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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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
And then I would win.
And I'd point at their face
and I'd say, "You're weak."
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.
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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