One of the things that not a lot of people know about me, because I'm more of a basketball guy, was that I actually have a little bit of wrestling in my background. So you'd say, well, you're from Iowa, that makes sense. All the athletes wrestle in Iowa, and the kids who can't wrestle play basketball. For myself, because pretty much every young man wrestled, it was a bit of a rite of passage, I actually did do just a little bit of wrestling in elementary and junior high, and then I tried to do a little bit of wrestling in college. Now, it's not what you think. I was not a college, anything like that, but at Pensacola Christian College, they had a very robust intramural wrestling program. So, I decided that I was gonna try to do some intramural wrestling. Now, I had not wrestled in a long time, but I'm from Iowa. It had to be in my blood, right? So I ended up working out. I knew I needed to kind of do some working out and some putting in the, I did some lifting and did some kind of bulking up as much as I could in my tiny little frame back then. And I went through the process and went through it and I wrestled, got to my first meet. and just got destroyed. It was as painful as I remembered it being. It was just a bad situation. And so, I did all of this, and after one wrestling meet, I said, that's it. I'm done wrestling. And my wrestling career that had been revitalized from my elementary and junior high years in college was over as soon as it had started. I had forgotten, wrestling is hard. It is not a fun sport. Now, wrestlers would tell you it's a fun sport, but that's because they're a little nuts. Wrestling takes commitment. It takes commitment to work. It takes pain, practice, eating not a lot of food and sweating a lot. And the other thing about wrestling that is really, it can be very uncomfortable. I remember here as a youth pastor, I took Jen to her first wrestling meet down at Elyria High. And she had never been to a wrestling meet. And a wrestling meet smells different than any other sport in existence. And we ended up sitting right down close, and being close, there's almost an uncomfortableness for how close wrestling is. I mean, wrestling is like, there's a community that said, if you're gonna get in a hammock with someone, you better know them. Wrestling is the same way. Wrestling is something that you better know that person, because you're gonna get to know them, mainly in an uncomfortable way. You have to get up close and personal to wrestle. You can't just run around the mat and try to stay away from the guy if he's going to beat you. There is a camaraderie that happens amongst wrestlers. It seems like the closer and more physical something is, the more of a connection that there is. And that is very true, not just in wrestling, but in many highly dangerous, difficult scenarios. In fact, many who have served in dangerous, difficult scenarios know about this. How many young men keep going back into service and into the field for their brotherhood? How many couples have walked through a struggle together, and when they reach the light at the other end, they have a bond that is different, stronger, better. Obviously, it's not always like that, but through the struggle and the grind and the work and the effort, when it is done with or in the context of someone else, it can bring this bond and connection that can be very significant. This week, many of us, many of you, as I've been hearing from you, have been praying the prayer, Lord, Teach us or teach me to pray. And this week, there's a very real possibility that you found out what you probably already have always known. Prayer, even though it's easy, it's kind of hard. Like anything worth pursuing, we find that there needs to be an investment, a commitment. There needs to be time, there needs to be effort. I feel like a coach or General Patton, there needs to be this, there needs to be that. Although with cleaner language than General Patton. We need to work through this. Prayer involves work. We find that as we struggle with prayer, when we get to a point where we realize we're not putting in the effort, it comes from a result of we either don't want to put in the work, or we don't know how to put in the work, Or we're just struggling to put in the work. It is one of the struggles of the Christian walk. It is something that God's Word by precept, by principle, and by precedent says over and over, fervent prayer works. But it involves work. When we fervently pray, God provides, reveals, He answers, He leads, and He blesses. Today we're going to look at three different prayers in three separate occasions in Genesis. And in the Old Testament, we really see very little in terms of instruction. It is mainly by example. It isn't until Jesus teaches on prayer, as we saw last week, and we'll see in the future of this series, that we learn more about the learning about prayer. What we have in the Old Testament, as is true so often, is we have these examples. but there is much to learn in terms of example. In each of our instances of prayer we are gonna look at this morning, we're gonna see what it means to wrestle with God. Each one of these is part of a bigger story, which we'll touch on in a little bit, but there is much to be learned and applied when it comes to prayer in each of these sections. Last week was about praying, ask, seek, knock, how to pray, and the persistence of prayer. This week is about closeness. It is about proximity. It is about grabbing on. It is about holding on. Are you ready to grab hold of God? Are you ready to struggle with the one who wants to help you with your struggle? And we need to start where we want to grow, in prayer. Heavenly Father, for we have, in some cases, for the first time, and Lord, maybe in other cases, kicked back up this commitment to pray. Lord, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and power, and Lord, you command us and you urge us and instruct us and want us to pray. Lord, may we learn today what it means to, as Paul describes it, to strive together in prayer. May we be reminded of the struggle in prayer for items connected to that struggle. Help us, Lord. We ask this in the name of your Savior, our mediator, the one who makes intercession for us and allows us to come boldly before the throne of grace, Jesus Christ. Amen. The first prayer we're going to look at this morning is found in Genesis 18. Genesis 18. Now, I'm taking a little bit of liberty because you're going to see, we're going to see today that this does not exactly feel so much like a prayer. In fact, the first mention of the word prayer is in Genesis 20. It'll be coming up in just a little bit. But there is an intercession that is going to be made today, a prayer or an intercession of Abraham for Sodom, or maybe, probably more accurately, for those who are in Sodom that would be considered Look with me at verse 20 there. Genesis 18 verse 20 says, Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord." Now obviously this text is a part of a bigger story. Within the Old Testament, one of the things that is important to note about the Old Testament is it takes longer sometimes to make a point because you have a lot of narration and there's a lot that is going on. There are bigger points as opposed to when we would teach a preach to the epistles where a paragraph can have multiple applications and multiple points there. We have more of this example. And the bigger story here, as you know, is the story of Abraham and Lot. It's the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's an important story. It contrasts those who are righteous and those who are wicked. With Lot, really contextually, there's the context even of proximity. In fact, the Old Testament, it's always important to note Where people turn, when people turn, what direction they turn, are they standing up, are they sitting down? Those are usually, especially within the early books of the Bible, those are significant points. In fact, we kind of see that there. I will go down. The men turned away from there. You even see this, verse 16, the men rose there and looked towards Sodom. The direction a person is looking, the movement that is taking place. And even with Lot and Abraham, right? Abraham had said, you choose. Lot says, I'm gonna go here. And the progression of Lot looking that direction, choosing that direction, moving closer, but saying, I'm not gonna move into Sodom because of the wickedness there. By the time we get to this story, he's moved into Sodom. He's going farther and farther away from Abraham and really going, by extension, going farther and farther away from the Lord's blessing. And Lot very much plays like the foil to Abraham. Abraham follows. Lot wanders. And after God reveals his plan to Abraham and to Sarah, the son, the one through whom the promise of a great people had come through, these men who are interacting, which we understand is the Lord in the flesh. There's no doubt about this. We have here, I believe rightfully we would say the pre-incarnate Christ. Verse one, then the Lord appeared to him. And then we have reference to the Lord said in verse 17, And we have the three of them. Now it's interesting, by the time you get to Sodom, there's only two of them, and it's the two angels that are referred to. So the three men here, it appears are two angels and the pre-incarnate Christ, the Lord. The angel of the Lord would be even a term that is used in the Old Testament. And God gives an evaluation, a great evaluation of Abraham in verses 18 and 19. And he's asked this question, should I reveal this to Abraham? What I'm gonna do to Sodom? And God knows how Abraham will respond. By the way, God knows how you will respond to the awareness of those who are under judgment and those who are suffering the effects of sin. In fact, what we see here is a prayer for those who are facing judgment coming up. That is the intercession that is taking place. Abraham has been keeping the way of the Lord He is the one that has been all about this, and he wants this thing to take place, and there's an outcry, it says there in verse 20, against Sodom and Gomorrah. The outcry is great. That's the word for a lot. And it's grave. That's the word for heavy, weighty. It is serious. It is significant. Imagine if God came to you and said, I am going to deal personally with your family and deal with them according to their works. Would you be worried? It says there, I'm gonna go down there, and at the end of verse 21 it says, I'm going to check out this Christ, it says, and I will know. What if God visited you out here in the parking lot and said, I'm going to head into Illyria, and I'm going to deal with Illyria according to their works? Would you be worried? Should be. Our God is just. And Abraham responds, and it's interesting what he does. It says, and Abraham came near and said, would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? I'm going to ask my wife to come up here and help me with an illustration about this. Abraham, in verse 22, it says, he still stood before the Lord. It says, and Abraham came near. This is the first time in scripture that this word is used. It was interesting when I looked up this word. This word is a word that refers to closeness. It is a word that is used in terms of intimacy. It is a word that is used later on in chapter 19. It says that the men of Sodom drew near to the door. And I'm only gonna do this really with my wife because of COVID and all that. She has no idea what's about to happen. She's very nervous, all right? So I'm gonna illustrate what it means to draw near. Hi, honey. How you doing? Good seeing you. Thank you. There you go. You can sit. Now, I don't want to make this up, but the word draw near is used in the Old Testament for intimacy between a husband and a wife, even. Look what Abraham does. Abraham drew near. In a time of COVID, we really don't get to draw near, it seems like, to anyone outside of our family. Abraham, we've talked about persistence. This is about proximity. This is about getting up close and personal. If you're gonna get that close to someone, you better know them. You better have some sort of relationship with them. You better be comfortable with them. Abraham, Again, it doesn't seem like to be a prayer, but he has sought an audience with the Lord, and it's almost like he said, hold up, Lord, and he draws near. Abraham gets right up close. He's probably violating the Lord's personal space. He is right there, and he is definitely violating social distancing rules. He gets close. To get close to someone or something, there are a number of things to consider. To get close to someone or something, you have to move away from something else. It's almost an investment. You have to be, you're almost doing something also. I'll just let you know, alright? It was very hard for my wife to ignore me in that spot right there. Drawing close to God is about doing something in which you almost are going to God and say, God, don't ignore me. I'm making my requests known to you. He gets close. Lord, I have something to ask you. And what does he ask? Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? There is so much in that question. So much about suffering, judgment, justice, righteousness, wickedness, longsuffering. And Abraham obviously knew Lot was there. As we said, Lot has already moved that direction, and Abraham is probably hoping and assuming Lot is still righteous, and there's been some sort of influence of good in that city, and he's really hitting on a big question for his family and for people in general. Why would bad things happen to a righteous people? Would you destroy the righteous with the wicked? Now, the book of Romans tells us what? There is none righteous. No, not one. And you know this story. We're not gonna spend a lot of time on the details of the story. This is the story where, as Abraham is praying, he is interacting with and bargaining with God. Would you destroy a place and not spare the 50 who are there? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, verse 25, so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you, shall not the judge of the earth do right? Lord, aren't you gonna do right? Why won't you do this? And he kind of does this part, and I love the term that the Lord uses at the end of verse 26. If there are 50, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. What can we learn about prayer here as well as proximity? There is that God is appealing to God, that Abraham is appealing to God's character. the attributes, who He is, His justice, God. You are a just God. And Abraham keeps asking, right? He does the math. Then he says, well, verse 27, well, and again, when you mess up your prayer or you want to bargain with your prayer, what else do you need to be? Humble. Well, he said, I am of ash. I am but dust and ashes. and I have taken upon myself to speak of the Lord. But suppose there were five less than 50. Would you destroy it? If you would save it all for 50, come on, five less, 45, would you do that? And this attitude of humility, by the way, there's also the attitude there of recognizing he is the creature and God is the creator, knowing who God is. And he keeps appealing, goes from 50 to this 45. He works it all the way down to 10. At the end of verse 32, God says to him, I will not destroy it for the sake of ten. So the Lord went his way as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place. The consequences of the judgment of God is what is causing Abraham to pray, to draw near, to bargain it out. Prayer feels like bargaining sometimes, doesn't it? Now, we have to be careful. A big part of the deception of the prosperity gospel and other perversions of the gospel are really closely connected with feeling like you can use, manipulate, or control God or the Holy Spirit. Listen, we don't use God. God uses us. We cannot manipulate or control God. He is a God who is in complete control. But the Word of God is very clear that we can be a part of God moving. our prayers can be used by God as a part of accomplishing His will. I had someone say to me one time, why should I even pray? If God's got His will and God's got it set out, why should I do that? And I said, well the Word of God says that prayer avails much, so my answer at that point as I tried to think through it was, I believe the Word of God must be in some sense saying that your prayer is a part of the plan of God doing that. God knows these prayers. He knows what is gonna take place. It is very obvious the point of this passage is that Sodom was full of wicked people. In fact, let's face it, Abraham's prayer is an absolute failure in man's eyes, right? Because Sodom is still going to be destroyed. However, Lot would be spared. I was thinking about the direction this conversation was going, and I was wondering, could Abraham have gotten the Lord down to one? Would God have spared the wicked for one righteous man? We know the eternal answer to that, right? Christ is the reason There is salvation available to all. In Romans chapter 5, it says, For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one day, yet perventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And later on in Romans 5, it says in verse 18, Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came unto all men unto justification of life. Abraham has made this appeal, Lord, please do right, do not destroy. This reminds me a little bit of being a parent. Being a parent has so many phases, yet there are some things that are consistent. Once the kids start critically thinking, they can get into bargaining about the punishment mode. You ever dealt with that, parents? All right, did this wrong, this is gonna be the punishment. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, listen, listen, you know, mercy, mercy. We had a punishment jar in our house. I know it sounds fun, right? That's the kind of house my wife has put together. And when they disobeyed in a certain aspect, they would have to draw out a punishment. Now, there was in that jar a little slip of paper that was called mercy. We found out later, it appeared to us that, I won't name any names, one of our children, who's the middle one, he kept drawing mercy every time. We found out later he had crinkled mercy up so he could pull it out and figure it out every time. For a parent, we are the law-layer-downer. In that situation, the young person or the child is the mercy-suggestor. We should wrestle with God for mercy for those who are under judgment, but not laying aside justice. He is the judge. Abraham, instead of seeing the judgment side of the judge, he is talking about the righteous side of the judge. We need to be praying, wrestling, bargaining, Lord, have mercy. This first prayer is about those facing judgment. The next prayer, we'll see the servant of Abraham making the first recorded prayer, as far as I understand, that doesn't have God directly in his presence or in the conversation. Now, as I said, Genesis 20 has the first word usage of prayer. And it actually happens in an interaction with Abimelech and Abraham, and you know the story, Abraham again uses Sarah, his wife, to kind of get out of having any struggles in the area, and in verse seven of Genesis 20, it says, when God is talking to Abimelech and saying, basically, your life is on the line, he says, now therefore, restore the man's wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall live. And later on in verse 17, it says, so Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants, and then they bore children. It's the first reference to prayer in the Bible. But we're not gonna look at that. I want you to look a little bit farther. Genesis chapter 24. The second, as far as I could see, of praying to God happens with the servant of the Lord. And this passage has its own unique set of circumstances. Abraham commands his servant with a very intimate tradition. Again, we're in the mode of wrestling. I remember this young person, I've heard many young people, the whole covenant of grabbing a guy's inner thigh is a little too close for comfort. but you better know the guy, right? You better have an interaction with the guy, and it has all to do with proximity, and again, this is part of the bigger story. The story here is God's continuing provision, and in this case, God's provision for Isaac, a suitable wife, not from the Canaanites, and that's really the main point God provides, and in a lesser manner, God provides for Abraham, and in the case of this prayer, for Abraham's servant. It is interesting to note the provision for Abraham, which became the provision for Isaac, comes through the immediate provision to the prayer of a simple servant, which tradition tells us the servant's name was Eliezer. Now, there are times when I was kind of looking up stuff, people kept referring to Eliezer, Eliezer, and I couldn't find his name in the passage, so I kind of looked around, I was like, where does this come from? So I thought, well, maybe it refers to him as Eliezer later on. Maybe it referred to him beforehand, and I found that scripture does not give this person's name. I found a humorous commentary that because of the punctuation in one translation, some people thought his name was Putt. P-U-T. Because it said, Putt, comma, I pray thee, comma, put thy hand under thy thigh. And so that person actually thought his name was Putt. Now that's a punctuation messing someone up. It was saying, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh. The Bible doesn't tell us his name. And by the way, that's a great study of the people whose names we don't know. Jewish tradition is what tells us the name of this servant was Eleazar. This servant, by the way, is given a very difficult task, find the perfect wife for my son. By the way, if you had someone you could trust to do that, some of you would do that, right? Can I hire somebody to do this, to find the perfect wife for my son? And he's given a very difficult task. Now, he does have an out. Look at verse eight. Abraham talked to him and says, if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be released from this oath, only do not take my son back there. So he has this out, but he has this difficult task. And in the midst of this difficult task, we see this first laid out prayer starting in verse 12. And then he said, O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day and show kindness to my master Abraham. Again, a bit of a bargaining prayer. Lord, here's my plan, and we have to be careful about this. This isn't a, Lord, if I do this and you do this, kind of a laying out the fleece type of thing. But I think one thing that is interesting to note here, the way that Eliezer prays here, and you see it in the verses, you can see it there, he's going, I stand by a well of water, these people are coming out, would you have a young woman come out, and I'm gonna say this, and hopefully she'll do this, and then hopefully she'll do this for the camels, and this is what he does. In his prayer, he lays out a plan. Lord, This is my plan. I believe in prayer, it is important. The word of God, in principle, talks to us about having a plan. We shouldn't live life without a plan. And there are times we come to God and say, God, this is a difficult task, a difficult decision, a difficult thing in front of me, and Lord, this is my plan that I'm going to try to see work its way out. Lord, please bless that plan. I love what verse 15 says, and it happened. Before he had finished speaking, behold, Rebecca comes out. It happens very quickly. I remember one time, my parents, we had a flat tire. Kids, this was before cell phones. That wasn't very long ago, by the way. We had a flat tire in the middle of the night between Cumberland, Iowa and Atlantic, Iowa. My dad went out to start changing the tire, and my mom said, kids, let's pray. that God will help your dad. And before mom had said amen, a pickup truck had pulled up behind us, those guys jumped out and helped jack up the vehicle, and we were on our way like that. And I remember as a child the significance of that, that even before mom had been done praying, God was answering the prayer. That's what happens here. It all happens. Verses 16 to 20, it all happens. So the prayer was answered, right? I think it's important, as we learn about prayer, what happens in verse 21. Eleazar or Putt. Wondering at her remained silent. Look at this. So as to know whether the Lord had made his journey prosperous or not. He waits. He checks it out. He wants to make sure, is this truly of the Lord? And as all this plays out, he then gives another prayer in verse 26. And the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. He said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his mercy and his truth toward my master. As for me being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren. And here we have this response to specific answered prayer. He prays, prays. Prays, P-R-A-Y-S. Prays, P-R-A-I-S-E. He gives praise to them. It's a great description of God's leading. There's a little bit of a, we get the next foil, the next guy that really doesn't seem to follow after God, Laban. Later on, as this story continues, you see farther in verse 50, Laban, how he interprets what happens. It says, then Laban and Bethuel answered and said, the thing comes from the Lord. We cannot speak to you either bad or good. We don't know if this is good or bad. If the Lord did it, it was good. Can you imagine how difficult this task would have been for Eliezer? You know, the business of heart change is a difficult thing. We face difficult tasks as believers. We try to read up on every book on parenting, counseling, ministry, evangelism. You can be as sharp on that as you want to be, but without the hand of God, to use the servant of Abraham's term, giving us success. It's an interesting word, that he used back there, that word, will you give me success, in verse 12. The word success means to make happen. In fact, it's actually used in Nehemiah chapter two. I found this interesting. It says, a letter should be given to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams. That's the word. Beams for building, to accomplish something. That is the term that is used there. Success is literally what it takes to accomplish Lord, give me what it takes to accomplish this task. He asked for success. There's another word he uses there in verse 12, and show kindness to my master Abraham. It is a very humble prayer, isn't it? He's saying, Lord, it's not even about me. Show kindness to my master Abraham. But you know what that word kindness is? I know you do. It's the word that is interpreted over and over and over in the Old Testament, mercy. Give me the beams, make it successful, and show mercy. We need to pray for God to lay the beams and to have mercy, to wrestle for this provision, to pray, Lord, take my efforts, take my plans, and do your work. The Lord, he says, he waited, he was silent, he remained silent to know whether the Lord has made his journey prosperous or not. When facing a difficult task, we need to ask the Lord, we need to get close to the Lord, we need to pray to Him. Lay those beams, Lord. We have one more prayer to examine when it comes to bargaining, requesting, and wrestling with God, and this is the one we all have been through through the annals of Sunday school stories, right? Genesis 32. Who wrestles with God? Everybody together, Jacob. As with these other prayer incidents, as is true of the Old Testament, we have to recognize that this is part of a bigger story. Jacob, is dealing with the consequences of stealing from Esau. In fact, Esau had said, I'm going to kill Jacob when all of that had taken place earlier. Jacob, in having to face all that is going to take place concerning Esau, is on the back end of, what, 14 years of premarital labor? It's like premarital counseling, only worse. And an even bigger scope, really what we see is God's plan for working in and working through and from Jacob, who as we know is about to receive his new name, correct? Israel. This story's about Jacob understanding his part in God's plan, but there is going to be this wrestling aspect, and Jacob here is very much facing fear. I would even say that he is facing danger. He has done everything he can. To know Jacob's story here is to know that his life had been up to this point and really will, even continuing through, will be one of never-ending struggles. Though God had promised through Jacob at his birth that there would come a great nation, Jacob is a man that lived his life full of fear and anxiety, and really, in this pivotal moment where he's going to meet Esau, he is probably worrying about his life. In fact, earlier on, there had been 400 men sent out, and Jacob is really trying to manipulate the situation. In fact, if you look back, it says, he's trying to find grace in his sight in verse 5 of chapter 32. Verse 6, his messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and 400 men are coming with him. If your brother, who had vowed to kill you, who was, you know, he was the muscle man in the relationship, muscle brother, you're trying to ease tensions and you're sending gifts over there. It says, well, he's coming to meet you with 400 of his best men. That's not a greeting party, is it? And Jacob here is broken," in verse 7, greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks of the herds and the camels into two companies, and he puts together this plan. It's not a good one. If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, verse 8, the other company which is left will escape. What is Jacob doing? Jacob is doing what his name indicated. Jacob is doing what he had done his whole life. He was manipulating. He was trying to control the situation. Everything Jacob did was, I'm going to do what is necessary to get out of or into what I want out of this situation. And he is even manipulating here. But there's this prayer, verse 9 through 12. Then Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac. By the way, who doesn't he refer to as God being the God of? Himself. The Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you. Humility, verse 10. I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which you have shown your servant. For I crossed over this Jordan with my staff, and now I've become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, lest he come and attack me and the mother with the children. For you said, I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. And he camps out. He says, God, you're the one that told me to go back there, but Jacob is still manipulating. He is still the deceiver. He is still the trickster. He is the one who had previously, also in the previous 14 years, had personally, he would say, built up this huge wealth. He was always a self-made man. But he saw us in front of him, and Jacob's at a point that many of us get to. He's at the point where things are out of his control now. He can't deceive, manipulate, solve, buy, gift, work his way out of this. And what God is doing is God is using this fearful, dangerous, out-of-control time in Jacob's life to build up the relationship, God's relationship with Jacob, to work on Jacob's heart. He had sent over all the gifts. He had sent over the first company. Verse 22, he arose that night, took his two wives, his two female servants, his eleven sons, and crossed over the fort of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Jacob here even sends over, he's the last one, it's almost like, if I could just get out of this with my own personal life. Probably one of the most cowardly things you can see taking place. And in verse 24, then Jacob was left alone. and then something very strange happens. In fact, I believe the Word of God, I would have loved it if the Word of God had given us just a little more information about what happens here. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. What? I mean, just, is this some guy just wandering through the woods? What happened here? I mean, the definition there is to grapple, it's the word to get dusty, to be dust. Now, there's a dust-up that happens here. Now, Illyria has been known as of late for its dust-ups at quick trips, right? There's something here, and we all know a little bit about that, but let's say if I got home late tonight, and Jen was like, well, why are you home late tonight? I was like, well, there was this guy, and we wrestled. There would need to be some explanation there, right? What is happening here? In fact, we don't even know who initiated that. I kind of like that we don't know who initiated it. Did Jacob initiated it? Did he think it was some guy from Esau that was a scout and he jumps him? Did that guy grab him and jump him? What happened here? What is taking place? Why is all this happening? And the other question, the more important question probably in our context is, what does this have to do with prayer? Well, Look at what happens in this working with God. Verse 25, now when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him. And something happens here. And we get this prayer. It's not a super long prayer. Verse 26, and he said, let me go for the day breaks. That's the man who we know is the Lord. But he said, I will not let go until you bless me. It's kind of a prayer about prayer, right? And we all want to be careful not to over-spiritualize this, but I think it's important to note what's taking place here. They have wrestled throughout the night. At some point, this stranger cripples Jacob with a blow to his hip that, by the way, would affect him the rest of his life. And it is then that Jacob realizes something. We know this from verse 30. Verse 30, Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. He recognizes that he has been changed. Jacob has been given a new name, Israel, which means he struggles with God. Verse 29, it talks about Jacob saying, tell me your name, I pray. He said, why is it that you ask about my name? And he blessed him there. Verse 28, your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. I believe by the time that Jacob gets to verse 26, he at some point recognizes it's the Lord or God. And what Jacob appears to be doing here when he realizes that he has the ear of God, maybe literally, in a headlock, and has God right there in his grasp is classic Jacob, give me my blessing. It's not the first time Jacob was enamored with receiving a blessing. His mom had instilled that in him. And in this time of fear, of danger, of helplessness, of hopelessness, of loneliness, of uncertainty, Jacob wrestles with God. Have you wrestled with God? I will not let you go until you bless me. There are lots of illustrations, I believe, in wrestling in prayer, wrestling in being blessed. But it's not so much about blessing in these ways, it's more about God is the one who is leading him and revealing to him. This is the place where Israel begins. Let me ask you a tough theological question. If Jacob had not wrestled with God, would Israel have happened? There are some applications here, I believe, and we've talked a little bit about. First of all, we need forgiveness. Jacob was guilty of what he did to Esau, and he was deserving of that. And Jacob had tried to work his way out, but Jacob did not have control over Esau's heart. Jacob had perseverance here. Jacob was one that also had a very major, I would say, spiritual awareness. But Jacob here also receives his identity from, literally, from Christ. I came across this as I was kind of working through this. Look what happens here in chapter 33, verse 20. It says, there he erected an altar and called it El Elohi Israel, which means God, the God of Israel. Right after Jacob, now known as Israel, wrestles with God, he builds an altar, calls it the God of Israel. He is the one who, as we pointed out, and it happened other times, God, you're the God of Abraham. God, you are the God of Isaac. But it isn't until afterwards that Jacob realizes that he's the God of Jacob, or the God of Israel. And then there's this humility, there's this reminder that came. He was limping, it says there. on verse 31, he limped as a lip. Jacob was made lame by this wrestling match from God. For a proud, self-sufficient, quick-witted man, this physical disability was a new area of intimacy with God and a reminder of his reliance on God and his interaction with God. We've seen these three prayers in the book of Genesis. All three of them really have had some up-close and personal encounters with God and God at work, right? Drawing near. laying out plans, wrestling, and it all is involved with closeness. The bargaining, the planning, the requesting, the wrestling, this closeness, to get close, to get intimately close demands a relationship. It demands a high comfort level with God. As we said, to get into someone's personal space means you need to know them. I don't believe this wrestling is so much about repetitiveness, although we have seen Jesus refer to that. I believe it's about getting close and making the request and appeal in a very personal way, even getting uncomfortably close to God, but also recognizing that God is going to do a work in you in that proximity. This is not designed to make you feel guilty. Oh, I haven't been wrestling with God. I believe the way that we need this is this is the opportunity to see that there's going to be something God does as a result of the wrestling with God. The reason I didn't like wrestling is because I didn't like losing or getting hurt. But if I had known that every time I wrestled, I was going to have great success, I would have stuck with wrestling. Our wrestling with God, we are promised, will always bring results. Always. It may not always be the results we want, but we will always see results in our relationship and our reliance and trust in Him. God's answers are yes, no, or wait and grow, and trust in the one who's in control. Oswald Chambers had an interesting insight on prayer. He said, our Lord in His teaching regarding prayer never once referred to unanswered prayer. It would be one thing to bargain, to make requests, to wrestle with God not knowing if it would do any good. But it always does good. We are bad and we need to improve. But this wrestling will always pay off. I wonder what God might do when we pray to have the opportunity to see what we can see God accomplish, to step back as that servant did and stop and be silent and see what God might do. To ask God to have mercy on a city. To ask God to provide a wonderful mate for a young man filled with promise. To see God bless and step us into a new era of a relationship with Him and His using us. Finishing this up, there was a set of verses that got to my mind and kind of ran into my mind, and that is found in James. I invite you to turn there as we close. James chapter five, it's a passage you know very, very well. It's a great promise, a great reminder. James chapter five, it talks about this aspect of praying and talks about the aspect of prayer. It talks about the, my notes are messing me up here. There it is, verse 16. Sorry, verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick as the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. And here it is. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. That effective, fervent is actually one word. It is mainly translated in the word of God, work. The working prayer, the operative, working prayer, the operation of prayer availeth, meaning it is able, it is strong, it has power. It has power, it has a force to do much. Prayer does much. The work of prayer does much. When you can't save them, prayer does much. When the task is difficult, prayer does much. When you are in fear or danger and God wants to do something, when we are at the end of our resources, God does much. I would encourage you, what is the commitment you need to make to pray? to say, all right, Lord, I'm gonna start wrestling you with this. In fact, I would encourage you, as we close in a word of prayer, to consider, maybe this afternoon, what is it I need to be wrestling with God about? And I would encourage you, let me know, as your pastor. Send me a text, tweet, chat, email, fill in the blank, write me a letter, send it in the mail. I'd like to pray with you, even if it's just simply this, or maybe you can just let me know, pastor, This is what I need to wrestle with God about. And then let's see what God will do. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word and for the testimony of your word, and Lord, I would pray that you would help us to pray, to get close, to know you, to want and get your attention, and that, Lord, we would make our requests known of you, and you might answer those prayers. Lord, thank you for all that you have done. We ask this in Jesus' name.