Ron Dunn Podcast - Three Surprises Of How God Works

Episode Date: May 31, 2013

You are listening to the Ron Dunn Podcast. Ron Dunn is a well-known author and was one of the most in-demand preachers during the latter part of the 20th century. He led Bible studies all over the United States, Europe, and South Africa. For more information and resources from Ron Dunn, please visit rondunn.com. I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the Old Testament, to the book of Genesis, chapter 32. No, I guess this is chapter 32. Right.

Right. Genesis, chapter 32. And it has been a joy to be with you today, regardless of whatever else has happened, and it has been a real blessing to Kay and I to be here. We appreciate so much your kindness and so much the kindness of your pastor. My wife said one thing today that I thought said a great deal. She said we've been expecting this

off and on for a while, but she said if we had to be anywhere when this happened, we're glad we were here at this church because of Michael and Terry's concern and interest, and that's nice. That's good. And I appreciate all of you praying for us, and we'll be leaving in the morning, and we're praying about this matter coming back. I cannot make a very objective decision at this point, but I will not know what things have to be settled. When we get there, there are a great many things that have to be taken care of, and it's just impossible for me to know at this time. But if the Lord is in it, why, we'll come back. And if He isn't, well, we won't right away. But thank you anyway for your prayers and your understanding. And now I want you to begin reading with me as I begin with verse 32.

Genesis chapter 32, excuse me, verse 24. Genesis chapter 32. I'm going to read verses 24 through the end of the chapter, verse 32. Genesis 32, verses 24 through 32. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. 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 for the day breaks. And he said, I will not let you go except you bless me. And he said unto him, what

is your name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed. And Jacob asked him and said, what is your name? And he said, why is it that you ask my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I've seen God face to face and my life is saved. And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh. Therefore the children of Israel, even to this day, do not eat of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh,

because he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh in the sinew that shrank. Beginning in about 1981, I started having some physical problems, mostly stomach disorders of some kind or another, and would eventually end up in the hospital. I would just start having a great deal of pain in my stomach, and it would get so intense that after a while I would have to go to the hospital. And they would do all sorts of tests, but would never find anything organically wrong with me. And they would keep me for a couple of days and run some tests, but would never find anything.

And then it got to where this was happening quite frequently and I ended up in a lot of emergency rooms in a lot of towns. The truth of the matter is, for a long time, when I went into a town to begin a meeting, the first thing I did was to find out where the nearest hospital was because there was a good chance I was going to end up there. And as I said, it began to happen so frequently, and I lost about 30 pounds, and I was just about at the point of collapsing from exhaustion and unable really to find out what in the world was going on. I used to think that if you went into a doctor's office or a hospital,

they could immediately tell what was wrong with you, but that's not the case. There are so many different options, and you have the same symptoms with about 100 different diseases. Every time they list the symptoms of some disease in a newspaper, I say, I've got every one of those symptoms. But anyway, what it boiled down to eventually was that most of my trouble was caused by tension and stress and the pressure of all those years living on the road, traveling from place to place. I guess you might say life in the fast food lane caught up with me. And I remember my doctor saying, your stomach has more sense than you do. It's telling you to slow

down. But I remember being in the doctor's office and he was saying, now what we have to do is to get you back on the road to normalcy. And there's some things I want you to start doing immediately. If you're going to get well and begin to heal, there's some things you have to start doing and doing them right away. So he picked up a piece of paper and he began. Number one, he said, I want you to walk three miles every day, at least four days a week, three miles every day at least four days a week. Three miles every day, four days a week. And do it in under 45 minutes.

No lollygagging out there. Number two, he said, I want you to see to it that you eat two well-balanced, nutritious meals every day. Number three, plan on getting seven to eight hours of sleep every night and remember the hours before midnight are the best. And that's when I said, doctor, can't you just give me a pill? I mean, can't you just prescribe some medicine or something like that, a pill I could take and would solve all this? The fact of the matter is, I don't know that I had time to get well.

I mean, all of that's walking three miles a day, every day, four days a week, and under forty-five minutes. Two well-balanced meals, are you kidding? On the road all the time like I am? Listen, to me, a well-balanced meal is a Coca-Cola in one hand and a ding-dong in the other. That's a well-balanced meal to me. And the most ridiculous thing of all was this seven to eight hours of sleep every night. And before midnight, I hardly ever get to sleep before two in the morning. Sometimes in those days, three or later, and I've

never been a good sleeper. And when you're out in a meeting and you're preaching every night and you don't get into the room until late because you go out and, you know, anyway. I said, ah, can't you give, isn't there some medicine that you can give me? He thought I was joking. He just shook his head and laughed, kept on writing. He didn't realize I was absolutely serious. And then he assured me there was. He didn't realize I was absolutely serious. And then he assured me there was no such pill, but I am not convinced. If you hear of a doctor that has something like that,

I want you to let me know. I want to check him out. Because what he was asking me to do was to change my lifestyle, and I didn't want to do it. I've talked to a lot of doctors since then about this and the vast majority of them all will say that the people that come to them, generally speaking, are not interested in changing their way of living,

bad habits and such as this. What they're looking for is some pill that they can take that will allow them to go ahead and live the way they want to and yet not suffer the consequences. And you know, I think in the Christian life, many of us are looking for a pill that we can take, an experience that we can have, a truth that we can take, an experience that we can have, a truth that we can uncover.

And in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, our life will be changed. We're looking for some quick fix, for some magic formula or some magic experience, some great ecstatic experience in a meeting somewhere where all of a sudden we are transformed. And when I became serious about the Christian life as a teenager and felt God calling me into the ministry to preach, I became concerned about my own spiritual life. And I would read stories of great Christians and we had great preachers

and others coming to our church and giving their testimony and it seemed to me that they all had something I did not have. They had a power. They had a presence of the Lord. They knew the Lord in a way that I did not know Him. And in reading the lives of so many Christians, it seemed that all these people had great experiences

and I got to thinking that what was looking for, what was needed was some of the, one of these days, I would have that experience. I didn't know for sure what it was or where to look for, but I just knew that, I knew that there was something I didn't have. I knew there was something I was lacking. And I said, I know that somewhere, maybe in the next revival or maybe the next book or the next tape you listen to, you'll discover something. You'll learn the truth. God will open your heart and you'll see as you've never seen before. And in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you'll be changed. I mean, just like that. When I was a teenager, I looked at the older people in the church, those who were 20 and 25.

And I said to myself, well, I'll be glad when I'm old like they are. Then I'll have all these problems settled. All these battles I'm having as a teenager, all these battles I'm going through. When I get old like they are and married and settled down, well, then I'll, boy, you know. Then when I got to be 20 and 25, I looked at the real old people in our church.

Those were the 30 and 35. And I said, well, brother, I'll be glad when I reach that age because by then I know that I will have conquered all of these problems and I will be everything God wants me to be. And most of my Christian life, I've been searching for that experience,

searching for that truth. But you know what? I've come to the conclusion there is no such experience like that. You cannot settle the problems of a lifetime in the moment. There is no one truth or one experience that you and I can have that immediately catapults us into spiritual maturity. So at long last, we have all of our problems conquered and we're everything God wants us to be. There is no such experience as that. And yet, we still look for it and pray for it and perhaps accept it.

But I believe the more I come to understand the Bible and the more I come to understand my own life. I think the average Christian misses a great source of knowledge about God by not studying his own life. The two places that I have found out more about God than any other place in the world is this book and in my heart. I've read not only the Bible, but I've tried to read my life, and I continue to try to read my life. I can best understand how God works by how He's working in my life. You see, I can look at your life and I can say, well, that's how God works, but I don't really know what's going on in your heart.

I don't really know what's going on in your mind. I may observe your experience, but that doesn't mean I can accurately interpret your experience. We're great observers, but we're poor interpreters. There is only one person in all the world that I know well enough to say this is what God is doing, and it's myself. And I've discovered that in my life, as God has worked with me, that he has not generally worked in the way I anticipated. I tell you the truth tonight, God has kept me off balance most of my life.

To this day, he continually catches me off guard. And in so many ways, I have found that the Lord has not worked the way I thought he would work. You know, you have these ideas, you have this vision of how you know, you just know God's going to work in your life this way and how He's going to bring you to where He wants you to be. But the fact of the matter is, folks, it hasn't been like that at all for me. Now, maybe I'm the only one,

but I've been surprised the way God has worked in my life and how He has brought me to where he wants me to be. And that's why I think this little story about Jacob is so important. It has a tremendous significance for us. There are two things that let me know immediately this story has real significance. Number one, because in the last verse when the writer talks about that ritualistic ban on a certain portion of meat they said that the Jews to this day do not eat that portion of meat in other words they looked upon this story here as not just a little historical incident but as something of great significance something that had significance far

beyond the event itself and so they hallowed it and sanctified it by putting this ritualistic ban on eating a certain portion of the meat. But the other thing that tells me this is of great significance is this is the first time you and I hear the name Israel. God says to Jacob, thy name shall be called no more Jacob but Israel a prince of God now plainly put I believe it's this this story tells us how God takes a Jacob and makes an Israel out of him

this is how God takes someone who is fraudulent and deceptive and selfish and self-egotistical to the nth degree and takes that person who is full of himself and full of the devil and turns him into an Israel. How God deals with his people to bring them where he wants them to be. And this is an interesting story. All of us are familiar, I'm sure, most of us are, with the story of Jacob and Esau. I've always gotten a little chuckle out of the story about Rebecca. She was not able to have children, and so she prayed that God would take away her barrenness and give her a

child. And sure enough, there she was carrying a child. But there was a great fight going on. I mean, there was tremendous struggle going on inside her. She couldn't understand it. I mean, it was hurting her. And she went to the Lord and she said, Lord, I thought this was supposed to be a blessing. She's not the last mother that said that.

She said, I thought having a child was supposed to be a blessing of the Lord. And I'm in terrific pain. And God said, well, the reason is because you have twins. You've got two nations growing up in you, and they're going to fight all the days of their life, and they've got a good start on it. They started fighting in the womb. And you remember the story when they were born?

Esau was born first, and he was covered with red hair, so they called him Esau, which means big red hairy wife. Jacob was born second. He came out of the womb with his hand grasping the heel of Esau. And so they named him Jacob, which means one who catches by the heel. Jacob, one who catches by the heel. The word reeks with sneakiness and deceit. It's the picture of a person who comes up behind you when you're not looking,

and as you walk, grabs you by the heel and trips you up. It is a person who is a cheat, a deceiver, a fraud, a con man. And Jacob lived up to his name. As a matter of fact, in Jeremiah 17, 9, when it says the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? When it says there the heart is deceitful, it's using Jacob's name.

It says the heart is a Jacob. The heart is a deceiver. The heart is a trickster. And you know the story of how Jacob deceived his brother and tricked his brother out of his birthright. And then when their father was dying and was about to pronounce the blessing, he was blind so he couldn't tell which son it was.

And Jacob went in and said, I am Esau. I'm the older one. And so he stole the blessing of Esau. And when Esau heard that, he said, I'm going to kill him. And that's when Jacob's mother said, be a good time, but you take a trip and go visit my brother, Uncle Laban. And he did. And Jacob was there for 20 years. But finally, he has to come home. No place else to go. He's had a very successful life, most of it through deceit. Has two wives, two companies.

He's a wealthy man, but he's having to come home and face his brother. And he knows his brother has vowed to kill him. As a matter of fact, on that very day, they've received word that Esau is on his way to meet Jacob, and he has 400 men with him. And so Jacob is scared for his life. So when they come to this river, Jacob says, now I want everybody else to go over on the other side. And I'll stay here on this side of the river tonight, and I'll come over in the morning and meet Esau. But I want y'all to go on over tonight. He's not after you necessarily. I want all of you

going over tonight. I need to be alone. And Jacob, true to his character, when he sent that whole bunch across, he put his least favored wife in front and his most favored wife in back because he figured if Esau did attack and anybody got killed, it would be the least favored wife got killed first. And that's the way Jacob was.

And so they've gone over there. And Jacob is left alone, the Bible says, and there is a sense in all of us are left alone at many times. He was left alone. There he was alone. And he had been praying, asking God to preserve his life, asking God to help him so that when he met Esau, he would live through the experience. And while he's there that night,

out of the darkness, suddenly a man leaped on him and began wrestling him to the ground. And of course, we know now that who he was wrestling with was with the Lord. And that's where he became an Israel. Let me just share with you tonight three surprises of how God works. How God takes your life and my life and brings us from being a Jacob to an Israel, to a prince or princess of God.

Surprising is the way that God has dealt with us. Surprise number one. I have been surprised to discover that my toughest battles in life have been with God rather than the devil. I always assumed that my toughest fights would be with the devil because the Bible talks so much about that. And Paul says we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness. And we do fight the devil.

There is such a thing as spiritual warfare. What I'm saying tonight is that I have discovered, what Jacob discovered that night, that my toughest fights, I mean my toughest fights, have not been with the devil, been with God. That sometimes when I thought I was fighting an enemy, I was really fighting God. For instance, we know who this is that leaps on him.

Now, Hosea calls him an angel, and it was a man of some kind, but whatever it was, we know it was the Lord. It was God. So here is Jacob sitting alone that night in the dark, I mean in the pitch black. And you know he's nervous. You know he's uptight and apprehensive, and all of a sudden somebody out of the dark

just leaps on him, throws his arms around him, and begins wrestling him to the ground. Now who do you think Jacob thought that was? I wonder who Jacob thought that was. Well, maybe he thought, oh my goodness, it's Esau, he sneaked up on me. Or maybe it's one of Esau's henchmen,

and I'm going to die right here. Or maybe it was just some passing cutthroat. The country was filled with these transit bands of warriors and thieves and cutthroats, and maybe it was just some guy coming by and saw him and jumped on him. You know, the old rabbis used to say, they had a theory. They said it was an angel, all right.

It was Jacob's guardian angel. I think that's funny. The angel that's supposed to be guarding Jacob is so sick of Jacob, he attacks him himself. Well, I don't know who Jacob thought that was. But I guarantee you he did not think it was a friend. I know that Jacob didn't cry out and say, Praise God, someone has come to bless me. No, sir, man, he thought he was fighting for his life.

This was an enemy. This was an enemy. And he wrestled and wrestled, but something happened. We don't know how it came about, but somewhere along the way in the process of that wrestling, Jacob realized that this is not an ordinary man. This is the Lord. And he clings to him and says,

I will not let you go until you bless me. Surprise, surprise. The mask is taken off, and it's not the devil at all you've been fighting. It is the Lord God Himself. What I'm saying to you tonight is that many times it's easier for me to say no to the devil than it is to say yes to God. You see, what God is after, He's after changing me.

He's trying to change me, and I resist that change. I mean, God is getting down to the guts of my soul, to what I really am, down to the depths of my being, and He says, I'm going to fix you up. I'm going to change you. I want you to be less of what you are, and I want you to be what I want you to be. And I'll tell you something, folks, you and I resist that. It's tough. We fight with God. Of course, you know, this is not the first experience Jacob had with the Lord. I think it's very interesting that 20 years before, when Jacob first left home, he spent the night at Bethel.

And you remember he had a vision that night and he saw heaven opened and an angel and a ladder reaching from heaven to earth and angels going up and down on that ladder. Angels ascending up and down on that ladder. My soul, what an experience. I mean, what an ecstatic experience.

Folks, have you ever wished that you could just have some kind of vision like that? Oh, I just know if God would give me a glimpse of glory, I could handle my situation. Lord, if I could just see an angel, what would it be like to see an angel and have God's presence confirmed? What a thrilling thing that would be. I know my life would be changed if I could just have that kind of great experience. I know it was would be changed if I could just have that kind of great experience.

I know it's a great experience for Jacob because that's where he decided to start tithing. And it takes a great experience to make a man start tithing. But here he is, 20 years later, and he's the same old Jacob. Folks, it scares me to realize how many great experiences you and I can have with God and remain unchanged.

Jacob saw the Lord. A vision. Heaven opened, angels. Here he is 20 years later, same old con man, same old deceiver, same old trickster. You can have a lot of great experiences with God and not be changed. So God is coming to him this time, and this time the experience is going to be a little different.

That first experience he had 20 years ago was wonderful and a blessing, and oh, it was great and with great pleasure and exciting and ecstatic, and didn't do him much good at all. This experience though, this encounter with God, is going to leave him crippled. It's going to be painful and hard, but this is the one that's going to change him. I don't know if there's a parallel or not,

but I seem to think that the older you get, sometimes the issues become greater and the struggle becomes greater. We were talking today at lunch about wishing that the only thing we had to worry about today is what we were worried about we were 16 years old and I have times I've said man I wish that my problems today were just the problems I had back then well of course back then God was just after pimples now he's after tumors and it takes a lot more to

get those out. And you know, the truth of the matter is, my dear friends, is that as you go along, God is dealing with greater and bigger issues and tougher issues. And so the battles become more intense. Why? Because there is something in us that resists change.

I mean, change to the very core of our being. God wanting to reach down into the very depths. He said, what is thy name? Now, was he asking for information? I don't think so. Do you believe that that angel did not know who he was fighting? Of course he knew. But he says, what is your name?

Now what's he doing? Why is he asking that? Jacob answers and says, my name is Jacob. You know what that was? That was a confession. God coming to him and saying, I want you to tell me who you really are what is your name what are you and when Jacob said Jacob

he was not merely telling him his name he was admitting what he was for the very first time and confessing what he was what is your name he said my name is cheat my name is deception my name is cheat. My name is deception. My name is fraud.

It's always been puzzling to me how you and I resist the truth. Man can't take too much truth at one time. Most of us cope in life by pretending. Most of us get through our lives by pretending that we are more than we are, by denying what we really are, by running from anything that might expose us to what we are. That's why so many people fight God and run from God. Why?

Because they know that God knows all things and all things are open and naked to the eye of Him with whom we have to do and that God knows us through and through and we can't stand that blinding light. But I want you to know God can never do the great work in your heart that He wants to do

until you are ready and willing to confess what is your name. Honest now, uncover it all. What is your name? My name is pride. My name is pride. My name is jealousy. My name is adultery. My name is lying. My name is hatred.

My name is bitterness. No wonder with names like that we don't want to tell people who we are. Toughest battles that I've ever had have been with God rather than the devil. Because God has been reaching down

into the very guts of my soul and is wanting to turn me inside out. Surprise. Second surprise is that I have discovered that I have tried to throw off and get rid of many of my blessings. The very thing that I've tried to get rid of and throw down has been my blessings. Isn't this exactly what's happening here in this story with Jacob? I mean, first of all,

Jacob is trying to throw this guy off. He's trying to throw this fellow down. He's trying to get away from it. But as I said a moment ago, somehow we do not know how it came about. All of a sudden, Jacob realized who he was, who he's wrestling with, and now instead of trying to throw him off, he clings to him. And the angel says, let me go, and Jacob says, I will not let you go until you bless me.

What a change of attitude. What a change of purpose. The very thing that was blessing you, you tried to throw off. We often try to throw off, throw down our greatest blessings. You see, folks, the trouble with us is we don't always know what's good for us. We have a fatal tendency, and that fatal tendency is this. We believe we can accurately interpret everything that happens in our lives. I mean, let's face it, folks, I know a curse when I see one.

You say this is a blessing? Oh, no, no. It's obvious. It's plain. It is a curse, and I'm going to get away from this thing as far as I can. But the truth of the matter is that kings sometimes come to our doors dressed as beggars, and sometimes curses come wrapped up as blessings and blessings come in the rags of curses and we do entertain angels unawares at times. One of the children

today complimented me on my ring. Said that's a pretty ring. And it is. It's a gold ring. My wife gave this to me for an anniversary several years ago. I also have a gold watch right here, and my wife gave it to me for my birthday. I don't know where she's getting all the money to buy this gold. But you know, these things mean a lot to me. They mean a lot to me because they came from her and her expression of her love, but they things mean a lot to me. They mean a lot to me because they came from her

and her expression of her love. But they also mean a lot to me because these things cost a lot of money. And we keep them insured. And I want to tell you something, it's not cheap. We had to renew that insurance not long ago and my soul, it just keeps on getting up. But I can't afford to feel like,

I can't afford not to have this stuff insured. Why? Because it's gold. Did you realize that in heaven they use gold for asphalt? The streets are paid with it up there. What we wear down here so proudly, they walk on up there. I'm convinced that if I made it to heaven

with my gold watch and my gold ring, and I walked in and said, hey, look here, I brought it with me, got my gold ring, got my gold watch, I'm convinced the angel of maintenance would say, glad you brought it. We've got a few potholes over here we need to fill up.

When the Bible talks about the streets of heaven being paved with gold, I don't think he's just telling us how beautiful heaven is. I think he's telling us how stupid you and I are and our system of values, what we prize so highly here. We were in Jackson, Mississippi, and our motel was right across the street

from an antique house, an old house, two-story white house that had been converted, and it was just an antique store. We walked in. That place was jam-packed with things, and we walked through there.

I'd pick up things, and my goodness, the tag expense of some of these things. I remember telling Kay, I picked up something, and I said to her, I've thrown away better stuff than this. And I have. For the last five or six years, every time I go home, go back to my parents' house,

I search diligently to find my baseball cards. When I was a kid, I had baseball cards. I had a Hank Greenberg, I had a Mickey Mantle rookie year. Can you imagine how much? That's worth about $3,000 right now. And I haven't been able to find them. I don't know. I'm afraid. I'm scared to death that when I went off to college, my mom packed them up and dumped them out somewhere. They're long gone. But I keep looking for them. I had no idea they'd be valuable. I'd have taken them with me. It makes me sick when I realize that I sold my 65 Mustang for 400 bucks. But nobody told me it was going to become a collector's item. You know what I'm telling my

kids? I'm saying save everything. Don't throw away anything. I mean buy a garage if you have to, but save it all. There have been a lot of things I threw away I wish I had back. There have been times and opportunities that I threw away. I wish I had them back. There have been moments of opportunity that I threw away because I thought it was junk. I had no idea it turned out to be one of the most valuable things God ever passed through my hands.

Folks, the very thing that you and I are trying to throw off and saying if God would just change this and if God would just get rid of this in my life, I could be happy. Now I believe that when you can change things, you ought to change things for the better. But I'm talking about those things

that we could change if we... we would change if we could, but we can't. I mean, they're beyond our power to change. And we prayed and prayed and prayed, and God has not seen fit to remove those things. I want to tell you something. If it's not good for you,

if it's not going to work out in your life, if it's not going to add to you, if it's not going to contribute to you, God it's not going to contribute to you, God will answer your prayer to take it away. But if He doesn't, you need to stop wrestling with Him. Listen. There are times

when I wish in my Christian life I had never preached on what I call the victorious life or the abundant life because you get the idea. That means that if you're filled with the Holy Spirit and you're walking in faith, that everything in life will be smooth and easy. I mean all honey, no bees, no work, all ease until we just sail into heaven.

And you turn on the television, and you hear that from a lot of people that are writing books and preaching on the television, that if you just will trust God and just pray and confess your sins and be victorious, you can walk through life unscathed. The only thing wrong with that is it's wrong. And I want to tell you something. It took a big jolt for me a number of times to realize

that just because things were going haywire in my life didn't mean I'd miss God somewhere along the way. And I discovered something. I discovered what Jacob discovered. I discovered that faith, faith is not the power to make things like I wish they were, but it is the courage to accept things as they are. When Jesus was on that ship with his disciples and the storm was raging and they said, Master, don't you care that we perish? Jesus rebuked them for their faith, lack of faith. But he was not rebuking them because they did not have enough faith to still the storm. He was rebuking them because they did not have enough faith to stay calm in the midst of the

storm. He didn't expect them to still the storm any more than God expects you to still the storms in your life. But what he does expect is for you to stay calm in the midst of them. You see, if we believe that God is always going to do that, if we believe that anything that is unpleasant to our lives, anything that has to do with anything unpleasant, any kind of suffering, any kind of difficulty, if we believe that that can be gotten rid of, then we are never going to get the full message

that God is trying to deliver to us through some of those things. No, faith is not the power to make things like you wish they were. The power is the courage to face things as they are and to take those things and embrace them and take them to yourself and let God use them as construction material in your life.

You may not know it now, but one of these days you'll know it. Some of those things you spent so much time trying to throw down really your greatest blessings. Surprise number three. I was surprised to discover

that good and bad run on parallel tracks and they usually arrive about the same time. Jacob got what he wanted. Jacob wanted to be able to meet Esau and live. And he did, he did. God came to him. And that wrestling match they had,

and of course you know that the angel popped him one on the hip, dislocated his hip, made a cripple out of him. Why? To remind him of where he got his power. God gave him what he wanted. God gave Jacob what he was asking for.

He was asking for power. He was asking for the ability to meet Esau and live through it. And God gave it to him. But friends, it didn't come in some ecstatic experience. It doesn't always come that way. This time with Jacob, it came in a very painful way. And he limped out the next day, but he limped out with victory, limped out with power.

He got what he wanted. He got the good that he wanted, but there was some bad with it also. I'm sure if you had asked Jacob, he would have preferred to walk out of there a whole person without a limp at all, but that was not his call. Jacob discovered that good and bad run on parallel tracks and they usually arrive about the same time. He said, preacher, what in the world are you trying to say? Here's my perception of life, and I'm sure

probably yours too. You know, you're working, praying, doing everything you can. Man, one of these days, you can't wait until you get out of school, or you can't wait until you get that new job, or you can't wait until the kids get grown and moved out, and then, man, you can really settle down and live life the way it ought to be lived.

You know what I'm talking about. Right now there's a lot of bad stuff going on but I'll have all this behind me one of these days as soon as I get all these problems settled then there'll be

nothing but good coming down the pike. There's nothing but good. And when I get right with God and I get all the bases touched and I nail down all the boards well then there's going to be nothing but just good stuff

coming down. Right now there's a lot of bad stuff coming down and I'm struggling through it the, why then there's going to be nothing but just good stuff coming down. Right now there's a lot of bad stuff coming down. I'm struggling through it the best I can. I've sort of got my life on hold until I get past this bad spot and now I can really get down to living. Someone said to me not long ago, life is what happens while you're waiting for life to start. But how many of us, how many of us have that perception of life,

have that view of life, that right now life is complicated and right now there are a lot of crosses and there are a lot of burdens, but one of these days, man, when you learn the secret of all this business, one of these days there'll be nothing but just good, good, good, good coming down to you.

But the truth of the matter is, it doesn't work that way. When my son was in seminary, he has a stomach disorder, and it's actually, I think, a colon disorder, and can make him very, very sick for a long period of time, and it usually is activated by pressure and stress, and he was going to seminary, working and going to school and trying to make a great average that would allow him to go on to graduate school under tremendous pressure. And he became so ill and missed so much school,

he dropped out one semester. He said, Dad, it's better to get withdrawal than it is to get Fs. Incompletes are better than Fs, and I'm just going to have to take out of school until I get past this. And he did. And he got all right.

And he started back in school again. And before long, the same thing happened again. He began to get sick and he talked about, I guess I may have to drop out again until this passes. And so we sat down and talked one night. And I said to him, Stephen, you're going to have this all of your life unless God sees fit to heal you. You're going to have this all of your life. Unless God sees fit to heal you, you're going to have this all of your life.

You need to learn now whether or not you can handle it. You can't detour. You can't pull over to the side of the road in a rest area and wait until everything gets nice and easy. Because when you get past this one, there'll be something else waiting down there. You need to find out right now whether or not you can do the job with the way you are. Because more than likely, all the days of your life,

you're going to be contending with this. And you know, you just can't pull over onto a siding there and sit down and rest until the bad gets by and then get back on the highway. It doesn't work that way. But the truth is that with the blessings

come those things that we call curses. With the good comes the bad. Once in a while it'll be all but good. Sometimes it'll be nothing but bad, it seems like. But usually it's good and bad, running on parallel tracks. And while God is blessing and giving me all the good things in my life,

it seems that God is also allowing some unpleasant things to happen in my life. But I understand that's the way it is. That's the way life is. That's what Jacob found out. That's what Jeremiah found out. That's what Job found out. That's what Paul the Apostle found out.

That's what you and I need to find out. That's what Job found out. That's what Paul the Apostle found out. That's what you and I need to find out. Good and bad run on parallel tracks. Kay and I have some very dear friends. I guess best of friends for years and years. Over, way over 20 years. They had a daughter who fell in love with a boy that they really did not approve of. They felt like this boy had some real serious character flaws. And so they told her what they thought. And they encouraged her to break it off with him. And you know what happened, don't you? It seemed like the more they tried to say he wasn't the right kind of boy,

the more determined she was to stay with him. And she married him. The sad thing is that the parents were right. The young man did have some very serious character flaws. And after a few years and two babies, he abandoned her. Ah. Oh, how it broke their hearts.

I've not had anything like that happen to me. But I can imagine. And they were ministers too which made it a little bit worse because you know how people are they think if you're a minister then your children ought to be perfect and if they're not

it just means you've been a hypocrite all the days of your life. So not only did they have to contend with the pain itself but there was some stigma attached to it and we watched them and tried to walk with them through it prayed with them with the pain itself, but there was some stigma attached to it. And we watched them and tried to walk with them through it, prayed with them, prayed for them,

and oh, the tears they shed, the tears they shed. That wife, that daughter, left with two little babies, abandoned. I never will forget one night, we had been with them, and we were driving home, and I had them so much on my heart. And I was saying to Kay, and I said, you know, if I were God, I'd change all that.

If I were just God, wouldn't it be wonderful, wouldn't it be wonderful if God said to me, you can do anything you want to do? And I were to go to our friends and I'd say, hey, listen, God has given me power to change all of this. And I have the power to reverse the calendar on this whole dismal affair. I can turn time back to where she never meets that boy. She never marries him. He never abandons her. You never know the heartache. You never know the tears. If you want me to, I can reverse this whole process. I can make it all go away as though it never happened at all. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Do you want me to do it?

Now before you decide, perhaps I ought to mention one thing. You do know, of course, that if I turn all this back and make it as though it never happened, you do know, of course, you'll have to give up those two grandbabies. So, your call. Now, folks, I'm not a grandfather.

My wife's not a grandmother. We're too young to be grandparents. But I see a few gray hairs out there we've got some grandparents out there let me ask you what would your answer be? what would your answer be? would you say sure I don't care about the grandkids

mind giving them up just turn it all back to where it never happened no sure, I don't care about the grandkids, mind giving them up, just turn it all back to where it never happened. No, I don't believe you'd do that. I don't believe you'd do that. I believe you'd say, in spite of all the tears and in spite of the heartache and the hours and the long months of pain,

I wouldn't take anything for my grandchild. Now, folks, I want to ask you a question. How in the world can you say that all that happened in that girl's life was bad when out of it came two precious lives that you'd die for? Surprising the way God works. And sometimes, good and bad run on parallel tracks

and arrive about the same time. Now, that's the end of the sermon. I'm going to do just a minute of speculation. I'll always tell you when we're through with Revelation, move into speculation. And this of speculation. I'll always tell you when we're through with Revelation, move into speculation. And this is speculation. I like to try to imagine what happened the next morning.

Here they are over here on this side of the river waiting for Jacob. Anxious about him and there he is, suddenly steps out, starts walking across that little shallow river, and they notice, my soul, he's limping. He's got a bad limp. He must have twisted his ankle or broken his leg.

Look, he's limping mighty bad. And as he gets closer, you say, my goodness, look at him. His hair is all disheveled. His face is dirty and bruised, and his clothes are dirty and torn. He looks like he has been in a dog fight. And you watch him as old Jacob limps up there with his bruised face and his soil closed. And they said, Jacob, what in the world happened to you? And he said, oh, I got blessed last night.

And you watch him as he limps off. And you say, Hmm, doesn't look like any victorious Christian I've ever seen. But he walks away with the blessing. No, he limps away with the blessing, always reminding him where he got it, always reminding him who's in charge, always reminding him that the ways of God

are far different than the ways of man and that God solves our problems far differently than we would solve them. I believe that's how God, though, takes a Jacob and makes an Israel out of him. Now would you bow your heads with me for a moment as we pray together. In a moment, we'll stand and the choir will lead us in a hymn of invitation.

But just for a few moments, just to be still and quiet and to meditate on the things that God has been trying to say to us. Dear Christian, tonight it may be that you're wrestling with something and that you've tried to throw it down, tried to get away from it. You've prayed. You've done everything you know to do. You've begged God to change the situation,

and yet God has seen fit not to change it. And it's become a point of conflict and maybe even a point of bitterness in your life. Could it be tonight, could it be tonight, could it be tonight that what you're wrestling with is the Lord? I think it's interesting

that this happened at night in the dark where Jacob couldn't see who it was. And I think many of the struggles that we face in the Christian life and decisions we wrestle with, we wrestle with them in the dark, so to speak. We don't know that it is

God who's dealing thusly with us. We can't understand why the Lord is allowing certain things to happen. Because it's night and we can't see. But it may be this evening that it's not the devil you're wrestling with,

but it's the Lord who is trying to do a work in your heart and life. And what He's asking you tonight is, what is your name? What is your name? What is the word, the name that expresses what you really are down deep where only you and God can see? What is your name? Ron Dunn's podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent.

It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. For more Ron Dunn materials, sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from his study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.