We're in chapter 32 of Genesis this morning, and I'm not going back to 31, but I will make one interesting mention in chapter 31. So when you get to Genesis, get to 31 and verse 49. And this is just a little, it's not trivia, I don't know what to call it, it's just a little interesting tidbit. But I don't know about you, but there are all kinds of trinkets out there for Christians. There are cards, and necklaces, and bracelets, and things that people have with scripture verses on them. And you might even be a participant in getting a text every day, like the verse of the day. Maybe you have an app that pops up a notification, the verse of the day. And a lot of times, those things are taken way out of context. And everybody wants a promise, right? And so you get the necklace or the bracelet that has a promise for you. And people get tattoos now. They get tattoos, I can do all things through Christ, right? And what does that mean to you? Does that mean you're going to be a millionaire? Or does that mean you're going to lift 5,000 pounds over your head? I mean, I can do all things through Christ with strength. Things have to be in context, right? And you understand that God gives you the desires of your heart. Well, what if my heart desires something wicked? Well, God gives you the desires of your heart if your heart is according to the word of God, right? And you desire the things of what He wants you to desire, He'll give you those things. So we want context. So I'm just setting up for this. I didn't mention it last week because we ran out of time, but verse 49 of Genesis 31. Maybe you have a card or a bracelet that you have one half of the bracelet and the other person has the other half of the bracelet and it says this. Have you read that somewhere before? Other than the Bible? Am I talking to myself this morning? No? Yes? No? Say something. Well, I've seen it. I've seen it plenty. And people, you know, when they want to exchange a gift, well, I'm going to miss you, so here, and you have this half, and the Lord between me and you. Well, you understand the context of that chapter, right? That's Laban and Jacob fighting and saying, look, I'm setting up this pillar, and don't you cross over this pillar and come to me, and don't you cross over, and I won't cross over to you. And don't you do me any hurt, and I won't do you any hurt. Read the chapter. So if you have one of those, you might just be aware of what you have. That's all. All right. Now that I hopefully lighten the mood a little bit, I think I just made everybody like, what? Genesis 32. We'll go to verse one and two. It says, And Jacob went on his way. There you go. They left each other. Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him. And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God's host. and he called the name of the place Mayanaim. If I say that right, I'm not sure. But Jacob saw God's host and he named the place accordingly. Now that name, other than what it says right there in the scripture, which is the best definition, it means God's host, also means two armies or armed camps. So the Bible contains 245 references to the Lord of hosts. I believe there's 235 verses but the Lord of Hosts, that phrase shows up 245 times in the Bible. Do you know where that shows up? Mainly or only? It only shows up in the Old Testament. That's what I have on your paper for you. What's happening with Jacob as he leaves and as he obeys God is he is about to, in this chapter, get his name changed. His name is no longer going to be Jacob. His name is going to be what? Israel, Israel. And he's going to be the beginning of what was promised to Abraham, that God was going to bless him and make him a people. And it's going to be called Israel. And he was called Israel because he had power with God. And we'll read that a little bit later. And also what we'll read a little bit later, and even if we don't get to it, you'll know it now, is that that is God's son. Now, in the New Testament, you are God's son. Individually, you are God's son. In the Old Testament, I think it's right here in your notes, maybe it's not in this section, but in the Old Testament, God deals with nations. And you might want to get a hold of that. I'm sure if you've been around this church a while, if you've been in an institute, if you've been rightly dividing the Word of Truth classes, you understand that in the Old Testament, God deals differently with people. than he does in the new. All we have to do, and we won't do it this morning, is go to the book of Ezekiel. And I don't think I've got the chapter right, is it 18? Yes, where you can read how God says, you know, if you continue in your sins, you'll die in your sins. But if you turn from your sins and live righteously, then you'll be righteous in his eyes. We don't live by that today. And God deals with, he dealt with people differently. He deals with nations mainly. And the one nation he's most concerned about is Israel. He says, in fact, the rest of the nations of the world are as the dust of the balance and as a drop in a bucket. He doesn't care about all the nation. You say, well, God doesn't care about all the nations. That's what he said. The one apple of his eye, the one thing he cared about was the promise to Abraham and making him a nation. So it doesn't then begin to make you wonder why here goes Jacob on his way leaving Laban, doing what God said and he ends up encountering an angelic host. And so God is preparing Jacob to become a great nation and allows him to see the host. Can you think of anyone else in the Bible who saw an angelic host? Starts with an E. Elijah. Elijah looked up and said, Lord, was it Elisha was with him, right? He said, show him the host that's up there. And God opened up his eyes and they saw the angelic host. Now, we don't all, and I'm thankful that we don't all get that privilege. I don't want to see the host. Until I get to heaven and get a new glorified body, I don't want to see any of that. Keep it away from me. I've seen enough in movies that blows my mind already. I don't want to see what it really looks like. We might get a little glimpse of that in a minute because we're going to go to look at something here about angels here pretty soon. But this is what God was doing. He was preparing the idea that you're protected, Jacob. Now you're going to go and you're going to be all afraid about meeting your brother and your brother. He's going to you're going to be told that he's got him and 400 men walking right towards you. And you're going to be really nervous about that. But let me just show you what I got. And I really believe that's what's going on. Now, the Bible doesn't say that, but why else would he look up and see a host? And again, this is why in the Old Testament you got Israel all the time talking about the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts, the Lord that protects me, the Lord that fights our battles. And we'll look at some verses here. It's on your paper. Moses knew this. Exodus 14, 14 is written out for you. He said, the Lord shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. Now over and over the children of Israel were reminded of that, that the Lord would take care of you. The Lord is going to fight your battles. The Lord can send insects in and wipe out that whole nation if that's what he wants to do. He doesn't need your swords. He doesn't need any of your abilities. The pastor was talking about Gideon and the ones that lapped up like dogs. We've got the 300 guys got chosen. The Lord didn't need the big army. He was proving a point to Gideon. And so God will fight your battles. Joshua knew this. Joshua, of course, being his successor. It says in Joshua 10, 42, And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. David believed this, 1 Samuel 17, 45. Then said David to the Philistine. This is when he got a hold of Goliath. And all the men that were with David were backslidden. All the army, because they had forgotten what Joshua said. They had forgotten what happened with Jacob, their forefather. They forgot what Moses knew. But David said, then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield, But I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts. All that angelic army is right back there behind me. I may not be looking at it, I may not be seeing it, but I know it's there. Because the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. And he surprised the whole nation of Israel with what he was able to do. But when you trust in the Lord, that's what can happen. Now, the last reference in the Bible of the Lord of hosts is found in Malachi 4.3. And it should be on your paper, right? It's there. It says, And ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. Now, when is that time? You can cheat. You can read ahead. What is Malachi talking about? In the tribulation. Now look, look at what it says there in Revelation 19. Now in the Old Testament, right here where we're reading in Genesis 32, the Lord of hosts, the God of hosts is what Jacob calls Him. He sees the angels, right? But in Revelation 19, who's the host? There. us. You see what's going to happen? You are now going to be part of God's host. It says in Revelation 19.13, "...and he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses..." That's you. "...clothed in fine linen, white and clean." I hope you find that exciting. Most men might find that exciting. Maybe you women don't necessarily get excited about that, but the men should. Especially if you've been in the military or anything like that. I won't go on, but that is going to be you and I. We're going to be part of that angelic host. And we're going to come in that way into the millennium. And they may call him the Lord of hosts there, too. But but we'll be that host that people will be seeing. It won't just be the angels anymore. But the Bible says that we're going to be as the angels when we get to heaven. We could stop and park there for a while and talk about all that, but we won't. But that's how we're going to be moving in the future. So verses three through eight, let's read on. And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother under the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall ye speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob saith thus, I have sojourned with Laban, and stayed there until now. And I have oxen, and asses, flocks, and men's servants, and women's servants, and I have sent to tell my lord, that I might find grace in thy sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee. and four hundred men with him. I don't know about you, but that would scare me. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed, and he divided the people that were with him, and the flocks, and the herds, and the camels, into two bands. And he said, If Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left shall escape. Now, I don't know if you know this, but I believe Arnold Schwarzenegger and his previous wife, I forget her name, but they used to do similar things. You can imagine how much he had to travel, but whenever they traveled, they would go to the same place in two different planes. And the idea was that at least if one plane goes down, the other plane won't. And one of us will be around still to take care of the children. Now, you may live your life. I know people who do those sort of things. But that's the idea here. He heard that Esau was coming. He thought he was coming after him. If he would have had the Bible and read ahead, he would have realized it wasn't true. But he didn't have that benefit like we do. But Esau was coming and he was afraid. And so he said, let's split this up. That was his first idea. His ideas go on as we read through the chapter, but he said, let's split up. So Jacob, the news Jacob receives plays into his worst fears. Now, this is what I'm going to focus on. His first reaction was not prayer. Instead, he devised a plan. Now, this is me. I won't preach to you. I'll preach to me. This is me. I like to make a plan. I like to make sure that all my ducks are in a row. I like to have everything lined up. I want to see all the contingencies, right? And I want to have not just plan A, but plan B, and probably plan C, and maybe D. And I tell myself, well, it's not that I'm not trusting you, Lord. Well, is it? And, you know, there's phrases that we use and I use them. And I've said it here that, you know, you take a step towards God, he takes a step towards you. I believe that's a biblical principle. I'm not backing down from that. But sometimes we you know, we rely on our step and not on the Lord. And sometimes, you know, we say the Lord helps those who help themselves. Right. And pray like it all depends on God, but work like it all depends on you. Now, those I get those sayings, I understand what they mean. I think they have the right, you know, idea behind them. But we all want to make sure that we're not just constructing our lives and leaving God out. And that was Jacob's tenancy, Jacob's name. we'll look at at the end the sheet Jacob's name was the definition was supplanter he devised things he was a trickster and he manipulates situations of course we just got through learning all about how he met the bigger manipulator in Laban and he got worked over and probably was the Lord taking those 20 years of his life to teach him hey how does it feel to be manipulated how does it feel to be change your wages one more time how does it feel to be tricked into the wrong wife You still want to be that way? Okay, I'll give you another one. And the Lord will do that. And the pastor just got through saying that we can be chastised by the Lord, but he'll do it in a loving way. One of the things that amazes me about Jacob and about almost everybody I read in the Bible is that, God, why did you make Jacob Israel? What's so special about Jacob? I mean, he didn't do, I don't even think he did as good as Abraham, right? And he didn't, he's definitely not one of the better men in the Bible in terms of how he lived his life. But you know what? That's a blessing. Because God says, no, I'm going to bless him. And I'm not going to take my promise away from his father, Abraham. And despite our sins, despite our shortcomings, despite our devices, despite our planning and scheming and figuring things out without God and getting through this life. I mean, how old are you, all of you? And you don't have to say, but how old are you? How many of those years have you gotten along really without God? I mean, how much of how much of your life did you really seek God? And you can say, well, that that right there is because of what God did. Well, what about the rest? is the rest of it because of what you planned for your life, the career you chose for your life, the path that you decided to go, the place where you wanted to live. You know what I'm saying? And we go on and on about all the things that we decide and we leave God out. Now I'm careful not to get too hard on these people in the Bible because they're in the Bible. They're in the Bible. God chose them. God made of him a great nation. He called his name Israel. There's some great things about Jacob. And I'm not here to just blast him. I'm just here to use him as an example, as the Bible says, for our learning. That's why this is written in here. But he takes the course of not prayer. Now, he will in a minute. We'll get to that in a second. But his first idea is to do the Schwarzenegger. right? To split up the family and so if Esau goes that way well then we'll take off that way and at least half of us will live. So he prioritizes family and possessions to minimize the damage not realizing his fears would be unfounded. Go to chapter 33 and see what I mean. You've probably read this I'm sure but chapter 33 in verse 9 We'll look at verse 4 and then we'll look at verse 9. Chapter 33, verse 4, So all along Esau was not upset. All along Esau was excited he was going to see his brother. And so here's Jacob fretting. and worrying, and wringing his hands, and splitting up his family, and probably exposing himself to his family by saying, well, you know, I don't trust the Lord, and I'd rather be with you, so you guys go over there, and I'll take the ones I like the best, and then when it was over and he realized, uh-oh, there's no problem here, what is the family thinking? What did you put me over here for? How come I wasn't with you? And so it kind of backfires. But anyway, look at verse 9 and it says in Esau, he was giving Esau gifts. We'll look at this probably next week. But he said, I have enough, my brother, keep that thou hast unto thyself. He didn't even want his gifts. He had enough. He was blessed. And so our fears can be unfounded. And if you read your paper with me, we often worry over things which never even come to pass as we imagine. You know what I find is true is that I am my own worst enemy in my life. Not only the fact that I do wrong and I sin and my flesh, as we talked about last week, wars against my spirit and I have all these conflicts that they battle, they lust one against the other and they battle one against the other, but my mind can run wild. And my worst fears, you know, and so I remember running my business and I told you before I had a landscape business for 15 years, probably the worst thing I ever did. But that's what the Lord had me doing and I did it. And one of the reasons it's the worst thing I ever did is because I still wake up, I literally do still wake up in sweat and in panic because I'm not there on time and they called me and I've got ten calls waiting for me and they want me over here and they want me over here and it's been raining for three days and I can't catch up and my worker just called in sick and it's like that. And I still dream about that. And it just haunts me. But you know what happens most of the time? Here's what I found. I'm going to give you a great spiritual tip. This is a John Albrecht tip, and it's got to be in the Bible somewhere. I just haven't found it yet. I just know it works for me. And that is, you know what I need to do when all that stuff hits me, and it's hitting me, and it's hitting me, and it's getting late at night, and there's nothing I can do? and it's just gonna be, tomorrow's gonna be a terrible day because I got all this stuff piled up on me and I just say, you know what, go to sleep. That's my tip. Just go to sleep. You know what? Stop fretting. Stop worrying. Stop talking to me about it. Stop dwelling on it. Stop mulling over in your mind. Stop thinking of the worst thing that they're going to cuss you out, and that they're not going to pay you, and that they're not going to show up for work, and that your mowers are all broken down, and your truck is broken down, and your trailer needs to be fixed, and the gate is broken. And then just go to sleep. Just go to sleep. And when you go to sleep and you wake up in the morning, guess what? It's amazing. I don't know. I'm telling you, it's got to be in the Bible because God has done this for me. And many times I wake up with all the solutions. You might want to try it. You know, the Bible says he giveth his beloved sleep. You might want to claim that promise and say, Lord, if I'm your beloved, I don't feel like it right now, but if I am, would you let me get to sleep? Would you just let me sleep? Now, I'm blessed in that way. I can lay down and I can be, I mean, in five minutes, you can't talk to me anymore. I'm gone. But that's a blessing because your mind has to renew. You know, some of you run on low all the time. you don't have any gas in the tank, you're pushing, pushing, pushing, you got so many ideas in your head, and you got so many things you want to do, and not enough time to do it, and everything needs to be done, and everybody is leaning on you, and the weight of the world is on your shoulders, and what you might just want to do is take a nap. Just lay down. I don't have time for a nap. You might want to just take a nap. And if you can't take the nap, then at least go to bed at a decent hour. You know my dad taught me to get eight hours of sleep. And people always say get eight hours of sleep and I always call it I need my beauty sleep. But that's a joke. But you know why you want that? Now I've heard preachers preach and I'm against this honestly. I've heard preachers preach that, and we say it here, we're responsible to read our Bibles. We're responsible to study our Bibles. And I'm in business, and trust me, you've got to work hard if you're going to make it. And if you want to make success of yourself, you're going to work hard. You're not going to be lazy. And so there's an idea about pushing yourself. There's an idea about putting in another hour, putting in another hour. Don't just drink another cup of coffee, whatever you've got to do. But there is this idea of rest. And I've heard preachers say, well listen, you're not spiritual if you're getting eight hours of sleep. You're lazy, you're sleeping in, you should be doing this and doing that and you should be working, working, working. I think it was, who was it now? Who's the cigar smoking Baptist? Spurgeon. Spurgeon used to get on people for playing baseball. Baseball was big in his day and he used to say about kids, you're wasting your time with the baseball. And I think he called it a sin if you played baseball. But you know what I think you need? I think you need some recreation. I don't think you just only need sleep, I think you need some recreation. Hey listen, I know that's in the Bible. Because I can show you where Jesus, all these people were flocking around Him, and everybody was trying to get the devils cast out, and everybody wanted their child healed, and everybody wanted food, and everybody wanted this and that, and He just turned around and walked away. And he says, I'm going up there in that mountain where nobody would follow him. And they didn't. And he just went away and he prayed. And he went away and he sat. And one time he went away with the disciples and they just sang hymns. Now, he didn't do that all the time. He picked the times when he was going to do the things he did. But my point is, you need to have some recreation. And you need to find something to do. Take a walk. You know, get out and get some fresh air. Find a sport to do. I'm not like Spurgeon. Find a sport to do. You know, do something right. And say, well, I love to work. Well, work, work, work. And, you know, work your fingers to the bones. And, you know, work is good for you. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet. And if you find enjoyment in that, that's fine. But find some things to get so that your mind is not always focused on that. Anyway, that's kind of a good tip for you. Get some rest. We often worry over things which never come to pass as we imagine. You ever have that experience? I'm going to move on in a second. But do you ever have that experience where you just knew they were going to hate you? You just knew when you saw them again, they were going to give you the third degree. You just knew that they weren't going to and and how they were going to respond and how it was going to turn out. And you showed up and you didn't trust God to do a work on their heart. You didn't pray like he didn't pray and ask God to do anything about it. You just knew. Right? And then what happens is the next day or the next week, whenever the encounter takes place, it's not nearly as bad as you thought. You know, I'd show up at those customers' houses and I'd be like, oh, man, they're going to just, they're going to, I had one guy do that to me. He's like, well, I'm just not going to pay you. And I'm like, well, I've been working, I haven't even, you haven't paid me for three months and I've been still doing your house. And he's like, well, so, if you don't do this, I'm not going to pay you. And I'm like, well, then I'm gone. You know, there are some people like that. But most of the time people, and if you trust the Lord for it, people are forgiving and people aren't always that bad. And it's not always going to be as bad as you think. And especially if you do your part and trust the Lord and do what you know is right to do, you never know how much you will soften up the other person. But I usually find that's true. My mind will go to the worst possible place. And you can't allow that to happen. You just can't. And let's say it was the worst possible thing. Let's say that's what, well then who, what are you going to do about it? Right? Really? I mean, what are you going to do about it? You're going to scheme and plan and hurt other people in the process? Or are you just going to let God, you know, hey, you know what I pray? You might want to pray this too. It's a right thing to pray is that Lord, I deserve whatever you give me. I'm talking about in judgment. I deserve it. You know, I mean I can scheme and plot and try, but how am I going to get away from the Lord's chastisement? I can't. So anyway, that's what Jacob's doing here, but in verse 9 through 12, it says, And Jacob said, O God, now he's going to pray, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which set us unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal with thee. I am not worthy of the least of all, and there he goes, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies. and of all the truth, which thou hast shown unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over the shore, and now I am 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 would come and smite me and the mother with the children. And thou saidest, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." Jacob's fresh out of ideas. That's what I conclude. And the fact that he doesn't know what else to do, he finally says, well, you know what? Maybe I might want to call on the Lord of hosts. Remember those angels I showed you, Jacob? Well, it was so quick of you to just turn away from that and make a plan of your own, because that's what you still tend to do. You still tend to make your own plan, your own way. You still haven't sought me, but at least here he does. and he resorts to prayer, but his prayer is actually very good. Now look, we don't have, we don't recite prayers. You know, we're Baptist, and it's not because we're Baptist that we don't recite, but we're Baptist because the Bible makes us Baptist. And we believe that, you know, like when we were, we believe you're baptized after salvation, not for salvation. The Catholics believe you're baptized for salvation, and so they hate the Baptists. and they would call you an Anabaptist. That was their real name for you. You're a re-baptizer. We've said that before. We kept the name and we take that name just like we take the name Christian. They were first called Christian in Antioch because they looked like Christ followers. And because you re-baptized those babies that we baptized already and we baptized them into the church, Which we don't do. If you ever got baptized here, you didn't get baptized into this church. You got baptized with the Holy Ghost when you got saved. And so you only got wet just to show the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And to show what happened to you when the Holy Ghost came upon you. It's just the testimony. But we keep that name, Baptist, because hopefully people still know what it stands for. But as a Baptist, we understand that the Bible is our final authority. in all matters of faith and practice and that the Bible will teach you how to pray. We don't recite prayers. Look at Matthew chapter 6. Jesus talks about this. We're just getting to the idea that there is a formula for prayer and I won't spend a lot of time on it but Matthew chapter 6 verse 5 Jesus starts off and says, When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets. I know people that are known for how long they pray. We're going to see here in a minute, it's not by the multitude of your words. You can pray silently in your heart. And some people, especially the Pharisees in this time, God says they like to be seen when they pray. They like to use all this flowery language. You know, I don't like that because when you do that, especially here in this church, and I'm just giving some general thoughts here, and we're not blaming anybody for anything, is that if you get up and we ask you to pray, be careful how you pray. You just pray as you always do. You know, you just pray. When you pray, you talk to God. just like if you talk to me. People say, well, I don't know how to pray. I'm like, what do you mean? You don't know how to talk? You're talking to God. Well, what do I say to God? Well, we'll get to that in a minute here. But it's not flowery language. It's not things that you, you know, big giant words to impress. You can't impress God. You're filthy. You're disgusting in his eyes, really. You're vile, you're wicked, you're a sinful, you're a dirty, filthy rag. You can't impress him with your language. So it's not like the Catholics get out their books and they read their prayers and all these wonderful things. When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Their reward is that they were seen of men. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. When thou hast shut thy door, pray to the Father which is in secret, and thy Father which is in secret shall reward thee openly. So the Lord's telling you, look, you don't even need to let anybody know when you're praying. If you're in the house, you know, you might just want to get away and go pray somewhere. You don't have to pray in front of everybody. Oh, look, he's praying. Wow, he's holy. Look at all the time he's spending praying. You're taking away from the idea of it. The motive behind it is to get along with God, not to impress anybody. Verse 7, But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. Now I'm going to stop there, we could read on and where the Lord gets into after this manner, therefore pray ye in verse 9. But he says, they shall be heard for their much speaking. How many times do we pray for something? And I'm not saying we don't pray for someone over and over and over again. We've been praying for Jennifer for quite a while. And we're going to continue, and Paul talks about praying for people over, and he talks about daily praying for people and people praying for him daily. That's not vain repetitions. Vain repetitions is to get the idea that God's not going to hear me unless I say it, you know, 25 times. And the priest says, well, go home and say 10 Hail Marys. Oh, but you need to go home and say 20 because you're worse. You know, the more you do, the more you're going to get heard. Well, that's unbiblical. That's what the Lord is saying. They think they shall be heard for their much speaking. And what what you might want to just do is do is just pray very succinctly and let the Lord know what you want him to know and then stop. You know why? It's the same thing you did when you got saved. When you got saved, Romans chapter 10 says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Do you know what people do? Yeah, I've been praying that every day. I pray that every day. I pray that multiple times a day. Why? You need to get to the point, and I need to get to the point in my life when I pray and know that the Lord hears me. When I pray, He heard me. It's not a bunch of vain repetition. It's not a bunch of flowery language. It's not a magical sentence that I pray. It's just, Lord, I trust that You heard me, and I trust the Word of God that You said You would. And I trust that You saved me back when I was 19 years old that night in my bed. You saved me. I don't need to pray that one more time. And that's the right way, because you know what you're doing? You're trusting the Lord at that point. So to get back to what Jacob was praying, it gets into how he prayed. And I believe how he prayed was actually very biblical. He starts out by exalting God's name. Did you notice there what he says? And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham. We talked last week about in the week before about how God identifies himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the Lord of hosts, the God of your fathers, you know, the God of peace and all the things that God has identified with. And so he's acknowledging God for who he is to him. Who He is to Him, He's the God of my fathers. O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said to me, you might want to address God. Don't just start praying, and, hey God, I need this, and I need this, and I need this, and I'm in a hurry, God, so thank you for, you know, just bless my day, because I'm on my way, and again, we're devising our own plan. We're not sitting still and waiting for God to give us a plan, or to change our thoughts for the day. And I'm guilty, I'm guilty of all that. But I'm just saying, we don't do that. But He's taking the time to acknowledge who God is. You know, that's what God says to do. Now, we don't have to turn to it. Psalm 100, you could probably quote it, but Psalm 100 talks about, enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. You know, you might just want to find out that all you ended up doing in your prayer because you were limited on time was that you just spent time telling him who he was to you. You know what you are to me God? You're my Savior. Thank you for being my Savior. Thank you for cleaning up my life. Thank you for giving me half a brain in my head that I could even know about you. Thank you for giving me a King James Bible. Thank you for giving me a Bible. Thank you God for being so kind and merciful. Thank you for saving my family and that they were able to give me the gospel. Thank you Lord for all the things that He is, for being the creator and for bringing me into this world and giving me what you've given me and just start acknowledging God. That's the one first thing that He did and He did that right. Now we can't butter up God. You know you can't butter up God, right? God even tells us not to do that to each other, not to entertain flattering words, right? We're not supposed to flatter people to get our way. That's why we do it. But God can't be flattered because God sees the heart. So it's genuine. We do it genuinely and we might want to, you have to learn to do that. And I'm not saying that again, I'll use the word formula for prayer, but it's maybe an order to prayer more specifically that you just want to enter into his courts with thanksgiving and praise and be thankful unto him and bless his name like he wants you to do. You know, he's a God that we worship. He's not a candy store. We don't just go to him for, I need a hundred dollars. We want to get into the idea of being able to worship him. When we read his Bible and we do what he says, we worship him too. It's not just rock and roll services at the next contemporary church that you go to for praise, because that's not praise at all. That's not worship at all. acknowledging him for who he is, and that's one of the ways we can do it. He then reminds the Lord of his word and the promises he made attached to it. Look at verse 9, I don't know if it's on, yeah, it's right on the paper. Which says unto me, return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee. Listen, it's not wrong to remind God of his word. You might want to go to God when you pray and worship Him and tell Him who He is to you and what He's meant to you. There's coming, He's going to kill me. I know He's going to, because my worst fear is my mind, right? He's coming to kill me, Lord, but you said you would take me to my country. You said you would return me to my kindred. You said that you would deal well with me. So I'm reminding you about that. And it's not wrong to do. That's not trying to manipulate God. That's not trying to make God do anything. That's just reminding Him of His promise. And so, and he does so humbly, look at verse 10, he acknowledges, he says, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan and now I become, look at me, I'm two bands. I did this, Lord, I'm confessing right what I just did. I broke my family up into two halves because I'm afraid. You know, it's not wrong to tell God that you're afraid. He tells him in verse 11, God, I'm afraid. I have a problem here. Again, we're not trying to impress God with how brave we are or how much courage we have. Sometimes we come kneeling and trembling and, as we should, ashamed even of what we've done, how we've been, how we've been living, and just be honest with God. You can't hide from Him anyway. And just tell Him, and the pastor set it up very nicely just before Sunday school, it's nice to be able to confide in God. He should be your number one confidant. He should be the person that you go to. He knows you inside and out anyway. He's just waiting for you and I always to acknowledge what we are and who we are. He'll save you if you're willing to acknowledge who you are and what you are. That's true repentance. God, I'm what you said. I'll quote the Bible to you now. I'm vile. I'm wicked. I'm filthy rags. All my righteous. There's none good. No, not one. I've come short of the glory of God. I recognize that. Would you save me? He'll save you. The man, the publican in the temple, he beat his chest and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. So we, even as a Christian, we're sinners. Even as a believer, and we come to him and we quote the Bible to him, tell him what we're after, tell him what our real problem is, and tell him that, hey, I'm afraid, what will you do for me? And will you keep your word? Of course he'll always keep his word. And as we said, prayer is not a magic set of words that need to be repeated continually. But the Bible does reveal how we ought to approach God. And this is, I believe, a great pattern. Now look, again, Jacob is a deceiver. You know, Jacob, his whole life and he's been he's been trying. I mean, I think I see I see silver linings in his life. A lot of them. I see things that he's done honestly, how he dealt with Laban and so forth. But he's no model of any any believer. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from how he knows how to pray. And I think he has. And you want to go back and look at that and remind yourself of that and make note of that. That's maybe how you want to pray to verse 13. through 23. And he lodged there that same night and took of that which came to his hand a present for Esau his brother. 200 she goats and 20 he goats and 200 ewes and 20 rams 30 milk camels with their colts, 40 kine, and 10 bulls, 20 she-asses, and 10 foals. And he delivered them into the hand of his servant. Every drove by themselves. And he said unto his servants, Pass over before me, and put a space betwixt drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost, saying, When he saw my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou? and whither goest thou? and whose art these before thee? Then thou shalt say to him, They be thy servant Jacob's. It is a present sent unto my Lord Esau, and behold, also he is behind us. And so commanded he the second and the third and all that followed the drove, saying, On this manner shall you speak unto Esau when you find him. And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he saith, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face. Peradventure, he will accept of me. So, went the present over before him, and himself lodged that night in the company. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had." So, although Jacob's prayer was biblical, sincere, and heard and recorded in the Bible, as what I believe is a good pattern of prayer, it appears he still didn't have peace of mind about his prayer. And we can be just as guilty. We go ahead and like I said, we ought to trust God that He hears us. We've got to trust God that when He not only hears us that He is going to do something about what He just heard. And so we get down on our knees or whatever we do and we pray, we go into that closet, we get alone with God and we pray and we get up and we say, now what do I do? Well, I know I've got a better idea. I'm going to give over 500 animals to my brother. You know the Lord just gave me an epiphany. No. I'm going to split them up in five droves and I'm going to send them drove by drove and I'm going to tell my servants exactly what to say, word for word, what to say and when they get a hold of Esau, little by little, he'll get more and he'll get more and he'll say, oh well, I forgive my brother. I can't wait to see my brother. Look at all the presents he gave me. And what did Esau say? We already read it. He says, I have enough. I don't want your presents. His idea didn't come from God. We know this because Esau didn't even want the stuff. He didn't need it, he didn't care about it, he didn't want it. And so his ideas kept running even though he prayed. And what I'm saying is when we, if we ever come to an altar and pray, we ever make a life altering prayer to God and say, God, I'm going to commit this to you. I'm going to do this finally for you. And I'm going to commit this idea. And I'm going to ask, I'm going to ask you for, God says, I gave you the reference there on your paper. What is it? Philippians 4, 6. We don't have to turn to it. That he'll give peace of mind to you, right? When you, when you come to him and cast all your care upon him for he cares for you. When we do that, do we really trust that? Or do we go right back to devising even more of a plan? Or do we get even more worried and, you know, well, God didn't hear me because, what, because you can't see Him? Well, you see His Bible. You've read His Bible on how to pray. The Bible does say that He heard your prayer for salvation. Do you doubt that one? Or do you doubt because you're in such a mess right now, God can't possibly? Or maybe we're just in too much of a hurry and we need a solution. Like, I want a solution right now, this minute. And God may not do it this minute. In fact, I don't know if he did. And so this is how we are. And I'm not saying that I'm not guilty. I'm talking by experience. And I'm saying that this is what Jacob did too in the Bible for us to see. So rather than trust God, he devised a more detailed plan of sending five droves with over 500 animals as a means of appeasing Esau. Esau's reaction is recorded. We read it in Genesis 33.9. We can rightly assume it would have been this way regardless of Jacob's scheming. Can we not? Again, his mind is running wild and his imaginations are taking him to a whole other place that this is going to happen even though I prayed and even though I told God what He told me that it will be well with me and He is going to bring me to my kindred but surely Esau is not going to, you know, I know Esau. We can assume that God had already prepared the way regardless if Jacob made this plan or not. It was a waste for him. Maybe one day heaven will reveal all the wasted effort on our part for not simply trusting God. Wouldn't that be something? I really don't think it's going to play out. I don't think he's going to pull down that screen. I really don't. Turn on the projector, angels, and let's show what John Albrecht could have done. You know, let's show John all the waste of his life. I don't really think that's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen, actually, completely, but I don't think that's going to happen. But if it did, we can only imagine that God could show the majority, maybe, of our lives that we spent planning our own way. And now let's show John all the prayers he prayed about that very thing. There's a prayer. Look at all those prayers he prayed. He didn't believe any one of those prayers. He just said it because he knew that's what he was supposed to do because he's a good religious boy. And I'm talking about me, not you. And, you know, we have to check ourselves. Oh, we're not religious, we're Bible believers, are we? Do we really believe the Bible? Is it really working in our lives or are we just going through the religious motion? Okay, it's a good question. The blessing is, however, that God overlooks our stupidity and is willing to bless us anyway, just as He did Jacob. You know, He blessed Jacob. I already mentioned that. He blessed him. He gave him. He's the one that had power with God. He's the one who grabbed his brother's heel when he came out of the womb. He's the one that gets the birthright. He's the one that His name is changed to Israel. God overlooked a lot of things in His life. And you know what? Don't just give up. Look, if I get up here and ever slam you or slam me, it's not so that you walk out the door with your head down in shame and say, well, I could never measure up. That's not the idea. It's just to recognize who we are and what our tendencies are. The idea is that we might want to just improve. and get the correction and improve and realize that God is so merciful and He overlooks our stupidity. I mean, if He didn't, I wouldn't be saved today. I mean, I lived 19 years of my life. I could have went to hell any one of those 19 years. God overlooked a lot for me to say, you know what, I'll just wait. He's going to get saved one day. I got foreknowledge. I see what He's going to do. I'm watching down the road and I'm just going to let Him live. Yeah, I should have killed him right there. I killed him right there. John, you're worthy of death right there. But you know what? I'm not going to do it. I died on the cross for you, and I love my creation, and I'm going to let you go a little longer. And God will let that happen. So, he overlooks our stupidity. Praise the Lord. In verse 24 through 26, And Jacob was left alone, and there he wrestled with a man until the breaking of the day. I'm looking at the clock. I don't know what we're going to do here. And 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. And he said, Let me go. That's the angel. Let me go for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go except thou bless me. Now we're going to stop right there. The Bible doesn't say much about that host in verses 1 and 2, it just tells you that He saw it. And then you have to take what we did here this morning and understand about the Lord of hosts and how He deals with a nation and how He fought their battles. The Bible makes you do that kind of thing. And the Bible doesn't tell you who this man was either. But it does tell you in this section that He wrestled with a man. in verse 24. And this man, if you go to Hosea 12.4, don't do it because we don't have time for you. Hosea 12.4 tells you that he wrestled with an angel. But Jacob says in the passage that I saw God face to face. So here we got three terms. We got a man, we got an angel, and then God. So you say, well, who is it, John? I don't know. I know this, it was not an ordinary man. It was not like you and me. It was not wrestling with a man. But I also know this, and I give you the scriptures, because we say it quite often here, and many of you have been in this church a long time, and you might know this, but angels are always men. Angels are not women. Now, I'll back up for a second. They can be, but they're not holy angels. And angels don't have wings. So not that you worship icons and I hope you don't have these things floating around your house just like that other thing I talked about, the heart with the wrong saying on it that I've seen before. But hopefully you don't have little angel trinkets in your house with wings sprouting out of their back and think that that's cute and they're protecting you. Because number one, I can take you in the New Testament with Paul and tell you not to worship angels. And number two, I can tell you that the ones that do have wings that look like the long haired prissy women that you have, because that's all they sell you, you go to Zechariah chapter 5. It's been a while since I've mentioned this but this was one of our Genesis lessons. Go to Zechariah chapter 5. And this is on your paper, I think I put this on your paper so you don't have to remember this, but look at verse 11. No, that's not what I want. It's not verse 11, it's verse 9. It starts in verse 9, it goes down. and they lifted up the ephod between the earth and heaven then said I to the angel the angel see he's talking to a holy angel that talked with me whither do these bear the ephod and he said unto me to build it in the house of the land of Shinar that's Babylon and it shall be established and set there upon her own base that's talking about setting up for the Antichrist and these two angelic winged women show up And you say, well, how did they get that way? Well, we don't have time to talk about that, but even the devil, it talks about Lucifer not having the desire of women. You say, why is God so against sodomy? Why did He burn Sodom and Gomorrah down? There's a spiritual connection to that. There's something that's going to come and what's coming to our country and all this sodomy that has to do with what you just read in Zechariah chapter 5. How that that becomes demonic and then God, you know what God does when a person goes to hell? I believe this. When a person goes to hell, He changes them into a worm. Because they look like, and He changed them into a worm on the cross. We're out of time, but maybe you've heard this teaching before. David said, I am a worm and no man. He was describing himself, but he was prophesying of Jesus on the cross. I am a worm and no man. We take upon us the form of our Father. When we get saved, we become predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. And when Jesus took upon Him the sin of the world, He became sin for us who knew no sin. He became sin. He changed into that snake that you see on all the paramedics. that they wear on their badges and on their emergency vehicles. And that why is that snake on the cross? Well, that's what Moses lifted up in the wilderness. But as the but as Christ was lifted up, so shall or as most lift up the cross in the wilderness, so shall the Son of Man be lifted up. Right, so when people get to hell, the Bible says the worms cover thee. And so when you get to hell, you take on the form of a worm. And so when you get when you get into sodomy, I can show you in Romans chapter one that God changes your mind He changes your mind and you do those things which are not convenient and when you say, I've always been this way, well you weren't always that way but when you got that way, when you decided to go that way, yeah, that's why you can't seem to change because God gets in there and He actually changes your mind. We would be amazed. I would love to go to some churches and preach that as a message. I'd love to go show them Psalm chapter 2. In Proverbs chapter 1, when God says, I will mock at your calamity, I will, when your fear cometh as a whirlwind, I will laugh at your calamity. He says, I will mock when your fear cometh. You know, people don't know the God of the Bible. They just know the God of their own minds. Right. But my point is that these angelic beings, a holy angelic being would be what he wrestled with here, a man. That's why the Bible calls it that. Now I gave you and we'll stop here because I'm out of time and we'll pick up again later. But Genesis 19, 5, Luke 24, 3, Revelation 21, 17. Those are just a small, small handful of verses that show you that whenever a man judges 13, When a man shows up, but he's an angel, but he's a man, he looks just like a man. You know what the Bible says about you? The Bible says that you and I were made a little lower than the angels. We're just a little lower, but we're just like them. See, if I saw an angel, what would he look like? He'd look just like you, except he'd be a man. If you're a woman, he wouldn't look just like you, but he'd be a man. And you wouldn't know the difference. OK, and so but so I don't I don't know what he wrestled or who he wrestled, if he wrestled God or if he wrestled one of God's angels. The Lord is called the Lord of hosts in the Bible. The Lord is also there's the angel of the Lord. Now there's what's called a theophany. That's when Jesus shows up in the Old Testament. We know Jesus as Jehovah in the Old Testament, but sometimes he shows up as the angel of the Lord. and he shows up because when he says to him, what's your name? And he says, my name is Jacob. We'll talk about it next week. But Jacob says to him, well, what's your name? And he says, why is it that you ask me? In other words, don't you know who I am? Didn't you already see me on your way when you went to see Laban in the first place? And didn't you just see my hope? Why are you asking me my name? But it gets pretty deep, but we'll have to stop there because we're out of time and we'll get into the rest of the story in the chapter next