Genesis Week 37 | When God Is Preparing You

Sunday, September 29th | Beau Bradberry

"Then he said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.'" — Genesis 32:28

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Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

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- Hey, good morning.

If you've got your Bibles and I hope you do,

please join me in Genesis chapter 32.

As you turn there, a couple of things.

Number one, saw a lot of you stopping by

and having conversation with Tim Stewart.

Tim Stewart is the author at Willow Ridge Church, right?

He's not the author of Willow Ridge Church,

but he is the author at Willow Ridge Church.

And Tim has written several books

and he has recently completed his latest book.

And he is selling copies of that book out there

in the lobby and he's got some copies

of some previous books as well.

And so I'd encourage you to stop by, pick up one of those.

I've got the privilege of having it.

It's a wonderful book, you will definitely enjoy it.

And so stop by there on your way out the door.

Also to echo, we do have our new discipleship studies

that are happening.

We would love for you to sign up

and be a part of those in the coming weeks.

Next week, our very own Tim Shull,

he's gonna be sharing his testimony

during the nine o'clock discipleship hour.

So all of our, if you've been coming to a study,

or if you haven't been coming to a study,

you wanna be here.

Tim's got a powerful story, powerful testimony of God's work.

And so we wanna invite you to be here,

to be a part of that during the nine o'clock hour

next week as well.

Also, the hurricane that came through,

there's not a, probably a person or a family in this room

who hasn't been affected by that.

We appreciate you guys allowing us the flexibility

to do what we can do today.

So we apologize if you were looking forward

to the discipleship time.

I know that I was, but this seemed like the best way

as we've got volunteers without power,

for all of us to be able to come together

and worship this morning,

and hopefully so many people online joining us as well.

We're processing through as a staff,

the best way that we can continue to respond.

We know we are grateful for, and I wanna give kudos to,

and I know there's a lot of other churches

that have done this,

but because we're all on the same team, we can celebrate.

I know First Baptist Lexington,

I know Northside have come instantly

and been doing some meals for our community,

and that's just so fantastic and so awesome.

And so while a lot of those things are happening,

we're also recognizing that more work

is gonna need to be done in the next few days,

weeks, and months, as we walk through this time together,

not only in our community,

but in the communities that surround us.

So we are grateful for our denomination.

We're grateful for the Southern Baptist Convention.

We're grateful for the South Carolina Baptist Convention

and our disaster relief teams

that have been mobilized all over the state,

helping people, helping them to salvage

what they can for their homes.

And so we're looking at what we can do.

One of the things, just kinda help us with this right now,

if you wouldn't mind,

if you are currently without power at your home,

or so like, or if maybe you're running on a generator,

or maybe you have no power at all,

if that is your situation,

would you mind raising your hand this morning

so we can kinda see?

Okay, okay.

All right.

Thank you, thank you.

So also, maybe you have power at your house,

but there's needs that you have as well.

After the service is over with,

I'm gonna be in the back here,

the back corner, and super informal.

We don't have an online thing to sign up for all this,

right, like just, if you could come back

and share that with me,

I'm gonna see if maybe we could have a couple of our elders

and staff back there with me as well,

and we're gonna see what we can do the best that we can

to help get you guys either connected with,

or what we can do.

We're just, like I said,

this is all a little bit overwhelming for all of us.

There's definitely been, not only within our area,

but areas outside of our community

that we're gonna be looking at and helping as well.

And I know that you've got those areas

that are special to you,

especially if you're from the upstate of South Carolina.

There are those, you guys know

that I'm from the Augusta area.

I love Augusta.

It's my hometown where I came from,

and it devastated, devastated.

And so we wanna continue to remember those areas

and those people as well.

And if you are familiar

with the missions partnership that we have,

I do wanna give you guys some updates

about our friends at Black Mountain Children's Home.

So first off, what I wanna say is,

is every child, every host family,

every worker at Black Mountain Children's Home,

God kept his hand on them,

and they are safe and they are good.

I know some videos came through through social media

that a lot of our students and a lot of our adults saw

where down at the area where the thrift store

that comes through,

and there's the women's prison that's right there.

It looked like a river running through

because the amount of flood water that came through there.

Very, very devastating of what's happened,

but we can celebrate that all of the people are safe

and they're okay.

But there was a lot of damage done,

especially to the West Campus area

where we've largely done a lot of our work that's there.

And so we have been in communication with them.

There's a continual line of communication back and forth

of what can be done, but also remembering,

there's certain areas where you can't even get to

in Black Mountain area right now

in the Asheville, Hendersonville area.

So, but we're gonna continue on with that.

So please, please continue to be in prayer.

I guess here is the most logical,

biblical strategy I think that we as God's people can do.

And this is what this is.

This is what we've tried to embrace as our family.

And I know that you guys have done that as well.

And I just wanna encourage this with you.

If you see a need over the next few days, weeks, months,

if you see a need and you can meet that need, meet it.

Meet it.

Love people.

When there's a guy violently giving hand gestures

to you at the gas pump, just love him.

Right, just love him.

You know, situations like this

can bring out the worst in humanity.

Which gives situations like this opportunities for us

to show in a greater need who Jesus is.

And that's what we need to do.

So if there's a family that you can, feed 'em.

If there's people that you can share with, share with 'em.

If you're fortunate enough and can open up your home,

open it up.

As we go into our message this morning,

I wanna read to you Genesis 32, verse 28.

Then he said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob,

"but Israel, for you have striven with God

"and with men and have prevailed."

Let's pray.

God, we come to you this morning.

We're thanking you.

Thanking you that today in the midst of storm,

in the midst of destruction,

you are God and you are holy and you are on your throne

and you are in control.

God, I pray for the many friends and families

this morning who are without.

God, I pray that we can rally around them

to support them and encourage them.

Lord, but I pray more importantly that they would know

as they wait wondering if the power of company

has forgotten about them, Lord, that you have not.

Lord, and that you are with them.

Lord, I pray for areas that I've just heard of this morning

with friends that have church members who have family

in Augusta, in Hendersonville, in Fletcher,

in all the places that have been devastated

worse than what we've experienced, Lord,

would you give them comfort and peace as well?

God, I pray for our friends in Black Mountain.

I pray in the midst of those children

who have literally lost everything in so many instances.

Lord, but I pray as these families care for them

and minister them and comfort them.

And God, above all of this,

Lord, that your name would be made known.

And so God, may we, whether it's through the work

of a chainsaw, whether we through the hospitality

of a casserole, whether we through an opportunity

of opening our home so that someone could come in

and find a cool place to sleep.

Lord, may we be the men and women

that you've called us to be for your name

and for your glory.

And this in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Very, very interesting passage that we have

for ourselves this morning in Genesis chapter 32.

As I read through and studied it this week,

we knew that a hurricane was coming.

We knew that this is what was going to take place

in this part of our country.

I don't think we, we didn't, definitely didn't expect

the path that it was going to take.

We definitely did not expect the magnitude

in which the destruction would come.

But as I read this and as I began to think,

the word that I kept coming to in my mind

in Genesis 32 was this concept of being prepared.

Being prepared.

If we all went back and said to ourselves,

if I knew today, or I'm sorry, if I knew Wednesday

what I now know today, we probably would've done

some things differently.

Maybe you were super prepared,

but maybe you were like many of us

and you felt that you were underprepared

to face what was coming.

Well, you know what, that's not just when

a storm or a hurricane comes, but that's in life.

And more importantly than thinking about drinking water

and generators and all those things,

it's when we face the battles and the situations

to look at and see what God is doing in that

and then what God is doing in me through that.

So two questions I want you to think of right now

with where you're at in whatever circumstance of life

that you're facing.

When you face difficulties, I've found that it is beneficial

to ask these two questions.

Question number one, with whatever it is

that you're facing right now, here's the question,

what is God, I'm sorry, how is God preparing you?

How is God preparing you?

Spiritually speaking, what muscle is he working on

a little bit harder than the other?

What area is he trying to tone up

and prepare you more for right now?

How is God preparing you?

And then number two, what is God preparing you for?

What is God doing right now to prepare you?

And then an expectation as you look forward

to the next day, week, month, season of life,

what is God preparing you for?

You know, when God works and moves in our lives,

it's not just in these instances where God comes

and says, all right, Bo, you're my project for today.

And then tomorrow I'm gonna jump to Joel.

And then tomorrow I'm gonna jump to Tim.

And then tomorrow I'm gonna jump to Dawn.

And then tomorrow I'm gonna jump to Grayson.

Right, God is constantly working in us and through us

and preparing us and doing a work in us, a current work,

because of what he is preparing us for.

Now as we look through this and we see this morning

in the life of Jacob, we can find these things.

We can see the good and all the bad that he's been in

because we stand on this side of the story.

But you've been on that side of the story before.

You've been in the midst of the chaos, of the storm,

of the crisis, of the event, and it's hard to see.

But God's still working.

So where Jacob finds himself, and as we come into chapter 32,

he finds himself in a mess, get this,

that he has created as he seeks to follow God.

Both of these can be true at the same time.

You can find yourself in the consequences of your sins.

You can find yourself in the consequences of your reality

and the struggle of life while at the same time

you look to trust, follow, and obey God.

It's not like when the obedience switch

comes on in your brain that all the difficulty

of your life disappears.

Oftentimes where our faith is strengthened the most

is when we're walking through the difficulty

of what we're facing, we're walking through

the consequences of our actions,

we're walking through the valley,

we're walking through the storm,

we're walking through the crisis,

and we're walking through it

because we're seeking to obey God.

And that's what we find with Jacob.

And if you've been dialoguing and working through us

with this, I wrote this in my notes,

this is kind of the tale of two Jacobs.

It's kind of the tale of two Jacobs

of what we've seen before and what we're gonna see today.

We see the Jacob who went to Laban.

And without going back and spending a lot of time

to recap all of that, this is the Jacob

that stole the blessing from his brother

even though God promised to give it to Jacob.

He didn't trust in the timing and what God was gonna do

so instead he cons, he tricks, he steals.

And then when it gets exposed,

Jacob instead of facing his brother, what does he do?

He runs from him.

He runs from him and ends up running into the arms

not of just the ladies he will marry,

but he runs into the arms of Laban

where we looked at last two weeks

of where Jacob says, "No more, no more."

We talked about Laban being toxic.

We talked about Jacob saying,

"This is not where I'm gonna put myself.

"This is not where I'm gonna put my family.

"This is not who we're gonna be.

"This is not what we're gonna do."

And Jacob takes his eyes and he locks on God

and he says, "This is what I'm committed to do."

So what we find when we really look at

what we talked about the last two weeks

is we find a toxic man in Jacob

who sees the toxic dynamic in his father-in-law Laban

says, "No, this is not gonna be who I am anymore either.

"This is not where I'm gonna stay

"and so this is where I'm gonna go

"and this is where I'm gonna return."

And so before when we saw Jacob go to Laban,

this was a man who knew of God but who did not know God

and now we see a man who is coming back from the situation

who both knows God and is desiring to grow

and to mature in his relationship in the Lord.

So which means he's gonna agree to do difficult things

because God's gonna require difficult things from him

in order so that he can be obedient to him.

So we saw an immature little boy go off

and what we're seeing is a maturing man come back.

So let's look at Jacob's situation.

Verse 32 starting in verse one,

we read verses one through eight.

Jacob's situation.

Jacob went on his way and the angels of God met him

and when Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's camp."

So he called the name of that place, Manhaim

and Jacob sent messengers before him

to Esau, his brother in the land of Sire,

the country of Edom, instructing them.

Thus you shall say to my Lord Esau,

this says your servant Jacob.

I have sojourned with Laban and stayed until now.

I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, male servants

and female servants.

I have sent to tell my Lord in order that I might find favor

in your sight and the messengers returned to Jacob saying,

we came to your brother Esau and he is coming to meet you

and there are 400 men with him.

Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.

He divided the people who were with him

and the flocks and herds and camels into two camps

thinking if Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it,

then the camp that is left will escape.

So Jacob has been through the wringer,

spiritually speaking, emotionally speaking,

mentally speaking, physically speaking.

Don't miss the fact that he's been in the midst

of an abusive, terrible dynamic in his life

for the last 20 years.

This wasn't for a minute, this wasn't for a week,

this wasn't for a season.

20 years of his life, this is where he finds himself.

He's been through it, he's got the scars,

he's got the wrinkles, he's got the stress face,

he's got it, but he's like, I'm following God,

I'm gonna do what God's called me to do.

And instead of looking to where I can run from,

he says this is what I must do to follow God.

This is the difficult spot, this is the hard spot,

but this is the sweet spot, the sweet spot.

You see, the beauty is not found in the difficulty,

the beauty is found in the God that he's following.

Jacob in this.

Jacob realizes that he's wronged his brother.

This is a different Jacob.

He refers to Esau as his Lord.

He's not saying Esau is his God,

he is saying that you are superior to me.

He's showing respect, he's showing reverence,

and he says I, Jacob, am your servant.

Now remember, this isn't manipulative Jacob.

This is Jacob seeking to follow God.

This isn't Jacob that would twist the words

and try to con of what he can do.

This is Jacob that's trying to follow God.

He wants Esau to know that he has come

so that Jacob can make it right.

Jacob's broken from being toxic.

Now let's think about Esau here for a moment.

I hadn't heard from you, I hadn't seen you,

and in 20 years, what's been brewing

and festering within him could be,

man, look at who you are, look at what you've done,

this is what you deserve.

Do you think Esau believed these words from Jacob?

I don't, I don't.

I think the narrative kinda shows us that.

I don't know if you've got conflict with someone,

but if you've got conflict with someone

and you send a messenger to go find them,

and they come back to you and say,

"Hey, they know you're coming,

"but there's 400 people that are gonna be with them."

Probably not a good day, right?

So here's Esau's out to get him.

He follows God, he thinks strategically,

he divides his camp.

This is how terrified he is.

This is the situation.

He takes half and says, "Come over here."

He takes half and says, "Come over here."

And his point of doing that is if Esau finds one,

the other can escape.

He's preparing in his obedience to the Lord to lose half.

Half of his property, half of his money,

half of his family will lose.

You ever been at the bottom where you feel like

that's your choice?

It's hard to see the victory,

but you've gotta be obedient to God?

What do you do?

What do you do when that happens?

Let's look at what Jacob does.

Look at Jacob's prayer.

Look at Jacob's prayer.

And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham,

"and God of my father Isaac,

"O Lord who said to me,

"return to your country and your kindred

"that I may do you good.

"I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds

"of steadfast love and all the faithfulness

"that you have shown to your servant.

"For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan

"and now I have become two camps.

"Please deliver me from the hand of my brother,

"from the hand of Esau,

"for I fear him that he may come and attack me.

"The mothers with the children.

"But you said, I will surely do you good

"and make your offspring as the sand of the sea

"which cannot be numbered for multitude."

I love this.

Jacob in the midst of hearing of this is what awaits,

he acts strategically.

Let's divide the camps.

But then he doesn't act with vengeance.

He doesn't even act in protection.

He doesn't go, we're my best fighters.

Let's get our swords and our spears.

There may be only 50 of us and 400 of them,

but God will protect us.

Instead, in the midst of all that's there,

he thinks strategically and then he prays.

And the words are so beautiful

because it shows the heart of how Jacob comes to God

in the midst of this situation.

A situation created by his sin,

a situation that he is in as he seeks to follow God.

Jacob comes to God first

by means of relationship and promise.

Look back at verse nine.

Oh God of my father Abraham and my father Isaac,

of the Lord who said to me,

return to your country in your kindred

that I may do you good.

Jacob comes to God because of his,

through his relationship with him.

You are the God of my grandfather.

You are the God of my father.

You are my God and here's the goodness

of your promise to me.

You see, this promise that he says in this prayer

is not shaking his fist at God,

saying this is what you promised.

It's raising his hands to the goodness of God,

saying God, this is what you promised

and this is who you are.

He comes to God humbly.

He comes to God humbly.

In verse 10, I am not worthy of the least

of all of the deeds of steadfast love

and the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.

With only my staff I crossed the Jordan

and now I come with two camps.

Jacob's coming in humility before the Lord.

He's saying here's what I know.

Before you I had a staff.

I had a staff but with you I have everything.

In his words, when he says I am not worthy,

I love this word in the Old Testament

for not having worth.

What he's saying is God, you were big and I am small.

I am small.

God, who am I?

Lord, I am nothing compared to you

but you still fulfill your promises.

Jacob comes to God in praise.

God, this is what you've brought me through.

This is who you are.

This is how you're working.

This is what you're doing

but Jacob also comes to God in total honesty.

He says in a moment in verse 11,

in the rawness, in the realness of this,

please deliver me from the hand of my brother.

God, Esau is going to kill me.

He's gonna kill the mothers of my children.

He's gonna kill my children.

He's going to attack me.

God, I fear him.

Here's the thing with our prayers.

We're gonna see Jacob here at the end of this passage

as well at the very end of chapter 32.

I mean, I think you and I are so concerned so many times

like coming to God all neat and buttoned up,

all neat and figured out,

all neat with eloquent words,

all neat with a God, here's the plan

and this is what I've got going on

but I'm just gonna tell you,

in the grossness of the bluntness of the words

that I'm about to use,

so please give me grace within this

but I think we need to come to God sometimes

with that cry that's so deep,

the snot bubbles there,

that the tears are pouring from our eyes

that we don't know what else we need to do

because the reality of our situation

is beyond what we could imagine

but we know that God's in control

and he's got us in our hands

and we gotta be honest and we gotta be real

and we gotta be vulnerable before God.

He comes and he says, I'm gonna die, they're gonna die.

I can't imagine, I got my kids sitting here this morning,

I can't imagine going to bed tonight

thinking that what they can ensue in the morning

is a spear to the chest

but that's where Jacob is.

I feel like he didn't just say,

hey God, if you got a minute,

if you could save us, that'd be good.

But Lord, Lord, I'm afraid.

God, I don't know what to say,

I don't know what to do but I trust you.

In the midst of this, he comes to God in confidence.

He says, verse 12, the first three words,

but you said, but you said.

And again, again, this is not God you said,

this is God you said.

There's a difference, there's a difference.

That we know God's words so that we can come before him.

God, your word says you will never leave me or forsake me.

God, your word tells me that you love me

and that you are working for me.

God, your word says that you are in control,

that no moment is too big for you.

God, in the storm of the life that I'm living in right now,

God, I need to cling to this

and I need to look and see how you're moving

and how your word says that you're going to.

God, I trust you in how you're going to move.

You see, that's not but you said,

that's not but you said, that's God but you said.

God but you said.

And so in the midst of this,

he comes before the Lord and he prays.

Next thing that we see as God's preparing

of what God's doing in Jacob,

we see Jacob's gift, we see Jacob's gift.

In verses 13 through 21.

So he stayed there that night.

And from what he had, he took a present

for his brother Esau.

200 female goats and 20 male goats.

200 ewes and 20 rams.

30 milking camels and their calves.

40 cows and 10 bulls.

20 female donkeys and 10 male donkeys.

These he handed over to his servants.

Every drove by itself and said to his servants,

pass on ahead of me and put a space

between drove and drove.

He instructed the first.

When Esau my brother meets you and asks you

to whom do you belong, where are you going

and whose are these ahead of you?

Then you shall say, these belong to your servant Jacob.

They are a present sent to my Lord Esau.

And moreover, he is behind us.

He likewise instructed the second and the third

and all who followed the droves.

You shall say the same thing to Esau when you find him.

And you shall say, moreover, your servant Jacob

is behind us.

For he thought I may appease him with the present

that goes ahead of me and afterward I shall see his face.

Perhaps he will accept me.

So the present passed on ahead of him

and he himself stayed that night in the camp.

So let's explain a little bit of what's going on here.

So Jacob takes what he has, divides it out.

And he calls some of his servants and he says,

listen, we're not gonna show up to Esau

with everything at once, right?

We're gonna show up in droves.

Droves of presents, droves of sacrifices,

droves of offerings over and over again.

And you're gonna show respect and you're gonna show honor

and you're gonna show dignity about what you're doing.

Because Jacob's desire here is atonement.

His atonement.

Verse 20, look back at that.

About midway through, it says, for he thought.

So this is showing Jacob's inward desires

of why he is doing these actions.

He says, for he thought I may appease him

with the present that goes ahead of me

and afterwards I shall see his face.

Perhaps he will accept me.

The word appease here in verse 20 is the word kapur.

If you've recognized that but you don't know

where you recognize that from, the word kapur,

it's where we get the phrase later on

in the Old Testament, yam kapur.

The day of atonement.

Kapur means atonement.

What Jacob is doing here is the word appease

can kind of make it sound like he's trying

to manipulate the situation again.

Maybe I can just make him through these blessings

of what's there, through this inundating

with gift after gift after gift,

maybe I can appeal to that selfish side of my brother

who's always wanted this and this is what I can do.

But that's not what this verse is saying.

What Jacob is acknowledging in this,

in his heart of hearts, I may appease him

with the present that goes ahead of me

and then afterwards I shall see his face.

Jacob's saying listen, listen, my brothers

may have done some wrong things but that's not relevant

to where I'm at right now.

And where I'm at right now is because the sin

of which I've done against him.

And so what I'm gonna do is sacrifice

after sacrifice after a sacrifice.

I'm gonna atone for the things that I've done wrong

and I'm gonna send the means of atonement ahead of me.

I'm not gonna carry it because someone else

needs to carry my atonement.

Someone else needs to carry my sacrifice.

Someone else needs to carry this that I'm responsible for,

that I caused and that I did and that hopefully

as they take it ahead of me that afterwards

this relationship will be restored

and that we will be face to face and then the goal,

perhaps he will accept me.

That's the gospel.

That's the gospel.

But you see, you and I have sinned

not just against one another that can be worked out

but we've got sin against a holy God

that you and I and of ourselves that we cannot fix.

And the difference here with us is that in our atonement

is not found in what we can sin

but the atonement that we need against the holy God

that we've offended, that we've attacked in his very core,

of his character, of his nature, is who he is,

that he and his love and his compassion for us

says here's what I'm gonna do,

I'm gonna send the sacrifice.

And his name is gonna be Jesus

and Jesus is gonna go ahead of you

and here's what's gonna happen,

that he's not gonna bring a sacrifice,

that he is gonna be the sacrifice

and he's gonna die and he's gonna pay the price

for every single thing that you and I

in the history of the humanity has done

and that when we are found in him

that he has gone ahead of us, that he has done the work

and that now what we can cling to

is that one day we will see God face to face

and we don't have to wonder if the sacrifice is sufficient

because we know that he accepts us

through Christ and Christ alone.

We know, so you and I, we cannot atone for our sins.

But the one who went ahead of us can.

And one day we too will seek his face.

Man, I love that verse.

If you're here this morning, if you're watching online,

then whatever it is you're trying to send ahead of you,

whatever it is you're trying to do

so that God will love you more,

so that God will accept you more,

so that God will bless you more,

so that God will care for you more,

so that God will invite you in more,

know that it is not worthy and it is not capable.

But there's only one way and that's Jesus.

And that in him atonement is there.

In there forgiveness is granted.

In there favor is restored.

In there relationship begins.

Close verses 22 through 32.

We're gonna see Jacob struggle.

It says that same night,

he arose and he took his two wives,

his two female servants, and his 11 children.

He crossed the ford on the Jabba.

He took them and sent them across the stream

and everything else that he had.

In verse 24, and Jacob was left alone.

And a man wrestled with him

until the breaking of the day.

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,

he touched his hip socket.

And Jacob's hip was put out of joint

as he wrestled with him.

And then he said, "Let me go, for the day has broken."

But Jacob said, "I will not let you go

"unless you bless me."

And he said to him, "What is your name?"

And he said, "Jacob."

And then he said, "Your name shall no longer

"be called Jacob, but Israel.

"For you have striven with God and with men

"and have prevailed."

And Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name."

But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?"

And there he blessed him.

So Jacob called the name of the place Penel,

saying, "For I've seen God face to face,

"and yet my life has been delivered."

The sun rose upon him as he passed Penel,

limping because of his hip.

Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel

do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket

because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip

and the sinew of the thigh.

Really quick, before we look into this

so we see what all's happening,

Jacob, he sends his wife, his family, his servants away,

his belongings away, he's alone in the wilderness, right?

I want you to think about like alone in the wilderness.

This is not like alone at a campground, right?

This is the desert, this is the animals,

this is the wilderness of what's there.

And then out of nowhere, a man appears.

I believe this man is Jesus,

and he wrestles with Jesus.

And there's some language that is used here,

Jacob prevailed, and I'll talk about that

for just a little bit.

My wife is at home today.

We've got family that's driving up that are without water,

and so they're loading their trucks

and things down with coolers

so they can come to our house and fill them up

so that they can have water at their home,

so that's why she's not here.

But very early on, when we began to realize

that there are some areas that we parent different, right?

There's ways that she parented,

there's ways that I parented.

I forget how old our kids were.

I'm gonna guess they were about three.

And Aaron was in the kitchen,

the house we lived in in Aiken,

it was a one-story house,

and you walked in, and the living space that was there,

it was a kitchen, it was a dining room,

it was a living room, just all one big open area

with like an eat-in kitchen there,

and then the kids' bedrooms were on this side,

and our bedroom was on the other side.

And like our kids, they slept with us

until they were like six,

so we didn't even need that side of the house, right?

They were just there.

Aaron was in the kitchen doing some things,

and then she heard like destruction

happening in our bedroom.

She knew that I was in there,

she knew that the kids were in there,

and she came in concerned about what was going on.

Well, I'm gonna tell you what was going on,

because I had two of the best wrestling partners

that the world had ever known,

and I had tombstone pile-driven, both of 'em, right?

Boom!

On the ground.

It was two versus one.

I'm Andre the Giant, they're the Rock and Roll Express,

right?

Some of you just got that reference,

some of you didn't, all right?

If you didn't, Google it.

That's where we're at, right?

I'm lifting 'em up, I'm choke slamming 'em,

boom!

They're down.

I'm picking 'em up, I'm pressing 'em over my head.

Every time that I would do that,

Emma would hit this belly laugh

that would make me almost drop her

because I would laugh so hard,

as I would body slam her right onto the bed, all right?

Not on the ground.

But you know what happened every time

in the battle of Emma and Grayson

versus their dad who literally weighed 10 times

as much as they did?

Do you know what happened?

I would dominate.

I would dominate.

And then I would win.

And I'd point at their face

and I'd say, "You're weak."

No.

No.

Always would happen.

Something like Emma would come in with a people's elbow.

Grayson would climb onto the top of the bed

and in all 23 pounds of him,

he'd land right on top of me.

One,

two,

three.

They'd win.

They didn't win.

They didn't win.

Verse 24.

And Jacob was left alone

and a man wrestled with him

until the breaking of the day.

I don't know if you've ever been in a real fight.

It's exhausting.

Whether it's wrestling, whether it's boxing,

whether it's a moment with you and someone else,

it's exhausting.

And from the middle of the night

to the breaking of the day, Jacob wrestles.

And the beauty of what we find going on here

is watching Jacob wrestle with God.

And Jacob wins

not because he was stronger,

not because he was mightier,

but Jacob won because he wrestled,

because he got dirty,

because he persevered,

because he fought through.

Have you ever wrestled with God?

Wrestling with God and fighting against God

are two different things.

Sometimes we fight against God.

God, you don't know.

God, you don't understand.

God, you're confused.

God, you're not doing what's right.

God, you're not doing what's loving.

God, I know what's best in all of these things.

God, I know more than you.

God, why did this happen?

Why did they die?

Why did this take place?

God, you are not good, you are not right,

you are not loving, you are not kind,

you are not compassionate.

God, I'm gonna rebel, I'm gonna pursue,

I'm gonna chase all that I have and all that I want.

That's fighting with God.

But wrestling with God,

going through the struggle with God,

having this moment with God is different.

He said, "I'm not letting go," is what he says.

"I want more of you, I need more of you,

"I desire for more of you.

"God, bless me," it's what he wants.

Jay was done trying to live a life

where he has blessed himself.

This, he has met his end in.

And it's okay if I lose my life,

because I want God.

Church, experience the beauty of wrestling with God.

I want more, I need more,

and what I want more of, what I need more of,

what is blessed more of,

is to be found more and more in you.

But understand this,

sometimes the blessing of God

is gonna come with a little limp.

Sometimes the blessing of God

is gonna come with a little limp.

Sometimes in your life,

as you walk through the difficult seasons,

and you walk through these pieces,

and you walk through all that's there,

in all that you've gotta battle,

sometimes, man, God's gotta touch that hip,

God's gotta touch that shoulder,

God's gotta touch that elbow,

God's gotta touch that wrist,

God's gotta touch whatever that part is for you,

maybe physically, maybe spiritually,

of wherever you're at,

and create within you a little bit of a limp,

a little bit of a piece of what's there,

God's gotta cause a little bit of pain,

God's gotta cause a little bit of suffering,

so that he can remind you of who he is,

so that he can remind you of how he's gonna grow you,

so that he can build into your story,

so that he can pour into you,

so the difficult part of your story,

when you're sharing it,

that limp that you've got,

that battle that you went through,

that scar, that what's there,

it's the power of your testimony

when you're sharing it with other people.

James, I'm gonna be walking up one day,

why are you limping?

Let me tell you about the story that I have with God.

Let me tell you about what I walked through

in this experience in my life.

Let me tell you about the time

when I was at the lowest point in my life.

Let me tell you what God brought me through,

let me tell you what God did,

let me tell you who God is.

And that's what it looks like to wrestle with God.

You see, we want the blessing of God,

but we don't want the limp.

So many times, the blessing of God

and the limp, they come together.

But lastly, in order to be blessed by God fully,

not us, but God needs to change who we are.

And Jacob went to Laban.

He went on that journey a deceiver,

a manipulator, toxic.

He comes back humbled, he comes back on a journey.

He went as a man who would have avoided

anything difficult in his life.

And he comes back a man willing to face anything

that awaits him because God's on his side.

In order for that to happen,

God needed to change who he was.

I love in the Bible when God changes people's names.

We saw Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah.

We see here Jacob comes Israel.

Later on, we'll see Simon becomes Peter,

we'll see Saul becomes Paul.

And when you come to God, he changes your name too.

He didn't change it from David to Timothy,

Samantha to Julie, but he changed your name.

More importantly, he changed your identity.

He changed you from enemy to friend.

He changed you from object of wrath

to son or daughter of family.

He doesn't just change your future standing.

Some of you people think that coming to Jesus

is simply changing where you'll spend eternity.

But let me say this to you.

When you come to Jesus, your eternity is changed.

But so is your today.

So is your tomorrow.

So is your next week.

Because God changed your name.

He changed who you are.

In the middle of it all,

in the midst of all that you're going through,

in the midst of every battle,

God's there and he's working.

I wanna start back off with those two questions

that we began with.

I feel when Jacob was running from Esau

because he stole from him,

'cause he deceived him,

because he manipulated him,

man, he wasn't thinking,

how do I need to be better?

He's thinking, how do I need to get away?

How is God preparing you right now?

How is God preparing you?

You might be walking through the most difficult season

of your life.

How's God preparing you?

Number two.

Stop asking why.

Start asking, God, what for?

God, what for?

What's next for me?

God, how are you gonna take this and use this

for your name and for your glory?

Would you pray with me?

[pages rustling]

God, I thank you.

[exhaling]

God, we create

these messes.

And in the mess that we create,

where we respond like a toddler sent to their room,

trying to clean up the mess,

trying to clean up the destruction that we've brought.

God, we see pictures

on social media.

We see stories on the news.

We see trees torn in half.

We see roofs caved in.

We see interstates gone.

We see downtowns that now look like raging rivers.

And God,

it's so hard

when we see those pictures

because we wonder, God,

where do we begin?

Where do we begin?

A shovel can't fix this.

A chainsaw will just scratch the surface.

But we know

[gentle music]

blue skies are gonna come.

Work's gonna happen.

It's gonna be long, it's gonna be grueling.

But we will rebuild.

And God, we praise you for that.

But God, I think sometimes we look at our life

and what we just described,

while it's the aftermath of a hurricane,

it can also be the aftermath of the destruction

and our depravity that we leave behind.

And we can have a mindset, Lord,

of how do I make this right?

What do I need to do?

How do I need to make myself right and good again?

God, I thank you

that the grave answer is

there's nothing that Bo can do

to fix the mess

of what my sin has created.

There's not enough good works that I can do

to bring these dead bones back to life.

There's not enough good deeds

that I can perform

to make this heart new.

There's not enough kindness and compassion and love

and mercy and empathy in me

to make my standing before you

worthy.

So God, you sent your Son

to make this world a better place.

And on the cross of Calvary,

he paid every payment.

On the cross of Calvary,

he offered every sacrifice.

For all who call

upon the name of the Lord

shall be saved.

And God, we thank you for that.

God, I pray for us this morning.

The burden that we're carrying,

the mess that we've left behind,

God, we would just bring it to you this morning.

God, once again, we pray for those

without power,

without food,

without shelter.

Lord, may we help.

Lord, I pray for the linesmen,

the workers,

the men and the women

who would travel all over

Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,

Georgia, Florida,

or keep 'em safe.

Or to turn 'em to their families.

Lord, I pray for our first responders.

I pray for

them as they go

into the danger.

Keep them safe as well.

Lord, may we love 'em

and we pray for 'em.

Lord, today,

more so than ever before,

may we leave from here

with a smile on our face

and hope in our heart

because of who you are.

And send Jesus in to pray.

- Thanks again for listening.

And be sure to check back next week for another episode.

In the meantime, you can visit us at willowridgechurch.org

or by searching for Willow Ridge Church

on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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