Jacob at Jabbok

[Speaker 1] Churches and fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God always desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction on righteousness on Family Tent Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [background music: Be unto the Lord forever and ever, Amen. He has promised He would never fail. I can lean on Him. I can lean on Him. He has promised He would never fail. His faithfulness is forevermore. His faithfulness is forevermore.] [Speaker 2] Everlasting Father, we are grateful indeed again unto You this morning as we gather into Your presence for our monthly Singles Club. Lord, we thank You for bringing us again into the fifth month of the year, the month of May. The month that the Scripture says it was Ezra entered into Jerusalem at the fifth month of the year because of the good hand of the Lord that was upon his life. Lord, we pray that as we march through the fifth month, for all of us who are here physically, our brethren who are joining us on Mixlr, our brethren connecting with us on Telegram, and Lord, we all together, may the month of May be a month of grace in the name of Jesus Christ. May the good hand of the Lord be upon us for good in the name of Jesus. And Lord, as we reflect again on Scriptures this morning, considering the topic Jacob at Jabbok, Lord, we pray. Lord, speak to our hearts individually. Meet us where we need You most. Lord our God, our eyes are on You. Our lives are at different junctions, but Lord, You know the best way You can come to us as individuals. Lord, please come to us as individuals and then come to us as a group. Thank You, Eternal Father. In Jesus’ name we pray. Jacob at Jabbok. Jacob at Jabbok. We took that title from Genesis 32 when Jacob left Laban and he was to take his journey from Laban to return back to his father's house. And he came to a point where he got to meeting with Esau. That was the place that is called Jabbok. Jacob sent messengers ahead of himself to his brother Esau because he was to encounter him, he was to meet with him. And so when the message got to Esau, the Bible told us that Esau was also coming down with 400 men to meet Jacob. And it turned out to be a very critical time in the life of Jacob. And that is where we took our topic from this morning. We want to reflect on this matter of Jacob at Jabbok and see what lesson God can help us to learn. The burden of the meeting this morning, like I sent out yesterday for those of us who would have seen the invite, what I sent was the month of May Singles Club will focus on Jacob at Jabbok. It is a clarion call to the necessity of taking your bearing in life in the Lord. It is a clarion call. We are calling our young people today, we are calling our young men, our young women. And like I do say, when somebody was asking me that, "Sir, although I am married, I invite a lot of young people to connect online. Can married people also join Singles Club meeting?" I said nothing stops the married from joining Singles Club meeting. Whatever can be a blessing to you, why not join? In fact, there was a time I got a message from somebody who is already married and he was thanking us for the message at Singles Club. So I just told him that look, he said he always feels like connecting so that they can be sure that they also connect. I said, "So why not? You are free to come in and be part of what we are doing. You will even be an encouragement to those who are yet to be married. So why not?" So our call today is to young men, young women. And honestly, I do say it's a call to whether you are married or whether you are single, even though it's under Singles Club. Today we are finding a very, very challenging situation in our hand. Christians not taking their bearing in the Lord. Christians not taking their bearing in and from the Lord. And it's becoming a common episode today with many of our young people in different ramifications of life. And this May Singles Club, the focus is a clarion call to the necessity of taking our bearing from the Lord. That is what led to the topic Jacob at Jabbok. And so we want to go into the text, into the story. We want to read, we want to see the lesson to learn from this and see how God can help us as individuals so that these things are not just written down, but they are written down for our learning, we that the end of the world has come upon. So let's see the story, Jacob at Jabbok. Genesis—we will first read Genesis 32. We will first read Genesis 32, then we will go back to look at 30, 31, and then we will go a little forward to look at 33 and then we will now bring everything together this morning. Jacob at Jabbok. I read first Chapter 32, Genesis chapter 32. "So 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 the place Mahanaim. Then Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother in the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, 'Speak thus to my lord Esau, "Thus your servant Jacob says: 'I have dwelt with Laban and stayed there until now. I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants; and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find favor in your sight.'" Then the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, 'We came to your brother Esau, and he also is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.' So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed; and he divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two companies. And he said, 'If Esau comes to the one company and attacks it, then the other company which is left will escape.' 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": 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. 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."' So he lodged there that same night, and took what came to his hand as a present for Esau his brother: two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals. Then he delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, 'Pass over before me, and put some distance between successive droves.' And he commanded the first one, saying, 'When Esau my brother meets you and asks you, saying, "To whom do you belong, and where are you going? Whose are these in front of you?" then you shall say, "They are your servant Jacob’s. It is a present sent to my lord Esau; and behold, he also is behind us."' So he commanded the second, the third, and all who followed the droves, saying, 'In this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; and also say, "Behold, your servant Jacob is behind us."' For he said, 'I will appease him with the present that goes before me, and afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me.' So the present went on over before him, but he himself lodged that night in the camp. And he arose that night and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jabbok." That was where we knew that Jacob was at Jabbok. He was at Jabbok when this incident took place. He crossed over the ford of Jabbok. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had. Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. That's the main story for our consideration this morning. And from this story, we'll be putting together a lot of things. It's a very simple story. Jacob at Jabbok. Jacob was at Jabbok when he sent out his servant to go and meet Esau. The point was that Jacob had left Laban. That is in Genesis chapter 30 and chapter 31. Jacob left Laban. He took all his possessions, everything that he had. He left Laban. He was to journey to the land of his father. He was to journey to Canaan. And as he began the journey, there is no way you will get to Canaan without passing through the land of Seir. There is no way. You must pass through the land of Edom to cross to Canaan. So when Jacob got to Jabbok, Jabbok must have been a place not too far from where Esau was, or Esau resided. And so, Jacob now sent a message across to Esau that, "Please, we will need to pass through your land to the other side." So the messengers went and when they got there, they just told Jacob that, "We have delivered your message to your brother, and of course, your brother himself is coming, and 400 men are with him." Now, the Bible says the message became a distressing message for Jacob. The Bible says Jacob was greatly distressed. I want us to look at that text. Let's check it. Jacob was greatly distressed. Look at verse 7. It says, "So Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed." Let's look at a simpler version of that text. Let's look at NIV. NIV says, "In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him." What of NLT? NLT says, "Jacob was terrified at the news." So the point is, why was Jacob terrified? What was making him afraid? They only said his brother is coming with 400 men. What made Jacob afraid? What made him afraid? Of course, why he was afraid we understand. It was because of the way he left the house. He stole the birthright. He stole the blessing. Esau was about to kill him. The mother got to know about it. The mother quickly sent him away from the father's house and sent him to the house of his brother. That was how he got to Laban. So there was a matter that Jacob had not resolved. And you see, this is something I tell many young people. Whatever you are dealing with and you don't uproot, you have not dealt with it. As long as you leave the stump of something in the ground, you didn't uproot it. You know Jesus said, "All that my Father has not planted shall be uprooted." They will not be cut above. If you look at Job chapter 14, he said there is hope for a tree that is cut down; at the scent of water it will revive again. So whatever that you are dealing with in your life that you don't uproot, whatever you cut in the head, let me tell you one thing. Like I was discussing with somebody who came to weed the compound for me, the person instead of uprooting the grass was cutting them, leaving the root. By the time the thing will grow again, the thing became so difficult to deal with. I mean the weed, they became more difficult to deal with. When you look at what is happening here, Esau was a matter Jacob had not settled. At the initial stage, Jacob was to deal with Esau alone. But now the Esau had grown. He will not be dealing with just Esau. He will be dealing with Esau and how many men? 400 men. The Esau that you don't uproot as a young man is coming back in full force. It can come back as a haunting shadow. Incidentally, in the family devotion in our house, our focus has been on the life of Joseph and his brothers. Today we read how Joseph revealed himself to his brothers. And then when Joseph was to reveal himself, you know Benjamin was there. Benjamin will now know the story. They sold Jacob when he was at the age of 17. Jacob became a prime minister at the age of 30. That's another 13 years. Not only that, there was seven years of abundance of growth. So seven years plus 13, that's 20 years. Then at the time his brother came, it was two years into the famine. That's 22 years. We don't know whether the famine began all immediately after Jacob’s interpretation of the dream of Pharaoh. Because Jacob said God told Pharaoh it's about to happen. We don't wonder whether the famine started immediately. So I said roughly, the story of selling Joseph took place about some 35 years ago. That story that the brothers—a lie that they told 35 years ago still came back to confront them. It came back to confront them. They told a lie to their father. Their father has been living under that lie for 35 years. And he believed that the boy is dead. That was the belief of the father. But after 35 years, the truth came out that what you said 35 years ago is a lie. You see, young man, I am begging you. Don't sow for your future thorns. No matter how much you bury them, they will only grow taller. They will only grow bigger. I'm talking about Jacob at Jabbok. You will soon come to the Jabbok of your life. Jabbok is a place where your past will confront you. Anywhere a man gets to in life and his past will need to confront him, that is his Jabbok. That is the first thing about Jabbok. I want you to know, young man, young woman, a time will come when your past will confront you. No matter how you try to hide your past, you are only deceiving yourself. It will come and it will confront you korokoro like this. And sometimes it will come in a way that you don't expect it. The brothers, they went to buy grain in Egypt. When Jacob traveled to Laban and he ran away, he escaped from Esau, he would have been thinking, "Maybe by the time I will be coming down, coming back, Esau will have died. After all, he didn't get the blessing. They said he would be a servant of his brother. His generation will not be blessed." He would have become a non-entity. He would have become an agbero. By that time, I will have become very, very fast. I will just tell one of my servants to just kill him if he tries to do anything. He would have imagined a lot of things. He didn't know that he'd be confronting a man at a time in his life when he himself doesn't have one soldier. He does not have a single soldier. And 400 soldiers were coming to meet him. Why will he not be greatly distressed? He would have thought that, "Wow, I’ve escaped." Please, young man, young woman, I beg you. I beg you in the name of the Lord. Let me tell you something about your actions. Your actions, they are viable seeds. No matter how much you bury them, they only grow. Do you get what I’ve just said? Actions, your actions, they are viable living seed. They are living seed. The more you try to bury them, what happens to them? They only begin to grow. And you know when a seed begins to grow and you allow it to begin to grow, there's this adage in Yoruba: kekere lati n pa ekan iroko, to ba dagba tan owo o ki n ka mo. Let me interpret that for you. That Iroko tree, that Iroko tree that became a giant tree that nobody can handle was one time a tender plant. I went to visit one of my minister friend in his camp, Camp Manna, and there were several Iroko trees. They were still tender. And we were just pulling them up. We don't want this Iroko here, we want it here. If we leave that thing to grow another 25 years, another 10 years, we will need power saw to be able to cut it. What I'm trying to make you understand, when you want to bury your actions, make sure your actions are things that by the time they come to confront you, you will rejoice. Because they are coming back. Your past, they are coming to confront you. Your past, they are coming to face you. You will get to your Jabbok in life. There is a Jabbok. Do you know what God said? Why I know that there is a Jabbok in life? Please, let's go to Genesis from Chapter 8 to Chapter 10. It’s even a popular Scripture, let me just quote it. God was speaking to Noah when God was blessing Noah. God said He was blessing Noah and He made a covenant with him. He said seedtime and harvest time, they will never what? They will never cease. Seedtime and harvest time. Let me tell you, your actions are seed. Your actions, they are seed. Seedtime and harvest time, they will not cease. Every action has a Jabbok. I come again. Every action has a Jabbok. Every action has a Jabbok. It is coming back to confront you. Seedtime and harvest time, they will not cease. So I want to beg you. I want to beg you. When there are issues about your life, I don’t know what may be about your life now. Please, it is better to deal with a single Esau than to allow Esau to grow to have 400 men with him. Confront your Esau now. Repent before your Esau. Let your Esau forgive you. Don't allow your Esau to grow because let me tell you, as you are growing, your Esau too is growing. The Esau you did not uproot will be growing along with you. Don't hide. Don't, don't, don't hide a past. Don't have a past that you are hiding. Don't have a past that you are keeping, that you are running away from. Deal with your past. Deal with your past. Deal with them squarely. Deal with them, uproot them, finish them and clear them up. Because there is a Jabbok. There is a Jabbok. They will soon become hunting shadow that will be hunting you. That is the first lesson about Jacob at Jabbok. It is about be sure, be sure to know that your past will later come to confront you. Don't ever think you will escape your past. Go back, look at your past. Look at some things you have not dealt with. Oh, I remember this incident. I will not want to speak too much about—I will not go into unnecessary details, because these are people's personal life. It happened. I was to handle a—we were to handle a case. Although we were not the one that eventually handled it, everything has already gone their separate ways. But I was just discussing with the individual involved and the fellow just said that, "Look, the reason—the reason why I am insisting that this story that I heard about my wife is true..." Something that they have done—they have done this thing many, many years ago. It was something they had done many, many years ago. They have been married, I think the marriage has gone for over almost 30-something years, close to 30 years, I think 25 years, I can't remember. But they have gone very far in their marriage. But you know something happened and the man said the reason why he is holding to this particular case, he now made reference to when before they married. Before they married. He said, "Look, something happened. What happened was that while we were courting then, we slept with one another. And then she became pregnant. And I was thinking the best thing is for us to expose it and tell our leaders." These are not believers though. They are not believers. These people I'm talking to you about, they are not believers. He said, "I think we'll just make it known and then but so that we can keep the child. But she insisted that, 'No, how can we go and face such kind of a shame?' She insisted that we don't tell anybody. And then do you know that we had to abort the child?" He said, "So that was how we lost that first child." He said, "So this present matter, if she could hide that kind of a matter then, then, then, then, then, then, then, then, that kind of a person, I am sure she will have this kind of matter, she can hide this present one that we are dealing with." What I'm trying to bring out was that the lady felt that they have dealt with that and they are through with it. It is no more a matter. But do you see that that past after several decades inside that marriage—I know that the marriage was not less than 20 years—that matter came up and became the very thing that destroyed the marriage. That was what just scattered the marriage again. If they have dealt with that one thing then... Oh, my brother, my sister, listening to me, I want to beg you wherever you are. Handle your past squarely. If there is a past that you have not handled, that you are running from, please stop running. Handle your past. Stop running. Handle your past. Jacob at Jabbok. The next thing I want us to see is what followed. The Bible says Jacob was distressed and he began to divide, he began to strategize, he began to look for, "Ah, this time, blood will be shed." So instead of only the blood of Jacob, if blood was to be shed that time, how many blood are going to be shed now? In fact, we don't know the number. So he was thinking that, "Okay, let me quickly divide my group into two. If he kill all these ones, the other group will escape." Look at how many people will now die. You see one thing I've come to realize, when you live rightly, you don't only save yourself. You save a lot of people. When you live wrongly, you don't only kill yourself. You kill a lot of people. That's the reality. That's the reality. When Joseph resisted the offer of Potiphar, Joseph did not only become a prime minister. He also saved his brothers. He saved Pharaoh's house. He saved his generation. He allowed the purpose of God to stand. He was not the only one that was saved. When Bathsheba went down, it was not only Bathsheba that went down. Uriah went down. Their children became fatherless. Their marriage died. It was—it was not only that. Amnon slept with Tamar. Sword entered David’s house. Absalom killed Amnon. Joab killed Absalom. Solomon killed Adonijah. You see when you go down, you don't go down alone. We will not go down in Jesus’ name. We will not go down in Jesus’ name. Please wherever you are just pray for one minute. I'm praying for myself here too. "Lord, as I stand in my generation, I will not go down in any way. I will not go down. I will preserve my generation. I will preserve my generation. I will preserve my generation. I will preserve my generation. I will preserve my generation. I will preserve my generation." I prophesy over you according to your prayers and your faith. You will preserve your generation. By the reason of you, your generation will be preserved in the name of Jesus Christ. When you go down, you don't go down alone. That's the truth. Look at how many people will die because of Jacob’s action. So he said, "Let me divide them into two." Because with 400 men, like somebody said here, we the physical participants, how many will even escape? Will any of the company actually escape? 200 can go and finish one, another 200 finish the other camp. So how many people will really escape? So dividing into two camp, I don't really know how it works. Honestly, that is the truth. How many will really escape? May we be lives that preserve generation, not the one that cut down generations in the name of Jesus. Do you know why that is very, very important? God is a God of generation. You see when God call a man, God don't call that man alone. God call that man in his generation. That's the truth. God is a God of generation. He said, "I am the God—" Look at—you will soon see that. When Jacob was to pray, look at it. He said Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac." Are you seeing something? God is a God of generation. When God is looking at you, He's not just looking at you alone. He's looking at you in your generation. You and that your son. You and that your daughter. You and the daughter of your daughter. You and the daughter of the daughter of your daughter, and the son of the son of your son. That is why God is the God of sex. It was God that originated sexual intercourse. Because God is the God of generation. That is why we call God the God of sex. It is not Valentine. No, God is the God of sex. God is the God behind sex. Everybody who does not take to God in the matter of sex will never get it right in his generation. It is by sex that God creates generation, because God is the God of generation. If Adam had not sinned, sex would have been something that would have been in that eternal life that we were to live. It would have been what God would have been using to produce Adam when He said, "Be fruitful and multiply." It would have continued in that. It was sin that now made us to be abusing sex, premarital sex, extramarital sex. God ordained sex so that Adam can be multiplying, the purpose of God can stand. He said, "Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, fill it, and then have dominion." If man does not fill the earth, he will not be able to have dominion for which he was created. Man was created to have dominion. So God was a God of generation. God ordained sex so that His purpose can stand. So you are supposed to use sex to make God’s purpose to stand. God is the God of generation. I want you to see God in that order. So when you stand, what is standing? Your generation. That is what is standing. When you fall, what is falling? Your generation. The same for our men, the same for our women. And that is why you notice in the book of Joel—in the book of Joel, what did He say? Joel 2:28. He said, "It shall come to pass in the last days, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." What—who are the first set of people? He says, "Your sons and your daughters, they will do what? They will prophesy." God is a God of generation. "I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh." But the first concern of God is what? Your generation. Your son and your daughter, they will prophesy. What's the next thing? "Your young men will do what? They will see vision." Before it now come to what? To the old men. He said, "The old men will dream dreams." Young man, young woman listening to me, I beg you. Stand. You are a generation. You are a generation. Stand and stand well. Stand and stand correctly. Stand so that your generation will stand. And I prophesy over your life, no matter how it had been before today, may the God of generation bring healing and strength and restoration to every generation that is—that is experiencing any kind of disjointedness in the name of Jesus Christ. We will stand in our generation in the name of Jesus Christ. So it was beyond Jacob. What I'm trying to make you see is that at Jabbok, penalties are greater. Don't wait till Jabbok. At Jabbok, penalties, they are greater. I was using—I was using the—online on a story. I don't know whether it is fictitious or true, I really don't know. A lady wanted to marry a young man. But afraid that the young man may not consent to the relationship. So when the young man showed interest in her, the lady was about five years older than the young man. So afraid that the young man may lose interest, she now told the young man an age that is seven years younger than her age. So that way she became two years younger than the young man by the age she told the young man. So anyway, the relationship continued. But do you know what happened? One day they went out visiting. When they visited, somebody called the young woman, "Big auntie!" A young lady. "Ah, big auntie, you are welcome! This and that." They greeted and all of that. You know that statement drew some coloration to the young man. Anyway, he kept it to his heart. So everything went and went and went. But somehow, because of that thing, the young man later went back to find out. That was when he discovered that the lady was five years older than himself. That was the end of the relationship. The young man ended the relationship. He ended the relationship at a junction when they were about—was it not a week to their wedding? So which is—which is costlier? The young man said that the real problem he's having with the lady is the problem of trust. That he would have still have maybe continued if she had told him the true age. But for her to have hidden it, and it was by research that he got to know, then his fear now is that he does not know how many things the lady will be hiding from him. That was the real fear. Let me tell you, at Jabbok, the penalties are greater. That's the second thing I'm trying to make you see. Do you know that if that lady for instance had said, "This is my age," the young man who showed interest would have said, "Ah, maybe we rethink and rethink," and then would have still gone ahead with the relationship. Because the real reason why the relationship was ending was that he said he could no more trust her. Look at that. Penalties are costlier. We move on. Number three lesson. Jacob at Jabbok. I've already expanded "O God of my father Abraham and God of Isaac." God is a God of generation. Let's move on. Look at what Jacob now said. Which is the—this is the real burden of today Singles Club. The third thing I'm bringing before you. That burden, what really brought Jacob at Jabbok is this number three lesson. Jacob at Jabbok. Look at the prayer of Jacob at Jabbok. And that is the—the real thing that led to this topic. The prayer at Jabbok. That is why if you look at what I sent out yesterday, I said it is a clarion call. It is a clarion call that we should learn to do what? Take our bearing in life from God. Please check what I sent yesterday. It is a clarion call. We—we are actually trying to call young men, young women to this necessity today. Our young men and our young women are losing something very, very vital. Very, very vital. And that is why when they come to Jabbok, even when they have not done any evil, they have lived well all through to Jabbok. It is not everybody that have a bad past that is hiding from, or that is running from. I hope you know that. There is not everybody. Some have very clean past. Some have very good past. Some get into everything, they don't have anything they are hiding. But the point is, whether good or bad, there will be a Jabbok. That's the point I'm making. And there is a prayer at Jabbok. So don't be thinking that, "Oh, it is those who have problem now." No, that's not the focus of this message. It's not the focus. Jacob at Jabbok. The real message is a clarion call for us to see why we must take our bearing in life from the Lord. Because let me tell you, whether good or evil, your past will confront you. For those who have done evil, it will be penalty. For those who have not done evil, there will be no penalty at that point, but may they act correctly at Jabbok. That is what we want to look at. So whether you have a good past or a bad past, there is a Jabbok. The prayer of Jacob at Jabbok. Jabbok is also where life will question your decision. "How did you get to where you get to? Who brought you here? Who led you into this thing?" Life will ask you, and at that point, my prayer—because that is the real burden of this meeting—my prayer is that may you not become uncertain. May you not be men who does not know how to answer, and then you are confused. You cannot answer in the affirmative. You cannot say, "God, You are the one who told me." May you not be men who are passive. When life begins to question you at Jabbok, may you be men, may you be among the men who are strong, among the men of faith, who can speak with certainty, who can say, "I can hear the abundance of rain." Rain is not falling, and yet they are saying, "I can hear abundance in my spirit," and they can put their head between their knee and they begin to intercede, they begin to pray for their life, they begin to pray for their family, they begin to pray for their home, and then the rain will begin to fall, the rain will begin to come down. May that be your portion. May that be your portion. May that be your portion when you get to your Jabbok. When you get to your Jabbok, your Jabbok is that point in life when life will question decisions that you have taken earlier in life. That is also Jabbok. Jabbok is a place where your past will confront you. If your past is evil, you have not dealt with it, Jabbok is a place where you will pay a greater penalty. So don't wait till you get to Jabbok. But there is something very serious about Jabbok. There is another very, very serious thing, which is the third thing we are considering. Jabbok is the place and the time when life will question the decision you took. Life will be asking you, "Who sent you?" There is a point—let me tell you the truth. Let me tell you the truth, young man, young woman listening to me. For every decision you take in life, whether good or evil, a time will come when life will question that decision. That time and that place where life questions that decision is also called Jabbok. Jacob at Jabbok. Jacob at a time and at a place when life questioned, "Why did you leave Laban in the first place?" Why did you leave Laban? Why didn't you stay with Laban? Why did you—why? Why did you have to leave Laban and travel to the land of Canaan? Why? A time will come when life will question you. Why did you take that job? Why did you marry Labake? Why did you marry him? Why did you marry Wale? Why did you marry him? Why did you marry Sister Joy? May you be able to tell life, may you be able to face life and say, "O God of my father, O God, You who told me to marry Brother Wale. You who said to me." May you not get to that point and be saying, "Maybe I should not have married Sister Joy. Maybe if I had married Sister Francesca, maybe this thing would not have happened to me. Maybe if I had married Brother Tommy and not Brother Wale, maybe I would not have faced this thing in life. And something was telling me that time, 'Marry Tommy, marry Tommy, don't marry Wale, don't marry Wale, marry Tommy.' I did not listen. Look at—it’s looking like that Tommy, if I had married that Tommy, maybe this thing would not have come." Ah! If that is how you are facing your Jabbok, you are in a big mess. You are in a big trouble. Or when life is questioning you, "Why did you settle down in Ondo State? Why are you in Akure?" "You see, ah, and see, I wanted to stay in Jos that time. I would have stayed in Jos. But you know what made me to leave then was that they said Fulani herdsmen just kill me. And something was telling me, 'Don't go yet, don't go yet.' Look at what is happening now in Akure. Maybe—maybe if I had stayed in Jos." Ah! If that is how you are facing your Jabbok, you are in a big mess. You are in a very, very big trouble. That's why I said it can come in any way. It can be marital. It can be career. It can be in settling down. It can be in anything. Life will surely question how you got here. How did you get to where you are now? And depending on the kind of response you give, all that you have built before you got to Jabbok may either stand or fall. When Jacob got to Jabbok, you notice that Jacob made something very clear. He said it over and over. He said, "You who said to me, 'Return to your country, to your family, and I will deal well with you.'" So for me to be able to confront the storm, I must know who I am taking my bearing from. That is number one. And what that person told me about what I am going into. Do you get what I’m trying to say? I must know who I am taking my bearing from, and exactly what that person told me about what I am going into. When you don't take your bearing like this, you will not be able to survive your Jabbok. You must know who you are taking your bearing from and exactly what that person told you. I remember as I said that just now, I just remembered when we were leaving Jos for Ondo State. We were leaving Jos for Ondo State. Mind you, God had been raising the matter since 2001. It was my wife that first came to me in 2001 and said, "It's like God wants to change our location from here to the south." And I said, "I have not heard anything from the Lord," that we should please be praying more. Let's keep praying. And I want to use that to advise you, young man, young woman. By the time you get into marriage, please don't shut up your partner in the name of you have not heard something or you have not received something. God may first begin with one person and later God will make the other person to understand it. It can begin from the wife to the husband, it can begin from the husband to the wife. Please don't go into disunity. When someone says something and it's not clear to you, believe your spouse and then begin to say, "Let us pray more about it." And when you say pray more, you want to deliberately take it up and be praying. "God, my spouse said this. Please help us. How do we—how do we, what do we do about it?" It's very, very important in dealing with issues of life. Don't just render your spouse one not to listen to. Don't be that kind of a person in any way. Be somebody who listens. So when she said it, I said, "Okay, let's keep praying," and we kept on praying. Around 2003, the Lord began to raise the same matter with me, that He will be changing our mission field from ministering in Plateau State to ministering in Ondo State. And then I was asking for what will be the location. What will be the location and all of that. So I was asking and then I was asking the Lord, "Where in Ondo State? How do we stay there?" and all of that. That was in 2003. Towards the end of 2003, around December, we normally have this family prayer, just myself and my wife, we retreat. We normally pray. It was in the course of that prayer that the Lord spoke to us, that leave Jos now. It is time to leave. It is time to leave. Leave now. And so we were asking the Lord what exactly, and the Lord gave us His word. He said go. "Your soul will dwell at ease and your seed will be established upon the land." He said also, "It is a time to repay your parents." Those are the two sure words that the Lord told us. We know who we were taking our bearing from, and we know what He told us about where we are going. Do you know when we got into Ondo State, it was with all kinds of challenges. Which school would we put our children? How do we settle down? So many things came up. But as they confronted us, we kept speaking to them. Hear the word of the Lord. In this land our soul will dwell at ease. Our soul will dwell at ease. Our soul will dwell at ease. Our seed will be established upon this land. It doesn't matter the educational level. What we are saying is this: we heard from God by those things. Let me tell you something. It is the word that the Lord gives you that would become your instrument of warfare and prayer when you get to your Jabbok. I repeat again. It is the word that the Lord gives you that will be your instrument of warfare and prayers when you get to your Jabbok. When life begins to question you, "Who brought you here? How do you face this?" You have an instrument in your hand. An instrument in your hand. Your prayer at Jabbok will be an effectual prayer. Will be an effectual prayer. That is what we mean by effectual prayer. That is what John said when he said, "This is the confidence we have toward Him, that whatsoever we ask Him, He hears, because we pray according to His will." We pray what He has told us. The prayer at Jabbok must be prayer of what you have been told, or else you will not survive at Jabbok. The prayer at Jabbok must be a prayer of what you have been told. The prayer of what you have been told. When you get to your Jabbok in life, when life is questioning your decision, it is not time to be praying, "God just help us, God just assist us." No, the prayers at Jabbok, they are stronger than that. When life begins to confront you with threatening things, when things begin to threaten you, when you are seeing death imminent, when you are seeing destruction coming—death was imminent for Jacob. He was seeing death that will cancel the whole of his family. He was seeing what will destroy him and finish him. It was not time to be saying, "If it is the will of God, God what do we do now? God just come and help us." It was a prayer of, "God, You are the one who told me to leave my Laban and return to my parents' house. You are the one who said that You would do well with me. I am not worthy of all the mercy that You have shown me. It was with my staff that I crossed this Jordan. Now You have turned me to two company. You are the one who told me that You would deal well with me, that I should go. Now arise, deliver me from this Esau, for I fear him." The prayer at Jabbok is a prayer of faith. It's a prayer that is originating from men who took their bearing in God. It was God that was to send rain. It was the will of God to send rain. It was Elijah that prayed it. That is what led to what you saw in James chapter 5, verse 16 and 17. The Bible says Elijah was a man of like passion. He prayed that there should be no rain, and there was no rain. Again he prayed that there should be rain, and there shall be rain. He said, "For the effective fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much." What make the man righteous was that he took his bearing from God. What make the prayer effective is that it is according to the will of God. Brethren, are you listening to me? What make the man righteous was that the man took his bearing from God. What make the prayer effective is that the prayer is flowing from that which God has spoken, that which God told him. That is the prayer of Jacob at Jabbok. You will come to your own Jabbok. You will come to where life will question your decision. Your marital decision, your career decision, your location decision, your settling down decision, your academic decision. Life will begin to question you. When life is questioning your decision, you are at Jabbok. You are at Jabbok. And may you pray the prayer of Jacob. May you have the kind of prayer of Jacob. May you be able to pray like Jacob. May you not be uncertain. May you not be men who does not know how to answer, and then you are confused. You cannot answer in the affirmative. You cannot say, "God, You are the one who told me." May you not be men who are passive. When life begins to question you at Jabbok, may you be men, may you be among the men who are strong, among the men of faith, who can speak with certainty, who can say, "I can hear the abundance of rain." Rain is not falling, and yet they are saying, "I can hear abundance in my spirit," and they can put their head between their knee and they begin to intercede, they begin to pray for their life, they begin to pray for their family, they begin to pray for their home, and then the rain will begin to fall, the rain will begin to come down. May that be your portion. May that be your portion. May that be your portion when you get to your Jabbok. Begin to talk to the Lord this morning. Talk to the Lord this morning. Talk to the Lord. Our Father, we thank You. Our God, we bless Your name. We thank You for this month's Singles Club. We give You all the glory. Jacob at Jabbok. And the lesson that You have confronted our lives with. Lord, we pray for our young men and our young women. May they get it right. May they live right. May they—may they be men of strength. May they be men of faith in the name of Jesus. May they be women of strength. May they be women of faith in the name of Jesus. O Lord, keep us again till next month Singles Club. Lord our God, and we pray this Your word, let it spread. Let Your word let it spread. Thank You, Eternal Father. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Let me quickly answer the question. He said a question is there. Let me quickly respond to the question. It says "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee and before thou camest out of the mother's womb I sanctified thee and I ordained thee a prophet," Jeremiah chapter 1 verse 5. Then 17:10, "I the Lord searches the heart, I try the rein, even to give to every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doing." Why should the Almighty God be searching the heart? He knows all things. He knows me more than I know myself. Or is it possible for me to have recreated myself differently from what He created? Is God searching to see what I have turned myself into? No, not at all. Not at all. You see, it is important for us to know something about the Bible. Please, I keep telling people, please don't forget some very, very important things. The Bible at the same time is the Word of God and at the same time the word of men. God use men to write down the Bible. The Bible is not the direct handwriting of God, writing in the language of God. There is a language of the eternal God, but there's the languages of men. Men are trying to convey what God is saying, but they are using human languages. So sometimes it does not fully convey the full person of God in a bid to represent it in human languages. This is not the only place like this. Let me give you another good example. In some place you will see where the Bible says God is not a man that He should lie, the Son of man that He should repent. Again you see where the Bible says and God repented of His decision to destroy the Israelites. And then you will be wondering, the Bible says God cannot repent. Again the Bible is saying God will repent. At some point you see where the Bible says God says, "I know the end from the beginning." And then some point you will see God asking Adam, "Where are you?" Are you getting the point I'm making? At some point you will see where the Bible will be saying that the people prayed and God remembered His promise to Abraham. Is it that God forgot that He promised Abraham that He will save the Israelites from Egypt? God told Abraham that after 400 years I will save the Israelites. But when He was to come, the Bible says, "And then God remembered His promises and then God came down to save them." Was it that He forgot? Of course not. Of course not. So when certain words are used about God, it does not show the capacity, the fullness, the person of God. It’s trying to make us see how man should see God, that see, God is a God who knows everything in your heart. If you think you want to hide it, it cannot be hidden from God. God easily searches it out. How? Because He sees through. Not that He searches to find it. No, that's not the sense. Not in the way man searches. No. So when He says God searches your heart, the import point is that He sees through your heart. That is the import. But He wants man to know that you cannot hide from God. That's the import for man. So it's not that if He's trying to now search, but He's trying to make you see that see, there is no how much you want to hide, God can always find you out. Why? Because He knows all things. He knows all things. It's just like when the Bible says, "Ask and it shall be given." Is it that God don't know what you ask before you ask? So why do you have to ask again? So that you can show your dependence on God. He could have given you without asking. But He wants you to ask so that you show your dependence. So please look at it that we have a Heavenly Father, but we are wearing a earthly body which is not yet glorified. So God is dealing with us as an eternal God, yet we are also must stay mortal men. By the time we put down this body and we put on immortality, certain things will become clearer. So now we know in part, we understand in part. But when the fullness come, God will speak in His own language, the way God will have spoken, we will not be confused. So please get it that way. I hope I've been able to respond to that question from the person who asked that question. So brethren, as we close for today, three things that we have said. Number one, be careful about your past. Your past is a seed. Whatsoever you sow, you will reap. Your past will come to confront you, whether good or evil. Young man, I beg you, young woman, I beg you. Remember that your actions are seed. They are living seed. No matter how much you try to bury them, they will keep growing. They will grow. They will grow. Jacob ran away from his past, but the past had grown to have more 400 men that will confront him. Please, deal with any past that you are running away from now before it grows to have up to 400 men. At Jabbok, Jabbok is where your past will confront you. Again, Jabbok is a place where you pay greater penalty if you have not dealt with your past. If Jacob have repented, have long reconciled with Esau, Esau would not have grown up to having 400 men. Then it was just Esau. Jacob would not have had so many people that Esau will kill. It should have been just Jacob alone. But now it would be Jacob, his sons, his daughters, everything. Penalty will be greater when you wait until you get to Jabbok. Deal with it before you get to Jabbok. It's very, very important. And the third thing is the prayer of Jacob at Jabbok. Jabbok is also where life will ask you, "How did you get to where you get to? Who brought you here? Who led you into this thing?" Life will ask you, and at that point, my prayer—because that is the real burden of this meeting—my prayer is that may you not become uncertain. May you not be men who does not know how to answer, and then you are confused. You cannot answer in the affirmative. You cannot say, "God, You are the one who told me." May you not be men who are passive. When life begins to question you at Jabbok, may you be men, may you be among the men who are strong, among the men of faith, who can speak with certainty, who can say, "I can hear the abundance of rain." Rain is not falling, and yet they are saying, "I can hear abundance in my spirit," and they can put their head between their knee and they begin to intercede, they begin to pray for their life, they begin to pray for their family, they begin to pray for their home, and then the rain will begin to fall, the rain will begin to come down. May that be your portion. May that be your portion. May that be your portion when you get to your Jabbok. Begin to talk to the Lord this morning. Talk to the Lord this morning. Talk to the Lord. Our Father, we thank You. Our God, we bless Your name. We thank You for this month's Singles Club. We give You all the glory. Jacob at Jabbok. And the lesson that You have confronted our lives with. Lord, we pray for our young men and our young women. May they get it right. May they live right. May they be men of strength. May they be men of faith in the name of Jesus. May they be women of strength. May they be women of faith in the name of Jesus. O Lord, keep us again till next month Singles Club. Lord our God, and we pray this Your word, let it spread. Let Your word let it spread. Thank You, Eternal Father. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Please invite someone, tell someone something is going on, so that you don't be the one hearing alone. Let's share the grace together. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Miss you next week for Marriage Forum. The Lord bless you in Jesus’ name. Amen. [Speaker 1] This message is coming to you from Family Tent Ministry, a Christian ministry involved in enriching the lives of singles and married through preaching and teaching of God's word, discipleship, family life enrichment, social and community development, and mission hit. Our regular activities are: Discipleship class, every Monday, 5:00 PM; Adolescents and Singles Club, every first Saturday of every month, 10:00 AM; Marriage Forum, second Saturday of every month at 10:00 AM; family life seminars, regular school out-reaches, and everyday counseling. For further counseling, you can reach us at our location: Life Camp by the first bridge, Ilere community, opposite Very Joy filling station, along Ijarare Road, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. You can also reach us through our social media handles: familytent@yahoo.co.uk, familytentministry01@gmail.com, www.familytentministry.org. Our phone numbers are: 08033861136, 07033613848. God bless you all.