I wasn't supposed to preach today. I had a vacation week, but our brother, Pastor Angelo, was supposed to preach but had been exposed to COVID. He did not receive COVID, but out of abundance of caution, I decided, well, I stepped in. So you got me today and you just can't help that. So next week he'll be preaching. So I had to pick something sort of last minute and I made it in the bulletin on time. I thought we'd go back to Genesis chapter 32 this morning and look at the life of jacob for all of you who write in your bibles and say on such and such a date he preached this and i've already heard this you need to hear it again obviously because you didn't hear it the first time very well so genesis chapter 32 this morning genesis chapter 32 fabulous chapter and if i can and i always have the opportunity i want to go back to genesis so let's give our attention to the word of the lord jacob went on his way and the angels of god met him and when jacob saw them he said this is god's camp so he called the name of that place mahanaim and jacob sent messengers before him to esau's brother in the land of ser the country of edom instructing them thus you shall say to my lord Esau. Thus says your servant Jacob. I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants and female servants. I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I may find favor in your sight. And the messengers returned to Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau and he's coming to meet you and there are 400 men with him. And Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him and the flocks and the herds and camels into two camps, thinking if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape. Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, return to your country and to your kindred that I may do good. I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan and now I become two camps please deliver me from the hand of my brother from the hand of Esau for I fear him that he may come and attack me the mothers with the children but you said I will surely do you good and make your offspring as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude so he stayed there that night and from what he had with him, he took a present for his brother Esau, 200 female goats and 20 male goats, 200 ewes and 20 rams, 30 milking camels and their calves, 40 cows and 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys. These he handed over to his servants, every drove by itself and said to his servants, pass on ahead of me and put a space between drove and drove. He instructed the first, when Esau, my brother, meets you and asks you, to whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose are these ahead of you, then you shall say, they belong to your servant Jacob. They are present, sent to my lord Esau, and moreover, he is behind us. He likewise instructed the second and the third and all who followed the droves, you shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him, and you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob is behind us. For he thought, I may appease him with the present that goes ahead of me, and afterward I shall see his face. Perhaps he will accept me. So the present passed on ahead of him and he himself stayed that night in the camp. The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants and his 11 children and crossed the ford of Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream and everything else that he had and Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, Let me go, for the day is broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, What is your name? He said, Jacob. And he said, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed. And Jacob asked him, Please tell me your name. But he said, Why is it that you ask my name? and there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, for I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. And there ends the reading of God's Word. I'm sure many of you, Phil, as is often said, that when it rains, it pours. There are in life, it seems, nothing but problem after problem, and they all seem to come at once. One conflict after another, one hardship after another, so perplexing because they all seem to happen together. Do you ever think that in these particular moments, God is teaching you something very important, that God is teaching you to cling to him? That he has, particularly in all of these difficult circumstances, wrestled you down and made you cling, leading you to trust, turning your hearts to find help in him. That essentially is what grace is. That's what I want to think about a little bit with you today. When we look at grace in the life of Jacob, it was not the kind of grace we would expect. We think of grace as this sweet thing, this easy thing, this nice thing that God does to us so that everything will be great and he'll give us great circumstances and easy goes of things. But this kind of grace that we find in Genesis chapter 32 is crippling grace. It's assaulting grace. Jacob was reduced to a doll by the end of this. All of his strength was removed. In pain, he was assaulted by God himself, it seems. He was forced by the end of this to cling to whoever grabbed him and took him down with all that he had, knowing, I can't let go of this person. As everything was ripped away, it was in that painful loss of himself that there in that weakness, there in the moment of all the turbulence and difficulty and hardship when everything had seemed to come crashing down on him that he found grace and strength for time of need. That's what I want to preach to you today. That's what I want to talk to you about for a few minutes and deliver God's word to you with that theme, the Lord's wonderful grace to us. We speak frequently of it. We speak of it easily and loosely, but do we really understand it? Do we understand grace and what it looks like in the life of one of his children. And today I want to look at that with this basic theme that when God gives us grace, he is giving us grace in the ways and areas that we don't expect to fulfill his promise to us. The problem is, is we often try to stand in the way of that ourselves. And that's what I want to think about with you today. His wonderful promises as we saw exhibited today as he as that sign is put on a child and as he has his children what is God doing in the life of his children and how is he bringing his children to himself and what does grace look like in someone's life that's what Genesis 32 is helping us with this study in the heart of the life of Jacob if you've ever read Psalm 46 we love Psalm 46 be still and know that I am God God is our refuge and our strength the very present help in trouble therefore we will not fear and the very last words of that psalm are the most surprising the god of jacob is with us that is a startling statement was meant to be a shocking statement at the end of that psalm the god of who jacob jacob His name testified of his very character. Jacob, of course, we know his name meant to be a deceiver or a schemer. A schemer. That was the story of his whole life. He was a self-made man. He was a man who always did it himself. As he was always going along and progressing, it was always in his own strength. It was always in his own will. It was always in his own ingenuity. He was independent. He was independent from God. And he was independent from his church. He was going to live that way. And he was going to obtain the blessing his way. Remember the whole story, boys and girls, when he had planned to steal the blessing with his mom. And he stole Esau's birthright. And he deceived, I mean, we can even imagine, but we read these stories and they don't seem to, imagine deceiving your dying father on his deathbed, essentially saying, yeah, dad, thanks for everything. Now I'm going to deceive you at the very end of life. But he did that by putting on Esau's clothing and in a horrible act of deception, in a lie that was the lie of all lies, he stole that blessing through deception. He was a rebel with a cause, his own. And here we are for years. He has spent his life away from the promised land. He really is pictured as the wayward son of Abraham in the scripture. I really, there's nobody I find more interesting and probably somebody I identify most with. I find him a fascinating character is Jacob. when the Jews read the story of the prodigal son, you know, when Jesus told that story, son said, this was his attitude to his father and his kingdom, give me the inheritance. I just really am after that. Not interested in your God, not interested in church, not interested in anything other than the money. And then he took that inheritance and he ran off and he squandered everything in prodigal living. This is Jacob. He's a total fugitive. Remember, he has been far away now from the land for some time. He has been in Haran with his scheming uncle Laban. He finally met someone who could rival him. Laban was just as good. And all these years he spent there in struggle outside of the land, in difficulty. Here's the marvel of it. Here's the marvel of this story. Wherever he went, God blessed him. Wherever he went. Look how he left Haran. Look how he left with all the fullness and blessing. The marvel of the little phrase in Romans chapter 9 that everyone gets stuck on. Jacob I've loved, but Esau I've hated. it's been rightly said you're focused really on the wrong thing. The marvel is, Jacob, I've loved. It's a marvel that God would love anyone like this. That God had made a promise to Jacob when he left the land years ago, you'll remember. And remember when Jacob had left the land, he had just schemed his father. He had run away from Esau in fear and he runs out to Bethel. And remember what happened to him there? Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. And there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it, and behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. you shall spread abroad to the west and the east to the north and the south and in you and your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed behold Jacob I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and I'm going to bring you back I'm going to bring you back to this land for I will not leave you till I have done what I have spoken to you. Hear that last statement. I'll be with you. I will keep you. And the basis of all of this, I will fulfill everything that I promised regarding you and your household. I will do that and none of that will be in any way dependent upon you. It will be dependent upon me. Now this is a remarkable thing that was said to Jacob as he's leaving the land. So in the last chapters he has been held in bondage by Uncle Laban. He has now broken free from that tyrannical circumstance and now he has decided to come home years later. Coming back to his father. Coming back to the land of his fathers. Coming back to the promised land. Now, what do you expect at this point? Well, we can say that something's beginning to happen in Jacob that is rather remarkable, isn't it? Something is happening. It's remarkable to think about, after all these years, how patient God is. All these, you can testify to this in life, all the stupid same sins that we pursue, all the disregarding of him, All the taking time away from him. All the attempt in life to do our own thing. All the little paths that we've taken each week away from what we know the will of the Lord is, doing our own thing. And think about what is beginning to happen to Jacob. It's a recognition in some ways of the prodigal and the pigsty. My father is such a good man. what am i doing i'm gonna rise up and i'm gonna go home and maybe just maybe my father will give me even a door to be a doorkeeper in his house maybe i could i could i could just be a servant in the house what am i doing running away like this and doing these kinds of things it's an important moment because i think what we begin to see in the life of jacob in chapter 32 is a changed man, a heart that is finally being one. And how God dealt with him. You know, it's ultimately in life, the gospel, God's tender care, his covenant mercies, his patience with us that wins us. You understand that? God's relentless love and God's relentless favor begins to slowly win over the hearts of people. Oftentimes we sort of expect this. I'm sure some of you here today have family members and sons and daughters who are maybe in the pigsty right now who receive this. They know better. This was Jacob. They know better. And we expect God just to sort of whiz, bang, slam them and bring them down and we expect a big radical moment for him to deliver somebody. That's what we want. It's really remarkable at times with covenant children how God works through the little things in ordinary providence and that the change is not quite as quick as we want it to be. It's supposed to be a great encouragement to us that god is often not in a hurry even though you are i mean that's a reason there's a reason we're still here god's long suffering toward us very patient not willing that any of his sheep should perish but that all should come to repentance there's a reason we're still going on there's a reason we're still in this life there's a reason that the end has not yet come it's this very point that god is often not in a hurry and that he is very patient and that he's changing our hearts in ways and and and at times then in ways that we would not expect and if that is indeed taking place something is going to happen and that's what we begin to see in the life of jacob as grace begins to restore this son i want you to notice here that god is also the author of our repentance. That too is grace. God is the author of this. And I want you to notice how it all together is orchestrated and put together so you see this. So I want you to notice in verse 1, we read that Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, this is God's camp. And he called the name of that place Mahanaim. Literally the double camp. It's quite a scene because what you have pictured here is that this prodigal has come back to the land and he's come to the border of the land and I want you to notice there who met him at the border of the land. The angels. The angels. What we're picking up here is that the promised land is guarded by angels. This is something that's important. God had always said that he would be with him. His home was here. He had tested the waters, and he had fled, and he had run. And God had said, even through that, I will be with you. I will never leave you, nor I will forsake you. But here he is. He's coming home, and he first meets the angels guarding his home. You should have noticed here this beautiful imagery of coming home, a place of protection, a place where God's people are, a place where God dwells with his people. But I want you to know something very important. Jacob has to pass somewhere first. He has to go through the region of Seir. Seir was the country of Edom. And lo and behold, guess who's there? Esau. Esau was a powerful lord over the whole region. Esau was a king. Esau had thousands and thousands of servants who bowed. He reigned over the territory. Remember the last words of Esau regarding Jacob? They're these. Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him. And Esau said to himself, he swore a covenant here, the days of mourning for my father are approaching. Then I will kill my brother Jacob. Now when God's bringing a son home, what does he do? Well, essentially, he fulfills the purpose that he has for us. Anyone can say that. You can look at that. We love Jeremiah 20, was it 29? You know, we put this up on bulletin boards everywhere. I know the plans for you. I know the plans that I have for you to bless you. You know, it might not go the way you think. I want you to notice here what happens. What was the promise of the Abrahamic covenant? The promise of the Abrahamic covenant was the saying to Abraham and his seed, saying to Abraham and his children, you will be a blessing to all nations. This is far before what would develop in the book of Exodus, where Exodus captures for us a sort of picture of the consummation of all things when they finally enter the land, and it was to be cleansed. And that was, in their failure, we know, That was telling us about the new heavens and the new earth. When we finally enter in, everything in the new heavens and the new earth will finally be purged off the land. There'll be no more sin, there'll be no more evil, none of that. Exodus set all that up and explained that for us. But far before Exodus was Genesis. And in Genesis was the explanation of the covenant of grace. captured for us right out of the gates in Genesis was that before the consummation of all things, God would make a name great and God would bless that family and that that family would be a blessing to all the nations in the earth. Here we are. It's picturing fulfillment of what we're enjoying now as we are called to be a blessing to all the peoples in making known Jesus. prodigal runs from everything church, God righteousness and now he comes home and now he faces the God who is determined to fulfill his promise so what does Jacob have to face this is our God this is our God in God's strength he has to face his wrongs Mount Sarah was not on the way to the promised land it was way out of the way Jacob could have avoided this by miles Jacob goes there and Jacob sends all these horses and blessings to Esau when years ago you'll remember these were the very things he tried to steal and now and remember it was this very theft and it was this very taking of the blessing. It was this very robbing of Esau that produced all the major conflict and falling out in this man's life. So you'll notice in verse 3 of this particular passage that Jacob sends messengers before him to Esau, his brother in the land of Sar. And notice the language, Speak thus to my Lord, thus your servant, Jacob says. I've been with Laban. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and servants and female servants. They're all yours. Because I want to find grace in your sight. Jacob had cheated his brother. Jacob had cheated his brother for the birthright and the blessing to be the one who was first. Esau was a reprobate. Esau was a total unbeliever. Esau was a rejecter of the covenant. But I want you to notice what it says. I am the servant. It's interesting here. He was first, putting himself first, and now he's making himself the servant before Esau. It's a title for someone who's in a greater position. He's giving it back. He's giving it back. And he's pleading for favor in the sight of Esau. And the first thing I think you have to say as you look at this today is this is a new man. This is repentance. Right here we're seeing what grace has done in the heart of this man. We're seeing what genuine faith begins to look like. It's sincere. It's real. God will not let this child rest and bring him home until there's reconciliation with his brother. For true believers, there are past sins and there are consequences for those sins. And though those sins can be forgiven, you never totally escape the consequences in life, do you? God will not let it go ignored. I want you to know that. That's one of his blessings of grace to you. God's going to make you go through the past painful experience to reconcile what needs to be reconciled. That's one of the things I've seen in ministry when people run from things. You're never getting away with it. Understand that. You're never getting away with it. It'll come back. It'll come back. God doesn't let it happen. He will forgive and then he will orchestrate in providence to show how he's working in his power, a way for you to pursue reconciliation with your brother. I've become more and more convinced of this along the way. We're going to have all kinds of conflicts with people and we just came out of a whole book studying that. Some Christians, some non-Christians that will have conflicts. And understand this, that when God is working to bring repentance in the life of an individual, in the life of his children, he starts to reverse things. He doesn't let them go forward until they address and make right what needs to be made right. That's sanctification. Overwhelmed here by Jacob, how he begins to humble himself. He does everything he can to compensate for the wrong. Notice the language. He's restoring the blessing, not the heavenly blessing, the earthly things. He's recognizing Esau, and notice the amazing moment to go into the future, He had to make this right. When saving grace is worked in someone's life, the Lord makes you face the fear. He makes you face the burden. He sets it up so that the sins of the past are dealt with so that there's restoration. God doesn't often let us move forward with peace without going through the path that he has in these sort of scenarios. This is his chosen route for us. This is his chosen route. Peace and giving that to us. And notice what he has to face. Notice what he has to own. Notice what he has to deal with. God has assured Jacob of his presence and his love. And now for the first time in the whole Genesis story of Jacob, we finally see a soft heart, a soft heart. We see the child of the covenant. I have to remember this with people. I have to remember this about myself. Especially those who have been given everything as covenant children. Everything. Those who have been given everything. Especially when they have all this other material blessing. Those who have only known that. those who have only tasted that are the very ones most slow to recognize it all. See, those who come out of a lot of hardship in life and come out of flat-out unbelief and lived in darkness know what I'm talking about. Very slow. Very slow. And that's what we have here. I think some here today need to hear that. It's a really important thing to remember. God is so patient. The next thing we read about Jacob, I want you to notice, and the messengers come back to Jacob. We came to your brother Esau and he's coming. And 400 men are with him. That's an army. That's an army. The next thing you read about from Jacob, he was greatly afraid. This is the first time in his life he's afraid. Understand that? It's the first time in his life he feels fear because he's been a rebel. 400 men. Last words, I'm killing him. How's that for doing what's right? How's that for coming home? Put yourself in his shoes. Is that what doing is right produces I got to face things? I've never felt fear. Never been on my knees. Prodigals are never on the knees in prayer. And now you have the first recorded prayer of Jacob in Scripture. What a prayer it is. there has been absolutely no prayer by this man. Which is another thing you want to say. When you have everything, and you're doing your own thing, and you're independent from God, there'll be no prayer. Now he prays. Then Jacob said, Oh God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, Return to your country and your family. It's time to go home. God told him that. And I will deal well with you. I'm not worthy of the least of all your mercies and of all the truth which you've shown to 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, the mothers. For you have said, I will surely treat you well and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Whoa! He is now latched on to the promise, hasn't he? Finally! Finally! What a tough covenant child! I'm not worthy. Finally! Finally the knee went down, Psalm 51. God, be merciful to me. nothing from this man's mouth but arrogance and pride hated worship did what he wanted to do I'm worse than Esau yeah you were actually yeah you were but you made a promise to me deliver me like you said grace is crippling grace is crippling grace is restorative grace is crippling it's just really powerful in 22 he arises in the night verse 22 he sends even sends his wives female servants and sons away from him and here's the picture a sheep in the black wilderness is now alone remember there's no lights out there it's just pitch black everything has been removed from him he is back where he started when he left the land remember Bethel when he was leaving the land it was dark and the ladder was dropped to him a young rebel years ago in the desert alone God had dropped that ladder now he's all alone again everything seems to be taken away I'm sure I'm talking to some today who in all their hardship feel alone maybe the pains of the past are at times what you can't bear. What would you expect from God? I mean, ask the question. Grace, right? Help in time of need. You'd say, love. He needs love right now. He needs mercy. He needs help. Help the man. What does he need? Then Jacob was left alone and a man grabs him that night and wrestles him down to the ground and wrestled until the break of day. Seven hours they wrestled. It's all alone in the blackness of the night, scared to death. Keep in mind, he's trembling right now. He's scared. Is Esau coming? Who is this? Is Esau coming to kill me? This man physically assaults him. Can you imagine being in the middle of the desert alone? No weapons, nothing. You're all stripped down to nothing. You have nothing to defend you. And now someone has come in the middle of the black night and is trying to kill you. Guess who it is? Jesus. Jesus has laid hold of him. and this is no high school wrestling match, let me tell you. Whoever this is, seems like he's trying to take his life, knocks him to the ground and the beating and the shoving. Wrestling is an ugly sport. The gouging. It's a seven-hour fight. Imagine the thirst. Imagine the fear. imagine the pain i think it's the most defining moment of his whole life a shocking thing is said in verse 25 when the man saw that he did not prevail against jacob he reaches out his hand this is going to be some man and he touches Jacob's hip socket and the whole sinew shrinks right there. Who has the power to do that? And the imagery you have is finally this covenant son who'd been given everything and squandered it off. Just give me the money, give me the inheritance. I'm going over here. Finally, all the imagery you have is in the lone dark black night is he is clinging to this man for his life. That's where he had to be, finally. All he could do was hold on with all he had. The man did not prevail, but with all the strength that Jacob had left, all he could do was cling. Who was this? Well, it was the pre-incarnate Christ, there's no doubt, who showed himself that day and met him in the wilderness. And Jesus assaulted him. And he crippled him. And this was the most grace that could be given to him. You see, I think that's why Hebrews says, don't despise the chastening of the Lord. Because whom he loves, he chastens. When everything is going well, you think, ah, well, life's good. Life's good, right? I said before, I don't see those t-shirts too much anymore. We never think things are going well when we're being wrestled down and things are taken and we feel alone. And right then and there, in that absolutely helpless moment, what happens? Verse 26, this man says, let me go for the day breaks. Jacob says, I will not let you go unless you bless me. Careful what you ask for. What's your name? Notice what the Lord just did. What's your name? We know this is God. It says it right in the passage. He wrestled with God. In the biblical world, to reveal your name is to reveal your character. This is not just an empty exercise. It's like, this is drawing out a confession. What's your name? Who are you? The Lord's not done. He makes Jacob address his name. And what he's doing, he's drawing out a confession. My name is Schemer. I confess that by nature I'm a deceitful man. I'm a schemer and I'm a fraud. And right then and there, this man pronounces a new name on him. And he said, verse 28, Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you've struggled with God and men and have prevailed. What a story. This is the story of grace in somebody's life. This is the story of salvation. This is the story of a portrait of grace for you to understand it. You shall be called Israel. there's a lot of debate in the history of what exactly does the name Israel mean. The case can be made that Israel means God contended or God prevails. It's not that Jacob ultimately prevailed over Jesus. It's that God prevailed over Jacob in saving one of the hardest hearts in the whole Old Testament. And that's the story of Israel who fought him the whole way. And isn't this the best news today? God prevails in changing. God prevails in saving. God prevails in giving grace over the very hard hearts of our children. And he doesn't let them go without changing a name. The posture that he puts us in is one of clinging. This is what faith is all about. God shattered his strength. God took every bit of his self-sufficiency away. Jacob's whole life had been struggling with men. He struggled with his brother. He struggled deceiving his father. He struggled with God. He struggled with Laban. Conflict, conflict, conflict, conflict. Hard heart the whole way through. self-sufficiency, running and doing his own thing. And finally, here's the picture, with no strength in himself, he's clinging to Christ. That's grace. What an amazing scene. Jacob has humbled himself before God. God himself is pictured as humbling himself to come down to meet Jacob in his weakness and save him. And that weakness here would be, would be here's something sown where real strength was given. Grace is crippling to raise up new. When he lays his hand on us, on the source of our pride and strength and dislocates us, it's at that moment we come to a sober recognition of not only who we are, but how weak we are and how needy we are and how sinful we are. how unworthy we are, how incompetent we are, how arrogant we are. We are arrogant. And how God is strong to prevail. He will fulfill his word of promise. That's the whole point here. Abraham, you will be a blessing to all the nations. Jacob, you said that, Lord, so bless me. I want to see it. You want to see it? Well, you can read chapter 33. He himself went on before them. Here's what happened when these two brothers came face to face. He bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother. But Esau ran to meet him, embraced him, fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept. Is that not one of the most beautiful things to read? Is it not? Two brothers? And Jacob came safely to the city of Shechem, which is in the land of Canaan, on the way from Paddan Aram, and he camped before the city. When you come home, it's no longer about you. It's about showing Christ and his salvation to the nations. You're done with yourself. You're done serving yourself, feeding, doing everything for yourself. You begin to think a lot about the one who came down and went to the Garden of Gethsemane to wrestle for your salvation. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. the chastisement for our peace was put on him that he might give forgiveness to you the posture of a Christian which I still haven't learned real well but God's got it is a limping one not walking in our own strength but in Christ's and when we're made low we're raised anew that's the prevailing life that's the life that prevails the lower you go the weaker you are in that position there the power of Christ rests upon you and you're given a name that will endure that's good news today that's grace to you today he's not going to let you go he's not going to let you and your children go Some of them may try to do this, by the way. Some of them may head off and pull this. Lord, you made promises. My son or my daughter has done this. Help them. Save them. You said in your promises you'd keep them, go after them. Cripple them if you have to. You ready to pray that? to bring them home. This is the life that the Lord has for us. This is the salvation he's brought to us. And truth be told, there's no other place of joy than to know that the Lord's power rests upon us this way. This way. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great story today. Thank you for the study in the life of Jacob. May we, Lord, recognize your great strength and power to prevail and may we not have to test the waters to learn it. May we be a people of faith, us and our children, and see what a good, gracious God you are. You're going to bring us home. You are going to, by your grace, bring out what you call for repentance and faith, all of it by grace, so that we stand back and can sing Amazing Grace. knowing that it all belongs to you. Salvation belongs to the Lord. And today we celebrate that great truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.