembles at the
word and I want to show you something.
I believe that all his lifetime, Jacob heard
Isaac, his father, tell about his father, Abraham,
about the time that he was laid on
an altar and my father lifted a knife
and God stopped him and there was a
lamb and he told this story.
My father, your grandfather went into covenant with
God.
God had made an agreement and he was
a holy God and all his life he
heard about this birthright that goes to the
firstborn and all his lifetime he remembers the
dream his mother had that he, Jacob, was
going to be that.
And Jacob must have thrilled at the thought
that this man, who is the head of
the clan, who carries on this torch, that
he's going to be one of those in
the lineage of a Messiah that was to
come.
There was a great spiritual thing to this
that Jacob saw and Jacob looks at his
brother Esau.
He knows he's a profane man.
He's married two Canaanite wives.
He's grieved his father and his mother.
This man is earthly.
He's sensuous.
He has no life or love for God
whatsoever.
And Jacob says if he gets this, this
holy seed is going to fall into the
hands of a polluted man.
And I believe there's no way, I don't,
a 40-year-old man is not going
to go into this agreement with his mother.
His mother knew that too.
She knew the sensuality of Esau.
The whole clan is going to be in
the hands of a sensuous, polluted man.
Never.
This man, Jacob, knew something about the spiritual
impact and the meaning of the covenant and
of the birthright.
And he says, I want it.
There's no evidence that he wanted for selfish
purposes because he flees.
He's gone for at least 20 years.
He's not the head of the clan.
He doesn't make any effort to get an
army, come back and possess it.
It's clear in my mind that Jacob had
a spiritual hunger.
There was something deep in his heart, a
yearning, a longing for God.
And I want to tell you, no matter
what you're going through now, if you have
a heart that reaches out to God, repentant,
you tremble at God's word, God is going
to touch your life.
God is going to use you.
God sees beyond all of these inconsistencies to
that heart that's broken and knows how to
go into his presence and yield to the
word and to the spirit.
I see now the reason why God would
allow this plan to go on.
I see now the reason why God didn't
come in and interfere.
He saw something in Jacob's heart.
He saw the spiritual meaning of these actions.
Now God has given to us some wonderful
new covenant promises.
He's promised to keep us from falling and
present us faultless before the throne of God
with exceeding joy.
He's promised to bless us with all heavenly
blessings in Christ Jesus.
He's promised us as he did to Jacob
to be with us every place we go,
every action, every work of our hands.
He's promised to fulfill his word.
He's promised to fulfill his eternal purpose for
every one of our lives.
He's made us those same covenant promises.
But God does not covenant with anyone, with
everyone who claims to be a believer.
God does not work in covenant with everyone
who claims, who cries out, Lord, Lord.
No.
He only comes to those who have this
broken spirit and a contrite heart, who have
a heart for God.
God can love and bless the Jacob type,
the one who knows he has inconsistencies.
He knows he needs a lot of work
in his life.
He knows he's weak.
But he has a willingness to be changed,
to be molded by the hand of God.
There's something always breaking.
There's always something yielding in the life of
Jacob.
Now, contrite means broken in spirit by a
sense of guilt, a condition of being sincerely
repentant with a hatred for sin and a
willingness to change.
That's what contrite means, even in the dictionary,
in Webster's dictionary, a detesting of sin and
a desire to change, a repentant, a broken
spirit because of a sense of guilt of
having done wrong.
David was such a man.
He was a man of many weaknesses, inconsistencies,
and corruption.
He had a sensuality problem.
He murdered a man.
He was caught in deception and adultery, just
like Jacob.
He had inconsistencies.
Oh, but David had a tender heart.
He had a teachable heart.
He had a heart that was willing to
be changed.
No wonder David could say, the Lord is
nigh unto them that are of a broken
heart, and save us such as be of
a contrite spirit.
So, Jacob sets off to Paternarum under covenant
now, and he's so happy.
He says, God go with me every step.
And sure enough, as soon as he gets
into the land, there are some shepherds.
They know Laban, and they say, oh, by
the way, there's his daughter.
Here comes a beautiful young lady by the
name of Rachel.
She's leading the sheep to water, and there's
a big stone there.
So, muscle man ready to show off.
He goes.
It's not even time.
They're not supposed to roll up stones until
all the sheep are in, and she's one
of the first, and he gets in there
and rolls the stone off and starts watering
the sheep, and he says, I'm Jacob, Rebecca's
son.
And that was her aunt, and she runs
off.
Of course, he kissed her right off.
I would say he kissed her and wept,
and can't you imagine the excitement in Jacob?
He said, this covenant life is something.
This is wonderful.
Look how God's, just like he said, he's
going to lead me.
He led me to the most beautiful.
She's going to be my wife.
That's good, Lord.
I love covenants.
He can't wait to get to Laban's house.
He's there, and he's received, and he's hired
immediately as a shepherd.
And Laban says, now, even though you're my
nephew, I'm not going to have you work
free of charge.
What do you want for wages?
I want her.
I'll work seven years for her.
And by, can you imagine 2,555 days?
I counted seven years times 365.
And he said, those seven years were but
as a day.
There's nothing because of the love he had
for Rachel.
Can you imagine all those nights?
Cold and, and, and heat, and he's got
this great love.
This is wonderful covenant leading, just as God
said he would do.
Love at first sight.
So seven years are finished, wedding day, and
Rachel comes.
They have the celebration, and it's evident that
he married Rachel.
But as was a custom, they had a
celebration, and when the celebration is done, Jacob,
as custom, went, went to his tent.
He waited for his veiled bride to be
brought by the father to the tent.
The celebration is over, the ceremony, everything is
over, and Jacob goes to his tent.
But Laban has another idea.
He said, in our country, in our society,
you don't marry off your younger daughter first.
The older gets married first.
So he works a scheme with his oldest
daughter Leah.
Now, Leah is weak-eyed and not very
pretty, evidently.
She's not attractive.
Now, she had to have been in love
with Jacob, too, or she wouldn't have got
along with this, I assure you.
Nobody wants a husband that bad.
I don't know.
I'd take that back.
They have this scheme.
She dresses up.
She puts on her bridal gown, and of
course, she's veiled, and it's late at night,
and it comes Leah into the tent.
Of course, there's probably not a sound unless
her voice gives her away, and she wants
no light in the tent.
She blows out the candle, and of course,
she just whispers unless her voice gives her
away.
What a time that must have been.
I wonder how many sweet nothings, sweet things
he said into Leah's ear calling her Rachel,
and I wonder how many dreams he shared
with her.
I wonder if he talked half the night
saying, oh, I want how many children?
I want ten children.
I want twelve, really.
I want twelve kids, and he's sharing all
his dreams and everything, thinking this is Rachel.
He's finally got his love, and he never
knew that night that the woman in his
arms was another woman by the name of
Leah, the older daughter, until morning.
Morning always tells the truth.
Do you want to know what I look
like?
Look at me in the morning.
He gets up.
You're not Rachel.
He runs to Laban.
He says, you deceived me.
Now, that's something coming from Jacob.
You deceived me.
He said, well, it's the custom here, and
so I'll tell you what.
You fulfill her week of honeymoon, and then
you take Rachel also.
And the scripture says, and he went in
also unto Rachel, and he loved also Rachel
more than Leah, and served with him yet
seven other years.
Now, listen to this, please.
It says he loved Rachel more than Leah.
He has two wives now.
This man is now a bigamist, or what
do you call that's more than one wife?
Bigamist?
All right.
And he's got a polygamist.
That's it.
He's a polygamist, and you know something?
These sisters despise one another.
The scripture makes that very, very clear, and
it says he loved Rachel more than Leah,
but the scripture really bears out that he
hated Leah.
In fact, the next verse says, when the
Lord saw Leah was hated, he opened her
womb, but Rachel was barren.
Now, I want you to picture it.
Time goes by.
A little time goes by.
He's got two women now.
He's got two wives at home arguing.
Leah, the scripture says, accused her of stealing
her husband.
He was rightfully mine, and somehow you must
have seduced him, and this thing is going
on, and now he's tied down to seven
years of slave labor, and his wages are
going to be changed on him ten times,
and he's out in the open field, and
now he's looking at his covenant walk, and
he's saying, knowing human nature, I know he
had to have it out with God.
He said, Lord, how did I end up
in this kind of mess?
If you made me a covenant, and you
told me that your hand is upon me,
and that you love me, and you would
walk with me, and you would guide me
in every step that I take, you would
be there.
Why didn't you stop this?
Why didn't you hinder this?
Why am I now in the midst of
a marital problem, and I'm sure he surmised
all the problems this is going to cause
him right down.
He had seen this happen in his brother
Esau's life, and he says, here I am
now.
I am no position to provide for my
family.
I have, I can't make future plans because
I'm tied down to this evil man for
the next seven years, and I know he's
going to cheat me.
He's going to try to rob his daughters
of every bit of their inheritance.
I won't have an inheritance.
I have no future.
Lord, what kind of covenant walk is this?
You know, we have the idea that you
come to the Lord, and you pray, and
you have a broken heart, and you serve
him.
God loves you.
You have these wonderful promises of God.
God says some wonderful things to your heart,
and you say, surely all things now are
going to work together for good to them.
Love God and call according to his purpose.
Why should I have to suffer the way
I suffer?
Why should I have to go through this?
I want you to know that it doesn't
look like it, but God was still with
this man.
God still loved him.
Folks, we make choices in this life.
We make our own choices.
God has given us a free will.
That free will may be corrupted because of
the fall, but we still have a free
will, and we make decisions.
You say, well, maybe he didn't pray about
it.
Maybe he chose by flesh.
He chose by beauty rather than taking it
to God.
Maybe Leah was supposed to be his wife.
I know some ladies said, well, I don't
look at the flesh.
I just want to make sure he has
a good spirit, a good mind, and pretty
eyes or something, but I don't care about
muscles.
I don't care about all of that.
This is the end of side one.
You may now turn the tape over to
side two.
Beside the point, that's not the issue.
God could have intervened at any time, but
he didn't.
God didn't intervene.
Folks, walking in covenant with God does not,
there's no place in this book that guarantees
that you will not suffer as a child
of God, that you won't face peril.
You will face all kinds of difficulties.
You will cry, you will weep, and you'll
wonder sometimes, God, where are you?
Why didn't you stop it?
You can have marital problems and still be
loved by God, broken in spirit and contract
before God, and you still have marital problems.
How many of you haven't had some marital
problems?
How many of you are going through marital
problems now, and you say, Lord, I don't
understand because I've never walked closer to you.
I know I walk in covenant with you.
I know that my heart is right.
I weep, I cry, I pray, I worship
you in church.
I'm faithful, oh God.
Why are you still allowing me to endure
this?
He said, many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but delivers them, he delivers them not
from them, but out of them all.
You're going to see later how God delivered
him out of all of his difficulties, but
he allowed them to go through them.
He allowed Jacob, what are you talking about
time of Jacob's trouble?
Taken from his very life.
Few men have suffered such family problems as
Jacob.
What tragic situations and sorrows of all kinds.
His special love Rachel, he doesn't know, is
a secret idolater, and that's why God shut
her womb.
She couldn't have a child for years because
she had stolen her father's images, his idols.
In fact, when Jacob took off years later,
in the middle of the night, had been
gone three days, Laban would have left them
go, but he discovered that someone in Jacob's
clan had stolen his idols.
And when he comes with his troop and
accuses Jacob and his family of stealing the
idols, Rachel runs into her tent and hides
them.
Listen to what the scripture says, and she
hid them in the camel's furniture because she
had stolen them and set upon them.
And she said to her father, now father
came into the tent looking, let it not
displease my Lord that I cannot rise up
before thee, for the custom of women is
upon me.
And he searched but found not his images.
Jacob was totally unaware of all this.
He was incensed that he would be accused
of that.
No way, knowing that his most loved, beautiful
Rachel was a secret idolater, and so much
so that she would lie and she would
hide it from everybody.
It's a good thing Leah didn't know about
it.
She'd have ratted on him for sure.
This had gotten rid of her competition.
All of this is unknown to Jacob.
And meanwhile, Leah's giving birth to one boy,
child after another.
In fact, six sons.
And every time she has a son, she
says, perhaps now my husband will love me.
And every time she had a child, he
wouldn't love her.
And the scripture is because the Lord knows
that I was hated.
Now think of what's happening in Jacob's life.
Here's a woman whose whole life is ruined.
She has a husband who doesn't love her.
She gives him one child after another.
He still doesn't love her.
Her sister isn't raised against her.
She has no future.
Her life is in ruins.
This is a troubled family, a very troubled
family.
And Jacob has, first of all, deep marital
problems.
He's got family problems.
Now he's got sorrow on the job.
You'd think at least one area of his
life would be undisturbed.
He's disturbed in the area of his life
because now Laban is looking at him suspiciously
and all the sons he's already stolen.
The scripture says, the daughter said, he's devoured
our money.
He devoured the inheritance of his daughters.
And now Jacob is being blessed and he's
jealous of his sons and they are speaking
rebellion and mutiny against Jacob.
And God again comes to Jacob in a
dream and he says, go back to Bethel
to the place where I first met you.
Go back and build an altar there as
you promised.
Now Jacob obeys God and he's walking now
in total obedience.
Now I want you to follow me closely.
Jacob is now going into the greatest peril
of his life even though he's on the
path of obedience.
He's going to come to the brink of
disaster.
He's thinking in his mind that it's the
end of all things because he's going toward
Bethel now toward his homeland.
He's going back to Esau, face him.
He's going back to his father Isaac.
And a messenger comes and says, your brother
Esau is heading this way with an army
of 400 men and he's out to get
you.
And the panic that hits this man.
You say, well, why?
Why now?
Here he's got marital problems.
He's got career problems.
He's got all of these troubles all around
him.
And now he's obeying God.
He's loved by God.
He's got a broken heart, contrite before God.
And now he's allowed to go through the
most fearful experience in his life.
He almost said, God is not fair.
And he divides his clan into two groups.
And he's going to send Leah and cattle
and everything.
And he's going to try to appease his
brother.
And then the second he says, if the
first group are slain, the second group can
escape.
Now here's where we find out what is
really in Jacob's heart.
Here's where we can prove to you that
this man had a heart that's broken and
contrite before God.
Look at chapter 32.
Turn over to chapter 32.
This is all going to come together for
you in just a moment.
Chapter 32, beginning to read at verse 9.
32 verse 9.
And Jacob said, O God of my father
Abraham and God of my father Isaac.
He's calling on covenant partner now.
His covenant partner.
The Lord which said unto me, return unto
thy country and to thy kindred, and I
will deal well with thee.
He's saying, Lord, you told me to go
this way and I'm walking in obedience.
I'm not worthy of the least of all
thy mercies and of all thy truth.
There's his broken, contrite, humble spirit.
I'm not worthy of the least of all
thy mercies and all the truth which thou
has shown unto thy servant.
For with my staff, I've passed over this
Jordan and now I have become two bands.
Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand
of my brother, from the hand of Esau,
for I fear him, lest he will come
and smite me and the mother and the
children.
And thou saidest, I will surely do thee
good and make thy seed of the sand
of the sea, which cannot be numbered for
multitude.
Look at me now, please.
Now he's putting God to the covenant.
He's saying, God, you made me.
I'm not worthy of this.
I know who I am.
I know what my name means.
He said, but now you, in this path
of obedience, you brought me to the brink
of total despair.
God, you told me you would go with
me.
You made me wonderful promises.
You spoke into my life and now look,
I'm about to lose my family.
I'm about to lose everything.
Where is your covenant?
I'm not claiming any goodness.
I'm not claiming any worth, but I know
I love you.
I know that I'm obeying you.
But it looks like everything is collapsed.
Everything is blown up.
Everything is out of control.
Everything is out of divine order because an
army is coming down on him.
Put yourself in that place and all the
things that God has said to you and
promised you.
And you look at the word of God.
And then suddenly you're faced the situation that's
life and death.
You look at something facing you.
It looks like it's going to bring you
down.
There's no way out.
Then you run to God and say, what
about your word?
And you hold God to the word.
And folks, that night, you remember that Jacob
has it out with the angel of the
Lord, with the Lord himself.
And there he gets his name changed.
He gets his character changed.
Of course, you know that God delivered him.
And someone said, well, I know why God
delivered.
You see, up to this time, evidently Jacob
suffered in his covenant walk because he really
wasn't a prayer.
But now he is because he's been called
a prince with power, with God, and he's
prevailed.
Now he has faith.
He was weak in his faith.
And that's why he suffered walking in covenant
with God.
That's why he made all these mistakes.
He didn't pray.
He didn't have power, but now he's got
power.
He doesn't have to suffer anymore.
Oh, that's the theology that's in the church
today.
You get your theology right.
You get your power with God.
You learn to pray and you don't have
to suffer anymore.
You just rebuke the devil and he'll flee.
You rebuke every devourer.
You rebuke everything.
You've got the power now.
You don't, Jacob, that's why Esau didn't kill
you.
You had the power now.
Well, Esau, he make up, go their way.
Is that the end of the suffering for
the saint?
You've got power now.
You have faith.
You don't have to suffer.
Is our suffering a lack of faith?
Is it a lack of right?
Lack of righteousness?
Is it a lack of power with God?
No, no, no, no.
This man who is in covenant, this man
who has prevailed with God in prayer is
told to go to Bethel and he stops
halfway, even though he's now walking in power.
He goes halfway among the Hivites and he
buys a piece of land from the Hivites
from Shechem and he he builds a house
and he settles down halfway and it's there
that his daughter Dinah is walking through the
fields and a young man by the name
of Shechem, a Hivite, attacks her and rapes
her.
And then he comes, he says, I love
her.
I know I forced her, but I love
her and I want to marry her.
These are Canaanites.
It's against the law, the law for them
to intermarry.
And so the brothers of Jacob, the sons
of Jacob, unknown to Jacob, connive with these
Shechemites and they said, all right, we'll, we'll
let you marry Dinah and we'll marry your
daughters and you can, we'll intermarry as long
as you get circumcised.
So they circumcised Shechem, his father and all
the Hivites in that tribe.
And while they're still sore, Jacob's sons get
swords and go in and kill every one
of them, kidnap all their children and their
wives and all their possessions.
Here's a man with power.
Here's a man of prayer and he's having
to turn with absolute grief at his sons
who are murderers.
He's looking at his family.
He said, you have shamed me before the
whole world.
What kind of men are you?
What the grief this man had.
He said, well, where was his power?
Where was his protection?
God says, I'll lead you.
All guides of this man is still suffering.
All his lifetime, he's an older man now
and a famine strikes the land.
And before the famine, the worst peril of
his life, an old man has a son
named Joseph in his old age.
And this young man, Joseph became the joy
of his life.
He romped with him.
He played with him.
He taught him.
He made him a coat of many colors.
And one day comes when this man of
God, man of power, a prince with God,
has to weep bitter tears because someone lays
at his feet a bloody colored garment and
said the animals have killed him.
And you say, does it never stop?
Is this what you get when you walk
in covenant?
You have a humble heart before God and
you live a life of suffering.
God has never promised us in this book
it would be smooth.
He said, it's going to rain on the
just and the unjust.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but
the Lord will deliver them out of them
all.
Out of them, not from them.
Then he has to watch as the famine
strikes the land.
And he's there.
He says, am I going to finish out
my days now watching my family starve one
at a time?
Then when word comes that his young Benjamin
is kept as a captive, it's too much
for the old man.
He's near collapse.
But I want to take you to another
scene.
Take you to Pharaoh's court.
Joseph, do you remember what he went through?
No one was more called.
Here's a man with great dreams.
Here's a man that God has spoken to
so clearly.
Fantastic word from God.
And he ends up in prison.
He ends up a slave.
He ends up suffering.
One suffering after another as though God had
forsaken him.
And it was all in God's plan.
It was all God training a man to
be strong in him.
This is how faith is created.
This is how character is created through suffering.
God has never created an ounce of character
in me other than through suffering.
If I have any character at all, any
good character in me, it has been birthed
in suffering and in fire.
Gold is only purified in fire.
I see young preachers and I see God
bless them.
I say, oh, just hold it.
Oh God, there's so much yet.
Oh, the suffering that's coming, but oh God,
I'm not afraid of it for them because
it's going to make them what they're going
to be in Christ Jesus.
Hallelujah.
It's going to produce the iron in their
backbone.
Here stands an old man, 130 years old.
His own son now has embraced him.
His son is second in command in all
of Egypt.
Everywhere he goes, Jacob is, he's in Joseph's
church.
Everybody's bowing to his son.
He stands before Pharaoh and Pharaoh says to
Jacob, and he does obeisance to Jacob.
And he says, how old are you?
And he looks at Pharaoh.
He says, I'm 130 and few and evil
have been my days.
You know what he's saying in the original
Hebrew?
In my time, I've seen a lot of
suffering.
That's what he said.
But was it worth it?
Now look back.
Here he stands before, he's been delivered from
famine.
His whole family, all 70 of them are
safe now and they're planted now in the
richest farmland of Egypt, have all that they
need to eat.
His family is safe and secure.
His son is on the throne and God
is keeping his word.
And he looks back and he thinks, my
brother Esau threatened me.
That looked like it was all over, but
God brought me out.
God was there.
Now he sees that God was there.
He was there all the time.
Laban tried to destroy me, but he couldn't
destroy me.
God blessed me right under his nose and
God delivered me from Laban.
My sons tried to bring an army down
to kill me, angry neighbors, but God kept
me, put the fear of my clan on
the whole, all the tribes around me and
God delivered me.
And my, he looks now over his sons
and they are now going to be prepared
to be the patriarchs of Israel.
His name is Israel, a prince with God,
his sons to become 12 princes.
He lives to see every promise fulfilled.
He lives enough time in Egypt to walk
among grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren.
And he sees a nation being built all
around him and he dies a ripe old
age, full of honor and grace of God.
God kept his word.
The perils and sorrows of a contrite heart,
oh, it's worth it.
When you find yourself now in a situation
that's overwhelming you, you look around you and
you see suffering.
You see family problems with your children.
And the devil comes to you and say,
oh, so that's what a covenant walk is?
So that's what you get when you humble
yourself and you walk before God righteously and
you weep before the Lord and you pray
and God speaks to your heart and tells
you what to do.
And then you have nothing but suffering.
Oh, but the Lord delivers them out of
them all.
Is there ever going to come a time
that you don't suffer?
Not as long as you live.
Only when you cross the great divide, only
when you get to Canaan land.
And when you get to the promised land,
then he said, he's going to wipe away
all your tears, but not until then.
You're going to have tears until he wipes
them away in glory.
Hallelujah.
So settle down.
Don't worry about it.
Say, Lord, I know you made me a
promise that whatever I'm going through, you're going
through it with me.
You're going to be there.
Lord, I can't see it, but your plan
is developing.
You said at the end, you're going to
fulfill your eternal purpose for my life.
Folks, I believe that.
Oh, we have been through suffering in our
family.
My poor wife, God bless her heart.
25 operations, six for cancer, two daughters with
cancer.
I look back over it.
There were times that, that I, I remember
Debbie, a cancer, the same place her mother
had and in the hospital in Houston and
the chemotherapy doubled up in a fetal position,
like a dying child.
And I, I said, Oh God, I'm on
the streets working for you.
And I'm giving my life and I love
you.
I walk honestly and wholly and purely before
you.
Why are you taking her?
It was enough.
Gwen's over now, Debbie.
And then when it hit Bonnie and on
and on and on, and finally you come
to a place where you say, Lord, I
put my life in your hands.
You made a covenant.
I'm just going to walk in blind, simple,
childlike faith.
But folks, I would tell you something.
Here I stand.
There's Gwen sitting there right now.
God has been faithful.
He's kept his word.
And my standing before you right now in
this work that he's established in New York
city.
And the word that goes out from this
church to over 800,000 people on a
mailing list all over the world is a
fulfillment of a promise God made me way
back before the suffering started.
And nothing that I've gone through has deterred,
deterred the will of God and the eternal
purpose of God for my life.
And it'll be the same for you come
hell or high water, come flood, come fire.
Come on.
God's going to have his will.
God's going to have his way.
Will you stand please?
Hallelujah.
Lord, we love you.
Lift your hands and love him right now
for his faithfulness.
Just love him right now.
Lord, you're going to bring me through.
Tell him right now, Lord, you're going to
bring me through.
You're going to deliver me.
This is going to pass.
And God is going to get glory.
Hallelujah.
God is going to get glory.
Hallelujah.
Lord, I don't know how to reach into
the hearts of those that are here this
morning, but I do know that this message
was meant for some that have come today.
Some for the first time visitors and also
those that come regularly to this church.
Lord, I'm asking you to lift the burden,
lift the fear and God bring a peace
and a rest that we can enter into
the covenant of peace and rest in the
Holy Ghost.
God, you're at work.
You are at work in our lives.
You have not forsaken any of your children.
You have not forsaken.
Pastor Carter started the service with that, giving
us the word, confirming what you've already said
to us now.
Thank you, Jesus.
If you're here this morning, balcony, the main
floor, they said, oh brother, this message is
for me because of what I'm going through.
It's for me.
And some of you have been a bit
confused by it.
Some of you have been in turmoil.
I want you to get out of your
seat.
Now, if you've been backslidden, you've been running
from God, you come also.
If you don't know Jesus, you come.
But mostly for those right now who say,
brother, I have got to come to a
place of rest.
I've been battling long enough.
I want God to lift this.
Now, I want to walk out of Times
Square church today with peace of mind and
heart.
Come follow these that are coming up the
balcony.
Just go to the stairs on either side.
Then you come down any aisle and I'll
meet you right here.
Amen.
If the Holy Ghost is talking to you,
if this message for you, obey him right
now, whatever he tells you to do, you
do it.
Please move in close, make room for those
that are coming.
This way, please.
While you were singing that, I was praying
and the Holy Ghost spoke a word to
my spirit to give to you.
Everybody look at me.
Look this way, please.
Here's what the Lord told me to tell
you.
And it's just as clear as anything he
ever told me.
No matter what it looks like in your
life, no matter how bad it looks like,
no matter what you're going through, God says,
I have not left you.
I am still with you.
He said, tell them I'm still with them
and get your eyes off of all that
you see around you and just focus on
him being there.
Forget your battle now.
Forget what it looks like.
Forget all your circumstances.
You understand?
Don't look at it.
Don't let it scare you.
God says, I'm with you.
I am with you.
Yes, there's suffering.
Yes, there's pain.
Yes.
But that doesn't mean you're out of the
will of God.
Doesn't mean you've been disobedient.
It doesn't mean that God isn't hearing your
prayer.
He does hear.
But he is going to answer in his
time, in his way, and never before.
Not until the lessons are learned, not until
he accomplishes his purpose.
And when he does, meanwhile, he said, I'll
hold you.
You're in no danger.
Look at me now.
You're in no danger.
Was Jacob in any danger from Laban?
Was he in any danger from Esau?
Was any danger from any of his enemies?
Never.
He was never in danger.
The whole time he's grieving, God is setting
his son on the kingdom, on the throne.
God is at work behind the scenes.
You don't see it, but God's at work
behind the scenes in your life and mind.
He's at work all the time.
There's never a moment that God isn't doing
something in our behalf.
He's working it out.
So hold steady.
Hold your faith.
Don't give up.
Don't accuse God of neglecting you or forgetting
you.
He's not forgotten you.
He's busy.
He's working.
He's got angels coming and going on your
behalf right now.
He's making a way where there seems to
be no way.
He says, now just trust me.
Put your hand in mine right now and
just trust me.
Let's pray.
Pray this right out loud.
Jesus, I want to trust you with my
heart and my future.
Forgive me, Lord, of doubting your love for
me.
I accept your love.
You do love me.
Come, Lord Jesus, fill my heart with peace.
Give me a confidence that you're at work
in my life.
You're doing something that I can't see, but
I know you're doing it.
And one day, you'll show me why you
had to take me this way.
But in the meantime, I'm going to trust
you.
Help me, Jesus, to endure my suffering, to
endure my pain with the help of the
Holy Ghost.
Now let me pray for you.
Heavenly Father, I pray you smite all fear,
all undelief, and oh Jesus, help us just
to rest in you.
Hallelujah.
God has everything under control.
This is the conclusion of the tape.