Message Notes

INTRODUCTION

1. What makes people pray?

a. New found faith

b. A special spiritual experience for Jacob

2. Comparing 2 prayers of Jacob

a. His prayer at Bethel Genesis 28:18-22

b. His prayer when he heard that Esau was coming with 400 men
Genesis 32:6

ADDRESSING THE LORD

Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, the Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’ “

Genesis 32:9

1. O God of my father Abraham
And God of my father Isaac

a. Seeking to establish the basis of relating to God

b. Connection:

i) Abraham

ii) Isaac

c) God had been:

i) Real to Abraham and Isaac

ii) He had been their God

d) Hope and desire

That God would be as real to him as He had been with Abraham and Isaac

2. The LORD who said to me
‘Return to your country and to your family, and I will deal well with you’

a. A personal relationship

b. God had spoken to him

i) He had directed Jacob to return to Canaan, his country

ii) To his family

iii) God’s promise to deal well with him

c. This was his faith and hope

i) In God

ii) In His word of promise to him!

GENUINE GRATEFUL CONSCIOUSNESS

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 have become two companies.

Genesis 32:10

1. I am not worthy

a. Genuine Humility

b. A sense of unworthiness

2. What God had given to Jacob

a. All His mercies

b. All the truth shown

3. Self-worth

a. Unworthy

b. Only a servant

4. Remembering

a. I cross over Jordan with my staff

b. That was all Jacob started with

5. The Present

a. And now

b. I am two companies

A DESPERATE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE

11 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.

12 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.’ ”

Genesis 32:11-12

1. Fear of Esau expressed

a. I fear him

b. Lest he come and attack me

c. And the mother with the children

2. Basis of the Plea for Deliverance

a. You said

i) Pleading what God had said

ii) Pleading the promise of God given

b. God’s promise

i) Well-being of Jacob
I will surely treat you well

ii) Descendants of Jacob
And make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’ ”

c. A heart-felt prayer
Both Fear and Faith

CONCLUSION

1. How do we pray?

a. How often do we pray?

b. Under what circumstances do we pray?

2. Are the elements in Jacob’s prayer ours?

a. A personal Faith in God

b. Pleading God’s promises

c. Exercising Faith while fighting Fear